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UNDER THE SUPERINTENDENCE OF THE SOCIETY FOR THE DIFFUSION OF
USEFUL KNOWLEDGE.

THE

GALLERY OF PORTRAITS

WITH

MEMOIRS.

VOLUME V.

LONDON:
CHARLES KNIGHT, 22, L UDGATE- STR EET.

1835.

[price one guinea, bound in cloth.]

LONDON:
PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS,
Dllke-Street, Lambeth,

3cl4 Oil 5

PORTRAITS AND BIOGRAPHIES
contained in this volume.

1. Taylor  1
2. Lavoisier .......... 9
3. Sydenham ........¦• 18
4. Clarendon ........•• 25
5. Reynolds .......... 35
6. Swift  45
7. Locke  53
8. Selden  , . 61
9. Pare5  69
10. Blake  "J"?
11. L'Hopital  85
12. Mrs. Siddons  94
13. Herschel  105
14. Romilly  HI
15. Shakspeare ......••• 122
16. Euler  129
17. Sir W. Jones  134
18. Rousseau  • 143
19. Harrison  153
20. Montaigne  IS"?
21. Pope  164
22. Bolivar  1''3
23. Arkwright  181
24. Cowper  189

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If this great ornament of our church did not boast of an exalted
lineage, he numbered among his forefathers one at least, the worthy
ancestor of such a descendant. Dr. Rowland Taylor, chaplain to
Cranmer, and rector of Hadleigh, distinguished among the divines
of the Reformation for his abilities, learning, and piety, as well as for
the courageous cheerfulness with which he suffered death at the stake
m the reign of Queen Mary. Jeremy Taylor was the son of a barber, re
sident in Trinity parish, Cambridge; and was baptized in Trinity church,
August 15, 1613. He was " grounded in grammar and mathematics "
by his father, and entered as a sizar at Caius College, August 18, 1626.
Of his deportment, his studies, even of the honours and emoluments
of his academical life, we have no certain knowledge. It is stated by
Dr. Rust, in his Funeral Sermon, that Taylor was elected fellow :
but this is at least doubtful, for no record of the fact exists in the
registers of the college. He proceeded to the degree of M. A.
in 1633; and in the same year, though at the early age of twenty, we '
find him in orders, and officiating as a divinity lecturer in St. Paul's
Cathedrals His talents as a preacher attracted the notice of Archbishop
Laud, who sent for him to preach at Lambeth, and approved of his
performance, but thought him too young. Taylor begged his Grace's
pardon for that fault, and promised that, if he lived, he would mend it.
By that prelate's interest he was admitted to the degree of M. A.
ad eundem, in University College, Oxford, October 20, 1635, and
shortly after nominated to a fellowship at All Souls College. It was
probably through the interest of the same powerful patron that he
obtained the rectory of Uppingham in Rutlandshire, tenable vpith his
fellowship, March 23, 1638. The fellowship, however, he vacated by
Voi» V. B

2 TAYLOR.
his marriage with Phoebe Langsdale, May 27, 1639, who died in
little more than three years, leaving two sons.
Taylor attracted notice at Oxford by his talents as a preacher ; but
he does not seem to have commenced, during this period of ease and
tranquillity, any of those great works which have rendered him illus
trious as one of the most laborious, eloquent, and persuasive of British
divines. The only sermon extant which we can distinctly refer to
this period, is one preached by command of the Vice-chancellor on the
anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot, 1638. This piece requires notice,
because it is connected with a report, circulated both during Taylor's
residence at Oxford and afterwards, that he was secretly inclined to
Popery. It is even said that he " wished to be confirmed a member
of the church of Rome," (Wood, Athense Oxon.) but was rejected
with scorn in consequence of the things advanced against that church
in this sermon. Of this whole statement Bishop Heber, in his ' Life
of Taylor,' has expressed his disbelief; and the arguments on which
his opinion is founded appear to us satisfactory. Not even during his
peaceable abode at Uppingham do Taylor's great works appear to have
been projected, as if his amiable, aifectionate, and zealous temper had
been fully occupied by domestic cares and pleasures, and by the con
stant though quiet duties of a parish priest. The year 1642, as it
wdtnessed the overthrow of his domestic happiness by his wife's death,
saw also the beginning of those troubles which cast him out of his
church preferment, a homeless man. We do not know the date of the
sequestration of his living; but as he joined Charles I. at Oxford in
the autumn of the year; published in the same year, by the King's
command, his treatise ' Of the sacred Order and Offices of Episco
pacy, &c. ;¦ was created D.D. by royal mandate; appointed chaplain
to the King, in Avhich capacity he frequently preached at Oxford, and
' attended the royal army in the wars ; it is probable that he was among
the first of those who paid the penalty of adhering to the losing cause.
Little is known of this portion of Taylor's history. It appears that he
quitted the army, and retired into Wales, where he married, became
again involved in the troubles of war, and was taken prisoner at Car
digan, Feb. 4, 1644. We do not know the date of his release, or of
his marriage to his second wife, Joanna Bridges, a lady possessed of
some landed property at Mandinam, near Golden Grove, in the Vale
of Towy, in Carmarthenshire, who was commonly said to be a natural
daughter of Charles I., born before his marriage. But Heber conjectures
that Taylor's marriage was anterior to his imprisonment, and that his
wife's estate was amerced in a heavy fine* in consequence of his being

TAYLOR. 3
found engaged in the royal cause at Cardigan. It is at least certain
that until the Restoration he was very poor, and that he supported
himself during part of the time by keeping a school.
During this period of public confusion and domestic trouble, Taylor
composed an ' Apology for authorized and set Forms of Liturgy,'
published in 1646, and his great work, a ' Discourse on the Liberty
of Prophesying,' published in 1647, "the first attempt on record to
conciliate the minds of Christians to the reception of a doctrine which,
though now the rule of action professed by all Christian sects, was
then, by all sects alike, regarded as a perilous and portentous novelty."*
As such, it was received with distrust, if not disapprobation, by all
parties; and if it was intended to inculcate upon the Episcopalians the
propriety of conceding something to the prejudices of their opponents,
as well as to procure an alleviation of the oppression exercised on the
Episcopal church, we may see in the conduct of the government after the
Restoration, that Taylor preached a doctrine for which neither the one
nor the other were then ripe. It is the more to his honour that in this
important point of Christian charity he had advanced beyond his own
party, as well as those by whom his party was then persecuted. But
though his views were extended enough to meet with disapprobation
from his contemporaries, he gives a greater latitude to the civil power
in repressing error by penal means, than the general practice, at least
in Protestant countiies, would now grant. " The forbearance which
he claims, he claims for those Christians only who unite in the con
fession of the Apostles' Creed," and he advocates the drawing together
of all who will subscribe to that ancient and comprehensive form of
belief into one church, forgetting differences which do not involve the
fundamental points of Christianity. And he inculcates the " danger
and impropriety of driving men into schism by multiplying symbols
and subscriptions, and contracting the bounds of communion, and the
still greater wickedness of regarding all discrepant opinions as dam
nable in the life to come, and in the present capital." For a fuller
account of this remarkable work, Ave refer to the Life by Heber,
p. 201-218, or still better, to the original.
It was followed at no long interval by the ' Great Exemplar of
Sanctity and Holy Life, described in the Life and Death of Jesus
Christ.' This, the first of Taylor's great works which became exten
sively popular, is almost entirely practical in its tendency, having been
composed, as the author tells us, with the intention of drawing men's
minds from controverted doctrines, to the vital points on which all men
* Heber's Life of Taylor, p. xxvii. B 2

4 TAYLOR.
are agreed, but which all men forget so easily. It is not an attempt to
connect the relations of the four Evangelists into one complete and
chronologically consistent account ; but a " series of devout meditations
on the diffiirent events recorded in the New Testament, as well as on
the more remarkable traditions which have usually been circulated
respecting the Divine Author of our religion, his earthly parent, and
his followers," set off by that majestic style, that store of illustrations
derived from the most recondite and miscellaneous learning, and,
above all, that fervent and poetical imagination, by which Taylor is
distinguished perhaps above all the prose writers in our language.
Such qualities, even without a digested plan and connected strain of
argument, vrhich, requiring a more continuous and attentive perusal,
would not perhaps have made the book more acceptable or useful
to the bulk of readers, ensured for it a favourable reception; and the
author followed up the impression which he had produced, at no distant
period, by two other treatises of a similar practical tendency, which,
from their comparative shortness, are better known than any other of
Taylor's works, and probably have been as extensively read as any
devotional books in the English language. We speak of the treatises
on Holy Living and on Holy Dying.
It has been mentioned that near Mandinam stood Golden Grove, the
seat of the Earl of Carbery, a nobleman distinguished by his abilities
and zeal in the Royal cause. He proved a constant and sincere friend
to Taylor ; and the grateful scholar has conferred celebrity upon the
name and hospitality of Golden Grove by his ' Guide to Infant
Devotion,' or manual of daily prayers, which are called by the name
of that place, in which they, and many other of the author's works,
were meditated ; especially his Eniautos, or course of sermons for all
the Sundays in the year.
Considerable obscurity hangs over this portion of Taylor's life : but
it appears that in the years 1654-5 he was twice imprisoned, in con
sequence of his advocacy of the fallen causes of Episcopacy and Royalty.
At some time in 1654 he formed an acquaintance with Evelyn, which
proved profitable and honourable to both parties ; for the layman, as is
evident from his Memoirs and Diary, highly valued and laid to heart
the counsels of the man whom he selected as his " ghostly father,"
and to whose poverty he liberally ministered in return out of his
own abundance.
We learn from Evelyn's Diary that Taylor was in London in the
spring of 1 637, and his visits, if not annual, were at least frequent.
He made many friends, and among them the Earl of Conway, a noble-

TAYLOR. 5
man possessed of large estates in the north-east of Ireland, who con
ceived the desire of securing Taylor's eminent abilities for the service
of his own neighbourhood, and obtained for him a lectureship in the
small town of Lisburne. Taylor removed his family to Ireland in the
summer of 1658. He dwelt near Portmore, his patron's splendid seat
on the banks of Lough Neagh ; and some of the islands in that noble
lake, and in a smaller neighbouring piece of water called Lough Beg,
are still recorded, by the traditions of the peasantry, to have been his
favourite places of study and retirement. To this abode his letters
show him to have been much attached.
In the spring of 1660 Taylor visited London, to superintend in its
passage through the press the ' Rule of Conscience, or Ductor Dubi-
tantium.' This, it appears from the author's letters, was considerably
advanced so early as the year 1655. It was the fruit of much time,
much diligence, and much prayer ; and that of all his writings con
cerning the execution of which he seems to have felt most anxiety.
In this case, as it often happens, the author seems to have formed an erro
neous estimate of the comparative value of his works. Neither on its
first appearance, nor in later times, did the ' Ductor Dubitantium '
become extensively popular. Its object, which even at the first was ac
counted obsolete, was to supply what the Romish church obtained by the
practice of confession, a set of rules by which a scrupulous conscience
may be guided in the variety of doubtful points of duty which may
occur. The abuses are well known, to which the casuistic subtlety of
the Romish doctors gave birth ; and it may be doubted whether it were
wise to lay one stone towards rebuilding an edifice, which the general
diffusion of the Scriptm'es, a sufficient rule, if rightly studied, to solve all
doubts, had rendered unnecessary. The work, in spite of its passages
of eloquence and profusion of learning, is too prolix to be a favourite
in these latter days, but it is still, says his biographer, (p. ccxciii.) one
" which few can read without profit, and none, I think, without enter
tainment. It resembles in some degree those ancient inlaid cabinets,
(such as Evelyn, Boyle, or Wilkins might have bequeathed to their
descendants,) whose multifarious contents perplex our choice, and offer
to the admiration or curiosity of a more accurate age a vast wilderness
of trifles and varieties with no arrangement at all, or an arrangement
on obsolete principles, but whose ebony drawers and perfumed recesses
contain specimens of every thing that is precious or uncommon, and
many things for which a modern museum might be searched in vain."
Taylor's accidental presence in London at this period, when the
hopes of the Royalists were reviving, was probably serviceable to his

6 TAYLOR.
future fortunes. He obtained by it the opportunity of joining in the
Royalist declaration of April 24; and he was among the first to derive
benefit from the restoration of that King and that Church, of whose
interests he had ever been a most zealous, able, and consistent sup
porter. He was nominated Bishop of Down and Connor, August 6,
1660, and consecrated in St. Patrick's Cathedral January 27, 1661.
In the interval he was appointed Vice-chancellor of the University of
Dublin, which during past troubles had been greatly dilapidated and
disordered, in respect both of its revenues and discipline. He was the
principal instrument in remodelling and completing the statutes, and
settling the University in its present form.
In the spring of 1661 Taylor was made a member of the Irish Privy
Council, and the small diocese of Dromore, adjacent to Down, was
assigned to his charge, " on account," in the words of the writ under
the Privy Seal, " of his virtue, wisdom, and industry." This praise
was well deserved by his conduct in that difficult time, when those
who had displaced the episcopal clergy were apprehensive of being in
their turn obliged to give way, and religious differences were embittered
by thoughts of temporal welfare. Taylor had to deal chiefly with the
Avilder and most enthusiastic party, and his advances towards an inter
course of Christian charity were met with scorn and insult, But
his exemplary conduct, and persevering gentleness of demeanour, did
much to soften at least the laity of his opponents ; for we are told that
the nobility and gentry of the three dioceses over which he presided
came over, with one exception, to the Bishop's side.
His varied duties can now have left little time for the labour of the
pen ; still he published sermons from time to time, and in 1664 com
pleted and published his last great work, a ' Dissuasive from Popery,'
undertaken by desire of the collective body of Irish bishops. He
continued after his elevation to reside principally at Portmore, occa
sionally at Lisburne. Of his habits, and the incidents of this latter
part of his life, we know next to nothing ; except that he suffered the
severest affliction which could befal a man of his sensibility and piety,
in the successive deaths of his three surviving sons, and the misconduct
of two of them. One died at Lisburne, in March, 1661; one fell in a
duel, his adversary also dying of his wounds ; the tliird became the
favourite companion of the profligate Duke of Buckingham, and died
of a decline, August 2, 1667. Of the latter event the Bishop can
scarcely have heard, for he died on the 13th of the same month, after
ten days' sickness. He was buried at Dromore. Two of his daughters
married in Ireland, into the families of Marsh and Harrison ; and

TAYLOR; 7
several Irish families of repute claim to be connected with the blood
of this exemplary prelate by the female line.
The materials for Bishop Taylor's life are very scanty. The earliest
sketch of it is to be found in the funeral sermon preached by his
friend and successor in the see of Dromore, Dr. Rust, who sums up
the virtues of the deceased in a peroration of highly-wrought pane
gyric, of which the following just eulogy is a part — " He was a person
of great humility ; and notwithstanding his stupendous parts, and
learning, and eminency of place, he had nothing in him of pride and
humour, but was courteous and affable, and of easy access, and would
lend a ready ear to the complaints, yea, to the impertinence of the
meanest persons. His humility was coupled with an extraordinary
piety ; and I believe he spent the greatest part of his time in heaven.
.... To all his other virtues he added a large and diffusive charity ;
and whoever compares his plentiful income with the inconsiderable
estate he left at his death, will be easily convinced that charity was
steward for a great proportion of his revenue. But the hungry that he
fed, and the naked that he clothed, and the distressed that he supplied,
and the fatherless that he provided for, the poor children that he put
to apprentice, and brought up at school, and maintained at the uni
versity, will now sound a trumpet to that charity which he dispensed
with his right hand, but would not suffer his left hand to have any
knowledge of it.
" To sum up all in a fevt^ words, this great prelate had the good
humour of a gentleman, the eloquence of an orator, the fancy of a poet,
the acuteness of a schoolman, the profoundness of a philosopher, the
wisdom of a counsellor, the sagacity of a prophet, the reason of an
angel, and the piety of a saint ; he had devotion enough for a cloister,
learning enough for an university, and wit enough for a college of
virtuosi 5 and had his parts and endowments been parcelled out among
his poor clergy that he left behind him, it would perhaps have made
one of the best dioceses in the world. But, alas ! ' Our Father ! our
Father ! the horses of our Israel, and the chariot thereof! ' he is gone,
and has carried his mantle and his spirit along with him up to heaven;
and the sons of the prophets have lost all their beauty and lustre which
they enjoyed only from the reflection of his excellencies, which were
bright and radiant enough to cast a glory upon a whole order of men."
There is a life of Taylor by Archdeacon Bonney ; and a copious
memoir, enriched by a minute analysis of all the more remarkable
compositions of our author, is prefixed to Bishop Heber's edition of
Taylor's works. From this the materials of the present sketch are

8 TAYLOR.
taken. Nor can we better conclude than with the eloquent estimate
of Taylor's merits, with which tlie accomplished biographer concludes
his work. "It is on devotional and moral subjects that the peculiar
character of Taylor's mind is most, and most successfully, developed.
To this service he devotes his most glowing language; to this his
aptest illustrations, his thoughts, and his words, at once burst into a
flame, when touched by the coals of this altar; and whether he describes
the duties, or dangers, or hopes of man, or the mercy, power, and justice
of the Most High; whether he exhorts or instructs his brethren, or
offers up his supplications in their behalf to the common Father of all,
his conceptions and his expressions belong to the loftiest and most
sacred description of poetry, of which they only want, what they cannot
be said to need, the name and the metrical arrangement.
" It is this distinctive excellence, still more than the other qualifica
tions of learning and logical acuteness, which has placed him, even in
that age of gigantic talent, on an eminence superior to any of his
immediate contemporaries ; and has seated him, by the almost unani
mous estimate of posterity, on the same lofty elevation with Hooker
and with Barrow.
" Of such a triumvirate, who shall settle the precedence ? Yet it
may, perhaps, be not far from the truth, to observe that Hooker claims
the foremost rank in sustained and classic dignity of style, in political
and pragmatical wisdom; that to Barrow the praise must be assigned
of the closest and clearest views, and of a taste the most controlled and
chastened ; but that in imagination, in interest, in that which more
properly and exclusively deserves the name of genius, Taylor is to
be placed before either. The first awes most, the second convinces
most, the third persuades and delights most : and, according to the
decision of one whose own rank among the ornaments of Enghsh
literature yet remains to be determined by posterity (Dr. Parr), Hooker
is the object of our reverence, Barrow of our admiration, and Jeremy
Taylor of our love."

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Antoine Laurent Lavoisier was born in Paris, August 26, 1743.
He was educated under the eye of his father, a man of opulence, with
discernment to appreciate his son's abilities, and liberality to cultivate
them without regard to cost. Lavoisier early showed a decided
inclination for the physical sciences ; and before he was twenty years
old, had made himself master of the principal branches of natural
philosophy. In 1764 the government proposed an extraordinary premium for
the best and cheapest project of lighting the streets of Paris, and
other large cities. To this subject, involving a knowledge of several
branches of science, Lavoisier immediately devoted his attention. He
produced so able a memoir, full of the most masterly, accurate, and
practical views, that the gold medal was awarded to him. This
production was the means of introducing him into the Academy of
Sciences, of which, after a severe contest, he was admitted a member.
May 13, 1768; and he proved himself through life one of its most
useful and valuable associates.
At this time the whole range of chemical and physico-chemical
science was in an extremely imperfect state ; and the first steps to a
more improved system involved the necessity of clearing away a vast
mass of error which encumbered the path to truth. For instance, one
of the fanciful ideas, the offspring of the alchemy of the dark ages,
which still continued to haunt the regions of science, was the belief of
the conversion of water into earth by gradual consolidation. This
Vol.. V. C

10 LAVOISIER.
subject Lavoisier treated in the true spirit of the experimental method,
and clearly showed that the pretended conversion was either a depo
sition of earthy particles, or a sediment arising from the action of the
water on the internal surface of the retort. He also laboured on the
analysis of the gypsum found in the neighbourhood of Paris, and on
the crystallization of salts. He discussed the project of conveying
water from L'Yvette to Paris, and the theory of congelation; and to
these researches added extensive observations on the phenomena of
thunder and the Aurora Borealis.
He next directed his attention more especially to mineralogy; and
made excursions, in conjunction with Guettard, into all parts of France,
endeavouring to form from different districts a complete collection of
their characteristic mineral productions. He made advances towards
a systematic classification of facts connected with the localities of
fossils, which afterwards served as the basis of his work on the revo
lutions of the globe and the formation of successive strata, of which
two admirable abstracts were inserted in the Memoirs of the Academy
of Sciences, for 1772 and 1787.
Thus during the earlier part of his life, Lavoisier does not seem to
have devoted himself in particular to any one branch of science. But
about the year 1770 the announcement of the existence of more than
one species of gaseous matter, arising out of the successive researches
of Black, Scheele, Priestley, and Cavendish, had the effect of fixing his
attention to the subject of pneumatic chemistry. The invaluable dis
coveries just alluded to had opened a new world to the inquirer into
nature; and the labours of those distinguished experimentalists had
conspired to commence a fresh era in science. Lavoisier was one of the
first to appreciate at once the importance of the results they had arrived
at, and the immense field of further research to which those results had
opened the way. He perceived by a sort of instinct the glorious career
which lay before him; and the influence which this new science thus,
as it w^ere, created, must have over every sort of physical research.
Priestley possessed precisely those quahfications which are most
available for striking out new and brilliant discoveries of facts ; a
boundless fertility of invention; a power of rapidly seizing remote
analogies ; and an equal readiness in framing and in abandoning hypo
theses, which have no value, but as guides to experiment. Lavoisier,
less eminent in these respects, possessed in a more peculiar degree the
mental characteristics which enable their owner to advance to grand
generalizations and philosophical theories upon the sure basis of facts.

LAVOISIER. 11
He possessed, in its fullest sense, the true spirit of inductive caution,
and even geometrical rigour; and his observations, eminently precise
and luminous, always pointed to more general views.
In ] 774, he published his ' Opuscules Chimiques,' in which, after
a full and truly philosophical examination of the labours of preceding
experimenters in the discovery of the gases and their characteristic
properties, he proceeds to describe his own beautiful and fundamen
tally important researches, from which resulted the ' True Theory of
Combustion,' which may be termed the very sun and centre of the
whole modern system of chemistry.
To the vague dreams of the alchemist had succeeded the remarkable
theory of Hooke, who maintained that a certain ingredient of the
atmospheric air (which also enters as an ingredient into several other
bodies, especially nitre) was the solvent which absorbed a portion of
the combustible. This process was continued in proportion as more
of the solvent was supplied. The solution took place with such
rapidity, as to occasion those motions or pulsations in which Hooke
believed heat and light to consist.
This near approach to the truth was thrown into discredit by the
more brilliant and imposing theory of Stahl, who captivated the
imaginations of chemists by his doctrine of phlogiston, the principle
or element of fire, a sort of metaphysical something, which conferred
the property of being combustible. Stahl taught that the process of
combustion deprived bodies of their phlogiston, which, in the act of
separation, exhibited its latent energies in the evolution of light and
heat. This wild chimera long maintained its ground, and received suc
cessive modifications in the hands of several distinguished chemists,
the most important of which was that of Kirwan ; but these all retained
the fundamental error that something was abstracted from the burning
body. Yet Rey, so early as 1630, and Bayer afterwards, had both
shown that metals by calcination increase in weight, or have something
added to them. Lavoisier turned his attention to the defects of the
existing theory about 1770; and the last-named experiments probably
directed him more specifically to the essential point of the inquiiy.
He pursued his researches with unwearied industry ; and by a long
series of experiments of the most laborious and precise nature, he
succeeded in determining that, in all cases of combustion, that sub
stance which is the real combustible invariably receives an addition,
or enters into a new combination ; and the matter with which it com-
C 2

12 LAVOISIER.
bines is in all cases that same substance which had now been shown
by Priestley to be one of the constituents of the atmosphere, and which
was then known by the name of vital air.
It was however long before Lavoisier gained a single convert. At
length M. Berthollet, at a meeting of the Academy in 1785, publicly
renounced the old opinions and declared himself a convert. Fourcroy
followed his example. In 1787, Morveau, during a visit to Paris,
became convinced, and declared the conclusions of Lavoisier irresistible.
The younger chemists speedily embraced the new views; and their
establishment was thus complete. There only remained some lurking
prejudices in England, where the Essay of Kirwan retained its credit.
Lavoisier and his coadjutors translated this essay into French, accom
panying each section by a refutation. So completely was this done,
that the author himself was convinced; and, with that candour which
distinguishes superior minds, gave up his views as untenable, and
declared himself a convert.
These discoveries introduced Lavoisier to the notice of the most
eminent persons in the State; and in 1776, Turgot engaged him to
superintend the manufacture of gunpowder for the Government. He
introduced many valuable improvements in the process, and many
judicious reforms into the establishment.
In 1778, Lavoisier having been incessantly engaged on the subject
of gases and combustion, announced another great discovery, " that
the respirable portion of the atmosphere is the constituent principle of
acids," which he therefore denominated oxygen.
The question as to " the acidifying principle " had long formed the
subject of discussion. The prevalent theory was that of Beecher with
various modifications, which made the acid principle a compound of
earth and water regarded as elements. Lavoisier found in the instance
of a great number of the acids, that they consisted of a combustible
principle united with oxygen. He showed this both analytically and
synthetically, and hence proceeded to the conclusion that oxygen is the
acidifying principle in all acids. Berthollet opposed this doctrine, and
contended that, in general, acidity depended on the manner and propor
tion in which the constituents are combined. The fact is, that, in this
instance, Lavoisier had advanced a little too rapidly to his conclusion.
Had he contented himself with stating it as applying to a great number
of acids, it would have been strictly true ; but he had certainly no
proof of its being universally the case. When Sir H. Davy, some
years after, showed that one of the most powerful acids (the muriatic)

LAVOISIER. 13
does not contain a single particle of oxygen, and when the researches
of Guy Lussac and others had exhibited other proofs of the same thing,
it became evident that Lavoisier's assertion required considerable modi
fication. And though nearly all acids have been since included under
the general law of containing some supporter of combustion, yet there
appear to be exceptions even to this ; the cautious language of Ber
thollet has been completely justified ; and a perfect theory of acidity
is perhaps yet wanting. Nevertheless, Lavoisier's discovery is one of
first-rate magnitude and importance, and with this qualification, cer
tainly forms the basis of all our present knowledge of the subject.
Another important research in which Lavoisier engaged, in con
junction with Laplace, was the determination of the specific heats of
bodies, by means of an ingenious apparatus, which they denominated
the calorimeter : these were by far the most precise experiments on the
subject which had as yet been made, though some inaccuracies in the
method have since been pointed out.
Lavoisier owed much, it must be owned, to those external advan
tages of fortune, the absence of which, though it cannot confine the
flights of real genius, yet may seriously impair the value and efficiency
of its exertions ; and the presence of which, though it cannot confer
the powers of intellect, may yet afford most invaluable aids to the pro
secution of research, and the dissemination of knowledge. In the in
stance before us, these advantages were enjoyed to the full extent, and
turned to the best use. Lavoisier was enabled to command the most
unlimited resources of instrumental aid ; he pursued his researches in
a laboratory furnished with the most costly apparatus, and was able to
put every suggestion to the test of experiment, by the assistance of the
most skilful artists, and instruments of the most perfect construction.
But as he could thus command these essential advantages for the
prosecution of his own investigations, he was equally mindful of the
extension of similar advantages to others : he always evinced himself
ready to assist the inquiries of those who had not the same means at
their disposal ; and was no less liberal in aiding them by his stores of
information and able advice. Indeed no one could be more sensible
how much there is of mutual advantage in such intercourse between
those engaged in the same scientific labours ; and this conviction,
joined with a full perception of the immense benefits accruing from
personal acquaintance among men of kindred pursuits, and the inter
change of social good offices, led him to the regular practice of opening
his house on two evenings in every week, for an assembly of all the

14 LAVOISIER.
scientific men of the French capital ; which very soon became a point
of general resort and reunion to the philosophers of Europe.
At these meetings general discourse and philosophic discussion were
agreeably intermingled; the opinions of the most eminent philosophers
were freely canvassed ; the most striking and novel passages in the
publications of foreign countries were made known, recited, and anim
adverted upon; and the progress of experiment was assisted by candid
comments and comparison with theory. In these assemblies might
be found, minghng in instructive and delightful conversation, all those
whose names made the last century memorable in the annals of science.
Priestley, Fontana, Landriani, Watt, Bolton, and Ingenhouz, were
associated with Laplace, Lagrange, Borda, Cousin, Monge, Morveau,
and Berthollet. There was also an incalculable advantage in bringing
into communication and intimacy men engaged in distinct branches
of science : the intercourse of the mathematician with the geologist,
of the astronomer with the chemist, of the computer with the
experimenter, and of the artist with the theorist, could not fail to be of
mutual advantage. In no instance were the beneficial effects of such
intercourse more strikingly displayed than in the chemical sciences ;
which, from this sort of comparison of ideas and methods, began now
to assume a character of exactness from an infusion of the spirit of
geometry ; and a department hitherto abandoned to the wildest specu
lations, and encumbered with the most vague and undefined phraseo
logy (derived from the jargon of the alchemists), began to assume
something hke arrangement and method in its ideas, and precision and
order in its nomenclature. This influence was strongly marked in
the physical memoirs produced in France from this period doAvnwards.
The precision and severity of style, and the philosophical method of
the mathematicians, was insensibly transfused into the papers of the
physical and chemical philosophers.
Lavoisier individually profited greatly by the sources of improvement
and information thus opened. Whenever any new result presented
itself to him, which, perhaps, from contradicting all received theories,
seemed paradoxical, or at variance with all principles hitherto recog
nised, it was fully laid before these select assemblies of philosophers ;
the experiment was exhibited in their presence, and they were invited
with the utmost candour to offer their criticisms and objections. In
perfect rehance on the mutual spirit of candour, they were not back
ward in urging whatever difficulties occurred to them, and the truth
thus elicited acquired a firmness and stability in its public reception

LAVOISIER. 15
proportioned to the severity of the test it had undergone. Lavoisier
seldom announced any discovery until it had passed this ordeal.
At length he combined his philosophical views into a connected
system, which he published in 1789, under the title of ' Elements of
Chemistry :' a beautiful model of scientific composition, clear and
logical in its arrangement, perspicuous and even elegant in its style
and manner. These perfections are rarely to be found in elementary
works written by original discoverers. The genius which qualifies a
man for enlarging the boundaries of science by his own inventions and
researches is of a very different class from that which confers the ability
to elucidate, in a simple and systematic course, the order and con
nexion of elementary truths. But in Lavoisier these different species
of talent were most happily blended. He not only added profound
truths to science, but succeeded in adapting them to the apprehension
of students, and was able to render them attractive by his eloquence.
In 1791 he entered upon extensive researches, having for their
object the application of pneumatic chemistry to the advancement of
medicine, in reference to the process of respiration. With this view
he examined in great detail the changes which the air undergoes, and
the products generated in that process of the animal economy. He
had previously, however, as far back as 1 780, detailed a series of ex
periments to determine the quantity of oxygen consumed and carbonic
acid generated by respiration, in a given time, in the Memoirs of the
French Academy.
In the twenty volumes of the Academy of Sciences, from 1772 to
1793, are not less than forty memoirs by Lavoisier, replete with all the
grand phenomena of the science : — the doctrine of combustion in all
its bearings ; the nature and analysis of atmospheric air ; the gene
ration and combinations of elastic fluids ; the properties of heat ; the
composition of acids ; the decomposition and recomposition of water ;
the solutions of metals ; and the phenomena of vegetation, fermentation,
and animalization. These are some of the most important subjects of
his papers ; and during the whole of this period he advanced steadily
in the course which was pointed out to him by the unerring rules of
inductive inquiry, to which his original genius supplied the com
mentary. So well did he secure every point of the results to which he
ascended, that he never made a false step. It was only in one subject,
before alluded to, that he may be said to have gone a few steps too far.
Nor did he ever suffer himself to be discouraged, or his ardour to be
damped by the difficulties and obstacles which perpetually impeded his

16 LAVOISIER.
progress. He traced new paths for investigation, and founded a new
school of science ; and his successors had ample employment in fol
lowing out the inquiries which he had indicated, and exploring those
recesses to which he had opened the way.
In the relations of social and civil life Lavoisier was exemplary ; and
he rendered essential service to the state in several capacities. He was
treasurer to the Academy, and introduced economy and order into its
finances : he was also a member of the board of consultation, and took
an active share in its business. When the new system of measures was
in agitation, and it was proposed to determine a degree of the meridian,
he made accurate experiments on the dilatation of metals, in conjunction
with Laplace (1782), to ascertain the corrections due to changes of
temperature in the substances used as measuring rods in those delicate
operations. By the National Convention he was consulted on the means of
improving the manufacture of assignats, and of increasing the difficulty
of forgery. He turned his attention to matters of rural economy, and,
by improved methods of cultivation, on scientific principles, he in
creased the produce of an experimental farm nearly one half. In 1791
he was invited by the Constituent Assembly to digest a plan for simpli
fying the collection of taxes : the excellent memoir which he produced
on this subject was printed under the title of ' The Territorial Riches
of France.' He was likewise appointed a Commissioner of the National
Treasury, in which he effected some beneficial reforms.
Dm-ing the terrors of Robespierre's tyranny, Lavoisier remarked that
he foresaw he should be stripped of all his property, and accordingly
would prepare to enter the profession of an apothecary, by which he
should be able to gain a livelihood. But the ignorant and brutal
ruffians who were then in power had already condemned him to the
scaffold, on which he was executed. May 8, 1794, for the pretended
crime of having adulterated snuff with ingredients destructive to the
health of the citizens ! On being seized, he entreated at least to be
allowed time to finish some experiments in which he was engaged ;
but the reply of Coffinhall, the president of the gang who condemned
him, was characteristic of the savage ignorance of those monsters in
human form : — " The Republic does not want savans or chemists,
and the course of justice cannot be suspended."
Lavoisier in person was tall and graceful, and of lively manners and
appearance. He was mild, sociable, and obliging ; and in his habits
unaffectedly plain and simple. He was liberal in pecuniary assistance

LAVOISIER. 17
to those in need of it ; and his hatred of all ostentation in doing good
probably concealed greatly the real amount of his beneficence. He
married, in 1771, Marie- Anni-Pierrette Paulze, a lady of great talents
and accomplishments, who after his death became the wife of Couni
Rumford.

Vol.. V.

The celebrated physician, Thomas Sydenham, in many respects the
most eminent that England has produced, was born in the year 1624,
at Wynford-Eagle, in Dorsetshire, where his father, William Syden
ham, enjoyed a considerable estate. The mansion in which he was
born is now converted into a farm-house, and stands on the property
of Lord Wynford.
In the year 1642, when eighteen, he was admitted as a commoner
at Magdalen-Hall, Oxford ; but quitted it in the same year, when that
city became the head quarters of the royal army, after the battle of
Edge-hill. He was probably induced to take this step by reasons of
a political nature ; for we find that his family were active adherents of
the opposite party. Indeed he is said, though on doubtful authority,
to have held a commission himself under the Parliament during his
absence from Oxford; and his elder brother, William, is known to
lave attained considerable rank in the republican army, and held im
portant commands under the Protectorate.
The political bias of his family is not without interest, as affording
a probable explanation of some circumstances in his life which would
otherwise be rather unaccountable, — such as the fact, that though he
reached the first eminence as a practising physician, he was never em
ployed at court, and was shghted by the college, who invested him
with none of their honours, nor even advanced him to the fellowship,
though a licentiate of their body, and qualified by the requisite
University education.
When Oxford was surrendered to the Parliament, Sydenham deter
mined to resume his academical studies ; and passing through London

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SYDENHAM. 19
on his way, he met accidentally with Dr. Thomas Coxe, a physician of
some repute at that time, who was attending his brother. The choice
of a profession became the subject of a conversation between them,
which determined him in favour of medicine ; for in a letter addressed
to Dr. Mapletoft, thirty years after this time, which forms the preface
to one of his writings, he refers with much warmth to this conversation
as the origin of his professional zeal, and, consequently, of whatever
useful advances he had made in medicine. Thus his success, both in
the practice and reformation of his art, may show the advantage of
waiting till the faculties are fully matured, before they are exercised
in a study which requires independence as well as vigour in thinking :
for the circumstances of his family being sufficiently affluent to place
him above the necessity of choosing a profession early, he had not
turned his attention to physic till an age at which the medical educa
tion is generally almost completed. We are not, however, to believe
in the justice of an accusation brought against him, that he had never
studied his profession till he began to practise it ; for though we do
not know what particular line of study he pursued on his return to
Oxford, it is clear from many passages in his works that he had
studied the w^ritings of the ancient physicians with no common care ;
and as his own show no defect of acquaintance with whatever real
information had been collected before his time, we may reasonably
conclude that this contemporary censure was mistaken or malicious.
He certainly held the opinions of his modern predecessors in very
little respect, for he does not often mention them, even for the purpose
of confutation ; and in the letter to Dr. Mapletoft already referred to,
he says that he had found the best, and, in fact, the only safe guide,
through the various perplexities he had met with in his practice, to be
the method of actual observation and experiment recommended by
Lord Bacon. This sentiment is often repeated in his works; but it
surely does not countenance the idea that he had begun to practise
without endeavouring to make what preparation he could, or would have
had others follow such an example ; for the charge against him goes
to this length. The notion might arise from a foolish anecdote related
by his admirer. Sir Richard Blackmore, of his having recommended
Don Quixote as the best introduction he knew to the practice of
medicine,' which Sydenham must have intended as a jest, or perhaps^as
a sarcasm on the narrator himself.
At Oxford he formed a close friendship with John Locke, better
known afterwards as a philosopher than as a physician. Their inti-
, D 2

20 SYDENHAM.
macy, which lasted to the end of Sydenham's life, probably contributed
not a little to give form to the disgust which he soon displayed at the
unsatisfactory and fluctuating state of medical opinion, and to the zeal
with which he sought to establish it on surer grounds ; for he appeals,
as to the highest authority, in confirmation of some of his new views
on the treatment of fever, to the approval of his illustrious friend,
who even paid him the compliment of prefixing a eulogy in indifferent
Latin verse to the treatise in which these views are developed.
On the 14th of April, 1648, he took the degree of bachelor of
medicine, being then twenty-four years old ; and in the same year
obtained a fellowship at All Souls College, by the interest of a
relation. The degree of doctor he subsequently took at Cambridge,
where, being among those who thought with him in politics, he pro
bably found himself more at his ease. After a visit of some length at
Montpellier, then considered the best practical school of medicine on
the continent, he settled in Westminster, and soon after married.
His progress to eminence in his profession must have been unusually
rapid, which might be owing, in some measure, to the call for men of
good capacity to the more stirring scenes of civil sti'ife ; for at thirty-
six he had succeeded in establishing a first-rate reputation, which he
continued to sustain in spite of much hostility and ill-health for up
wards of twenty years.
He witnessed the breaking out of the plague in 1665, but when it
reached the house adjoining his own, he was induced to I'emove with
his family some miles out of town. Of this desertion of his post,
however, he seems to have repented ; for he afterwards returned, and
occupied himself diligently in visiting the victims of that devastating
malady, and has left a short but interesting account of his opinions
respecting it, and of the treatment he adopted ; for the comparative
success of which, he appeals to the physicians who had witnessed or
followed his practice.
At the age of 25, though a man of remarkably temperate and regu
lar habits, he became afflicted with gout and stone, from which he suf
fered extreme tomient with great resignation and patience for the rest
of his life. Of course he did not neglect the opportunity of studying
those diseases in his own person, and recording the result of his ob
servations. His account of gout, especially, is considered to be a
most accurate and able history of that disease.
He died, leaving a family, at his house in Pail-Mall, on the 29th of
December, 1689, in the 66th year of his age, and was buried in the

SYDENHAM. 21
parish church of St. James, Westminster, where, in 1810, a tablet
was erected to his memory by the College of Physicians, who became,
as a body, tardily but fully convinced of his extraordinary merit
and eminent claims to the gratitude and respect of his profession.
He is said to have been a man of the most retiring and unobtrusive
disposition, and the utmost placidity of temper. In a biographical
sketch by Dr. Samuel Johnson, prefixed to an English edition of his
works by Swan, in 1742, it is remarked, that if he could not teach us
in his writings how to cure the painful disorders from which he suf
fered, he has taught us by his example the nobler art to bear them
with serenity. Nor was he less patient of mental than of bodily
inflictions ; for though he was the object of much asperity among the
physicians of his time, he made no reprisals upon the reputations of
those who slandered him : though he often speaks of their bitterness,
he never even mentions their names, — a forbearance to which, as his
biographer pungently remarks, they are indebted for their escape from
a discreditable immortality. His wi'itings breathe throughout a spirit
of warm piety, candour, and benevolence: he is said to have been
extremely generous in his dealings with his patients ; for which, Avith
other reasons, his practice though large was not very gainful, and he
did not leave much wealth behind him. He never was sought after by
the great, like his successor and disciple Radcliffe ; and had none of the
talents by which that singular man was able to push his fortune and
establish a kind of professional despotism. Yet, whatever medical
skill the latter evinced seems to have been derived from Sydenham,
whose doctrines and treatment he contrived to bring into a much more
early and general repute in England than they would probably have
otherwise obtained. Each had his reward : the one will be long re
membered as the founder of a magnificent library ; the other can never
be forgotten as the author of modern medicine.
The bent of Sydenham's mind was eminently practical ; he thought
that the business of a physician is to acquire an accurate knowledge
of the causes and symptoms of diseases, and the effects of different
remedies upon them, that if he cannot prevent them, he may at
least recognise them with certainty, and apply with promptitude the
means most likely to cure them: with Hippocrates and the ancient
empirical physicians, whose tenets he professed to follow, he con
demned all curious speculations upon the intimate nature of disease, as
incapable of proof, and therefore always useless, and often hurtful ; and
maintained that the only trustworthy source of opinion in medicine is

22 SYDENHAM.
experience resulting from observations frequently repeated, and expe
riments cautiously varied ; and that no theories worth attention can be
framed until the recorded experience of many observers, under many
different circumstances, and even through successive ages, shall be
embodied into one general system ; and he boldly declared his belief
that every acute disease might then be cured. An instance, which
unfortunately as yet stands alone in support of this rather sanguine
expectation, may be taken from the history of small-pox. The obser
vation of its contagious nature led to the general practice of inocula
tion, and this to the immortal discovery of Jenner, by which a disease
but yesterday the scourge of the earth has been almost extinguished.
It is remarkable that Sydenham, who first pointed out the important
difference between its distinct and confluent forms, — who so materially
improved the treatment by changing it from stifling to cooling, — and
who studied and has described it with a laborious accuracy hardly
paralleled in the history of medicine, — was not aware of this, to us, its
most striking characteristic of contagion. A person conversant with
such subjects will feel no surprise at this: to the general reader it
may be a sufficient explanation, that it lies dormant for ten days ; and
that as it can only be taken once, and was always prevalent in London,
the number of persons susceptible at any given time, and in obvious
communication with each other, were comparatively few : so that
opportunities were not so likely to arise as might be imagined of
tracing its progress in single families or neighbourhoods from one
source of contagion.
Sydenham is justly celebrated for the happiness of his descriptions, and
his skilful application of simple methods of cure, which are as effectual
as they were novel in that age when a medical prescription sometimes
contained a hundred different substances ; but he has merit of a higher
kind, as a discoverer of general laws. Among others, he was the first
to notice that there is a uniformity in the fevers prevailing at any one
time, which is subject to periodical changes ; and that other acute
diseases often partake largely of the same general character, and
sometimes even merge in it altogether, as the plague is said to have
swallowed up all other diseases. This, wdiich he ascribed to some pe
culiar state of the atmosphere, he called its epidemic constitution ;
and to be aware of its vicissitudes must of course be very important
to the physician as a guide to practice. The value of these laws,
which Sydenham deduced from a multitude of observations, has been
attested by almost every medical ivriter since his time.

SYDENHAM. 23
His works have been repeatedly printed in the original Latin, as
well as in English and the continental languages. The first was pub
lished after he had been sixteen years in practice; the last he edited,
himself, is dated three years before his death ; and an elegant com
pendium of his experience was published posthumously by his son.
They all appear to have been extorted by the importunity of his
friends or the misrepresentations of his enemies. It is said that
they were composed in English, and translated into Latin by his
friends Mapletoft and Havers : there is, however, little reason for
attaching credit to this report, as we are assured, on the authority
of Sir Hans Sloane, who knew him well, that Sydenham was an
excellent classical scholar, and perfectly capable of expressing him
self elegantly in Latin. They are most carefully written and clearly
expressed, and bear marks of the utmost truth and impartiality in
the narration of facts, and judgment in arranging them. They
are not voluminous, ae he studiously refrained fi'om overloading
them with trivial matter, and from entering into the detail of a
greater number of cases than might be sufficient to illustrate his
method of practice. His object was to confine himself to the results
of his own observation : to this he pretty strictly adhered, so that
little space is occupied in his writings by quotations or criticism. It
must be admitted that he occasionally lapses into theoretical discus
sion, in violation of his own principles ; but as he seldom or never per
mitted his fancy to divert him from what was practically useful, he
may be pardoned, if in that age of speculation he could not entirely re
sist the seduction, A graver charge against him is, that he over
looked or undervalued the immense body of information to be obtained
from examining the effects of diseased actions after death, and devoted
himself too exclusively to the study of the symptoms during life, and
the effect of remedies upon them. It is hardly a sufficient justification
of a man of so much independence of spirit to reply, that such exami
nations w^ere opposed by the prejudices of the age in which he lived.
Others have overcome the same obstacles, and with them many of
those difficulties which perplexed and misled even the mind of
Sydenham, He had equal or greater difficulties to contend against
in the deep-rooted absurdities of the chemical and mechanical
schools, which in the early part of his life held an almost equally
divided sway in medicine : the former originated with Paracelsus
and his disciples, and had the advantage of a longer prescription ; and
the latter had received a fresh accession of strength from the recent

24 SYDENHAM.
discoveries of Harvey : both, however, gave way before his energetic
appeal to fact and experience. Scarcely less credit is due to him for
his successful opposition to the popular superstition in favour of a host
of futile remedies, which are now happily consigned to oblivion with
the family receipt books and herbals in which their virtues were
paraded, than for his victory over false principles and dangerous rules
of practice.
On the whole, it may be safely advanced that medicine, as a prac
tical science, owes more to the closely-printed octavo, in which the
results of his toilsome exertions are comprised, than to any other single
source of information.

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Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, the third son of Henry Hyde, of
Dinton, Esquire, a younger branch of an ancient family long established
in Cheshire, was born at Dinton, near Salisbury, February 18, 1609.
The most valuable part of his early education he received from his
father, who was an excellent scholar : from his residence at Magdalen
Hall, Oxford, where he entered in 1622, and took his bachelor's degree
in 1625, according to his own account he obtained little benefit. In
February 1627, he was entered at the Middle Temple. At the age
of twenty-one, he married his first wife, who died within six months
of their union. After the lapse of three years he was again married,
to the daughter of Sir Thomas Aylesbury, Master of Requests to the
King, by whom he left a numerous family. He was called to the bar
in Michaelmas term, 1633. To the study of law he entertained in
the first instance a strong dislike, and applied himself chiefly to history
and general literature. But from the time of his second marriage he
devoted himself steadily to the pursuit of his profession, in Avhich he
early acquired considerable practice and reputation. His business was,
however, more frequent in the Court of Requests, in the Star Chamber,
than in the courts of common law, and his name rarely appears in the
reports of that period.
Soon after he was called to the bar, Mr. Hyde was concerned in a
transaction of considerable moment, which produced important con
sequences in his future life, by introducing him to the favourable
notice of Archbishop Laud. It arose out of certain Custom-House
regulations, by which the London merchants found themselves ag
grieved. The leading men among them applied to Mr. Hyde, who, on
finding all remonstrances with the Lord Treasurer unavailing, advised
them to state their grievances in a petition to the King, which he drew
for them. On the death of the Lord Treasurer, the Earl of Portland,
Vol. V. E

26 CLARENDON.
the affairs of the Treasury were placed under the management of
several commissioners, of whom Laud was one. The Archbishop soon
found occasion to investigate the complaint of the merchants ; and in
consequence he sent for, and held several interviews with, Mr. Hyde:
to whom he became a valuable and efficient patron, noticing him par
ticularly when he appeared as counsel in the Star Chamber, and con
sulting and employing him on many public occasions.
Laud's favour introduced Mr. Hyde to the Lord Keeper Coventry,
the Earl of Manchester, then Lord Privy Seal, and other political and
legal characters of high rank, of the court party. With the leaders of
the popular, or country party also he was upon friendly terms, " having,"
as he says, " that rare felicity, that even they who did not love many of
those upon whom he most depended, were yet very well pleased with
him and with his company."
Upon the summoning of wdiat was called the Short Parliament,
which met April 3, 1640, Mr. Hyde was elected member for Wootton-
Basset, and for Shaftesbury. He chose to take his seat for the former
place. His first and only speech during the session was in the cele
brated debate on the subject of grievances, introduced by a motion of
Mr. Pym ; on which occasion Mr. Hyde directed the attention of the
house to the enormous abuses of the Earl Marshal's Court. Whitelocke
says that " he gained much credit by his conduct in this business," In
the warm debate which took place in the House of Commons upon the
question of a. supply, it was hinted by members of the house connected
with the court, that Charles, upon hearing of their proceedings, would
probably dissolve the parliament in displeasure. Mr. Hyde perceived
the injurious tendency of such a measure, and immediately went from
the house to Archbishop Laud, to entreat him to dissuade the King
from so injudicious a course. The Archbishop heard him as usual with
patience, but refused to interfere : and the Parliament was dissolved
in less than three weeks after its first meeting.
The necessities of the King compelled him to call the Long Parlia
ment in the following November, of which Mr. Hyde was also a mem
ber. The elections having in general favoured the popular party, the
temper of this parliament was at its commencement decidedly more
opposed to the court than the last. At first, Mr. Hyde, whose fami
liarity with Laud was well known, was an object of jealousy and
dislike. His conduct as chairman of the committee appointed to con
sider the abuses of the Earl Marshal's Court, which led to the total
abolition of that unauthorized jurisdiction, and his avowed disappro
bation of several obnoxious branches of the prerogative, restored him

CLARENDON. 27
in some degree to the good opinion of the house, while his influence
with the moderate party, both in the court and the parliament, daily
increased. Having given up his professional practice since the begin
ning of the parliament, he was much employed in the ordinary business
of the house. He was chairman of the committee appointed to inquire
into the legality and expediency of the courts of the President and
Council of the North, commonly called the Courts of York; and in
April, 1641, he was commissioned to communicate to the House of
Lords the resolutions of the Commons against those courts. The
performance of this duty he accompanied by a speech, in which he
explained to the Lords, with much clearness and precision, the origin
and nature of this obnoxious jurisdiction, and which he says in his
History, " met with good approbation in both houses." In July fol
lowing he was chairman of the committee for inquiring into the conduct
of the judges in the case of ship-money ; and the management of the
impeachment of the Lord Chief Baron Davenport, Baron Weston,
and Baron Trevor, before the Lords, was afterwards entrusted to him.
Upon this occasion, he delivered an excellent speech, exhibiting, in
eloquent language, the destructive effects of the corruption of the
judges upon the liberty of the subject and the security of property.
During the same year, he appears from the Commons' journals to have
been usually named on the most important committees both of a public
and private nature.
The course adopted by Mr. Hyde with reference to the Earl of
Strafford's prosecution cannot be precisely ascertained. That he was
employed in arranging the preliminary steps for the impeachment,
appears from the journals ; but in his History he does not explicitly
declare what part he took upon the introduction of the bill of attainder,
Some of his biographers state that he warmly opposed it ; but no evi
dence is given in support of the assertion ; and it is quite clear that
neither his name, nor that of Lord Falkland, his political and personal
friend, appear amongst those which were posted as " Straffordians,
Betrayers of their Country," for having voted against the measure.
Though he cordially acquiesced in many of the measures at this time
introduced by the popular leaders for the redress of grievances, his po
litical opinions, as well as his ultimate views and intentions, differed
widely from those of the predominant party. He strenuously opposed
a bill for depriving the bishops of tlieir seats in parliament, which
passed the House of Commons, though it was rejected in the House
of Lords by a great majority. In no degree discouraged by this dis
comfiture, the leaders of the Puritan party soon afterwards introduced
E 2

28 CLARENDON.
a measure for the total abolition of episcopacy, known by the title of
' The Root and Branch Bill,' which was read a first time and com
mitted. Mr. Hyde was appointed chairman of the committee, by
common consent of both parties ; the one wishing to get rid of his op
position in the committee, the other to secure a chairman of their own
views. The result proved the latter party to be in the right ; for
Hyde contrived so to baffle the promoters of the measure, that they at
last thought proper to withdraw it. Sir Arthur Haselrig declaring in the
house, that " he would never hereafter put an enemy into the chair."
His conduct respecting this measure Avas warmly approved by the
King ; who before he went to" Scotland in 1641, sent for Mr. Hyde, to
express how much he was beholden to him for his services, " for which
he thought fit to give him his own thanks, and to assure him that he
would remember it to his advantage."
Before the King left Whitehall, in consequence of the tumults
occasioned by his indiscretion in demanding the Five Members, he
charged Mr. Hyde, in conjunction with Lord Falkland and Sir John
Colepeper, to consult constantly together upon the state of affairs in
his absence, and to give him on every occasion their unreserved advice,
without which he declared solemnly that he would take no step in the
parliament. Though much discouraged by the previous conduct of
the King respecting the Five Members, which he had adopted without
consulting them, and entirely against their judgment, they undertook
and faithfully executed the charge imposed upon them ; and after the
King had left London, they met every night at Mr. Hyde's house in
Westminster, to communicate to each other their several intelligences
and observations, and to make such arrangements as they thought best
adapted to stay the falling fortunes of the royal cause.
Mr. Hyde's good understanding with the leaders of the popular
party had rapidly declined, since his opposition to the proposed measure
for ejecting the bishops from the House of Lords ; and after his conduct
in the committee for abolishing episcopacy he was regarded as a declared
enemy, and his nightly consultations with Falkland and Colepeper
were watched with the utmost jealousy. Though his situation at this
time was one of considerable danger, he remained at his post after the
King's departm'e to York, and constantly took his seat in the House of
Commons. About the latter end of April, 1642, Mr. Hyde received a
better from the King, requiring him immediately to repair to him at
York ; with which requisition he complied in the course of the next
month, having first rendered a signal service to the royal cause by
persuading the Lord Keeper Littleton to send the Great Seal and also

CLARENDON. 29
to go himself to the King. In consequence of this step the House of
Commons passed a resolution, in August, 1642, disabling him from
sitting again in that parliament ; and their indignation was raised to
such a degree, that Mr. Hyde was one of the few persons who were
excepted from the pardon which the Earl of Essex was afterwards
instructed to offer to those who might be induced to leave the King and
submit to the parliament. On joining the King at York, Mr. Hyde
continued to be one of his most confidential advisers, and was soon
afterwards knighted and made Chancellor of the Exchequer. In this
capacity he negociated with the parliamentary commissioners sent to
Oxford in 1643; and in 1645 he acted as one of the King's com
missioners at the treaty of Uxbridge. After the breaking off of that
treaty it was thought expedient to send the Prince of Wales into the
west of England, both to secure his person from the dangers with which
his father was environed, and to give encouragement to the Royalists in
that part of the countiy. Sir Edward Hyde accompanied him as one of
his Council. The parliamentary successes in the west compelled the
Prince to migrate, first to Scilly, thence to Jersey, from which place he
departed into France in July, 1646. Hyde remained in Jersey for the
space of two years, devoting himself wholly to his History of the Re
bellion, which he had commenced in the Scilly Islands, and of which
he completed the four first books at that time. While engaged in this
manner, he received several letters from the King, expressive of his
approbation of his undertaking, and supplying him with a particular
relation of the occurrences which had taken place from the departure
of the Prince until the period of his joining the Scotch army.
In May, 1648, Hyde received the King's commands to join the
Prince of Wales at Paris. On the way thither, he met Lord Cot-
tington and others at Rouen, where he learned that the Prince was
gone to Holland, and was ordered to follow him. After many diffi
culties and dangers, Cottington and Hyde met their young master at
the Hague in the month of August, and were soon afterwards joined
by several other members of the King's council.
On the announcement of the execution of his father, Charles
despatched Sir Edward Hyde and Lord Cottington as his ambassadors
to Spain. After a fruitless negotiation of fifteen months, they received
a message from court shortly after the arrival of the news of Crom
well's victory at Dunbar, desiring them to quit the Spanish dominions.
Hyde then repaired to Antwerp, where he resided with his wife and
family, until, at the end of 1651, he was summoned to Paris, to meet
Charles II., after his memorable escape from the battle of Worcester.

