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THOMAS STANLEY.

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tion. He was a politician, a wit, and a poet. He stood guard over the people's rights, with a firm hand, unseduced, and unterrified. He lashed vice and folly with the whip of satire; and pleased himself, and did honour to his friends, by recording his attachments in much delightful verse. His verses, indeed, flourish equally in the green places of England and the dykes of Holland; among friends and enemies. He was the author of a certain phrase, (he is speaking of a lady having been tutored,

"Under the destiny severe

Of Fairfax, and the starry Vere,")

which we might almost suppose was the origin of that famous line of Lord Byron's,

"The starry Galileo and his woes"

the same effort of the imagination being observable in both. Marvell's lines are sometimes cramped, and he is, like many others, too fond of conceits; but he has many graceful, many piquant, and some very touching things in his poetry. The reader will recognise, in his open look and waving hair, it is to be hoped, something as well of the patriot as the poet.

No. 59. THOMAS STANLEY.

From a Picture by Sir Peter Lely, in the possession of George Stanley, Esq. STANLEY has the look of an elegant intelligent man, and he was so. He wrote some verses; but he is best known by his "History of Philosophy"-a work, as far as it goes, of much research. It does not come down late enough for a modern, but it gives a copious account of the ancient philosophy, and has some pleasant translations (from Aristophanes and others, if we remember aright,) intermingled, and relieving the otherwise weighty character of the subject.

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No. 60. THOMAS HOBBES.

From a Picture by himself, in the Collection of the Dutchess of Dorset. HOBBES was an extraordinary man-not as a poet, but as a philosopher. We give up (as we have repeatedly given up in despair) his Iliad and his Odyssey; but we cannot consent to yield up his pretensions as a strong and original thinker. Milton was secretary to Cromwell, and Hobbes to Lord Bacon-What a pair of masters and servants! The former (the republican twain) fought their way through the world in arms, overturning despotism, and planting independence on the soil of a free land; the others broke down the strong hold of folly, and dissipated the cloudy superstitions of science, letting in the illuminations of their great intellects upon the world, for the benefit of the times to come.-The portrait of Hobbes has a knit brow and steadfast piercing eye, like that which should belong to an inquirer; and his white hair and plain garments are in unison with the unaffected wisdom ascribed to the "philosopher of Malmesbury." Hobbes was more of a metaphysician, as his master (Bacon) was more of a scientific man; but they were both eminent philosophers. The one has deservedly obtained fame; and the other has earned it.

No. 61. LORD ROCHESTER.

From a Picture by Sir Peter Lely, in the Collection of Sir James Bland Burgess, Bart.

THIS notorious personage wears the aspect of a petit maître. He is painted in a wig and armour, but he becomes only the first. It is a little singular, perhaps, that ROCHESTER has neither the look of a libertine nor a victor, though he was both. He was, indeed, a witty and spirited adventurer in the world of intrigue. He overturned (besides the virtue of we know not how many ladies

SAMUEL BUTLER.

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of the virtuous court of King Charles the Second) that celebrated maxim of" Ex nihilo nihil fit"-for he wrote a poem upon "Nothing," and made something considerable out of his subject. This is allowed him by the severest of his critics. There are some pretty facts touching my Lord of Rochester, recounted in the famous memoirs of the Chevalier Philibert de Grammont, writ by the witty Count Antoine Hamilton, and various anecdotes scattered among cotemporary publications; but as we do not desire here to unveil the mysteries of a gallant's life, we forbear to do more than glance at them. Rochester was but little of a poet, notwithstanding his poem upon "Nothing."

No. 62. SAMUEL BUTLER.

From a Picture by Sir Peter Lely, in the Collection of Lord Kinnoul.

WHAT a shrewd, bold, jolly-looking portrait is this of BUTLER. He seems built up on a foundation as big as Babel or St. Paul's, and to rise till his head is hid in the vast cloud of hair with which the preposterous fashion of the times has crowned it. This is the parent of the "colonelling knight," reader; the celebrated historian of Hudibras. Does not his face bear fine testimony to the character of his wit? It is full, free, merry, shrewd, and reminds one of the portraits of Fielding; which, however, seem scarcely to contain such a body of humour, as lies half-hid in the more portly countenance of Butler. There is almost a meagreness in the face of the author of Tom Jones; but there is nothing of the sort in his works, which are still unequalled.

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ISAAC WALTON.

No. 63. ISAAC WALTON.

From an original Picture in the possession of Dr. Hawes.

THIS is the gentle countenance of ISAAC WALTON, the angler, the biographer, the poet; for he was all, in a degree; though his principal character was that of "Piscator," in which he figures so advantageously in his own dialogues. There is a bland and venerable expression in his look, a fresh old age upon him, like that which of right belongs to the frequenter of brooks and meadows, and to those who live in the early sunshine. "Old Isaac Walton"-who haunted the river Lea, as constantly as the May-fly, and spent his rich evenings over trout and mild ale at Tottenham Cross, has recorded his sports, and laid down his precepts, in as pleasant a book of dialogue as ever was written. He is truly a pastoral writer, (and, look at his pastoral air!) although he passed the greater part of his life in Fleet-street, and contented himself, for the most part, when he went abroad, with rambling within the circuit of about half-a-dozen miles from his home. Had he lived in these excellent times, our modern wits would have called him a cockney; and, we apprehend, he would have been tolerably indifferent about it, and would have set off, with his basket and rod, for the meadows of Essex, to listen to the milkmaid, or to throw his fly upon the trembling waters of his favorite Lea, as content and as happy as though he had never encountered so alarming a reproach. Walton was the biographer of Bishop Hooker, of Donne, and others, and seems to have lived through a long life in amity with the learned, the witty, and the good. His book has been much celebrated; and, indeed, we wander through its pages with the same feeling that we should tread upon the dewy grass, or listen to the music of the running river :we go home with him to his evening inn, with a dream of en

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LORD ROSCOMMON.

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joyment in our brain, that is not to be disturbed by the tumult of the smoky world around us, nor diminished by the consciousness that we ourselves are cast out of the pale of pastoral enjoyments for ever.

No. 64. JOHN OLDHAM.

From an original Picture in the Collection at Strawberry-hill. THE reader has probably heard of the "remains" of Mr. TнOMAS OLDHAM. This is the likeness of the author. It is a fine and simple portrait. The plain dress, natural hair, and unaffected look, are altogether becoming. They are even more: they are striking merely from their simplicity; for there is not a great deal of thought in the aspect, and but little, it must be confessed, of the poet's madness in the eye. We look on the portrait as we would upon a green field, where there is little to stimulate the feeling and nothing to distract the attention, though all is graceful and full of delightful repose.

No. 65. LORD ROSCOMMON.

From a Picture by Carlo Maratti, in the Collection of Lord Spencer.

IT required all our faith in the painter to believe that this epicene looking person was a man: but he was, and, moreover, the first eulogizer of Milton. He was the author of the Essay (in rhyme) on Translated Verse, in which he has once or twice thrown out some epigrammatic periods that might have passed for those of Pope. Generally speaking, however, Lord RoscoMMON is decidedly inferior to that celebrated writer. His portrait is affected. The regular parting of the hair, the cloak fastened by a brooch, so as to look picturesque, the compressed mouth, and important glance,

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