Bar, London; and his text was a part of the prophet Jeremiah's Lamentation: "Lo, I am the man that have seen affliction.' And, indeed, his very words and looks testified him to be truly * Lamentations, iii., 1. A poetical version of the Lamentations of Jeremiah, supposed to have been composed by Dr. Donne in his distress, is included in his poems. This sermon has been the subject of various criticism. One Editor observes, that "on resuming his clerical duties, Donne selected a situation and a subject expressive of the spirit of the time and the man, but somewhat at variance with the privacy of modern mourning." (Works, by Alford, 1839, v. i., p. xv,); while another finds in it "nothing of that excess of grief which it might be expected to contain."-(Walton's Lives, 1825, p. 458.) Donne did not deliver a funeral oration over his own loss; nor did he seek the sympathy of the world for a consolation it could not supply to him. The rational supposition appears to be, that whatever personal feelings may have influenced the selection of the text at the particular time, and however much those feelings may have influenced its forcible treatment, or tinged with melancholy the delivery of the discourse (for such is the extent of Walton's statement), Dr. Donne, in expounding his text, had too much good sense to parade his individual circumstances and sorrows from the pulpit; and if there appear any distinguishable difference between the office of consolation and the self-sufferance of affliction, it admits of the explanation, that the philosophy of Zeno may be recommended; but that christian resignation alone is compatible with human nature. Dr. Donne, with much force, laid down the duties of the latter in a letter to Mrs. Cokain, on the loss of her son. "But above all," he writes, "comfort yourself in this,-that it is the declared will of God. In sicknesses and other worldlie crosses, there are anxieties and perplexities; we wish one thing to-day, in the behalf of a distressed child or friend, and another to-morrow; because God hath not yet declared his will. But when he hath done that, in death there is no room for anie anxietie, for anie perplexitie, no, not for a wish; for we may not so much as pray for the dead. You know, David made his child's sicknesse his Lent, but his death his Easter: he fasted till his child's death, and then he returned to his repast, because then he had a declaration of God's will. I am farre from quenching in you or discharging natural affection. But in so numerous a family as your's is, every year must necessarily present you some such occasion of sorrow, in the losse of some near friend. And therefore I, in the office of a friend, and a brother, and Priest of God, do not only look that you should take this patientlie, as a declaration of God's present will; but that you take it catechistically, as an instruction for the future; and that God in this tells you that he will do so again, in some other your friends. For to take anie one crosse patiently, is but to forgive God for once; but to surrender one's self entirely to God, is to be ready for all that he shall be pleased to do. And that his pleasure may be either to lessen your crosses or to multiply your strength, shall be the prayer of your brother, and friend, and servant, and chaplain."-Sir Tobie Mathews' Coll., p. 347. such a man; and they, with the addition of his sighs and tears expressed in his sermon, did so work upon the affections of his hearers, as melted and moulded them into a companionable sadness; and so they left the congregation; but then their houses presented them with objects of diversion, and his presented him with nothing but fresh objects of sorrow, in beholding many helpless children, a narrow fortune, and a consideration of the many cares and casualties that attend their education. In this time of sadness he was importuned by the grave benchers of Lincoln's-Inn, (who were once the companions and friends of his youth,) to accept of their Lecture, which, by reason of Dr. Gataker's* removal from thence, was then void; of which he accepted, being most glad to renew his intermitted friendship * Thomas Gataker, a learned Divine, was born in London, in 1574, and was educated at St. John's College, Cambridge. He was a moderate member of the Parliamentary party, protesting against the violence of others, and especially against the trial of the king. He was one of the Assembly of Divines in 1642, and died in 1654, at the age of eighty. He was author of some excellent annotations on the Scriptures; a celebrated Treatise on the Nature and Use of Lots; and a Tract against William Lilly, the Astrologer. Justly celebrated for his critical knowledge of the Greek and Hebrew languages, his house had the appearance of a College, so many young men, both English and foreign, attending his Lectures. His life, written by himself, is prefixed to a volume of Miscellanea, published after his death, by his son. Dr. Zouch discovered an error in Walton's statement, that Donne was the immediate successor of Dr. Gataker, as Divinity Reader at Lincoln's Inn. The latter, it appears, quitted the Society for the Rectory of Rotherhithe, in 1611, and was succeeded by Dr. Holloway.