30 CLARENDON.
He resided at Paris with the exiled court for nearly three years, and
during this period enjoyed the unlimited confidence of his master, who
left the arduous and difficult task of corresponding and negotiating
with the English royalists entirely to his management. At this
period the exiled royalists were frequently reduced to great pecuniary
distress. The miserable dissensions and petty jealousies which pre
vailed among them are fully described in the History of the Rebellion.
At length Charles, wearied and disgusted by the intrigues and broils
Avhich perpetually disturbed his council, while subject to the inter
ference of the Queen Mother, determined to leave Paris ; and accord
ingly he quitted that city in June, 1654, and went to reside at Cologne,
Sir Edward Hyde and the rest of his court still following his humble
fortunes. Upon the execution of the treaty with Spain, Charles re
moved from Cologne to Bruges in 1657, and in the course of that year
bestowed upon Sir Edward Hyde the then empty dignity of Lord High
Chancellor of England. Soon after this event the prospects of the
Royalists began to brighten. The government of Cromwell had been
for some time growing infirm, in consequence of domestic dissensions,
the exhausted state of the revenue, and the distrust entertained towards
the Protector, who had successively deceived and disappointed all
parties. These seeds of discord were sedulously cultivated by the
English royalists ; and at last the death of that extraordinary man
led to a series of events which introduced the restoration of Charles II.
At the Restoration Sir Edward Hyde was continued as Lord Chan
cellor ; and notwithstanding the constant hostility of the Queen
Mother and her faction at court, he maintained for some time a para
mount influence with the King, who treated him with the confidence
and friendship which his great industry and talents for business, and
his faithful attachment to himself and his father so well deserved. In
November, 1 660, he was raised to the peerage, by the title of Baron
Hyde of Hindon in the county of Wilts, and in the spring of the fol
lowing year he was created Viscount Cornbury and Earl of Clarendon.
He was also about this time elected Chancellor of the University of
Oxford. Among the tribes of expectant cavaliers who now flocked to
the court of the restored monarch, all hnpatient to obtain something
in recompense for their alleged services and sufferings in the royal
cause, these honours and distinctions bestowed upon the Earl of Cla
rendon raised a storm of envy and malice which eventually caused
his ruin. The King's easiness of access, and, as Lord Clarendon
calls it, that " imbecillitas frontis, which kept him from denying," to
gether with the moral cowardice which induced him to escape from

CLARENDON. 31
the most troublesome importunities, by sending petitioners to the Chan
cellor for their answers, necessarily increased the dislike with which
he was regarded. The discovery of the marriage of his daughter to
the Duke of York, afterwards James II., though it probably took
place without the knoAvledge of the Chancellor, gave ample oppor
tunity to the malice of his enemies. The King, however, behaved on
this occasion in a manner which did him credit. He not only re
quired the Duke to acknowledge his wife, on being certified that the
ceremony had been duly performed, but refused with passion the
proffered resignation of the Chancellor, who offered to reside in future
beyond seas, and conjured him " never more to think of those unrea
sonable things, but to attend and prosecute his business with his usual
alacrity, since his kindness should never fail him."
The first open act of hostility against Lord Clarendon was under
taken by the Earl of Bristol, who, in 1663, exhibited articles of high
treason and other misdemeanors against him in the House of Lords.
These articles, which contained a great variety of vague and inconsistent
charges, were forwarded by the House of Lords to the King, who in
formed them, that " he found several matters of fact charged, which
upon his own certain knowledge were untrue ; and that the articles
contained many scandalous reflections upon himself and his family,
which he looked upon as libels against his person and government."
Upon a reference by the House of Lords to the judges, they reported
that " the whole charge did not amount to treason though it were all
true ;" and upon this the proceedings were abandoned.
But it was at last the fate of Lord Clarendon to experience the pro
verbial ingratitude of princes. From the period of the Restoration a
powerful union of discontented parties had gradually combined against
him. All hated him — the old cavaliers, because they thought he
neglected their just claims upon the bounty of the King ; the papists
and the dissenters, because they found him an uncompromising oppo
nent of all concessions to those whom he regarded as enemies of the
established church ; the licentious adherents of an unprincipled court,
because his honest endeavours to withdraw the King from his levity
and profligacy to serious considerations, thwarted their intentions and
interrupted their pleasures. Their united efforts erased from Charles's
mind the recollection of services of no common value, and caused him
to abandon his best and most faithful counsellor, without having even
the appearance of a reason for his conduct, beyond what he called
" the Chancellor's intolerable temper."
The Great Seal was taken from Lord Clarendon in August, 1667;
and in the month of November following, after an angry debate, he

32 CLARENDON.
was impeached by the Commons, in general terms, of high treason and
other crimes and misdemeanors ; but the Lords, upon the impeachment
being carried up, refused to commit him, or to sequester him from
parliament, on the ground of the generality of the charge. Before the
formal articles of impeachment were prepared. Lord Clarendon left
England, in consequence of repeated messages from the King advising
him to take that course, having previously addressed to the Lords a
vindication of his conduct. Immediately after his departure a bill was
introduced into the House of Lords, and rapidly passed, by which he
was condemned to perpetual banishment, and declared to be for ever
incapable of bearing any public office or employment in England.
The charges made against Lord Clarendon at this time were scarcely
less multifarious and inconsistent than those which were instituted by
Lord Bristol a few years before. He Avas accused of designing to go
vern by a standing army, — of accusing the King of popery, — of receiving
bribes for patents, — of selling offices, — oi acquiring a greater estate than
he could lawfully have gained in a short time, — of advising the sale of
Dunkirk to the French, — of causing Quo Warrantos to be issued against
corporations in order that he might receive fines on renewals of
charters, and many other particulars of alleged corruption. From
most of these accusations Lord Clarendon vindicated himself in an
address delivered to the House of Lords upon his departure ; but
during his retirement at Montpellier, he prepared, and transmitted to
his children in England a fuller apology, in Avhich he answered each
article of the charges objected to him by the Commons.
After some hesitation. Lord Clarendon determined to reside at
Montpellier, where he arrived in July, 1668, He was treated with
much courtesy and respect by the governor of the city, as well as the
French and English inhabitants of all ranks. His first task was to write
the vindication of his conduct above-mentioned. During his retirement
he made himself master of French and Italian, and read the works of the
most eminent Avriters in both those languages. He also completed his
History of the Rebellion, and wrote an answer to Hobbes's Leviathan,
an Historical Discourse on Papal Jurisdiction, a volume of Essays,
divine, moral, and political, and also those fragments of his Life, which
Avere first published by the University of Oxford in 1759. Engaged in
these pursuits he passed nearly three years at Montpellier in great
tranquillity and cheerfulness. He left that city in 1672, and went
first to Moulins, then to Rouen, Avhere he died, December 9, 1673.
His remains were brought to England and interred in Westminster
Abbey. The political conduct of Lord Clarendon, though variously described

CLARENDON. 33
by writers of opposite parties, appears to have been generally as con
sistent and upright as can reasonably be expected from men of warm
tempers, deeply interested in the most violent civil dissensions. His
earliest impressions were decidedly in favour of the popular party ;
and even after he had become familiar with Archbishop Laud, and
was favourably noticed by Charles I., he strenuously supported that
party in the removal of actual grievances, and resisted Avith
zeal and energy the encroachments of prerogative. That he after
wards refused to join in the wild and intemperate actions committed
by the Parliament, and supported the royal cause against the con
tinually increasing demands of those Avith Avhom he had previously
acted, is not to be ascribed to inconsistency in his conduct, but
to the development of designs and measures at all times repugnant
to his principles. His advice to Charles I. and to Laud Avas always
temperate and wise, and Avas given with boldness and candour.
After the Restoration, in the height of his poAver and influence,
he displayed the same moderation in his opinions and conduct, and
acted upon the same principles of dislike to fundamental changes,
which had influenced him as a member of the Long Parliament. It
has been imputed to Lord Clarendon that he neglected to exert himself
for the relief of those unfortunate cavaliers whose attachment to the
King had involved them in penury and ruin. It is difficult to ascertain
the exact truth of this charge ; but, Avhether true or false, such an accu
sation was sure to be made in a case Avhere the applicants for compen
sation were numerous, and the means of satisfying them inconsiderable.
In the discharge of the legal functions of his office of Lord Chan
cellor, as presiding in the Court of Chancery, he Avas by no means dis
tinguished; he promoted some reforms in the practice of his court,
and continued the judicious improvements effected during the Com
monwealth ; but Evelyn says " he was no considerable laAvyer," and
the circumstance that he never decided a case Avithout requiring the
presence of two judges is, if true, a sufficient acknowledgment of his
judicial incompetency.
For his judicial appointments Lord Clarendon is entitled to unqua
lified praise. Hale, Bridgeman, and other judges of the highest emi
nence for learning and independence, Avere appointed by him imme
diately after the Restoration, and contributed in a great degree to give
stability and moral strength to the new government, by the confidence
which their characters inspired in the due administration of the law.
As an historian Lord Clarendon was unquestionably careless and in
exact to a surprising degree, which may in some measure be excused
Vol. V. F

34

CLARENDON.

by the necessity of writing very much from recollection; and he was a
perpetual advocate and partisan of the Royal cause, though by no
means of most of its supporters. But though his narration constantly
betrays the bias of party, and cannot therefore be safely relied upon for
our historical conclusions, his misrepresentations arise from the avowed
partiality and intense concern he feels for the cause he is advocating,
and not from any design to suppress or distort facts. His style is
luxuriant and undisciplined, and his expression in the narrative parts
of his history is diffuse and inaccurate ; but his fervent loyalty and
the warmth of his attachment to his political friends have infused a
richness of eloquence into his delineations of character, which has per
haps never been surpassed in any language.

[Medal of Clarendon.] [Medal in Commemoration of the Restoration.]

£n^-aieil. hy J J'ofsi^livhit^i

sum .JJOgMUTA MIEYIT'OILIDS

Mii.li [¦ ft.' Niipriiutpudun.-i. ofUic Socielv fnv tie Ditfiisinn of [,'s,-fu] Ku,™.t,.,l|;,-

Lrtijl^n I'/ihbffi^^ J'V ''h/irlf.i Eniifht Li„i.t,tlf iVj-.w .

JMl, sir J.REYNOLDS.

" Sir Joshua Reynolds," says Burke, " Avas the first Englishman
who added the praise of the elegant arts to the other glories of his
country." Without staying to inquire hoAV far the literal truth of
this assertion may be affected by the priority in date of Wilson and
Hogarth, not to mention their less illustrious predecessors, it may
safely be affirmed, not only that Reynolds was the founder of the
English school, but that the most valuable qualities in the art of
painting were almost lost sight of throughout Europe Avhen he began
his career. In Holland, the rich manner of Rembrandt, feebly sus
tained by his imitators, had been succeeded by no less opposite
a style than that of Vanderwerf ; the still more laboured finish of
Denner, a native of Hamburgh, followed; while the minute perfection
which Avas in vogue found a more legitimate application in the floAver-
pieces of Van Huysum. Reynolds was twenty-four years old at the
decease of Denner, AA'ho had twice visited London, and had been much
employed there. The French school about the middle of the last
century took its tone from Boucher, a name now almost forgotten, and
if remembered, synonymous with the extreme of affectation ; he Avas
principal painter to Louis XV. The native country of Claude and
Poussin was indeed more illustrious during this time in the department
of landscape, as Vernet produced his views of sea-ports about the
period alluded to ; but this example, however res])ectable, was itself
indicative of a declining taste, and the style of view-painting in the
hands of the foreign artists Avho practised it in Italy, with the Prussian
Hackert at their head, had the effect of extinguishing for a time all
invention in landscape. The academy at Berlin was under the direction
of a Frenchman ; Oeser Avas the greatest name at Leipzic and Dresden ;
and the south of Germany still imported imitations of the latest Italian
F 2

36 REYNOLDS.
styles in fashion. The state of the arts in Spain may be judged of by
the fact, that when, in 1761, Mengs, Avho was himself a native of
Germany, repaired to Madrid in the service of Charles HI., the chief
painters estalolished there Avere a Venetian and a Neapolitan, Tiepolo
and Corrado Giaquinto. The Venetian school, sometimes entirely
losing its original character, seemed at least to maintain a consistent
degeneracy in the styles of Sebastian Ricci and the above-named
Giambattista Tiepolo, both weak and mannered imitators of Paul
Veronese, but still preserving, at least the latter, some brilliancy of
colour and pleasing execution. With Tiepolo the characteristic merits
of the school seem however to have ceased altogether : towards the
latter part of the century, the chief employment of the Venetian
painters Avas the restoration of old pictures.* A particular school Avas
established in 1778 for this purpose, and a description of the extra
ordinary labours of the artists is preserved in the thirty-eighth volume
of Goethe's Avorks. In Rome, the talents of Maratta and Sacchi, and
" the great but abused poAvers of Pietro da Cortona," had been suc
ceeded by feebler efforts, descending or fluctuating through the styles
of Cignani, Trevisani, and others, till the time of Sebastian Conca,
and Pompeo Battoni, The last-named Avas approaching the zenith of
his short-lived reputation, and almost Avithout a rival (for Mengs was
as yet young, and Conca already aged), AA^hen Reynolds visited Rome,
Laborious detail on the one hand, and empty facility on the other,
formed the distinguishing characteristics of these different schools ;
but however opposite in execution, mind was alike wanting in both.
Denner may be considered the representative of the microscopic style;
a style, if it deserves the name, which he applied even to heads the size
of life ; and as mere finish never was, and probably never will be
carried to a more absurd length, his name, though comparatively
obscure, marks an epoch in the art. The same scrupulous minute
ness obtained about the same time in landscape ; among the view-
painters, Hendrick Van Lint, surnamed Studio, may be named as the
most remarkable of his class, Reynolds alludes to him in one of
his discourses, as noted, when he knew him in Rome, for copying
every leaf of a tree. The opposite style, Avhich aimed at quantity
and rapidity, was derived from the expert painters of galleries and
ceilings, called " Machinisti," and more immediately from Luca
Giordano. Facility and despatch, at the expense of every solid quality
of art, Avere the characteristics of the school which was represented in
the earlier part of Reynolds's career, principally by Sebastian Conca
in Italy, and by Corrado Giaquinto in Spain.
* It is worthy of remark that about the same time the sculptors in Rome were as
exclusively employed in restoring antique statues.

REYNOLDS. 37
The changes Avhich took place in this state of things, toAvards the
latter part of the century, may be traced partly to the renewed appre
ciation of the antique statues (a taste which, however beneficial to
sculpture, had an unfortunate influence on the sister art), and subse
quently to political circumstances. The fluctuations of taste, however
deliberately estimated by retrospective criticism, are indeed generally
the result of accident, and depend on causes but seldom derived from
a just definition of the nature and object of art. It appears, hoAvever,
that Reynolds, alone as he was, the founder rather than the follower
of a school, enjoyed the rare privilege of making the taste of his time
instead of being made by it; and although it would be absurd to
suppose that he could be independent of the accidents with which he
was brought in contact, it will not appear, upon a candid inquiry, that
this great artist was in any respect directly influenced by the practice
of his age.
Joshua Reynolds was born at Plympton, near Plymouth, in Devon
shire, July 16, 1723; he Avas the son of the Rev. Samuel Reynolds,
who taught the grammar school of Plympton. The young artist's
fondness for drawing manifested itself early, and at eight years of age
he had become so Avell acquainted with the " Jesuits' Perspective," as
to apply its principles Avith some effect in a drawing of his father's
school, a building elevated on stone pillars. Among other books con
nected with art to Avhich he had access, Richardson's ' Treatise on
Painting ' had a powerful effect in exciting his ambition. The earliest
know^n picture he attempted is a portrait of the Rev. Thomas Smart,
who was the vicar of Maker, the parish in which Mount Edgecumbe
is situated. Reynolds, then a school-boy about tAvelve years of age,
sketched the portrait of the vicar at church, and afterwards copied it
on canvass. This picture is now in the possession of John Boger, Esq.,
of East Stonehouse near Plymouth. The taste of the young painter
becoming every day more decided, his father, urged by the advice of
some friends, placed him at the age of seventeen as a pupil with Hudson,
Avho had at that time the chief business in portrait painting, although a
very indifferent artist. In 1743 Reynolds returned to Devonshire, in
consjequence of a disagreement with his master, and set up as a portrait
painter in the town of Plymouth Dock, since called Devonport. He
here painted various portraits, chiefly of naval officers. One of these
Avorks, containing the portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Eliot and family, is
in the possession of the Earl of St. Germains. The composition of this
picture, the artist's first attempt at a group, approaches the pyramidal
form, and Reynolds, after contemplating it Avhen finished, observed, ' I
see I must have read something about a pyramid, for there it is.' Six other

38 REYNOLDS.
pictures of the artist are preserved in the same collection, at Port Eliot
in Cornwall. An admirable picture of a boy reading by a reflected
light was also executed about this time. Many interesting works of
Reynolds, some of them belonging to his earlier practice, are preserved
in the immediate neighbourhood of Plymouth, in the collections of the
Earl of Morley, Mr. Pole CarcAV of Antony, Mr. Rosdew of Beech-
wood, Mr. Lane of Coffleet, and others. The artist's early Avorks,
although sometimes carelessly drawn, are distinguished by breadth
of colour, by freedom of handling, and not unfrequently by great truth
of expression : in short, he seems to have contracted none of the defects
of Hudson, except, according to some of his biographers, a certain
stiffness and sameness in the attitudes of his portraits ; defects which
he afterwards exchanged for such grace, spirit, and, above all, endless
variety, that it was said " his inventions Avill be the future grammar
of portrait painters." The earliest portrait he painted of himself is in
the collection of Mr. Gwatkin of Plymouth, who married a niece of
Reynolds : the same gentleman also possesses the last portrait of the
artist by himself, together with many other interesting specimens of
his pencil. In 1 747 Reynolds repaired again to London, and took
lodgings in St. Martin's Lane, then and long aftenvards the favourite
residence of artists. In 1749 he sailed to the Mediterranean, by the
invitation, and in the company of Captain (afterwards Lord) Keppel.
Reynolds spent tAvo months in Minorca, where he painted several por
traits of military and naval officers, and proceeded thence, by Avay of
Leghorn, to Rome.
He was fully alive to the sources of inspiration Avhich this city of
the arts contained. In the midst of his enthusiasm, however, he was
secretly humiliated by discovering in himself an absence of all relish for
the grand works of Raffaelle in the Vatican. Richardson had inspired
him with the most exalted admiration of Raffaelle ; and whatever may
be supposed, Reynolds could not be entirely unacquainted \Adth the
subjects and designs of the works alluded to. Indeed, in some notes
of his own that have been preserved, he only confesses a feeling of
disappointment, and afterwards says, " In justice to myself, however,
I must add, that though disappointed and mortified at not finding
myself enraptured Avith the Avorks of this great master, I did not for a
moment conceive or suppose that the name of Raffaelle, and these
admirable paintings in particular, OAA'ed their reputation to the igno
rance and prejudice of mankind: on the contrary, my not relishing
them, as I Avas conscious I ought to have done, Avas one of the most
humiliating circumstances that ever happened to me. I found myself
in the midst of AA'orks executed upon principles Avith which I was

/ REYNOLDS. .39
unacquainted ; I felt my ignorance, and stood abashed ; all the indi
gested notions of painting Avhich I had brought Avith me from England,
where art was in the lowest state it had ever been in (indeed it could
not be lower), were to be totally done away and eradicated from my
mind." The union of candour and docility with good sense, which
the above account evinces, was the means of emancipating Reynolds
from the taste or fashion of the day. Instead of enrolling himself
among the scholars of Pompeo Battoni, as he was strongly recom
mended to do before his departure from England by his kind patron
Lord Edgecumbe, he endeavoured during the practice of his art to
penetrate the principles on which the great AVorks around him,
particularly those of Michael Angelo and Raffaelle, were produced.
His general theory Avill be found embodied in his writings, and if his
principles sometimes appear to be pushed too far, we may perhaps
attribute it to the wish to counteract certain prevailing errors among
his contemporaries. It is a general notion that, considering the differ
ence in style between the paintings of Reynolds and those of the great
models he professes to admire (Michael Angelo received his more
especial homage), he could not have been sincere in acknoAvledging so
thorough a conviction of their excellence. To decide fairly on this
difficult and often-discussed point, it is necessary to remember the state
of the arts when Reynolds formed his style. The great vice of the age
was a routine practice, seldom informed by any reference to the general
nature of the art, and as little remarkable for a just discrimination of
its various styles. In such a state of things it cannot excite surprise
that a sagacious and unprejudiced mind, in endeavouring to retrace the
leading principles of the art, should at the same time see the necessity
of modifying them in their application to a particular, and in some
respects a limited, department. As portrait painting, the imitation of
individuals, was to be Reynolds's chief occupation, it certainly did not
occur to him that the abstract representations of Michael Angelo, or
even of Raffaelle, could be fit models for him to follow, as far as exe
cution was concerned. He saw however that these masters Avere
probably right even in this respect, when the dignity and purity of
their aim, and Avhen subject, place, and dimensions are duly con
sidered. His irrsitation of them therefore began w^hen he endeavoured
to define the end and object of the particular style of art Avhich he himself
professed ; and although he soon concluded that it required a widely
different treatment, he failed not to translate, if Ave may so say, the
causes of the grandeur he admired into the language which belonged
to his own department. What he considered the distinctive and de-

40 REYNOLDS.
sirable requisites of portrait painting to consist in, may be best learnt
from his OAvn works. In the first place, the more dehcate refinements
of colouring and chiaro-scuro, by no means essential in the grander
and more abstract department of the art, are indispensable where the
imitation is confined to a single and generally a defective person.
It is thus that Rembrandt made up the sum of beauty by the fasci
nations of gradation and contrast, while the forms he had to deal with
were often of the most ordinary description. The just imitation of the
colour of flesh, the most beautiful and at the same time the most name
less hue in nature, has ever been considered the triumph of imitative
art, and confers value and dignity on the work Avherever it is fully
accomplished. Again, it must be remembered that the domain of
expression begins with the accidents of form ; that it belongs to and
often recommends individuality and redeems deformity ; and that its vivid
interest is to be sought less in the abstract personifications of Michael
Angelo, far less in the higher region of beauty which the Greeks justly
placed above the atmosphere of the passions, than in the varieties of
accidental nature. Reynolds seized on the delicacies of expression as
strictly harmonizing Avith the individual forms he had to copy : and,
while thus adding a charm to his class of art, he became at the same
time the abler portrait painter ; for the character and expression of the
individual are the chief points Avhich are demanded. Lastly, the con
duct and execution of his pictures Avere in strict conformity Avith the
same principles, and may be said to have been dictated by the largest
view of the nature and means of the art.
In his works the attention is always attracted by the important
objects, or diverted from them, when diverted, only to conceal the
artifice Avhich thus commands the eye of the spectator. It is evident
that the general degree of completeness will depend on that of
the principal object ; and assuming that Reynolds's style of painting a
head Avas sufficiently elaborate (it is generally less so than Vandyck's),
the unfinish of the accessories could hardly be otherwise than it is, con
sistently Avith due subordination. The truth of this consistency of
style was ultimately acknoAvledged, and although so opposite from
what had before been in fashion, and so different in many respects from
Avhat the vulgar admire, the pictures of Reynolds soon Avon the favour
of the public. If the admiration of his works had any ill effect, it was
that it tended to produce an imitation of the same mode rather than of
the same consistency.
On his return to England in 1752, Avhich has been somewhat anti
cipated in the foregoing remarks on his style, Reynolds repaired to his

REYNOLDS. 41
native county, and painted one or two pictures at Plymouth : perhaps
the earliest of the fine portraits of Mr. Zachary Mudge, Vicar of St,
Andrews, Avas one of these. He returned to London accompanied by
his sister Frances. For a short time he again occupied lodgings in
St. Martin's Lane, and produced there the portrait of Giuseppe Marchi,
an Italian Avhom he had brought home as an assistant. This picture,
which was in the style of Rembrandt, attracted general admiration;
and when his former master Hudson saw it, he exclaimed, stung with
jealousy, " Reynolds, you don't paint so well as Avhen you left England ! "
Soon after this, in consequence of his increased fame and employment,
Reynolds took a house in Great Newport Street, where he resided for
some years. The whole length portrait of Admiral Keppel Avas the next
work of importance Avhich he produced : it exhibited such powers that
it completely established the fame of the artist, and he was generally
acknowledged to be the greatest painter England had seen since the time
of Vandyck. From this period his career Avas one of uninterrupted
success and improvement ; for his reputation was never greater than
at the close of his laborious life. The detraction which such extraor
dinary merit soon excited was compelled to vent itself in attempting
to undervalue the department of art in AA'hich he excelled : in con
sequence of these insinuations, a defence of portrait painting, from
the pen of Dr. Johnson, appeared in the forty-fifth number of the
Idler. Johnson in that essay, after all, only proved that portrait
painting is interesting to a few — that in the hands of Reynolds
it was " employed in diffusing friendship, in renewdng tenderness, in
quickening the affections of the absent, and continuing the presence of
the dead." Reynolds himself, however, without forgetting these im
portant prerogatives, evidently took a more extended view of the
matter ; he seems early to have felt that the chief difficulty of portrait
painting (a difficulty perhaps greater than any in the other branches
of art) is to make the representation generally interesting. It is quite
obvious that this end can only be attained (especially as beauty of form
is not always at command) by a high degree of perfection in all that
constitutes the charm of art ; for no interest that attaches itself to the
individual pourtrayed, however celebrated, can be so universal or so
independently intelligible as that which arises from a large and true
imitation of nature, to which all are more or less alive. The perfection
of art as applicable to portrait painting, was therefore Reynolds's great
object, and it Avas only in subservience to this that he ventured to
introduce what in his hands might be considered a novelty in this
department. That novelty Avas the historic air he often gave his por-
ti'aits, by happy allusions to some important circumstance in the life
Vol.. V. G

42 REYNOLDS.
of the individual. His consummate knowledge of effect enabled him
to do this by means which never interfere with the mere portrait, a
difficulty which had been in a great measure evaded by preceding
painters. It will be remembered that in most of the portraits even of
Titian and Vandyck the attention is literally confined to the individual
pourtrayed (after all, the subject of the picture), and it was not lightly
or inconsiderately that Reynolds occasionally departed from this ju
dicious practice. If ever a painter could depend on the mere character
and expression of his heads, to say nothing of the charm of their
execution, Reynolds undoubtedly would have been secure of the pubhc
approbation on those grounds alone; and it was only where historic
interest happened to coincide or to interfere but little with picturesque
effect, that he ventured on the additions alluded to. A better instance
perhaps cannot be given than the portrait of Lord Heathfield (celebrated
for his defence of Gibraltar), in the National Gallery; in the back
ground of Avhich a cannon pointed downwards indicates, by its angle
of depression, the elevation of the spot where the veteran stands,
grasping the keys of the fortress which he defended so bravely. In
his allegorical portraits, such as Garrick between Tragedy and Comedy,
Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic Muse, &c., Reynolds encountered a much
greater difficulty, and it may be questioned Avhether any painter who
has yet appeared would have succeeded better. The mixture of real
and imaginary beings, of individual and abstract personifications, the
treatment of which would seem to require so different a style, was so
managed by Reynolds as to satisfy, in this respect, the most fastidious
taste. The secret of the greatness of his style in these subjects, and
indeed in most of his portraits, is to be sought in his colouring, the
idea of which is large and general ; and under its dignified influence
the individuality of forms and locality of dress are rendered with all
sufficient fidelity Avithout offending.. It is thus we find in many
Venetian, Flemish, and Dutch pictures, where the subject and forms
are most homely, an air of refined taste, and even of grandeur, which
seems unaccountable, till we discover that the colouring is true to the
largest idea of nature ; and thus, to a certain extent, the art is raised
by raising its characteristic quality. In short, to return to the question
of his imitation of Michael Angelo, we should find that, keeping the
main requisites and attainable excellences of portrait painting in view,
Reynolds contrived to infuse into it as much elevation as was calculated
to improve it Avithout injuring its character; and Avhen aa^c find that he
applied this even to execution, and that his breadth of manner, his
disdain of non-essentials, is evidently inspired by the same feeling, Ave
shall no longer AA'onder at his admiration of the highest style of art.

REYNOLDS. 43
or doubt the sincerity of his recorded professions on the subject. The
very indirectness of his imitation, in which the whole mystery lies,
so sure a proof of his having penetrated the principle of the great
master, establishes his claim to originality as well as to consummate
judgment and taste.
In 1768 the Royal Academy was instituted, and Mr. Reynolds,
holding unquestionably the first rank in his profession, Avas elected
President. On his elevation to this office he received the honour of
knighthood. As President he delivered to the students and professors
those celebrated discourses, which have reflected so much lustre on his
name. Their excellence in a theoretical point of view, the elegance
of their composition, and on the other hand the apparent contradictions
they sometimes contain, have been the theme of frequent observation
and discussion. The other writings of Sir Joshua are the ' Tour
to Flanders and Holland,' consisting of notes on the paintings seen by
him in those countries in the year 1781 ; ' Notes on Du Fresnoy's
Poem ;' and three papers in the Idler. Among the last, the Essay on
Beauty was not so original as is generally supposed, the same theory
having been previously promulgated by the Pere Buffier in his
' Cours des Sciences par des principes nouveaux. Paris, 1732.'
Among the historical and mythological pictures produced by Sir Joshua,
that of the Infant Hercules strangling the Serpents, executed in 1 786
for the Empress of Russia, is one of the most considerable : it is
pretty closely copied, as to invention and composition, from a descrip
tion of an antique painting of the same subject in Philostratus. This
work, so different from the taste of the Russian painters and connois
seurs, was long treated with neglect; but in consequence of the en
quiries of English travellers it has lately been cleaned, and placed in
the gallery of the Hermitage. It is said to be in a fine state of pre
servation, and one of the best works of Reynolds. The celebrated
picture of Ugolino was produced by an accidental circumstance. The
subject was suggested to Sir Joshua by Goldsmith, or, according to
others, by Burke, who was struck with the expression of an old ema
ciated head, among the unfinished studies of the painter, and observed
that it corresponded exactly with Dante's description of Count Ugolino.
The head was inserted in a larger canvas, and the rest of the com
position added. For the Shakspeare Gallery Sir Joshua painted three
pictures, — the Death of Cardinal Beaufort, the Cauldron Scene in
Macbeth, and Puck from Midsummer Night's Dream. The designs
for the window of the New College Chapel in Oxford are among
the finest of his sacred compositions.
In 1789, finding his eyesight begin to fail, Sir Joshua was compelled
G 2

44

REYNOLDS.

to give up the practice of his art. In December, 1790, he pronounced
his farewell Address at the Royal Academy, and on that occasion re
peated and confirmed, as with his dying voice, his admiration of Michael
Angelo. His infirmities confined him much during the short remain
ing portion of his life, and he died at his house in Leicester Fields,
February 23, 1792. He was buried in the crypt of the cathedral of
St. Paul, near the tomb of Sir Christopher Wren. The honours of his
funeral, as may be imagined, corresponded with his justly-earned fame;
and the day after his death a well-known eulogium by Burke appeared
in the public papers, so characteristic both of the writer and the great
artist to whose memory it was dedicated, that it was called the pane
gyric of Apelles, pronounced by Pericles. It concludes thus : — " His
talents of every kind, powerful from nature, and not meanly cultivated
by letters, his social virtues in all the relations and all the habitudes of
life, rendered him the centre of a very great and unparalleled variety of
agreeable societies, which Avill be dissipated by his death. He had
too much merit not to excite some jealousy, too much innocence to
provoke any enmity. The loss of no man of his time can be felt Avith
more sincere, general, and unmixed sorrow."
For a list of the pictures of Sir Joshua Reynolds, and ample details
of his life, the memoir of him by Northcote, who had been his
scholar, may be consulted; as well as the accounts prefixed to the
various editions of his literary works ; and that by Allan Cunningham,
in his Lives of the most eminent British Painters, Sculptors, and
Architects.

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Jonathan Swift, by an account in his own handwriting, was the
son of an attorney in the city of Dublin. He was born in 1667.
Some doubt has been felt concerning his origin, in consequence
of his own angry or capricious declaration, when out of humour with
Ireland, — " I am not of this vile country ; I am an Englishman ;"
and Sir William Temple has been said to be his real father. This
piece of scandal, however, is disproved by circumstances of time and
place. Swift was placed at Trinity College, Dublin, at the age of
fourteen. Whether through idleness, or contempt of the prescribed
studies, at the end of four years he could only obtain his Bachelor's
degree speciali gratia ; a term denoting want of merit. This disgrace
so affected him, that for the following seven years he studied eight
hours a day. In 1688 Sir William Temple, whose lady was related
to Swift's mother, took him under his protection, and paid the expenses
of his residence at Oxford for a Master's degree. On quitting that
University, Swift lived with Temple as his domestic companion. To
a long illness contracted during this period in consequence of a surfeit
he ascribed that frequently recurring giddiness Avhich annoyed him
through life, and sent him to the grave deprived of reason.
While under Sir William Temple's roof. Swift rendered material
assistance in the revision of his patron's works, and corrected and im
proved his own ' Tale of a Tub,' which had been sketched out previously
to his quitting Dublin. It was published in 1704, He never avowed
himself its author ; but he did not deny it when Archbishop Sharpe
and the Duchess of Somerset, according to some accounts, shoAved it
to Queen Anne, and thereby debarred him from a bishopric. From
Temple's conversation Swift much increased his political knowledge ;

46 SWIFT.
and his early impressions Avere naturally in favour of the Whigs : but
he suspected his patron of neglecting to provide for him, from a desire
of retaining his services. This produced a quarrel, and the friends
parted in 1694. Swift took orders, and obtained a prebend in the north
of Ireland ; but at Temple's earnest request he soon resigned that prefer
ment, and returned to England. A sincere reconciliation took place, and
they lived together in the utmost harmony till Sir William's death in
1699. SAA'ift, in testimony of his esteem, wrote ' The Battle of the
Books,' of which his friend is the hero ; and Temple by his Avill left
him a legacy in money, and the profit as well as care of his posthumous
AA'orks. Swift had indulged hopes, not without good reason, of being
well provided for in the English church, through Temple's interest.
Failing in these hopes, he accepted the post of private secretary and
chaplain to the Earl of Berkeley, on the appointment of that nobleman
to be one of the Lords Justices of Ireland. By this ncAV patron he seems
to have been ill used. He was soon displaced from his post, on the plea
of its unfitness for a clergyman. He Avas then promised the rich deanery
of Derry ; but that preferment was bestoAved on another person, and
SAvift could only procure the livings of Laracor and Rathbeggin, which
together did not amount to more than half the value of the deanery.
During his residence at Laracor, he performed the duties of a parish
priest with punctuality and devotion, notwithstanding some occasional
sallies of no very decorous or well-timed humour, which coupled with
the suspicions founded on the anonymous ' Tale of a Tub,' fixed on
him an imputation of insincerity in his Christian profession, from
Avhich the opinion of posterity seems to have absolved him.
During his incumbency at Laracor, he invited to Ireland a lady
with whom he became acquainted while with Sir William Temple.
She was the daughter of Temple's steward, whose name was Johnson,
About the year 1701, at the age of eighteen, she went to Ireland, to
reside near Swift, accompanied by Mrs. Dingley, a lady fifteen
years older than herself Miss Johnson was Swift's celebrated
Stella, Whether Swift's first impulse in giving this invitation had
a vicAV to marriage, or the cultivation of friendship only, is uncertain.
His whole conduct Avith respect to Avomen was most mysterious : appa
rently highly capricious, and, Avhatever might be its secret motive,
utterly unwarrantable. The reason assigned by the two ladies for
transferring their residence to Ireland was, " that the interest of
money was higher than in England, and provisions cheap." Every
possible precaution was taken to prevent scandal: Swift and Miss John
son did not live together, nor were they ever known to meet except in

SWIFT. 47
presence of a third person. Owing to this scrupulous prudence, the
lady's fame, during fifteen years, was never questioned, nor was her
society avoided by the most scrupulous. In 1716 they Avere privately
married, but with no change in their mode of life : she never lodged
in the Deanery, except during those fits of giddiness and approaching
mental aberration, during Avhich a woman, then of middle age, might
venture without breach of decorum to nurse an elderly man.
In 1701 Swift had published his ' Dissensions in Athens and
Rome ;' his first political work, in behalf of King William and his
ministers, against the violent proceedings of the House of Commons.
According to Lord Orrery, from that year to 1708 he did not write
any political pamphlet ; but he made frequent journeys to England
during the whole of Queen Anne's reign. Between 1708 and 1710
he changed his politics, Avorked hard against the Whigs among whom
he had been educated, and plunged into political controversy, with a
view to open the road to poAver for the Tories. The year 1710 pro
duced the ' Examiner,' of which he wrote thirty-three papers. In
that year commenced his acquaintance with Harley, who introduced
him to St. John and the rest of the ministers. At this period he
dined every Saturday at Harley's, with the Lord Keeper, Mr. Secre
tary St. John, and Lord Rivers, to the exclusion of all other persons.
He may, therefore, be considered at this time as the confidential friend
of the ministry, and almost a member of their cabinet. The company
was afterwards enlarged to sixteen, including Swift ; all men of the
first class in society. He now put forth all his strength in support of
the Tory party, in pamphlets, periodical papers, and political poems.
Amidst all this political agitation, he Avrote down the occurrences of
every day, whether consisting of conferences with ministers, or quarrels
with his own servant, in a regular journal to Stella.
In 1712, ten days before the meeting of parliament, he published
a pamphlet, entitled ' The Conduct of the Allies,' to facilitate peace,
on which the stability, almost the personal safety of the ministers,
seemed to depend. He professes that this piece cost him much pains,
and no writer was ever more successful. A sale of eleven thousand
copies in two months was in those days unprecedented : the Tory
members in both houses drew their arguments from it, and the reso
lutions of parliament were little more than a string of quotations.
During that year and the next he continued to exert himself with
unwearied diligence. In 1713 he carried to the then latest date the
first sketch of the ' History of the last four Years of Queen Anne.'
Lord Bolingbroke, Avhen called on for his opinion, was sincere enough

48 SWIFT.
to speak of it as " a seasonable pamphlet for the administration, but a
dishonour to just history." Swift himself Avas proud of it, but pro
fessed his willingness to sacrifice it to his friend's opinion. It was,
hoAvever, published, but Avith no addition to the author's fame.
The Queen is said to have intended to promote him to a bishopric;
but the story is involved in obscurity. That Archbishop Sharpe
had dissuaded her from so doing by representing his belief in Chris
tianity as questionable, is not ascertained by any satisfactory evidence ;
but Avhether that were so or not, Johnson's suggestion seems probable,
that the difficulty arose from those clerical supporters of the ministry,
" who Avere not yet reconciled to the author of the ' Tale of a Tub,'
and would not, without much discontent and indignation, have borne
to see him installed in an English cathedral." The deanery of St.
Patrick, in Dublin, was therefore offered to him, and he accepted it.
With high pretensions to independent equality with the ministers, and
a disinterested support of their measures, it cannot be doubted that he
viewed this Irish preferment as a sentence of exile, and was bitterly
disappointed. But his temper was too intractable to submit to play
the part of a courtier ; and it is probable that his English friends were
not ill pleased to promote him to competence and dignity at a distance.
His feelings are characteristically expressed in one of his letters : " I
use the ministry like dogs, because I expect they will use me so. I
never kncAv a ministry do anything for those whom they made com
panions of their pleasures ; but I care not."
He had indeed little reason to rejoice at first in the land where his
lot had fallen : on his arrival in Ireland to take possession of his
deanery, he found the country under the strongest excitement of party
violence. The populace looked on him as a Jacobite, and threw
stones at him as he Avalked the streets. His chapter received him
Avith reluctance, and thwarted him in whatever he proposed. Ordi
nary talents and firmness must have sunk under such general hostility.
But the revolutions of the Dean's life AA^ere strange ; and he, Avho be
gan Avith the hatred of the Irish mob, lived to govern them with the
authority of a despot.
He had not been in Ireland more than a fortnight when he returned
to England for the purpose of attempting, but in vain, a reconciliation
between the Lords Oxford and Bohngbroke. While in England, he
wrote his ' Free Thoughts on the Present State of Affairs.' He was
probably still watching the issues of time or chance ; but the Queen's
death sealed his political and clerical doom, and he returned to Ire
land. To the interval between 1714 and 1720 Lord Orrery ascribes

SWIFT. 49
' Gulliver's Travels.' His mind was at this time much engrossed by
a remarkable circumstance. He had formed an intimacy in England
with the family of a Dutch merchant, named Vanhomrigh. The
eldest daughter, strangely enough, became enamoured of SAvift's mind,
for it could not be of a most homely person, nearly fifty years of age.
She proposed marriage : this he declined, and wrote his poem of
' Cadenus and Vanessa' on the occasion. On her mother's death, the
young lady and her sister followed him to Ireland ; the intercourse
was continued, and the proposal renewed on her part. This it was
absolutely necessary to decline, as the Dean was already married ;
but he lived with Stella on the same distant footing as before, and
was reluctant either to inflict pain, or to forego his OAvn pleasure, by
an avowal of the insuperable obstacle. Vanessa continued to receive
his visits, but so guardedly as not absolutely to forfeit her good name.
She became hoAVever more and more urgent ; and peremptorily pressed
him to accept or reject her as his Avife. Failing to obtain a direct
answer, she addressed a note to Miss Johnson, desiring to know
Avhether she Avere married to him, or not. Stella sent this note to
Swift, who in a paroxysm of anger rode to Vanessa's house, threw a
paper containing her own note on the table, and quitted her without a
word. This blow she did not survive many Aveeks. She died in 1723,
having first cancelled a Avill in the Dean's favour.
Vanessa by Avill ordered her correspondence Avith SAvift to be pub
lished, as well as ' Cadenus and Vanessa,' in which he had proclaimed
her excellence and confessed his love. The letters were suppressed ;
the poem was published. This, Avhether meant as an apology for
herself, or as a posthumous triumph over her more successful rival,
occasioned a great shock and distress both to Stella and the Dean. It
is said that at length, probably as a softening to the mortification inci
dent to the public discovery of his passion for Vanessa, he desired that
Stella might be publicly oAA'ned as his wife; but her health Avas rapidly
declining. She said, perhaps petulantly, " It is too late," and insisted
that they should continue to live as before. To this the Dean con
sented, and allowed her to dispose of her fortune, by her oAVn name,
in public charity. She died in 1727.
By Stella's death Swift's happiness was deeply affected. He be
came by degrees more misanthropic, and ungovernable in temper;
and more miserly in his personal habits, Avhile at the same time
he devoted to charity a large part, it is said one-third, of his in
come. In 1736 his deafness and giddiness became alarming, and his
mental poAvers gradually declined. In 1741 his friends found it
Vol. V. H

50 SWIFT.
necessary that guardians should be appointed over his person and
estate. In 1742 his reason was entirely overthrown; he became
lethargic and, except at short intervals, speechless. On the 30th of
November his housekeeper told him that the customary preparations
were making to celebrate his birthday : he found words to answer,
" It is all folly ; they had better let it alone." He died the latter end
of October, 1745 ; in his seventy-eighth year. With the exception of
some fcAV legacies, he left his fortune, amounting to about twelve
thousand pounds, to the building of an hospital for idiots and lunatics.
The extent and variety of SAvift's writings render it necessary to
confine our notice to two or three of his most curious productions.
Of the ' Tale of a Tub,' Avhich, being regarded as an attack upon all
religion, brought down a weight of censure on the author, against
which he protested in the preface to a later edition. Dr. Johnson
says that " it has little resemblance to his other pieces. It exhi
bits a vehemence and rapidity of mind, a copiousness of images, and
vivacity of diction, such as he afterAvards never possessed or never
exerted. It is a mode so distinct and peculiar, that it must be con
sidered by itself; what is true of that is not true of anything else
which he has Avritten. In his other works is found an equable tenor
of easy language, which rather trickles than flows."
' Gulliver's Travels' are noAv probably better knoAvn to the public
than any other of his productions. That Avork is a moral and political
romance, exhibiting a wonderful specimen of irregular genius. Not
only are human actions placed in the most unfavourable light, but
human nature itself is libelled. His wayAvard temper and his ill-
concealed disappointment had put him out of conceit with the Avorld ;
misanthropy had made some inroad into his heart, and, with his pen
in his hand, he indulged in the expression of it with affected exag
geration. But however offensive to good feeling the satire might be,
the imagination and wit which pervade this extraordinary work will
always attract some readers, while the simple, circumstantial air of
truth with which such extravagant fictions are related is a source of
amusement to less refined tastes.
Neither are the ' Drapier's Letters,' written in 1724, less remarkable,
although the temporary nature of the subject has divested them of all
interest, except as samples of the powers of his mind and the character
of his style. Lord Orrery calls them " those brazen monuments of
his fame." A patent had been taken out by one Wood for a copper
coinage for Ireland, to the amount of one hundred and eighty thou
sand pounds in halfpence and farthings, by Avhich the projector, at

SWIFT. 51
least as was alleged by the opponents of the ministry, Avould have
gained exorbitant profit, and the nation would of course have incurred
proportionate loss. The Dean, in the character of a Drapier, wrote
a series of letters, exposing the folly and mischief of giving gold
and silver for a debased coin probably not worth a third of its
nominal value. He urged the people to refuse this copper money ;
and the nation acted on the Drapier's advice. The government took
the alarm at this seditious resistance to the King's patent, and offered
three hundred pounds rcAvard for the discovery of the author of the
fourth letter ; but his precautions were so Avell taken, and his popu
larity so universal, that, though knoAvn to be the author, the procla
mation failed to touch him. The popular indignation rose to such a
height that Wood was compelled to AvithdraAV his patent, and the base
money was totally suppressed. From this time forAvard the Dean, Avho
at his first arrival in Ireland had been most unpopular, possessed un
limited influence ; he was consulted on all measures of domestic policy ;
persons of all ranks either courted or feared him ; national gratitude
was expressed by all ranks in their various ways ; the Drapier was a
toast at every convivial meeting, and the sign of his head insured
custom to an ale-house.
His letters are remarkable for the pure English of their style :
there is little of solid information to be derived from them ; but the
most trifling anecdotes of distinguished men find ready acceptation with
a large class of readers.
As a poet, in the higher sense of the Avord, we rank Swift's claims
to honour very humbly. But he possessed uncommon power of correct,
easy, and familiar versification ; which, with his racy vein of humour,
will secure him admirers among those who can pardon his offensive
grossness. Delany, an Irishman to the backbone, gives the following cha
racter of him : " No man ever deserved better of any country, than
Swift did of his ; a steady, persevering, inflexible friend ; a Avise, a
watchful, and a faithful counsellor, under many severe trials and
bitter persecutions, to the manifest hazard both of his liberty and ¦
fortune." With respect to his conversation and private economy
some particulars may be Avorth mentioning. His rule never to speak
more than a minute at a time, and to wait for others to take up the
conversation, it were well if professed talkers would adopt. He ex
celled in telling a story, but told the same too often ; an infirmity which
grew on him, as it does on others, in advancing life. He was churlish
to his servants, but in the main a kind and generous master. He

52

SWIFT.

was unceremonious and overbearing, sometimes brutal ; but in com
pany which he respected, not coarse, although his politeness was in a
form peculiar to himself. He considered Avealth as the pledge of in
dependence ; but his frugality toAvards the close of his life amounted
to avarice. As we have represented some features of his character in
no very amiable light, we will conclude with an anecdote which shows
the kindly portion of his nature to advantage. In the high tide of his
influence, he Avas often rallied by the ministers for never coming to
them Avithout a Whig in his sleeve : Avhatever might have been his ex
pectations from the unsolicited gratitude of his party, he never pressed
his OAvn claims personally ; but he often solicited favours from Lord
Oxford in behalf of Addison, Congreve, Rowe, and Steele. Personal
merit rather than political principles directed his choice of friends.
His intimacy Avith Addison Avas formed AAdien they used to meet at
the parties of Lord Halifax or Lord Somers, Avho Avere leaders of
the Whigs ; but it continued unabated when the Tories had gained
the ascendency.
SAvift's AVorks have gone through many editions in various forms.
The latest and best is that of Sir Walter Scott. That man must be
considered fortunate in his biographers, of whom memoirs have been
handed down, AA'ith more or less detail, by Lord Orrery, Dr. Delany,
Dr. Hawkesworth, Dr. Sheridan, Dr. Johnson, and Sir W. Scott.

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John Locke was born August 29, 1632, at Wrington, a village of
Somersetshire, about eight miles from Bristol. He was the eldest of
two sons of John Locke, a man of some property, who had been bred
to the law, but became afterwards a captain under Cromwell. In
those turbulent times he met with losses which diminished his fortune,
and he left an inconsiderable inheritance to his son. Locke received
his education at Westminster School, and Christ Church, Oxford.
While an undergraduate he was chosen to write a welcome on the
occasion of a visit which Cromwell paid to that University, just after
the conclusion of his peace with the Dutch. This he did in a laudatory
copy of verses in English and Latin, comparing the great Protector to
Julius for warlike, and to Augustus for peaceful, accomplishments.
This and some Latin verses, prefixed to a work of Sydenham's, are
Locke's only poetical attempts. There is little merit in either. He
was a great admirer of the meagre verse of Sir Richard Blackmore,
which is no great evidence of his poetical taste. Between the degrees
of Bachelor and Master of Arts he was elected Student of his college.
From that time he applied himself diligently, for many years, to the
study of medicine, Avithout, hoAvever, practising it as a matter of gain.
The weakness of his health probably gave this turn to his thoughts :
his brother died of consumption; and he himself was apprehensive
through life of falling a A^ctim to the same disease. In 1664 he went
abroad as secretary to Sir W. Swan, envoy to the court of Branden
burg ; and on his return to Oxford the year following, he applied
himself to the discovery of the effects of the air on the human frame.
His first work, published in 1667, was a register of the variations
in the atmosphere, determined between certain periods by the common
instruments, as a supplement to a work by Boyle.
He was amusing himself with such enquiries, when one of the
slight but important accidents of life brought him an acquaintance.
Vol.. V. I

54 LOCKE.
whose influence determined his future course. A friend, being obliged
to take a journey, desired Locke to make his excuses to Lord Ashley
(afterwards Earl of Shaftesbury) for not having procured for him
some mineral waters against his arrival in Oxford. When Lord
Ashley did arrive, Locke carried this message to him. They Avere
mutually pleased Avith each other, and this acquaintance speedily grew
up into a strict friendship. Locke's advice determined Lord Ashley
to submit to a surgical operation, by which, it is said, the life of the
patient was saved ; and he Avas received into the house, and practised
his profession in the family and amongst a few private friends of his
noble patron. While living in this way, his thoughts were turned
into the channel of politics by the advice of his new associates ; and,
taking up that study earnestly, he was soon able to advise and assist
Ashley in all his plans of state, becoming at the same time the referee
of his private affairs. This warm friendship is singular, considering
the purity of Locke's life, and the notoriously bad character, public
and private, of his noble patron. But the latter was an eloquent
orator, and an admirable talker ; and it Avas probably this latter quality
which attached Locke so much. He had so great an esteem for good
conversation, as to give it a first place in the formation of a man's
mind, caUing books the raw material, and social talk, with meditation,
the true architects of our mental constructions. In 1668 Locke at
tended the Earl and Countess of Northumberland to France. But
some accident caused him soon to return to his old residence with
Shaftesbury, for Avhom he drew up the fundamental laws of Carolina,
which had just been granted to him and other lords. Two of the
articles of this settlement gave great offence to the clergy, and were
expunged. They are remarkable, and should be mentioned. One
was, " That no man that doth not acknowledge a God, and that
God pubhcly worshipped, should be a freeman or inhabitant of Caro
lina." The other Avas a proposition, that any seven persons agreeing
in a form of worship should be esteemed a church, and be supported
by the state. The Church of England, however, was alone estaWished
in that colony. In 1671 Locke began to form his great Essay on the
Human Understanding ; but his engagements with Shaftesbury pre
vented its immediate completion. The year following, his patron
becoming Chancellor, Locke Avas made secretary of presentations,
which office he speedily lost on the partial disgrace of the Earl, Avho,
still remaining President of the Board of Trade, appointed him secre
tary to a commission of inquiry into the state of trade, and the
colonial plantations. This office he also lost in the same manner,
upon Lord Shaftesbury's total disgrace in 1674.

