Mr. Asquith devoted his Presidential Address before the English Association
on Friday week to Sir Henry Wotton, Stuart courtier, diplomatist, and Provost of Eton, as a poet whose style had given enduring life to some at least of his verses. In these strenuous days, " when to an old-fashioned ear there seemed to be a fine and often an almost arrogant disorder in the outpourings of the contemporary Muse," Mr. Asquith's insistence on the importance of style in poetry is as unusual as it Is welcome. Wotton, who defined the happy man as "Lord of himself, though not of lands; And having nothing, yet bath all," was not the poet for a materialistic age, but his place in English literature is assured. It is a pity that he should be remembered most often by his jesting definition of an Ambassador as "an honest man sent to lie abroad for the good of his country."
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