morals. The spirit Ariel avows, that, were he human, his "affections would become tender" towards the shipwrecked captives on whom his charms had been working (Tempest, act v. sc. I, 1. 21, vol. i. p. 64); and Prospero enters into his thought with strong conviction,

"Hast thou, which art but air, a touch, a feeling

Of their afflictions, and shall not myself,

One of their kind, that relish all as sharply,

Passion as they, be kindlier moved than thou art?

Though with their high wrongs I am struck to the quick,

Yet with my nobler reason 'gainst my fury

Do I take part: the rarer action is

In virtue than in vengeance: they being penitent,

The sole drift of my purpose doth extend

Not a frown further."

The subject in this connection finds a fitting conclusion from the words of a later writer, communicated to me by the Rev. T. Walker, M.A., formerly of Nether Tabley, in which a free forgiveness of injuries is ascribed to the world's great and blessed Saviour,

"Some write their wrongs on marble, He more just
Stoop'd down serene, and wrote them in the dust,
Trod under foot, the sport of every wind,

Swept from the earth, quite banished from his mind,

There secret in the grave He bade them lie,

And grieved, they could not 'scape the Almighty's eye."

VERITAS

MIA

Whitney. (Reprint, 1866, p. 431.)

CHAPTER VII.

MISCELLANEOUS EMBLEMS; RECAPITULATION, AND

CONCLUSION.

MBLEMS Miscellaneous will include some which have been omitted, or which remain unclassified from not belonging to any of the foregoing divisions. They are placed here without any attempt to bring them into any special order.

Several words and forms of thought employed by the Emblem writers, and especially by Whitney, have counterparts, if not direct imitations, in Shakespeare's dramas; he often treats of the same heroes in the same way. Thus, in reference to Paris and Helen, Whitney utters his opinion respecting them (p. 79),—

"Thoughe PARIS, had his HELEN at his will,

Thinke howe his faite, was ILIONS foule deface."

And Shakespeare sets forth Troilus (Troilus and Cressida, act ii. sc. 2, 1. 81, vol. vi. p. 164) as saying of Helen,—

"Why, she is a pearl,

Whose price hath launch'd above a thousand ships,

And turn'd crown'd kings to merchants."

And then, as adding (1.92),—

O, theft most base,

That we have stol'n what we do fear to keep!

But thieves unworthy of a thing so stol'n,

That in their country did them that disgrace,

We fear to warrant in our native place!"

Whitney inscribes a frontispiece or dedication of his work with the letters, D. O. M.,—i.e., Deo, Optimo, Maximo,-"To God, best, greatest,"—and writes,

D. O. M.

INCE man is fraile, and all his thoughtes are finne,

SIN

And of him felfe he can no good inuent,

Then euerie one, before they oughte beginne,

Should call on GOD, from whome all grace is fent :

So, I befeeche, that he the fame will fende,
That, to his praise I maie beginne, and ende.

Very similar sentiments are enunciated in several of the dramas; as in Twelfth Night (act iii. sc. 4, l. 340, vol. iii. p. 285),—

"Taint of vice, whose strong corruption

Inhabits our frail blood."

In Henry VIII. (act v. sc. 3, 1. 10, vol. vi. p. 103), the Lord Chancellor says to Cranmer,

"But we all are men,

In our own nature frail and capable

Of our flesh; few are angels."

Even Banquo (Macbeth, act ii. sc. I, 1. 7, vol. vii. p. 444) can utter

Restrain in me the cursed thoughts that nature
Gives way to in repose!"

And very graphically does Richard III. (act iv. sc. 2,
vol. v. p. 583) describe our sinfulness as prompting sin,—

"But I am in

So far in blood that sin will pluck on sin."

1. 65,

Or as Romeo puts the case (Romeo and Juliet, act v. sc. 3, l. 61, vol. vii. p. 124),—

"I beseech thee, youth,

Put not another sin upon my head,

By urging me to fury."

Coriolanus thus speaks of man's "unstable lightness" (Coriolanus, act iii. sc. 1, 1. 160, vol. vi. p. 344),—

"Not having the power to do the good it would,

For the ill which doth control't."

Human dependence upon God's blessing is well expressed by the conqueror at Agincourt (Henry V., act iv. sc. 7, 1. 82, vol. iv. p. 582),-" Praised be God, and not our strength, for it ;" and (act iv. sc. 8, 1. 100),

"O God, thy arm was here!

And not to us, but to thy arm alone

Ascribe we all."

And simply yet truly does the Bishop of Carlisle point out that dependence to Richard II. (act iii. sc. 2, 1. 29, vol. iv. p. 164),—

"The means that heaven yields must be embraced,

And not neglected; else, if heaven would,

And we will not, heaven's offer we refuse,

The proffer'd means of succour and redress."

The closing thought of Whitney's whole passage is embodied in Wolsey's earnest charge to Cromwell (Henry VIII., act iii. sc. 2, 1. 446, vol. vi. p. 79),

"Be just, and fear not :

Let all the ends thou aim'st at be thy country's,

Thy God's, and truth's; then if thou fall'st, O Cromwell,
Thou fall'st a blessed martyr!"

The various methods of treating the very same subject by the professed Emblem writers will prove that, even with a full knowledge of their works, a later author may yet allow scarcely a hint to escape him, that he was acquainted, in some particular instance, with the sentiments and expressions of his predecessors;

indeed, that knowledge itself may give birth to thoughts widely different in their general character. To establish this position we offer a certain proverb which both Sambucus and Whitney adopt, the almost paradoxical saying, We flee the things which we follow, and they flee us,