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bowers—a stream of history ebbing forth as a silver fount , and then widening into a broad and majestic river ? Wherever we tread , the ground seems sacred from its associations—whether we roam where blazed the fires of Smithfield , or pass through Aldersgate-street ,
Holborn , Barbican , Petty France , Stc Bride ' s Churchyard , Bartholomew-close , Jewin-street , or Bunhill-fields , where Milton , who was for ever changing his abode , resided ; roaming from Old Broad-street , where the poet was born , to the upper end of the chancel of St . Giles , Cripplegate , where he found , in a tomb beside his father , a last resting-place : —
" I well content , where Thames with refluent tide My native city laves , meantime reside ; Nor zeal nor duty now my steps impel -To reedy Cam , and my forbidden cell . If peaceful days in lettered leisure spent Beneath my father ' s roof be banishment ,-Then call me banished ; I will ne ' er refuse A name expressive of the lot I choose ; For here I woo the muse , with no control ; For here my books , my life , absorb me whole . "
Thus is expressed his contentment who struggled for political liberty , and laboured earnestly for time , while he wrote also for eternity . Hard task that for a man who could not fail in accomplishing what thousands of other great men could not do , to raise to his memory a monument of world-wide fame . Words fail us , and it would be madness to attempt to portray the Blind Bard standing with Shakespeare alone , a mighty one , " whose soul , " the poet ( and we all come at last to the poet for a happy thought ) tells us ,
" Was like a star , and dwelt apart ; Who bad a voice whose sound was like the sea . " But there are haunts in London to which the antiquary especially turns , to trace the rise and progress of literature—offices in which authors of old lived and wrote , intercommunicating and interchanging thoughts gay and sober , —we mean the Coffee-houses . Here
resided many genial spirits , men thoughtful and courteous , and some the very opposite ; cynical dogs termed " almighty critiques , ' who ( as many modern reviewers ) found fault with everything above their comprehension , only admiring words on a standard with their own meagre compositions . Dry den ( King of WilVs ) did not stand much in awe of these coffee-house wits , as may be seen in his " Epilogue
by a Mercury , " in the Indian Jumper our , an edition of which is now lying before us , printed in 1696 : —
" To all and singular in this full meeting , Ladies and gallants , Phoebus sends you greeting , To all his sons , by whate ' er title known , "Whether of court , of coffee-house , or town ; From his mighty sons , whose confidence Is plac'd in lofty sound and humble sense , Ev ' n to his little infants of the time , Who write new songs , and trust in time and rhinie
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Untitled Article
bowers—a stream of history ebbing forth as a silver fount , and then widening into a broad and majestic river ? Wherever we tread , the ground seems sacred from its associations—whether we roam where blazed the fires of Smithfield , or pass through Aldersgate-street ,
Holborn , Barbican , Petty France , Stc Bride ' s Churchyard , Bartholomew-close , Jewin-street , or Bunhill-fields , where Milton , who was for ever changing his abode , resided ; roaming from Old Broad-street , where the poet was born , to the upper end of the chancel of St . Giles , Cripplegate , where he found , in a tomb beside his father , a last resting-place : —
" I well content , where Thames with refluent tide My native city laves , meantime reside ; Nor zeal nor duty now my steps impel -To reedy Cam , and my forbidden cell . If peaceful days in lettered leisure spent Beneath my father ' s roof be banishment ,-Then call me banished ; I will ne ' er refuse A name expressive of the lot I choose ; For here I woo the muse , with no control ; For here my books , my life , absorb me whole . "
Thus is expressed his contentment who struggled for political liberty , and laboured earnestly for time , while he wrote also for eternity . Hard task that for a man who could not fail in accomplishing what thousands of other great men could not do , to raise to his memory a monument of world-wide fame . Words fail us , and it would be madness to attempt to portray the Blind Bard standing with Shakespeare alone , a mighty one , " whose soul , " the poet ( and we all come at last to the poet for a happy thought ) tells us ,
" Was like a star , and dwelt apart ; Who bad a voice whose sound was like the sea . " But there are haunts in London to which the antiquary especially turns , to trace the rise and progress of literature—offices in which authors of old lived and wrote , intercommunicating and interchanging thoughts gay and sober , —we mean the Coffee-houses . Here
resided many genial spirits , men thoughtful and courteous , and some the very opposite ; cynical dogs termed " almighty critiques , ' who ( as many modern reviewers ) found fault with everything above their comprehension , only admiring words on a standard with their own meagre compositions . Dry den ( King of WilVs ) did not stand much in awe of these coffee-house wits , as may be seen in his " Epilogue
by a Mercury , " in the Indian Jumper our , an edition of which is now lying before us , printed in 1696 : —
" To all and singular in this full meeting , Ladies and gallants , Phoebus sends you greeting , To all his sons , by whate ' er title known , "Whether of court , of coffee-house , or town ; From his mighty sons , whose confidence Is plac'd in lofty sound and humble sense , Ev ' n to his little infants of the time , Who write new songs , and trust in time and rhinie