-Coxe's Digest. + Dr. Donne was elected preacher at Lincoln's Inn, the 24th October, 1616. In the following year, (as he has himself recorded) he laid the first stone of their new chapel, the present edifice; and on its being opened for divine service, on the feast of the Ascension, 1623, (when dean of St. Paul's) preached the consecration sermon,-taking his text from John, c. x., 22, "And it was at Jerusalem the Feast of the Dedication- and it was in winter: and Jesus walked in the Temple in Solomon's Porch." In conclusion, the preacher thus practically addressed his numerous auditory : ""Tis time to end. Saint Basill himselfe, as acceptable as hee was to his auditory, in his second sermon upon the 14th Psalm, takes knowledge that hee had preached an houre, and therefore broke off: I see it is a compasse, that all ages have thought sufficient. But as we have contracted the consideration of great temples to this lesser chappell, so let us contract the chappell to our selves: Et facta sint Encania nostra, let this be the feast of the Dedication of our selves to God. with those whom he so much loved, and where he had been a Saul, though not to persecute Christianity, or to deride it, yet Christ calls himselfe a Temple, Solvite templum hoc: Destroy this Temple. And Saint Paul calls us so twice; know ye not that ye are the Temples of the Holy Ghost? Facta sint Encania nostra: Encania signifies renovationem, a renewing: and Saint Augustine sayes that in his time, Si quis nova tunica indueretur, Enconiare diceretur. If any man put on a new garment, hee called it by that name, Encania sua. Much more is it so, if wee renew in our selves the Image of God, and put off the olde man, and put on the Lord Jesus Christ. This is truly Enconiare, to dedicate, to renew our selves: and so Nazian, in a sermon or oration upon the like occasion as this, calls conversionem nostram, Encania, our turning to God, in a true repentance, or reviewing our dedication. Let me charge your memories but with this note more, That when God forbad David the building of a house, because he was a man of blood, at that time David had not embrued his hands in Uriah's blood, nor shed any blood, but lawfully in just warres: yet even that made him incapable of this favour to provide God a House. Some callings are in their nature more obnoxious, and more exposed to sinne, then others are: accompanied with more tentations, and so retard us more in holy duties. And therefore, as there are particular sinnes that attend certain places, certaine ages, certain complexions, and certain vocations, let us watch our selves in all those, and remember that not only the highest degree of those sinnes, but anything that conduces thereunto, prophanes the consecration and dedication of this temple, our selves, to the service of God; it annihilates any repentance, and frustrates our former reconciliations to him. Almighty God worke in you a perfect dedication of your selves at this time; that so, receiving it from hands dedicated to God, he whose holy office this is, may present acceptably this House to God in your behalves, and establish an assurance to you, that God will be alwayes present with you and your succession in this place. Amen." The sermon was afterwards published, by request, under the title of "Encania. The Feast of Dedication, celebrated at Lincolne's Inne, in a Sermon there upon Ascension Day, 1623, at the dedication of a new Chappell;" with a Dedication to the "Masters of the Bench and the rest of the Honorable Society." At its delivery, such had become the popularity of Dr. Donne as a preacher, that Mr. Chamberlain, in a letter to Sir Dudley Carleton, relates: "there were great concourse of noblemen and gentlemen, whereof two or three were endangered and taken up for dead for the time, with the extreme press and thronging."-Birch's MSS. Having been divinity lecturer to the Society above five years, Dr. Donne resigned the appointment on his presentation to the deanery of St. Paul's: and on taking leave of his early friends and fellow students, some of them, (and Christopher Brooke of the number) Benchers of the Society; presented to them, in enduring testimony of his affection, a fine copy of the latin version of the Holy Scriptures, printed at Douay, in 1617, in six volumes folio, with the Gloss of Walafrid Strabo, and the Commentary of Nicholas de Lyra. This work, carefully preserved in the new and elegant Library of the Society, is inscribed by the donor on the fly leaf of the first volume, with the following interesting record of the occasion, his connexion with the Society, and of his tran in his irregular youth to neglect the visible practise of it,-there to become a Paul, and preach salvation to his beloved brethren. And now his life was as a shining light among his old friends; now he gave an ocular testimony of the strictness and regularity of it; now he