SIR JOHN DAVIES.

(ABOUT 1570-1626.)

SEVENTH

SIR JOHN DAVIES was born at Chisgrove, in the parish of Tysbury, Wiltshire. His father, a wealthy tanner, who is elsewhere spoken of as "late of Gray's Inn," had probably spent some time in the study or the practice of the law. Davies was admitted a commoner of Queen's College, Oxford, in Michaelmas Term, 1585. After taking a degree in arts, he entered the Middle Temple, studied the common law, and was called to the bar in July, 1595.

In 1596, he published "Orchestra; Or, a Poem expressing the Antiquity and Excellence of Dancing, in a Dialogue between Penelope and one of her Wooers"; to which he prefixed a dedicatory sonnet "To his very friend, Master Richard Martin." The next public record of the relation between these two " very friends" is certainly not suggestive of unbroken, if it is not exclusive of the idea of enthusiastic, amity. For Davies, "being," as Wood says, high-spirited young man, did upon some little provocation or punctilio, bastinado Richard Martin (afterward Recorder of London) in the common hall of the Middle Temple, while he was at dinner. For which act being forthwith (February, 1597-8) expelled, he retired for a time in private, lived in Oxon, in the condition of a sojourner, and followed his studies, although he wore a cloak. However, among his serious thoughts, making reflections upon his own condition, which sometimes was an affliction to him, he composed that excellent, philosophical, and divine poem, which he entitled 'Nosce Teipsum.' This oracle expounded in two elegies : 1. Of Human knowledge. 2. Of the Soul of Man, and the Immortality thereof." This, his great work, was published in quarto in 1599, and dedicated to Queen Elizabeth. To the same royal lady he addressed twenty-six "Hymns of Astræa, in acrostic verse," celebrating the virtues and the glories of "Elizabetha Regina.”

Through the favor of Thomas, Lord Ellesmere, lord keeper of the great seal, Davies was restored to his chambers in the Temple, in Trinity Term, 1601; and became a counsellor, and a member of the Parliament held the same year at Westminster.

He was knighted at Whitehall, February 11th, 1607. In 1612 he was made one of his Majesty's sergeants-at-law for England, and was thereafter frequently appointed a justice of assize in divers circuits. Through the gradations of honor and employment, he came at length to be nominated to the office of Lord Chief Justice, and his robes were already ordered for his settlement or installation therein, when, before they were completed, he died suddenly of apoplexy, on the 7th of December, 1626, in the fifty-seventh year of his age.

Davies's admirable poem is not so well known as its merits deserve. The ingenuity, aptness, and easy grace of his similes are remarkable; and if these fail of demonstration, it is only because it is the common lot of an argument pursued by analogies and illustrations to stop short at probability.

The "Immortality of the Soul" is conceived in great religiousness of spirit, and if in some points it is inferior to the "De Rerum Natura" of Lucretius, it is superior in being warmed and ennobled by the conscious dignity of Christian theism.

PAPER

THAT THE SOUL IS IMMORTAL, PROVED BY SEVERAL REASONS.

REASON I.-DRAWN FROM THE DESIRE OF KNOWLEDGE.

FIRST, in man's mind we find an appetite

To learn and know the truth of every thing Which is co-natural, and born with it,

And from the essence of the soul doth spring.

With this desire, she hath a native right
To find out every truth, if she had time;
Th' innumerable effects to sort aright,
And by degrees from cause to cause to climb.

But since our life so fast away doth slide,
As doth a hungry eagle through the wind;
Or as a ship transported with the tide,

Which in their passage leave no point behind

Of which swift little time so much we spend,
While some few things we through the sense do strain.
That our short race of life is at an end

Ere we the principles of skill attain.

Or God (who to vain ends hath nothing done), In vain this appetite and power had given: Or else our knowledge, which is here begun, Hereafter must be perfected in heaven.

God never gave a power to one whole kind,

But most part of that kind did use the same: Most eyes have perfect sight, though some be blind; Most legs can nimbly run, though some be lame. But in this life, no soul the truth can know So perfectly as it hath power to do:

If then perfection be not found below,

An higher place must make her mount thereto.

