for his unyielding firmness in carrying out this resolution; but it is right to observe, that those who questioned the prudence of his scruples never withheld from him the credit of perfect sincerity. The result of this adherence to his conscientious opinions was the loss of his preferment, to which he submitted with pious resignation. "Of worldly treasure," remarks Willmott in his life of this excellent man, "he carried little away. All his property, with the exception of his books, which he never sold, did not exceed seven hundred pounds; for that sum Lord Weymouth undertook to allow him an annuity of eighty pounds." The Government ultimately settled upon him a pension of £200 a year, which he received until his death. For some years after his retirement, he lived in comparative seclusion, dispensing charity, regardless of his own comforts, and "going about doing good." He resided with the family of Thynne in Wiltshire, and died there in 1711, at peace with all mankind, and was buried in the churchyard of Frome. His works, consisting of sermons and poems, were published in 1711, with an account of his life by his nephew, Sergeant Hawkins. Aikin's Biography contains some interesting facts regarding his personal history. His poetical merits are sufficiently exemplified in the beautiful" Morning and Evening Hymns," one of which is inserted among our Selections from Sacred Poetry. In the "Lives of the English Sacred Poets," so ably written by Willmott, there is a memoir of Bishop Ken, from which the principal facts in this summary have been selected

This popular author justly remarks:-"In Bishop Ken doctrine and life melted harmoniously into each other. In our estimate of his poetical merits, the weightier labours of the Christian are not to be forgotten, Poetry was only a recreation from graver pursuits; but he has bequeathed to us a Morning and Evening Hymn which will only perish with the religion that inspired them." The writer ofan eloquent article on Sacred poetry in the thirty-second volume of "The Quarterly Review," bestows a warm eulogium on the character and poems of this beloved prelate :-"We shall hardly find," says he,

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"in all ecclesiastical history, a greener spot than the later years of this courageous and affectionate pastor; persecuted alternately by both parties, and driven from his station in his declining age; yet singing on, with unabated cheerfulness, to the last. His poems are not popular, nor, probably, ever will be, for reasons already touched upon; but whoever in earnest loves his three well-known hymns, and knows how to value such unaffected strains of poetical devotion, will find his account, in turning over his four volumes, half narrative and half lyric, and all avowedly on sacred subjects; the narrative often cumbrous, and the lyric verse not seldom languid and redundant: yet all breathing such an angelic spirit, interspersed with such pure and bright touches of poetry, that such a reader as we have supposed will scarcely find it in his heart to criticise them."

MATTHEW PRIOR.
BORN, 1664, DIED, 1721.

THIS agreeable and sprightly poet was of humble origin, being the son of a joiner. His father dying when he was young, he was brought up by his uncle, who kept the Rummer Tavern, near Charing-cross, London. Matthew's birthplace has not been positively ascertained. The general opinion seems to be that it was either at Wimborne, in Dorsetshire, or in London. Early in life he was placed under the care of Dr. Busby at Westminster school. He evinced a decided taste for classical literature; and having been taken home by his uncle to assist him in the humble duties of the tavern, the Earl of Dorset saw him there, reading with great eagerness the compositions of Horace. Struck with the young man's talents, and his strong desire for intellectual improvement the earl sent him in 1682 to St. John's College, Cambridge. He soon obtained his degree as Bachelor of Arts, and afterwards a fellowship. While at college he formed an intimacy with Charles Montague, afterwards Earl of Halifax. In conjunction with this young nobleman, Prior wrote in 1688 his celebrated

satirical poem, entitled the "Country Mouse and City Mouse," which is an amusing parody on Dryden's "Hind and Panther," of which mention has been made in the sketch of that eminent author's life, inserted in a preceding part of this work. After the revolution of 1688, Prior came to London, and in 1690 his college friend, the Earl of Dorset, did not forget the young and rising poet whom he had rescued from obscurity. He was introduced to court by his noble patron, and through his influence obtained the important post of Secretary to the English Plenipotentiaries to the Hague. In this capacity, he performed his diplomatic duties in so satisfactory a manner as to secure the approbation of William III., who testified the high sense he entertained of the poet's services, by making him one of the gentlemen of the royal bedchamber.