might say, as St. Paul adviseth his Corinthians, "Be ye followers of me, as I follow Christ, and walk as ye have me for an example;" not the example of a busy-body, but of a contemplative, a harmless, a humble, and a holy life and conversation. The love of that noble Society was expressed to him many ways; for, besides fair lodgings that were set apart and newly furnished for him with all necessaries, other courtesies were also daily added; indeed so many, and so freely, as if they meant sitory studies and pursuits, until summoned by the divine will, and by his sovereign's persuasion, to the sacred calling of the ministry : In Bibliotheca Hospitii Lincoln: London: Juris Municipalis Professorum Collegii, Hæc sex in universas Scripturas volumina, a Sacris JOHANNES DONNE, Qui huc, in prima juventute, ad perdiscendas leges, missus Munere suo frequenter et strenue hoc loco concionandi Novi Sacelli primis saxis sua manu positis Ad Decanatum Ecclesiæ Cathedr: S. Pauli, London: Ao Lo Etat. suæ, et sui JESU CID. ID. CXXI. In the third window, on the north side of the chapel, may be observed the armorial bearings of his friend, Christopher Brooke, one of the Benchers entrusted with the superintendence of the erection; and in the first, on the south side, modestly inscribed on the base of a pedestal, the words "Jo. Donne, Dec. Paul. F.F.," are understood to record his donation of the stained glass window. * A letter in the printed collection, written subsequently to his appointment to the Lectureship, and previously to his removal to the lodgings assigned him by the Society, is erroneously referred to a much earlier period. It is stated to have been dated from " Drewery House, 22nd Dec., 1607" (a misprint probably for 1616); and is represented to have been addressed to Sir Thomas Lucy,--a mistake apparently for H. Goodyere: for Donne writes: "My service at Lincoln's Inn their gratitude should exceed his merits and in this love-strife of desert and liberality, they continued for the space of two years, he preaching faithfully and constantly to them, and they liberally requiting him. About which time the Emperor of Germany died, and the Palsgrave, who had lately married the Lady Elizabeth, the king's only daughter, was elected and crowned king of Bohemia ;* the unhappy beginning of many miseries in that nation. being ended for next Term, I may have intermission enough to waite upon you at Polesworth."-Letters, p. 208. Another letter describes his course of life a few years later, though it is dated in the printed collection, "August 30th, 1611,”– --a misprint apparently for 1620. Addressing Sir H. Goodyere, Donne writes: "That place [Croydon, the residence of the archbishop--Abbot], and Bedington [the seat of his brother-inlaw, Sir Nicholas Throckmorton Carew], and Chelsey [the residence of Sir John Danvers, and his wife, the Lady Magdalen Herbert], and Highgate, where that very good man my lord Hobard [Sir Henry Hobart, lord Chief Justice C. P., 1613-26] is; and Hackney, with the Master of the Rolls [Sir Julius Cæsar]; and my familiar Peckham [the residence of his brother-in-law, Sir Thomas Grymes], are my circumference. No place so eccentrique to me as that I lye just at London; and with those fragmentary recreations I must make shift to recompense the missing of that contentment which your favour opens to me, and my desire provokes me to, the kissing of your hands at Polesworth. My daughter Constance, is at this time with me; for the emptinesse of the town hath made me, who otherwise live upon the almes of others, a houskeeper for a moneth; and so she is my servant below stairs, and my companion above; she was at the table with me when your letter was brought, and I pay her a piece of her petition in doing her this office, to present her service to my lady Nethersoles, and her very good sister. But that she is gone to bed two hours before I writ this, she should have signed with such a hand as your daughter Mary, did to me, that which I testifie for her, that she is as affectionate a servant to them all as their goodnesse hath created any where."--Letters, p. 158. [Lucie, eldest daughter of Sir Henry Goodyere, was married to Sir Francis Nethersole, early in the year 1620.] A few years later, when dean of St. Paul's, he subscribes a letter to Sir Henry Wotton, Provost of Eton, with classic reference to the retired leisure of Cicero : "From Sr John Davor's house, at Chelsey (of w'ch house, and my lord Carlil's, at Hanworth, I make up my Tusculum) 12 Jalii, 1625."--Loseley MS. This unfortunate princess, who only saw a phantom of royalty, and had nothing more than the empty honor of a throne, yet enjoyed an universal empire of affection in the title of The Queen of Hearts! She was born in Scotland, in 1596, and at the age of sixteen, on St. Valentine's day, 1612, was married at Whitehall, to Frederick, Count Palatine of the Rhine. On this occasion, Donne wrote an Epithalamium, or marriage song, of which the following is the commencement, and affords a pleasing specimen of his lighter verse: G |