REASON II.-DRAWN FROM THE MOTION OF THE SOUL.

AGAIN, how can she but immortal be

When, with the motions of both will and wit, She still aspireth to eternity,

And never rests till she attain to it?

Water in conduit-pipes can rise no higher
Than the well-head from whence it first doth spring:
Then, since to eternal God she doth aspire,
She cannot be but an eternal thing.

All moving things to other things do move

Of the same kind, which shows their nature such; So earth falls down, and fire doth mount above, Till both their proper elements do touch. And as the moisture which the thirsty earth

Sucks from the sea to fill her empty veins, From out her womb at last doth take a birth,

And runs a lymph along the grassy plains. Long doth she stay, as loath to leave the land, From whose soft side she first did issue make⚫ She tastes all places, turns to every hand, Her flowery banks unwilling to forsake. Yet nature so her streams doth lead and carry As that her course doth make no final stay, Till she herself unto the sea doth marry,

Within whose watery bosom first she lay. Even as the soul, which, in this earthly mold, The spirit of God doth secretly infuse, Because at first she doth the earth behold, And only this material world she views.

At first her mother earth she holdeth dear,

And doth embrace the world and wordly things; She flies close by the ground, and hovers here, And mounts not up with her celestial wings.

Yet under heaven she cannot light on aught

That with her heavenly nature doth agree; She cannot rest, she cannot fix her thought, She cannot in this world contented be.

For who did ever yet in honor, wealth,

Or pleasure of the sense, contentment find? Who ever ceased to wish, when he had health, Or, having wisdom, was not vexed in mind?

Then, as a bee which among weeds doth fall,
Which seem sweet flowers, with lustre fresh and gay,
She lights on that, and this, and tasteth all,

But, pleased with none, doth rise and soar away.

So, when the soul finds here no true content,

And, like Noah's dove, can no sure footing take, She doth return from whence she first was sent, And flies to Him that first her wings did make.

Wit, seeking truth, from cause to cause ascends,
And never rests till it the first attain:
Will, seeking good, finds many middle ends;
But never stays till it the last do gain.

Now God the truth and first of causes is;

God is the last good end, which lasteth still;
Being Alpha and Omega named for this;
Alpha to wit, Omega to the will.

Since then her heavenly kind she doth display,
In that to God she doth directly move;
And on no mortal thing can make her stay,

She cannot be from hence, but from above.

And yet this first true cause, and last good end,
She cannot here so well and truly see;

For this perfection she must yet attend,
Till to her Maker she espoused be.

As a king's daughter, being in person sought, Of divers princes, who do neighbor near, On none of them can fix a constant thought, Though she to all doth lend a gentle ear:

Yet she can love a foreign emperor,

Whom of great worth and power she hears to be,

If she be wooed but by ambassador,

Or but his letters or his pictures see.

For well she knows that, when she shall be brought Into the kingdom where her spouse doth reign, Her eyes shall see what she conceived in thought, Himself his state, his glory, and his train.

So while the virgin soul on earth doth stay,

She, wooed and tempted in ten thousand ways, By these great powers which on the earth bear sway, The wisdom of the world, wealth, pleasure, praise

With these sometimes she doth her time beguile,
These do by fits her fantasy possess;
But she distastes them all within a while,
And in the sweetest finds a tediousness.

But if upon the world's Almighty King,

She once doth fix her humble, loving thought, Who by His picture, drawn in everything,

And sacred messages, her love hath sought

Of Him she thinks she cannot think too much,
This honey tasted still is ever sweet;
The pleasure of her ravisht thought is such,

As almost here she with her bliss doth meet.

But when in heaven she shall His essence see, This is her sovereign good, and perfect bliss; Her longings, wishings, hopes, all finished be; Her joys are full, her motions rest in this.

There is she crowned with garlands of content;
There doth she manna eat and nectar drink;
That presence doth such high delight present,

As never tongue could speak, nor heart could think.

REASON V.-FROM THE GENERAL DESIRE FOR IMMORTALITY.

HENCE springs that universal strong desire,
Which all men have of immortality;

Not some few spirits unto this thought aspire
But all men's minds in this united be.

