mother nature made them two,
They would have done, as Doves and Sparrows do.

These are ascribed to the Earl of Rochester, who was unexceptionably
a great wit. They are not otherwise materially altered, than by the
transposure of the rhimes in the first couplet, and the retrenchment
of the measure in both. As the sphere in which this author moved
was of the middle sort, neither raised to such eminence as to incur
danger, nor so deprest with poverty as to be subject to meanness, his
life seems to have flowed with great tranquility; nor are there any of
those vicissitudes and distresses which have so frequently fallen to
the lot of the inspired tribe. He was honoured with the patronage of
men of worth, tho' not of the highest stations; and that author cannot
be called a mean one, on whom so great a man as Selden (in many
respects the most finished scholar that ever appeared in our nation)
was pleased to animadvert. His genius seems to have been of the second
rate, much beneath Spencer and Sidney, Shakespear and Johnson, but
highly removed above the ordinary run of versifyers. We shall quote a
few lines from his Poly-olbion as a specimen of his poetry.

When he speaks of his native county, Warwickshire, he has the
following lines;

Upon the mid-lands now, th' industrious Muse doth fall,
That shire which we the heart of England well may call,
As she herself extends the midst (which is decreed)
Betwixt St. Michael's Mount, and Berwick bordering Tweed,
Brave Warwick, that abroad so long advanc'd her Bear,
By her illustrious Earls, renowned every where,
Above her neighbr'ing shires which always bore her head.

[Footnote 1: Burton's Description of Leicestershire, p. 16, 22]

* * * * *

Dr. RICHARD CORBET, Bishop of NORWICH,

Was son of Mr. Vincent Corbet, and born at Ewelb in Surry, in the
reign of Queen Elizabeth. He was educated at Westminster school, and
from thence was sent to Oxford, 1597, where he was admitted a student
in Christ-church. In 1605, being then esteemed one of the greatest
wits of the University, he took the degree of Master of Arts, and
afterwards entering into holy orders, he became a popular preacher,
and much admired by people of taste and learning. His shining wit, and
remarkable eloquence recommended him to King James I, who made him one
of his chaplains in ordinary, and in 1620 promoted him to the deanery
of Christ's-church; about which time