beauty of this great poem consists in its vein of fabulous invention, set off by a power of description and force of imagination, so various and inexhaustible, that the reader is too much pleased and distracted to be sensible of the faults into which his judgment is betrayed by occasional excess. It is remarked by Sir William Temple, in his Essay on Poetry,' that "the religion of the Gentiles had been woven into the contexture of all the ancient poetry with an agreeable mixture, which made the moderns affect to give that of Christianity a place in their poems; but the true religion was not found to become fictions so well as the false one had done, and all their attempts of this kind seemed rather to debase religion than heighten poetry." Critics in general, and common sense itself, have confirmed Temple's remark as to the hazard, which it required such a mind as Milton's successfully to face, of giving a poetical colouring to the solemn truths of religion. To a feeling of this difficulty we probably owe the peculiarity of Spenser's epic, if so it may be called. In other epics, instruction is subordinate to story, and conveyed through it; in the Faery Queene,' morality is the avowed object, to be illustrated by the actions of such shadowy personages, that but a thin veil is thrown over the bare design. Whatever may be thought of allegorical poetry as a system, the execution in this instance is excellent, the flights of fancy brilliant, and often sublime. Rymer finds fault with Spenser for having suffered himself to be "misled by Ariosto;" and says that "his poem is perfect Fairyland.” The readers of poetry in the present day will probably receive that censure as praise: marvels and adventures, even if probability be not made matter of conscience, may have more attraction than classic regularity and strict adherence to the unities. But though Spenser frequently imitated both Tasso and Ariosto in descriptions of battles, and his general delineation of knight-errantry, the plan and conduct of his poem deviated widely from Ariosto's model, and, it is generally thought, not on the side of improvement. Ariosto narrates adventures as real, however extravagant, and only occasionally intermixes portions of pure allegory. But allegory is the staple of Spenser's design; and his legendary tales are interwoven with it so far only as they are connected with his one human hero. With the exception of Prince Arthur, his heroes are abstractions; they bear the names of knights, but are in reality Virtues personified. Dryden finds fault with Spenser's obsolete language, and the ill choice of his stanza. The poems of the Elizabethan age, now considered as the golden age of poetry, are so much more read and better understood in these later times, than they were in Dryden's days, that the language is no longer felt as a serious

obstacle to the pleasures of perusal. With respect to the form of stanza, it was natural for Dryden, the mighty master of the couplet, to condemn it; and it may be in itself objectionable as favouring redundancy of style, not only in respect of expletives and tautology, but of ideas. Its fulness of melody however, and sonorous majesty, have of late brought it into favour both with writers and readers.

Of all critics, none can be better worth hearing, on such a subject as that of the Faery Queene, than the historian of English poetry. Warton writes thus:-" If the Faery Queene be destitute of that arrangement and economy which epic severity requires, yet we scarcely regret the loss of these, while their place is so amply supplied by something which more powerfully attracts us; something which engages the affections, the feelings of the heart, rather than the cold approbation of the head. If there be any poem whose graces please, because they are situated beyond the reach of art; and where the force and faculties of creative imagination delight, because they are unassisted and unrestrained by those of deliberate judgment, it is this: in reading Spenser, if the critic is not satisfied, yet the reader is transported." The principal editions of Spenser are Upton's Faery Queene, with a Glossary and Notes,' London, 1751; and Mr. Todd's Variorum Edition of his Works, 8 vols. 8vo. 1805.

6

HUGH DE GROOT, or Hugo Grotius, as he is more generally designated, was born at Delft in Holland, on Easter Sunday, April 10, 1583*. His family was ancient and of noble extraction, both on the paternal and maternal sides. His father, John de Groot, who was Curator of the University of Leyden, was a lawyer and a poet of considerable reputation.

The mind of Grotius was developed with unusual rapidity. In his ninth year he is said to have made extemporaneous Latin verses; in his fifteenth year he published his edition of Martian Capella, and before that time, his biographers state that he disputed twice publicly in the schools on questions of philosophy and civil law. His memory is said to have been so prodigious, that being present at the muster of a regiment on some particular occasion, he afterwards repeated accurately every name which had been called. Anecdotes of this kind are seldom to be traced to any good authority, and are frequently merely fabulous; but there is no doubt that, at a very tender age, Grotius had made extraordinary progress in the acquisition of learning. The knowledge and critical discernment displayed in his edition of Capella, which was unquestionably published in 1599, excited

