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+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #55277 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/55277)
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-The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Gallery of Portraits: with Memoirs.
-Volume 3 (of 7), by Various
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
-the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-Title: The Gallery of Portraits: with Memoirs. Volume 3 (of 7)
-
-Author: Various
-
-Release Date: August 6, 2017 [EBook #55277]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GALLERY OF PORTRAITS, VOL 3 ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Richard Tonsing, Chris Curnow and the Online
-Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
-file was produced from images generously made available
-by The Internet Archive)
-
-
-
-
-
-
- _UNDER THE SUPERINTENDENCE OF THE SOCIETY FOR THE DIFFUSION OF USEFUL
-                              KNOWLEDGE._
-
-
-
-
-                                  THE
-                         GALLERY OF PORTRAITS:
-                                  WITH
-                                MEMOIRS.
-
-                              VOLUME III.
-
-
-                                LONDON:
-                  CHARLES KNIGHT, 22, LUDGATE-STREET.
-
-                                 1834.
-
-                  [PRICE ONE GUINEA, BOUND IN CLOTH.]
-
-
-
-
-                                LONDON:
-                       PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES,
-                         Duke-Street, Lambeth.
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-
-
-                       PORTRAITS, AND BIOGRAPHIES
-                       CONTAINED IN THIS VOLUME.
-
-
-                           1. Erskine       1
-
-                           2. Dollond      12
-
-                           3. John Hunter  19
-
-                           4. Petrarch     25
-
-                           5. Burke        33
-
-                           6. Henry IV.    41
-
-                           7. Bentley      49
-
-                           8. Kepler       59
-
-                           9. Hale         66
-
-                          10. Franklin     77
-
-                          11. Schwartz     86
-
-                          12. Barrow       94
-
-                          13. D’Alembert  101
-
-                          14. Hogarth     106
-
-                          15. Galileo     113
-
-                          16. Rembrandt   121
-
-                          17. Dryden      127
-
-                          18. La Perouse  135
-
-                          19. Cranmer     141
-
-                          20. Tasso       149
-
-                          21. Ben Jonson  156
-
-                          22. Canova      165
-
-                          23. Chaucer     176
-
-                          24. Sobieski    184
-
-  ⁂ It should have been stated in the Life of D’Alembert, that that Life
- was mostly taken from the Penny Cyclopædia, with some alterations by the
-                           Editor of this work.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _Engraved by R. Woodman._
-
-  ERSKINE.
-
-  _From the original Picture by Hoppner
-  in his Majesty’s Collection at Windsor._
-
-  Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful
-    Knowledge.
-
-  _London, Published by Charles Knight, Ludgate Street, & Pall Mall
-    East._
-]
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-                                ERSKINE.
-
-
-The Honourable Thomas Erskine was the third son of David Earl of Buchan,
-a Scottish peer of ancient family and title, but reduced fortune. He was
-born in January 1748, and received the rudiments of his education,
-partly at the High School of Edinburgh, partly at the University of St.
-Andrews. But the straitened circumstances of his family rendered it
-necessary for him to embrace some profession at an early age; and he
-accordingly entered the navy as a midshipman in 1764. Not thinking his
-prospects of advancement sufficiently favourable to render his
-continuance in that service expedient, he exchanged it in the year 1768
-for that of the army. In 1770 he married his first wife, Frances, the
-daughter of Daniel Moore, M.P. for Marlow; and soon after went with his
-regiment to Minorca, where he remained three years. Soon after returning
-to England he changed his profession again. It has been said that he
-took this step against his own judgment, and on the pressing entreaties
-of his mother, a woman of lofty and highly cultivated mind, the sister
-of Sir James Stewart, whose scientific writings, especially upon
-political philosophy, have rendered his name so famous, and the daughter
-of a well known Scotch lawyer and Solicitor-General of the same name.
-But it is certain that at this time he had acquired considerable
-celebrity in the circles of London society; and it is hard to suppose
-that he was not sensible of his own brilliant qualifications for
-forensic success. Whatever the cause, he commenced his legal life in
-1775, in which year he entered himself as a student of Lincoln’s Inn,
-and also as a fellow commoner of Trinity College, Cambridge; not with a
-view to university honours or emoluments, but to obtain the honorary
-degree of M.A., to which he was entitled by his birth, and thereby to
-shorten the period of probation, previous to his being called to the
-bar. He gave an earnest, however, of his future eloquence, by gaining
-the first declamation prize, annually bestowed in his college. The
-subject which he chose was the Revolution of 1688. His professional
-education was chiefly carried on in the chambers of Mr. Buller and Mr.
-Wood, both subsequently raised to the bench. In Trinity term, 1778, he
-was called to the bar.
-
-Mr. Erskine’s course was as rapid as it was brilliant. In the following
-term, Captain Baillie, Lieutenant-Governor of Greenwich Hospital, was
-prosecuted for an alleged libel on other officers of that establishment,
-contained in a pamphlet written to expose the abuses which existed
-there, and bearing heavily on the character of the Earl of Sandwich,
-then First Lord of the Admiralty. It is believed that on this occasion
-Mr. Erskine made his first appearance in court. His speech was
-characterized by great warmth and eloquence, and a most fearless
-assertion of matters not likely to be palatable either to the Court or
-the Government. And this is the more worthy of notice, because it shows
-that the boldness which he afterwards displayed in causes more nearly
-connected with the liberties of England, was not the safe boldness of a
-man strong in professional reputation, and confident in his experience
-and past success, but the result of a fixed determination to perform, at
-all hazards, his whole duty to his client. The best testimony to the
-effect of this speech is to be found in the anecdote, that thirty briefs
-were presented to him by attorneys before he left the court.
-
-We must hasten very briefly through the events of Mr. Erskine’s life to
-make room for speaking at somewhat more length of a very few of his most
-remarkable performances. He rose at once into first rate junior business
-in the Court of King’s Bench, and received a patent of precedence in May
-1783, having practised only for the short space of five years. He
-belonged to the Home Circuit in the early part of his professional life;
-but soon ceased to attend it, or any other, except on special retainers,
-of which it is said that he received more than any man in his time or
-since.
-
-In his political life he was a firm adherent of Mr. Fox: but his success
-in Parliament, which he entered in 1783 as member for Portsmouth, was
-not commensurate with the expectations which had been raised upon the
-brilliant powers of oratory which he had displayed at the bar. On
-attaining his majority in 1783, the Prince of Wales appointed Mr.
-Erskine, with whom he lived in habits of intimacy, to be his
-Attorney-General. This office he was called on to resign in 1792, in
-consequence of his refusing to abandon the defence of Paine, when he was
-prosecuted for a libel, as author of the ‘Rights of Man:’ and his
-removal, though not a solitary, is fortunately a rare instance in modern
-times, of an advocate being punished for the honest discharge of his
-professional duties. Five years afterwards he conducted the prosecution
-of the ‘Age of Reason;’ and in 1802 he was appointed Chancellor of the
-Duchy of Cornwall. On the formation of the Grenville administration, in
-1806, he was appointed Chancellor of Great Britain, and raised to the
-peerage, by the title of Baron Erskine, of Restormel Castle in Cornwall.
-The short period during which he presided in the Court of Chancery,
-makes it difficult to estimate how far his extraordinary powers of mind,
-and in particular the eminently legal understanding which he possessed,
-would have enabled him to overcome the difficulties of so new a
-situation. But his judgments have, generally speaking, stood the test of
-subsequent investigation; and his admirable conduct in the impeachment
-of 1806, over which he presided as Lord High Steward, uniting the
-greatest acuteness and readiness with singular firmness of purpose, and
-all that urbanity which neither in public nor in private life ever
-quitted him for an instant, may be said to have restored to life a mode
-of trial essential to our constitution, though discredited by the
-vexatious procrastination which had characterized the last instance of
-its use.
-
-On the dissolution of the Grenville ministry, which occurred about a
-year after its formation, Lord Erskine retired in a great degree from
-public life. In 1808 he took an active share in opposing the measure of
-commercial hostility, so well known under the name of the Orders in
-Council, and still so deeply felt: and his speech against the Jesuits’
-Bark Bill, which was not reported, is said to have been worthy of his
-most celebrated efforts, both for argument and eloquence. In 1809 he
-introduced into the House of Lords a bill for the prevention of cruelty
-to animals, which passed that branch of the legislature, but was thrown
-out by the Commons. The part, too, which he took upon the memorable
-proceedings of 1820, relative to the Queen’s trial, will long be
-remembered, marked as it was by all the highest qualities of the
-judicial character: and his arguments upon the Banbury case a few years
-before, only leave a regret that he did not devote more of his leisure
-to the legal business of the House of Lords.
-
-After his retirement, Lord Erskine occupied himself occasionally in
-literary pursuits. In this period he composed the Preface to Mr. Fox’s
-Speeches, and the political romance of Armata. His only other written
-work of importance is a pamphlet, entitled ‘View of the Causes and
-Consequences of the War with France,’ which appeared in 1797, and ran
-through the extraordinary number of forty-eight editions. But he is not
-to be considered as a literary man: on the contrary, it is one of the
-many singularities in his history, that with a scanty stock of what is
-usually called literature, he should have been one of our most purely
-classical speakers and writers. His study was confined to a few of the
-greatest models; and these he almost knew by heart.
-
-The later years of his life were harassed by pecuniary embarrassment,
-arising partly from the loss of his large professional income,
-inadequately replaced by a retiring pension of £4000; and partly from an
-unfortunate investment of the fruits of his industry in land, which
-yielded little return when the period of agricultural depression
-arrived. His first wife died in 1805: and an ill-assorted second
-marriage, contracted much later in life, is supposed to have increased
-his domestic disquietudes, as it certainly injured his reputation, and
-gave pain to his friends. He was seized with an inflammation of the
-chest while travelling towards Scotland, and died at Almondale, his
-brother’s seat, near Edinburgh, November 17, 1823. Immediately after his
-decease, the members of that profession of which he had been at once the
-ornament and the favourite, caused a statue of him to be executed. When
-the marble was denied admittance within those walls which had so often
-been shaken by the thunder of his eloquence, they placed it in the hall
-of Lincoln’s Inn, where he had presided as chancellor; a lasting
-monument to those who study the law, that subserviency is not necessary
-to advancement, and that they will be held in grateful remembrance by
-their professional brethren, who boldly uphold the liberties of their
-country.
-
-In speaking, which we can do very briefly, of Lord Erskine’s
-professional merits, our attention is directed to those of his speeches
-which bear on two great subjects, the Liberty of the Press, and the
-doctrine of Constructive Treason, not merely because they embrace his
-most laboured and most celebrated efforts, nor for the paramount
-importance of these subjects in a constitutional point of view; but also
-because we possess a collection of those speeches corrected by himself,
-while of the numberless arguments and addresses delivered on other
-subjects during a most active period of twenty-eight years, but very few
-have been authentically reported. From those which are preserved, the
-rising generation can form but an inadequate idea of this extraordinary
-man’s power as an advocate; such is said, by those who yet remember him,
-to have been the witchery of his voice, eye, and action; such his
-intuitive perception of that which at the instant was likely to have
-weight with a jury. His peculiar skill in this respect is thus described
-by a distinguished writer in the Edinburgh Review, in commenting upon a
-brilliant passage, which we shall presently have occasion to quote. “As
-far as relates to the character of Lord Erskine’s eloquence, we would
-point out as the most remarkable feature in this passage, that in no one
-sentence is the subject, the business in hand, the case, the client, the
-verdict, lost sight of; and that the fire of that oratory, or rather of
-that rhetoric (for it was quite under discipline), which was melting the
-hearts and dazzling the understandings of his hearers, had not the power
-to touch for one instant the hard head of the _Nisi Prius_ lawyer, from
-which it radiated; or to make him swerve, by one hair’s breadth even,
-from the minuter details most befitting his purpose, and the alternate
-admissions and disavowals best adapted to put his case in the safest
-position. This, indeed, was the grand secret of Mr. Erskine’s
-unparalleled success at the English bar. Without it he might have filled
-Westminster Hall with his sentences, and obtained a reputation for
-eloquence, somewhat like the fame of a popular preacher or a
-distinguished actor: but his fortunes,—aye, and the liberties of his
-country,—are built on the matchless skill with which he could subdue the
-genius of a first rate orator to the uses of the most consummate
-advocate of the age.”—(Edinburgh Review, vol. xvi. p. 116–7, 1810.)
-
-Mr. Erskine’s speeches against the doctrine of Constructive Treason were
-delivered in behalf of Lord George Gordon, when accused of high treason
-as the ringleader of the riots in 1780, and in behalf of Messrs. Hardy
-and Horne Tooke, when attacked by the whole weight of Government in
-1794. In the first of these he begins by laying down broadly and
-distinctly the law of treason, as defined by the celebrated statute of
-Edward III. He proceeds, carefully avoiding to offend the probable
-temper of the jury by asserting either the prudence or legality of Lord
-George Gordon’s conduct, to show the total failure of evidence to bring
-his intentions within the scope of the act; the utter want of pretence
-for assuming that he had levied war on the King, the crime charged in
-the indictment; and the utter want of proof to connect him, or the
-Protestant Association, of which he was chairman, with the outrages
-committed by a rabble, insignificant alike in numbers and character. He
-enters into a minute examination of the crown evidence; lays bare the
-infamy of one witness; exposes the forced constructions by which alone
-any legal or moral guilt can be attached to his client; and, warming in
-his subject, breaks out into an appeal to the jury, the effect of which
-is said to have been electric. And it has been justly observed, that by
-such an effect alone could the boldness of the attempt have been
-justified: failure would have been destruction. The eloquence of this
-speech is even less remarkable than the exquisite judgment and
-professional skill by which that eloquence is controlled.
-
-In the State Trials of 1794, the prisoners, it is well known, were
-proceeded against separately. Hardy’s turn came first. They were charged
-with compassing the death of the King, the evidence of this intention
-being a conspiracy to subvert by force the constitution of the country,
-under pretence of procuring, by legal means, a reform in the House of
-Commons. It must be evident to every one that this was stretching the
-doctrine of constructive treason to the utmost: yet Parliament had
-passed a bill, declaring in the preamble that such a conspiracy did
-actually exist; and this being asserted on such high authority, and no
-doubt existing of the prisoners being deeply engaged in the design to
-procure a reform in Parliament, they came to their trial under the most
-serious disadvantages. On this occasion, as in defence of Lord George
-Gordon, Mr. Erskine began by explaining the law of treason, under the
-statute of Edward III. He showed the strictness with which it had been
-defined and limited by the most eminent constitutional lawyers; and
-argued, that granting the intention to hold a general convention, with
-the view of obtaining by that means a reform in Parliament; granting
-even that this amounted to a conspiracy to levy war for that purpose,
-still the offence would not be the high treason charged by the
-indictment, unless the conspiracy to levy war were directly pointed
-against the King’s person. And that there was no want of affection for
-the King himself, appeared fully even from the evidence for the
-prosecution. He maintained that the clearest evidence should be required
-of the evil intention, especially when so different from the open and
-avowed object of the prisoners. He proceeded to show that their
-ostensible object, so far from necessarily involving any evil designs,
-was one which had been advocated by the Earl of Chatham, Mr. Burke, Mr.
-Pitt himself; and that the very measures of reform which it was sought
-to introduce, had been openly avowed and inculcated by the Duke of
-Richmond, then holding office in the ministry of which Mr. Pitt was
-chief. Mr. Hardy, Mr. Tooke, and Mr. Thelwall were severally and
-successively acquitted, and all men now confess that to the powers and
-the courage of this matchless advocate in that day of its peril, the
-preservation of English liberty must be mainly ascribed. The other
-prosecutions were then abandoned.
-
-Mr. Erskine’s powerful and fearless support of the liberty of the
-subject on all occasions rendered him especially sought after by all
-persons accused of political libels; and a large proportion of his most
-important speeches are on these subjects. The earliest reported, and for
-their consequences the most remarkable, are the series of speeches which
-he delivered in behalf of the Dean of St. Asaph, in 1784. Of the merits
-of the case we have not room to speak: but it is important for the
-influence which it had in determining the great question, whether in
-prosecutions for libel, the jury is to judge of fact alone, or of law
-and fact conjointly. For many years it had been the doctrine of the
-courts, that juries had no cognizance of the nature of an imputed libel,
-beyond ascertaining how far the meaning ascribed in the indictment to
-passages charged as libellous was borne out by evidence; the truth of
-these, and the fact of the publication being ascertained, it was for the
-judge to determine whether the matter were libellous or no. This
-doctrine was controverted by Mr. Erskine in his speech for the Dean of
-St. Asaph, and maintained by the judge who tried the case; and on the
-ground of misdirection, Mr. Erskine moved for a new trial. On this
-occasion he went into an elaborate argument to prove that it was the
-office of the jury, not of the judges, to pronounce upon the intention
-and tendency of an alleged libel; and to him is ascribed the honour of
-having prepared the way for the Libel Bill, introduced by Mr. Fox in
-1792, and seconded by himself, in which the rights and province of the
-jury are clearly defined, and the position established, for which he, in
-a small minority of his professional brethren, had contended. This was a
-triumph of which the oldest, and most practised lawyer might have been
-proud; it is doubly honourable to one young in years, and younger in
-professional experience.
-
-Equal perhaps to those in importance, for it bore directly on the
-liberty of the press, and superior in brilliance of execution, is the
-speech in behalf of Stockdale, the bookseller, who was prosecuted for a
-libel on the House of Commons, in consequence of having published a
-pamphlet commenting on the articles of impeachment brought against Mr.
-Hastings, and containing some passages by no means complimentary to some
-portion of that honourable body. The fact of the publication being
-admitted, Mr. Erskine, agreeably to the provisions of the Libel Act,
-proceeded to address the jury on the merits of the work. It was his
-argument, that the tenor of the whole, and the intentions of the writer,
-were to be regarded; and that if these should be found praiseworthy, or
-innocent, the presence of a few detached passages, which, taken
-separately, might seem calculated to bring the House of Commons into
-contempt, were altogether insufficient to justify conviction. This
-speech may be selected as one of the finest examples of Mr. Erskine’s
-oratory, whether for the skill displayed in managing the argument, the
-justness of the principles, the exquisite taste with which they are
-illustrated and enforced, or the powerful eloquence in which they are
-embodied; and from this, in conclusion, we would extract one passage as
-a specimen of his powers. It is sufficient to state in introduction,
-that the pamphlet in question was a defence of Mr. Hastings, and that,
-among other topics, it urged the nature of his instructions from his
-constituents. Commenting on this, the orator proceeds in a strain which
-few persons, not hardened by long converse in affairs of state, will
-read without emotion, or without a deep sense of the justice of the
-sentiments, the gravity of the topics introduced.
-
-“If this be a wilfully false account of the instructions given to Mr.
-Hastings for his government, and of his conduct under them, the author
-and publisher of this defence deserve the severest punishment, for a
-mercenary imposition on the public. But if it be true, that he was
-directed to ‘make the safety and prosperity of Bengal the first object
-of his attention,’ and that under his administration it has been safe
-and prosperous; if it be true that the security and preservation of our
-possessions and revenues in Asia were marked out to him as the great
-leading principle of his government, and that those possessions and
-revenues amidst unexampled dangers have been secured and preserved; then
-a question may be unaccountably mixed with your consideration, much
-beyond the consequence of the present prosecution, involving perhaps the
-merit of the impeachment itself which gave it birth; a question which
-the Commons, as prosecutors of Mr. Hastings, should in common prudence
-have avoided; unless, regretting the unwieldy length of their
-prosecution against him, they wished to afford him the opportunity of
-this strange anomalous defence. For although I am neither his counsel,
-nor desire to have any thing to do with his guilt or innocence, yet in
-the collateral defence of my client I am driven to state matter which
-may be considered by many as hostile to the impeachment. For if our
-dependencies have been secured, and their interests promoted, I am
-driven in the defence of my client to remark, that it is mad and
-preposterous to bring to the standard of justice and humanity, the
-exercise of a dominion founded upon violence and terror. It may, and
-must be true, that Mr. Hastings has repeatedly offended against the
-rights and privileges of Asiatic government, if he was the faithful
-deputy of a power which could not maintain itself for an hour without
-trampling upon both; he may and must have offended against the laws of
-God and nature, if he was the faithful Viceroy of an empire wrested in
-blood from the people to whom God and nature had given it; he may and
-must have preserved that unjust dominion over timorous and abject
-nations by a terrifying, overbearing, insulting superiority, if he was
-the faithful administrator of your government, which, having no root in
-consent or affection, no foundation in similarity of interests, nor
-support from any one principle which cements men together in society,
-could only be upheld by alternate stratagem and force. The unhappy
-people of India, feeble and effeminate as they are from the softness of
-their climate, and subdued and broken as they have been by the knavery
-and strength of civilization, still occasionally start up in all the
-vigour and intelligence of insulted nature. When governed at all, they
-must be governed with a rod of iron; and our empire in the east would
-long since have been lost to Great Britain, if civil skill and military
-prowess had not united their efforts, to support an authority which
-Heaven never gave, by means which it never can sanction.
-
-“Gentlemen, I think I can observe that you are touched with this way of
-considering the subject, and I can account for it. I have not been
-considering it through the cold medium of books, but have been speaking
-of man and his nature, and of human dominion, from what I have seen of
-them myself among reluctant nations submitting to our authority. I know
-what they feel, and how such feelings can alone be repressed. I have
-heard them in my youth, from a naked savage, in the indignant character
-of a prince surrounded by his subjects, addressing the Governor of a
-British colony, holding a bundle of sticks in his hand, as the notes of
-his unlettered eloquence. ‘Who is it,’ said the jealous ruler over the
-desert, encroached upon by the restless foot of English adventure; ‘who
-is it that causes this river to rise in the high mountains, and to empty
-itself into the ocean? Who is it that causes to blow the loud winds of
-winter, and that calms them again in the summer? Who is it that rears up
-the shade of these lofty forests, and blasts them with the quick
-lightning at his pleasure? The same Being, who gave to you a country on
-the other side of the waters, and gave ours to us; and by this title we
-will defend it,’ said the warrior, throwing down his tomahawk on the
-ground, and raising the war-cry of his nation. These are the feelings of
-subjugated man all round the globe; and depend upon it, nothing but fear
-will control, where it is vain to look for affection.
-
-“These reflections are the only antidotes to those anathemas of
-superhuman eloquence which have lately shaken these walls that surround
-us; but which it unaccountably falls to my province, whether I will or
-no, a little to stem the torrent of, by reminding you that you have a
-mighty sway in Asia which cannot be maintained by the finer sympathies
-of life, or the practice of its charities and affections. What will they
-do for you when surrounded by two hundred thousand men with artillery,
-cavalry, and elephants, calling upon you for their dominions which you
-have robbed them of? Justice may, no doubt, in such a case forbid the
-levying of a fine to pay a revolting soldiery; a treaty may stand in the
-way of increasing a tribute to keep up the very existence of the
-government; and delicacy for women may forbid all entrance into a zenana
-for money, whatever may be the necessity for taking it. All these things
-must ever be occurring. But under the pressure of such constant
-difficulties, so dangerous to national honour, it might be better
-perhaps to think of effectually securing it altogether, by recalling our
-troops and merchants, and abandoning our Oriental empire. Until this be
-done, neither religion nor philosophy can be pressed very far into the
-aid of reformation and punishment. If England, from a lust of ambition
-and dominion, will insist on maintaining despotic rule over distant and
-hostile nations, beyond all comparison more numerous and extended than
-herself, and gives commission to her Viceroys to govern them, with no
-other instructions than to preserve them, and to secure permanently
-their revenues; with what colour of consistency or reason can she place
-herself in the moral chair, and affect to be shocked at the execution of
-her own orders; adverting to the exact measure of wickedness and
-injustice necessary to their execution, and complaining only of the
-excess as the immorality; considering her authority as a dispensation
-for breaking the commands of God, and the breach of them only punishable
-when contrary to the ordinances of man.
-
-“Such a proceeding, Gentlemen, begets serious reflections. It would be
-better perhaps for the masters and the servants of all such governments
-to join in supplication, that the great Author of violated humanity may
-not confound them together in one common judgment.”
-
-These speeches, on constructive treason, and on subjects relating to the
-liberty of the press, fill four octavo volumes. A fifth was subsequently
-published, containing speeches on miscellaneous subjects; among which
-those in behalf of Hadfield and for Mr. Bingham are especially worthy of
-attention. The latter is one of the most affecting appeals to the
-feelings ever uttered. Hadfield is notorious for having discharged a
-pistol at George III. in Drury Lane Theatre. He was a soldier, who had
-been dreadfully wounded in the head, and other parts of the body; and no
-doubt could be entertained but that he was of unsound mind. Whether his
-insanity was of such a nature, that it could be pleaded in excuse for an
-attempt to murder, was a harder question to decide; and the speech in
-his behalf, besides many passages of much power and pathos, contains a
-masterly exposition of the principles by which a court of law should be
-guided in examining the moral responsibility of a person labouring under
-alienation of mind. Hadfield, we need hardly say, was acquitted.
-
-No life of Lord Erskine has yet been written on a scale calculated to do
-justice to the subject. The fullest which we have seen is contained in
-the ‘Lives of British Lawyers,’ in Lardner’s Cyclopædia: there is also a
-scanty memoir in the Annual Biography and Obituary, from which the facts
-contained in this sketch are principally derived.
-
-[Illustration: Statue of Lord Erskine in Lincoln’s Inn Hall.]
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-                                DOLLOND.
-
-
-The parents of this eminent discoverer in optics, to whom we are chiefly
-indebted for the high perfection of our telescopes, were French
-Protestants resident in Normandy, whence they were driven by the
-revocation of the edict of Nantes in 1685. With many others of their
-class, they took up their residence in Spitalfields, where John Dollond,
-the subject of this memoir[1], was born, June 10, 1706. It has been
-supposed, and among others by Lalande, that the name is not French; if
-we were to hazard a conjecture, we should say that it might have been an
-English corruption of _D’Hollande_. While yet very young, John Dollond
-lost his father; and he was obliged to gain his livelihood by the loom,
-though his natural disposition led him to devote all his leisure hours
-to mathematics and natural philosophy. Notwithstanding the cares
-incumbent upon the father of a family (for he married early) he
-contrived to find time, not only for the above-mentioned pursuits, but
-for anatomy, classical literature, and divinity. He continued his quiet
-course of life until his son, Peter Dollond, was of age to join him in
-his trade of silk-weaving, and they carried on that business together
-for several years. The son, however, who was also of a scientific turn,
-and who had profited by his father’s instructions, quitted the silk
-trade to commence business as an optician. He was tolerably successful,
-and after some years his father joined him, in 1752.
-
-Footnote 1:
-
-  For the details of this life, we are mostly indebted to the Memoir of
-  Dr. Kelly, his son-in-law, from which all the existing accounts of
-  Dollond are taken. This book has become very scarce, and we are
-  indebted for the opportunity of perusing it to the kindness of G.
-  Dollond, Esq.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _Engraved by J. Posselwhite._
-
-  DOLLOND.
-
-  _From an original Picture
-  in the Royal Observatory, Greenwich._
-
-  Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful
-    Knowledge
-
-  _London, Published by Charles Knight, Ludgate Street, & Pall Mall
-    East._
-]
-
-The first improvement made by the elder Dollond in the telescope, was
-the addition of another glass to the eye-piece, making the whole number
-of glasses in the instrument (the object-glass included) six instead of
-five. This he communicated to the Royal Society in 1753, through his
-friend James Short, well known as an optician and astronomer, who also
-communicated all his succeeding papers. By his new construction, an
-increase in the field of view was procured, without any corresponding
-augmentation of the unavoidable defects of the instrument. In May, 1753,
-Dollond communicated to the Royal Society his improvement of the
-micrometer. In 1747 Bouguer proposed to measure the distance of two very
-near objects (the opposite edges of a planet, for example) by viewing
-them through a conical telescope, the larger end of which had two
-object-glasses placed side by side, the eye-glass being common to both.
-The distance of the objects was determined by observing how far it was
-necessary to separate the centres of the object-glasses, in order that
-the centre of each might show an image of one of the objects. Mr.
-Dollond’s improvement consisted in making use of the same object-glass,
-divided into two semicircular halves sliding on one another, as
-represented in the diagrams in page 18; the first of which is an oblique
-perspective view of the divided glass, and the second a side view of the
-same, in such a position, that the images of the stars A and B coincide
-at C.
-
-If the whole of an object-glass were darkened, except one small portion,
-that portion would form images similarly situated to those formed by the
-whole glass, but less illuminated. Each half of the object-glass, when
-separated from the other, forms an image of every object in the field;
-and the two images of the same object coincide in one of double
-brightness, when the halves are brought together so as to restore the
-original form. By placing the divided diameter in the line of two near
-objects, A and B, whose distance is to be measured, and sliding the
-glasses until the image of one formed by one half comes exactly into
-contact with the image of the other formed by the other half, the
-angular distance of the two objects may be calculated, from observation
-of the distance between the centres of the two halves. This last
-distance is measured on a scale attached to the instrument; and when
-found, is the base of the triangle, the vertex of which is at C, and the
-equal sides of which are the focal lengths of the glasses. This
-micrometer Dollond preferred to apply to the reflecting telescope; his
-son afterwards adapted it to the refracting telescope; and it is now,
-under the name of the _divided object-glass micrometer_, one of the most
-useful instruments for measuring small angles.
-
-But the fame of Dollond principally rests upon his invention of
-_achromatic_, or colourless telescopes, in which the surrounding fringe
-of colours was destroyed, which had rendered indistinct the images
-formed in all refracting telescopes previously constructed. He was led
-to this practical result by the discovery of a principle in optics, that
-the _dispersion_ of light in passing through a refracting medium, that
-is, the greater or less length through which the coloured _spectrum_ is
-scattered, is not in proportion to the _refraction_, or angle through
-which the rays are bent out of their course. Newton asserted that he had
-found by experiments, made with water and glass, that if a ray of light
-be subjected to several refractions, some of which correct the rest, so
-that it emerges parallel to its first direction, the dispersion into
-colours will also be corrected, so that the light will be restored to
-whiteness. This is not generally true: it is true if one substance only
-be employed, or several which have the same, or nearly the same,
-_dispersive power_[2]. Mr. Peter Dollond afterwards satisfactorily
-explained the reason of Newton’s mistake, by performing the same
-experiment with Venetian glass, which, in the time of the latter, was
-commonly used in England; from which he found that the fact stated by
-Newton was true, as far as regarded that sort of glass. Had Newton used
-flint glass, he would have discovered that dispersion and refraction are
-not necessarily corrected together: he would then have been led to the
-difference between refractive and dispersive power, and would have
-concluded from his first experiment that Venetian glass and water have
-their dispersive powers very nearly equal. As it was, he inferred that
-the refracting telescope could never be entirely divested of colour,
-without entirely destroying the refraction, that is, rendering the
-instrument no telescope at all; and, the experiment being granted, the
-conclusion was inevitable. It is well known that he accordingly turned
-his attention entirely to the reflecting telescope.
-
-Footnote 2:
-
-  See Penny Cyclopædia, article Achromatic, for this and other terms
-  employed in this life.
-
-In 1747, Euler, struck by the fact that the human eye is an achromatic
-combination of lenses, or nearly so, imagined that it might be possible
-to destroy colour by employing compound object-glasses, such as two
-lenses with an intermediate space filled with water. In a memoir
-addressed to the Academy of Berlin, he explained his method of
-constructing such achromatic glasses, and proposed a new law of
-refrangibility, different from that of Newton. He could not, however,
-succeed in procuring a successful result in practice. Dollond, impressed
-with the idea that Newton’s experiment was conclusive, objected to
-Euler’s process in a letter to Mr. Short; which the latter persuaded the
-author to communicate, first to Euler, and then, with his answer, to the
-Royal Society. Assuming Newton’s law, Dollond shows that Euler’s method
-would destroy all refraction as well as dispersion. The latter replies,
-that it is sufficient for his purpose that Newton’s law should be
-_nearly_ true; that the theory propounded by himself does not differ
-much from it; and that the structure of the eye convinces him of the
-possibility of an achromatic combination. Neither party contested the
-general truth of Newton’s conclusion.
-
-A new party to the discussion appeared in the field in the person of M.
-Klingenstierna, a Swedish astronomer, who advanced some mathematical
-reasoning against the law of Newton, and some suspicions as to the
-correctness of his experiment. The latter being thus formally attacked,
-Mr. Dollond determined to repeat it, with a view of settling the
-question, and his result was communicated to the Royal Society in 1758.
-By placing a prism of flint glass inside one of water, confined by glass
-planes, so that the refractions from the two prisms should be in
-contrary directions, he found that when their angles were so adjusted,
-that the refraction of one should entirely destroy that of the other,
-the colour was far from being destroyed; “for the object, though not at
-all refracted, was yet as much infested with prismatic colours, as if it
-had been seen through a glass wedge only, whose refracting angle was
-near thirty degrees.” It was thus proved that the correction of
-refraction, and the correction of dispersion, are not necessarily
-consequent the one on the other. Previously to communicating this
-result, Dollond had, in 1757, applied it to the construction of
-achromatic glasses, consisting of spherical lenses with water between
-them: but finding that the images, though free from colour, were not
-very distinct, he tried combinations of different kinds of glass; and
-succeeded at last in forming the achromatic object-glass now used,
-consisting of a convex lens of crown, and a concave of flint glass. His
-son afterwards, in 1765, constructed the triple object-glass, having a
-double concave lens of flint glass in the middle of two double convex
-lenses of crown glass. The right of Dollond to the invention has been
-attacked by various foreign writers, but the point seems to have been
-decided in his favour by the general consent of later times. His conduct
-certainly appears more philosophical than that of either of his
-opponents. So long as he believed that Newton’s experiment was correct,
-he held fast by it, not allowing any mathematical reasoning to shake his
-belief, and in this respect he was more consistent than Euler, who seems
-to have thought that an achromatic combination might be made out of the
-joint belief of an experiment, and of an hypothesis utterly at variance
-with it. And the manner in which the distinguished philosopher just
-mentioned received the news of Dollond’s invention, appears singular,
-considering the side which each had taken in the previous discussion.
-Euler, who had asserted the possibility of an achromatic lens, against
-Dollond, who appeared to doubt it, says, “I am not ashamed frankly to
-avow that the first accounts which were published of it, appeared so
-suspicious, and even so contrary to the best established principles,
-that I could not prevail upon myself to give credit to them.” Dollond
-was the first who actually resorted to experiment, and he thus became
-the discoverer of a remarkable law of optics; while his tact in the
-application of his principles, and the selection of his materials, is
-worthy of admiration. The reputation of Dollond rests upon the discovery
-of the law, and its application to the case in point; for it has since
-been proved that he was not absolutely the first who had constructed an
-achromatic lens. On the occasion of an action brought for the invasion
-of the patent, the defendant proved that about the year 1750, Dr. Hall,
-an Essex gentleman, was in the possession of a secret for constructing
-achromatic telescopes of twenty inches focal length: and a writer in the
-Gentleman’s Magazine for 1790, has advanced his claim with considerable
-circumstantial detail. It is difficult to get any account of that trial,
-as it is not reported in any of the books. At least we presume so, from
-not finding any reference to it either in the works of Godson or Davis
-on Patents, though the case is frequently mentioned; or in H.
-Blackstone’s report of Boulton and Watt v. Bull, in which Dollond’s case
-forms a prominent feature of the argument. But, from the words of Judge
-Buller in the case just cited, it is difficult to suppose that the
-account given by Lalande (Montucla, Histoire des Mathématiques, vol.
-iii. p. 448, note) can be correct. Lalande asserts that it was proved
-that Dollond received the invention from a workman who bad been employed
-by Dr. Hall, and that the latter had shown it to many persons. Judge
-Buller says, “The objection to Dollond’s patent was, that he was not the
-inventor of the new method of making object-glasses, but that Dr. Hall
-had made the same discovery before him. But it was holden that as Dr.
-Hall had _confined it to his closet_, and the public were not acquainted
-with it, Dollond was to be considered as the inventor.” The
-circumstances connected with the discovery, particularly the previous
-investigation of the phenomenon on which the result depends,
-independently of the words of Judge Buller, quoted in italics, appear to
-us to render the anonymous account very improbable: nor, as far as we
-know, is there any other authority for it. That Dr. Hall did construct
-achromatic telescopes is pretty certain; but we are entirely in the dark
-as to whether he did it on principle, or whether he could even construct
-more than one sort of lens: and the assertion that he, or any one
-instructed by him, had communicated with Dollond, is unsupported by any
-thing worthy the name of evidence. We may add, that the accounts of this
-discovery, written by Dollond himself, possess a clearness and power of
-illustration, which can result only from long and minute attention to
-the subject under consideration.
-
-After this great discovery, for which he received the Copley medal of
-the Royal Society, Mr. Dollond devoted himself to the improvement of the
-achromatic telescope, in conjunction with his other pursuits. We are
-informed by G. Dollond, Esq., that his grandfather, at the latter end of
-his life, was engaged in calculating almanacs for various parts of the
-world; one of which, for the meridian of Barbadoes, and the year 1761,
-is now in his possession.
-
-Mr. Dollond was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1761. In the
-same year, November 30, he was struck with apoplexy, while attentively
-engaged in reading Clairaut’s Theory of the Moon, which had then just
-appeared. He died in a few hours afterwards, in the fifty-sixth year of
-his age. His son Peter Dollond, already mentioned, continued the
-business in partnership with a younger brother; and it is now most ably
-carried on by his daughter’s son, who has, by permission, assumed the
-name of Dollond.
-
-The following extract is from the memoir written by Dr. Kelly, in which
-we find nothing to regret, except that so few traits of character are
-related in it. Those who write memoirs of remarkable men from personal
-knowledge, should remember that details of their habits and conversation
-will be much more valuable to posterity, than disquisitions upon their
-scientific labours and discussions, which, coming from the pens of
-friends or relations, will always be looked upon as _ex parte_
-statements. Had the learned author borne this in mind, we should have
-been able to give a better personal account of Dollond than the
-following; which is absolutely the only information relative to his
-private character which we can now obtain. “He was not content with
-private devotion, as he was always an advocate for social worship; and
-with his family regularly attended the public service of the French
-Protestant church, and occasionally heard Benson and Lardner, whom he
-respected as men, and admired as preachers. In his appearance he was
-grave, and the strong lines of his face were marked with deep thought
-and reflection; but in his intercourse with his family and friends he
-was cheerful and affectionate; and his language and sentiments are
-distinctly recollected as always making a strong impression on the minds
-of those with whom he conversed. His memory was extraordinarily
-retentive, and amidst the variety of his reading he could recollect and
-quote the most important passages of every book which he had at any time
-perused.”
-
-[Illustration]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _Engraved by W. Holl._
-
-  JOHN HUNTER..
-
-  _From a Picture by Sir Joshua Reynolds
-  in the Royal College of Surgeons, London._
-
-  Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful
-    Knowledge.
-
-  _London, Published by Charles Knight, Pall Mall East._
-]
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-                              JOHN HUNTER.
-
-
-A life and character like that of John Hunter has many claims upon the
-honourable remembrance of society; the more, because, for meritorious
-members of his profession, there is no other public reward than the
-general approbation of good men. We look upon him with that interest
-which genius successfully directed to good ends invariably excites; as
-one whose active labours in the service of mankind have been attended
-with useful consequences of great extent; and whose character it is
-important to describe correctly, as a valuable example to his
-profession.
-
-John Hunter was the son of a small proprietor in the parish of Kilbride
-in Lanarkshire, and was born February 13, 1728. His father died while he
-was a child; his brothers were absent from home; and, being left to the
-care of his mother and aunt, he was spoiled by indulgence, and remained
-uneducated, until his natural good sense urged him to redeem himself in
-some degree from this reproach. When a boy he continued to cry like a
-child for whatever he wanted. There is a letter extant from an old
-friend of the family, which has this curious postscript, “Is Johnny aye
-greeting yet?” presenting an unexpected picture to those who are
-familiar only with the manly sense, and somewhat caustic manners, of the
-great physiological and surgical authority. But the influence of
-feelings and opinions, proceeding from respected persons, and
-accompanied by offices of affection, is powerful upon the young mind;
-and the circumstances of Mr. Hunter’s family were calculated to give
-such feelings their full power over such a character as his. They lived
-retired, in that state of independence which a small landed property
-confers on the elder members, while the young men are compelled to seek
-their fortunes at a distance from home. John Hunter neglected books, but
-he was not insensible to the pride and gratification expressed by every
-member of the family on hearing of his elder brother William’s success,
-and the pleasure which that brother’s letters gave to all around him.
-These feelings made him ashamed of his idleness, and inclined him to go
-to London, and become an assistant to Dr. William Hunter in his
-anatomical inquiries. William consented to this arrangement; and the
-subject of our memoir quitted his paternal home in 1748; certainly
-without that preparation of mind which should lead us to expect a very
-quick proficiency in medical pursuits. At an earlier age he had
-displayed a turn for mechanics, and a manual dexterity, which led to his
-being placed with a cabinet-maker in Glasgow to learn the profession:
-but the failure of his master had obliged him to return home.
-
-Dr. William Hunter had at this time obtained celebrity as a teacher of
-anatomy. He won his way by very intelligible modes. His upright conduct
-and high mental cultivation gained him friends; and his professional
-merits were established by his lectures, which in extent and depth, as
-well as eloquence, surpassed any that had yet been delivered. There was
-a peculiar ingenuity in his demonstrations, and he had a happy manner
-exactly suited to his subject. The vulgar portion of the public saw no
-marks of genius in the successful exertions of Dr. Hunter; his eminence
-was easily accounted for, and excited no wonder. They saw John Hunter’s
-success, without fully comprehending the cause; and it fell in with
-their notions of great genius that he was somewhat abrupt and uncourtly.
-
-Dr. Hunter immediately set his brother to work upon the dissection of
-the arm. The young man succeeded in producing an admirable preparation,
-in which the mechanism of the limb was finely displayed. This at once
-showed his capacity, and settled the relation between the two brothers.
-John Hunter became the best practical anatomist of the age, and proved
-of the greatest use in forming Dr. Hunter’s splendid museum, bequeathed
-by the owner to the University of Glasgow. He continued to attend his
-brother’s lectures; was a pupil both at St. Bartholomew’s, and St.
-George’s Hospitals; and had the farther advantage of attending the
-celebrated Cheselden, then retired to Chelsea Hospital. And here we must
-point out the advantage which John Hunter possessed in the situation and
-character of his elder brother, lest his success should encourage a
-laxity in the studies of those who think they are following his
-footsteps. It would indeed have been surprising that his efforts for the
-advancement of physiology commenced at the precise point where Haller’s
-stopped, if he had really been ignorant of the state of science at home
-and abroad. But he could not have been so, unless he had shut his eyes
-and stopped his ears. In addition to his anatomical collection Dr.
-Hunter had formed an extensive library, and possessed the finest cabinet
-of coins in Europe. Students crowded around him from all countries, and
-every one distinguished in science desired his acquaintance. John Hunter
-lived in this society, and at the same time had the advantage of being
-familiar with the complete and systematic course of lectures delivered
-by his brother. He was thus furnished with full information as to the
-actual state of physiology and pathology, and knew in what directions to
-push inquiry, whilst the natural capacity of his fine mind was
-untrammelled.
-
-In 1755 John Hunter assisted his brother in delivering a course of
-lectures; but through life the task of public instruction was a painful
-one to him, and he never attained to fluency and clearness of
-expression. In 1760 his health seems to have been impaired by his
-exertions: and in the recollection that one brother had already died
-under similar circumstances, his friends procured him a situation in the
-army, as being less intensely laborious than his mode of life. He served
-as a staff surgeon in Portugal and at the siege of Bellisle. On
-returning to London he recommenced the teaching of practical anatomy.
-
-In 1767 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, having already
-gained the good opinion of its members by several papers on most
-interesting subjects. There is this great advantage in the pursuit of
-science in London, that a man remarkable for success in any branch can
-usually select associates the best able to assist him by their
-experience and advice. It was through John Hunter’s influence that a
-select club was formed out of the fellows of the Royal Society. They met
-in retirement and read and criticised each others papers before
-submitting them to the general body. This club originally consisted of
-Mr. Hunter, Dr. Fordyce, Sir Joseph Banks, Dr. Solander, Dr. Maskelyne,
-Sir George Shuckburgh, Sir Henry Englefield, Sir Charles Blagden, Mr.
-Ramsden, and Mr. Watt. To be the associate of such men could not but
-have a good effect on a mind like Hunter’s, active and vigorous, but
-deficient in general acquirement, and concentrated upon one pursuit.
-
-At this time, and for many years afterwards, he was employed in the most
-curious physiological inquiries; and at the same time forming that
-museum, which remains the most surprising proof both of his genius and
-perseverance. It is strange that Sir Everard Home should have considered
-this collection as a proof of the patronage Hunter received. He had many
-admirers, and many persons were grateful for his professional
-assistance; but he had no patrons. The extent of his museum is to be
-attributed solely to his perseverance; a quality which is generally the
-companion of genius, and which he displayed in every condition of life.
-Whether under the tuition of his brother, or struggling for independence
-by privately teaching anatomy, or amidst the enticements to idleness in
-a mess-room, or as an army surgeon in active service, he never seems to
-have forgotten that science which was the chief end of his life. Hence
-the amazing collection which he formed of anatomical preparations; hence
-too the no less extraordinary accumulation of important pathological
-facts, on which his principles were raised.
-
-It was only towards the close of life that Hunter’s character was duly
-appreciated. His professional emoluments were small, until a very few
-years before his death, when they amounted to £6000 a year. When this
-neglect is the portion of a man of distinguished merit, it has sometimes
-an unhappy influence on his profession. Men look for prosperity and
-splendour as the accompaniments of such merit; and missing it, they turn
-aside from the worthiest models, to follow those who are gaining riches
-in the common routine of practice. Dr. Darwin said, that he rejoiced in
-Hunter’s late success as the concluding act of a life well spent: as
-poetical justice. But throughout life he spent all his gains in the
-pursuit of science, and died poor.
-
-His museum was purchased by government for £15,000. It was offered to
-the keeping of the College of Physicians, which declined the trust. It
-is now, committed to the College of Surgeons, in Lincoln’s Inn Fields;
-where it is open to the inspection of the public during the afternoons
-of Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The corporation has enlarged the
-museum, instituted professorships for the illustration of it, and is now
-forming a library. The most valuable part of the collection is that in
-the area of the great room, consisting of upwards of 2000 preparations,
-which were the results of Mr. Hunter’s experiments on the inferior
-animals, and of his researches in morbid human anatomy. All these were
-originally arranged as illustrative of his lectures. The first division
-alone, in support of his theory of inflammation, contains 602
-preparations. Those illustrative of specific diseases amount to 1084.
-There are besides 652 dried specimens, consisting of diseased bones,
-joints, and arteries. On the floor there is a very fine collection of
-the skeletons of man and other animals; and if the Council of the
-College continue to augment this collection with the same liberal spirit
-which they have hitherto shown, it will be creditable to the nation. The
-osteological specimens amount to 1936. But the most interesting portion,
-we might say one of the most interesting exhibitions in Europe to a
-philosophical and inquiring mind, is that which extends along the whole
-gallery. Mr. Hunter found it impossible to explain the functions of life
-by the investigation of human anatomy, unaided by comparison with the
-simpler organization of brutes; and therefore he undertook the amazing
-labour of examining and preparing the simplest animals, gradually
-advancing from the lower to the higher, until, by this process of
-synthesis, the structure of the human body was demonstrated and
-explained. Let us take one small compartment in order to understand the
-effect of this method. Suppose it is wished to learn the importance of
-the stomach in the animal economy. The first object presented to us is a
-hydatid, an animal, as it were, all stomach; being a simple sac with an
-exterior absorbing surface. Then we have the polypus, with a stomach
-opening by one orifice, and with no superadded organ. Next in order is
-the leech, in which we see the beginning of a complexity of structure.
-It possesses the power of locomotion, and has brain, and nerves, and
-muscles, but as yet the stomach is simple. Then we advance to creatures
-in which the stomach is complex: we find the simple membraneous
-digesting stomach; then the stomach with a crop attached to macerate and
-prepare the food for digestion; then a ruminating stomach with a
-succession of cavities, and with the gizzard in some animals for
-grinding the food, and performing the office of teeth; and finally, all
-the appended organs necessary in the various classes of animals; until
-we find that all the chylopoietic viscera group round this, as
-performing the primary and essential office of assimilating new matter
-to the animal body.
-
-Mr. Hunter’s papers and greater works exhibit an extraordinary mind: he
-startles the reader by conclusions, the process by which they were
-reached being scarcely discernible. We attribute this in part to that
-defective education, which made him fail in explaining his own thoughts,
-and the course of reasoning by which he had arrived at his conclusions.
-The depth of his reflective powers may be estimated by the perusal of
-his papers on the apparently drowned, and on the stomach digested after
-death by its own fluids. The importance of discovering the possibility
-of such an occurrence as the last is manifest, when we consider its
-connexion with medical jurisprudence, and the probability of its giving
-rise to unfounded suspicions of poisoning. His most important papers
-were those on the muscularity of arteries; a fine piece of experimental
-reasoning, the neglect of which by our continental neighbours threw them
-back an age in the treatment of wounded arteries and aneurisms. But the
-grand discovery of Mr. Hunter was that of the life of the blood. If this
-idea surprise our readers, it did no less surprise the whole of the
-medical profession when it was first promulgated. Yet there is no doubt
-of the fact. It was demonstrated by the closest inspection of natural
-phenomena, and a happy suite of experiments, that the coagulation of the
-blood is an act of life. From this one fact, the pathologist was enabled
-to comprehend a great variety of phenomena, which, without it, must ever
-have remained obscure.
-
-Mr. Hunter died of that alarming disease, _angina pectoris_: alarming,
-because it comes in paroxysms, accompanied with all the feelings of
-approaching death. These sensations are brought on by exertion or
-excitement. In St. George’s Hospital, the conduct of his colleagues had
-provoked him; he made no observations, but retiring into another room,
-suddenly expired, October 16, 1793.
-
-After these details no man will deny that John Hunter possessed high
-genius, and that he employed his talents nobly. He was indeed of a
-family of genius: his younger brother was cut off early, but not until
-he had given promise of eminence. Dr. Hunter was, in our opinion, equal
-in talents to John, the subject of this memoir, though his mind received
-early a different bias. And in the next generation the celebrated Dr.
-Baillie, nephew to these brothers, contributed largely to the
-improvement of pathology, and afforded an instance of the most active
-benevolence joined to a plainness of manner most becoming in a
-physician. Joanna Baillie, his sister, still lives, honoured and
-esteemed, and will survive in her works as one of our most remarkable
-female writers.
-
-The portrait from which the annexed engraving is made was painted at the
-suggestion of the celebrated engraver Sharpe, by Sir Joshua Reynolds,
-and was among his last works. There could not indeed be a more
-picturesque head, nor one better suited to the burin. The original
-picture is in the College of Surgeons. It exhibits more mildness than we
-see in the engraving of Sharpe.
-
-[Illustration: Surgeons’ Hall in Lincoln’s Inn Fields.]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _Engraved by Rob^t. Hart._
-
-  PETRARCH.
-
-  _From a Print by Raffaelle Morghen,
-  after a Picture by Tofanelli._
-
-  Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful
-    Knowledge.
-
-  _London, Published by Charles Knight, Ludgate Street, & Pall Mall
-    East._
-]
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-                               PETRARCH.
-
-
-Francesco Petrarca, whose real name is said to have been Petracco, was
-born at Arezzo, in Tuscany, July 20, 1304. His father was a notary at
-Florence, who had been employed in the service of the state; but in the
-civil strife excited by Corso Donati, chief of the faction of the Neri,
-he, with the rest of the Bianchi, including Dante, whose friend he is
-recorded to have been, was banished from the Republic in 1302. When the
-death of the Emperor Henry VII. deprived the exiles of all hope of
-return, Petracco took his family to Avignon, at that period the seat of
-the Pontifical Court. The boy Francesco then saw for the first time
-scenes and objects, with which his destiny was irrevocably connected;
-and he has left on record the impression which at ten years of age the
-fountain and wild solitude of Vaucluse had made upon his imagination. He
-was sent to study the canon law at the University of Montpellier, where
-he remained four years, devoting his time to Cicero, Virgil, and the
-Provençal writers, much more than to the doctors of jurisprudence. From
-Montpellier he went to Bologna; and formed an acquaintance with the
-celebrated Cino da Pistoia, from whom, although distinguished no less as
-a jurist than as a poet, Petrarch learned more poetry than law. On his
-father’s death, which occurred when he was about twenty years old, he
-returned to Avignon. His mother died soon after; and the moderate
-patrimony which he inherited was so much diminished by the dishonesty of
-his guardians, that at the age of twenty-two, he found himself without
-fortune or profession, and with no resource, but that of entering the
-church.
-
-Avignon was then the chosen abode of fashion, luxury, and vice. Petrarch
-mingled in its gay society, without yielding to its corruptions, or
-withdrawing himself from the philosophical studies which interested him
-above all other pursuits. A great conformity of tastes, and a common
-superiority to the low objects of ambition with which they were
-surrounded, made him the friend of Jacopo Colonna, afterwards Bishop of
-Lombez. This prelate introduced Petrarch to his brother, the Cardinal
-Colonna, who resided at Avignon; and in whose palace, in 1331, the poet
-acquired the friendship of old Stefano Colonna, the illustrious head of
-that family, and drew from his discourse a stronger love of Italy, of
-freedom, and of glory. But his affectionate, enthusiastic temper was not
-to be exhausted even by these objects: soon, without ever being entirely
-diverted from the interest of friendship or patriotism, he became the
-vassal of that long and illustrious passion to which he owes the
-immortality of his name. April 6, 1327, on Easter Monday, in the church
-of the Nuns of Santa Clara, Petrarch, being then twenty-three years of
-age, saw for the first time, and loved at sight, Laura de Noves, the
-bride of Hugo de Sade, a young patrician of Avignon. From this time his
-life was passed in wandering from place to place, sometimes at the
-several courts of Italian princes; sometimes in solitary seclusion at
-Vaucluse; often at Avignon itself, where from the lofty rock on which
-stands the old Pontifical Palace, he could see Laura walking in the
-gardens below, which with all the adjacent part of the town belonged to
-the family of de Sade.
-
-Few subjects have been discussed more largely, with greater minuteness
-of examination, or with greater licence of conjecture, than the history
-of the love of Petrarch. Some have chosen to treat with ridicule the
-idea of a passion, subsisting through a long and eventful life, without
-gratification, and nearly without hope; others have thought the
-difficulty obviated by supposing, in defiance of all apparent evidence,
-that Laura was not so insensible as the laws of morality required. A few
-have wished to rescue the character of the poet from the imputation of
-having loved a married woman, and have dragged certain obscure spinsters
-out of doubtful epitaphs and registers, to dispute the claim of Laura de
-Sade. A few more, and but a few, although the race is not extinct, have
-denied the existence of Laura altogether; either considering her as a
-mere poetical fancy, or still more boldly resolving her into some
-allegory, political or religious. But none of these theories, maintained
-at various times, and with various degrees of ingenuity, almost from the
-age of Petrarch until the present day, have shaken the received opinion
-on the four main points of the question; namely, that Laura was no
-creation of the poet’s brain, but a woman; that she was married; that
-Hugo de Sade was her husband; and that her virtue was proof against the
-passion of Petrarch. When all the circumstances of the case, including
-the peculiarities of sentiment which characterize the time, are fairly
-taken into consideration, there will appear no such miraculous
-improbability as has been presumed in the duration of Petrarch’s
-attachment. That it partook of the vehement character of true passion,
-is evident from many passages in his epistles and philosophical works,
-where he may be supposed to speak with less disguise than in his
-Canzoniere; but a natural vanity, the habit of refining his feelings
-into intellectual notions, and the then prevalent fashion of poetical
-constancy to a real object, may have contributed more than he could
-himself be aware to the durability of the sentiment. It is not to be
-forgotten, however, that at different periods of his life he had two
-natural children, a son and a daughter: still he maintained that
-notwithstanding these irregularities, he never loved any one but Laura.
-The Sonnets and Canzones, which, separately published, now together form
-the Canzoniere, soon elevated their author to the highest rank among
-living poets, and gave him in the eyes of his admirers a place beside
-the “creator della lingua,” the author of the Divina Commedia. Petrarch,
-however, whose mind was full of veneration for antiquity, and who was
-ardently desirous to recover all the monuments of classic literature
-that still preserved a hazardous existence in convents and other
-receptacles of the little learning of an ignorant age, for a long time,
-if not to the end of life, prided himself more on his Latin
-compositions, than on being the founder of a school of poetry in his
-native language. At one time he had commenced a Latin history of Rome,
-from the foundation of the city to the reign of Titus. But he was
-diverted from this work, by conceiving the idea of an epic poem,
-entitled ‘Africa,’ founded on the events which marked the close of the
-second Punic war, of which Scipio was the hero. For a year he laboured
-on it with enthusiasm; and it was received with admiration: but like
-most works of imagination composed in languages not rendered familiar to
-the writer in all their delicacy by vernacular and hourly use, and on
-subjects not consecrated by any feelings of national and domestic
-interest, they have long since been forgotten by all but the learned.
-
-On one and the same day, August 23, 1340, he received at Vaucluse a
-letter from the Roman Senate, inviting him to accept the honour of a
-public coronation in the Capitol, and one from the Chancellor of the
-University of Paris, offering the same distinction. It has been said,
-and there is at least negative evidence in favour of the assertion, that
-this last invitation was unauthorized by any corporate decision of the
-university: if so, it probably resulted from the personal enthusiasm of
-the chancellor, Roberto Bardi, who was a Florentine, and a private
-friend of the poet. Either from a knowledge of this, or from a natural
-preference of the Imperial City, Petrarch decided at once in favour of
-Rome; and embarked for Naples, to demand a preliminary examination from
-Robert of Anjou, the reigning prince, himself devotedly attached to
-literature. The King and the Poet conferred on poetical and historical
-subjects: during three days questions were formally proposed, and
-triumphantly answered; after which Robert pronounced solemnly that
-Petrarch was worthy of the honour offered to him, and taking off his own
-royal robe, entreated the poet to wear it at the ceremony of his
-coronation. On Easter-day, April 8, 1341, Petrarch ascended the stairs
-of the Capitol, surrounded by the most illustrious citizens of Rome, and
-preceded by twelve young men chosen from the highest families, who
-repeated at intervals various passages of his poetry. After a short
-oration, he received the crown from the hands of the senator, Orso,
-Count of Anguillara, and recited a sonnet on those heroes of the ancient
-city, whose triumphal honours, after a cessation of centuries, he first
-was come to share, and to renew. Then, amidst the acclamations of the
-multitude, he was conducted to the church of St. Peter’s, where, taking
-from his head the laurel, he deposited it with religious care on the
-altar. After this ceremony he returned by land to Avignon, carrying with
-him letters patent of the King of Naples and of the senate and people of
-Rome, conferring on him by their joint authorities the full and free
-power of reading, discussing, and explaining all ancient books,
-composing new works (especially poems), and wearing on all occasions, as
-he might prefer, a crown of laurel, of ivy, or of myrtle. Shortly
-afterwards he was again at Naples, under very different circumstances.
-Appointed by Clement VI. to urge the claims of the Holy See to the
-Regency of that state, during the minority of Joanna, the grand-daughter
-of Robert of Anjou, he was treated with no less distinction and kindness
-than on the former visit; but, unsuccessful in his mission, and
-scandalized by the debauchery and cruelty which prevailed in the
-dissolute court, he soon quitted Naples and Italy for his beloved
-Vaucluse. There, however, at no great distance of time, a new excitement
-awaited him. In 1347, Rienzi, the famous demagogue, who began his career
-so nobly, and closed it with such circumstances of disgrace, obtained
-his brief and singular dominion. All the hopes of Italian independence,
-all the reverence for antiquity which had ever animated the spirit of
-Petrarch, now strongly impelled him to admire the restorer of those
-ancient names, which he trusted would realize his visions of ancient
-freedom and majesty. Even the massacre of the Colonna family, which
-Petrarch heard at Genoa as he was hastening to join the tribune at Rome,
-did not destroy these feelings, although it materially weakened them.
-But the fabric of Rienzi’s power was sapped by his own extravagances in
-less than a year; and nearly at the same time a more severe affliction
-fell upon Petrarch even than the disappointment of his hopes for the
-restoration of Italian liberty.
-
-In April, 1348, Laura expired of the dreadful malady which then ravaged
-Europe, and which is described by Boccaccio in the introduction to the
-Decameron. The second half of the Canzoniere is the monument of his
-glorious sorrow; which is however more calmly, and, to the apprehensions
-of many, more convincingly expressed, in the pathetic note to his own
-MS. of Virgil, now in the Ambrosian Library at Milan. It would be unjust
-to him not to relate this event in his own words. “Laura, illustrious
-for her own virtues, and long celebrated by my verses, was seen by me
-for the first time in my early manhood, in the year 1327, April 6, at
-six in the morning, in the church of S. Clara, at Avignon. In the same
-city, in the same month of April, on the same sixth day, and at the same
-hour, in 1348, this light was taken from the world, while I was at
-Verona, alas! ignorant of my unhappy lot. The melancholy news reached me
-in a letter from my friend Louis: it found me at Parma the same year,
-May 19, in the morning. That body, so chaste, so fair, was laid in the
-church of the Minor Friars on the evening of the day of her death. Her
-soul, I doubt not, is returned, as Seneca says of Scipio Africanus, to
-heaven, whence it came. To preserve the grievous memory of this loss, I
-write this with a sort of pleasure mixed with bitterness; and I write by
-choice upon this book, which often comes before my eyes, that hereafter
-there may be nothing for me to delight in in this life, and that, my
-strongest chain being broken, I may be reminded by the frequent sight of
-these words, and by the just appreciation of a fugitive life, that it is
-time to go forth from Babylon; which, by the help of God’s grace, will
-become easy to me by vigorous and bold contemplation of the needless
-cares, the vain hopes, the unexpected events which have agitated me
-during the time I have spent on earth.” The authenticity of this note
-has been contested: to us it bears internal evidence of being genuine,
-not merely in the unpretending pathos of the conclusion, but in the
-minuteness of the earlier details. It is the luxury of grief to connect
-the memory of the dead with our thoughts, and employments, and even
-abodes at the moment of their death; and the pen of the literary forger
-is not likely to trace so simple and unpretending a statement.
-
-The jubilee of 1350 led Petrarch again to Rome. When he passed through
-Arezzo, the principal citizens of the town led him with pride to the
-house in which he was born; declaring that nothing had been changed
-there, and that the municipal authorities had enforced this scrupulous
-respect for the great poet’s birth-place by injunctions to the
-successive proprietors of the mansion. Not long afterwards, Boccaccio,
-his friend and his compeer in the great literary triumvirate of Italy,
-came to him at Padua, to announce in the name of the senate at Florence
-that he was restored to his rights of citizenship, and to offer him the
-superintendence of the recently established university. Petrarch did not
-accept the proposal. Twice in the course of his remaining life his name
-is found connected with great events. Admitted to the counsels of Gian
-Visconti, he accepted the mission of reconciling the republic of Genoa,
-which had yielded to that prince, with the state of Venice, elated by
-recent victories. But Petrarch was destined to be unsuccessful as a
-statesman. This embassy had no effect; nor were his subsequent efforts
-to infuse into the mind of Charles IV. the lessons of magnanimity, when
-that weak and avaricious emperor entered Italy, more beneficial either
-to Charles or to his country. Once, however, when employed by Galeazzo
-Visconti in a subsequent mission to the same prince, he was able to
-dissuade him from recrossing the Alps: unless we suppose that the
-distracted state of Germany had more to do with keeping the emperor at
-home, than the eloquence of the poet, or the skill of the politician.
-The second plague in 1362 deprived the now aged poet of the few early
-friends who remained to him, Azo of Correggio, and the two who in his
-letters are usually denominated Lælius and Socrates, and had, like
-himself, been intimate with Jacopo Colonna. He was then resident in
-Venice; where, in 1363, Boccaccio came to visit him in company with
-Leontius Pilatus of Thessalonica, who had instructed the Florentine
-novelist in Greek. At a former period Petrarch had commenced the study
-of that language under a Grecian monk named Barlaam; and though now
-sixty years of age, he returned to the task with enthusiasm and with
-perseverance. He was hospitably and honourably received by the republic,
-to which he presented his valuable collection of manuscripts.
-
-After some more adventures and wanderings the old man fixed his
-residence at Arquà, a village situated on the Euganean hills, at four
-leagues distance from Padua. Here he led a life of abstinence and study,
-reposing from the toilsome vicissitudes to which he had been subjected,
-but not from his thirst for knowledge and desire of glory. His last
-years were solaced by his intimacy with Boccaccio, who seemed to supply
-the place of those numerous and valued early friends whom he had
-survived, and by the filial attentions of his daughter Francesca. The
-last important act of his life was his appearance before the Senate of
-Venice, in behalf of Francesco of Carrara, who had been forced to
-conclude a humiliating peace with the republic in 1373. It is said that
-he was so much awed by the majesty of the assembly, that on the first
-day on which he appeared before it, he was unable to deliver his
-address. The next day he recovered his spirits, or more probably his
-strength, and his speech in behalf of Carrara was loudly applauded. He
-returned to his retirement in a failing state of health, and his
-complaints were aggravated by imprudence, and disregard of medical
-advice. July 18, 1374, he was found dead in his library, his head
-resting on an open book. A stroke of apoplexy had thus suddenly
-terminated his life. All Padua assisted at his obsequies, and Francesco
-of Carrara led the funeral pomp. A marble tomb, which still exists, was
-raised to him before the door of the church of Arquà.
-
-Such was the death and such the life of Francesco Petrarca, than whom
-few men have exerted more influence over their own times; have
-contributed more to form and polish the language of their native land;
-or have given a more decided tone to the literature of succeeding
-generations. This is not the place to enter into a minute analysis of
-his merits as a poet. If he did not create the kind of poetry in which
-he excelled, at least he carried it to perfection: if he could not save
-his style from being disfigured by feeble imitators, at least he left it
-in itself a noble work: if he did not avoid the false conceits and
-strained illustrations, which at the rise of a new literature are almost
-always found to possess irresistible attractions, he redeemed and even
-ennobled them by strains of simple passion, imagination, and melody,
-which will live as long as the language in which they are composed. His
-Latin writings, on which he wished his reputation to rest, are now much
-neglected. They are not indeed calculated for general reading; but they
-are highly valuable as records of the time and of the man. His letters
-form the most interesting, because the most personal, portion of them.
-Few men have laid bare their hearts so completely as Petrarch. His
-vanity, his dependence on the sympathy of others, led him to commit to
-writing every incident of his life, every turn in the troubled course of
-his feelings. But he gains rather than loses by this voluntary exposure.
-His Christian faith and Christian principles of philosophy, however
-swayed by occasional currents of passion, stand out beautifully amidst
-the corruptions of that age. It is as impossible to rise from a perusal
-of Petrarch’s poetry, and even more perhaps of his prose, without a
-feeling of love for the man, as of admiration for the author.
-
-In early life he was distinguished for beauty, of which he was himself
-not insensible; for he left, in his ‘Letter to Posterity,’ a description
-of his own person, which we quote from Ugo Foscolo’s translation.
-“Without being uncommonly handsome, my person had something agreeable in
-it in my youth. My complexion was a clear and lively brown; my eyes were
-animated; my hair had grown grey before twenty-five, and I consoled
-myself for a defect which I shared in common with many of the great men
-of antiquity (for Cæsar and Virgil were grey-headed in youth), and I had
-a venerable air, which I was by no means very proud of.” He was then
-miserable, Foscolo continues, if a lock of his hair was out of order; he
-was studious of ornamenting his person with the nicest clothes; and to
-give a graceful form to his feet, he pinched them in shoes that put his
-nerves and sinews to the rack. These traits are taken from his own
-familiar letters.
-
-The life and writings of Petrarch have been repeatedly illustrated at
-great length. The ‘Petrarcha Redivivus’ of Tomasini; the voluminous
-‘Mémoires sur Petrarque’ of the Abbé de Sade, who has taken up the
-subject as a matter of family history; and the works of Tiraboschi and
-Baldelli, are among the best authorities for our author’s history. To
-the English, and indeed to every reader, we must recommend the ‘Essays
-on Petrarch,’ by Ugo Foscolo; at the end of which there are some
-exquisite translations by Lady Dacre. The most complete edition of
-Petrarch’s works is the folio published at Bâsle in 1581. Among the
-numerous editions of his Italian poems, we may particularize that of
-Biagioli, 1822, as containing the notes of Alfieri; and that of Marsard,
-printed at Padua, as distinguished alike for its correctness and beauty
-of execution.
-
-[Illustration: Tomb of Petrarch at Arquà.]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _Engraved by C. E. Wagstaff._
-
-  BURKE.
-
-  _From a Picture after Sir Joshua Reynolds
-  in the possession of T. H. Burke Esq^r._
-
-  Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful
-    Knowledge.
-
-  _London, Published by Charles Knight, Ludgate Street, & Pall Mall
-    East._
-]
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-                                 BURKE.
-
-
-The six and thirty years which have elapsed since the death of Edmund
-Burke are not sufficient to secure a right and impartial sentence on his
-character. We are still within the heated temperature of the same
-political agitations in which he lived and struggled. We are not,
-perhaps our children will not be, qualified to judge him and his
-contemporaries, with that calmness with which men weigh the merits of
-things and persons who have exerted no perceptible influence over their
-own times. It is fortunate, therefore, that the limits of this brief
-memoir prescribe rather a succinct statement of unquestioned facts, than
-a disputable adjudication between opposite opinions.
