Those sadder shades vaile my light-loathing eie: How have ye all conspir'd our hopelesse spight, I loath the laurel-bandes I loved best, And wrapt us up in Griefe's eternall night. Base Nature yeeldes, imperious Death commandes, Now ginne your triumphes, Death and Destinies, And trample high, and hellish fome out st: Shake he the Earth, and teare the hollow skies, That all may feele and feare your victories. And after your triumphant chariot, Drag the pale corpes that thus you did to die, To show what goodly conquests ye have got. To fright the world, and fill the woondring eie : Millions of lives, of deathes no conquest were, Compared with one onely Whitakere. But thou, O soule, shalt laugh at their despite, Which the great God for thy safe conduct sent, He through the circling spheres taketh his flight, And cuts the solid skie with spirituall might. Open, ye golden gates of Paradise, Open ye wide unto a welcome ghost: Enter, O soule, into thy boure of blisse, Through all the throng of Heaven's hoast: Which shall with triumph gard thee as thou go'st With psalmes of conquest and with crownes of cost. Seldome had ever soule such entertaines, [crowne. | Meanwhile, the memorie of his mightie name There now he lives, and sees his Saviour's face, Shall live as long as aged Earth shal last: Enrolled on berill walles of fame, Ay ming'd, ay mourn'd: and wished oft in wast. Is this to die, to live for evermore. A double life: that neither liv'd afore? THE LIFE OF WILLIAM ALEXANDER, EARL OF STIRLING. BY MR. CHALMERS. WILLIAM ALEXANDER, another of those men of genius who have anticipated the style of a more refined age, is said to have been a descendant of the ancient family of Macdonald. Alexander Macdonald, his ancestor, obtained from one of the earls of Argyle a grant of the lands of Menstrie in the county of Clackmanan; and our author's surname was taken from this ancestor's proper-name. He was born about the year 1580, and from his infancy exhibited proofs of genius, which his friends were desirous of improving by the best instruction which the age afforded. Travelling was at that time an essential branch of education, and Mr. Alexander had the advantage of being appointed tutor, or rather companion, to the earl of Argyle, who was then about to visit the continent. On his return to Scotland, he betook himself for some time to a retired life, and endeavoured to alleviate the sorrows of ill-requited love by writing those songs and sonnets which he entitled Aurora. Who his mistress was, we are not told; but it appears by these poems that he was smitten with her charms when he was only in his fifteenth year, and neither by study or travel could banish her from his affections, When all hope, however, was cut off by her marriage, he had at last recourse to the same remedy, and obtained the hand of Janet the daughter and heiress of sir William Erskine. Soon after his marriage, he attended the court of king James VI, as a private gentleman, but not without being distinguished as a man of learning and personal accomplishments, and particularly noticed as a poet by his majesty, who, with all his failings, had allowable pretensions to the discernment, as well as the liberality, of a patron of letters. James was fond of flattery, and had no reason to complain that his courtiers stinted him in that article; yet Mr. Alexander chose at this time to employ his pen on subjects that were new in the palaces of kings. Having studied the ancient moralists and philosophers, he descanted on the vanity of grandeur, the value of truth, the abuse of power, and the burthen of riches. Against all that has ever been objected to courts and ministers, to minions and flatterers, he advised and remonstrated |