In 1695 Prior wrote an ode on the death of Queen Mary, which was presented to the King. At this period additional favours from the Government were conferred upon him. He was nominated Secretary to the embassy on the treaty of Ryswick; and on his return from that employment, he was made Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. In the following year he filled the office of Ambassador at the court of France, where he was received with every mark of distinction. After holding other appointments abroad, he was made a Commissioner of trade. It was in this year he published a poem, entitled "Carmen Seculari," in praise of the virtues of King William. In 1701 he aspired to parliamentary honours, and was elected a member of the House of Commons for East Grimstead, previous to which he held the office of Secretary to two Ambassadors to France successively. He was at length made Under Secretary of State, and while holding that office was sent privately to Paris to negotiate a peace. He appeared about this time in the character of a political apostate, having deserted his old friends the Whigs, and joined the Tories. No satisfactory reason has been given for this change in his political opinions. When the Whig Government was overturned, in the reign of Queen Anne, he was again employed as Ambassador in France, and remained

there till 1713. On his return to London, when the Whig party was again in power, he was recalled, and committed to custody for two years, on a charge of high treason. He was liberated, at the expiration of that time, without a trial; and there was no evidence to show that he was guilty of the charge. It was during his confinement that he wrote a poem called "Alma;" and by means of a subscription, which amounted to four thousand guineas, he published a collected edition of his works. The Earl of Oxford presented Prior with double the amount thus raised, which enabled him to live in ease, and relieved him from the anxieties inseparable from restricted pecuniary means. It pleased Providence to terminate his earthly career soon after he had been blessed with abundant means. He died, after a linger ing illness, in 1721, in the fifty-eighth year of his age, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. A monument was erected to his memory for which he left in his will a sum of five hundred pounds.

Prior's private character was not free from blemishes. He was a gay, lively companion, and it has been alleged, not strictly moral in his private habits. The most elaborate of his works is " Solomon," a poem formed out of the "Proverbs and Ecclesiastes." It is praised by Cowper as the most correct of his productions. Prior's lighter pieces are generally admired, and characterized by the qualities in which he pre-eminently excelled ease, correctness, humour, and vivacity. His tale of "Henry and Emma" exemplifies both his poetical excellences and defects. The versification is melodious, the diction splendid, and the imagery luxuriant; but its prevailing fault is that it produces no effect on the feelings. His poems consist of odes, songs, epistles, epigrams, and tales. After his death was published a History of the Transactions of his own Times." Very little interest attaches to this work, though the author was employed for two years in its preparation. Speaking of the school of poetry in which Pope's genius shone so conspicuously, an eminent critic, Sir James Mackintosh, says::-"The best of what we copied from it, is copied in the lighter pieces of

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Prior. That tone of polite raillery; that airy, rapid, picturesque narrative, mixed up of wit and naïvete; that style, in short, of good conversation, concentrated into flowing and polished verses, was not within the vein of our native poets, and probably would never have been known among us, if we had been left to our own resources. It is lamentable that this, which alone was worth borrowing, is the only thing that has not been retained. The tales and little apologues of Prior, are still the only examples of this style in our language. For further particulars respecting the life of this poet, the reader is referred to Johnson's "Lives of the Poets," Aikin's "Select Poets," and Chambers's " Cyclopedia of Literature." In Campbell's "Specimens of the British Poets" will be found some of the most pleasing specimens of Prior's compositions.

A writer in the tenth volume of "The Quarterly Review," speaking of the political character of the age of Charles II., and of its literary productions, thus delineates the merits of Prior's poetical compositions:-"The French early acquired a tone of refinement and elegance which was long neglected by other nations, their writers of course adopted a style suitable to the high cultivation which prevailed; and the delicacy and correctness of their productions were well calculated at once to gratify the nicety of a refined taste, and to atone for a certain sufficiency of genius and energy. On the contrary, the licentiousness of the court of Charles was fatal to purity and elegance; and the rich vein of genius, which, however obscured by the false taste, or corrupted by the profligacy of the times, still perhaps remains unequalled, gives full scope to the imagination to conceive what might have been produced by the same talent, under happier auspices, and in a better age. Point and wit were the chief objects of attention in every branch of literature, and that labour which the writers would have expended profitably in correcting the looseness and extravagance of their productions, was consumed in an endless search after low conceits, and artificial prettinesses. With all these faults,-faults for which scarcely any vigour of conception or execution