-
-Edmund Burke, son of Richard Burke, an attorney in extensive practice in
-Dublin, was born in that city, January 1, 1730. Of his early life little
-is known with certainty. He appears to have distinguished himself at
-Trinity College, Dublin, by his acquirements and talents, especially by
-a decided taste and ability for the discussion of subjects relating to
-English history and politics. His first literary effort of any
-importance was made before he quitted that university, in some letters
-directed against a factious writer called Lucas, at that time the
-popular idol. These are not preserved. In 1750 he came to London, and
-was entered a student of the Middle Temple. It is singular that the idle
-rumour, expressly contradicted by himself, of his having completed his
-education at St. Omer’s, should be still in some degree accredited by
-the author of the article ‘Burke,’ in the Biographie Universelle.
-Whether, in 1752 or 1753, he became a candidate for the chair of Logic
-at Glasgow, is a more doubtful question: the opinions of Dugald Stewart
-and Adam Smith, who took some pains to ascertain the truth, were in the
-negative. It is certain, however, that the extraordinary talents of
-Burke soon began to attract attention: he wrote in many political and
-literary miscellanies, and formed an acquaintance with some
-distinguished characters of the time. Among these should be mentioned
-Lord Charlemont, Gerard Hamilton, Soame Jenyns, and somewhat later,
-Goldsmith, Reynolds, Dr. Johnson, and Hume. His first avowed work, the
-‘Vindication of Natural Society,’ was published in 1756, and excited
-very general admiration. The imitation of Bolingbroke’s style in this
-essay was so perfect, that some admirers of the deceased philosopher are
-said to have overlooked the evident signs of irony, and to have believed
-it to be a genuine posthumous work. This may appear strange; but it is
-surely more strange, that forty years afterwards this ‘Vindication’
-should have been republished by the French party, with a view of serving
-democratic interests. Before the close of 1756, appeared the
-‘Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and
-Beautiful,’ which added largely to Burke’s reputation, and procured him
-the valuable friendship of Sir Joshua Reynolds. Shortly afterwards, the
-public attention being at that time much directed to the American
-colonies, was published ‘An Account of the European Settlements in
-America,’ of which Burke was probably not the sole, but the principal
-author. It was much read, as well on the Continent as in England; and
-indeed no inconsiderable portion of it has been incorporated into the
-celebrated work of the Abbé Raynal. About this time Burke married the
-daughter of Dr. Nugent, an intelligent physician, who had invited him to
-his house while suffering under an illness, the result of laborious
-application. This union was a source of uninterrupted comfort to him
-through life. “Every care vanishes,” he was in the habit of saying,
-“when I enter my own home.” A confined income, however, rendered
-literary exertion still more indispensable to him than before: and in
-1759 ‘The Annual Register,’ that most useful work, for many years
-entirely composed by Burke, or under his immediate superintendence, was
-undertaken by him in conjunction with Dodsley. At length, in 1765, with
-the first Rockingham administration, he entered on a more extensive
-sphere of action: being appointed private secretary to the Marquis of
-Rockingham, through the recommendation of his friend Mr. Fitzherbert.
-
-Coming now into Parliament as member for Wendover in Buckinghamshire,
-Burke became an eminent supporter of the Whig party. The situation of
-affairs was critical. Mr. Grenville’s stamp act, a fatal departure from
-the policy on which the colonies had been previously governed, had
-excited much discontent in America. A strong party, supported by the
-evident favour of the court and the general feeling of the country,
-urged the necessity of perseverance in this coercive policy. Lord
-Chatham and his adherents no less strenuously denied the right of the
-Imperial Legislature to impose taxes on America without her own consent.
-The Rockingham Whigs adopted a middle course between these extremes.
-They repealed the stamp act, declaring at the same time that the right
-of taxation resided inalienably in Parliament. Their administration was
-short-lived. Lord Chatham succeeded them in power, at the head of that
-“dovetailed” cabinet which Burke has so admirably satirised in his
-‘Speech on American Taxation.’ His influence was little more than
-nominal, and in spite of it, schemes for raising a revenue in America
-were soon revived. From these measures, the public attention was for a
-short time diverted by the domestic agitation caused by the proceedings
-against Wilkes, the disputed election in Middlesex, and the mysterious
-letters of Junius. The shadow of that name was at the time believed by
-many to rest on Burke: a supposition long since rejected, and supported
-by scarce any evidence; though his power as a writer, and his known
-facility in disguising his style, gave some degree of plausibility to
-the supposition. In his own name, and without any disguise, he came
-forward to attack the ministry of the Duke of Grafton, in a political
-treatise, entitled, ‘Thoughts on the Present Discontents.’ This has been
-termed the Whig Manual, and certainly contains the ablest exposition
-ever given of the principles held by that party for a long series of
-years. Shaken by this and other attacks, the Duke retired, and left the
-state under the guidance of a minister, whose merits have been
-overshadowed by the disastrous circumstances in which he was involved.
-From this time commenced that long and brilliant opposition, which, from
-a very low condition of numbers and influence, gradually worked its way
-through the most momentous parliamentary struggles; and by a continued
-display of powers the most accomplished, and union the most effective,
-gained an ultimate victory, first over popular prepossessions, and then
-over royal obstinacy. The court party were so inferior in eloquence and
-genius, that their arguments are little remembered, while the speeches
-of the Whigs are in every body’s hands. They felt the importance of the
-contest deeply, or they would not have been animated to their
-extraordinary exertions. But the wisest of them could not foresee the
-prodigious extent of those consequences, which, within the duration of
-their own lives, resulted from their endeavours. It was much for them to
-look forward to the independence of America. What would it have been to
-contemplate the spread of popular principles in Europe, and that mighty
-revolution which has changed the balance of society? No member of the
-opposition contributed so largely as Burke to their final triumph.
-During the latter years of the war, indeed, his fame as a debater was
-eclipsed by the rising genius of Charles Fox, to whom he willingly
-yielded the office of leader of the Whig party. But the talents of Fox
-had been trained and nourished by the wisdom of Burke; and in the
-speeches published at different periods by the latter, on American
-taxation [1774], and on conciliation with America [1775], and his Letter
-to the Sheriffs of Bristol [1777], (written on the occasion of a
-temporary secession of the Rockingham party from Parliament,) the
-friends of freedom found a magazine of invaluable weapons. In 1774 Burke
-was elected member of Parliament for Bristol; but six years afterwards
-he was unable to procure his reelection for that borough, the people
-being displeased with his recent votes in favour of Irish trade and of
-the Roman Catholics. His popularity was in a great measure restored by
-the famous Bill of Economical Reform, brought forward by him in 1782,
-when paymaster of the forces under the second Rockingham ministry, after
-the overthrow of Lord North. The death of the Marquis of Rockingham
-produced a schism among the Whigs; Lord Shelburne was appointed his
-successor, and the Rockingham division resigned their places. They soon
-returned to them, by means of that strange junction of force with Lord
-North, emphatically termed _The Coalition_, which raised a general cry
-of indignation throughout the country. Burke always vindicated this
-step, both at the time, and when the state of things which led to it had
-long passed away; but it is generally supposed that he did not counsel
-it, and was only induced to give in his adhesion by the urgent
-entreaties of his political friends.
-
-The celebrated East-India Bill, of which Burke is said to have been
-partly the author, and upon which he pronounced one of his most
-magnificent orations, was fatal to the coalition. William Pitt, called
-at the age of twenty-four to occupy the first place in the counsels of
-his sovereign, fought an arduous but finally victorious fight against
-the Whig majority in the Commons. A dissolution followed; the new House
-supported the new Ministers; and a second long period of Whig opposition
-began, during which Fox was the acknowledged leader of the party, and
-was warmly supported in that capacity by Burke. The most important event
-of this second great division of Burke’s parliamentary life is
-undoubtedly the impeachment of Warren Hastings. Throughout the long
-debates on the accusations brought against the Governor of India, and
-afterwards throughout the trial itself, which began in 1788 and was not
-concluded until 1795, Burke was indefatigable. Never, perhaps, has
-greater oratorical genius been displayed than by that combination of
-great men who were appointed managers of the impeachment. Yet all their
-efforts failed to establish their case on a secure foundation. History
-still hesitates to decide with confidence on the guilt or innocence of
-Hastings. It is agreed, however, that the violence of Burke’s
-proceedings on this trial was often unworthy of the situation he held
-and the cause he advocated. When with harsh tones and a look more
-expressive of personal than political hatred he bade Mr. Hastings kneel
-before the court, it is said that Fox whispered to his friends, “In that
-moment I would rather have been Hastings than Burke.”
-
-At the latter end of 1788 arose the regency question, on which Burke,
-with all his party, maintained the opinion that any apparently
-irreparable incapacity in the sovereign caused a demise of the crown,
-because, the prerogatives of royalty being given for public benefit, it
-would be highly dangerous to suspend them for an indefinite period.
-Burke, however, did some injury to his party by the intemperate and
-imprudent language he adopted on this occasion, speaking of the King’s
-situation in the tone of triumph rather than pity, and even using the
-expression “God has hurled him from his throne.” These constitutional
-questions, however important, were soon forgotten in a new absorbing
-interest, which began to occupy the minds of all men. The French
-Revolution had taken place. That astonishing event was at first hailed
-with general sympathy and admiration in this country. The supporters of
-Pitt either joined in the vehement delight of the Fox party, or took no
-pains to restrain it. Here and there some may have murmured dislike: but
-in general it was thought unworthy of Englishmen not to rejoice in the
-acquisition of liberty by a neighbouring people; and not a few looked to
-this great change as the harbinger of political regeneration to Europe
-and the world. In this general acclamation one voice was wanting. Burke,
-from the very first meeting of the States General, did not conceal his
-aversion to their proceedings and his apprehension of the results.
-Gradually, as the excesses of popular violence in Paris became more
-frequent, an Anti-Gallican party began to gather round him. On the 9th
-of February, 1790, during a debate on the army estimates, Burke took
-advantage of some expressions which Fox let fall in praise of the French
-Revolution to open an attack against it, denying that there was any
-similarity between our revolution of 1688 and the “strange thing” called
-by the same name in France. Fox in his reply spoke in memorable terms of
-his obligations to his friend, declaring that all he had ever learnt
-from other sources was little in comparison with what he had gained from
-him. Sheridan attacked the speech just made by Burke in no measured
-terms, describing it as perfectly irreconcilable with the principles
-hitherto professed by that gentleman. On this, Burke again rose, and in
-a few words declared that Sheridan and himself were thenceforth
-“separated in politics.” Before the end of this year came out the
-celebrated ‘Reflections,’ which at once showed how irreparable was the
-schism between the author and his former associates. It roused an
-immediate war of opinion, which gave birth to a war of force throughout
-Europe. Innumerable pamphlets soon followed upon its publication, some
-denouncing the work as a specious apology for despotism, others
-advocating the opinions contained in it with a vehemence which the
-authors had not dared to show, till they were encouraged by the support
-of so eloquent and so distinguished a partizan. The most remarkable
-attempts of the former description were the ‘Rights of Man,’ by Thomas
-Paine, which soon became the manual of the democratic party; and the
-‘Vindiciæ Gallicæ,’ by Mr., afterwards Sir James Mackintosh, the most
-illustrious, if not the only successor of Burke himself in his peculiar
-line of philosophical politics. Fox was loud in condemning the book, and
-although no formal breach of friendship had hitherto taken place, such
-an event was obviously to be expected. On the 6th May, 1791, during a
-discussion on a plan for settling the constitution of Canada, this
-separation actually occurred, with a solemnity worthy of the men and the
-event. From that hour, during the six remaining years of his life, one
-idea swayed with exclusive dominion the mind of Burke. Utterly separated
-from Fox’s party, aloof from the ministry, retired, after a few
-sessions, from Parliament, he continued to wage unceasing war by speech
-and writing against the principles and practice of Jacobinism. Soon he
-was pointed out as a prophet, and the verification of his predictions in
-characters of blood was much more powerful, because much more palpable,
-than the vague anticipations of future advantage put forward by his
-opponents. In 1794, after his retirement from Parliament, he received
-the grant of a considerable pension for himself and his wife. The
-democratic party did not scruple to stigmatize his motives, and in
-answer to an accusation of this sort was written the ‘Letter to a Noble
-Lord,’ perhaps the most astonishing specimen of his peculiar capacities
-of style. In this year the death of his son overwhelmed him with
-affliction. Still he continued his exertions. His views of the war
-differed widely from those of the ministry; he ceased not to urge that
-it was a war not against France but Jacobinism, and that it would be a
-degradation to Britain to treat with any of the Regicides. On this
-subject are written the two ‘Letters on a Regicide Peace,’ published in
-1796, and the others published since his death. On the 8th of July,
-1797, this event took place, in the 68th year of his age, at his own
-house at Beaconsfield, whither, after seeking medical aid elsewhere in
-vain, he had returned to die.
-
-The mind of this great man may, perhaps, be considered as a fair
-representative of the general characteristics of English intellect. Its
-groundwork was solid, practical, and conversant with the details of
-business, but upon this, and secured by this, arose a superstructure of
-imagination and moral sentiment. He saw little, because it was painful
-to him to see any thing, beyond the limits of the national character;
-with that, and with the constitution which he considered its appropriate
-expression, all his sympathies were bound up. But he loved them with an
-intelligent and discriminating love, making it his pains to comprehend
-thoroughly what it was his delight to serve diligently. His political
-opinions, springing out of these dispositions, were early fixed in
-favour of the Whig system of governing by great party connexions. These
-opinions, however, were swayed in their application by strong impulses
-of personal feeling. A temper impatient of control, an imagination prone
-to magnify those classes of facts which impressed him with alarm or
-hope, a command of language almost unlimited, and a copiousness of
-imagery misleading nearly as much as it illustrated or enforced; these
-were qualities which laid him open to many serious accusations. But his
-admirers have started a philosophic doubt, whether less of passion and
-prejudice would have been compatible with the peculiar station he was
-destined to occupy. In an age of revolution, it might be plausibly
-maintained, his genius was the counteracting force: alone he stood
-against the impulses communicated to European society by the
-philosophers of France; their enthusiasm could only be met by
-enthusiasm; their influence on the imaginations and hearts of men was
-capable of overbearing either a blind prejudice or a dispassionate
-logic. But Burke was an orator in all his thoughts, and a sage in all
-his eloquence; he held the principles of Conservation with the zeal of a
-Leveller, and tempered lofty ideas of Improvement with the
-scrupulousness of official routine. As a debater in the House of Commons
-he was inferior to some otherwise inferior men. Pitt and Fox will be
-neglected while the speeches of Burke shall still be read. It has been
-said of Fox by a philosophical panegyrist that he was the most
-Demosthenean speaker since Demosthenes. Perhaps, of all great orators
-Burke might be called the least Demosthenean. Probably a hearer of the
-great Athenian would have felt as extemporaneous and intuitive the
-slowly-wrought perfections of rhetorical art, while the listeners to
-Burke may have often set down to elaborate preparation what was really
-the inspiration of the moment. His conversation, however, seems to have
-been uniformly delightful. It is a true maxim in one sense, although in
-another it would often need reversal, that great men are always greater
-than their works. Much as we possess of Edmund Burke, very much is lost
-to us of that which formed the admiration of his contemporaries. “The
-mind of that man,” said Dr. Johnson, “is a perennial stream: no one
-grudges Burke the first place.” He was acquainted with most subjects of
-literature, and possessed some knowledge of science. The philosophy of
-mind owes him one contribution of no inconsiderable value: but the
-indirect results of his metaphysical studies as seen in the tenor of his
-practical philosophy are much more extensive. For in all things, while
-he deeply reverenced principles, he chose to deal with the concrete more
-than with abstractions: he studied men rather than man. In private life
-the character of Burke was unsullied even by reproach. A good father, a
-good husband, a good friend, he was sincerely attached to the Protestant
-religion of the English church, “not from indifference,” as he said
-himself of the nation at large, “but from zeal; not because he thought
-there was less religion in it, but because he knew there was more.” But
-his attachment was without bigotry; the principles of toleration ever
-found in him a powerful advocate; and he was ever zealous to remove
-imperfections, and correct abuses, in the establishment, as the best
-means of securing its permanent existence.
-
-The works of Burke are collected in sixteen volumes octavo. His speeches
-are separately published in four volumes octavo. A small volume appeared
-in 1827, containing the correspondence, hitherto unpublished, between
-this great statesman and his friend Dr. Laurence. His life has been
-written soon after his death by Mr. Bisset; and more recently by Mr.
-Prior. Several other biographical accounts were published about the time
-of his death, both in the periodical publications and as independent
-works: we are not aware that any of these are entitled to particular
-notice.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _Engraved by T. Woolnoth._
-
-  HENRY IV.
-
-  _From the original Picture by Porbus
-  in the Collection of the Musée Royal, Paris._
-
-  Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful
-    Knowledge.
-
-  _London, Published by Charles Knight, Ludgate Street, & Pall Mall
-    East._
-]
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-                               HENRY IV.
-
-
-Henry IV., the most celebrated, the most beloved, and perhaps, in spite
-of his many faults, the best of the French monarchs, was born at Pau,
-the capital of Béarn, in 1553. His parents were Antoine de Bourbon, Duke
-of Vendôme, and, in right of his wife, titular King of Navarre, and
-Jeanne d’Albret, the heiress of that kingdom. On the paternal side he
-traced his descent to Robert of Clermont, fifth son of Louis IX., and
-thus, on the failure of the elder branches, became heir to the crown of
-France. Educated by a Protestant mother in the Protestant faith, he was
-for many years the rallying point and leader of the Huguenots. In
-boyhood the Prince of Béarn displayed sense and spirit above his years.
-Early inured to war, he was present and exhibited strong proofs of
-military talent at the battle of Jarnac, and that of Moncontour, both
-fought in 1569. In the same year he was declared chief of the Protestant
-League. The treaty of St. Germain, concluded in 1570, guaranteed to the
-Huguenots the civil rights for which they had been striving: and, in
-appearance, to cement the union of the two parties, a marriage was
-proposed between Henry, who, by the death of his mother, had just
-succeeded to the throne of Navarre, and Margaret of Valois, sister of
-Charles IX. This match brought Condé, Coligni, and all the leaders of
-their party, to Paris. The ceremony took place August 17, 1572. On the
-twenty-second, when the rejoicings were not yet ended, Coligni was fired
-at in the street, and wounded. Charles visited him, feigned deep sorrow,
-and promised to punish the assassin. On the night between the
-twenty-third and twenty-fourth, by express order of the Court, that
-atrocious scene of murder began, which history has devoted to
-execration, under the name of the massacre of St. Bartholomew. For three
-years afterwards Henry, who to save his life had conformed to the
-established religion, was kept as a kind of state prisoner. He escaped
-in 1576, and put himself at the head of the Huguenot party. In the war
-which ensued, with the sagacity and fiery courage of the high-born
-general, he showed the indifference to hardships of the meanest soldier.
-Content with the worst fare and meanest lodging, in future times the
-magnificent monarch of France could recollect when his wardrobe could
-not furnish him with a change of linen. He shared all fortunes with his
-followers, and was rewarded by their unbounded devotion.
-
-Upon the extinction of the house of Valois, by the assassination of
-Henry III. in 1589, Henry of Navarre became the rightful owner of the
-French throne. But his religion interfered with his claims. The League
-was strong in force against him: he had few friends, few fortresses, no
-money, and a small army. But his courage and activity made up for the
-scantiness of his resources. With five thousand men he withstood the Duc
-de Mayenne, who was pursuing him with twenty-five thousand, and gained
-the battle of Arques, in spite of the disparity. This extraordinary
-result may probably be ascribed in great measure to the contrast of
-personal character in the two generals. Mayenne was slow and indolent.
-Of Henry it was said, that he lost less time in bed, than Mayenne lost
-at table; and that he wore out very little broad-cloth, but a great deal
-of boot-leather. A person was once extolling the skill and courage of
-Mayenne in Henry’s presence. “You are right,” said Henry; “he is a great
-captain, but I have always five hours’ start of him.” Henry got up at
-four in the morning, and Mayenne about ten.
-
-The battle of Arques was fought in the year of his accession. In the
-following year, 1590, he gained a splendid victory at Ivri, over the
-Leaguers, commanded by Mayenne, and a Spanish army superior in numbers.
-On this occasion he made that celebrated speech to his soldiers before
-the battle: “If you lose sight of your standards, rally round my white
-plume: you will always find it in the path of honour and glory.” Nor is
-his exclamation to his victorious troops less worthy of record: “Spare
-the French!”
-
-Paris was soon after blockaded; and the hatred of the Leaguers displayed
-itself with increased violence, in proportion as the King showed himself
-more worthy of affection. A regiment of Priests and Monks, with
-cuirasses on their breasts, muskets and crucifixes in their hands,
-paraded the streets, and heightened the passions of the populace into
-frenzy. At this period of fanaticism, theologians were the most
-influential politicians, and the dictators of the public conscience.
-Accordingly the Sorbonne decided that Henry, as a relapsed and
-excommunicated heretic, could not be acknowledged, even although he
-should be absolved from the censures. The Parliament swore on the
-Gospels, in the presence of the Legate and the Spanish Ambassador, to
-refuse all proposals of accommodation. The siege was pushed to such
-extremities, and the famine became so cruel, that bread was made of
-human bones ground to powder. That Henry did not then master the
-capital, where two hundred thousand men were maddened with want, was
-owing to his own lenity. He declared that he had rather lose Paris, than
-gain possession of it by the death of so many persons. He gave a free
-passage through his lines to all who were not soldiers, and allowed his
-own troops to send in refreshments to their friends. By this paternal
-kindness he lost the fruit of his labours to himself; but he also
-prolonged the civil war, and the calamities of the kingdom at large.
-
-The approach of the Duke of Parma with a Spanish army obliged Henry to
-raise the siege of Paris. It was not the policy of the Spanish court to
-render the Leaguers independent of its assistance, and the Duke,
-satisfied with having relieved the metropolis, avoided an engagement,
-and returned to his government in the Low Countries, followed by Henry
-as far as the frontiers of Picardy. In 1591 Henry received succours from
-England and Germany, and laid siege to Rouen; but his prey was again
-snatched from him by the Duke of Parma. Again battle was offered and
-declined; and the retiring army passed the Seine in the night on a
-bridge of boats: a retreat the more glorious, as Henry believed it to be
-impossible. The Duke once said of his adversary, that other generals
-made war like lions, or wild boars; but that Henry hovered over it like
-an eagle.
-
-During the siege of Paris, some conferences had been held between the
-chiefs of the two parties, which ended in a kind of accommodation. The
-Catholics of the King’s party began to complain of his perseverance in
-Calvinism; and some influential men who were of the latter persuasion,
-especially his confidential friend and minister Rosny, represented to
-him the necessity of a change. Even some of the reformed ministers
-softened the difficulty, by acknowledging salvation to be possible in
-the Roman church. In 1593 the ceremony of abjuration was performed at
-St. Denys, in presence of a multitude of the Parisians. If, as we cannot
-but suppose, the monarch’s conversion was owing to political motives,
-the apostacy must be answered for at a higher than any human tribunal:
-politically viewed, it was perhaps one of the most beneficial steps ever
-taken towards the pacification and renewal of prosperity of a great
-kingdom. In the same year he was crowned at Chartres, and in 1594 Paris
-opened her gates to him. He had but just been received into the capital,
-where he was conspicuously manifesting his beneficence and zeal for the
-public good, when he was wounded in the throat by John Châtel, a young
-fanatic. When the assassin was questioned, he avowed the doctrine of
-tyrannicide, and quoted the sermons of the Jesuits in his justification.
-That society therefore was banished by the Parliament, and their
-librarian was executed on account of some libels against the King, found
-in his own hand-writing among his papers.
-
-For two years after his ostensible conversion, the King was obliged
-daily to perform the most humiliating ceremonies, by way of penance; and
-it was not till 1595 that he was absolved by Clement VIII. The Leaguers
-then had no further pretext for rebellion, and the League necessarily
-was dissolved. Its chiefs exacted high terms for their submission; but
-the civil wars had so exhausted the kingdom, that tranquillity could not
-be too dearly purchased; and Henry was faithful to all his promises,
-even after his authority was so firmly established, that he might have
-broken his word with safety to all but his own conscience and honour.
-Although the obligations which he had to discharge were most burdensome,
-he found means to relieve his people, and make his kingdom prosper. The
-Duc de Mayenne, in Burgundy, and the Duke de Mercœur, in Britanny, were
-the last to protract an unavailing resistance; but the former was
-reduced in 1596, and the latter in 1598, and thenceforth France enjoyed
-almost uninterrupted peace till Henry’s death. But the Protestants gave
-him almost as much uneasiness as the Catholic Leaguers. He had granted
-liberty of conscience to the former; a measure which was admitted to be
-necessary by the prudent even among the latter. Nevertheless, either
-from vexation at his having abjured their religion, from the violence of
-party zeal, or disgust at being no longer the objects of royal
-preference, the Calvinists preferred their demands in so seditious a
-tone, as stopped little short of a rebellious one. While on the road to
-Britanny, he determined to avoid greater evils by timely compromise. The
-edict of Nantes was then promulgated, authorizing the public exercise of
-their religion in several towns, granting them the right of holding
-offices, putting them in possession of certain places for eight years,
-as pledges for their security, and establishing salaries for their
-ministers. The clergy and preachers demurred, but to no purpose; the
-Parliament ceased to resist the arguments of the Prince, when he
-represented to them as magistrates, that the peace of the state and the
-prosperity of the church must be inseparable. At the same time he
-endeavoured to convince the bigots among the priesthood on both sides,
-that the love of country and the performance of civil and political
-duties may be completely reconciled with difference of worship.
-
-But it would be unjust to attribute these enlightened views to Henry,
-without noticing that he had a friend as well as minister in Rosny, best
-known as the Duc de Sully, who probably suggested many of his wisest
-measures, and at all events superintended their execution, and did his
-best to prevent or retrieve his sovereign’s errors by uncompromising
-honesty of advice and remonstrance. The allurements of pleasure were
-powerful over the enthusiastic and impassioned temperament of Henry: it
-was love that most frequently prevailed over the claims of duty. The
-beautiful Gabrielle d’Estrées became the absolute mistress of his heart;
-and he entertained hopes of obtaining permission from Rome to divorce
-Margaret de Valois, from whom he had long lived in a state of
-separation. Had he succeeded time enough, he contemplated the dangerous
-project of marrying the favourite; but her death saved him both from the
-hazard and disgrace. It is not by anecdotes of his amours, that we would
-be prone to illustrate the life of this remarkable sovereign; but the
-following may deserve notice as highly characteristic. Shortly after the
-peace with Spain, concluded by the advantageous treaty of Vervins in
-1598, Henry, on his return from hunting, in a plain dress as was usual
-with him, and with only two or three persons about him, had to cross a
-ferry. He saw that the ferryman did not know him, and asked what people
-said about the peace. “Faith,” said the man, “I know nothing about this
-fine peace; every thing is still taxed, even to this wretched boat, by
-which I can scarcely earn a livelihood.” “Does not the King intend,”
-said Henry, “to set all this taxation to rights?” “The King is good kind
-of man enough,” answered the sturdy boatman; “but he has a mistress, who
-wants so many fine gowns, and so many trumpery trinkets, and we have to
-pay for all that. Besides, that is not the worst: if she were constant
-to him, we would not mind; but people do say that the jade has other
-gallants.” Henry, much amused with this conversation, sent for the
-ferryman next day, and extorted from him all that he had said the
-evening before, in presence of the object of his vituperation. The
-enraged lady insisted on his being hanged forthwith. “How can you be
-such a fool?” said the King; “this poor devil is put out of humour only
-by his poverty: for the time to come, he shall pay no tax for his boat,
-and then he will sing for the rest of his days, _Vive Henri, vive
-Gabrielle_.”
-
-The King’s passions were not buried in the grave of La Belle Gabrielle:
-she was succeeded by another mistress, Henrietta d’Entragues, a woman of
-an artful, intriguing, and ambitious spirit, who inflamed his desires by
-refusals, until she extorted a promise of marriage. Henry showed this
-promise, ready signed, to Sully: the minister, in a noble fit of
-indignation, tore it to pieces. “I believe you are mad,” cried the King,
-in a rage. “It may be so,” answered Sully; “but I wish I was the only
-madman in France.” The faithful counsellor was in momentary expectation
-of an angry dismissal from all his appointments; but his monarch’s
-candour and justice, and long tried friendship, prevailed over his
-besetting weakness; and as an additional token of his favour, he
-conferred on Sully the office of Grand Master of the Ordnance. The
-sentence of divorce, so long solicited, was at length granted; and the
-King married Mary de Medicis, who bore Louis XIII. to him in 1601. The
-match, however, contributed little to his domestic happiness.
-
-While France was flourishing under a vigilant and paternal
-administration, while her strength was beginning to keep pace with her
-internal happiness, new conspiracies were incessantly formed against the
-King. D’Entragues could not be his wife, but continued to be his
-mistress. She not only exasperated the Queen’s peevish humour against
-him, but was ungrateful enough to combine with her father, the Count
-d’Auvergne, and the Spanish Court, in a plot which was timely
-discovered. The criminals were arrested and condemned, but received a
-pardon. The Duke de Bouillon afterwards stirred up the Calvinists to
-take Sedan, but it was immediately restored. Spite of the many virtues
-and conciliatory manners of Henry, the fanatics could never pardon his
-former attachment to the Protestant cause. He was continually surrounded
-with traitors and assassins: almost every year produced some attempt on
-his life, and he fell at last by the weapon of a misguided enthusiast.
-Meanwhile, from misplaced complaisance to the Pope, he recalled the
-Jesuits, contrary to the advice of Sully and the Parliament.
-
-Shortly before his untimely end, Henry is said by some historians, to
-have disclosed a project for forming a Christian republic. The proposal
-is stated to have been, to divide Europe into fifteen fixed powers, none
-of which should be allowed to make any new acquisition, but should
-together form an association for maintaining a mutual balance, and
-preserving peace. This political reverie, impossible to be realized, is
-not likely ever to have been actually divulged, even if meditated by
-Henry, nor is there any trace of it to be found in the history, or among
-the state papers of England, Venice, or Holland, the supposed
-co-operators in the scheme. His more rational design in arming went no
-further than to set bounds to the ambition and power of the house of
-Austria, both in Germany and Italy. His warlike preparations have,
-however, been ascribed to his prevailing weakness, in an infatuated
-passion for the Princess of Condé. Whatever may have been the motive,
-his means of success were imposing. He was to march into Germany at the
-head of forty thousand excellent troops. The army, provisions, and every
-other necessary were in readiness. Money no longer failed; Sully had
-laid up forty millions of livres in the treasury, which were destined
-for this war. His alliances were already assured, his generals had been
-formed by himself, and all seemed to forebode such a storm, as must
-probably have overwhelmed an emperor devoted to the search after the
-philosopher’s stone, and a king of Spain under the dominion of the
-inquisition. Henry was impatient to join his army; but his mind had
-become harassed with sinister forebodings, and his chagrin was increased
-by a temporary alienation from his faithful minister. He was in his way
-to pay a visit of reconciliation to Sully, when his coach was entangled
-as it passed along a street. His attendants left the carriage to remove
-the obstruction, and during the delay thus caused he was stabbed to the
-heart by Francis Ravaillac, a native of Angoulême. This calamitous event
-took place on May 14, 1610, in the fifty-seventh year of his age. The
-Spaniards, who had the strongest interest in the catastrophe, were
-supposed to have been the instigators; but the fear of implicating other
-powers, and plunging France into greater evils than those from which
-their hero had rescued them, deterred not only statesmen, but even the
-judges on Ravaillac’s trial, from pressing for the names of accomplices.
-Hardouin de Perefixe, in his History of Henry the Great, says, “If it be
-asked who inspired the monster with the thought? History answers that
-she does not know; and that in so mysterious an affair, it is not
-allowable to vent suspicions and conjectures as assured truths; that
-even the judges who conducted the examinations opened not their mouths,
-and spoke only with their shoulders.” There were seven courtiers in the
-coach when the murder took place; and the Marshal d’Estrées, in his
-History of the Regency of Mary de Medicis, says that the Duke d’Epernon
-and the Marquis de Verneuil were accused by a female servant of the
-latter, of having been privy to the design; but that, having failed to
-verify her charge before the Parliament, she was condemned to perpetual
-imprisonment between four walls. The circumstance that Ravaillac was of
-Angoulême, which was the Duke’s government, gave some plausibility to
-the suspicion. It was further whispered, that the first blow was not
-mortal; but that the Duke stooped to give facility to the assassin, and
-that he aimed a second which reached the King’s heart. But these rumours
-passed off, without fixing any well-grounded and lasting imputation on
-that eminent person’s character.
-
-The assertions of Ravaillac, as far as they have any weight,
-discountenance the belief of an extended political conspiracy. The house
-of Austria, Mary de Medicis his wife, Henrietta d’Entragues his
-mistress, as well as the Duke d’Epernon, have been subjected to the
-hateful conjectures of Mazarin and other historians; but he who actually
-struck the blow invariably affirmed that he had no accomplice, and that
-he was carried forward by an uncontrollable instinct. If his mind were
-at all acted on from without, it was probably by the epidemic fanaticism
-of the times, rather than by personal influence.
-
-Henry left three sons and three daughters by Mary de Medicis.
-
-Of no prince recorded in history, probably, are so many personal
-anecdotes related, as of Henry IV. These are for the most part well
-known, and of easy access. The whole tenor of Henry’s life exhibits a
-lofty, generous, and forgiving temper, the fearless spirit which loves
-the excitement of danger, and that suavity of feeling and manners,
-which, above all qualities, wins the affections of those who come within
-its sphere: it does not exhibit high moral or religious principle. But
-his weaknesses were those which the world most readily pardons,
-especially in a great man. If Henry had emulated the pure morals and
-fervent piety of his noble ancestor Louis IX., he would have been a far
-better king, as well as a better man; yet we doubt whether in that case,
-his memory would then have been cherished with such enthusiastic
-attachment by his countrymen.
-
-[Illustration: Marriage of Henry IV. and Mary de Medicis, from the
-Picture by Rubens.]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _Engraved by J. Posselwhite._
-
-  BENTLEY.
-
-  _From a Picture by Hudson,
-  in Trinity College, Cambridge._
-
-  Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful
-    Knowledge.
-
-  _London, Published by Charles Knight, Ludgate Street, & Pall Mall
-    East._
-]
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-                                BENTLEY.
-
-
-Richard Bentley was the son, not of a low mechanic, as the earlier
-narratives of his life assert, but of a respectable yeoman, possessed of
-a small estate. That fact has been established by his latest and most
-accurate, as well as most copious biographer, Dr. Monk, now Bishop of
-Gloucester. Bentley was born in Yorkshire, January 27, 1661–2, at
-Oulton, near Wakefield; and educated at Wakefield school, and St. John’s
-College, Cambridge, where he pursued his studies with unwearied
-industry. No fellowship to which he was eligible having fallen vacant,
-he was appointed Master of Spalding school, in 1682; over which he had
-presided only one year, when his critical learning recommended him to
-Dr. Stillingfleet, then Dean of St. Paul’s, as a private tutor for his
-son. In 1689 he attended his pupil to Wadham College in Oxford, where he
-was incorporated Master of Arts on the 4th of July in that year, having
-previously taken that degree in his own university. Soon after the
-promotion of Stillingfleet to the see of Worcester, Bentley was made
-domestic chaplain to that learned prelate, with whom he continued on the
-terms of confidential intimacy incident to that connexion, till his
-Lordship’s death. Dr. William Lloyd, at that time Bishop of Lichfield,
-was equally alive to the uncommon merit of this rising scholar; and his
-two patrons concurrently recommended him as a fit person to open the
-lectures founded by the celebrated Robert Boyle, in defence of natural
-and revealed religion. Bentley had before this time embarked largely in
-literary pursuits. Among these we can only stop to mention his
-criticisms on the historiographer Malelas, contained in a letter
-appended to Dr. Mill’s edition of that author, which stamped his
-reputation as a first-rate scholar, especially among the learned men of
-the Continent.
-
-The delivery of the first course of Boyle’s Lectures, in 1692, gave
-Bentley an admirable opportunity of establishing his reputation as a
-divine; and he taxed his abilities to the utmost to ensure success. Sir
-Isaac Newton’s Principia had not been published more than six years: the
-sublime discoveries of the author were little known, and less
-understood, from the general prejudice against any new theory, and the
-difficulty of comprehending the deep reasonings on which this one
-rested. Bentley determined to spare no pains in laying open this new
-philosophy of the solar system in a popular form, and in displaying to
-the best advantage the cogent arguments in behalf of the existence of a
-Deity, furnished by that masterly work. That nothing might be wanting to
-his design, he applied to the author, and received from him the solution
-of some difficulties. This gave rise to a curious and important
-correspondence; and there is a manuscript in Newton’s own hand preserved
-among Bentley’s papers, containing directions respecting the books to be
-read as a preparation for the perusal of his Principia. Newton’s four
-letters on this subject are preserved in Trinity College Library, and
-have been given to the public in the form of a pamphlet. The lecturer
-did not neglect, in addition to the popular illustration of the
-Principia, to corroborate his argument by considerations drawn from
-Locke’s doctrine, that the notion of a Deity is not innate. The sermons
-were received with loud and universal applause, and the highest opinion
-of the preacher’s abilities was entertained by the learned world.
-Bentley soon reaped the fruits of his high reputation, being appointed
-to a stall at Worcester in October, 1692, and made Keeper of the King’s
-Library in the following year. In 1694 he was again appointed to preach
-Boyle’s lecture. His subject was a defence of Christianity against the
-objections of infidels. These sermons have never been published; nor
-have Dr. Monk’s researches enabled him to ascertain where they are now
-deposited.
-
-Bentley was scarcely settled in his office of librarian, when he became
-involved in a quarrel with the Hon. Charles Boyle, brother to the Earl
-of Ossory, who was then in the course of his education at Christ Church
-in Oxford, and had carried thither a more than ordinary share of
-classical knowledge, and a decided taste for literary pursuits. Mr.
-Boyle had been selected by his college to edit a new edition of the
-Epistles of Phalaris; and for that purpose, not by direct application,
-but through the medium of a blundering and ill-mannered bookseller, he
-had procured the use of a manuscript copy of the Epistles from the
-Library at St. James’s. The responsibility attendant on the custody of
-manuscripts, and perhaps some disgust at the channel through which the
-loan was negotiated, occasioned the librarian to demand restitution
-before the collation was finished. A notion was entertained at Christ
-Church, that an affront was intended both to the Epistles, which Bentley
-had already pronounced to be a clumsy forgery of later times, and to the
-advocates of their genuineness. Tory politics had probably some share in
-exasperating a quarrel with a scholar in the opposite interest. Be this
-as it may, the preface to Phalaris contained an offensive sentence,
-which the editor would not, or perhaps could not cancel, as the copies
-seem to have been delivered before the real state of the case was
-explained; and this gave rise to the once celebrated controversy between
-Boyle and Bentley. It produced a number of pieces written with learning,
-wit, and spirit, on both sides; but Bentley fought single-handed, while
-the tracts on the side of Boyle were clubbed by the wits of Christ
-Church; for the reputed author was attending his parliamentary duty in
-Ireland, while those enlisted under his colours were sustaining his
-cause in the English republic of letters. Of the numerous attacks on
-Bentley published at this period, Swift’s Battle of the Books is the
-only one which continues to be known by the merit of the writing. The
-controversy was prolonged to the year 1699, when Bentley’s enlarged
-dissertation upon Phalaris appeared, and obtained so complete a victory
-over his opponents, as to constitute an epoch not only in the writer’s
-life, but in the history of literature. It is avowedly controversial;
-but it contains a matchless treasure of knowledge, in history,
-chronology, antiquities, philosophy, and criticism. The preface contains
-his defence against the charges made on his personal character, his
-vindication of which is satisfactory and triumphant. So strong, however,
-are the prejudices of party and fashion, that many persons looked upon
-the controversy as a field for a grand tournament of wit and learning,
-exhibiting the prowess of the combatants without deciding the cause in
-dispute; but all those whose judgment on such questions could be of any
-value held the triumph of Dr. Bentley to be complete, both as to the
-sterling merits of the case, and his able management of its discussion.
-It was not long before the impression created in his favour became
-manifest; for, in the course of the next year, 1700, Bentley was
-appointed by the crown to the Mastership of Trinity College, Cambridge.
-On that high advancement he resigned his stall at Worcester. He was
-afterwards collated to the Archdeaconry of Ely, in 1781, which, besides
-conferring rank in the church, was endowed with two livings; and he was
-appointed Chaplain both to King William and Queen Anne. There is a
-tradition in Bentley’s family, that Bishop Stillingfleet said, “We must
-send Bentley to rule the turbulent Fellows of Trinity College: if any
-one can do it, he is the person; for he has ruled my family ever since
-he entered it.”
-
-Having thus attained to affluence and honour, he married a lady to whom
-he had been long attached. The union was eminently happy. Mrs. Bentley’s
-mind was highly cultivated; she was amiable and pious; and the
-benevolence of her disposition availed to soften the animosity of
-opponents at several critical periods of her husband’s life. His new
-station was calculated to increase rather than to lessen the Master’s
-taste for critical studies. As he occasionally gave the results of his
-inquiries to the public, his labours, abounding in erudition and
-sagacity, by degrees raised him to the reputation of being the first
-critic of his age. Among the most remarkable of his numerous pieces, we
-may mention a collection of the Fragments of Callimachus, with notes and
-emendations, transmitted to Grævius, in whose edition of that poet’s
-works they appeared in 1697; and three letters on the Plutus and the
-Clouds of Aristophanes, written to Kuster, and by him dissected into the
-form of notes, and published in his edition of that author. Copies of
-two of the original epistles have fortunately been preserved, and given
-to the world in the Museum Criticum, after more than a century. Kuster
-had in a great measure destroyed their interest by omissions, and by
-curtailing their amusing and digressive playfulness. But as they fell
-from Bentley’s own pen, few of his writings exhibit more acuteness, or
-more lively perception of the elegancies of the Greek tongue. About the
-same time he produced one of the ablest and most perfect of his works,
-his Emendations on the Fragments of Menander and Philemon. That piece
-indicates rather intimate acquaintance with his subject, and a feeling
-of security in his positions, than direct and immediate labour or
-research. He wrote under the assumed name of Phileleutherus Lipsiensis,
-and sent the work to be printed and published on the Continent. Under
-the same signature he appeared again in 1713, in his Reply to Collins’s
-Discourse of Freethinking. His exposure of the sophistry and fallacies
-pervading that book was judicious and highly effective; and for the
-eminent service done to the Christian religion, and the clergy of
-England in this work, by refuting the objections and exposing the
-ignorance of the writers calling themselves Freethinkers, Dr. Bentley
-received the public thanks of the University of Cambridge assembled in
-senate, January 4, 1715. But his edition of Horace is the capital work,
-which through good and evil report will associate his name with the
-Latin language so long as it endures. He completed it in 1711. The tone
-of the preface is arrogant and invidious: the presumption, which is the
-great blot in his character, both as a man and a critic, is more
-conspicuous in those few pages than in all his other productions. With
-respect to the work itself, between seven and eight hundred changes in
-the common readings were introduced into the text, contrary to the
-established practice of classical editors. The language of the notes is
-that of absolute dictatorship, not however without an award of fair
-credit to some other commentators. His Latinity, although easy and
-flowing, has been censured as by no means pure. Many of his readings
-have been confirmed and adopted by the latest and best editors; others
-are considered as either unnecessary, harsh, or prosaic: but, with all
-its faults, Bentley’s Horace is a monument of inexhaustible learning;
-the reader, whether convinced or not, adds to his stock of knowledge;
-and the very errors of such a critic are instructive.
-
-But Bentley’s haughty temper, thus displayed in his criticisms, burst
-forth much more injuriously in the government of his college; where he
-carried himself so loftily, and gave such serious and repeated offence,
-that several of the Fellows exhibited a complaint against him before the
-Bishop of Ely, as visitor. Their object was his removal from the
-headship, in furtherance of which they charged him with embezzlement, in
-having improperly applied large sums of money to his own use; and with
-having adopted other unworthy and violent proceedings, to the
-interruption of peace and harmony in the society. In answer to these
-imputations he states his own case in a letter to the Bishop, which was
-published in octavo in 1710, under the title of the Present State of
-Trinity College. Such was the beginning of a long, inveterate, and
-mischievous quarrel; which, after a continuance of more than twenty
-years, ended in the Master’s favour. The Biographia Britannica, and the
-Life of Bentley by the present Bishop of Gloucester, necessarily give a
-detailed narrative of this dispute, during the progress of which several
-books were written, with the most determined animosity on both sides. We
-cannot in this instance regret the confined space, which prevents our
-dilating on a quarrel, unfortunate in its origin, virulent in its
-progress, and, in our opinion, especially discreditable to the Master.
-
-Nor was this the only trial of a spirit sufficiently able to bear up
-against the storms of opposition, and by obstinate perseverance to
-triumph over its adversaries. During the course of the former dispute,
-Bentley had been promoted to the Regius Professorship of Divinity.
-George I. paid a visit to the university in October, 1717. It is usual
-on such occasions to name several persons for a doctor’s degree in that
-faculty by royal mandate; and the principal part of the ceremony
-consists in what is called the creation, that is, the presentation of
-the nominees to the Chancellor, if present, or to the Vice-Chancellor in
-his absence, by the Professor. Bentley claimed a fee of four guineas as
-due from each of the Doctors whom it was his office to create, in
-addition to a broad-piece, which had been the ancient and customary
-compliment. There were two gold coins under that denomination; a
-Jacobus, worth twenty-five shillings, and a Carolus, passing for
-twenty-three. Both were called in, and no gold pieces of that value have
-since been coined. The Professor refused to create any doctor who would
-not acquiesce in the fee. His arguments in favour of the claim were at
-least plausible; but it ill became so high a functionary to interrupt
-solemn proceedings, and sow discord in a learned body for a mercenary
-and paltry consideration. From this low origin arose a long and warm
-dispute, in the course of which the Master of Trinity and Regius
-Professor was suspended from all his degrees, October 3, 1718, and
-degraded on the seventeenth of that month. Of thirty Doctors present,
-twenty-three voted for the degradation of their brother; and of ten
-heads of colleges who attended all but one joined in the sentence. The
-principal ground for these extraordinary measures will not appear very
-strong to impartial posterity; it was an alleged contempt in speaking of
-a regular meeting of the Heads of Houses, as “the Vice-Chancellor and
-four or five of his friends over a bottle.” From this sentence Bentley
-petitioned the King for relief: and the affair was referred to a
-committee of the Privy Council, whence it was carried into the Court of
-King’s Bench, where the four Judges declared their opinions _seriatim_
-against the proceedings of the university; and a peremptory mandamus was
-issued, February 7, 1724, after more than five years of undignified
-altercation, charging the Chancellor, Masters, and scholars “to restore
-Richard Bentley to all his degrees, and to every other right and
-privilege of which they had deprived him.”
-
-Happily both for himself and the learned world, Bentley was gifted with
-a natural hardiness of temper, which enabled him to buffet against both
-these storms; so that he continued to pursue his career of literature,
-as if the elements had been undisturbed. November 5, 1715, he delivered
-a sermon on popery from the university pulpit, distinguished by learning
-and argument, and written in an original style, which compelled the
-attention of the hearers, unlike those common-place and narcotic
-declamations usually poured forth on that anniversary. It was printed,
-and has incurred the strange fate of having been purloined by Sterne,
-and introduced into Tristram Shandy. Part of it is read by Corporal
-Trim, whose feelings are so overpowered by the description of the
-Inquisition, that he declares “he would not read another line of it for
-all the world.” The sermon had the common lot of Bentley’s publications;
-it gave birth to a controversy. It was attacked in ‘Remarks’ by Cummins,
-a Calvinistic dissenter. An answer was put forth with the following
-title: ‘Reflections on the scandalous Aspersions on the Clergy, by the
-author of the Remarks.’ It is asserted in more than one life of Bentley,
-that he was himself the author of these Reflections; but the Bishop of
-Gloucester says that no one can believe this who reads half a page of
-the pamphlet. In 1716 Bentley had propounded the plan of a projected
-edition of the Greek Testament, in a letter to the Archbishop of
-Canterbury. He brooded over this design for four years, sparing neither
-labour nor expense to procure the necessary materials. In 1720 he issued
-proposals for printing it by subscription, together with the Latin
-version of Jerome; to which proposals a specimen of the execution was
-annexed. The proposals are printed at length in the Biographia
-Britannica, and in Dr. Monk’s Life. They were virulently attacked by Dr.
-Conyers Middleton, at that time a fellow of Trinity, and a leading
-person in the opposition to the Master, in ‘Remarks’ on Bentley’s
-proposals. At this time Bentley’s enemies were endeavouring to oust him
-from his professorship. It was insinuated that his project was a mere
-pretext, to be abandoned when it had answered his temporary purpose of
-diverting the public mind from his personal misconduct. To these
-suspicions he added force by the confession, in excuse for certain marks
-of haste in a paper drawn up, not as a specimen of his critical powers,
-but simply as an advertisement, that the proposals were drawn up one
-evening by candle-light. Middleton followed up his blow by ‘Further
-Remarks:’ the publication of the Testament was suspended, nor was it
-ever carried into effect. That it was stopped by Middleton’s pamphlet,
-is an error countenanced by numerous writers of the time, but denied by
-Dr. Monk, who says that the discontinuance certainly was not owing to
-Middleton’s attack. He doubts indeed whether Bentley ever looked into
-the tract. A speech of his to Bishop Atterbury shortly after its
-appearance is quite in character: he “scorned to read the rascal’s book;
-but if his Lordship would send him any part which he thought the
-strongest; he would undertake to answer it before night.” In 1726, his
-Terence was published with notes, a dissertation concerning the metres,
-which he termed Schediasma, and, strangely placed in such a work, his
-speech at the Cambridge commencement in 1725. The sprightliness and good
-temper of this short but eloquent oration is in strong contrast with his
-controversial asperity: it breathes strong affection for the university,
-from which body a stranger might suppose that he had received the
-kindest treatment. But even this edition of the polished and amiable
-comedian was undertaken in a spirit of jealousy and resentment against
-Dean Hare, a former friend and rival editor, who had in truth deserved
-his anger, by availing himself of information derived from Bentley in an
-unauthorized and unhandsome manner. The notes throughout are in caustic
-and contemptuous language, with unceasing severity against Hare, not
-indeed in that violent strain of abuse which has so often marked the
-warfare of critics, but with cool and sneering allusions without the
-mention of the proper name, under the disparaging designation of
-_Quidam, est qui_, or _Vir eruditus_. Not content with this revenge,
-Bentley undertook to anticipate Hare in an edition of Phœdrus, which is
-characterized by Dr. Monk as a “hasty, crude, and unsupported revision”
-of the text of that author; in which the rashness and presumption of his
-criticisms were rendered still more offensive by the imperious
-conciseness in which his decrees were promulgated. Hare, on the
-contrary, had long been preparing his edition: his materials were
-provided and arranged, and he retaliated in an _Epistola Critica_,
-addressed to Dr. Bland, head-master of Eton. The spirit of the epistle
-is personal and bitter; and while it undoubtedly had its intended effect
-in exposing Bentley, it is not creditable either to the temper or to the
-consistency of its author.
-
-The last of Bentley’s works which we shall notice is his unfortunate
-edition of Milton’s Paradise Lost, given to the public in 1732. It is a
-sad instance of utter perversion of judgment in a man of extraordinary
-talent. Fenton first suggested, that the spots in that sun-like
-performance might be owing to the misapprehension of the amanuensis, and
-the ignorant blunders of a poverty-stricken printer. On this foundation
-Bentley, neither himself a poet, nor possessing much taste or feeling
-for the higher effusions of even his own favourite authors, the Greek
-and Latin poets, undertook to revise the language, remedy the blemishes,
-and reject the supposed interpolations of our national epic. He was
-peculiarly disqualified for such a task, not only by prosaic temperament
-and the chill of advanced years, but by his entire ignorance of the
-Italian poets and romance writers, from whose fables and imagery Milton
-borrowed his illustrations as freely as from the more familiar stories
-and modes of expression of the classical authorities. As usual with him,
-his notes were written hastily, and sent immediately to the press. The
-public disapprobation was unanimous and just: but even in this
-performance many acute pieces of criticism are scattered up and down,
-for which the world, disgusted by his audacity and flippancy, allows him
-no credit.
-
-We must pass quickly over the ten remaining years of Bentley’s life.
-They were embittered by a fresh contest for character and station before
-the supreme tribunal of the kingdom. The case between the Bishop of Ely
-and Dr. Bentley, respecting the visitatorial jurisdiction over Trinity
-College in general, and over the Master in particular, was argued first
-in the Court of King’s Bench, and then carried by appeal to the House of
-Lords, where it was finally affirmed that the Bishop of Ely was visitor.
-In his seventy-second year Bentley underwent a second trial at Ely
-House, and was sentenced to be deprived of his mastership; but he eluded
-the execution of the sentence, and continued to perform the duties of
-the office which he held. At length a compromise was effected between
-him and some of his most active prosecutors, many of whom, as well as
-himself, were septuagenarians. On his proposed edition of Homer,
-distinguished by the restoration of the Digamma, we need not enlarge. It
-appears to have been broken off by a paralytic attack, in the course of
-1739. In the following year he sustained the severest loss, by the death
-of his wife in the fortieth year of their union. His own death took
-place July 14, 1742, when he had completed his eightieth year. He was
-buried in the chapel; to which he had been a benefactor by giving £200
-towards its repairs, soon after he was appointed to the mastership.
-
-Bentley’s literary character is known in all parts of Europe where
-learning is known. In his private character he was what Johnson liked, a
-good hater: there was much of arrogance, and no little obstinacy in his
-composition; but it must be admitted on the other hand, that he had many
-high and amiable qualities. Though too prone to encounter hostility by
-oppression, he was warm and sincere in friendship, an affectionate
-husband, and a good father. In the exercise of hospitality at his lodge
-he maintained the dignity of the college, and rivalled the munificence
-even of the papal priesthood. His benefactions to the college were also
-liberal: but he exacted from it far more than it was willing to pay, or
-than any former master had received; and his name would stand fairer if
-his generosity had been less distinguished, provided that, at the same
-time, his conduct had been less grasping. We shall only add that the
-severity of his temper as a critic and controversial writer was
-exchanged in conversation for a strain of vivacity and pleasantry
-peculiar to himself.
-
-Bentley had three children: a son called by his own name, and two
-daughters. The son was bred under his own tuition at Trinity College,
-where he obtained a fellowship. His contemporaries acknowledge his
-genius, but lament that his pursuits were so desultory and various as to
-exclude him from that substantial fame which his talents might have
-ensured. Dr. Bentley’s eldest daughter, Elizabeth, married Mr. Humphry
-Ridge, a gentleman of good family in Hampshire, but was left a widow in
-less than a year, and returned to reside with her father. The youngest,
-Joanna, married Mr. Denison Cumberland, grandson to the learned Bishop
-of Peterborough. The first issue of this marriage was the late Richard
-Cumberland, well known in the republic of letters, and especially as a
-dramatic writer. In his memoir of his own life Mr. Cumberland gives some
-amusing anecdotes of his grandfather in his old age. His object seems to
-have been to paint the domestic character of Bentley in a pleasing
-light, and to counteract the prevalent opinion of his stern and
-overbearing manners. The old man’s personal kindness towards himself
-seems to have produced a deep and well merited feeling of gratitude. His
-communications however are of little value, for he neglected his
-opportunities of obtaining accurate and more important information from
-his mother and other relatives of the great critic.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _Engraved by F. Mackenzie._
-
-  KEPPLER.
-
-  _From a Picture in the Collection of
-  Godefroy Kraenner, Merchant at Ratisbon._
-
-  Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful
-    Knowledge.
-
-  _London, Published by Charles Knight, Ludgate Street, & Pall Mall
-    East._
-]
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-                                KEPLER.
-
-
-The matter contained in this sketch of Kepler’s history, is exclusively
-derived from the Life published in the Library of Useful Knowledge. To
-that work we refer all readers who wish to make themselves acquainted
-with the contents of Kepler’s writings, and with the singular methods by
-which he was led to his great discoveries: it will be evident, on
-inspection, that it would be useless to attempt farther compression of
-the scientific matter therein contained. Our object therefore will be to
-select such portions as may best illustrate his singular and
-enthusiastic mind, and to give a short account of his not uneventful
-life.
-
-John Kepler was born December 21, 1571, Long. 29° 7´, Lat. 48° 54´, as
-we are carefully informed by his earliest biographer Hantsch. It is well
-to add that on the spot thus astronomically designated as our
-astronomer’s birth-place, stands the city of Weil, in the Duchy of
-Wirtemberg. Kepler was first sent to school at Elmendingen, where his
-father, a soldier of honourable family, but indigent circumstances, kept
-a tavern: his education was completed at the monastic school of
-Maulbronn, and the college of Tubingen, where he took his Master’s
-degree in 1591. About the same time he was offered the astronomical
-lectureship at Gratz, in Styria: and he accepted the post by advice, and
-almost by compulsion, of his tutors, “better furnished,” he says, “with
-talent than knowledge, and with many protestations that I was not
-abandoning my claim to be provided for in some other more brilliant
-profession.” Though well skilled in mathematics, and devoted to the
-study of philosophy, he had felt hitherto no especial vocation to
-astronomy, although he had become strongly impressed with the truth of
-the Copernican system, and had defended it publicly in the schools of
-Tubingen. He was much engrossed by inquiries of a very different
-character: and it is fortunate for his fame that circumstances withdrew
-him from the mystical pursuits to which through life he was more or less
-addicted; from such profitless toil as the “examination of the nature of
-heaven, of souls, of genii, of the elements, of the essence of fire, of
-the cause of fountains, of the ebb and flow of the tide, the shape of
-the continents and inland seas, and things of this sort,” to which, he
-says, he had devoted much time. The sort of spirit in which he was
-likely to enter on the more occult of these inquiries, and the sort of
-agency to which he was likely to ascribe the natural phenomena of which
-he speaks, may be estimated from an opinion which he gravely advanced in
-mature years and established fame, that the earth is an enormous living
-animal, with passions and affections analogous to those of the creatures
-which live on its surface. “The earth is not an animal like a dog, ready
-at every nod; but more like a bull or an elephant, slow to become angry,
-and so much the more furious when incensed.” “If any one who has climbed
-the peaks of the highest mountains throw a stone down their very deep
-clefts, a sound is heard from them; or if he throw it into one of the
-mountain lakes, which beyond doubt are bottomless, a storm will
-immediately arise, just as when you thrust a straw into the ear or nose
-of a ticklish animal, it shakes its head, and runs shuddering away. What
-so like breathing, especially of those fish who draw water into their
-mouths, and spout it out again through their gills, as that wonderful
-tide! For although it is so regulated according to the course of the
-moon, that in the preface to my ‘Commentaries on Mars’ I have mentioned
-it as probable that the waters are attracted by the moon, as iron is by
-the loadstone, yet if any one uphold that the earth regulates its
-breathing according to the motion of the sun and moon, as animals have
-daily and nightly alternations of sleep and waking, I shall not think
-his philosophy unworthy of being listened to; especially if any flexible
-parts should be discovered in the depths of the earth to supply the
-functions of lungs or gills.”
-
-The first fruit of Kepler’s astronomical researches was entitled
-‘Prodromus Dissertationis Cosmographicæ,’ the first part of a work to be
-called ‘Mysterium Cosmographicum,’ of which, however, the sequel was
-never written. The most remarkable part of the book is a fanciful
-attempt to show that the orbits of the planets may be represented by
-spheres circumscribed and inscribed in the five regular solids. Kepler
-lived to be convinced of the total baselessness of this supposed
-discovery, in which, however, at the time, he expressed high exultation.
-In the same work are contained his first inquiries into the proportion
-between the distances of the planets from the sun and their periods of
-revolution. He also attempted to account for the motion of the planets,
-by supposing a moving influence emitted like light from the sun, which
-swept round those bodies, as the sails of a windmill would carry any
-thing attached to them: of a genuine central force he had no knowledge,
-though he had speculated on the existence of an attractive force in the
-centre of motion, and rejected it on account of difficulties which he
-could not explain. The ‘Prodromus’ was published in 1596, and the genius
-and industry displayed in it gained praise from the best astronomers of
-the age.
-
-In the following year Kepler withdrew from Gratz into Hungary,
-apprehending danger from the unadvised promulgation of some, apparently
-religious, opinions. During this retirement he became acquainted with
-the celebrated Tycho Brahe, at that time retained by the Emperor Rodolph
-II. as an astrologer and mathematician, and residing at the castle of
-Benach, near Prague. Kepler, harassed throughout life by poverty, was
-received by his more fortunate fellow-labourer with cordial kindness. No
-trace of jealousy is to be found in their intercourse. Tycho placed the
-observations which he had made with unremitted industry during many
-years in the hands of Kepler, and used his interest with the Emperor to
-obtain permission for his brother astronomer to remain at Benach as
-assistant observer, retaining his salary and professorship at Gratz.
-Before all was settled, however, Kepler finally threw up that office,
-and remained, it should seem, entirely dependent on Tycho’s bounty. The
-Dane was then employed in constructing a new set of astronomical tables,
-to be called the Rudolphine, intended to supersede those calculated on
-the Ptolemaic and Copernican systems. He was interrupted in this labour
-by death, in 1601; and the task of finishing it was intrusted to Kepler,
-who succeeded him as principal mathematician to the Emperor. A large
-salary was attached to this office, but to extract any portion of it
-from a treasury deranged and almost exhausted by a succession of wars,
-proved next to impossible. He remained for several years, as he himself
-expresses it, begging his bread from the Emperor at Prague, during which
-the Rudolphine Tables remained neglected, for want of funds to defray
-the expenses of continuing them. He published, however, several smaller
-works; a treatise on Optics, entitled a Supplement to Vitellion, in
-which he made an unsuccessful attempt to determine the cause and the
-laws of refraction; a small work on a new star which appeared in
-Cassiopeia in 1604, and shone for a time with great splendour; another
-on comets, in which he suggests the possibility of their being planets
-moving in straight lines. Meanwhile he was continuing his labours on the
-observations of Tycho, and especially on those relating to the planet
-Mars: and the result of them appeared in 1609, in his work entitled
-‘Astronomia Nova;’ or Commentaries on the motions of Mars. He engaged in
-these extensive calculations from dissatisfaction with the existing
-theories, by none of which could the observed and calculated motions of
-the planets be made to coincide; but without any notion whither the task
-was about to lead him, or of rejecting the complicated machinery of
-former astronomers—
-
-                                       the sphere
-               With centric and eccentric scribbled o’er,
-               Cycle and epicycle, orb in orb.
-
-His inquiries are remarkable for the patience with which he continued to
-devise hypotheses, one after another, and the scrupulous fidelity with
-which he rejected them in succession, as they proved irreconcileable
-with the unerring test of observation. Not less remarkable is the
-singular good fortune by which, while groping in the dark among
-erroneous principles and erroneous assumptions, he was led, by careful
-observation of Mars, to discover the true form of its orbit, and the
-true law of its motion, and the motion of all planets, round the sun.
-These are enunciated in two of the three celebrated theorems known by
-the name of Kepler’s Laws, beyond comparison the most important
-discoveries made in astronomy from the time of Copernicus to that of
-Newton, of which the first is, that the planets move in ellipses, in one
-of the foci of which the sun is placed the second, that the time of
-describing any arc is proportional, in the same orbit, to the area
-comprised by the arc itself, and lines drawn from the sun to the
-beginning and end of it.
-
-About the year 1613 Kepler quitted Prague, after a residence of eleven
-years, to assume a professorship in the University of Linz. The year
-preceding his departure saw him involved in great domestic distress.
-Want of money, sickness, the occupation of the city by a turbulent army,
-the death of his wife and of the son whom he best loved, these, he says
-to a correspondent, “were reasons enough why I should have overlooked
-not only your letter, but even astronomy itself.” His first marriage,
-contracted early in life, had not been a happy one: but he resolved on a
-second venture, and no less than eleven ladies were successively the
-objects of his thoughts. After rejecting, or being rejected, by the
-whole number, he at last settled on her who stood fifth in the list; a
-woman of humble station, but, according to his own account, possessed of
-qualities likely to wear well in a poor man’s house. He employed the
-judgment and the mediation of his friends largely in this delicate
-matter: and in a letter to the Baron Strahlendorf, he has given a full
-and amusing account of the process of his courtships, and the
-qualifications of the ladies among whom his judgment wavered. He
-proposed to one lady whom he had not seen for six years, and was
-rejected: on paying her a visit soon after, he found, to his great
-relief, that she had not a single pleasing point about her. Another was
-too proud of her birth; another too old; another married a more ardent
-lover, while Kepler was speculating whether he would take her or not;
-and a fifth punished the indecision which he had shown towards others by
-alternations of consent and denial, until after a three months’
-courtship, the longest in the list, he gave her up in despair.
-
-Kepler did not long hold his professorship at Linz. Some religious
-opinions relative to the doctrine of transubstantiation gave offence to
-the Roman Catholic party, and he was excommunicated. In 1617 he received
-an invitation to fill the chair of mathematics at Bologna: this however
-he declined, pleading his German origin and predilections, and his
-German habits of freedom in speech and manners, which he thought likely
-to expose him to persecution or reproach in Italy. In 1618 he published
-his Epitome of the Copernican system, a summary of his philosophical
-opinions, drawn up in the form of question and answer. In 1619 appeared
-his celebrated work ‘Harmonice Mundi,’ dedicated to King James I. of
-England; a book strongly illustrative of the peculiarities of Kepler’s
-mind, combining the accuracy of geometric science with the wildest
-metaphysical doctrines, and visionary theories of celestial influences.
-The two first books are almost strictly geometrical; the third treats of
-music; for the fourth and fifth, we take refuge from explaining their
-subjects in transcribing the author’s exposition of their contents. “The
-fourth, metaphysical, psychological, and astrological, on the mental
-essence of harmonies, and of their kinds in the world, especially on the
-harmony of rays emanating on the earth from the heavenly bodies, and on
-their effect in nature, and on the sublunary and human soul; the fifth,
-astronomical and metaphysical, on the very exquisite harmonies of the
-celestial motions, and the origin of the eccentricities in harmonious
-proportions.” This work, however, is remarkable for containing amid the
-varied extravagances of its two last books, the third of Kepler’s Laws,
-namely, that the squares of the periods of the planets’ revolution vary
-as the cubes of their distances from the sun; a discovery in which he
-exulted with no measured joy. “It is now eighteen months since I got the
-first glimpse of light, three months since the dawn, very few days since
-the unveiled sun, most admirable to gaze upon, burst out upon me.
-Nothing holds me; I will indulge in my sacred fury; I will triumph over
-mankind by the honest confession that I have stolen the golden vases of
-the Egyptians, to build up a tabernacle for my God far away from the
-confines of Egypt. If you forgive me, I rejoice; if you are angry, I can
-bear it: the die is cast, the book is written; to be read either now or
-by posterity, I care not which: it may well wait a century for a reader,
-as God has waited six thousand years for an observer.”
-
-The substance of Kepler’s astrological opinions is contained in this
-work. It is remarkable that one whose candour and good faith are so
-conspicuous, one so intent on correcting his various theories by
-observation and experience, should have given in to this now generally
-rejected system of imposture and credulity; nay should profess to have
-been forced to adopt it from direct and positive observations. “A most
-unfailing experience (as far as can be hoped in natural phenomena), of
-the excitement of sublunary nature by the conjunctions and aspects of
-the planets, has instructed and compelled my unwilling belief.” At the
-same time he professed through life a supreme contempt for the common
-herd of nativity casters, and claimed to be the creator of a “new and
-most true philosophy, a tender plant which, like all other novelties,
-ought to be carefully nursed and cherished.” His plant was rooted in the
-sand, and it has perished; nor is it important to explain the fine-spun
-differences by which his own astrological belief was separated from
-another not more baseless. Poor through life, he relieved his ever
-recurring wants by astrological calculations: and he enjoyed
-considerable reputation in this line, and received ample remuneration
-for his predictions. It was principally as astrologers that both Tycho
-Brahe and Kepler were valued by the Emperor Rudolph: and it was in the
-same capacity that the latter was afterwards entertained by Wallenstein.
-One circumstance may suggest a doubt whether his predictions were always
-scrupulously honest. From the year 1617 to 1620, he published an annual
-Ephemeris, concerning which he writes thus: “In order to pay the expense
-of the Ephemeris for these two years, I have also written a _vile
-prophesying almanac_, which is hardly more respectable than begging;
-unless it be because it saves the Emperor’s credit, who abandons me
-entirely, and, with all his frequent and recent orders in council, would
-suffer me to perish with hunger.” Poverty is a hard task-master; yet
-Kepler should not have condescended to become the Francis Moore of his
-day.
-
-In 1620, Kepler was strongly urged by Sir Henry Wotton, then ambassador
-to Venice, to take refuge in England from the difficulties which beset
-him. This invitation was not open to the objections which had deterred
-him from accepting an appointment in Italy: but love of his native land
-prevailed to make him decline it also. He continued to weary the
-Imperial Government with solicitations for money to defray the expense
-of the Rudolphine Tables, which were not printed until 1627. These were
-the first calculated on the supposition of elliptic orbits, and contain,
-besides tables of the sun and planets, logarithmic and other tables to
-facilitate calculation, the places of one thousand stars as determined
-by Tycho, and a table of refractions. Similar tables of the planetary
-motions had been constructed by Ptolemy, and reproduced with alterations
-in the thirteenth century under the direction of Alphonso, King of
-Castile. Others, called the Prussian Tables, had been calculated after
-the discoveries of Copernicus, by two of that great astronomer’s pupils.
