THE DEATHLESS VERSE. Thy Lord shall never die, the whiles this verse Such grace the heavens doo to my verses give. (The Ruins of Time, Collier's edition, iv., 305.) VERSE MORE DURABLE THAN STONE, OR BRASS, OR GOLD. For deeds doe die, how ever noblie donne, And thoughts do as themselves decay ; But wise words, taught in numbers for to runnë, Recorded by the Muses, live for ay; Ne may with storming showers be washt away, Ne bitter breathing windes with harmfull blast Nor age, nor envie, shall them ever wast. In vaine doo earthly Princes, then, in vaine, Or huge Colosses built with costlie paine, Or Shrines made of the mettall most desired, For how can mortall immortalitie give? Such one Mausolus made, the worlds great wonder, But Fame with golden wings aloft doth flie, And with brave plumes doth beate the azure skie, (Ibid, iv. 311-12) THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MAN AND BEAST. What difference twixt man and beast is left, And th' ornaments of wisdome are bereft ? In this wide world in which they, wretches, stray, It is the onlie comfort which they have It is their light, their loadstarre, and their day; But hell, and darknesse, and the grislie grave, Is ignorance; the enemy of grace That mindes of men, borne heavenlie, doth debase. Through knowledge we behould the worlds creation, From hence wee mount aloft unto the skie, There we behold the heavens great Hierarchie, The Starres pure light, the Spheres swift move ment, The Spirites and Intelligences fayre, And Angels waighting on th' Almighties chayre. (The Teares of the Muses, iv. 346, 247.) VERSE CONQUERS DEATH. One day I wrote her name upon the strand; But came the tyde, and made my paynes his pray. For I my selfe shall lyke to this decay, And eek my name bee wyped out lykewize. Not so (quod I); let baser things devize (Sonnet, LXXV., v. 154.) SIR WALTER RALEIGH. [Born, 1552. Knighted, 1585. Committed a Prisoner in the Tower, 1603. Published his History of the World, 1614. Set out on his last expedition, 1616. Executed, 1618.] THE TRIUMPHS OF HISTORY.-To me it belongs in the first part of this preface, following the common and approved custom of those who have left the memories of time past to after-ages, to give, as near as I can, the same right to history which they have done. Yet seeing therein I |