ADVERTISEMENT. 66 CRITICISM accords in giving to the author of these Emblems the praise of profound knowledge, solid wisdom, and fervent devotion. He deserves more. His wit was bright, his discrimination of characters keen, and his sense deep. "Quarles," affirms the late Rev. John Ryland, was a man of spiritual wit and imagination, in the reign of King Charles the First; a time when poetic genius, in the religious world, had not been cultivated. Spenser and Shakspeare were then the only men that deserved the name of poets; and these were far enough from the knowledge and taste of the people called Puritans: so that, I think, Quarles may be styled the first, as Herbert was the second, divine poet, of the English nation." Although the same able divine is of opinion, that "in the productions of this excellent man," Quarles," there is nothing to please the taste of modern critics"-that "his uncommon turns of thought, the quaintness of his poetic style, but, above all, the depth of evangelic flavour, the ardent piety, and the rich experience of the heart, can be relished by none but those who in the highest sense of the word deserve the name of true Christians"still he characterizes the following work as at once 66 acceptable and delightful," and such as "it will not be deemed impertinent in him to recommend to attention." This character of the emblems of Quarles |