Streams of his unexhaufted fpring of power,
And cherish'd with his influence, endure,
He spread the pure cerulean fields on high,
And arch'd the chambers of the vaulted sky
Which he, to fuit their glory with their height,
Adorn'd with globes, that reel, as drunk with light.
His hand directed all the tuneful spheres,

He turn'd their orbs, and polish'd all the stars.
He fill'd the Sun's vaft lamp with golden light,
And bid the filver Moon adorn the night.
He spread the airy Ocean without fhores,
Where birds are wafted with their feather'd oars.
Then fung the bard how the light vapours rise
From the warm earth, and cloud the smiling skies.
He fung how fome, chill'd in their airy flight,
Fall scatter'd down in pearly dew by night.
How fome, rais'd higher, fit in fecret steams
On the reflected points of bounding beams;

Till, chill'd with cold, they fhade th' etherial plain,
Then on the thirsty earth descend in rain.
How fome, whose parts a flight contexture show,
Sink hovering through the air, in fleecy fnow.
How part is spun in filken threads, and clings
Entangled in the grafs in glewy ftrings.
How others ftamp to ftones, with rushing found
Fall from their crystal quarries to the ground.
How some are laid in trains, that kindled fly
In harmless fires by night, about the sky.
How fome in winds blow with impetuous force,
And carry ruin where they bend their course :
While fome confpire to form a gentle breeze,
To fan the air, and play among the trees.
How fome, enrag'd, grow turbulent and loud,
Pent in the bowels of a frowning cloud;

That cracks, as if the axis of the world'

Was broke, and heaven's bright towers were downwards hurl'd.

He fung how earth's wide ball, at Jove's command,

Did in the midst en airy columns ftand.

And how the foul of plants, in prifon held,

And bound with fluggish fetters, lies conceal'd,
Till with the Spring's warm beams, almost releast
From the dull weight, with which it lay oppreft,
VOL. II.

I

Its

Its vigour spreads, and makes the teeming earth
Heave up, and labour with the sprouting birth:
The active spirit freedom seeks in vain,

It only works and twifts a ftronger chain.
Urging its prifon's fides to break away,

It makes that wider, where 'tis forced to ftay:
Till, having form'd its living house, it rears
Its head, and in a tender plant appears.

Hence Springs the oak, the beauty of the grove,
Whofe ftately trunk fierce ftorms can scarcely move
Hence grows the cedar, hence the swelling vine
Does round the elm its purple clusters twine.
Hence painted flowers the fmiling gardens bless,
Both with their fragrant fcent and gaudy drefs.
Hence the white lily in full beauty grows,
Hence the blue violet, and blushing rofe.
He fung how fun-beams brood upon the earth,
And in the glebe hatch such a numerous birth;
Which way the genial warmth in Summer ftorms
Turns putrid vapours to a bed of worms;
How rain, transform'd by this prolifick power,
Falls from the clouds an animated fhower.
He fung the embryo's growth within the womb,
And how the parts their various fhapes affume.
With what rare art the wondrous structure's wrought,
From one crude mafs to fuch perfection brought;
That no part useless none misplac'd we see,
None are forgot, and more would monstrous be."

SHEFFIELD,

SHEFFIELD,

BUCKINGHAMSHIRE.

JOHN SHEFFIELD, descended from

a long series of illuftrious ancestors, born in 1649, the fon of Edmund earl of Mulgrave, who died 1658. The young lord was put into the hands of a tutor, with whom he was fo little satisfied, that he got rid of him in a fhort time, and at an age not exceeding twelve years refolved to educate himfelf. Such a purpose, formed at such an age, and fuccessfully profecuted, delights as it is strange, and instructs as it is real.

His literary acquifitions are more wonderful, as the years in which they are commonly made were spent in the tumult of a military life, or the gaiety of a court. When war was declared against the Dutch, he went at seventeen on board the ship in which prince Rupert and the duke of Albemarle failed, with the command of the fleet; but by contrariety of winds they were reftrained from action. His

1 2

His zeal for the king's fervice was recompenfed by the command of one of the independent troops of horfe, then raised to protect the

coaft.

Next year he received a fummons to parliament, which, as he was then but eighteen years old, the earl of Northumberland cenfured as at least indecent, and his objection was allowed. He had a quarrel with the earl of Rochester, which he has perhaps too oftentatiously related, as Rochester's furviving fifter, the lady Sandwich, is faid to have told him with very fharp reproaches.

When another Dutch war (1672) broke out, he went again a volunteer in the ship which the celebrated lord Offory commanded; and there made, as he relates, two curious remarks.

"I have obferved two things, which I dare "affirm, though not generally believed. One was, that the wind of a cannon-bullet, "though flying never so near, is incapable of

doing the least harm; and, indeed, were it "otherwise, no man above deck would efcape. "The other was, that a great fhot may be "fometimes avoided, even as it flies, by changing one's ground a little; for, when "the wind fometimes blew away the fmoak,

*it was fo clear a fun-fhiney day that we "could easily perceive the bullets (that were

half-spent) fall into the water, and from " thence bound up again among us, which

gives fufficient time for making a step or "two on any fide; though, in fo swift a mo"tion, 'tis hard to judge well in what line "the bullet comes, which, if mistaken, may

by removing coft a man his life, inftead of "faving it."

His behaviour was fo favourably represented by lord Offory, that he was advanced to the command of the Katherine, the best secondrate ship in the navy.

He afterwards raised a regiment of foot, and commanded it as colonel. The landforces were sent a-fhore by prince Rupert; and he lived in the camp very familiarly with Schomberg. He was then appointed colonel of the old Holland regiment, together with his own; and had the promise of a garter, which he obtained in his twenty-fifth year. He was likewife made gentleman of the bedchamber.

He afterwards went into the French service, to learn the art of war under Turenne, but staid only a short time. Being by the duke of

Monmouth opposed in his pretensions to the