Cowley likewise, in his preface to his Miscellanies, says, talking of
his mind, "It must, like the halcyon, have fair weather to breed in."

The story of Ceyx and Alcyone is beautifully told in Ovid, Met. 11.
fab. 10.

* * * * *


HOUSE OF COMMONS.

(_For the Mirror._)

In the vale of Evesham, was fought the most memorable battle recorded in
the annals of English history, between Simon de Mountfort, the powerful
Earl of Leicester, and Prince Edward, afterwards King Edward the First;
in which the earl was completely defeated, and the refractory barons,
with most of their adherents taken or slain. This important battle
restored Henry the Third to his throne and liberty. When he had ascended
the throne, he determined to still further curtail the enormous power of
the barons; and by his writs summoned together, as his advisers,
representatives from numerous cities and boroughs, as well as counties;
the battle of Evesham therefore may be considered, says a modern writer,
"_as the origin of our present House of Commons_."

The learned John Selden says, "All are involved in a parliament. There
was a time when all men had their voice in choosing knights. About Henry
the Sixth's time they found the inconvenience, so one parliament made
a law, that only he that had forty shillings per annum should give his
voice, they under should be excluded." "In a word (says Chamberlayne)