recognise earnestness, love, and thoughtfulness in its pages, and we cannot help thinking that those who peruse its faithful and affectionate pages must feel their hearts bettered and their minds improved. It is a good book in the most emphatic sense of the term; it is good in its matter, style, method, intent and aim, good alike in its manliness and its godliness. A Time for Thought. By J. A. COOPER, Esq., F.R.S.L. London : Sunday School Union. To all who know the reputation of the author of this "New Year's Address to Sabbath School Teachers," his name alone will be enough to tell them that worth, earnestness, purity and holiness, will characterize the thought and writing. We do not think the Sunday School Union could have chosen a better man, though they had sought diligently through their whole host, to speak a word in season to their constituents. He calls on his readers to think 1, on the solemn responsibility of Christian life; 2, the special characteristics and requirements of their vocation; 3, the manner in which they have discharged their duties; 4, the results of their labours, and to endeavour to make their teaching (1) more attractive, (2) more definite and exact, (3) more spiritual. We cannot resist giving the following soupçon of its quality : "The scholars who now surround us will, in a few short years, arrive at maturity, and will take with them, into various positions in life, the remembrance of our teaching and the influences of our example. To distant parts of the world some of them may go, and there they will think of us, and there amidst the most unlikely scenes and circumstances they will recall to mind the lessons we gave them in their childhood or youth. A striking example of this once came to my knowledge. One Sunday morn ing a fine, tall young man entered the schoolroom in which I labour, and coming up to me put out his hand, and asked if I did not remember him. He told me his name, and I replied that I remembered a little boy of that name who was once in our school; and he smilingly assured me that it was the same little boy' who then addressed me. He went on to give a brief but deeply interesting account of his career. He entered the army, had been in the Russian war, where he had endured great hardships; but having obtained his discharge he returned to his home, and had come to have a look at the place where he had received so much instruction. Glancing round the room his eye rested on an elderly man, to whom he pointed and exclaimed, 'That was my teacher! I shall never forget him, nor the lessons he gave me. Often, when sleeping in my tent in the Crimea, I dreamt of him; and seemed then to hear his voice as I heard it when I was a boy in his class!' It will be even thus with many of our scholars; the lessons they receive now will be remembered in days to come, and in some form or other will be repeated by them to their own scholars, to their own sons and daughters, or it may be to their children's children. What an enlarged idea these considerations give us of the nature and extent of personal influence, the silent and mysterious pulsations of which can never cease, but will go on repeating themselves to the end of time, and even into eternity!" Our Collegiate Course. STUDIES IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. MILTON'S SONG ON MAY MORNING. [“The outbreak into beauty which nature makes at the end of April and beginning of May excites so joyful and admiring a feeling in the human breast, that there is no wonder the event should have at all times been celebrated in some way. The first emotion is a desire to seize some part of that profusion of flower and blossom which spreads around us, to set it up in decorative fashion, pay it a sort of homage, and let the pleasure it excites find expression in dance and song. A mad happiness goes abroad over the earth that nature, being dead and cold, lives and smiles again. Doubtless there is mingled with this, too, in bosoms of any reflection, a grateful sense of the divine goodness which makes the promise of seasons so stable and so sure."