-All these, however, were superseded in consequence of the observations
-of Tycho Brahe, observations far more accurate than had ever before been
-made: and for the publication of the Rudolphine Tables alone, which for
-a long time continued unsurpassed in exactness, the name of Kepler would
-deserve honourable remembrance.
-
-Kepler was the first of the Germans to appreciate and use Napier’s
-invention of logarithms: and he himself calculated and published a
-series, under the title ‘Chilias Logarithmorum,’ in 1624. Not long after
-the Rudolphine Tables were printed, he received permission from the
-Emperor Ferdinand to attach himself to the celebrated Wallenstein, a
-firm believer in the science of divination by the stars. In him Kepler
-found a more munificent patron than he had yet enjoyed; and by his
-influence he was appointed to a professorship at the University of
-Rostock, in the Duchy of Mecklenburgh. But the niggardliness of the
-Imperial Court, which kept him starving through life, was in some sense
-the cause of his death. He had claims on it to the amount of eight
-thousand crowns, which he took a journey to Ratisbon to enforce, but
-without success. Fatigue or disappointment brought on a fever which put
-an end to his life in November, 1630, in his 59th year. A plain stone,
-with a simple inscription, marked his grave in St. Peter’s church-yard,
-in that city. Within seventy paces of it, a marble monument has been
-erected to him in the Botanic Garden, by a late Bishop of Constance. He
-left a wife and numerous family ill provided for. His voluminous
-manuscripts are now deposited in the Imperial Library of St. Petersburg.
-Only one volume of letters, in folio, has been published from them; and
-out of these the chief materials for his biography have been extracted.
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-                           SIR MATTHEW HALE.
-
-
-Matthew Hale was born on the 1st of November, 1609, at Alderley, a small
-village situated in Gloucestershire, about two miles from
-Wotton-under-Edge. His father, Robert Hale, was a barrister of Lincoln’s
-Inn, and his mother, whose maiden name was Poyntz, belonged to an
-ancient and respectable family which had resided for several generations
-at Iron Acton. Hale’s father is represented to have been a man of such
-scrupulous delicacy of conscience, that he abandoned his profession,
-because he thought that some things, of ordinary practice in the law,
-were inconsistent with that literal and precise observance of truth
-which he conceived to be the duty of a Christian. “He gave over his
-practice,” says Burnet, in his Life of Hale, “because he could not
-understand the reason of giving colour in pleadings, which, as he
-thought, was to tell a lie.”
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _Engraved by J. W. Cook._
-
-  HALE.
-
-  _From an original Picture in the Library
-  of Lincolns Inn._
-
-  Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful
-    Knowledge.
-
-  _London, Published by Charles Knight, Ludgate Street, & Pall Mall
-    East._
-]
-
-Hale had the misfortune to lose both his parents very early in life, his
-mother dying before he was three years old, and his father before he had
-attained his fifth year. Under the direction of his father’s will he was
-committed to the care of a near relation, Anthony Kingscote, Esq., of
-Kingscote in Gloucestershire. This gentleman, being inclined to the
-religious doctrines and discipline of the Puritans, placed him in a
-school belonging to that party; and, intending to educate him for a
-clergyman, entered him in 1626, at Magdalen Hall in Oxford. The
-strictness and formality of his early education seem to have inclined
-him to run into the opposite extreme at the university, when he became
-to a certain extent his own master. He is said to have been very fond at
-this time of theatrical amusements, and of fencing, and other martial
-exercises; and giving up the design of becoming a divine, he at one time
-determined to pass over into the Netherlands, and to enlist as a
-volunteer in the army of the Prince of Orange. An accidental
-circumstance diverted him from this resolution. He became involved in a
-lawsuit with a gentleman in Gloucestershire, who laid claim to part of
-his paternal estate; and his guardian, being a man of retired habits,
-was unwilling to undertake the task of personally superintending the
-proceedings on his behalf. It became necessary therefore that Hale,
-though then only twenty years old, should leave the university and
-repair to London for the purpose of arranging his defence. His
-professional adviser on this occasion was Serjeant Glanville, a learned
-and distinguished lawyer; who, being struck by the clearness of his
-young client’s understanding, and by his peculiar aptitude of mind for
-the study of the law, prevailed upon him to abandon his military
-project, and to enter himself at one of the Inns of Court with the view
-of being called to the bar. He accordingly became a member of the
-society of Lincoln’s Inn in Michaelmas term 1629, and immediately
-applied himself with unusual assiduity to professional studies. At this
-period of his life, he is said to have read for several years at the
-rate of sixteen hours a day.
-
-During his residence as a student in Lincoln’s Inn, an incident occurred
-which recalled a certain seriousness of demeanour, for which he had been
-remarkable as a boy, and gave birth to that profound piety which in
-after-life was a marked feature in his character. Being engaged with
-several other young students at a tavern in the neighbourhood of London,
-one of his companions drank to such excess that he fell suddenly from
-his chair in a kind of fit, and for some time seemed to be dead. After
-assisting the rest of the party to restore the young man to his senses,
-in which they at length succeeded, though he still remained in a state
-of great danger, Hale, who was deeply impressed with the circumstance,
-retired into another room, and falling upon his knees prayed earnestly
-to God that his friend’s life might be spared; and solemnly vowed that
-he would never again be a party to similar excess, nor encourage
-intemperance by drinking a health again as long as he lived. His
-companion recovered, and to the end of life Hale scrupulously kept his
-vow. This was afterwards a source of much inconvenience to him, when the
-reign of licentiousness commenced, upon the restoration of Charles II.;
-and drinking the King’s health to intoxication was considered as one of
-the tests of loyalty in politics, and of orthodoxy in religion.
-
-His rapid proficiency in legal studies not only justified and confirmed
-the good opinion which had been formed of him by his early friend and
-patron, Serjeant Glanville, but also introduced him to the favourable
-notice of several of the most distinguished lawyers of that day. Noy,
-the Attorney-General, who some years afterwards devised the odious
-scheme of ship-money, and who, while he is called by Lord Clarendon “a
-morose and proud man,” is also represented by him as an “able and
-learned lawyer,” took particular notice of Hale, and advised and
-assisted him in his studies. At this time also he became intimate with
-Selden, who, though much older than himself, honoured him with his
-patronage and friendship. He was induced by the advice and example of
-this great man to extend his reading beyond the contracted sphere of his
-professional studies, to enlarge and strengthen his reasoning powers by
-philosophical inquiries, and to store his mind with a variety of general
-knowledge. The variety of his pursuits at this period of life was
-remarkable: anatomy, physiology, and divinity formed part only of his
-extensive course of reading; and by his subsequent writings it is made
-manifest that his knowledge of these subjects was by no means
-superficial.
-
-The exact period at which Hale was called to the bar is not given by any
-of his biographers; and in consequence of the non-arrangement of the
-earlier records at Lincoln’s Inn, it cannot be readily ascertained. It
-is probable however that he commenced the actual practice of his
-profession about the year 1636. It is plain that he very soon attained
-considerable reputation in it, from his having been employed in most of
-the celebrated trials arising out of the troubles consequent on the
-meeting of Parliament in 1640. His prudence and political moderation,
-together with his great legal and constitutional knowledge, pointed him
-out as a valuable advocate for such of the court party as were brought
-to public trial. Bishop Burnet says that he was assigned as counsel for
-Lord Strafford, in 1640. This does not appear from the reports of that
-trial, nor is it on record that he was expressly assigned as Strafford’s
-counsel by the House of Lords: but he may have been privately retained
-by that nobleman to assist in preparing his defence. In 1643 however he
-was expressly appointed by both Houses of Parliament as counsel for
-Archbishop Laud: and the argument of Mr. Herne, the senior counsel, an
-elaborate and lucid piece of legal reasoning, is said, but on no certain
-authority, to have been drawn up by Hale. In 1647 he was appointed one
-of the counsel for the Eleven members: and he is said to have been
-afterwards retained for the defence of Charles I. in the High Court of
-Justice: but as the King refused to own the jurisdiction of the
-tribunal, his counsel took no public part in the proceedings. He was
-also retained after the King’s death by the Duke of Hamilton, when
-brought to trial for treason, in taking up arms against the Parliament.
-Burnet mentions other instances, but these are enough to prove his high
-reputation for fidelity and courage, as well as learning.
-
-In the year 1643 Hale took the covenant as prescribed by the Parliament,
-and appeared more than once with other laymen in the assembly of
-divines. In 1651 he took the “Engagement to be faithful and true to the
-Commonwealth without a King and House of Lords,” which, as Mr. Justice
-Foster observes, “in the sense of those who imposed it, was plainly an
-engagement for abolishing kingly government, or at least for supporting
-the abolition of it.” In consequence of his compliance in this respect
-he was allowed to practise at the bar, and was shortly afterwards
-appointed a member of the commission for considering of the reformation
-of the law. The precise part taken by Hale in the deliberations of that
-body cannot now be ascertained; and indeed there are no records of the
-mode in which they conducted their inquiries, and, with a few
-exceptions, no details of the specific measures of reform introduced by
-them. A comparison, however, of the machinery of courts of justice
-during the reign of Charles I., and their practice and general conduct
-during the Commonwealth, and immediately after the Restoration, will
-afford convincing proofs that during the interregnum improvements of
-great importance were effected; improvements which must have been
-devised, matured, and carried into execution by minds of no common
-wisdom, devoted to the subject with extraordinary industry and
-reflection.
-
-It was unquestionably with the view of restoring a respect for the
-administration of justice, which had been wholly lost during the reign
-of Charles I., and giving popularity and moral strength to his own
-government, that Cromwell determined to place such men as Hale on the
-benches of the different courts. Hale however had at first many scruples
-concerning the propriety of acting under a commission from an usurper;
-and it was not without much hesitation, that he at length yielded to the
-importunity of Cromwell and the urgent advice and entreaties of his
-friends; who, thinking it no small security to the nation to have a man
-of his integrity and high character on the bench, spared no pains to
-satisfy his conscientious scruples. He was made a serjeant, and raised
-to the bench of the Court of Common Pleas in January, 1653–4.
-
-Soon after he became a judge he was returned to Cromwell’s first
-Parliament of five months, as one of the knights of the shire for the
-county of Gloucester, but he does not appear to have taken a very active
-part in the proceedings of that assembly. Burnet says that “he, with a
-great many others, came to parliaments, more out of a design to hinder
-mischief than to do much good.” On one occasion, however, he did a
-service to his country, for which all subsequent generations have reason
-to be grateful, by opposing the proposition of a party of frantic
-enthusiasts to destroy the records in the Tower and other depositories,
-as remnants of feudality and barbarism. Hale displayed the folly,
-injustice, and mischief of this proposition with such authority and
-clearness of argument, that he carried the opinions of all reasonable
-members with him; and in the end those who had introduced the measure
-were well satisfied to withdraw it. That his political opinions at this
-time were not republican, is evident from a motion introduced by him,
-that the legislative authority should be affirmed to be in the
-Parliament, and an individual with powers limited by the Parliament; but
-that the military power should for the present remain with the
-Protector. He had no seat in the second Parliament of the Protectorate,
-called in 1656; but when a new Parliament was summoned upon the death of
-Cromwell in January, 1658–9, he represented the University of Oxford.
-
-His judicial conduct during the Commonwealth is represented by
-contemporaries of all parties as scrupulously just, and nobly
-independent. Several instances are related of his resolute refusal to
-submit the free administration of the law to the arbitrary dictation of
-the Protector. On one occasion of this kind, which occurred on the
-circuit, a jury had been packed by express directions from Cromwell.
-Hale discharged the jury on discovering this circumstance, and refused
-to try the cause. When he returned to London, the Protector severely
-reprimanded him, telling him that “he was not fit to be a judge;” to
-which Hale only replied that “it was very true.”
-
-It appears that at this period, he, in common with several other judges,
-had strong objections to being employed by Cromwell as commissioners on
-the trial of persons taken in open resistance to his authority. After
-the suppression of the feeble and ineffectual rebellion in 1655, in
-which the unfortunate Colonel Penruddock, with many other gentlemen of
-rank and distinction, appeared in arms for the King in the western
-counties, a special commission issued for the trial of the offenders at
-Exeter, in which Hale’s name was inserted. He happened to be spending
-the Lent vacation at his house at Alderley, to which place an express
-was sent to require his attendance; but he plainly refused to go,
-excusing himself on the ground that four terms and two circuits in the
-year were a sufficient devotion of his time to his judicial duties, and
-that the intervals were already too small for the arrangement of his
-private affairs; “but,” says Burnet, “if he had been urged to it, he
-would not have been afraid of speaking more clearly.”
-
-He continued to occupy his place as a judge of the Common Pleas until
-the death of the Protector; but when a new commission from Richard
-Cromwell was offered to him, he declined to receive it: and though
-strongly urged by other judges, as well as his personal friends, to
-accept the office on patriotic grounds, he firmly adhered to his first
-resolution, saying that “he could act no longer under such authority.”
-
-In the year 1660 Hale was again returned by his native county of
-Gloucester to serve in the Parliament, or Convention, by which Charles
-II. was recalled. On the discussion of the means by which this event
-should be brought about, Hale proposed that a committee should be
-appointed to look into the propositions and concessions offered by
-Charles I. during the war, particularly at the treaty of Newport, from
-whence they might form reasonable conditions to be sent over to the
-King. The motion was successfully opposed by Monk, who urged the danger
-which might arise, in the present state of the army and the nation, if
-any delay should occur in the immediate settlement of the government.
-“This,” says Burnet, “was echoed with such a shout over the House, that
-the motion was no longer insisted on.” It can hardly be doubted that
-most of the destructive errors of the reign of Charles II. would have
-been spared, if express restrictions had been imposed upon him before he
-was permitted to assume the reins of government. On the other hand it
-has been justly said, that the time was critical; that at that precise
-moment the army and the nation, equally weary of the scenes of confusion
-and misrule which had succeeded to Richard Cromwell’s abdication, agreed
-upon the proposed scheme; but that if delay had been interposed, and if
-debates had arisen in Parliament, the dormant spirit of party would in
-all probability have been awakened, the opportunity would have been
-lost, and the restoration might after all have been prevented. These
-arguments, when urged by Monk to those who were suffering under a
-pressing evil, and had only a prospective and contingent danger before
-them, were plausible and convincing; but to those in after times who
-have marked the actual consequences of recalling the King without
-expressly limiting and defining his authority, as displayed in the
-miserable and disgraceful events of his “wicked, turbulent, and
-sanguinary reign,” and in the necessary occurrence of another revolution
-within thirty years from the Restoration, it will probably appear that
-our ancestors paid rather too dearly on that occasion for the advantages
-of an immediate settlement of the nation.
-
-Immediately after the restoration of the King in May, 1668, Lord
-Clarendon, being appointed Lord Chancellor, sought to give strength and
-stability to the new government, by carefully providing for the due
-administration of justice. With this view, he placed men distinguished
-for their learning and high judicial character upon the benches of the
-different courts. Amongst other eminent lawyers, who had forsaken their
-profession during the latter period of the Commonwealth, he determined
-to recall Hale from his retirement, and offered him the appointment of
-Lord Chief Baron. But it was not without great difficulty that Hale was
-induced to return to the labours of public life. A curious original
-paper containing his “reasons why he desired to be spared from any place
-of public employment,” was published some years ago by Mr. Hargrave, in
-the preface to his collection of law tracts. Amongst these reasons,
-which were stated with the characteristic simplicity of this great man,
-he urged “the smallness of his estate, being not above £500 per annum,
-six children unprovided for, and a debt of £1000 lying upon him; that he
-was not so well able to endure travel and pains as formerly; that his
-constitution of body required some ease and relaxation; and that he had
-of late time declined the study of the law, and principally applied
-himself to other studies, now more easy, grateful, and seasonable for
-him.” He alludes also to two “infirmities, which make him unfit for that
-employment, first, an aversion to the pomp and grandeur necessarily
-incident to it; and secondly, too much pity, clemency, and tenderness in
-cases of life, which might prove an unserviceable temper.” “But if,” he
-concludes, “after all this, there must be a necessity of undertaking an
-employment, I desire that it may be in such a court and way as may be
-most suitable to my course of studies and education, and that it may be
-the lowest place that may be, to avoid envy. One of his Majesty’s
-counsel in ordinary, or at most, the place of a puisne judge in the
-Common Pleas, would suit me best.” His scruples were however eventually
-overcome, and on the 7th of November, 1660, he accepted the appointment
-of Lord Chief Baron: Lord Clarendon saying as he delivered his
-commission to him that “if the King could have found an honester and
-fitter man for that employment he would not have advanced him to it; and
-that he had therefore preferred him, because he knew no other who
-deserved it so well.” Shortly afterwards he reluctantly received the
-honour of knighthood.
-
-The trials of the regicides took place in the October immediately
-preceding his appointment, and his name appears among the commissioners
-on that occasion. There is however no reason to suppose that he was
-actually present; his name is not mentioned in any of the reports,
-either as interfering in the proceedings themselves, or assisting at the
-previous consultations of the judges; and it can hardly be doubted but
-that, if he had taken a part in the trials, he would have been included
-with Sir Orlando Bridgeman and several others in the bitter remarks made
-by Ludlow on their conduct in this respect. It has been the invariable
-practice from very early times to the present day, to include the twelve
-judges in all commissions of Oyer and Terminer, for London and
-Middlesex; and as, at the time of the trials in question, only eight
-judges had been appointed, it is probable that Hale and the other three
-judges elect were named in the commission, though their patents were not
-made out till the following term, in order to preserve as nearly as
-possible the ancient form.
-
-Sir Matthew Hale held the office of Lord Chief Baron till the year 1671;
-and during that period greatly raised the character of the court in
-which he presided, by his unwearied patience and industry, the mildness
-of his manners, and the inflexible integrity of his judicial conduct.
-His impartiality in deciding cases in the Exchequer where the interests
-of the Crown were concerned, is admitted even by Roger North, who
-elsewhere charges him with holding “demagogical principles,” and with
-the “foible of leaning towards the popular.” “I have heard Lord Guilford
-say,” says this agreeable but partial writer, “that while Hale was Chief
-Baron of the Exchequer, by means of his great learning, even against his
-inclination, he did the Crown more justice in that court, than any
-others in his place had done with all their good-will and less
-knowledge.”
-
-Whilst he was Chief Baron he was called upon to preside at the trial of
-two unhappy women who were indicted at the Assizes at Bury St. Edmunds,
-in the year 1665, for the crime of witchcraft. The Chief Baron is
-reported to have told the jury that, “he made no doubt at all that there
-were such creatures as witches,” and the women were found guilty and
-afterwards executed. The conduct of Hale on this occasion has been the
-subject of much sarcastic animadversion. It might be said in reply, that
-the report of the case in the State Trials is of no authority whatever;
-but supposing it to be accurate, it would be unjust and unreasonable to
-impute to Sir Matthew Hale as personal superstition or prejudice, a mere
-participation in the prevailing and almost universal belief of the times
-in which he lived. The majority of his contemporaries, even among
-persons of education and refinement, were firm believers in witchcraft;
-and though Lord Guilford rejected this belief, Roger North admits that
-he dared not to avow his infidelity in this respect in public, as it
-would have exposed him to the imputation of irreligion. Numerous
-instances might be given to show the general prevalence at that time of
-this stupid and ignorant superstition; and therefore the opinion of Hale
-on this subject does not appear to be a proof of peculiar weakness or
-credulity.
-
-On the occurrence of the great fire of London in 1666, an act of
-parliament passed containing directions and arrangements for rebuilding
-the city. By a clause in this statute, the judges were authorized to sit
-singly to decide on the amount of compensation due to persons, whose
-premises were taken by the corporation in furtherance of the intended
-improvements. Sir Matthew Hale applied himself with his usual diligence
-and patience to the discharge of this laborious and extrajudicial duty.
-“He was,” says Baxter, “the great instrument for rebuilding London; for
-it was he that was the constant judge, who for nothing followed the
-work, and by his prudence and justice removed a multitude of great
-impediments.”
-
-In the year 1671, upon the death of Sir John Kelyng, Chief Justice of
-the Court of King’s Bench, Sir Matthew Hale was removed from the
-Exchequer to succeed him. The particular circumstances which caused his
-elevation to this laborious and responsible situation at a time when his
-growing infirmities induced him to seek a total retirement from public
-life, are not recorded by any of his biographers. For four years after
-he became Chief Justice he regularly attended to the duties of his
-court, and his name appears in all the reported cases in the Court of
-King’s Bench, until the close of the year 1675. About that time he was
-attacked by an inflammation of the diaphragm, a painful and languishing
-disease, from which he constantly predicted that he should not recover.
-It produced so entire a prostration of strength, that he was unable to
-walk up Westminster Hall to his court without being supported by his
-servants. “He resolved,” says Baxter, “that the place should not be a
-burden to him, nor he to it,” and therefore made an earnest application
-to the Lord Keeper Finch for his dismission. This being delayed for some
-time, and finding himself totally unequal to the toil of business, he at
-length, in February 1676, tendered the surrender of his patent
-personally to the King, who received it graciously and kindly, and
-promised to continue his pension during his life.
-
-On his retirement from office, he occupied at first a house at Acton
-which he had taken from Richard Baxter, who says “it was one of the
-meanest houses he had ever lived in; in that house,” he adds, “he liveth
-contentedly, without any pomp, and without costly or troublesome retinue
-of visitors, but not without charity to the poor; he continueth the
-study of mathematics and physics still as his great delight. It is not
-the least of my pleasure that I have lived some years in his more than
-ordinary love and friendship, and that we are now waiting which shall be
-first in heaven; whither he saith he is going with full content and
-acquiescence in the will of a gracious God, and doubts not but we shall
-shortly live together.” Not long before his death he removed from Acton
-to his own house at Alderley, intending to die there; and having a few
-days before gone to the parish church-yard and chosen his grave, he sunk
-under a united attack of asthma and dropsy, on Christmas-day, 1676.
-
-The judicial character of Sir Matthew Hale was without reproach. His
-profound knowledge of the law rendered him an object of universal
-respect to the profession; whilst his patience, conciliatory manners,
-and rigid impartiality engaged the good opinion of all classes of men.
-As a proof of this, it is said that as he successively removed from the
-Court of Common Pleas to the Exchequer, and from thence to the King’s
-Bench, the mass of business always followed him; so that the court in
-which he presided was constantly the favourite one with counsel,
-attorneys, and parties. Perhaps indeed no judge has ever been so
-generally and unobjectionably popular. His address was copious and
-impressive, but at times slow and embarrassed: Baxter says “he was a man
-of no quick utterance, and often hesitant; but spake with great reason.”
-This account of his mode of speaking is confirmed by Roger North, who
-adds, however, that “his stop for a word by the produce always paid for
-the delay; and on some occasions he would utter sentences heroic.” His
-reputation as a legal and constitutional writer is in no degree inferior
-to his character as a judge. From the time it was published to the
-present day, his history of the Pleas of the Crown has always been
-considered as a book of the highest authority, and is referred to in
-courts of justice with as great confidence and respect as the formal
-records of judicial opinions. His Treatises on the Jurisdiction of the
-Lords’ House of Parliament, and on Maritime Law, which were first
-published by Mr. Hargrave more than a century after Sir Matthew Hale’s
-death, are works of first-rate excellence as legal arguments, and are
-invaluable as repositories of the learning of centuries, which the
-industry and research of the author had collected.
-
-After his retirement from public life, he wrote his great work called
-‘The primitive Origination of Mankind, considered and examined according
-to the light of nature.’ Various opinions have been formed upon the
-merits of this treatise. Roger North depreciates the substance of the
-book, but commends its style; while Bishop Burnet and Dr. Birch greatly
-praise its learning and force of reasoning.
-
-Sir Matthew Hale was twice married. By his first wife, who was a
-daughter of Sir Henry Moore of Faley in Berkshire, he had ten children,
-most of whom turned out ill. His second wife, according to Roger North,
-was “his own servant maid;” and Baxter says, “some made it a scandal,
-but his wisdom chose it for his convenience, that in his age he married
-a woman of no estate, to be to him as a nurse.” Hale gives her a high
-character in his will, as “a most dutiful, faithful, and loving wife,”
-making her one of his executors, and intrusting her with the education
-of his grand-children. He bequeathed his collection of manuscripts,
-which he says had cost him much industry and expense, to the Society of
-Lincoln’s Inn, in whose library they are carefully preserved.
-
-The published biographies of Hale are extremely imperfect, none of them
-containing a particular account of his personal history and character.
-Bishop Burnet’s Life is the most generally known, and, though far too
-panegyrical and partial, is perhaps the most complete; it has been
-closely followed by most of his subsequent biographers. In Baxter’s
-Appendix to the Life of Hale, and in his account of his own Life, the
-reader will find some interesting details respecting his domestic and
-personal habits; and Roger North’s Life of Lord Guilford contains many
-amusing, though ill-natured and sarcastic anecdotes of this admirable
-judge.
-
-[Illustration: View of Alderley Church.]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _Engraved by J. Thomson._
-
-  FRANKLIN.
-
-  _From an original Picture by J. A. Duplesis in the possession of M.
-    Barnet
-  Consul General for the United States of America at Paris._
-
-  Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful
-    Knowledge.
-
-  _London, Published by Charles Knight, Ludgate Street, & Pall Mall
-    East._
-]
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-                               FRANKLIN.
-
-
-Benjamin Franklin was born at Boston in New England, January 6, 1706.
-His father was a non-conformist, who had emigrated in 1682, and followed
-the trade of a tallow-chandler. Benjamin was one of the youngest of
-fourteen children, and, being intended for the ministry, was sent for a
-year to the Boston Grammar School; after which, poverty compelled his
-father to remove him, at ten years old, to assist in his business. The
-boy disliked this occupation so much, that he was bound apprentice to an
-elder brother, who was just established at Boston as a printer. Though
-but twelve years of age, he soon learnt all his brother could teach him;
-but the harsh treatment he met with, which he says first inspired him
-with a hatred for tyranny, made him resolve to emancipate himself on the
-first opportunity. All his leisure time was spent in reading; and having
-exhausted his small stock of books, he resorted to a singular expedient
-to supply himself with more. Having been attracted by a treatise on the
-advantages of a vegetable diet, he determined to adopt it, and offered
-to provide for himself, on condition of receiving half the weekly sum
-expended on his board. His brother willingly consented; and by living
-entirely on vegetables he contrived to save half his pittance to gratify
-his voracious appetite for reading. He continued the practice for
-several years, and attributes to it his habitual temperance and
-indifference to the delicacies of the table.
-
-Some time before this the elder Franklin had set up a newspaper, the
-second ever published in America, which eventually gave Benjamin a
-pretext for breaking through the trammels of his apprenticeship. In
-consequence of some remarks which gave offence to the provincial
-authorities, the former was imprisoned under a warrant from the Speaker
-of the Assembly; and his discharge was accompanied with an order, that
-“James Franklin should no longer print the New England Courant.” In this
-dilemma the brothers agreed that it should be printed for the future in
-Benjamin’s name; and to avoid the censure that might fall on the elder
-as printing it by his apprentice, the old indenture was cancelled, and a
-new one signed which was to be kept secret; but fresh disputes arising,
-Benjamin took advantage of the transaction to assert his freedom,
-presuming that his brother would not dare to produce the secret
-articles. Expostulation was vain; but the brother took care to spread
-such reports as prevented him from getting employment at Boston. He
-determined therefore to go elsewhere; and, having sold his books to
-raise a little money, he set off without the knowledge of his friends,
-and wandered by way of New York to Philadelphia, where he found himself
-at seventeen with a single dollar in his pocket, friendless and unknown.
-He succeeded, however, at last in procuring employment with a printer of
-the name of Keimer, with whom he remained seven months. By some accident
-he was thrown in the way of the Governor, Sir William Keith, who
-promised to be of service to him in his business, if he could persuade
-his father to establish him in Philadelphia. His father, however,
-refused to advance any money, thinking him too young to be established
-in a concern of his own. He therefore once more engaged himself with
-Keimer, and remained with him a year and a half.
-
-The favour of the Governor, who promised him introductions and a letter
-of credit, led Franklin to undertake a voyage to England, with a view of
-improving himself in his trade, and procuring a set of types. But he was
-severely disappointed, when, at the end of the voyage, upon applying to
-the Captain who carried the Governor’s despatches, he learnt that there
-were no letters for him, and that Governor Keith was one of that large
-class of persons who are more ready to excite expectations than to
-fulfil them. He soon however got employment, and, with frugality,
-contrived to maintain both himself and his friend Ralph, who had
-accompanied him to England on a literary speculation, which, after many
-failures in verse and prose, procured him at last a nook in the Dunciad,
-and a pension from the Prince of Wales, whose cause he had espoused in
-print against George II.
-
-During his voyage he attracted the notice of a merchant named Denham,
-who, again meeting him in London, became fond of him, and engaged his
-services as a clerk. After remaining a year and a half in London, he
-returned with Mr. Denham to Philadelphia. During this voyage he drew up
-a scheme for self-examination, and several prudent rules for the
-guidance of his future conduct, to which he steadily adhered through
-life. Indeed the remarkable success of most of his undertakings may be
-traced in a great measure to this faculty of profiting early by the
-lessons of experience, and abiding rigorously by a resolution once made.
-
-He had scarcely returned half a year when his patron died, leaving him
-again on the world at the age of twenty-one. But he had now acquired so
-much skill in his business, that he was gladly received at advanced
-wages into Keimer’s printing-house.
-
-About this time he set on foot a club, called “The Junto,” consisting of
-twelve persons of his own age, most of whom proved eminent men in
-after-life. This association had much influence on his fortunes,
-particularly when, having quarrelled with Keimer, he was induced to
-establish himself in partnership with a fellow-journeyman named
-Meredith, and needed both interest and money. By 1729 he had saved
-enough to buy out his partner, and make himself sole proprietor of the
-printing-house. In the following year he married a young woman named
-Reade, to whom he had been attached before he went to England.
-
-In 1732 he began to publish ‘Poor Richard’s Almanack.’ It was
-interspersed with many prudential maxims, which were printed with
-additions, in a collected form, in 1757, and have been translated into
-many languages. The annual sale of this Almanack reached 10,000 copies,
-and, as it was continued for twenty-five years, was very profitable to
-the author.
-
-In 1736 he was appointed Clerk to the Assembly of Pennsylvania, and
-obtained their printing. The next year he was made Deputy Postmaster,
-and introduced so many judicious reforms into his department, that it
-began to bring in a considerable revenue, though up to that time it had
-before barely paid its own expenses. He also carried into effect many
-improvements at Philadelphia, as his credit with his fellow-townsmen
-increased; invariably taking care to introduce them as “the idea of a
-few friends,” or “the plan of some public spirited persons,” thus
-avoiding the odium which attaches to the corrector of abuses, and
-eventually securing the credit of having made useful suggestions. In
-these schemes he was well seconded by the “Junto.” Some of them
-were—Institutions for watching, paving, and lighting the city; the Union
-Fire Company, still, we believe, in useful operation; a Philosophical
-Society; an Academy for Education, now grown up into the University of
-Pennsylvania; and the City Hospital. But many of these improvements were
-brought forward at a later period; for until 1748, when he took a
-partner, his time was almost exclusively occupied in his
-printing-office.
-
-Being now, comparatively, a man of leisure, he devoted more attention to
-philosophical pursuits and to public business, for which his
-fellow-citizens began to find his habits and talents exceedingly well
-suited. He became, in succession, magistrate, alderman, and member of
-the Assembly; and nothing of importance was transacted without his
-assistance or advice.
-
-The first public mission in which he was engaged, was to a tribe of
-Indians in 1750, which was successful. In 1753 he was appointed
-Postmaster-General, with a salary of £300 a year.
-
-The next year he produced a plan for the union of the American
-Provinces, for mutual defence against an apprehended invasion by the
-French from the Canada frontier. This seems to have been the first time
-that such an idea was broached; and, as he was fond of saying, like all
-good motions it was kept alive, though not carried into effect at the
-time.
-
-Pennsylvania was then ruled by an Assembly elected annually, and a
-Governor appointed by the descendants of William Penn, who resided in
-England, and were the feudal lords of the soil. This anomalous kind of
-government naturally led to misunderstandings, which were among the
-causes that mainly contributed to alienate the affections of the
-provinces from the mother country. The Proprietaries, as they were
-called, laid claim to immunity from taxation, upon grounds which the
-Assembly refused to admit; and the Governor and his officers taking part
-with the Proprietaries, to whom they were indebted for their
-appointments, a controversy grew up, which was never entirely disposed
-of while the connexion with Great Britain subsisted. In this dispute
-Franklin took an active share, and sided with the opposition, rejecting
-frequent overtures from the government; with which, however, he
-continued to keep on good terms, never losing sight of the duty of a
-citizen, in supporting the authority of the laws, and defending the
-state against its foreign and domestic enemies by his writings and
-example. In following this course on various occasions, especially that
-of the French invasion from Canada, he not only warmly exerted himself
-in person, but advanced a good deal of money, which, to the disgrace of
-the British Government, was never wholly repaid.
-
-In 1757 he was appointed to manage the controversy with the
-Proprietaries in England. Thither he accordingly repaired after some
-vexatious delays, and proceeded in the object of his mission with his
-accustomed energy; and though he met with many obstacles, his efforts
-were at length successful, and the Penns gave up their claim to be
-exempt from contributing to the burdens of the state. But they still
-held the power of appointing the Governor, which the Province wished to
-be transferred to the Crown, and the dispute was afterwards renewed. The
-conduct of Franklin in this affair gained him so much credit in America,
-that he received the additional appointments of Agent for Maryland,
-Massachusetts, and Georgia, each of which provinces had grievances of
-its own requiring redress.
-
-During this absence in England, Franklin was presented by the
-Universities of St. Andrew’s and Oxford with the degree of D.C.L., and
-took his place as Fellow of the Royal Society, which honour, with many
-similar distinctions, had been conferred upon him some years before for
-his discoveries in electricity. The chief of these were, the identity of
-electricity with lightning, and the mode of protecting buildings by
-pointed metallic conductors. The simplification which he effected in the
-theory of electricity, by showing how all the phenomena are explicable
-by the hypothesis of a single electric fluid, forms a remarkable example
-of philosophical generalization, and a lasting monument of its author’s
-genius[3]. He was also consulted on American affairs by Lord Chatham,
-who, by his advice, as it is believed, withdrew a part of the British
-force then acting with the King of Prussia, and directed it with so much
-secrecy and success against Canada, that the French had no intelligence
-of the danger of the province till they heard of its irretrievable loss.
-
-Footnote 3:
-
-  See the Library of Useful Knowledge—Treatise on Electricity, § 48, &c.
-
-In the summer of 1762 he returned to Philadelphia, where he received
-public thanks, and a grant of £5000 for his services. His popularity was
-such, that he had been re-elected annually to the Assembly, and he
-immediately resumed the active part which he had formerly taken in its
-proceedings.
-
-Among other projects for reform, that relating to the appointment of
-Governor, which the Proprietaries seem to have exercised with very
-little regard to the public interest, gave rise to much stormy
-discussion during the next two years. Franklin’s share in it procured
-him many enemies, who succeeded in preventing his election in 1764. Yet,
-a strong petition to the Crown on the subject having been disregarded,
-he was a second time appointed agent for enforcing the views of the
-Assembly upon the authorities in England. When there, he by no means
-limited his exertions to this narrow point: minor dissensions were now
-merging in the final struggle for national independence, to which the
-passing of the Grenville Stamp Act in 1763 gave the immediate impulse.
-Franklin reprobated this tax as arbitrary and illegal, when it was first
-reported to the Assembly; and his writings in the papers against it with
-his examination in Parliament, are thought to have contributed much to
-its repeal under the Rockingham administration, in 1766.
-
-In this and the three next years he paid several visits to the
-Continent, where he was received with much distinction. He began already
-to record his observations upon the part the different powers would be
-likely to take in case of a rupture between England and her colonies: an
-event which a thorough knowledge of the temper of both led him, even
-thus early, to contemplate as by no means improbable. The closure of the
-port of Boston in 1773, and the quartering of troops in the town, filled
-up the measure of discontent. Franklin was then agent for three
-provinces besides Pennsylvania; and their remonstrances, which he lost
-no opportunity of forcing on the attention of the English public as well
-as the Government, found in him a most efficient supporter. At length,
-finding all his efforts to bring about a reconciliation entirely
-fruitless, and having met with much misconstruction and personal
-indignity at the hands of successive administrations, he resigned his
-agencies and set sail for Philadelphia, where he arrived in the spring
-of 1775, after an absence of eleven years.
-
-In the preceding autumn a Congress of delegates from the Assemblies of
-all the provinces, the idea of which seems to have originated with
-Franklin, had met at Philadelphia; and their first act was to sign a
-Declaration of Rights, which had been transmitted to Franklin and the
-other agents for presentation. The day after his return he was himself
-elected to serve in this Congress for Pennsylvania, and was intrusted
-with the management of several important negotiations. In the mean time
-collisions had taken place between the troops at Boston and the
-inhabitants, which led to the actions of Lexington and Bunker’s Hill.
-These events quickened the deliberations of the Congress; and after one
-more fruitless petition for redress, the Declaration of Independence was
-published, July 4, 1776, and warlike preparations were actively
-commenced. The English Ministry now sent out Lord Howe, with full powers
-to concede every thing but absolute independence; but as the
-Commissioners appointed to confer with him, of whom Franklin was one,
-were instructed to treat upon no other terms, the negotiation abruptly
-terminated.
-
-After his return from a short but unsuccessful mission to Canada, Dr.
-Franklin had been appointed President of the Convention for settling the
-constitution of Pennsylvania; but he had not long held the office before
-his services were again put in requisition by the Congress, as head of
-the Commission to the Court of France, with powers to negotiate loans,
-purchase stores, and grant letters of marque. He consented, with all the
-alacrity of youth, to undertake this charge, though in his 71st year;
-and, crossing the Atlantic for the fourth time, arrived in France with
-his colleagues before the end of 1776, and took up his residence at
-Passy, a village near Paris. The nation at large received the Commission
-with open arms, and rendered them much assistance, in which the
-Government secretly participated. But it was not till the surrender of
-Burgoyne’s army, in October 1777, that the reluctance of the Court to
-hazard a war with England was overcome. The treaty of alliance, and
-recognition of the United States, was signed in February 1778, and war
-immediately was declared against England.
-
-The principal object of the Commission being thus gained, Franklin still
-continued in France with the character of plenipotentiary during the
-seven remaining years of the war, till 1783, when England consented to
-recognize the independence of her late colonies. The definitive treaty
-for that purpose was signed by himself, and on the part of England by
-David Hartley, September 3, 1783.
-
-He had of late years been afflicted with those painful disorders the
-gout and stone, and at last received permission to return, of which he
-availed himself the following spring, having just completed his 79th
-year. He was, as may be supposed, most enthusiastically received at
-Philadelphia, after an absence of eight years and a half; but the
-Congress, with an ingratitude which has often been justly laid to the
-charge of republics, made him no acknowledgment or compensation for his
-long and arduous services; and he felt the neglect rather keenly.
-
-In a very short time we find him again busily engaged in public
-employments; first as a member of the Supreme Executive Council, and of
-the Commission for the settlement of the National Confederacy, and soon
-afterwards as President of the state of Pennsylvania, which he retained
-for the full legal period of three years. He was also a leading member
-in several societies for public and charitable purposes. One of the
-latter was a Society for the Abolition of Slavery, and his last public
-act was a memorial to Congress on this subject. He then wholly retired
-from public employments, after a life spent in labours through which
-nothing could have supported him but a consciousness of the high
-responsibilities of a mind gifted like his own, and the magnitude of the
-cause for which his powerful advocacy was so long engaged. He died about
-two years after his retirement, at the age of eighty-four, in the full
-enjoyment of all his faculties. Few men ever possessed such
-opportunities or talents for contributing to the welfare of mankind;
-fewer still have used them to better purpose: and it is pleasant to
-know, on his own authority, that such extensive services were rendered
-without any sacrifice of his own happiness. In his later correspondence
-he frequently alludes with complacency to a favourite sentiment which he
-has also introduced into his Memoirs;—“That he would willingly live over
-again the same course of life, even though not allowed the privilege of
-an author, to correct in a second edition the faults of the first.”
-
-His remarkable success in life and in the discharge of his public
-functions is not to be ascribed to genius, unless the term be extended
-to that perfection of common sense and intimate knowledge of mankind
-which almost entitled his sagacity to the name of prescience, and made
-‘Franklin’s forebodings’ proverbially ominous among those who knew him.
-His preeminence appears to have resulted from the habitual cultivation
-of a mind originally shrewd and observant, and gifted with singular
-powers of energy and self-control. There was a business-like alacrity
-about him, with a discretion and integrity which conciliated the respect
-even of his warmest political foes; a manly straight-forwardness before
-which no pretension could stand unrebuked; and a cool tenacity of temper
-and purpose which never forsook him under the most discouraging
-circumstances, and was no doubt exceedingly provoking to his opponents.
-Indeed his sturdiness, however useful to his country in time of need,
-was perhaps carried rather to excess; his enemies called it obstinacy,
-and accused him of being morose and sullen. No better refutation of such
-a charge can be wished for than the testimony borne to his disposition
-by Priestley (Monthly Magazine, 1782), a man whom Franklin was justly
-proud to call his friend. In private life he was most estimable; two of
-his most favourite maxims were, never to exalt himself by lowering
-others, and in society to enjoy and contribute to all innocent
-amusements without reserve. His friendships were consequently lasting,
-and chosen at will from among the most amiable as well as the most
-distinguished of both sexes, wherever his residence happened to be
-fixed.
-
-His chief claims to philosophical distinction are his experiments and
-discoveries in electricity; but he has left essays upon various other
-matters of interest and practical utility; an end of which he never lost
-sight. Among these are remarks on ship-building and light-houses; on the
-temperature of the sea at different latitudes and depths, and the
-phenomena of what is called the Gulf-stream of the Atlantic; on the
-effect of oil poured upon rough water, and other subjects connected with
-practical navigation; and on the proper construction of lamps, chimneys,
-and stoves. His suggestions on these subjects are very valuable. His
-other writings are numerous; they relate chiefly to politics, or the
-inculcation of the rules of prudence and morality. Many of them are
-light and even playful; they are all instructive, and written in an
-excellent and simple style; but they are not entirely free from the
-imputation of trifling upon serious subjects. The most valuable of them
-is probably his autobiography, which is unfortunately but a fragment.
-
-As a speaker he was neither copious nor eloquent; there was even a
-degree of hesitation and embarrassment in his delivery. Yet as he seldom
-rose without having something important to say, and always spoke to the
-purpose, he commanded the attention of his hearers, and generally
-succeeded in his object.
-
-His religious principles, when disengaged from the scepticism of his
-youth, appears to have been sincere, and unusually free from sectarian
-animosity.
-
-Upon the whole, his long and useful life forms an instructive example of
-the force which arises from the harmonious combination of strong
-faculties and feelings when so controlled by sense and principle that no
-one is suffered to predominate to the disparagement of the rest.
-
-An excellent Life, in which his autobiography is included, with a
-collection of many of his miscellaneous writings, and much of his
-correspondence, has been published in six octavo volumes, by his
-grandson Temple Franklin, who accompanied him during his mission to
-France, and possessed the amplest means of verifying his statements by
-reference to the original papers.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-                               SCHWARTZ.
-
-
-It is refreshing to turn from the scenes of war and bloodshed, and
-frequently of perfidy and oppression, by which our European empire in
-India was established and consolidated, to watch the progress of a
-benevolent and peaceful enterprise, the substitution of the Christian
-faith for the impure, and bloody, and oppressive superstitions of the
-Hindoos. We augur well of its success, though it is still far from its
-accomplishment; for, since the first hand was put to it, it has advanced
-with slow, yet certain and unfaltering steps. Many able and good men
-have devoted themselves to the cause, and none with more distinguished
-success than he who has been called the Apostle of the East, CHRISTIAN
-SCHWARTZ. The saying of an eminent missionary, who preached to a far
-different people, the stern and high-minded Indians of North America, is
-exemplified in his life,—“Prayer and pains, through faith, will do any
-thing.” For years Schwartz laboured in obscurity, with few scattered and
-broken rays of encouragement to cheer his way. But his patience, his
-integrity, his unwearied benevolence, his sincerity and unblemished
-purity of life, won a hearing for his words of doctrine; and he was
-rewarded at last by a more extended empire in the hearts of the Hindoos,
-both heathen and convert, than perhaps any other European has obtained.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _Engraved by E. Scriven._
-
-  SCHWARTZ.
-
-  _From an original Picture in the possession of
-  the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge Lincolns Inn Fields._
-
-  Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful
-    Knowledge.
-
-  _London, Published by Charles Knight, Ludgate Street, & Pall Mall
-    East._
-]
-
-Christian Frederic Schwartz was born at Sonnenburg, in the New Mark,
-Germany, October 26, 1726. His mother died while he was very young, and,
-in dying, devoted the child, in the presence of her husband and her
-spiritual guide, to the service of God, exacting from both of them a
-promise that they would use every means for the accomplishment of this,
-her last and earnest wish. Schwartz received his education at the
-schools of Sonnenburg and Custrin. He grew up a serious and
-well-disposed boy, much under the influence of religious impressions;
-and a train of fortunate circumstances deepened those impressions, at a
-time when the vivacity of youth, and the excitement which he was
-dedicated. When about twenty years of age he entered the University of
-Halle, where he obtained the friendship of one of the professors, Herman
-Francke, a warm and generous supporter of the missionary cause. While
-resident at Halle, Schwartz, together with another student, was
-appointed to learn the Tamul or Malabar language, in order to
-superintend the printing of a Bible in that tongue. His labour was not
-thrown away, though the proposed edition never was completed; for it led
-Francke to propose to him that he should go out to India as a
-missionary. The suggestion suited his ardent and laborious character,
-and was at once accepted. The appointed scene of his labours was
-Tranquebar, on the Coromandel coast, the seat of a Danish mission: and,
-after repairing to Copenhagen for ordination, he embarked from London
-for India, January 21, 1750, and reached Tranquebar in July.
-
-It is seldom that the life of one employed in advocating the faith of
-Christ presents much of adventure, except from the fiery trials of
-persecution; or much of interest, except to those who will enter into
-the missionary’s chief joy or sorrow, the success or inefficiency of his
-preaching. From persecution Schwartz’s whole life was free; his
-difficulties did not proceed from bigoted or interested zeal, but from
-the apathetic subtlety of his Hindoo hearers, ready to listen, slow to
-be convinced, enjoying the mental sword-play of hearing, and answering,
-and being confuted, and renewing the same or similar objections at the
-next meeting, as if the preacher’s former labours had not been. The
-latter part of his life was possessed of active interest; for he was no
-stranger to the court or the camp; and his known probity and
-truthfulness won for him the confidence of three most dissimilar
-parties, a suspicious tyrant, an oppressed people, and the martial and
-diplomatic directors of the British empire in India. But the early years
-of his abode in India possess interest neither from the marked success
-of his preaching, nor from his commerce with the busy scenes of conquest
-and negotiation. For sixteen years he resided chiefly at Tranquebar, a
-member of the mission to which he was first attached; but at the end of
-that time, in 1766, he transferred his services to the Society for
-promoting Christian Knowledge, with which he acted until death, and to
-which the care of the Danish mission at Tranquebar was soon after
-transferred. He had already, in 1765, established a church and school at
-Tritchinopoly, and in that town he now took up his abode, holding the
-office of chaplain to the garrison, for which he received a salary of
-£100 yearly. This entire sum he devoted to the service of the mission.
-
-For several years Schwartz resided principally at Tritchinopoly,
-visiting other places, from time to time, especially Tanjore, where his
-labours ultimately had no small effect. He was heard with attention, he
-was everywhere received with respect, for the Hindoos could not but
-admire the beauty of his life, though it failed to win souls to his
-preaching. “The fruit,” he said, “will perhaps appear when I am at
-rest.” He had, however, the pleasure of seeing some portion of it ripen,
-for in more than one place a small congregation grew gradually up under
-his care. His toil was lightened and cheered in 1777, when another
-missionary was sent to his assistance from Tranquebar. Already he had
-derived help from some of his more advanced converts, who acted as
-catechists, for the instruction of others. He was sedulous in preparing
-these men for their important duty. “The catechists,” he says, “require
-to be daily admonished and stirred up, otherwise they fall into
-indolence and impurity.” Accordingly he daily assembled all those whose
-nearness permitted this frequency of intercourse; he taught them to
-explain the doctrines of their religion; he directed their labours for
-the day, and he received a report of those labours in the evening.
-
-His visits to Tanjore became more frequent, and he obtained the
-confidence of the Rajah, or native prince, Tulia Maha, who ruled that
-city under the protection of the British. In 1779 Schwartz procured
-permission from him to erect a church in his capital, and, with the
-sanction of the Madras Government, set immediately to work on this task.
-His funds failing, he applied at Madras for further aid; but, in reply,
-he was summoned to the seat of government with all speed, and requested
-to act as an ambassador, to treat with Hyder Ally for the continuance of
-peace. It has been said, that Schwartz engaged more deeply than became
-his calling in the secular affairs of India. The best apology for his
-interference, if apology be needful, is contained in his own
-account:—“The novelty of the proposal surprised me at first: I begged
-some time to consider of it. At last I accepted of the offer, because by
-so doing I hoped to prevent evil, and to promote the welfare of the
-country.” The reason for sending him is at least too honourable to him
-to be omitted: it was the requisition of Hyder himself. “Do not send to
-me,” he said, “any of your agents; for I do not trust their words or
-treaties: but if you wish me to listen to your proposals, send to me the
-missionary of whose character I hear so much from every one; him I will
-receive and trust.”
-
-In his character of an envoy Schwartz succeeded admirably. He
-conciliated the crafty, suspicious, and unfeeling despot, without
-compromising the dignity of those whom he represented, or forgetting the
-meekness of his calling. He would gladly have rendered his visit to
-Seringapatam available to higher than temporal interests: but here he
-met with little encouragement. Indifferent to all religion, Hyder
-suffered the preacher to speak to him of mercy and of judgment; but in
-these things his heart had no part. Some few converts Schwartz made
-during his abode of three months; but on the whole he met with little
-success. He parted with Hyder upon good terms, and returned with joy to
-Tanjore. The peace, however, was of no long continuance; and Schwartz
-complained that the British Government were guilty of the infraction.
-Hyder invaded the Carnatic, wasting it with fire and sword; and the
-frightened inhabitants flocked for relief and protection to the towns.
-Tanjore and Tritchinopoly were filled with famishing multitudes. During
-the years 1781, 2, and 3, this misery continued. At Tanjore, especially,
-the scene was dreadful. Numbers perished in the streets of want and
-disease; corpses lay unburied, because the survivors had not energy or
-strength to inter them; the bonds of affection were so broken that
-parents offered their children for sale; and the garrison, though less
-afflicted than the native population, were enfeebled and depressed by
-want, and threatened by a powerful army without the walls. There were
-provisions in the country; but the cultivators, frightened and alienated
-by the customary exactions and ill-usage, refused to bring it to the
-fort. They would trust neither the British authorities nor the Rajah:
-all confidence was destroyed. “At last the Rajah said to one of our
-principal gentlemen, ‘We all, you and I, have lost our credit: let us
-try whether the inhabitants will trust Mr. Schwartz.’ Accordingly, he
-sent me a blank paper, empowering me to make a proper agreement with the
-people. Here was no time for hesitation. The Sepoys fell down as dead
-people, being emaciated with hunger; our streets were lined with dead
-corpses every morning—our condition was deplorable. I sent therefore
-letters every where round about, promising to pay any one with my own
-hands, and to pay them for any bullock which might be taken by the
-enemy. In one or two days I got above a thousand bullocks; and sent one
-of our catechists, and other Christians, into the country. They went at
-the risk of their lives, made all possible haste, and brought into the
-fort, in a very short time, 80,000 kalams of grain. By this means the
-fort was saved. When all was over, I paid the people, even with some
-money which belonged to others, made them a small present, and sent them
-home.”
-
-The letter from which this passage is extracted was written to the
-Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, in consequence of an attack
-made by a member of Parliament upon the character of the Hindoo
-converts, and depreciation of the labours of the missionaries. To boast
-was not in Schwartz’s nature; but he was not deterred by a false modesty
-from vindicating his own reputation, when it was expedient for his
-master’s service: and there has seldom been a more striking tribute paid
-to virtue, unassisted by power, than in the conduct of the Hindoos, as
-told in this simple statement. His labours did not cease with this
-crisis, nor with his personal exertions. He bought a quantity of rice at
-his own expense, and prevailed on some European merchants to furnish him
-with a monthly supply; by means of which he preserved many persons from
-perishing. In 1784 he was again employed by the Company on a mission to
-Tippoo Saib; but the son of Hyder refused to receive him. About this
-period his health, hitherto robust, began to fail; and in a letter,
-dated July, 1784, he speaks of the approach of death, of his comfort in
-the prospect, and firm belief in the doctrines which he preached. In the
-same year the increase of his congregation rendered it necessary to
-build a Malabar church in the suburbs of Tanjore, which was done chiefly
-at his own expense. In February, 1785, he engaged in a scheme for
-raising English schools throughout the country, to facilitate the
-intercourse of the natives with Europeans. Schools were accordingly
-established at Tanjore and three other places. The pupils were chiefly
-children of the upper classes—of Bramins and merchants; and the good
-faith with which Schwartz conducted these establishments deserves to be
-praised as well as his religious zeal. “Their intention, doubtless, is
-to learn the English language, with a view to their temporal welfare;
-but they thereby become better acquainted with good principles. No
-deceitful methods are used to bring them over to the doctrines of
-Christ, though the most earnest wishes are felt that they may attain
-that knowledge which is life eternal.” In a temporal view, these
-establishments proved very serviceable to many of the pupils: but,
-contrary to Schwartz’s hopes and wishes, not one of the young men became
-a missionary.
-
-In January, 1787, Schwartz’s friend, the Rajah of Tanjore, lay at the
-point of death. Being childless, he had adopted a boy, yet in his
-minority, as his successor: a practice recognised by the Hindoo law. His
-brother, Ameer Sing, however, was supported by a strong British party,
-and it was not likely that he would submit quietly to his exclusion from
-the throne. In this strait Tulia Maha sent for Schwartz, as the only
-person to whom he could intrust his adopted son. “This,” he said, “is
-not my, but your son; into your hands I deliver the child.” Schwartz
-accepted the charge with reluctance; he represented his inability to
-protect the orphan, and suggested that Ameer Sing should be named regent
-and guardian. The advice probably was the best that could be given: but
-the regent proved false, or at least doubtful in his trust; and the
-charge proved a source of trouble and anxiety. But by Schwartz’s care,
-and influence with the Company, the young prince was reared to manhood,
-and established in possession of his inheritance. Nor were Schwartz’s
-pains unsuccessful in cultivation of his young pupil’s mind, who is
-characterized by Heber as an “extraordinary man.” He repaid these
-fatherly cares with a filial affection, and long after the death of
-Schwartz testified, both by word and deed, his regard for his memory.
-
-We find little to relate during the latter part of Schwartz’s life,
-though much might be written, but that the nature of this work forbids
-us to dilate upon religious subjects. His efforts were unceasing to
-promote the good, temporal as well as spiritual, of the Indian
-population. On one occasion he was requested to inspect the watercourses
-by which the arid lands of the Carnatic are irrigated; and his labours
-were rewarded by a great increase in the annual produce. Once the
-inhabitants of the Tanjore country had been so grievously oppressed,
-that they abandoned their farms, and fled the country. The cultivation
-which should have begun in June was not commenced even at the beginning
-of September, and all began to apprehend a famine. Schwartz says in the
-letter, which we have already quoted, “I entreated the Rajah to remove
-that shameful oppression, and to recall the inhabitants. He sent them
-word that justice should be done to them, but they disbelieved his
-promises. He then desired me to write to them, and to assure them that
-he, at my intercession, would show kindness to them. I did so. All
-immediately returned; and first of all the Collaries believed my word,
-so that 7,000 men came back in one day. The rest of the inhabitants
-followed their example. When I exhorted them to exert themselves to the
-utmost, because the time for cultivation was almost lost, they replied
-in the following manner:—‘As you have showed kindness to us, you shall
-not have reason to repent of it: we intend to work night and day to show
-our regard for you.’”
-
-His preaching was rewarded by a slow, but a progressive effect; and the
-number of missionaries being increased by the Society in England, the
-growth of the good seed, which he had sown during a residence of forty
-years, became more rapid and perceptible. In the country villages
-numerous congregations were formed, and preachers were established at
-Cuddalore, Vepery, Negapatam, and Palamcotta, as well as at the earlier
-stations of Tranquebar, Tritchinopoly, and Tanjore, whose chief
-recreation was the occasional intercourse with each other which their
-duty afforded them, and who lived in true harmony and union of mind and
-purpose. The last illness of Schwartz was cheered by the presence of
-almost all the missionaries in the south of India, who regarded him as a
-father, and called him by that endearing name. His labours did not
-diminish as his years increased. From the beginning of January to the
-middle of October, 1797, we are told by his pupil and assistant, Caspar
-Kolhoff, he preached every Sunday in the English and Tamul languages by
-turns; for several successive Wednesdays he gave lectures in their own
-languages to the Portuguese and German soldiers incorporated in the 51st
-regiment; during the week he explained the New Testament in his usual
-order at morning and evening prayer; and he dedicated an hour every day
-to the instruction of the Malabar school children. In October, he who
-hitherto had scarce known disease, received the warning of his
-mortality. He rallied for a while, and his friends hoped that he might
-yet be spared to them. But a relapse took place, and he expired February
-13, 1798, having displayed throughout a long and painful illness a
-beautiful example of resignation and happiness, and an interest undimmed
-by pain in the welfare of all for and with whom he had laboured. His
-funeral, on the day after his death, presented a most affecting scene.
-It was delayed by the arrival of the Rajah, who wished to behold once
-more his kind, and faithful, and watchful friend and guardian. The
-coffin lid was removed; the prince gazed for the last time on the pale
-and composed features, and burst into tears. The funeral service was
-interrupted by the cries of a multitude who loved the reliever of their
-distresses, and honoured the pure life of the preacher, who for near
-fifty years had dwelt among them, careless alike of pleasure, interest,
-and ambition, pursuing a difficult and thankless task with unchanging
-ardour, the friend of princes, yet unsullied even by the suspicion of a
-bribe, devoting his whole income, beyond a scanty maintenance, to the
-service of the cause which his life was spent in advocating.
-
-The Rajah continued to cherish Schwartz’s memory. He commissioned
-Flaxman for a monument erected to him at Tanjore; he placed his picture
-among those of his own ancestors; he erected more than one costly
-establishment for charitable purposes in honour of his name; and, though
-not professing Christianity, he secured to the Christians in his service
-not only liberty, but full convenience for the performance of their
-religious duties. Nor were the Directors backward in testifying their
-gratitude for his services. They sent out a monument by Bacon to be
-erected in St. Mary’s Church at Madras, with orders to pay every
-becoming honour to his memory, and especially to permit to the natives,
-by whom he was so revered, free access to view this memorial of his
-virtues.
-
-It is to be regretted that no full memoir of the life and labours of
-this admirable man has been published. It is understood that his
-correspondence, preserved by the Society for promoting Christian
-Knowledge, would furnish ample materials for such a work. The facts of
-this account are taken from the only two memoirs of Schwartz which we
-know to be in print,—a short one for cheap circulation published by the
-Religious Tract Society; and a more finished tribute to his memory in
-Mr. Carne’s ‘Lives of Eminent Missionaries,’ recently published. We
-conclude in the words of one whose praise carries with it authority,
-Bishop Heber: “Of Schwartz, and his fifty years’ labour among the
-heathen, the extraordinary influence and popularity which he acquired,
-both with Mussulmans, Hindoos, and contending European governments, I
-need give you no account, except that my idea of him has been raised
-since I came into the south of India. I used to suspect that, with many
-admirable qualities, there was too great a mixture of intrigue in his
-character—that he was too much of a political prophet, and that the
-veneration which the heathen paid, and still pay him (and which indeed
-almost regards him as a superior being, putting crowns, and burning
-lights before his statue), was purchased by some unwarrantable
-compromise with their prejudices. I find I was quite mistaken. He was
-really one of the most active and fearless, as he was one of the most
-successful missionaries, who have appeared since the Apostles. To say
-that he was disinterested in regard of money, is nothing; he was
-perfectly careless of power, and renown never seemed to affect him, even
-so far as to induce an outward show of humility. His temper was
-perfectly simple, open, and cheerful; and in his political negotiations
-(employments which he never sought, but which fell in his way) he never
-pretended to impartiality, but acted as the avowed, though certainly the
-successful and judicious agent of the orphan prince committed to his
-care, and from attempting whose conversion to Christianity he seems to
-have abstained from a feeling of honour[4]. His other converts were
-between six and seven thousand, being those which his companions and
-predecessors in the cause had brought over.”
-
-Footnote 4:
-
-  He probably acted on the same principle as in conducting the English
-  schools above-mentioned, using “no deceitful methods.” That he was
-  earnest in recommending the _means_ of conversion, appears from a
-  dying conversation with his pupil, Serfogee Rajah.
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-                                BARROW.
-
-
-The name of ISAAC BARROW stands eminent among the divines and
-philosophers of the seventeenth century. Of the many good and great men
-whom it is the glory of Trinity College, Cambridge, to number as her
-foster-sons, there is none more good, none perhaps, after BACON and
-NEWTON, more distinguished than he: and he has an especial claim to the
-gratitude of all members of that splendid foundation as the projector of
-its unequalled library, as well as a liberal benefactor in other
-respects.
-
-The father of Barrow, a respectable citizen of London, was linen-draper
-to Charles I., and the son was naturally brought up in royalist
-principles. The date of his birth is variously assigned by his
-biographers, but the more probable account fixes it to October, 1630. It
-is recorded that his childhood was turbulent and quarrelsome; that he
-was careless of his clothes, disinclined to study, and especially
-addicted to fighting and promoting quarrels among his school-fellows;
-and of a temper altogether so unpromising, that his father often
-expressed a wish, that if any of his children should die, it might be
-his son Isaac. He was first sent to school at the Charter House, and
-removed thence to Felstead in Essex. Here his disposition seemed to
-change: he made great progress in learning, and was entered at Trinity
-College in 1645, in his fifteenth year, it being then usual to send boys
-to college about that age. He passed his term as an under graduate with
-much credit. The time and place were not favourable to the promotion of
-Royalists; for a royalist master had been ejected to make room for one
-placed there by the Parliament, and the fellows were chiefly of the same
-political persuasion. But Barrow’s good conduct and attainments won the
-favour of his superiors, and in 1649, the year after he took his degree,
-he was elected fellow. It deserves to be known, for it is honourable to
-both parties, that he never disguised or compromised his own principles.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _Engraved by B. Holl._
-
-  BARROW.
-
-  _From the original Picture by Isaac Whood
-  at Trinity College, Cambridge._
-
-  Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful
-    Knowledge.
-
-  _London, Published by Charles Knight, Ludgate Street, & Pall Mall
-    East._
-]
-
-His earlier studies were especially turned towards natural philosophy;
-and, rejecting the antiquated doctrines then taught in the schools, he
-selected Bacon, Galileo, and Descartes as his favourite authors. He did
-not commence the study of mathematics until after he had gained his
-fellowship, and was led to it in a very circuitous way. He was induced
-to read the Greek astronomers, with a view to solving the difficulties
-of ancient chronology; and to understand their works a thorough
-knowledge of geometry was indispensable. He therefore undertook the
-study of that science; which suited the bent of his genius so well, that
-he became one of the greatest proficients in it of his age. His first
-intention was to become a physician, and he made considerable progress
-in anatomy, chemistry, botany, and other sciences subservient to the
-profession of medicine; but he changed his mind, and determined to make
-divinity his chief pursuit. In 1655 he went abroad. His travels extended
-through France, Italy, and the Levant, to Constantinople; and, after an
-absence of four years, he returned to England through Germany and
-Holland. During this period he lost no opportunity of prosecuting his
-studies; and he sent home several descriptive poems, and some letters,
-written in Latin, which are printed in his Opuscula, in the fourth
-volume of the folio edition of his works. In the voyage to Smyrna he
-gave a proof of the high spirit, which, purified from its childish
-unruliness and violence, continued to form part of his character through
-life. The vessel being attacked by an Algerine corsair, Barrow remained
-on the deck, cheerfully and vigorously fighting, until the assailant
-sheered off. Being asked afterwards why he did not go into the hold, and
-leave the defence of the ship to those whom it concerned, he replied,
-“It concerned no one more than myself. I would rather have died than
-fallen into the hands of those merciless pirates.” He has described this
-voyage, and its eventful circumstances, in a poem contained in his
-Opuscula.
-
-He entered into orders in 1659, and in the following year was made Greek
-Professor at Cambridge. The numerous offices to which he was appointed
-about this time, show that his merits were generally and highly
-esteemed. He was chosen to be Professor of Geometry at Gresham College
-in 1662; and was one of the first fellows elected into the Royal
-Society, after the incorporation of that body by charter in 1663; in
-which year he was also appointed the first mathematical lecturer on the
-foundation of Mr. Lucas, at Cambridge. Not that he made sinecures of
-these responsible employments, or thought himself qualified to discharge
-the duties of all at once: for he resigned the Greek professorship, on
-being appointed Lucasian Professor, for reasons explained in his
-introductory oration, which is extant in the Opuscula. The Gresham
-professorship he also gave up in 1664, intending thenceforth to reside
-at Cambridge. Finally, in 1669, he resigned the Lucasian chair to his
-great successor, Newton, intending to devote himself entirely to the
-study of divinity. Barrow received the degree of D.D. by royal mandate,
-in 1670; and, in 1672, was raised to the mastership of Trinity College
-by the King, with the compliment, “that he had given it to the best
-scholar in England.” In that high station he distinguished himself by
-liberality: he remitted several allowances which his predecessors had
-required from the college; he set on foot the scheme for a new library,
-and contributed in purse, and still more by his personal exertions, to
-its completion. It should be remarked that his patent of appointment
-being drawn up, as usual, with a permission to marry, he caused that
-part to be struck out, conceiving it to be at variance with the
-statutes. He was cut off by a fever in the prime of life, May 4, 1679,
-aged 49, during a visit to London. His remains were honourably deposited
-in Westminster Abbey, among the worthies of the land; and in that noble
-building a monument was erected to him by the contributions of his
-friends.
-
-Of Barrow’s mathematical works we must speak briefly. The earliest of
-them was an edition of Euclid’s Elements, containing all the books,
-published at Cambridge in 1655, followed by an edition of the Data in
-1657. His Lectiones Opticæ, the first lectures delivered on the Lucasian
-foundation, were printed in 1669, and attracted the following
-commendation from the eminent mathematician, James Gregory. “Mr. Barrow,
-in his Optics, shows himself a most subtle geometer, so that I think him
-superior to any that ever I looked upon. I long exceedingly to see his
-geometrical lectures, especially because I have some notions on that
-subject by me.” In this work, (we speak on the authority of Montucla,
-part iv. viii.), Barrow has applied himself principally to discuss
-subjects unnoticed or insufficiently explained by preceding authors.
-Among these was the general problem, to determine the focus of a lens;
-which, except in a few cases, as where the opposite sides of the lens
-are similar, and the incident rays of light parallel to the axis, had
-hitherto been left to the practical skill and experience of the workman.
-Barrow gave a complete solution of the problem, comprised in an elegant
-formula which includes all cases, whether of parallel, convergent, or
-divergent rays. This book, says Montucla, is a mine of curious and
-interesting propositions in optics, to the solution of which geometry is
-applied with peculiar elegance.
-
-The Lectiones Geometricæ, full of profound researches into the
-metaphysics of geometry, the method of tangents, and the properties of
-curvilinear figures, appeared in the following year, 1670. The vast
-improvements in our methods of investigation, arising out of the
-invention of the fluxional or differential calculus, have cast into the
-shade the labours, and in part the fame, of the early geometricians, and
-have made that easy, which before was all but impossible. This work,
-however, is remarkable as containing a way of determining the subtangent
-of a curve, justly characterized by Montucla as being so intimately
-connected with the above-named method of analysis, that it is needless
-to seek in subsequent works the main principle of the differential
-calculus. The inquiring reader will find a full account of it in
-Montucla, or in Thomson’s History of the Royal Society, page 275. There
-is an English translation of the Lectiones Geometricæ by Stone,
-published in 1735. Barrow also edited the works of Archimedes, the
-Conics of Apollonius, and the Spherics of Theodosius, in a very
-compressed form, in 1 vol. 8vo. Lond. 1675. The treatise of Archimedes
-on the Sphere and Cylinder, and the Mathematicæ Lectiones, a series of
-Lucasian lectures, read in 1664 and subsequent years, were not printed
-until 1683, after the author’s death. This work, or at least Kirby’s
-translation, published about 1734, contains the Oration which he made
-before the University on his election to the Lucasian chair. For further
-detail see Ward’s Lives of the Gresham Professors.
-
-It is however as a theologian that Barrow is best known to the present
-age. Unlike his scientific writings, his theological works never can
-grow obsolete, for they contain eternal truths set forth with a power of
-argument, and force of eloquence, which must ever continue to command
-the admiration of those who are capable of appreciating and relishing
-the noblest qualities and products of the human mind. The light of
-revelation shone clearly and steadily then as now; no modern discoveries
-can increase or diminish its brightness; no new methods of reasoning, no
-more convenient forms of notation or expression, can supersede the
-sterling excellences which we have just ascribed to this great divine.