Then this desire of Nature is not vain;
"She covets not impossibilities;

Fond thoughts may fall into some idle brain,
But one assent of all is ever wise."

From hence that general care and study springs,
That launching and progression of the mind,
Which all men have so much, of future things
That they no joy do in the present find
From this desire that main desire proceeds,

Which all men have, surviving fame to gain, By tombs, by books, by memorable deeds;

For she, that this desires, doth still remain. Hence, lastly, springs care of posterities,

For things their kind would everlasting make: Hence is it that old men do plant young trees, The fruit whereof another age shall take.

If we this rule unto ourselves apply,

And view them by reflection of the mind, All these true notes of immortality

In our heart's tables we shall written find.

CONCLUSION OF THE ARGUMENT.

O! IGNORANT poor man! what dost thou bear Locked up within the casket of thy breast? What jewels and what riches hast thou there? What heav'nly treasures in so weak a chest?

Look in thy soul, and thou shalt beauties find
Like those which drowned Narcissus in the flood:
Honor and pleasure both are in thy mind,

And all that in the world is counted good.
Think of her worth, and think that God did mean,
This worthy mind should worthy things embrace:
Blot not her beauties with thy thoughts unclean,
Nor her dishonor with thy passion base.

Kill not her quick'ning power with surfeitings;
Mar not her sense with sensuality;
Cast not away her wit on idle things;

Make not her free will slave to vanity.

And when thou think'st of her eternity,

Think not that death against her nature is: Think it a birth: and when thou go'st to die, Sing like a swan; as if thou went'st to bliss.

And if thou, like a child, did'st fear before,

Being in the dark, where thou did'st nothing see; Now I have brought thee torchlight, fear no more; Now when thou diest, thou canst not hoodwinked be.

And thou, my soul, which turn'st with curious eye To view the beams of thine own form divine, Know, that thou can'st know nothing perfectly, While thou art clouded with this flesh of mine.

Take heed of overweening, and compare

Thy peacock's feet with thy gay peacock's train: Study the best and highest things that are,

But of thyself an humble thought retain.

Cast down thyself, and only strive to raise
The glory of thy Maker's sacred name;
Use all thy powers that blessed power to praise,
Which gives thee power to be, and use the same.

cow, June 10th, 1672.

His father died four years after the birth of Peter, and was succeeded by his eldest son Feodor, who, dying in 1682, without children, named as his successor his half-brother, Peter, to the exclusion of Ivan, his own and imbecile brother. An insurrection ensued, headed by Sophia, the sister of Ivan and half-sister of Peter. After much bloodshed, the matter was apparently settled by the joint coronation of Ivan and Peter; Sophia being made regent over both. She held power for three years, excluding the two nominal Czars from all share in the government.

first object was to organize something like a regular army. He entered the ranks as a private soldier, and passed through all the successive grades up to that of general; and he compelled his nobles to go through the same course.

He was anxious to have a navy; but Russia at this time had only one seaport, that of Archangel, on the Frozen Ocean, which is shut up by ice for eight or nine months in the year. He, however, went there, and learned something of navigation by cruising about on board of the

English and Dutch merchantmen who traded to that distant port. In the meantime, he laid the foundation of a navy by employing Dutch and Venetian shipwrights to build several small vessels on the little Lake Peiplus.

His intercourse with foreigners had shown him how barbarous were his own subjects, and he began to lay plans for the civilization of his empire. His wife Eudoxia opposed his designs, and he repudiated her.

In 1697 he resolved to know something, from his own observation, of the more civilized peoples of Europe. The tour which he then undertook forms a marked epoch in the history of the Russian Empire. Accompanied by a few attendants, he repaired in disguise to Saardam, in Holland; thence he went to Amsterdam, where he worked as a common laborer in a shipyard, and at the same time found time to attend anatomical lectures, and studied geography, astronomy and natural philosophy. Early in 1698 he went to England, where he hired for himself and his suite of uncouth attendants the suburban villa of the famous John Evelyn, who has left on record a curious account of the filthy habits of his Muscovite tenants. From England he went to Vienna, to make himself acquainted with the organization of the German army; and was about to proceed to Italy when, after an absence of nearly a year and a half, he was recalled to Russia by an insurrection which had broken out among the Strelitzes, or Imperial Archer Guard. The insurrection was put down, and the offenders punished with the utmost severity. The Strelitzes were disbanded, and Peter set about the formation of an army upon the German model.