-Chambers's "Book of Days," vol. i., 571. "No date is assigned to this charming song; but we think there can hardly be a doubt of its having been written at Horton on some lovely morning in the month of May (Keightley), and most probably concerning the first morning of it. The probable date, therefore, lies between 1632 and 1638.] Now the bright morning star, (1) day's harbinger, (2) Hail, bounteous May, that dost inspire Thus (5) we salute thee with our early song, (1) When Venus (the planet nearest the earth, and, except Mercury, nearest to the sun) is to the west of the sun, she rises and sets before him, and she was then called by the ancients, Phosphorus and Lucifer (light-bringer). But when she is to the east of the sun, she rises and sets after him, and was then called Hesperus, Vesper, Vesperugo, Noctifer. The terms in our old almanacks-Morning Star and Evening Star-refer to these positions. (2) Harbinger, as if Harbouringer, one who goes to secure or provide harbour or lodgings, and hence precursor or forerunner. (3) The notion that May was so called in honour of Maia, the mother, by Jupiter, of the god Hermes, or Mercury, seems to have been a mere guess originating in the similarity of the sound of the word. The most probable derivation is that it was the name assigned to the month sacred to the Majores (Maiores) in the Roman senate, as June was of that devoted to the Juniores. See the question discussed in Ovid's "Fasti," Book V. (4) "Then came fair May, the fairest maid on ground, And throwing flowers out of her lap around."-Spenser. (5) The word "thus " seems to refer to a May-day carol and festival. LITERATURE OF ENGLAND; BIOGRAPHICAL, CHRONOLOGICAL, CRITICAL, ETC. TABLE IV.-IMAGINATIVE WRITERS. Names and Dates. 9. JOHN FORD, 1586 1600-1700. Events and Works. Born at Ilchester; member of Middle Temple, 1602; "Fame's Memorial," 1606, an elegiac poem on Mountjoy, Earl of Devonshire, dedicated to his widow, formerly Penelope Devereux, Lady Rich; "The Sun's Darling," a Moral Masque, in conjunction with Decker; "The Witch of Edmonton," "Lover's Melancholy," "The Broken Heart," "Love's Sacrifice," "Perkin Warbeck," "The Lady's Trial," &c. Probably succeeded to a fortune, and died at Ilchester subsequently to 1645. 10. BEN JONSON, 1574-1637. Born at Westminster, where he was edu. cated; brought up as a bricklayer; went as a soldier to the Netherlands; studied at Oxford and Cambridge, it is said; took to theatrical writing, and contested the headship of the drama with Shakspere. In 1619 succeeded Daniel as poet laureate; sank into poverty; became unpopular, and failing in health, died. He was buried in Westminster Abbey in an upright position, it is said. His chief plays are "Every man in his Humour," 1598; “Sejanus,” 1603; "Volpone," 1605; "The Silent Woman," 1609; "The Alchemist," 1610. Works published 1616. He wrote masques, pastorals, translations, minor poems, and several fine lyrics; he also left behind him some philo. logical works and prose dissertations. 11. NATHANIEL LEE, 1655-1691. Son of a clergyman; was born at Westminster; educated at the school there, and at Trinity College, Cambridge. Became an actor and a dramatist; wrote thirteen plays, of which the best are "Mithridates," "Lucius Junius Brutus," "Theodosius," "The Rival Queens, or Alexander the Great." He assisted Dryden in "The Duke of Guise" and "Edipus." He was for a time an inmate of Bedlam, after his release from which he was supported by charity. He died in London, and was buried in St. Clement's church. 12. ANDREW MARVELL, 1620-1678. Born at Kingston-on-Hull, where his father was schoolmaster; educated at Trinity College, Cambridge; travelled in France, Holland, Italy, and Spain, and learned the languages of these countries. Began his parliamentary career in 1660; visited Holland, and as secretary to Lord Carlisle went to Denmark, Sweden, and Russia. His political career was distinguished, and ultimately led to his being exposed to the enmity of the court. He died suddenly-some say by poison. He was a friend of Milton's. 13. PHILIP MASSINGER, 1584-1640. Born at Salisbury or Wilton; educated with the Earl of Pembroke's children, and sent to Oxford, 1602, which, however, he left in 1606 without a degree; attached himself to the drama, and amidst much poverty laboured along with Fletcher, Decker, Rowley, and Middleton, in the production of plays. Eighteen only have been recovered and printed, although he was the author of thirty-seven. He died suddenly in Southwark, and there, in the church of St. Mary Overies, he was buried as "a stranger," “New Way to Pay Old Debts," "Maid of Honour," "The City Madam." "The Unnatural Combat," "The Bondman," "The Roman Actor," "The Fatal Dowry," &c. Epitome of Critical Opinions. 9. "Ford was of the first order of poets. He sought for sublimity not by parcels in metaphors or visible images, but directly where she has her full residence-in the heart of man; in the actions and sufferings of the greatest minds."-Editor of Murray's Family Library, "Ford's Plays." "Ford, with none of the beauty and elevation of Massinger, has, in a much higher degree, the power over tears. He conducts his story well and without confusion; his scenes are often highly wrought and effective; his characters, with no striking novelty, are well supported; he is seldom extravagant or regardless of probability."