SIR JOHN DAVIES was born at Chifgrove, in the parish of Tilbury, Wiltshire, in 1570. He was the third fon of John Davies, who is faid by Wood to have been a wealthy tanner; but in the books which record his admiffion into the fociety of the Middle Temple, it is faid, that his father was late of New Inn, gentleman."

In 1585, the fifteenth year of his age, he was entered a commoner of Queen's college, Oxford. At the beginning of the year 1588, he removed to the Middle Temple; but he appears to have returned occafionally to Oxford; for in 1590 he took the degree of Bachelor of Arts.

At the Temple he applied himself to the study of the law; but he was more diftinguished by his abilities, than by the regularity of his manners. He interrupted, it is faid, the quiet of the Inn, by misdemeanors, for which he was fined, and by disorders, for which he was removed from Commons. In 1595, he was called to the Bar; but in 1598, he was expelled the fociety of the Middle Temple, for quarrelling with the facetious Richard Martin, afterwards Recorder of London, and beating him, while they were at dinner in the common-hall.

His misconduct appears to have retarded his progrefs at the Bar; but he feems never to have been inattentive to literature. Befides the study of the law, he particularly applied himself to poefry, and wrote twenty-fix Acrostics, under the title of Hymns of Aftrea, in honour of Queen Eliza beth. In 1599, he published, in 4to, his Nofce Teipfum, a Poem on the Immortality of the Soul, which completely established his poetical reputation.

In 1601, by the favour of Lord Ellesmere, Keeper of the Great Seal, he was restored to his chamber in the Temple, and practifed the law as a barrister. The fame year he was chofen a Member of the House of Commons for Corfe-Castle, in Dorsetshire. He appears to have been an active and useful Member of Parliament, and a supporter of the privileges of the Houfe, particu larly in the great debate about monopolies.

On the death of Queen Elizabeth, he accompanied Lord Hunfdon into Scotland, to congratulate King James on his acceffion to the Throne of England. Being introduced to his Majesty by Hunf don, the King immediately inquired if he was Nofte Teipfum; and being informed he was, most graciously embraced him, and assured him of his favour.

In 1603, he was fent Solicitor General to Ireland; and his appointment to the office of AttorneyTM General took place foon after. During his refidence in Ireland, he was very active in the measures adopted for the colonization of Ulster, and the civilization of the kingdom. Befides his official fervices, which were highly applauded, he published several valuable tracts on the state of the people and of the country; which, in 1780, were reprinted, in one volume 8vo, under the title of "Hif torical Tracts."

In 1606, he was promoted to the degree of Serjeant at Law; and the year following, he received the honour of knighthood. In 1612, he was made King's Serjeant; and the fame year he was chofen Speaker of the first House of Commons of Ireland, formed by a general representation.~~

In 1615, he published his Reports, with a preface to Lord Ellesmere, which is juftly esteemed the best that ever was prefixed to a law book. Soon after the publication of this work, he appears to have quitted Ireland, in consequence of a change in its administration.

After his return to England, he was appointed to act as one of the Juftices of Affize, in several circuits. He was alfo elected a Member of the House of Commons for Newcastle under Line, in the Parliament which met at the beginning of the year 1621. He feems not often to have spoken in Parliament at this period; except on the affairs of Ireland.

In 1626, he was appointed Lord Chief Justice of England, in the room of Sir Randolph Crew; but before he could be fworn in, he was carried off by an apoplexy, in the night of the 7th of December, at his house in the Strand, in the 57th year of his age.

He married Lady Eleanor Touchet, youngest daughter of George Lord Audley, Earl of Caftlehaven, by whom he had one fon, who was an idiot, and died young, and a daughter, named Lucy, who was married to Ferdinando Lord Haftings, afterwards Earl of Huntingdon. His lady was a very fingular character, and dealt much in prophecies, which brought on her very rigorous treatment, after his death, from the High Commiffion Court. An account of her prophecies was published in 1649. She died in 1652.

From a low extraction, Davies made his way to eminence by his abilities. Camden, Bacon, Harrington, Selden, Jonfon, Hofkins, Donne, and Corbet, are unquestionable authorities in his fa vour; but he seems not hitherto to have obtained a reputation adequate to his merit,,

His "Historical Tracts," which are written with great accuracy and perfpicuity, have, indeed, been reprinted; but his poetical pieces, which have confiderable excellence, are now, for the first time, received into an arrangement of claffical English poetry.

