These virtues Galba in a stranger sought,
And Piso to adopted empire brought.*
How shall I then my doubtful thoughts express,
That must his suffering both regret and bless!
For, when his early valour heaven had crost,
And all at Worc'ster but the honour lost; +
Forced into exile from his rightful throne,
He made all countries where he came his own;
And, viewing monarchs' secret arts of sway,
A royal factor for their kingdoms lay.

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by Vitellius. The prætorian guards, and his other followers, in vain urged him to try his fortune again in the field. Whether from that impatience of sustaining adversity, which luxurious habits seldom fail to produce, or from the generous desire of ending a disastrous civil war, he retained and executed his resolution. It is, however, no extraordinary compliment to Charles that he did not, after his defeat at Worcester, follow an example more classical than inviting.

* Galba adopted Piso Frugi Licinianus as his successor in the empire. He was a stranger to his blood, and only endeared to him by his good qualities. Tacitus puts these words in the mouth of Galba upon this occasion : "Nunc me, deorum hominumque consensu, ad imperium vocatum, preclara indoles tua, et amor patriæ impulit, ut principatum, de quo majores nostri armis certabant, bello adeptus, quiescenti offeram; exemplo divi Augusti, qui sororis filium Marcellum, dein generum Agrippam, mox nepotes suos, postremo Tiberium Neronem privignum, in proximo sibi fastigio collocavit. Sed Augustus in domo successorem quæsivit, ego in republica: non quia propinquos aut socios belli non habeam; sed neque ipse imperium ambitione accessi, et judicii mei documentum sit non meæ tantum necessitudines quas tibi postposui sed et tuæ.”—Lib. i. Historiarum, cap. xv.

This is in initation of the famous letter which Francis the First of France wrote to his mother after the battle of Pavia : (6 Madam, all is lost except our honour." That of Charles II. certainly was not lost at Worcester. He gave many marks of personal courage, and was only hurried off the field by the torrent of fugitives. He halted a large body of horse, and implored them to return, and but look upon the enemy; yet, though he advanced at their head, they all deserted him but a few of his immediate attendants.

Thus, banished David spent abroad his time,
When to be God's anointed was his crime;
And, when restored, made his proud neighbours

rue

Those choice remarks he from his travels drew.
Nor is he only by afflictions shown

To conquer others' realms, but rule his own;
Recovering hardly what he lost before,
His right endears it much, his purchase more.
Inured to suffer ere he came to reign,
No rash procedure will his actions stain:
To business ripened by digestive thought,
His future rule is into method brought;
As they who first proportion understand,
With easy practice reach a master's hand.
Well might the ancient poets then confer
On Night the honoured name of Counsellor;
Since, struck with rays of prosperous fortune
blind,

*

We light alone in dark afflictions find.
In such adversities to sceptres trained,
The name of Great his famous grandsire gained ;†
Who yet, a king alone in name and right,
With hunger, cold, and angry Jove did fight;
Shocked by a covenanting League's vast powers,
As holy and as catholic as ours: +

Till Fortune's fruitless spite had made it known,
Her blows not shook, but riveted, his throne.

*[Christie supposes the reference to be to the word Evopový, which, however, = rather "kind” than “ counsellor." That "night brings counsel" is a well-nigh universal sentiment.-ED.]

Henry IV. of France, maternal grandfather of Charles 11. The parallel between the French League and the Covenant had already occurred to Dryden as a proper subject for the stage; for in the first year after the Restoration he wrote several scenes of "The Duke of Guise," though it was not finished or acted till long afterwards. See vol. vii. p. 146.

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SOME lazy ages, lost in sleep and ease,
No action leave to busy chronicles: *
Such, whose supine felicity but makes
In story chasms, in epoches † mistakes;
O'er whom Time gently shakes his wings of

down,

Till with his silent sickle they are mown.

Such is not Charles + his too too active age,
Which, governed by the wild distempered rage
Of some black star, infecting all the skies,
Made him at his own cost, like Adam, wise.
Tremble, ye nations, who, secure before,
Laughed at those arms that 'gainst ourselves we

bore;

Roused by the lash of his own stubborn tail,
Our Lion now will foreign foes assail.
With alga, who the sacred altar strews?