-Others may rise up (they are yet to come) equal or superior to him in
-these very excellences; still their fame can never detract from his; and
-Barrow with his great predecessor, Hooker, will not fail to be classed
-among the luminaries of the English church, and the standard authors of
-the English language. Copious and majestic in his style, his sermons
-were recommended by the great Lord Chatham to his great son, as
-admirably adapted to imbue the public speaker with the coveted
-“abundance of words” the knowledge and full command of his native
-language. He himself neglected not to increase his stores from the
-models of ancient eloquence; and his manuscripts, preserved in Trinity
-College Library, bear testimony to the diligence with which he
-transcribed the finest passages of the Greek and Latin authors,
-especially Demosthenes and Chrysostom. His sermons were long, too long
-it was thought by many of his hearers; but they were carefully composed,
-written and rewritten again and again, and their method, argumentative
-closeness, and abundant learning, show that he thought no pains too
-great to bestow on the important duty of public teaching. Warburton said
-that in reading Barrow’s sermons, he was obliged to think. They are
-numerous, considering their nature and the comparatively short period of
-the author’s clerical life. The first edition of his works, by
-Archbishop Tillotson, to whom, in conjunction with his friend and
-biographer Mr. Hill, Barrow left his manuscripts, contains seventy-seven
-sermons on miscellaneous subjects, of which only two were printed, and
-those not published, during the author’s life; together with a series of
-thirty-four sermons on the Apostle’s Creed. Mr. Hughes, the late editor
-of his works, has added to the former collection five more, printed for
-the first time from the original MSS. in Trinity Library. We quote from
-the life prefixed to that edition, the eloquent passage in which Mr.
-Hughes speaks of these admirable works.
-
-“Never, probably, was religion at a lower ebb in the British dominions,
-than when that profligate Prince Charles II., who sat unawed on a throne
-formed as it were out of his father’s scaffold, found the people so
-wearied of puritanical hypocrisy, presbyterian mortifications, and a
-thousand forms of unintelligible mysticism, that they were ready to
-plunge into the opposite vices of scepticism or infidelity, and to
-regard with complacency the dissolute morals of himself and his vile
-associates. To denounce this wickedness in the most awful terms; to
-strike at guilt with fearless aim, whether exalted in high places, or
-lurking in obscure retreats; to delineate the native horrors and sad
-effects of vice, to develope the charms of virtue, and inspire a love of
-it in the human heart; in short, to assist in building up the fallen
-buttresses and broken pillars of God’s church upon earth, was the high
-and holy duty to which Barrow was called.”
-
-Besides his sermons, Barrow wrote a shorter Exposition of the Creed, an
-Exposition of the Decalogue, an Exposition of the Lord’s Prayer, and a
-short account of the doctrine of the Sacraments. These were composed in
-1669, the year in which the Lectiones Opticæ were published, in
-obedience to some college regulation, and, Mr. Hughes conjectures, as
-exercises for a college preachership. Barrow says, in a letter, that
-they so took up his thoughts, that he could not easily apply them to any
-other matter. His great work on the Pope’s Supremacy was not composed
-till 1676. The pains which he took with it were immense; and we are told
-by the same authority that “the state of his MS. in Trinity Library
-shows that probably no piece was ever composed more studiously, digested
-more carefully, or supported by more numerous and powerful authorities.”
-Barrow states in this work the several positions, on which the Romanists
-ground their claim on behalf of the Bishop of Rome, for universal
-supremacy over the Christian church. These he divides into seven heads,
-which he proceeds severally and successively to refute. “This treatise,”
-says Dr. Tillotson, in his preface to it, “he gave to me on his
-death-bed, with the character that he hoped it was indifferent perfect,
-though not altogether as he had intended it, if God had granted him
-longer life. He designed indeed to have transcribed it again, and to
-have filled up those many spaces which were purposely left in it for the
-farther confirmation and illustration of several things, by more
-testimonies and instances which he had in his thoughts. And it would
-certainly have added much to the beauty and perfection of this work, had
-it pleased God that he had lived to finish it to his mind, and to have
-given it his last hand. However, as it is, it is not only a just, but an
-admirable discourse on this subject, which many others have handled
-before, but he hath exhausted it; insomuch that no argument of moment,
-nay, hardly any consideration properly belonging to it, hath escaped his
-large and comprehensive mind. He hath said enough to silence the
-controversy for ever, and to deter all wise men of both sides from
-meddling any further with it.” Appended to this treatise on the
-Supremacy of the Pope, is a discourse on the Unity of the Church.
-
-We conclude with a few scattered notices of the character and person of
-this excellent man. His habits, it will readily be supposed, were very
-laborious. Dr. Pope, in his Life of Bishop Ward, says that during winter
-Barrow would rise before light, being never without a tinder-box, and
-that he has known him frequently rise after his first sleep, light and
-burn out his candle, and then return to bed before day. In pecuniary
-affairs he was generous in the extreme. Of his liberality to his college
-we have already spoken. We may add that, being appointed to two
-ecclesiastical preferments, he bestowed the profits of both in charity,
-and resigned them as soon as he became master of Trinity. He left no
-property but books and unpublished manuscripts. Pure in his morals, he
-was the farthest possible from moroseness; amiable, lively, and witty in
-his temper and conversation, he was impatient of any looseness,
-irreverence, or censoriousness of speech, “being of all men,” says Dr.
-Tillotson, in his Address to the Reader, “I ever had the happiness to
-know, the clearest of this common guilt, and most free from offending in
-word; coming as near as it is possible for human frailty to do, to the
-perfect idea of St. James, his _perfect man_.”
-
-His figure was low and spare, but of uncommon strength; and his courage,
-devoid of all alloy of quarrelsomeness, was approved in more than one
-instance related by the biographers of his peaceful life. It was among
-his peculiarities that he never would sit for his portrait; but some of
-his friends found means to have it taken without his knowledge, while
-they engaged his attention in discourse. There is a full length of him
-in the hall of Trinity, in fit conjunction with those of Newton and
-Bacon.
-
-The earliest authority for Barrow’s life is a short memoir by his friend
-and executor, Mr. Hill, prefixed to the first edition of his works. Mr.
-Ward added some particulars, in his Lives of the Gresham Professors. The
-fullest accounts are to be found in the second edition of the Biographia
-Britannica, and in the life prefixed to Mr. Hughes’s edition of his
-theological works. In this the editor has given an analysis of the
-contents of each piece, calculated to assist the student to a thorough
-understanding of the author’s train of argument.
-
-[Illustration: Monument of Barrow in Westminster Abbey.]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _Engraved by W. Hopwood._
-
-  D’ALEMBERT.
-
-  _From the original Picture by De la Tour
-  in the Collection of the Institute of France._
-
-  Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful
-    Knowledge.
-
-  _London, Published by Charles Knight, Ludgate Street, & Pall Mall
-    East._
-]
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-                              D’ALEMBERT.
-
-
-Jean le Rond D’alembert, one of the most distinguished mathematicians of
-the last century, owed none of his eminence to the accidents of birth or
-fortune. Even to a name he had no legal title; he derived the one half
-of that which he bore from the church of St. Jean le Rond in Paris, near
-which he was exposed; and the other probably from his foster-mother, a
-glazier’s wife, to whose care he was intrusted by a commissary of
-police, who found him. It is conjectured that both the exposure and the
-adoption of the infant were preconcerted; for a short time the father
-appeared, and settled on him a yearly pension of twelve hundred francs,
-equivalent to about £50.
-
-Owing to these circumstances the date of D’Alembert’s birth is not
-exactly known; it is said to have been the 16th or 17th of November,
-1717. He commenced his studies at the Collège des Quatre Nations when
-twelve years old. Mathematics and poetry seem to have been his favourite
-pursuits, since his instructors, he says, endeavoured to turn him from
-them; making it a charge against the former, that they dried up the
-heart, and recommending that his study of the latter should be confined
-to the poem of St. Prosper upon Grace. He was permitted, however, to
-study the rudiments of mathematics: and we may infer that he was little
-indebted either to books or teachers, from the mortification which he
-felt somewhat later in life, at finding that he had been anticipated in
-many things which he had believed to be discoveries of his own. He
-meant, at one time, to follow the profession of the law, and proceeded
-so far as to be admitted an advocate. Finding this not to his taste, he
-tried medicine; and, resolute in good intentions, sent his mathematical
-books to a friend, to be retained till he had taken his doctor’s degree.
-But he reclaimed book after book on various pretexts, and finally
-determined to content himself with his annuity of fifty pounds, and
-liberty to devote his whole time to the scientific pursuits which he
-loved so much. His mode of life at this period has been described by
-himself:—“He awoke,” he says, “every morning, thinking with pleasure on
-the studies of the preceding evening, and on the prospect of continuing
-them during the day. When his thoughts were called off for a moment,
-they turned to the satisfaction he should have at the play in the
-evening, and between the acts of the piece he meditated on the pleasures
-of the next morning’s study.”
-
-The history of D’Alembert’s life is soon told. Some memoirs written in
-1739 and 1740, and some corrections which he made in the Analyse
-Démontrée of Reynau, a work then much esteemed in France, obtained for
-him an entrance into the Académie des Sciences in 1741, at the early age
-of twenty-four. Simple in his habits, careless of his own advancement,
-or of the favours of great men, he refused several advantageous offers,
-which would have withdrawn him from the society of Paris, and from the
-libraries and other literary advantages of that great metropolis.
-Frederic II. of Prussia sought to tempt him to Berlin in 1752, and again
-in 1759. The invitation was again repeated and urged upon him in 1759
-and 1763; and on the last occasion the King assured D’Alembert that, in
-rejecting it, he had made the only false calculation of his whole life.
-In 1762 Catharine of Russia wished him to undertake the education of her
-son, and endeavoured to overcome his reluctance to leave Paris, by
-promising him an income of ten thousand francs, and a kind reception to
-as many of his friends as would accompany him. “I know,” she said, “that
-your refusal arises from your desire to cultivate your studies and your
-friendships in quiet. But this is of no consequence: bring all your
-friends with you, and I promise you that both you and they shall have
-every accommodation in my power.” But his income had been rendered
-sufficient for his wants by a pension of twelve hundred francs from the
-King of Prussia, and an equal sum from the French Government; and he
-declined to profit by any of these liberal offers.
-
-It is to D’Alembert’s honour that, until the end of her life, he repaid
-the services of his foster-mother with filial attention and love. It is
-said that when his name became famous, his mother, Mademoiselle de
-Tencin, a lady of rank and wit, and known in the literary circles of the
-day, sent for him, and acquainted him with the relationship which
-existed between them. His well-merited reply was, “You are only my
-step-mother, the glazier’s wife is my mother.” He lived unmarried, but
-the latter years of his life were overcast in consequence of a singular
-and unfortunate attachment to a M^{lle.} de l’Espinasse, a young lady of
-talent, whose society was much courted by the literary men of Paris. She
-professed to return this attachment; insomuch that when D’Alembert was
-attacked by a severe illness in 1765, she insisted on becoming his
-nurse, and after his recovery took up her abode under his roof. The
-connexion is said to have been purely Platonic; and this, it has been
-observed, _may_ be believed, because, had the fact been different, there
-was little reason for concealing it, according to the code of morals
-which then regulated Parisian society. But the lady proved fickle; and
-worse than fickle, for she treated D’Alembert, who still retained his
-affection for her, with contempt and unkindness. Yet this ill usage did
-not alienate his regard. Upon her death he fell into a state of profound
-melancholy, from which he never entirely recovered. He died October 29,
-1783. Not having conformed, on his death-bed, to the requisitions of the
-Roman church, some difficulty was experienced in procuring the rites of
-burial; and in consequence his interment was strictly private.
-
-In his personal character D’Alembert was simple, benevolent, warm in his
-attachments, a sworn foe to servility and adulation, and no follower of
-great men. This temper stood in the way of his progress to riches. It
-was his maxim, that a man should be very careful in his writings,
-careful enough in his actions, and moderately careful in his words; and
-the latter clause was probably that which he best observed. In more than
-one instance his plain drollery gave offence to persons of influence at
-court, and frustrated the exertions of his friends to improve his
-fortunes. Fortunately he united simple tastes with an independent,
-fearless, and benevolent mind; and it is said that he gave away one half
-of his income, when it did not amount to £350. His own account of his
-own character, written in the third person, runs in the following terms,
-and is confirmed by the testimony of his friends:—“Devoted to study and
-privacy till the age of twenty-five, he entered late into the world, and
-was never much pleased with it. He could never bend himself to learn its
-usages and language, and perhaps even indulged a sort of petty vanity in
-despising them. He is never rude, because he is neither brutal nor
-severe; but he is sometimes blunt, through inattention or ignorance.
-Compliments embarrass him, because he never can find a suitable answer
-immediately; when he says flattering things, it is always because he
-thinks them. The basis of his character is frankness and truth, often
-rather blunt, but never disgusting. He is impatient and angry, even to
-violence, when any thing goes wrong, but it all evaporates in words. He
-is soon satisfied and easily governed, provided he does not see what you
-aim at; for his love of independence amounts to fanaticism, so that he
-often denies himself things which would be agreeable to him, because he
-is afraid that they would put him under some restraint; which makes some
-of his friends call him, justly enough, the slave of his liberty.” In
-his religious opinions D’Alembert was, in the true meaning of the word,
-a sceptic, and his name has obtained an unenviable notoriety as
-co-editor, with Diderot, of the celebrated Encyclopédie. His
-superintendence, however, extended only to the end of the second volume,
-after which the work was stopped by the French Government; and on its
-resumption D’Alembert confined himself strictly to the mathematical
-department. In one respect his conduct may be advantageously contrasted
-with that of some of his colleagues; he intruded his own opinions on no
-man, and he took no pleasure in shocking others, by insulting what they
-hold sacred. “I knew D’Alembert,” says La Harpe, “well enough to say
-that he was sceptical in every thing but mathematics. He would no more
-have said positively that there was no religion, than that there was a
-God; he only thought that the probabilities were in favour of theism,
-and against revelation. On this subject he tolerated all opinions: and
-this disposition made him think the intolerant arrogance of the Atheists
-odious and unbearable. I do not think that he ever printed a sentence,
-which marks either hatred or contempt of religion.”
-
-We proceed to mention the most remarkable of D’Alembert’s mathematical
-works. He published in 1743 a treatise on Dynamics, in which he
-enunciated the law now known under the name of D’Alembert’s principle,
-one of the most valuable of modern contributions to mechanical science.
-In the following year appeared a treatise on the Equilibrium and Motion
-of Fluids; and in 1746, Reflections on the general Causes of Winds,
-which obtained the prize of the Academy of Berlin. This work is
-remarkable as the first which contained the general equations of the
-motion of fluids, as well as the first announcement and use of the
-calculus of partial differences. We may add to the list of his
-discoveries, the analytical solutions of the problem of vibrating
-chords, and the motion of a column of air; of the precession of the
-equinoxes, and the nutation of the earth’s axis, the phenomenon itself
-having been recently observed by Bradley. In 1752 he completed his
-researches into fluids, by an Essay on the Resistance of Fluids. We have
-to add to the list his Essay on the Problem of Three Bodies, as it is
-called by astronomers, an investigation of the law by which three bodies
-mutually gravitating affect each other; and Researches on various points
-connected with the system of the Universe: the former published in 1747,
-and the latter in 1754–6. His Opuscules, or minor pieces, were collected
-in eight volumes, towards the end of his life.
-
-Of his connexion with the Encyclopédie, we have already spoken. He is
-said to be singularly clear and happy in his expositions of the
-metaphysical difficulties of abstract science. He is also honourably
-known in less abstruse departments of literature by his Mélanges de
-Philosophie, Memoirs of Christina of Sweden, Essay on the Servility of
-Men of Letters to the Great, Elements of Philosophy, and a work on the
-Destruction of the Jesuits. On his election to the office of perpetual
-Secretary to the Academy, he wrote the Eloges of the members deceased
-from 1700 up to that date. His works and correspondence were collected
-and published in eighteen volumes 8vo. Paris, 1805, by M. Bastien, to
-whose first volume we refer the reader for complete information on this
-subject.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-                                HOGARTH.
-
-
-“I was born,” says Hogarth in his Memoirs of himself, “in the city of
-London, November 10, 1697. My father’s pen, like that of many authors,
-did not enable him to do more than put me in a way of shifting for
-myself. As I had naturally a good eye, and a fondness for drawing, shows
-of all sorts gave me uncommon pleasure when an infant; and mimicry,
-common to all children, was remarkable in me. An early access to a
-neighbouring painter drew my attention from play; and I was, at every
-possible opportunity, employed in making drawings. I picked up an
-acquaintance of the same turn, and soon learnt to draw the alphabet with
-great correctness. My exercises when at school were more remarkable for
-the ornaments which adorned them, than for the exercise itself. In the
-former I soon found that blockheads with better memories could much
-surpass me; but for the latter I was particularly distinguished.”
-
-To this account of Hogarth’s childhood we have only to add, that his
-father, an enthusiastic and laborious scholar, who like many of his
-craft owed little to the favour of fortune, consulted these indications
-of talent as well as his means would allow, and bound his son apprentice
-to a silver-plate engraver. But Hogarth aspired after something higher
-than drawing cyphers and coats-of-arms; and before the expiration of his
-indentures he had made himself a good draughtsman, and obtained
-considerable knowledge of colouring. It was his ambition to become
-distinguished as an artist; and not content with being the mere copier
-of other men’s productions, he sought to combine the functions of the
-painter with those of the engraver, and to gain the power of delineating
-his own ideas, and the fruits of his acute observation. He has himself
-explained the nature of his views in a passage which is worth attention.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _Engraved by J. Mollison._
-
-  HOGARTH.
-
-  _From the original Picture by Himself
-  in the National Gallery._
-
-  Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful
-    Knowledge.
-
-  _London, Published by Charles Knight, Ludgate Street, & Pall Mall
-    East._
-]
-
-“Many reasons led me to wish that I could find the shorter path,—fix
-forms and characters in my mind,—and instead of copying the lines try to
-read the language, and, if possible, find the grammar of the art by
-bringing into one focus the various observations I had made, and then
-trying by my power on the canvass how far my plan enabled me to combine
-and apply them to practice. For this purpose I considered what various
-ways, and to what different purposes, the memory might be applied; and
-fell upon one most suitable to my situation and idle disposition; laying
-it down first as an axiom, that he who could by any means acquire and
-retain in his memory perfect ideas of the subjects he meant to draw,
-would have as clear a knowledge of the figure as a man who can write
-freely hath of the twenty-five letters of the alphabet and their
-infinite combinations.” Acting on these principles, he improved by
-constant exercise his natural powers of observation and recollection. In
-his rambles among the motley scenes of London he was ever on the watch
-for striking features or incidents; and not trusting entirely to memory,
-he was accustomed, when any face struck him as peculiarly grotesque or
-expressive, to sketch it on his thumb-nail, to be treasured up on paper
-at his return home.
-
-For some time after the expiration of his apprenticeship, Hogarth
-continued to practise the trade to which he was bred; and his
-shop-bills, coats-of-arms, engravings upon tankards, &c., have been
-collected with an eagerness quite disproportionate to their value. Soon
-he procured employment in furnishing frontispieces and designs for the
-booksellers. The most remarkable of these are the plates to an edition
-of Hudibras, published in 1726: but even these are of no distinguished
-merit. About 1728 he began to seek employment as a portrait painter.
-Most of his performances were small family pictures, containing several
-figures, which he calls “Conversation Pieces,” from twelve to fifteen
-inches high. These for a time were very popular, and his practice was
-considerable, as his price was low. His life-size portraits are few; the
-most remarkable are that of Captain Coram in the Foundling Hospital, and
-that of Garrick as King Richard III. But his practice as a portrait
-painter was not lucrative, nor his popularity lasting. Although many of
-his likenesses were strong and characteristic, in the representation of
-beauty, elegance, and high-breeding, he was little skilled. The nature
-of the artist was as uncourtly as his pencil; he despised, or affected
-to despise, what is called embellishment, forgetting that every great
-painter of portraits has founded his success upon his power of giving to
-an object the most favourable representation of which it is susceptible.
-When Hogarth obtained employment and eminence of another sort, he
-abandoned portrait painting, with a growl at the jealousy of his
-professional brethren, and the vanity and blindness of the public.
-
-March 23, 1729, Hogarth contracted a stolen marriage with the only
-daughter of the once fashionable painter, Sir James Thornhill. The
-father, for some time implacable, relented at last; and the
-reconciliation, it is said, was much forwarded by his admiration of the
-“Harlot’s Progress,” a series of six prints, commenced in 1731, and
-published in 1734. The novelty as well as merit of this series of prints
-won for them extraordinary popularity; and their success encouraged
-Hogarth to undertake a similar history of the “Rake’s Progress,” in
-eight prints, which appeared in 1735. The third, and perhaps the most
-popular, as it is the least objectionable of these pictorial novels,
-“Marriage Alamode,” was not engraved till 1745.
-
-The merits of these prints were sufficiently intelligible to the public:
-their originality and boldness of design, the force and freedom of their
-execution, rough as it is, won for them an extensive popularity and a
-rapid and continued sale. The Harlot’s Progress was the most eminently
-successful, from its novelty rather than from its superior excellence.
-Twelve hundred subscribers’ names were entered for it; it was dramatized
-in several forms; and we may note, in illustration of the difference of
-past and present manners, that fan-mounts were engraved, containing
-miniature copies of the six plates. The merits of the pictures were less
-obvious to the few who could afford to spend large sums on works of art;
-and Hogarth, too proud to let them go for prices much below the value
-which he put upon them, waited for a long time, and waited in vain, for
-a purchaser. At last he determined to commit them to public sale; but
-instead of the common method of auction, he devised a new and complex
-plan, with the intention of excluding picture-dealers, and obliging men
-of rank and wealth, who wished to purchase, to judge and bid for
-themselves. The scheme failed, as might have been expected. Nineteen of
-Hogarth’s best pictures, the Harlot’s Progress, the Rake’s Progress, the
-Four Times of the Day, and Strolling Actresses dressing in a Barn,
-produced only 427_l._ 7_s._, not averaging 22_l._ 10_s._ each. The
-Harlot’s Progress was purchased by Mr. Beckford, at the rate of fourteen
-guineas a picture; five of the series perished in the fire at Fonthill.
-The Rake’s Progress averaged twenty-two guineas a picture; it has passed
-into the possession of Sir John Soane, at the advanced price of five
-hundred and seventy guineas. The same eminent architect became the
-proprietor of the four pictures of an Election, for the sum of 1732_l._
-Marriage Alamode was disposed of in a similar way in 1750; and on the
-day of sale one bidder appeared, who became master of the six pictures,
-together with their frames, for 115_l._ 10_s._ Mr. Angerstein purchased
-them, in 1797, for 1381_l._, and they now form a striking feature in our
-National Gallery.
-
-The number and variety of Hogarth’s moral and satiric works preclude our
-naming any but the more remarkable. To those already mentioned we would
-add the March to Finchley, Southwark Fair, the Distressed Poet, the
-Enraged Musician, Modern Midnight Conversation, Gin Lane and Beer
-Street, the four prints of an Election, and two entitled “The Times,”
-which would hardly require notice, except for having produced a
-memorable quarrel between himself on one side, and Wilkes and Churchill
-on the other. The satire of the first, published in 1762, was directed,
-not against Wilkes himself, but his political friends, Pitt and Temple;
-nor is it so biting as to have required Wilkes, in defence of his party,
-to retaliate upon one with whom he had lived in familiar and friendly
-intercourse. He did so, however, in a number of the North Briton,
-containing not only abuse of the artist, but unjust and injurious
-mention of his wife. Hogarth was deeply wounded by this attack, and he
-retorted by the well-known portrait—it ought not to be called a
-caricature—of Wilkes with the cap of liberty. “I wished,” he says, “to
-return the compliment, and turn it to some advantage. The renowned
-patriot’s portrait, drawn as like as I could, as to features, and marked
-with some indications of his mind, answered every purpose. A Brutus, a
-saviour of his country, with such an aspect, was so arrant a farce, that
-though it gave rise to much laughter in the lookers-on, it galled both
-him and his adherents. This was proved by the papers being crammed every
-day with invectives against the artist, till the town grew sick of thus
-seeing me always at full length. Churchill, Wilkes’s toad-eater, put the
-North Briton into verse in an epistle to Hogarth; but as the abuse was
-precisely the same, except a little poetical heightening, it made no
-impression, but perhaps effaced or weakened the black strokes of the
-North Briton. However, having an old plate by me, with some parts ready
-sunk, as the back-ground and a dog, I began to consider how I could turn
-so much work laid aside to some account; and so patched up a print of
-Master Churchill in the character of a bear.” The quarrel was unworthy
-of the talents either of the painter or poet. “Never,” says Walpole,
-“did two angry men of their abilities throw dirt with less dexterity.”
-It is the more to be regretted, because its effects, as he himself
-intimates, were injurious to Hogarth’s declining health. The summer of
-1764 he spent at Chiswick, and the free air and exercise worked a
-partial renovation of his strength. The amendment, however, was but
-temporary; and he died suddenly, October 26, the day after his return to
-his London residence in Leicester Square.
-
-If we have dwelt little upon Hogarth’s merits in his peculiar style of
-art, it is still less necessary to say much concerning his historical
-pictures. Of their merits he himself formed a high and most exaggerated
-estimate, not hesitating to give out that nothing but envy and ignorance
-prevented his own pictures from commanding as much admiration, and as
-high prices, as the most esteemed productions of foreign masters.
-Posterity has confirmed the judgment of his contemporaries, and
-Hogarth’s serious compositions are very generally forgotten. The only
-one which merits to be excepted from this observation is his Sigismunda,
-painted in 1759, in competition with the well-known and beautiful
-picture, ascribed by some to Correggio, by others to Furino. Our
-painter’s vanity and plain dealing had raised up a host of enemies
-against him among painters, picture-dealers, and connoisseurs; and all
-whose self-love he had wounded, or whose tricks he had denounced,
-eagerly seized this opportunity to vent their anger in retaliation. The
-picture is well known, both by engravings and by Walpole’s severe
-criticism. We abstain from quoting it: we have passed lightly over a
-great artist’s excellences, and it would be unfair to expatiate on his
-defects and errors. Besides this, Hogarth’s chief historical works are
-the Pool of Bethesda and the Good Samaritan, executed in 1736 as a
-specimen of his powers, and presented to St. Bartholomew’s Hospital;
-Paul before Felix, painted for the Hall of Lincoln’s Inn, in 1749; and
-Moses brought before Pharaoh’s daughter, painted in 1752, and presented
-to the Foundling Hospital.
-
-Hogarth was not a mere painter: he used the pen as well as the pencil,
-and aspired to teach as well as to exercise his art. He has left a
-memoir of his own life, which contains some curious and interesting and
-instructive matter concerning his own modes and motives of thought and
-action. He wrote verses occasionally in a rough and familiar style, but
-not without some sparkles of his humorous turn. But his most remarkable
-performance is the “Analysis of Beauty,” composed with the ambitious
-view of fixing the principles of taste, and laying down unerring
-directions for the student of art. Its leading principle is, that the
-serpentine line is the foundation of all that is beautiful, whether in
-nature or art. To the universality of this assertion we should be
-inclined to demur; Nature works by contrast, and loves to unite the
-abrupt and angular with the flowing and graceful, in one harmonious
-whole. The work, however, unquestionably contains much that was original
-and valuable. But when it was found that Hogarth, a man unpolished in
-conversation, not regularly trained either to the use of the pen or the
-pencil, and, above all, a profound despiser of academics, of portrait
-painters, and of almost all things conventionally admired, had written a
-book professing to teach the principles of art, the storm of criticism
-which fell upon him was hot and furious. It was discovered that Hogarth
-was not the author of the book, that the principle was false and
-ridiculous, and that every body had been in possession of it long
-before. The last objection, certainly, is so far true, that every one
-instinctively must feel a line of easy curvature to be more graceful
-than one of abrupt and angular flexure. But the merit of first
-enunciating this as a rule of art belongs to Hogarth; and it is recorded
-to have been the opinion of West, uttered after the author’s death, that
-the Analysis is a work of the highest value to the student of art, and
-that, examined after personal enmity and prejudice were laid to sleep,
-it would be more and more read, studied, and understood. We doubt
-whether this judgment of the President is altogether sanctioned by the
-practice of the present day; but time, without altogether establishing
-the author’s theory, has at least laid asleep the malicious whispers
-which denied to Hogarth the merit of it, whatever that may be.
-
-In the executive part of his art, either as painter or engraver, Hogarth
-did not attain to first-rate excellence. His engravings are spirited,
-but rough; but they have the peculiar merit (one far above mechanical
-delicacy and correctness of execution) of representing accurately, by a
-few bold touches, the varied incidents and expression which he was so
-acute and diligent in observing. A faithful copier, his works are
-invaluable as records of the costume and spirit of the time; and they
-preserve a number of minute illustrative circumstances, which his
-biographers and annotators have laboured to explain, with the precision
-used by critics in commenting upon Aristophanes. Wit and humour are
-abundant in all of them, even in accessories apparently insignificant;
-and they require to be studied before half the matter condensed in them
-can be perceived and apprehended. “It is worthy of observation,” says
-Mr. Lamb, “that Hogarth has seldom drawn a mean or insignificant
-countenance.” This is so far true, that there are few of his faces which
-do not contribute to the general effect. Mean and insignificant in the
-common sense of the words they often are, and the fastidious observer
-will find much to overcome in the general want of pleasing objects in
-his compositions. But the vacancy or expression, the coarseness or
-refinement of the countenance, are alike subservient to convey a meaning
-or a moral; and in this sense it may justly be said, that few of
-Hogarth’s faces are insignificant. Through the more important of his
-works, a depth and unity of purpose prevails, which sometimes rises into
-high tragic effect, the more striking from the total absence of
-conventional objects of dignity, as in the two last plates of the
-“Rake’s Progress.” “Gin Lane” has been included by Mr. Lamb in the same
-praise, and its power cannot be denied; but it contains too much that is
-purely disgusting, mixed with much that is in the nature of caricature,
-to be a general favourite.
-
-The nationality of Hogarth’s prints has given to them a more lasting and
-extensive popularity than any class of engravings has ever enjoyed. Not
-to mention the large impressions from the original plates, which were
-touched and retouched again and again, they have been frequently
-engraved on a smaller scale, accompanied with an historical and
-descriptive text; and there is scarcely a library of any pretensions
-which has not a “Hogarth Illustrated,” in some shape or other, upon its
-shelves. Of these works, the first was Dr. Trusler’s “Hogarth
-Moralized,” republished lately in a very elegant shape; the most
-complete is the quarto edition of Hogarth’s works, by Nichols and
-Stevens. There is a long and valuable memoir of the artist in Rees’s
-“Cyclopædia,” by Mr. Phillips, R.A., and an extended life by Allan
-Cunningham in the “Family Library.” The works of Walpole, Gilpin,
-Hazlitt, and others, will furnish much of acute criticism; and we
-especially recommend the perusal of an Essay by Charles Lamb on the
-“Genius and Character of Hogarth,” published originally in the
-“Reflector,” No. 3. It is chiefly occupied by a minute criticism upon
-the “Rake’s Progress,” and though, in our opinion, somewhat partial and
-excessive in praise, is admirably calculated to show the reader in what
-spirit the moral works of Hogarth should be studied.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _Engraved by Rob^t. Hart._
-
-  GALILEO.
-
-  _From a picture by Ramsay
-  in Trinity College, Cambridge._
-
-  Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful
-    Knowledge.
-
-  _London, Published by Charles Knight, Ludgate Street, & Pall Mall
-    East._
-]
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-                                GALILEO.
-
-
-The great Tuscan astronomer is best known as the first telescopic
-observer, the fortunate discoverer of the Medicean stars (so Jupiter’s
-satellites were first named): and what discovery more fitted to
-immortalize its author, than one which revealed new worlds, and thus
-gave additional force to the lesson, that the universe, of which we form
-so small a part, was not created only for our use or pleasure! Those,
-however, who consider Galileo only as a fortunate observer, form a very
-inadequate estimate of one of the most meritorious and successful of
-those great men who have bestowed their time for the advantage of
-mankind in tracing out the hidden things of nature.
-
-Galileo Galilei was born at Pisa, February 15, 1564. In childhood he
-displayed considerable mechanical ingenuity, with a decided taste for
-the accomplishments of music and painting. His father formed a just
-estimate of his talents, and at some inconvenience entered him, when
-nineteen years old, at the university of his native town, intending that
-he should pursue the medical profession. Galileo was then entirely
-ignorant of mathematics; and he was led to the study of geometry by a
-desire thoroughly to understand the principles of his favourite arts.
-This new pursuit proved so congenial to his taste, that from
-thenceforward his medical books were entirely neglected. The elder
-Galilei, a man of liberal acquirements and enlarged mind, did not
-require the devotion of his son’s life to a distasteful pursuit.
-Fortunately the young man’s talents attracted notice, and in 1589 he was
-appointed mathematical lecturer in the University of Pisa. There is
-reason to believe that, at an early period of his studentship, he
-embraced, upon inquiry and conviction, the doctrines of Copernicus, of
-which through life he was an ardent supporter.
-
-Galileo and his colleagues did not long remain on good terms. The latter
-were content with the superstructure which _à priori_ reasoners had
-raised upon Aristotle, and were by no means desirous of the trouble of
-learning more. Galileo chose to investigate physical truths for himself;
-he engaged in experiments to determine the truth of some of Aristotle’s
-positions, and when he found him in the wrong, he said so, and so taught
-his pupils. This made the “paper philosophers,” as he calls them, very
-angry. He repeated his experiments in their presence; but they set aside
-the evidence of their senses, and quoted Aristotle as much as before.
-The enmity arising from these disputes rendered his situation so
-unpleasant, that, in 1592, at the invitation of the Venetian
-commonwealth, he gladly accepted the professorship of mathematics at
-Padua. The period of his appointment being only six years, he was
-re-elected in 1598, and again in 1606, each time with an increase of
-salary; a strong proof of the esteem in which he was held, even before
-those astronomical discoveries which have immortalized his name. His
-lectures at this period were so fully attended, that he was sometimes
-obliged to adjourn them to the open air. In 1609 he received an
-invitation to return to his original situation at Pisa. This produced a
-letter, still extant, from which we quote a catalogue of the
-undertakings on which he was already employed. “The works which I have
-to finish are principally two books on the ‘System or Structure of the
-Universe,’ an immense work, full of philosophy, astronomy, and geometry;
-three books on ‘Local Motion,’ a science entirely new, no one, either
-ancient or modern, having discovered any of the very many admirable
-accidents which I demonstrate in natural and violent motions, so that I
-may, with very great reason, call it a new science, and invented by me
-from its very first principles; three books of mechanics, two on the
-demonstration of principles, and one of problems; and although others
-have treated this same matter, yet all that has been hitherto written,
-neither in quantity nor otherwise, is the quarter of what I am writing
-on it. I have also different treatises on natural subjects—on Sound and
-Speech, on Light and Colours, on the Tides, on the Composition of
-Continuous Quantity, on the Motions of Animals, and others besides. I
-have also an idea of writing some books relating to the military art,
-giving not only a model of a soldier, but teaching with very exact rules
-every thing which it is his duty to know, that depends upon mathematics,
-as the knowledge of castrametation, drawing up of battalions,
-fortification, assaults, planning, surveying, the knowledge of
-artillery, the use of instruments, &c.” Out of this comprehensive list,
-the treatises on the universe, on motion and mechanics, on tides, on
-fortification, or other works upon the same subjects, have been made
-known to the world. Many, however, of Galileo’s manuscripts, through
-fear of the Inquisition, were destroyed, or concealed and lost, after
-the author’s death.
-
-In the same year, 1609, Galileo heard the report, that a spectacle-maker
-of Middleburg, in Holland, had made an instrument by which distant
-objects appeared nearer. He tasked his ingenuity to discover the
-construction, and soon succeeded in manufacturing a telescope. His
-telescope, however, seems to have been made on a different construction
-from that of the Dutch optician. It consisted of a convex and concave
-glass, distant from each other by the difference of their focal lengths,
-like a modern opera-glass; while there is reason to believe that the
-other was made up of two convex lenses, distant by the sum of their
-focal lengths, the common construction of the astronomical telescope.
-Galileo’s attention naturally was first turned to the moon. He
-discovered that her surface, instead of being smooth and perfectly
-spherical, was rough with mountains, and apparently varied, like the
-earth, by land and water. He next applied to Jupiter, and was struck by
-the appearance of three small stars, almost in a straight line, and
-close to him. At first he did not suspect the nature of these bodies;
-but careful observation soon convinced him that these three, together
-with a fourth, which was at first invisible, were in reality four moons
-revolving round their primary planet. These he named the Medicean stars.
-They have long ceased to be known by that name; but so highly prized was
-the distinction thus conferred upon the ducal house of Florence, that
-Galileo received an intimation, that he would “do a thing just and
-proper in itself, and at the same time render himself and his family
-rich and powerful for ever,” if he “named the next star which he should
-discover after the name of the great star of France, as well as the most
-brilliant of all the earth,” Henry IV. These discoveries were made known
-in 1610, in a work entitled “Nuncius Sidereus,” the Newsman of the
-Stars: in which Galileo farther announced that he had seen many stars
-invisible to the naked eye, and ascertained that the nebulæ scattered
-through the heavens consist of assemblages of innumerable small stars.
-The ignorant and unprejudiced were struck with admiration; indeed,
-curiosity had been raised so high before the publication of this book,
-as materially to interfere with the convenience of those who possessed
-telescopes. Galileo was employed a month in exhibiting his own to the
-principal persons in Venice; and one unfortunate astronomer was
-surrounded by a crowd who kept him in durance for several hours, while
-they passed his glass from one to another. He left Venice the next
-morning, to pursue his inquiries in some less inquisitive place. But the
-great bulk of the philosophers of the day were far from joining in the
-general feeling. They raised an outcry against the impudent fictions of
-Galileo, and one, a professor of Padua, refused repeatedly to look
-through the telescope, lest he should be compelled to admit that which
-he had predetermined to deny. In the midst of this prejudice and envy,
-Kepler formed a brilliant exception. He received those great discoveries
-with wonder and delight, though they overturned some cherished theories,
-and manifested an honest and zealous indignation against the traducers
-of Galileo’s fame.
-
-In particular his wrath broke out against a _protégé_ of his own, named
-Horky; who, under the mistaken notion of gaining credit with his patron,
-wrote a violent attack on Galileo, and asserted, among other things,
-that he had examined the heavens with Galileo’s own glass, and that no
-such thing as a satellite existed near Jupiter. The conclusion of the
-affair is curious and characteristic. Horky begged so hard to be
-forgiven, that, says Kepler, “I have taken him again into favour, upon
-this preliminary condition, to which he has agreed,—that I am to show
-him Jupiter’s satellites, _and he is to see them, and to own that they
-are there_.”
-
-It was not long before Galileo had new, and equally important matter to
-announce. He observed a remarkable appearance in Saturn, as if it were
-composed of three stars touching each other; his telescope was not
-sufficiently powerful to resolve into them Saturn and his ring. Within a
-month he ascertained that Venus exhibits phases like those of the
-moon,—a discovery of great importance in confirming the Copernican
-system. The same phenomenon he afterwards detected in Mars. We close the
-list with the discovery of the revolution of the sun round his axis, in
-the space of about a lunar month, derived from careful observation of
-the spots on his surface.
-
-About this time (1610–11) Galileo took up his abode in Tuscany, upon the
-invitation of the Grand Duke, who offered to him his original situation
-at Pisa, with a liberal salary, exemption from the necessity of
-residence, and complete leisure to pursue his studies. In 1612 he
-published a discourse on Floating Bodies, in which he investigates the
-theory of buoyancy, and refutes, by a series of beautiful and conclusive
-experiments, the opinion that the floating or sinking of bodies depends
-on their shape.
-
-Neither Copernicus nor his immediate followers suffered inconvenience or
-restraint on account of their astronomical doctrines: nor had Galileo,
-until this period of his life, incurred ecclesiastical censure for any
-thing which he had said or written. But the Inquisition now took up the
-matter as heretical, and contrary to the express words of Scripture; and
-in 1616, Copernicus’s work ‘De Revolutionibus,’ Kepler’s Epitome, and
-some of Galileo’s own letters, were placed on the list of prohibited
-books; and he himself, being then in Rome, received formal notice not to
-teach that the earth revolves round the sun. He returned to Florence
-full of indignation; and considering his hasty temper, love of truth,
-and full belief of the condemned theory, it is rather wonderful that he
-kept silence so long, than that he incurred at last the censures of the
-hierarchy. He did, however, restrain himself from any open advocacy of
-the heretical doctrines, even in composing his great work, the ‘Dialogue
-on the Ptolemaic and Copernican Systems.’ This was completed in 1630,
-but not printed till 1632, under licence from officers of the church,
-both at Rome and Florence. It is a dialogue between Simplicio, an
-Aristotelian, Salviati, who represents the author, and Sagredo, a half
-convert to Salviati’s opinions. It professes “indeterminately to propose
-the philosophical arguments, as well on one side as on the other:” but
-the neutrality is but ill kept up, and was probably assumed, not with
-any hope that the court of Rome would be blinded as to the real tendency
-of the book, but merely that it would accept this nominal submission as
-a sufficient homage to its authority. If this were so, the author was
-disappointed; the Inquisition took cognizance of the matter, and
-summoned him to Rome to undergo a personal examination. Age and
-infirmity were in vain pleaded as excuses; still, through the urgent and
-indignant remonstrances of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, he was treated
-with a consideration rarely shown by that iniquitous tribunal. He was
-allowed to remain at the Florentine ambassador’s palace, with the
-exception of a short period, from his arrival in February, until the
-passing of sentence, June 21, 1633. He was then condemned, in the
-presence of the Inquisitors, to curse and abjure the “false doctrines,”
-which his life had been spent in proving; to be confined in the prison
-of the Holy Office during pleasure, and to recite the seven penitential
-psalms once a week during three years. The sentence and the abjuration
-are given at full length in the Life of Galileo, in the ‘Library of
-Useful Knowledge.’ “It is said,” continues the biographer, “that
-Galileo, as he rose from his knees, stamped on the ground, and whispered
-to one of his friends, ‘_e pur si muove_,’ (it does move though.”)
-
-Galileo’s imprisonment was not long or rigorous; for after four days he
-was reconducted to the Florentine ambassador’s palace: but he was still
-kept under strict surveillance. In July he was sent to Sienna, where he
-remained five months in strict seclusion. He obtained permission in
-December to return to his villa at Arcetri, near Florence: but there, as
-at Sienna, he was confined to his own premises, and strictly forbidden
-to receive his friends. It is painful to contemplate the variety of
-evils which overcast the evening of this great man’s life. In addition
-to a distressing chronic complaint, contracted in youth, he was now
-suffering under a painful infirmity which by some is said to have been
-produced by torture, applied in the prisons of the Inquisition to extort
-a recantation. But the arguments brought forward to show that the
-Inquisitors did resort to this extremity do not amount to anything like
-direct proof. In April, 1634, Galileo’s afflictions were increased by
-the death of a favourite, intelligent, and attached daughter. He
-consoled his solitude, and lightened the hours of sickness, by
-continuing the observations which he was now forbidden to publish to the
-world; and the last of his long train of discoveries was the phenomenon
-known by the name of the moon’s libration. In the course of 1636–7 he
-lost successively the sight of both his eyes. He mentions this calamity
-in a tone of pious submission, mingled with a not unpleasing pride.
-“Alas, your dear friend and servant Galileo has become totally and
-irreparably blind; so that this heaven, this earth, this universe, which
-with wonderful observations I had enlarged a hundred and thousand times
-beyond the belief of by-gone ages, henceforward for me is shrunk into
-the narrow space which I myself fill in it. So it pleases God: it shall
-therefore please me also.” In 1638 he obtained leave to visit Florence,
-still under the same restrictions as to society; but at the end of a few
-months he was remanded to Arcetri, which he never again quitted. From
-that time, however, the strictness of his confinement was relaxed, and
-he was allowed to receive the friends who crowded round him, as well as
-the many distinguished foreigners who eagerly visited him. Among these
-we must not forget Milton, whose poems contain several allusions to the
-celestial wonders observed and published by the Tuscan astronomer.
-Though blind and nearly deaf, Galileo retained to the last his
-intellectual powers; and his friend and pupil, the celebrated
-Torricelli, was employed in arranging his thoughts on the nature of
-percussion, when he was attacked by his last illness. He died January 8,
-1642, aged seventy-eight.
-
-It was disputed, whether, as a prisoner of the Inquisition, Galileo had
-a right to burial in consecrated ground. The point was conceded; but
-Pope Urban VIII. himself interfered to prevent the erection of a
-monument to him in the church of Santa Croce, in Florence, for which a
-large sum had been subscribed. A splendid monument now covers the spot
-in which his remains repose with those of his friend and pupil, the
-eminent mathematician Viviani.
-
-In 1618, Galileo published, through the medium of Mario Guiducci, an
-Essay on the Nature of Comets. His opinions (which, in fact, were
-erroneous) were immediately attacked under the feigned signature of
-Lotario Sarsi. To this antagonist he replied in a work entitled ‘Il
-Saggiatore,’ the Assayer, which we select for mention, not so much for
-the value of its contents, though, like the rest of his works, it has
-many remarkable passages, as for the high reputation which it enjoys
-among Italian critics as a model of philosophical composition. The
-“Dialogues on Motion,” the last work of consequence which Galileo
-published, contain investigations of the simpler branches of dynamics,
-the motion of bodies falling freely or down inclined planes, and of
-projectiles; determinations of the strength of beams, and a variety of
-interesting questions in natural philosophy. The fifth and sixth are
-unfinished; the latter was intended to comprise the theory of
-percussion, which, as we have said, was the last subject which occupied
-the author’s mind. For a full analysis of this and the other treatises
-here briefly noted, and for an account of Galileo’s application of the
-pendulum to the mensuration of time; his invention of the thermometer,
-though in an inaccurate and inconvenient form; his methods of
-discovering the longitude, and a variety of other points well worth
-attention, we must refer to the Life of Galileo already quoted. The
-numerous extracts from Galileo’s works convey a lively notion of the
-author’s character, and are distinguished by a peculiar tone of quaint
-humour. For older writers we may refer to the lives of Viviani,
-Gherardini, and Nelli; and to the English one by Salusbury, of which
-however the second volume is so rare that the Earl of Macclesfield’s
-copy is the only one known to exist in England. Venturi has given to the
-world some unpublished manuscripts, and collected much curious and
-scattered information in his “Memorie e Lettere de Gal. Galilei.” Of
-Galileo’s works several editions exist: the most complete are those of
-Padua, in four volumes quarto, 1744, and of Milan, in thirteen volumes
-octavo, 1811.
-
-In conclusion, we quote the estimate of Galileo’s character, from the
-masterly memoir from which this sketch is derived. “The numberless
-inventions of his acute industry; the use of the telescope, and the
-brilliant discoveries to which it led; the patient investigation of the
-laws of weight and motion, must all be looked upon as forming but a part
-of his real merits, as merely particular demonstrations of the spirit in
-which he everywhere withstood the despotism of ignorance, and appealed
-boldly from traditional opinions to the judgment of reason and common
-sense. He claimed and bequeathed to us the right of exercising our
-faculties in examining the beautiful creation which surrounds us.
-Idolised by his friends, he deserved their affection by numberless acts
-of kindness; by his good humour, his affability, and by the benevolent
-generosity with which he devoted himself, and a great part of his
-limited income, to advance their talents and fortunes. If an intense
-desire of being useful is everywhere worthy of honour; if its value is
-immeasurably increased when united to genius of the highest order; if we
-feel for one, who, notwithstanding such titles to regard, is harassed by
-cruel persecution, then none deserve our sympathy, our admiration, and
-our gratitude, more than Galileo.”
-
-[Illustration: [Monument to Galileo in the Church of Santa Croce at
-Florence.]]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _Engraved by R. Woodman._
-
-  REMBRANDT.
-
-  _From the original Picture by himself
-  in his Majesty’s Collection._
-
-  Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful
-    Knowledge.
-
-  _London, Published by Charles Knight, Ludgate Street, & Pall Mall
-    East._
-]
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-                               REMBRANDT.
-
-
-Born June 15, 1606. His father was a miller, named Gerretz, who lived
-near Leyden, on the banks of the Rhine. Hence Rembrandt assumed the
-higher-sounding title of Van Ryn, in exchange for his paternal
-appellation. The miller was sagacious enough to perceive that his son
-had talent, but not to discover the direction in which it lay; and sent
-him to study Latin, and qualify himself for one of the learned
-professions at the University of Leyden. He had no turn for scholarship;
-indeed, through life, his literary acquirements were decidedly below
-par: but he showed great expertness in drawing any object which caught
-his notice. The miller wisely yielded to what appeared the natural bent
-of his son’s genius, and suffered him to pursue painting as a
-profession. He studied first for three months at Amsterdam, in the
-school of Jacob Van Swannenberg, then six months with Peter Lastman, and
-six with Jacob Pinas. It is somewhat surprising that he should have
-continued so long with these masters, from whom he could learn no more
-than the rudiments of execution. Had they been better, he would have
-gained little but manual skill from them; for, from the first, his style
-was essentially his own. Nature was his preceptress, and his academy was
-his father’s mill. There he found those unique effects of light and
-shadow which distinguish his pictures from all others. The style of art
-which astonished his contemporaries by its novelty and power, and will
-ever continue to influence the practice of later artists, was founded on
-and formed out of the brilliant contrasts exhibited by a beam of light
-admitted through a narrow aperture, and rapidly subsiding into darkness:
-a spectacle which, familiar to his childhood, seems to have left an
-indelible impression on his imagination. He studied with great
-assiduity, but seems to have scarcely been conscious of his own strength
-until the commendation of his fellow-students roused him. At the
-suggestion of one of them he took a painting which he had just finished
-to an amateur at the Hague, who gave the best proof of his approbation
-by paying a hundred florins for it on the spot. The sudden acquisition
-of so much wealth almost turned the young artist’s head. He went on foot
-to the Hague; but he posted home to his father’s mill in a chariot.
-Extravagance, however, was not one of his characteristics, and this was
-his last, as it was his first act of ostentatious disbursement.
-
-He remained for some time in his native village, induced, perhaps, by
-the facilities which the banks of the Rhine presented to him for the
-study of landscape. Even in that department of art he selected those
-phases of nature which harmonized with his usual management of _chiar’
-oscuro_: such as effects of twilight, or the setting sun, or any
-combinations of clouds, rocks, trees, or other objects, which formed
-large masses of shade relieved by light concentrated in one spot. But
-being frequently summoned to Amsterdam by commissions for portraits, he
-settled in that city in 1630. At the same time he married a pretty
-peasant girl from Ramsdorp, whose portrait he has often introduced in
-his pictures. He received several pupils into his house, who paid
-largely for his instructions.
-
-One of Rembrandt’s earliest and most steadfast patrons was the
-burgomaster Six, for whom he painted the celebrated picture now in the
-National Gallery, of ‘The Woman taken in Adultery.’ If this be an
-average specimen of his style at this time, no wonder can be felt that
-his reputation rose to a prodigious height, and that he obtained large
-prices for his performances. The style of this picture, though
-approaching to the elaborate finishing of Mieris or Gerard Dow, is yet
-as broad as in any of his subsequent works, after he had adopted a
-bolder method of execution. Refinement of character we never must expect
-in Rembrandt; but in this picture we are not shocked by that
-uncalled-for coarseness which debases many of his later works. In the
-figure of Christ especially, there is some attempt to rise above the
-level of common life, which he usually contents himself with copying.
-The picture exhibits his usual grandeur and solemnity of light and
-shade, and is remarkable for brilliancy of colouring.
-
-As Rembrandt’s practice became more and more lucrative, he gave way to a
-vice which certainly is not the besetting one of artists, and grew
-insatiably avaricious. His engravings were sought with even more avidity
-than his pictures; and he left unemployed no artifice by which their
-popularity might be turned to account. Impressions were taken off and
-circulated when the plates were half finished, then the work was
-completed, and the sale recommenced. Alterations were then made in the
-perfect engraving, and these botched prints were again sent into the
-market. Impressions of the same plate in all these stages of
-transformation were eagerly sought by the idle foppery of collectorship;
-and it was held a serious impeachment of taste not to possess proofs of
-the little Juno with and without a crown; the young Joseph with the face
-light, and the same Joseph with his face dark; the woman with the white
-bonnet, and the same woman without a bonnet; the horse with a tail, and
-a horse without a tail, &c. Ungentlemanly tricks were practised to
-enhance the price of his works. He often expressed an intention of
-quitting Amsterdam altogether. Once he was announced to be dangerously
-ill; at another time he was reported to be dead. It is strange that he
-should not have felt these petty artifices to be unworthy of his genius,
-and unnecessary to his fame or fortune; but it seems not improbable that
-some of his eccentricities were played off to attract attention. Being
-occupied one day in painting the picture of a burgomaster and his
-family, word was brought that his favourite monkey was dead. He made
-great parade of his distress, and as some alleviation of it, proceeded
-to paint the monkey into the picture. The civic dignitary remonstrated
-in vain against this extraordinary addition to the family group:
-Rembrandt refused to finish the picture unless the monkey kept his
-place, and accordingly it was allowed to remain. That he was not
-unconscious of the absurdity of such caprices, may be inferred from his
-quick turn for humour, and the shrewdness and sagacity of his remarks.
-
-The roughness and apparent negligence in the execution of his works
-astonished many of the Dutch connoisseurs, who had been so used to
-minute delicacy of finish as to consider it essential to excellence. To
-these critics he replied in a tone of irony, requesting that when they
-perceived anything particularly wrong in his works, they would believe
-that he had a motive for it. To others who examined his pictures too
-closely, he observed, that the smell of the paint was unwholesome,
-adding a very just observation, that the picture is finished when the
-painter has expressed his intention.
-
-Numerous copies of Rembrandt’s pictures were made by his pupils, which
-he retouched and sold as originals. Sandraart asserts that he gained one
-thousand two hundred florins yearly by this commerce. It is proper,
-however, to state that most of the great masters have, more or less,
-availed themselves of the labour of their scholars.
-
-In one respect, however, Rembrandt acted worthily of his genius. He
-never allowed the love of gain to interfere with or limit the time and
-labour which were required to give excellence to his paintings. The
-bravura of hand by which his later works are distinguished, has led to
-an idea that he painted them carelessly and with great dispatch. No
-doubt he wrought with firmness and decision when his plan was fixed; but
-various studies are extant, which show that, before commencing a
-picture, he constructed and reconstructed his design with indefatigable
-attention. This was especially the case with his historical works; yet
-in portrait painting he was scarcely less particular. Frequently when
-the picture was considerably advanced, struck by some new arrangement,
-an effect of light, a happy turn of drapery, a better position of the
-head, he would begin again; and the patience of the sitter was sometimes
-so much tried by a succession of these alterations, that works would
-have been left unfinished on the artist’s hands, but for that confidence
-in the ultimate excellence of the pictures, which rendered his employers
-anxious to possess them at any outlay of time, patience, or money.
-
-Descamps, the French biographer of the Flemish painters, enlarges on
-Rembrandt’s misfortune in not having been born in Italy, or, at least,
-not having spent some years there. “How different a painter would he
-have been,” he says, “had he been familiar with the works of Raphael and
-Titian.” That he would have been a different painter may be doubted;
-that he would have been a better one is still less probable. Descamps
-adds, that he owed his genius to nature and instinct alone; a much more
-rational remark, and so true, that it appears almost demonstrable that
-no system of discipline or education would have materially altered his
-turn of mind. He was sufficiently well acquainted, through the medium of
-prints, casts, and marbles, with the leading works both of ancient and
-modern art; but he had no taste for refinement, and he knew that what is
-called high art was not his vocation. He had collected quantities of old
-armour, rich draperies, grotesque ornaments, and military weapons, which
-he jocularly called his antiques; and he made no scruple of deriding the
-exclusive claims to taste set up by particular schools. He felt that he
-had no occasion to ask his passport to reputation from others; but that,
-as Fuseli expresses it, he could enter the temple of fame by forging his
-own keys.
-
-Few painters, indeed, have so full a claim to the merit of originality
-as Rembrandt. It would be hard to point out any of his predecessors to
-whom he is indebted for any part of his style; but he has opened a rich
-treasure of excellence for his successors to profit by. The full powers
-of the management of light and shade, which we denominate by the Italian
-phrase _chiar’ oscuro_, were not known until Rembrandt developed them.
-It might have been supposed that the power and harmony, and splendour of
-Corregio left nothing to be desired in this department of the art; but
-Rembrandt gave to his masses a force and depth, and concentration,
-unequalled, and peculiar to himself. Nor is _chiar’ oscuro_ in his hands
-merely an instrument of picturesque effect; it is also a most powerful
-vehicle of sentiment, especially in subjects characterized by solemnity
-or terror. The ‘Crucifixion,’ ‘Christ and St. Peter in the Storm,’ and
-‘Sampson seized by the Philistines,’ are striking but not singular
-examples of this:—it is the excellence which pervades his works.
-‘Jacob’s Dream,’ in the Dulwich Gallery, deserves mention as a most
-remarkable instance of his peculiar powers, for it embodies images so
-vague and undefinable, that they might be thought beyond the grasp of
-painting. Forms float before us, apparently cognizable by our senses,
-yet so vague, that when examined, they lose the semblance of form which
-at first they wore, receding gradually to so immeasurable a distance,
-that it would seem as if in truth the heavens were opened. It is the
-most _spiritual_ thing conceivable, and breathes the very atmosphere of
-a dream.
-
-As a colourist Rembrandt has scarcely a superior: if his tints are not
-equal in truth and purity to those of Titian, yet his admirable
-management of light and shadow gives to his colouring an almost
-unrivalled splendour. In that quality of execution which painters call
-_surface_, he was eminently skilled; perhaps none but Corregio and
-Reynolds can compare with him in it. To his portraits he gave a most
-speaking air of identity; but his delineations of the human form and
-character in works of imagination are almost ludicrous, and little
-better than travesties of the subject. Beauty certainly must have come
-in his way; but he seems to have avoided and rejected it for the sake of
-ugliness and vulgarity. The picture of a ‘Woman Bathing,’ in the
-National Gallery, is a good instance both of his merits and faults,
-treating with the utmost fidelity and beauty of execution a subject so
-disagreeable, that admiration is neutralized by disgust. Indeed his
-genius has no greater triumph than that of reconciling us to his
-defects.
-
-Rembrandt’s style of engraving, as of painting, is in great measure of
-his own invention. His plates are partly etched, assisted with the dry
-point, and sometimes, but not often, finished with the graver. His
-prints possess the effect of colouring in a surprising degree; the light
-and shade is managed, as might be expected, with consummate skill, and
-the touch has a lightness and apparent negligence, which give to his
-etchings an indescribable charm.
-
-De Piles and some other writers have asserted that Rembrandt was at
-Venice in the year 1635 or 1636. This mistake arose from the dates, and
-the name of Venice which Rembrandt put at the bottom of some of his
-prints, with the view of enhancing the price of them. He never quitted
-Amsterdam after he first established himself there in 1630. He could
-have had no inducement indeed to absent himself from a city in which he
-was so rapidly acquiring both fame and fortune. In what related to his
-art he never looked out of himself; and he was so far from seeking any
-general acquaintance with the world, that he associated only with a
-small circle in his own city, and that of an inferior class. The
-burgomaster Six, who appreciated his extraordinary talents, and wished
-to see him fill a place in society worthy of them, often attempted to
-lead him among the wealthy and the great; but that inveterate want of
-refinement which is visible in his works, pervaded his character, and he
-confessed that he felt uneasy in such company; adding, that when he left
-his painting-room, it was for the purpose of relaxation, which he was
-more likely to find among his humble associates, and in the
-convivialities of the tavern. He lived nearly to the age of sixty-eight
-years, and died at Amsterdam in 1674.
-
-Those who may be curious to know the different impressions and
-variations of Rembrandt’s plates, and their respective rarity and value,
-will find information in the catalogue of his works, first published by
-Gersaint, at Paris, and P. Yver, at Amsterdam; which was afterwards
-enlarged by our countryman Dalby, and has since been added to in a
-publication by Adam Bartset, printed at Vienna in 1797.
-
-Rembrandt’s works are nowhere more valued than in this country, which
-may account for the vast influx of them hither. Originals are not often
-met with on the Continent: here they may be found in every great
-collection. The National and the Dulwich Galleries contain some of his
-finest performances. Particulars of Rembrandt’s life and works may be
-found in La Vie des Peintres Flamands, par Descamps, and in De Piles. In
-English, in Bryan’s ‘Dictionary of Painters,’ and in Pilkington.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _Engraved by C. E. Wagstaff._
-
-  DRYDEN.
-
-  _From a Picture by Houdson
-  in the Hall of Trinity College Cambridge._
-
-  Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful
-    Knowledge.
-
-  _London, Published by Charles Knight, Ludgate Street, & Pall Mall
-    East._
-]
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-                                DRYDEN.
-
-
-John Dryden was born at Aldwinkle, near Oundle, in Northamptonshire,
-August 9, 1631, according to Dr. Johnson; but Mr. Malone raises a doubt
-concerning the accuracy of this date. The inscription on his monument
-says, only, _natus_, 1632. He was educated at Westminster School, under
-Dr. Busby, and elected Scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1650.
-The year before he left the university, he wrote a poem on the death of
-Lord Hastings. Of this production Dr. Johnson says, that “it was
-composed with great ambition of such conceits as, notwithstanding the
-reformation begun by Waller and Denham, the example of Cowley still kept
-in reputation.” Dryden’s vacillation, both in religion and politics,
-proves, that though perhaps not completely dishonest, he had no firm and
-well-considered principles. His heroic stanzas on Oliver Cromwell,
-written after the Protector’s funeral in 1658, were followed on the
-restoration by his Astrea Redux, and in the same year by a second
-tribute of flattery to his sacred Majesty, ‘A Panegyric on his
-Coronation.’ The Annus Mirabilis is one of his most elaborate works; a
-historical poem in celebration of the Duke of York’s victory over the
-Dutch. He succeeded Sir William Davenant as poet laureat. He did not
-obtain the laurel till August 18, 1670; but according to Malone, the
-patent had a retrospect, and the salary commenced from the Midsummer
-after Davenant’s death, in 1668. He was also made historiographer to the
-king, and in the same year published his Essay on Dramatic Poetry.
-
-Among the works of so voluminous a writer, we can only notice those
-which are distinguished by excellence, or by some strong peculiarity.
-
-Dryden was more than thirty years of age when he commenced dramatic
-writer. His first piece, the Wild Gallant, met with so mortifying a
-reception, that he resolved never more to write for the stage. The hasty
-resolutions of anger are seldom kept, and are seldom worth keeping; but
-in the present instance it would have been well had he adhered to the
-first dictates of his resentment. We should not then have had to regret,
-that so large a portion of a great writer’s life and labour has been
-wasted on twenty-eight dramas: the comedies exhibiting much ribaldry and
-but little wit; with neither ingenuity nor interest in the fable; with
-no originality in the characters: the tragedies for the most part filled
-with the exaggerations of romance, and the hyperboles of an extravagant
-imagination, in the place of nature and pathos. His tragedy seldom
-touches the passions: his staple commodities are pompous language,
-poetical flights, and picturesque description. His characters all speak
-in one language—that of the author. Addison says, “It is peculiar to
-Dryden to make all his personages as wise, witty, elegant, and polite as
-himself.” In confirmation of the proofs internally afforded by his
-writings, that his taste for tragedy was not genuine, he expresses his
-contempt for Otway, master as that poet was of the tender passions. But
-however uncongenial with his natural talent dramatic composition might
-be, his temporary disgust soon passed away. In his Essay on Dramatic
-Poetry, he tells his patron, Dorset, that the writing of that treatise
-served as an amusement to him in the country, when he was driven from
-London by the plague; that he diverted himself with thinking on the
-theatres, as lovers do by ruminating on their absent mistresses. But
-whatever opinion he might entertain of his own tragic style, he was
-himself sensible that his talents did not lie in the line of comedy.
-“Those who decry my comedies do me no injury, except it be in point of
-profit: reputation in them is the last thing to which I shall pretend.”
-He retaliated on the criticisms levelled against his extravagances in
-tragedy, by an ostentatious display of defiance. We find in his
-Dedication of the Spanish Friar, “All that I can say for certain
-passages of my own Maximin and Almanzor is, that I knew they were bad
-enough to please when I wrote them.”
-
-In 1671 he was publicly ridiculed on the stage in the Duke of
-Buckingham’s comedy of the Rehearsal. The character of Bayes was at
-first named Bilboa, and meant for Sir Robert Howard; but the
-representation of the piece in its original form was stopped by the
-plague in 1665: it was not reproduced till six years afterwards, when it
-appeared with alterations in ridicule of the pieces brought out in the
-interval, and with a correspondent change of the hero. Dryden affected
-to despise the satire. In the Dedication to his Translation of Juvenal,
-he says, “I answered not to the Rehearsal, because I knew the author sat
-to himself when he drew the picture, and was the very Bayes of his own
-farce.”
-
-An Essay on Satire, said to be written jointly by Dryden and Lord
-Mulgrave, was first printed in 1679. This piece was handed about in
-manuscript, for some time before its publication. It contained
-reflections on the Duchess of Portsmouth and Lord Rochester. Anthony
-Wood says, that suspecting Dryden to be the author, the aggrieved
-parties hired three ruffians, who cudgelled the poet in Will’s
-coffee-house.
-
-In 1680 a translation of Ovid’s Epistles into English came out: two of
-which, together with the Preface, were by Dryden. In the following year
-he published Absalom and Achitophel; a work of first-rate excellence as
-a political and controversial poem. Dr. Johnson ascribes to it “acrimony
-of censure, elegance of praise, artful delineation of character, variety
-and vigour of sentiments, happy turns of language, and pleasing harmony
-of numbers; and all these raised to such a height as can scarcely be
-found in any other English composition.” In the same year, the Medal, a
-satire, was given to the public. This piece was occasioned by the
-striking of a medal, on account of the indictment against Lord
-Shaftesbury being thrown out, and is a severe invective against that
-celebrated statesman.
-
-In 1682 Dryden published ‘_Religio Laici_,’ in defence of revealed
-religion against Deists, Papists, and Presbyterians. Yet soon after the
-accession of James the Second, he became a Roman Catholic; and in the
-hope of promoting Popery, was employed on a translation of Maimbourg’s
-History of the League, on account of the parallel between the troubles
-of France and those of Great Britain. This extraordinary conversion
-exposed him to the ridicule of the wits, and especially to the gibes of
-the facetious and celebrated Tom Brown.
-
-The Hind and Panther, a controversial poem in defence of the Romish
-church, appeared in 1687. The Hind represents the church of Rome, the
-Panther the church of England. The first part of the poem consists
-mostly of general characters and narration; which, says the author, “I
-have endeavoured to raise, and give it the majestic turn of heroic
-poetry. The second, being matter of dispute, and chiefly concerning
-church authority, I was obliged to make as plain and perspicuous as
-possibly I could, yet not wholly neglecting the numbers, though I had
-not frequent occasion for the magnificence of verse. The third, which
-has more of the nature of domestic conversation, is, or ought to be,
-more free and familiar than the two former. There are in it two
-episodes, or fables, which are interwoven with the main design; so that
-they are properly parts of it, though they are also distinct stories of
-themselves. In both of these I have made use of the commonplaces of
-satire, whether true or false, which are urged by the members of one
-church against another.” The absurdity of a fable exhibiting two beasts
-discoursing on theology, was ridiculed in the City Mouse and Country
-Mouse, a burlesque poem, the joint production of Montague, afterwards
-Earl of Halifax, and Prior, who then put forth the first sample of his
-talents. Dryden is supposed to have been engaged for the translation of
-Varillas’s History of Heresies, but to have dropped the design, from a
-feeling of his own incompetency to theological controversy. Bishop
-Burnet, in his Reflections on the Ninth Book of the first Volume of M.
-Varillas’s History, classes together that work, and the Hind and
-Panther, as “such extraordinary things of their kind, that it will be
-but suitable to see the author of the worst poem become likewise the
-translator of the worst history that the age has produced.” Dr. Johnson
-supports the Bishop’s hostile criticism so far as to pronounce the
-scheme of the work injudicious and incommodious, and to censure the
-absurdity of making one beast advise another to rest her faith on a pope
-and council: but he allows it to be written “with great smoothness of
-metre, a wide extent of knowledge, and an abundant multiplicity of
-images; the controversy to be embellished with pointed sentences,
-diversified by illustrations, and enlivened by sallies of invective;”
-and a poem inlaid with such ornaments, however little worth the solid
-material might be, was but peevishly represented as “the worst that the
-age had produced.” Pope, a higher authority than the honest Bishop in
-such matters, considered it as the most correct specimen of Dryden’s
-versification. Malone has shown that Burnet was mistaken in attributing
-to our author the answer to Burnet’s Remarks on the History.
-
-In 1688 Dryden published Britannia Rediviva, a poem on the birth of the
-Prince afterwards known by the title of the Pretender. The poem is to be
-noticed only for its extravagant and ill-timed adulation, which
-deservedly involved the author in the disgrace and fall of his party.
-But even had he not so identified himself with the ejected dynasty, his
-conversion to Popery disqualified him for holding his place. He was
-accordingly dispossessed of it; and the mortification of its being
-conferred on an object of his confirmed dislike, aggravated the
-pecuniary loss, which he could ill afford. Shadwell, his successor, was
-an old enemy, whom he had formerly stigmatized under the name of Og. In
-consequence of this appointment, Dryden again attacked him in a poem
-called MacFlecknoe; one of the severest as well as most witty satires in
-the English language. The poetry of the new laureat was so indifferent,
-as to give ample scope for ridicule:—
-
-            This Flecknoe found, who, like Augustus, young
-            Was call’d to empire, and had governed long;
-            In prose and verse, was own’d, without dispute,
-            Through all the realms of nonsense, absolute.