* A discrepancy appears in the accounts of the different biographers of Grotius respecting the date of his birth; some fixing it in 1582, and others in 1583. The fact is only material with reference to the anecdotes of his early acquirements, and it is ascertained beyond a doubt, by a very simple circumstance. That Grotius was born on Easter Sunday, and on the 10th of April, appears in numerous passages of his letters and poems; and as Easter Sunday fell on the 10th of April in 1583, and did not fall on that day for many years before and afterwards, the date of his birth seems to be satisfactorily proved by that coincidence. See Nicolas's Tables.

the astonishment of his contemporaries. Scaliger, De Thou, Lipsius, Casaubon, have characterised this work as a prodigy of juvenile learning; and those who have patience to read it at the present day will collect from the annotations, that at the age of fifteen the editor must have read critically and carefully the works of Apuleius, Albericus, Cicero, Aquila, Porphyry, Aristotle, Strabo, Ptolemy, Pliny, Euclid, and many other ancient and modern authors, in different languages and on various subjects, and cannot fail to consider Grotius as a wonderful instance of early talents, industry, and acquirement. Reliqui viri," says his contemporary Heinsius, "tandem fuére; Grotius vir natus est." In the following year Grotius published the Phenomena of Aratus,' an astronomical poem, written originally in Greek, and translated into Latin by Cicero, when a very young man. Part of Cicero's translation had been lost in course of time; and in this publication the deficiencies were supplied by Grotius in Latin verse with much elegance and success. In a letter to the President de Thou, written in 1601, when he was not eighteen years of age, he thus modestly refers to those astonishing works :-" I was exceedingly glad when I understood that my Capella and Aratus were not only come to your hand, but were also favourably received by you. My own opinion of Martianus and the other Syntagm is only. this, that they are capable of some excuse from my age; for I wrote them when I was very young. But you are pleased to augur well from these beginnings, and to express a judgment that they may grow up into some hope hereafter. I hope it may be so; for it is my greatest desire and ambition a laudatis laudari."

Before he went to the university, he was placed under the care of an Arminian clergyman, named Uitenbogard, from whom he derived that strong sectarian bias, which had afterwards a powerful effect upon his character and fortune. At twelve age Grotius was years of sent to the University of Leyden, where, though he remained only three years, he became so much distinguished, that he attracted the notice of Scaliger, and many of the most celebrated scholars of the times. He had always been intended for the profession of the law; and lest the allurements of general literature, and the flattery of successful authorship, which had greatly withdrawn him from legal studies, should lead him to renounce the lucrative and honourable employment for which he was designed, his father sought to turn his thoughts into a new channel. It happened that about this time the celebrated Grand Pensionary, Barneveldt, was sent on an embassy from the Dutch States to Henry IV., for the purpose of persuading

him to conclude a new treaty of perpetual alliance with Holland and England against Spain. John de Groot readily obtained for his son a situation in the train of Barneveldt. Grotius remained in France a whole year, and during that time was treated with marked distinction and respect by the learned men of that country, and received the degree of Doctor of Laws from the University of Paris. He was also graciously noticed by the king himself, who gave him at his departure his own portrait and a chain of gold. From some unexplained cause, Grotius did not upon this occasion become acquainted with the President de Thou; but soon after his return to Delft, he wrote him a letter accompanied by a copy of his Aratus, From that time until the death of the President a constant correspondence was maintained between them, and Grotius furnished many notes and materials for that part of De Thou's history which relates to the Netherlands and Holland.

Immediately after his return from France to Holland in April 1599, Grotius published his "Limeneuretica, sive Portuum investigandorum Ratio," a treatise for the instruction of seamen in ascertaining the exact situation of a ship at sea. This work was merely a translation, and has been of course long since superseded by modern discoveries; but it is worthy of remark, as a proof of the extraordinary acquirements of a youth of sixteen, that he should have added to his critical and scholastic knowledge so competent an acquaintance with magnetism and practical navigation as the translation of such a work implies. In the course of the same year he enrolled himself on the list of Advocates at the Hague, and before he was eighteen, years of age commenced the actual practice of his profession. In this occupation he was eminently successful, though he always disliked it; and lamented the time which it claimed from more congenial pursuits. His reputation and practice, however, daily increased, until in the year 1607, being recommended by the suffrages of the courts, and nominated by the States of Holland, Prince Maurice conferred upon him the important and responsible office of Advocate-General of the provinces of Holland and Zealand. Soon after this appointment, he married Mary Reygersburgh, the daughter of an opulent family in Zealand, with whom he lived in the most complete harmony.

In the year 1608, while he held the office of Advocate-General, Grotius composed his Mare Liberum,' the general design of which was to show, upon the principles of the law of nations, that the sea was open to all without distinction, and to assert the right of the Dutch States to trade to the Indian seas, notwithstanding the claim