3. FULSOME, offensive. 4. DISTEMPER, indisposition; unhealthy state of body or mind. The use of this word is now generally confined to the name of a disease, to which dogs are especially subject. 5. REQUITE, to pay in return, to give back. SIR MATTHEW HALE'S GOLDEN MAXIM. A Sunday well spent Brings a week of content, And health for the toils of the morrow; Whatsoe'er may be gained, Is a certain forerunner of sorrow. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF SPENSER. EDMUND SPENSER, one of the earliest and most distinguished of our English poets, was born in 1553, and died in 1598. His first poem, "The Shepherd's Calendar," gained for him the notice of the celebrated Sir Philip Sydney,1 who obtained for him an office under Government, and afterwards the grant of a large estate in Ireland. During Spenser's residence in the latter country, he employed his leisure in writing his celebrated poem of the "Faery Queen," an allegorical composition, dedicated to Queen Elizabeth, and representing herself and the chief persons in her court. Of this famous work we only possess the six opening books, the six remaining books having been lost, either in the poet's flight from Ireland, or in the sad circumstances which preceded it, when Spenser's house was pillaged and burned, his youngest child perishing in the flames. The poet did not long survive this calamity, but died of grief in a few months. We know little of his private charac ter, but his works are as conspicuous for their pure morality and devotional spirit, as for their beauty of imagery, pathos, and melodious versification. The following extract from one of his shorter poems will give an idea of the style of this justly famous poet. HYMN OF HEAVENLY BEAUTY. FAR above these heavens, which here we see, Fair is the heaven, where happy souls have place Whence they do still behold the glorious face 4 More fair is that, where those idees 3 on high Yet fairer is that heaven, in which do reign 6 And fairer yet, whereas 5 the royal seats Yet far more fair be those bright cherubim, Which from their faces dart out fiery light: These thus in fair each other far excelling, Cease then, my tongue! and lend unto my mind 9 How much more these essential parts of His, Those unto all He daily does display, SPENSER. 1. SIR PHILIP SIDNEY, an English statesman and author, the favourite of Queen Elizabeth, and one whom she justly called "the jewel of her time," for among the famous men, who then flourished, his character and conduct have been ever most justly esteemed. He was born 1554, and died at the battle of Zutphen, in Holland, 1586. 2. ALLEGORICAL, figurative; a description of one thing under the figure of another. 3. IDEES, the old form for ideas. 4. PLATO, a celebrated Greek philosopher, born 429 B.C., died 348 B.C. Plato was esteemed the wisest man of his time. Besides God and matter, his philosophy treats of eternal types or models, according to which all creatures have been formed; these he calls ideas. The ideas only have real and absolute existence; individual things are but shadows or copies of them. The ideas reside in God, who is their common substance. It is this part of Plato's philosophy, to which Spenser refers in the poem. 5. WHEREAS, where. 6. DOMINATIONS, governments. (Lat. dominus, a master.) 7. FET, an obsolete form of fetched; brought, obtained. 8. OVERDIGHT, adorned, arrayed. 9. ESSENTIAL, important in the highest degree; relating to, or containing the essence of, being. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF ADDISON. JOSEPH ADDISON was born at Milston, in Wiltshire, in the year 1672, and died in 1719. He was one of the most celebrated English writers of his day, and well deserved his fame : he wrote poems and plays, but chiefly prose essays. The most admirable of these latter were contributed by him to the Spectator and Tatler, periodicals chiefly started by himself, and of which he was part editor. Addison held several public offices, and was an ardent politician; but in 1717 he received a pension from Government, and spent the following years in privacy. Addison had a great reputation for taste and elegance; his style is clear, simple, and graceful, and at the same time forcible, as will be seen from the following and other extracts. THE COMMERCE OF ENGLAND IN THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE. THERE is no place in the town, that I so much love to frequent as the Royal Exchange. It gives me a secret satisfaction, and in some measure gratifies my vanity, as I am an Englishman, to see so rich an assembly of countrymen and foreigners consulting together upon the private business of mankind, and making this metropolis a kind of emporium 1 of the whole earth. I must confess, I look upon High 'Change to be a great council, in which all considerable nations have their representatives. Factors 2 in the trading world are what ambassadors are in the political world; they negotiate affairs, conclude treaties, and maintain a good correspondence between those wealthy societies of men, that are divided from one another by seas and oceans, or live on the different extremities of a continent. I have often been pleased to hear disputes adjusted between an inhabitant of Japan and an alderman of London, or to see a subject of the Great Mogul entering into a league with one of the Czar of Muscovy. I am infinitely delighted in mixing with these ministers of Commerce, as they are distinguished by their different walks and different languages. Sometimes I am jostled among a body of Armenians; sometimes I am lost in a crowd of Jews; and sometimes make one in a group of Dutchmen. I am a Dane, Swede, or Frenchman at different times; or rather fancy myself like the old philosopher, who, upon being asked what countryman he was, replied that he was a citizen of the world. This grand scene of business gives me an infinite variety of solid and substantial entertainments. As I |