-
-Although these lines be written of Flecknoe, Shadwell is the hero of the
-piece, introduced as if selected by Flecknoe to succeed him on the
-throne of dulness. Richard Flecknoe was an Irish priest, well known
-about the court; but notwithstanding Cibber’s assertion in his Lives of
-the Poets, he was never poet laureat. The above is the story told by all
-the biographers; but if Mr. Malone’s laborious and minute researches
-have been pursued with his usual accuracy, they have been mistaken in
-the date of the publication, which he fixes in October, 1682. If this be
-correct, the satire must have been a sportive anticipation of an event,
-which its author little expected to come to pass; and not the ebullition
-of revenge for the loss of an honourable and lucrative employment.
-Taking the earlier as the true date, we might suspect that the prophecy
-was fulfilled in the person of Shadwell, as a vindictive aggravation of
-the deposed laureat’s fall. Yet it is difficult to reconcile it to
-probability that Dryden should have dishonoured an office which he had
-been holding for the last twelve years, and must then have calculated on
-holding for his life, by a fictitious successive inauguration of two
-blockheads, who “never deviated into sense.”
-
-Pope’s Dunciad, though more extended in its plan, and more diversified
-in its incidents, was professedly written in imitation of this poem. The
-leisure and pains bestowed on his performance gave the imitator the
-superiority in point of elaborate execution; but there are bursts of
-pleasantry in MacFlecknoe, and sallies of wit and humour, equal if not
-superior to any thing in Pope or Boileau, or perhaps in any poet
-excepting Horace. Dr. Joseph Warton says of it, that “in point of
-satire, both oblique and direct, contempt and indignation, clear
-diction, and melodious versification, this poem is perhaps the best of
-its kind in any language.”
-
-Dr. Johnson doubts whether Dryden was the translator of the Life of
-Francis Xavier, by Father Bouhours, to which his name is affixed. The
-borrowing of popular names for title-pages was very prevalent in those
-days, and the loan probably not without profit to the lenders.
-
-In 1693 a translation of Juvenal and Persius appeared. The first, third,
-sixth, tenth, and sixteenth satires of Juvenal, and the whole of
-Persius, are Dryden’s: also the Dedication to Lord Dorset, a long and
-ingenious discourse, in which the writer gives an account of a design,
-which he never carried into effect, of writing an epic poem either on
-Arthur or the Black Prince. Lord Dorset well deserved the compliment of
-so masterly a dedication; for he continued to patronise the poet in the
-reverse of his fortunes, and allowed him an annuity equal to the salary
-which he had lost.
-
-In 1694 Dryden published a prose translation of Du Fresnoy’s Art of
-Painting, with a Preface, exhibiting a parallel between painting and
-poetry. Pope addressed a copy of verses to Jervas, the painter, in
-praise of this work.
-
-The most laborious of Dryden’s works, the translation of Virgil, was
-given to the world in 1697. The Pastorals were dedicated to Lord
-Clifford, the Georgics to Lord Chesterfield, and the Æneid to Lord
-Mulgrave: an economical and lucrative combination of flattery which the
-wits suffered not to pass unnoticed. The translation had an extensive
-sale, and has since passed through many editions. Like most of Dryden’s
-longer productions, it has many careless passages, which do not well
-accord with an original so remarkable for finish and correctness; but it
-still stands its ground, and is a stock-book in the face of the more
-careful and perhaps more scholarlike performances of Warton, Sotheby,
-and Pitt.
-
-Besides the original pieces and translations already mentioned, Dryden
-wrote many others, the most important of which were published in six
-volumes of Miscellanies, to which he was the principal contributor. They
-consist of translations from the Greek and Latin poets; epistles,
-prologues, and epilogues; odes, elegies, epitaphs, and songs.
-Alexander’s Feast, an ode for Saint Cecilia’s Day, displays one of the
-highest flights within the compass of lyric poetry. Dryden, although no
-lover of labour, is said to have devoted a fortnight to this
-masterpiece. Yet the poetic fervour is so supported throughout, that it
-reads as if struck off at a heat; so much so, that the few negligences
-which escaped the enthusiasm of the writer are scarcely ever noticed.
-Dr. Johnson, seldom carried beyond the wariness of criticism by the
-inspiration of his author, did not discover that some of the lines are
-without correspondent rhymes, till after an acquaintance with it of many
-years. The splendour of this poem eclipsed that of his first ode for
-Saint Cecilia’s Day, which would have fixed the fame of any other poet.
-In Alexander’s Feast the versification is brilliantly worked up, and
-abruptly varied, according to the rapid transitions of the subject; the
-language is natural though elevated, and the sentiments are suited to
-the age and occasion. Had Dryden never written another line, his name
-would yet be as undying as the tongue in which he wrote. His Fables in
-English verse from Homer, Ovid, Boccaccio, and Chaucer, were his last
-work; they were published in 1698. The preface gives a critical account
-of the authors from whom the Fables are translated. In this work he
-furnished us with the first example of the revival of ancient English
-writers by modernizing their language. Yet those readers who can master
-Chaucer’s phraseology, and have an ear so practised as to catch the tune
-of his verse, will like him better in the simplicity of his native garb,
-than in the elaborate splendour of his borrowed costume.
-
-Dryden was a voluminous writer in prose as well as in verse, and quite
-as great a master of the English language in the former as in the
-latter. His performances in prose consist of Dedications, Prefaces, and
-controversial pieces; the Lives of Plutarch and Lucian, prefixed to the
-translation of those authors by several hands; the Life of Polybius,
-prefixed to the translation of that historian by Sir Henry Shears; and
-the Preface to Walsh’s Dialogue concerning Women.
-
-Dryden died on the 1st of May, 1701, and was buried in Westminster
-Abbey. He married Lady Elizabeth Howard, daughter to the Earl of
-Berkshire. He had three sons by this lady; Charles, John, and Henry.
-They were all educated at Rome, where John died of a fever. He
-translated the fourteenth satire of Juvenal, and was author of a comedy.
-Charles translated the seventh satire. There is a confused story
-respecting some vexatious and tumultuary incidents occurring at Dryden’s
-funeral, which rests on no satisfactory authority; and, even if true,
-would occupy more room in the detail, than would square either with our
-limits or its own importance.
-
-Dryden was the father of English criticism; and his Essay on Dramatic
-Poetry is the first regular and judicious treatise in our language on
-the art of writing. Although, after so many valuable discourses have
-been delivered to the public on the same subject during the century and
-a half which has elapsed since his original attempts, his prose works
-may now be read more for the charm of their pure idiomatic English, than
-for their novelty or instructive matter, yet the merits of a discoverer
-must not be underrated because his discoveries have been extended, or
-his inventions improved upon. Before his time, those who wished to
-arrive at just principles of taste, or a rational code of criticism, if
-they were unacquainted with the works of the ancients and the modern
-languages of Italy and France, had no guides to lead them on their way.
-Dryden communicated to his own learning, which, though not deep nor
-accurate, was various and extensive, the magic of his style and the
-popular attraction of his mother tongue: the Spectator followed his
-lead, in essays less diffusive, and therefore more within the reach of
-the million: in our day, such is the accumulation of material, and so
-cheap and copious the power of circulating knowledge, that the poorest
-man who can read may inform his mind on subjects of general literature,
-to the enlargement of his understanding, and the improvement of his
-morals. But we must not forget our obligations to those who began that
-hoard, whence we have the privilege of drawing at will.
-
-With respect to those prose works of our author which are devoted to
-controversy, their interest has quite passed away, farther than as they
-may evince his powers in argument, or command of language. Dr. Johnson
-gives a just estimate of his general character. “He appears to have a
-mind very comprehensive by nature, and much enriched with acquired
-knowledge. His compositions are the effects of a vigorous genius,
-operating upon large materials.”
-
-Dryden’s works have been constantly before the public, in various shapes
-and successive editions. Those best deserving a place in the library
-are, his Prose Works in four volumes, edited by Mr. Malone; his Poetical
-Works in four volumes, with notes, by Dr. Joseph Warton, and his son,
-the Rev. John Warton; and the whole of his Works in eighteen volumes
-octavo, by Sir Walter Scott. The earlier authorities for his Life are
-Wood’s Athenæ Oxonienses; the Biographia Britannica; and a Life by
-Derrick, poorly executed, prefixed to Tonson’s edition, in 1760.
-Johnson’s admirable Essay on this subject is in the hands of every
-reader, and is one of the most masterly among his Lives of the Poets. He
-was peculiarly well qualified to appreciate a writer in whom, to use his
-own words, “strong reason rather predominated than quick sensibility.”
-Scott also has written a copious Life, occupying the first volume of his
-edition of Dryden’s Works.
-
-[Illustration: [Monument of Dryden in Westminster Abbey.]]
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _Engraved by T. Woolnoth._
-
-  LA PÉROUSE.
-
-  _From a Miniature in the possession of
-  La Perouse’s niece at Alby._
-
-  Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful
-    Knowledge.
-
-  _London, Published by Charles Knight, Ludgate Street, & Pall Mall
-    East._
-]
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-                              LA PEROUSE.
-
-
-The latter half of the last century was distinguished by a rekindling of
-that spirit of maritime discovery which, active at the close of the
-sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth centuries, had lain
-comparatively dormant for many years. The voyages of Wallis and
-Carteret, the circumnavigation of the globe by Anson, had done something
-to enlarge our knowledge, and to recall to mind the discoveries of
-Dampier, Tasman, and other early navigators of the western world. The
-leading objects, however, of those voyages were political and warlike;
-the information gleaned in them was secondary and incidental; and the
-first expedition sent out expressly for scientific purposes was that
-under the command of Cook, of which we have formerly given a short
-account. The brilliant success of that admirable navigator roused France
-to emulation; and, under the auspices of Louis XVI., a voyage of
-discovery was planned, and entrusted to La Perouse, a name well known
-for the interest excited by his mysterious disappearance, and for the
-frequent and (for a long time) fruitless attempts which have been made
-to trace his fate, and which interest has been recently renewed, by the
-unexpected discovery of the place and manner in which he perished.
-
-Jean Francois Galaup de la Perouse was born at Albi, in 1741, where he
-entered the French marine in 1756; and, after passing regularly through
-the subordinate ranks, in the course of which he saw some active
-service, was promoted to the command of a frigate in 1778. In that year
-hostilities broke out between France and England, in the course of which
-La Perouse had the honour of capturing more than one British ship of
-war. In 1782 he was appointed to command a small squadron sent to attack
-our settlements in Hudson’s Bay. The object of the expedition was
-trifling, being confined to the capture of a few insignificant forts,
-which made no resistance. But La Perouse had the opportunity of
-displaying his merits as a seaman in the successful navigation of a
-tempestuous and icy sea, rendered more dangerous by the prevalence of
-thick fogs; and the credit which he thus acquired caused him to be
-selected as a proper leader in an intended voyage of discovery. He is
-entitled to still higher praise for his humanity, in leaving a provision
-of food and arms for the support and protection of those English
-residents who had fled into the woods on his approach.
-
-The expedition in question was planned in conformity with the views of
-Louis XVI. Attached to the science, and well versed in the study of
-geography, he was desirous, on behalf of France, at once of emulating
-the glory which England had just acquired through Cook’s discoveries,
-and of opening new channels for her commerce in the most distant
-regions. A rough draft of the intended course was made out in conformity
-with the king’s views, and submitted to his perusal; and the nature of
-the scheme is concisely explained in a few sentences appended to the
-document by Louis himself. “To sum up the contents of this paper, and my
-own observations on them, the objects in view belong to the two heads of
-commerce and discovery. Of the former class there are two principal
-ones: the whale fishery in the southern ocean, and the trade in furs in
-the north-west of America, for transport to China, and, if possible, to
-Japan. Among the points to be explored, the principal are the north-west
-of America, which falls in with the commercial part of the scheme; the
-seas round Japan, which do the same, but I think the season proposed for
-this in the paper is ill chosen; the Solomon Islands, and the south-west
-of New Holland. All other objects must be made subordinate to these: we
-must confine ourselves to what is most useful, and can be accomplished
-without difficulty in the three years proposed.”
-
-La Perouse’s official instructions were only a development of this
-sketch. Men of science were invited to communicate their views as to the
-objects to be pursued, and the best manner of pursuing them; and the
-expedition was fitted out with every appliance calculated to promote its
-success. It consisted of two frigates, La Boussole, commanded by La
-Perouse, and L’Astrolabe, commanded by an accomplished officer, his
-friend, named Delangle; each of them with a complement of a hundred men.
-They sailed August 1, 1785, doubled Cape Horn without adventures worthy
-of notice, and cast anchor in the Bay of La Conception, February 22,
-1786. Hence he steered northward, touching at Easter and the Sandwich
-islands, until he reached the coast of America, at Mount St. Elias, in
-about the sixtieth degree of north latitude. In prosecution of the first
-part of his instructions, he ran down southwards, examining the coast
-minutely, to the harbour of Monterey, in California, a distance between
-five and six hundred leagues: hence he sailed for Japan, September 24.
-In crossing the Pacific, the group of small islands named after the
-statesman Necker was discovered. During this run, the two frigates,
-which were instructed always to keep close to each other, were in
-imminent danger of being wrecked on an unknown reef. They were upon it
-so suddenly, that La Boussole was thought scarcely to have cleared the
-rock by a hundred fathoms. They reached Macao without more adventures,
-visited Manilla, where they spent some time, and then set sail for the
-Japanese isles, and the coast of Tartary, a part of the globe little
-known, except through the reports of missionaries. La Perouse sailed up
-the narrow channel, called the Gulf of Tartary, lying between the
-Asiatic continent and the almost unknown island of Segalien, or Sagalin.
-His progress was stopped by shoals, consisting of the deposits brought
-down by the river Amoor; but he went far enough to be satisfied that
-Sagalin is not united to the continent; and his belief has since been
-shown to be correct. He discovered and gave his own name to the strait
-which separates that island from the neighbouring one of Jesso, or
-Matsmai; and having thus ascertained that the land to the north of the
-principal island of Japan, hitherto believed to be one island, consisted
-of two, he sailed northward, traversing the Kurile Islands, visited
-Kamtschatka, and passing southwards by the Friendly Islands, dropped
-anchor in Botany Bay, January 16, 1788.
-
-It should be mentioned that from the harbour of St. Peter and St. Paul,
-in Kamtschatka, M. de Lesseps was dispatched home overland, bearing the
-navigator’s charts and journals up to the period of their arrival at
-that place. To this precaution the world owes that any record of La
-Perouse’s wanderings and discoveries has been preserved; for neither
-vessel ever was seen or heard of, after they left Botany Bay. The last
-communication which reached home from La Perouse was dated February 7,
-1788; and expressed his intention of returning to the Friendly Islands,
-of exploring the southern coast of New Caledonia, and the Louisiade of
-Bougainville. He proposed to coast the western side of New Holland to
-Van Dieman’s Land, so as to arrive at the Mauritius in the close of the
-same year. Of this scheme but a small portion could have been executed.
-Both ships were lost, there is every reason to believe, on the island of
-Mallicolo, or Vanicoro, one of the New Hebrides, a group lying about the
-sixteenth degree of south latitude; but the exact time and circumstances
-remain unknown, for not one of the crews ever reached an European
-settlement. When the non-arrival of La Perouse in France began to be the
-subject of alarm, an expedition was fitted out under Admiral
-d’Entrecasteaux, with orders strictly to pursue the route laid down
-above, and to use every means of ascertaining the fate of, and if they
-yet lived, ministering relief to, his unfortunate countrymen. The
-service was performed with zeal and ability, but without success. Chance
-led a private English trader to the solution of this question, vainly,
-yet anxiously, sought for many years.
-
-In 1813, Mr. Dillon, a subordinate officer on board a Calcutta trading
-vessel, escaped almost by miracle from an affray with the natives of the
-Fegee, or Beetee islands, a group lying to the west of the Friendly
-Islands, about the eighteenth degree of south latitude, in which
-fourteen of the ship’s crew were killed, and of his immediate companions
-only two survived. One of these was a Prussian, named Martin Busshart,
-who had been for some time on the island where this tragical event
-occurred. This man, certain of being sacrificed to the revenge of the
-natives, of whom many were killed, if he remained there, requested to be
-transported to some other spot; and he was put ashore upon an island
-named Tucopia. In time Mr. Dillon became owner and commander of a vessel
-named the St. Patrick, and being again in those seas, he visited Tucopia
-in May, 1826, to procure some tidings of his old companion in danger.
-Here a silver sword-guard was offered for sale. Inquiry being made how
-the article was obtained, it was replied, that “when the old men in
-Tucopia were boys,” two ships had been wrecked on an island not very far
-off, called Mallicolo, or Vanicoro, and that there yet remained large
-quantities of the wreck. Captain Dillon guessed that these might be La
-Perouse’s vessels, and made sail for the island pointed out; but he was
-baffled by adverse circumstances, and forced to pursue his course to
-Calcutta without obtaining the desired satisfaction. Arrived at the
-capital of India, he laid before the government information and evidence
-which was deemed sufficiently conclusive to warrant the fitting out a
-ship, named the Research, with the design of fetching off two white men,
-who were said to have escaped, and to be living on the island; or, at
-least, to seek, by inquiry on the spot, some conclusive evidence of the
-fate of La Perouse. Captain Dillon reached Vanicoro, and obtained an
-ample harvest of European articles, both in wood and metal. The tale
-told by the natives was simple and probable: “A long time ago the people
-of this island, upon coming out one morning, saw part of a ship on the
-reef opposite to Paiow, where it held together till the middle of the
-day, when it was broken by the sea, fell to pieces, and large parts of
-it floated on shore along the coast. The ship got on the reef in the
-night, when it blew a tremendous hurricane, which broke down a
-considerable number of our fruit-trees. We had not seen the ship the day
-before. Four men were saved from her, and were on the beach at this
-place, whom we were about to kill, supposing them to be spirits, when
-they made a present to our chief of something, and thus saved their
-lives. They lived with us a short time, and then joined their people at
-Paiow, who built a small ship there, and went away in it. The things
-which we sell you now have been procured from the ship wrecked on that
-reef, on which, at low water, our people were in the habit of diving,
-and bringing up what they could find. The same night another ship struck
-on a reef near Whannow, and went down. There were several men saved from
-her, who built a little ship and went away, five moons after the big one
-was lost. While building it they had a great fence of trees round them,
-to keep off the islanders, who being equally afraid of them, they
-consequently kept up but little intercourse. The white men used often to
-look at the sun through something, but we have none of those things. Two
-white men remained behind after the last went away: the one was a chief,
-and the other a common man, who used to attend on the white chief, who
-died about three years ago. The chief, with whom the white man resided,
-was obliged, about two years and a half ago, to fly from his country,
-and was accompanied by the white man. The only white people the
-inhabitants of this island have ever seen were, first, the people of the
-wrecked ship; and, secondly, those before me now.”—Dillon’s Discovery of
-the Fate of La Perouse, vol. ii. p. 194.
-
-Whannow and Paiow are two villages about ten nautical miles distant from
-each other in a straight line, on the western side of the island, which
-is nearly surrounded by an abrupt and dangerous coral reef. The climate
-is reported to be wet and hazy, so that probably the sufferers were not
-aware of their approach to danger till all chance of escape was past.
-The story just related is consistent and probable, and it was confirmed
-by examination of the shore at Paiow, where a small cleared space, of
-about an acre (the only one on the island), was found, in a place well
-suited for building and launching a ship; and in the neighbourhood of
-which stumps of trees, evidently felled with axes many years before,
-were discovered. The spot where one of the ships had struck was
-ascertained, and some heavy articles, as guns, raised in the shallow
-water on the reef. No trace of the others could be found; and it was
-said by the natives to have gone down in deep water. Captain Dillon
-returned to Calcutta, and thence to England, bringing the articles he
-had obtained along with him.
-
-No doubt can be entertained but that two French ships, apparently ships
-of war, were wrecked at Vanicoro. There are no other vessels whose loss
-is to be accounted for, and the apparent length of time since their
-destruction, corresponds with the date of La Perouse’s expedition. There
-is therefore the strongest presumptive evidence for concluding that the
-fate of that intrepid navigator is at length revealed: but the articles
-collected, though indisputably belonging to French ships, could not be
-conclusively identified as having been on board La Boussole and
-L’Astrolabe. It was suggested that the point might be determined by
-comparing the marks of the cannon with the registers of the French
-ordnance, in which the numbers and weight of the guns supplied to each
-ship would of course be set down. We do not know whether, or with what
-success, this has been done. But the French government appears to have
-been satisfied; for on visiting Paris Captain Dillon received the
-personal thanks of Charles X., and the cross of the Legion of Honour,
-together with a liberal pecuniary reward for his exertions.
-
-The French, even during the excitement of the early part of the
-revolution, manifested a lively interest for La Perouse and his crew.
-D’Entrecasteaux, we have said, was sent out expressly in quest of them;
-and a reward was offered to whosoever should bring intelligence of their
-fate, which Captain Dillon was the first to claim. A narrative of the
-voyage, compiled from the papers brought home by M. de Lesseps, was
-printed in four quarto volumes, with an atlas, at Paris, 1797, at the
-national expense, and a certain number of copies being reserved, the
-rest of the impression was presented to La Perouse’s widow, who
-continued to receive her husband’s pay. Recently the “Voyage de la
-Perouse” has been compiled from the original documents, with notes by M.
-de Lesseps, in an octavo volume, with an Appendix, containing an account
-of Captain Dillon’s researches, and of the voyage of a French ship,
-L’Astrolabe, which was engaged at the same time in the same office. To
-this work, to Captain Dillon’s publication above quoted, and to the
-“Bulletins de la Société de Géographie,” we refer the readers for a full
-account of all that is known of the progress and catastrophe of this
-celebrated expedition.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _Engraved by W. Holl._
-
-  CRANMER.
-
-  _From an original Picture in the Collection
-  at Lambeth Palace._
-
-  Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful
-    Knowledge.
-
-  _London, Published by Charles Knight, Ludgate Street, & Pall Mall
-    East._
-]
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-                                CRANMER.
-
-
-Thomas Cranmer was born July 2, 1489, at Aslacton, in Nottinghamshire.
-He was descended from an ancient family, which had long been resident in
-that county. At the age of fourteen he was sent to Jesus College,
-Cambridge; where he obtained a fellowship, which he soon vacated by
-marriage with a young woman who is said to have been of humble
-condition. Within a year after his marriage he became a widower, and was
-immediately, by unusual favour, restored to his fellowship. In 1523, he
-was admitted to the degree of doctor of divinity, and appointed one of
-the public examiners in that faculty. Here he found an opportunity of
-showing the fruits of that liberal course of study which he had been for
-some time pursuing. As soon as his teachers left him at liberty, he had
-wandered from the works of the schoolmen to the ancient classics and the
-Bible; and, thus prepared for the office of examiner, he alarmed the
-candidates for degrees in theology by the novelty of requiring from them
-some knowledge of the Scriptures.
-
-It was from this useful employment that he was called to take part in
-the memorable proceedings of Henry the Eighth, in the matter of his
-divorce from Catherine.
-
-Henry had been counselled to lay his case before the universities, both
-at home and abroad. Cranmer, to whom the subject had been mentioned by
-Gardiner and Fox, went a step farther, and suggested that he should
-receive their decision as sufficient without reference to the Pope. This
-suggestion was communicated to the king, who, observing, with his usual
-elegance of expression, that the man had got the sow by the right ear,
-summoned Cranmer to his presence, and immediately received him into his
-favour and confidence.
-
-In 1531, Cranmer accompanied the unsuccessful embassy to Rome, and in
-the following year was appointed ambassador to the Emperor. In August,
-1532, the archbishopric of Canterbury became vacant by the death of
-Warham, and it was Henry’s pleasure to raise Cranmer to the primacy. The
-latter seems to have been truly unwilling to accept his promotion; and
-when he found that no reluctance on his part could shake the king’s
-resolution, he suggested a difficulty which there were no very obvious
-means of removing. The Archbishop must receive his investiture from the
-Pope, and at his consecration take an oath of fidelity to his Holiness,
-altogether inconsistent with another oath, taken at the same time, of
-allegiance to the king. All this had been done without scruple by other
-bishops; but Cranmer was already convinced that the Papal authority in
-England was a mere usurpation, and plainly told Henry that he would
-receive the archbishopric from him alone. Henry was not a man to be
-stopped by scruples of conscience of his own or others; so he consulted
-certain casuists, who settled the matter by suggesting that Cranmer
-should take the obnoxious oath, with a protest that he meant nothing by
-it. He yielded to the command of his sovereign and the judgment of the
-casuists. His protest was read by himself three times in the most public
-manner, and solemnly recorded. It is expedient to notice that the
-transaction was public, because some historians, to make a bad matter
-worse, still talk of a private protest.
-
-In 1533, he pronounced sentence of divorce against the unhappy
-Catherine, and confirmed the marriage of the king with Anne Boleyn. He
-was now at leisure to contemplate all the difficulties of his situation.
-It is commonly said that Cranmer himself had, at this time, made but
-small progress in Protestantism. It is true that he yet adhered to many
-of the peculiar doctrines of the Roman Church; but he had reached, and
-firmly occupied, a position which placed him by many degrees nearer to
-the reformed faith than to that in which he had been educated. By
-recognising the Scriptures alone as the standard of the Christian faith,
-he had embraced the very principle out of which Protestantism flows. It
-had already led him to the Protestant doctrine respecting the pardon of
-sin, which necessarily swept away all respect for a large portion of the
-machinery of Romanism. As a religious reformer, Cranmer could look for
-no cordial and honest support from the king. Every one knows that Henry,
-when he left the Pope, had no mind to estrange himself more than was
-necessary from the Papal Church, and that the cause of religious
-reformation owes no more gratitude to him, than the cause of political
-liberty owes to those tyrants who, for their own security, and often by
-very foul means, have laboured to crush the power of equally tyrannical
-nobles. From Gardiner, who, with his party, had been most active and
-unscrupulous in helping the king to his divorce and destroying papal
-supremacy, Cranmer had nothing to expect but open or secret hostility,
-embittered by personal jealousy. Cromwell, indeed, was ready to go with
-him any lengths in reform consistent with his own safety; but a sincere
-reformer must have been occasionally hampered by an alliance with a
-worldly and unconscientious politician. The country at large was in a
-state of unusual excitement; but the rupture with Rome was regarded with
-at least as much alarm as satisfaction; and it was notorious that many,
-who were esteemed for their wisdom and piety, considered the position of
-the church to be monstrous and unnatural. The Lollards, who had been
-driven into concealment, but not extinguished, by centuries of
-persecution, and the Lutherans, wished well to Cranmer’s measures of
-reform: but he was not equally friendly to them. They had outstripped
-him in the search of truth; and he was unhappily induced to sanction at
-least a miserable persecution of those men with whom he was afterwards
-to be numbered and to suffer.
-
-His first and most pressing care was by all means to reconcile the minds
-of men to the assertion of the king’s ecclesiastical supremacy, because
-all further changes must necessarily proceed from the royal authority.
-He then addressed himself to what seem to have been the three great
-objects of his official exertions,—the reformation of the clerical body,
-so as to make their ministerial services more useful; the removal of the
-worst part of the prevailing superstitious observances, which were a
-great bar to the introduction of a more spiritual worship; and above
-all, the free circulation of the Scriptures among the people in their
-own language. In this last object he was opportunely assisted by the
-printing of what is called Matthews’s Bible, by Grafton and Whitchurch.
-He procured, through the intervention of Cromwell, the king’s licence
-for the publication, and an injunction that a copy of it should be
-placed in every parish church. He hailed this event with unbounded joy;
-and to Cromwell, for the active part he took in the matter, he says, in
-a letter, “This deed you shall hear of at the great day, when all things
-shall be opened and made manifest.”
-
-He had hardly witnessed the partial success of the cause of Reformation,
-when his influence over the king, and with it the cause which he had at
-heart, began to decline. He had no friendly feeling for those monastic
-institutions which the rapacity of Henry had marked for destruction; but
-he knew that their revenues might, as national property, be applied
-advantageously to the advancement of learning and religion, and he
-opposed their indiscriminate transfer to the greedy hands of the
-sycophants of the court. This opposition gave to the more unscrupulous
-of the Romanists an opportunity to recover their lost ground with the
-king, of which they were not slow to avail themselves. They were strong
-enough at least to obtain from Parliament, in 1539, (of course through
-the good will of their despotic master,) the act of the Six Articles,
-not improperly called the “Bloody Articles,” in spite of the determined
-opposition of Cranmer: an opposition which he refused to withdraw even
-at the express command of the king. Latimer and Shaxton immediately
-resigned their bishoprics. One of the clauses of this act, relating to
-the marriage of priests, inflicted a severe blow even on the domestic
-happiness of Cranmer. In his last visit to the continent, he had taken,
-for his second wife, a niece of the celebrated divine Osiander. By
-continuing to cohabit with her, he would now, by the law of the land, be
-guilty of felony; she was therefore sent back to her friends in Germany.
-
-From this time till the death of Henry in 1546, Cranmer could do little
-more than strive against a stream which not only thwarted his plans of
-further reformation, but endangered his personal safety; and he had to
-strive alone, for Latimer and other friends among the clergy had retired
-from the battle, and Cromwell had been removed from it by the hands of
-the executioner. He was continually assailed by open accusation and
-secret conspiracy. On one occasion his enemies seemed to have compassed
-his ruin, when Henry himself interposed and rescued him from their
-malice. His continued personal regard for Cranmer, after he had in a
-measure rejected him from his confidence, is a remarkable anomaly in the
-life of this extraordinary king; of whom, on a review of his whole
-character, we are obliged to acknowledge, that in his best days he was a
-heartless voluptuary, and that he had become, long before his death, a
-remorseless and sanguinary tyrant. It is idle to talk of the
-complaisance of the servant to his master, as a complete solution of the
-difficulty. That he was, indeed, on some occasions subservient beyond
-the strict line of integrity, even his friends must confess; and for the
-part which he condescended to act in the iniquitous divorce of Anne of
-Cleves, no excuse can be found but the poor one of the general servility
-of the times: that infamous transaction has left an indelible stain of
-disgrace on the Archbishop, the Parliament, and the Convocation. But
-Cranmer could oppose as well as comply: his conduct in the case of the
-Six Articles, and his noble interference in favour of Cromwell between
-the tiger and his prey, would seem to have been sufficient to ruin the
-most accommodating courtier. Perhaps Henry had discovered that Cranmer
-had more real attachment to his person than any of his unscrupulous
-agents, and he may have felt pride in protecting one who, from his
-unsuspicious disposition and habitual mildness, was obviously unfit, in
-such perilous times, to protect himself. His mildness indeed was such,
-that it was commonly said, “Do my Lord of Canterbury a shrewd turn, and
-you make him your friend for life.”
-
-On the accession of Edward new commissions were issued, at the
-suggestion of Cranmer, to himself and the other bishops, by which they
-were empowered to receive again their bishoprics, as though they had
-ceased with the demise of the crown, and to hold them during the royal
-pleasure. His object of course was to settle at once the question of the
-new king’s supremacy, and the proceeding was in conformity with an
-opinion which at one time he undoubtedly entertained, that there are no
-distinct orders of bishops and priests, and that the office of bishop,
-so far as it is distinguished from that of priests, is simply of civil
-origin. The government was now directed by the friends of Reformation,
-Cranmer himself being one of the Council of Regency; but still his
-course was by no means a smooth one. The unpopularity, which the conduct
-of the late king had brought on the cause, was even aggravated by the
-proceedings of its avowed friends during the short reign of his son. The
-example of the Protector Somerset was followed by a herd of courtiers,
-and not a few ecclesiastics, in making reform a plea for the most
-shameless rapacity, rendered doubly hateful by the hypocritical pretence
-of religious zeal. The remonstrances of Cranmer were of course
-disregarded; but his powerful friends were content that, whilst they
-were filling their pockets, he should complete, if he could, the
-establishment of the reformed church. Henry had left much for the
-Reformers to do. Some, indeed, of the peculiar doctrines of Romanism had
-been modified, and some of its superstitious observances abolished. The
-great step gained was the general permission to read the Scriptures;
-and, though even that had been partially recalled, it was impossible to
-recall the scriptural knowledge and the spirit of inquiry to which it
-had given birth. With the assistance of some able divines, particularly
-of his friend and chaplain Ridley, afterwards Bishop of London, Cranmer
-was able to bring the services and discipline of the church, well as the
-articles of faith, nearly to the state in which we now see them. In
-doing this he had to contend at once with the determined hostility of
-the Romanists, with dissensions in his own party, and conscientious
-opposition from sincere friends of the cause. In these difficult
-circumstances his conduct was marked generally by moderation, good
-judgment, and temper. But it must be acknowledged that he concurred in
-proceedings against some of the Romanists, especially against Gardiner,
-which were unfair and oppressive. In the composition of the New Service
-Book, as it was then generally called, and of the Articles, we know not
-what parts were the immediate work of Cranmer; but we have good evidence
-that he was the author of three of the Homilies, those of Salvation, of
-Faith, and of Good Works.
-
-It should be observed, that Cranmer, though he early set out from a
-principle which might be expected eventually to lead him to the full
-extent of doctrinal reformation, made his way slowly and by careful
-study of the Scriptures, of which he left behind sufficient proof, to
-that point at which we find him in the reign of Edward. It is certain
-that during the greater part, if not the whole, of Henry’s reign, he
-agreed with the Romanists in the doctrine of the corporal presence and
-transubstantiation.
-
-The death of Edward ushered in the storms which troubled the remainder
-of his days. All the members of the council affixed their signatures to
-the will of the young king, altering the order of succession in favour
-of the Lady Jane Grey. Cranmer’s accession to this illegal measure, the
-suggestion of the profligate Northumberland, cannot be justified, nor
-did he himself attempt to justify it. He appears, weakly and with great
-reluctance, to have yielded up his better judgment to the will of his
-colleagues, and the opinion of the judges.
-
-Mary had not been long on the throne before Cranmer was committed to the
-Tower, attainted of high treason, brought forth to take part in what
-seems to have been little better than a mockery of disputation, and then
-sent to Oxford, where, with Latimer and Ridley, he was confined in a
-common prison. The charge of high treason, which might undoubtedly have
-been maintained, was not followed up, and it was not, perhaps, the
-intention of the government at any time to act upon it: it was their
-wish that he should fall as a heretic. At Oxford he was repeatedly
-brought before commissioners delegated by the Convocation, and, in what
-were called examinations and disputations, was subjected to the most
-unworthy treatment. On the 20th of April, 1554, Cranmer, Ridley, and
-Latimer were publicly required to recant, and on their refusal were
-condemned as heretics. The commission however having been illegally made
-out, it was thought expedient to stay the execution till a new one had
-been obtained; which, in the case of Cranmer, was issued by the Pope. He
-was consequently dragged through the forms of another trial and
-examination; summoned, whilst still a close prisoner, to appear within
-eighty days at Rome; and then, by a sort of legal fiction, not more
-absurd perhaps than some which still find favour in our own courts,
-declared contumacious for failing to appear. Finally, he was degraded,
-and delivered over to the secular power. That no insult might be spared
-him, Bonner was placed on the commission for his degradation, in which
-employment he seems to have surpassed even his usual brutality.
-
-Cranmer had now been a prisoner for more than two years, during the
-whole of which his conduct appears to have been worthy of the high
-office which he had held, and the situation in which he was placed.
-Whilst he expressed contrition for his political offence, and was
-earnest to vindicate his loyalty, he maintained with temper and firmness
-those religious opinions which had placed him in such fearful peril. Of
-the change which has thrown a cloud over his memory, we know hardly any
-thing with certainty but the fact of his recantation. Little reliance
-can be placed on the detailed accounts of the circumstances which
-accompanied it. He was taken from his miserable cell in the prison to
-comfortable lodgings in Christchurch, where he is said to have been
-assailed with promises of pardon, and allured, by a treacherous show of
-kindness, into repeated acts of apostacy. In the mean while the
-government had decreed his death. On the 21st of March, 1556, he was
-taken from his prison to St. Mary’s Church, and exhibited to a crowded
-audience, on an elevated platform, in front of the pulpit. After a
-sermon from Dr. Cole, the Provost of Eton, he uttered a short and
-affecting prayer on his knees; then rising, addressed an exhortation to
-those around him; and, finally, made a full and distinct avowal of his
-penitence and remorse for his apostacy, declaring, that the unworthy
-hand which had signed his recantation should be the first member that
-perished. Amidst the reproaches of his disappointed persecutors he was
-hurried from the church to the stake, where he fulfilled his promise by
-holding forth his hand to the flames. We have undoubted testimony that
-he bore his sufferings with inflexible constancy. A spectator of the
-Romanist party says, “If it had been either for the glory of God, the
-wealth of his country, or the testimony of the truth, as it was for a
-pernicious error, and subversion of true religion, I could worthily have
-commended the example, and matched it with the fame of any Father of
-ancient time.” He perished in his sixty-seventh year.
-
-All that has been left of his writings will be found in an edition of
-“The Remains of Archbishop Cranmer,” lately published at Oxford, in four
-volumes 8vo. They give proof that he was deeply imbued with the spirit
-of Protestantism, and that his opinions were the result of reflection
-and study; though the effect of early impressions occasionally appears,
-as in the manner of his appeals to the Apocryphal books, and a
-submission to the judgment of the early fathers, in a degree barely
-consistent with his avowed principles. See his First Letter to Queen
-Mary.
-
-This brief memoir does not pretend to supply the reader with materials
-for examining that difficult question, the character of the Archbishop.
-It is hardly necessary to refer him to such well-known books as Strype’s
-Life of Cranmer, and the recent works of Mr. Todd and Mr. Le Bas.
-
-The time, it seems, has not arrived for producing a strictly impartial
-life of this celebrated man. Yet there is doubtless a much nearer
-agreement among candid inquirers, whether members of the Church of
-England or Roman Catholics, than the language of those who have told
-their thoughts to the public might lead us to expect. Those who are cool
-enough to understand that the credit and truth of their respective
-creeds are in no way interested in the matter, will probably allow, that
-the course of reform which Cranmer directed was justified to himself by
-his private convictions; and that his motive was a desire to establish
-what he really believed to be the truth. Beyond this they will
-acknowledge that there is room for difference of opinion. Some will see,
-in the errors of his life, only human frailty, not irreconcileable with
-a general singleness of purpose; occasional deviations from the habitual
-courage of a confirmed Christian. Others may honestly, and not
-uncharitably, suspect, that the habits of a court, and constant
-engagement in official business, may have somewhat marred the simplicity
-of his character, weakened the practical influence of religious belief,
-and caused him, whilst labouring for the improvement of others, to
-neglect his own; and hence they may account for his unsteadfastness in
-times of trial.
-
-In addition to the works mentioned above, we may name as easily
-accessible, among Protestant authorities, Burnet’s History of the
-Reformation; among Roman Catholic, Lingard’s History of England.
-Collier, in his Ecclesiastical History, stands, perhaps, more nearly on
-neutral ground, but can hardly be cited as an impartial historian.
-Though a Protestant, in his hatred and dread of all innovators, and
-especially of the Puritans, he seems ready to take refuge even with
-Popery; and examines always with jealousy, sometimes with malignity, the
-motives and conduct of Reformers, from his first notice of Wiclif to the
-close of his history.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _Engraved by Rob^t. Hart._
-
-  TASSO.
-
-  _From a Print by Raffaelle Morghen._
-
-  Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful
-    Knowledge.
-
-  _London, Published by Charles Knight, Ludgate Street, & Pall Mall
-    East._
-]
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-                                 TASSO.
-
-
-Torquato Tasso, born at Sorrento March 11, 1544, was the son of Bernardo
-Tasso by Portia de Rossi, a lady of a noble Neapolitan family. His
-father was a man of some note, both as a political and as a literary
-character; and his poem of ‘Amadigi,’ founded on the well-known romance
-of Amadis de Gaul, has been preferred by one partial critic even to the
-Orlando Furioso. Ferrante Sanseverino, Prince of Salerno, chose him for
-his secretary, and with him and for him Bernardo shared all the
-vicissitudes of fortune. That Prince having been deprived of his
-estates, and expelled from the kingdom of Naples by the court of Spain,
-Bernardo was involved in his proscription, and retired with him to Rome.
-Tarquato, then five years old, remained with his mother, who left
-Sorrento and went to reside with her family in Naples.
-
-Bernardo Tasso having lost all hopes of ever returning to that capital,
-advised his wife to retire with his daughter into a nunnery, and to send
-Torquato to Rome. Our young poet suffered much in parting from his
-mother and sister; but, fulfilling the command of his parents, he joined
-his father in October, 1554. On this occasion he composed a canzone, in
-which he compared himself to Ascanius escaping from Troy with his father
-Æneas.
-
-The fluctuating fortunes of the elder Tasso caused Torquato to visit
-successively Bergamo, the abode of his paternal relatives, and Pesaro,
-where his manners and intelligence made so favourable an impression,
-that the Duke of Pesaro chose him for companion to his son, then
-studying under the celebrated Corrado of Mantua. In 1559, he accompanied
-his father to Venice, and there perused the best Italian authors,
-especially Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio. The next year he went to the
-University of Padua, where, under Sperone Speroni, and Sigonio, he
-studied Aristotle and the critics; and by Piccolomini and Pandasio he
-was taught the moral and philosophical doctrines of Socrates and Plato.
-However, notwithstanding his severer studies, Torquato never lost sight
-of his favourite art; and, at the age of seventeen, in ten months, he
-composed his _Rinaldo_, a poem in twelve cantos, founded on the then
-popular romances of Charlemagne and his Paladins. This work, which was
-published in 1562, excited great admiration, and gave rise to
-expectations which were justified by the Gerusalemme Liberata. The plan
-of that immortal poem was conceived, according to Serassi’s conjecture,
-in 1563, at Bologna, where Tasso was then prosecuting his studies. The
-first sketch of it is still preserved in a manuscript, dated 1563, in
-the Vatican Library, and printed at Venice in 1722. Unfortunately, while
-thus engaged, he was brought into collision with the civil authorities,
-in consequence of some satirical attacks on the University, which were
-falsely attributed to him. The charge was refuted, but not until his
-papers had been seized and himself imprisoned. This disgusted him with
-Bologna, and he returned to Padua in 1564. There he applied all his
-faculties to the accomplishment of his epic poem; collected immense
-materials from the Chronicles of the Crusades; and wrote, to exercise
-his critical powers, the _Discorsi_ and the _Trattato sulla Poesia_.
-While thus engaged, the Cardinal Luigi d’Este appointed him a gentleman
-of his court. Speroni endeavoured to dissuade the young poet from
-accepting that office, by relating the many disappointments which he had
-himself experienced while engaged in a similar career. These
-remonstrances were vain. Tasso joined the Cardinal at Ferrara at the end
-of October, 1564, and soon attracted the favourable notice of the Duke
-Alphonso, brother of the Cardinal, and of their sisters; one of whom,
-the celebrated Eleonora, is commonly supposed to have exercised a
-lasting and unhappy influence over the poet’s life. Ferrara continued to
-be his chief place of abode till 1571, when he was summoned to accompany
-his patron the Cardinal to France. The gaieties of a court, celebrated
-in that age for its splendour, did not prevent his prosecuting his
-poetic studies with zeal; for it appears from his will, quoted by Mr.
-Stebbing, that, at his departure for France, he had written a
-considerable portion of the Gerusalemme, besides a variety of minor
-pieces. His reputation was already high at the court of France, where he
-was received by Charles IX. with distinguished attention. But he
-perceived, or fancied that he saw, a change in the Cardinal’s demeanour
-towards him, and, impatient of neglect, begged leave to return to Italy.
-In 1572, he was at Rome with the Cardinal Ippolito d’Este. In the same
-year he entered the service of the Duke of Ferrara, and resumed with
-zeal the completion and correction of the Gerusalemme.
-
-In 1573, Tasso wrote his beautiful pastoral drama Aminta. This new
-production added greatly to his reputation. He chose simple Nature for
-his model; and succeeded admirably in the imitation of her.
-
-The Gerusalemme Liberata was completed in 1575. Tasso submitted it to
-the criticism of the most learned men of that age. The great confusion
-which prevailed in the remarks of his critics caused him extraordinary
-uneasiness and labour. To answer their objections, he wrote the _Lettere
-Poetiche_, which are the best key to the true interpretation of his
-poem.
-
-During 1575, Tasso visited Pavia, Padua, Bologna, and Rome, and in 1576
-returned to Ferrara. His abode there never was a happy one; for his
-talents, celebrity, and the favour in which he was held, raised up
-enemies, who showed their spleen in petty underminings and annoyances,
-to which the poet’s susceptible temper lent a sting. He was attracted,
-however, by the kindness of the Duke and the society of the beautiful
-and accomplished Eleonora, the Duke’s sister, for whom the poet
-ventured, it is said, to declare an affection, which, according to some
-historians, did not remain unrequited. The portrait of Olinda, in the
-beautiful episode which relates her history, is generally understood to
-have been designed after this living model: while some have imagined
-that Tasso himself is not less clearly pictured in the description of
-her lover Sofronio. But about this time, whether from mental uneasiness,
-or from constitutional causes, his conduct began to be marked by a
-morbid irritability allied to madness. The Gerusalemme was
-surreptitiously printed without having received the author’s last
-corrections; and he entreated the Duke, and all his powerful friends, to
-prevent such an abuse. Alfonso and the Pope himself endeavoured to
-satisfy Tasso’s demands, but with little success. This circumstance, and
-other partly real, partly imaginary troubles, augmented so much his
-natural melancholy and apprehension, that he began to think that his
-enemies not only persecuted and calumniated him, but accused him of
-great crimes; he even imagined that they had the intention of denouncing
-his works to the Holy Inquisition. Under this impression he presented
-himself to the Inquisitor of Bologna; and having made a general
-confession, submitted his works to the examination of that holy father,
-and begged and obtained his absolution. His malady, for such we may
-surely call it, was continually exasperated by the arts of his rivals;
-and on one occasion, in the apartments of the Duchess of Urbino, he drew
-his sword on one of her attendants. He was immediately arrested; and
-subsequently sent to one of the Duke’s villas, where he was kindly
-treated and supplied with medical advice. But his fancied injuries (for
-in this case they do not seem to have been real) still pursued him; and
-he fled, destitute of every thing, from Ferrara, and hastened to his
-sister Cornelia, then living at Sorrento. Her care and tenderness very
-much soothed his mind and improved his health; but, unfortunately, he
-soon repented of his hasty flight, and returned to Ferrara, where his
-former malady soon regained its power. Dissatisfied with all about him,
-he again left that town; but, after having wandered for more than a
-year, he returned to Alfonso, by whom he was received with indifference
-and contempt. By nature sensitive, and much excited by his misfortunes,
-Tasso began to pour forth bitter invectives against the Duke and his
-court. Alfonso exercised a cruel revenge; for, instead of soothing the
-unhappy poet, he shut him up as a lunatic in the Hospital of St. Anne.
-This act merits our unqualified censure; for if Tasso had in truth any
-tendency to madness, what so likely to render it incurable as to shut
-him up in solitary confinement, in an unhealthy cell, deprived of his
-favourite books, and of every amusement? Yet, strange to say,
-notwithstanding his sufferings, mental and bodily, for more than seven
-years in that abode of misery and despair, his powers remained unbroken,
-his genius unimpaired; and even there he composed some pieces both in
-prose and verse, which were triumphantly appealed to by his friends in
-proof of his sanity. To this period we may probably refer the ‘Veglie,’
-or ‘Watches’ of Tasso, the manuscript of which was discovered in the
-Ambrosian Library at Milan, towards the end of the last century. They
-are written in prose, and express the author’s melancholy thoughts in
-elegant and poetic language. The Gerusalemme had now been published and
-republished both in Italy and France, and Europe rang with its praises;
-yet the author lay almost perishing in close confinement, sick, forlorn,
-and destitute of every comfort.
-
-In 1584, Camillo Pellegrini, a Capuan nobleman, and a great admirer of
-Tasso’s genius, published a Dialogue on Epic Poetry, in which he placed
-the Gerusalemme far above the Orlando Furioso. This testimony from a man
-of literary distinction caused a great sensation among the friends and
-admirers of Ariosto. Two Academicians of the Crusca, Salviati and De
-Rossi, attacked the Gerusalemme in the name of the Academy, and assailed
-Tasso and his father in a gross strain of abuse. From the mad-house
-Tasso answered with great moderation; defended his father, his poem, and
-himself from these groundless invectives; and thus gave to the world the
-best proof of his soundness of mind, and of his manly philosophical
-spirit.
-
-At length, after being long importuned by the noblest minds of Italy,
-Alphonso released him in 1586, at the earnest entreaty of Don Vincenzo
-Gonzaga, son of the Duke of Mantua, at whose court the poet for a time
-took up his abode. There, through the kindness and attentions of his
-patron and friends, he improved so much in health and spirits, that he
-resumed his literary labours, and completed his father’s poem,
-Floridante, and his own tragedy, Torrismondo.
-
-But, with advancing age, Tasso became still more restless and impatient
-of dependence, and he conceived a desire to visit Naples, in the hope of
-obtaining some part of the confiscated property of his parents.
-Accordingly, having received permission from the Duke, he left Mantua,
-and arrived in Naples at the end of March, 1588. About this time he made
-several alterations in his Gerusalemme, corrected numerous faults, and
-took away all the praises he had bestowed on the House of Este. Alfieri
-used to say, that this amended Gerusalemme was the only one which he
-could read with pleasure to himself, or with admiration for the author.
-But as there appeared no hope that his claims would be soon adjusted, he
-returned to Rome, in November, 1588. Ever harassed by a restless mind,
-he quitted, one after another, the hospitable roofs which gave him
-shelter; and at last, destitute of all resources, and afflicted with
-illness, took refuge in the hospital of the Bergamaschi, with whose
-founder he claimed relation by the father’s side: a singular fate for
-one with whose praises Italy even then was ringing. But it should be
-remembered, ere we break into invectives against the sordidness of the
-age which suffered this degradation, that the waywardness of Tasso’s
-temper rendered it hard to satisfy him as an inmate, or to befriend him
-as a patron.
-
-Restored to health, at the Grand Duke’s invitation, he went to Florence,
-where both prince and people received him with every mark of admiration.
-Those who saw him, as he passed along the streets, would exclaim, “See!
-there is Tasso! That is the wonderful and unfortunate poet!”
-
-It is useless minutely to trace his wanderings from Florence to Rome,
-from Rome to Mantua, and back again to Rome and Naples. At the latter
-place he dwelt in the palace of the Prince of Conca, where he composed
-great part of the Gerusalemme Conquistata. But having apprehended, not
-without reason, that the prince wished to possess himself of his
-manuscripts, Torquato left the palace to reside with his friend Manso.
-His health and spirits improved in his new abode; and besides proceeding
-with the Conquistata, he commenced, at the request of Manso’s mother,
-‘Le Sette Giornate del Mondo Creato,’ a sacred poem in blank verse,
-founded on the Book of Genesis, which he completed in Rome a few days
-before his death.
-
-He visited Rome in 1593. A report that Marco di Sciarra, a notorious
-bandit, infested the road, induced him to halt at Gaeta, where his
-presence was celebrated by the citizens with great rejoicing. Sciarra
-having heard that the great poet was detained by fear of him, sent a
-message, purporting, that instead of injury, Tasso should receive every
-protection at his hands. This offer was declined; yet Sciarra, in
-testimony of respect, sent word, that for the poet’s sake he would
-withdraw with all his band from that neighbourhood; and he did so.
-
-This time, on his arrival at Rome, Tasso was received by the Cardinals
-Cinzio and Pietro Aldobrandini, nephews of the Pope, not as a courtier,
-but as a friend. At their palace he completed the Gerusalemme
-Conquistata, and published it with a dedication to Cardinal Cinzio. This
-work was preferred by its author to the Gerusalemme Liberata. It is
-remarkable that Milton made a similar error in estimating his Paradise
-Regained.
-
-In March, 1594, Tasso returned to Naples in hope of benefiting his
-rapidly declining health. The experiment appeared to answer; but
-scarcely had he passed four months in his native country, when Cardinal
-Cinzio requested him to hasten to Rome, having obtained for him from the
-Pope the honour of a solemn coronation in the Capitol. In the following
-November the poet arrived at Rome, and was received with general
-applause. The Pope himself overwhelmed him with praises, and one day
-said, “Torquato, I give you the laurel, that it may receive as much
-honour from you as it has conferred upon them who have worn it before
-you.” To give to this solemnity greater splendour, it was delayed till
-April 25, 1595; but during the winter Tasso’s health became worse.
-Feeling that his end was nigh, he begged to be removed to the convent of
-St. Onofrio, where he was carried off by fever on the very day appointed
-for his coronation. His corpse was interred the same evening in the
-church of the monastery, according to his will; and his tomb was covered
-with a plain stone, on which, ten years after, Manso, his friend and
-admirer, caused this simple epitaph to be engraved,—HIC JACET TORQUATUS
-TASSO.
-
-Tasso was tall and well proportioned; his countenance very expressive,
-but rather melancholy; his complexion of a dark brown, with lively eyes.
-Our vignette is taken from a cast in wax, made after his death. He has
-left many beautiful and remarkable pieces, both in verse and prose; but
-his fame is based upon the Gerusalemme Liberata: the others are
-comparatively little read. Among his countrymen, the comparative merits
-of this great work, and of the Orlando Furioso, have, ever since the
-days of Pellegrini, been a favourite subject of controversy. Some who
-persist in asserting that Ariosto was the greater poet, do not refuse to
-allow the superiority of the Gerusalemme as a poem; and of this opinion
-was (at least latterly) Metastasio, who, in his youth, was so great an
-admirer of the Orlando, that he would not even read the Gerusalemme. In
-after-life, however, having perused it with much attention, he was so
-enchanted by its beauties and regularity, that, being requested to give
-his opinion on the comparative merits of the two, he wrote in these
-words:—“If it ever came into the mind of Apollo to make me a great poet,
-and were he to command me to declare frankly whether I should like to
-choose for model the Orlando or the Gerusalemme, I would not hesitate to
-answer, the Gerusalemme.”
-
-The principal biographers of Tasso, among his own countrymen, are his
-friend Manso, who wrote his Life in 1600, six years only after the
-poet’s death; and the Abate Serassi, whose work was first published at
-Rome in 1785, and again at Bergamo in 1790. Besides these is his Life,
-in French, by the Abbé de Charnes (1690); and that by M. Suard, prefixed
-to the translation of the Gerusalemme by Prince Lebrun (1803, two tom.
-8vo.): while in English we have a Life of Tasso by Mr. Black (1810); and
-a Memoir by the Rev. Mr. Stebbing (1833). The best complete edition of
-Tasso’s works is that of Molini, in eight volumes 8vo., Florence,
-1822–6.
-
-[Illustration: [From a Cast taken after death.]]
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-                              BEN JONSON.
-
-
-The rapid growth and early maturity of the drama form a remarkable
-portion of the literary history of Britain. Within forty years from the
-appearance of the first rude attempts at English comedy, all the most
-distinguished of our dramatists had graced the stage by their
-performances. Among the worthies, he whom we familiarly call Ben Jonson
-holds a prominent place. He was born in Westminster, June 11, 1574, and
-placed, at a proper age, at Westminster School, where Camden then
-presided. He made unusual progress in classical learning, until his
-mother, who was left in narrow circumstances, married a bricklayer, and
-removed her son from school, that he might work with his step-father in
-Lincoln’s-Inn. In his vexation and anger at this domestic tyranny, he
-enlisted as a private soldier, was sent abroad to join the English army
-in the Netherlands, and distinguished himself against the Spaniards by a
-gallant achievement. In an encounter with a single man of the enemy, he
-slew his opponent, and carried off his spoils in the view of both
-armies.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _Engraved by E. Scriven._
-
-  BEN JONSON.
-
-  _From a Picture in the possession of M^r. Knight._
-
-  Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful
-    Knowledge.
-
-  _London, Published by Charles Knight, Ludgate Street, & Pall Mall
-    East._
-]
-
-On his return home, he resumed his former studies at St. John’s,
-Cambridge; but thither the miseries of slender means followed him, and
-he quitted the University after a short residence. He then turned his
-thoughts to the stage. The encouragement afforded to dramatic talent
-coincided with his taste and inclination; and the example of Shakspeare,
-who had successfully adopted the same course under similar difficulties,
-determined his choice. He was admitted into an obscure theatre, called
-the Green Curtain, in the neighbourhood of Shoreditch and Clerkenwell;
-but his salary there must have been insufficient for his support, and
-his merits were too meagre to entitle him to a place in any respectable
-company. While in this humble station, he fought a duel with one of the
-players, in which he was wounded in the arm, but killed his antagonist,
-who had been the challenger. During his imprisonment for this offence,
-he was visited by a Popish priest, who profited by his depressed state
-of mind to win him over to the Church of Rome, within the pale of which
-he continued for twelve years. Thus did melancholy produce a change in
-his religious condition; but his spirits returned with his release, and
-he ventured to offer up his recovered liberty on the altar of matrimony.
-
-Considering that he was only about twenty-four years of age when he rose
-to reputation as a dramatic writer, his life had been unusually, but
-painfully, eventful. He had made some attempts as a playwright from his
-first entrance into the profession, but without success. His connexion
-with Shakspeare has been variously related. It has been stated that when
-Jonson was unknown to the world, he offered a play to the theatre, which
-was rejected after a very careless perusal; but our great dramatist,
-having accidentally cast his eye on it, thought well of the production,
-and afterwards recommended the author and his writings to the public.
-For this candour he is said to have been repaid by Jonson, when the
-latter became a poet of note, with an envious disrespect. Farmer, of all
-Shakspeare’s commentators, was most inclined to depart from these
-traditions, and to think the belief in Jonson’s hostility to Shakspeare
-absolutely groundless. This question, triumphantly, but with needless
-acrimony, argued by Mr. Gifford, we regard as now determined in Jonson’s
-favour. Without any imputation of ingratitude, the acknowledged superior
-in learning might chequer his commendations with reproof; as he
-undeniably did, partly from natural temper, and partly from a habit of
-asserting his own preeminence, as having first taught rules to the
-stage. He has been loosely, not to say falsely, accused of endeavouring
-to depreciate The Tempest, by calling it a _foolery_, a term which
-unquestionably cannot be applied to any work without such design. But he
-called it, not a _foolery_, but a _drollery_. In present acceptation the
-terms may be nearly equivalent; but in that age, the word conveyed no
-censure. Dennis says, in one of his letters, that he went to see the
-Siege of Namur, a _droll_. In after-times, the word implied a farcical
-dialogue in a single scene. Where Jonson says, “if there be never a
-servant-monster in the fair, who can help it?”—he is supposed to fling
-at Caliban; but the satire was general. Creatures of various kinds,
-taught a thousand antics, were the concomitants of puppet-shows. In the
-Dumb Knight, by Lewis Machin, 1608, Prate, the orator, cautions his wife
-thus:—“I would not have you to step into the suburbs, and acquaint
-yourself either with _monsters_ or _motions_; but holding your way
-strictly homeward, show yourself still to be a rare housewife.” It has
-been alleged in the controversy, that Jonson seems to ridicule the
-conduct of Twelfth Night in his Every Man out of his Humour, where he
-makes Mitis say, “that the argument of the author’s comedy might have
-been of some other nature, as of a duke to be in love with a countess,
-and that countess to be in love with a duke’s son, and the son to love
-the ladies’ waiting-maid; some such cross-wooing, with a clown to their
-serving-men, better than to be thus near, and familiarly attired to the
-time.” Unfortunately for Stevens’s application of this passage, Ben
-Jonson could not have ridiculed Twelfth Night, which was produced at
-least eight years after the play quoted. Among the commendatory poems
-prefixed to the editions of Shakspeare, Jonson’s is not only the first
-in date, but the most judicious, zealous, and affectionate. His personal
-attachment is expressed on various occasions with more enthusiasm than
-is apt to be felt by men of his temperament. We have no right to doubt
-its sincerity.
-
-We are told that, “having improved his fancy by keeping scholastic
-company, he betook himself to writing plays.” The comedy entitled Every
-Man in his Humour was his first successful piece. It was produced in
-1598, on the stage with which Shakspeare was connected, and the generous
-poet and proprietor sanctioned it by playing the part of Kno’well. This
-was followed the next year by Every Man out of his Humour. After this
-time he produced a play every year, for several years successively. In
-1600 he paid his court to Queen Elizabeth, by complimenting her under
-the allegorical character of the goddess Cynthia, in his Cynthia’s
-Revels, which was acted that year by the choristers of the Queen’s
-Chapel, In his next piece, The Poetaster, which was represented in 1601
-by the same performers, he ridicules his rival Decker under the
-character of Crispinus. Some reflections in it were also supposed to
-allude to certain well-known lawyers and military men. A popular clamour
-was raised against him; in vindication of himself, he replied in an
-apologetical dialogue, which was once recited on the stage, and on the
-publication of his works annexed to this play. But Decker was bent on
-revenge, and resolved, if possible, to conquer Jonson at his own
-weapons. He immediately wrote a play called Satiromastix, or the
-Untrussing of the Humourous Poet, in which Jonson is introduced under
-the character of Horace Junior. Jonson’s enemies industriously gave out
-that he wrote with extreme labour, and was not less than a year about
-every play. Had it been so, it was no disgrace: the best authors know by
-experience, that what appears to be the most natural and easy writing is
-frequently the result of study and close application. But the
-insinuation was meant to convey, that Jonson had heavy parts, and little
-imagination: a charge which applies only to two of his works, Sejanus
-and Catiline. Jonson retorted upon Decker in the prologue to Volpone, or
-The Fox. We are there told that this play, which is one of his best, was
-finished in five weeks. He professes that, in all his poems, his aim has
-been to mix profit with pleasure; and concludes with saying, that all
-gall is drained from his ink, and “only a little salt remaineth.”
-
-“Eastward Hoe” was the joint production of Ben Jonson, George Chapman,
-and John Marston. What part each author had in it is not known; but the
-consequences were near being very serious to them all. They were accused
-of reflecting on the Scots, who crowded the court at that time to the
-utter disgust of the English gentlemen; and, in perfect unison with the
-arbitrary temper of the times, were all three not only committed to
-prison, but in peril as to their ears and noses. On submission however
-they received pardons. Jonson, on his releasement from prison, gave an
-entertainment to his friends, among whom were Camden and Selden. His
-mother seems now to have risen mightily in her ideas, and to have
-affected the Roman matron, although the bricklayer’s wife would, in past
-time, have bound her son to the hod and trowel. In the midst of the
-entertainment she drank to him, and produced a paper of poison, which
-she intended to have mixed with his liquor, having first taken a portion
-of it herself, if the punishment of mutilation had not been remitted.
-
-That mixture of poetry and spectacle, which, in our ancient literature,
-is termed a masque, had been encouraged by Elizabeth, and became still
-more fashionable during the reigns of James and Charles. The queens of
-both monarchs, being foreigners, understood the English language but
-imperfectly, so that the music, dancing, and decorations of a masque
-were better adapted to their amusement than the more intellectual
-entertainment of the regular drama. After Queen Elizabeth’s example,
-they occasionally assisted in the representation, and probably were
-still better pleased to be performers than spectators. Jonson was the
-chief manufacturer of this article for the court; and a year seldom
-passed without his furnishing more than one piece of this sort. They
-were usually got up, as the phrase is, with the utmost splendour. In the
-scenery, Jonson had Inigo Jones for an associate. As compositions, these
-trifles rank little higher than shows and pageants; but they possessed a
-property peculiarly acceptable at court—they abounded with incense and
-servility. However crusty Jonson might be as a critical censor, he saw
-plainly what food his royal master relished, and furnished the table
-plentifully.
-
-This occupation interrupted the periodical production of his regular
-plays; but the interval had not been frivolously passed. In 1609, he
-produced “Epicœne, or the Silent Woman.” This was generally esteemed to
-be the most perfect pattern of a play hitherto brought out in England,
-and might be selected as a proof that its author was a careful and
-learned observer of the dramatic laws. We are assured that Jonson was
-personally acquainted with a man quite as ridiculous as Morose is
-represented to be. It may here be observed that the description of
-humour, drawn from the knowledge and observation of particular persons,
-was in the line of this author’s peculiar genius and talent. There is
-more wit and fancy in the dialogue of this play than in any by the same
-hand. Truewit is a scholar, with an alloy of pedantry; but he is the
-best gentleman ever drawn by Jonson, whose strength, in general, was not
-properly wit or sharpness of conceit, but the natural imitation of
-various and contrasted follies. The Alchemist came out in 1610. Jonson
-shows in it much learning relative to changes in the external appearance
-of metals, and uses some of the very terms of art met with in Eastward
-Hoe; which makes it probable that the passages in which they are
-contained are from his pen. This piece was unusually free from personal
-allusions; yet it was not popular at first. The partisans of inferior
-writers were constantly let loose whenever Jonson brought out a new
-play; but their censure was harmless, for he numbered among his friends
-and admirers, Shakspeare, Beaumont, Fletcher, Donne, Camden, Selden, and
-a host of worthies of every class. In 1613, he made the tour of France,
-and was introduced to Cardinal Perron, who showed him his translation of
-Virgil; but Perron not being his master and sovereign, but a foreign
-cardinal, with his customary bluntness he told him it was a bad one.
-About this time he and Inigo Jones quarrelled; and he ridiculed his
-colleague of the Masques, under the character of Sir Lantern
-Leatherhead, a Hobby-horse Seller. His next play was “The Devil is an
-Ass,” 1616.
-
-In 1617, the salary of poet-laureat was settled on him for life by King
-James, and he published his works in one folio volume. His fame, both as
-to poetry and learning, was now so fully established, that he was
-invited to the University of Oxford by several members, and particularly
-by Dr. Corbet, of Christ Church. That college was his residence during
-his stay, and he was created Master of Arts in full convocation, in
-July, 1619. In the following October, on the death of Daniel, he
-received the appointment of Poet-laureat, after having discharged the
-duties of the office for some time. At the latter end of this year he
-travelled into Scotland on foot, to visit his correspondent, Drummond of
-Hawthornden. Jonson had formed a design of writing on the history and
-geography of Scotland, and had received some curious documents from
-Drummond. The acquisition of additional materials appears to have been
-the main object of his journey. In the freedom of social intercourse, he
-expressed his sentiments strongly concerning the authors and poets of
-his own time. Drummond committed the heads of their conversations to
-writing, and has been severely censured on account of what he has left
-us concerning his guest. He says that he was “a great lover and praiser
-of himself; a contemner and scorner of others; chusing rather to lose
-his friend than his jest; jealous of every word and action of those
-about him, especially after drink, which was one of the elements in
-which he lived; a dissembler of the parts which reigned in him; a
-bragger of some good that he wanted; he thought nothing right, but what
-either himself or some of his friends had said or done. He was
-passionately kind and angry; careless either to gain or keep;
-vindictive, but if he was well answered, greatly chagrined; interpreting
-the best sayings and deeds often to the worst. He was for either
-religion, being versed in both; oppressed with fancy, which
-over-mastered his reason, a general disease among the poets.” Drummond’s
-letters exhibit Jonson in a much more favourable light; and this
-inconsistency may, perhaps, be explained by supposing that they exhibit
-the Scotch poet’s deliberate opinion of his guest, while the strictures
-contained in his loose notes were probably penned in a moment of
-irritation, to which he appears to have been subject. If, indeed, the
-received notions of Jonson’s heat of temper had any foundation, we may
-suppose him and his northern host to have been occasionally so far
-advanced in disputation, that “testy Drummond could not speak for
-fretting.” Jonson recorded his adventures on this journey in a poem,
-which was accidentally burnt; a loss which he lamented in another poem
-called “An Execration upon Vulcan.”
-
-The laureateship obliged him annually to provide, besides other
-entertainments of the court, the Christmas Masque: of these we have a
-series in his works, from 1615 to 1625. In 1625, his comedy called The
-Staple of News was exhibited. In 1627, The New Inn was performed at the
-Blackfriars theatre, and deservedly hissed off the stage. Three of
-Jonson’s plays underwent that fate. He was so much incensed against the
-town, that in 1631 he published it with the following title: “The New
-Inn, or the Light Heart, a comedy; as it was never acted, but most
-negligently played, by some, the king’s servants, and more squeamishly
-beheld and censured by others, the king’s subjects, 1629; and now at
-last set at liberty to the readers.” To this he annexed an ode to
-himself, threatening to leave the stage, which was sarcastically
-parodied by Owen Feltham, a writer of note, and author of a book called
-“Resolves.” Jonson’s mingled foibles and excellencies are pleasantly
-touched by Sir John Suckling, in his “Session of the Poets.” An
-improbable story is told by Cibber, and repeated by Smollet, that in
-1629, Ben, being reduced to distress, and living in an obscure alley,
-petitioned his Majesty to assist him in his poverty and sickness; but
-that, on receiving ten pounds, he said to the messenger who brought the
-donation, “His Majesty has sent me ten pounds, because I am poor and
-live in an alley: go and tell him that his soul lives in an alley.” His
-annual pension had been increased from a hundred marks to a hundred
-pounds, with the welcome addition of a yearly tierce of Canary wine. He
-received from the king a further present of one hundred pounds in that
-very year, which he acknowledged in an epigram published in his works.
-Could he, as he does in his “Epistle Mendicant,” have further solicited
-the Lord Treasurer for relief in 1631, had he been guilty of such an
-insult to royalty in 1629? There is reason to believe that he had
-pensions from the city, and from several of the nobility and gentry;
-particularly from Mr. Sutton, the founder of the Charter-house. Yet,
-with all these helps, his finances were unredeemed from disorder.
