in them of some of the quaintest of Vaughan's. I note a few of them, not as blaming-for I'm sure in each case the Singer had his own inner harmony for the most unusual rhyme-but as a curious exemplification of the law of resemblance as between genius and genius when the same domain of thought is cultivated.1 Thus 'sundial' is made to rhyme with 'befall' and 'call ', (p. 12), free-will' with 'evil' (p. 35), ' garden' with 'pardon', (p. 36), 'his' with 'lilies', (p. 43), playing' with 'sing', (p. 92), 'once' with 'suns', (p. 106), 'bare' with 'water', (p. 109), 'wet' with 'market', (p. 115), 'yet' with 'secret', (p. 161), and so to the close. I make bold to say you won't find (so-called) defective rhymes such as these in all WILLIAM MORRIS'S "Jason" or 'Earthly Paradise "—and in their own sweet, simple, sunny way, I have full admiration for these pleasant and fresh poems-but as Pocts, in quantity of poetic gift, would anybody dream of placing Morris above Rossetti? So with not a few of our greatest Poets: so with the Divine Artificer. Beneath in stratas and in the "Great Deep" to

It will be remembered that earlier we have shewn that Mr. Rossetti has put into words exactly such impersonations as Vaughan delighted to grapple with.

day there are monster-forms awkward' in the extreme but they do express His thought and serve His ends though we may never know how.

Correctness, immaculate measure and smoothness' without 'the thoughts that breathe' will never make a man more than a Versifier. The thought not the form decides the question: perfection of both is only to be found once in centuries. Vaughan's thought is always true, his feelings fine and his utterance melodious. Herbert's thought is often thin and his feelings oftener valetudinarian, and his wording common-place. It is his pervading goodness and sanctity that have so transfigured his Verse: and his Life as told by ISAAC WALTON is so charmingly sweet, tender, loveable that one has an accusing sense in saying one syllable derogatory. Nevertheless, the truth must be spoken as meeting the preposterous claim for him of higher poetic power than Vaughan's.

Then in another aspect, I believe that the Silurist with all his spontaneity, as of a Nightingale, spent more time in fining and refining his verse than might be supposed. An over-looked evidence of this occurs in Silex Scintillans. Like Paradise Lost "Silex Scintillans, " did not find immediate or worthy audience, and the (then) usual device of the Booksellers was resorted to on the addition

of a second part in 1655, viz. the latter was added to the unsold copies of the first part, along with a new preface and a new general title-page for the whole. But one poem of the first part was specially re-printed in order to introduce certain characteristic alterations. As this has escaped Mr. Lyte and all, I deem it well to give the details, in proof of the vigilant and nice supervision by the Author. The pages re-printed (in the first part) are 19-22, wherein is contained 'Isaac's Marriage "-one of the most vivid and striking of his poems, and not without quiet touches of humour, such as one is glad to meet with. Originally (1650) lines 11-12 ran thus:

"But being for a bride, sure prayer was

Very strange stuffe wherewith to court thy lasse."

So it appears in Mr. Lyte's edition (1847): but in the 1655 issue the couplet reads,

"But being for a bride, prayer was such

A deciyed course, sure it prevail'd not much."

Again line 19 was at first as follows,

"When sinne, by sinning oft, had not lost sense."

This in 1655 was changed to

"When conscience by lewd use had not lost sense."

The former is Mr. Lyte's text. Once more the lines 35-36 ran originally,

"But in a frighted virgin blush approach'd,

Fresh as the morning, when 'tis newly coach'd."

So Mr. Lyte reads: but in 1655 the couplet appeared thus:

"But in a virgin's native blush and fears,

Fresh as those roses which the Day-Spring wears."

Our text reproduces the later and it is due to the editor of the reprint of 1858, to state that he corrected Mr. Lyte nearly accurately. Besides these noticeable alterations, there are variations of orthography in every one of the four pages.

It would seem clear, therefore, that while the art was concealed, there was art in our Worthy's workmanship on his verse, as well on its rhythm as rhyme. There are occasional alliterations long-drawn out, and the thought of one line passed on into another, as tune melting into tune, that betoken studied intention so to present what he had to sing. His use of monosyllables or what may be and ordinarily are such so as to compel the Reader to make them dissyllables, and similarly with others, produces a fine effect, as of a stone

splitting a stream and making a sweeter and tender music thereby. Altogether with every abatement in respect of defective rhymes by our standard that were not defective at the period, through their pronounciation, and accordingly are found in the highest Masters, and conceding that the thought is sometimes so thick-coming and weighty as to give a shadow of obscurity (or call it chiaroscuro) or at least ellipsis at a first reading, I must regard HENRY VAUGHAN as more than the equal of GEORGE HERBERT even in form. In the deeper elements, in the electric flash that does'nt so much tell of Wordsworth's supernal light, as of the fire of genius kindled by the Great Giver alone, and which no mere piety or mere culture can ever send forth-the penetrative seizure of the innermost subtleties of feeling and prisoning them in human speech, such as later was the imperial gift of Shelley-the vision of the mysteries of the Universe, veiled and curtained, fold on fold, to ordinary mortal eyes-the sudden surprise of grand thoughts uttered with the simpleness of a child and as though nothing remarkable, and really to the utterer un-remarkable—the calm footstep and the uplifted eye in the most interior regions of Wonder-land-the transfiguring radiance cast on lowliest things so as to lift the "meanest flower