eter couplet one of the heralds of Dryden and
Pope.

SIR THOMAS MORE.--In a bird's-eye view of literature, the division into
poetry and prose is really a distinction without a difference. They are
the same body in different clothing, at labor and at festivity--in the
working suit and in the court costume. With this remark we usher upon the
literary scene Thomas More, in many respects one of the most remarkable
men of his age--scholar, jurist, statesman, gentleman, and Christian; and,
withal, a martyr to his principles of justice and faith. In a better age,
he would have retained the highest honors: it is not to his discredit that
in that reign he was brought to the block.

He was born in 1480. A very precocious youth, a distinguished career was
predicted for him. He was greatly favored by Henry VIII., who constantly
visited him at Chelsea, hanging upon his neck, and professing an intensity
of friendship which, it is said, More always distrusted. He was the friend
and companion of Erasmus during the residence of that distinguished man in
England. More was gifted as an orator, and rose to the distinction of
speaker of the House of Commons; was presented with the great seal upon
the dismissal of Wolsey, and by his learning, his affability, and his
kindness, became the most popular, as he seemed to be the most prosperous
man in England. But, the test of Henry's friendship and of More's
principles came when the king desired his concurrence in the divorce of
Catherine of Arragon. He resigned the great seal rather than sign the
marriage articles of Anne Boleyn, and would not take the oath as to the
lawfulness of that marriage. Henry's kindness turned to fury, and More was
a doomed man. A devout Romanist, he would not violate his conscience by
submitting to the act of supremacy which made Henry the head of the
Church, and so he was tried for high treason, and executed on the 6th of
July, 1535. There are few scenes more pathetic than his last interview
with his daughter Margaret, in the Tower, and no death more calmly and
beautifully grand than his. He kissed the executioner and forgave him.
"Thou art," said he, "to do me the greatest benefit that I can receive:
pluck up thy spirit man, and be not afraid to do thine office."

UTOPIA.--His great work, and that which best illustrates the history of
the age, is his Utopia, ([Greek: ou topos], not a place.) Upon an island
discovered by a companion of Vespuccius, he established