cause delight; to refresh with pleasure and quicken with grace the dullness of man's brain. Who will look on a white wall an hour together, where no workmanship is at all? Or who will eat one kind of meat and never desire a change?"

Wilson's rules for composition are good and sound. He abhors all affectation in composition. He calls on writers to take every thing, old and new, for the purposes of excitement, illustration, and effect, and work them to the best advantage. This was not all; he translated much of Greek literature, and particularly from Demosthenes. His rules contain, in fact, all the great principles incorporated in the best and boldest modern compositions.

The lettered men of the age seem not to have been confined to courts or college halls. William Fullward, a merchant in 1555, or somewhere thereabouts, wrote a work he called the "Enemy of Idleness, teaching the manner and style how to endite and write all sorts of epistles and letters." This was partly in verse.

The reign of Edward was full of polemic discussions, and the muses slept on the dull and ponderous tomes of laborious ecclesiastics. The reign of his successor, Mary, was still more unpropitious to literature. The just, in her time, were persecuted, and the learned silenced. Some of the brightest geniuses of the nation were made immortal at the stake. The stake was fixed and the faggot dried in every part of the land for the service of God alone, an avenging God, as he was taught to the people. The English Bible was proscribed, and it was treason and death to be found drinking at the well of eternal life. Those who were not prepared for martyrdom fled. "To turn or burn," was

the fate of every Protestant. It may be said of her reign, that every sun rose and set in blood. At matins and vespers the crimson torrent flowed, and with the curfew's knell were mingled the groans of expiring saints.

In 1558, Elizabeth came to the throne. The reign of terror had indeed at her accession passed away, but the elements of society were still in no small confusion. The exiled clergy returned from Holland, which had been their asylum during the lifetime of Mary. They came home deeply imbued with the doctrines of the great reformer, Calvin, and fierce discussions were held by the Protestants and those of the Church of England. These very discussions had in the end a beneficial effect, although very troublesome at the time. The minds of men grew robust by these wars of intellect, when they went no farther than fiery altercations. The scriptures were now read by all classes of the people. It has been the good fortune of reading communities at all times to find a love of inquiry, and a taste for knowledge, growing out of the reading of the scriptures.

The love of learning was not confined to the clergy alone, but was found extending to all ranks of society, particularly among the higher orders. The ladies caught the enthusiasm, and became admirable proficients in classical learning. Lady Jane Grey, as well as the queen, were illustrious examples of female taste and acquirements of that day. They were all acquainted with household affairs, while celebrated schoolmasters were learning them to construe Greek. The learned men were busy, at the same time, in translating the most valuable works in other languages for the English reader.

This excitement produced some matters of learning in bad taste; but after a few years, things became settled, and sound judgment corrected the errors which enthusiasm had scattered among her brilliant productions. Spenser and Shakspeare now arose, with a host of mighty minds, in the several walks of learning, which left their stamp on the age, as imperishable as the English language itself.

This was the age of English literature, from which our literature emanated. It was tinged, no doubt, with a portion of the polemic severity which belonged to the reign of Henry VIII, and Edward VI, and which came down to later times; but there was a depth, a strength, and boldness, in the intelligence of those days, which, if it has in some measure been polished by time, was from the same stock as that of the reformers; and, thank heaven, it ran on, gaining purity, and losing none of its virtues, for a century and a half after it had been found in this country. I freely grant, that the literature, as it came to us at that time, had not the polish of the literature of the present day; but it was well calculated to prepare our fathers for the great labors of body and mind which they were called to perform. The difference between the literature of that day and the present, I mean that which is current among a majority of the community, is this their literature was best to form the mind; ours to fill it. From theirs grew resolution, perseverance, and faith, and all that gave hardihood and energy to character. In ours, there are extensive and liberal views of society, a great accumulation of facts, much refinement of taste, and an abundance of topics for conversation. They read much, we many things. In our course of training the mind, we should

look back, as well as go forward; we should make ourselves masters of the past ages of knowledge, as well as possessors of the floods of light which are now poured in upon us. I glory in seeing colleges arise, and the corner-stones of universities laid; but these institutions alone will never make a literary people of us. This great object can only be effected by enlightening the community at large. There were no great artists in Greece or Italy until a good taste was generally diffused among them. To bring us to a high standard of literature, female enthusiasm and taste must be brought in aid of the cause. Letters must, before that day comes, take the place of a thousand trifling amusements that now fill up the measure of time that can be spared from important duties. These portions of time, even if they are mere shreds, may, by method and perseverance, be made up into something of importance. The good housewife, by carefully saving the shreds as she makes up her family wardrobe, and by occupying some of her leisure hours in sewing them together, is soon ready for a quilting-match-a union of industry and amusement. Then starts from the frame a variegated patch-work of a thousand pieces, of all hues-a comforter in the cold and storms of wintry time-a thing twice blest, in the industry of her who made it, and in the gratitude of those made happy by its warmth.

Literature, to have its full effect, must be generally diffused. It must not be confined to any class of the community, but open to all, and encouraged by all. We must not look for the spirit of literature in the pulpit and halls of legislation, or school-rooms only; but must find it, like the sweet breeze of the summer's morn, in all our walks, and in all our household domains, passing from the library to the toilet, from the toilet to the nursery, and there kindling the eye of the mother and opening the cherubic lips of the infant.

CHAPTER II.

WE come now to the age of Elizabeth. Spenser was the first poet who was pre-eminently distinguished in the reign of the virgin queen. He was a well educated man. He found himself a poet in the midst of some affair of the heart. His effusions were so much admired, that some kind friend made him acquainted with Sir Philip Sidney, the Mecænas of the age. Sir Walter Raleigh was also his friend and patron. Spenser, as well as some of the earlier poets, was employed by government, and received a liberal support from persons in power. He died at the early age of 46; early for one who had written so much. His works are voluminous. The Fairy Queen is at the head. This great labor of Spenser is said to be wanting in plan. This, however, the reader forgets, in the lovely personifications of his author. The muse never suffered him to slumber, if she sometimes led him through the labyrinth of flowers, until his imagination was bewildered. The characterístic traits of the Fairy Queen are imagery, feeling, and melody of versification. His imitators have been numerous in every age of poetry since, and many of these imitators became his equals, and some his superiors. Milton openly avowed his obligations to Spenser, and Beattie built his Minstrel upon Spenser's models. Many men of literary renown