David, hope in the Lord and be strong, and hee will comfort our hearts, if we trust in the Lord.

"After many such conferences and often praying, God gave him a great measure of comfort and assurance againe. He prayed with David, Make mee to heare joy and gladnesse, that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoyce: Restore to me the joy of thy salvation, and stablish, stablish mee with thy free spirit, &c. He tooke great comfort by hearing many promises of the gospell, which were then to him as the Aqua Vita of God, that revived his fainting spirits. Among others, he said this was a most comfortable promise of Christ. Rev. 3. 21. "To him that overcommeth will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I overcame, and sit with my Father in his throne." He much rejoyced at that which Saint Peter assures us, that our inheritance or crowne is in deposito, in the hand of God, reserved in heaven for us, because we shall not lose it: and that we also our selves are kept by the power of God thorow faith unto salvation: so that we shall not lose our selves in earth, which otherwise we should doe, if the Lord did not keep us.

"He cryed often before his speech failed him, “ Lord strengthen me in this last battel: Lord fortifie me against all temptation: Lord loose my soule out of the prison of this body: Sweet Saviour send thine holy angels to fetch my soule, and carry it into Abraham's bosome: Lord, receive my spirit: Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit." And this last was the last sentence that he uttered with his tongue by which he did surrender his soule into the hands of his Lord and Maker. And after his speech fayled him, yet did he understand and heare us perfectly, giving us divers times signes, that he continued full of comfort in the sense and assurance of God's favour, wringing my hand, and lifting up both eyes and hands when hee felt any comfort by our words to him, or prayers for him. Thus did hee die in the words of pietie and prayer, moving his dying lips in prayer, and his halfe-dead hands, as Paulinus writes Saint Ambrose did, when his speech was gone. I may conclude of him, as Ambrose did of Acholius, Non obijt, sed abijt: he is not dead, but gone away. This was the manner

of the loosing, or to speake more properly, of the assumption of this christian Lord. Thus did his soule depart and flye from us, carryed no doubt by the angels into Abraham's bosome, where it rests with Christ in eternall glory.

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"Let us not mourne then as men without hope; we have not lost him, but sent him before. And though he be gone before, yet his honourable name, and many of his worthie actions, remayne behinde him, and shall live when we are dead. And let us not so much thinke, quod abierit, sed quo, that he is gone from us, as whither he is gone, into heaven. And now, noble Lord, who art a sonne every way worthy of so worthy a Father, let me say to you, as Saint Hierome once did to Heliodorus, Ne doleas, quod talem amiseris, sed gaudeas quod talem habueris: Be not sorrowful because God hath assumed your father to himselfe, but give God thankes for his favour in giving you so good a father: this was God's gift to you, the other to him; who is not taken from us so much, as from perils and miseries; being freed from his warrefare, and having received his pasport; nay, his crowne rather and by his leaving of us, he hath wonne more then we have lost, for indeede all the loss is onely ours. You, noble Lord, have lost a most loving and worthy father: his servants have lost a most carefull and loving lord and master: the poore have lost a good patron: his neighbours their best neighbour: his friends their truest friend: his right honourable sister, her most honourable brother: the warres have lost a right wise and valiant commander, of long and much experience: the church, a truely religious and right christian childe, that did expresse in his life, what hee did professe with his lips, and was zealous for the truth and true religion: the common-wealth hath lost a prudent and faithful servant, a fayre limbe of state, of much use and worth: and the King hath lost a right trustie and serviceable subject of inestimable value, Sic in illo vno, non vnum, sed plures amissos requiramus: Thus in this one have we lost, not one, but many a one, many a worthy one. And therefore though his buriall be in comparison private, yet the bewalying of him is publike: and albeit his funerals be celebrated in (to speake without offence) a private corner, yet the lamentation for him runnes thorow the whole kingdome, which doth partake with us in the loss of so excellent a member of Christ, and so useful a hand of state to the King and commonwealth. The losse then you see is publike, and toucheth all; the gaine is private, and is onely his owne.

"Hee is not to be sorrowed for, who hath fought the good fight, finished his course, and received his crowne: but our state is to be bewayled, who (besides the losse of him, and other excellent men now conquerours, and in heaven,) doe yet stand still in the battell, and are hourely soyled with our

sinnes, wounded of our enemies, and every houre in danger to be surprized, lieing still among the fiery serpents in the wildernesse of this world, in as much danger as was Sampson in the lap of Dalila, Daniel in the den of lions, and the three children in the fiery furnace."

J. B. W.

"An Enquiry into the Influence of Chivalry."

THERE are many highly interesting and important subjects, which, from having no immediate reference to our views and feelings, no peculiar adaptation to our tastes and habits of thinking, are passed over by us with indifference, whatever intrinsic merits they may possess. Others, less important perhaps, are so closely interwoven with our partialities, or early 'associations, that we can with great difficulty, bring our minds into that state of philosophic indifference, so necessary for the contemplation of an extensive subject in all its bearings. This is peculiarly the case with regard to the inquiry before us; for at the name of Chivalry, ideas connected with some of our earliest, brightest, and most cherished associations, are awakened in recurring to the days of the lance and the shield, we recal to our minds the history and exploits of our ancestors; and we feel a national, and almost a family pride, in all the vanished glories of the system. Cradled in romance, descended from those who gave birth to this institution, and surrounded by memorials of its former splendour, we feel almost too interested to become calm enquirers.