LOCKE. 55
Having retained his studentship, Locke then retired to Oxford,
partly for his health's sake, and partly to pursue his old medical
studies. He took the degree of Bachelor of Medicine in this year.
It appears that he continued to pay some attention to these studies
until an advanced age : for in 1697 he communicated to the Royal
Society the history of a curious case Avhich he had seen at the great
hospital of La Charit6, during his residence in Paris. In 1675, in
hope of obtaining relief from an asthmatical complaint, he Avent to
Montpellier. There was also another reason for this journey. He
had just published an anonymous pamphlet for Shaftesbury, blaming
the conduct of the House of Lords in the matter of the Test Act, con
taining a vehement abuse of the bishops, and of what he called their
favourite doctrine, " the divine right " of kings and priests. This
pamphlet does not appear in the folio edition of his Avorks ; it was
anonymous, like most of his other productions. The odium con
sequent upon it made his absence from England expedient, if not
necessary. During his stay abroad Locke kept a journal of what he
saAV, did, and thought. In it we find the heads of many of his future
works, Avhich are very concise and valuable ; but the narrative is dry,
and the attempts at humour not very successful : he seems however to
have been as observant of Avhat relates to the external world, as he
was of the intellectual. In 1 679, Shaftesbury, on being made President
of the Council, summoned Locke to England. But the old statesman's
favour was short lived : he was committed to the ToAver in July, 1681,
and soon after his release, retired to Holland, Avhere he died in January,
1683. Locke accompanied him, and continued his faithful services
until death. For seventeen years he had been Shaftesbury's constant
partizan and adviser ; and the odium attached to that nobleman clung
to himself, and prevented his return to England for many years. In
1683 he was reported by the English envoy at the Hague to be on
terras of intimacy Avith the malcontents in Holland ; upon which the
secretary (Sunderland) wrote to Dr. Fell, the Dean of Christ Church,
ordering his expulsion from college. This mandate was not imme
diately complied with. : the Dean declared that for many years he had
watched the conduct of Locke, and even tried to entrap him into an
exposure of his political sentiments, but had always found him too
wary. He allowed Locke time to come and defend himself, which he
would not do, and then expelled him from his studentship.
On the accession of James II., William Penn, the quaker of Penn
sylvania, being in some favour Avith the King, would have procured a
pardon for Locke, but he refused the offer, through a friend, as having
been guilty of no crime. In May, 1685, the English ambassador de-
I 2

.56 LOCKE.
manded him of the States-General, on the pretext that he was con
cerned in the unsuccessful expedition of the Duke of Monmouth, It
is supposed that he owed this bad turn partly to the malice of the
envoy himself, as his name did not appear in the list of those required
which Avas sent from England. He neither liked the person nor the
invasion of the duke, and was at Utrecht when the armament of that
unfortunate nobleman sailed from the Texel. Locke was not given
up, but was obliged to hide himself for about a year in the house of
his friend M. Veen, at Amsterdam, receiving assurance from the local
authorities that timely warning should be given him of pressing dan
ger. He was obliged to conceal himself so closely as only to take his
exercise during the night. It is probable that the real cause of this
persecution Avas his first letter on Toleration, written in Latin about
this time, and addressed to his friend Limborch, the sentiments of
which were pecuharly offensive to the English court.
Locke had now time to attend to his own affairs, being no longer
taken up with those of a patron. He busied himself in the comple
tion of his Essay concerning Human Understanding, which AA^as not,
however, printed till 1689. The extracting of passages from
various works for reviewal in Le Clerc's hterary journal, the Bib-
liotheque Universelle, the formation and continuation of a small
society for the Aveekly discussion of all subjects, the members of
which Avere his friends Le Clerc, Limborch, Guenelon, and others,
and the abridgment of his Essay, served to fill up his time during
the remainder of his stay in Holland. In 1689 he published a
second letter on Toleration, and early in the same year returned to his
native country in the fleet which conducted the Princess of Orange to
the throne of England. The Revolution had completely changed the
face of affairs in Locke's favour ; he was considered a martyr to its
principles, and was esteemed accordingly by its authors. On his
return he immediately petitioned William to cause him to be reinstated
in his studentship; but the College refused to restore him, offering at
the same time to make him a supernumerary student. This he Avould
not accept ; because he felt it not to be a full reparation of the in
justice he had suffered. He allowed the matter to drop.
If Locke had been ambitious, his path to political advancement was
now open. William offered him the ambassadorship to the Imperial
Court, or to that of Brandenburg. He refused both these high
appointments ; but accepted a Commissionership of Appeals from his
friend Lord Mordaunt, afterwards Earl of Peterborough. This office
was worth only £200 a year. His friends S^- Francis and Lady
Masham (a daughter of the celebrated CudAVorth) prevailed on him

LOCKE. 57
to take apartments in their house at Oates in Essex ; between Avhich
place and his office in London he spentthe remainder of his life. In
1690 Locke published his Treatise on Civil Government. The folio
edition of his Essay, and a Letter on Education, appeared in the latter
part of the same year. In 1692 he produced a third Letter on Tole
ration. The state of the coinage being a subject of great importance
at that time, he took it into consideration, and published ' Certain
Thoughts on the State of English Silver Money, &c.,' in a letter
to a member of parliament. This treatise was thought so good,
that when the matter Avas inquired into by the government, Locke
Avas consulted, and his advice taken with respect to the new coinage.
In consequence of this important assistance, he received from
William III. a Commissionership' of Foreign Trade and Plantations,
the value of Avhich Avas £1000 a year. The King Avas exceedingly
desirous of a comprehension Avith the dissenters, and to forAvard his
views Locke Avrote his ' Reasonableness of Christianity.' This book
involved him in a religious controversy Avith Dr. EdAvards, Avho
attacked its opinions in his ' Socinian Unmasked,' to which Locke re
plied by two vindications, each of them longer than the original work.
No sooner had he finished this labour than he was called upon to en
counter a fresh and more able antagonist. Toland and some other Uni
tarians having turned to their own use some of the arguments in Locke's
Essay, Dr. Stillingfleet, the learned Bishop of Worcester, confounded
Locke Avith that party. In his defence of the doctrine of the Trinity
the Bishop severely censured various passages of Locke's great Avork,
as tending to subvert some of the fundamental doctrines of Christi
anity ; Locke replied, and there Avas an alternation of answers between
them till the Bishop's death. That event took place soon after Locke's
third answer, which was the last thing he ever published. These
replies of Locke are reputed to be most finished specimens of a grave
and subtle irony, too refined perhaps to be generally perceived by the
uninitiated eye.
In 1700 Locke's Aveak state of health induced him to retire from
public life. He resigned his situation in a personal interview Avith the
King, giving no previous notice of his intention to the conductors of the
government, and refusing the pension which his master wished him to
accept. He took up his residence at Oates, where he passed the re
mainder of his life in reading and contemplating the Scriptures. He
often regretted that he had not more occupied himself in this study.
The piety of his latter years was Avithout formality or ostentation, not
arising from that sense of disappointment, or irksomeness for want of
employment, which often leads men to seek refuge in a late devotion.

58 LOCKE.
Neither Locke's mental nor bodily senses failed him to his last mo
ments, though the year before his death was passed in extreme weak
ness. On taking the sacrament he declared " that he was in peace Avith
all men, and in sincere union with the Church of Christ, by whatever
name distinguished." The affectionate attentions of Lady Masham
softened the pain of his last illness, and he died gently in his chair
while she was reading to him one of the Psalms of David, October 28,
1704, in his seventy-third year. He died, unmarried, from the
natural decay of an originally weak constitution. He was buried
in the churchyard at High Laver, near Oates, under a decent
monument. His epitaph had been written some years before, by
himself, in Latin*. He left behind him many unpublished works,
among which his ' Conduct of the Understanding ' stands highest.
'An Examination of Malebranche's opinion of seeing all things in
God ;' ' A Discourse of Miracles ;' part of a fourth letter on the sub
ject of Toleration ; some imperfect memorial sketches of the life of
the Earl of Shaftesbury ; a new method for a commonplace-book ;
and paraphrases of several of the epistles of St. Paul, make up the
list of his posthumous works, almost all of which Avere translated into
French by Le Clerc and others, and appeared (together Avith those
published by himself) in three folio volumes, not many years after his
death. A great many of his letters to his friends Molyneux and Lim
borch are also published in this edition. There remain many more
which have been given to the world by various hands, addressed to the
Earl of Peterborough, Dr. Mapletoft, &c., and to NcAvton. In Lord
King's life of Locke his correspondence with the latter is given at full
length, and is very curious, — chiefly relating to subjects they were both
engaged in, the prophecies and miracles.
That Avhich has assured to Locke imperishable fame is the ' Essay
concerning Human Understanding.' This great Avork, hoAvever, met
Avith considerable obloquy at first : the heads of colleges at Oxford
even endeavoured to prevent its being read in their University. The
Essay is in the hands of all ; the writings of its opponents, compara
tively speaking, are forgotten. It Avill be generally admitted, that in
it Locke laid the foundation of modern metaphysical philosophy.
* " Siste, viator; juxta situs est J. L. Si qualis fuerit rogas, mediocritate suk contentum
se vixisse respondet. Literis innutritus eousque tantum profecit ut veritati unic^ stu-
deret. Hoc ex scriptis illius disce ; quas, quod de eo reliquum est, majori fide tibi exhi-
bebunt, quam epitaphii suspecta elogia. Virtutis si quas habuit, minores sane quJim
quas sibi laudi, tibi in exemplum proponeret. Vitia una sepeliantur. Morum exem-
plum si quseras, in evangelic habes (vitiorum utinam nusquam), mortalis certfe quod
prosit hie et ubique. Natum .... Mortuum .... Memorat hac tabula brevi et
ipsa interitura."

LOCKE. 59
Two of Locke's chief works, the ' Treatise on Civil Government,'
and ' Essay on Education,' are more capable of a short analysis. The
former may be taken as an expression of his OAvn opinions in defence
of the Revolution. It is divided into two parts. The first contains
an exposure of the fallacies of Sir Robert Filmer's ' Patriarcha,' argu
ing that Adam had not such natural or gifted right of dominion as
Filmer pretends ; that if he had, his heirs had not ; that if they had, yet
there is no general law, divine or human, which determines the right of
succession, much less of bearing rule ; lastly, that if such right had
been determined, yet the eldest line from Adam being unknoAvn, no
man can pretend more than another to that right of inheritance ; con
sequently, that some other source of political power must be found than
" Adam's private dominion and paternal jurisdiction." Locke proceeds
in the second part to declare his opinion as to Avhat this other source
may be. He argues, that originally the executive poAver was in the
hands of each individual ; but, by mutual consent, for mutual benefit,
as men grew into societies, political poAver Avas created, and given to
persons chosen from the whole body by the major part of such societies.
He protests against absolute power, as not expressing the will of the
majority ; but defends prerogative, as a discretionary power lodged in
the hands of the executive government. He maintains that this com
pact must be held sacred, but reverts to the society if its duration was
declared temporary, or upon the misconduct of rulers or delegates.
When forfeited, the will of the society may create new forms of govern
ment ; or, under the old form, continue it in other hands.
The Essay on Education is expressly for the use of gentlemen, since
" if that class be properly tended the rest AAdll follow of course." The
child, he says, should have much air and exercise, should be accus
tomed to little sleep and early habits. That superstitious terrors, and
the frequent use of the rod should be carefully avoided ; that the boy
should be used to suffer pain gradually, to harden him, but not as a
punishment ; that the parents' authority should be perfect over the
child, and be gradually taken off, till the relation between them be
comes a confiding friendship ; that particular attention be paid to his
manners, so that his courage, learning, Avit, plainness, and good
nature, do not turn to brutality, pedantry, buffoonery, rusticity, and
fawning. He says, that the child's curiosity should be encouraged ;
that he should learn by games, and his attainments never be forced ;
that he should not be left to flounder in difficulties, but helped through
them. Locke prefers a careful tutor to a public school : he says that
a boy stands a better chance of being both virtuous and well-bred
under the care of the former. What he should know is Latin, Greek,

60

LOCKE.

a little mathematics, how to keep accounts ; the less of logic the
better ; he should Avrite a good hand ; and a virtuous youth so bred,
" one may turn loose into the world with great assurance that he will
find employment and esteem everywhere." He further recommends
that the boy should travel between the ages of eight and sixteen,
rather than between sixteen and twenty one ; and that Avhen he comes
of age he had better not marry according to the usual custom, but wait
some years, that his children " may not tread too closely on his heels."
The habit of Locke's mind Avas perhaps originally severe ; but from
constant social intercourse with men of all characters and opinions,
was rendered mild and equable. Nothing seems to have provoked him
into a loss of temper so much as being forced into argument with pro
fessed logicians. He calls the logical method taught at Oxford an ill,
if not the worst Avay of acquiring knowledge and seeking truth. He
Avas fond of the society of children, and Avould enter into the enjoy
ments of riper youth Avith facility. He Avas entrusted by his patron
with the education and marriage of his son, who Avas the father of the
author of the ' Characteristics.' The latter nobleman (the third Earl
of Shaftesbury) OAved much to Locke's care, and Avas his eulogist.
Locke Avas of a cautious if not timid disposition. This appears
from many of his letters, and may be inferred from the anonymous
publication of most of his writings. His Aveak health, the political
persecution to which he was exposed during great part of his life, and
the disciphne to which he was subjected in childhood, Avhich was
strict and severe, in some measure account for this failing. His friend
ships Avere very steady; witness his close adherence to his patron
Shaftesbury. Sydenham's contemporary and friendly character of
Locke is remarkable : he says, in a prefatory letter to one of his
works, that " if we consider his genius, his penetrating and exact
judgment, and the strictness of his morals, he has scarcely any supe
rior, and few equals noAV living."

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John Selden AA^as born at Salvington, a hamlet of Tarring, near
Worthing, in the county of Sussex, December 16, 1584 (O. S.).
His father, according to Wood, " was a sufficient plebeian," who,
through some skill in music, obtained as his wife Margaret Baker, a
daughter of a knightly family of the county of Kent. The baptism
of his eminent son, as Avell as his own musical talents, are noticed in
an existing parish registry in these words : " 1584. — -Johnne, sonne
of John Selden, the minstrell, was baptised the XXX'^ day of De
cember." The house in which the family lived was called Lacies, and the
estate of the father consisted, in 1606, of eighty-one acres, of the annual
value of about twenty-three pounds. John Selden, the son, received
his early education at the Free Grammar-School of Chichester, At
the age of fourteen he entered at Hart Hall, Oxford. After residing
four years at the University, he was admitted, in 1602, a member of
Clifford's Inn, one of the dependencies of the greater inns of court,
in which students of law were formerly accustomed to commence
their legal education. He removed in May, 1604, to the Inner
Temple. His attention appears to have been early drawn to the
study of civil and legal history, and antiquities ; he did not court the
more active business of his profession, and his employment at the bar
was limited. In 1607, he prepared for the press his first work,
entitled ' Analectom Anglo-Britannicton,' being a collection of civil
and ecclesiastical matters relating to Britain, of a date anterior to the
Norman conquest. This Avas soon followed by three other Avorks of a
similar character, and in 1614 he printed his 'Treatise upon Titles
of Honour.' The last of these works has been considered in our courts
of law to be of great authority, and has been usually spoken of Avith
Vor., V. K

G'2 SELDEN.
much commendation. Pursuing his legal inquiries, he edited, in 1616,
two treatises, one of Sir John Fortescue, the other of Sir Ralph
Hengham, and in the same year wrote a ' Discourse on the Office of
Lord Chancellor.' In the next year he printed a AVork, ' De Diis Syris,'
Avhich added to his celebrity, but is not compiled with that attention
to the value of the respective authorities cited, so essentially necessary
to the accurate consideration of historical questions. His next worlf
Avas a ' History of Tithes,' printed in 1618, Avhich excited against him
the bitter hostility of the clergy. The doctrine of divine right, as the
foundation of many ecclesiastical claims, was at this time jealously
maintained, and was considered to be peculiarly connected Avith the
right of the clergy to tithes. Selden drew no direct conclusion against
the divine nature of the right to tithes, but he had so arranged his
authorities as to render such a conclusion inevitable. The nature only
of the title Avas contested, and so far from the clergy having had any
reason to look upon Selden as an enemy, he in fact strengthened
their claim to tithes by placing it upon the same footing as any ordinary
title to property. As soon as the ' History ' appeared it was attacked.
The High Commission Court summoned Selden before it, and to this
tribunal he was compelled to apologise. The terms of his submission
very accurately state the offence, and are expressive of regret that " he
had offered any occasion of argument against any right of maintenance
jure divino of the ministers of the gospel." The work received several
answers, but Selden was forbidden by James I., under a threat of
imprisonment, to notice them. " All that Avill," said he, " have
liberty, and some use it, to Avrite and preach Avhat they aa'IU against
me, to abuse my name, my person, my profession, Avith as many false
hoods as they please, and my hands are fied : I must not so much as
answer their calumnies. I am so far from writing more, that I have
scarce ventured for my own safety so much as to say they abuse me,
though I know it."
Hardly had this storm passed, when he became involved in the
disputes betAveen the Crown and the House of Commons. One of
the earliest steps of that body, upon the convocation of Parliament in
1621, was to present a remonstrance on the state of public affairs.
This was succeeded by the memorable protestation of December 18,
in Avhich the liberty of the subject Avas asserted, and the right of the
Commons to offer advice to the Crown was insisted on. This protest
ation Avas erased from the journals of the House by the King's OAvn
hands, and the parliament was dissolved. Selden, whose advice, though
he was not then a member, had been requested by the House in this

SELDEN. 63
dispute, was in consequence imprisoned, and detained in confinement five
weeks. His release was owing to the intercession of Bishop Williams,
Avho represented him to be " a man who hath excellent parts, which
might be diverted from an affectation of pleasing idle people to do
some good and useful service to his Majesty." On his release, he
dedicated to Williams his edition of Eadmer's contemporary ' History
of England, from the Norman Conquest to the death of Henry I.,'
which he had prepared for the press during his confinement.
When the next parliament assembled in 1624, Selden sat in it
as member for the borough of Lancaster. Though nominated upon
several committees, he took no active share in the general business of
the House. About this time also he was ap])ointed one of the readers
of the Inner Temple ; but he refused the office, and was in consequence
for some time disabled to be advanced to the rank of a bencher of the
inn. Upon the accession of Charles I. a new parliament was called,
in which Selden sat for the borough of Great BedAian. This parlia
ment was almost immediately dissolved, and another summoned, to
which Selden was again returned for the same borough as before. The
Commons immediately entered upon a consideration of the conduct of
the Duke of Buckingham, and his impeachment being resolved on,
Selden was one of the members appointed to prepare the articles,
and was named a manager for their prosecution. These proceedings
were stopped by another dissolution of parliament in June, 1626. But
the necessities of the Crown requiring those supplies which parliament
refused without a redress of grievances, forced loans were resorted to
in the exercise of certain pretended powers of the prerogative. In
several instances these loans were refused ; among others by Sir
Edward Hampden, who was imprisoned in consequence : and the ille
gality of his commitment was very ably argued by Selden in the King's
Bench. In the third parliament, called by Charles I. in 1628, Selden
sat for the borough of Ludgershall ; and in the debates which imme
diately took place upon illegal commitments, the levy of tonnage and
poundage, and the preparation of the Petition of Rights, he took a
very active share. The attack upon the Duke of Buckingham was
renewed, and it was proposed by Selden, that judgment should be
demanded against him upon the impeachment of the former parliament.
As affecting a great constitutional question, only finally determined in
1791, of the continuance of impeachments, notwithstanding a disso
lution of parliament, the suggestion was remarkable. Further pro
ceedings were, hoAvever, stopped by the assassination of the Duke.
During the prorogation of parliament, Selden again devoted himself
K. 'i

64 SELDEN.
to literary pursuits. The Earl of Arundel, a great lover and promoter
of the arts, had received from the east many ancient marbles, having
on them Greek inscriptions. At the request of Sir Robert Cotton,
these inscriptions were transcribed under the superintendence of
Selden, and were published under the title of ' Marmora Arundeliana.'
In January, 1629, parliament again assembled, and the debates upon
public grievances were rencAved. The goods of several merchants, in
the interval of the meeting of parliament, had been seized by the
CroAvn, to satisfy a claim to the duty of tonnage and poundage.
Among the sufferers was Rolls, a member of the House. It was
moved, that the seizure of his goods was a breach of privilege. -When
the question was to be put, the Speaker said " he durst not, for that
the King had commanded to the contrary." Selden immediately rose,
and vehemently complained of this conduct : " Dare you not, Mr.
Speaker, to put the question when we command you. If you will not
put it, we must sit still ; thus, Ave shall never be able to do any thing.
They that come after you may say, that they have the King's com
mands not to do it. We sit here by the command of the King under
the great seal, and you are, by his Majesty, sitting in his royal chair
before both houses, appointed for our Speaker, and noAV refuse to do
your office." The House then adjourned in a state of great excitement.
When it re-assembled, the Speaker was called upon to put the question,
and again refused. On this Holies and Valentine thrust the Speaker
into the chair, and held him down, while Sir Miles Hobart locked the
door of the house and took possession of the key. A declaration was
then produced by Sir John Elliot, AAdiich Colonel Stroud moved should
be read, and himself put the question. The motion was declared to
be carried ; and the Speaker, refusing to act upon it, was charged by
Sir P. Heyman with cutting up the liberty of the subject by the roots.
Selden moved that the declaration should be read by the clerk, Avhich
was agreed to. The House then adjourned to a day, previous to AA'hich
the King came to the House of Lords and dissolved the parliament, on
account of " the undutiful and seditious carriage of the Lower House,"
without the attendance of the Commons. Selden, and the other
members concerned in the violence offered to the Speaker, were com
mitted to prison. This was his last and most rigorous confinement.
For some time he Avas denied the use of pens, ink, paper, and books.
When, after many Aveeks had elapsed, he was brought up with the
other prisoners before the King's Bench upon a writ of habeas corpus,
their discharge was offered upon condition of their finding bail for
their good behaviour. " We demand," said Selden, " to be bailed

SELDEN. 65
in point of right ; and if it be not grantable of right, we do not demand
it. But finding sureties for good behaviour is a point of discretion
merely, and we cannot assent to it without great offence to the parlia
ment where these matters, which are surmised by the return, Avere
acted." They were remanded, and remained for a long time in
prison, where Elliot, one of the ablest members of the popular party,
fell a victim to his confinement. In 1634, Selden was suffered to go
at large upon bail, which was discontinued upon his petition to the
Crown. During his imprisonment he wrote a treatise, ' De Suc-
cessionibus in Bona Defuncti ad Leges Ebrseorum,' and another,
' De Successione in Pontificatum EbrBeorum.' Both those works he
dedicated to Archbishop Laud ; probably upon account of his being
indebted to the Archbishop for the loan of books. Not long after the
recovery of his liberty, Selden obtained the favour of Charles I., and
dedicated to him his celebrated essay on the ' Mare Clausum,' an
argument in favour of the dominion of the English over the four seas,
copies of which Avere, by order of the Privy Council, directed to be
placed in the council chest, the Court of Exchequer, and the Court of
Admiralty. To the Long Parliament, which commenced its sittings in 1640,
Selden Avas unanimously returned by the University of Oxford ; but
neither this new connexion with the clergy, nor the favour of Charles,
appears to have affected his opinions. Upon the first day of the sitting
of parliament he Avas nominated a member of the committee to inquire
into the abuses of the Earl Marshal's Court, and was appointed with
others to draw up a remonstrance upon the state of the nation. He also
sat upon the committees which conducted the measures preparatory to
the impeachment of the Earl of Strafford, but he was not one of the
managers before the House of Lords ; and his name Avas posted in
Old Palace Yard as one of "the enemies of justice," a title given to
those who were regarded as favourable to the Earl, It is not very
clear Avhat his opinions upon the impeachment were. That he should
have been satisfied with all the steps taken by his party is not possible,
for his opinions were undoubtedly moderate, and his studious habits
must have checked any disposition to violence. He was also nominated
to frame the articles of impeachment against Laud, and was a party to
the resolutions against the legislative poAvers of the bishops. The court,
however, appears to have considered him favourable to its interests,
until he spoke against the commission of array. Upon this question.
Clarendon represents the influence of his opinion upon the public to
have been very prejudicial to Charles I. About this time the great

66 SELDEN.
seal was offered to him. He declined it, according to Clarendon, on
account of his love of ease, and " that he would not have made a journey
to York or have been out of his own bed for any preferment." Tlie
reason which he himself assigned for refusing it, Avas the impossibility
of his rendering any service to the Crown. He sat as member of the
Assembly of Divines at Westminster, and took the covenant ; yet he
Avas not well affected to the Puritans, and declared that " he was neither
mad enough nor fool enough to deserve the name of Puritan." Upon
the death of Dr. Eden, Master of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, in August,
1645, Selden was elected his successor, but declined to accept the
office. About this time he appears to have gradually withdrawn
from public business. His fondness of ease and his increasing age,
and the silence he preserved upon many important events, all con
tribute to leave the inference of his approval or disapproval of much
of the conduct of the parliamentary leaders open to adverse parties.
He certainly never openly abandoned the popular side, nor does he
appear to have forfeited its respect ; and yet at the same time he con
tinued to be esteemed by many of the leading Royalists.
The studies of Selden were continued to the latest period of his life,
and he was near the age of seventy when his last work was published.
The influence he possessed Avith the parliamentary leaders Avas fre
quently exerted in favour of letters. When Archbishop Laud's
endowment of the professorship of Arabic in the University of Ox
ford, was seized, on the attainder of that prelate, he procured its
restitution. Archbishop Usher having preached against the divines
of Westminster, and excited their anger, was punished by the con
fiscation of his library. Selden interfered, and saved it from sale and
dispersion. When prelacy was abolished, the library attached to the
see of Canterbury was by his efforts transferred to the University of
Cambridge, Avhere it remained until the Restoration. Through his
entreaties, Whitelocke was induced to accept the charge of the medals
and books at St. James's, and thus secured their preservation. The
services which he rendered to the University of Oxford were no less
valuable, and were acknowledged in grateful terms by that learned
body ; and it was through his interference that the papers and instru
ments of Graves, the Professor of Mathematics, which had been seized
by a party of soldiers, Avere restored.
Selden died November 30, 1654, and was buried in the Temple
church. He left behind him no immediate relations, and he be
queathed nearly the whole of his fortune, amounting to nearly 40,000/.,
to his four executors, giving only one hundred pounds to each of the

SELDEN. 67
children of his sister, the wife of John Barnard, of Goring. His
books and manuscripts he had originally given by his Avill to the
University of Oxford ; but that body having demanded of him a heavy
bond for the restitution of a book Avhich he desired to borrow from
the public library, the bequest was struck out, and they were di
rected to be placed " in some convenient public library or college
in one of the universities." Sir M. Hale and his other executors,
considering that they were the executors " of his will, and not of his
passion," transferred them to the Bodleian Library at Oxford.
To learned men Selden was liberal and generous ; and there is a
letter from Casaubon in Parr's ' Life of Archbishop Usher,' in Avhich
that distinguished scholar with great feeling says, " I Avas with Mr.
Selden after I had been with your Grace, whom, upon some inti
mation of my present condition and necessities, I found so noble, as
that he did not only presently furnish me with a very considerable
sum of money, but Avas so free and forward in his expressions, as
that I could not find in my heart to tell him much (somewhat I did)
of my intention of selling, lest it should sound as a farther pressing
upon him of whom I had received so much."
Milton terms Selden " the chief of learned men reputed in this
land;" and Whitelocke states, "that his mind was as great as his
learning, being very generous and hospitable." Clarendon, who could
not regard Selden Avith any political partiality, though he had in early
life been on terms of intimacy with him, describes him to have been
" a person whom no character can flatter or transmit in any expressions
equal to his merit or virtue. He was of so stupendous learning in
all kinds and in all languages (as may appear in his excellent and
transcendant writings), that a man would have thought he had been
entirely conversant among books, and had never spent an hour but
in reading and writing ; yet his humanity, courtesy, and affability
were such, that he would have been thought to have been bred in
the best courts, but that his good nature, charity, and delight in doing
good, and in communicating all he kncAV, exceeded that breeding."
The motto adopted by Selden was Trsfi ¦jravrog rr^v s^^suQepiav
(above all things, liberty), and it is to be found neatly Avritten upon the
first page of many of his MSS. Its spirit he extended to religious
questions ; and there are many bold and vigorous passages in his
writings in which the necessity of freedom of inquiry upon all subjects
is strongly insisted on. Noticing upon one occasion a certain class of
ancient philosophers, he remarks, " He who takes to himself their
liberty of inquiry, is in the only way that, in all kinds of studies, leads

68

SELDEN.

and lies open even to the sanctuary of truth ; while others, that are
servile to common opinion and vulgar suppositions, can rarely hope to
be admitted nearer than into the base-court of her temple, which too
speciously often counterfeits her innermost sanctuary." His rehgious
opinions have, with much impropriety, been the subject of dispute.
They have been chiefly inferred from several passages of a work
published after his death, entitled ' Selden's Table Talk.' From the
nature of his studies, his writings are far from being popular, and
are, in consequence, noAV but little read. They obtained, hoAvever,
for their author, during an age abounding Avith illustrious and learned
men, an honourable reputation, among the most distinguished literary
men of continental Europe, as well as among those of his own country.
His works Avere edited by Dr. Wilkins, in 3 vols, folio, in 1726, to
Avhich a Latin ' Life of the Author ' is prefixed.

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Ambroise Pare, the father of French surgery, and one of the most
useful as Avell as the earliest of the innovators upon that art as prac
tised by the ancients, Avas born at Laval, in the district of Maine, in
the year 1509. After going through the rudiments of education, he
was placed at an early age under the tuition of the chaplain Orsoy, in
his native town, to be instructed in the classics ; but the means of his
family appear to have been very narrow, or the economy with Avhich
they were supplied must have been strict ; for we find that the worthy
chaplain was obliged to make use of the services of his pupil in
grooming his mule and other menial capacities, in order to eke out the
scanty remuneration he received for his instructions. In truth, these
do not appear to have been great ; for Pare never achieved a knowledge
of Greek, and was but superficially acquainted with the Latin lan
guage ; and it is probable that even this small amount of classical
acquirement was made at a late period of his life, when, being an
author, he wished to quote.
On leaving his tutor, he was placed Avith a barber-surgeon at Laval,
named Vialot, Avho is recorded to have taught him how to bleed. Not
long after this change in his pursuits, the lithotomist, Laurent Colot,
came to LaA'al to undertake the treatment of , one of the chaplain's
ecclesiastical brethren : on this occasion. Pare Avas present, and
zealously assisted at the operation. This accidental circumstance
appears to have suggested to him the ambitious project of following
the higher departments of surgery ; and he contrived to leave the shop
of his master in phlebotomy, and repaired to Paris, where he availed
himself with so much diligence of the advantages afforded by that city,
as a school of anatomy and medicine, that he was soon entrusted with
Vol.. V. I-

70 PARE.'
the subordinate charge of the patients of Goupil, Avho then held the
surgical chair in the college of France. From this discerning tutor
he learned not only all the knowledge which could at that time be
obtained from secondary sources, but the art of expressing himself
well, and acquitting himself of his duties Avith neatness and grace.
The talents thus acquired were of the greatest service to him in his
after-life, Avhich was chiefly passed among the great ; and gave him
that ease of manner and power of gaining confidence, which stood him
so frequently in stead as court-surgeon to four successive raonarchs,
and, aiding the natural frankness of his character, carried him safely
through many an intrigue and cabal, dangerous not only to his repu
tation and fortunes, but even to his life. He Avas never a member of
the community of barber-surgeons, but derived his legal qualification
to practise from a degree in surgery taken at the college of St. Edme,
of which he was afterwards Provost.
Having passed upwards of three years as a student, residing actually
Avithin the Avails of the Hotel Dieu at Paris, he was appointed Staff-
surgeon, in 1536, when twenty-seven years old, to the Mareschal
Ren6 de Monte-jean, who commanded the infantry under the Con
stable Montmorenci in the campaign of Piedmont. In this capacity,
Par6 Avas present at the siege and capture of Turin.
From this time is to be dated the commencement of his acquaint
ance with military surgery, for Avhich he afterwards did so much.
" I was then," he says, " very raw and inexperienced, having never
seen the treatment of gunshot wounds. It is true that I had read in
the Treatise of Jean de Vigo on Avounds in general, that those inflicted
by fire-arms partake of a poisonous nature on account of the powder,
and that they should be treated Avith hot oil of elder mixed with a little
theriacum. Seeing, therefore, that such an application must needs put
the patient to extreme pain, to assure myself before I should make
use of this boiling oil, I desired to see bow it was employed by the
other surgeons. I found their method was to apply it, at the first
dressing, as hot as possible, within the Avound with tents and setons :
and this I made bold to do likewise. At length my oil failed me, and
I was fain to substitute a digestive, made of the yolks of eggs, rose-
oil, and turpentine. At night I could not rest in my bed in peace,
fearing that I should find the wounded, in Avhose cases I had been
compelled to abstain from using this cautery, dead of poison : this
apprehension made me rise very early in the morning to visit them ;
but beyond all my hopes, I found those to whom I had applied the
digestive suffering little pain, and their AVOunds free from inflam-

PARE. 71
mation ; and they had been refreshed by sleep in the night. On the
contrary, I found those to whom the aforesaid oil had been applied,
feverish, in great pain, and with swelling and inflammation round their
wounds. I resolved, therefore, that I would never burn unfortunate
sufferers from gunshot in that cruel manner again."
Such was the casual origin of one of Parfe's greatest improvements
in surgery, — the substitution of a mild treatment for the cautery in
gunshot w'ounds ; a principle Avhich he afterwards successfully ex
tended to other injuries at that time deemed poisonous. The improve
ment seems as obvious as it was important : yet the adherents of the
old practice gave him much trouble, and even made it necessary for
him to defend his wholesome innovation long afterwards before
Charles IX. in person.
Yet Avith all his sound sense, Ambroise Par6 Avas not by any means
free from the credulity of his age. For instance, he relates, in his ac
count of this siege, an amusing story of the court he paid to an Italian
quack doctor, who lived at Turin, to Avheedle him out of the secret of
a dressing for fresh gunshot wounds, for Avhich he had great fame.
This Avas found to consist of a mixture of bruised Avorms, the grease
of puppies boiled down alive, and other absurd ingredients, constituting
the celebrated oleum catellorum, the only merit of which consists in its
harmlessness. He is erroneously praised by Dr. Ballingall for having
banished this unguent from practice, whereas, on the contrary, he
introduced it ; and he shows, by his frequent reference to it in his
works, that he had no small faith in its virtues, and was exceedingly
proud of having been the means of its publication.
The death of his patron, the Mareschal, soon after the fall of Turin,
induced him to return to Paris, though tempted by large offers to
remain in the camp.
In 1543, he accompanied the Due de Rohan into Britanny, Avhere
Francis I. commanded in person against the English ; and the next
year he followed that monarch in his expedition to throw supplies into
Landrecy. In 1545, he was with the camp at Boulogne, where he
cured the general of the royal army, Francis Duke of Guise, of a very
dangerous wound, which gained him great reputation.
In 1552, he attended the Due de Rohan in his campaign in
Germany. During this expedition occurred one of those instances of
combined humanity and skill, which made Pare the favourite of the
French army. He thus tells the story : " A party had gone out to
attack a church, where the peasants of the country had fortified them
selves, hoping to get some provisions, but they came back very soundly
L 2

Tl PARE.
beaten ; and one especially, a captain-lieutenant of the company of the
Duke, returned with seven gashes in his head, the least of which had
penetrated to the inner table of the skull, besides four sabre wounds
in the arm, and one across the shoulder, AA'hich divided the shoulder-
blade in half. When he was brought to quarters, the Duke judged
him to be so desperately wounded, that he absolutely proposed, as they
were to inarch by daylight, to dig a trench for him, and throw him
into it, saying, that it w^as as well that the peasants should finish
him. But being moved with pity, I told him (says Pare) , that the
captain might yet be cured : many gentlemen of the company joined
with me in begging that he might be alloAved to go with the baggage,
since I was willing to dress and cure him. This was accordingly
granted : I dressed him, and put him into a small well-covered bed in
a cart drawn by one horse. I was at once physician, surgeon, apothe
cary, and cook to him ; and, thank God, I did cure him in the end, to
the admiration of all the troops : and out of their first booty, the men-
at-arms gave me a crown a-piece, and the archers half-a-crown each."
His reputation Avas now so high, that no expedition of importance,
especially if generalled by a prince of the blood, or one of the higher
nobility, was considered complete without his presence. This was
accordingly solicited by the old King of Navarre, more commonly
called the Due de Vendome, on an occasion of that kind. But being
tired of a military life, and disgusted with its cruelties and horrors,
he endeavoured to evade the proposal, alleging the illness of his Avife,
and other excuses : but the Duke would take no denial ; and at last
he consented to accompany him to the siege of Chateau le Comte.
There he acquitted himself so well, that upon the Avarm encomiums of
the Duke he Avas received into the service of Henry the Second, in
1552, being then but thirty-three years old. From this time he lived
at the court, where, with other advantages, obtained not less by his
behaviour and wit than his skill, he enjoyed, though a Huguenot, the
especial favour of the Queen, Catherine de' Medici, who was fond of
conversing with him in her own language, with which Pare had
become well acquainted in his Italian campaign. She served him
powerfully on several important occasions.
Pare, hoAvever, still continued to frequent the camp, when any
emergency seemed to demand his services. Such an occasion oc
curred at the renowned siege of Metz, in the winter of 1552, con
ducted by Charles V. in person, with the Duke of Alva and 120,000
men, against a garrison of 6000, Avhich ended, after two months, in
the disastrous retreat of the besiegers. The defence was most gal-

PARE. 73
lantly carried on by the flower of the French army, headed by
many of the higher noblesse, and several of the princes of the
blood, under the Duke of Guise. It has been already mentioned
that gunshot wounds were at that time thought to have some
thing poisonous about them ; and the severe cold, and other circum
stances of that siege, being such as unusually to depress and harass
the garrison, their wounds proved almost uniformly fatal ; and the
idea arose and gained ground, that Charles had ordered his bullets
to be actually poisoned. Pare alone was thought able to meet the
necessity of the case in such an extremity ; and the demand for his
assistance became so pressing in the dispirited garrison, that at the
instance of the Duke of Guise the King Avas induced to send him.
He was stealthily introduced by the treachery of one of Charles's
captains, for a bribe of 1500 croAvns, and his appearance on the ram
parts was hailed by the troops with the most extravagant expressions
of joy. " Now that Pare is with us," they cried, " we shall not perish
of our wounds." Their spirits revived, and the successful issue of
their arduous struggle is generally ascribed to the presence of Pare.
Upon the raising of the siege, of which, as is usual in his writings,
he gives a most lively and humorous account, Par6 returned to court.
In 1553 he was sent on a like errand to the siege of Hesdin, which,
after a vigorous defence, and against the faith of a capitulation, Avas
pillaged by the troops of the Duke of Savoy. Pare was himself one
of the prisoners, but escaped in disguise after various adventures, and
returned to Paris ; notwithstanding the tempting offers of the Duke
of Savoy, who had witnessed his skill, though kept in ignorance of
his name.
I He was sent upon many other missions of the same kind ; as to the
fields of St. Quentin and Moncontour ; to Rouen, where he attended
the Due de Vendome on occasion of the AVOund of Avhich he died ;
and to St. Denys, where he performed the same unwelcome duty for
the Constable. The long intervals of these services he always passed
at court, in the enjoyment of his Avell-earned reputation and favour.
On the death of Henry II. in 1559, occasioned by an accident at a
tournament, Francis II., his eldest son by Catherine de' Medici, suc
ceeded to the crown. He immediately confirmed Pare in his situation
of surgeon in ordinary and counsellor. It will not be supposed that
he could enjoy this constant favour and good fortune Avithout the usual
drawback in the excited jealousy of his professional rivals. Their
rancour 'was at length carried to such a pitch, that they gravely accused
him of causing the premature death of Francis in 1560, by injecting
poison into his ear under the pretext of treating, him for an inflam-

74 PARE.
mation seated there, of Avhich he died. Catherine, however, shielded
him from this attack, expressing her complete reliance on his integrity
as well as his skill, in Avords which the historians of the period have
preserved. A similar accusation was brought against him as unsuc
cessfully in the case of Henry HI., who was afflicted with the same
disorder: on which occasion the Queen-Mother again stood forward
in his behalf, and his innocence Avas fully attested by the physicians
whom she had placed about her son, and who had witnessed every
application he made.
On the death of Francis II. in 1560, Parfe maintained his place in
the household of Charles IX., to whom it Avas thought he had ren
dered essential service after an injury inflicted on one of the nerves of
the arm by an unlucky phlebotomist. This misfortune of his humbler
brother Avas of great use to Parfe, who, though a courtier during the
predominance of the Guises, openly professed the Protestant faith ; for
it was probably the means of procuring him in Charles the only pro
tector powerful enough to save him from being included in the general
massacre of the Huguenots on St. Bartholomew's Day. Brantome and
Sully each connect his name with that event. The words of the former
are as follows : " Le Roi quand il fut jour, ayant mis la tete a la
fenetre de sa chambre, et qu'il voyait aucuns dans le fauxbourg St.
Germain qui se remuoient, et se sauvoient, il prit une grande arque-
buse de chasse qu'il avoit, et en tira tout plein de coups a eux ; mais
en vain, car I'arquebuse ne tiroit si loin , incessament crioit, ' Tuez,
tuez,' en n'en vouloit sauver aucun si non Maitre Ambroise Pare, son
premier chirurgien, et le premier de la Chrestiente, et I'envoya querir
et venir le soir dans sa chambre et garde robbe, commandant de n'en
bouger ; et disoit qu'il n'etoit raisonnable qu'un qui pouvoit servir k
tout un petit monde, fust ainsi massacre."
"De tons ceux,'' says Sully, "qui approchoient ce prince (Charles
IX.) il n'y avoit personne qui eut tant de part k sa confiance qu' Am
broise Pare. Cet homme qui n'etoit que son chirurgien, avoit pris avec
lui une si grande familiarite, quoiqu'il fut Huguenot, que ce prince lui
ayant dit le jour du massacre que c'etoit a cette heure qu'il falloit que
tout le monde se fit catholique. Pare lui repondit sans s'etonner, ' Par
la lumiere de Dieu, Sire, je crois qu'il vous souvient m'avoir promis
de ne me commander jamais quatre choses ; scavoir, de rentre dans le
ventre de ma mere, de me trouver a un jour de bataille^ de quitter
votre service, et d'aller a la messe.' "
Pare still retained his situation after the accession of Henry III, in
1574; but he seems to have resigned the cares of active life about
that time, and we hear little more of him. He died December 2,

PARE. 75
1590, in the eighty- first year of his life, and was buried in the church
of St. Andre des Arcs in Paris.
Par6 appears to have been a man of quick and independent obser
vation rather than of reflection or genius. His constitution was
vigorous, and fitted no less for social enjoyments than active business :
his person was manly and graceful, his spirits buoyant, and his dispo
sition remarkably amiable and attractive ; hence he was a universal
favourite, particularly in a despotic court, of which the dullness was
agreeably relieved by his frankness, and his poAvers of humour and
repartee. The amusing and Avell-told anecdotes and lively descrip
tions that teem in all his writings, which, it may be observed, are equal
in point of style to any of the time, sufficiently attest his possession of
those qualities, even if the stories and bon-mots that are related of him
be questioned. His ' Apology,' as he calls one of his later pieces,
containing an account of his various campaigns and journeys, is full of
humour, and well worth the perusal of the general reader. It was
published by way of answer to an attack upon his treatment of contused
wounds and heemorrhages, made by an obscure Parisian lecturer, Avhose
name he does not mention ; and he diverts himself exceedingly at the
expense of the critic, for his presumption in pretending to teach a
surgeon Avhose experience had been gathered from twenty sieges and
fields of battle, through an active professional life of forty years. The
raillery he employs is often very keen and pointed, but never illnatured,
and indicates the infinite superiority he felt, and had a right to feel,
over his merely book-learned adversary.
His conduct throughout life appears to have been remarkably upright
and sincere, though tinctured by the adulation which, in that age of
violence and despotism, was always exacted by the great from those
who Avere more humbly born.
He was a bold and good operator, and his general skill and success
in the practice of his profession is unquestionable ; in that day it
must have been Avonderful. As a surgical writer, his fame principally
rests upon his introduction of a soothing method of treating gunshot
and other contused wounds, and his discovery or rather restoration of
the method of arresting haemorrhage, by the ligature of the bleeding
vessel, instead of searing with hot iron, and other insufficient and
painful means. But he made many other novel and useful remarks
Avhich only do not deserve the name of discoveries, because they relate
to more trivial points, and do not involve important principles : and,
upon the whole, much as surgery has been improved since his time,
there have been few writers to Avhom it has owed so much as to him.

76

PARE.

especially in the mihtary department. The whole body of his writings
on that subject, though diffuse, merit the perusal of professional men.
The same praise cannot be given without exception and reserve to
those of his writings which were less the records of, his personal
experience, than compilations from other sources. His remarks upon
the subjects of Physiology, Medical Diseases, the Composition of
Remedies, Natural History, and Obstetrics, are not free from error,
credulity, and even indelicacy. The latter charge was successfully
urged against him by the contemporary Parisian physicians, who were
jealous of his encroachments upon what they considered their own
domain, and he was obliged to alter the original editions.
He was too much occupied by his practice to engage deeply in the .
study of anatomy : hence his knowledge of it was rather sufficient
than accurate ; and though he wrote upon it at some length, and even
added neAv facts to that science, his success in advancing it can only
be considered as a proof of the imperfect information of the time. He
lived before the discovery of the circulation of the blood.
His first publication, on Gunshot Wounds, in 1545, was incorpo
rated Avith his other writings, comprising altogether twenty-six trea
tises, and printed at Paris in one large folio volume in 1561. This,
with some posthumous additions, has been often reprinted, and there
are translations of it in Latin and other languages. The first English
edition was by Thomas Johnson in 1634.

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Robert Blake is believed to have been born at Plansfield, in the
parish of Spaxton, Somersetshire, near Bridgewater, in Avhich town
his father was a merchant ; but the place is not so Avell ascer
tained as the date of his birth, which was August, 1 598. He was
educated in the Free School of Bridgewater, whence in due time he
removed to Oxford, and became successively a member of St. Alban's
Hall and Wadham College. His character was studious, yet he was
fond of field-sports and other violent exercises ; and we may infer that
he had at least a decent share of scholastic learning, from his having
been a candidate, though unsuccessfully, for a studentship at Christ-
church, and a fellowship at Merton College. He returned to Bridge-
water when about twenty-five years old, and lived quietly on his paternal
estate till 1640, with the character of a blunt, bold man, of ready
humour and fearless expression of his sentiments, which, both in
p6litics and religion, were adverse to the pretensions of the court.
These qualities gained for him the confidence of the Presbyterian
party in Bridgewater, by whom he was returned to the parliament of
April, 1640. The speedy dissolution of that assembly gave him no
opportunity of trying his poAvers as a debater ; and in the next par
liament he was not re-elected. But on the breaking out of the civil
war, he displayed his principles by entering the Parliamentary army.
We have no certain information concerning the time or the capacity
in which he began to serve ; but in 1643 we find him intrusted with
the command of a fort at Bristol, when the city was besieged by the
Royalists. Here his impetuous temper had nearly brought him to an
untimely death ; for, having maintained his fort and killed some of the
king's soldiers after the garrison had surrendered, Prince Rupert was
Vol. V. M

78 BLAKE.
with difficulty induced to spare his life, which was held to have been
forfeited by this violation of the laws of Avar. Blake served afterAvards
in the west of England with good repute, and in 1644 was appointed
Governor of Taunton, a place of great consequence, being the only
Parliamentary fortress in that quarter. In that capacity he distin
guished himself by the skill, courage, and constancy Avith which, during
two successive sieges, he maintained the toAvn against the Royalists in
1645 ; an important service, for which the parliament voted £2000 to
the garrison, and £500 to the governor. It is recorded that he dis
approved of the extremity to which matters were pushed against
Charles, and that he was frequently heard to say, that he would as
freely venture his life to save the King's, as he had ever done it in the
service of the Parliament.
In February, 1649, Colonel Blake, in conjunction with Iavo officers
of the same rank, Deane and Popham, was appointed to command the
fleet. It may be taken as a proof that, notwithstanding the fame of our
early navigators, the King's service at sea had never been treated with
much attention, that, down to later times than those of Avhich we now
write, the chief command of a fleet seems never to have been given to
a man of naval education and habits. It is probable that the sea service
then held out no inducements strong enough to tempt men of high birth
to submit to its inconveniences, and that the command of a fleet was
esteemed too great a post to be conferred on a man of humble origin.
For this new employment Blake soon showed signal capacity. When
the embers of the war were stirred up after the King's death, he AVas
ordered to the Irish seas in pursuit of Prince Rupert, whom he block
aded in the harbour of Kinsale for several months. Despair of
relief induced the Prince at last to make a daring effort to break
through the Parliamentary squadron, in which he succeeded ; but
with the loss of three ships. Blake pursued him to the Tagus, where
being denied liberty to attack his enemy by the King of Portugal, in
revenge he captured and sent home a number of ships richly laden, on
their way from Brazil. In January, 1651, he attacked and, with the
exception of two ships, destroyed the Royalist fleet, in the neutral
harbour of Malaga ; a breach of national law, which can only be jus
tified on the alleged ground that Rupert had destroyed British ships
in the same harbour. These services were recompensed by the Par
liament with the post of Warden of the Cinque Ports ; and in March
an act was passed constituting Blake, Avith his colleagues Deane and
Popham, admirals and generals of the fleet for the year ensuing. In
that capacity, he took Jersey, Guernsey, and the Scilly Islands from

BLAKE. 79
the Royalists; a service, for which he was again thanked by Parliament.
In this year he was elected a member of the Council of State.
March 25, 1652, Blake was appointed sole admiral for nine months,
in expectation of a war with the Dutch. The United States and
England Avere at this time the two most powerful maritime countries
in the Avorld ; and it is hard to find any better reason than national
rivalry for the bloody war which broke out betAveen them in the
spring of this year ; a war Avhich seems to have been begun on a
point of etiquette, at the discretion of the admirals, Avithout orders for
hostilities being known to be given by the governments on either side.
On May 18, a fleet of forty-tAvo Dutch ships, commanded by the
celebrated Van Tromp, appeared off the Goodwin Sands, Being chal
lenged by Major Bourne, who commanded a squadron in the Downs,
they professed to have been driven from their anchorage off Dunkirk
by stress of weather ; but instead of drawing off the coast as they were
required to do, they sailed to Dover and cast anchor, in a manner
Avhich showed the deliberate design of insulting the British flag.
Blake lay some distance to the Avestward in Rye Bay. Intelligence
was immediately sent to him, and on his approach the Dutch Aveighed
anchor, and seemed about to retreat, but, changing their course, they
sailed direct for the English fleet. When within musket shot, Blake
ordered a single gun to be fired at the Dutch admiral's flag, which
was done thrice. Van Tromp returned a broadside, and a hot and
well-contested action ensued, and was maintained till nightfall. Under
cover of the darkness the Dutch retreated, losing tAvo ships (one sunk,
the other taken), and leaving the possession of the field and the honour
of the victory in the hands of the English. The States appear neither
to have authorised nor approved of the conduct of their admiral ; for
they left no means untried to satisfy the English government ; and
when they found the demands of the latter so high as to preclude
accommodation, they dismissed Van Tromp, and intrusted the com
mand of their fleet to De Ruyter and De Witt. Meanwhile, Blake's
activity was unremitting. He gained a rich harvest of prizes among
the Dutch homeward-bound merchantmen, which were pursuing their
Avay Avithout suspicion of danger ; and when he had sent home forty
good prizes and effectually cleared the Channel, he sailed to the north
ward, dispersed the fleet" engaged in the herring fishery, and captured
a hundred of the vessels composing it, together with a squadron of
tAvelve ships of war sent out to protect them. The hostile fleets
again came to an engagement, September 28, in which the advantage
was decidedly in favour of the English, the rear-admiral of the Dutch
M 2

80 BLAKE.
being taken, and three or four of their ships disabled, Night put an
end to the action ; and, though for two days the English maintained
the pursuit, the lightness and uncertainty of the wind prevented them
from closing Avith the enemy, who escaped into Goree. After this battle
the drafting off of detachments on various services reduced the English
fleet to forty sail, and those, it is said, in consequence of the negligence
or jealousy of the executive government, were ill provided with men
and ammunition, and other requisite supplies. Thus weakly furnished,
Blake lay in the Downs, when Van Tromp again stood over to the
EngUsh coast with eighty men-of-Avar. Of that undaunted spirit which
usually prompts the British seaman to refuse no odds Blake had an
ample share ; indeed, he did much to infuse that spirit into the service.
But there are odds for which no spirit can make up, and as he
had a brave and skilful enemy, the result of his rashness was that
he Avas well beaten. Not more than half the ships on either side
Avere engaged ; but out of this small number of English vessels
two were taken, and four destroyed ; the rest were so shattered that
they Avere glad to run for shelter into the river Thames. The Dutch
remained masters of the narroAV seas ; and Van Tromp, in an idle
bravado, sailed through the Channel with a broom at his mast-head,
as if he had swept it clear of English ships. However, neither the
admiral nor the nation Avere of a temper to submit to this indignity ; and
great diligence having been used in refitting and recruiting the fleet,
Blake put to sea again in February, 1653, with eighty ships. On the
18th he fell in with Van Tromp, with nearly equal force, conducting
a large convoy of merchantmen up the Channel. A running battle
ensued, Avhich was continued during three consecutive days, until, on
the 20th, the Dutch ships, which, to suit the nature of their coast,
Avere built with a smaller draught of water than the English, obtained
shelter in the shallow waters of Calais. In this long and obstinate
fight, the Dutch lost only eleven men-of-Avar and thirty merchant
vessels ; but the number killed is said to have amounted to 1 500 on
either side ; a loss of life of most unusual amount in naval engagements.
Another great battle took place on the 3rd and 4 th of June, between
Van Tromp and Generals Deane and Monk. On the first day the
Dutch seem to have had somewhat the advantage : on the second Blake
arrived with a reinforcement of eighteen saiT, which turned the scale
in favour of the English. Bad health obliged him then to quit the
sea, so that he was not present at the last great victory of July 29, in
which Van Tromp was killed. But out of respect for his services the
Parliament presented him Avith a gold chain, as well as the admirals

BLAKE. 81
who had actually commanded in the battle. When Cromwell dis
solved the Long Parliament, and assumed the office of Protector,
Blake, though in his principles a republican, did not refuse to ac
knowledge the new administration. In conjunction with Deane
and Monk he published a declaration of their resolution, " not-
Avithstanding the late change, to proceed in the performance of
their duties, and the trust reposed in them against the enemies
of the Commonwealth." He is reported to have said to his officers,
" It is not our business to mind state-affairs, but to keep foreigners
from fooling us." He sat in the two first Parliaments summoned
by the Protector, Avho always treated him with great respect.
Nor was Cromwell's acknoAvledged sagacity in the choice of men
at fault, when he chose Blake to command a strong fleet, sent into
the Mediterranean in November, 1654, to uphold the honour of the
English flag, and to demand reparation for the slights and injuries
done to the nation during that stormy period of civil war, when our
own discord had made others daring against us. In better hands such
a mission could not have been placed, Dutch, French, and Spaniards
alike concurred in rendering unusual honours to his flag. The Duke
of Tuscany and the Order of Malta made compensation for injuries
done to the English commerce. The piratical states of Algiers and
Tripoli were terrified into submission, and promised to abstain from
further violence. The Dey of Tunis held out, confident in the strength
of his fortifications. " Here," he said, " are our castles of Goletta
and Porto Ferino : do your worst ; do you think we fear your fleet ?"
Blake took the same course as, in our own time, Lord Exmouth did
against Algiers : he bore right into the bay of Porto Ferino ; en
gaged the fortress within musket shot, and in less than two hours
silenced or dismounted its guns ; and sending a detachment of boats
into the harbour, burnt the shipping which lay there. After this
example he found no more difficulty in dealing with the African
states. War having been declared between Spain and England, in 1656,
Blake took his station to blockade the bay of Cadiz. At this period
his constitution was much broken, insomuch that, in the expectation
of a speedy death, he sent home a request that some person proper to
be his successor might be joined in commission with him. General
Montague was accordingly sent out Avith a strong squadron. Being
obliged to quit the coast of Spain in September to obtain water for his
fleet, Blake left Captain Stayner with seven ships to watch the enemy.
In this interval the Spanish Plate fleet appeared. Stayner captured

82 BLAKE.
four ships richly laden with bullion ; the rest escaped. Montague
conducted the prizes home, so that Blake was again left alone in the
Mediterranean. In the ensuing spring, having learnt that another
Plate fleet had put into the island of Teneriffe, he sailed thither, and
arrived in the road of Santa Cruz, April 20. The bay was strongly
fortified, with a formidable castle at the entrance, and a connected chain
of minor forts all round it. The naval force collected there was also
considerable, and strongly posted, the smaller vessels being placed
under the guns of the forts, the galleons strongly moored with their
broadsides to the sea ; insomuch that the Spanish Governor, a man of
courage and ability, felt perfectly at ease as to the security of his
charge. The master of a Dutch ship, Avhich was lying in the harbour,
was less satisfied, and went to the Governor to request leave to quit
the harbour ; " For I am sure," he said, "that Blake will presently be
among you." The Governor made a confident reply. " Begone if
you will, and let Blake come if he dares." Daring Avas the last thing
wanting; nor did the Admiral hesitate, as a wise man might Avell
have done, about the real difficulties of the enterprise in which he was
about to engage. The Avind blowing into the bay, he sent in Captain
Stayner with a squadron to attack the shipping, placed others in such
a manner as to take off, and, as far as possible, to silence the fire of the
castle and the forts, and himself following, assisted Stayner in capturing
the galleons, which, though inferior in number, were superior in size
and force to the English ships. This was completed by two o'clock
in the afternoon, the engagement having commenced at eight in the
morning. Hopeless of being able to carry the prizes out of the bay
against an adverse wind, and a still active enemy, Blake gave orders
to burn them : and it is probable that he himself might have found
some difficulty in beating out of the bay under the fire of the castle,
Avhich was still lively, when on a sudden, the wind which had bloAvn
strong into the bay, suddenly veered round to the south-west, and
favoured his retreat, as it had favoured his daring approach. Of
this, the most remarkable, as it was thei last exploit of Blake's life,
Clarendon says, " The whole action was so incredible,- that all men
Avho knew the place wondered that any sober man, with what courage
soever endowed, would ever have undertaken it ; and they could
hardly persuade themselves to believe what they had done : Avhile
the Spaniards comforted themselves with the belief, that they were
devils and not men who had destroyed them in such a manner. So
much a strong resolution of bold and courageous men can bring
to pass, that no resistance or advantage of ground can disappoint

BLAKE. 83
them ; and it can hardly be imagined how small a loss the English
sustained in this unparalleled action, not one ship being left behind,
and the killed and wounded not exceeding two hundred men ; when
the slaughter on board the Spanish ships and on shore was incredible."
It will be recollected Avith interest that, on the same spot. Nelson lost
his arm, in an unsuccessful night-attempt to capture Santa Cruz with
an armed force in boats.
For this service the thanks of Parliament were voted to the officers
and seamen engaged, with a diamond ring to the Admiral Avorth 500/.
Blake returned to his old station off Cadiz ; but the increase of his
disorders, which were dropsy and scurvy, raised a desire in him to
return to England, Avhich, however, he did not live to fulfil. He died
as he was entering Plymouth Sound, August 17, 1657. His body was
transported to London, and buried with great pomp in Westminster
Abbey, at the public expense. After the Revolution it was thought un
worthy to remain in that treasure-house of England's departed greatness;
and Avith the bones of others who had found a resting-place there during
the short period of the Commonwealth, it was transferred to St. Mar
garet's churchyard. It has been disputed whether this Avas done with.
more or less of indecency ; but the matter is little AVorth inquiry. The
real indecency and folly lay in thinking that any ground, however
sanctified by the reverent associations of centuries, could be polluted
by the tomb of a man whose leading passion was the glory of his
country, and who made the name and flag of that country respected
wheresoever he carried it : a man of whom not one mean or interested
action is recorded, and Avhose great qualities extorted praise even from
the RoyaUsts. Bate, in his ' Elenchus Motuum,' speaks of him as a
man " blameable in this only, that he joined Avith the parricides ;" and
it may be remarked that Dr. Bate's horror of a parricide did not pre
vent his being physician to Cromwell, as Avell as to Charles I. and II.
We conclude with Clarendon's character of this great man. " He
was of private extraction, yet had enough left him by his father to give
him a good education, which his own inclination disposed him to
receive in the University of Oxford, where he took the degree of a
Master of Arts, and was enough versed in books for a man who in
tended not to be of any profession, having sufficient of his own to
maintain him in the plenty he affected, and having then no appearance
of ambition to be a greater man than he was. He was of a melan-
cholick and sullen nature, and spent his time most with good fellows,
who liked his moroseness, and a freedom he used in inveighing against
the licence of the time and the power of the court. They who knew

84 BLAKE.
him inwardly, discovered that he had an anti-monarchical spirit, when
few men thought the government in any danger." After a short
sketch of Blake's actions in the civil war, the noble author con
tinues, " He then betook himself wholly to the sea, and quickly made
himself signal there. He was the first man that declined the old
track, and made it manifest that the science might be attained in less
time than was imagined, and despised those rules which had long
been in practice, to keep his ship and his men out of danger ; which
had been held in former times a point of great ability and circum
spection, as if the principal art requisite in the captain of a ship had
been to be sure to come safe home again. He was the first man Avho
brought the ships to contemn castles on shore, which had been thought
ever very formidable, and were discovered by him to make a noise
only, and to fright those who could be rarely hurt by them. He was
the first who infused that proportion of courage into the seamen, by
making them see by experience what mighty things they could do, if
they were resolved, and taught them to fight in fire as Avell as upon
water, and though he has been very well imitated and followed, he Avas
the first that gave the example of that kind of naval courage, and bold
and resolute achievements."
The earliest life of Blake which we have seen is in the second
volume of a collection entitled ' Lives English and Foreign,' published
at the beginning of the last century. Clarendon's History of the
Rebellion, Heath's Chronicle of the Civil Wars, the Memoirs of
Ludlow, Whitelock, and other contemporary authorities, will furnish
minute accounts of the many battles of Avhich we have here only made
short mention.