The fecond edition of his Poem on the Immortality of the Soul was printed in 4to, 1602, with the following title, "Nofte Teipfum: This oracle expounded in two elegies; I. Of Human Knowledge; II. Of the Soul of Man, and the Immortality thereof." A third edition was printed, in folio, 1688; and a fourth, in 8vo, 1697, by Tate, with an admirable preface, furnished by a clergyman, whose name he was not permitted to give the public.

An edition of his "Poetical Works," confifting of the "Poem on the Immortality of the Soul; Hymns to Aftrea; and Orchestra, a Poem on Dancing," was printed, in 8vo, 1773, by T. Davies, a bookfeller, who has laudably employed himself in reviving the nobleft, monuments of the dead. The Preface to Tate's edition has been reprinted by Mr. Davies; and as it exhibits a just and advantageous character of the Nofce Teipfum, it is alfo preferved in the prefent edition.

The Nefce Teipfum is the earliest philofophical poem this country has produced, and the best poem of the age of Elizabeth, except the Faery Queen: The language is pure, demonstrative, and neat ; and the verfification exquifitely polished, and harmonious.

The Hymns to Afrea contain much poetry and much flattery, and are greatly fuperior to the acrostic verses of other writers, who are justly ridiculed and condemned by Dryden, in his Mac-. Fleckno, and by Addison, in his Effay on Wit.

The Orchestra contains a very ingenious explanation of the antiquity and excellency of Dancing, in a dialogue between Penelope and one of her wooers, It is much to be regretted, that it should be left unfinished; or what is more likely, that the imperfect part should be loft; for in all proba-. bility he completed it, being written in his youth, as appears from the conclufion. Harrington has an epigram in commendation of it, at the end of his tranflation of Ariosto.

He is faid to have written fome epigrams, printed at Middleburg, about 1598, and a metaphrafe of feveral of King David's Pfalms, which was never published.

The infcription, on a monument erected near his grave in the church of St. Martin in the Fields, gives him the following character:

"He was a man of fine abilities and uncommon eloquence, and a most excellent writer both in profe and verfe. He tempered the feverity of the lawyer with the politeness and learning of the gentleman: he was a faithful advocate, an impartial judge, and equally remarkable for a love of fincere piety, and a contempt of anxious superstition.”

THE PREFACE

то

SIR JOHN DAVIES'S POEM

ON THE

IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL.

PUBLISHED IN 1699.

THE

HERE is a natural love and fondness in English men for whatever was done in the reign of Queen Elizabeth; we look upon her time as our golden age, and the great men who lived in it, as our chiefeft heroes of virtue, and greateft examples of wifdom, courage, integrity, and learning.

fignificant words; his thymes nover mislead the fenfe, but are led and governed by it; fo that in reading fuch useful performances, the wit of mankind may be refined from its drofs, their me-mories furnished with the best notions, their judgments ftrengthened, and their conceptions enlarged; by which means the mind will be raised to the most perfect ideas it is capable of in this degenerate ftate.

But as others have laboured to carry out our thoughts, and to entertain them with all manner of delights abroad, it is the peculiar character of this author, that he has taught us (with Antoni nus) to meditate upon ourselves; that he has difclofed to us greater secrets at home, self-reflection being the only way to valuable and true knowledge, which confifts in that rare fcience of a man's felf, which the moral philofopher lofes in a crowd of definitions, divifions, and diftinctions; the hiftorian cannot find it amongst all his musty

Among many others, the author of this Poem merits a lafting honour; for, as he was a moft eloquent lawyer, fo, in the compofition of this piece, we admire him for a good poet, and exact philofopher. It is not rhyming that makes a poet, but the true and impartial reprefenting of virtue and vice, so as to instruct mankind in matters of greatest importance. And this obfervation has been made of our countrymen, That Sir John Suckling wrote in the most courtly and gentlemanlike ftyle; Waller in the moft fweet and flowing numbers; Denham with the most accurate judgment and correctnefs; Cowley with plea£ng foftnefs, and plenty of imagination: none ever uttered more divine thought than Mr. Her-records, being far better acquainted with the tranfbert; none more philofophically than Sir John actions of a thousand years paft, than with the Davies. His thoughts are moulded into eafy and prefent age, or with himself: the writer of fables U u j

and bewail the low condition of poetry now, when in our plays fcarce any one rule of decorum is obferved, but in the space of two hours and an half we pass through all the fits of Bedlam; in one fcene we are all in mirth, in the next we are funk into fadnefs; whilft even the most laboured parts are commonly starved for want of thought; a confufed heap of words, and empty found of rhyme.

