who had means enough of information, that, whatever he may talk of his own inflammability, and the variety of characters by which his heart was divided, he in reality was in love but once, and then never had refolution to tell his paffion.

This confideration cannot but abate, in fome measure, the reader's efteem for the work and the author. To love excellence, is natural; it is natural likewife for the lover to folicit reciprocal regard by an elaborate display of his own qualifications. The defire of pleafing has in different men produced actions of heroifm, and effufions of wit; but it seems as reasonable to appear the champion as the poet of an "airy nothing," and to quarrel as to write for what Cowley might have learned from his mafter Pindar to call the dream of a fhadow."

It is furely not difficult, in the folitude of a college, or in the bustle of the world, to find ufeful ftudies and ferious employment. No man needs to be fo burthened with life as to fquander it in voluntary dreams of fictitious Occurrences. The man that fits down to fuppofe himself charged with treafon or peculation, and heats his mind to an elaborate purgation of his character from crimes which he was never within the poffibility of committing, differs only by the infrequency of his folly from him who praifes beauty which he never faw, complains of jealoufy which he never felt; fuppofes himself fometimes invited, and fometimes forfaken; fatigues his fancy, and ranfacks his memory, for images which may exhibit the gaiety of hope, or the gloominess of

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despair,

despair, and dreffes his imaginary Chloris or Phyllis fometimes in flowers fading as her beauty, and fometimes in gems lasting as her virtues..

At Paris, as fecretary to lord Jermin, he was engaged in tranfacting things of real importance with real men and real women, and at that time did not much employ his thoughts upon phantoms of gallantry. Some of his letters to Mr. Bennet, afterwards earl of Arlington, from April to December in 1650, are. preferved in "Mifcellanea Aulica," a collection of papers published by Brown. These letters being written like those of other men whose mind is more on things than words, contribute no otherwife to his reputation_than_as they fhew him to have been above the affectation of unfeasonable elegance, and to have known that the business of a statesman can be little forwarded by flowers of rhetorick.

One paffage, however, feems not unworthy of fome notice. Speaking of the Scotch treaty then in agitation:

"The Scotch treaty," fays he, "is the "only thing now in which we are vitally con"cerned; I am one of the laft hopers, and "yet cannot now abstain from believing, "that an agreement will be made: all people

upon the place incline to that of union. "The Scotch will moderate fomething of the " rigour of their demands, the mutual neceffi

ty of an accord is vifible, the King is per"fuaded of it. And to tell you the truth

(which I take to be an argument above all "the reft) Virgil has told the fame thing to "that purpose.

This expreffion from a fecretary of the prefent time, would be confidered as merely ludicrous, or at most as an oftentatious display of scholarfhip; but the manners of that time were fo tinged with fuperftition, that I cannot but fufpect Cowley of having confulted on this great occafion the Virgilian lots, and to have given fome credit to the answer of his oracle.

Some years afterwards, " business," fays Sprat, "paffed of course into other hands;" and Cowley being no longer useful at Paris, was in 1656 fent back into England, that " un"der pretence of privacy and retirement, he might take occafion of giving notice of the posture of things in this nation."

Soon after his return to London, he was feized by fome meffengers of the ufurping powers, who were fent out in queft of another man; and being examined, was put into confinement, from which he was not difmiffed without the fecurity of a thousand pounds given by Dr. Scarborow.

This year he published his poems, with a preface, in which he feems to have inferted fomething, fuppreffed in fubfequunt editions, which was interpreted to denote fome relaxation of his loyalty. In this preface he declares, that his defire had been for fome days paft, " and did ftill very vehemently continue, to "retire himself to fome of the the American plantations, and to forfake this world for "ever."

From the obloquy which the appearance of fubmiffion to the ufurpers brought upon him, his biographer has been very diligent to clear him, and indeed it does not feem to have les

fened his reputation. His with for retirement we can easily believe to be undiffembled; a man harraffed in one kingdom, and perfecuted in another, who, after a courfe of bufiness that employed all his nights in cyphering and decyphering, comes to his own country and steps into a prifon, will be willing enough to retire to fome place of quiet, and of safety. Yet let neither our reverence for a genius, nor our pity for a fufferer, difpofe us to forget that, if his activity was virtue, his retreat was cowardice.

He then took upon himself the character of Physician, still, according to Sprat, with intention" to diffemble the main defign of his coming over," and, as Mr. Wood relates, complying with the men then in power, (which was much taken notice of by the royal party) he obtained an order to be creat"ed Doctor of Phyfick, which being done "to his mind (whereby he gained the ill" will of fome of his friends), he went into "France again, having made a copy of verses "on Oliver's death."

This is no favourable representation, yet even in this not much wrong can be discovered. How far he complied with the men in power, is to be enquired before he can be blamed. It is not faid that he told them any fecrets, or affifted them by intelligence, or any other act. If he only promifed to be quiet, that they in whofe hands he was might free him from confinement, he did what no law of fociety prohibits.

The man whofe mifcarriage in a just cause has put him in the power of his enemy may,

without

without any violation of his integrity, regain his liberty, or preferve his life by a promise of neutrality for the ftipulation gives the enemy nothing which he had not before; the neutrality of a captive may be always fecured by his imprisonment or death. He that is at the difpofal of another, may not promise to aid him in any injurious act, because no power can compel active obedience. He may engage to do nothing, but not to do ill.

There is reason to think that Cowley promifed little. It does not appear that his compliance gained him confidence enough to be trufted without fecurity, for the bond of his bail was never cancelled; not that it made him think himself secure, for at that diffolution of government, which followed the death of Oliver, he returned into France, where he refumed his former station, and staid till the Restoration.

"He continued, fays his biographer, un"der these bonds till the general deliverance;" it is therefore to be fuppofed, that he did not go to France, and act again for the King without the confent of his bondfinen; that he did not thew his loyalty at the hazard of his friend, but by his friend's permiffion.

Of the verfes on Oliver's death, in which Wood's narrative feems to imply fomething encomiaftick, there has been no appearance. There is a difcourfe concerning his government, indeed, with verfes intermixed, but fuch as certainly gained its author no friends among the abettors of ufurpation.

A doctor of phyfick however he was made at Oxford, in December 1657; and in the

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