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Michel de l'Hopital was born at Aigueperse in Auvergne. The
date of his birth he himself declares, in his testament, to be uncertain,
but at the same time he refers it to the year 1505. His father was
the domestic physician, the faithful friend, and trusted counsellor of
the Constable of Bourbon, and still followed his patron's fortunes, when
that ill-used and misguided prince took up arms against France in
1523. Michel de l'Hopital, then a student at the University of Tou
louse, was arrested as the son of one of Bourbon's partizans ; but after
a short time he was set at liberty by the express order of Francis I.,
and after the lapse of tAvo or three years was permitted to rejoin his
father in Italy. He completed his education during a residence of six
years at the celebrated University of Padua. Quitting that University
Avith high credit for his acquirements both in polite literature and
legal knowledge, he took up his abode at Rome with his father, and
soon obtained the favourable notice both of the Emperor Charles V.
and the French ambassador, Cardinal de Grammont. But preferring
the hope of re-establishment in his native country to the prospects of
advancement held out in a foreign land, he returned to France in
the train of the Cardinal ; was present at the espousal of Catherine
de Medicis with the Dauphin, afterwards Henry II., in 1583 ; and laid
a stepping-stone towards his fortunes by attracting the notice of his
future queen. The death of the Cardinal however in the folio Aving
year overclouded his prospects. His father was unable to procure a
reversal of the sentence of exile and confiscation passed on him for his
adherence to Bourbon ; and Michel de l'Hopital, without means or
friends, betook himself to the practice of the laAv in the courts of Paris.
Fortunately, his merits procured a discerning friend in Jean Morin,
a high legal functionary, who gave him his daughter in marriage
in 1537, with the judicial office of Conseilkr for her dowry.
Vol. V. N

86 L'HOPITAL.
L'Hopital filled this office during nine years. It Avas one in
Avhich he found no pleasure ; for though attached to the philosophical
study of the law (and he mentions it as one of the evils of his situation
that he had been obhged to abandon a project for collecting into one
body the laws of France, both written and resting on judicial decisions),
he found the daily routine of trying causes extremely irksome. His
letters are full of complaints of this drudgery, as he esteemed it, and
express in lively terms the pleasure which he felt in escaping during
the vacations into the country, and renewing his literary pursuits. He
numbered the most intellectual and learned men of France among his
friends, nor was he backward in seeking to conciliate the great and
powerful. It is worth noting, as indicative of the manners of the age,
that his favourite method of addressing such persons was in Latin
hexameters. Accounts of his way of life, statements of his wishes,
petitions, &c., are conveyed in that form ; and he composed with
fluency, and with a competent share of elegance, without great atten
tion to correctness. One of his frequent correspondents, to Avhose
favour he owed in great measure his future rise, was Cardinal Lor
raine. The Chancellor Olivier, a man of no common virtue, was an
other of his best friends, and to him L'Hopital was indebted for being
withdraAvn from the hated bustle of the laAV, by his appointment as
envoy to the Council of Bologna. This proved a sinecure ; and he
employed his time in Avandering about the neighbourhood of that city,
and writing letters to the Chancellor, full of poetical descriptions, and
requests for a more permanent provision aAvay from the tumult of the
law courts.
Early in 1549 L'Hopital was recalled, after remaining upwards
of a year in Italy. He found the Chancellor in disgrace ; but his
acknowledged merit obtained the notice of Margaret of Valois,
daughter of Francis I., a steady patroness of learning, herself devoted
to Hterary as Avell as religious study. Being created Duchess of
Berri, she appointed him her Chancellor, to manage the affairs of
the province ; and one of his first steps in that capacity Avas the
establishment of a new law-school at Bourges, to which he endea
voured to attract the most eminent teachers. Her influence, added
to that of Cardinal Lorraine, procured for him the high financial
appointment of Superintendent of the Chamber of Accounts, in 1554.
His conduct in that station was firm and honest. He laboured to put
a stop to numberiess abuses, which had prevailed both in the collection
and disposition of the revenue ; and his zeal is testified by the ill-will
Avliich it brought upon him, and Avhich tAvice endangered the loss

L'HOPITAL. 87
of his place. His independence in this respect is ill contrasted by his
obsequiousness in supporting the edict known in French history by the
name of the Semestre. This requires a few words of explanation. No
legislative body was recognised by the French constitution. Even the
States -General could not enact : the power of making laws resided
solely in the sovereign. But by the practice of the land, the edicts of
the monarch required to be registered by the body of lawyers called
the Parliament of Paris, before they could possess validity as law : a
wholesome practice, which often served as a check upon the court. It
was probably with the intention of rendering that body more subject to
control, that Henry II., or his ministers, introduced the above-men
tioned edict, by which it Avas proposed to divide the Parliament into
two bodies, to relieve each other every six months. Under this arrange
ment it Avould have been easy to collect the refractory spirits into one
body, and then to bring measures forward for registration in which
ever half year might best suit the views of the crown. L'Hopital's
accession to this measure has been palliated by alleging, that, as the
price of it, he stipulated for the abolition of a custom which prevailed,
for suitors to offer fees to the judges before whom their causes were to
be tried, under the name of spices (jepices), — a ready means of cor
ruption, for yielding to which, or something not much worse, Bacon,
about half a century later, was removed with disgrace from the chan
cellorship of England. The whole tenor of L'Hopital's policy in after
times tended to depress the ParHament; and this furnishes a pre
sumption that his conduct in this particular instance was honest. But
it is strange that he should not have perceived any inroad on the inde
pendence of the judicial body to be a still greater evil than even that
from which he endeavoured to free it. After all, the scheme failed,
and he was deeply mortified at the obloquy which his accession to it in
curred. The accession of Francis IL, by bringing the house of Guise into
power, proved the means of L'Hopital's advancement. One of the first
acts of the new government Avas to restore to the office of chancellor
Olivier, a man of tried integrity, and a friend to toleration. But
while the princes of Guise availed themselves of his high character to
court popularity, they had no thought of acting by his advice ; and
OHvier, compelled tobe the unwilling instrument of a policy which he
detested, and afraid or unable to resign, was hastened by vexation to
his grave. L'Hopital was selected to be his successor in June, 1560.
The Guises and the Queen Mother are said to have been actuated by
different views in agreeing upon this appointment. The former thought
N2

88 L'HOPITAL.
that from an old adherent and petitioner of Cardinal Lorraine they
had no opposition to fear : the latter is said to have been influenced by
the hope that L'Hopital's patriotism would lead him to be a check
on the over-poAverful house of Lorraine.
The circumstances under which he became Chancellor were such as
might fairly breed suspicion of his honesty. None but a bold man
could have hoped to do good after the example of Olivier ; none but a
dexterous man could have succeeded. And such dexterity is seldom
joined with that sincerity and purity of purpose, which is one of the
most valuable qualities of a statesman, or any man. There are some
times seasons in which an honest man may take office, with the cer
tainty not only that he will not be permitted to do much that he would
wish, but also that he will be obliged to do a good deal that he disap
proves. But such compromises are of bad example and CAdl influence,
and can only be excused by the necessity of the times, and by the good
results Avhich ensue. By this test, L'Hopital's conduct is vindicated.
He conferred a signal benefit on France at his first entrance upon
office, by dexterously contriving to prevent the establishment of the
Inquisition, which had been resolved on. He obtained the convocation
of an Assembly of Notables at Fontainebleau, in which, through his
influence, conciliatory measures were adopted towards the Protestants,
and it was resolved to summon a meeting of the States-General. But
the Guises, by working on the young king's fears, turned that mea
sure to their own advantage. Conde no sooner appeared than he Avas
arrested, tried, and condemned to death. The King of Navarre was
threatened with a similar fate ; and but for the opportune death of
Francis II., the kingdom probably would have been plunged at once
into the utmost fury of a religious war. But the succession of Charles
IX., a minor, in December 1560, thrcAV the regency into the hands
of Catherine ; and she, encouraged by L'Hopital, asserted her inde
pendence of the Guises, and, to conciliate the support of a powerful
party, released Conde, and allied herself with the King of Navarre.
At first, the Chancellor's liberal measures seemed to prosper. As
if in compliance with the demands of the States, he published the
celebrated Ordonnance of Orleans, which embodied most of his views
for the reformation of the state, and introduced a variety of bold and
important changes into the church, the courts of justice, and the finan
cial system. One portion of it is expressly directed against the
oppressive rights claimed and exercised by the nobility. But the
spirit of the age was not ripe for such extensive reforms : they were
too far in advance to produce a lasting influence. And in attempting

L'HOPITAL. 89
to overcome an interested and prejudiced opposition, the Chancellor
was led to. an act unworthy of his real zeal for the welfare of his
country. His legal improvements had not conciliated the good will of
the lawyers ; and, foreseeing that the ParHament of Paris might pro
bably refuse to register his edicts, he took it on himself to dispatch
them to the provinces, without ever having submitted them to that
body. To justify such a step, it is not enough to say that his
views Avere enlarged and noble, theirs bigoted and illiberal ; for it is
seldom or never that any object can be of importance enough to justify
a constitutional statesman in breaking down a constitutional security.
Nor had he even the bad excuse of success. The Parliament Avere
justly incensed, and probably became still more hostile to the measures
adopted in defiance of its authority; and the high Catholic party
prevailed in obtaining a new Assembly of Notables, at which all was
undone which the Chancellor had been labouring to do, and the per
secuting edicts against the Protestants were re-established in full force.
This bloAV to his system of toleration the Chancellor contrived to
obviate. He had no assembly, no body of recognised authority on Avhich
to lean for support. The Parliament of Paris was against him; the
Assembly of Notables, composed of lawyers and nobility, was against
him ; the States General were tedious to convoke, and were para
lysed by their division into three orders. In this difficulty he bethought
himself of calling an assembly of deputies from the provincial Parlia
ments of the kingdom ; and fortified by their recommendation, he pro
mulgated and obtained registration of the celebrated edict of January,
1562, which, under certain restrictions, permitted the open profession
of the Protestant faith. Upon this the furious bigotry of the Duke of
Guise broke into open violence, and kindled the first of those religious
wars Avhich long desolated France, Strengthened by the adhesion of
the Constable Montmorenci, and by possession of the persons of the
King, and Queen Regent, the brothers of Lorraine usurped the con
duct of affairs, and excluded L'H6pital from the council. It is
remarkable, considering his resolute opposition to their policy, that
they did not deprive him of his office; and this may be taken as
an evidence either of the consummate prudence Avith which, without
betraying his OAvn principles, he avoided giving personal offence to
his opponents ; or that his character stood so high as to render his
opponents unwilling to incur the odium of displacing him.
The assassination of the Duke of Guise, in February, 1563, restored
to Catherine her own free-will, and L'Hopital to power; and he
immediately availed himself of it to lay the basis of peace by fresh

90 L'HOPITAL.
edicts in favour of toleration, which as usual were opposed by the
Parliament. In the following year, Charles IX. having reached the
age of fourteen, the Chancellor revived an old law which fixed the
majority of Kings of France at that age, and declared the King's
majority before the ParHament of Rouen, Soon after, he was en
gaged in a quarrel with his old patron. Cardinal Lorraine, relative to
the privileges of the Galilean Church. The question was, whether or
not the decrees of the Council of Trent should be admitted as
authority in France. The Chancellor opposed this, and he carried his
point. To amuse Charles, and to avoid some of the evils which usually
beset a court, the Chancellor conducted his young sovereign on a tour
to the southern provinces of France, This was attended with unfore
seen and evil consequences. At Bayonne Charles was met by his
sister, the Queen of Spain, attended by the Duke of Alva and other
Spanish noblemen, Alva acquired the confidence of Catherine, whom
he persuaded that in the hands of L'Hopital she really had no more
freedom of action than under the control of the Guises ; and as in her
opposition to them she had been actuated by no love of toleration, she
had little to unlearn under the tuition of that bigoted and able partizan
of the papacy. L'Hopital soon perceived that his power was shaken.
He laboured to make up for the lost confidence of Catherine, by
attaching himself more and more to Charles IX, ; and for a time he
succeeded in retaining influence over that prince, who, during the years
1565 and 1566, was kept in a state of vacillation between those who
pleaded for peace and toleration, and those Avho would have extermi
nated Protestantism at all hazards and by all means. The religious
war Avas renewed in 1567. Peace was concluded in 1568; but
L'H6pital was not employed to manage it. His only hold upon power
was now in the reverence of the King ; and this was shaken by the
artful representations of Catherine, It shows, however, in a strong
light, the ascendancy which L'Hopital had acquired over Charles's
mind, that the joint influence of Catherine and the House of Guise
could not induce him absolutely to dismiss his faithful minister. In
1568 he sent to request the Chancellor to give up the seals for a time,
with a promise of returning them. L'H6pital says in his Testament,
that " he judged it better to yield to the necessity of the state, and to
its new governors, than to contend with them." He retired to his
estate at Vignay, near Etampes, where he returned Avith avidity to his
literary pursuits, and to the amusements and occupations of the coun
try, to which his letters represent him as devotedly attached.

L'HOPITAL. 91
The Chancellor had not amassed, wealth in his various high em
ployments ; but his pensions Avere continued by the King ; and
Catherine herself did not forget his former services. Even in the
dreadful massacre of St. Bartholomew's they interfered to protect
him ; though his family were Protestants, and he himself, though a
Catholic by profession and in observances, was so suspected by the
bigot party, who did not understand how sincerity and tolerance could
go together, that it passed into a sort of proverb, ' Lord deliver us from
the Chancellor's mass.' A troop of horse was sent from court to pre
serve his mansion from insult. His domestics were alarmed, and pro
posed to shut the gates. " No," said the Chancellor ; " but if the
small gate is not enough, open the great one." His daughter, then
in Paris, Avas in imminent danger, and escaped only through the inter
vention of the Duchess of Guise.
The Chancellor did not long survive this signal proof that his
labours had been in vain, " I have lived too long," he said, " since
I have seen what has occurred in my last days, — a youth changed
from a mild king into a merciless tyrant," He died, March 13, 1573 ;
and was buried in his parish church of Champmoteux. His monument
is among those which have been collected at Paris, in the Mus6e des
Petits-Augustins. Brantome has described the person of L'H6pital. He wore a long
white beard ; . his face was pale, his demeanor grave, and he resembled
the pictures of St. Jerome, by which name he was known at court.
He and the Constable Montmorenci were famous as rabroueurs, or
reprimanders, and were joint terrors to the idle courtiers ; and this
harshness, if we may trust his own representations, Avas not natural, but
assumed as a necessary quahfication for his office. His private habits
were very simple and frugal, and he regarded the increase of luxury
as the bane, of France. Brantome says that once, when he paid the
Chancellor a visit with Marechal Strozzi, their host gave them for
dinner a single dish of bouillie, and that his whole stock of plate con
sisted of one silver saltcellar. He adds an amusing account of the Avay
in which the Chancellor rated two newly appointed functionaries, Avho
came to present themselves, and who could not pass satisfactorily
through a legal examination, which he bestowed upon them.
The leading objects of L'Hopital's political life were to obtain the
reformation of abuses, to estabHsh the independence of the Galilean
church against the usurpations of Rome, and to procure toleration for
the Protestants. He is, we believe, the first minister who laid down
the principle of toleration, and proclaimed the impossibility and absur-

92- L'HOPITAL.
dity of making force the rule of reason ; and he has thus gained an
indefeasible title to the reverence, not only of his countrymen, but of
mankind. " What laws," he said, in his inaugurative speech to the
Parliament of Paris, " have not been promulgated on this point of
religion ? What judgments and punishments, of which even the
magistrates of the Parliament have been victims ? To what purpose
have served such continued armaments and combats in Germany, in
England, and in Scotland ? The ancient religion has been shaken
by these combats, and the new confirmed. The mistake lies in
treating the maladies of the mind as if they were those of the
body. Experience teaches us that it is the force of reason, the gentle
persuasion of words alone, which can Avin hearts, and cure diseased
spirits." This great man has another claim to notice, as one of the most dis
tinguished jurists and reformers of France. He has been classed with
Charlemagne and St. Louis, as one of the three principal legislators of
that country ; and his eminent successor D'Aguesseau bore testimony
to the merits of his edicts, as the foundation of the most useful laws
which Avere afterwards enacted. His constitutional views were directed
towards raising the royal authority, at the expense of the nobility and
the Parliament. We have expressed our belief that in the latter in
stance his conduct was wrong. His views of reform are embodied in
the Ordonnance of Orleans (January, 1561), and that of Moulins
(February, 1566), Avhich De Thou describes as being the complement
of the former. Of the contents of the Ordonnance of Orleans we have
already given such notice as our space allows ; that of Moulins per
tains rather to legal and judicial reforms; it limits and defines the
poAvers of judicial officers, and determines the law on various points,
relative to entails, arrests for debt, sales, &c. In short, these two
edicts provide for the removal of most of those evils which, unre
dressed, produced the first Revolution.
It is much to be regretted that L'Hdpital's essay towards a work
on French law is lost. There is a volume extant of his Poetical
Epistles, of which the best edition is that of Amsterdam, 1732. To
thbse, and to his Testament, Avhich is printed in the Bibliotheque
Choisie of Colomi^s, and in Brantdme (article of the Constable Mont
morenci) , we may refer for authentic details of his life ; of Avhich
numerous particulars will be found in the history of De Thou, the
Memoirs of Brantdme, the Letters of Pasquier, the Eloges of Tlievet,
and other contemporary writers. His speeches before the States of
Orleans have been published ; and a Collection of Memoirs, con-

L'HOPITAL.

93

sisting of various State Papers, printed at Cologne, 1672, has been
ascribed to him. The Eloge of L'H6pital was proposed as a prize
by the French Academy in 1777. Slight accounts of him will be
found in the various biographical dictionaries ; but no publication, so
far as we know, has appeared either in French or English, which can
dispense Avith the necessity of consulting the original authorities, on
the part of those who wish to obtain more than a superficial acquaint
ance with the history of this illustrious statesman.

[The Conciergerie at Paris, from whence the Hugonot prisoners were liberated by L'HApital
himself, — from a Print in the British Museum.]

Vol. V

The light esteem in which the theatrical profession has commonly been
held renders it probable that the introduction of an actress among the
few female names included in our Gallery may seem to some persons
uncalled for and injudicious. That there are few players entitled to
such admission Ave allow : but for one who studied acting as a branch
of art, discarding every unworthy species of stage trickery; and who, by
profound study, and a rare union of mental and bodily excellence, has
inseparably connected her name and memory with the masterpieces of
the British drama, we do claim a place (to which her eminent brother
is almost equally entitled) among the master-minds of the fine arts.
Sarah Kerable came of a theatrical stock. Her father was manager
of a provincial company of actors ; her mother Avas the daughter of a pro
vincial manager. Both parents maintained a high character for moral
rectitude; and the latter is said to have been distinguished by a strength
of mind, and stateliness of demeanour, which may have had some in
fluence upon the character and manners of her celebrated children.
Sarah, their eldest daughter, was born at Brecon, July 5, 1755. From
an early period of childhood she was trained to the stage. She Avas
scarcely more than seventeen when her affections Avere engaged by an
actor of her father's company, named Siddons, to whom, after some
opposition on the part of her parents, she was married, November 26,
1773. Her early married life was beset AA^th difficulties. Mr.
Siddons possessed little merit as an actor; and during nine years,
Avhich elapsed before Mrs. Siddons established a metropolitan repu
tation, she had to endure hard AVork and low pay. The first encourage
ment Avliich she received in her career was from the notice of the
Hon. Miss Boyle, afterwards Lady O'Neil, a lady possessed of high
mental qualities, as well as birth and beauty, Avho was so much struck

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SIDDONS. 95
by the young actress's performance of Belvidera at Cheltenham in
1774, that she sought her out in her obscurity, and there commenced a
Avarm and lasting friendship. Through this connection Mrs. Siddons
seems to have been introduced to Garrick, by whom she Avas engaged
at Drury Lane theatre. Her first appearance was in the character of
Portia, December 29, 1775. She was received with indifference ; and
during the remainder of the season she did not establish herself in the
favour of the London audiences, nor did she appear in any first-rate
part. Garrick professed high admiration for her, and on quitting the
stage, Avhich he did towards the close of that season, promised to pro
cure for her an advantageous engagement with his successors in the
management. In this promise he failed, for during the summer of
1776 she received an abrupt dismissal from Drury Lane. Her failure
to produce a sensation in the first instance does not seem to have
weighed much on her mind. She knew her powers, but was conscious
that they were immature; and she was deeply sensible through life
hoAv necessary, even to the greatest powers, are cultivation and study.
But this dismissal affected her in a very different manner. In her
own Avords, quoted from the autograph ' Recollections ' intrusted to
her friend and biographer, Mr. Campbell, " it was a stunning and cruel
bloAV, overwhelming all my ambitious hopes, and involving peril, even
to the very subsistence of my helpless babes."
Her fears were soothed, and her mortification relieved by her success
at several of the provincial theatres. She received her dismissal from
Drury Lane Avhile at Birmingham, where she Avas engaged during the
summer to perform the highest characters ; and where she laid the
foundation of her fame, by acquiring the good opinion of the actor
Henderson, who pronounced, within a year of her expulsion from Drury
Lane, that she was an actress who never had an equal, nor would ever
have a superior. Through his recommendation, in the following year
she obtained a permanent engagement at Bath, where she Avas received
with distinguished favour, and where she remained until her increasing
reputation procured for her an invitation to return to Drury Lane.
She chose the part of Isabella, in the ' Fatal Marriage,' for her debut,
October 10, 1782. The anxiety with which she approached this
second trial is described in an interesting manner in her own memo
randa. On this occasion her hopes were fuHy gratified. She played
Isabella eight times betAveen October 10, and October 30, Avhen
she appeared in her second character, Euphrasia, in the ' Grecian
Daughter.' Her other parts, during thisfirst season, were Jane Shore,
Calista, Belvidera, and Zara in the ' Mourning Bride.'
02

96 SIDDONS.
We propose in this sketch of Mrs. Siddons's theatrical life to notice
only the most remarkable of her characters, reserving to the end a
complete list of them, together with a fcAV remarks on her style of
acting. In November, 1783, she played Isabella in ' Measure for
Measure,' with entire success ; and thus solved the real or pretended
doubts of a few persons, who questioned her courage or capacity to
represent the masterpieces of Shakspeare to a London audience. No
one could do more justice to the pure, uncompromising, clear-sighted
virtue of Isabella, so consonant to her own honest and high-souled sim
plicity : nor Avas she at fault in attempting, during the same season,
Constance, in ' King John,' a character of more varied emotion, and
far greater demand on the resources of the player. Of this part she
says, in an elaborate criticism, worthy of being read with attention by
all persons, and especially by actors, " I cannot conceive in the whole
range of dramatic character a greater difficulty than that of repre
senting this grand creature." Those who remember her performance
of it in the meridian of her powers, bear testimony, with Mr. Campbell,
to the depth of her maternal affection, her queen-like majesty, and her
tremendous power of invective and sarcasm : Avhen first revived for
her the play seems to have been coldly received.
The celebrated portrait of Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic Muse was
painted by Reynolds in 1783. The character was suggested by the
painter : the attitude is that in which the sitter first placed herself, by
which Reynolds was so sti'uck that he at once adopted it.
An interesting anecdote relative to Mrs. Siddons's first country per
formance of Lady Macbeth, is told in the Memoranda from which Ave
have already quoted. " It was my custom to study my characters at
night, Avhen the domestic cares and business of the day were over.
On the night preceding that in Avhich I was to appear for the first
time, I shut myself up, as usual, Avhen all the family Avere retired, and
commenced my study of Lady Macbeth. As the character is very
short, I thought I should soon accomplish it. Being then only twenty
years of age, I believed, as many do believe, that little more was neces
sary than to get the Avords into my head ; for the necessity of discri
mination, and the development of character, at that time of my life,
had scarcely entered into my imagination. But, to proceed, I went on
Avith tolerable composure in the silence of the night, (a night I can
never forget,) till I came to the assassination scene, when the horrors
of the scene rose to a degree that made it impossible for me to
get farther. I snatched up my candle, and hurried out of the room,
in a paroxysm of terror. My dress was of silk, and the rustHng of it.

SIDDONS. 97
as I ascended the stairs to go to bed, seemed to my panic-struck fancy
Hke the movement of a spectre pursuing me. At last I reached my
chamber, where I found my husband fast asleep, I clapt my candle
stick doAvn upon the table, without the power of putting the candle
out ; and I threw myself on my bed, without daring to stay even to
take off my clothes. At peep of day I rose to resume my task ; but
so little did I know of my part when I appeared in it at night, that my
shame and confusion cured me of procrastinating my business for the
remainder of my life."
" About six years afterwards I was called upon to act the same
character in London. By this time I had perceived the difficulty of
assuming a personage with whom no one feeling of common general
nature was congenial or assistant. One's own heart could prompt
one to express Avith some degree of truth the sentiments of a mother,
a daughter, a wife, a lover, a sister. Sec. ; but to adopt this character
must be an effort of the judgment alone,"
In accordance with this, Mrs. Siddons has been knoAvn to say, that
Lady Macbeth gave her more trouble than any other of her characters,
both in settling her conception of the poet's meaning, and determining
the means of giving effect to it. Her success hoAvever in the eyes of
the public was complete : in Mr, Campbell's Avords, " the moment she
seized the part she identified her image with it in the minds of the
living generation." She appeared in it for the first time in London,
February 2, 1785. Smith played Macbeth. As in the case of Con
stance, Mrs. Siddons has left, in an elaborate essay on the character of
, Lady Macbeth, interesting evidence of the deep study which she be
stowed on her profession ; a point in which, as well as in general
mental cultivation, the Kemble family have been advantageously dis
tinguished from others even of our first-rate actors. It is scarcely
possible to conceive ' Macbeth ' so well performed as when the prin
cipal characters were filled by Mrs. Siddons and Kemble : the actors
might have been thought born for the parts. The same may be said of
' Coriolanus,' in which they appeared together for the first time in
February, 1789. But the season of 1785 is also memorable for Mrs.
Siddons's first appearance in Desdemona, a character as Avidely diffe
rent from the Scottish Queen as can well be imagined. Yet it is
recorded to have been one of the actress's most exquisite performances ;
and this is one of the strongest proofs of her extraordinary talent.
Unsuitable as her person, voice, and general demeanour may seem to
those who knew her only in her later days, we have the undeniable
testimony of competent judges to the grace, loveliness, and sweetness

98 SIDDONS.
with which she personated the gentle Venetian. Her very stature,
Mr. Boaden says, seemed to be lowered. Ophelia she performed
once, and once only, for her benefit. May 1 5, 1 786, to her brother's
Hamlet; and, though a poor singer, she rendered the part deeply
affecting. Juliet she also performed, we believe once only, for her
benefit in 1789. Cordelia and Imogen are to be added to the list of
characters of the gentler cast. The former was not one of her most
popular, probably not one of her most effective, performances, for Lear
is said to have been almost the only play in which, when both Avere on
the stage, the brother made a stronger impression than the sister.
The pure, gentle dignity of Imogen must have found in her a
most effective representative.
In the autumn of 1783, about a year before Dr. Johnson's death,
Mrs. Siddons, at his oAvn request, paid him a visit, which was several
times repeated. He expressed a strong desire to see her in Queen
Katherine, his favourite character among Shakspeare's females. He
was not so gratified ; for the play was not brought forward until
November 28, 1788, after an absence from the stage of near half
a century. This, like Lady Macbeth, we must regard as one of
Mrs. Siddons's peculiar characters. " It was an era," Mr. Campbell
says, " not only in Mrs. Siddons's history, but in the fortune of the
play as an acting piece ; for certainly, in the history of all female
performance on the British stage, there is no specific tradition of any
excellence at all approaching to hers as Queen Katherine." The two
principal scenes belonging to the part are strikingly contrasted. The
high mind and majestic deportment of the actress, and the sarcasm
which she pours out on the Cardinal, render the Trial Scene one of
the most effective on the stage ; and it has fortunately been preserved
from oblivion by the pencil of Harlowe. But the last scene, in the
sick chamber, was among the strongest proofs of Mrs. Siddons's close
adherence to nature, and one of her greatest triumphs over the diffi
culties of her art, enhanced as they were by the extravagant dimen--
sions of the modern theatres. It may be mentioned to show her con
fidence in her own judgment as to the truth of nature that, though the
audience in the gallery sometimes asked her to speak louder, she
never obeyed the caH ; but left the architect responsible for any failure
of effect, rather than herself overstep the bounds of propriety in the
most solemn event of human life.
Mrs. Siddons quitted Drury Lane for the season 1789-90, in conse
quence of the difficulty of obtaining her salary while the treasury was
in the hands of Sheridan. She Avas induced by promises to return in

SIDDONS, 99
the following season ; but a weak state of health prevented her playing
more than seven nights, and she appeared in no new character ; nor,
during the summer of 1791, did she act on any provincial stage.
She returned to Drury Lane in 1794, after the rebuilding of the
theatre, and remained there until 1802; when the impossibility of
rescuing the reward of her labours from that "drowning gulf," as
she justly calls Sheridan in one of her letters, drove her away finally.
The most remarkable of her new characters, during this period
of eight years, were Milhvood, in ' George Barnwell,' and Agnes,
in ' Fatal Curiosity,' both plays of Lillo ; Mrs. Haller ; Elvira in
' Pizarro,' which, in spite of the demerits of the play, she rendered
one of her most popular characters ; and Hermione, in the ' Winter's
Tale,' her last new part, which she acted for the first time, March 25,
1802, The statue scene Avas one of her most extraordinary perform
ances, both for its illusion while she remained motionless, and for the
effect produced by her descent from the pedestal, and recognition of
her daughter Perdita.
In one of her early performances of this character she met Avith an
accident which might well have ended fatally. The muslin draperies
in Avhich she was enveloped caught fire from a lamp ; fortunately, one
of the scene-men saw and extinguished it before it spread. Her grati
tude for his interposition is eloquently expressed in her correspondence;
and her warmth of feeling was subsequently evinced in the pains
which she took to procure for the man's son, Avho had deserted from
the army, remission from what she justly calls " the horrid torture
and disgrace of the lash," and in the lively pleasure which she ex
presses in the prospect of succeeding.
Upon her final departure from Drury Lane, Mrs. Siddons formed
an engagement at Covent Garden, where she appeared for the first
time, September 27, 1803. She continued there until June 29, 1812,
on Avhich day she bid farewell to the stage. During this time she per
formed in no new characters, nor is any circumstance which requires
notice recorded of this part of her professional life. In her last
season Ave find that, of her earlier characters, she performed Isabella,
in ' The Fatal Marriage,' twice ; Isabefla, in ' Measure for Measure,'
seven times ; Euphrasia, tAvice ; Belvidera, six times ; and Mrs.
Beverley, four times. It may perhaps be taken as an indication of
that by Avhich she wished chiefly to be remembered, that she played
Lady Macbeth ten times, and chose it for her farewell. Queen
Katherine she played six times ; Constance and Volumnia, four times
each ; Elvira, five times ; Mrs. Haller, twice ; Hermione, four times.

100 SIDDONS.
On her last appearance the house was crowded to excess, and the
excitement of the occasion Avas testified by a general demand that the
play should be stopped after Lady Macbeth's appearance in the sleeping
scene. Mrs. Siddons returned to the boards on various occasions,
chiefly for her brother Charles's benefit : her last performance was in
the part of Lady Randolph, June 9, 1819.
In giving, in addition to what we have already said, a short general
notice of the professional merits of Mrs, Siddons, we shall confine our
remarks chiefly to those characters which better suited her maturer
years, in which alone a large majority of our readers can have seen
her. She was throughout the tragic department the unrivalled actress
of her time ; though in such parts as Belvidera, Desdemona, CordeUa,
&c., the power of exciting the sympathy of an audience might have
been shared with her by Mrs. Gibber and other of her predecessors,
or by her successors. Miss O'Neil or Miss Kemble. But in one
respect she stands alone in her profession : she was the most intellec
tual of actresses. She was a person of deep thought, and an habitual
student of nature Avith a view to the perfection of her art ; and that as
much, or more, in advanced life, than when she had her reputation to
make or to enjoy in the first years of her celebrity, Mrs. Siddons sat
day after day in her study, looking at Shakspeare and whatever bore
upon him, not as if he were the mere poet of the stage, furnishing an
outline to be filled up by her peculiar powers, but as if he were the
high priest and expositor of human nature, whose lessons it was the
serious business of her life to learn, and having learned, to teach.
We shall not add to what we have already said of her Queen Kathe
rine, or Lady Macbeth, except one circumstance, illustrative of the
above position. Mrs, Siddons, who repeatedly read ' Macbeth' before
the most competent judges, made a deeper and more lasting im
pression, not only in her own part, but in the other characters, than
did the representation on the stage by her brother and herself, with
all the advantages of dress and the illusion of scenery. The audience,
at her readings, consisting of men and Avomen of taste and litera
ture, professed never to have understood Shakspeare so thoroughly
before. Her Isabella, in ' Measure for Measure,' claims a short notice.
This play in Garrick's reign was acted occasionally to empty benches
in the dull part of the season ; but neither the manager himself, nor
his leading performers, condescended to appear in so grave and ser
monizing a piece. Even Avhen played by Kemble and his sister, it
did not draw crowded houses ; but it ensured a critical and enlightened

SIDDONS. 101
audience. The theatre seldom contained so many men of the first
reputation for taste and literature as when that play was performed.
John Kemble's mind was framed in the same mould with his sister's ;
he gave to a sententious and philosophic part dignity and interest,
Avhere an ordinary actor would preach his audience to sleep. The
scene between the Duke in the disguise of a Confessor, and Isabella,
excited neither tears nor rapturous applause, but intense interest, and
breathless attention. The Duke's exposition of his project is long, her
intervening speeches short, and not emphatic ; so that such a scene
bids fair to be called prosing. But the intense and intelligent ex
pression in her eyes, and more perhaps in her mouth, the great seat of
expression, filled up whatever was wanting : the gradually increasing,
but as yet far from complete comprehension of the device, and of its
consistency with her own purity, marked without words what was
passing in her mind : but when she exclaims " The image of it gives
me content already, and I trust it will grow to a most prosperous
perfection," the burst of perfect understanding, the lighting up of
every feature, and the tones of sudden joy, produced a corresponding
effect in the spectators, which scenes of intense pathos could scarcely
surpass in effect. Mrs. Siddons's power over the mind Avas as great
as over the passions.
Another extraordinary performance was her Millwood, in ' George
Barnwell.' She took that part, which had never been played by a first-
rate actress, in hopes that she might be of service to her brother Charles,
then a young actor, who was to be brought forAvard as Barnwell. In
the early scenes the severity of her blandishments bordered on the
ludicrous ; she was more like Barnwell's mother than his mistress : but
in her scene of dissimulation with Thorowgood, and in her subsequent
arrest and diabolically triumphant avowal of the motive of her conduct
through life, the desire to revenge her wrongs on the opposite sex, she
pourtrayed wickedness with grand and appalling force. Her thun
dering exclamation, " I know you, and I hate you all ; I expect no
mercy, and I ask for none," was made with a withering effect. The
scene in ' Fatal Curiosity,' in which Agnes suggests to her husband
the murder of their unknown son, was another of her wonderful ex
hibitions : in Mr. Campbell's words, " it made the flesh of the spectator
creep." Mrs. Siddons is said to have thought well of her own talents for
comedy ; and her reading of Shakspeare's characters of low humour
was admirable. She played at different times Katherine, in 'The
Taming of the Shrew,' and Rosalind ; as well as Mrs. Oakley, and a
Vol. V. ^

102

SIDDONS.

few other characters of the modern drama. There seems to have been
nothing against her success in genteel comedy but a deficiency of animal
spirits. Her delivery of the level conversation in tragedy was easy,
graceful, and refined. Her representation of the early scenes in ' The
Gamester,' where she had merely to personate an elegant and high
bred Avoman, bearing up against present anxiety and impending mis^-
fortune, was as attractive and as finished as her deep tragedy in
the sequel was pathetic and harrowing. And in the first scenes of
Mrs, Haller, the charm of her manners and delivery imparted interest
even to the dull detail of a housekeeper's weekly routine.
We subjoin a list of the parts Avhich Mrs. Siddons performed in
London. The reader Avill be surprised to find how many of them are
in plays all but forgotten, and utterly unw^orthy of her talents. In
those marked (*) she made her first appearance for her own benefit :
in those marked (f), for John Kemble's.

Characters. Plays . Characters
1782-3. 1786-7.
Isabella  Fatal Marriage
Euphrasia  Grecian Daughter
Jane Shore .... Jane Shore
Calista  Fair Penitent
* Belvidera  Venice Preserved
*Zara  Mourning Bride
1783-4.
Isabella  Measiire for Measure
Mrs. Beverley . . . Gamester
Constance  King John
*Lady Randolph . . Douglas
Countess of Salisbury Countess of Salisbury (^Hartaon.)
*Sigismunda .... Tancred and Sigismunda
1784-5.
Margaret of Anjou . Earl of Warwickfi'VaBMn.)
Zara  Zara (^fram Voltaire^
Matilda  Carmelite {Cumberlcmd.)
Camiola  Maid of Honour
*Lady Macbeth . . . Macbeth
Desdemona .... Othello
Elfrida  Elfrida {Mason.)
Rosalind  As you like it
1785-6.
The Duchess .... Duke of Braganza (Jephson.')
Mrs. Lovemore . . . Way to keep Him
*Hermione  Distressed Mother
*Qphelia, and the Lady in Comus
Malvina  The Captives (Delap.)
Elwina  Percy {Miss H. More.)

Plays.

Cleoue  Cleone (Dodsley.)
Imogen  Cymbeline
Hortensia  Count of Narbonne {Jephon.)
f Lady Restless ... All in the Wrong
Julia  Italian Lovers {Jephson.)
Alicia  Jane Shore
1787-8.
Cordelia  Lear
Cleonice  FallofSparta {Mn.Cowley.)
¦j-Katherine  Taming the Shrew
Dionara  Regent {Greatheed.)
?Cleopatra  All for Love
1788-9.
Queen Katherine . . Henry VIII.
Volumnia  Coriolanus
^jThe Princess andi LawofLombardy(.fejoAso».)
\ Mrs. Riot. ... J Lethe {Farce. Garrick.)
Mary  Mary Queen of Scots {St. John.)
*Juliet  Romeo and Juliet
1791-2.
Queen Elizabeth . . Richard III.
Mrs. Oakley .... Jealous Wife
1792-3.
Ariadne  Ariadne {Murphy.)

. Emilia Galotti {from lasting.)

17934,
Countess Orsiui.
1794-5.
Horatia  Roman Father («%!V<!Aearf.J

Characters.

Plays.

Elvira ....

. . Edwyn and Elgiva

{Miss Burney.)

Palmira ....

. , Mahomet (from Foltaire.)

Emmeline . . .

. . Edgar and Emmeline

( Afterpiece^

1795-6,

Roxana ....

. . Alexander the Great {Lee.)

Almeyda . . .

. . Queen of Granada

{Miss Lee.)
Julia 
. . Such Things were
{Prince Hoare.)
1796-7,
Eleanora . . .
. . Edwin and Eleonora
{Thomson^
Vitellia . , . .
, . Conspiracy {Jephson.)
Millwood . . .
. . George Barnwell
Athenais . . ,
. . Force of Love {Lee.)
Aspasia . . . .
. . Tamerlane {Rowe.)
Dido 
. . Queen of Carthage {Reed.)
Agnes 
. . Fatal Curiosity
SIDDONS. 103
Characters. Plays.
1797-8.
Julia  Rivals
Mrs. Haller .... Stranger
1798-9.
Miranda  Aurelio and Miranda {Boaden.)
Countess  Castle of Montval {Dr. Whalley.)
Elvira  Pizarro
1799-1800.
Adelaide  Adelaide {Pye-)
Lady Jane  De Montfort
1800-1.
Helena  Antonio {Godwin.)
Agnes  Julian and Agnes (.SoMeJy.)
1802.
Hermione  Winter's Tale
Of Mrs. Siddons's private life it is not necessary for us to speak at
length. She had a full share of domestic troubles ; and suffered the
most poignant sorrow Avhich could have befallen her affectionate
temper, in the successive deaths of two lovely daughters in the prime
of youth, and of her eldest son at a more advanced age. Nor was she
exempted by her brilliant success and large gains from great anxiety
upon pecuniary matters, and from the necessity of diligent labour at
times when rest would have been most grateful to a distressed spirit,
and a body weakened by frequent indisposition. And she made it
her boast that she had never wilfully disappointed either a manager or
the public ; and that in point of punctuality, she had always been an
honest actress. But Mr. Siddons lost money in some unfortunate
speculations ; and this, combined with the extreme difficulty of ex
tracting from Sheridan her salary, or even the proceeds of her benefits,
kept Mrs. Siddons poor for many years. It is however gratifying to
knoAV that the evening of her life was spent in affluence.
In social intercourse Mrs. Siddons commanded the respect of all,
the admiration and love of those who kncAV her intimately. To a
constitutional want of animal spirits, and to a fear of that presump
tuous intrusion to which actresses are often exposed, we may attribute
a gravity, not to say severity of manner, from which distant observers
sometimes inferred a corresponding severity of character. That this
Avas not the case, that she was benevolent, cheerful, and affectionately
interested in the welfare of all Avho enjoyed her friendship, is shown
by the testimony of many, and by the evidence of her own actions.
To be courted by the rich and noble is not the best proof or reward
104

SIDDONS.

even of professional merit ; and no one ever was less disposed than
Mrs. Siddons to act the part of what is called a lion. But it should
be mentioned that her acquaintance was eagerly cultivated among the
highest of the land; and that she was personally esteemed by
George III. and his queen, and often summoned to attend on their
private circle. She possessed a still higher honour, and one which
she is said to have esteemed more highly, in the admiration and
friendship of Johnson, Reynolds, Burke, Fox, and other intellectual
ornaments of the age.
After quitting the stage, Mrs. Siddons gave public readings of
poetry at the Argyle Rooms, and also, by special invitation from the
Universities, at Cambridge and Oxford. At home her readings of
Shakspeare were the delight of large and frequent parties, till within
a year or two of her death. The latter years of her life were spent,
the winter months at her house in London, the summer months at
some watering-place, and in visits to her numerous friends. Time
laid his touch gently on her noble face and person ; and to the end of
life she looked some years younger than her age, and preserved her
mental powers unimpaired. She died June 8, 1831, in her seventy-
sixth year.
We need hardly refer to the Lives of Messrs. Boaden and Campbell.
The interest of the latter is much increased by the critical and other
writings of Mrs. Siddons, with which it is interspersed.

[Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic Muse, from Sir J. Reynolds.]

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William Herschel was born at Hanover, November 15, 1738.
His father was a musician, and brought up his four sons to his own
art, which in Germany gave him better means of educating his
children, than would have fallen to the lot of a person holding
the same station in England. The subject of our memoir is said
to have had a master Avho instructed him in French, ethics, and
metaphysics : but at the age of fourteen he was placed in the
band of the Hanoverian regiment of guards, and in 1758 or 1759
he accompanied a detachment of the regiment to England. Another
account states that he grcAV tired of his occupation, and came to
England alone. Here, after struggling Avith poverty for some time,
he was chosen by Lord Darlington to organize a band for the Durham
militia ; after which he passed several years in the West Riding of
Yorkshire, employed in teaching music and studying languages.
About 1765 he was elected organist at Halifax, and employed himself
in the study of harmony and mathematics. Such at least is the state
ment of the ' Obituary ; ' but in that respectable work we find no
references to the sources from which these minute particulars of
Herschel's early life are obtained. About this time he is said to
have visited Italy ; and, without professing to give credit to it, we
may here insert a curious story Avhich appears to have been copied
into English works from the ' Dictionnaire des Auteurs Vivans,' &c.,
Paris, 1816. Being at Genoa, and not having AvhercAvith to pay his
passage home to England, he procured from a M. L'Angl6 the use of
some public rooms for a coiicert, at Avhich he played a quartett, alone,
Vol. v. Q

106 HERSCHEL.
upon a harp, and tAVO horns, one fastened to each shoulder. Those
who are in the least acquainted with wind instruments will hardly
beHeve that a horn fastened to the shoulder Avould be of much more use
than one growing out of the head, as a musical instrument; to say
nothing of the difficulty of bloAving two horns at once, or of playing a
quartett upon three instruments. Remarkable characters are generally
made the subject of wonderful stories, of Avhich each is fashioned in
accordance Avith the general habits of the inventor : the groom's idea
of a wit was "a gentleman who could ride three horses at once;"
surely two horns and a harp are not too much to be played at once by
a planetary discoverer.
About 1766, he is said to have been one of the Pump-room band
at Bath, and Avas shortly afterwards organist of the Octagon Chapel
there. He taught and read as before ; and here he turned his atten
tion to astronomy. He borrowed a small reflecting telescope of a
friend ; and at length, finding that the purchase of such an instru
ment Avas (" fortunately," as it has been well expressed,) above his
means, he endeavoured to construct one for himself. His first attempt
was a five-feet NcAvtonian reflector. It Avas some time before he per
fected himself in the method of forming mirrors : in one instance he
is said to have spoiled 200 before he succeeded.
In 1781, he announced to the world the discovery of his new planet,
of which we shall presently speak. He Avas immediately appointed
private astronomer to the King, by George III., a post which, we
believe, Avas created for him, and died Avith him, Avith a salary of
£400, and removed, first to Datchet, afterAvards to Slough, where he
continued till his death, August 23, 1822. During this period he
ran that career of patient and sagacious investigation, terminating in
brilliant discovery, which has made his name so well known to the
world. Little has been published concerning his private life ; but
the Avhole results of his mind are to be found in the ' Philosophical
Transactions' between the years 1782 and 1818.
We have not been able to find the dates of his knighthood, or of his
receiving the degree of Doctor of Civil LaAV from the University of
Oxford. He married (we cannot find the date) Mrs. Mary Pitt, a
widoAv ; and his only son. Sir John Herschel, has selected from the
many tasks to which he is competent, that of developing and adding
to his father's discoveries.
In the space Avhich Ave can devote to the astronomical and optical
labours of Herschel, we cannot attempt to furnish even the smallest
detail of their end and objects, since the catalogue of titles alone

HERSCHEL. 107
would occupy more room than we have to give. We can do no
more than address ourselves to the impression which generally exists
upon the subject, and which supposes the inventor and the philo
sopher to be no more than an industrious man with good eyes, clever
at grinding mirrors for reflecting telescopes, and lucky enough to
])oint one at a new planet. Such being the common notion, it is not
possible to make any mere description of Herschel's papers an index
of his merits. Nor have we here understated the scientific knowledge
of the public in general. When Sir John Herschel lately set out for
the Cape of Good Hope, the newspapers announced his approaching
departure, accompanied by the information that " six waggon loads
of telescopes " were on their way to the ship, Avhich was all that was
said, except in publications expressly scientific. That one principal
object of the son's voyage was to complete a great branch of astro
nomy, by doing in the southern hemisphere what the father had done
in the northern, was not stated for a very simple reason — ^that this
portion of the father's labours is hardly known by name to any but
astronomers. And it is to astronomers only that Herschel is truly
known. The notion entertained of him by others often reminds us of
the farmer, who came to him to know the proper time to cut his hay.
The philosopher replied by pointing to his own crop, which happened
to be rotting on the ground under a heavy rain.
The planet which Herschel called after George III. (but which
now goes under the more appropriate name of Uranus) was dis
covered by him March 13, 1781 ; not accidentally, but as one of
the fruits of a laborious investigation, Avith a distinct and useful object.
He Avas examining every star with one telescope, that he might obtain a
definite idea of relative phenomena, which should enable him to distin
guish changes actually taking place, from differences of appearance
caused by the use of different telescopes : the whole being in further
ance of the design of " throwing some new light upon the organization
of the celestial bodies," The last words, which are part of the title of
one of his subsequent papers, aptly express the line of astronomy
to which Herschel devoted his life ; and the discovery of the planet
Uranus was not the chance Avork of a moment, but the consequence of
sagacity strengthened by habit, the latter being formed Avith a perfect
knowledge of what was Avanted, as well as of what would be useful in
supplying it. Had he been merely registering the places of the stars,
he would probably (as others did before him) have passed the planet,
perhaps with some remark upon its SLT^Tpaveni diskiness : for though
the stars have no Avell-defined discs, yet someJiave so much more of the
Q 2

108 HERSCHEL.
appearance of discs than others, that a faint planet, vicAved with a low
power, might easily be taken for a star. But being engaged upon the
stars, expressly with a view to trying how much of such a circum
stance would be telescopic, and how much real, he was thereby led to
try higher powers, and, eventually, other telescopes. The existence of
i\ie planet was soon ascertained, and forms one of the tAVO great features
of Herschel's reputation in the eyes of the world at large.
The celebrated forty-foot telescope, first described to the Royal
Society by Herschel, June 2, 1795, Avas the result of a long series of
experiments on the construction of mirrors, begun at Bath, on tele
scopes from tAVO to tAventy feet in length. And we may here remark,
that " the bulk of his fortune arose from the sale of telescopes of his
own construction, many of which were purchased for the chief obser
vatories of Europe," and not from the salary of £400 a year which he
received as private astronomer to George III. See ' Statement of
Circumstances,' &c., a pamphlet printed on the occasion of the last
election of a President by the Royal Society. In 1785, George III.
furnished Herschel Avith the means of undertaking an instrument
larger than any he had yet made. The greatest difficulty (independent
of the stand) Avas the obtaining a mirror of sufficient size, which should
not crack in cooling, and should be strong enough not to bend under
its OAvn weight. This instrument has been so frequently described
that we shall say no more of it, except that Herschel dates the com
pletion of it from August 28, 1 789, when he discovered the sixth
satelHte of Saturn, and obtained his best view of the spots on that
planet. A month later, the seventh satellite was discovered by Her
schel. This telescope is noAv never used. Sir J. Herschel prefers a
twenty-foot reflector for his OAvn observations.
The first discovery of the satellites of Uranus was also in a minor
degree the Avork of thought. Such bodies were repeatedly looked for by
Herschel, but none were seen. A small change in the instrument, by
Avhich the light Avas increased, suggested one more trial; and the result
was the establishment of the existence of the two first satellites, in
January, 1787, Tva'o more Avere discovered by Herschel, in 1790,
and two more in 1794. These satellites cannot be seen but with an
instrument of first-rate poAver, and in a favourable position of the
planet. No one has observed the four last satellites except Herschel
himself, or the two first, except himself and Sir J. Herschel, Avho has
confirmed his father's determination of their periods. See Mem. Royal
Astron. Soc. vol. viu. He found that their orbits were neariy perpen
dicular to the plane of the ecliptic, and ascertained their retrograde

HERSCHEL. 109
motion, and some remarkable relations betAveen their mean distances.
It has a brilliant sound, but it is literally true as to the number of
known bodies composing the solar system, that Herschel left it exactly
half as large again as he found it. To the Sun, Mercury, Venus, the
Earth and Moon, Mai*s, Jupiter and four satellites, Saturn and five
satellites, and Halley's Comet, eighteen in all, he added nine, namely,
two satellites to Saturn, Uranus and six satellites.
But not content with augmenting our own, it is to Herschel we oAve
the discovery of other systems. That the fixed stars were each the
centre of a number of planets was suspected, perhaps rather prema
turely, before his observations were made known. But the first
positive addition to our knowledge of systems, that is of bodies
which move in any degree of connexion Avith each other, is to
be found in his paper read to the Royal Society, June 9, 1803,
announcing that Castor, y Leonis, s Bootis, Z, Herculis, S Serpentis,
7 Virginis, were most probably binary* stars. The existence of such
systems has been confirmed by Sir J. Herschel and Professor Struve,
and the duration of the periods given by Herschel has been sufficiently
confirmed to make the exactness of his observations remarkable. But
to ncAv planets, and ncAV systems, Herschel added new universes ; or,
more properly speaking, shoAved that the universe consisted of por
tions, each conveying as large an idea of extent and number, as the
whole of what was previously called the universe. His great tele
scope furnished sufficient facts, and his mind was not slow to draw
a conjectural inference, Avhich must be classed among the happiest
efforts of reasoning speculation. The resolution of the milky way
into stars proved that we are situated in a stratum of such bodies
much thicker in some directions than others : this led to the inference
that some or all of the nebulse with which the sky is croAA^ded might
be similar enormous groups of stars ; and the resolution of some of
the nebulae into detached portions was a first step towards the demon
stration of the conjecture.
There is enough yet unmentioned, — in the discovery of the time of
rotation of Saturn — that of Jupiter's satellites — that of the refrangi-
bilityofheat — the experiments on colours — the enormous collection
of nebulae — the experimental determination of the magnitude of stars
— the researches and conjectures on the physical constitution of the
sun — those on the qualities of telescopes, &c, &c., — to form by itself
* Double stars, those which are so near to each other as to appear one to the naked
eye : binary systems, double stars which revolve round each other.

no

HERSCHEL.

no ordinary title to the recollection of posterity. But we must refer to
Sir J. Herschel's Astronomy, in which will be found such an account
of them as the plan of the work permitted, by one who has shown
himself as indisposed to exaggerate, as interested to explain.
In the labours of his observatory Herschel was assisted by his sister.
Miss Caroline Herschel, with whose help he published, in 1 798, his
catalogue of Flamsteed's stars. This lady, whose exertions, both as
an observer and calculator, are Avell known to astronomers, is still
living, at a very advanced age, in Hanover.
We do not know of any very trustworthy account of Herschel.
' The Obituary for 1822,' the ' Gentleman's Magazine,' the ' Annual
Register,' &c., do not state their authorities. We have followed the
first-mentioned work as to facts and dates in most of the particulars
here mentioned.