and romances wander from it, in following the at, either that he in his dark time fhould fee fo delufions of a wild fancy, chimeras and fic- diftinctly, or that we in this clear age fhould go tions that do not only exceed the works, but alfofo ftumblingly after him; fo may we marvel at the poflibility of nature. Whereas the refemblance of truth is the utmost limits of poetical liberty, which our author has very religiously obferved; for he has not only placed and connected together the moft amiable images of all thofe powers that are in our fouls, but he has furnished and fquared his matter like a true philofopher; that is, he has made the body and foul, colour and fhadow of his Poem, out of the store-house of his own mind, which gives the whole work a real and natural beauty; when that which is borrowed out of books, (the boxes of counterfeit complexion) fhews well or ill as it has more or lefs likeness to the natural. But our author is beholding to none but himself; and by knowing himself thoroughly, he has arrived to know much; which appears in his admirable variety of well chofen metaphors and fimilitudes, that cannot be found within the compass of a narrow knowledge. For this reafon, the Poem, on account of its intrinfic worth, would be as lafting as the Iliad or the neid, if the language it is wrote in were as immutable as that of the Greeks and Romans.

This very confideration fhould advance the efteem of the following poem, wherein are repre fented the various movements of the mind; at which we are as much tranfported as with the most excellent fcenes of paffion in Shakspeare, or Fletcher: for in this, as in a mirror (that will not flatter) we fee how the foul arbitrates in the understanding upon the various reports of sense, and all the changes of imagination: how compliant the will is to her dictates, and obeys her as a queen does her king. At the fame time acknowledging a fubjection, and yet retaining a majesty. How the paffions move at her command, like a well difciplined army; from which regular compofure of the faculties, all operating in their proper time and place, there arifes a complacency upon the whole foul, that infinitely tranfcends all other pleafures.

Now it would be of great benefit to the beaus of our age, to carry this glafs in their pocket, whereby they might learn to think, rather than drefs well. It would be of ufe alfo to the wits and virtuofos to carry this antidote about them, What deep philofophy is this! to discover the against the poison they have fucked in from Lu- procefs of God's art in fashioning the foul of man cretius or Hobbs. This would acquaint them after his own image; by remarking how one part with fome principles of religion; fer, in old times, moves another, and how thofe motions are varied the poets were their divines, and exercifed a kind by feveral pofitions of each part, from the first of fpiritual authority amongst the people. Verfe | fprings and plummets, to the very hand that points in thofe days was the facred ftyle, the ftyle of out the vifible and laft effects. What eloquence oracles and laws. The vows and thanks of the and force of wit, to convey these profound fpecupeople were recommended to their gods in fongslations in the eafieft language, expreffed in words and hymns. Why may they not retain this pri- fo vulgarly received, that they are understood by vilege? for if profe fhould contend with verfe, it the meaneft capacities. would be upon unequal terms, and (as it were) on foot against the wings of Pegafus. With what delight are we touched in hearing the ftories of Hercules, Achilles, Cyrus, and Eneas? Because in their characters we have wifdom, honour, fortitude, and juftice fet before our eyes. It was Plato's opinion, that if a man could fee virtue, he would be ftrangely enamoured on her perfon. Which is the reafon why Horace and Virgil have continued fo long in reputation, because they have drawn her in all the charms of poetry. No man is fo fenfelefs of rational imprefiions, as not to be wonderfully affected with the paftorals of the ancients, when under the ftories of wolves and fheep, they defcribe the mifery of people under hard mafters, and their happiness under good. So the bitter but wholefome lambick was wont to make villainy blush; the Satire incited men to laugh at folly; the Comedian chastised the common errors of life; and the Tragedian made kings afraid to be tyrants, and tyrants to be their own tor

mentors.

Wherefore, as Sir Philip Sidney aid of Chancer, that he knew Lot which he should meft wente

For the poet takes care in every line to fatisfy the understanding of mankind: he follows ftep by ftep the workings of the mind from the first ftrokes of fenfe, then of fancy, afterwards of judg ment, into the principles both of natural and fupernatural motives: hereby the fonl is made intelligible, which comprehends all things besides; the boundlefs tracks of fea and land, and the vaster fpaces of heaven; that vital principle of action, which has always been bufied in inquiries abroad, is now made known to itfelf; infomuch that we may find out what we ourselves are, from whencé we came, and whither we must go; we may perceive what noble guests those are, which we lodge in our bofoms, which are nearer to us than all other things, and yet nothing farther from our acquaintance.

But here all the labyrinths and windings of the human frame are laid open: 'tis seen by what pullies and wheels the work is carried on, as plainly as if a window were opened into our breaft: for it is the work of God alone to create a mind-The next to this is to fhew how its operations are performed.