reduced, he was excused paying the usual fees to the corporation, and, in 1586, he was dismissed from the situation of Alderman, on account of nonattendance.

The education of Shakspeare was scanty, but it is evident that he must have had some small knowledge of Latin, notwithstanding the invidious remark of Ben Jonson to the contrary, but his continuance at school could not be long, and Mr. Malone is of opinion that, on quitting it, he became clerk to a country attorney, or to the seneschal of a manor-court.

Shakspeare married when very young, for his daughter was born in 1583, when he had just attained his nineteenth year. But this settlement did not allay the heat and wildness of youth. Shakspeare was fond of company, and he engaged with some persons who made a practice of stealing deer in the park of Sir Thomas Lucy. In the course of these depredations Shakspeare was discovered and prosecuted, on which he libelled the knight in a ballad, which he fixed upon his park gate. In consequence of this, the prosecution was renewed, and Shakspeare was obliged to fly to London. Such is the account given by Rowe; and it is confirmed by many authorities.

A contempary of Shakspeare, has a quaint or punning allusion to this circumstance, in a Play intituled, "The Return from Parnassus; or the Scourge of Simony; publiquely acted by the

students

At his return that night to his wife, at Bainton, he gave her an account of the passages between him and the poor woman; with which she was so affected, that she went the next day to Salisbury, and bought a pair of blankets, and sent them as a token of her love to the poor woman; and with them a message, that she would see and be acquainted with her, when her house was built at Bemerton.'

Mr. Herbert's first care was to repair the parish church, and the chapel, after which he proceeded to rebuild his parsonage house, all at his own expense; and having done this, he caused these verses to be engraved upon the mantle of the chimney in the hall :

"TO MY SUCCESSOR.

If thou chance for to find

A new house to thy mind,

And built without thy cost;

Be good to the poor,

As God gives thee store,

And then my labour's not lost."

Another instance of the great charity and humility of Mr. Herbert is told by his entertaining biographer, as follows:

There was a music-meeting at Salisbury, which Mr. Herbert generally attended twice a week, and one day as he was walking thither, he saw a poor man, with a poorer horse that was fallen

under

under his load; they were both in distress, and needed present help; which Mr. Herbert perceiving, he immediately put off his canonical coat, and helped the poor man to unload, and after to load his horse. The poor man blest him for it, and he blessed the poor man; and was so like the good Samaritan, that he gave him money to refresh both himself and his horse, and told him, that if he loved himself, he should be merciful to his beast.' Thus he left the poor man, and at his coming to his musical friends at Salisbury, they began to wonder that Mr. George Herbert, who used to be so trim and clean, came into the company so soiled and discomposed; but he told them the occasion-and when one of the company said he had disparaged himself by so dirty an employment;' his answer was, that the thought of what he had done would prove music to him at midnight, and that the omission of it would have upbraided, and made discord in his conscience, whensoever he should pass by that place for if I be bound to pray for all that be in distress, I am sure that I am bound, so far as it is in my power, to practise what I pray for; and though I do not wish for the like occasion every day, yet let me tell you, I would not willingly pass one day of my life without comforting a sad soul, or shewing mercy and I praise God for this occasion, and now let's tune our instruments."

The death of this exemplary man was correspondent with the tenour of his amiable life: to

his most intimate friend he said just before his departure I am sorry I have nothing to present to my merciful God, but sin and misery; but the first is pardoned, and a few hours will now put a period to the latter.' What a contrast is this to the conduct and end of the proud and selfsufficient sceptic, who devotes his talents to the vile purpose of robbing men of their best hope, and consoles himself at last with the gloomy reflection, that death is no more than 'taking a leap in the dark!'

Mr. Herbert died in the year 1635, before he had completed his fortieth year. His poems were held in such esteem, not only in his own time, but for many years afterwards, as to go through numerous editions, and to procure for the author the appellation of the divine Herbert.' They are, however, now seldom read; but his book entituled The Priest to the Temple,' merits the frequent perusal of every clergyman. Of the learning and judgment of Mr. Herbert, lord Bacon had so high an opinion, that he would not suffer his works to be printed, before they had passed his examination.

JOHN SELDEN.

PATRIOTISM is a quality of such a dazzling nature, and may be so easily counterfeited, that it requires a close acquaintance with men's motives and dispositions, to judge whether their pretension to that virtue be just or not. Some men become patriots in the loose sense of the term, from too great a confidence in their own powers, and from an impatience of contradiction. Others have gone to the most excessive lengths in opposing a government from a just resentment of occasional acts of oppression; and there have been those again who continued in connexion with men they despised, because they were too proud to acknowledge they had been led into error by giving way to their passions.

Many other causes might be assigned why men have distinguished themselves in resisting and even overturning establishments: but if instead of looking at the ostensible pretences, we were to take a minute view of the tempers and conduct of the leading actors in those revolutions, we should come to a more exact conclusion with regard to the real springs by which the whole was effected.

The share which Selden, called "the glory of England," had in the contests between Charles the