[View of the great telescope erected at Slough.]

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The grandfather
following passage
the heir to

born

of Sir Samuel Romilly, as we learn from the
of a speech which he made at Bristol, " Avas
a considerable landed estate at Montpellier, in
the South of France. His ancestors had early imbibed and adopted
the principles and doctrines of the Reformed Religion, and he had
been educated himself in that rehgious faith. He had the misfortune
to live soon after the time when the Edict of Nantes, the great Tole
ration Act of the Protestants of France, was revoked by Louis XIV. ;
and he found himself exposed to all the vexations and persecutions of
a bigoted and tyrannical government for Avorshipping God in the
manner in which he believed was most acceptable to Him. He deter
mined to free himself from this bondage ; he abandoned his property,
he tore himself from his connexions, and, quitting the country and its
tyrant, sought an asylum in this land of liberty, where he had to sup
port himself only by his own exertions. He himself embarked in
trade ; he educated his sons to useful trades ; and he was contented,
at his death, to leave them, instead of his original patrimony, no other
inheritance than the habits of industry he had given them — the example
of his OAA'n virtuous life, an hereditary detestation of tyranny and in
justice, and an ardent zeal in the cause of civil and religious freedom."
One of these sons became eminent as a jcAveller, and married Miss
Garnault, by Avhom he had a numerous family. Of these three only
lived to maturity, Thomas, Catherine, and Samuel. Samuel was the
youngest, and was born March 1, 1757.
His father was a man of extreme bencA'^olence, and strict integrity ;
Avarm in his affections, and cheerful in his disposition. Under the
influence of his precepts and example the moral character of Samuel
Romilly was formed : for his mother, from an habitual state of bad

112 ROMILLY.
health, Avas incapable of superintending the early education of her
children, which was consequently much neglected. Samuel and his
brother were sent to a common day-school, the master of which
pretended to teach Latin, although really ignorant of that lan
guage. It Avas at one time contemplated to train him to com
mercial business in the house of the Fludyers, Avho were then con
siderable merchants in the city, and near relations of his family : but
the sudden death of both the partners of that house put an end to these
projects ; and in the absence of other occupation, his father employed
him in keeping his accounts, and sometimes receiving orders from
customers. He had thus leisure to cultivate tastes more congenial to
his nature ; and at the age of fourteen he commenced that self-edu
cation, to which he owed all his future success. Every volume of his
father's little collection, and of the circulating libraries in the neigh
bourhood, was anxiously and attentively perused. Ancient and modern
history, treatises on science, Avorks of criticism, travels, and English
poetry, were among his favourite books. But a passion for poetry
soon predominated over other tastes ; and from admiring the poetry of
others he aspired at becoming a poet himself. He wrote eclogues,
songs, and satires, translated passages from French poets, and imitated
English ones ; and resolving to devote himself steadily to literature
he hoped to acquire fame as an author. He noAV set about learning
Latin in earnest ; and Avas soon able, by dint of unremitting assiduity,
and Avith some assistance from a private tutor, to understand the
easier Latin authors. In the course of about three years he had
read through SaUust, Livy, and Tacitus three times ; he had studied
almost the Avhole of Cicero, as well as the principal poets ; he had
gone through the Latin translations of the Greek historians, orators,
and philosophers ; and had made numerous translations from the Latin
classics into English, which he retranslated into Latin, This double
exercise he found to be eminently useful in rendering him, what he at
length became, a very excellent scholar. In addition to these studies,
he attended lectures on natural philosophy, painting, architecture, and
anatomy. In the meanwhile he felt his father's business become every day
more irksome ; and it Avas definitively arranged that he should enter
into some branch of the law ; a plan which he was enabled to execute
by the accession to the family of a considerable legacy. At the age
of sixteen, he was articled to Mr. Lally for five years, with a view of
succeeding to him as one of the six clerks in Chancery. The society,
however, of Mr. Lally and the pursuit of his literary tastes had greater
attractions for him than the regular occupation of the office ; and

ROxVIILLY. 113
although he scrupulously performed the duties required of him, his
favourite classics engrossed a large portion of his time, and his mind
was still intent upon a life of peaceful retirement, and the prospect of
literary fame.
At the expiration of the term of his apprenticeship, however, he
determined, much against the opinion of many of his friends, to study
at one of the inns of court, and to be called to the bar. His real
motive in deciding against a clerkship in chancery, which was then
only to be obtained by purchase, Avas Httle suspected at the time ; it
was, that he might not be obliged to call for his share of the legacy
just alluded to, amounting to 2000/. ; which he knew it would be very
inconvenient to his father to pay. This trait of pious benevolence was,
by a just retribution, the pivot upon which his future fortunes more
immediately turned.
It was not till he had attained his tAventy-first year that he entered
upon these new studies ; and they were pursued with so much per
severing assiduity, that at length he became seriously indisposed, and
all application was for months prohibited by his medical advisers.
So serious an interruption to his pursuits was likely to be most in
jurious to him in his profession; when, fortunately, an opportunity
occurred of making an excursion to the continent. The Rev. John
Roget, who had recently married his sister, had been attacked with a
pulmonary complaint, which obliged him to remove with her to a
southern climate, leaving behind them in England their first and then
only child. They were no sooner settled at Lausanne, than they
ardently desired to have this child conveyed to them, and Mr. Romilly,
from a deep sense of the obligations he already owed to his brotherTin-
law for assisting him in his studies, and supplying that judicious and
well-timed encouragement, which, on a susceptible and ardent mind,
ever acts as the most poAverful incentive to exertion, readily undertook
the charge. The change of air and scene, the Hvely interest he took
in visiting ncAV countries, and the consciousness of rendering no small
service to relatives to whom he was most affectionately attached,
produced a rapid and favourable change upon his health. Still more
important was the effect produced on the tone of his mind by this
renewed intercourse wdth a friend, who had early discerned his latent
abilities and extraordinary capacity, and Avho, on this occasion, placing
before his view the Avide field on which those talents might be advan
tageously exercised, and the important services he might thus be
capable of rendering to his feHow-creatures, produced impressions
which were indelible, and Avhich, as he himself has often said, had a
marked influence upon the subsequent events of his life,
Vor.. V. R

114 ROMILLY.
On his return to England he resumed his studies Avith renovated
strength and Avith redoubled ardour. He was called to the bar in
1783, More than ten years, hoAvever, elapsed before any real pro
spect of success opened to him in his profession. It is true that he Avas
employed in drawing pleadings in chancery, and this business gra
dually increased ; but it never required him to open his lips in court ;
and although he regularly attended the Midland circuit, he had no
connexions on it, and it Avas not until he commenced an attendance on
the sessions that the circuit at length became a source of some profit
to him. In 1792 he appeared for the first time as a leader : in a short
time he was employed in almost every case, and not many years passed
before he was at the head of his circuit.
But we are anticipating a later period. In 1784 Mr. Romilly
became acquainted with Mirabeau, and through him with Lord Lans-
downe. That nobleman appreciated the knowledge and character of
the rising laAA'yer, and becoming intimate with him, did all in his poAver
to encourage and bring forth his talents. About tlie same time there
Avas published a tract by the Rev, Dr, Madan, entitled ' Thoughts on
Executive Justice,' It had attracted some attention, and was so
much admired by Lord LansdoAvne, that he suggested to his friend the
task of writing a treatise in the same spirit. But Mr, Romilly AA^as
so much shocked at the principle upon which it proceeded, namely,
that of rigidly executing the criminal code in all cases, barbarous
and sanguinary as it then was, that, instead of adopting its doctrines,
he sat down to refute them. The triumphant reply Avhich he drew
up and published anonymously did not meet with the success it de
served. Nevertheless he had the satisfaction of hearing it praised
from the bench ; and Lord LansdoAvne himself had the singular
candour to acknoAvledge the merit of a production, which, although
Avritten at his own suggestion, Avas at variance Avith the opinions
he had desired to see inculcated.
Allusion has been made to Mr. Romilly 's acquaintance with Mira
beau. He Avas one of those of Avhose talents Mirabeau had availed
himself on more than one occasion. It is unnecessary, hoAvever, to
mention more than the following instance, Avhich is too characteristic
to be omitted. During one of Mr. Romilly's visits to Paris, in 1788,
curiosity led him to see the prison of the Bicetre, and on meeting
Mirabeau the next day, he described to him all the horror and disgust
Avith which the place had inspired him. Mirabeau, struck with the
force of his description, begged him to express it in writing, and to
be allowed to use it. Mirabeau translated and published this account
in a pamphlet, which, in spite of the title, ' Lettre d'un Voyageur

ROMILLY. 115
Anglais sur la Prison de Bicetre,' was everywhere ascribed to him ;
Avhile the real author, on his return to England, printed his own
MS. in the ' Repository,' as the translation, although it Avas in fact
the original.
It was not till the autumn of 1796, when on a visit to Bowood, the
country-seat of Lord LansdoAVne, that Mr. Romilly first met Miss
Garbett, to whom he was aftenvards united, and Avho formed the charm
of the remainder of his existence. With such sacred inducements to
renew his efforts in his profession, his advancement Avas proportion-
ably rapid. On November 6, 1800, he Avas appointed king's counsel;
land it was soon clear that he might aspire to the highest ranks of his
profession. In 1806 he Avas made Solicitor-general, under the ad
ministration of Mr. Fox and Lord Grenville. He Avas, much against
his Avill, knighted on his appointment; and was brought into Par
liament by the Government for Queenborough. Soon after, he was
called upon to sum up the evidence on the trial of Lord Melville ; a
duty Avhich he performed AA'ith consummate skill, though with a feeble
ness of voice which deprived his most able speech of its just effect in
the vast hall Avhere it Avas delivered.
During the first session of his parliamentary career. Sir Samuel
Romilly confined himself principally to questions of law, and seldom
addressed the House, except in committee; but in the beginning of
1807 he took a more prominent part, and made his first great speech
in favour of the abolition of the Slave-trade — a speech, Avhich at once
placed him on a level with the most successful orators of the day. In
this subject he had always felt deep interest. From his earliest youth
he had expressed the warmest indignation against this infamous traffic ;
he had translated, with a view to publication, Condorcet's pamphlet
against West Indian slavery, and, at the beginning of the French
Revolution, he had written an. eloquent paper against the Slave trade;
and had transmitted it to his friend Dumont, from Avhom he trusted it
Avould pass to Mirabeau, and would remind him of the importance of
the question, at a time Avhen a comparatively slight effort would have
settled it in that country for ever. These previous efforts had produced
no effect ; but he had afterAvards the satisfaction of belonging to the
ministiy to whom the honour was due of abolishing the slave-trade,
and of thus preparing the way for putting an end to slavery itself.
This ministry were soon after dismissed from their offices, for not sacri
ficing their opinions in favour of Catholic emancipation to the lament
able and persevering prejudices entertained by George III. on that
question, prejudices adopted by his son and successor, to the infinite
detriment of his dominions.

116 ROMILLY.
On the dissolution of parHament which followed. Sir Samuel
Romilly, having procured for himself a seat for Wareham, lost no time
in re-introducing a measure, which had been rejected in the former
parliament, to enable a creditor to obtain the payment of his debts
from the landed property of persons dying indebted. With a vicAV
to prevent opposition, he had confined the operation of his measure
to freehold estates only. The bill, however, even in this modified
form, met with the greatest opposition. Its introduction by Sir
Samuel Avas ascribed to " his hereditary love of democracy ;" it was
denounced by Canning, "as the first step of something that might
end like the French Revolution, and as a dangerous attack against
the aristocracy, Avhich was thus to be sacrificed to the commercial
interest ;" and it Avas finally rejected by a considerable majority.
Rather than give up his object entirely, he determined to make another
concession to the prejudices of his opponents ; and a few days after
the rejection of the measure, on introducing a second bill on the same
subject, he limited its operation to the landed estates of traders.
This expedient succeeded ; the aristocracy, caring little what became
of traders' estates, suffered the bill to pass both houses without the
slightest opposition, and iti'eceived the Royal assent in August, 1807.
After the lapse of seven years, he made fresh attempts in favour of his
original bill, but in vain. It was indeed carried by the Commons, in
1814, by a majority of nearly tAVO to one ; and again in the same house,
in the two succeeding years, Avithout the slightest opposition ; but on
all these occasions it Avas as regularly rejected by the House of Peers.
The original measure, including copyhold as well as freehold estates,
has recently become part of the law of the land.
During the vacation of 1807 Sir Samuel Romilly prepared some of
those reforms in the criminal law, by which he is most known to the
public. For many years he had been intent on this subject, and had
made it his particular study. During repeated visits to the continent,
he never missed an opportunity of attending any important trial ; and
for the sixteen years during Avhich he attended the circuit, he had been
in the habit of noting down Avhatever appeared to him Avorthy of obser
vation in the criminal courts. Shocked at instances of judicial injus
tice, AA'hich thus fell under his notice, he had secretly i-esolved that, if
it should ever be in his poAver, he Avould endeavour to provide a
remedy for such gross abuses. The principles of his intended reforms
Avere contained in his answer to Dr. Madan. He held that the pre
vention of crime is more effectually accomplished by certainty than
by severity of punishment ; that to approximate to certainty of punish
ment, it was necessary to mitigate the severities of the penal code ;

ROMILLY. 117
that, unless this Avere done, there would still be an indisposition on
the part of the public to prosecute, of witnesses to give evidence,
of juries to convict, and even of judges to put in execution the
sentences they had themselves passed ; — that all these were so
many chances of escape offered to a culprit, operating rather as
encouragements than as checks to crime.. These doctrines, then so
new, although now received as axioms, made but few converts at first ;
and it was not till they were again brought before the public in
the House of Commons, in 1808, that they attracted some of that
attention to which they were entitled. One of his first bills, which
repealed the punishment of death for stealing privately from the person
to the amount of five shillings, passed both houses with but little
opposition ; but, as the number of prosecutions increased in con
sequence, it was alleged that the crime itself had increased, and that
all similar reforms would be attended with similar mischief. Romilly
urged in vain that, when the measure was under consideration, he had
foretold that it would produce an increase of prosecutions ; and that
this, far from being an argument against the mitigation of punish
ment, was the best proof of its efficacy. In vain did he defend
his principle, Avith the varied stores of his knowledge, with the most
poAverful arguments, and with the eloquence of deep conviction. The
mature reflections of above thirty years' study and experience were
treated as the rash innovations of a Avild theorist. The effect of govern
ment circulars was too seldom counteracted by the attendance of his
own political friends ; no party advantage could be gained from such
enlightened labours ; there Avas no large and powerful body in the
country to second his efforts ; and when, at length, after unremitting
perseverance, he occasionally succeeded in carrying a bill through the
Commons, it was rarely permitted to pass through the ordeal of the
Upper House. But these efforts were not thrown away. His vicAVSj
ably and diligently supported by Sir James Mackintosh and others,
have since been confirmed and acted on even by his political oppo
nents. The credit Avhich was due to him who had sown the seed has
since been claimed by those Avho reaped it ; but the harvest is not lost
to the public.
But Romilly did not shrink from taking an active part on questions
more generally interesting to the public, even though the avowal of
his opinions might endanger his advancement in life. A remarkable
instance of this kind occurred in the beginning of 1809, Avhen the con
duct of the Duke of York was brought before the house by Colonel
Wardle. He Avas aware that to support this inquiry would not be

118 ROMILLY.
less obnoxious to many members of the former government than to
those then in office. It had been significantly intimated to him that
the Prince of Wales Avould consider any attack on the duke as an
attack on himself; and he felt under some obligation to the Prince
for having formerly offered him a seat in parliament, which, hoAvever,
he had declined. Such was his position ; entertaining, however, a
strong opinion on the subject, he resolved not to abandon his duty;
and he spoke and voted in favour of the motion. He concluded his
speech in these Avords : "The venerable judge* Avho took an early
part in the discussion of this question has attested the sincerity of his
vote by an affecting allusion to his age and infirmities, to the few in
ducements which the remainder of his life presented to him. I oannot
say the same thing. Not labouring under the same affliction, and not
having arrived at the same period of life, I may reasonably be allowed
for myself, and for those Avho are most dear to me, to indulge hopes
of prosperity yet to come. Reflecting on the Adcissitudes of human
life, I may entertain apprehensions of adversity and persecution which
perhaps await me. I have, hoAVCA'er, the satisfaction to reflect, that
it is not possible for me to hope to derive, in any way the most remote,
advantages from the vote which upon this occasion I shall give, and
from the part which I have thought it my duty to act."
These anticipations Avere afterwards corroborated by several persons, .
Avho told him, that after such a speech, he must give up all thoughts
of eA'er being Chancellor. The public also felt that he had made a
saci-ifice in their cause. Thanks were voted to him in conjunction Avith
Mr. Whitbread, Lord Folkstone, and some others, from the City of
London, Liverpool, Carmarthen, Wiltshire, Bristol, BerAvick, &c. &c.;
and he Avas invited by the Livery of London to a public dinner, as a
mark of approbation of his conduct. He declined, hoAA'ever, to accept
the intended honour, and his ansAvers to the addresses were draAvn up
Avith that unaffected modesty, and love of simple truth, which Avere so
peculiarly characteristic of his mind. Instead of dwelling upon his own
merit, he drew the picture of Avhat would have been thought of him
had he pursued an opposite course. " Seeing the case," he said in his
answer to the Livery, " in the light in which I saAv it, to have acted
otherwise than I did, I must have been base enough to have deserted
my public duty upon a most important occasion, from the mean appre
hension that to discharge my duty might be attended Avith personal
disadvantage to myself. If there be much merit in not having been
* Mr. Burton, a Welsh judge, who was then at the age of nearly seventy, and deprived
of his sight.

ROMILLY. 119
actuated by such unworthy motives, (Avhich I cannot think, but if there
be,) that, merit I certainly may pretend to, &c,"
The course which he, took in the year following on the im
prisonment of Gale Jones, and the alleged breach of privilege by
Sir Francis Burdett, was again at variance Avith that adopted by
either of the tAVO great parties in the house. The Opposition as Avell
as the Ministry, and all the lawyers who took any part in the debate,
concurred in thinking the paper Avritten by Sir Francis Burdett
a breach of privilege, and deserving of punishment of one kind or an
other ; while Romilly maintained that the house had no jurisdiction to
take cognizance of the offence. He did not dispute the right to im
prison for a breach of privilege Avhich obstructed their proceedings,
but he denied the right and the policy of doing so for the pubHcation
of animadversions on matters already concluded. He urged that these
latter questions "ought not to be decided on by the house, Avhich thus
constituted itself prosecutor, party, and judge, without affording to the
accused the opportunity of even hearing the charges preferred against
him ; but they ought to be left to the ordinary tribunals, the courts of
laAV." These arguments, disregarded at the time, Avere amply justified
by the events Avhich followed. The folly of the course adopted was
proved by seriou's disturbances, attended with the loss of life ; petitions
couched in the most disrespectful language Avere sent up, and inserted
on the Journals ; and the question of the privileges of the Commons
came, in the first instance, before the courts of laAv, and was finally
decided by the House of Lords. Invitations to public dinners Avere
again sent to him, Avhich he again declined ; and addresses of thanks
were voted " for the stand he had made in favour of the dominion
of the laAV, against arbitrary discretion and undefined privilege."
But it was not only in this way that the public showed how much
they appreciated his integrity and independence. In 1812 he was
pressed to aUow himself to be put in nomination for several large
constituencies ; amongst others for Liverpool, Chester, Middlesex, and
Bristol. At Bristol, his past poHtical conduct Avas considered a suf
ficient guarantee for the future ; no pledge Avas required of him, he Avas
to be put to no expense, and it Avas agreed that he should be excused
from personal canvas. On terms so honourable he consented to be
put in nomination ; and although a total stranger in the town, his
reception was most encouraging, and there seemed every prospect of
success. Nevertheless the common but dishonest maxim, of every
thing being fair at an election, being acted upon by the opposite party,
it Avas soon evident that he Avould not be returned ; and on the seventh
day he resigned any further contest.

120 ROMILLY.
AUhough his opinions Avere not as yet to receive the sanction of any
large and popular constituency, he did not relax his efforts in favour
of the rights and interests of the people. On being returned for
Horsham, during the six sessions which this parliament lasted, we
find him the same strenuous advocate for civil liberty and religious
toleration in the most extensive sense of the words, at home and
abroad ; the same determined enemy to peculation and corruption, the
same ardent and judicious reformer of the laws ; " incapable on every
occasion of being swerved from his duty by the threats of poAver, the
allurements of the great, the temptations of private interest, or even
the seduction of popular favour. All the toil, the pain, and the fatigue
of his duties were his own ; all the advantage Avhich resulted from his
labours were for the public."
He spoke and voted against military flogging, the game laws,
the punishment of the pillory, the poor laws, the law of libel, and
lotteries ; against the suspension of the Habeas Corpus act. Lord
Sidmouth's circular letter, and the employment of spies and informers;
and against the persecution of the Protestants in France, and the
Alien bill at home ; in favour of Catholic emancipation, the education
of the poor, and the liberty of the press. He was always a zealous ad
vocate for peace ; against the system of the corn laws, and all restric
tions on commerce, and he was in favour of an extensive change in
the representation of the people, of shortening the duration of par
liament, and ensuring the free exercise of the elective franchise. He
was also in favour of the promulgation of laAVS, of allowing counsel
to prisoners, of giving compensation to those who had been unjustly
accused, of greatly extending the rules respecting the admission of
evidence ; of introducing secondary punishments, and of instituting a
public prosecutor; and all this not more for the sake of humanity
toAvards the guilty, than for the great ends of justice, the prevention
of crime, and the reform of criminals.
At the conclusion of this parliament in 1818, Sir Samuel Romilly,
after having again been invited to stand for several large constituencies,
by any of which he was assured he would be elected, Avas at length put
in nomination for Westminster ; and although he Avas violently opposed
by the court on the one side, and by the ultra popular party on the
other ; although, during the Avhole of the contest, he was calmly pur
suing his professional duties in the Court of Chancery, and never once
appeared on the hustings till the conclusion, he Avas returned at the
head of the poll. After his election, he did all in his power to avoid
the ceremony of chairing ; but on his objections being over-ruled, his
greatest pleasure Avas when, after he had addressed the multitude from

ROMILLY. 121
the Avindows of Burlington House, he was able to escape by a back
door and walk by the less frequented streets to his home, there to re
ceive congratulations no less hearty, and more congenial to his temper
and taste. But he did not live to take his seat. A life of uninter
rupted and rarely equalled domestic happiness, and of great success in
his professional and political career, was suddenly embittered by the
loss of that being, to Avhom he had been deeply and devotedly attached
for above twenty years, and with whom he had ever considered his
happiness and prosperity as being indissolubly connected. He sank
under this calamity, and mankind were deprived of his services for ever*.
Romilly was reserved and silent in general society, but affectionate,
entertaining, and instructive with his friends ; and full of joyousness,
humour, and playfulness with his children, and in the bosom of his
family. He was endowed with a lively imagination, he was fond of
retirement, and Avas a passionate admirer of the beauties of nature.
Indefatigable in his profession and in parliament, he yet found time
to keep up with the literature of the day, to write criticisms on the
books which he read, to keep a regular diary of his political career,
and to compose essays on various branches of the criminal law. His
eloquence was of that kind which never fails to make a lasting im
pression : it was full of earnest conviction and deep sensibility. He
was a great master of sarcasm, but he considered it an unfair weapon
and rarely employed it. So jealous was he of his independence, that
when he Avas solicitor-general, and one of his nephews was peculiarly
anxious to be placed in the Military Academy at Woolwich, he refused
to lay himself under any obligation, even for so slight a favour ; and
the application was never made. Few ever gained so large a por
tion of public favour, and yet so studiously avoided courting popu
larity ; and no one ever rose higher in the esteem of his political con
temporaries. Unsullied in character as a lawyer, as a politician, and
as a man, his life, Avhich was prolonged to the age of sixty-one, was
a life of happiness and of honour. No statues are erected to his
memory ; no titles descend to his children ; but he has bequeathed a
richer, a prouder, and a more lasting inheritance, than any which the
world can bestow : the recollection of his virtues is still fresh in the
minds of his countrymen, and the sacrifices he made in the cause of
humanity Avill not be forgotten by mankind.
* Strong symptoms of an incipient hrain fever showed themselves, and these increased
so rapidly as to produce, before they could be checked, a temporary dehrium, as most
frequently happens in that malady ; and in this paroxysm he terminated his existence,
November 22, 1818, three days after Lady Romilly's death.
Vol.. V. S

The materials which we possess for the biography of Shakspeare are
very unsatisfactory. The earliest life is that by the poet Rowe, who,
as if aware of its scantiness, merely entitles it ' Some Account.' It
contains what little the author could collect, when no sources of in
formation were left open but the floating traditions of the theatre
after the lapse of nearly a century. Mr. Malone prefixed a new life
to his edition, extending to above 500 pages ; but he only brings his
author to London, and as to his professional progress, adds nothing
to Rowe's meagre tale, except some particles of information previously
communicated in notes by himself and Steevens.
William Shakspeare was born at Stratford-upon-Avon in WarAvick-
shire, April 23, 1564. He was one of ten children. His father was
a dealer in wool, as it is generally said, but according to Malone, a
glover, and alderman in the corporation of Stratford, Our great poet
received such education as the lower forms of the Grammar School at
Stratford could give him ; but he Avas removed from that establishment
at an early age, to serve as clerk in a country attorney's office. This
anecdote of his boyhood receives confirmation from the frequent recur
rence of technical law-phrases in his plays ; and it has been remarked
that he derives none of his allusions from other learned professions.
Before he was eighteen years of age he contracted a marriage with
Anne Hathaway, a woman some years older than himself, and the
daughter of a substantial yeoman in his own neighbourhood. He went
to London about 1586, when he was but twenty-two years of age, being
obliged, as the common story goes, to fly the country, in consequence
of being detected in deer-stealing. This tale is thought to be con
firmed by the ridicule cast on his supposed prosecutor. Sir Thomas
Lucy, in the character of Justice Shallow, pointed as it is by the

SHAKSPEARE. 12.3
commendation of the " dozen white luces as a good coat." But as
this is the only lawless action Avhich tradition has imputed to one of
the most amiable and inoffensive of men, we may perhaps esteem the
tale to be the mere gossip of the tiring-room : indeed, Malone has
adduced several arguments to prove that it cannot be correctly told.
It is not necessary to suppose that Shakspeare was compelled
to fly his native town because he came to the metropolis ; his emi
gration is sufficiently accounted for by his father's falling into dis
tressed circumstances, and being obliged in this very year, 1586, to
resign his alderman's gown on that account. Another traditional
anecdote, that Shakspeare's first employment AA'as to wait at the
play-house door, and hold the horses of those who had no servants,
is discredited by Mr. Steevens, who says, " That it was once the
general custom to ride on horseback to the play I am yet to learn.
The most popular of the theatres were on the Bankside ; and we are
told by the satirical pamphleteers of that time that the usual mode
of conveyance to those places of amusement was by water ; but not a
single Avriter so much as hints at the custom of riding to them, or
at the practice of having horses held during the hours of exhibition.
Let it be remembered too, that we receive this tale on no higher au
thority than that of Gibber's 'Lives of the Poets.'"
• Nothing is authentically proved with respect to Shakspeare's intro
duction to the stage. His first play is dated by Malone in 1589, three
years after the time assigned for the author's arrival in London. It ap
pears from the dedication to ' Venus and Adonis,' published in 1593, in
which he calls that poem "the first heir of his invention," that his earliest
essays were not in dramatic composition. The ' Lucrece,' published
in 1 594, and the collection of sonnets, entitled the ' Passionate Pil
grim,' published in 1599, also belong to an early period of his poetical
life. The ' Lover's Complaint,' and a larger collection of sonnets,
were printed in 1609, It may be conjectured that he was led to write
for the stage in consequence of the advice and introduction of Thomas
Green, an eminent comedian of the day, who was his townsman, if not
his relation, Shakspeare trod the boards himself, but he never i-ose to
eminence as an actor : it is recorded that the Ghost in ' Hamlet ' was
his masterpiece. But the instructions to the players in ' Hamlet '
exhibit a clear and delicate perception of what an actor ought to
be, however incompetent the writer might be to furnish the example
in his own person .
The extent of Shakspeare's learning has been much controverted.
Dr. Johnson speaks of it thus : " It is most likely that he had
S 2

124 SHAKSPEARE.
learned Latin sufficiently to make him acquainted with construction,
but that he never advanced to an easy perusal of the Roman authors.
Concerning his skill in modern languages, I can find no sufficient
ground of determination ; but as no imitations of French or Italian
authors have been discovered, though the Italian poetry was then high
in esteem, I am inclined to believe that he read little more than English,
and chose for his fables only such tales as he found translated." Other
writers have contended that he must have been acquainted with the
Greek and Roman classics : but Dr. Farmer, in his ' Essay on the
Learning of Shakspeare,' has accounted in a very satisfactory manner
for the frequent allusions to the facts and fables of antiquity to be met
AA'ith in Shakspeare's writings, without supposing that he read the
classic authors in their original languages. The supposition indeed
is at variance with his Avhole history. Dr. Farmer has particularly
specified the English translations of the classics then extant, and
concludes on the whole, that the studies of Shakspeare Avere con
fined to nature and his OAvn language.
The merit of Shakspeare did not escape the notice of Queen Eliza
beth. He evinced his gratitude for her patronage in that beautiful
passage in the ' Midsummer Night's Dream,' Avhere he speaks of her
as " a fair vestal, throned in the west."
Sheffield, Duke of Buckinghamshire, is the relater of an anecdote
which shows the continuance of high favour to our author. It is ex
pressed in these words : that " the most learned prince and great
patron of learning. King James I., AA'as pleased Avith his own hand to
write an amicable letter to Mr. Shakspeare ; " and Dr. Farmer sup
poses, Avith apparent probability, that this honour was conferred in
return for the compHment paid to the monarch in ' Macbeth.'
Shakspeare also possessed the esteem of, and was admitted to
familiar intercourse Avith, the accomplished Earls of Southampton
and Essex ; and enjoyed the friendship of his great contemporary Ben
Jonson. Of the poet's career before the London public nothing authentic
has come down to us ; and perhaps if more were known, it might not
be worth recording. But his retirement in 1611 or 1612, about four
years before his death, though it afford no story, furnishes a pleasing
reflection. He had left his native place', poor and almost unknown :
he returned to it, not rich, but Avith a competence and an unblemished
character. ^ His good-natured Avit made him a welcome member of
private society when he no longer set the theatre in a roar ; and he
ended his days in habits of intimacy, and in some cases in the bonds

SHAKSPEARE. 125
of friendship, with the leading gentlemen of the neighbourhood. He
died on his birth-day, April 23, 1616, Avhen he had completed his fifty-
second year. If Ave look merely at the state in which he left his pro
ductions, we should be apt to conclude that he was insensible of their
value. To quote the words of Dr, Johnson, " It does not appear that
Shakspeare thought his works worthy of posterity ; that he levied any
ideal tribute upon future times, or had any fm-ther prospect than that
of present popularity and present profit." But the imperfect form in
which they came before the public is not necessarily to be accounted
for by this extravagance of humility. It is clear that any publication
of his plays by himself would have interfered at first Avith his own
interest, and afterwards with the interest of those to Avhom he made
over his share in them ; besides which, such was the revulsion of the
pubHc taste, that the publication of his Avorks by Heraings and Condell
was accounted a doubtful speculation. For several years after his
death the plays of Beaumont and Fletcher were more frequently acted
than those of Shakspeare ; and the beautiful works of the joint dramat
ists afterwards gave place to the rhyming rhapsodies of Dryden and
the bombast of Lee. Garrick brought back the public to Shakspeare
and every-day nature ; Kemble exhibited him in the more refined dress
of classical taste and philosophy.
Mr, Malone has observed, that our author's prose compositions,
should they be discovered, Avould exhibit the same perspicuity, the
same cadence, the same elegance and vigour, which Ave find in his
plays. In 1751, an attempt was made to impose on the public by a
book entitled ' A Compendious or Brief Examination of certayne
Ordinary Complaints of divers of our Countrymen in these our Days,
&c., by William Shakspeare, Gentleman;' the signature to which, in
the original edition of 1581, was " W. S., Gent.;" and Dr. Farmer
has clearly proved the initials to mean " William Stafford, Gent."
Another and more impudent forgery was attempted by Ireland, who
published in 1795 a volume, entitled ' Shakspeare's Manuscripts.'
The fraud met with partial success, and the tragedy of ' Vortigern '
was performed as one of Shakspeare's, to the great disgust, it is
said, of John Kemble, who had to act in it much against his will.
Malone exposed the imposition in 1796, and Ireland himself ulti
mately acknowledged it. With respect to the probable character of
Shakspeare's prose compositions, it is needless to speculate on it, as
we have no reason to believe that he ever wrote any prose, except for
the stage.
Some interesting criticisms of Mrs. Siddons on the chief female

126 SHAKSPEARE.
characters of Shakspeare will be found in the life of that eminent
actress in this volume. We may here introduce another observation
of hers on Constance in ' King John.' She said that the intuition of
Shakspeare in delineating that character struck her as all but super
natural : she could scarcely conceive the possibility of any man pos
sessing himself so thoroughly with the most intense and most inward
feeHngs of the other sex : had Shakspeare been a woman and a mother,
he must have felt neither less nor more than as he wrote.
The two first folio editions are in great request among book-col
lectors, and, owing to their scarcity, fetch high prices at auctions.
They have nothing to recommend them either as to accuracy or
elegance of typography, but are really valuable for the various read
ings which they contain. The best modern editions are those of
Johnson and Steevens, and Malone. The last edition is the posthumous
one of Malone, edited by Boswell, and little room is left for any farther
elucidation of our great dramatist, as far as verbal criticism is con
cerned. But for the higher branches of criticism, the works of such a
poet are as inexhaustible as those of Homer; and if his fame be equally
immortal, its fate is more singular, HoAvever ardent may be the ad
miration of Homer on the part of modern scholars, and however pro
found their investigation of his merits, far from pretending to discoveries
unknown to the Grecian critics and philosophers, they support their OAvn
vicAVS by constant references to the ancients; but Shakspeare has found
his most elaborate, and with certain drawbacks, his best critics, among
foreigners. In England Shakspeare is the idol of those who read
either for the amusement of the imagination, or as students not of
poetical or metaphysical, but of every-day nature ; and his English
editors have rather criticised down to the level of such readers, than
aimed at ripening their taste, or elevating their conceptions. We find
eminent men among them, such as Pope, Warburton, and Johnson,
yet none well qualified to perform the highest functions of a commen
tator. Johnson's Preface is highly valued for the justness of his
general criticism, and his vindication of the poet on the score of the
unities is triumphantly conclusive. But his remarks at the end of each
play are so jejune and superficial, that short as they are, no reader
perhaps ever wished them longer. One cannot help Avondering that
the acute, and in many instances profound, though sometimes partial,
critic of Cowley, Milton, Dryden, Pope and Gray, should have
skimmed so lightly over the surface of Shakspeare. Not so his
German translators and critics. No sooner did the Germans take up
the study of English literature, than they selected Shakspeare on

SHAKSPEARE. 127
whom to try their powers ; and they are thought to have dived deeper
into his mind than have his own countrymen, with their apparently
better opportunities. Nor is this wonderful : for they have regarded
the poet not merely as the minister of amusement to an admiring au
dience, but as a metaphysical philosopher of nature's forming, possessed
of deepest insight into the complex motives which move the hearts,
and stimulate the actions of mankind. And seeking with a reverent
attention to trace the workings of the mahers mind (for in this instance
there is a peculiar propriety in translating the Greek word poef) they
have succeeded in furnishing profound and satisfactory explanations of
much that less intellectual critics had treated as instances of the au
thor's irregular and capricious genius. In this, as in other branches
of German literature, Goethe stands pre-eminent : and the translation
of his ' Wilhelm Meister ' has placed within the reach of all readers
a series of original and masterly criticisms, especially on that stumbling-
block of commentators, the character of Hamlet. We may quote as a
specimen his exposition of the principle upon which the anomalies of
the Prince of Denmark's conduct are to be solved. " It is clear to me
that Shakspeare's intention was to exhibit the effects of a great action,
imposed as a duty upon a mind too feeble for its accomplishment. In
this case I find the character consistent throughout. Here is an oak
tree planted in a china vase, proper only to receive the most dehcate
flowers. The roots strike out and the vessel flies to pieces. A pure,
noble, highly moral disposition, but without that energy of soul
which constitutes the hero, sinks under a load which it can neither
support nor endure to abandon altogether. All his obligations are
sacred to him ; but this alone is above his powers ! An impossibility
is required at his hands ; not an impossibility in itself, but that which
is so to him. Observe, how he turns, shifts, hesitates, advances, and
recedes ; — how he is continually reminded and reminding himself
of his real commission, which he nevertheless in the end seems
almost entirely to lose sight of, and this without ever recovering his
former tranquillity ! " How different this from the praise of variety
allowed to this tragedy by Johnson, to " the pretended madness,
causing mirth," without any adequate cause for feigning it, and the
objection that through the whole piece he is " rather an instrument
than an agent!"
Malone's " attempt to ascertain the order in which the plays of
Shakspeare Avere written" occupies 180 pages. Where so many
words are necessary, the arrangement to be justified may not be very
certain ; but that of Malone is generally received. It runs thus :

128

SHAKSPEARE.

The First Part of King Henry VI., 1589. Second and Third Parts,
Two Gentlemen of Verona, 1591. Comedy of Errors, 1592. King
Richard II, and III,, 1593, Love's Labour's Lost, Merchant of
Venice, Midsummer Night's Dream, 1594, Taming of the ShrcAV,
Romeo and Juliet, King John, 1596, First Part of King Henry IV,,
1 597. Second Part, All's Avell that ends weH, 1 598. King Henry V.,
As You Hke it, 1599. Much ado about Nothing, Hamlet, 1600.
Merry Wives of Windsor, 1601. Troilus and Cressida, 1602. Measure
for Measure, King Henry VIII., 1603. Othello, 1604. King Lear,
1605. Macbeth, 1606. Twelfth Night, JuHus Csesar, 1607. An
tony and Cleopatra, 1608. Cymbeline, 1609. Coriolanus, Timon
of Athens, 1610. Winter's Tale, 1611. Tempest, 1612. Except
the placing the historical plays in separate succession, the order of
Malone's edition follows the above dates. Previous editions arranged
the plays as comedies, histories, and tragedies, beginning with the
Tempest, the last written, and ending with Othello. We must add to
the list of plays ascribed to Shakspeare, and included in the editions of
his AVorks, Pericles and Titus Andronicus, Avhich are now acknow
ledged not to be the composition of Shakspeare, though perhaps re
touched by him. The Yorkshire Tragedy, Lord Cromwell, and others,
have still less right to bear the honour of his name.

[Shakspeare's Monument at Stratford-upon-Avon.]

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Leonard EuLER * was born at Basle, April 15, 1707. His father
was the clergyman of Reichen, near Basle, and had himself been
a pupil of James Bernouilli. He intended his son for his OAvn
profession, and after having been himself his first instructor in
mathematics, sent him to the university of Basle. John Bernouilli
was at this time Professor, and his sons, Nicolas and Daniel, tAvo more
of the eight Bernouillis known to the history of science, were under
him. With the sons Euler contracted an intimate friendship ; and
obtained such a degree of favour even with their father, that the latter
gave him a private lesson weekly, upon points more advanced than
those treated in the public course. This was a strong mark of favour
from John Bernouilli, who was of an unamiable disposition, jealous
of his brother, of his son, and finally of almost every one who dis
played a superior talent for mathematics. Euler at first turned his
attention to theology, in accordance with the wishes of his father,
but this was not of long continuance. At the age of nineteen,
besides obtaining a degree from his University, he had merited the
notice of the Academy of Sciences for a memoir on some points of
naval architecture. In the same year, he was an unsuccessful candi
date for a Professorship at Basle, an unlucky event, M. Condorcet
observes, for his country, inasmuch as a few days afterwards he left it
for Russia, and never returned. His friends the Bernouillis (Nicolas
and Daniel) had, two years before, accepted invitations from the
Empress Catherine ; and he folloAved them in hopes of obtaining
* We have followed the eloge of Condorcet as to facts and dates. We should
have preferred that of M. Fuss, but have not had the opportunity of seeing it. The
mere biographical details of Euler's life are, however, of the simplest character.
Vor.. V. T

130 EULER.
employment and subsistence at St. Petersburgh. But by the time he
arrived, both Nicolas BernouilH and the Empress were dead, the
Academy of St. Petersburgh was left without a patron, and Euler, a
nameless stranger, could not for a long time obtain any settled avoca
tion. HoAV he maintained himself we are not told ; but he was upon
the point of entering the Russian service as a sailor, when his pros
pects brightened, and he obtained the place of Professor of Natural
Philosophy, In 1733 he succeeded Daniel Bernouilli, who returned
to his own country, as Professor of Mathematics. In the same year
he married a young lady named Gsell, the daughter of an artist of
Basle, who had emigrated to Russia in the reign of Peter the Great.
The despotism of the Russian government could not please the
republican born; but circumstances obliged him to endure it till 1741,
Avhen he quitted Petersburgh for Berlin on the invitation of Frederic
the Great. To the necessity for continual reserve and government of
the tongue which Avas necessary in the Russian capital has been
attributed his love of silence and study, AA'hich exceeded all that
is related of any of his contemporaries. The mother of Frederic,
AA'ho Avas as much attached to the conversation of distinguished men as
the King himself, could never obtain more than a fcAV syllables from
Euler at any one time. On her asking the reason Avhy he would not
speak, he is said to have replied, " Madam, I have lived in a country
Avhere men Avho speak are hanged."
Euler remained at Berlin till 1766. In 1761 he lost his mother,
who had resided with him for eleven years. During this time he was
not considered as having abandoned his Russian engagements, and a
part of his salary was regularly paid. When the Russians invaded
Brandenburg in 1760, a farm belonging to him was destroyed, but he
was immediately more than reimbursed, by the order of the Empress
Elizabeth, On the invitation of that princess he consented to return
to Petersburgh in 1766, He had for some years suffered from weak
ness in the eyes ; and not long after his return to Russia he became so
nearly blind, that he could distinguish nothing except very large
letters marked Avith chalk on a slate. In this state he continued
for the remainder of his life ; and by constant exercise he acquired
a poAver of recollection, Avhether of mathematical formulae or figures,
which Avould be totally incredible, if it Avere not supported by strong
evidence. He formed in his head, and retained in his memory, a table
of the first six poAvers of all numbers up to 100, containing about
3000 figures. Two of his pupils had summed seventeen terms of
a converging series, and differed by a unit in the fiftieth decimal of the

EULER. 1.31
result; Euler decided between them correctly by a mental calcu
lation *. His chief amusement during his deprivation Avas the form
ation of artificial magnets, and the instruction of one of his grand
children in mathematics. His studies were in no degree relaxed by it.
In 1771 Euler's house was destroyed by fire, together with a con
siderable part of the city. He was himself saved by a fellow-countryman
named Grimm, and his manuscripts Avere also rescued. In 1776 he
married the aunt of his first wife. No other event worthy of special
notice occurred before his death, Avhich took place suddenly, September
7, 1783. He had been employed in calculating the laAVS of the
ascent of balloons, which were then newly introduced ; he afterAvards
dined with his family and M. Lexell, his pupil, conversed with them
on the newly-discovered planet of Herschel, and was amusing himself
with one of his grandchildren ; suddenly the pipe Avhich he held in his
hand dropped on the ground, and it Avas found thaff " life and
calculation were at an end." He had thirteen children, of whom
only three survived him ; one of them, John Albert Euler, Avas
known as a mathematician.
Of the scientific character of Euler it is impossible to speak in
detail, since even the resume of M. Condorcet, which is much longer
than any account Ave can here insert, is meagre in the extreme; and we
imagine that the reader Avould form no idea whatsoever of the man we
are describing, from any brief enumeration of discoveries for which we
should be able to allow room. In more than fifty years of incessant
thought, Euler wrote thirty separate works and more than seven
hundred memoirs : which could not altogether be contained in forty
large quarto volumes. These Avritings embrace every existing branch
of mathematics, and almost every conceivable application of them,
to such an extent, that there is no one among mathematicians, past or
present, who can be placed near to Euler in the enormous variety
of the subjects which he treated. And the contents of these volumes
are without exception the original fruit of his own brain ; seeing that
he left no subject as he found it. He is not a diffuse Avriter, except
* We suspect some mistake in this account, which is constantly given. A very
surprising story ought to be consistent : now it is difficult to believe that any series
which was actually employed in practice (and people do not sum series to fifty places for
amusement) would converge so quickly, as to give fifty places in seventeen terms. The
well-known series for the base of Napier's logarithms is called a rapidly converging
series, and gives about fifteen places in seventeen terms. We cannot help thinking,
either that Euler settled one disputed term only, or that there is som? mistake about the
number of figures.
t II cessa de calculer et de vivre. — Condokcet. T 2

132 EULER.
in giving a large number of examples, and this renders him in some
respects the most instructive of all writers. His Avorks are fuU of the
most original thoughts developed in the most original manner; so
that they have been a mine of information for his successors, Avhich is
even now far from being exhausted. Let a student be employed upon
any subject connected Avith mathematics, however remotely, and he has
discovered but little if he has not found out that Euler was there
before him.
Of all mathematical writers, Euler is one of the most simple,
and this in a manner which renders his writings not by any means
a sound preparation for future investigations. Difficulties seem
to have disappeared in the progress, or never to have been en
countered ; and the student is rather made to feel that Euler could
take him anyAvhere, than furnished with the means of providing
for himself, when his guide shall have left him. Hence the Avritings
of others, in every Avay inferior to Euler in elegance and simplicity, are
to be preferred, and have been preferred, for the formation of
mathematical power.
Euler is to be measured by the assistance Avhich he gave to
his immediate successors, and here it is Avell known that he paved the
way for the research of others in a more effectual manner than any of
his contemporaries. The incessant repetition of his name in later
authors is sufficient authority for this assertion. His Avritings are
the first in which the modern analysis is uniformly the instrument
of investigation. His predecessors, James and John BernouilH, had
perhaps the largest share in bringing the infinitesimal analysis of
Newton and Leibnitz to the state of poAver required for extensive
application. To Euler (besides important extensions) belongs the dis
tinct merit of shoAving how to apply it to physical investigations,
in conjunction with D' Alembert, who ran a splendid and contemporary
career of a similar character in this respect. But though it would be
perhaps admitted that there are individual results of the latter which
exceed anything done by the former, in generality of application,
there is no comparison whatsoever betAveen the extent of the labours of
the two.
Euler was a man of a simple, reserved, and benevolent mind ; with
a strong sense of devotion, and a decided religious habit, according to
the Calvinism of the Established Church of his country. At the
court of Frederic, he himself conducted the devotions of his family
every evening ; a practice which then and there implied much moral
courage, and insensibility to ridicule. But he possessed humour.

