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for engaging in the studies of the University. They had fallen, however, on times unpropitious to literary pursuits. The great rebellion was now fermenting, and politics seemed to push every thing else into the back-ground. The king, too, by and by moved his court from London to Oxford, where he had the sympathy and support of almost all the members of the University. It was scarcely to be expected that two young and ardent spirits, like those of the Vaughans, would be indifferent to the royal cause. They were sprung from a family distinguished for its loyalty, and Wales throughout the Civil War was always favorable to Charles: accordingly we find them both zealous royalists. Thomas Vaughan actually bore arms on the king's side, and Henry suffered obloquy and imprisonment for his known and avowed attachment to his royal master. This latter fact appears from a poem of his addressed to his "learned friend and loyal fellow-prisoner, Thomas Powell, D. D." Whether he ever actually took the field on the king's side may be a matter of doubt. He speaks, in a poem of his, of having been "torn from the side" of a dear young friend, R. W., in the battle of Rowton Heath, near Chester, 1645; and there are other passages in his works which seem to intimate that he had been engaged in actual conflict with the enemy. However, on the other hand, a Latin poem of his, written in 1647, expressly asserts that he had then nothing to do with open warfare. He

considered, he tells us, that there was a voice in a brother's blood, which would cry to Heaven against the shedder of it; and therefore he conscientiously abstained from meeting in the field his infatuated countrymen, though not from the advocacy of his sovereign's cause, by every means which he deemed legitimate. His brother Thomas, however, had none of these scruples; and as his history is rather a singular one, it may as well be here pursued to its close. Obtaining ordination from Bishop Mainwaring, he was presented by a distant relation to the living of Llansaintfread, the place of his birth, and went to reside there, close to his brother Henry. The Parliamentary Ecclesiastical Commissioners soon afterwards commenced their inquisitorial visitations; and Thomas Vaughan was expelled by them from his living, on the usual charges of drunkenness, swearing, incontinency, and having borne arms for the king; the latter probably being, as in many other instances, his only real offence. On this event he retired to Oxford, and devoted the rest of his life to chemistry, or rather alchemy, under the auspices of Sir Robert Murray, Secretary of State for Scotland, himself a great admirer of these studies. While in his service, Thomas Vaughan published several works in verse and prose under the title of Eugenius Philalethes. The names of some of these are very whimsical and amusing. There is, first, "Anima Magica Abscondita, or a Discourse of

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the Universal Spirit of Nature, with the strange, abstruse, and miraculous ascent and descent. London, 1650." "Anthroposophia Theomagica, or a Discourse of the Nature of Man, and his state after death, grounded on his Creator's proto-chemistry. London, 1650." "Magia Adamica, or the Antiquity of Magic, and the descent thereof from Adam downward, proved; together with a perfect and full discovery of the true Cœlum Terræ, or the Magician's Heavenly Chaos, and first matter of all things. London, 1650." The last that we shall mention is, "Euphrates, or the Waters of the East, being a short discourse of that secret fountain, whose water flows from fire, and carries in it the beams of the sun and moon. London, 1653." In the year 1665, on the plague breaking out in London, the court of Charles II. removed to Oxford, and Thomas Vaughan and his patron accompanied it. A few days afterwards, however, he was taken ill; and, retiring to Albury, in the neighbourhood, he died there, Feb. 27th, 1665. Anthony Wood sums up his character by saying: "He was a great chymist, a noted lover of the fire, an experimental philosopher, a zealous brother of the Rosicrucian fraternity, an understander of some of the Oriental languages, and a tolerable good English and Latin poet. He was neither Papist nor sectary, but a true resolute Protestant, in the best sense of the church of England." The two brothers seem to have been always strongly

attached to each other. Thomas had the highest admiration of his brother's poetical powers, and ushered in his early works with strong prefatorial commendations; and Henry pathetically laments his more eccentric brother's untimely death, in the verses entitled "Daphnis," printed at the end of this volume.

It was during this period of Henry Vaughan's life that his earliest verses were produced. He was intimate with most of the young literary men of the day, and his occasional effusions appear to have been highly prized and long remembered among them. He speaks with much delight of his occasional visits to London at this time, and of the social evenings spent there at the Globe Tavern. He mentions Randolph as one whom he specially delighted in. He flung his poetic tribute, along with so many others, on Cartwright's premature hearse. Fletcher's plays, published in 1647, came out with commendatory verses of his prefixed to them. And Ben Jonson, "great Ben," seems to have been an object of his peculiar admiration. At this period also his own first publication was given to the world, a little volume of verses, chiefly amatory, addressed to Amoret, in the light easy style of the day, and closing with a translationnot a close one- - of the tenth Satire of Juvenal. Some of these poems exhibit a good deal of vigour and freedom in their versification. The following is a favourable specimen :·

"But grant some richer planet at my birth

Had spied me out, and measured so much earth
Or gold unto my share, I should have been
Slave to these lower elements, and seen

My high-born soul flagge with their drosse, and lye
A prisoner to base mud and alchemie.

I should perhaps eate orphans, and sucke up

A dozen distrest widowes in one cup.

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Thanks then for this deliverance, blessed Powers!
You that dispense man's fortune and his houres!
How am I to you all engaged! that thus
By such strange meanes, almost miraculous,
You should preserve me! you have gone the way
To make me rich by taking all away.
For I, had I been rich, as sure as fate,

Would have been meddling with the king or state,
Or something to undoe me; and 'tis fit,

We know, that who hath wealth should have no wit.
But, above all, thanks to that Providence,

That armed me with a gallant soule and sense

'Gainst all misfortunes, that hath breathed so much

Of Heaven into me, that I scorn the touch

Of these low things, and can with courage dare
Whatever fate or malice can prepare.

I envy no man's purse or mines. I know
That losing them I've lost their curses too."

The little volume from whence these lines are taken is entitled, "Poems, with the tenth Satyre of Juvenal Englished, by Henry Vaughan, Gent. London, 1646."

It became, however, now necessary that Henry Vaughan should turn his attention to some profession for a livelihood. Whatever patrimony may have descended to him by inheritance, it appears

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