Where shee her sacred bowre adornes, The Rivers clearely flow; The groves and medowes swell with flowres, The windes all gently blow. Her Sunne-like beauty shines so fayre, Her Spring can never fade; Who then can blame the life that strives To harbour in her shade? Her grace I sought, her love I wooed; Her love though I obtaine, No time, no toyle, no vow, no faith, Her wishèd grace can gaine. Yet truth can tell my heart is hers, And her will I adore; And from that love when I depart, Let heav'n view me no more! GIVE beauty all her right,-- She's not to one forme tyed; Each shape yeelds faire delight, Where her perfections bide. Helen, I grant, might pleasing be; And Ros'mond was as sweet as shee. Some, the quicke eye commends; Some, swelling lips and red; Pale lookes have many friends, Through sacred sweetnesse bred. Medowes have flowres that pleasure move, Though Roses are the flowres of love. Free beauty is not bound To one unmovèd clime: She visits ev'ry ground, And favours ev'ry time. Let the old loves with mine compare, My Sov'raigne is as sweet and fair. GEORGE CANNING (1770-1827) [Illustration: GEORGE CANNING] The political history of this famous British statesman is told by Robert Bell (1846), by F.H. Hill (English Worthies Series), and in detail by Stapleton (his private secretary) in 'Political Life of Canning.' He became a friend of Pitt in 1793, entered the House of Commons in 1794, was made Under-Secretary of State in 1796, was Treasurer of the Navy from 1804 to 1806, Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1807 till 1809, Ambassador to Lisbon from 1814 to 1816, again at the head of foreign affairs in 1822, and was made Premier in 1827, dying under the labor of forming his Cabinet. Soon after his birth in London, April 11th, 1770, his disinherited father died in poverty, and his mother became an unsuccessful actress. An Irish actor, Moody, took young Canning to his uncle, Stratford Canning, in London, who adopted him and sent him to Eton, where he distinguished himself for his wit and literary talent. With his friends John and Robert Smith, John Hookham Frere, and Charles Ellis, he published a school magazine called The Microcosm, which attracted so much attention that Knight the publisher paid Canning £50 for the copyright. It was modeled on the Spectator, ridiculed modes and customs, and was a unique specimen of juvenile essay-writing. A fifth edition of the Microcosm was published in 1825. Subsequently Canning studied at Oxford. He died August 8th, 1827, at Chiswick (the residence of the Duke of Devonshire), in the same room and at the same age as Fox, and under similar circumstances; and he was buried in Westminster Abbey by the side of William Pitt.