EULER. 133
for when he was asked to calculate the horoscope of one of the
Russian princes, he quietly suggested that it was the official duty of
the astronomer, and imposed the duty upon a colleague, who doubtless
did not feel very much flattered by the application.
There are few men Avhom the usual biographical formulae as
to moral character and habits would better fit than Euler, according to
every account Avhich has appeared of him. But such praises are
no distinction ; and it will be more to the purpose to state that
the only occasion in which he was betrayed into printing a word
which his eulogists have regretted, was in the dispute between
Maupertuis and himself against others on the principle known by the
name of least action, one of the warmest and most angry discussions
which ever took place.
Perhaps it is to the quiet abstraction of his life that he owed the
perpetuity of his tenure of investigation. Many eminent mathematical
discoverers have run the brilliant part of their career while com
paratively young. Euler " ceased to calculate and to live " at once.
But it may be that this was a part of his natural constitution,
and a distinct feature of his mind. The nature of his writings rather
confirm* the latter supposition. There is the same difference between
them and those of others, that there is between conversation and
oratory. He seems to be moving in his natural element, where others
are swimming for their lives.
The best works of Euler for a young mathematician to read,
in order to get an idea of his style and methods, are the 'Analysis
Infinitorum,' and the ' Treatise on the Integral Calculus'

1749,
of this
culture

William Jones, the most accomplished Oriental scholar of the last
century, an upright magistrate, and eminent benefactor of the native
subjects of our Indian dominions, was born in London on Michaelmas
Eve, 1746, His father, a man esteemed by his contemporaries, a
skilful mathematician, and the friend of Newton, died in July,
His mother then devoted herself entirely to the education
her only surviving son ; and to her careful and judicious
of his infant years, bestowed indeed upon a happy soil,
is to be ascribed the early development of that thirst for learning and
faculty of profitable application, which enabled Jones to accumulate in
a short and busy life a quantity and variety of abstruse knowledge,
such as the same age does not often see equalled. To the end of her
life he acknowledged and repaid her care and affection by ardent love
and unchanging filial respect. When only seven years old, he was
sent to Harrow, His progress, slow at first, afterwards became most
rapid ; and the head master. Dr. Thackeray, a man not given to praise,
spoke of him as " a boy of so active a mind, that if he were left naked
and friendless on Salisbury Plain he would find the way to fame and
riches." At the time of his quitting school, besides a much deeper acquaint
ance with the classical languages than usually falls to the lot of a
schoolboy, Jones had acquired the French and ItaHan languages, had
commenced the study of HebrcAV, and (a thing only AVorth mention as
indicative of his tastes) had made himself acquainted with the Arabic
letters. Botany, the coUection of fossils, and composition in English
verse, Avere his favourite amusements at this period. March 16,
1764, he was entered as a student of University CoUece, Oxford,
He was elected a scholar on the Bennett foundation, October 30,
1764; and fellow on the same foundation, August 7, 1766, before
he was of standing to proceed to the degree of B,A,, which he took
in 1768. At an eariy period of his residence he appHed in earnest

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SIR W. JONES. 135
to the study of Arabic ; and his zeal was such, that, though habitually
self-denying, and anxious not to trespass on his mother's slender
income, he maintained at Oxford, at his own expense, a Syrian,
with whom he had become acquainted in London, for the benefit
to be derived from his instruction. From the Arabic he proceeded
to learn the Persian language.
His residence was varied, though his favourite studies do not appear
to have been interrupted, by an invitation to undertake the care of the
late Lord Spencer, then a boy of seven years old. This was in 1765.
The next five years he spent with his pupil chiefly at Harrow, and
occasionally at Althorp, or in London, or on the continent. It appears
from the college books that he resided at Oxford very little in the
years 1766, 1767, and 1768. Wherever he Avas, his time was dili
gently employed, not only in his severer studies, but in the pursuit of
personal accomplishments and the cultivation of valuable acquaintances,
especially with those Avho, like himself, were attached to the investi
gation of Eastern languages and science. In 1768 he received a high,
but an unprofitable compliment, in being selected to render into French
a Persian Life of Nadir Shah, transmitted to the English government
by the King of Denmark for the purpose of translation. To this per
formance, Avhich was printed in 1770, Mr. Jones added a 'Treatise
on Oriental Poetry,' in which several of the odes of Hafiz are trans
lated into verse. This also Avas written in French ; and it has justly
been observed by a French writer in the ' Biographic Universelle,'
that the occurrence of some imperfections of style ought not to interfere
with our forming a high estimate of the talents of a man who, at the
age of twenty-two, possessed the varied quahfications and recondite
acquirements displayed in this Avork. By the end of the same year,
1770, the author finished his ' Commentaries on Asiatic Poetry,' a
Latin treatise, which for its style is commended by the competent au
thority of Dr. Parr ; and which has also obtained high praise for the
taste and judgment displayed in selecting and translating the passages
by which the text is illustrated. It was not printed tiU 1774.
Not the least striking part of Mr. Jones's character was an ardent
love of liberty, and a high and honourable feeling of independence in
his own person. The former was displayed in his open and fearless
advocacy of opinions calculated to close the road to preferment, such as
an entire disapprobation of the American war, and a strong feeling of
the necessity of reform in ParHament, It should also be noticed that
at an eariy period he denounced in energetic language the abomination
of the Slave Trade, His personal love of independence was at this time
manifested in his resolution to quit the certain road to ease and compe-

136 SIR W. JONES.
tence which his connexion with the noble family of Spencer laid before
him, to embark in the brilliant but uncertain course of legal adventure.
Ambition was a prominent feature in Jones's character ; and it was his
hope and his earnest Avish to distinguish himself in the House of Com
mons as well as at the bar. He was admitted of the Middle Temple
November 19, 1770 ; and his Oriental studies, though not entirely
abandoned, especially at first, were thenceforth much curtailed until
the prospect of being appointed to a judicial office in India furnished an
adequate reason for the resumption of them. But he gave a proof that
his devotion to Oriental had not destroyed his taste for Grecian learn
ing, by publishing in 1778 a translation of the .' Orations of Isseus,'
relative to the laws of succession to property in Athens. The subject
appears to have interested him ; for in 1782, when his attention was
again directed to the East, he published translations of two Arabian
poems ; one on the Mohammedan law of succession to the property of
intestates, the other on the Mohammedan law of inheritance. About
the same time he translated the seven ancient Arabian poems, called
Moallakat, or ' Suspended,' because they had been hung up, in honour
of their merit, in the Temple of Mecca ; and to shoAV, perhaps, that his
attention had not been AvithdraAvn from his immediate profession, he
wrote an ' Essay on the Law of Bailments.'
Mr. Jones Avas called to the bar in 1774. Within two years' space
he obtained a commissionership of bankrupts ; by what influence does
not appear : it could not be from any professional eminence. A letter
written to Lord Althorp so early as October, 1778, intimates a wish
to obtain some judicial appointment in India, not only in consequence
of the interest Avhich he had felt from an early age in every thing con
nected with the East, but from a motive which has sent other eminent
men to the same unhealthy climate ; a feeling that pecuniary inde
pendence Avas almost essential to success in political life, and the hope
of returning in the prime of manhood Avith an honourable competence.
In 1780 Mr. Jones became a candidate to represent the University
of Oxford. His poHtical opinions were not calculated to win the
favour of that learned body, and though respectably supported, he did
not find encouragement to warrant him in coming to a poll. From
this time forward Mr, Jones's mind was much occupied by the
thought of going to India. His letters contain frequent allusions to
the subject, and express doubt whether, notwithstanding the per
sonal friendship of Lord North, his own knoAvn views of politics, espe
cially his often and strongly-declared reprobation of the American war,
would not interfere with his obtaining the desired promotion. The
event proved him to be right, for it Avas not until after the formation of

SIR W. JONES. 137
the Shelburne ministry that he received information of his appointment
to a seat in the Supreme Court of Judicature at Calcutta, March 3,
1783. For this he Avas indebted to the friendship of Lord Ashburton
(Mr, Dunning), The state of uncertainty in which he was so long
retained interfered considerably with his attention to his legal
practice, Avhich Avas rapidly increasing. He Avas the more anxious on
this subject, because he had been long attached to Miss Shipley,
daughter of the Bishop of St. Asaph ; and his union with her was
only deferred until professional success should place him in a fit station
to support a family. His marriage took place in April, and in the
same month he embarked for India. It remains to be noticed, that in
1782 Mr. Jones had written an essay, entitled ' The Principles of
Government,' in a dialogue between a farmer and country gentleman,
intended to express in a cheap and simple form his OAvn vicAVs on con
stitutional questions. This Avas first printed by the Society for Con
stitutional Information, of which Mr. Jones Avas a member : it Avas
reprinted by his brother-in-laAV, the Dean of St. Asaph, Avho Avas in
consequence indicted for libel. In the prosecution Avhich ensued,
Mr. Erskine made one of his first and most remarkable appearances,
and the series of speeches which he delivered in this case prepared the
way for the Libel Bill of 1792.
Sir William Jones arrived in Calcutta in September, and entered
on his judicial functions in December, 1 783. One of his first employ
ments Avas the organization of a scientific association, under the title
of the Asiatic Society. The Governor-general, Warren Hastings, was
requested to become president ; and on his declining to accept, as an
honorary distinction, an office the real duties of Avhich he Avas unable to
fulfil. Sir WilHain Jones Avas fitly placed at the head of that institution,
Avhich, but for him, probably would not have existed. The transac
tions of that society, under the name of ' Asiatic Researches,' were
published under his superintendence, and oaa'C a large portion of their
interest to the labours of his pen. Another work, the ' Asiatic Mis
cellany,' was also indebted to him for several valuable contributions.
But the perfect acquisition of the Sanscrit language was the chief em
ployment of that time Avhich could be spared from his judicial labours;
a task indeed subsidiary to those labours, and performed with the
benevolent design of insuring to the Indian subjects of Britain a pure
administration of justice, by rendering the knowledge of their laAvs
accessible to British magistrates. Bound to adjudicate between the
natives according to their own native laws, and ignorant for the most
part of the very language in which those laAvs were written, the judges
Avere obliged to have recourse to native laAvyers, called Pundits, who
Vol.. V. U

138 SIR W. JONES.
Were regularly attached to the courts as a species of assessors. Of
these men Sir W. Jones, no harsh or hasty reprover, says, " It
Avould be unjust and absurd to pass indiscriminate censure on so
considerable a body of men ; but my experience justifies me in de
claring that I could not, Avith an easy conscience, concur in a decision
merely on the written opinion of native lawyers, in a case in Avhich
they could have the remotest interest in misleading the court." The
obvious remedy Avas to obtain a trustworthy digest of the Hindoo laws,
Avhich should then be accurately translated into English. The scheme
indeed had been already undertaken in part at the desire of Mr. Hast
ings, by Mr. Halhed : but as the code of Hindoo law, compiled by
that gentleman, was merely a translation from a defective Persian ver
sion of the original Sanscrit, it did not possess the requisite correctness,
or authority. It appears from Sir W. Jones's correspondence, that at
an early period he had contemplated supplying this great desideratum
by his own labour and expense. But prudence did not Avarrant such
an uncalled-for act of liberality ; and he addressed a letter to Lord
CoruAvalHs, dated March 19, 1788, in which the necessity for such
a work, and the means by which it might be executed, are fully laid down.
It Avas to be compiled by the Mohammedan or Hindoo lawyers, working
under the superintendence of a director and translator, who should be
qualified to check and correct intentional or careless error : and a chief
difficulty, in Sir W. Jones's own words, Avas " to find a person who,
Avith a competent knowledge of the Sanscrit and Arabic, has a general
acquaintance with the principles of jurisprudence, and a sufficient
share even of legislative spirit, to arrange the plan of a digest, superin
tend the compilation of it, and render the Avhole, as it proceeds, into
perspicuous English. Noav (he continues), though I am truly con
scious of possessing a very moderate portion of those talents Avhich I
should require in the superintendent of such a work, yet I may without
vanity profess myself equal to the labour of it ; — and I cannot but
know that the qualifications required, even in the low degree in AA'hich
I possess them, are not often found united in the same person." The
proposal of course Avas eagerly accepted. That he should have acquired
the necessary acquaintance, first \vith the language, then Avith the law,
in the space of four years and a half, is sufficiently remarkable ; and the
method in Avhich he proposed to execute it Avill startle those Avho knoAv
the enervating influence of a tropical climate. " I should be able," he
says, " if my health continued firm, to translate every morning, before
any other business is begun, as much as the lawyers could compile, and
the Avriters copy, in the preceding day," The quantity of work which
Jones did in India Avas indeed astonishing ; but he was a severe econo-

SIR W. JONES. 139
niist of time, and even his hours of recreation were rendered service
able to the increase of knowledge. Botany especially was a favourite
pursuit of his more leisure hours ; and his correspondence with Banks
and others shoAvs at once the zeal Avith which, when duty Avould per
mit, he followed that fascinating science, and the readiness AA'ith which
he communicated his own discoveries to his friends, and laboured to
answer their inquiries. Nor did he neglect poetry. Several odes to
Hindoo deities, originally published in the Asiatic Miscellany, Avill be
found in his Avorks ; and these, with an elegant and cultivated fancy,
display considerable power of composition. He projected a more
serious undertaking, — an epic poem, of Avhich a Phoenician colonist of
Britain Avas to be the hero, and the Hindoo mythology Avas to furnish
the machinery; the whole being an allegorical panegyric on the British
constitution, and furnishing the character of a perfect King of England.
But the extravagant fictions of the Hindoo religion have never proved
permanently popular in an English dress ; and there is no reason to
regret that this scheme never advanced beyond its first sketch. The
author made a more acceptable present to European literature in trans
lating ' Sacontala, or the Fatal Ring,' a very ancient Indian drama,
which contains a lively, simple, and pleasing picture of the manners of
Hindustan at a remote age. It is ascribed to the first century before
Christ. For a catalogue of Sir W. Jones's works, Ave must refer to the
edition published by Lady Jones. We have only noticed a fcAV of the
most important : to which are to be added, the series of anniversary
discourses addressed to the Asiatic Society, and the translation of the
' Ordinances of Menu.' The former, eleven in number, treat of the
History, Antiquities, Arts, &c. of Asia, and more especially of the
origin and connection of the chief nations among whom that quarter
of the globe is divided. His last work was the translation of the
* Ordinances of Menu,' " a system of duties" (avc quote from the tranS'
lator's preface) " religious and civil, and of law in all its branches,
which the Hindoos firmly beHeve to haA'e been promulged in the be
ginning of time by Menu, son or grandson of Brahma, or, in plain
language, the first of created beings, and not the oldest only, but the
holiest of legislators : a system so comprehensive, and so minutely
exact, that it may be considered as the Institutes of Hindoo laAV, pre
paratory to the copious Digest which has lately been compiled by
Pundits of eminent learning." This was his last work. It was begun
in 1786, though not completed and published till 1794, a short time
before the author's death,
Vi

140 SIR W. JONES.
The private history of Sir William Jones, during the period of his
life Avhich was spent in India, affords very little scope for narration.
During his first summer he nearly fell a victim to the climate ; but an
absence of seven months spent in travelHng recruited his strength, and
after his return to Calcutta, in February, 1785, he seemed to be accli
mated, and suffered little from serious illness till his last fatal attack.
His domestic habits are thus described by his biographer. Lord Teign-
mouth. " The largest portion of each year was devoted to his profes
sional duties and studies ; and all the time that could be saved from
these important avocations was dedicated to the cultivation of science
and literature. While business required the daily attendance of Sir
W. Jones in Calcutta, his usual residence Avas on the banks of the
Ganges, at the distance of five miles from the court ; to this spot he
returned every evening after sunset, and in the morning rose so early
as to reach his apartments in town by Avalking, at the first appearance
of the dawn. The intervening period of each morning, until the open
ing of the court, was regularly allotted and applied to distinct studies.
He passed the months of vacation at his retirement at Crishnagur (a
villa about fifty miles from Calcutta) in his usual pursuits." Those
portions of his correspondence which are preserved in Lord Teign-
mouth's life may be read Avith pleasure ; and indeed constitute the chief
interest of the latter part of the work. Busy, tranquil, and cheerful,
his life afforded little of material for the biographer : and but for the
impaired health of his Avife, his residence in India would have been one
of almost unmixed happiness. Lady Jones was compelled to embark
for England in December, 1793, The mere desire of increasing
a fortune, Avhich he professed to find already large enough for his
moderate wishes, Avould not have tempted Sir William Jones to remain
alone in Bengal : but he felt an earnest desire to complete the great
work on Hindoo LaAv, Avhich he had originated ; and no appre
hension AA'as felt on his account, as his constitution seemed to have
become inured to the climate. But in the folloAving spring he was
attacked by inflammation of the liver, Avhich ran its fatal course Avith
unusual rapidity. He died, April 27, 1794. The ' Digest,' to which
he had thus sacrificed his life, Avas completed by Mr. Colebrooke, and
published in 1800.
Blameless in his domestic relations, consistent and enlightened in his
political views, an honest and indefatigable magistrate, fcAV men have
gone through life Avith more credit, or as far as it is possible to form
an opinion, with more happiness than Sir William Jones. As a scho
lar, the circumstances of his life being considered, his acquirements

SIR W, JONES. 141
Avere extraordinary ; and in this light the most remarkable feature of
his character was his singular facility in learning languages, A list,
preserved in his own handwriting, thus classes those with Avhich he
was in any degree acquainted; they are twenty-eight in number.
' Eight languages studied critically — English, Latin, French, Italian,
Greek, Arabic, Persian, Sanscrit, Eight studied less perfectly, but all
intelligible with a dictionary — Spanish, Portuguese, German, Runic,
HebrcAV, Bengali, Hindi, Turkish. Twelve studied less perfectly, but
all attainable: Thibetian, PaH, Pahlair, Deri, Russian, Syriac, Ethiopic,
Coptic, Welsh, SAVedish, Dutch, Chinese." Besides laAA', which as his
profession, was his chief business through life, his writings embrace a
vast variety of subjects in the several classes of philology, botany,
zoology, poetry original and translated, political discussion, geography,
mythology, astronomy as applied to chronology, and history, especially
that of the Asiatic nations. And the praise of ' adorning everything
that he touched ' is singularly due to him, for the elegance of his style,
and his power of throwing interest over the dry and uncertain inquiries
in which he took such delight. As far as England is concerned, he
was our great pioneer in Eastern learning ; and if later scholars, pro
fiting in part by his labours, have found reason to dissent from his
opinions, it is to be recollected, as far as our estimate of his poAvers is
concerned, that most men, who have obtained eminence in this recondite
department of literature, have done so by the devotion of their undi
vided poAvers : Avhat Jones accomplished was performed, on the con
trary, in the intervals of those official labours, to which the best hours
and energies of his HfeAvere, as his first point of duty, devoted. What
he had meditated, if life and leisure had been granted, may be inferred
from the list of 'Desiderata,' which his biographer (vol. ii., p. 301, it is not
said on Avhat authority) regards as exhibiting his own Hterary projects.
The folloAving emphatic panegyric, conceived in the warm language
which affection naturally indulges in on such an occasion, has been pro
nounced on him by his friend and school-fellow. Dr. Bennet, Bishop of
Cloyne. " I knew him from the early age of eight or nine, and he was
always an uncommon boy. Great abilities, great particularity of thinking,
fondness for writing verses and plays of various kinds, and a degree of
integrity and manly courage, of which I remember many instances,
distinguished him even at that period. I loved and revered him, and
though one or tAvo years older than he was, was always instructed by
him from my earliest age. In a word, I can 6nly say of this wonder
ful man, that he had more virtues and less faults than I ever yet saw in
any human being ; and that the goodness of his head, admirable as it

142

SIR W. JONES.

was, Avas exceeded by that of his heart. I have never ceased to admire
him from the moment I first saw him, and my esteem for his great
qualities and regret for his loss will only end with my life."
Due honours were paid after death to this great man. The Court
of Directors placed a statue of him in St. Paul's cathedral; and Lady
Jones erected a monument to him in the ante-chapel of University Col
lege, Oxford. In conformity with his own expressed opinion, that " the
best monument that can be erected to a man of literary talent, is a good
edition of his works," she caused them to be collected and printed in
1799, in six quarto volumes. They have been reprinted in octavo, A
life of Sir William Jones was afterAvards written by Lord Teignmouth,
his intimate friend in India, at Lady Jones's request. There is a
memoir in the Annual Obituary for 1817, which is chiefly devoted to
set forth the political opinions of Sir William Jones, in a stronger
light than seemed fitting to his noble biographer.

[Statue of Sir W, .Tones, by John Bacon, R.A., in St. Paul's.]

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Jean Jacques Rousseau, the son of a watch-maker at Geneva, was
born June 28, 1712. His mother dying while he was yet a child, his
father took a second Avife ; and he himself was placed at school at the
village of Bossey, near Geneva, where he learnt but little, and Avas
afterwards apprenticed to an engraver, a coarse, brutal man, whose
treatment of him tended to sour a temper already wilful and mo
rose. He became addicted to idleness, pilfering, and lying. The
fear of punishment for some act of especial misconduct induced him
to run away from his master, and he Avandered into Savoy, where find
ing himself totally destitute, he applied to the Bishop of Annecy, on
the plea of wishing to be instructed in the Catholic religion. The
bishop recommended him to Madame de Warens, a Swiss lady, herself
a convert to Catholicism, who lived at Annecy, She received the
boy kindly, relieved his present wants, and afforded him the means of
proceeding to Turin, Avhere he entered the College of Catechumens,
and after going through a preparatory course of instruction, abjured
the reformed religion, and became a Catholic. But as he refused to
enter into holy orders, on leaving the college he Avas again thrown
upon his own resources. He became a domestic servant ; but his
Avant of self-control and discretion rendered him very unfit for his
employment: and in 1730 he returned to the house of Madame
de Warens, Avho received him kindly, and afforded him support
and protection during the next ten years. Of his foolish, pro
fligate, and ungrateful course of life during this period, Ave have
neither space nor wish to give an account : after many absences, and
many returns, RousseaTi quitted her finally in 1740, receiving letters
of introduction to some persons at Lyons. Tutor, musician, and pri-

144 ROUSSEAU.
vate secretary to the French Ambassador, his restless temper and ver
satile mind led him successively from Lyons to Paris and Venice.
From the last-named city he returned to Paris in 1745 ; and alight
ing at an obscure inn, met Avith a servant girl, Therese Levasseur,
with whom he formed a connexion Avhich lasted all the rest of his life.
He tried to compose music for the stage, but did not succeed in his
attempts. He Avas next employed as a clerk in the office of M.
Dupin, Fermier-general, but did not remain long in his ncAV employ
ment. In 1748 he became acquainted Avith Madame d'Epinay, who
proved afterAvards one of his steadiest and kindest friends. He fre
quented the society also of D'Alembert, Diderot, and Condillac, and he
was engaged to write the articles on music for the Encyclopedic, which
he did very ill, as he himself acknowledges. One day he saw by
chance in an advertisement, that a prize had been offered by the Aca
demy of Dijon, for the best essay on the question. Whether the pro
gress of sciences and of the arts has been favourable to the morals of
mankind ? He at once resolved to write for the prize, and apparently.
without having ever before considered the subject, made up his mind
to take the negative side of the question. Diderot encouraged, but
did not, as has been commonly said, originate this determination. He
supported his position, that science, literature, and art, have been fatal
to the virtues and happiness of mankind, with a glowing eloquence ;
and the Academy awarded him the prize. His success confirmed him
in a turn for paradox and exaggeration ; and he seems to have adopted,
as a general principle, the doctrine that the extreme opposite to Avrong
must necessarily be right. At the same time his reputation as an
author became established, and in a few years after his first essay, he
was acknowledged to be one of the most, or rather the most, eloquent
Avriter among his contemporaries. Meantime he persevered in his at
tempts at musical composition, and wrote ' Le Devin du ViHage,' an
opera which Avas played before the king at the Court Theatre of Fon
tainebleau, and met with the royal approbation. Rousseau was in one
of the boxes Avith a gentleman belonging to the court. The king hav
ing expressed a desire to see the composer of the opera, Rousseau be
came alarmed or ashamed at the slovenly condition of his dress, and
instead of repairing to the royal presence, he ran out of the house and
hastened back to Paris, Naturahy shy, he possessed neither ease of
manners nor facility of address, and he could never throughout life
subdue his own acute feeling of these deficiencies; a feeling AA'hich of
course tended to perpetuate and increase his awkAvardness, This Avas
the secret spring of most of his eccentricities. In order to hide his

ROUSSEAU. 145
imperfections, he resorted to the plan of affecting to disregard manners
altogether ; he put on the appearance of a cynic, of a misanthropist,
Avhich he was not in reality.
It was about the year 1750, soon after writing his dissertation for
the Dijon prize, that he made a total change in his habits and mode
of living. He gave up all refinement about his dress, laid aside his
sword, bag, and silk stockings, sold his watch, but kept his linen ap
parel, which, hoAvever, Avas stolen from him shortly after. He spent
one half of the day in copying music as a means of subsistence, and
he found constant employment. Several persons Avho knew his cir
cumstances offered him three or four times the value of his labour, but
he would never accept more than the usual remuneration. In 1753 he
wrote his ' Lettre sur la Musique Fran^aise,' in which he asserted
that the French had no music deserving the name, that they could not
possibly have any, and then added, that " Avere they ever to have any
it would be all the worse for them ;" a sentence unintelligible to his
readers, and probably to himself also. When years after this he heard
Gluck, with whose music he Avas delighted, he observed to some one,
" this man is setting French words to very good music, as if on pur
pose to contradict me ;" and upon this reflection he broke off acquaint
ance with Gluck. However, his letter on French music sorely
wounded the national vanity, and he Avas exposed to a sort of petty
persecution in consequence of it. Rousseau wrote next his letter to
D'Alembert, ' sur les Spectacles,' which led to a controversy between
them. He wrote also the ' Discours sur I'Origine de I'lnegalite parmi
les Hommes,' for another prize of the Academy of Dijon, Avith a dedi^
cation to the magistrates of his native town Geneva, Avhich was much
admired as a specimen of dignified eloquence. The discourse itself is
composed in his accustomed paradoxical vein. He maintains that men
are not intended to be sociable beings ; that they have a natural bias
for a solitary existence; that the condition of the savage, untutored and
free in his native AA'ilds, is the natural and proper state of man ; and
that every system of society is an infraction of man's rights, and a
subversion of the order of nature. He assumes that men are all born
equal by nature, disregarding the daily evidence of the contrary, in
respect both of their physical and moral powers. His idea of the
equal rights of men, which he afterwards developed in the ' Contrat
Social,' instead of being founded upon enlightened reason, religion,
and morality, rests upon the base of his favourite theory, of man's
equality in a state of nature ; while we knoAV from experience, that
those savage tribes Avho approach nearest to this imaginary natural
Vol.. V. X

14G ROUSSEAU.
state, acknowledge no other right than that of the strongest. Most
of Rousseau's paradoxes proceed from the false position assumed in his
first dissertation, that a savage, unsocial state, is the very perfection of
man's existence.
After the publication of this discourse Rousseau repaired to Geneva,
where he was well received by his countrymen. He there abjured
Catholicism and resumed the profession of the reformed religion. But
he soon returned to Paris ; and, at the invitation of Madame d'Epinay,
in 1756, took up his residence at the house called L'Hermitage, in the
valley of Montmorency, near Paris. It was in this pleasant retirement
that he began his celebrated novel ' Julie, ou la Nouvelle Heloise,'
which he finished in 1759. As a work of imagination and invention it
is little worth ; but as a model of impassioned eloquence, it Avill be
admired as long as the French language shall continue to be spoken
or read by men. Rousseau, while he wrote it, was himself under
the influence of a passion Avhich he had conceived for the beautiful
Madame d'Houdetot, Madame d'Epinay's sister-in-law, a love totally
hopeless and ridiculous on his part, but Avhich no doubt inspired him
while engaged in the composition of this AVork. When it appeared,
many people, especially women, thought that Julie was a real living
object of his attachment, and the supposition being favourable to the
popularity of the book and its author, Rousseau was not very anxious
to undeceive them. He esteemed the fourth portion of the Avork the
best. " The first two parts are but, the desultory verbiage of feverish
excitement, and yet I could never alter them after I had once Avritten
them. The fifth and the sixth are comparatively weak, but I let them
remain out of consideration of their moral utility. . . My imagi
nation cannot embellish the objects I see ; it must create its own ob
jects. If I am to paint the spring, I must do it in winter; if to de
scribe a landscape, I must be shut up within waHs : were I confined
in the Bastille, I should then write best on the charms of Hberty. I
never could write as a matter of business, I can only do it through
impulse or passion." (Rousseau's ' Notes to the Nouvelle Heloise,'
in Mercier and Le Tourneur's edition.) He had great difficulty in
constructing his periods ; he turned them and he altered them re
peatedly in his head, often Avhile in bed, before he attempted to put
them on paper.
La Nouvelle Heloise has been censured for the dangerous example
it affords, and for the interest it throws upon seduction and fraiUy.
The character of St. Preux is decidedly faulty, and even base, in spite
of all his sophistry, which however has probably led other young men

ROUSSEAU. 147
placed in a similar situation to forget the relative duties uf society, and
the obligations of hospitality. Here Ave perceive also the influence of
Rousseau's favourite paradox; for in a state of nature, such as Rousseau
has fancied it, the intimacy of St, Preux and Julie Avould have been
unobjectionable. But then the relative position of the teacher, his pupil,
and her parents, would not have been the same as in the novel, for they
would have been all savages together. Rousseau has hoAvever redeemed
the character of Julie after she becomes a Avife, and he has thus paid a
sincere homage to the sacredness of the marriage bond, and to the im
portance of conjugal duties, the basis of all society, Rousseau was
not a contemner of virtue ; he felt its beauty, though his prac
tice Avas by no means modelled on its dictates. He tells us himself
the workings of his mind on this subject. " After much observa
tion I thought I perceived nothing but error and folly among phi
losophers, oppression and misery in the social order. In the delusion
of my foolish pride I fancied myself born to dissipate all prejudices ;
but then I thought that, in order to have my advice listened to, my
conduct ought to correspond to my principles. I had been till then
good-hearted, I now became virtuous. Whoever has the courage of
showing himself such as he is, must, if he be not totally depraved.
become such as he ought to be." It was probably in compliance with his
growing sense of moral duty, that he married at last the Avoman he had
so long been living Avith, when she was forty-seven years of age, and,
as he himself acknowledges, was not possessed of any attractions of
either mind or person, having nothing to recommend her except her
attention to him, especially in his frequent fits of illness or despond
ency. He seems also to have bitterly repented, in the latter years
of his life, having in his youth sent his illegitimate children to the
foundling hospital.
Rousseau's next work was the ' Emile, ou de l' Education,' which
appeared in 1762. It contains many excellent precepts, especially in
the first part, although, as a whole system, it may be considered as
impracticable, at least in any state of society which has yet been formed
upon the earth. It Avas remarked at the time, that the author, after
having brought up his Emile to manhood, ought to create a ncAV world
for him to live in. Rousseau himself seems to have been of this opi
nion, for when a Mr. Angar introduced to him his son, whom he said
he had educated according to the principles of the Emile, Rousseau
quickly replied, " So much the worse for you, and for your son too.'"
The ' Emile,' however, introduced some beneficial changes in the early
treatment of children. It discredited the absurd practice of sAvaddling
X 2

148 ROUSSEAU.
infants like mummies, to the manifest injury of their tender limbs ; it
induced mothers of the higher ranks to suckle their children, instead of
committing them to the care of nurses ; it corrected several wrong
principles of early education, such as that of ruling children through
fear, of considering them as slaves having no will of their own, and of
terrifying them by absurd stories and fables ; it inculcated freedom of
body and mind, the necessity of amusement and relaxation, of appealing
to the feelings of children, of treating them like rational beings.
Rousseau may be truly called the benefactor of children. As he pro
ceeded, however, in his plan for boys grown older, Rousseau became
involved in some of his favourite speculations about religion and meta
physics, which gave offence to both Catholics and Protestants. The
Parliament of Paris condemned the work. The Archbishop issued a
mandement against it. The States-General of Holland likewise pro
scribed the book. At Geneva, it was publicly burnt by the hand of
the executioner. The publication of the ' Contrat Social, ou Prin
cipes du Droit Politique,' Avhich appeared soon after, added to the
storm against the author. It contains much speculative truthi
combined vrith much ignorance of men's nature and passions. The
idea of a perfect and universal model of government, Avithout regard to
local circumstances, seems chimerical. It is a curious fact that Rous
seau, after reading Bernardin de St, Pierre's poHtical works, observed
that they contained projects Avhich were impracticable on account of a
fundamental error, out of which the author was unable to extricate
himself, namely, " that of supposing that men in general and in all
cases Avill conduct themselves according to the dictates of reason and
virtue, rather than according to their passions," Rousseau, in uttering
these AVords, passed judgment on his OAvn ' Contrat Social,' which he
afterAvards also acknowledged having Avritten, " not for men but for
angels." In fact, he never meant it for anything but a speculative
treatise, and in his ' Considerations sur le Gouvernement de la
Pologne,' published some years after, having to write for a practical
purpose, he considerably modified his former principles.
In consequence of the excitement produced by these works, Rousseau
left Paris for SAvitzeriand in 1762, He went first to Yverdun, but
the Senate of Berne enjoined him to leave its territory. He then
repaired to Neuchatel, AA'hich was subject to the King of Prussia, and
of which the old Marshal Keith Avas Governor. Keith received him
Very kindly, and Rousseau took up his residence at the viHage of
Motiers, in the Val de Travers. There he wrote a Reply to the
Archbishop of Paris, and a Letter to the Magistrates of Geneva, in

ROUSSEAU. 149
which he renouhceid his rights of citizenship. He next wrote the
" Lettres de la Montagne," Avhich is a series of severe strictures on
the poHtical government and church of Geneva. It is curious as
a sketch of the old institutions of that republic, Avritten by one of
its own citizens. This work increased the existing irritation against
its author, a feeling which spread even to the villagers of Motiers, who
are said to have annoyed their eccentric visiter in various ways.
Rousseau, however, is suspected of having greatly magnified, if not
invented, some of the acts of aggression of which he complains. He
spoke of them as amounting to a regular conspiracy against his person,
and removed his abode to the little island of St. Pierre, on the lake of
Bienne. Thence, after a time, as if to court notice, he wrote a letter
to the Senate of Berne, requesting permission to remain on the island.
For answer he received an order to quit the territory of the canton in
twenty-four hours. At the invitation of his former friend Marshal
Keith, he meditated a visit to Berlin. But the advice of some friends
in Paris induced him to change his mind, and accept the friendly offer
of our historian Hume, who was anxious to procure for him a. safe
asylum in England, where he might quietly attend to his studies and
live in peace. Rousseau arrived in London in January, 1766 ; and in
the folloAving March, went to his intended home at Wootton in Derby
shire. KnoAving the man he had to deal with, Hume, with the real
kindness of character which he possessed, had sought by every means
to avoid shocking the irritable delicacy or vanity of his protege : and
the residence which he procured for him in the house of a man of
fortune, Mr. Davenport, is said to have been unexceptionable. But
before long he quarrelled with both Hume and Davenport, left
Wootton abruptly, and returned to France. The ostensible cause
of all this Avas the publication of a letter in the newspapers, bearing
the King of Prussia's name, and reflecting severely upon Rous
seau's Aveaknesses and eccentricities. Rousseau accused Hume, or
some of his friends, of having written it. Hume protested in vain
that he knew nothing of the matter. At last Horace Walpole acknow
ledged himself to be the author, Rousseau, hoAvever, would not be
pacified, and attributed to Hume the blackest designs against him.
The correspondence that passed between the parties on the subject is
curious, and is given in the complete editions of our author's works.
He afterwards seemed to say that during his residence in England he
had been subject to fits of insanity.
Returning to France, Rousseau led an unsettled life, with frequent
changes in his place of residence, until June, 1770. He then returned

150 ROUSSEAU.
to Paris, and took lodgings in the Rue Platri^re, Avhich has since been
called Rue J. J. Rousseau. It is to be noticed that in the interim he had
published his ' Dictionnaire de Musique,' a work which has the repu
tation of being both imperfect and obscure. Indeed, notwithstanding
his passionate fondness for the art, he never attained to a profound
acquaintance with it. Passing through Lyons on his way to Paris,
he subscribed his mite toAvards the erection of a statue to Voltaire :
thus avenging himself for the coarse abuse which the latter had on
many occasions poured upon him, and which Rousseau never re
turned. Voltaire is said to have been exceedingly annoyed at this.
After his return to the capital, he Avas overwhelmed with visits and
invitations to dinner. Though there was a prosecution pending against
him for his ' Emile,' he was left undisturbed : but at the same time
he was cautioned not to exhibit himself too conspicuously in public ;
advice which he utterly disregarded. He soon relapsed into his
former misanthropy, and became subject to convulsive fits, Avhich fear
fully disfigured his features, and gave a haggard expression to his
looks. He fancied that every body Avas conspiring against him, and
he also complained of inward moral sufferings which tortured his mind.
Among other imaginary grievances he thought that the French
ministers had imposed restrictions upon him with respect to his
writings. One of his friends applied to the Due de Choiseuil to
ascertain the fact. The Duke's answer, dated 1772, is as follows :
" If ever I have engaged M. Rousseau not to publish anything
without my previous knowledge, of which fact however I have no
remembrance, it could only have been in order to save him from fresh
squabbles and annoyance. However, now that I have no longer the
power of protecting him (the Duke had resigned his premiership),
I fully acquit him of any engagement of the kind,"
As Rousseau was walking one day in the street Menil Montant, a
large dog that Avas running before the carriage of the President Saint
Fargeau tripped his legs, and he fell. The President alighted,
expressed his regret at the accident, and begged the sufferer to accept
of his carriage to return home, Rousseau, however, refused. The
next day the President sent to inquire after his health. " Tell your
master to chain up his dog," Avas the only reply.
Being old and infirm, the labour of copying music had become too
irksome for him : still he would accept of no assistance from his friends,
though all his income consisted of an annuity of 1450 livres. His
wife was also in bad health, and provisions were very dear at the
time ; he therefore began to look out for a countrv residence, A friend

ROUSSEAU. 151
mentioned this to the Marquis de Girardin, who immediately offered
Rousseau a permanent habitation at his chateau of Ermenonville,
near Chantilly. Rousseau accepted the proposal, and chose for his
residence a detached cottage near the family mansion. He removed to
it inMay,1778, and appeared more calm and contented in his new abode.
He was fond of botany, and used to take long walks in quest of flowers
Avith one of M. de Girardin's sons. On July 1st he went out as usual,
but returned home fatigued and ill : he however slept quietly that night.
Next morning he rose early according to his custom, and went out to
see the sun rise ; he came back to breakfast, after Avhich he went to his
room to dress, as he intended to pay a visit to Madame de Girardin.
His wife happening to enter his room shortly after, found him
sitting with his elboAV leaning on a chest of drawers. He said he
was very ill, and complained of cold shivering and of violent pain in his
head, Madame de Girardin being informed of this, came at once
to visit him ; but Rousseau, thanking her for all her kindness to
him, begged of her to return home and leave him alone for the present.
He then having requested his wife to sit by him, begged her forgive
ness for any pain or displeasure of which he might have been the cause,
and said that his end Avas approaching, that he died in peace, as he never
had intended or Avished evil to any human being, and that he hoped in
the mercy of God. He begged that M, de Girardin Avould allow him to
be buried in his park. He gave directions to his wife about his papers,
and requested her particularly to have his body opened, that the cause
of his death might be ascertained. He then asked her to open the win
dow, " that he might once more behold the beautiful green of the fields,"
" How pure and beautiful is the sky ! " he then observed, " there
is not a cloud. I trust the Almighty will receive me there above."
In so saying, he fell on his face to the floor, and on raising him, life
was found to be extinct. On opening the body, a considerable quan
tity of serum was found between the brain and its integuments. His
sudden death was attributed by many persons to suicide : but there
is no direct evidence of which Ave know to prove this. On the other
side there is the positive assertion of the physician who examined the
body, that his death was natural, Rousseau was buried in an island
shaded by poplars, on the little lake of the park of Ermenonville. A
plain marble monument was raised to his memory.
The first part of his ' Confessions,' which he had begun to write
while at Wootton, was published in 1781. He had himself fixed the
year 1800 for the publication of the second part, judging that, by that
time, the persons mentioned in the work would be dead ; but, through

152 ROUSSEAU.
an abuse of confidence on the part of the depositories of the MSS., it
was published in 1788, His autobiography does not include the latter
years of his life.
Rousseau was temperate and frugal in his habits, disinterested and
warm-hearted, and impressed with strong feelings against oppression
and injustice. He was not envious of the fame or success of his brother
authors. He never sneered at religion like Voltaire and others of his
contemporaries, although in his speculative works he expressed his
doubts concerning revelation, and brought forth the arguments that
occurred to him on that side of the question : but he had none of the
fanaticism of incredulity against Christianity. Of the morality of the
Gospel he Avas a sincere admirer, and a most eloquent eulogist. " I
acknowledge," he says in his ' Emile,' " that the majesty of the Scrip
tures astonishes me, that the holiness of the Gospel speaks to my heart.
Look at the books of the philosophers ; with all their pomp, hoAV little
they appear by the side of that one book ! Can a book so sublime, and
yet so simple, be the work of man ? Hoav prejudiced, how blind that
man must be, Avho can compare the son of Sophroniscus (Socrates) to
the son of Mary ! " With such sentiments Rousseau could not long
agree with Helvetius, Diderot, D'Holbach, and their coterie. They,
on their side, ridiculed and abused him, because he was too sincere
and independent for them. " I have spent my life," says Rous
seau, " among infidels, without being seduced by them ; I loved and
esteemed several of them, and yet their doctrine was to me insuffer-,
able. I told them repeatedly that I could not believe them. . . .
I leave to my friends the task of constructing the world by chance. I
find in the very architects of this new-fangled world, and in spite of
themselves and their arguments, fresh proofs of the existence of a
God, a Creator of all." A very good collection of the moral maxims
scattered about Rousseau's works was pubHshed under the title of
' Esprit, Maximes et Principes de J, J, Rousseau,' 8vo,, Neuchatel,
1774. Rousseau set to music about 100 French romances, which he called
' Consolations des Miseres de ma Vie.' Several editions of all his
works have been made at different times : that by Mercier and Le
Tourneur, 38 vols. 4to., has been long considered as one of the best.
The edition of Lefevre, 22 vols. 8vo., 1819-20, and that of Lequien,
21 vols. 8vo., 1821-2, are now preferred to all former ones,

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John Habrison was born in May, 1693, at Foulby, in Yorkshire,
His father, who Avas a joiner, trained him from an early age to the
same business ; but he soon began to study machinery. He turned
his attention to the mechanism of clocks ; and, to obviate the irregu
larities produced in their rate of going by variations of temperature, he
invented the method of compensation, employed in what is noAv called
the gridiron pendulum, before the year 1720, This contrivance con
sisted in constructing a pendulum with bars of different metals,
having different rates of expansion so as to correct each other : it
is described in all popular treatises on physics. By this means it
is stated that he had, before the year above-mentioned, constructed
two clocks which agreed Avith each other Avithin a second a month,
and one of which did not vary, on the whole, more than a minute
in ten years.*
This success induced him to turn his attention to Avatches, or rather
to time-keepers for naval purposes. It would be impossible Avithout
the help of plates to render intelligible the rise and progress of his
methods, for which Ave must refer the reader to treatises on Horology,
His first instrument was tried upon the Humber, in rough Aveather,
and succeeded so well that he Avas recommended to carry it to London,
for the inspection of the Commissioners of Longitude,
The question of the discovery of the longitude had been considered of
national importance since the year 1714, when an Act Avas passed offer
ing 10,000/., 15,000/., and 20,000/, for any method of discovering the
longitude within 60, 40, or 30 miles respectively. In 1735 Harrison

* Folke's Address to the Royal Society, Nov. 30, 1749.

Vol. V.

154 HARRISON,
arrived in London Avith his time-piece, and shoAved it to several members
of the Royal Society. He obtained a certificate of its goodness, signed
by Halley, Smith, Bradley, Machin, and Graham, in consequence of
Avhich he Avas alloAved to proceed with it to Lisbon, in a king's ship,
in 1736. The Avatch was found to correct the ship's reckoning a
degree and a half; and the commissioners thereupon gave Harrison
500/., to enable him to proceed. He finished a second time-piece in
1739, and a third in 1758, each nearer to perfection than the former,
and both abounding in ingenious contrivances to overcome the effects
of temperature, and of the motion of a vessel at sea. In 1741 he
obtained another certificate, signed by almost every name of emi
nence in English science of the time. In 1749 the gold medal of the
Royal Society Avas awarded to him. In 1761, having then a fourth
time-piece in hand, but being convinced that the third was sufficiently
correct to come Avithin the limits of the act of parliament, he applied
to the Commissioners for a trial of it. Accordingly, in 1761
(Nov. 18), his son, William Harrison, Avas sent in a king's ship to
.lamaica Avith the watch, and returned to Portsmouth, March 26,
1762. On arrival at Port Royal, Jan. 19, 1762, the Avatch was found
Avrong only 5tV seconds ; and at its return, only 1 minute 54i seconds.
This was sufficient to determine the longitude within 18 miles ; and
Harrison accordingly claimed 20,000/, in a petition to the House
of Commons, presented early in 1763. The Commissioners had
aAA'arded him 1,500/,, and promised 1,000/, more after another voyage.
OAving to some doubt as to the method of equal altitudes employed in
finding the time at Port Royal, they do not appear to have been of
opinion that the first voyage Avas conclusive. In 1763 an act passed,
by Avhich, firstly, no other person could become entitled to the reward
until Harrison's claim Avas settled ; and, secondly, 5,000/. Avas
aAvarded to him on his discovery of the structure of the instrument.
But the Commissioners not agreeing about the payment, another
voyage Avas resolved on, and Mr. WilHam Harrison sailed again for
Barbadoes, with Dr. Maskelyne, afterwards the Astronomer Royal.
The result Avas yet more satisfactory than before ; and in 1765 a new
act Avas passed, aAvarding to Harrison the whole sum of 20,000/ : the
first moiety upon the discovery of his construction ; the second, so
soon as it should be found that others could be made Hke it. In this
act it is stated that the watch did not lose more than ten miles of the
longitude. But Harrison had by this time been rendered unduly sus
picious of the intentions of the Commissioners. He imagined that
Dr. Maskelyne had treated him unfairly, and was desirous of having

HARRISON. 155
no method of finding the longitude except that of lunar observations.
An account of the subsequent proceedings, of which the following
is an abstract, was printed in self-defence by the Commissioners : —
May 28, 1765, Mr. Harrison's son informs the Commissioners
that he is ready to deliver the drawings and explanations, and expects
a certificate that he is entitled to receive the first moiety of the
rcAvard, The Commissioners are unanimously of opinion that verbal
explanations and experiments, in the presence of such persons as they
may appoint, Avill be necessary. May 30, Mr. Harrison attends in
person, and consents to the additional explanation ; and certain men
of science, as Avell as Avatchmakers, are instructed to receive them.
June 13, Mr, Harrison, being present, is informed that the Board is
ready to fix a time to proceed, on Avhich he denies ever having given his
assent, and refers to a letter which he had delivered at the last meet
ing. The letter had not, says the Commissioners' Minute, been deli
vered, but had been left upon the table, unnoticed by any one. It Avas to
the effect that Harrison was Avilling to give further verbal explanation,
but requires to know to Avhom it must be given ; " for," says he, " I
will never attempt to explain it to the satisfaction of the Commissioners,
and who they may appoint ; nor will I ever come under the directions
of men of theory." He further refuses to make any experimental
exhibition, and ends by complaining of the usage he has received. He
was then told by the Board that he would only be asked for experiments
in cases where there Avere operations Avhich could not be fully ex
plained by words, such, for instance, as the tempering of the springs ;
on which he left the Board abruptly, declaring, " that he never would
consent to it, as long as he had a drop of English blood in his body."
The Commissioners thereupon declined further dealing with him.
The reason of the above absurd conduct we suspect to have been,
that Harrison desired, in addition to the large reward claimed by him,
to have a monopoly of the manufacture of his watches, such as would
have necessarily been created for his benefit, had he been allowed to keep
his actual methods of working a secret. For he offered, upon receiv
ing the reward, " to employ a sufficient number of hands, so as with
all possible speed to furnish his Majesty's navy, &c. &c., not doubting
but the public will consider the charge of the outset of the undertaking."
We quote here from the Biographia Britannica, in the last volume of
which, published in 1766, is an account of him, from materials avowedly
furnished by himself, and plainly written by a partisan. It is the only
instance we can find in which a memoir of a living person has been
inserted in that work.

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Michel, Seigneur, or Lord, of Montaigne, a feudal estate in the
province of Perigord, near the river Dordogne, Avas born February
28, 1533, of a family said to have been originally from England. He
Avas a younger son ; but, by the death of his elder brother, inherited
the estate by the title of which he is knoAvn. His father, a blunt
feudal noble, who had served in the wars of Francis I., placed him out
at nurse in a village of his domain, and directed that he should be
treated in the same manner as the children of the peasants. As soon
as he could speak, he Avas placed under the care of a German tutor,
selected for his ignorance of the French, and intimate acquaintance
with the Greek and Latin languages. All Montaigne's intercourse
with his preceptor Avas carried on in Latin ; and even his parents made
a rule never to address him except in that language, of Avhich they
picked up a sufficient number of words for common purposes. The
attendants were enjoined to folloAV the same practice. "They all
became latinized," says Montaigne himself, " and even the viHagers
around learnt words in that language, some of which took root in the
country, and became of common use among the people." , Thus,
without any formal course of scholastic teaching, Montaigne spoke
Laiin long before he could speak French, which he was afterwards
obliged to learn as if it had been a foreign language. When, at
a mature age, he Avas writing his Essays, he professed to be still
ignorant of grammar, having learnt various languages by practice, and
not knowing yet the meaning of adjective, conjunctive, or ablative.
(Essais, b. i, c. 48.) This last assertion probably is not to be taken
strictly to the letter. He studied Greek also by way of pastime,
rather than as a task. The object of his father was to make him learn
Vol., V. ^

158 MONTAIGNE.
without constraint and from his OAvn Avish; and, as an instance of the old
soldier's whimsical notions on education, he caused his son to be
awakened in the morning to the sound of music, that his nerA'ous
system might not be injured by any sudden shock. At six years old
Montaigne was sent to the College of Guienne, at Bordeaux, an
establishment Avhich then enjoyed a very high reputation. He soon
made his Avay to the higher classes ; and at thirteen years of age
had completed his college education. Having no taste for military
life, which was then the usual career of young noblemen, he studied
the law; and in 1554 was made Councillor (or Judge) in the
Parliament of Bordeaux, in Avhich capacity he acted for several
years. He Avent several times to Court, and enjoyed the favour of
Henry II., by Avhom, or as some say, by Charles IX., he Avas made a
Gentleman of the King's Chamber, and Knight of the Order of
St. Michel. Among his brother councillors at Bordeaux there Avas
a young man of distinguished merit, called La Boetie, for whom
Montaigne conceived a feeling of the most romantic friendship, Avhich
soon became reciprocal. The sentiments and opinions of the tAvo
seem to have sympathized in an extraordinary degree. La Boetie
died young, but his friend's affection survived : a chapter of the
Essays is devoted to his memory, and in other parts of Montaigne's
writings we find frequent recurrence to the same subject.
Montaigne married Fran§oise de la Chassaigne when he Avas
thirty-three years of age ; and this he did, as he says, in consequence
of external persuasions, and in order to please his friends rather than
himself, for he AA'as not inclined to a married life ; " but once married,
although he had been till then considered a licentious man, he ob
served the conjugal laAvs more strictly than he had himself expected,"
On succeeding to the family estate, on Avhich he generally resided, he
took the management of it into his own hands ; and although his father,
judging from his habits of abstraction and seeming carelessness of
worldly objects, had foretold that he would ruin his patrimony, Mon
taigne, at his death, left the property if not much better, certainly not
worse than he found it. He was not rich, for Ave are told, by Balzac,
that his income did not exceed 6000 livres, which was no great revenue
for a country gentleman even at that time, In 1569 he translated into
French a Latin work of Sebonde or Sebon, in defence of the mysteries
and doctrines of the Church of Rome, against Luther and other Pro
testant Avriters, France was at that time desolated by civif and reli
gious Avar, Montaigne, although he evidently disapproved of the
conduct of the Court toAvards the Protestants, yet remained loyal to

MONTAIGNE. 159
the King. He lived in retirement, and took no part in pubHc affairs,.
except by exhorting both parties to moderation and mutual charity.
By this conduct he became, as it generally happens, obnoxious to both
factions, and he incurred some danger in consequence. The massacre
of St. Bartholomew plunged him into a deep melancholy. He de
tested cruelty and the shedding of blood, and in several passages of
his Essays has animadverted in strong terms upon the atrocities com
mitted against the Protestants, It was about this dismal epoch of
1572, Avhen, solitude and melancholy urging him to the task, he began
to write that celebrated work, of Avhich we shall presently speak more
at length. It was first pubHshed in March, 1580; and had great
success. After some time, Montaigne printed a ncAV edition of it,
with additions ; but without making any alterations in the part Avhich
had appeared before. The popularity of the book was such that in a
few years there was hardly a man of education in France who had not
a copy of it.
Soon after the first pubHcation of his Essays, Montaigne under
took a journey for the sake of his health. He Avent to Germany,
SAvitzeriand, and, lastly, to Italy, He visited several bathing-places,
among others, Baden, and the baths of Lucca in Tuscany, He pro
ceeded to Rome, Avhere he Avas well received by several Cardinals
and other persons of distinction, and was introduced to Pope Gre
gory XIII. Montaigne Avas delighted Avith Rome ; he found himself
at home among those localities and monuments which Avere connected
with his earliest studies, and with the first impressions of his child
hood. His remarks on what he saw in the course of his journey are
those of a man of penetration, sincere and plain spoken, and written
in his peculiar antique style. His MS. journal, after lying forgotten
for nearly two centuries, was discovered in an old chest in the chateau
of his family, and published in 1775, by M, de Querlon, under the
following title, ' Journal du Voyage de Michel de Montaigne en Italic,
par la Suisse et I'Allemagne, en 1580-1,' It is one of the earliest
descriptions of Italy in a modern language. In this journey, Mon
taigne received the freedom of the city of Rome, by a special bull of
the Pope, Avhich he valued as the proudest distinction of his Hfe.
While he AVas abroad, he was elected mayor of Bordeaux by the
votes of the citizens; an honour which he AA'ould have declined, but
that the king, Henry III., insisted on his accepting of it. This Avas
a mere honorary office, no emolument being attached to it. The
appointment was for tAVO years ; but Montaigne Avas re-elected at the
z 2

160 MONTAIGNE.
expiration of that period, which Avas a mark of public favour of rare
occurrence. On retiring from his office, Montaigne returned to his estate. The
country Avas then ravaged by the war of the League. He had great
difficulty in saving his family and property in the midst of the con
tending parties, and once narroAvly escaped assassination in his cha
teau. To add to the miseries of civil war, the plague broke out in his
neighbourhood in 1586; and he then, AA'ith his family, left his home
and became a wanderer, residing successively at several friends' houses
in other parts of the country. He was at Paris in 1588, busy about
a new edition of his Essays. It appears from De Thou, that about
this time he was employed in negotiation with a vicAV to mediate peace
between Henry of Navarre, afterwards Henry IV., and the Duke of
Guise. At Paris, he made the acquaintance of Mademoiselle de
Gournay, a young lady, Avho had conceived a kind of sentimental
affection for him by reading his book. In company with her mother,
she visited and introduced herself to him, and from that time he called
her his " fille d'alliance," or adopted daughter, a title Avhich she re
tained for the rest of her life, as she never married. This attach
ment, Avhich, though warm and reciprocal, has every appearance of
being of a purely platonic nature, is one of the remarkable circum
stances of Montaigne's life. At the time of his death, Mademoiselle
de Gournay and her mother crossed one-half of France, in spite of
the civil troubles and the insecurity of the roads, to mix their tears
with those of his AvidoAV and daughter.
On his return from Paris, in the latter part of 1588, Montaigne
stopped at Blois, Avith De Thou, Pasquier, and other friends. The
famous States-General Avere then assembled in that city, Avhere the
murder of the Duke of Guise, and of his brother, the Cardinal, soon
after took place (23d and 24th December, 1588). Montaigne had
long foreseen that the civil dissensions could only terminate with the
death of one of the great party leaders ; and he also said to De Thou
that Henry of Navarre was inclined to embrace the Catholic faith,
Avere he not afraid of being forsaken by his party ; and that, on the
other side. Guise himself would not have been averse from adopting
the Protestant religion, if he could thereby have promoted his ambi
tious views. After these events, Montaigne returned to his chateau.
In the following year, he became acquainted Avith Pierre Charron, a
theological Avriter of considerable reputation. An intimate friendship
ensued betAveen the tno authors ; and Charron, in his book ' De la

MONTAIGNE. 161
Sagesse,' borrowed many thoughts from the Essays, which he held in
high estimation. Montaigne, by his AA'ill, empowered Charron to assume
the coat of arms of his family, as he himself had no male issue.
Montaigne's health had been declining for some time ; he was
afflicted with gravel and cholic, and he was obstinately resolved
against consulting physicians. In. September, 1592, he fell ill of a
maHgnant quinsy, Avhich kept him speechless for three days, during
which he had recourse to his pen to signify to his Avife his last inten
tions. He desired that several gentlemen of the neighbourhood should
be requested to come and take leave of him. When they were
assembled in his room, a priest said mass, and at the elevation of the
host, Montaigne half raised himself on his bed, Avith his hands joined
together, and in that attitude expired, September 13, 1 592, in the
sixtieth year of his age. His body was buried at Bordeaux, in the
church of the Feuillans, Avhere a monument Avas erected to him by his
widow. He left an only daughter, heiress of his property.
Montaigne's Essays have been the subject of much and very con
flicting criticism. If we consider the age and the intellectual condi
tion of the country in which the author was born, Ave must pronounce
them a very extraordinary work, not so much on account of the
learning contained in them, as for the philosophical spirit and the
frank, independent, liberal tone that pervades their pages. Civilization
and literature Avere then at a low ebb in France; the language Avas
hardly formed, the country was still torn by the rude turbulence,
and subject to the oppression, of feudal lords and feudal laws ;
and Avas, moreover, distracted by ignorant fanaticism, by deadly into
lerance, and by civil factions, rendered more fierce by religious feuds.
It is very remarkable that, in a remote province of a country so
situated, a country gentleman, himself belonging to the feudal aristo-;
cracy, should have composed a work full of moral maxims and pre^-
cepts, conceived in the spirit of the philosophers of Greece and Rome,
and founded, not on the sanctions of revealed religion, but on a sort
of natural system of ethics, on the beauty of virtue, on the innate sense
of justice, on the lessons of history. It is almost more remarkable
that such a book should have been read Avith avidity amidst the
turmoil of factions, the din of civil Avar, the kneU of persecution and
massacre. The morality of the Essays has been called, and justly so, a
pagan moraHty : it is not founded on the faith and the hopes of a
Christian ; and its principles are in many respects Avidely different
from those of the Gospel. Scepticism Avas the bias of l^iontaigne's

162 MONTAIGNE.
mind ; his philosophy is, in great measure, that of Seneca, and other
ancient writers, whose books Avere the first that were put into his
hands when a child. Accordingly, Pascal, Nicole, Leclerc, and other
Christian moralists, while rendering full justice to Montaigne's talents
and the many good sentiments scattered about the Essays, are very
severe upon his ethics, taken as a system. Yet he was not a de
termined infidel, for not only in the Essays, but in the journal of his
travels, Avhich was not intended for publication, he manifests Christian
sentiments ; and Ave have seen that the mode of his death was that of a
Christian. In his chapter on prayers, (Essais, b. i. 56,) he recom
mends the use of the Lord's Prayer in terms evidently sincere; and in
a preceding chapter, after speaking of two sorts of ignorance, the one,
that which precedes all instruction, and the other, that which folloAvs
partial instruction, he says, that " men of simple minds, devoid of
curiosity and of learning, are Christians through reverence and obe
dience ; that minds of middle growth and moderate capacities are the
most prone to error and doubt ; but that higher intellects, more clear
sighted and better grounded in science, form a superior class of be
lievers, who, through long and religious investigations, arrive at the
fountain of light of the Scriptures, and feel the mysterious and divine
meaning of our ecclesiastical doctrines. And we see some who reach
this last stage, through the second, with marvellous fruit and confir
mation ; and Avho, having attained the extreme boundary of Christian
intelligence, enjoy their success with modesty and thanksgivings, ac
companied by a total reformation of their morals, unlike those men of
another stamp, who, in order to clear themselves of the suspicion of
their past errors, become violent, indiscreet, unjust, and throw discredit
on the cause which they pretend to serve." (Essais, b. i, ch. 54.) And
a fcAV lines after, he modestly places himself in the second rank, of those
who, disdaining the first state of uninformed simplicity, have not yet
attained the third and last exalted stage, and who, he says, are thereby
rendered " inept, importunate, and troublesome to society. But I, for
my part, endeavour, as much as I can, to fall back upon my first and
natural condition, from which I have idly attempted to depart."
Although Ave may not trust implicitly to the sincerity of this modest
admission, yet we clearly see from this and other passages, that Mon
taigne's mind Avas anything but dogmatical, and that he felt the inse
curity of his own philosophy, which was made up of impulses and
doubts, rather than of argumentation and conviction.
Montaigne has been also censured for several licentious and some
cynical passages of bis ' Essais,' This licentiousness, hoAvever, is

MONTAIGNE, 163
rather in the expressions than in the meaning of the author. He
spoke plainly of things which are not alluded to in a more refined
state of society, but he did so evidently without mischievous intentions,
and as a thing of common occurrence in his days. His early fami
liarity Avith the Latin classics probably contributed to this habit.
Notwithstanding these fauHs, Montaigne's Essays are justly
admired for the sound sense, honesty, and beauty which abound in
them. ' The best parts of them (says a French critic) are those
in which he speaks of the passions and inclinations of men ; as for
his learning, it is vague, not methodical, and uncertain ; and his
philosophical maxims are often dangerous,' (Melanges d'Histoire et de
Litterature,' Rouen, 1699, tom. i, p, 133.) Montaigne combats most
earnestly all the malignant feelings inherent in man, inhumanity,
injustice, oppression, uncharitableness ; cruelty he detests, his Avhole
nature was averse from it. His chapters on pedantry and on the
education of children are remarkably good. He throws, at times,
considerable light on the state of society and manners in France in
his time, which may be considered as the last period of feudal poAver in
that country. In his chapter on the inequality among men, he speaks
of the independence of the French nobility, especially in the provinces
remote from the Court, as Britanny ; where the feudal lords living on
their estates, surrounded by their vassals, their officers and valets,
their household conducted with an almost royal ceremonial, heard of
the king but once a-year as if he were some distant king or Sultan
of Persia, and only remembered him on the score of some distant
relationship, which they hold carefully registered among their ancestral
documents. Mademoiselle de Gournay edited Montaigne's 'Essais' in 1635,
and dedicated the edition to the Cardinal de Richelieu, She wrote a
long preface to it, which is a zealous apology for Montaigne and his
works against the charges of the earlier critics. An edition of the
' Essais' was published by Pierre Coste, 3 a'oIs. 4to, London, 1724,
enriched with A'aluable notes and several letters of Montaigne at the
end of the third volume. The edition of Paris, 3 vols. 4to, 1725,
is, in great measure, a reprint of that of Coste, except that the pub-
Hshers have added extracts of the various judgments of the most dis
tinguished critical writers concerning the ' Essais,' and also two more
letters of Montaigne's at the end. These additions render this Paris
edition the most complete. The ex-senator Vernier published in
1810, ' Notices et Observations pour faciliter la Lecture des Essais
de Montaigne,' Paris, 2 vols. 8vo. It is a useful commentary.