-
-In his distress, he came upon the stage again, in spite of his last
-defeat. Two comedies without a date, “The Magnetic Lady,” and “The Tale
-of a Tub,” belong to these latter compositions, which Dryden has called
-his dotages; at all events, they are the dotages of Jonson. Alexander
-Gill, a poetaster of the times, attacked him with brutal fury, on
-account of his “Magnetic Lady.” Gill was a bad man as well as a bad
-poet; and Jonson availed himself of his adversary’s weak points in a
-short but cutting reply. His last masque was performed July 30, 1634,
-and the only piece extant of later date is his “New Year’s Ode for
-1635.” He died of palsy, August 6, 1637, in his sixty-third year, and
-was buried in Westminster Abbey. His grave-stone only bears the quaint
-inscription,—“O RARE BEN JONSON!”
-
-In the beginning of 1638, elegies on his death were published, under the
-title of “Jonsonius Virbius, or, the Memory of Ben Jonson Revived, by
-the Friends of the Muses.” This collection contains poems by Lord
-Falkland, Lord Buckhurst, Sir John Beaumont, Sir Thomas Hawkins, Mr.
-Waller, Mayne, Cartwright, Waryng, the author of “Effigies Amoris,” and
-other contributors of note. In 1640, the former volume of his works was
-reprinted; with a second, containing the rest of his plays, masques, and
-entertainments; Underwoods; English Grammar; his translation of Horace’s
-Art of Poetry; and Discoveries. The latter is a prose work of various
-and extensive learning, containing opinions on all subjects, worthy to
-be weighed even at this distant period. In 1716, his works were
-reprinted in six volumes octavo. Another edition appeared in 1756, under
-the care of Mr. Whalley, of St. John’s, Oxford, with notes, and the
-addition of a comedy not inserted in any former edition, called “The
-Case is Altered.” But all former editions are superseded in value by
-that of Mr. Gifford.
-
-Jonson was married, and had children; particularly a son and a daughter,
-both celebrated by him in epitaphs at their death; but none of his
-children survived him.
-
-As a dramatic writer, he is remarkable for judgment in the arrangement
-of his plots; a happy choice of characters; and skill in maintaining
-character throughout the piece. The manners of the most trifling persons
-are always consistent. Dryden censures him for exhibiting _mechanic
-humour_, “Where men were dull and conversation low.” This remark is so
-far just, that Jonson chiefly aimed at mirth by the contrast and
-collision of what Dryden terms _humour_. The reader, however, would do
-the dramatist injustice, were he to apply the word humour to him in its
-modern and confined sense. Jonson cultivated it according to a more
-philosophical definition; as a technical term for characters swayed and
-directed by some predominant passion, the display of which, under
-various circumstances, formed the strength of the comedy. Among the
-writers of that age, Jonson alone perhaps felt all the impropriety
-arising from frequent and violent change of scene. Yet Jonson himself,
-who disapproved of Shakspeare’s practice in that particular, was not
-wholly free from it, as Dryden has remarked with some appearance of
-triumph. Pope has touched on his genius in respect to dramatic poetry.
-He says,—“That when Jonson got possession of the stage, he brought
-critical learning into vogue; and this was not done without difficulty,
-which appears from those frequent lessons, and indeed almost
-declamations, which he was forced to prefix to his first plays, and put
-into the mouths of his actors the grex, chorus, &c., to remove the
-prejudices and reform the judgment of his hearers. Till then the English
-authors had no thoughts of writing upon the model of the ancients; their
-tragedies were only histories in dialogue, and their comedies followed
-the thread of any novel as they found it, no less implicitly than if it
-had been true history.” In fact, this author’s object was to found a
-reputation on understanding, and submitting to the discipline of the
-ancient stage; but his success fell short of his just expectations, and
-he growls on every occasion against the rude taste of an age which
-preferred to his laboured and well-concocted scenes, the more glowing,
-wild, and irregular effusions of his unlearned contemporaries. Beyond
-this there appears nothing to confirm the eagerly propagated opinion of
-his pride and malignity, at least in the earlier part of his life. At
-that time he contributed an encomium to almost every play or poem that
-appeared, from Shakspeare down to the translator of Du Bartas. His
-antagonist, Decker, seems to hint at a personal failing, seldom allied
-to malignity, when, in the “Satiromastix,” Sir Vaughan says to Horace,
-that is, Jonson, “I have some cousin-german at court shall beget you the
-reversion of the master of the king’s revels, or else to be his _Lord of
-Misrule_ now at Christmas.” We have already quoted Drummond to the
-purport, that “drink was one of the elements in which he lived;” which
-accounts but too well for the poverty of his latter days, in spite of
-royal and noble munificence. In reference to this unfortunate
-propensity, the following amusing story is told:—Camden had recommended
-him to Sir Walter Raleigh, who trusted him with the care and education
-of his eldest son Walter, a gay spark, who could not brook Ben’s
-rigorous treatment; but perceiving one foible in his disposition, made
-use of that to throw off the yoke of his government. This was an unlucky
-habit Ben had contracted, through his love of jovial company, of being
-overtaken with liquor, which Sir Walter did of all vices most abominate,
-and hath most exclaimed against. One day, when Ben had taken a plentiful
-dose, and was fallen into a sound sleep, young Raleigh got a great
-basket, and a couple of men, who laid Ben in it, and then with a pole
-carried him between their shoulders to Sir Walter, telling him their
-young master had sent home his tutor.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _Engraved by J. Posselwhite._
-
-  CANOVA.
-
-  _From a Picture by_
-  Sir Thomas Lawrence,
-  _in the possession of the Abate Canova at Rome_.
-
-  Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful
-    Knowledge.
-
-  _London, Published by Charles Knight, Ludgate Street, & Pall Mall
-    East._
-]
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-                                CANOVA.
-
-
-About the middle of the last century the art of Sculpture, which had
-been long on the decline, may be said to have reached the lowest point
-to which it has sunk since the revival of the arts; for, although the
-seventeenth century was the great æra of bad taste, the genius which was
-often apparent in the mannered productions of that time, no longer
-survived in those of the imitators who succeeded. The works of Bernini
-in Italy, and of Puget in France, both men of extraordinary talent but
-most mistaken principles, were still regarded as types of excellence.
-Their fame still produced a host of followers, who, with perhaps the
-single exception of Duquesnoy, called Fiammingo, naturally aimed at the
-extravagances and peculiarities of their models; and the consequence
-was, a constantly increasing deviation from nature, and a total
-misconception of the style and limits of the art. The works which were
-produced in Rome about the period alluded to, thus fluctuated between
-manner and insipidity; till the art had relapsed into a state of such
-lethargic mediocrity, that even sculptors of note, such as Cavaceppi,
-Pacetti, and Albacini, were content to occupy themselves in restoring
-and mending antique statues. But the germs of a better taste, and a more
-rational imitation, were already expanding. If the mania for collecting
-antique statues had the temporary effect of paralysing invention in the
-artist, and diverting the means of patronage, a gradual appreciation of
-the principles of ancient art was, nevertheless, the result; while the
-illustration and description of museums, and the works of Winkelmann,
-all tended to awaken the attention of the connoisseur to the amazing
-difference between the ill-advised caprices of the Bernini school and
-the sagacious simplicity of the ancients.
-
-These circumstances concurred ultimately to work a change and an
-improvement of taste among the artists themselves, and thus prepared a
-better æra of sculpture. The partiality of the Italians may be excused,
-when they attribute the reformation of the art to the single efforts of
-Canova, although the designs of Flaxman, composed about the same time
-that the Italian artist was beginning his career, exhibit a more decided
-feeling for the long-lost purity of the antique, and a more thorough
-comprehension of the style and language of sculpture, than we find in
-the works of his continental contemporaries. But it is time to give a
-more particular account of the subject of this memoir.
-
-Antonio Canova was born A.D. 1757, at Possagno, a small town in the
-province of Treviso. His father, Pietro Canova, was a stonemason and
-builder; and the first occupation of the future sculptor taught him to
-use the chisel with dexterity. At the age of fourteen, he was introduced
-to the notice of Giovanni Faliero, a Venetian senator, who used annually
-to pass the autumn near Possagno. By the kind assistance of this
-nobleman, the young Canova was placed with one Torretti, a sculptor who
-had studied in Venice, and who resided in a neighbouring town. On the
-return of this artist to Venice, Canova accompanied him. A year
-afterwards however Torretti died, and the young sculptor, unwilling to
-continue with Ferrari, his master’s nephew and heir, established himself
-in a _studio_ of his own. While with Ferrari, he produced his first
-work, a pair of baskets of fruit and flowers, done for the noble
-Faliero. They are still to be seen in the stair-case of the Farsetti
-palace, in Venice, more generally known as the Albergo della Gran
-Bretagna. The same patron next employed him on two statues of Orpheus
-and Eurydice, preserved in the villa of Pradazzi, near Possagno. After
-one or two other less important performances, he executed his Dædalus
-and Icarus, for the Procurator Pisani. In all these works he aimed at a
-close imitation of individual nature, and this was carried so far in the
-Dædalus, that, when it was afterwards shown in Rome, the sculptor was
-hardly believed when he asserted that it was not moulded from a living
-model.
-
-The imitation of the softness, surface, and accidents of skin was an
-early excellence and a lasting peculiarity of Canova; and however he may
-have been smitten with the antique statues in Rome, it is certain that,
-while in Venice, where he remained till the age of twenty-two, he paid
-little attention to the specimens of ancient art in the Farsetti
-Gallery. It is probable that the prejudice against the antique, which
-had prevailed ever since Bernini’s time, was hardly yet effaced in
-Venice; and if Canova’s admiration of the ancients increased in Rome, it
-was undoubtedly greatly owing to the opinion and examples of those among
-whom he had the good fortune to be first thrown.
-
-In 1779, Girolamo Zulian being appointed ambassador of the Republic at
-Rome, Faliero recommended Canova to his notice. The young sculptor had
-already determined to visit the metropolis of the arts, and soon
-followed the ambassador thither. The course of study which he adopted,
-founded on the comparison of nature with the best specimens of art,
-showed that he was earnest to improve; and his new patron Zulian, who
-had introduced him to the distinguished amateurs and artists residing in
-Rome, recommended him to send for a cast of his Dædalus and Icarus, in
-order to show them what he had done, and profit by their advice. He did
-so, and the day on which that group was submitted to the judgment of the
-connoisseurs was a memorable one for Canova. His work by no means
-excited unqualified approbation. It was, indeed, so different from the
-style which was then prevalent, that his judges remained silent, till
-the generous Gavin Hamilton openly declared, that it was a simple
-imitation of nature, which showed that the artist had nothing to
-unlearn; at the same time reminding him, that although the greatest
-artists had always begun thus, they had subsequently refined their taste
-by comparison and selection, and their execution by an ampler and larger
-treatment; all which, aiming at the grandest impressions of nature, but
-by no means departing from nature, approaches what is called the divine
-and ideal in art. This opinion, from so good a judge as Hamilton,
-delighted Zulian, who asked “what was to be done with the young man?”
-“Give him a block of marble,” said Hamilton, “and let him follow his own
-feeling.” From this hour the fate of the young artist was decided:
-Zulian furnished him with a _studio_ and materials, and he began his
-career in Rome.
-
-Canova always spoke with gratitude of Gavin Hamilton, and acknowledged
-that he owed to him every sound principle of art. The vast knowledge of
-the antique which the Scotch artist possessed, gave more than common
-weight and value to his advice respecting its imitation. Canova’s first
-work in Rome, was an Apollo crowning himself. The sculptor himself was
-not satisfied with it, and felt all the difficulty of uniting a purer
-and broader style with a sufficient attention to the details of nature.
-His engagements soon after recalled him to Venice, to complete an
-unfinished work, the statue of the Marquis Poleni, placed in the Prato
-della Valle, at Padua. It was probably hurried, that he might get back
-sooner to Rome.
-
-On his return to Rome, he produced his celebrated group of Theseus
-sitting on the slain Minotaur. The moment chosen was recommended by
-Hamilton, who observed, that it was generally safer for young artists
-not to aim at too much action in their subjects. In this composition
-Canova endeavoured to infuse still more of the style of the antique, and
-he succeeded so well, that the exhibition of it may be considered an
-epoch in the art. Quatremère de Quincy (an eminent French sculptor)
-spoke of it in these words in 1804:—“This group struck foreigners even
-more than the Romans, who were still attached to their accustomed
-manner. Nevertheless, Canova, from that time, was considered the
-sculptor who was destined to restore good taste, and to reduce the art
-to its grand principles.” The fame which this work gained for its author
-has been allowed, on all hands, to have been justly awarded; and, after
-the efforts of the artist to fix his style and define the mode of
-imitation which he believed to be the best, it may be supposed that the
-praises he received would have confirmed him in the principles he had
-formed to himself, and encouraged him to carry them farther. None of his
-Italian biographers, however, have taken sufficient notice of the fact,
-that he never followed up the style which is observable in this group.
-His subsequent works were undoubtedly more refined in execution and more
-anatomically studied; but it is quite certain that he never approached
-the breadth of the antique so much in any later works. Hence it would
-appear that, in this effort, he was in some degree doing violence to his
-real feelings; and having once established his reputation, he was more
-likely afterwards to exercise his own unbiassed taste. It was, indeed,
-some time before he was occupied on a subject which afforded a display
-of the figure.
-
-His next work was the monument of Ganganelli (Clement XIV.), placed in
-the Church de’ Santi Apostoli at Rome; in this he was again fortunate.
-Its originality and simplicity, for such was the character of the
-design, compared with the extravagant compositions of preceding artists,
-gave very general satisfaction; but the advocates of the taste of a
-former age did not remain silent. Pompeo Battoni, the most celebrated
-Italian painter of his day, having condescended to accompany Hamilton to
-see the model of the monument while it was in the clay, observed, in
-Canova’s hearing, that the young artist had talent, but that it was a
-pity he had chosen a bad road, and that it would be better to retrace
-his steps while there was time. Hamilton, in consoling Canova
-afterwards, reminded him, that it was the style of Pietro da Cortona,
-Carlo Maratti, and Bernini, which Battoni considered synonymous with
-excellence; and it was the departure from this, in search of the purer
-style of sculpture, which he called “the bad road.” The fastidious
-Milizia, on the other hand, gave this work unqualified approbation.
-
-The monument of Rezzonico (Clement XIII.), which was the next subject
-the sculptor was invited to treat, was begun in 1787, and only placed in
-St. Peter’s in 1795. While engaged on this, and the monument of
-Ganganelli, other works of less extent were from time to time finished.
-Among these were a group of Cupid and Psyche, a group of Venus and
-Adonis, which, however, was not executed in marble, and a second
-composition of Cupid and Psyche, the one in which Psyche is recumbent.
-These were the works which first procured for their author, among his
-Italian admirers, the reputation and title of the sculptor of the
-Graces; and it was in these that a certain effeminacy of style—at least
-what would be so called by less indulgent critics—seemed to supersede
-the simplicity, and almost severity, which he had appeared to aim at in
-the Theseus and Minotaur. To the same period belong most of the bassi
-relievi of Canova. These were composed and executed when his imagination
-was warmed by the study of the ancient poets; and although wrought in
-the intervals of greater occupations, there can be no doubt that they
-received his mature attention, and exhibited the free expression of his
-own taste. Of all the works of the artist, these bassi relievi have,
-perhaps, been most universally and deservedly condemned; but, defective
-as they are, they are still purer in the forms and drapery than the
-works of his predecessors.
-
-The monument of Rezzonico completely established Canova’s reputation;
-the expression and attitude of the kneeling Pope, and the novelty and
-happy execution of the lions, excited the utmost admiration. The figure
-of the Genius is again an instance of a total dereliction of the style
-of the antique, for a soft and pulpy fleshiness without sufficient
-characteristic marking; but even this was found to be new and agreeable,
-and the drapery of the figure of Religion was almost the only part of
-the work which was criticised. On revisiting Venice, after an illness
-brought on by severe application, the Venetian government commissioned
-him to execute a monument for the Procurator Angelo Emo, which was
-afterwards placed in the arsenal. He returned to Rome to execute this
-work; but first revisited his native village, where he was surprised,
-and somewhat disconcerted, at finding a fête prepared for his welcome. A
-deputation of the inhabitants lined the roads to receive him; the
-streets were strewed with laurel; the bells of the campanile, and the
-_mortaletti_, usually fired on festivals, saluted him as he entered; and
-a band of music accompanied him to his mother’s house. The enthusiasm of
-his countrymen went so far, that a statue was erected to him even in
-early life, and placed in the Prato della Valle, at Padua.
-
-A group of Venus and Adonis was next completed, and sent to Naples,
-where it contributed to spread his fame. A new group of Cupid and
-Psyche, standing, done for Murat, was sent to Paris, and being
-fortunately one of his best works, it excited a great sensation when
-exhibited there. The reputation Canova had acquired in Italy naturally
-provoked a close and keen scrutiny into the merits and defects of this
-work; but its success was complete, and from that time his great merit
-was as fully acknowledged in France as elsewhere. Some of his subsequent
-works exhibited in the Louvre were, it is true, severely criticised, but
-they always found ardent defenders, and those among the most respectable
-connoisseurs and artists.
-
-The celebrated kneeling Magdalen, which ultimately became the property
-of Count Sommariva, and adorned his house in Paris, was Canova’s next
-performance; it was afterwards, like many of his works, copied, or
-rather repeated, for other amateurs.
-
-This statue created a still greater sensation than the Cupid and Psyche
-when it was exhibited in Paris. The well-known Hebe was executed about
-the same time; this, too, was often repeated, and one copy was exhibited
-in the Louvre bearing a golden vase and cup, and with the lips and
-cheeks slightly tinged with vermilion. These innovations were severely
-objected to by the French critics, while the general taste of this and
-other works of the artist was still less indulgently treated in London.
-But the execution of individual parts of his statues was every where
-allowed to be exquisite, and many a time, in Rome, artists who were his
-professed rivals have purchased casts of the joints and extremities of
-his figures as models of perfect imitation: such detached portions have
-even been mistaken for casts from the antique.
-
-Much has been said by the Italian eulogists of Canova of his skill in
-painting, and a story is told of his having done a pretended portrait of
-Giorgione on an old panel, which Angelica Kaufmann, and other very
-sufficient judges, for a time believed to be an original by the Venetian
-master. Canova’s attempts at painting were regarded with complacency, at
-least by himself, remarkable as he was for great modesty in speaking of
-his works in sculpture. He seems never to have forgotten that he was a
-Venetian, and gloried in the perfections, and almost in the defects, of
-the painters of that school. It is not impossible that this predilection
-may have operated in some degree to check his pursuit of the severe
-style of the ancients in sculpture, and it may, perhaps, account for the
-picturesque licences which he sometimes indulged in, as, for instance,
-in the Hebe; but if his efforts in painting were naturally defective in
-execution, they were still more open to criticism in their invention and
-taste, and, on the whole, call rather for indulgence than admiration.
-
-The unsettled state of Italy consequent upon the French Revolution, and
-the troubles in Rome, induced Canova, about the close of the century, to
-retire for a time to his native province. From thence he accompanied the
-Senator Rezzonico into Germany, and visited Munich, Vienna, Dresden, and
-Berlin. At Vienna, he received from Duke Albert of Saxe Teschen, the
-commission for the monument to Maria Christina of Austria.
-
-His first ambition, however, on returning to Italy, was to embody in a
-picture some of the impressions he had received from contemplating the
-galleries of Germany, and particularly the Notte of Correggio; and he
-actually painted a large altar-piece for the parochial church of
-Possagno. This work, though since considered unworthy of criticism, was
-highly extolled at the time it was done. On his return to Rome, he began
-the model of his celebrated group of Hercules and Lichas, a work which
-found favour even with those who had objected to the want of manliness
-of taste in his treatment of most other subjects. It is indeed
-impossible to contemplate this group, without feeling it to be the
-production of a man of genius; while the patient elaboration of the
-anatomical details, and the power and knowledge with which the
-difficulties of the composition are overcome, have never failed to
-excite the high praise which is awarded to rare excellence. The
-originality of the idea has, however, been lately disputed; and a bronze
-has come to light which, if its history be true, at least proves that
-some earlier sculptor than Canova had conceived the subject nearly in
-the same manner. This grand work, first intended for Naples, was
-purchased by Torlonia, Duke of Bracciano, and is now the principal
-ornament of the Bracciano Palace in Rome.
-
-Soon after this the Perseus was produced, a statue which, by command of
-Pius VII., received the unparalleled honour of being placed in the
-Vatican, in a situation similar to that of the Apollo, or rather to
-supply its place, for the Apollo at this time was not returned from
-Paris. The honour was even greater when that statue was restored to
-Rome, for the Perseus then remained as a companion or pendant to it. The
-two Pugilists were modelled soon after for the same patron, Pope Pius
-VII., and were placed, when finished, in the Vatican, together with the
-Perseus. A cast of the Creugas, one of these figures, exhibited about
-the same time at Paris, was very generally admired, and very ably and
-generously defended from the hostile criticisms it called forth, by the
-sculptor Quatremère de Quincy. The high estimation in which Canova was
-held, and his zeal for the preservation of the ancient monuments in
-Rome, as well as the frescoes of the Vatican, induced the Pope to confer
-on him the appointment and title of Inspector-General of the Fine Arts.
-Though at first unwilling to assume the responsibility of this charge,
-Canova at last undertook it; and it appears that his conscientious
-attention to the duties connected with it, gave a new impulse to the
-Roman school, and excited in all a zeal and ardour for the preservation
-of the precious remains of antiquity. The conduct of Canova in
-furthering the general interests of the arts of his country is worthy of
-all praise: his private benevolence is well known. It may be said that
-his happy freedom from jealousy was owing to the quiet security of
-established fame; but he was equally remarkable for magnanimity when
-placed in competition with those whom he had reason to regard as
-possible rivals.
-
-After finishing a model of the colossal statue of the King of Naples,
-Canova received a flattering invitation to visit the court of Bonaparte,
-then First Consul; and in obedience to the wishes even of the Pope he
-proceeded to Paris. His conversations with Bonaparte during this and a
-subsequent visit have been preserved; and it appears that he lost no
-opportunity of representing the fallen and impoverished state of Italy
-(the consequence of the French invasion) to the arbiter of its
-destinies, whom he dexterously reminded of his Pisan or Florentine
-origin. His recommendation of the arts in Rome was at least successful,
-for soon after his return thither ample funds were forwarded by command
-of Bonaparte for the revival and extension of the Academy of St. Luke,
-of which Canova was naturally appointed the Director, and for
-prosecuting the excavations in the Forum. When Canova, in one of his
-visits to Paris, ventured to ask for the restitution of the statues that
-had been taken from Rome, the French ruler replied, that “they might dig
-for more.”
-
-Having modelled the bust of Bonaparte, Canova returned to Italy to
-complete the colossal statue of Napoleon, now in the possession of the
-Duke of Wellington. In this work, which he considered an heroic
-representation, he elevated the forms to his highest conceptions of an
-abstract style, and, probably in imitation of the statue of Pompey,
-exhibited the figure naked. The censures which were passed on this bold
-attempt were most satisfactorily answered by the celebrated Visconti. In
-Canova’s second visit to Paris, Napoleon himself remarked, that his
-statue should have been in the ordinary dress, to which Canova replied,
-“Our art, like all the fine arts, has its sublime language; this
-language in sculpture is the naked, and such drapery as conveys a
-general idea.” The extensive monument for Vienna was next finished, and
-Canova repaired to the Austrian capital to see it put together. The
-artist’s general deviation from the style of sculpture practised by the
-ancients, may be illustrated by this work, admirable as it is for its
-details. The real aperture, or door of the tomb, into which the
-procession is entering, the literal reality of the steps, the
-accurately-imitated drapery, and other circumstances, are all nearer to
-nature than the flesh, the reverse of the principle of the Greeks. The
-partial or absolute truth of the accessories thus reminds us that colour
-and life are wanting in the figures—a discovery the spectator should
-never be permitted to make. Again, the indistinctness which must exist
-more or less in an assemblage of figures similar in colour (the
-unavoidable condition of the art), far from being obviated by
-indiscriminate imitation, requires rather to be counteracted by those
-judicious conventions which, in some measure, represent the varieties of
-nature, and constitute the style of sculpture. The Venus for Florence,
-(afterwards more than once repeated,) and the statues of the Princess
-Borghese, and the mother of Napoleon, were the next works of Canova. The
-attitude and treatment of the last seem to have been inspired by the
-statue of Agrippina; it was completely successful in Paris. After these,
-the well-known Dancing Nymphs occupied him, and seem to have been
-favourite works of his own. Although these statues excited more
-attention in Paris than perhaps any of his former works, and raised his
-reputation more than ever, they have since been very generally censured
-as meretricious in their taste. The portrait statues of the Princess
-Borghese and Madame Letitia, invited many other commissions of the same
-kind, which it would be long to recount. The monument of Alfieri, and
-the statues of Hector and Ajax, the latter admirable for their details,
-but with little of the antique character in their general treatment,
-were successively produced, together with many busts of individuals and
-of ideal personages. An opportunity was soon after afforded the
-sculptor, in a statue of Paris for the Empress Josephine, of exhibiting
-his best powers to the French critics. He was perhaps better satisfied
-with this than with any other single figure he had done. It was much
-admired when exhibited in the Louvre, and Quatremère de Quincy published
-an eulogium on it.
-
-In 1810, Canova again proceeded to the French capital to receive the
-commands of Napoleon, and modelled the bust of Maria Louisa. The statue
-of the Empress, as Concord, and of the Princess Eliza, in the character
-of a Muse, were finished on his return to Rome. The group of the Graces,
-and a statue of Peace, were next completed. The colossal horse, first
-intended to bear Napoleon, and then Murat, was finally surmounted with
-the statue of Charles III. of Naples, and placed in that city. A
-recumbent nymph, Canova’s next work, was succeeded by one of his most
-extraordinary productions, the Theseus and Centaur, a group now in
-Vienna, where it is placed in a temple built for its reception. Opinions
-are divided between the merits of this work and of his Hercules and
-Lichas.
-
-In 1815, when the Allies occupied Paris, Canova was sent there by Pope
-Pius VII. on an honourable and interesting mission, namely, to intercede
-with the French government and the invading powers, for the restitution
-of the works of art which had been torn from Rome by the treaty of
-Tolentino. The French ministry resisted his application, and it was
-ultimately by the decision of the Allied Powers, and literally under the
-protection of foreign bayonets, that Canova removed the objects in
-question from the Louvre. The gratitude of the Pope to the British
-government on this occasion led to Canova’s visit to London. The honours
-he received in England from George IV., then Prince Regent, from the
-nobility, and the professors of the arts, perhaps even exceeded the
-homage which had been paid him on the continent; and it ought not to be
-forgotten, that the great Flaxman, who was among the warmest in
-welcoming him, wrote a letter to Canova on his return to Rome, which did
-honour to both, and in which he says, “You will be always a great
-example in the arts, not only in Italy, but in Europe.”
-
-Canova’s return to Rome, in 1816, was little short of a triumph. The
-Pope created him Marquis of Ischia, with an annual pension of three
-thousand crowns; but the noble-minded artist divided this sum, till his
-death, among the institutions of the arts, in premiums for the young and
-in aids for the old and decayed. Long was his benevolence to rising
-artists the general theme of gratitude and regret; and in every case of
-ill-rewarded industry, or fancied oppression, the exclamation was, “Ah!
-if Canova were alive!”
-
-The statue of Washington; the Stuart monument in St. Peter’s; the group
-of Mars and Venus, which was done for George IV.; the Sleeping Nymphs;
-the recumbent Magdalen, executed for the Earl of Liverpool, were
-successively produced at this highly-honoured period of his life; and a
-third monument in St. Peter’s, viz., that of Pope Pius VI.
-
-The last great act of Canova’s life was the foundation of a magnificent
-church at Possagno, the first stone of which was laid by him July 11,
-1819. The monument for the Marquis Salsa Berio, sent to Naples, the
-figures of which are in basso relievo; seven mezzi relievi for the
-metopes of the frieze of his church at Possagno, the design of which
-combines the forms of the Parthenon and the Pantheon; and the beautiful
-group of the Pietà, or dead Christ in the lap of the Virgin at the foot
-of the cross, accompanied by the Magdalen, intended for the altar of the
-same church, were the last works of Canova.
-
-In 1822, he visited Possagno, partly to see the progress of the
-building, and still more on account of his infirm state of health. After
-a short stay in the neighbourhood, his illness increased so much that he
-was forced to repair to Venice for medical assistance; but his recovery
-was hopeless, and he died October 13, 1822, in the 65th year of his age.
-Gratitude was among the prominent virtues of Canova, and among his
-legacies, it is pleasing to observe that the sons of Faliero, his
-earliest patron, were remembered. He was buried at Possagno; but his
-funeral obsequies were celebrated throughout Italy, and a statue to his
-memory was afterwards placed in the Academy of St. Luke, at Rome.
-
-Ample details of Canova’s life, his precepts on art, and conversations
-with Napoleon, will be found in the account of him by Missirini: for a
-catalogue and eulogy of his works, Cicognara’s ‘Storia della Scultura’
-may be consulted. The memoir of him by that nobleman, together with his
-own ‘Thoughts on the Arts,’ taken down and recorded by Missirini, will
-be found in the splendid edition of Canova’s works, engraved in outline
-by Moses.
-
-[Illustration: [Monument to the Archduchess Maria Christina.]]
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-                                CHAUCER.
-
-
-There is considerable discrepance between the generally received and the
-probable date of Geoffrey Chaucer’s birth. In the life prefixed to the
-edition of his works by Speght, it is stated, that he “departed out of
-this world in the year of our Lord 1400, after he had lived about
-seventy years.” The biographer’s authority for this is “Bale, out of
-Leland.” Leland’s accuracy on this, as on many other points, may be
-doubted, since he believed Oxfordshire or Berkshire to have been the
-poet’s native county. But Chaucer himself, in his Testament of Love,
-mentions London as the “place of his kindly engendure.” The received
-date of his birth is 1328: if that be correct, he was fifty-eight in
-1386. But a record in the Appendix to Mr. Godwin’s Life shows that in
-that year he was a witness on oath, in a question between Sir Richard le
-Scrope and Sir Robert Grosvenor. The point at issue occasioned an
-inquiry to be made as to Chaucer’s age, which he stated to be “forty
-years and upwards.” Eighteen years upon forty is a large _upwards_ on a
-sworn examination. Mr. Sharon Turner, therefore, in his History of the
-Middle Ages, suggests, with every appearance of reason, that 1340, or
-thereabouts, is a date fairly corresponding with the witness’s “forty
-years and upwards,” and even necessary to vindicate his accuracy in a
-predicament requiring the most scrupulous adherence to truth. Chaucer
-might not be certain as to the precise year of his birth; and, in that
-case, it was natural to fix on the nearest round number. The chronology
-of his Works must be deeply affected by this difference of twelve years:
-it will be to be seen whether the few authenticated facts of his life
-are to be reconciled with this presumptive later date.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _Engraved by J. Thomson._
-
-  CHAUCER.
-
-  _From a Limning in Occleve’s Poems
-  in the British Museum._
-
-  Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful
-    Knowledge.
-
-  _London, Published by Charles Knight, Ludgate Street, & Pall Mall
-    East._
-]
-
-Chaucer is represented by Leland to have studied both at Cambridge and
-at Oxford. At the latter University, he is said to have diligently
-frequented the public schools and disputations, and to have affected the
-opinions of Wiclif in religion. “Hereupon,” says Leland, “he became a
-witty logician, a sweet rhetorician, a pleasant poet, a grave
-philosopher, and a holy divine.” But Mr. Tyrwhitt thinks that nothing is
-known as to his education, and doubts his having studied at either
-University. The evidence that he was of the Inner Temple seems to rest
-on a record of that house, seen some years afterwards by one Master
-Buckley, showing that Geoffrey Chaucer was fined two shillings for
-beating a Franciscan Friar in Fleet Street. Mr. Tyrwhitt complains of
-the want of date to this record. The sally is plainly a youthful one,
-and inclines him to believe that Chaucer was of the Inner Temple before
-he went into the service of Edward III. That he could have been engaged
-in the practice of the law in after-life, as stated by Leland, is shown
-by Mr. Tyrwhitt to be utterly inconsistent with his employments under
-the crown. In the paucity of biographical anecdotes, Chaucer’s personal
-career will be most satisfactorily ascertained by following the
-succession of his appointments, as verified by the public documents in
-Mr. Godwin’s valuable appendices. In 1367, Edward III. granted him, for
-his good services, an annuity of twenty marcs, payable out of the
-Exchequer. In 1370, he was sent to the Continent on the king’s business.
-Two years afterwards, he, with two others, was employed on an embassy to
-the Doge of Genoa. This negotiation probably regarded the hiring of
-ships for the king’s navy. In those times, although the necessity for
-naval armaments was frequent, very few ships were built by the English.
-This deficiency was supplied by the free states either in Germany or
-Italy. The age of thirty and thirty-two squares well enough with such
-appointments. In 1374, the king granted to him a pitcher of wine daily,
-to be delivered by the Butler of England. At the same time, he made him
-Comptroller of the Customs of London, for wool, wool-fells, and hides,
-on condition of his executing the office in person, and keeping the
-accounts with his own hand. In the following year he obtained from the
-king the wardship of the lands and body of Sir Edmund Staplegate, a
-young Kentish heir. In 1377, the last year of King Edward, “Geoffrey
-Caucher” is mentioned by Froissart as one of those envoys employed
-abroad, as his protection expresses it, “on the king’s secret service.”
-The object of the mission is divulged by the French historian; it was a
-treaty between the Kings of England and France, in which the marriage of
-Richard with the French Princess Mary was debated; but neither the peace
-nor the marriage were brought about. Here end both the commissions and
-benefactions received by Chaucer from Edward III.
-
-Some time after 1370, and before 1381, according to Mr. Turner’s
-calculation, but in 1360 according to others, Chaucer married a lady
-who, according to documents taken from Rymer, had been one of the
-“domicellæ,” damsels, or, in modern court phrase, maids of honour to
-Queen Philippa. Mr. Turner places the marriage within those limits, on
-the following grounds:—Chaucer, in his “Treatise on the Astrolabe,”
-dates an observation as made in 1391, and mentions his son Lewis as
-being then ten years old. A grant to the queen’s damsel, on quitting her
-service, is dated 1370, and made to her by her maiden name. The
-“Astrolabe” and the grant together furnish conclusive evidence in favour
-of Mr. Turner’s limits; but the current story of the Duke and Duchess of
-Lancaster having concocted the match, can only be reconciled with the
-earlier date, as the duchess died in 1369. It is unnecessary to
-enumerate those various grants made to Chaucer by Richard II., which
-bear on no other events of his life. An important document of the year
-1398, states that the king had ordered Chaucer to expedite several
-urgent affairs for him, as well in his absence as in his presence, in
-various parts of England. As a security against alarms expressed by
-Chaucer respecting suits and other molestations, Richard granted him a
-protection from arrest, injury, violence, or impediment, for two years.
-Richard was deposed in August of the following year. In October, Henry
-IV. confirmed Richard’s donations, with an additional annuity of forty
-marcs. The last document as to Chaucer is an indenture of lease to him,
-dated 24th December, 1399, of a tenement in the Priory Garden of
-Westminster, for a term of fifty-three years. Chaucer, therefore, was
-active at the end of 1399, and seems, from the length of his lease,
-still to have thought himself a good life, as he well might, if his age
-were only sixty; but his biographers (probably because they traced him
-in no later documents, and thought seventy-two a good old age) in the
-absence of any other positive evidence, than the date on a monument
-erected in the sixteenth century, have fixed his death in 1400.
-
-We have thought it expedient not to mix up the facts proved by official
-documents, with the few others to be gleaned from passages in his works.
-Such as are attested by neither of these vouchers have no claim to
-implicit credit. In his Testament of Love, he speaks of having “endured
-penance in a dark prison.” Again, “Although I had little in respect of
-other great and worthy, yet had I a fair parcel, as methought for the
-time; I had riches sufficiently to wave need. I had dignity to be
-reverenced in worship; power methought that I had to keep from mine
-enemies, and me seemed to shine in glory of renown.” With this picture
-of former prosperity, he contrasts his present state. “For riches now
-have I poverty; instead of power, wretchedness I suffer; and for glory
-of renown, I am now despised and foully hated.” We cannot with certainty
-connect this reverse of personal fortune with any passage of general
-history. He alludes to it thus:—“In my youth I was drawn to be
-assenting, and in my might helping to certain conjurations, and other
-great matters of ruling of citizens, so painted and coloured, that at
-first to me seemed then noble and glorious to all the people.” He
-intimates that he had made some discoveries concerning certain
-transactions in the city. He was, consequently, exposed to calumny, and
-the charge of falsehood. To prove his veracity, he offered an appeal to
-arms, and “had prepared his body for Mars’s doing, if any contraried his
-saws.” He alludes to his escape out of the kingdom, when we are told by
-his biographers that he spent his time in Hainault, France, and Zealand,
-where he wrote many of his books. He himself says, that during his exile
-those whom he had served never refreshed him with the value of the least
-coined plate; those who owed him money would pay nothing, because they
-thought his return impossible. Mr. Godwin, like preceding biographers,
-refers these personal misfortunes to his support of John Comberton,
-generally styled John of Northampton, who, in 1382, attempted reform in
-the city on Wiclif’s principles. This was highly resented by the clergy;
-Comberton was taken into custody, and Chaucer is stated to have fled the
-kingdom. Mr. Turner thinks, that as the date assigned to these reverses
-is purely conjectural, they may be referred with more probability to a
-later period. He argues that, had Chaucer joined any party against the
-court, he would not have enjoyed Richard’s continued favour. The
-protection from the king, in 1398, implies that he was intermeddling in
-hazardous concerns; and in the Testament of Love, which may be
-considered as an autobiography composed of hints rather than facts,
-there is this remarkable passage. “Of the confederacies made by my
-sovereigns, I was but a servant; and thereof ought nothing in evil to be
-laid to me wards, sithen as repentant I am turned.” Mr. Turner infers,
-from the singular protection granted to Chaucer, in the very year when,
-after Gloucester’s murder, Richard adopted his most illegal and
-tyrannical measures, that the poet was prosecuted as an accomplice in
-those measures; that Henry might have thrown him into prison, as
-implicated in the deposed monarch’s unlawful acts; but on his
-professions of repentance, and in consideration of his connexion and
-alliance with his own father, might have pardoned him with others, at
-his coronation. In this difference of opinion, or rather of conjecture,
-between the biographers and the historian, we may, perhaps, be allowed
-to hazard the supposition, that those scattered allusions in the
-Testament may refer not to the same, but to different periods of evil
-fortune; indeed, the very expressions quoted seem hardly reconcileable
-with any one event. The “conjurations, noble and glorious to the
-people,” seem to point at some measures distasteful to the higher
-powers: and as both Chaucer and his patron the Duke of Lancaster had
-adopted many of Wiclif’s tenets, it seems not improbable that the
-conspiracy alluded to may be identified with that of John of
-Northampton. Delicately as the circumstance is glossed over by the poet,
-he appears to have turned what in homely phrase is called _king’s
-evidence_, the imputation of which he parries by a chivalrous appeal to
-“Mars’s doing.” This will account for his being received back into royal
-favour, and for his lending himself in after-time, no longer to the
-conjurations of the people, in plain English, the rebellion of the
-commons, but to the confederacies of his sovereigns. If his allusion to
-his personal misfortunes, and his expressions of conscientious remorse,
-may be referred to different periods, and to events of opposite
-character; in that view of the case, neither Mr. Godwin nor Mr. Turner
-may be in the wrong.
-
-Few particulars of Chaucer’s private history are to be gathered from his
-poems. In his Dream, of which Blanche, Duchess of Lancaster, is the
-subject, the poet describes himself as a victim to nervous melancholy
-from habitual want of sleep, accompanied with a dread of death. The
-translation of Boethius, and occasional quotations from Seneca and
-Juvenal, attest that he retained through life his juvenile acquaintance
-with the Latin classics. The chronology of his works must be rendered
-doubtful by the uncertainty respecting that of his life. Mr. Turner
-places the time of his death later than 1400, but before 1410. The poet
-is said to have had the unusual honour of being brother-in-law to a
-prince of the blood, by the marriage of John of Gaunt, Duke of
-Lancaster, with Catherine, widow of Sir Hugh Swinford, and sister to
-Chaucer’s wife. He is said to have lived at Woodstock at a late period
-of his life, and finally, to have retired to Donnington Castle on the
-Duke of Lancaster’s death. By his wife, Philippa, he had two sons,
-Thomas and Lewis. Thomas was Speaker of the House of Commons in the
-reign of Henry IV., ambassador to France and Burgundy, and discharged
-other public duties. Chaucer’s principal biographers are Leland, Thomas
-Speght, Mr. Tyrwhitt, and Mr. Godwin. The work of the latter would have
-been more valuable had it been less voluminous, less discursive, and
-less conjectural. Mr. Tyrwhitt’s edition of the Canterbury Tales is a
-model of criticism on an old English classic. His Introductory Discourse
-on the Language and Versification of Chaucer will enable its readers to
-form just and clear ideas of the history of our ancient tongue, and
-Chaucer’s peculiar use of it.
-
-Chaucer was held in high estimation by his most distinguished
-contemporaries. John the Chaplain, who translated Boethius into English
-verse, as Chaucer had into prose, calls him the Flower of Rhetoric.
-Occleve laments him with personal affection as his father and master,
-and styles him the honour of English tongue. Lydgate, the monk of Bury,
-mentions him as a chief poet of Britain; the loadstar of our language;
-the notable rhetor. Dryden says, in the preface prefixed to his
-Fables,—“As Chaucer is the father of English poetry, so I hold him in
-the same degree of veneration as the Grecians held Homer, or the Romans
-Virgil; he is a perpetual fountain of good sense, learned in all
-sciences, and therefore speaks properly on all subjects; as he knew what
-to say, so he knows also when to leave off, a continence which is
-practised by few writers, and scarcely by any of the ancients, excepting
-Virgil and Horace.”
-
-Our account of his principal works must be brief. The Romaunt of the
-Rose is professedly a translation of the French Roman de la Rose. It is
-a long allegory, representing the difficulties and dangers encountered
-by a lover in the pursuit of his mistress, who is emblematically
-described as a Rose, and the plot, if so it may be called, ends with his
-putting her in a beautiful garden.
-
-Troilus and Creseide is for the most part a translation of the
-Filostrato of Boccaccio, but with many variations and large additions.
-As a tale, it is barren of incident, although, according to Warton, as
-long as the Æneid; but it contains passages of great beauty and pathos.
-
-The story of Queen Annelida and false Arcite is said to have been
-originally told in Latin. Chaucer names the authors whom he professes to
-follow. “First folwe I Stace, and after him Corinne.” The opening only
-is taken from Statius, so that Corinne must be supposed to have
-furnished the remainder; but who she was has never yet been discovered.
-False Arcite is a different person from the Arcite of the Knight’s Tale.
-It is probable therefore that this poem was written before Chaucer had
-become acquainted with the Teseide of Boccaccio.
-
-The opening of the Assembly of Foules is built on the Somnium Scipionis
-of Cicero. The description of a garden and temple is almost entirely
-taken from the description of the Temple of Venus in the Fourth Book of
-the Teseide. Mr. Tyrwhitt suspects this poem to allude to the intended
-marriage between John of Gaunt and Blanche of Lancaster, which took
-place in 1359.
-
-Warton, in his History of English Poetry, intimates his belief that the
-House of Fame was originally a Provençal composition. But Mr. Tyrwhitt
-differs from him in opinion, and states that he “has not observed, in
-any of Chaucer’s writings, a single phrase or word which has the least
-appearance of having been fetched by him from the South of the Loire.”
-With respect to the matter and manner of his compositions, Mr. Tyrwhitt
-adds, that he “shall be slow to believe that in either he ever copied
-the poets of Provence,” or that he had more than a very slender
-acquaintance with them. The poem is an allegorical vision; a favourite
-theme with all the poets of Chaucer’s time, both native and foreign.
-
-The Flower and the Leaf was printed for the first time in Speght’s
-edition of 1597. Mr. Tyrwhitt suggests a doubt of its correct ascription
-to Chaucer; but it seems to afford internal evidence of powers at all
-events congenial with those of Chaucer, in its description of rural
-scenery and its general truth and feeling. Dryden has modernised it,
-without a suspicion of its authenticity.
-
-Chaucer’s prose works are—his Translation of Boethius, the Treatise on
-the Astrolabe, and the Testament of Love. The Canterbury Tales were his
-latest work. The general plan of them is, that a company of Pilgrims,
-going to Canterbury, assemble at an inn in Southwark, and agree that
-each shall tell at least one tale in going and another on returning; and
-that he who shall tell the best tales shall be treated by the rest with
-a supper at the inn, before they separate. The characters of the
-Pilgrims, as exhibited in their respective Prologues, are drawn from the
-various departments of middle life. The occurrences on the journey, and
-the adventures of the company at Canterbury, were intended to be
-interwoven as Episodes, or connected by means of the Prologues; but the
-work, like its prototype the Decameron, was undertaken when the author
-was past the meridian of life, and was left imperfect. Chaucer has, in
-many respects, improved on his model, especially in variety of character
-and its nice discrimination; but the introductory machinery is not
-contrived with equal felicity. Boccaccio’s narrators indulge in the ease
-and luxury of a palace; a journey on horse-back is not the most
-convenient opportunity of telling long stories to a numerous company.
-
-The works of Chaucer, notwithstanding the encomiums of four successive
-centuries, emanating from poets and critics of the highest renown and
-first authority, are little read excepting by antiquaries and
-philologers, unless in the polished versions of Dryden and Pope. This is
-principally to be attributed neither to any change of opinion respecting
-the merit of the poet, nor to the obsoleteness of the language; but to
-the progressive change of manners and feelings in society, to the
-accumulation of knowledge, and the improvement of morals. His command
-over the language of his day, his poetical power, and his exhibition of
-existing characters and amusing incidents, constitute his attractions;
-but his prolixity is ill suited to our impatient rapidity of thought and
-action. Unlike the passionate and natural creations of Shakspeare, which
-will never grow obsolete, the sentiments of Chaucer are not congenial
-with our own: his love is fantastic gallantry; he is the painter and
-panegyrist of exploded knight-errantry. Hence the preference of the
-Canterbury Tales above all his other works; because the manners of the
-time are dramatized, in other ranks of life than that of chivalry; his
-good sense, and capacity for keen observation are called forth, to the
-exclusion of conventional affectations. With respect to his prose, it is
-curious as that “strange English” and “ornate style,” adopted by him as
-a scholar for the sake of distinction, rather than as a specimen of the
-language and mode of expression characteristic of his age.
-
-[Illustration: [The Wife of Bath, from Stothard’s Canterbury
-Pilgrimage.]]
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-                               SOBIESKI.
-
-
-So rapid and complete has been the decay of the Ottoman empire as an
-aggressive power, that any person now living, unacquainted with history
-anterior to the date of his own birth, would treat the notion of danger
-to Christian Europe from the ambition of Turkey, as the idle fear of an
-over-anxious mind. Yet there was a time, and that within a century and a
-half, when Popes summoned the princes of Europe to support the Cross,
-and the Eastern frontier of Christendom was the scene of almost constant
-warfare between Christian and Moslem. That period of danger was to
-Poland a period of glory; and the brightest part of it is the reign of
-the warrior-king, John Sobieski. It proved, indeed, no better than an
-empty glitter, won at a vast expense of blood and treasure, the benefits
-of which were chiefly reaped by the faithless and ungrateful Austria.
-
-[Illustration:
-
-  _Engraved by J. Thomson._
-
-  JOHN SOBIESKI.
-
-  _From an original Picture, in the
-  Gallery of the Louvre._
-
-  Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful
-    Knowledge.
-
-  _London, Published by Charles Knight, Pall Mall East._
-]
-
-Sobieski was the younger son of a Polish nobleman, high in rank and
-merit. He was born in 1629. The death of his brother, slain in warfare
-with the Cossacks of the Ukraine, in 1649, placed him in possession of
-the hereditary titles and immense estates of his house. To these
-distinctions he added high personal merits, an athletic body, a
-powerful, active, and upright mind, and, as the result proved, the
-qualities which make a general and statesman. It is no wonder therefore
-that, in the wars carried on by Poland during his youth against Tartars,
-Cossacks, and Swedes, he won laurels, though the Republic gained neither
-honour nor advantage. At an early age he acquired the confidence of
-Casimir, the reigning king of Poland, and was employed in various
-services of importance. On the revolt of Lubomirski, Grand Marshal of
-Poland, Sobieski was invested with that office, and soon after made
-Lieutenant-General (if we may so translate it) of the Polish army. In
-that capacity he led the royal troops against Lubomirski. The king’s
-obstinacy forced him to give battle at a disadvantage, and he was
-defeated, July 13, 1666; but the blame of this mishap was universally
-thrown on the right person, while the skilful conduct of Sobieski’s
-retreat obtained general admiration.
-
-He married Marie de la Grange d’Arquien, a French lady of noble birth,
-who had accompanied the queen into Poland. She was a woman of wit and
-beauty, who exercised throughout life an unusual and unfortunate
-influence over a husband devotedly attached to her. Aided by her favour
-with her mistress, Sobieski obtained the highest military office, that
-of Grand General, in 1667. Happy for Poland, that in this instance
-favour and merit went hand in hand: for a host of fourscore thousand
-Tartars broke into the kingdom, when its exhausted finances could not
-maintain an army, and its exhausted population could hardly supply one.
-By draining his own purse, pledging his own resources, and levying
-recruits on his immense estates, the General raised his troops from
-twelve to twenty thousand, and marched fearlessly against a force four
-times as great. The scheme of his campaign was singularly confident, so
-much so as to excite the disapprobation even of the intrepid Condé. He
-detached eight thousand men in several corps, with secret orders, and
-took post with the remaining twelve thousand in a fortified camp at
-Podahiecz, a small town in the Palatinate of Russia, to stand the attack
-of eighty thousand Tartars, while his detachments were converging to
-their assigned stations. The assault was renewed for sixteen successive
-days; and day after day the assailants were repulsed with slaughter. On
-the seventeenth, Sobieski offered battle in the open field. A bloody
-contest ensued; but while victory was doubtful, the Polish detachments
-appeared on the Tartar flanks, and turned the balance. Disheartened by
-their loss, the Tartars made overtures of peace, which was concluded
-equally to the satisfaction of both the belligerents, October 19, 1667.
-
-The circumstances attendant on the abdication of Casimir, in 1668, and
-the election of his successor Michael Wiesnowieski, do not demand our
-notice, for Sobieski took little part in the intrigues of the
-candidates, or the deliberations of the Diet. The new king wept and
-trembled as he mounted a throne to which he had never aspired, and which
-he protested himself incapable to fill; and the event proved that he was
-right. Yet, when he had tasted the sweets of power, he looked jealously
-on the man most highly esteemed and most able to do his country service,
-and therefore most formidable to a weak and suspicious prince. The
-Ukraine Cossacks had been converted by oppression from good subjects
-into bad neighbours, and on the accession of Michael they again raised
-the standard of war. Partly by negotiation, partly by force, the Grand
-General reduced all the country from the Bog to the Dniester in the
-campaign of 1671, and he received the thanks of the Republic for
-performing such eminent services with such scanty means. It is still
-more to his credit that he interfered, not for the first time, in favour
-of the revolted Cossacks, and insisted on their being received into
-allegiance with kindness, and encouraged to good behaviour by equitable
-and friendly treatment.
-
-King Michael was of a very different mind in this matter. Determined on
-the subjugation of the whole Ukraine, he intrigued to hinder the Diet
-from confirming the peace, and thus induced the Cossacks to call in the
-help of Turkey, by threatening which they had stopped the progress of
-Sobieski. This brought on a fresh discussion in the Diet, in which
-Sobieski warmly urged the expediency of concession. Michael, however,
-persisted in his course; and from this period we may date the
-commencement of a league to dethrone him. In this, at first, Sobieski
-took no active, certainly no open, part. When compelled to declare
-himself, he asserted, with zeal, the right of the Republic to depose a
-prince who had shown himself unfit to reign. The consequences of this
-discord were very serious. At a Diet held in the spring of 1672, Michael
-was openly required to abdicate. To avoid this he summoned the minor
-nobility, who had no seats in the Diet, and with whom, having formerly
-been of their body, he was more popular, to meet in the field of
-Golemba, on the bank of the Vistula; and he thus raised a sort of
-militia, to the number of a hundred thousand, ready to uphold him as the
-king. Sobieski, encamped at Lowicz with an army devoted to him,
-maintained the cause of the confederate nobles. Neither party, however,
-was in haste to appeal to arms; and in the interim, Mahomet IV., with
-150,000 Turks and 100,000 Tartars, invaded Poland. The king, instead of
-marching against the enemy, contented himself with setting a price on
-Sobieski’s head, in whom alone the hope of Poland rested. Too weak
-however to oppose the Turks, he sought the Tartars, who had dispersed to
-carry ruin through the country, routed them in five successive battles,
-and recovered an immense booty and thirty thousand prisoners from their
-hands. Meanwhile the Turks overran Podolia, and took its capital town,
-the strong fortress of Kaminiec, the bulwark of Poland. Incapable
-himself of action, and apprehensive alike of the failure or success of
-Sobieski, Michael hastily concluded an ignominious peace, by which the
-Ukraine and part of Podolia were ceded to Turkey, and the payment of an
-annual tribute was agreed upon.
-
-This treaty of Boudchaz, signed October 8, 1672, prevented Sobieski from
-continuing the war, and he returned indignantly to his camp at Lowicz.
-Before the end of the year, the king found it necessary to adopt
-conciliatory measures, and Sobieski, and other nobles who had been
-outlawed with him, were restored to civil rights and the enjoyment of
-their property. At the Diet held in February, 1673, he inveighed against
-the scandalous treaty of Boudchaz, which, in truth, was void, being
-concluded without the sanction of that body, and it was resolved to
-renounce the treaty, and renew the war. Eighty thousand Turks were
-stationed in a fortified camp at Choczim, to overawe the newly-conquered
-provinces. November 12, 1673, Sobieski stormed their camp. Observing
-that the infantry wavered, he dismounted his own regiment of dragoons,
-and led them to the ramparts, which they were the first to scale. The
-infantry rushed forward to support their general; the entrenchments were
-won, and the Turks routed with great slaughter, and entirely
-disorganized. This victory was disgraced by the massacre of a great
-number of prisoners in cold blood. Soon after it the death of Michael
-relieved Poland from the burden of a weak king, and the Interrex stopped
-the victorious general’s progress, by requiring his attendance in
-Poland.
-
-The diet of election commenced its sittings May 1, 1674. As before,
-there were a number of foreign candidates, but none who commanded a
-decisive majority among the electors; and at last the choice of the
-assembly fell on Sobieski, who, whatever his secret wishes or intrigues
-may have been, had never openly pretended to the crown. That choice was
-received with general rejoicing. The new king’s first care was to follow
-up the blow struck at Choczim, and wrest the Ukraine from Turkey. During
-this and the two following years, that unhappy country was again the
-scene of bloodshed and rapine. There is little in the history of the war
-to claim our attention. It was concluded at the memorable leaguer of
-Zurawno, where, with a policy somewhat similar to that which he pursued
-at Podahiecz, he advanced to meet an invading army outnumbering his own
-six to one. Fortunately the Turkish government stood in need of peace,
-and their general had authority and orders to put an end to the war in
-the best manner he could; and after besieging the Polish camp for five
-weeks, he consented to a treaty, signed October 29, 1676, the terms of
-which were far more favourable than could have been anticipated by
-Poland. Two-thirds of the Ukraine, and part of Podolia, were restored to
-her, and the tribute imposed by the treaty of Boudchaz was given up.
-These terms were ratified by the Porte, and seven years of peace
-succeeded to almost constant war.
-
-This interval of rest from arms is not important in the history of
-Sobieski’s life. As he had anticipated, he found the throne no easy
-seat; and his criminal weakness in admitting the queen, who never
-scrupled at disturbing public affairs to gratify her own passions or
-prejudices, to an undue weight in his counsels, lessens our sympathy
-with his vexations, and casts a shade over his brilliant qualities. In
-1680, greater matters began to be moved. Ever watchful of the Porte,
-Sobieski knew through his spies that Mahomet was preparing for war with
-Austria, as soon as the existing truce expired; and he conceived the
-project of uniting the money of Rome, and the arms of Austria and
-Venice, with those of Poland; and, by thus distracting the power of
-Turkey, to regain more easily the much coveted fortress of Kaminiec, and
-the remnant of Podolia. He had, indeed, sworn solemnly to maintain a
-treaty, which the Turks religiously observed; but the Pope was ready to
-absolve him from the oath, and this the morality of the age thought
-quite sufficient. For a time his views were frustrated, both at home and
-abroad; but as the political storm which was collecting grew darker and
-darker, both Pope and Emperor entered more heartily into the scheme, and
-an offensive and defensive treaty was concluded between Austria and
-Poland.
-
-The Turkish troops assembled in the plains of Adrianople, in May, 1683,
-in number, according to the calculations of historians, upwards of
-200,000 fighting men. The brave Hungarians, heretofore the bulwark of
-Austria against the Ottoman, but now alienated by oppression and
-misgovernment, revolted under the celebrated Tekeli, and opened a way
-into the heart of the Austrian empire. Kara Mustapha commanded the
-immense army destined by the Porte for this warfare, and for once he
-showed judgment and decision in neglecting small objects and pushing
-forward at once to Vienna. Leopold fled in haste with his court: the
-Imperial General, the brave Charles of Lorraine, threw in part of his
-small army to reinforce the garrison, but was unable to oppose the
-progress of the besiegers. The trenches were opened July 14, and the
-heavy artillery of the Turks crumbled the weak ramparts, and carried
-destruction into the interior of the city. Unhappy is the country which
-trusts to foreign aid in such a strait! The German princes had not yet
-brought up their contingents; and even Sobieski, the last man to delay
-in such a cause, could not collect his army fast enough to meet the
-pressing need of the occasion. Letter reached him after letter,
-entreating that he would at least bring the terror of his name and
-profound military skill to the relief of Austria; and he set off to
-traverse Moravia with an escort of only two thousand horse, leaving the
-Grand General Jablonowski to bring up the army with the utmost speed.
-After all, the Polish troops reached Tuln, on the Danube, the place of
-rendezvous, before the Bavarians, Saxons, and other German auxiliaries
-were collected. September 7, the whole army was assembled, in number
-about 74,000. Vienna was already in the utmost distress. Stahremberg,
-the brave commandant, had written to the Duke of Lorraine a letter,
-containing only these pithy words, “No more time to lose, my Lord; no
-more time to lose.” Incapable of resisting with its enfeebled garrison a
-general assault, the place must have fallen but for the avarice and
-stupid pride of Mustapha, who thought that the imperial capital must
-contain immense treasures, which he was loth to give up to
-indiscriminate plunder; and never dreamed that any one would be hardy
-enough to contest the prize with his multitudes before it fell into his
-hands from mere exhaustion. There was indeed no more time to lose: it
-was calculated on August 22, that Vienna could only hold out three days
-against a general assault; and September 9 arrived before the Christian
-army moved from Tuln. Five leagues of mountain road still separated it
-from Vienna, in any part of which its progress might have been stopped
-by such a detachment as the immense Turkish army might well have spared.
-
-The battle of deliverance, fought September 12, 1683, was short and
-decisive: the Turks were disgusted and disheartened by their general’s
-misconduct. Sobieski was not expected to command in person; but the
-Tartars had seen him lead his cavalry to the charge too often to
-overlook the signs which marked his presence, and the knowledge of it
-sunk their hearts still more. “Allah!” said the brave Khan of the
-Tartars, as he pointed out to the Visir the pennoned lances of the
-Polish Horse Guards, “Allah! but the wizard is amongst them, sure
-enough.” The Visir attempted to atone by courage for his past errors,
-but despair or disaffection had seized on soldiers and officers. Even
-the veteran Tartar chief replied to his entreaties,—“The Polish king is
-there. I know him well. Did I not tell you that all we had to do was to
-get away as fast as possible?” The Polish cavalry pushed forward to the
-Visir’s tent, and cut their way through the Spahis, who alone disputed
-the victory; and with the capture of their great standard the
-consternation and confusion of the Turks became final and complete.
-Entering Vienna the next day, Sobieski was received with an enthusiasm
-little pleasant to the jealous temper of the Emperor, who manifested his
-incurable meanness of disposition, not only in his cold reception and
-ungracious thanks of the deliverer of his kingdom, but in the
-ingratitude and perfidy of all his subsequent conduct.
-
-Whether from pure love of beating the Turks, or from a false hope that
-Leopold might be induced to perform his promises, Sobieski, contrary to
-the wishes of the Republic, pursued the flying enemy into Hungary. Near
-Gran, on the Danube, he met with a severe check, in which his own life
-had nearly been sacrificed to the desire of showing the Imperialists
-that he could conquer without their help. This he acknowledged after his
-junction with the Duke of Lorraine. “Gentlemen,” he said, “I confess I
-wanted to conquer without you, for the honour of my own nation. I have
-suffered severely for it, being soundly beat; but I will take my revenge
-both with you and for you. To effect this must be the chief object of
-our thoughts.” The disgrace was soon wiped off by a decisive victory
-gained nearly on the same spot. Gran capitulated, and the king led his
-army back to Poland in the month of December.
-
-The glory of this celebrated campaign fell to Poland, the profit accrued
-to Austria. Kaminiec was still in the possession of Turkey, and
-continued so during the whole reign of Sobieski: not from want of
-effort, for the recovery of that important fortress was the leading
-object of the campaigns of 1684, 5, and 7; but the Polish army was
-better suited for the open field than for the tedious and expensive
-process of a siege. In 1686, Leopold, apprehensive lest Sobieski should
-break off an alliance distasteful to his subjects and unsatisfactory to
-himself, (for the Emperor had broken every promise and failed in every
-inducement which he had held out to the Polish sovereign,) threw out
-another bait, which succeeded better than the duplicity and ingratitude
-of the contriver deserved. He suggested the idea of wresting from the
-Turks Moldavia and Wallachia, to be held as an independent and
-hereditary kingdom by Sobieski and his family, and promised a body of
-troops to assist in the undertaking. The great object of Sobieski’s
-ambition, by pursuing which he lost much of his popularity and incurred
-just censure, as aiming at an unconstitutional object by
-unconstitutional means, was to hand the crown of Poland to his son at
-his own decease, and render it, if possible, hereditary in his family.
-The possession of the above-named provinces was most desirable as a step
-to this; or, if this wish were still frustrated, it was yet desirable as
-placing his posterity among the royal houses of Europe: and with a
-preference of private to public interest, which is not less censurable
-for being common, he rejected an offer made by Mahomet to restore
-Kaminiec, and to pay a large sum to indemnify Poland for the expenses of
-the war, that he might pursue his favourite scheme of family
-aggrandizement. Satisfied, however, with having engaged him in this new
-diversion of the Turkish power, Leopold had not the smallest intention
-of sending the promised troops; and the King of Poland was involved in
-great danger from their non-appearance at the expected place. This
-campaign, however, was so far satisfactory, that Moldavia yielded
-without resistance or bloodshed; a second and a third expedition,
-undertaken in 1688 and 1691, to consolidate and extend this conquest,
-were unsuccessful, and the sovereignty soon passed back into the hands
-of Turkey. The campaign of 1691 was the last in which Sobieski appeared
-in the field.
-
-The reader will see from this brief account that he added few laurels,
-after the campaign of Vienna, to those by which his brows were so
-profusely garlanded. Indeed he scarcely deserved to do so; for great and
-disinterested as his conduct often was, in this juncture he sacrificed
-national to family interests, and consumed the blood and riches of his
-countrymen in a needless and fruitless war.
-
-Sobieski’s internal policy has little to recommend it, or to exalt his
-fame. Devoted to his wife, who proved herself unworthy his affection by
-the most harassing demands upon his time and attention, and still more
-by a pertinacious, unwise, and unconstitutional interference in state
-affairs, which had not even the excuse of being well directed, but was
-continually employed to promote private interests, to gratify private
-prejudices, and, ultimately, at once to violate the laws and sow
-dissension in her own family by securing the crown of Poland to her own
-son, and choosing a younger in preference to the elder branch, the king
-lowered his popularity and reputation by thus weakly yielding to an
-unworthy influence, and, as the natural consequence, he was continually
-thwarted by a harassing and often factious opposition. Civil discord,
-family quarrels, and the infirmities of a body worn out prematurely by
-unsparing exposure for more than forty years to the toils of war,
-combined to embitter the decline of his life. In the five years which
-elapsed from Sobieski’s last campaign to his death, the history of
-Poland records much of unprincipled intriguing, much personal
-ingratitude, and some upright opposition to his measures, but nothing of
-material importance to his personal history. He died June 17, 1696, on
-the double anniversary, it is said, of his birth and his accession to
-the throne; and by another singular coincidence, his birth and death
-were alike heralded by storms of unusual violence.
-
-The character of Sobieski is one of great brilliancy and considerable
-faults. As a subject, he displayed genuine, disinterested patriotism; as
-a king, the welfare of his family seems to have been dearer to him than
-that of his country. Nor did his domestic government display the vigour
-and decision which we might reasonably have expected from his powerful
-mind. But his justice was unimpeachable; he was temperate, and
-unrevengeful even when personally affronted, which often happened in the
-tumultuous Diets of Poland; and, in a bigoted age, he displayed the
-virtue of toleration. The constant labours of an active life did not
-choke his literary taste, and his literary attainments were
-considerable; he spoke several languages, aspired to be a poet, and
-loved the company of learned men. He was remarkable for the suavity of
-his temper and the charms of his conversation. Such a character, though
-far from perfection, is entitled to the epithet GREAT, which he won and
-enjoyed; and, as a soldier, he has a claim to our gratitude, which not
-every soldier possesses. His warfare was almost uniformly waged against
-an aggressive and barbarian power, which, in the utmost need of
-Christian Europe, he stood forward to resist, and finally broke. Like
-other nations, Turkey has had its alternations of success and loss; but
-never, since the campaign of Vienna, have the arms of the East
-threatened the repose of Europe.
-
-The history of Sobieski’s life and reign is told at large in the works
-of his countryman Zaluski; in the Life by the Abbé Coyer, of which there
-is an English translation; and in a recent publication by M. Salvandy.
-The same writer has republished a most interesting collection of
-Letters, written by Sobieski to his queen during the campaign of Vienna,
-printed for the first time in Poland about ten years ago.
-
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- 1. Changed “General Keith” to “Governor Keith” on p. 78.
- 2. Changed “well worthy attention” to “well worth attention” on p. 119.
- 3. Changed “Geographie” to “Géographie” on p. 140.
- 4. Silently corrected typographical errors.
- 5. Retained anachronistic and non-standard spellings as printed.
- 6. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.
- 7. Superscripts are denoted by a carat before a single superscript
-      character or a series of superscripted characters enclosed in
-      curly braces, e.g. M^r. or M^{ister}.
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-<pre>
-
-The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Gallery of Portraits: with Memoirs.