The ballads which lulled us asleep in infancy, the fictions that amused our childhood, are the ballads and romances of chivalry. We pass thro' streets bearing names derived from its "pomp and circumstance." We enter the ancient hall, where the gallant knight once feasted in rude magnificence; or we wander amid the pointed arches and mouldering aisles which witnessed his solemn penance, or echoed with his song of thanksgiving; while the half obliterated inscription, the recumbent figure with hands clasped in ceaseless devotion, the crumbling armour and the tattered banner, which for centuries has waved above his tomb, forforcibly recal glories of times passed by for ever. Connected with the days of chivalry, are some of the proudest events in our annals: Acre, Cressy, Poictiers, Azincour, Richard the lion-hearted, the Edwards, and Hal, "young

gallant Hal," immortalized by the poet, as well as the historian, are conjured up by this magic word, in all the vividness of real existence, and pass in bright succession, like a gay pageant of other days.

Most of the writers on chivalry have felt this enthusiasm, but none in so great a degree as M. St. Palaye, who devoted much time, and competent talents, to this subject. Dazzled by the brilliant details of its history, and strongly impressed by the romantic incidents of the time, he has pronounced an unqualified eulogy on all and every part of that singular institution; he praises it as preserving the all of virtue which then existed in Europe; and the period in which it flourished appears to him a kind of golden age, when honour supplied the place of law, and courtesy reigned with unlimited sway from the palace to the cottage. Misled by this brilliant vision which M. St. Palaye has placed before them, and called chivalry, succeeding writers have adopted his opinions, with scarcely any enquiry as to their truth or correctness; and have endeavoured to shew, by various ingenious conjectures, that it was very possible for unlettered barbarians to possess accurate views, and refined feelings; and very probable, that Europe, while the only efficient law was the law of might," should be in a better state of government, than in the present day.

Far be it from the writer of the present essay, to question either the accuracy of detail, or the depth of research, of M. St. Palaye. In all the facts relating to this institution, he would bow to the author of "Memoires sur l'anncienne Chevalerie:" it is his conclusions alone (conclusions which he considers not fairly deducible from the facts stated,) which are now attempted to be controverted. And let not those who consider enquiries respecting ancient institutions, but as so much lost time, regard with scorn an attempt to estimate the influence, beneficial or deleterious, of chivalry. We are much more influenced by ancient customs, and half-forgotten systems, than we at first view imagine; and it is not improbable, that much of that warlike and meddling spirit, which has never suffered the nations of Europe to be at rest, may be traced to their admiration of the adventurous spirit, and martial character of chivalry. Let us then take a cursory view of its institutions, and endeavor, from their internal evidence, as well as from the chronicles and romances of contemporary writers, to estimate its direct and indirect influence. Let us recal the "olden times," the days of the lance and the shield, when

the knight went forth prepared to encounter all dangersto maintain all rights to do all things-and decide all questions, by the help of his good sword.

From the establishment of the Lombards in 571, to the close of the eleventh century, it is well known that the greatest degree of barbarism prevailed; the feudal system existed in unmitigated severity, and the only mode of asserting rights, and repelling aggression, of vindicating justice, or establishing innocence, was by an appeal to the sword. At this time the romantic spirit excited by the crusades, probably gave rise to the institutions of chivalry. France claims the honour of giving it a specific character, when that kingdom was recovering from the disorders which followed the extinction of its second race of monarchs. The royal authority had again begun to be respected; laws were enacted, and the fiefs held under the crown were governed with greater regularity. In this state of affairs, the sovereigns and great feudal lords were desirous of strengthening their ties, by adding to the ceremony of doing homage, that of giving arms to their vassals, previously to their first military expedition.

These noble youths, (for it was from among the privileged classes alone, that the candidates for knighthood were taken) were early placed in the family of some prince or baron, where they acted as pages. In this station they were instructed in the laws of courtesy, and in the first rudiments of martial exercises. After they had spent a competent time in the station of pages, they were advanced to the rank of esquire, when they were admitted into more familiar intercourse with the knights and ladies of the castle, and were perfected in dancing, riding, hawking, hunting, tilting, running at the ring, and other accomplishments, especially singing and playing on the harp; which a writer, in the middle ages, represents as fitted for no one but a knight or a lady; and thus they were prepared for the honour of knighthood. The courts and castles of kings and barons were colleges of chivalry, and the youths were advanced through several degrees, to its highest honours. The ceremonies which attended the conferring of knighthood on him who had passed with honour through the introductory degrees of page and esquire, were solemn and impressive; and, in all their details, calculated to produce a strong effect on the aspirants who were permitted to witness it. Religious rites were combined with the forms of feudal duty, and the ceremonial resembled the mode of admitting a proselyte into