EARLE'S Microcofmography.

Devotion and Piety, Concord and Unity, with all other Virtues, fo flourish amongst us, that they may be the Stability of our Times, and make our Church a Praise upon Earth." To his Enemies he wifhed no Ill! And, footh to fay, they were few he had, for his Habits were such as to make Friends and to keep them.

But, with all this Good about him as he advanced in Years, and although None better realized his early Pofition and improved it, yet was he subject in his Youth to the Dangers and Temptations of the Period. A clever Drawer of Character fays of the young Man, " He feldom does any Thing which he wishes not to do again, and is only wife after a Misfortune. He fuffers much for his Knowledge, and a great deal of Folly it is makes him a wife Man." And fo THE LAST OF THE OLD SQUIRES found it, oppofed as he was to Folly and Foolishness, and to the Coarfeness of wild Rufticity. For he had, as others, to run the Gauntlet of this "Confort of mad Greeks." Not to have met with those of his own Age and to have joined with them in their Revelries, would have been to taboo himself, and to have loft that Wisdom which Experience only can bring Home. But his Prefence always was influential, and because

he was neither phlegmatic nor too precife, the
Company, to which he was an Ornament, fel-
dom launched out into these wild Extremes
which have left a Blot upon the Festivities of
the laft Generation. Not understood too lite-
rally, Robert Greene's Lines would have ex-
preffed his Sentiments.

"Should we difdain our Vines because they sprout
Before their Time? or young Men if they strain
Beyond their Reach? No: Vines that bloom and spread
Do promise Fruits; and young Men that are wild,
In Age grow wife."

The last to encourage Wildness, he was the laft to cenfure it with a withering Ban. He knew human Nature too well, and his Wisdom was to check by Degrees what could not have been checked at once. And thus, through Life, even the wildeft Sparks refpected and loved him; and when, at any Time, their own Irregularities got them into Scrapes, THE LAST OF THE OLD SQUIRES was the first to get them out. And O! how did he Delight to benefit the Young, and to guide them on their Way! He faid not with Ali " The Recollection of Youth is a Sigh!" but he did fay,

"The little Good we do

In all the Years of Life, will scarce outweigh

The Follies of an Hour!"

And thus we leave THE LAST OF THE OLD

James the
Fourth.

HURDIS. The Village Curate.

SQUIRES, only moderately educated in Schoollearning, but vaftly skilled in practical Life. And it was this practical Knowledge, which, like common Sense, is the most uncommon of all Senfes, that served him always in fuch good Stead. As the Young confulted him, and the Old deferred to his Judgment, it was a common Saying with them both, that had the good old Man had his Way to make in the World, and had he had a College-education and gone to the Bar, beyond a Doubt, he would have been Lord Chancellor or Prime Minifter, or whatever he chose. There was Stuff in him to fill the highest Pofition his Country could have placed him in, but his Ambition was to live amongst his own People, and to do them Service. As will be seen, he did this to the Laft.

And what was the Key to his estimable Qualities, and the Cause of his being fo beloved?— WANT OF SELFISHNESS! For, as Lord Bacon Elays. "of faid, "It is a poor Centre of a Man's Actions, himself! It is right Earth; for that only stands faft upon its own Centre; whereas all Things that have Affinity with the Heavens move upon the Centre of another, which they benefit."

Wifdom for a

Man's Self."

The Laft of the Old Squires' Loyalty-Defence
of the Country-The Militia, &c.

"True is, that whileome that good Poet fayd,
The gentle Minde by gentle Deeds is knowne;
For a Man by Nothing is fo well bewrayd
As by his Manners; in which plaine is fhewn
Of what Degree and what Race he is growne.

He was to weete a Man full ripe of Yeares,
That in his Youth had been of mickle Might,
And borne great Sway in Armes amongst his Peeres;
But now weak Age had dimd his Candle-light:
Yet was he courteous ftill to every Wight,
And loved all that did to Armes incline."

LOVER of Peace, THE LAST OF
THE OLD SQUIRES was loyal to the
Back-bone, and when the Honour

of the Nation was at Stake, he thought with
Lord Bacon, that we ought not to "fit too
long upon a Provocation," and that "no Na-
tion need expect to be great that is not awake

SPENSER, Faerie
Queene. B. vi.
C. iii. St. i. iii.

Ejays. "Of the

true Greatness

of Kingdoms

and Eftates."

FULLER, Holy
State. The Good
Soldier.

upon any juft Occafion of arming."

Such were his Thoughts and Opinions. And when the back Wave of the French Revolution was rolling its purple Surf on the Coafts of Albion, and on the peaceful Domain of his Fathers, he thought the Time not far off when every true-born Englishman might be called upon to contend pro aris et focis,-for the Altar of his own Home, and for his own List-hearth. War, he was prompt to fay, was a fad Alternative; but, he added, "though many hate Soldiers as the Twigs of the Rod-War, wherewith God fcourgeth wanton Countries into Repentance, yet is their Calling fo needful, that were not fome Soldiers, we must be all Soldiers, daily employed to defend our own." He knew the Time was not yet come when War should cease throughout the World, and the peaceful Kingdom of the MESSIAS fhould be established. The Wickedness of the Nations of the World forbad this, and therefore to be fully prepared for the Reverse, was the readiest Way to establifh Reft and Quietnefs within our Borders.

And hence it was that when Blood touched Blood, and a neighbouring People were crushed beneath the worse than Jaggernaut Car of wild and fierce Democracy, and kingly Glory was