-Volume 3 (of 7), by Various
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
-the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-Title: The Gallery of Portraits: with Memoirs. Volume 3 (of 7)
-
-Author: Various
-
-Release Date: August 6, 2017 [EBook #55277]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GALLERY OF PORTRAITS, VOL 3 ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Richard Tonsing, Chris Curnow and the Online
-Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
-file was produced from images generously made available
-by The Internet Archive)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-</pre>
-
-
-<div class='tnotes covernote'>
-
-<p class='c000'><strong>Transcriber's Note:</strong></p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class='nf-center-c1'>
-  <div class='nf-center'>
-    <div><em>UNDER THE SUPERINTENDENCE OF THE SOCIETY FOR THE DIFFUSION OF USEFUL KNOWLEDGE.</em></div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div>
-  <h1 class='c001'><span class='small'>THE</span><br /> GALLERY OF PORTRAITS:<br /> <span class='xsmall'>WITH</span><br /> <span class='xlarge'>MEMOIRS.</span><br /> <br /> <span class='large'>VOLUME III.</span></h1>
-</div>
-
-<div class='nf-center-c1'>
-<div class='nf-center c002'>
-    <div>LONDON:</div>
-    <div>CHARLES KNIGHT, 22, LUDGATE-STREET.</div>
-    <div class='c003'>1834.</div>
-    <div class='c003'><span class='xsmall'>[PRICE ONE GUINEA, BOUND IN CLOTH.]</span></div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div class='nf-center-c1'>
-<div class='nf-center c004'>
-    <div>LONDON:</div>
-    <div>PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES,</div>
-    <div>Duke-Street, Lambeth.</div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c003' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <h2 class='c005'>PORTRAITS, AND BIOGRAPHIES<br /> <span class='large'>CONTAINED IN THIS VOLUME.</span></h2>
-</div>
-
-<table class='table0' summary='PORTRAITS, AND BIOGRAPHIES'>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c006'>1.</td>
-    <td class='c007'>Erskine</td>
-    <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_1'>1</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c006'>2.</td>
-    <td class='c007'>Dollond</td>
-    <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_12'>12</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c006'>3.</td>
-    <td class='c007'>John Hunter</td>
-    <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_19'>19</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c006'>4.</td>
-    <td class='c007'>Petrarch</td>
-    <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_25'>25</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c006'>5.</td>
-    <td class='c007'>Burke</td>
-    <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_33'>33</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c006'>6.</td>
-    <td class='c007'>Henry IV.</td>
-    <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_41'>41</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c006'>7.</td>
-    <td class='c007'>Bentley</td>
-    <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_49'>49</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c006'>8.</td>
-    <td class='c007'>Kepler</td>
-    <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_59'>59</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c006'>9.</td>
-    <td class='c007'>Hale</td>
-    <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_66'>66</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c006'>10.</td>
-    <td class='c007'>Franklin</td>
-    <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_77'>77</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c006'>11.</td>
-    <td class='c007'>Schwartz</td>
-    <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_86'>86</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c006'>12.</td>
-    <td class='c007'>Barrow</td>
-    <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_94'>94</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c006'>13.</td>
-    <td class='c007'>D’Alembert</td>
-    <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_101'>101</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c006'>14.</td>
-    <td class='c007'>Hogarth</td>
-    <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_106'>106</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c006'>15.</td>
-    <td class='c007'>Galileo</td>
-    <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_113'>113</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c006'>16.</td>
-    <td class='c007'>Rembrandt</td>
-    <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_121'>121</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c006'>17.</td>
-    <td class='c007'>Dryden</td>
-    <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_127'>127</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c006'>18.</td>
-    <td class='c007'>La Perouse</td>
-    <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_135'>135</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c006'>19.</td>
-    <td class='c007'>Cranmer</td>
-    <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_141'>141</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c006'>20.</td>
-    <td class='c007'>Tasso</td>
-    <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_149'>149</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c006'>21.</td>
-    <td class='c007'>Ben Jonson</td>
-    <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_156'>156</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c006'>22.</td>
-    <td class='c007'>Canova</td>
-    <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_165'>165</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c006'>23.</td>
-    <td class='c007'>Chaucer</td>
-    <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_176'>176</a></td>
-  </tr>
-  <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
-  <tr>
-    <td class='c006'>24.</td>
-    <td class='c007'>Sobieski</td>
-    <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_184'>184</a></td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-
-<div class='nf-center-c1'>
-  <div class='nf-center'>
-    <div>⁂ It should have been stated in the Life of D’Alembert, that that Life was mostly taken from the Penny Cyclopædia, with some alterations by the Editor of this work.</div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/i_001fp.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic001'>
-<p><em>Engraved by R. Woodman.</em><br /><br />ERSKINE.<br /><br /><em>From the original Picture by Hoppner<br />in his Majesty’s Collection at Windsor.</em><br /><br />Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.<br /><br /><em>London, Published by Charles Knight, Ludgate Street, &amp; Pall Mall East.</em></p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id002'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_1'>1</span>
-<img src='images/i_001.jpg' alt='ERSKINE.' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <h2 class='c005'>ERSKINE.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c009'>The Honourable Thomas Erskine was the third son of David Earl of
-Buchan, a Scottish peer of ancient family and title, but reduced
-fortune. He was born in January 1748, and received the rudiments
-of his education, partly at the High School of Edinburgh,
-partly at the University of St. Andrews. But the straitened circumstances
-of his family rendered it necessary for him to embrace
-some profession at an early age; and he accordingly entered the navy
-as a midshipman in 1764. Not thinking his prospects of advancement
-sufficiently favourable to render his continuance in that service
-expedient, he exchanged it in the year 1768 for that of the army. In
-1770 he married his first wife, Frances, the daughter of Daniel
-Moore, M.P. for Marlow; and soon after went with his regiment to
-Minorca, where he remained three years. Soon after returning to
-England he changed his profession again. It has been said that he
-took this step against his own judgment, and on the pressing entreaties
-of his mother, a woman of lofty and highly cultivated mind, the sister
-of Sir James Stewart, whose scientific writings, especially upon political
-philosophy, have rendered his name so famous, and the daughter
-of a well known Scotch lawyer and Solicitor-General of the same
-name. But it is certain that at this time he had acquired considerable
-celebrity in the circles of London society; and it is hard
-to suppose that he was not sensible of his own brilliant qualifications
-for forensic success. Whatever the cause, he commenced his legal
-life in 1775, in which year he entered himself as a student of Lincoln’s
-Inn, and also as a fellow commoner of Trinity College, Cambridge;
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_2'>2</span>not with a view to university honours or emoluments, but to obtain
-the honorary degree of M.A., to which he was entitled by his birth,
-and thereby to shorten the period of probation, previous to his being
-called to the bar. He gave an earnest, however, of his future eloquence,
-by gaining the first declamation prize, annually bestowed in
-his college. The subject which he chose was the Revolution of 1688.
-His professional education was chiefly carried on in the chambers of
-Mr. Buller and Mr. Wood, both subsequently raised to the bench. In
-Trinity term, 1778, he was called to the bar.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Mr. Erskine’s course was as rapid as it was brilliant. In the
-following term, Captain Baillie, Lieutenant-Governor of Greenwich
-Hospital, was prosecuted for an alleged libel on other officers of that
-establishment, contained in a pamphlet written to expose the abuses
-which existed there, and bearing heavily on the character of the Earl
-of Sandwich, then First Lord of the Admiralty. It is believed that
-on this occasion Mr. Erskine made his first appearance in court. His
-speech was characterized by great warmth and eloquence, and a most
-fearless assertion of matters not likely to be palatable either to the
-Court or the Government. And this is the more worthy of notice,
-because it shows that the boldness which he afterwards displayed in
-causes more nearly connected with the liberties of England, was not
-the safe boldness of a man strong in professional reputation, and
-confident in his experience and past success, but the result of a fixed
-determination to perform, at all hazards, his whole duty to his client.
-The best testimony to the effect of this speech is to be found in the
-anecdote, that thirty briefs were presented to him by attorneys before
-he left the court.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>We must hasten very briefly through the events of Mr. Erskine’s
-life to make room for speaking at somewhat more length of a very few
-of his most remarkable performances. He rose at once into first
-rate junior business in the Court of King’s Bench, and received a
-patent of precedence in May 1783, having practised only for the
-short space of five years. He belonged to the Home Circuit in the
-early part of his professional life; but soon ceased to attend it, or any
-other, except on special retainers, of which it is said that he received
-more than any man in his time or since.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>In his political life he was a firm adherent of Mr. Fox: but his
-success in Parliament, which he entered in 1783 as member for
-Portsmouth, was not commensurate with the expectations which
-had been raised upon the brilliant powers of oratory which he had
-displayed at the bar. On attaining his majority in 1783, the Prince
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_3'>3</span>of Wales appointed Mr. Erskine, with whom he lived in habits of
-intimacy, to be his Attorney-General. This office he was called on
-to resign in 1792, in consequence of his refusing to abandon the
-defence of Paine, when he was prosecuted for a libel, as author of the
-‘Rights of Man:’ and his removal, though not a solitary, is fortunately
-a rare instance in modern times, of an advocate being punished
-for the honest discharge of his professional duties. Five years afterwards
-he conducted the prosecution of the ‘Age of Reason;’ and in
-1802 he was appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Cornwall. On the
-formation of the Grenville administration, in 1806, he was appointed
-Chancellor of Great Britain, and raised to the peerage, by the title of
-Baron Erskine, of Restormel Castle in Cornwall. The short period
-during which he presided in the Court of Chancery, makes it difficult
-to estimate how far his extraordinary powers of mind, and in particular
-the eminently legal understanding which he possessed, would have
-enabled him to overcome the difficulties of so new a situation. But
-his judgments have, generally speaking, stood the test of subsequent
-investigation; and his admirable conduct in the impeachment of 1806,
-over which he presided as Lord High Steward, uniting the greatest
-acuteness and readiness with singular firmness of purpose, and all
-that urbanity which neither in public nor in private life ever quitted
-him for an instant, may be said to have restored to life a mode of trial
-essential to our constitution, though discredited by the vexatious procrastination
-which had characterized the last instance of its use.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>On the dissolution of the Grenville ministry, which occurred about
-a year after its formation, Lord Erskine retired in a great degree
-from public life. In 1808 he took an active share in opposing the
-measure of commercial hostility, so well known under the name of
-the Orders in Council, and still so deeply felt: and his speech against
-the Jesuits’ Bark Bill, which was not reported, is said to have been
-worthy of his most celebrated efforts, both for argument and eloquence.
-In 1809 he introduced into the House of Lords a bill for
-the prevention of cruelty to animals, which passed that branch of the
-legislature, but was thrown out by the Commons. The part, too,
-which he took upon the memorable proceedings of 1820, relative
-to the Queen’s trial, will long be remembered, marked as it was
-by all the highest qualities of the judicial character: and his arguments
-upon the Banbury case a few years before, only leave a regret
-that he did not devote more of his leisure to the legal business of the
-House of Lords.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>After his retirement, Lord Erskine occupied himself occasionally
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_4'>4</span>in literary pursuits. In this period he composed the Preface to Mr.
-Fox’s Speeches, and the political romance of Armata. His only other
-written work of importance is a pamphlet, entitled ‘View of the
-Causes and Consequences of the War with France,’ which appeared
-in 1797, and ran through the extraordinary number of forty-eight
-editions. But he is not to be considered as a literary man: on the
-contrary, it is one of the many singularities in his history, that with a
-scanty stock of what is usually called literature, he should have been
-one of our most purely classical speakers and writers. His study was
-confined to a few of the greatest models; and these he almost knew by
-heart.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The later years of his life were harassed by pecuniary embarrassment,
-arising partly from the loss of his large professional income,
-inadequately replaced by a retiring pension of £4000; and partly from
-an unfortunate investment of the fruits of his industry in land, which
-yielded little return when the period of agricultural depression arrived.
-His first wife died in 1805: and an ill-assorted second marriage, contracted
-much later in life, is supposed to have increased his domestic
-disquietudes, as it certainly injured his reputation, and gave pain to
-his friends. He was seized with an inflammation of the chest while
-travelling towards Scotland, and died at Almondale, his brother’s seat,
-near Edinburgh, November 17, 1823. Immediately after his decease,
-the members of that profession of which he had been at once the
-ornament and the favourite, caused a statue of him to be executed.
-When the marble was denied admittance within those walls which
-had so often been shaken by the thunder of his eloquence, they placed
-it in the hall of Lincoln’s Inn, where he had presided as chancellor;
-a lasting monument to those who study the law, that subserviency is
-not necessary to advancement, and that they will be held in grateful
-remembrance by their professional brethren, who boldly uphold the
-liberties of their country.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>In speaking, which we can do very briefly, of Lord Erskine’s professional
-merits, our attention is directed to those of his speeches which
-bear on two great subjects, the Liberty of the Press, and the doctrine
-of Constructive Treason, not merely because they embrace his most
-laboured and most celebrated efforts, nor for the paramount importance
-of these subjects in a constitutional point of view; but also because
-we possess a collection of those speeches corrected by himself, while of
-the numberless arguments and addresses delivered on other subjects
-during a most active period of twenty-eight years, but very few have
-been authentically reported. From those which are preserved, the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_5'>5</span>rising generation can form but an inadequate idea of this extraordinary
-man’s power as an advocate; such is said, by those who yet
-remember him, to have been the witchery of his voice, eye, and action;
-such his intuitive perception of that which at the instant was likely to
-have weight with a jury. His peculiar skill in this respect is thus
-described by a distinguished writer in the Edinburgh Review, in
-commenting upon a brilliant passage, which we shall presently have
-occasion to quote. “As far as relates to the character of Lord
-Erskine’s eloquence, we would point out as the most remarkable feature
-in this passage, that in no one sentence is the subject, the business
-in hand, the case, the client, the verdict, lost sight of; and that the
-fire of that oratory, or rather of that rhetoric (for it was quite under
-discipline), which was melting the hearts and dazzling the understandings
-of his hearers, had not the power to touch for one instant
-the hard head of the <i><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">Nisi Prius</span></i> lawyer, from which it radiated; or
-to make him swerve, by one hair’s breadth even, from the minuter
-details most befitting his purpose, and the alternate admissions and
-disavowals best adapted to put his case in the safest position. This,
-indeed, was the grand secret of Mr. Erskine’s unparalleled success
-at the English bar. Without it he might have filled Westminster
-Hall with his sentences, and obtained a reputation for eloquence,
-somewhat like the fame of a popular preacher or a distinguished
-actor: but his fortunes,—aye, and the liberties of his country,—are
-built on the matchless skill with which he could subdue the genius
-of a first rate orator to the uses of the most consummate advocate of
-the age.”—(Edinburgh Review, vol. xvi. p. 116–7, 1810.)</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Mr. Erskine’s speeches against the doctrine of Constructive
-Treason were delivered in behalf of Lord George Gordon, when
-accused of high treason as the ringleader of the riots in 1780, and
-in behalf of Messrs. Hardy and Horne Tooke, when attacked by the
-whole weight of Government in 1794. In the first of these he
-begins by laying down broadly and distinctly the law of treason,
-as defined by the celebrated statute of Edward III. He proceeds,
-carefully avoiding to offend the probable temper of the jury by asserting
-either the prudence or legality of Lord George Gordon’s conduct,
-to show the total failure of evidence to bring his intentions within the
-scope of the act; the utter want of pretence for assuming that he had
-levied war on the King, the crime charged in the indictment; and
-the utter want of proof to connect him, or the Protestant Association,
-of which he was chairman, with the outrages committed by a rabble,
-insignificant alike in numbers and character. He enters into a
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_6'>6</span>minute examination of the crown evidence; lays bare the infamy of
-one witness; exposes the forced constructions by which alone any
-legal or moral guilt can be attached to his client; and, warming in
-his subject, breaks out into an appeal to the jury, the effect of which
-is said to have been electric. And it has been justly observed, that
-by such an effect alone could the boldness of the attempt have been
-justified: failure would have been destruction. The eloquence of
-this speech is even less remarkable than the exquisite judgment and
-professional skill by which that eloquence is controlled.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>In the State Trials of 1794, the prisoners, it is well known, were
-proceeded against separately. Hardy’s turn came first. They were
-charged with compassing the death of the King, the evidence of this
-intention being a conspiracy to subvert by force the constitution of
-the country, under pretence of procuring, by legal means, a reform
-in the House of Commons. It must be evident to every one that this
-was stretching the doctrine of constructive treason to the utmost: yet
-Parliament had passed a bill, declaring in the preamble that such
-a conspiracy did actually exist; and this being asserted on such high
-authority, and no doubt existing of the prisoners being deeply
-engaged in the design to procure a reform in Parliament, they
-came to their trial under the most serious disadvantages. On this
-occasion, as in defence of Lord George Gordon, Mr. Erskine began
-by explaining the law of treason, under the statute of Edward III.
-He showed the strictness with which it had been defined and limited
-by the most eminent constitutional lawyers; and argued, that granting
-the intention to hold a general convention, with the view of obtaining
-by that means a reform in Parliament; granting even that this
-amounted to a conspiracy to levy war for that purpose, still the
-offence would not be the high treason charged by the indictment,
-unless the conspiracy to levy war were directly pointed against the
-King’s person. And that there was no want of affection for the King
-himself, appeared fully even from the evidence for the prosecution.
-He maintained that the clearest evidence should be required of the
-evil intention, especially when so different from the open and avowed
-object of the prisoners. He proceeded to show that their ostensible
-object, so far from necessarily involving any evil designs, was one
-which had been advocated by the Earl of Chatham, Mr. Burke, Mr.
-Pitt himself; and that the very measures of reform which it was sought
-to introduce, had been openly avowed and inculcated by the Duke
-of Richmond, then holding office in the ministry of which Mr. Pitt
-was chief. Mr. Hardy, Mr. Tooke, and Mr. Thelwall were severally
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_7'>7</span>and successively acquitted, and all men now confess that to the powers
-and the courage of this matchless advocate in that day of its peril, the
-preservation of English liberty must be mainly ascribed. The other
-prosecutions were then abandoned.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Mr. Erskine’s powerful and fearless support of the liberty of the
-subject on all occasions rendered him especially sought after by all
-persons accused of political libels; and a large proportion of his most
-important speeches are on these subjects. The earliest reported,
-and for their consequences the most remarkable, are the series of
-speeches which he delivered in behalf of the Dean of St. Asaph, in
-1784. Of the merits of the case we have not room to speak: but it
-is important for the influence which it had in determining the great
-question, whether in prosecutions for libel, the jury is to judge of fact
-alone, or of law and fact conjointly. For many years it had been the
-doctrine of the courts, that juries had no cognizance of the nature of
-an imputed libel, beyond ascertaining how far the meaning ascribed in
-the indictment to passages charged as libellous was borne out by
-evidence; the truth of these, and the fact of the publication being
-ascertained, it was for the judge to determine whether the matter
-were libellous or no. This doctrine was controverted by Mr. Erskine
-in his speech for the Dean of St. Asaph, and maintained by the judge
-who tried the case; and on the ground of misdirection, Mr. Erskine
-moved for a new trial. On this occasion he went into an elaborate
-argument to prove that it was the office of the jury, not of the judges,
-to pronounce upon the intention and tendency of an alleged libel; and
-to him is ascribed the honour of having prepared the way for the
-Libel Bill, introduced by Mr. Fox in 1792, and seconded by himself,
-in which the rights and province of the jury are clearly defined, and
-the position established, for which he, in a small minority of his professional
-brethren, had contended. This was a triumph of which the
-oldest, and most practised lawyer might have been proud; it is doubly
-honourable to one young in years, and younger in professional experience.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Equal perhaps to those in importance, for it bore directly on the
-liberty of the press, and superior in brilliance of execution, is the
-speech in behalf of Stockdale, the bookseller, who was prosecuted for
-a libel on the House of Commons, in consequence of having published
-a pamphlet commenting on the articles of impeachment brought against
-Mr. Hastings, and containing some passages by no means complimentary
-to some portion of that honourable body. The fact of the publication
-being admitted, Mr. Erskine, agreeably to the provisions of the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_8'>8</span>Libel Act, proceeded to address the jury on the merits of the work.
-It was his argument, that the tenor of the whole, and the intentions of
-the writer, were to be regarded; and that if these should be found praiseworthy,
-or innocent, the presence of a few detached passages, which,
-taken separately, might seem calculated to bring the House of Commons
-into contempt, were altogether insufficient to justify conviction.
-This speech may be selected as one of the finest examples of Mr.
-Erskine’s oratory, whether for the skill displayed in managing the
-argument, the justness of the principles, the exquisite taste with which
-they are illustrated and enforced, or the powerful eloquence in which
-they are embodied; and from this, in conclusion, we would extract one
-passage as a specimen of his powers. It is sufficient to state in introduction,
-that the pamphlet in question was a defence of Mr. Hastings,
-and that, among other topics, it urged the nature of his instructions
-from his constituents. Commenting on this, the orator proceeds in a
-strain which few persons, not hardened by long converse in affairs of
-state, will read without emotion, or without a deep sense of the justice
-of the sentiments, the gravity of the topics introduced.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>“If this be a wilfully false account of the instructions given to Mr.
-Hastings for his government, and of his conduct under them, the author
-and publisher of this defence deserve the severest punishment, for a
-mercenary imposition on the public. But if it be true, that he was
-directed to ‘make the safety and prosperity of Bengal the first object of
-his attention,’ and that under his administration it has been safe and
-prosperous; if it be true that the security and preservation of our
-possessions and revenues in Asia were marked out to him as the great
-leading principle of his government, and that those possessions and
-revenues amidst unexampled dangers have been secured and preserved;
-then a question may be unaccountably mixed with your consideration,
-much beyond the consequence of the present prosecution, involving
-perhaps the merit of the impeachment itself which gave it birth; a
-question which the Commons, as prosecutors of Mr. Hastings, should
-in common prudence have avoided; unless, regretting the unwieldy
-length of their prosecution against him, they wished to afford him the
-opportunity of this strange anomalous defence. For although I am
-neither his counsel, nor desire to have any thing to do with his guilt or
-innocence, yet in the collateral defence of my client I am driven to
-state matter which may be considered by many as hostile to the impeachment.
-For if our dependencies have been secured, and their
-interests promoted, I am driven in the defence of my client to remark,
-that it is mad and preposterous to bring to the standard of justice and
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_9'>9</span>humanity, the exercise of a dominion founded upon violence and terror.
-It may, and must be true, that Mr. Hastings has repeatedly offended
-against the rights and privileges of Asiatic government, if he was
-the faithful deputy of a power which could not maintain itself for an
-hour without trampling upon both; he may and must have offended
-against the laws of God and nature, if he was the faithful Viceroy of
-an empire wrested in blood from the people to whom God and nature
-had given it; he may and must have preserved that unjust dominion
-over timorous and abject nations by a terrifying, overbearing, insulting
-superiority, if he was the faithful administrator of your government,
-which, having no root in consent or affection, no foundation in similarity
-of interests, nor support from any one principle which cements men
-together in society, could only be upheld by alternate stratagem and
-force. The unhappy people of India, feeble and effeminate as they are
-from the softness of their climate, and subdued and broken as they
-have been by the knavery and strength of civilization, still occasionally
-start up in all the vigour and intelligence of insulted nature. When
-governed at all, they must be governed with a rod of iron; and our
-empire in the east would long since have been lost to Great Britain, if
-civil skill and military prowess had not united their efforts, to support
-an authority which Heaven never gave, by means which it never can
-sanction.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>“Gentlemen, I think I can observe that you are touched with this
-way of considering the subject, and I can account for it. I have not
-been considering it through the cold medium of books, but have been
-speaking of man and his nature, and of human dominion, from what I
-have seen of them myself among reluctant nations submitting to our
-authority. I know what they feel, and how such feelings can alone be
-repressed. I have heard them in my youth, from a naked savage, in the
-indignant character of a prince surrounded by his subjects, addressing the
-Governor of a British colony, holding a bundle of sticks in his hand,
-as the notes of his unlettered eloquence. ‘Who is it,’ said the jealous
-ruler over the desert, encroached upon by the restless foot of English
-adventure; ‘who is it that causes this river to rise in the high mountains,
-and to empty itself into the ocean? Who is it that causes to
-blow the loud winds of winter, and that calms them again in the summer?
-Who is it that rears up the shade of these lofty forests, and blasts
-them with the quick lightning at his pleasure? The same Being,
-who gave to you a country on the other side of the waters, and gave
-ours to us; and by this title we will defend it,’ said the warrior,
-throwing down his tomahawk on the ground, and raising the war-cry
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_10'>10</span>of his nation. These are the feelings of subjugated man all round the
-globe; and depend upon it, nothing but fear will control, where it is
-vain to look for affection.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>“These reflections are the only antidotes to those anathemas of superhuman
-eloquence which have lately shaken these walls that surround
-us; but which it unaccountably falls to my province, whether I will or
-no, a little to stem the torrent of, by reminding you that you have a
-mighty sway in Asia which cannot be maintained by the finer sympathies
-of life, or the practice of its charities and affections. What will
-they do for you when surrounded by two hundred thousand men
-with artillery, cavalry, and elephants, calling upon you for their
-dominions which you have robbed them of? Justice may, no doubt,
-in such a case forbid the levying of a fine to pay a revolting soldiery; a
-treaty may stand in the way of increasing a tribute to keep up the very
-existence of the government; and delicacy for women may forbid all
-entrance into a <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">zenana</span> for money, whatever may be the necessity for
-taking it. All these things must ever be occurring. But under the
-pressure of such constant difficulties, so dangerous to national honour,
-it might be better perhaps to think of effectually securing it altogether,
-by recalling our troops and merchants, and abandoning our Oriental
-empire. Until this be done, neither religion nor philosophy can be
-pressed very far into the aid of reformation and punishment. If England,
-from a lust of ambition and dominion, will insist on maintaining
-despotic rule over distant and hostile nations, beyond all comparison
-more numerous and extended than herself, and gives commission to her
-Viceroys to govern them, with no other instructions than to preserve
-them, and to secure permanently their revenues; with what colour of
-consistency or reason can she place herself in the moral chair, and affect
-to be shocked at the execution of her own orders; adverting to the exact
-measure of wickedness and injustice necessary to their execution, and
-complaining only of the excess as the immorality; considering her
-authority as a dispensation for breaking the commands of God, and
-the breach of them only punishable when contrary to the ordinances of
-man.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>“Such a proceeding, Gentlemen, begets serious reflections. It
-would be better perhaps for the masters and the servants of all such
-governments to join in supplication, that the great Author of violated
-humanity may not confound them together in one common
-judgment.”</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>These speeches, on constructive treason, and on subjects relating to
-the liberty of the press, fill four octavo volumes. A fifth was subsequently
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_11'>11</span>published, containing speeches on miscellaneous subjects;
-among which those in behalf of Hadfield and for Mr. Bingham are
-especially worthy of attention. The latter is one of the most affecting
-appeals to the feelings ever uttered. Hadfield is notorious for having
-discharged a pistol at George III. in Drury Lane Theatre. He was a
-soldier, who had been dreadfully wounded in the head, and other parts
-of the body; and no doubt could be entertained but that he was of
-unsound mind. Whether his insanity was of such a nature, that it
-could be pleaded in excuse for an attempt to murder, was a harder
-question to decide; and the speech in his behalf, besides many
-passages of much power and pathos, contains a masterly exposition of
-the principles by which a court of law should be guided in examining
-the moral responsibility of a person labouring under alienation of
-mind. Hadfield, we need hardly say, was acquitted.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>No life of Lord Erskine has yet been written on a scale calculated
-to do justice to the subject. The fullest which we have seen is contained
-in the ‘Lives of British Lawyers,’ in Lardner’s Cyclopædia:
-there is also a scanty memoir in the Annual Biography and Obituary,
-from which the facts contained in this sketch are principally derived.</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/i_011.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic001'>
-<p>Statue of Lord Erskine in Lincoln’s Inn Hall.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id002'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_12'>12</span>
-<img src='images/i_012.jpg' alt='DOLLOND.' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <h2 class='c005'>DOLLOND.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c009'>The parents of this eminent discoverer in optics, to whom we are
-chiefly indebted for the high perfection of our telescopes, were French
-Protestants resident in Normandy, whence they were driven by the
-revocation of the edict of Nantes in 1685. With many others of their
-class, they took up their residence in Spitalfields, where John Dollond,
-the subject of this memoir<a id='r1' /><a href='#f1' class='c010'><sup>[1]</sup></a>, was born, June 10, 1706. It has been
-supposed, and among others by Lalande, that the name is not French;
-if we were to hazard a conjecture, we should say that it might have
-been an English corruption of <em>D’Hollande</em>. While yet very young,
-John Dollond lost his father; and he was obliged to gain his livelihood
-by the loom, though his natural disposition led him to devote all his
-leisure hours to mathematics and natural philosophy. Notwithstanding
-the cares incumbent upon the father of a family (for he
-married early) he contrived to find time, not only for the above-mentioned
-pursuits, but for anatomy, classical literature, and divinity.
-He continued his quiet course of life until his son, Peter Dollond,
-was of age to join him in his trade of silk-weaving, and they carried
-on that business together for several years. The son, however, who
-was also of a scientific turn, and who had profited by his father’s
-instructions, quitted the silk trade to commence business as an optician.
-He was tolerably successful, and after some years his father
-joined him, in 1752.</p>
-
-<div class='footnote' id='f1'>
-<p class='c000'><span class='label'><a href='#r1'>1</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;</span>For the details of this life, we are mostly indebted to the Memoir of Dr. Kelly,
-his son-in-law, from which all the existing accounts of Dollond are taken. This book has
-become very scarce, and we are indebted for the opportunity of perusing it to the kindness of
-G. Dollond, Esq.</p>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/i_012fp.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic001'>
-<p><em>Engraved by J. Posselwhite.</em><br /><br />DOLLOND.<br /><br /><em>From an original Picture<br />in the Royal Observatory, Greenwich.</em><br /><br />Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge<br /><br /><em>London, Published by Charles Knight, Ludgate Street, &amp; Pall Mall East.</em></p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c000'>The first improvement made by the elder Dollond in the telescope,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_13'>13</span>was the addition of another glass to the eye-piece, making the whole
-number of glasses in the instrument (the object-glass included) six
-instead of five. This he communicated to the Royal Society in 1753,
-through his friend James Short, well known as an optician and
-astronomer, who also communicated all his succeeding papers. By
-his new construction, an increase in the field of view was procured,
-without any corresponding augmentation of the unavoidable defects
-of the instrument. In May, 1753, Dollond communicated to the
-Royal Society his improvement of the micrometer. In 1747
-Bouguer proposed to measure the distance of two very near objects
-(the opposite edges of a planet, for example) by viewing them
-through a conical telescope, the larger end of which had two object-glasses
-placed side by side, the eye-glass being common to both.
-The distance of the objects was determined by observing how far it
-was necessary to separate the centres of the object-glasses, in order
-that the centre of each might show an image of one of the objects.
-Mr. Dollond’s improvement consisted in making use of the same
-object-glass, divided into two semicircular halves sliding on one
-another, as represented in the diagrams in page <a href='#Page_18'>18</a>; the first of which
-is an oblique perspective view of the divided glass, and the second a
-side view of the same, in such a position, that the images of the
-stars A and B coincide at C.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>If the whole of an object-glass were darkened, except one small
-portion, that portion would form images similarly situated to those
-formed by the whole glass, but less illuminated. Each half of the
-object-glass, when separated from the other, forms an image of every
-object in the field; and the two images of the same object coincide in
-one of double brightness, when the halves are brought together so as to
-restore the original form. By placing the divided diameter in the
-line of two near objects, A and B, whose distance is to be measured, and
-sliding the glasses until the image of one formed by one half comes
-exactly into contact with the image of the other formed by the other
-half, the angular distance of the two objects may be calculated, from
-observation of the distance between the centres of the two halves.
-This last distance is measured on a scale attached to the instrument;
-and when found, is the base of the triangle, the vertex of which is at C,
-and the equal sides of which are the focal lengths of the glasses. This
-micrometer Dollond preferred to apply to the reflecting telescope; his
-son afterwards adapted it to the refracting telescope; and it is now,
-under the name of the <em>divided object-glass micrometer</em>, one of the most
-useful instruments for measuring small angles.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_14'>14</span>But the fame of Dollond principally rests upon his invention of
-<em>achromatic</em>, or colourless telescopes, in which the surrounding fringe of
-colours was destroyed, which had rendered indistinct the images formed
-in all refracting telescopes previously constructed. He was led to this
-practical result by the discovery of a principle in optics, that the <em>dispersion</em>
-of light in passing through a refracting medium, that is, the
-greater or less length through which the coloured <em>spectrum</em> is scattered,
-is not in proportion to the <em>refraction</em>, or angle through which the rays
-are bent out of their course. Newton asserted that he had found by
-experiments, made with water and glass, that if a ray of light be subjected
-to several refractions, some of which correct the rest, so that it
-emerges parallel to its first direction, the dispersion into colours will
-also be corrected, so that the light will be restored to whiteness. This
-is not generally true: it is true if one substance only be employed, or
-several which have the same, or nearly the same, <em>dispersive power</em><a id='r2' /><a href='#f2' class='c010'><sup>[2]</sup></a>.
-Mr. Peter Dollond afterwards satisfactorily explained the reason of
-Newton’s mistake, by performing the same experiment with Venetian
-glass, which, in the time of the latter, was commonly used in England;
-from which he found that the fact stated by Newton was true, as far
-as regarded that sort of glass. Had Newton used flint glass, he would
-have discovered that dispersion and refraction are not necessarily
-corrected together: he would then have been led to the difference
-between refractive and dispersive power, and would have concluded
-from his first experiment that Venetian glass and water have their
-dispersive powers very nearly equal. As it was, he inferred that
-the refracting telescope could never be entirely divested of colour,
-without entirely destroying the refraction, that is, rendering the
-instrument no telescope at all; and, the experiment being granted,
-the conclusion was inevitable. It is well known that he accordingly
-turned his attention entirely to the reflecting telescope.</p>
-
-<div class='footnote' id='f2'>
-<p class='c000'><span class='label'><a href='#r2'>2</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;</span>See Penny Cyclopædia, article Achromatic, for this and other terms employed in this
-life.</p>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c000'>In 1747, Euler, struck by the fact that the human eye is an achromatic
-combination of lenses, or nearly so, imagined that it might
-be possible to destroy colour by employing compound object-glasses,
-such as two lenses with an intermediate space filled with water. In
-a memoir addressed to the Academy of Berlin, he explained his
-method of constructing such achromatic glasses, and proposed a
-new law of refrangibility, different from that of Newton. He could
-not, however, succeed in procuring a successful result in practice.
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_15'>15</span>Dollond, impressed with the idea that Newton’s experiment was conclusive,
-objected to Euler’s process in a letter to Mr. Short; which the
-latter persuaded the author to communicate, first to Euler, and then,
-with his answer, to the Royal Society. Assuming Newton’s law,
-Dollond shows that Euler’s method would destroy all refraction as
-well as dispersion. The latter replies, that it is sufficient for his
-purpose that Newton’s law should be <em>nearly</em> true; that the theory
-propounded by himself does not differ much from it; and that the
-structure of the eye convinces him of the possibility of an achromatic
-combination. Neither party contested the general truth of Newton’s
-conclusion.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>A new party to the discussion appeared in the field in the person of
-M. Klingenstierna, a Swedish astronomer, who advanced some mathematical
-reasoning against the law of Newton, and some suspicions as
-to the correctness of his experiment. The latter being thus formally
-attacked, Mr. Dollond determined to repeat it, with a view of settling
-the question, and his result was communicated to the Royal Society in
-1758. By placing a prism of flint glass inside one of water, confined
-by glass planes, so that the refractions from the two prisms should be
-in contrary directions, he found that when their angles were so
-adjusted, that the refraction of one should entirely destroy that of the
-other, the colour was far from being destroyed; “for the object,
-though not at all refracted, was yet as much infested with prismatic
-colours, as if it had been seen through a glass wedge only, whose
-refracting angle was near thirty degrees.” It was thus proved that
-the correction of refraction, and the correction of dispersion, are not
-necessarily consequent the one on the other. Previously to communicating
-this result, Dollond had, in 1757, applied it to the construction
-of achromatic glasses, consisting of spherical lenses with
-water between them: but finding that the images, though free from
-colour, were not very distinct, he tried combinations of different
-kinds of glass; and succeeded at last in forming the achromatic object-glass
-now used, consisting of a convex lens of crown, and a concave of
-flint glass. His son afterwards, in 1765, constructed the triple object-glass,
-having a double concave lens of flint glass in the middle of two
-double convex lenses of crown glass. The right of Dollond to the
-invention has been attacked by various foreign writers, but the point
-seems to have been decided in his favour by the general consent of
-later times. His conduct certainly appears more philosophical than
-that of either of his opponents. So long as he believed that Newton’s
-experiment was correct, he held fast by it, not allowing any mathematical
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_16'>16</span>reasoning to shake his belief, and in this respect he was more
-consistent than Euler, who seems to have thought that an achromatic
-combination might be made out of the joint belief of an experiment,
-and of an hypothesis utterly at variance with it. And the manner
-in which the distinguished philosopher just mentioned received the
-news of Dollond’s invention, appears singular, considering the side
-which each had taken in the previous discussion. Euler, who had
-asserted the possibility of an achromatic lens, against Dollond, who
-appeared to doubt it, says, “I am not ashamed frankly to avow that
-the first accounts which were published of it, appeared so suspicious,
-and even so contrary to the best established principles, that I could
-not prevail upon myself to give credit to them.” Dollond was the
-first who actually resorted to experiment, and he thus became the
-discoverer of a remarkable law of optics; while his tact in the application
-of his principles, and the selection of his materials, is worthy of
-admiration. The reputation of Dollond rests upon the discovery of the
-law, and its application to the case in point; for it has since been
-proved that he was not absolutely the first who had constructed an
-achromatic lens. On the occasion of an action brought for the invasion
-of the patent, the defendant proved that about the year 1750,
-Dr. Hall, an Essex gentleman, was in the possession of a secret for
-constructing achromatic telescopes of twenty inches focal length: and
-a writer in the Gentleman’s Magazine for 1790, has advanced his
-claim with considerable circumstantial detail. It is difficult to get
-any account of that trial, as it is not reported in any of the books. At
-least we presume so, from not finding any reference to it either in the
-works of Godson or Davis on Patents, though the case is frequently
-mentioned; or in H. Blackstone’s report of Boulton and Watt v.
-Bull, in which Dollond’s case forms a prominent feature of the
-argument. But, from the words of Judge Buller in the case just
-cited, it is difficult to suppose that the account given by Lalande
-(Montucla, <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Histoire des Mathématiques</span>, vol. iii. p. 448, note) can be
-correct. Lalande asserts that it was proved that Dollond received
-the invention from a workman who bad been employed by Dr. Hall,
-and that the latter had shown it to many persons. Judge Buller says,
-“The objection to Dollond’s patent was, that he was not the inventor
-of the new method of making object-glasses, but that Dr. Hall had
-made the same discovery before him. But it was holden that as Dr.
-Hall had <em>confined it to his closet</em>, and the public were not acquainted
-with it, Dollond was to be considered as the inventor.” The circumstances
-connected with the discovery, particularly the previous investigation
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_17'>17</span>of the phenomenon on which the result depends, independently
-of the words of Judge Buller, quoted in italics, appear to us to render
-the anonymous account very improbable: nor, as far as we know, is
-there any other authority for it. That Dr. Hall did construct achromatic
-telescopes is pretty certain; but we are entirely in the dark as
-to whether he did it on principle, or whether he could even construct
-more than one sort of lens: and the assertion that he, or any one
-instructed by him, had communicated with Dollond, is unsupported
-by any thing worthy the name of evidence. We may add, that the
-accounts of this discovery, written by Dollond himself, possess a clearness
-and power of illustration, which can result only from long and
-minute attention to the subject under consideration.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>After this great discovery, for which he received the Copley medal
-of the Royal Society, Mr. Dollond devoted himself to the improvement
-of the achromatic telescope, in conjunction with his other pursuits.
-We are informed by G. Dollond, Esq., that his grandfather, at the
-latter end of his life, was engaged in calculating almanacs for various
-parts of the world; one of which, for the meridian of Barbadoes, and
-the year 1761, is now in his possession.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Mr. Dollond was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1761.
-In the same year, November 30, he was struck with apoplexy, while
-attentively engaged in reading Clairaut’s Theory of the Moon, which
-had then just appeared. He died in a few hours afterwards, in the
-fifty-sixth year of his age. His son Peter Dollond, already mentioned,
-continued the business in partnership with a younger brother; and it is
-now most ably carried on by his daughter’s son, who has, by permission,
-assumed the name of Dollond.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The following extract is from the memoir written by Dr. Kelly,
-in which we find nothing to regret, except that so few traits of character
-are related in it. Those who write memoirs of remarkable men from
-personal knowledge, should remember that details of their habits and
-conversation will be much more valuable to posterity, than disquisitions
-upon their scientific labours and discussions, which, coming from the
-pens of friends or relations, will always be looked upon as <i><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">ex parte</span></i>
-statements. Had the learned author borne this in mind, we should
-have been able to give a better personal account of Dollond than the
-following; which is absolutely the only information relative to his
-private character which we can now obtain. “He was not content
-with private devotion, as he was always an advocate for social worship;
-and with his family regularly attended the public service of the French
-Protestant church, and occasionally heard Benson and Lardner, whom
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_18'>18</span>he respected as men, and admired as preachers. In his appearance
-he was grave, and the strong lines of his face were marked with
-deep thought and reflection; but in his intercourse with his family
-and friends he was cheerful and affectionate; and his language and
-sentiments are distinctly recollected as always making a strong
-impression on the minds of those with whom he conversed. His
-memory was extraordinarily retentive, and amidst the variety of his
-reading he could recollect and quote the most important passages of
-every book which he had at any time perused.”</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id002'>
-<img src='images/i_018.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/i_019fp.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic001'>
-<p><em>Engraved by W. Holl.</em><br /><br />JOHN HUNTER..<br /><br /><em>From a Picture by Sir Joshua Reynolds<br />in the Royal College of Surgeons, London.</em><br /><br />Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.<br /><br /><em>London, Published by Charles Knight, Pall Mall East.</em></p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id002'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_19'>19</span>
-<img src='images/i_019.jpg' alt='JOHN HUNTER.' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <h2 class='c005'>JOHN HUNTER.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c009'>A life and character like that of John Hunter has many claims upon
-the honourable remembrance of society; the more, because, for meritorious
-members of his profession, there is no other public reward than
-the general approbation of good men. We look upon him with that
-interest which genius successfully directed to good ends invariably
-excites; as one whose active labours in the service of mankind have
-been attended with useful consequences of great extent; and whose
-character it is important to describe correctly, as a valuable example
-to his profession.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>John Hunter was the son of a small proprietor in the parish of
-Kilbride in Lanarkshire, and was born February 13, 1728. His father
-died while he was a child; his brothers were absent from home; and,
-being left to the care of his mother and aunt, he was spoiled by
-indulgence, and remained uneducated, until his natural good sense
-urged him to redeem himself in some degree from this reproach.
-When a boy he continued to cry like a child for whatever he wanted.
-There is a letter extant from an old friend of the family, which has
-this curious postscript, “Is Johnny aye greeting yet?” presenting an
-unexpected picture to those who are familiar only with the manly
-sense, and somewhat caustic manners, of the great physiological and
-surgical authority. But the influence of feelings and opinions, proceeding
-from respected persons, and accompanied by offices of affection,
-is powerful upon the young mind; and the circumstances of
-Mr. Hunter’s family were calculated to give such feelings their full
-power over such a character as his. They lived retired, in that state
-of independence which a small landed property confers on the elder
-members, while the young men are compelled to seek their fortunes
-at a distance from home. John Hunter neglected books, but he was
-not insensible to the pride and gratification expressed by every member
-of the family on hearing of his elder brother William’s success, and
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_20'>20</span>the pleasure which that brother’s letters gave to all around him.
-These feelings made him ashamed of his idleness, and inclined him to
-go to London, and become an assistant to Dr. William Hunter in his
-anatomical inquiries. William consented to this arrangement; and
-the subject of our memoir quitted his paternal home in 1748; certainly
-without that preparation of mind which should lead us to expect a very
-quick proficiency in medical pursuits. At an earlier age he had displayed
-a turn for mechanics, and a manual dexterity, which led to his
-being placed with a cabinet-maker in Glasgow to learn the profession:
-but the failure of his master had obliged him to return home.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Dr. William Hunter had at this time obtained celebrity as a teacher
-of anatomy. He won his way by very intelligible modes. His
-upright conduct and high mental cultivation gained him friends; and
-his professional merits were established by his lectures, which in
-extent and depth, as well as eloquence, surpassed any that had yet been
-delivered. There was a peculiar ingenuity in his demonstrations, and
-he had a happy manner exactly suited to his subject. The vulgar
-portion of the public saw no marks of genius in the successful exertions
-of Dr. Hunter; his eminence was easily accounted for, and
-excited no wonder. They saw John Hunter’s success, without fully
-comprehending the cause; and it fell in with their notions of great
-genius that he was somewhat abrupt and uncourtly.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Dr. Hunter immediately set his brother to work upon the dissection
-of the arm. The young man succeeded in producing an admirable
-preparation, in which the mechanism of the limb was finely displayed.
-This at once showed his capacity, and settled the relation between the
-two brothers. John Hunter became the best practical anatomist of
-the age, and proved of the greatest use in forming Dr. Hunter’s splendid
-museum, bequeathed by the owner to the University of Glasgow. He
-continued to attend his brother’s lectures; was a pupil both at St.
-Bartholomew’s, and St. George’s Hospitals; and had the farther advantage
-of attending the celebrated Cheselden, then retired to Chelsea
-Hospital. And here we must point out the advantage which John
-Hunter possessed in the situation and character of his elder brother,
-lest his success should encourage a laxity in the studies of those who
-think they are following his footsteps. It would indeed have been
-surprising that his efforts for the advancement of physiology commenced
-at the precise point where Haller’s stopped, if he had really
-been ignorant of the state of science at home and abroad. But he could
-not have been so, unless he had shut his eyes and stopped his ears. In
-addition to his anatomical collection Dr. Hunter had formed an extensive
-library, and possessed the finest cabinet of coins in Europe.
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_21'>21</span>Students crowded around him from all countries, and every one distinguished
-in science desired his acquaintance. John Hunter lived in this
-society, and at the same time had the advantage of being familiar with
-the complete and systematic course of lectures delivered by his brother.
-He was thus furnished with full information as to the actual state of
-physiology and pathology, and knew in what directions to push inquiry,
-whilst the natural capacity of his fine mind was untrammelled.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>In 1755 John Hunter assisted his brother in delivering a course of
-lectures; but through life the task of public instruction was a painful
-one to him, and he never attained to fluency and clearness of expression.
-In 1760 his health seems to have been impaired by his exertions: and
-in the recollection that one brother had already died under similar
-circumstances, his friends procured him a situation in the army, as
-being less intensely laborious than his mode of life. He served as
-a staff surgeon in Portugal and at the siege of Bellisle. On returning
-to London he recommenced the teaching of practical anatomy.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>In 1767 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, having already
-gained the good opinion of its members by several papers on most
-interesting subjects. There is this great advantage in the pursuit of
-science in London, that a man remarkable for success in any branch
-can usually select associates the best able to assist him by their experience
-and advice. It was through John Hunter’s influence that a
-select club was formed out of the fellows of the Royal Society. They
-met in retirement and read and criticised each others papers before
-submitting them to the general body. This club originally consisted
-of Mr. Hunter, Dr. Fordyce, Sir Joseph Banks, Dr. Solander, Dr.
-Maskelyne, Sir George Shuckburgh, Sir Henry Englefield, Sir Charles
-Blagden, Mr. Ramsden, and Mr. Watt. To be the associate of such
-men could not but have a good effect on a mind like Hunter’s, active
-and vigorous, but deficient in general acquirement, and concentrated
-upon one pursuit.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>At this time, and for many years afterwards, he was employed in the
-most curious physiological inquiries; and at the same time forming
-that museum, which remains the most surprising proof both of his
-genius and perseverance. It is strange that Sir Everard Home should
-have considered this collection as a proof of the patronage Hunter
-received. He had many admirers, and many persons were grateful
-for his professional assistance; but he had no patrons. The extent
-of his museum is to be attributed solely to his perseverance; a quality
-which is generally the companion of genius, and which he displayed
-in every condition of life. Whether under the tuition of his brother,
-or struggling for independence by privately teaching anatomy, or
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_22'>22</span>amidst the enticements to idleness in a mess-room, or as an army surgeon
-in active service, he never seems to have forgotten that science
-which was the chief end of his life. Hence the amazing collection
-which he formed of anatomical preparations; hence too the no less
-extraordinary accumulation of important pathological facts, on which
-his principles were raised.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>It was only towards the close of life that Hunter’s character was
-duly appreciated. His professional emoluments were small, until a
-very few years before his death, when they amounted to £6000 a
-year. When this neglect is the portion of a man of distinguished
-merit, it has sometimes an unhappy influence on his profession. Men
-look for prosperity and splendour as the accompaniments of such
-merit; and missing it, they turn aside from the worthiest models, to
-follow those who are gaining riches in the common routine of practice.
-Dr. Darwin said, that he rejoiced in Hunter’s late success as
-the concluding act of a life well spent: as poetical justice. But
-throughout life he spent all his gains in the pursuit of science, and
-died poor.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>His museum was purchased by government for £15,000. It was
-offered to the keeping of the College of Physicians, which declined
-the trust. It is now, committed to the College of Surgeons, in Lincoln’s
-Inn Fields; where it is open to the inspection of the public
-during the afternoons of Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The corporation
-has enlarged the museum, instituted professorships for the
-illustration of it, and is now forming a library. The most valuable
-part of the collection is that in the area of the great room, consisting
-of upwards of 2000 preparations, which were the results of Mr. Hunter’s
-experiments on the inferior animals, and of his researches in morbid
-human anatomy. All these were originally arranged as illustrative of
-his lectures. The first division alone, in support of his theory of
-inflammation, contains 602 preparations. Those illustrative of specific
-diseases amount to 1084. There are besides 652 dried specimens,
-consisting of diseased bones, joints, and arteries. On the floor there
-is a very fine collection of the skeletons of man and other animals; and
-if the Council of the College continue to augment this collection with
-the same liberal spirit which they have hitherto shown, it will be
-creditable to the nation. The osteological specimens amount to 1936.
-But the most interesting portion, we might say one of the most interesting
-exhibitions in Europe to a philosophical and inquiring mind,
-is that which extends along the whole gallery. Mr. Hunter found
-it impossible to explain the functions of life by the investigation of
-human anatomy, unaided by comparison with the simpler organization
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_23'>23</span>of brutes; and therefore he undertook the amazing labour of examining
-and preparing the simplest animals, gradually advancing from the
-lower to the higher, until, by this process of synthesis, the structure of
-the human body was demonstrated and explained. Let us take one
-small compartment in order to understand the effect of this method.
-Suppose it is wished to learn the importance of the stomach in the
-animal economy. The first object presented to us is a hydatid, an
-animal, as it were, all stomach; being a simple sac with an exterior
-absorbing surface. Then we have the polypus, with a stomach opening
-by one orifice, and with no superadded organ. Next in order is the
-leech, in which we see the beginning of a complexity of structure.
-It possesses the power of locomotion, and has brain, and nerves, and
-muscles, but as yet the stomach is simple. Then we advance to creatures
-in which the stomach is complex: we find the simple membraneous
-digesting stomach; then the stomach with a crop attached to
-macerate and prepare the food for digestion; then a ruminating stomach
-with a succession of cavities, and with the gizzard in some animals
-for grinding the food, and performing the office of teeth; and finally, all
-the appended organs necessary in the various classes of animals; until
-we find that all the chylopoietic viscera group round this, as performing
-the primary and essential office of assimilating new matter to the
-animal body.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Mr. Hunter’s papers and greater works exhibit an extraordinary
-mind: he startles the reader by conclusions, the process by which they
-were reached being scarcely discernible. We attribute this in part to
-that defective education, which made him fail in explaining his own
-thoughts, and the course of reasoning by which he had arrived at his
-conclusions. The depth of his reflective powers may be estimated by
-the perusal of his papers on the apparently drowned, and on the stomach
-digested after death by its own fluids. The importance of discovering
-the possibility of such an occurrence as the last is manifest, when we
-consider its connexion with medical jurisprudence, and the probability
-of its giving rise to unfounded suspicions of poisoning. His most
-important papers were those on the muscularity of arteries; a fine piece
-of experimental reasoning, the neglect of which by our continental
-neighbours threw them back an age in the treatment of wounded
-arteries and aneurisms. But the grand discovery of Mr. Hunter was
-that of the life of the blood. If this idea surprise our readers, it did no
-less surprise the whole of the medical profession when it was first promulgated.
-Yet there is no doubt of the fact. It was demonstrated by
-the closest inspection of natural phenomena, and a happy suite of
-experiments, that the coagulation of the blood is an act of life. From
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_24'>24</span>this one fact, the pathologist was enabled to comprehend a great variety
-of phenomena, which, without it, must ever have remained obscure.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Mr. Hunter died of that alarming disease, <em>angina pectoris</em>: alarming,
-because it comes in paroxysms, accompanied with all the feelings of
-approaching death. These sensations are brought on by exertion or
-excitement. In St. George’s Hospital, the conduct of his colleagues
-had provoked him; he made no observations, but retiring into another
-room, suddenly expired, October 16, 1793.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>After these details no man will deny that John Hunter possessed
-high genius, and that he employed his talents nobly. He was indeed
-of a family of genius: his younger brother was cut off early, but not
-until he had given promise of eminence. Dr. Hunter was, in our
-opinion, equal in talents to John, the subject of this memoir, though
-his mind received early a different bias. And in the next generation
-the celebrated Dr. Baillie, nephew to these brothers, contributed largely
-to the improvement of pathology, and afforded an instance of the most
-active benevolence joined to a plainness of manner most becoming in a
-physician. Joanna Baillie, his sister, still lives, honoured and esteemed,
-and will survive in her works as one of our most remarkable female
-writers.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The portrait from which the annexed engraving is made was
-painted at the suggestion of the celebrated engraver Sharpe, by Sir
-Joshua Reynolds, and was among his last works. There could not
-indeed be a more picturesque head, nor one better suited to the burin.
-The original picture is in the College of Surgeons. It exhibits more
-mildness than we see in the engraving of Sharpe.</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/i_024.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic001'>
-<p>Surgeons’ Hall in Lincoln’s Inn Fields.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/i_025fp.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic001'>
-<p><em>Engraved by Rob<sup>t</sup>. Hart.</em><br /><br />PETRARCH.<br /><br /><em>From a Print by Raffaelle Morghen,<br />after a Picture by Tofanelli.</em><br /><br />Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.<br /><br /><em>London, Published by Charles Knight, Ludgate Street, &amp; Pall Mall East.</em></p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id002'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_25'>25</span>
-<img src='images/i_025.jpg' alt='PETRARCH.' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <h2 class='c005'>PETRARCH.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c009'>Francesco Petrarca, whose real name is said to have been
-Petracco, was born at Arezzo, in Tuscany, July 20, 1304. His
-father was a notary at Florence, who had been employed in the service
-of the state; but in the civil strife excited by Corso Donati, chief
-of the faction of the Neri, he, with the rest of the Bianchi, including
-Dante, whose friend he is recorded to have been, was banished
-from the Republic in 1302. When the death of the Emperor
-Henry VII. deprived the exiles of all hope of return, Petracco took
-his family to Avignon, at that period the seat of the Pontifical Court.
-The boy Francesco then saw for the first time scenes and objects, with
-which his destiny was irrevocably connected; and he has left on record
-the impression which at ten years of age the fountain and wild
-solitude of Vaucluse had made upon his imagination. He was sent
-to study the canon law at the University of Montpellier, where he
-remained four years, devoting his time to Cicero, Virgil, and the
-Provençal writers, much more than to the doctors of jurisprudence.
-From Montpellier he went to Bologna; and formed an acquaintance
-with the celebrated Cino da Pistoia, from whom, although distinguished
-no less as a jurist than as a poet, Petrarch learned more poetry than
-law. On his father’s death, which occurred when he was about
-twenty years old, he returned to Avignon. His mother died soon
-after; and the moderate patrimony which he inherited was so much
-diminished by the dishonesty of his guardians, that at the age of
-twenty-two, he found himself without fortune or profession, and with
-no resource, but that of entering the church.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Avignon was then the chosen abode of fashion, luxury, and vice.
-Petrarch mingled in its gay society, without yielding to its corruptions,
-or withdrawing himself from the philosophical studies which interested
-him above all other pursuits. A great conformity of tastes, and a
-common superiority to the low objects of ambition with which they
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_26'>26</span>were surrounded, made him the friend of Jacopo Colonna, afterwards
-Bishop of Lombez. This prelate introduced Petrarch to his brother,
-the Cardinal Colonna, who resided at Avignon; and in whose palace,
-in 1331, the poet acquired the friendship of old Stefano Colonna, the
-illustrious head of that family, and drew from his discourse a stronger
-love of Italy, of freedom, and of glory. But his affectionate, enthusiastic
-temper was not to be exhausted even by these objects: soon,
-without ever being entirely diverted from the interest of friendship or
-patriotism, he became the vassal of that long and illustrious passion
-to which he owes the immortality of his name. April 6, 1327,
-on Easter Monday, in the church of the Nuns of Santa Clara,
-Petrarch, being then twenty-three years of age, saw for the first time,
-and loved at sight, Laura de Noves, the bride of Hugo de Sade, a
-young patrician of Avignon. From this time his life was passed in
-wandering from place to place, sometimes at the several courts of
-Italian princes; sometimes in solitary seclusion at Vaucluse; often at
-Avignon itself, where from the lofty rock on which stands the old
-Pontifical Palace, he could see Laura walking in the gardens below,
-which with all the adjacent part of the town belonged to the family of
-de Sade.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Few subjects have been discussed more largely, with greater
-minuteness of examination, or with greater licence of conjecture, than
-the history of the love of Petrarch. Some have chosen to treat with
-ridicule the idea of a passion, subsisting through a long and eventful
-life, without gratification, and nearly without hope; others have
-thought the difficulty obviated by supposing, in defiance of all
-apparent evidence, that Laura was not so insensible as the laws of
-morality required. A few have wished to rescue the character of
-the poet from the imputation of having loved a married woman, and
-have dragged certain obscure spinsters out of doubtful epitaphs and
-registers, to dispute the claim of Laura de Sade. A few more,
-and but a few, although the race is not extinct, have denied the
-existence of Laura altogether; either considering her as a mere
-poetical fancy, or still more boldly resolving her into some allegory,
-political or religious. But none of these theories, maintained at
-various times, and with various degrees of ingenuity, almost from the
-age of Petrarch until the present day, have shaken the received
-opinion on the four main points of the question; namely, that Laura
-was no creation of the poet’s brain, but a woman; that she was
-married; that Hugo de Sade was her husband; and that her virtue
-was proof against the passion of Petrarch. When all the circumstances
-of the case, including the peculiarities of sentiment which
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_27'>27</span>characterize the time, are fairly taken into consideration, there will
-appear no such miraculous improbability as has been presumed in the
-duration of Petrarch’s attachment. That it partook of the vehement
-character of true passion, is evident from many passages in his epistles
-and philosophical works, where he may be supposed to speak with less
-disguise than in his Canzoniere; but a natural vanity, the habit of
-refining his feelings into intellectual notions, and the then prevalent
-fashion of poetical constancy to a real object, may have contributed
-more than he could himself be aware to the durability of the sentiment.
-It is not to be forgotten, however, that at different periods of his life
-he had two natural children, a son and a daughter: still he maintained
-that notwithstanding these irregularities, he never loved any one but
-Laura. The Sonnets and Canzones, which, separately published, now
-together form the Canzoniere, soon elevated their author to the highest
-rank among living poets, and gave him in the eyes of his admirers
-a place beside the “creator della lingua,” the author of the Divina
-Commedia. Petrarch, however, whose mind was full of veneration
-for antiquity, and who was ardently desirous to recover all the
-monuments of classic literature that still preserved a hazardous
-existence in convents and other receptacles of the little learning of an
-ignorant age, for a long time, if not to the end of life, prided himself
-more on his Latin compositions, than on being the founder of a school
-of poetry in his native language. At one time he had commenced a
-Latin history of Rome, from the foundation of the city to the reign of
-Titus. But he was diverted from this work, by conceiving the idea of
-an epic poem, entitled ‘Africa,’ founded on the events which marked
-the close of the second Punic war, of which Scipio was the hero.
-For a year he laboured on it with enthusiasm; and it was received with
-admiration: but like most works of imagination composed in languages
-not rendered familiar to the writer in all their delicacy by vernacular
-and hourly use, and on subjects not consecrated by any feelings of
-national and domestic interest, they have long since been forgotten by
-all but the learned.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>On one and the same day, August 23, 1340, he received at
-Vaucluse a letter from the Roman Senate, inviting him to accept the
-honour of a public coronation in the Capitol, and one from the
-Chancellor of the University of Paris, offering the same distinction.
-It has been said, and there is at least negative evidence in favour of
-the assertion, that this last invitation was unauthorized by any corporate
-decision of the university: if so, it probably resulted from the personal
-enthusiasm of the chancellor, Roberto Bardi, who was a Florentine,
-and a private friend of the poet. Either from a knowledge of this, or
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_28'>28</span>from a natural preference of the Imperial City, Petrarch decided at
-once in favour of Rome; and embarked for Naples, to demand a
-preliminary examination from Robert of Anjou, the reigning prince,
-himself devotedly attached to literature. The King and the Poet
-conferred on poetical and historical subjects: during three days questions
-were formally proposed, and triumphantly answered; after which
-Robert pronounced solemnly that Petrarch was worthy of the honour
-offered to him, and taking off his own royal robe, entreated the poet to
-wear it at the ceremony of his coronation. On Easter-day, April 8,
-1341, Petrarch ascended the stairs of the Capitol, surrounded by the
-most illustrious citizens of Rome, and preceded by twelve young men
-chosen from the highest families, who repeated at intervals various
-passages of his poetry. After a short oration, he received the crown
-from the hands of the senator, Orso, Count of Anguillara, and recited
-a sonnet on those heroes of the ancient city, whose triumphal honours,
-after a cessation of centuries, he first was come to share, and to renew.
-Then, amidst the acclamations of the multitude, he was conducted to
-the church of St. Peter’s, where, taking from his head the laurel, he
-deposited it with religious care on the altar. After this ceremony he
-returned by land to Avignon, carrying with him letters patent of the
-King of Naples and of the senate and people of Rome, conferring on
-him by their joint authorities the full and free power of reading, discussing,
-and explaining all ancient books, composing new works (especially
-poems), and wearing on all occasions, as he might prefer, a crown
-of laurel, of ivy, or of myrtle. Shortly afterwards he was again at
-Naples, under very different circumstances. Appointed by Clement VI.
-to urge the claims of the Holy See to the Regency of that state,
-during the minority of Joanna, the grand-daughter of Robert of Anjou,
-he was treated with no less distinction and kindness than on the
-former visit; but, unsuccessful in his mission, and scandalized by the
-debauchery and cruelty which prevailed in the dissolute court, he
-soon quitted Naples and Italy for his beloved Vaucluse. There, however,
-at no great distance of time, a new excitement awaited him.
-In 1347, Rienzi, the famous demagogue, who began his career so
-nobly, and closed it with such circumstances of disgrace, obtained
-his brief and singular dominion. All the hopes of Italian independence,
-all the reverence for antiquity which had ever animated the
-spirit of Petrarch, now strongly impelled him to admire the restorer
-of those ancient names, which he trusted would realize his visions of
-ancient freedom and majesty. Even the massacre of the Colonna
-family, which Petrarch heard at Genoa as he was hastening to join
-the tribune at Rome, did not destroy these feelings, although it
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_29'>29</span>materially weakened them. But the fabric of Rienzi’s power was
-sapped by his own extravagances in less than a year; and nearly at
-the same time a more severe affliction fell upon Petrarch even than
-the disappointment of his hopes for the restoration of Italian liberty.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>In April, 1348, Laura expired of the dreadful malady which then
-ravaged Europe, and which is described by Boccaccio in the introduction
-to the Decameron. The second half of the Canzoniere is the
-monument of his glorious sorrow; which is however more calmly, and,
-to the apprehensions of many, more convincingly expressed, in the
-pathetic note to his own MS. of Virgil, now in the Ambrosian
-Library at Milan. It would be unjust to him not to relate this event
-in his own words. “Laura, illustrious for her own virtues, and long
-celebrated by my verses, was seen by me for the first time in my early
-manhood, in the year 1327, April 6, at six in the morning, in the
-church of S. Clara, at Avignon. In the same city, in the same month
-of April, on the same sixth day, and at the same hour, in 1348, this
-light was taken from the world, while I was at Verona, alas!
-ignorant of my unhappy lot. The melancholy news reached me in a
-letter from my friend Louis: it found me at Parma the same year,
-May 19, in the morning. That body, so chaste, so fair, was laid in
-the church of the Minor Friars on the evening of the day of her death.
-Her soul, I doubt not, is returned, as Seneca says of Scipio Africanus,
-to heaven, whence it came. To preserve the grievous memory of this
-loss, I write this with a sort of pleasure mixed with bitterness; and I
-write by choice upon this book, which often comes before my eyes, that
-hereafter there may be nothing for me to delight in in this life, and that,
-my strongest chain being broken, I may be reminded by the frequent
-sight of these words, and by the just appreciation of a fugitive life,
-that it is time to go forth from Babylon; which, by the help of God’s
-grace, will become easy to me by vigorous and bold contemplation
-of the needless cares, the vain hopes, the unexpected events which
-have agitated me during the time I have spent on earth.” The
-authenticity of this note has been contested: to us it bears internal
-evidence of being genuine, not merely in the unpretending pathos of
-the conclusion, but in the minuteness of the earlier details. It is the
-luxury of grief to connect the memory of the dead with our thoughts,
-and employments, and even abodes at the moment of their death; and
-the pen of the literary forger is not likely to trace so simple and unpretending
-a statement.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The jubilee of 1350 led Petrarch again to Rome. When he
-passed through Arezzo, the principal citizens of the town led him
-with pride to the house in which he was born; declaring that nothing
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_30'>30</span>had been changed there, and that the municipal authorities had
-enforced this scrupulous respect for the great poet’s birth-place by
-injunctions to the successive proprietors of the mansion. Not long
-afterwards, Boccaccio, his friend and his compeer in the great literary
-triumvirate of Italy, came to him at Padua, to announce in the name
-of the senate at Florence that he was restored to his rights of citizenship,
-and to offer him the superintendence of the recently established
-university. Petrarch did not accept the proposal. Twice in the course
-of his remaining life his name is found connected with great events.
-Admitted to the counsels of Gian Visconti, he accepted the mission
-of reconciling the republic of Genoa, which had yielded to that prince,
-with the state of Venice, elated by recent victories. But Petrarch
-was destined to be unsuccessful as a statesman. This embassy had no
-effect; nor were his subsequent efforts to infuse into the mind of
-Charles IV. the lessons of magnanimity, when that weak and avaricious
-emperor entered Italy, more beneficial either to Charles or to his
-country. Once, however, when employed by Galeazzo Visconti in a
-subsequent mission to the same prince, he was able to dissuade him
-from recrossing the Alps: unless we suppose that the distracted state of
-Germany had more to do with keeping the emperor at home, than the
-eloquence of the poet, or the skill of the politician. The second plague
-in 1362 deprived the now aged poet of the few early friends who
-remained to him, Azo of Correggio, and the two who in his letters are
-usually denominated Lælius and Socrates, and had, like himself, been
-intimate with Jacopo Colonna. He was then resident in Venice; where,
-in 1363, Boccaccio came to visit him in company with Leontius Pilatus
-of Thessalonica, who had instructed the Florentine novelist in Greek.
-At a former period Petrarch had commenced the study of that language
-under a Grecian monk named Barlaam; and though now sixty
-years of age, he returned to the task with enthusiasm and with perseverance.
-He was hospitably and honourably received by the republic,
-to which he presented his valuable collection of manuscripts.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>After some more adventures and wanderings the old man fixed his
-residence at Arquà, a village situated on the Euganean hills, at four
-leagues distance from Padua. Here he led a life of abstinence and
-study, reposing from the toilsome vicissitudes to which he had been
-subjected, but not from his thirst for knowledge and desire of glory.
-His last years were solaced by his intimacy with Boccaccio, who
-seemed to supply the place of those numerous and valued early friends
-whom he had survived, and by the filial attentions of his daughter
-Francesca. The last important act of his life was his appearance before
-the Senate of Venice, in behalf of Francesco of Carrara, who had
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_31'>31</span>been forced to conclude a humiliating peace with the republic in 1373.
-It is said that he was so much awed by the majesty of the assembly,
-that on the first day on which he appeared before it, he was unable to
-deliver his address. The next day he recovered his spirits, or more
-probably his strength, and his speech in behalf of Carrara was loudly
-applauded. He returned to his retirement in a failing state of health,
-and his complaints were aggravated by imprudence, and disregard of
-medical advice. July 18, 1374, he was found dead in his library,
-his head resting on an open book. A stroke of apoplexy had thus suddenly
-terminated his life. All Padua assisted at his obsequies, and
-Francesco of Carrara led the funeral pomp. A marble tomb, which
-still exists, was raised to him before the door of the church of Arquà.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Such was the death and such the life of Francesco Petrarca, than
-whom few men have exerted more influence over their own times;
-have contributed more to form and polish the language of their native
-land; or have given a more decided tone to the literature of succeeding
-generations. This is not the place to enter into a minute analysis of
-his merits as a poet. If he did not create the kind of poetry in which
-he excelled, at least he carried it to perfection: if he could not save his
-style from being disfigured by feeble imitators, at least he left it in
-itself a noble work: if he did not avoid the false conceits and strained
-illustrations, which at the rise of a new literature are almost always
-found to possess irresistible attractions, he redeemed and even ennobled
-them by strains of simple passion, imagination, and melody, which will
-live as long as the language in which they are composed. His Latin
-writings, on which he wished his reputation to rest, are now much
-neglected. They are not indeed calculated for general reading; but
-they are highly valuable as records of the time and of the man. His
-letters form the most interesting, because the most personal, portion
-of them. Few men have laid bare their hearts so completely as
-Petrarch. His vanity, his dependence on the sympathy of others, led
-him to commit to writing every incident of his life, every turn in the
-troubled course of his feelings. But he gains rather than loses by this
-voluntary exposure. His Christian faith and Christian principles of
-philosophy, however swayed by occasional currents of passion, stand
-out beautifully amidst the corruptions of that age. It is as impossible
-to rise from a perusal of Petrarch’s poetry, and even more perhaps of
-his prose, without a feeling of love for the man, as of admiration for
-the author.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>In early life he was distinguished for beauty, of which he was himself
-not insensible; for he left, in his ‘Letter to Posterity,’ a description
-of his own person, which we quote from Ugo Foscolo’s translation.
-“Without being uncommonly handsome, my person had something
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_32'>32</span>agreeable in it in my youth. My complexion was a clear and lively
-brown; my eyes were animated; my hair had grown grey before
-twenty-five, and I consoled myself for a defect which I shared in common
-with many of the great men of antiquity (for Cæsar and Virgil
-were grey-headed in youth), and I had a venerable air, which I was by
-no means very proud of.” He was then miserable, Foscolo continues,
-if a lock of his hair was out of order; he was studious of ornamenting
-his person with the nicest clothes; and to give a graceful form to his
-feet, he pinched them in shoes that put his nerves and sinews to the
-rack. These traits are taken from his own familiar letters.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The life and writings of Petrarch have been repeatedly illustrated
-at great length. The ‘Petrarcha Redivivus’ of Tomasini; the voluminous
-‘<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Mémoires sur Petrarque</span>’ of the Abbé de Sade, who has taken
-up the subject as a matter of family history; and the works of Tiraboschi
-and Baldelli, are among the best authorities for our author’s
-history. To the English, and indeed to every reader, we must recommend
-the ‘Essays on Petrarch,’ by Ugo Foscolo; at the end of which
-there are some exquisite translations by Lady Dacre. The most
-complete edition of Petrarch’s works is the folio published at Bâsle
-in 1581. Among the numerous editions of his Italian poems, we may
-particularize that of Biagioli, 1822, as containing the notes of Alfieri;
-and that of Marsard, printed at Padua, as distinguished alike for its
-correctness and beauty of execution.</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/i_032.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic001'>
-<p>Tomb of Petrarch at Arquà.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/i_033fp.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic001'>
-<p><em>Engraved by C. E. Wagstaff.</em><br /><br />BURKE.<br /><br /><em>From a Picture after Sir Joshua Reynolds<br />in the possession of T. H. Burke Esq<sup>r</sup>.</em><br /><br />Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.<br /><br /><em>London, Published by Charles Knight, Ludgate Street, &amp; Pall Mall East.</em></p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id002'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_33'>33</span>
-<img src='images/i_033.jpg' alt='BURKE.' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <h2 class='c005'>BURKE.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c009'>The six and thirty years which have elapsed since the death of
-Edmund Burke are not sufficient to secure a right and impartial
-sentence on his character. We are still within the heated temperature
-of the same political agitations in which he lived and struggled.
