LITERATURE AND SCIENCE OF ENGLAND. 61 



quency of perusal can deprive the latter of their 

 freshness, for though they are brought into the full 

 daylight of every reader's comprehension, they are 

 drawn from depths which few in any age are privi- 

 leged to visit, into which few in any age have courage 

 or inclination to descend," [33] — Daniel, to whom 

 Spenser addressed this exciting stanza — 



Then rouse thy feathers quickly, Daniel, 



And to what course thou please thyself advance : 



But more, meseems, thy accent will excel 

 In tragic plaints and passionate mischance, — 



Daniel, who prefixed to his Philotas, when envy and 

 jealousy and unfounded suspicions compelled the pub- 

 lication of that which he had written but on a private 

 suggestion, a poetical dedication to the second man in 

 the realm, in which, in a manner which must be dear 

 to the mind of every votary of the Muse, he assert* 

 the dignity of his art and the value of the rare inspi- 

 ration. [34] His name I could perceive was fixed 

 in the memory of an eminent poet, [35] who honoured 

 this Institution with his presence on the day when 

 first its doors were opened, when, unable to proceed 

 as he intended with speaking of the poets of the 

 purest age of English poetry, whose names w^ere for 

 ever connected with this beautiful city, he sat down 

 in silence overpowered by his own feelings and the 

 kind plaudits of the assembly. [36] 