Alexander Pope Avas born in London, June 8, 1688. His father
was a merchant, of good family, attached to the Roman Catholic reli
gion ; and his OAvn childish years Avere spent, first under the tuition of
a priest, then at a Roman Catholic Seminary at Twyford, near
Winchester. He taught himself to Avrite by copying printed books,
in the execution of which he attained great neatness and exactness.
When little more than eight years old he accidentally met with
Ogilby's Translation of Homer. The versification is insipid and life
less ; but the stirring events and captivating character of the story so
possessed his mind, that Ogilby became a favourite book. When
about ten years old he was removed from Twyford to a school at
Hyde Park Corner. He had there occasional opportunities of
frequenting the theatre ; which suggested to him the amusement of
turning the chief events in Homer into a kind of play,- composed
of a succession of speeches from Ogilby, strung together by verses
of his own. In these two schools he seems, instead of advancing, to
have lost Avhat he had gained under his first tutor. When twelve
years old he went to live Avith his parents at Binfield, in Windsor
Forest. He there became acquainted with the Avritings of Spenser,
Waller, and Dryden. For the latter he conceived the greatest
admiration. He saw him once, and commemorates the event in
his correspondence, under the words " Virgilium tantum vidi :" but
he Avas too young to have made acquaintance with that master of
English verse, who died in 1701. He studied Dryden's Avorks with
equal attention and pleasure, adopted them as a model of rhythm,
and copied the structure of that author's periods. This was, how
ever, so far from a grovelling imitation, that it enabled him to raise
English rhyme to the most perfect melody of which it is capable.

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POPE. 10 J
In the retirement of Binfield, Pope laboured successfully to make
amends for the loss of past time. At fourteen years of age he
had written Avith some elegance, and at fifteen had attained some
knowledge of the Greek and Latin languages, to which he soon added
French and Italian. In 1704 he began his pastorals, published in
1709, Avhich introduced him, through Wycherley, to the acquaintance
of Walsh, who proved a sincere friend to him. That gentleman dis
covered at once that Pope's talent lay less in striking out new thoughts
of his own, than in easy versification, and in improving what he bor-
roAved from the ancients. Among other useful hints, he pointed out
that Ave had several great poets, but that none of them w^ere correct ;
he therefore admonished him to make that merit his OAvn. The advice
was gratefully received ; and Pope's correspondence shoAvs that it Avas
carefully followed. His melodious numbers, so marked a feature of
his style, Avere in a great measure the result of that suggestion.
In the same year, 1704, he wrote the first part of his ' Windsor
Forest': the whole Avas not published tiU 1713. The fault charged
on this poem is, that lew images are introduced which are not equally
applicable to any other sylvan scenery. It Avas dedicated to Lord Lans-
downe, whom he mentions as one of his earliest acquaintance. To
those already named, may be added Bolingbroke, Congreve, Garth,
Swift, Atterbury, Talbot, Somers, and Sheffield, whose friendship he
had gained at sixteen or seventeen years of age. Pope, to his credit
be it set doAvn, cultivated friendships not only with the great, but
Avith his brethren among the poets, Wycheriey indeed Avas infected
Avith the weakness of the archbishop in ' Gil Bias,' touching his OAvn
compositions, and the young poet was imprudently caustic in his cri
ticism on the old one. Their correspondence Avas consequently dropped;
and though renewed through the mediation of a common friend, it was
with no revival of cordiality. But in 1728, some time after Wycher-
ley's death, his poems Avere repubHshed; and in the foUoAving year
Pope printed several letters which had passed between them, in vin
dication of Wycherley's fame as a poet, in answer to certain misrepre
sentations prefixed to -that edition. This quarrel was a trying affair in
the outset of Pope's career, and his conduct had been above his years ;
but young as he Avas, his talents were now beginning to ripen. His
example confirms the truth of Lord Bacon's remark, that personal
deformity acts as a spur to that improvement of the mind, which is
most likely to rescue him who is curtailed of his due proportion from
a sense of degradation.
To this eariy period of Pope's Hfe belong the ' Messiah,' the ' Ode
Vol. V. ^ ^

166 POPE.
for St. Cecilia's Day,' ' Verses to the Memory of an Unfortunate
Lady,' and other of Pope's minor pieces, AA'hich Avere collected and
pubHshed in a small 8vo. volume in 1720. It is stated in a note to
Dr. Johnson's Life, that Pope himself was the object of the passion
commemorated in the last-mentioned poem. The date of that most
brilliant composition, ' Eloisa to Abelard,' is uncertain. The ' Essay
on Criticism ' Avas written in 1709, " A Avork," says Johnson, " which
displays such extent of comprehension, such nicety of distinction, such
acquaintance with mankind, and such knowledge both of ancient and
modern learning, as are not often attained by the maturest age and
longest experience." Pope's fame Avas carried to its height by the
' Rape of the Lock.' That poem originated in an impertinence offered
by Lord Petre to Mrs. Arabella Fermor, Avhich led to a quarrel between
their respectiA'e families. Both parties were among Pope's acquaint
ance, and this lively piece was written to produce a reconciliation, in
which it succeeded. The universal applause given to the first sketch
induced the author to enrich it with the machinery of the Sylphs.
In that neAv dress the two cantos, extended to five, came out in 1712,
accompanied by a letter to Mrs. Arabella Fermor, to Avhom he after
wards addressed another after her marriage, in the spruce and courtly
style of Voiture. A sentence or tAvo may be quoted as a sample of
the poet's epistolary manner. " Madam, you are sensible, by this time,
how much the tenderness of one man of merit is to be preferred to the
addresses of a thousand ; and by this time, the gentleman you have
made choice of is sensible how great is the joy of having all those
charms and good qualities which have pleased so many, now applied to
please one only. ... It may be expected, perhaps, that one who has
the title of being a Avit should say something more polite upon this
occasion ; but 1 am really more a well-wisher to your felicity, than a
celebrator of your beauty. ... I hope you Avill think it but just that
a man, who Avill certainly be spoken of as your admirer after he is
dead, may have the happiness, Avhile he is living, to be esteemed.
Yours, &c." This letter is sometimes annexed to the poem, and not
injudiciously, as it completes the Avinding-up in the happy marriage
of the heroine. In the same year he published his ' Temple of Fame,'
which, according to his habitual caution, he had kept two years in his
study. It appears from one of his letters, that at that time he had
made some progress in translating the Iliad : in 1713, he circulated
proposals for publishing his translation by subscription. He had been
pressed to this undertaking some time before by several of his friends,
and Avas hoav encouraged in the design by others. The publication of

POPE. 167
the first four books, in 1715, gave general satisfiiction ; and so mate
rially improved the author's finances, that he resolved to come nearer
to his friends in the capital. With that vicAV, the small estate at Bin-
field was sold, and he purchased a house at Twickenham, whither he
removed with his father and mother before the end of the year 1715.
While employed in the decoration of his seat, he could not forbear
dbubHng his pleasures by boasting of it in his communications Avith his
friends. In a letter to Mr. Blount he says, in his customary tone of
gallantry, " The young ladies may be assured that I make nothing new
in my gardens, without wishing to see them print their fairy steps in
every corner of them. . . . You'll think I have been very poetical in
this description, but it is pretty nearly the truth." This letter was
written in 1725. Warburton teUs us that the improvement of his
celebrated grotto Avas the favourite amusement of his declining years :
not long before his death, by enlarging and ornamenting it with ores
and minerals of the richest and rarest kind, he had made it a most
elegant and romantic retirement. But modern taste Avill scarcely con
firm the reverend editor's assertion, that " the beauty of his poetic
genius, in the disposition and ornaments of those romantic materials,
appeared to as much advantage as in any of his best- contrived poems."
Pope's father survived his removal to Twickenham only tAA'o years.
The old gentleman had sometimes recommended to his son the study
of medicine, as the best method of increasing his scanty patrimony.
Neglect of pecuniary considerations was not among Pope's weak
nesses : he did not indeed engage in the medical profession ; but he
took other opportunities of pushing his fortune. With this vicAv, he
published an edition of his collected poems in 1717; a proceeding as
much suggested by profit as by fame. In the like disposition, he under
took a new edition of Shakspeare, Avhich was pubHshed in 1721, The
execution of it proved the editor's unfitness for the task which he had
undertaken. Immediately after the completion of the Iliad, in 1720,
Pope engaged, for a considerable sum, to undertake the Odyssey. Only
twelve books, however, of the translation proceeded from his own pen :
the rest were done by Broome and Fenton under his direction. The
Avork was completed in 1725. The following year was employed, in
concert with Swift and Arbuthnot, in the publication of miscellanies,
of which the most remarkable is the celebrated ' History of Martinus
Scriblerus,' About this time, as he was returning home one day in
Lord BoHngbroke's chariot, it was overturned on Chase Bridge, near
Twickenham, and thrown Avith the horses into the river. The glasses
being up. Pope was nearly drowned, and Avas extricated Avith difficulty
2 a 2

168 POPE.
from his hazardous situation. He lost the use of two fingers, in cc^n-
sequence of a severe cut from the broken glass.
Having secured an independent fortune. Pope endeavoured to
protect his literary fame from all future attacks, by browbeating every
one into silence : this he hoped to accomplish by the poem of the
' Dunciad,' which came out in 4to, in the year 1727, He someAvhere
says, that the life of an author is a state of warfare : he now showed
himself a master in literary tactics, a great captain in offensive as well
as defensive war. The poem made its first appearance in Ireland,
cautiously, as a masked battery ; nor was the triumph completed with
out the co-operation of an Eugene with this satirical Marlborough in
the person of Swift, Avho furnished some of the materials in his own mas
terly style of sarcasm. The improved edition was printed in London
in 1728, Sir Robert Walpole presented it to the King and Queen,
and, probably at the same time, offered to procure the author a pension ;
but Pope refused this, as he had before, in 1714, rejected a similar
proposal from Lord Halifax. In a letter to Swift, Avritten about this
time, he expresses his feelings thus : " I Avas once before displeased at
you for complaining to Mr,  of my not having a pension ; I am
so again at your naming it to a certain lord." In 1710, Mr, Craggs
had given him a subscription for one hundred pounds in the South Sea
Fund ; but he made no use of it. These favours must be understood
to have been proffered for the purpose of estranging him from his
personal friends ; and this repeated rejection of them is an honourable
proof of steadiness to his attachments.
In 1729, the poet, by Lord BoHngbroke's advice, turned his pen to
moral subjects; and, Avith the assistance of his friend, set to work upon
the * Essay on Man.' Bolingbroke writes thus to Swift : " Bid Pope
talk to you of the work he is about, I hope in good earnest ; it is a fine
one, and will be, in his hands, an original." Pope tells the dean, in his
next letter, what this work Avas. "The work Lord Bolingbroke
speaks of with such abundant partiality, is a system of ethics, in the
Horatian way." In another letter, written probably at the beginning
of the following year, we trace the general aim which he at all events
Avished the public to attribute to this Avork. " I am just now Avriting,
or rather planning, a book to bring mankind to look upon this life with
comfort and pleasure, and put morality in good humour." This sub
ject was well suited to his genius. He found the performance more
easy than he had expected, and employed his leisure by following up
the design in his Ethic Epistles, Avhich came out separately in the course
of the two following years. The fourth, addressed to the Earl of Bur^

POPE, 169
lington, did no good to the author's character, in consequence of the
violent attack supposed to be made on the Duke of Chandos, a bene
ficent and esteemed nobleman, under tlie name of Timon. Pope loudly
asserted that in drawing Timon's character he had not the Duke in
view : but his denials have not obtained credence ; and he has thus in
curred the charge of equivocation and falsehood, without exculpating
hmiself from that of ingratitude and Avanton insolence. The vexation
caused by this business Avas somewhat softened by the rapid and lucrative
sale of the epistle, Avhich very soon went through the press a third time.
In a letter to Lord Bolingbroke he says, " Certainly the writer deserved
more candour, even in those Avho kncAV him not, than to promote a
report, which, in regard to that noble person, Avas impertinent; in
regard to me, villainous, I have taken an opportunity of the third
edition, to declare his belief not only of my innocence, but of their
malignity ; of the former of Avhich my heart is as conscious as I fear
some of theirs must be of the latter. His humanity feels a concern
for the injury done to me, Avhile his greatness of mind can bear Avith
indifference the insult ofiered to himself." He concludes with a threat
of using real instead of fictitious names in his future works. How
far he carried that menace into effect will presently be seen. The
complaints made against the epistle in question by secret enemies pro
voked him to Avrite satire, in which he ventured to attack the characters
of some persons in high life : the affront Avas of course resented,
and he retaliated by rencAving his invective against them, both in
prose and verse. In the imitation of the first satire of the second
book of Horace, he had described Lord Hervey and Lady Mary
Wortley Montague so characteristically, under the names of Lord
Fanny and Sappho, that those noble personages, besides fighting the
aggressor with his own weapons, used their interests to his injury,
not only among the nobility, but with the King and Queen.
Pope remonstrated most strongly against this last mode of revenge.
He continued writing satires till the year 1739, Avhen he entertained
some thoughts of undertaking an epic poem on the pretended colo
nization of our island by the Trojan Brute. A sketch of this project,
Avhich he never carried into effect, is given in Ruffhead's ' Life of
Pope,' p. 410.
Pope was an elaborate letter-Avriter ; and many of his familiar
epistles found their Avay into the world without his privity. Under
the plea of self-rdefence he published a correct and genuine collection
of them in 1737. About this time the Aveak state of his health
drew him frequently to Bath. Mr, Allen, a resident in the neighbour-

170 POPE.
hood, having been pleased with the letters, took occasion to form an
acquaintance Avith the author, Avhich soon ripened into friendship.
Hence arose Pope's intimacy with Warburton, Avho tells us that, before
they kncAV each other, he had written his ' Commentary on the
Art of Criticism, and on the Essay on Man.' One complaint
against that essay had rested on its obscurity, of Avhich the author
had previously been Avarned by Swift, But this was comparatively
a slight objection : the philosophic poet was charged with having
insidiously laid down a scheme of deism. A French translation,
by the Abb6 Resnil, appeared at Paris in 1738, on which a German
professor, by name Crousaz, animadverted, as a system of ethics
embodying the doctrine of fatalism. Pope thus acknoAvledges his
obligation to Warburton for his defence : " You have made my
system as clear as I ought to have done, and could not ; you under
stand me as Avell as I do myself, but you express me better than I
express myself" The ' Essay on Man ' was re-published with the
Commentary annexed in 1740 ; and at the instance of Warburton, a
fourth book Avas added to the ' Dunciad,' and printed separately in 1742.
In the course of the folloAving year the Avhole poem of the ' Dunciad '
was published together, as a specimen of a more correct edition of
Pope's works, Avhich the author had then resolved to give to the world ;
but he did not live to complete it. He had through Hfe been subject
to an habitual headache inherited from his mother, and this Avas now
greatly increased, with the addition of dropsical symptoms. He died
on the 30th of May, 1744, in the fifty-sixth year of his age. Pursuant
to his own request, his body was laid in the same vault with those of
his parents, to whose memory he had erected a monument, with an
inscription written by himself, immediately on their respective deaths.
To this, in conformity Avith his Avill, the simple words, " Et sibi," with
the date of his death, were added. He bequeathed to Warburton the
property of such of his Avorks already printed as he had Avritten, or
should write, commentaries upon, provided they had not been otherwise
disposed of or alienated ; Avith this condition, that they Avere to be
published Avithout future alterations. After he had made his will, he
wrote a letter to this legatee, announcing his legacy, and saying, " I
OAvn the late encroachments upon my constitution make me willing to
see the end of all further care about me, or my Avorks. I AA'ould rest
for the one in a full resignation of my being to be disposed of by the
Father of all mercy ; and for the other (though indeed a trifle, yet a
trifle may be some example), I would commit them to the candour of
a sensible and reflecting judge, rather than to the malice of CA'ery short-

POPE. 171
sighted and malevolent critic, or inadvertent and censorious reader.
And no hand can set them in so good a light, or so well can turn
their best side to the day, as your own." In discharge of his trust,
Warburton put forth a complete edition of all Pope's Avorks in 1751 ;
and, according to his oAvn persuasion, executed it conformably to
the presumed wishes of the author. In point of elegance, allowing
for the state of typography at the time, no objection could be made,
nor could the poet's orders have been more faithfully obeyed, in
forming the various pieces into a coHection. But some of War-
burton's remarks are in a less friendly tone than might have been
expected ; and if not absolutely injurious to his memory, are such as
leave Pope's moral character in a measure open to attack. Many cir
cumstances are related in the large biographies of Pope, which our
inclination would as Httle alloAV us as our limits to detail. Some of
them would not compensate in desirable information for the tedious-
ness of the narrative : others relate to defunct controversies. To the
latter of these classes may be referred Pope's quarrel with Colley
Gibber, which loaded the press Avith vulgar indecency on both sides ;
also, BoHngbroke's charge of treachery brought against Pope in an
advertisement prefixed to a tract published by his lordship in 1749,
five years after the accused could no longer ansAver his accuser.
We shall not devote any part of our confined space to an examina
tion of the faults and weaknesses of this eminent man : they have
been fully dwelt on in works of easy access. Some apology for many
of them may be found' in his bodily infirmities, deformed frame, and
extreme debility of -constitution. Pope's person, character, and Avritings
are treated of at large by Dr. Warton, in his ' Essay.' Ruff
head's ' Life of Pope ' contains much curious and entertaining matter.
Dr. Johnson's examination of Pope's Avorks is among the most
elaborate and best pieces of criticism in his ' Lives of the Poets.' We
cannot better conclude than with his description of Pope's appearance,
and summing up of his poetical character. " The person of Pope is
well known not to have been formed by the nicest model. He has, in his
account of the ' Little Club,' compared himself to a spider, and by
another is described as protuberant before and behind. He is said
to have been beautiful in his infancy : but he was of a constitution
originally feeble and Aveak ; and, as bodies of a tender frame are
easily distorted, his deformity was probably in part the effect of his
application. His stature was so low, that, to bring him to a level
with common tables, it was necessary to raise his seat. But his face
Avas not displeasing, and his eyes animated and vivid." . . . " It is

172

POPE.

surely superfluous to answer the question that has once been asked,
whether Pope was a poet, otherwise than by asking, in return, if
Pope be not a poet, where is poetry to be found ? To circumscribe
poetry by a definition will only show the narrowness of the definer,
though a definition which shall exclude Pope will not easily be made.
Let us look round upon the present time, and back upon the past ;
let us inquire to whom the voice of mankind has decreed the wreath
of poetry; let their productions be examined, and their claims stated,
and the pretensions of Pope will be no more disputed. Had he given
the world only his version, the name of poet must have been allowed
him : if the writer of the Iliad were to class his successors, he Avould
assign a very high place to his translator, without requiring any other
evidence of genius." With respect to the translation of the Iliad, it
is fair to give Pope the benefit of Dr. Johnson's praise. But Ave are
justified by the consentient voice of almost all scholars, in condemning
it as an unfaithful and meretricious version, composed in a spirit
totally different from that of Homer, and bearing no resemblance to
his manner.
Our engraving is from a copy of the original picture by Hudson,
made by T. Uwins, A.R.A.

[Entrance to Pope's Grotto.]

En^m'ol/l'y WHoU-.

BOILITAIR.

Ciy'ymy/y/' y',i/:yyy/ 'yy

/¦/y .yyyyrcypa/fr.

L'ndov tlio .SupBi-nil'-iidn.ij( i- ol the. Si".u-.l.y lor llic Dillusioii of Usi-liil Kru.nicdg

I,nniiJin..h>hbyh£Jt bv OtJirU.^ A'ru^litltuitifj/^' Sirv.t

The history of Bolivar is that of the revolutions in Columbia and
Peru. Nothing remarkable is related of his early life ; and with
respect to his personal merits as a soldier and statesman, he has shared
the common lot of eminent men, in being extravagantly praised and
violently censured. He has been compared to Csesar and Napoleon
on the one hand ; and he has been accused of frivolity, incompetency,
and even cowardice, on the other. The time for forming a dispas
sionate opinion of his character is not yet arrived. We shall, there
fore, confine ourselves to a short sketch of the establishment of inde
pendence on the Spanish Main, so far as Bolivar was concerned in it;
premising that we merely follow the course of history in giving him
the credit of those measures Avhich were carried into execution under
his authority and ostensible guidance,
Simon Bolivar Avas born in the city of Caracas, the capital of
Venezuela, on the 24th or 25th of July, 1783. In early childhood
he lost both his parents, who were of noble family, and possessed of
large estates. At the age of fourteen or sixteen, he was sent to Spain
for education. His habits are said to have been dissipated ; but he
paid some attention to the study of jurisprudence. After visiting
Italy and France, he returned to Madrid, married, and in 1809 re
turned to reside on his estates near Caracas. It is positively asserted,
and as positively denied, that Bolivar had an active share in the deci
sive movement at Caracas, April 19, 1810, Avhen the Spanish autho
rities Avere deposed, A congress was summoned, Avhich met March
2, 1811. Bolivar received a colonel's commission, and was sent to
claim the protection of Great Britain. The date of his return to
South America aa'c do not find : but he is said to have been concerned
in the first military operations of the patriots ; and in September, 1811,
Vol. V 2 B

174 BOLIVAR.
he was appointed governor of the strong sea-port of Puerto Cabello.
In March, 1812, a violent earthquake took place. The clergy
succeeded in producing a considerable reaction in favour of royalist
principles, by representing this calamity to be a manifestation of God's
Avrath against revolution. Monteverde, the royal general, then ad
vanced, and met Avith rapid success. The strong hold of Puerto
Cabello, the chief depot of the patriots, Avas wrested from Bolivar by
an insurrection of the prisoners confined in it; the patriot army
became dispirited; and General Miranda, under the sanction of
congress, concluded a treaty, July 26, 1812, by which an amnesty
Avas concluded, and the province of Venezuela returned under the
dominion of Spain. Miranda was subsequently arrested on a futile
charge of treachery to the patriot cause, and delivered to the
Spaniards, who kept him in prison to the day of his death. In this
unjustifiable transaction, Bolivar had a principal share,
Bolivar retired for a short time to his estate ; but he soon became
uneasy at the frequency of arrests, and obtained a passport to quit the
country. He retired to Curajoa. In the folloAving September, his
active temper led him to seek employment in the patriot army of New
Granada, Avhich had declared itself independent in 1811, and still
held out, Avith better fortune than Venezuela. He obtained a trifling
command, not such as to satisfy his ambition ; and on his OAvn respon
sibility, he undertook an expedition against the Spaniards on the east
bank of the river Magdalena, in AA'hich he succeeded; clearing the
country of Spanish posts from Mompox, on the above named river, to
the toAvn of Ocafia, on the frontier of Caracas. This exploit attracted
public notice. He conceived the bold plan of invading Venezuela
Avith his small forces, and the congress of New Granada consented to
his making the attempt, and raised him to the rank of brigadier. He
crossed the frontier with little more than 500 men ; but the country
rose in arms to second him ; and after several engagements, in which
the patriots were successful, he defeated Monteverde in person at the
battle of Lastoguanes, and, finally, entered Caracas, the capital of
Venezuela, in triumph, August 4, 1813.
At this time no regular government could be said to exist ; but a
convention of the chief civil and military functionaries, held at Caracas,
January 2, 1814, conferred on Bolivar the title of Liberator of Vene
zuela, and invested him with the office of Dictator, and the supreme
control ovei" both branches of the executive. But these successes were
folloAved by a rapid reverse ; and before the end of the year, he was
beaten out of Venezuela, and obliged to return to New Granada,

BOLIVAR, 175
That country was harassed by the contests of numerous and discor
dant parties, Bolivar was received Avith respect by the congress; and
was entrusted with the task of compelHng the dissentient province of
Santa Fe de Bogota, afterwards named Cundinamarca, to accede to
the union of the other provinces. He marched against the city of
Bogotd in December, at the head of 2000 men. It Avas not in a con
dition to resist, and capitulated, after the suburbs had been taken by
storm. It will afford an instance of the difficulty of getting at the real
character of Bolivar, to say, that Ave find it stated in one account that
his behaviour at Bogota received not only the thanks of Congress, but
the approbation of the citizens ; while another author asserts, that not
withstanding the capitulation, and in spite of the most urgent remon
strances, he permitted the pillage of part of the city for the space of
forty-eight hours. He was then appointed to act against the strong
town of Santa Martha, which commands the mouth of the river Mag
dalena. Unfortunately, private enmity between himself and Castillo,
the governor of Carthagena, led to dissensions Avhich ended in the in
vestment of Carthagena, instead of Santa Martha, by Bolivar, During
this civil strife, Avhich led to consequences most injurious to the patriot
cause. General Morillo arrived from Spain, noAV enabled by the peace
of 1814 to act Avith more vigour against her revolted colonies ; and
Bolivar gave up his command, on the pretext that the harmony and
advantage of the army required it, and embarked for Jamaica, May 10,
1815. During his abode at Kingston, he narroAvly escaped assassi
nation at the hands of a Spaniard, Avho stabbed to the heart a person
who chanced to occupy the bed in which Bolivar usually slept. From
Jamaica, he went to Hayti, where, Avith the help of the president Petion,
and in conjunction with a French officer, Commodore Brion, he drew
together a force, with which he again raised the standard of inde
pendence in the province of Cumana, in May, 1816: but he was soon
driven out of the country, and returned to Hayti, whence, in December,
he again sailed to the island of Margarita, and he issued a proclama
tion convoking a congress of the representatives of Venezuela. He
.then repaired to Barcelona, and organised a provisional government.
During the years 1817 and 1818, the struggle was obstinate; but the
patriot cause on the Avhole gained a decided advantage. In February
1819, BoHvar summoned a congress at Angostura, on the river
Orinoco, and resigned his authority into its hands. The assembly,
however, continued to him the executive poAver, Avith the title of
Provisional President of Venezuela, until the expulsion of the enemy
should afford a prospect of more settled times. 2 B 2

176 BOLIVAR,
Bolivar rejoined the army in March, and soon after conducted his
forces to join the patriots in New Granada, Two battles, on the 1st
and 23d of July, were fought to the advantage of the patriots, whose
cause obtained a final triumph in the decisive victory won August 7,
at Bojaca, Bolivar advanced at once to Bogota, Avhere he was en
thusiastically welcomed; and within a short time, eleven provinces of
New Granada announced their adhesion to the cause of independence.
He summoned a congress, by which he was appointed President, and
Captain- general of the Republic, Meanwhile a party, jealous of his
intentions, had obtained the ascendancy in the Venezuela Congress
held at Angostura ; and Bolivar, fearful of being supplanted, quitted
the scene of war Avith his best troops and marched to Angostura.
His presence, with such a force, turned the scale in favour of the
party attached to his interest. It Avas determined to summon a general
convention from the independent provinces of Venezuela and Granada;
and December 17, 1819, the celebrated decree Avas passed by which
the two states were united, and entitled the Republic of Columbia.
Bolivar Avas appointed President.
Strengthened by union, the patriots took the field in greater force
than they had hitherto been able to raise. The course of Avar during
1820 was on the whole favourable to them. In November, an
armistice for six months was concluded. Soon after the rencAA'al of
hostilities, an important victory was gained by the Columbian troops
under Bolivar, at Carabobo, not far from the city of Valencia, June
21, 1821, which may be regarded as having closed the war in Venc
zuela. Before the end of the year, Columbia was nearly cleared of
Spanish troops, with the exception of the province of Quito ; and
time was found to attend to the establishment of civil order. The con
stitution of the short-lived Columbian Republic was adopted, August
20, 1821, and BoHvar was appointed First Constitutional President.
The Avar was then directed against the Spaniards in the south. In
January, 1822, Bolivar himself conducted operations in the province
of Pasto, lying to the north of Quito, Avhile General Sucre, who had
been sent previously to assist the cause of independence in Guayaquil,
after liberating the southern provinces of Loxa and Cuenca, advanced
northwards, and secured independence to the province of Quito by the
decisive victory of Pichincha, May 24, 1822. But though this por
tion of Columbia AA'as now cleared of enemies, there could be no secu
rity to the frontier provinces Avhile the Spaniards held Peru ; and it
Avas therefore determined to send assistance to the patriots in that
country, Bolivar landed at Lima, September 1, 1823, and Avas

BOLIVAR. 177
invested with supreme power as Dictator of Peru, It was not until
the end of 1825, however, that the war of independence was finished ;
and the honour of this, in a military point of view, belongs rather to
Sucre than to Bolivar.
On the establishment of a separate republic in 1825, in the province
caHed by the Spaniards Upper Peru, the new state paid a high compli
ment to the Liberator, by assuming the name of Bolivia, and request
ing him to draw up a constitution for its adoption. In compHance
with the wish thus expressed, he presented to the constituent congress
in May, 1826, the celebrated Bolivian Code; for an account of which
Ave must refer to the ' Encyclopaedia Americana,' or the appendix to
the ' Memoirs of General Miller.' This forms a remarkable era in
Bolivar's life ; for, out of the institutions of this code, arose the first
suspicions that the Liberator was at heart indisposed to republican insti
tutions. It was however adopted ; and Sucre was appointed President.
Meanwhile, though the deliverance of Peru was completed, Bolivar
showed no intention of leading home the Columbian troops. A con
gress summoned at Lima, in February, 1825, continued to him, for
another year, the dictatorial poAver Avhich he had received on his first
entrance into the country, A second congress, held in 1826, adopted
the same course, adding a recommendation that he should consult the
provinces as to the form of government which it might be desirable to
establish. The result was, that the Bolivian Code was declared to be
adopted by Peru, and Bolivar himself was nominated President.
During the Liberator's long absence in the south, the northern
provinces of Columbia became involved in civil confusion. The Vice-
president, General Santander, was a man of firmness and ability ; but
the ncAvly-formed government wanted consistency, and that habitual
respect which is paid to long recognised authority. In April, 1826,
General Paez, who commanded in Venezuela, being summoned before
the senate of Columbia to answer certain charges, refused obedience,
trusting to the devoted attachment of the troops under his command :
and to this private act of rebellion, something of a national character
Avas given, by the accession of many in Venezuela, who disapproved
of the union with New Granada, or distrusted the intentions of those
who held the reins of power. At the same time, the southern depart
ments, which had formerly composed the presidency of Quito, dis
played a strong inclination to adopt the Bolivian Code, Bolivar has
not escaped the suspicion of having fomented these troubles, with a
view to convince all parties that tranquillity could only be secured by
strengthening the executive, by appointing him Dictator of the Colum-

178 BOLIVAR,
bian Republic, Being recalled for the suppression of these disturb
ances, he quitted Lima in September, 1826, and hastened to Caracas,
where, instead of punishing, he met Paez upon friendly terms, confirmed
him in the office which he held, and published a general amnesty on the
submission of the insurgents. The term for Avhich he was elected
President had now expired. He had been re-elected, and should have
gone through the forms of taking office at the beginning of 1827; but
in February, he announced his intention to resign, and retire to his
estates, in consequence of the imputations of ambition cast upon him.
The spring was spent by Congress in discussing this matter; and at
last, June 6, it was finally determined not to accept his resignation,
and a general convention Avas summoned to meet at Ocafia, March 2,
1828, to revise the constitution. In September, Bolivar again assumed
the office of President.
Meanwhile a speedy revolution had taken place in Peru, It is no
great argument of Bolivar's purity of purpose, that, a year after the war
was finished, the Columbian auxiliaries were still retained by him in
Bolivia and Peru, one division being quartered in the former country,
and two in the latter. Many of them were strongly attached to their
general, and perhaps had no objection to becoming instruments of his
ambition, so far as Peru was concerned. But when he incurred the
suspicion of meditating the overthroAV of the Columbian constitution,
they took fire. The division quartered at Lima matured a plan of
revolt, arrested their generals, who were personally attached to Bolivar,
and announced to the authorities of Lima their desire to relieve the
Peruvians from a constitution which had been forced upon them, and
to return home to defend their own country. Hereupon, in concur
rence with the generally declared wish of the people throughout Peru,
the Bolivian Code was thrown aside only a few weeks after it had
been adopted ; and in June, 1827, a ncAV congress was summoned,
and a ncAV President and Vice-president of the republic Avere elected.
The troops embarked ; but on their landing in Columbia, part placed
themselves under the orders of officers sent to take the command of
them, and the rest Avere easily reduced to obedience.
The convention met at the appointed time. Bolivar opened the
proceedings with an address, in which he ascribed the internal
troubles of Columbia to the want of sufficient poAver in the executive
department, and plainly intimated his opinion that the constitution had
been founded on vicAvs too liberal to be adapted to the state of society
existing in that country. His speech was very much in accordance
with the views developed in the Bolivian Code, and furnished good

BOLIVAR. 179
reason for believing that he was no less willing to accept supreme
power than his friends were disposed to invest him with it, as the only
remedy for existing evils. The majority of the convention, however,
were suspicious of the President's intentions. Finding themselves in
a minority, his friends vacated their seats in the assembly, which
being thus reduced below the number necessary to give validity to its
proceedings, became virtually extinct.
In this state of things, a meeting was convened at Bogota, June 13,
of the principal civil and military residents, at Avhich resolutions were
passed investing Bolivar Avith the most extensive powers as Supreme
Chief of Columbia, He himself was not present, but in the near
neighbourhood ; and on receiving intimation of these resolutions, he
made a solemn entry into Bogota, June 20, and assumed the poAvers
thus gratuitously bestoAved upon him, not, it is to be observed, by the
act of the convention, or of any body authorised to interfere in any
Avay with the existing constitution. Great dissatisfaction Avas felt by
those who were not attached to the party of Bolivar; and in the fol
lowing September, a conspiracy Avas organised in the garrison of
Bogota, to Avhich the President's life had nearly fallen a sacrifice. It
was quelled hoAvever. General Santander, the Vice-president, was
accused of being concerned in it, and Avas banished from Columbia.
Partial insurrections subsequently broke out in various places. To
wards the close of 1829, the discontent Avhich had formerly appeared
in Venezuela, manifested itself more decidedly. Paez put himself at
the head of the dissatisfied party ; and in a very short time, the whole
province raised the standard of independence, and expressed its de
termination to be merged no longer in the Columbian Republic. In
the midst of these tumults, Bolivar resolved at length to retire from
the eminent station in which he had been the cause of so much offence.
He had issued a proclamation, December 24, 1 828, summoning a con
vention in January, 1830, to frame a new permanent constitution for
Columbia. It met at the appointed time. Bolivar, in opening the
deliberations, expressed his determination not to accept again the chief
magistracy of the state ; but, as he had said the same thing in equally
strong terms before, nobody paid much attention to the declaration.
This time, hoAvever, he adhered to it. Besides the labour of making
a new constitution, the convention had to discuss the difficult question
of the secession of Venezuela : nor Avas this all, for as that district
had separated itself from the Columbian Republic, in a great degree
OAving to its distrust of Bolivar, so the southern provinces refused to
acknowledge the ncAV constitution unless he were placed at its head.

180 BOLIVAR.
The convention wisely resolved, with respect to Venezuela, that every
peaceful method should be tried to prevent its secession, but that it
would not be expedient or proper to attempt to maintain the union by
force. To anticipate a little the order of time, the Venezuelans were
resolved to have an independent government ; and finally, in 1832,
the short-lived republic of Columbia was divided into three, bearing
respectively the titles of Venezuela, New Granada, and the Republic
of the Equator, which was formed out of the southern provinces of
Quito, Guayaquil, and Assuai.
After the adoption of the new constitution of 1830, Bolivar retired
to the province of Carthagena, exhausted both in body and mind.
He died at Santa Martha, December 17, 1830, leaving a character on
the merits of Avhich it is difficult to pronounce a decided opinion. His
name will not soon be forgotten, for it is indissolubly connected with
the cause of independence in South America : but, in reviewing the
progress and prospects of North and South America, it is impossible
not to remark Bolivar's inferiority to Washington, both in talent and
virtue, and not to reflect with regret how different, in all probability,
the conduct and the prosperity of the South American republics would
have been if they had possessed such a leader as the first President of
the United States.
The chief books which have been consulted for this sketch have
been the 'Annual Register,' General Ducoudray Holstein's 'Memoirs
of Bolivar,' a work evidently written under strong feelings of personal
hostility, the article Bolivar in the ' Encyclopaedia Americana,' and a
short account of the Liberator in the ' Memoirs of General Miller.'
In these works there is so much discrepancy, not only of opinions, but
of facts and dates, that Ave do not venture to hope that we have escaped
errors. A clear and impartial history of the war of independence is
still a desideratum.

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In the history of trade there is nothing so remarkable as the rapid
and immense increase of the British cotton manufacture during the
last thirty years of the eighteenth century. Tavo nearly contempora
neous discoveries concurred to produce that increase : the invention of
machinery for spinning ; and the improvement, we might almost say
completion, of the steam-engine by James Watt. To his eminent
merits Ave have borne our testimony in the first volume of this work ;
and scarcely less important, though less imposing, have been the
services of the ingenious men who contrived to spin thread Avithout
the use of the human hand. We do not hesitate to take Arkwright as
the representative of those Avho wrought this great revolution in our
manufacturing system, for though recent evidence has refuted his claim
to the invention, properly speaking, of spinning by machinery, he
was the first person who rendered that invention profitable.
By the year 1760, the manufacture of cotton goods, which had been
increasing slowly from the beginning of the century, had attained con
siderable importance. In 1764, the declared value of British cotton
goods exported Avas upwards of 200,000/., having increased tenfold
Avithin forty or fifty years. At this period the demand for them ex
ceeded the supply, in consequence of the difficulty of obtaining a suffi
cient quantity of yarn for Aveaving. The one-thread spinning-wheel,
now nearly banished from our cottages, was then the sole source from
which spun-yarn could be obtained ; and the trades of spinning and
Aveaving were commonly united in a humble manner — the man wove,
while his wife and daughters spun. If this domestic supply Avas
insufficient, the weaver had often to waste time and labour in collecting
Vo... V. 2 C

182 ARKWRIGHT.
materials for his daily AVork. Mr. Guest states, that " it was no un
common thing for a weaver to Avalk three or four miles in a morning,
and call on five or six spinners, before he could collect weft to serve
him for the remainder of the day ; and Avhen he wished to weave a
piece in a shorter time than usual, a new ribbon or a gown was
necessary to quicken the exertions of the spinner." This check ex
isting on the industry of the Aveaver, it is no wonder that mechanical
ingenuity Avas tasked to invent a quicker Avay of spinning. The
principle of the first plan by which this was effected may be easily
explained. Suppose a ribbon placed between two horizontal cylinders
which are in contact with each other ; if the cylinders are made to
rcA'olve, it is evident that they will draw the ribbon onwards in the
direction of their motion. Again, if the foremost end of it be pre
sented to a second pair of similar revolving cylinders, it will be draAvn
through these also. If both pairs revolve with exactly the same
velocity, it will pass through them unaltered ; but if the second pair
revolve with greater velocity than the first, there will be a certain
strain on the intermediate ribbon, which, if extensible, will be
stretched in the same degree that the velocity of the second pair
of rollers exceeds that of the first. Noav cotton, after being cleaned
and carded, comes from the card in fleecy rolls, the fibres of Avhich are
laid parallel, and so made fit to spin. To reduce these to thread or
yarn takes more than one operation : the first brings the cardings into
thick, loosely tAvisted threads, called rovings ; the subsequent ones re
duce the rovings into yarn fit for the loom. It is evident that both the
cardings and rovings are fitted by their texture for the process of ex
tension by rollers described above ; and that they would be draAvn out
twofold, fourfold, or in any greater or less degree, proportionate to the
difference of velocity between the first and second pair of rollers.
From the second pair the thread is delivered to a spindle, which
gives the due degree of twist ; and it is finally Avound on a bobbin :
the Avhole being set in motion by the same mechanical power.
It is evident that many spindles might be attached to, and many
threads spun by, the same combination of rollers. Arkwright claimed
the merit of this invention. It is proved, hoAvever, by the undeniable
evidence of an existing patent, printed by Mr. Baines in his History
of the Cotton Manufacture, that this principle of spinning by rollers
was patented so early as the year 1738, by a foreigner named LcAvis
Paul ; the real inventor Avas John Wyatt, of Birmingham. In their
hands however, though the invention did not absolutely fail, it did
not so succeed as to be brought into general use, or even to become

ARKWRIGHT. 183
profitable to the inventors. Simple and obvious as the principle ap
pears when once laid down, great difficulties Avere to be overcome
in forming this stretched cotton into a useful thread ; as may be con
ceived from reflecting on the great rapidity with Avhich, to make spin
ning profitable, parts of the machine must move, the perfect regularity
of motion requisite, and the slightness of the strain which a few un
twisted filaments of cotton wiU bear. For the apparently trivial object
of producing a uniform line of fine yarn, the utmost efforts of
mechanical ingenuity have been called forth, and some of the most
beautiful, delicate, and poAverful machinery in existence has been
constructed. It Avas in overcoming these difficulties that the talent
or perseverance of Paul and Wyatt failed ; the merit of conquering
them, and giving birth to a new system of manufacture, laelongs
to ArkAA'right. We quote the folloAving notice of his eariy life from
Mr. Baines : —
" Richard Arkwright rose by the force of his natural talents from a
very humble condition in society. He Avas born at Preston, December
23, 1732, of poor parents. Being the youngest of thirteen children,
his parents could only afford to give him an education of the humblest
kind, and he Avas scarcely able to write. He Avas brought up to the
trade of a barber, at Kirkham and Preston, and established himself in
that business at Bolton, in 1760. Having become possessed of a
chemical process for dyeing human hair, which in that day, Avhen
wigs were universal, Avas of considerable value, he travefled about
collecting hair, and again disposing of it when dyed. In 1761, he
married a wife from Leigh, and the connexions he thus formed in that
town are supposed to have afterwards brought him acquainted Avith
Highs's experiments in making spinning machines. He himself mani
fested a strong bent for experiments in mechanics, which he is stated
to have followed with so much devotedness as to have neglected his
business and injured his circumstances. His natural disposition was
ardent, enterprising, and stubbornly persevering ; his mind Avas as
coarse as it Avas bold and active, and his manners were rough and
unpleasing." In the course of his travels in 1767, he fell in with a clockmaker,
named Kay, at Warrington, whom he employed as a workman in
prosecuting some of his mechanical experiments. Kay, according to
his own account, gave Arkwright some description of a machine
contrived by one Highs, for spinning by rollers. It is Certain that
from thenceforward ArkAvright abandoned his former pursuits, and
applied himself, in conjunction with Kay, to the construction of a
2 C 2

184 ARKWRIGHT.
spinning machine. One Smalley, a liquor-merchant of Preston,
assisted him Avith money ; and the two, fearing lest they might be
endangered by a riotous spirit which had been directed against ma
chinery in Lancashire, went to settle at Nottingham. There Ark
wright obtained an introduction to Messrs. Need and Strutt, two
gentlemen largely engaged in the stocking manufactory, who appre
ciated his talents, and entered into partnership with him. What be
came of Mr. Smalley we do not hear. ArkAvright took out a patent
for his invention, which was enrolled, July 15, 1769, The partners
erected a mill near Nottingham, which was turned by horse-power :
but this Avas soon superseded by a much larger establishment at
Cromford in Derbyshire, on the river Derwent, in which Avater-power
Avas applied for the first time to the purpose of spinning ; and from
that circumstance Arkwright's machine was called the water-frame.
As the difficulty of meeting the Aveavers' demand for yarn had led
to the invention of machines for spinning, so the rapid manufacture of
yarn rendered it indispensable to facilitate the prior operations in
preparing the I'aw material. Men's minds had been turned to this
object for some time. The operation of carding, whether wool or
cotton, Avas at first done with hand-cards of small size. The first
improvement was the invention of stock-cards, one of Avhich was fixed,
and the other held in the hand, or afterwards suspended from above,
so that the workman could mana,ge a much larger card, and prepare
more cotton in a given time. The next and main improvement was
placing cards lengthAvays upon a cylinder, which worked within a
concave half cylinder of the same diameter. This process was patented
by Paul in 1748. But he derived no profit from this, any more than
from his former patent ; and it was not until after the improvements
in spinning that the method of carding by cylinders was brought into
use. Arkwright was not the first to revive it, but he had a great share
in perfecting the carding machinery when it had been revived. The
raw cotton being carded, an extension, or rather a ncAV application, of
the principle of spinning by rollers converted the cardings into rovings,
which again Avere made into yarn fit for the loom by the Avater-frame,
or, as it is noAv called in an improved form, the throstle. Arkwright
took out his second patent, December 16, 1775; this included the
carding machine, drawing-frame, and roving-frame, a series of engines
by Avhich the cotton, from its raw state, Avas rendered fit for the last
process of spinning. We shall not attempt to explain the construction
of these elaborate machines, Avhich can hardly be rendered intelligible
even by the help of numerous plates.

ARKWRIGHT. 185
The process of turning cotton-wool into thread by machinery was
thus completed. Before we folloAV its effects upon Arkwright's for
tunes, it is proper to say a few words concerning other improvements.
About, or somewhat earlier than, the time when Arkwright's attention
was first turned to spinning, a weaver named James Hargreaves, of
Stand Hill, near Blackburn, invented a machine by which, according
to the terms of the patent, sixteen or more threads might be spun by
one person at the same time. This is the machine so well known
under the name of the spinning-jenny. Hargreaves' patent was in
vaded, and invalidated on technical grounds ; so that his machine came
rapidly into general use, and for spinning the weft was preferred to
Arkwright's water- frame, from which it Avas entirely different in prin
ciple. Samuel Crompton, an ingenious Aveaver resident near Bolton,
between the years 1774 and 1779, tried to unite the principles of both,
and produced a machine which, on that account, he called a mule.
This, under different improved forms, is the machine now generally used
in spinning ; but the water-frame, or throstle, is still found to answer
best for some kinds of work*. But to return to the fortunes of Ark
Avright : the series of machines which he invented or improved gave
an amazing impulse to the cotton trade. " Weavers could now obtain
an unlimited quantity of yarn at a reasonable price ; manufacturers
could use warps of cotton, which were much cheaper than the
linen Avarps formerly used. Cotton fabrics could be sold loAver than
had ever before been knoAvn. The demand for them consequently
increased. The shuttle flew with fresh energy, and the weavers
earned immoderately high wages. Spinning-mills were erected to
supply the requisite quantity of yarn. The fame of ArkAA'iight re
sounded through the land, and capitalists flocked to him to buy his
patent machines, or permission to use them." * * *
" The factory system in England takes its rise from this period.
Hitherto the cotton manufacture had been carried on almost entirely
in the houses of the workmen : the hand or stock-cards, the spinning-
wheel, and the loom, required no larger apartment than that of a cottage.
A spinning-jenny of small size might also be used in a cottage, and
in many instances was so used ; when the number of spindles was con-
* A third person has been mentioned as the inventor both of the jenny and of
roller-spinning, Thomas Highs, of Leigh, above-mentioned, whose claims seem entitled
to more courteous notice than they have met with in the Edinburgh Review. There
is nothing unreasonable in supposing that both Highs and Arkwright may have heard of
Wyatt's method of spinning by rollers, which was practised in two factories, one erected
at Birmingham, the other at Nottingham.

186 ARKWRIGHT.
siderably increased, adjacent workshops were used. But the Avater-
frame, the carding-engine, and the other machines Avhich Arkwright
brought out in a finished state, required both more space than could
be found in a cottage, and more power than could be appHed by the
human arm. Their Aveight also made it necessary to place them in
strongly-built mills, and they could not be advantageously turned by
any power then known but that of water."
" The use of machinery was accompanied by a greater division of
labour than existed in the primitive state of the manufacture ; the
material went through many more processes, and of course the loss of
time and the risk of waste would have been much increased, if its
removal from house to house at every stage of the manufacture had
been necessary. It became obvious that there were several important
advantages in carrying on the numerous operations of an extensive
manufacture in the same building. Where water-power was required,
it was economy to build one mill, and put up one Avater-AA'heel, rather
than several. This arrangement also enabled the master-spinner
himself to superintend every stage of the manufacture ; it gave him a
greater security against the wasteful or fraudulent consumption of the
material ; it saved time in the transference of the work from hand to
hand ; and it prevented the extreme inconvenience which would have
resulted from the failure of one class of workmen to perform their
part, when several other classes of workmen were dependent upon
them. Another circumstance which made it advantageous to have a
large number of machines in one manufactory was, that mechanics
must be employed on the spot to construct and repair the machinery,
and that their time could not be fully occupied with only a few
machines." " All these considerations drove the cotton-spinners to that important
change in the economy of English manufactures, the introduction of
the factory system ; and when that system had once been adopted, such
were its pecuniary advantages that mercantile competition would have
rendered it impossible, even had it been desirable, to abandon it."
(Baines, ' History of Cotton Manufacture,' pages 183, 185.)
It was not to be expected that ArkAvright Avould enjoy undisturbed
so valuable a monopoly as that which he had created, and many per
sons infringed his patents, in the belief that he was not the real owner
of the inventions Avhich he claimed. An attempt was made in 1772
to set aside his first patent for the Avater-frame ; but this failed, and
he retained the enjoyment of that patent unquestioned till the expira
tion of the fourteen years. To preserve his second patent, for the card-

ARKWRIGHT, 187
ing, drawing, and roving machines, he brought several actions against
master-spinners, one of Avhich, against Colonel Mordaunt, was tried
in 1781, and a verdict was obtained for the defendant, setting aside
the patent, Arkwright for some time did not contest this decision.
But in 1785, he made another attempt to establish his second patent
before a court of law; and in the first instance obtained a verdict. in
his own favour, but on the cause being reheard, the patent Avas finally
declared invalid.
Notwithstanding this defeat, ArkAvright rapidly acquired a v6ry
large fortune, through the magnitude of his concerns, and his industry,
penetration, and skill in business. On the dissolution of his partner
ship Avith the Messrs. Strutt about 1783, the extensive works at Crom
ford fell to his share. In 1786, he Avas High Sheriff of Derbyshire,
and was knighted, on occasion of presenting an address to the King,
We find no other record worth notice of the last years of his life.
He died, August 3, 1792, in his sixtieth year,
Arkwright's originality and honesty as an inventor have been vio
lently impugned by Mr, Guest, in his History of the Cotton Manufac
ture. The arguments on the other side may be seen in the Edinburgh
RevieAV, No, 91, to which Guest published a reply, Mr, Baines's
History of the Cotton Manufacture, Avhich we have chiefly folloAved
and largely quoted from in this account, contains the latest and fullest
account Avhich Ave have seen of ArkAvright's character and history.
There appears to have been some aHoy of selfishness and disingenu-
ousness in his disposition, some ground for the statement of counsel
in the trial of 1785 : " It is a notorious story in the manufacturing
counties ; all men that have seen Mr, Arkwright in a state of opu
lence have shaken their heads, and thought of these poor men. Highs
and Kay, and have thought, too, that they were entitled to some par
ticipation of the profits." Still it becomes us to speak Avith gentleness
of the faults of a person to whose talents, nationally speaking, we owe
so much : and there is much to be said in extenuation of them, in con
sideration of the lowness of his original caUing, of the self-complacency
and sensitive jealousy common to almost all schemers, and the fasci
nation of wealth Avhen it flows largely and unexpectedly upon a man bred
in extreme poverty. As an inventor Arkwright's merit is undeniable.
Mr. Baines, who seems to have judged calmly and impartially, assigns
to him the high praise, that " in improving and perfecting mechanical
inventions, in exactly adapting them to the purposes for which they were
intended, in arranging a comprehensive system of manufacturing, and
in conducting vast and complicated concerns, he displayed a bold and

188 ARKWRIGHT.
fertile mind, and consummate judgment, which, when his want of edu
cation, and the influence of an employment so extremely unfavourable
to mental expansion as that of his previous life, are considered, must
have excited the astonishment of mankind. But the marvellous and
' unbounded invention,' Avhich he claimed for himself and which has
been too readily accorded to him— the creative faculty Avhich devised
all that admirable mechanism, so entirely new in its principles, and
characteristic of the first order of mechanical genius — which has given
a new spring to the industry of the world, and Avithin half a century
has reared up the most extensive manufacture ever known — this did
not belong to Arkwright." *******
" The most marked traits in the character of Arkwright were his
Avonderful ardour, energy, and perseverance. He commonly laboured
in his multifarious concerns from five o'clock in the morning till nine
at night ; and Avhen considerably more than fifty years of age, feeling
that the defects of his education placed him under great difficulty and
inconvenience in conducting his correspondence, and in the general
management of his business, he encroached upon his sleep, in order to
gain an hour each day to learn English grammar, and another hour
to improve his writing and orthography ! He was impatient of what
ever interfered Avith his favoui-ite pursuits ; and the fact is too strik
ingly characteristic not to be mentioned, that he separated from his
wife not many years after his marriage, because she, convinced that
he would starve his family by scheming when he should have been
shaving, broke some of his experimental models of machinery. Ark
wright was a severe economist of time ; and, that he might not Avaste
a moment, he generally travelled with four horses, and at a very
rapid speed. His concerns in Derbyshire, Lancashire, and Scotland,
were so extensive and numerous as to show at once his astonishing
power of transacting business, and his all-grasping spirit. In many
of these he had partners, but he generally managed in such a way
that, whoever lost, he himself was a gainer. So unbounded was his
confidence in the success of his machinery, and in the national Avealth
to be produced by it, that he would make light of discussions on
taxation, and say that he Avould pay the national debt ! His specula
tive schemes were vast and daring ; he contemplated entering into the
most extensive mercantile transactions, and buying up all the cotton
in the world, in order to make an enormous profit by the monopoly ;
and from the extravagance of some of these designs, his judicious
friends were of opinion that, if he had tried to put them in practice,
he might have overset the whole fiibric of his prosperity."