- Charles Lamb. "In fulness and fine equability Ford was far below Massinger; but in intensity, in the power of making an audience miserable, and moving them to tears, he was thought to excel him.”—Hallam. "The style of Ford is altogether original and his own. Without the majestic march which distinguishes the poetry of Massinger, and with little or none of that light and playful humour which characterizes the dialogue of Fletcher, or even of Shirley, he is yet elegant, and easy, and harmonious; and, though rarely sublime, yet sufficiently elevated for the most pathetic tones of that passion on whose romantic energies he chiefly delighted to dwell."-David Masson. 10. "Then Jonson came, instructed from the school, To please by method, and invent by rule; For they who durst not censure scarce could praise. But left, like Egypt's kings, a lasting tomb." Dr. Samuel Johnson. "The art of Jonson was not confined to the cold observations of the unities of place and time, but appears in the whole adaptation of his incidents and charactere in support of each other. Beneath his learning and art he moves with an activity which may be compared to the strength of a man who can leap and bound under the heaviest armour."-Thomas Campbell. "He was a poet of a high order, as far as learning, fancy, and an absolute rage of ambition could conspire to make him one; and that he never touched at the highest, except by violent efforts, and during the greatest felicity of his sense of success. The material so predominated in him over the spiritual, the sensual over the sentimental, that he was more social than loving, and far more wilful and fanciful than imaginative."-Leigh Hunt. "Next Jonson sat, in ancient learning trained, The book of man he read with nicest art, And traced each passion to its proper source; The fools, hung out, their brother fools deterred: And laughter frightened folly more than law."-Churchill. 11. "Lee, though some eloquent passages from his tragedies have sur vived, was really nothing more than a poor likeness of Dryden.”—Willinm Spalding. "He is, in spite of his proverbial extravagance, a man of poeti cal mind and some dramatic skill."- Hallam. "In tenderness and genuine passion he excels Dryden; but his style often degenerates into bombast and extravagant frenzy, a defect which was heightened in his late productions by his mental malady." "He wanted discretion to temper his tropical genius, and reduce his poetical conceptions to consistency and order; yet among his wild ardour and martial enthusiasm are very soft and graceful lines."-Chambers's "Cyclopædia of English Literature." 12. "In his prose writings Marvell defended the principles of freedom with great vigour of eloquence and liveliness of humour. He mingled a playful exuberance of fancy and figure, not unlike that of Burke, with a keenness of sarcastic wit not surpassed even by Swift."-C. Cleaveland. "Marvell wrote sometimes with more taste and feeling than was usual, but his satires are gross and stupid."-Hallam. "He is the author of a number of satires in verse, in which a rich vein of vigorous, though often coarse humour runs through a careless extemporaneous style, and which did prodigious execution in the party warfare of the day; but some of his other poetry, mostly perhaps written in the earlier part of his life, is eminent both for the delicate bloom of the sentiment, and for grace of form."-G. L. Craik. 13. " Any comparison of Massinger to Shakspere would be invidious; but though second to that great writer in the vastness and variety of his conceptions, he may certainly take the lead of those who have hitherto been considered his superiors. His invention is as fertile, and his management of his plots as ingenious, as those of Beaumont and Fletcher; while the poetry of his language, the knowledge of human nature, and the fine development of the passions displayed in his tragedics, can only be surpassed by the great master himself. By Ben Jonson he is excelled in the studied exactness and classical polish of his style; but in the freezing coldness of this writer he is deficient. The charm of his plays consists in the versa tility of his imagination and the fine bursts of pathos which embellish his tender scenes."-William Gifford. "The most striking excellence of this poet is his conception of character; and in this I must incline to place him above Fletcher and, if I may venture to say it, even above Jonson. He is free from the hard outline of the one and the negligent looseness of the other. He has, indeed, no great variety, and sometimes repeats, with such bare modifications as the story demands, the type of his first design."Hallam. "Massinger, like Jonson, had received a learned education, and his classical reading has coloured his style and manner; but he had scarcely so much originality of genius as Jonson. He is a very eloquent |