He now began a series of reforms by which he undertook, partially at least, to civilize his subjects. Notable among these was his warfare upon the long beards which had been a Muscovite peculiarity. Every Russian must

Shortly after, and growing out of this great success, began his connection with the woman who, under the name of the Empress Catharine I., was to share so largely in his subsequent fortunes. Of the early life of this remarkable woman there are varying accounts. According to some, she was the daughter of John Rabe, a subaltern Swedish officer; others, probably more truly, say that her father was a Lithuanian peasant named Skavronski. What seems certain is, that her original name was Martha; that she was left an orphan at an early age, and was received into the family of Glück, the Lutheran pastor at Marienburg, who educated her with his own children; that in 1701, when she was sixteen, she married a Swedish dragoon, serving in the garrison of Marienburg, of whom nothing more is known. When the town was captured by the Russians, August 23d, 1702, Parson Glück and his household became prisoners, and the females were appropriated by the captors. Martha fell to the share of the Russian general Bauer, in a capacity which we need only indicate. She must have been a very attractive young woman, for

she soon attracted the favor of Prince Menshikoff, to whom Bauer resigned her. While occupying her questionable position with the Prince, she was seen by Peter, who became captivated by her charms. As the General had resigned her to the Prince, so the Prince resigned her to the Czar. She had no scruples in renouncing the Lutheran faith, and adopting that of the Greek Church, into which she was baptized under the name of Catharine Alexievna ("Daughter of Alexis"). Thus, in barely two years, this young woman of eighteen had been the wife of a Swedish private soldier, the mistress of a Russian General, of a Russian Prince, and finally of the Czar himself. It is worthy of note that, as long as they lived, Prince Menshikoff always stood high in the favor of both Catharine and Peter. Notwithstanding their questionable relations, Catharine was the good genius of Peter. She accompanied him in all his campaigns, and maintained her influence over him by her unfailing activity, goodtemper and vivacity; and many a time she was able to calm the wild outbursts of his savage disposition. In 1708, after she had borne him two daughters, and was about to bear another, who afterward became the notorious Empress Elizabeth, their connection was sanctioned by a private marriage.

either be close-shaven, or pay a heavy tax for the privilege of wearing a full beard. Much more sensible were his establishment of naval and other schools, his encouragement of foreign commerce, and a reformation of the calendar, by which, greatly to the horror of the clergy, the year was made to begin on the 1st of January, instead of on the 1st of September.

In 1700 he undertook a war with Sweden for the purpose of recovering the provinces of Ingria and Karelia, which had once belonged to Russia. With an army of 50,000 men he marched across Livonia into Esthonia, and laid siege to Narva. Here, on the 30th of November, 1700, he was attacked by the impetuous Charles XII., of Sweden, whose force is said to have been only 8,500 men. Notwithstanding the vast disparity of numbers, the Russians were totally routed, and forced to raise the siege. Peter took the misfortune quite coolly. "It will not be long," he said, "before the Swedes will teach us how to beat them." He set himself about repairing his losses; had the very church-bells melted down and cast into cannon; and in a few months took the field more powerful than he had been before. In 1702 his troops defeated the Swedes at Marienburg, in Livonia, and captured that important city.

Meanwhile, the war with Sweden was carried on with varying fortunes until 1709, when, on the 8th of July, Charles XII. was disastrously defeated in the decisive battle of Pultowa. The Swedes had, as Peter foresaw, taught him how to vanquish them. Charles took refuge in Turkey, and put forth all his energies to induce the Sultan, Achmet II., to make war upon Russia. The Sultan had good reason to take such a step; for, as early as 1696, Peter had besieged and captured the town of Azov, on the sea of that name, of which the Russians still held possession. In 1711 the Grand Vizier took the field at the head of an army of 200,000 men. Peter had no such force at his command, and was driven back into an angle of the river Pruth, where it seemed that starvation must soon compel him to