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William Coavper was born at the rectory of Berkhampstead, in
Hertfordshire, Nov. 26, 1731. He was nearly related to the noble
family of that name, his great-uncle having been chancellor and first
Earl CoAvper : his grandfather, the brother of the chancellor, was a
judge of the common pleas. Cowper's mother died before he was six
years old. Soon afterwards he was sent to a country school, from
which, at the age of nine, he was removed to Westminster. It is
probable that one cause among others of his future unhappiness was
the early loss of that tender parent, whose " constant flow of loA'e,"
beautifully acknowledged in his verses on receiving her picture, and
in many parts of his correspondence, made a deep and lasting im
pression on his infant mind. CoAvper was exactly the boy to require
a mother's care. His constitution was delicate, his mind sensitive
and timid; and he discovered a tendency to dejection, which was
aggravated by the tyranny then practised at our public schools.
Quitting Westminster at eighteen, with a good character for talent
and scholarship, he Avent at once into an attorney's office ; where he
spent three years, according to his OAvn account, with very little profit.
He then became a member of the Inner Temple, intending to practise
at the bar. At this period of life he amused himself with composition,
and showed a strong predilection for polite literature and agreeable
society ; but he had no taste for the law, and took no pains to qualify
himself for his profession. Long afterwards he deeply lamented the
loss of time during his early manhood, and earnestly warned his young
friends against a similar error.
In 1763 Cowper Avas appointed to the lucrative office of reading
clerk, and clerk of the private committees of the House of Lords. The
fairest prospect of happiness now lay before him, for his union Avith one
of his cousins, it is said, had only been deferred until he should obtain
a satisfactory establishment. But the idea of reading in public Avas in-
Voi., V.

2 D

190 COWPER.
tolerable to him ; and he gave up this office for the less valuable one of
clerk of the journals, in which it Avas hoped that his personal appearance
before the House Avould not be required. Unfortunately it did prove
necessary that he should appear at the bar to qualify himself for the
post. " They whose spirits are formed like mine," he thus expressed
himself in after-life, " to whom a public exhibition of themselves is
mortal poison, may have some ideas of the horrors of my situation :
others can have none." He fought hard against this morbid feeling ;
but, AA'hen the day arrived for entering upon his duties, such was his
terror and distress, that even his friends acquiesced in his abandoning
the attempt. But his mind had been disordered in the struggle, and
he shortly sank into deep religious despondency; so that it was found
necessary, in December, 1763, to place him in a lunatic asylum at
St. Albans, under the care of Dr. Cotton.
Cowper's insanity at this period, and the grievous dejection of the
last twenty-seven years of his life, have been imputed to the so-called
gloominess of his religious tenets. From that opinion we entirely
dissent. No sense of religious abasement can be conceived able to
drive a sane man to distraction at the thought of having to appear in
a public capacity before Parliament; and Cowper's struggles and
mental distress on that occasion were anterior to his receiving any
serious impressions of religion. Moreover, it appears certain that his
recovery was due to more encouraging views of the doctrines of the
Gospel, assisted by the kind and judicious mental, as well as bodily,
treatment of Dr. Cotton. For eight years his religion was the source
of unfailing cheerfulness and active benevolence ; and after he ceased
to derive pleasure from it in his own person, he was still mild and
charitable in his conduct towards others, and his opinions concerning
them. The extent of Cowper's mental wandering on subjects uncon
nected with his own spiritual state is not perhaps generally known.
A remarkable instance of it occurs in a letter to his esteemed friend,
Mr. Newton, dated October 2, 1787, from which it appears that, during
thirteen years, Cowper had entertained doubts of Mr. Newton's per
sonal identity. At this latter period, therefore, there was hallucina
tion of mind, as well as religious gloom. Cowper's recovery from his
first illness is dated in July, 1764 ; but he remained with his friendly
and beloved physician nearly a year more, after which he took
lodgings at Huntingdon, directed by the Avish of being within easy
reach of his brother, who was a resident Fellow of Benet College,
Cambridge. He soon became acquainted with a family, bearing the name of
UuAvin, consisting of a clergyman, his Avife and daughter, and one son.

COWPER. 191
an undergraduate, of Cambridge. Struck by Cowper's appearance,
the latter threw himself into the stranger's way ; and a feeling of
mutual regard and esteem led to Cowper's establishing himself as a
permanent inmate in Mr. Un win's family in November, 1765. After
the lapse of nearly two years in tranquil happiness, the sudden death
of Mr. UuAvin led to the family's departure from Huntingdon to
Olney in Buckinghamshire, in October, 1767. But the foundation
had been laid of a friendship which no misfortune or change of cir
cumstance could destroy ; and Cowper and Mrs. Unwin united their
slender incomes, and continued to dwell under the same roof. The
first six years of their abode at Olney Avere spent in domestic quiet
and retirement almost unbroken, except by the society of Mr. Newton,
an eminent and exemplary divine, who was then curate on the living.
The well-known collection called the " Olney Hymns" Avere composed
by CoAvper and Newton, for the most part-, during this period. But
in 1773 Cowper's mental disease returned in the dreadful shape of
religious despondency. He conceived himself to be set apart for
eternal misery : yet amid the deep gloom produced by the loss of that
spiritual happiness which he had enjoyed since his recovery from his
first illness, he Avas so entirely submissive that he was accustomed to
say, " If holding up my finger Avould save me from endless torments,
I would not do it against the will of God ;" and in accordance Avith the
belief that his OAvn fate was sealed, he ceased to pray, and absented
himself entirely from divine worship. The depth of his dejection Avas
gradually cheered by the affectionate, watchful, and judicious care of his
guardian friend, Mrs. Unwin. One of the first signs of improvement
was a desire to tame some leverets. He was soon supplied with three,
which have obtained celebrity in prose and verse, such as no other
hares have enjoyed before or since. He tried at different times garden
ing, drawing, and a variety of trifling manual occupations, as methods
of diverting his thoughts from his OAvn miseries. " Many arts I have
exercised with this view," he says in a letter to Mrs. King, " for which
nature never designed me, though among them were some in which
I arrived at considerable proficiency, by mere dint of the most heroic
perseverance. There is not a squire in all this country who can
boast of having made better squirrel houses, hutches for rabbits, or
bird-cages, than myself; and in the article of cabbage-nets I had no
superior. But gardening was, of all employments, that in which I
succeeded best, though even in this I did not suddenly attain per
fection." (Oct. 11, 1788.) At last he devoted himself to writing, " a
whim," he says elsewhere, " that has served me longest and best, and
will probably be my latest." His first volume of poems, containing
2 D 2

192 COWPER.
" Table Talk," &c. was published in the summer of 1781, having been
Avritten chiefly in the preceding Avinter. It was undertaken al the in
stance of Mrs. Unwin, who, on his recovery from a long fit of unusual
dejection, urged him to devote his attention to a work of some extent,
and such as should require a considerable share of application and
attention. At the same time she suggested as a subject the " Pro
gress of Error," which is the second piece in the volume. Cowper had
already AA'ritten many of his lighter pieces, and that at the times when
he Avas labouring under the severest depression. He accounts for this
singular phenomenon with his peculiar and playful humour. " The
mind, long Avearied with the sameness of a dull, dreary prospect, will
gladly fix its eyes on anything that may make a little variety in its
contemplations, though it were but a kitten playing with its tail."
Eariy in 1780, Cowper lost a valued friend, and almost his only
associate, by the removal orf Mr. Newton to London. In the follow
ing year he became acquainted with Lady Austen, who, for a short
time, fills a prominent place in the poet's history. We must refer to
fuller memoirs for the tale of her introduction, and the gradual growth
of that strict intimacy which ensued between herself, Mrs. UuAvin, and
Cowper. For some time the three friends spent a considerable portion
of every day in each other's society; and Cowper was indebted to
Lady Austen's liveliness in conversation and varied accomplishments
for a great alleviation of his mental sufferings. The famous history
of John Gilpin owes its birth to a story told by her one evening, to
rouse the poet out of a fit of despondency ; and it engaged his fancy
so strongly, that in the course of the night, during which he was
kept awake by fits of laughter, he turned it into verse. The
ballad soon got abroad, and obtained unusual popularity : it was long
before the author Avas known. " The Task " was composed at Lady
Austen's request. She saw the benefit which Cowper derived from
earnest literary employment, and often urged him to try his strength
in blank verse. After some pressing, he promised to comply, if she
Avould furnish him with a subject. " Oh, you can write on anything,"
she said ; " write on this sofa." The lively answer chimed in with his
peculiar humour, and he adopted it literally : his sofa forms the sub
ject of the poem ; the first book of Avhich is entitled "The Sofa," and
opens with a history of the invention and merits of that piece of furni
ture, which is unsurpassed in its peculiar vein of humour. But the
author soon rises into a higher strain, and in his discursive range
paints the beauty of the country with that fidelity and exquisite sense
of natural beauty Avhich constitutes his chief poetic merit ; describes
the peculiar appearances and occupations of the Avinter season ; weighs

COWPER. 193
the «vils and advantages attendant on a high state of civilization ;
exhibits, in reproving the faults of the age, his power both in the
lighter skirmishing of satire, and in the stern outpouring of an honest
indignation ; inculcates the doctrines of that religion of peace and love
from which it was his own singular and melancholy lot to derive no
peace ; and all with a beauty and facility of versification, and power of
illustration, sufficient to attract many whom the grave nature of the
subjects to be discussed would rather deter. The scope and conduct of
the 'work is well described in the following lines from the conclusion,
in which, anticipating death, he says —
It shall not grieve me then, that once, when call'd
To dress a sofa with the flowers of verse,
I played awhile, obedient to the fair.
With that light task: but soon, to please her more.
Whom flowers alone I knew would little please.
Let fall the unfinish'd wreath, and roved for fruit;
Roved far and gather'd much : some harsh, tis true,
Pick'd from the thorns and briers of reproof.
But wholesome, well digested, grateful some
To palates that can taste immortal truth ;
Insipid else, and sure to be despised.
" The Task " w^as accompanied by a shorter poem, entitled " Tiroci
nium," written expressly in dispraise of the existing system of public
schools in England ; and prompted by CoAvper's bitter recollection of
his sufferings at Westminster. The volume was published in 1785.
As soon as this Avas completed, Cowper engaged in another more
laborious undertaking, the translation of Homer. This also was sug
gested by Lady Austen ; and it had a most beneficial effect in furnish
ing the poet with constant employment from this time forward to the
end of his life, with the exception of those periods in which the pres
sure of disease was too severe to admit of any exertion. He spared no
pains in the execution of this great work ; and after, his version was
made, subjected it to a most careful revision, amounting nearly to a
re-translation. It Avas pubHshed in 1791, and was preceded by a list
of subscribers, whose number and individual eminence bear testimony
to the high esteem in which CoAvper Avas then held. His translation,
however, has never been popular : he has avoided Pope's errors, but
he has failed in giving life and interest, and in catching the vital spirit
of his author.
During the long period Avhich the literary labours above-mentioned
occupied, Cowper's domestic history is characterized by the same
general depression and the same seclusion as Ave have above de
scribed. In 1784 his friendship Avith Lady Austen was interrupted

194 COWPER.
by a disagreement between her and Mrs, Unwin, Avho seems to have
feared that the former might obtain an influence over the poet para
mount to her OAvn ; and to have been justly hurt at the prospect of
becoming second in the affections of him, to Avhom, for so many years,
she had devoted herself with a zeal which merited the utmost return,
CoAvper felt this, and he himself broke off his intercourse with Lady
Austen, in a Avay which was admitted by herself to do credit to his
delicacy and judgment, no less than to his generosity. In about a
year after the termination of this valuable friendship, he received the
best amends that could be made, in the renewal of intercourse, after it
had been interrupted for twenty-three years, Avith his cousin Lady
Hesketh, to whom from childhood he had been strongly attached.
She visited Olney in June, 1786; and from that time forwards her
purse and her personal exertions Avere unsparingly bestowed to pro
mote the comfort of her beloved cousin. At her instance his confined
and ruinous abode at Olney was exchanged in November, 1786, for a
commodious house in the pretty neighbouring village of Weston,
which Avas especially recommended to CoAvper as being the residence
of his esteemed friends Mr. and Mrs, Throckmorton, Here Lady
Hesketh commonly spent part of the year. The state of CoAvper's spirits
during his residence at Weston was variable ; but he made a few new
acquaintance, and among them his correspondent, Mr. Rose, and his
biographer, Mr. Hayley. He also enjoyed a vivid pleasure in the re
newal of intercourse Avith his maternal relations, among whom his young
cousin Johnson, who afterwards became his tender and devoted guardian,
obtained an especial place in his affections. Still, hoAvever, his mental
malady continued unabated ; and a new cause of uneasiness beset him
in the growing infirmities of Mrs. UnAvin. In March, 1792, the
disease which had been for some time sapping her strength, mani
fested itself in a paralytic attack, from Avhich she never entirely re
covered. From thenceforward Cowper's time and attention were
devoted, as his primary object, to contributing to her comfort and
amusement. In her company he quitted his home, the first time
for tAventy-seven years, to visit Mr. Hayley's seat at Eartham, in
Sussex. Two important works had engaged his attention : one a
poem on the four ages of man's life, the other an edition of Milton.
These, however, were successively laid aside ; and such time as his
weak spirits and melancholy occupation allowed him, he employed in
revising his Homer for a second edition. But Mrs. Unwin became
more and more enfeebled in mind and body ; and in the beginning of
1794 Cowper relapsed into a gloom as deep as that which he had
endured at the commencement of his malady. To watch over him in

COWPER. 195
this melancholy Lady Hesketh made Weston her constant, instead of
her occasional abode, until the middle of the following year, when
her health gave way under the constant pressure of anxiety. Mr.
Johnson, who had taken orders, and resided at East Dereham in
Norfolk, then undertook the charge of his unhappy relation ; removed
him and Mrs. Unwin into his OAvn neighbourhood, and watched
over their decline with the most unwearied and judicious tenderness.
But little could now be done to give Cowper pleasure. The
pathetic poem, " To Mary," is supposed by Mr. Hayley to have
been the last thing written by him before quitting Weston ; and the
only original verses which he composed aftei-wards were some Latin
lines, which he translated into English, on the appearance of some
ice islands in the German Sea, and the touching poem called the
" Cast-away," founded on the loss of a man overboard in Anson's voyage,
and alluding in an affecting strain to hi^ own unfortunate condi
tion. After his departure from Weston, he Avho had been so diligent
a correspondent only wrote three or four letters ; nor could he be ex
cited to converse by the visits even of his most intimate friends, as
Mr. Rose and Sir John Throckmorton. In January, 1800, his final
illness, which was dropsy, commenced. He died April 25th in the
same year ; nor to the last did one gleam of hope break through the
darkness which had surrounded him for twenty-seven years.
It was Cowper's especial merit as a poet to cultivate simplicity and
nature. He set the example of throwing aside conventional affecta
tions and unmeaning pomp of diction, and in consideration of this
great service may well be pardoned for occasionally incurring the
opposite fault of being tame and prosaic. His genius was truly ori
ginal : all his writings, whether moral, satirical, or descriptive, bear
the legible impress of his own peculiar constitution of mind and habits
of thinking. His minor and occasional poems are very happy, for his
imagination could extract a deep and beautiful moral from slight
occurrences, which commonly pass unnoticed in the bustle of life.
Many of his letters are pubHshed in Hayley's Life of Cowper ; and
these are embodied with the Private Correspondence afterwards given
to the world by Mr. Johnson, in the edition of Cowper's works by
Mr, GrimshaAve now in the press. As a letter writer Cowper appears
to us to be unequalled in the English language. His correspondence is
the genuine intercourse of friend with friend ; full of wit and humour,
but a humour that never vents itself in the depreciation of others ; and
abounding in passages of graver beauty, expressed in the most easy,
yet elegant and correct language. When once a man knows that his
letters are admired, he is in great danger of writing for admiration.

196

COWPER.

Cowper was aware of this, and occasionally alludes to the temptation
in lively terms. " I love praise dearly, especially from the judicious,
and those Avho have so much delicacy themselves as not to offend mine
in giving it. But then I found this consequence attending, or likely
to attend, the eulogium you bestowed. If my friend thought me witty
before, he shall think me ten times more witty hereafter; where I
joked once, I will joke five times ; and for every sensible remark,
I will send him a dozen. Now this foolish vanity Avould have spoiled
me quite, and have made me as disgusting a letter Avriter as Pope, who
seems to have thought that unless a sentence was Avell turned, and
every sentence pointed with some conceit, it was not worth the car
riage. I Avas willing therefore to Avait until the impression that your
commendation had made on the foolish part of me was Avorn off, that I
might scribble aAvay as usual, and write my uppermost thoughts, and
those only," (June 8, 1780, To the Rev. W. UuAvin.) No one
ever avoided this danger better. It is strange and wonderful that
these compositions, which bear the stamp of so much cheerfulness and
benevolence, should have been written, most of them, in his deepest
gloom, and avowedly for the purpose of withdrawing his thoughts from
his OAvn misery.

\ I

^

¦Mi^

I!

i„ I

; Mwrnvm:

[Tomb of Cowper, in East Dereham Church, Norfolk.]

GALLERY OF PORTRAITS.

In the Number for the 17th of January last, of the
' Printing Machine,' a literary journal, published weekly
by the publisher of the ' Gallery of Portraits,' a review
appeared of Lodge's ' Portraits of Illustrious Person
ages,' the series of which had been completed on the
previous 1st of January. This review was strictly con
fined to a description of the general plan of Mr. Lodge's
work, with some remarks, principally of a commenda
tory nature, upon its literary merits.
In the following Number of the ' Printing Machine,'
for the 24th of January, the ' Appendix to Preface' of Mr.
Harding was made the subject of an article. This is
copied below, without alteration or omission : —
In his ' Appendix to Preface,' Mr. Joseph Harding refers, with
very excusable feelings of pride and self-congratulation, as well as
with expressions of grateful acknowledgement, to the great suc
cess his publication has met with, and the encouragement which
had not failed to wait upon it from the first appearance of the
prospectus, more than twenty years ago. " Since that period,"
he says, " the most extraordinary patronage that ever attended
any literary effort to obtain public approval has accompanied and
cheered the projector of the work in the execution of his arduous
but gratifying labour."
To all this we have no sort of objection. The publishers of
' Portraits of Illustrious Persons' had the good sense to discover,
at an early period of the career of that work, that what they ori
ginally intended to produce, at a very high price indeed, for the
exclusive use of the most wealthy, might be made attractive to
a rank of persons somewhat beneath the quality of the " Illus
trious" whom they delight to register. They brought down their
imperial, India paper, two guinea Numbers, to the purses of the
hundreds who could afford to pay \2s.6d. for the same plates,
without a sea of margin. All praise to them for their laudable
courage in the cause of cheapness. But other persons thought
that the thousands, as well as the hundreds, might be induced to pur
chase a ' Gallery of Portraits,' not of inferior execution as works
of art, and far superior in the range of its sympathies ; and think
ing thus, they boldly published such a work, at a rate tuio-thirds
cheaper than the ' Portraits of Illustrious Persons.' This was a
deadly sin in the eyes of Mr. Joseph Harding, which he visits
with the following anathema in his ' Appendix to Preface V —
•* The numerous portrait galleries and publications formed upon tlie plan of
this work, in avowed admission of its excellence, and imitation of its design,
afford ample evidence of the high ground which it took up, and which it has
maintained above the herd of anonymous and servile imitators who have fol
lowed at a respectful distance in its train, watching the development of its
plan, and copying its principal features. These imitators, by substituting
cheapness of manufacture for sterling worth of execution, have endeavoured
to thrust their spurious ware upon public notice, and sought to obtain an ephe
meral existence by fixing themselves upon the high reputation which this great
work has honourably aciiieved. Such a piracy of plan is scarcely less base
than the abstraction of property, perpetrated through the abuse of commercial
confidence, a flagrant instance of which, in the firm of the conductor of this
work, and in the person of his partner, Mr. John Lepard, has caused a thort
delay in delivering the concluding portion of it to the subscribers "
In regard to the extraordinary statement contained in the con
cluding words of this extract, we shall of course say nothing ; but
having transcribed it, we are bound, in justice to Mr. Lepard, to
give also his short but emphatic reply to the accusation. It is as
follows : —
" I deeply regret that the disagreements of my partner, Mr. Harding, and
myself, should be obtruded on the public notice. From the injustice of the
charge contained in the foregoing Appendix, it is impossible I can remain
silent; I therefore state, most explicitly, that in no instance whatever have I
abstracted the property of the firm, or in any way committed a breach of com
mercial confidence.' '
In propriety of tone, at least, this address may be advantage
ously compared with that to which it is an answer.
In giving expression to his wrath against the publishers of cer
tain other collections of Portraits, Mr. Harding may appear not
to go to work quite so directly as he does in making the charge
against his partner. He has not ventured to name any particular
publication as being a piracy of his work. But the difference is
most probably to be otherwise explained. From the state of ex
citement in which he appears to have been, and the reckless fury
which he manifests, it is not to be supposed that any considera
tions either of propriety or of prudence would, while he was
penning this strange effusion, have weighed a feather in restrain
ing him from uttering whatever his passion dictated; and it must
therefore be concluded that he has avoided mentioning any par
ticular series of portraits, only because he intended to denounce
every such series as an invasion of his property. Will he
frankly tell us if there is any one such publication now going
forward, which he does not think ought to be put down on this
ground ? If there be one such publication, will he name it ?
Now this is a very magnificent claim which Mr. Joseph Hard
ing puts forward. We will just ask him if he considers himself
the inventor of collections of portraits with accompanying me
moirs, that he thus demands a monopoly of the article? Unfor
tunately, it is distinctly confessed, at the commencement of the
present wort that its plan can lay claim to no such originality.

" Publications of similar character," says Mr. Lodge in his Pre
face, " have already appeared in this country, and are held in
high estimation," He then proceeds to mention, as the most im
portant of these previous collections, that of Houbrakeri, with
memoirs by Birch, and that of Holbein's Heads from the Royal
Library. He contends, indeed, that these and other former
works were marked by considerable defects of execution, ivhicb
an attempt is made to correct in the present ; but the notion that
there is any novelty in the general plan of the new work— in its
combination of portraits and memoirs (the single point in which
any of the other publications, against which Mr. Harding
launches his invective, has in common with his own) — is not for
a moment hinted at.
By means of the sneaking contrivance of Italic letters, Mr.
Harding has, in the passage we have quoted, essayed to point
his charge more especially at the ' Gallery of Portraits,' published
under the superintendence of the Society for the Diffusion of
Useful Knowledge, Either that he might not sacrifice the gene
ral comprehensiveness of his denouncement, or from not having
the manliness to put his meaning in distinct words, he has not
indeed expressly named that publication; but his attack, though
more skulking, is not therefore the less obvious, nor shall we be
the less ready to meet it as it deserves.
We understand him, then, to say, that the ' Gallery of Por
traits' is formed upon the plan of his work and in imitation of
its design ; — that the former is a servile imitator, which has fol
lowed the latter at a respectful distance, watching the develop
ment of its plan and copying its principal features ; — that the
conductors of the ' Gallery of Portraits,' by " substituting cheap
ness of manufacture for sterling worth of execution, have endea
voured to thrust their spurious ware upon public notice," — that
they have " sought to obtain an ephemeral existence" for their
publication by " fixing themselves" upon the high and honourably
achieved reputation of his " great work" — and that, by thus act
ing, they have been guilty of a " piracy," " scarcely less base than
the abstraction of property, perpetrated through the abuse of
commercial confidence."
We take leave to tell Mr. Joseph Harding that this rigmarole
is, from beginning to end, neither more nor less than a tissue of
misrepresentations. There is one particular, at least, to which we have already
adverted, in which it may be seen from the outside of any of the
Numbers, that the ' Gallery of Portraits ' is not an imitation of
the ' Portraits of Illustrious Personages.' The price of the one
work bears but a very distant resemblance to that of the other.
Mr. Harding, for five portraits, charges 12s. Gd. ; the proprietor
of the ' Gallery of Portraits ' charges but 2«. 6d. for three. In
other words, the one publication is exactly three times as dear
as the other. If the average length of the memoirs be somewhat
greater in the more expensive work, that difference of a few
pages of letter-press in each Number will go but a very trifling
way to make up for this great disparity. There can be no doubt
that the cheapness of the ' Gallery of Portraits,' after all, is, in
the eyes of Mr. Joseph Harding, its chief offence. For all his
virtuous abhorrence of imitation, he would have been very well
pleased to have seen a little more of it here.
But of all such accusations we ever heard of, that which
charges the one of these publications with being an imitation in
any one respect of the other ' is about the most unfounded and
utterly senseless. In both ' object and contents the two works
are perfectly dissimilar. The one is a collection of portraits of
personages illustrious chiefly on account of their rank, or what
may be called their historic notoriety ; none, as we fully showed
in our last Number, are admitted into the series who, whatever
may be their eminence in other respects, are destitute of this
particular kind of qualification. It is a collection of kings and
queens, and noble lords and ladies, and ofiicers of State. The
other is a gallery of the intellectually illustrious — of those who
have made themselves names not simply by the situations they
have held, or the national transactions with which they have been,
accidentally or otherwise, mixed up, but by their works of art or
of literature, their scientific discoveries, their inventions in the
arts, or by the surpassing power by which, in any other way,
they have promoted the cause of human happiness or civilization.
But above all, while Mr. Harding's work is confined to the illus
trious personages of Great Britain (and even to but one particular
class of these), the ' Gallery of Portraits ' embraces the natives
of all countries. This makes as complete a distinction between
the two works as between any two publications which it would
be easy to name.
And in point of fact, what is the actual extent to which the
one publication trenches upon the ground occupied by the other ?
Mr. Harding's work contains in its 48 numbers 240 portraits ;
the 32 Numbers, making four volumes of the ' Gallery of Por
traits ' already published, contain 96 portraits. Of the 170
portraits contained in the first 34 Numbers of the former pub
lication, just 6 are of the same individuals whose heads are given
in the latter; and altogether there are only 13 names which are
common to the two works — 13 out of 336 ! These are Sir Tho
mas More, Cranmer, Drake, Oliver Cromwell, Hale, Robert
Boyle, Somers, Marlborough, Sir Isaac Newton, Rodney, Nelson,

GALLERY OP PORTRAITS.

Fox, and Sir Joseph Banks. And, in very few of even this small
number of instances, has the engraving been made from the
same picture in the two works. Marlborough, in both works, is
from the picture at Blenheim. The engravings of Cromwell in
the two publications appear to have been taken from two copies
of the same picture, or rather from two pictures, the one of which
must be a copy of the other. That in Lodge is stated to be from
an original of Walker, in the collection of Earl Spencer ; that in
the ' Gallery of Portraits,' from the picture presented by Crom
well to Colonel Rich, and bequeathed by his great-grandson, Sir
Robert Rich, Bart., to the British Museum. In this instance,
the two engravings are also by the same artist, E. Scriven. In both
works the portrait of Hale is from the original picture in the
library of Lincoln's Inn ; and that of Nelson is from Hoppner's
picture belonging to his Majesty. In all the other cases different
pictures have been copied in the two works. The two portraits
of Cranmer have no resemblance whatever that we can trace ;
and the two of Rodney, although both from pictures by Reynolds,
evidently represent the Admiral at quite different periods of his life.
But there is another point, and that with reference to the en
gravings, in which the publications are as dissimilar as possible ;
but in which point it would have been exceedingly easy for " ser
vile imitators" to have " followed at a respectful distance in the
train" of Mr. Harding's work, — " watching the development of
its plan, and copying its principal /eafares." The fine metapho
rical words which Mr. Joseph Harding uses of train and features,
at once suggest to us this great distinction between the two
works. Mr. Harding's ' Portraits of Illustrious Persons' is a rich
cabinet indeed for the curious in costume. We do not undervalue
such curiosity; and the study may be of singular use in the arts,
even in our own day. A worthy and loquacious hair- dresser, for
example, instructed us not long since as to the dignity of his
calling, in the following good set terms : — " Sir, you have no
notion of the labour of our profession ; I dress Mr. Abbott at the
Victoria every night for Francis I. It takes me a full hour. I
have studied hard, sir. I look at the ' Portraits of Illustrious
Persons' wherever they fall in my way ; I could not do without
historical pictures." In this department of art Mr. Harding is
truly great. Jane Seymour's stomacher, and the pearls upon her
neck, are marvellous ; Bacon's /ace is a dandy miniature, — but
then his chancellor's i-obe is superb ; Strafford is stiff and lacka
daisical, — but his armour is exquisitely polished ; you might cover
Cecil's face with a silver penny, — bnt then his staff of office is
given at full-length. In the ' Gallery of Portraits,' on the con
trary, the principal object has been to exhibit " the mind"
" Beaming from the face :" —
the " leather and prunella " are thought of less importance.
Throughout the two works, this broad distinction universally
prevails. In the ' Portraits of Illustrious Persons,' nearly every
print is what is called a three-quarter size — that is, down to the
knees. In the ' Gallery of Portraits,' the size of each print is what
is called half-length. It is easy to understand how much is gained
for the character and expression of the face ; and this is what is
principally required for the intellectually eminent. Those who take
pleasure in looking upon the faces of maids of honour and lords of
the bedchamber, will repose with satisfaction upon Mr. Harding's
exhibition of point lace, and velvet, and embroidery, and stars :
those who delight in the varying aspects of the " human face di
vine," as it is exhibited in the men who have made even their
perishable garb of flesh an object of interest for all time, will
find abundant satisfaction in the spirit and fidelity of the ' Gal
lery of Portraits.'
But we have one word still for Mr. Joseph Harding. He has
impudently (we use the term advisedly) spoken of " spurious
ware " produced by " substituting cheapness of manufacture for
sterling worth of execution." It would be invidious to point out
particular plates in the * Gallery of Portraits ;' but we may at
once state, what we shall be borne out in asserting by every
judge of engraving in the country, that, as a work of art, the
' Gallery of Portraits' is incomparably superior to the " great
work" which Mr. Harding has so successfully published. There
are plates in the ' Gallery of Portraits,' and these not few, which
are universally recognised to be equal, in their style of engraving,
to the very finest works ever produced by the finest masters. We
do not make the assertion at random. But as Mr. Harding has
provoked the comparison, let us try the matter by a more univer
sally intelligible test. 'The publisher of the ' Gallery of Por
traits' has shown us his accounts of the expenses of his work,
and we are not without information as to the prices paid by Mr.
Joseph Harding. We assert, with this knowledge, — and we in
vite Mr. Harding to controvert the assertion in this our Journal,
if he can, — that throwing " staytape and buckram," buttons and
brocade into the bargain, — paying as dearly as he ought to pay
for all this apprentice- work of the artists whom he has employed,
— the average rate paid for engravings in the ' Gallery of Por
traits' exceeds, by 20 per cent., the average rate which Sir.
Harding has paid for the ' Portraits of Illustrious Persons ;' and,
further, that the lowest rate paid for plates in the ' Gallery' is,
with very few exceptions indeed, the highest rate ever paid for the
' Illustrious.' If there be any doubt, the matter is easy of proof.
For example, Mr, W. T. Fry has engraved five plates in the

' Illustrious,' and three in the ' Gallery ;' Mr. W. Holl twenty.
four in the one, and seventeen in the other ; Mr. Scriven twenty-
two in the one, and fourteen in the other ; Mr. J. Thomson
twelve in the one, and seven in the other. Here we have named
four artists who have, collectively, engraved sixty-three plates
for the ' Illustrious,' and forty-one for the ' Gallery.' Are these
the gentlemen who have produced " spurious ware," at a " cheap
manufacture .'" We invite them to publish the truth, if Mr.
Joseph Harding chooses to rest upon his self-satisfaction.
We should not have deemed this shop-keeping spite worthy of
notice, were we not aware that there are many people in the
world who have persuaded themselves, by listening to some
small weekly cant, about high prices and goodness being synony
mous, that what is sold at a cheap rate cannot be good. W^e
would recommend to such persons a careful comparison between
what Mr. Harding sells at 12s. Gd., and what Mr. Knight sells at
2s. ^d. — a comparison not only in the literary department, but in
the engravings, and the execution altogether. Having satisfied
themselves in this particular case, we would commend to their
notice a passage in a recent Number of the ' Journal of Educa
tion,' in which Professor Airy's remarkable work on ' Gravita
tion,' which was written for the ' Penny Cyclopaedia,' (the
' Penny Cyclopaedia ! ') is thus noticed, with reference to the
work in which it is intended ultimately to appear —
" To those organs of public opinion which have sneered at cheap works,
because they are cheap, the present treatise will be a useful lesson; and as a
predecessor of Professor Airy remarked, in another case, they ' may read it,
not unprofitably, since, if it does not prove the cure of prejudice, it will be at
least the punishment.' But there may be another and a higher class, better
worth the bringing to a proper view of what they can do, and ought to do, for
the promotion of habits of sound reasoning among their fellow-countrymen:
and surely the example of Professor Aiiy and Sir John Herschel in England
with that of M. Arago in France, ought to induce those who are able to teach,
to look upon such sneers with indifference equal to the scorn with which they
are regarded by those who are wilUng to learn. Let them leave such little
prejudices to the little world they were made for ; and comparing the state of
instruction now existing, with that of a preceding age, let them not presume
to say how far knowledge may or ought to be extended, but furnish all the
means in their power, and settle that point, as they determine an imknown
fact in astronomy, by observation."
In the ' Athenaeum' of the 31st January, an article
on the subject of ' Lodge's Portraits' was published —
very short as regards that work — but which was made
the vehicle of an attack on the ' Gallery of Portraits.'
This attack will be given at length in a reply which ap
pears in the ' Printing Machine' of the 7th of February.
It was as follows : —
The ATHENiEUM AND THE GaLLERY OF PORTRAITS.  The
Athenceum, of January 31, contains some remarks, which we
shall give at length, on the ' Gallery of Portraits." This work
has been published monthly, from the 1st of June, 1832, — during .
which time the artists alone engaged in its production have not
been paid less than Five Thousand Pounds. 'This, however, is the
frsl notice which the Athenceam, 'A Journal of English and
Foreign liiterature. Science, and the Fine Arts^ has condescended
to take of the publication. According to the creed of the Athe-
naum and the Literary Gazette, it must be trumpery and unde
serving of notice because it is cheap : —
"The readers of the 'Athenceum' will recollect the untiring spirit with
which we heretofore exposed the disingeuuousuess of trade criticism — we had
hoped successfully ; not so — tlie publishing firm trading under tlie name, in
the name, or as agents, of the Diffusion Society, have had the temerity to put
forth another venture. They declare themselves, of course, the only traders
not likely to be carried out of their direct and honest course by trade winds;
still io this instance at least (the review of 'Lodge's Poi traits'), it does happen
awkwardly, because it miglit have tended to bias their judgment, that they —
the traders — the critics — have a rival publication in the Jinld. called Vie Oallery
of Portraits !
" Our attention, however, having been thus drawn to the relative merits of
these works, we have hastily compared them: and certainly whatever credit
may be due to Mr. Lodge for giving us genuine portraits, taken from well-
authenticated originals, we cannot extend tlie same to the getters-up of the
* Galleiy;' for unless we are str.angely mistaken, many of theirs must have
been clu-isteued at a venture. Thus, a sour-looking old Dutch burgomaster,
with an intolerable squint, is given as a portrait of the learned Grotius I —
Grotius ! whose portraits are laiown to every one acquainted with art. Then,
again, we have a jolly-looking German doctor, whose arms may be seen in the
corner of the picture, passed off for M.irtin Luther I on the authority, we sup
pose, of the show-womjin at Windsor Castle, \\ here, it is said, the original may
be seen ; who, in describing to us and others the story of Hero and Leander,
concluded, pointing to the last of the tapestries, ' There is Hero throwing
herself into the sea: her body was picked up by Captain Vansittart,_of
his Majesty's ship Bellerovhcn, and taken to Gibraltar, where she lies
buried.' Further, we found a head of Boccaccio, from a print after a pic
ture by Titian I — 13occ.accio having been dead more than a hundred years
before Titian was born. So little, indeed, do the conductors of this
Galleri/ seem to care about tiie authenticity of the originals, that in one
number a professed portrait is given of Peter the Great; but as Peter
the Great was known to everybody except the patronizing Committee,
another was subsequently substituted, and the name then erased from the first
plate, which figures in a futm'e number as the portrait of John Sobieski, King
of Poland 1 We were also struck with the utter want of resemblance between
some of the eugiavinga and the original pictures, even when the authenticity
of the latter was beyond question. We see, indeed, the names of respectable
engravers to many of ihese prints; but what does it signify who were the en
gravers, unless the reduced copies put into their hands were carefully and
skilfully done ? So important, indeed, is this considered, that it is said Messrs,
Moon, Boys, and Co. paid no less than 700/. for the copy from which ' The
Chelsea Pensioners' was engraved. Let any one, we care not who, with a
competent knowledge of art, and uninfluenced, look at the professed portraits
in the • Gallery,' of Sir Matthew Hale, Sir Thomas More, Michael Angelo.

GALLERY OF PORTRAITS.

Pascal, Burke, and others, and then say, on their honour, whether they bear
the slightest resemblance, except in mere form, to the well-kno^vn portraits of
those illustrious men ? We have been most unwillingly drawn into this com
ment, but it does seem to us to exceed everything in the records of trade criti
cism that a publishing firm, having started a rival work to the * Portraits of
Illustrious Personages,' witli all the advantageous humbug in their favour of a
long list of patronizing noblemen and gentlemen, should venture in an affected
criticism to attack the original work, which for twenty years has been received
with universal commendation, characterizing it as a mere exhibition of court
costumes only worthy to aid and help in the getting up a pantomime at the
Victoria. Can the Committee know of these proceedings?
" If there be any error in our description of the parties engaged in this un
generous warfare, it arises ixom the confusion of interests. If the * Gallery of
portraits' be really the property of the Diti'usion Society, will any one of the
Committee favour us with the exact amount of profit — the one shilling, if such
be the fact — received by the Society up to this the 29th of January, 1835, from
the sale of that work ?"
The Morning Herald, a paper whose judgment in matters of
literature and art (as well as in political economy) must be spoken
of with the highest deference, has the following paragraph of
comment upon the criticism of the Alhenaium : —
" A weekly pubhcation makes a dreadful onslaught on the ' Gallery of Por-
ti'BJts' of the Knowledge-Diffusion concern, mentioning, among many similar
statements, that their Feter the Great not being found any great lilteness of
Peter, they altered the inscription to the plate, and vowed it was the portrait
of John Sobieski, King of Poland! Surely the Diffusion concern must prove
the falsehood of such charges, or  ." — (Morning Herald, Feb. 3.)
*' The progress of a lie'' is always an interesting phenomenon.
A lie (such as a " weekly publication" loves to concoct) is a snow
ball which a kennel-raking " cad " hurls at some unoffending
passenger. The snow-ball misses its mark, and would perish in
an hour; but another '-cad" handles it in his delicate palm,
kneads it afresh, gives it a kick or two forward, and confers a
newer and a dirtier shape upon it. It holds together for an hour
of dinginess, and then melts to swell the sewers.
Let us compare the shapes and colours of the snow-ball of the
Athenwum and the snow-ball of the Herald.
ATHENa^UM. HERALD.
" So little, indeed, do the conductors " Peter the Great not being found
of the Gallery seem to care about the any great likeness of Peter, they
authenticity' of the originals, that in altered the inscription to the plate,
one Number a professed portrait is and vowed it was the portraitof John
given of Peter the Great ; but as Peter Sobieski, King of Poland."
the Great was known to every body
except the patronizing Committee,
another was subsequently substituted,
and the name then erased from the
first plate, which figures in a future
Number as John Sobieski, King of
Poland." The shapes and colours of the primitive snow-ball of the Athe-
nceum and the stale snow-ball of the Herald, are somewhat dif
ferent ; but they have each the mark of the kennel upon them.
The " plain tale" about the plate of Sobieski is as follows : —
In the 16th Number of the ' Gallery,' published on the 1st of
September, 1833, appeared a ' Life of Peter the Great,' with a
Portrait, sitated to be " from an original picture in the Gallery of
the Louvre." In the 24th Number of the same work, published
on the 1st of May, 1834, an extra plate was given, namely, one
of 'Peter the Great/ from a print by J. Smith, after a picture
by Kneller. In the same number appeared a ' Life of John So
bieski,' with the plate, bearing that name, that formerly appeared
as ' Peter the Great.' In this 24th Number the following No
tice was inserted : —
" Notice. — In consequence of a wrong description of a picture in the ' Ca
talogue of the Gallery of the Louvre,' the name of Peter the Great has been
affixed in this work to a portrait of Sobieski. In the present Number, in
order to rectify the error, the correct portrait of Peter is given in addition to
that of Sobieski, which will enable the possessors of the work to have it in
serted in its proper place."
What were the critics doing with this blunder "known to
everybody except the patronizing Committee," from the 1 st of
September to the 1st of May P Up to this hour, John Sobieski
might have been called Peter the Great for them ; for John and
Peter are each in armour, and each is covered with a kingly
mantle. All that the AthentBum knows about the matter it de
rives from the ' Notice' which we have just given ; which Notice
it suppresses. Is it so very atrocious in the " patronizing Com
mittee " to have been misled by " a wrong description of a pic
ture in the Catalogue of the Gallery of the Louvre."' Is it a
deadly sin to have corrected " the wrong description" the mo
ment the error was detected, at an expense to the publisher of
some forty or fifty pounds ? The facts of the case were these : —
M. Fradelle, a native of France, but honourably known as an
artist in London, was employed to make copies for the ' Gallery,'
of pictures in Paris. He had access to the first public and pri
vate collections ; and Louis Philippe, much to his honour, took
considerable pains to place before M. Fradelle all the pictures
that he possessed in his several private collections. A fine por
trait of Sully, for example, was sent for by the King to Paris
from a considerable distance, and was among those copied by M.
Fradelle. Peter the Great was in the list of M. Fradelle's com
missions. In the Louvre was a portrait long known and described
in the National Catalogue as Peter the Great. This M. Fradelle
copied and sent to England. It differed, indeed, from Kneller's
picture ; but then Kneller's was taken while Peter, a very young
man, was in England, and the copy from the Louvre was at a
much more advanced period of life. The picture was engraved
and published Within a week after its publication, a letter was

received from M. Fradelle, most anxiously expressing his hope
that the print had not been brought out, for, during the comple
tion of his commission, some doubts had arisen as to the naming
of this picture in the Catalogue of the Louvre, and that, upon
tracing its history, it had been ascertained that it really was a
portrait of John Sobieski. The new plate was immediately put
in hand, the error pointed out, and the purchasers of the work
presented with the portrait of Peter, after Kneller, to substitute
for the Peter of the Louvre. " So little do the conductors of the
'Gallery' seem to care about the authenticity of the originals."
Let us return to the " honest" Athenaeum.
" The publishing firm, trading under the name, in the name, or as agents of
the Useful Knowledge Society."
'•' The publishing firm," that of Charles Knight, to which the
' Athenaeum' alludes, neither trades " under the name, in the
name, nor as agent of the Useful Knowledge Society." It trades,
amongst other tradings, in works " under the superintendence of
the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge." It trades
in these works, as Mr. Baldwin also trades in the same works, by
purchasing Copyrights of the Society. It purchases copyrights of
the Society, as Mr. Murray purchases copyright of Mr. Allan
Cunningham, or Mr. Colburn of Sir. Bulwer, by a specific pay
ment, or a contingent payment. This fact the Alhenceum knows
full well, through the Society's Reports, of which the Alhenaium
has been a diligent misquoter. In the Report for 1832 is the
following passage : —
" The arrangements which have been made with the Publishers since the
commencement of the Society, have gone upon the principle of leaving the
Committee, as far as possible, free from risk, and unincumbered with commer
cial responsibily ; but, at the same time, deriving a fair proportion of pecuniary
advantage from the ultimate success ot any undertaking.
" The Publisher usually pays the Society a sura for copyright in the first
instance, sufficient to cover the disbursements to Authors by the Committee;
and after a certain limit of sale has been attained, the Society further
receives from the Publisher a rent calculated at a fixed rate per 1000 copies.
In otlier cases, the Publisher himself incurs uU the expense attendant
upon the authorship and embelbshments of the work, and pays the Society
a clear rent, determined by the sale beyond a given point. A lar^e
amount of the profits accruing to the Society from works already published is
invested in future undertakings. These sums are not shown in the Treasurer's
Annual Report, because they are not brought into account, in many cases, till
the publication of each particular work for which such advances lo Authors
and Artists are made; but they nevertheless constitute a large amount of capi
tal employed in the most efficient manner — namely, in making such extensive
preparations as will ensure to the Society the best power of realizing their
objects. By these arrangements, the Committee do not become involved in
any of the uncertainties or liabilities of trade. At the same time, they never
renounce that superintendence and control which it is their duty to exercise
over all the publications of the Society."
So much for the terms upon which the "publishing firm" in
question deals with the Society; and which terms are conclusive
as to the mighty silly question which the Alhenceum asked a few
weeks ago, why the Society did not buy its paper and print its
books by open tender ? 'The publishing firm to which the Aihe-
nisum has so special an enmity, buys its paper and prints its
books where it pleases. We are instructed to say, that if the
editor of the ' Athenaeum' is desirous of extending his printing
concerns, " the publishing firm" is quite open to receive a card of
his prices. The publishing firm has long ago refused to insert its
advertisements in a dishonest paper — a paper which would affect
to mistake the trial of Lord Essex for the case of Lady Essex ; *
but if his compositors want an extra job, " the publishing
firm" will have no objection to try the compositors' hands (they
are comparatively clean) upon some small matter. As to any
engagement with the writers in the ' Athenaeum,' the " publishing
firm" humbly begs to be excused.
It seems, then, that the " publishing firm" has committed a
great offence in admitting a review of 'Lodge's Portraits' into the
' Printing Machine.' The Alhenceum, of course, suppresses some
thing. It suppresses the name of the work in which ' Lodge'
was reviewed ; and it suppresses the important fact that the
review was called forth by a disingenuous and paltry attack upon
the ' Gallery of Portraits' by one of the proprietors of ' Lodge.'
The attention of the ' Athenaeum' having been " drawn to the
relative merits of these works," it has " hastily compared them."
Mr. Harding attacked the ' Gallery' upon a charge of producing
"spurious ware" by "cheap manufacture." Mr. Harding was
told, and he was challenged to show the contrary, that the best
engravers engaged in ' Lodge' were also engaged in the ' Gal
lery,' and that all the artists employed in the 'Gallery' were,
upon an average, paid 20 per cent, more than they had been paid
for their work in ' Lodge.' Mr. Harding does not reply ; but
the " honest" Athenceum does. The " honest " Alhenceum says,
 " Vv'e see, indeed, the names of respectable engravers to many
of the prints ; but what does it signify who were the engravers,
unless the reduced copies put into their hands were carefully and
skilfully done ?" Now, on the wrapper of the ' Gallery of Por
traits,' from the 1st of March, 1834, has regularly appeared the
following notice : —
" The copies from the original pictures, after which the engravings have
been made, may be seen giatis at 13, Pall Mall East."
The " honest" Alhenceum might have stepped in to 13, Pall-
• See the review, in the A'henceum, of Mr. Jardine's ' Crimmal Trials,' in
which a work of the greatest research upon points of constitutional history was
held up to execration as an exciter of the worst passions I

GALLERY OF PORTRAITS.

Mall East, and have looked at these copies, before it threw its
" snow-ball" at the eminent artists who have made the copies —
artists as much distinguished for their general talent as for their
careful fidelity; and if the " honest" Athenczum knew anything
about pictures, it might at least have perceived that these copies
were not made without care and without skill. In an advertise
ment in this Number will be found the particular names of the
artists employed to make these copies, affixed to their various
performances. Of these copies, Mr. Witherington, a member of
the Royal Academy, has made 24 ; Mr. R. W. Buss, well known
as a rising artist of great native talent and acquired knowledge,
has made 15 ; M. Fradelle (who is at present gone to Rome and
Florence to prepare copies for this ' Gallery'), has executed 29 ;
and the remainder have been copied by Mr. Clint, A.R.A., Mr. J.
P. Davis, Mr. Woodman, and others, whose performances are
not to be sneered down by the " we have hastily compared" of
such pert pretenders to criticism. " Honest, honest lago," do
look at the copies, which may be seen gratis, and reconsider this
point. But if the copies turn out to be good, the' originals are not
authentic. The advertisement to which we have referred will settle
this point.* The finest public collections of England and France
have furnished the originals for this ' Gallery,' and individuals
have cheerfully lent their pictures to build up this monument to
the truly illustrious men of all countries. But let us dispose of
petty points of objection. Grotius, " whose portraits are known
to every one acquainted with art," is said to be in this ' Gallery' a
burgomaster with an intolerable squint. The portrait of Grotius,
here given, is from a picture which belonged to the late Mr. He
ber, painted by Mireveldt, of the authenticity of which picture
there is no question. Luther (in the King's collection at Wind
sor) is not Luther. Why, then, does not the keeper of the King's
pictures re-christen it ? " Let any one," says the candid critic,
" we care not who, with a competent knowledge of art, and un
influenced, look at the professed portraits in the ' Gallery' of
Sir Matthew Hale, Sir Thomas More, Michael Angelo, Pascal,
Burke, and others, and then say, on their honour, whether they
hear the slightest resemblance, except in mere form, to the well-
known portraits of these illustrious men ?" Let us understand
the critic. By " well-known portraits" does he mean pictures,
at hand to be referred to, or with which all men are famiUar and
upon whose fidelity all are agreed ; — or does he mean certain
vague likenesses of eminent men, such as float in his own mind
when he marshals up visions of the illustrious dead amongst
whom he will one day take his rank, after the excitation of a
successful ballot at the ' Refuge' for some newly-caught " man of
genius ?" These generalites will not do. The real question is
this — are the copies and are the engravings like the pictures to
which they refer ? Is the Sir Matthew Hale of the ' Gallery'
like the portrait at Lincoln's Inn — the Sir Thomas More like the
enamel after Holbein from which it was copied — the Michael An
gelo like Lord Dover's — the Pascal like the original at Paris by
Philip de Champagne — the Burke like the picture by Sir Joshua ?
Then, further, are the originals the best that could be selected ?
The real answer is the list to which we have already referred.
We had almost passed over the mention of Boccaccio, which is
in the pure Alhenceum style. We repeat the passage : —
" We found a Iiead of Boccaccio, from a print after a picture by Titian I —
Boccaccio having been dead more than a hundred years before Titian was
born." Now the reader of the Alhenceum will, of course, conclude from
this that the engraving of Boccaccio in the Gallery is stated to be
after a picture by Titian; and that the "conductors of the work"
are so ignorant as not to know that Titian could not have painted
Boccaccio /roOT /Ae ^/ff, for that Boccaccio died in 1375, and Titian
was not box'n till 1477. Of course XMeAlhemmim has an exclusive
possession of such recondite knowledge. But how stands the fact
with regard to the print, and where does the Alhenceum get his
knowledge that here is " a head of Boccaccio, after a picture by
Titian.'" Not from the 'Gallery.' The inscription under the
print is " Boccaccio, from a print by Cornelius Van Dalen ;" nor
is there a word about Titian in the accompanying biography.
Everybody acquainted with prints knows that called Boccaccio,
hy C. Van Dalen. But does the editor of the Alhenceum, in point
of fact, know anything at all about C. Van Dalen ? Did he ever
see his fine prints which, in every cabinet, are known as Aretin
and Boccaccio ? Did he take the trouble to look at any of the
various catalogues of the works of great engravers, in which he
would have found these prints mentioned ? Did he ever turn to
such a common book of reference as the ' Biographic Universelle,'
in which (under Dalen) he would have found this passage : —
" II a grave avec godt beaucoup de portraits, entre autres ceux de Catherine
de M'5dicis, de Vassenars, de Spanheim, de I'Amiral Tromp, ceux de I'Aretin,
de Boccace, de Barbarelli, et de Sebastien del Piombo. Quelques personnes
cependant attribuent ceux de Boccace et de I'Aretin k Corneille Visscber."
" Honest, honest lago !"
The concluding question as to the profits derived by the Com
mittee from the sale of the ' Gallery of Portraits' is one which
the " honest" Alhenceum asks upon the strength of having sub-
• The advertisement is given on the wrapper of various works of the Society.

scribed some ten shillings annually to the funds of the S^^'^'^'
The publisher of the ' Gallery' authorizes us to state that ne
never received one shilling from the funds of the Society in sup
port of the work which, we may say without partiality, is an
honour to the arts of this country— which was undertaken and
has been carried on without the support of a single noble patron
—which is sold at the cheapest possible rate, only because it relies
upon the sale of a very large number to the one great patron,
the Public— and which will pay to the Society " a clear rent, de-
termined by the sale beyond a given point" (see Report of Com
mittee, 1832), whether the " honest" Alhenaium poke its nose
into the accounts between the publisher and the Society, or more
wisely trouble its head about the distribution of profits to its
own shareholders." ,,,;:- • •
[The remainder of the article in ' The Printing Machine' re
lates to ' The Penny Cyclopaedia.']

After taking a fortnight to consider of his rejoinder,
the editor of the ' Athenaeum,' in his journal of the 21st
February, publishes the following Notice : —
The Diffusion Company have put forth a volume of words in
reply to our brief comment on their ungenerous and unjust cri
ticism on Lodge's Portraits. The question at issue may be com
pressed iuto a few sentences. We said, if the ' Gallery of Por
traits' belongs to the Society, will any member of the Committee
name the exact amount of profit received by the Society from its
sale ? which, observe, has now been going on for two years and a
half The reply is a long rigmarole about the nature of the
agreements between the Society and its publisher; and we are
then informed, that the ' Gallery of Portraits' is published under
the condition referred to in the Report of 1832, which stipulates
for payment to the Society of " a clear rent determined by the
sale beyond a certain point." Why, it needed no ghost to tell us
that ; — but they should have added, that, when the Report referred
to was published, we proved from their own annual accounts
(and observe that, since then, no accounts have been furnished even
lo the subscribers), that, " in no one instance, had any work ever
sold beyond that ' certain point.' " Again, to keep to specific
facts, did they or did they not publish, as a portrait of Peter the
Great, a head so ridiculously unlike, that another was subse
quently given in lieu of it ? It is admitted that they did, but
they are angry because we did not state that they found out the
blunder. Why, when it was admitted that they had substituted
another portrait, it was a necessary inference. They were, they
say, misled by the Catalogue of the Louvre. What is that to the
purpose, but to prove their ignorance or carelessness ? Then
we laughed at the Luther, and the answer (even after this non
sense about one Catalogue) is, " If it be not Luther, why does
not the Keeper of the King's Pictures re-christen it ?" Again,
we stated that the name having been erased from Peter, he now
figures as John Sobieski, King of Poland. Is it denied? No!
but we are left to infer that, in this instance, somebody has re-
christened it. Why, that was manifest before. As to Grotius,
he remains with his squint just as we left him. But there is no
whipping these people to their satisfaction. They are angry be
cause we did not make the discovery about the Peter, and equally
so about the Boccaccio after Titian, because we did. The inscrip
tion under the plate, they say, describes it as " Boccaccio, after a
print by C. Van Dalen — there is not a word about Titian." To
be sure there was not ; we directed attention to the fact, that
they were ignorant of everything relating to this point, and, in the
blindness of passion, they prove their ignorance. A word, or
rather an anecdote, about engraved portraits, and then, for the
present, we shall have done. Cvomek has left it on record, that
he was once waited on by a publisher, who brought with him an
engraving of ' Adam in Paradise,' surrounded by the usual mus
ter of strange animals, with a request, that he would decently
clothe him with bag-wig, breeches, sword, &c., as he was about to
publish a Natural History, and wanted it to serve for a portrait of
Buffou!— We hadheve concluded, but we have since stumbled
on another anecdote, equally pleasant and pertinent. In a brief
biographical sketch of the late Charles Lamb, privately printed,
and obligingly sent to us, the writer says, " I have heard
that he once sat to an artist of his acquaintance for a whole ieries of
the British Admirals !" So much for the authenticity of en
graved portraits, catalogues, &c.

The publisher of the ' Gallery of Portraits,' being
perfectly satisfied with the issue of the attempts to destroy
a publication which depends, not upon private patronage,
but upon the general estimate of its character, prints for
gratuitous circulation onehundred thousand Copies of this
collected edition of the controversy regarding that work.
Charles Knight,
Ludgatestreel, February 21, 1835.

William Clowes, Printer, Duke-street, Lambeth.

YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

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