To all the sea-gods Charles an offering owes :
A bull to thee, Portunus, shall be slain,
A lamb to you, ye tempests of the main : §
For those loud storms, that did against him roar,
Have cast his shipwrecked vessel on the shore.
Yet, as wise artists mix their colours so,

That by degrees they from each other go;

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*[Rhyme found elsewhere, “articles," Letter to Etherege; miracles," Threnodia Augustalis.—ED.]

† First edition, epoches. [Rightly. Scott printed "epocha," which has no authority nor sense.-ED.]

This mode of forming the genitive is adopted from the first edition, as smoother than "Charles's."

§ The ceremonies of classical antiquity, observed by those who escaped from shipwreck, are here detailed. The alga, or sea-weed, sprinkled on the altar, alluded to the cause of their sacrifice. Portunus, otherwise called Portumnus, was a sea-god of some reputation. The Greeks called him Palæmon, which was formerly his earthly name. He is mentioned by Virgil—

Et Pater ipse, manu magnâ, Portunus euntem
Impulit.

Eneidos, lib. v.

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Black steals unheeded from the neighbouring

white,

Without offending the well-cozened sight:
So on us stole our blessed change; while we
The effect did feel, but scarce the manner see.
Frosts, that constrain the ground, and birth deny
To flowers that in its womb expecting lie,
Do seldom their usurping power withdraw,
But raging floods pursue their hasty thaw;
Our thaw was mild, the cold not chased away,
But lost in kindly heat of lengthened day.
Heaven would no bargain for its blessings drive,
But what we could not pay for, freely give.
The Prince of Peace would, like himself, confer
A gift unhoped, without the price of war:
Yet, as he knew his blessing's worth, took care,
That we should know it by repeated prayer;
Which stormed the skies, and ravished Charles
from thence,

As heaven itself is took by violence.
Booth's forward valour only served to show,
He durst that duty pay, we all did owe :
The attempt was fair; but heaven's prefixed hour
Not come so, like the watchful travellour, †

Upon the death of Cromwell, in 1659, the Cavaliers resolved upon a general rising; but their intentions being betrayed by Sir Richard Willis, the insurrection only took place at Chester, which was seized by Sir George Booth and Sir William Middleton. They ventured imprudently into the open field to face Lambert, by whom they were totally routed; so that the royal party in England never seemed to lie under such total depression as when it was about to triumph over all opposition.

[Another instance of the suiting of spelling to rhyme; "travellor" in later editions. "Prefixed," it should be observed, is scanned as a trisyllable. In the original "heaven" appears as "heav'n." The rhythm indeed shows this sufficiently. The subject of "lay" is not, in strict grammar, very clear. ED.]

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That by the moon's mistaken light did rise,
Lay down again, and closed his weary eyes.
"Twas Monk, whom Providence designed to loose
Those real bonds false freedom did impose.
The blessed saints, that watched this turning

scene,

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Did from their stars with joyful wonder lean,
To see small clues draw vastest weights along, 155
Not in their bulk, but in their order strong.
Thus, pencils can, by one slight touch, restore
Smiles to that changed face that wept before.
With ease such fond chimeras we pursue,
As fancy frames for fancy to subdue:
But when ourselves to action we betake,

It shuns the mint, like gold that chemists
make.*

How hard was then his task, at once to be
What in the body natural we see!

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Man's architect distinctly did ordain

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The charge of muscles, nerves, and of the brain,

Through viewless conduits spirits to dispense;
The springs of motion from the seat of sense.
"Twas not the hasty product of a day,
But the well-ripened fruit of wise delay.
He, like a patient angler, ere he strook,
Would let them play a while upon the hook.
Our healthful food the stomach labours thus,
At first embracing what it straight doth crush.
Wise leaches will not vain receipts obtrude,
While growing pains pronounce the humours
crude:

Deaf to complaints, they wait upon the ill,
Till some safe crisis authorise their skill.

* It is said, believe who list, that the ingenious Mr. Robert Boyle invented a metal which had all the properties of gold except malleability.

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