If what I do prove well, it won't advance,
They'll say it's stoln, or else it was by chance."
This strikes the judicious reader as better sarcasm than poetry; and, indeed, when one looks through the volume it is difficult to understand the enthusiasm roused by the production. It is a very ambitious affair; the Elements, as promised by the title page, have a great deal to say, and most of it is said in the right Ercles vein. Here, for example, is the manner in which Fire ends her little speech:
"What shall I say of Lightning and of Thunder
Which kings and mighty ones amaze with wonder,
Which make a Cæsar (Romes) the worlds proud head,
Foolish Caligula creep under 's bed.
And in a word, the world I shall consume
And all therein at that great day of Doom."
This is not impressive; and we may gladly skip the rest of the remarks made by the Elements. The second quaternion of poems, as shown by the title page, is concerned with the four Ages of man, wherein the first Age exclaims: