any other act. If he only promised to be quiet, that they in whofe hands he was might free him from confinement, he did what no law of fociety prohibits.

The man whofe mifcarriage in a juft caufe has put him in the power of his enemy may, without any violation of his integrity, regain his liberty, or preferve his life, by a promise of neutrality: for the ftipulation gives the enemy nothing which he had not before; the neutrality of a captive may be always fecured by his imprifonment or death. that is at the difpofal of another, may not promife to aid him in any injurious act, becanfe no power can compel active obedience. He may engage to do nothing, but not to do ill,

He

There is reafon to think that Cowley promifed little. It does not appear that his compliance gained him confidence enough to be trufted without fecurity, for the bond of his bail was never cancelled; not that it made him think himfelf fecure, for at that diffolution of government, which followed the death of Oliver, he returned into France,

where

where he refumed his former station, and ftaid till the Restoration.

"He continued," fays his biographer, "under these bonds, till the general deli"verance;" it is therefore to be supposed, that he did not go to France, and act again for the King, without the confent of his bondfman; that he did not fhew his loyalty at the hazard of his friend, but by his friend's permiffion.

Of the verses on Oliver's death, in which Wood's narrative feems to imply fomething encomiaftick, there has been no appearance. There is a difcourfe concerning his government, indeed, with verfes intermixed, but fuch as certainly gained its author no friends among the abettors of ufurpation.

A doctor of phyfick however he was made at Oxford, in December 1657; and in the commencement of the Royal Society, of which an account has been published by Dr. Birch, he appears bufy among the experimental philofophers with the title of Doctor

Cowley.

VOL. I.

C

There

There is no reason for supposing that he ever attempted practice; but his preparatory ftudies have contributed fomething to the honour of his country. Confidering Botany as neceffary to a phyfician, he retired into Kent to gather plants; and as the predominance of a favourite study affects all subordinate operations of the intellect, Botany in the mind of Cowley turned into poetry. He compofed in Latin feveral books on Plants, of which the first and fecond difplay the qualitics of Herbs, in elegiac verfe; the third and fourth the beauties of Flowers in various meafures; and in the fifth and fixth, the ufes of Trees in heroick numbers.

At the fame time were produced from the fame univerfity, the two great Poets, Cowley and Milton, of diffimilar genius, of oppolite principles; but concurring in the cultivation of Latin poetry, in which the English, till their works and May's poem appeared, feemed unable to conteft the palm with any other of the lettered nations.

If the Latin performances of Cowley and Milton be compared, for May I hold to be fuperior to both, the advantage feems to lie on the fide of Cowley. Milton is generally content to express the thoughts of the ancients in their language; Cowley, without much lofs of purity or elegance, accommodates the diction of Rome to his own conceptions.

At the Restoration, after all the diligence of his long fervice, and with consciousness not only of the merit of fidelity, but of the dignity of great abilities, he naturally expected ample preferments; and, that he might not be forgotten by his own fault, wrote a Song of Triumph. But this was a time of fuch general hope, that great numbers were inevitably disappointed; and Cowley found his reward very tediously delayed. He had been promised by both Charles the firft and second the Maftership of the Savoy; but "he loft it," fays Wood, "by certain perfons, enemies to the Mufes."

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The neglect of the court was not his only mortification; having, by fuch alteration as he thought proper, fitted his old Comedy of the Guardian for the stage, he produced it to the publick under the title of the “Cutter "of Coleman-ftreet." It was treated on the ftage with great severity, and was afterwards cenfured as a fatire on the king's party.

Mr. Dryden, who went with Mr. Sprat to the first exhibition, related to Mr. Dennis, "that when they told Cowley how little fa"vour had been fhewn him, he received the

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news of his ill fuccefs, not with so much "firmnefs as might have been expected from "fo great a man."

What firmnefs they expected, or what weakness Cowley difcovered, cannot be known. He that miffes his end will never be as much pleased as he that attains it, even when he can impute no part of his failure to himself; and when the end is to please the multitude, no man perhaps has a right, in things admitting of gradation and comparifon, to throw the whole blame

upon

his

judges,