-We are not, perhaps our children will not be, qualified to judge him
-and his contemporaries, with that calmness with which men weigh
-the merits of things and persons who have exerted no perceptible
-influence over their own times. It is fortunate, therefore, that the
-limits of this brief memoir prescribe rather a succinct statement of
-unquestioned facts, than a disputable adjudication between opposite
-opinions.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Edmund Burke, son of Richard Burke, an attorney in extensive
-practice in Dublin, was born in that city, January 1, 1730. Of his
-early life little is known with certainty. He appears to have distinguished
-himself at Trinity College, Dublin, by his acquirements
-and talents, especially by a decided taste and ability for the discussion
-of subjects relating to English history and politics. His first
-literary effort of any importance was made before he quitted that
-university, in some letters directed against a factious writer called
-Lucas, at that time the popular idol. These are not preserved. In
-1750 he came to London, and was entered a student of the Middle
-Temple. It is singular that the idle rumour, expressly contradicted
-by himself, of his having completed his education at St. Omer’s,
-should be still in some degree accredited by the author of the article
-‘Burke,’ in the Biographie Universelle. Whether, in 1752 or 1753,
-he became a candidate for the chair of Logic at Glasgow, is a more
-doubtful question: the opinions of Dugald Stewart and Adam Smith,
-who took some pains to ascertain the truth, were in the negative. It is
-certain, however, that the extraordinary talents of Burke soon began
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_34'>34</span>to attract attention: he wrote in many political and literary miscellanies,
-and formed an acquaintance with some distinguished characters
-of the time. Among these should be mentioned Lord Charlemont,
-Gerard Hamilton, Soame Jenyns, and somewhat later, Goldsmith,
-Reynolds, Dr. Johnson, and Hume. His first avowed work, the
-‘Vindication of Natural Society,’ was published in 1756, and excited
-very general admiration. The imitation of Bolingbroke’s style
-in this essay was so perfect, that some admirers of the deceased philosopher
-are said to have overlooked the evident signs of irony, and to
-have believed it to be a genuine posthumous work. This may appear
-strange; but it is surely more strange, that forty years afterwards this
-‘Vindication’ should have been republished by the French party,
-with a view of serving democratic interests. Before the close of 1756,
-appeared the ‘Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the
-Sublime and Beautiful,’ which added largely to Burke’s reputation, and
-procured him the valuable friendship of Sir Joshua Reynolds. Shortly
-afterwards, the public attention being at that time much directed to
-the American colonies, was published ‘An Account of the European
-Settlements in America,’ of which Burke was probably not the sole,
-but the principal author. It was much read, as well on the Continent
-as in England; and indeed no inconsiderable portion of it has been
-incorporated into the celebrated work of the Abbé Raynal. About this
-time Burke married the daughter of Dr. Nugent, an intelligent physician,
-who had invited him to his house while suffering under an illness,
-the result of laborious application. This union was a source of uninterrupted
-comfort to him through life. “Every care vanishes,” he was
-in the habit of saying, “when I enter my own home.” A confined
-income, however, rendered literary exertion still more indispensable to
-him than before: and in 1759 ‘The Annual Register,’ that most useful
-work, for many years entirely composed by Burke, or under his
-immediate superintendence, was undertaken by him in conjunction
-with Dodsley. At length, in 1765, with the first Rockingham
-administration, he entered on a more extensive sphere of action: being
-appointed private secretary to the Marquis of Rockingham, through
-the recommendation of his friend Mr. Fitzherbert.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Coming now into Parliament as member for Wendover in Buckinghamshire,
-Burke became an eminent supporter of the Whig party.
-The situation of affairs was critical. Mr. Grenville’s stamp act, a
-fatal departure from the policy on which the colonies had been previously
-governed, had excited much discontent in America. A strong
-party, supported by the evident favour of the court and the general
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_35'>35</span>feeling of the country, urged the necessity of perseverance in this
-coercive policy. Lord Chatham and his adherents no less strenuously
-denied the right of the Imperial Legislature to impose taxes on
-America without her own consent. The Rockingham Whigs adopted
-a middle course between these extremes. They repealed the stamp
-act, declaring at the same time that the right of taxation resided
-inalienably in Parliament. Their administration was short-lived.
-Lord Chatham succeeded them in power, at the head of that “dovetailed”
-cabinet which Burke has so admirably satirised in his ‘Speech
-on American Taxation.’ His influence was little more than nominal,
-and in spite of it, schemes for raising a revenue in America were soon
-revived. From these measures, the public attention was for a short
-time diverted by the domestic agitation caused by the proceedings
-against Wilkes, the disputed election in Middlesex, and the mysterious
-letters of Junius. The shadow of that name was at the time believed
-by many to rest on Burke: a supposition long since rejected, and
-supported by scarce any evidence; though his power as a writer, and
-his known facility in disguising his style, gave some degree of plausibility
-to the supposition. In his own name, and without any disguise,
-he came forward to attack the ministry of the Duke of Grafton,
-in a political treatise, entitled, ‘Thoughts on the Present Discontents.’
-This has been termed the Whig Manual, and certainly contains the
-ablest exposition ever given of the principles held by that party for
-a long series of years. Shaken by this and other attacks, the Duke
-retired, and left the state under the guidance of a minister, whose
-merits have been overshadowed by the disastrous circumstances in
-which he was involved. From this time commenced that long and
-brilliant opposition, which, from a very low condition of numbers
-and influence, gradually worked its way through the most momentous
-parliamentary struggles; and by a continued display of powers the
-most accomplished, and union the most effective, gained an ultimate
-victory, first over popular prepossessions, and then over royal obstinacy.
-The court party were so inferior in eloquence and genius, that their
-arguments are little remembered, while the speeches of the Whigs
-are in every body’s hands. They felt the importance of the contest
-deeply, or they would not have been animated to their extraordinary
-exertions. But the wisest of them could not foresee the prodigious
-extent of those consequences, which, within the duration of their own
-lives, resulted from their endeavours. It was much for them to look
-forward to the independence of America. What would it have been
-to contemplate the spread of popular principles in Europe, and that
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_36'>36</span>mighty revolution which has changed the balance of society? No
-member of the opposition contributed so largely as Burke to their
-final triumph. During the latter years of the war, indeed, his fame
-as a debater was eclipsed by the rising genius of Charles Fox, to
-whom he willingly yielded the office of leader of the Whig party.
-But the talents of Fox had been trained and nourished by the wisdom
-of Burke; and in the speeches published at different periods by the
-latter, on American taxation [1774], and on conciliation with America
-[1775], and his Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol [1777], (written
-on the occasion of a temporary secession of the Rockingham party
-from Parliament,) the friends of freedom found a magazine of invaluable
-weapons. In 1774 Burke was elected member of Parliament for
-Bristol; but six years afterwards he was unable to procure his reelection
-for that borough, the people being displeased with his recent
-votes in favour of Irish trade and of the Roman Catholics. His
-popularity was in a great measure restored by the famous Bill of
-Economical Reform, brought forward by him in 1782, when paymaster
-of the forces under the second Rockingham ministry, after the
-overthrow of Lord North. The death of the Marquis of Rockingham
-produced a schism among the Whigs; Lord Shelburne was appointed
-his successor, and the Rockingham division resigned their places. They
-soon returned to them, by means of that strange junction of force with
-Lord North, emphatically termed <em>The Coalition</em>, which raised a general
-cry of indignation throughout the country. Burke always vindicated
-this step, both at the time, and when the state of things which led to it
-had long passed away; but it is generally supposed that he did not
-counsel it, and was only induced to give in his adhesion by the urgent
-entreaties of his political friends.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The celebrated East-India Bill, of which Burke is said to have
-been partly the author, and upon which he pronounced one of his
-most magnificent orations, was fatal to the coalition. William Pitt,
-called at the age of twenty-four to occupy the first place in the counsels
-of his sovereign, fought an arduous but finally victorious fight against
-the Whig majority in the Commons. A dissolution followed; the
-new House supported the new Ministers; and a second long period of
-Whig opposition began, during which Fox was the acknowledged
-leader of the party, and was warmly supported in that capacity by
-Burke. The most important event of this second great division of
-Burke’s parliamentary life is undoubtedly the impeachment of Warren
-Hastings. Throughout the long debates on the accusations brought
-against the Governor of India, and afterwards throughout the trial
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_37'>37</span>itself, which began in 1788 and was not concluded until 1795, Burke
-was indefatigable. Never, perhaps, has greater oratorical genius been
-displayed than by that combination of great men who were appointed
-managers of the impeachment. Yet all their efforts failed to establish
-their case on a secure foundation. History still hesitates to decide
-with confidence on the guilt or innocence of Hastings. It is
-agreed, however, that the violence of Burke’s proceedings on this
-trial was often unworthy of the situation he held and the cause he
-advocated. When with harsh tones and a look more expressive of
-personal than political hatred he bade Mr. Hastings kneel before the
-court, it is said that Fox whispered to his friends, “In that moment
-I would rather have been Hastings than Burke.”</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>At the latter end of 1788 arose the regency question, on which
-Burke, with all his party, maintained the opinion that any apparently
-irreparable incapacity in the sovereign caused a demise of the crown,
-because, the prerogatives of royalty being given for public benefit, it
-would be highly dangerous to suspend them for an indefinite period.
-Burke, however, did some injury to his party by the intemperate and
-imprudent language he adopted on this occasion, speaking of the
-King’s situation in the tone of triumph rather than pity, and even
-using the expression “God has hurled him from his throne.” These
-constitutional questions, however important, were soon forgotten in a
-new absorbing interest, which began to occupy the minds of all men.
-The French Revolution had taken place. That astonishing event
-was at first hailed with general sympathy and admiration in this
-country. The supporters of Pitt either joined in the vehement delight
-of the Fox party, or took no pains to restrain it. Here and there
-some may have murmured dislike: but in general it was thought
-unworthy of Englishmen not to rejoice in the acquisition of liberty by
-a neighbouring people; and not a few looked to this great change as
-the harbinger of political regeneration to Europe and the world. In
-this general acclamation one voice was wanting. Burke, from the very
-first meeting of the States General, did not conceal his aversion to
-their proceedings and his apprehension of the results. Gradually, as
-the excesses of popular violence in Paris became more frequent, an
-Anti-Gallican party began to gather round him. On the 9th of
-February, 1790, during a debate on the army estimates, Burke
-took advantage of some expressions which Fox let fall in praise of
-the French Revolution to open an attack against it, denying that
-there was any similarity between our revolution of 1688 and the
-“strange thing” called by the same name in France. Fox in his
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_38'>38</span>reply spoke in memorable terms of his obligations to his friend,
-declaring that all he had ever learnt from other sources was little in
-comparison with what he had gained from him. Sheridan attacked
-the speech just made by Burke in no measured terms, describing it
-as perfectly irreconcilable with the principles hitherto professed by
-that gentleman. On this, Burke again rose, and in a few words
-declared that Sheridan and himself were thenceforth “separated in
-politics.” Before the end of this year came out the celebrated ‘Reflections,’
-which at once showed how irreparable was the schism between
-the author and his former associates. It roused an immediate war
-of opinion, which gave birth to a war of force throughout Europe.
-Innumerable pamphlets soon followed upon its publication, some
-denouncing the work as a specious apology for despotism, others advocating
-the opinions contained in it with a vehemence which the authors
-had not dared to show, till they were encouraged by the support of so
-eloquent and so distinguished a partizan. The most remarkable attempts
-of the former description were the ‘Rights of Man,’ by Thomas Paine,
-which soon became the manual of the democratic party; and the
-‘<span lang="la" xml:lang="la">Vindiciæ Gallicæ</span>,’ by Mr., afterwards Sir James Mackintosh, the most
-illustrious, if not the only successor of Burke himself in his peculiar
-line of philosophical politics. Fox was loud in condemning the book,
-and although no formal breach of friendship had hitherto taken place,
-such an event was obviously to be expected. On the 6th May, 1791,
-during a discussion on a plan for settling the constitution of Canada,
-this separation actually occurred, with a solemnity worthy of the men
-and the event. From that hour, during the six remaining years of
-his life, one idea swayed with exclusive dominion the mind of Burke.
-Utterly separated from Fox’s party, aloof from the ministry, retired,
-after a few sessions, from Parliament, he continued to wage unceasing
-war by speech and writing against the principles and practice of
-Jacobinism. Soon he was pointed out as a prophet, and the verification
-of his predictions in characters of blood was much more powerful,
-because much more palpable, than the vague anticipations of future
-advantage put forward by his opponents. In 1794, after his retirement
-from Parliament, he received the grant of a considerable pension for himself
-and his wife. The democratic party did not scruple to stigmatize
-his motives, and in answer to an accusation of this sort was written the
-‘Letter to a Noble Lord,’ perhaps the most astonishing specimen
-of his peculiar capacities of style. In this year the death of his son
-overwhelmed him with affliction. Still he continued his exertions.
-His views of the war differed widely from those of the ministry;
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_39'>39</span>he ceased not to urge that it was a war not against France but Jacobinism,
-and that it would be a degradation to Britain to treat with
-any of the Regicides. On this subject are written the two ‘Letters
-on a Regicide Peace,’ published in 1796, and the others published
-since his death. On the 8th of July, 1797, this event took place, in
-the 68th year of his age, at his own house at Beaconsfield, whither,
-after seeking medical aid elsewhere in vain, he had returned to die.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The mind of this great man may, perhaps, be considered as a fair
-representative of the general characteristics of English intellect. Its
-groundwork was solid, practical, and conversant with the details of
-business, but upon this, and secured by this, arose a superstructure of
-imagination and moral sentiment. He saw little, because it was painful
-to him to see any thing, beyond the limits of the national character; with
-that, and with the constitution which he considered its appropriate expression,
-all his sympathies were bound up. But he loved them with an
-intelligent and discriminating love, making it his pains to comprehend
-thoroughly what it was his delight to serve diligently. His political
-opinions, springing out of these dispositions, were early fixed in favour
-of the Whig system of governing by great party connexions. These
-opinions, however, were swayed in their application by strong impulses
-of personal feeling. A temper impatient of control, an imagination
-prone to magnify those classes of facts which impressed him with
-alarm or hope, a command of language almost unlimited, and a
-copiousness of imagery misleading nearly as much as it illustrated or
-enforced; these were qualities which laid him open to many serious
-accusations. But his admirers have started a philosophic doubt,
-whether less of passion and prejudice would have been compatible with
-the peculiar station he was destined to occupy. In an age of revolution,
-it might be plausibly maintained, his genius was the counteracting
-force: alone he stood against the impulses communicated to European
-society by the philosophers of France; their enthusiasm could only
-be met by enthusiasm; their influence on the imaginations and hearts
-of men was capable of overbearing either a blind prejudice or a dispassionate
-logic. But Burke was an orator in all his thoughts, and
-a sage in all his eloquence; he held the principles of Conservation
-with the zeal of a Leveller, and tempered lofty ideas of Improvement
-with the scrupulousness of official routine. As a debater in the House
-of Commons he was inferior to some otherwise inferior men. Pitt and
-Fox will be neglected while the speeches of Burke shall still be read.
-It has been said of Fox by a philosophical panegyrist that he was the
-most Demosthenean speaker since Demosthenes. Perhaps, of all great
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_40'>40</span>orators Burke might be called the least Demosthenean. Probably a
-hearer of the great Athenian would have felt as extemporaneous and
-intuitive the slowly-wrought perfections of rhetorical art, while the
-listeners to Burke may have often set down to elaborate preparation
-what was really the inspiration of the moment. His conversation, however,
-seems to have been uniformly delightful. It is a true maxim in one
-sense, although in another it would often need reversal, that great men
-are always greater than their works. Much as we possess of Edmund
-Burke, very much is lost to us of that which formed the admiration of
-his contemporaries. “The mind of that man,” said Dr. Johnson, “is
-a perennial stream: no one grudges Burke the first place.” He was
-acquainted with most subjects of literature, and possessed some knowledge
-of science. The philosophy of mind owes him one contribution
-of no inconsiderable value: but the indirect results of his metaphysical
-studies as seen in the tenor of his practical philosophy are much
-more extensive. For in all things, while he deeply reverenced principles,
-he chose to deal with the concrete more than with abstractions:
-he studied men rather than man. In private life the character of
-Burke was unsullied even by reproach. A good father, a good
-husband, a good friend, he was sincerely attached to the Protestant
-religion of the English church, “not from indifference,” as he said
-himself of the nation at large, “but from zeal; not because he
-thought there was less religion in it, but because he knew there was
-more.” But his attachment was without bigotry; the principles of
-toleration ever found in him a powerful advocate; and he was ever
-zealous to remove imperfections, and correct abuses, in the establishment,
-as the best means of securing its permanent existence.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The works of Burke are collected in sixteen volumes octavo. His
-speeches are separately published in four volumes octavo. A small
-volume appeared in 1827, containing the correspondence, hitherto
-unpublished, between this great statesman and his friend Dr. Laurence.
-His life has been written soon after his death by Mr. Bisset; and
-more recently by Mr. Prior. Several other biographical accounts
-were published about the time of his death, both in the periodical
-publications and as independent works: we are not aware that any of
-these are entitled to particular notice.</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/i_041fp.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic001'>
-<p><em>Engraved by T. Woolnoth.</em><br /><br />HENRY IV.<br /><br /><em>From the original Picture by Porbus<br />in the Collection of the <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Musée Royal</span>, Paris.</em><br /><br />Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.<br /><br /><em>London, Published by Charles Knight, Ludgate Street, &amp; Pall Mall East.</em></p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id002'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_41'>41</span>
-<img src='images/i_041.jpg' alt='HENRY IV.' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <h2 class='c005'>HENRY IV.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c009'>Henry IV., the most celebrated, the most beloved, and perhaps, in
-spite of his many faults, the best of the French monarchs, was born at
-Pau, the capital of Béarn, in 1553. His parents were Antoine de
-Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme, and, in right of his wife, titular King of
-Navarre, and Jeanne d’Albret, the heiress of that kingdom. On the
-paternal side he traced his descent to Robert of Clermont, fifth son of
-Louis IX., and thus, on the failure of the elder branches, became heir
-to the crown of France. Educated by a Protestant mother in the
-Protestant faith, he was for many years the rallying point and leader
-of the Huguenots. In boyhood the Prince of Béarn displayed sense and
-spirit above his years. Early inured to war, he was present and exhibited
-strong proofs of military talent at the battle of Jarnac, and that
-of Moncontour, both fought in 1569. In the same year he was declared
-chief of the Protestant League. The treaty of St. Germain, concluded
-in 1570, guaranteed to the Huguenots the civil rights for which they
-had been striving: and, in appearance, to cement the union of the two
-parties, a marriage was proposed between Henry, who, by the death of
-his mother, had just succeeded to the throne of Navarre, and Margaret
-of Valois, sister of Charles IX. This match brought Condé, Coligni,
-and all the leaders of their party, to Paris. The ceremony took place
-August 17, 1572. On the twenty-second, when the rejoicings were
-not yet ended, Coligni was fired at in the street, and wounded.
-Charles visited him, feigned deep sorrow, and promised to punish the
-assassin. On the night between the twenty-third and twenty-fourth,
-by express order of the Court, that atrocious scene of murder began,
-which history has devoted to execration, under the name of the massacre
-of St. Bartholomew. For three years afterwards Henry, who to save
-his life had conformed to the established religion, was kept as a kind
-of state prisoner. He escaped in 1576, and put himself at the head
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_42'>42</span>of the Huguenot party. In the war which ensued, with the sagacity
-and fiery courage of the high-born general, he showed the indifference
-to hardships of the meanest soldier. Content with the worst fare and
-meanest lodging, in future times the magnificent monarch of France
-could recollect when his wardrobe could not furnish him with a
-change of linen. He shared all fortunes with his followers, and was
-rewarded by their unbounded devotion.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Upon the extinction of the house of Valois, by the assassination of
-Henry III. in 1589, Henry of Navarre became the rightful owner of
-the French throne. But his religion interfered with his claims. The
-League was strong in force against him: he had few friends, few fortresses,
-no money, and a small army. But his courage and activity
-made up for the scantiness of his resources. With five thousand men
-he withstood the Duc de Mayenne, who was pursuing him with
-twenty-five thousand, and gained the battle of Arques, in spite of the
-disparity. This extraordinary result may probably be ascribed in great
-measure to the contrast of personal character in the two generals.
-Mayenne was slow and indolent. Of Henry it was said, that he lost
-less time in bed, than Mayenne lost at table; and that he wore out
-very little broad-cloth, but a great deal of boot-leather. A person was
-once extolling the skill and courage of Mayenne in Henry’s presence.
-“You are right,” said Henry; “he is a great captain, but I have
-always five hours’ start of him.” Henry got up at four in the morning,
-and Mayenne about ten.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The battle of Arques was fought in the year of his accession. In
-the following year, 1590, he gained a splendid victory at Ivri, over
-the Leaguers, commanded by Mayenne, and a Spanish army superior in
-numbers. On this occasion he made that celebrated speech to his
-soldiers before the battle: “If you lose sight of your standards, rally
-round my white plume: you will always find it in the path of honour
-and glory.” Nor is his exclamation to his victorious troops less worthy
-of record: “Spare the French!”</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Paris was soon after blockaded; and the hatred of the Leaguers displayed
-itself with increased violence, in proportion as the King showed
-himself more worthy of affection. A regiment of Priests and Monks,
-with cuirasses on their breasts, muskets and crucifixes in their hands,
-paraded the streets, and heightened the passions of the populace into
-frenzy. At this period of fanaticism, theologians were the most influential
-politicians, and the dictators of the public conscience. Accordingly
-the Sorbonne decided that Henry, as a relapsed and excommunicated
-heretic, could not be acknowledged, even although he should be
-absolved from the censures. The Parliament swore on the Gospels, in
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_43'>43</span>the presence of the Legate and the Spanish Ambassador, to refuse all
-proposals of accommodation. The siege was pushed to such extremities,
-and the famine became so cruel, that bread was made of human
-bones ground to powder. That Henry did not then master the capital,
-where two hundred thousand men were maddened with want, was
-owing to his own lenity. He declared that he had rather lose Paris,
-than gain possession of it by the death of so many persons. He gave
-a free passage through his lines to all who were not soldiers, and
-allowed his own troops to send in refreshments to their friends. By
-this paternal kindness he lost the fruit of his labours to himself; but
-he also prolonged the civil war, and the calamities of the kingdom at
-large.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The approach of the Duke of Parma with a Spanish army obliged
-Henry to raise the siege of Paris. It was not the policy of the
-Spanish court to render the Leaguers independent of its assistance, and
-the Duke, satisfied with having relieved the metropolis, avoided an
-engagement, and returned to his government in the Low Countries,
-followed by Henry as far as the frontiers of Picardy. In 1591 Henry
-received succours from England and Germany, and laid siege to
-Rouen; but his prey was again snatched from him by the Duke of
-Parma. Again battle was offered and declined; and the retiring
-army passed the Seine in the night on a bridge of boats: a retreat
-the more glorious, as Henry believed it to be impossible. The Duke
-once said of his adversary, that other generals made war like lions, or
-wild boars; but that Henry hovered over it like an eagle.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>During the siege of Paris, some conferences had been held between
-the chiefs of the two parties, which ended in a kind of accommodation.
-The Catholics of the King’s party began to complain of his perseverance
-in Calvinism; and some influential men who were of the latter
-persuasion, especially his confidential friend and minister Rosny,
-represented to him the necessity of a change. Even some of the reformed
-ministers softened the difficulty, by acknowledging salvation to
-be possible in the Roman church. In 1593 the ceremony of abjuration
-was performed at St. Denys, in presence of a multitude of the
-Parisians. If, as we cannot but suppose, the monarch’s conversion
-was owing to political motives, the apostacy must be answered for at
-a higher than any human tribunal: politically viewed, it was perhaps
-one of the most beneficial steps ever taken towards the pacification
-and renewal of prosperity of a great kingdom. In the same year he
-was crowned at Chartres, and in 1594 Paris opened her gates to him.
-He had but just been received into the capital, where he was conspicuously
-manifesting his beneficence and zeal for the public good, when
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_44'>44</span>he was wounded in the throat by John Châtel, a young fanatic.
-When the assassin was questioned, he avowed the doctrine of tyrannicide,
-and quoted the sermons of the Jesuits in his justification.
-That society therefore was banished by the Parliament, and their
-librarian was executed on account of some libels against the King,
-found in his own hand-writing among his papers.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>For two years after his ostensible conversion, the King was obliged
-daily to perform the most humiliating ceremonies, by way of penance;
-and it was not till 1595 that he was absolved by Clement VIII. The
-Leaguers then had no further pretext for rebellion, and the League
-necessarily was dissolved. Its chiefs exacted high terms for their
-submission; but the civil wars had so exhausted the kingdom, that
-tranquillity could not be too dearly purchased; and Henry was faithful
-to all his promises, even after his authority was so firmly established,
-that he might have broken his word with safety to all but his own
-conscience and honour. Although the obligations which he had to
-discharge were most burdensome, he found means to relieve his people,
-and make his kingdom prosper. The Duc de Mayenne, in Burgundy,
-and the Duke de Mercœur, in Britanny, were the last to protract an
-unavailing resistance; but the former was reduced in 1596, and the
-latter in 1598, and thenceforth France enjoyed almost uninterrupted
-peace till Henry’s death. But the Protestants gave him almost as
-much uneasiness as the Catholic Leaguers. He had granted liberty
-of conscience to the former; a measure which was admitted to be
-necessary by the prudent even among the latter. Nevertheless, either
-from vexation at his having abjured their religion, from the violence of
-party zeal, or disgust at being no longer the objects of royal preference,
-the Calvinists preferred their demands in so seditious a tone,
-as stopped little short of a rebellious one. While on the road to
-Britanny, he determined to avoid greater evils by timely compromise.
-The edict of Nantes was then promulgated, authorizing the public
-exercise of their religion in several towns, granting them the right
-of holding offices, putting them in possession of certain places for
-eight years, as pledges for their security, and establishing salaries for
-their ministers. The clergy and preachers demurred, but to no purpose;
-the Parliament ceased to resist the arguments of the Prince,
-when he represented to them as magistrates, that the peace of the state
-and the prosperity of the church must be inseparable. At the same time
-he endeavoured to convince the bigots among the priesthood on both
-sides, that the love of country and the performance of civil and political
-duties may be completely reconciled with difference of worship.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>But it would be unjust to attribute these enlightened views to Henry,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_45'>45</span>without noticing that he had a friend as well as minister in Rosny, best
-known as the Duc de Sully, who probably suggested many of his wisest
-measures, and at all events superintended their execution, and did his
-best to prevent or retrieve his sovereign’s errors by uncompromising
-honesty of advice and remonstrance. The allurements of pleasure were
-powerful over the enthusiastic and impassioned temperament of Henry:
-it was love that most frequently prevailed over the claims of duty. The
-beautiful Gabrielle d’Estrées became the absolute mistress of his heart;
-and he entertained hopes of obtaining permission from Rome to divorce
-Margaret de Valois, from whom he had long lived in a state of separation.
-Had he succeeded time enough, he contemplated the dangerous
-project of marrying the favourite; but her death saved him both from
-the hazard and disgrace. It is not by anecdotes of his amours, that
-we would be prone to illustrate the life of this remarkable sovereign;
-but the following may deserve notice as highly characteristic. Shortly
-after the peace with Spain, concluded by the advantageous treaty of
-Vervins in 1598, Henry, on his return from hunting, in a plain dress
-as was usual with him, and with only two or three persons about him,
-had to cross a ferry. He saw that the ferryman did not know him, and
-asked what people said about the peace. “Faith,” said the man, “I
-know nothing about this fine peace; every thing is still taxed, even to
-this wretched boat, by which I can scarcely earn a livelihood.” “Does
-not the King intend,” said Henry, “to set all this taxation to rights?”
-“The King is good kind of man enough,” answered the sturdy boatman;
-“but he has a mistress, who wants so many fine gowns, and so
-many trumpery trinkets, and we have to pay for all that. Besides, that
-is not the worst: if she were constant to him, we would not mind;
-but people do say that the jade has other gallants.” Henry, much
-amused with this conversation, sent for the ferryman next day, and
-extorted from him all that he had said the evening before, in presence
-of the object of his vituperation. The enraged lady insisted on his
-being hanged forthwith. “How can you be such a fool?” said the
-King; “this poor devil is put out of humour only by his poverty: for
-the time to come, he shall pay no tax for his boat, and then he will
-sing for the rest of his days, <i><span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Vive Henri, vive Gabrielle</span></i>.”</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The King’s passions were not buried in the grave of La Belle Gabrielle:
-she was succeeded by another mistress, Henrietta d’Entragues,
-a woman of an artful, intriguing, and ambitious spirit, who inflamed
-his desires by refusals, until she extorted a promise of marriage.
-Henry showed this promise, ready signed, to Sully: the minister, in a
-noble fit of indignation, tore it to pieces. “I believe you are mad,”
-cried the King, in a rage. “It may be so,” answered Sully; “but I
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_46'>46</span>wish I was the only madman in France.” The faithful counsellor was
-in momentary expectation of an angry dismissal from all his appointments;
-but his monarch’s candour and justice, and long tried friendship,
-prevailed over his besetting weakness; and as an additional
-token of his favour, he conferred on Sully the office of Grand Master
-of the Ordnance. The sentence of divorce, so long solicited, was at
-length granted; and the King married Mary de Medicis, who bore
-Louis XIII. to him in 1601. The match, however, contributed little
-to his domestic happiness.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>While France was flourishing under a vigilant and paternal administration,
-while her strength was beginning to keep pace with her
-internal happiness, new conspiracies were incessantly formed against
-the King. D’Entragues could not be his wife, but continued to be
-his mistress. She not only exasperated the Queen’s peevish humour
-against him, but was ungrateful enough to combine with her father,
-the Count d’Auvergne, and the Spanish Court, in a plot which was
-timely discovered. The criminals were arrested and condemned,
-but received a pardon. The Duke de Bouillon afterwards stirred up
-the Calvinists to take Sedan, but it was immediately restored. Spite
-of the many virtues and conciliatory manners of Henry, the fanatics
-could never pardon his former attachment to the Protestant cause.
-He was continually surrounded with traitors and assassins: almost
-every year produced some attempt on his life, and he fell at last by the
-weapon of a misguided enthusiast. Meanwhile, from misplaced complaisance
-to the Pope, he recalled the Jesuits, contrary to the advice
-of Sully and the Parliament.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Shortly before his untimely end, Henry is said by some historians,
-to have disclosed a project for forming a Christian republic. The
-proposal is stated to have been, to divide Europe into fifteen fixed
-powers, none of which should be allowed to make any new acquisition,
-but should together form an association for maintaining a mutual
-balance, and preserving peace. This political reverie, impossible to be
-realized, is not likely ever to have been actually divulged, even if meditated
-by Henry, nor is there any trace of it to be found in the history,
-or among the state papers of England, Venice, or Holland, the supposed
-co-operators in the scheme. His more rational design in arming
-went no further than to set bounds to the ambition and power of the
-house of Austria, both in Germany and Italy. His warlike preparations
-have, however, been ascribed to his prevailing weakness, in an infatuated
-passion for the Princess of Condé. Whatever may have been
-the motive, his means of success were imposing. He was to march
-into Germany at the head of forty thousand excellent troops. The
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_47'>47</span>army, provisions, and every other necessary were in readiness. Money
-no longer failed; Sully had laid up forty millions of livres in the
-treasury, which were destined for this war. His alliances were
-already assured, his generals had been formed by himself, and all
-seemed to forebode such a storm, as must probably have overwhelmed
-an emperor devoted to the search after the philosopher’s stone, and a
-king of Spain under the dominion of the inquisition. Henry was
-impatient to join his army; but his mind had become harassed with
-sinister forebodings, and his chagrin was increased by a temporary
-alienation from his faithful minister. He was in his way to pay a visit
-of reconciliation to Sully, when his coach was entangled as it passed
-along a street. His attendants left the carriage to remove the obstruction,
-and during the delay thus caused he was stabbed to the heart by
-Francis Ravaillac, a native of Angoulême. This calamitous event took
-place on May 14, 1610, in the fifty-seventh year of his age. The
-Spaniards, who had the strongest interest in the catastrophe, were
-supposed to have been the instigators; but the fear of implicating
-other powers, and plunging France into greater evils than those from
-which their hero had rescued them, deterred not only statesmen, but
-even the judges on Ravaillac’s trial, from pressing for the names of
-accomplices. Hardouin de Perefixe, in his History of Henry the
-Great, says, “If it be asked who inspired the monster with the
-thought? History answers that she does not know; and that in so
-mysterious an affair, it is not allowable to vent suspicions and conjectures
-as assured truths; that even the judges who conducted the
-examinations opened not their mouths, and spoke only with their
-shoulders.” There were seven courtiers in the coach when the murder
-took place; and the Marshal d’Estrées, in his History of the Regency of
-Mary de Medicis, says that the Duke d’Epernon and the Marquis de
-Verneuil were accused by a female servant of the latter, of having
-been privy to the design; but that, having failed to verify her charge
-before the Parliament, she was condemned to perpetual imprisonment
-between four walls. The circumstance that Ravaillac was of Angoulême,
-which was the Duke’s government, gave some plausibility to the
-suspicion. It was further whispered, that the first blow was not
-mortal; but that the Duke stooped to give facility to the assassin, and
-that he aimed a second which reached the King’s heart. But these
-rumours passed off, without fixing any well-grounded and lasting imputation
-on that eminent person’s character.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The assertions of Ravaillac, as far as they have any weight, discountenance
-the belief of an extended political conspiracy. The house of
-Austria, Mary de Medicis his wife, Henrietta d’Entragues his mistress,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_48'>48</span>as well as the Duke d’Epernon, have been subjected to the hateful
-conjectures of Mazarin and other historians; but he who actually struck
-the blow invariably affirmed that he had no accomplice, and that he
-was carried forward by an uncontrollable instinct. If his mind were
-at all acted on from without, it was probably by the epidemic fanaticism
-of the times, rather than by personal influence.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Henry left three sons and three daughters by Mary de Medicis.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Of no prince recorded in history, probably, are so many personal
-anecdotes related, as of Henry IV. These are for the most part well
-known, and of easy access. The whole tenor of Henry’s life exhibits a
-lofty, generous, and forgiving temper, the fearless spirit which loves
-the excitement of danger, and that suavity of feeling and manners,
-which, above all qualities, wins the affections of those who come
-within its sphere: it does not exhibit high moral or religious principle.
-But his weaknesses were those which the world most readily
-pardons, especially in a great man. If Henry had emulated the pure
-morals and fervent piety of his noble ancestor Louis IX., he would
-have been a far better king, as well as a better man; yet we doubt
-whether in that case, his memory would then have been cherished
-with such enthusiastic attachment by his countrymen.</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/i_048.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic001'>
-<p>Marriage of Henry IV. and Mary de Medicis, from the Picture by Rubens.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/i_049fp.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic001'>
-<p><em>Engraved by J. Posselwhite.</em><br /><br />BENTLEY.<br /><br /><em>From a Picture by Hudson,<br />in Trinity College, Cambridge.</em><br /><br />Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.<br /><br /><em>London, Published by Charles Knight, Ludgate Street, &amp; Pall Mall East.</em></p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id002'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_49'>49</span>
-<img src='images/i_049.jpg' alt='BENTLEY.' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <h2 class='c005'>BENTLEY.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c009'>Richard Bentley was the son, not of a low mechanic, as the earlier
-narratives of his life assert, but of a respectable yeoman, possessed of
-a small estate. That fact has been established by his latest and most
-accurate, as well as most copious biographer, Dr. Monk, now Bishop
-of Gloucester. Bentley was born in Yorkshire, January 27, 1661–2,
-at Oulton, near Wakefield; and educated at Wakefield school, and
-St. John’s College, Cambridge, where he pursued his studies with
-unwearied industry. No fellowship to which he was eligible having
-fallen vacant, he was appointed Master of Spalding school, in 1682;
-over which he had presided only one year, when his critical learning
-recommended him to Dr. Stillingfleet, then Dean of St. Paul’s, as a
-private tutor for his son. In 1689 he attended his pupil to Wadham
-College in Oxford, where he was incorporated Master of Arts on the
-4th of July in that year, having previously taken that degree in his
-own university. Soon after the promotion of Stillingfleet to the see of
-Worcester, Bentley was made domestic chaplain to that learned prelate,
-with whom he continued on the terms of confidential intimacy
-incident to that connexion, till his Lordship’s death. Dr. William
-Lloyd, at that time Bishop of Lichfield, was equally alive to the
-uncommon merit of this rising scholar; and his two patrons concurrently
-recommended him as a fit person to open the lectures founded
-by the celebrated Robert Boyle, in defence of natural and revealed
-religion. Bentley had before this time embarked largely in literary
-pursuits. Among these we can only stop to mention his criticisms
-on the historiographer Malelas, contained in a letter appended to
-Dr. Mill’s edition of that author, which stamped his reputation as a
-first-rate scholar, especially among the learned men of the Continent.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_50'>50</span>The delivery of the first course of Boyle’s Lectures, in 1692, gave
-Bentley an admirable opportunity of establishing his reputation as a
-divine; and he taxed his abilities to the utmost to ensure success.
-Sir Isaac Newton’s Principia had not been published more than six
-years: the sublime discoveries of the author were little known, and
-less understood, from the general prejudice against any new theory,
-and the difficulty of comprehending the deep reasonings on which this
-one rested. Bentley determined to spare no pains in laying open this
-new philosophy of the solar system in a popular form, and in displaying
-to the best advantage the cogent arguments in behalf of
-the existence of a Deity, furnished by that masterly work. That
-nothing might be wanting to his design, he applied to the author, and
-received from him the solution of some difficulties. This gave rise to
-a curious and important correspondence; and there is a manuscript in
-Newton’s own hand preserved among Bentley’s papers, containing directions
-respecting the books to be read as a preparation for the perusal
-of his Principia. Newton’s four letters on this subject are preserved in
-Trinity College Library, and have been given to the public in the form
-of a pamphlet. The lecturer did not neglect, in addition to the
-popular illustration of the Principia, to corroborate his argument by
-considerations drawn from Locke’s doctrine, that the notion of a Deity
-is not innate. The sermons were received with loud and universal
-applause, and the highest opinion of the preacher’s abilities was entertained
-by the learned world. Bentley soon reaped the fruits of his
-high reputation, being appointed to a stall at Worcester in October,
-1692, and made Keeper of the King’s Library in the following year.
-In 1694 he was again appointed to preach Boyle’s lecture. His
-subject was a defence of Christianity against the objections of infidels.
-These sermons have never been published; nor have Dr. Monk’s
-researches enabled him to ascertain where they are now deposited.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Bentley was scarcely settled in his office of librarian, when he
-became involved in a quarrel with the Hon. Charles Boyle, brother
-to the Earl of Ossory, who was then in the course of his education
-at Christ Church in Oxford, and had carried thither a more than
-ordinary share of classical knowledge, and a decided taste for literary
-pursuits. Mr. Boyle had been selected by his college to edit a new
-edition of the Epistles of Phalaris; and for that purpose, not by direct
-application, but through the medium of a blundering and ill-mannered
-bookseller, he had procured the use of a manuscript copy of the
-Epistles from the Library at St. James’s. The responsibility attendant
-on the custody of manuscripts, and perhaps some disgust at the channel
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_51'>51</span>through which the loan was negotiated, occasioned the librarian to
-demand restitution before the collation was finished. A notion was
-entertained at Christ Church, that an affront was intended both to
-the Epistles, which Bentley had already pronounced to be a clumsy
-forgery of later times, and to the advocates of their genuineness.
-Tory politics had probably some share in exasperating a quarrel
-with a scholar in the opposite interest. Be this as it may, the
-preface to Phalaris contained an offensive sentence, which the editor
-would not, or perhaps could not cancel, as the copies seem to have
-been delivered before the real state of the case was explained; and
-this gave rise to the once celebrated controversy between Boyle and
-Bentley. It produced a number of pieces written with learning,
-wit, and spirit, on both sides; but Bentley fought single-handed,
-while the tracts on the side of Boyle were clubbed by the wits of
-Christ Church; for the reputed author was attending his parliamentary
-duty in Ireland, while those enlisted under his colours were sustaining
-his cause in the English republic of letters. Of the numerous
-attacks on Bentley published at this period, Swift’s Battle of the
-Books is the only one which continues to be known by the merit
-of the writing. The controversy was prolonged to the year 1699,
-when Bentley’s enlarged dissertation upon Phalaris appeared, and
-obtained so complete a victory over his opponents, as to constitute an
-epoch not only in the writer’s life, but in the history of literature.
-It is avowedly controversial; but it contains a matchless treasure
-of knowledge, in history, chronology, antiquities, philosophy, and
-criticism. The preface contains his defence against the charges made
-on his personal character, his vindication of which is satisfactory
-and triumphant. So strong, however, are the prejudices of party
-and fashion, that many persons looked upon the controversy as a field
-for a grand tournament of wit and learning, exhibiting the prowess of
-the combatants without deciding the cause in dispute; but all those
-whose judgment on such questions could be of any value held the
-triumph of Dr. Bentley to be complete, both as to the sterling
-merits of the case, and his able management of its discussion. It
-was not long before the impression created in his favour became
-manifest; for, in the course of the next year, 1700, Bentley was
-appointed by the crown to the Mastership of Trinity College, Cambridge.
-On that high advancement he resigned his stall at Worcester.
-He was afterwards collated to the Archdeaconry of Ely, in 1781,
-which, besides conferring rank in the church, was endowed with
-two livings; and he was appointed Chaplain both to King William
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_52'>52</span>and Queen Anne. There is a tradition in Bentley’s family, that
-Bishop Stillingfleet said, “We must send Bentley to rule the turbulent
-Fellows of Trinity College: if any one can do it, he is the
-person; for he has ruled my family ever since he entered it.”</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Having thus attained to affluence and honour, he married a lady to
-whom he had been long attached. The union was eminently happy.
-Mrs. Bentley’s mind was highly cultivated; she was amiable and
-pious; and the benevolence of her disposition availed to soften the
-animosity of opponents at several critical periods of her husband’s
-life. His new station was calculated to increase rather than to lessen
-the Master’s taste for critical studies. As he occasionally gave the
-results of his inquiries to the public, his labours, abounding in erudition
-and sagacity, by degrees raised him to the reputation of being
-the first critic of his age. Among the most remarkable of his numerous
-pieces, we may mention a collection of the Fragments of Callimachus,
-with notes and emendations, transmitted to Grævius, in whose edition
-of that poet’s works they appeared in 1697; and three letters on the
-Plutus and the Clouds of Aristophanes, written to Kuster, and by
-him dissected into the form of notes, and published in his edition of
-that author. Copies of two of the original epistles have fortunately
-been preserved, and given to the world in the <span lang="la" xml:lang="la">Museum Criticum</span>, after
-more than a century. Kuster had in a great measure destroyed their
-interest by omissions, and by curtailing their amusing and digressive
-playfulness. But as they fell from Bentley’s own pen, few of his
-writings exhibit more acuteness, or more lively perception of the
-elegancies of the Greek tongue. About the same time he produced
-one of the ablest and most perfect of his works, his Emendations on
-the Fragments of Menander and Philemon. That piece indicates
-rather intimate acquaintance with his subject, and a feeling of
-security in his positions, than direct and immediate labour or research.
-He wrote under the assumed name of Phileleutherus Lipsiensis, and
-sent the work to be printed and published on the Continent. Under
-the same signature he appeared again in 1713, in his Reply to
-Collins’s Discourse of Freethinking. His exposure of the sophistry
-and fallacies pervading that book was judicious and highly effective;
-and for the eminent service done to the Christian religion, and the
-clergy of England in this work, by refuting the objections and
-exposing the ignorance of the writers calling themselves Freethinkers,
-Dr. Bentley received the public thanks of the University of Cambridge
-assembled in senate, January 4, 1715. But his edition of Horace is
-the capital work, which through good and evil report will associate
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_53'>53</span>his name with the Latin language so long as it endures. He completed
-it in 1711. The tone of the preface is arrogant and invidious:
-the presumption, which is the great blot in his character, both as a
-man and a critic, is more conspicuous in those few pages than in all
-his other productions. With respect to the work itself, between seven
-and eight hundred changes in the common readings were introduced
-into the text, contrary to the established practice of classical editors.
-The language of the notes is that of absolute dictatorship, not however
-without an award of fair credit to some other commentators. His
-Latinity, although easy and flowing, has been censured as by no means
-pure. Many of his readings have been confirmed and adopted by the
-latest and best editors; others are considered as either unnecessary,
-harsh, or prosaic: but, with all its faults, Bentley’s Horace is a
-monument of inexhaustible learning; the reader, whether convinced
-or not, adds to his stock of knowledge; and the very errors of such a
-critic are instructive.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>But Bentley’s haughty temper, thus displayed in his criticisms,
-burst forth much more injuriously in the government of his college;
-where he carried himself so loftily, and gave such serious and repeated
-offence, that several of the Fellows exhibited a complaint against him
-before the Bishop of Ely, as visitor. Their object was his removal
-from the headship, in furtherance of which they charged him with
-embezzlement, in having improperly applied large sums of money to
-his own use; and with having adopted other unworthy and violent
-proceedings, to the interruption of peace and harmony in the society.
-In answer to these imputations he states his own case in a letter to
-the Bishop, which was published in octavo in 1710, under the title of
-the Present State of Trinity College. Such was the beginning of a
-long, inveterate, and mischievous quarrel; which, after a continuance
-of more than twenty years, ended in the Master’s favour. The Biographia
-Britannica, and the Life of Bentley by the present Bishop of
-Gloucester, necessarily give a detailed narrative of this dispute, during
-the progress of which several books were written, with the most
-determined animosity on both sides. We cannot in this instance
-regret the confined space, which prevents our dilating on a quarrel,
-unfortunate in its origin, virulent in its progress, and, in our opinion,
-especially discreditable to the Master.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Nor was this the only trial of a spirit sufficiently able to bear up
-against the storms of opposition, and by obstinate perseverance to
-triumph over its adversaries. During the course of the former dispute,
-Bentley had been promoted to the Regius Professorship of Divinity.
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_54'>54</span>George I. paid a visit to the university in October, 1717. It is usual
-on such occasions to name several persons for a doctor’s degree in
-that faculty by royal mandate; and the principal part of the ceremony
-consists in what is called the creation, that is, the presentation of the
-nominees to the Chancellor, if present, or to the Vice-Chancellor in his
-absence, by the Professor. Bentley claimed a fee of four guineas as
-due from each of the Doctors whom it was his office to create, in
-addition to a broad-piece, which had been the ancient and customary
-compliment. There were two gold coins under that denomination;
-a Jacobus, worth twenty-five shillings, and a Carolus, passing for
-twenty-three. Both were called in, and no gold pieces of that value
-have since been coined. The Professor refused to create any doctor
-who would not acquiesce in the fee. His arguments in favour of the
-claim were at least plausible; but it ill became so high a functionary
-to interrupt solemn proceedings, and sow discord in a learned body
-for a mercenary and paltry consideration. From this low origin
-arose a long and warm dispute, in the course of which the Master of
-Trinity and Regius Professor was suspended from all his degrees,
-October 3, 1718, and degraded on the seventeenth of that month.
-Of thirty Doctors present, twenty-three voted for the degradation of
-their brother; and of ten heads of colleges who attended all but one
-joined in the sentence. The principal ground for these extraordinary
-measures will not appear very strong to impartial posterity; it was
-an alleged contempt in speaking of a regular meeting of the Heads
-of Houses, as “the Vice-Chancellor and four or five of his friends
-over a bottle.” From this sentence Bentley petitioned the King
-for relief: and the affair was referred to a committee of the Privy
-Council, whence it was carried into the Court of King’s Bench, where
-the four Judges declared their opinions <em>seriatim</em> against the proceedings
-of the university; and a peremptory mandamus was issued, February 7,
-1724, after more than five years of undignified altercation, charging
-the Chancellor, Masters, and scholars “to restore Richard Bentley to
-all his degrees, and to every other right and privilege of which they
-had deprived him.”</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Happily both for himself and the learned world, Bentley was gifted
-with a natural hardiness of temper, which enabled him to buffet
-against both these storms; so that he continued to pursue his career
-of literature, as if the elements had been undisturbed. November 5,
-1715, he delivered a sermon on popery from the university pulpit,
-distinguished by learning and argument, and written in an original
-style, which compelled the attention of the hearers, unlike those
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_55'>55</span>common-place and narcotic declamations usually poured forth on
-that anniversary. It was printed, and has incurred the strange fate
-of having been purloined by Sterne, and introduced into Tristram
-Shandy. Part of it is read by Corporal Trim, whose feelings are so
-overpowered by the description of the Inquisition, that he declares
-“he would not read another line of it for all the world.” The
-sermon had the common lot of Bentley’s publications; it gave birth
-to a controversy. It was attacked in ‘Remarks’ by Cummins, a
-Calvinistic dissenter. An answer was put forth with the following
-title: ‘Reflections on the scandalous Aspersions on the Clergy, by
-the author of the Remarks.’ It is asserted in more than one life of
-Bentley, that he was himself the author of these Reflections; but the
-Bishop of Gloucester says that no one can believe this who reads half
-a page of the pamphlet. In 1716 Bentley had propounded the plan of
-a projected edition of the Greek Testament, in a letter to the Archbishop
-of Canterbury. He brooded over this design for four years,
-sparing neither labour nor expense to procure the necessary materials.
-In 1720 he issued proposals for printing it by subscription, together
-with the Latin version of Jerome; to which proposals a specimen of
-the execution was annexed. The proposals are printed at length in
-the Biographia Britannica, and in Dr. Monk’s Life. They were
-virulently attacked by Dr. Conyers Middleton, at that time a fellow
-of Trinity, and a leading person in the opposition to the Master, in
-‘Remarks’ on Bentley’s proposals. At this time Bentley’s enemies
-were endeavouring to oust him from his professorship. It was
-insinuated that his project was a mere pretext, to be abandoned
-when it had answered his temporary purpose of diverting the public
-mind from his personal misconduct. To these suspicions he added
-force by the confession, in excuse for certain marks of haste in a
-paper drawn up, not as a specimen of his critical powers, but simply
-as an advertisement, that the proposals were drawn up one evening
-by candle-light. Middleton followed up his blow by ‘Further Remarks:’
-the publication of the Testament was suspended, nor was it
-ever carried into effect. That it was stopped by Middleton’s pamphlet,
-is an error countenanced by numerous writers of the time, but denied
-by Dr. Monk, who says that the discontinuance certainly was not
-owing to Middleton’s attack. He doubts indeed whether Bentley ever
-looked into the tract. A speech of his to Bishop Atterbury shortly
-after its appearance is quite in character: he “scorned to read the
-rascal’s book; but if his Lordship would send him any part which he
-thought the strongest; he would undertake to answer it before night.”
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_56'>56</span>In 1726, his Terence was published with notes, a dissertation concerning
-the metres, which he termed Schediasma, and, strangely
-placed in such a work, his speech at the Cambridge commencement
-in 1725. The sprightliness and good temper of this short but eloquent
-oration is in strong contrast with his controversial asperity: it breathes
-strong affection for the university, from which body a stranger might
-suppose that he had received the kindest treatment. But even this
-edition of the polished and amiable comedian was undertaken in a
-spirit of jealousy and resentment against Dean Hare, a former friend
-and rival editor, who had in truth deserved his anger, by availing
-himself of information derived from Bentley in an unauthorized and
-unhandsome manner. The notes throughout are in caustic and contemptuous
-language, with unceasing severity against Hare, not indeed
-in that violent strain of abuse which has so often marked the warfare
-of critics, but with cool and sneering allusions without the mention of
-the proper name, under the disparaging designation of <i><span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Quidam, est
-qui</span></i>, or <i><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">Vir eruditus</span></i>. Not content with this revenge, Bentley undertook
-to anticipate Hare in an edition of Phœdrus, which is characterized
-by Dr. Monk as a “hasty, crude, and unsupported revision” of
-the text of that author; in which the rashness and presumption of his
-criticisms were rendered still more offensive by the imperious conciseness
-in which his decrees were promulgated. Hare, on the contrary,
-had long been preparing his edition: his materials were provided
-and arranged, and he retaliated in an <cite><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">Epistola Critica</span></cite>, addressed to
-Dr. Bland, head-master of Eton. The spirit of the epistle is personal
-and bitter; and while it undoubtedly had its intended effect in
-exposing Bentley, it is not creditable either to the temper or to the
-consistency of its author.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The last of Bentley’s works which we shall notice is his unfortunate
-edition of Milton’s Paradise Lost, given to the public in 1732.
-It is a sad instance of utter perversion of judgment in a man of
-extraordinary talent. Fenton first suggested, that the spots in that
-sun-like performance might be owing to the misapprehension of the
-amanuensis, and the ignorant blunders of a poverty-stricken printer.
-On this foundation Bentley, neither himself a poet, nor possessing
-much taste or feeling for the higher effusions of even his own favourite
-authors, the Greek and Latin poets, undertook to revise the language,
-remedy the blemishes, and reject the supposed interpolations of our
-national epic. He was peculiarly disqualified for such a task, not only
-by prosaic temperament and the chill of advanced years, but by his
-entire ignorance of the Italian poets and romance writers, from whose
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_57'>57</span>fables and imagery Milton borrowed his illustrations as freely as from
-the more familiar stories and modes of expression of the classical
-authorities. As usual with him, his notes were written hastily, and
-sent immediately to the press. The public disapprobation was
-unanimous and just: but even in this performance many acute pieces
-of criticism are scattered up and down, for which the world, disgusted
-by his audacity and flippancy, allows him no credit.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>We must pass quickly over the ten remaining years of Bentley’s
-life. They were embittered by a fresh contest for character and
-station before the supreme tribunal of the kingdom. The case
-between the Bishop of Ely and Dr. Bentley, respecting the visitatorial
-jurisdiction over Trinity College in general, and over the Master
-in particular, was argued first in the Court of King’s Bench, and then
-carried by appeal to the House of Lords, where it was finally affirmed
-that the Bishop of Ely was visitor. In his seventy-second year
-Bentley underwent a second trial at Ely House, and was sentenced to
-be deprived of his mastership; but he eluded the execution of the
-sentence, and continued to perform the duties of the office which he
-held. At length a compromise was effected between him and some
-of his most active prosecutors, many of whom, as well as himself,
-were septuagenarians. On his proposed edition of Homer, distinguished
-by the restoration of the Digamma, we need not enlarge. It
-appears to have been broken off by a paralytic attack, in the course
-of 1739. In the following year he sustained the severest loss, by the
-death of his wife in the fortieth year of their union. His own death
-took place July 14, 1742, when he had completed his eightieth year.
-He was buried in the chapel; to which he had been a benefactor by
-giving £200 towards its repairs, soon after he was appointed to the
-mastership.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Bentley’s literary character is known in all parts of Europe where
-learning is known. In his private character he was what Johnson
-liked, a good hater: there was much of arrogance, and no little obstinacy
-in his composition; but it must be admitted on the other hand, that
-he had many high and amiable qualities. Though too prone to encounter
-hostility by oppression, he was warm and sincere in friendship,
-an affectionate husband, and a good father. In the exercise of hospitality
-at his lodge he maintained the dignity of the college, and rivalled
-the munificence even of the papal priesthood. His benefactions
-to the college were also liberal: but he exacted from it far more
-than it was willing to pay, or than any former master had received;
-and his name would stand fairer if his generosity had been less distinguished,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_58'>58</span>provided that, at the same time, his conduct had been less
-grasping. We shall only add that the severity of his temper as a
-critic and controversial writer was exchanged in conversation for a
-strain of vivacity and pleasantry peculiar to himself.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Bentley had three children: a son called by his own name, and
-two daughters. The son was bred under his own tuition at Trinity
-College, where he obtained a fellowship. His contemporaries acknowledge
-his genius, but lament that his pursuits were so desultory and
-various as to exclude him from that substantial fame which his talents
-might have ensured. Dr. Bentley’s eldest daughter, Elizabeth, married
-Mr. Humphry Ridge, a gentleman of good family in Hampshire, but
-was left a widow in less than a year, and returned to reside with her
-father. The youngest, Joanna, married Mr. Denison Cumberland,
-grandson to the learned Bishop of Peterborough. The first issue
-of this marriage was the late Richard Cumberland, well known in
-the republic of letters, and especially as a dramatic writer. In his
-memoir of his own life Mr. Cumberland gives some amusing anecdotes
-of his grandfather in his old age. His object seems to have
-been to paint the domestic character of Bentley in a pleasing light,
-and to counteract the prevalent opinion of his stern and overbearing
-manners. The old man’s personal kindness towards himself seems
-to have produced a deep and well merited feeling of gratitude. His
-communications however are of little value, for he neglected his
-opportunities of obtaining accurate and more important information
-from his mother and other relatives of the great critic.</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/i_059fp.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic001'>
-<p><em>Engraved by F. Mackenzie.</em><br /><br />KEPPLER.<br /><br /><em>From a Picture in the Collection of<br />Godefroy Kraenner, Merchant at Ratisbon.</em><br /><br />Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.<br /><br /><em>London, Published by Charles Knight, Ludgate Street, &amp; Pall Mall East.</em></p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id002'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_59'>59</span>
-<img src='images/i_059.jpg' alt='KEPLER.' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <h2 class='c005'>KEPLER.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c009'>The matter contained in this sketch of Kepler’s history, is exclusively
-derived from the Life published in the Library of Useful Knowledge.
-To that work we refer all readers who wish to make themselves
-acquainted with the contents of Kepler’s writings, and with the
-singular methods by which he was led to his great discoveries: it will
-be evident, on inspection, that it would be useless to attempt farther
-compression of the scientific matter therein contained. Our object
-therefore will be to select such portions as may best illustrate his
-singular and enthusiastic mind, and to give a short account of his not
-uneventful life.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>John Kepler was born December 21, 1571, Long. 29° 7´, Lat. 48° 54´,
-as we are carefully informed by his earliest biographer Hantsch. It
-is well to add that on the spot thus astronomically designated as our
-astronomer’s birth-place, stands the city of Weil, in the Duchy of
-Wirtemberg. Kepler was first sent to school at Elmendingen,
-where his father, a soldier of honourable family, but indigent circumstances,
-kept a tavern: his education was completed at the
-monastic school of Maulbronn, and the college of Tubingen, where
-he took his Master’s degree in 1591. About the same time he
-was offered the astronomical lectureship at Gratz, in Styria: and
-he accepted the post by advice, and almost by compulsion, of his
-tutors, “better furnished,” he says, “with talent than knowledge,
-and with many protestations that I was not abandoning my claim
-to be provided for in some other more brilliant profession.” Though
-well skilled in mathematics, and devoted to the study of philosophy, he
-had felt hitherto no especial vocation to astronomy, although he had
-become strongly impressed with the truth of the Copernican system,
-and had defended it publicly in the schools of Tubingen. He was much
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_60'>60</span>engrossed by inquiries of a very different character: and it is fortunate
-for his fame that circumstances withdrew him from the mystical pursuits
-to which through life he was more or less addicted; from such profitless
-toil as the “examination of the nature of heaven, of souls, of
-genii, of the elements, of the essence of fire, of the cause of fountains,
-of the ebb and flow of the tide, the shape of the continents and inland
-seas, and things of this sort,” to which, he says, he had devoted much
-time. The sort of spirit in which he was likely to enter on the more
-occult of these inquiries, and the sort of agency to which he was
-likely to ascribe the natural phenomena of which he speaks, may be
-estimated from an opinion which he gravely advanced in mature
-years and established fame, that the earth is an enormous living
-animal, with passions and affections analogous to those of the creatures
-which live on its surface. “The earth is not an animal like
-a dog, ready at every nod; but more like a bull or an elephant, slow
-to become angry, and so much the more furious when incensed.”
-“If any one who has climbed the peaks of the highest mountains
-throw a stone down their very deep clefts, a sound is heard from
-them; or if he throw it into one of the mountain lakes, which beyond
-doubt are bottomless, a storm will immediately arise, just as when
-you thrust a straw into the ear or nose of a ticklish animal, it shakes
-its head, and runs shuddering away. What so like breathing, especially
-of those fish who draw water into their mouths, and spout it
-out again through their gills, as that wonderful tide! For although
-it is so regulated according to the course of the moon, that in the
-preface to my ‘Commentaries on Mars’ I have mentioned it as probable
-that the waters are attracted by the moon, as iron is by the loadstone,
-yet if any one uphold that the earth regulates its breathing according
-to the motion of the sun and moon, as animals have daily and nightly
-alternations of sleep and waking, I shall not think his philosophy
-unworthy of being listened to; especially if any flexible parts should
-be discovered in the depths of the earth to supply the functions of
-lungs or gills.”</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The first fruit of Kepler’s astronomical researches was entitled
-‘<span lang="la" xml:lang="la">Prodromus Dissertationis Cosmographicæ</span>,’ the first part of a work
-to be called ‘Mysterium Cosmographicum,’ of which, however, the
-sequel was never written. The most remarkable part of the book
-is a fanciful attempt to show that the orbits of the planets may be
-represented by spheres circumscribed and inscribed in the five regular
-solids. Kepler lived to be convinced of the total baselessness of this
-supposed discovery, in which, however, at the time, he expressed high
-exultation. In the same work are contained his first inquiries into
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_61'>61</span>the proportion between the distances of the planets from the sun and
-their periods of revolution. He also attempted to account for the
-motion of the planets, by supposing a moving influence emitted like
-light from the sun, which swept round those bodies, as the sails of a
-windmill would carry any thing attached to them: of a genuine central
-force he had no knowledge, though he had speculated on the existence
-of an attractive force in the centre of motion, and rejected it on
-account of difficulties which he could not explain. The ‘Prodromus’
-was published in 1596, and the genius and industry displayed in
-it gained praise from the best astronomers of the age.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>In the following year Kepler withdrew from Gratz into Hungary,
-apprehending danger from the unadvised promulgation of some,
-apparently religious, opinions. During this retirement he became
-acquainted with the celebrated Tycho Brahe, at that time retained by
-the Emperor Rodolph II. as an astrologer and mathematician, and
-residing at the castle of Benach, near Prague. Kepler, harassed
-throughout life by poverty, was received by his more fortunate fellow-labourer
-with cordial kindness. No trace of jealousy is to be found in
-their intercourse. Tycho placed the observations which he had made
-with unremitted industry during many years in the hands of Kepler,
-and used his interest with the Emperor to obtain permission for his
-brother astronomer to remain at Benach as assistant observer, retaining
-his salary and professorship at Gratz. Before all was settled, however,
-Kepler finally threw up that office, and remained, it should seem,
-entirely dependent on Tycho’s bounty. The Dane was then employed
-in constructing a new set of astronomical tables, to be called the
-Rudolphine, intended to supersede those calculated on the Ptolemaic
-and Copernican systems. He was interrupted in this labour by death,
-in 1601; and the task of finishing it was intrusted to Kepler, who
-succeeded him as principal mathematician to the Emperor. A large
-salary was attached to this office, but to extract any portion of it from
-a treasury deranged and almost exhausted by a succession of wars,
-proved next to impossible. He remained for several years, as he
-himself expresses it, begging his bread from the Emperor at Prague,
-during which the Rudolphine Tables remained neglected, for want of
-funds to defray the expenses of continuing them. He published, however,
-several smaller works; a treatise on Optics, entitled a Supplement
-to Vitellion, in which he made an unsuccessful attempt to determine
-the cause and the laws of refraction; a small work on a new star
-which appeared in Cassiopeia in 1604, and shone for a time with
-great splendour; another on comets, in which he suggests the possibility
-of their being planets moving in straight lines. Meanwhile
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_62'>62</span>he was continuing his labours on the observations of Tycho, and
-especially on those relating to the planet Mars: and the result of
-them appeared in 1609, in his work entitled ‘<span lang="pt" xml:lang="pt">Astronomia Nova</span>;’ or
-Commentaries on the motions of Mars. He engaged in these extensive
-calculations from dissatisfaction with the existing theories, by none
-of which could the observed and calculated motions of the planets be
-made to coincide; but without any notion whither the task was about
-to lead him, or of rejecting the complicated machinery of former
-astronomers—</p>
-
-<div class='lg-container-b c011'>
-  <div class='linegroup'>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line in24'>the sphere</div>
-      <div class='line'>With centric and eccentric scribbled o’er,</div>
-      <div class='line'>Cycle and epicycle, orb in orb.</div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c000'>His inquiries are remarkable for the patience with which he continued
-to devise hypotheses, one after another, and the scrupulous fidelity
-with which he rejected them in succession, as they proved irreconcileable
-with the unerring test of observation. Not less remarkable
-is the singular good fortune by which, while groping in the dark
-among erroneous principles and erroneous assumptions, he was led,
-by careful observation of Mars, to discover the true form of its orbit,
-and the true law of its motion, and the motion of all planets, round the
-sun. These are enunciated in two of the three celebrated theorems
-known by the name of Kepler’s Laws, beyond comparison the most
-important discoveries made in astronomy from the time of Copernicus
-to that of Newton, of which the first is, that the planets move in
-ellipses, in one of the foci of which the sun is placed the second,
-that the time of describing any arc is proportional, in the same orbit,
-to the area comprised by the arc itself, and lines drawn from the sun
-to the beginning and end of it.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>About the year 1613 Kepler quitted Prague, after a residence of
-eleven years, to assume a professorship in the University of Linz.
-The year preceding his departure saw him involved in great domestic
-distress. Want of money, sickness, the occupation of the city by a
-turbulent army, the death of his wife and of the son whom he best
-loved, these, he says to a correspondent, “were reasons enough why I
-should have overlooked not only your letter, but even astronomy itself.”
-His first marriage, contracted early in life, had not been a happy one:
-but he resolved on a second venture, and no less than eleven ladies
-were successively the objects of his thoughts. After rejecting, or being
-rejected, by the whole number, he at last settled on her who stood
-fifth in the list; a woman of humble station, but, according to his own
-account, possessed of qualities likely to wear well in a poor man’s house.
-He employed the judgment and the mediation of his friends largely
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_63'>63</span>in this delicate matter: and in a letter to the Baron Strahlendorf, he
-has given a full and amusing account of the process of his courtships,
-and the qualifications of the ladies among whom his judgment wavered.
-He proposed to one lady whom he had not seen for six years, and was
-rejected: on paying her a visit soon after, he found, to his great relief,
-that she had not a single pleasing point about her. Another was too
-proud of her birth; another too old; another married a more ardent
-lover, while Kepler was speculating whether he would take her or
-not; and a fifth punished the indecision which he had shown towards
-others by alternations of consent and denial, until after a three months’
-courtship, the longest in the list, he gave her up in despair.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Kepler did not long hold his professorship at Linz. Some religious
-opinions relative to the doctrine of transubstantiation gave offence to
-the Roman Catholic party, and he was excommunicated. In 1617
-he received an invitation to fill the chair of mathematics at Bologna:
-this however he declined, pleading his German origin and predilections,
-and his German habits of freedom in speech and manners, which he
-thought likely to expose him to persecution or reproach in Italy. In
-1618 he published his Epitome of the Copernican system, a summary
-of his philosophical opinions, drawn up in the form of question and
-answer. In 1619 appeared his celebrated work ‘<span lang="la" xml:lang="la">Harmonice Mundi</span>,’
-dedicated to King James I. of England; a book strongly illustrative
-of the peculiarities of Kepler’s mind, combining the accuracy of
-geometric science with the wildest metaphysical doctrines, and visionary
-theories of celestial influences. The two first books are almost
-strictly geometrical; the third treats of music; for the fourth and
-fifth, we take refuge from explaining their subjects in transcribing the
-author’s exposition of their contents. “The fourth, metaphysical,
-psychological, and astrological, on the mental essence of harmonies,
-and of their kinds in the world, especially on the harmony of rays
-emanating on the earth from the heavenly bodies, and on their effect
-in nature, and on the sublunary and human soul; the fifth, astronomical
-and metaphysical, on the very exquisite harmonies of the
-celestial motions, and the origin of the eccentricities in harmonious
-proportions.” This work, however, is remarkable for containing amid
-the varied extravagances of its two last books, the third of Kepler’s
-Laws, namely, that the squares of the periods of the planets’ revolution
-vary as the cubes of their distances from the sun; a discovery in which
-he exulted with no measured joy. “It is now eighteen months since
-I got the first glimpse of light, three months since the dawn, very few
-days since the unveiled sun, most admirable to gaze upon, burst out
-upon me. Nothing holds me; I will indulge in my sacred fury; I
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_64'>64</span>will triumph over mankind by the honest confession that I have stolen
-the golden vases of the Egyptians, to build up a tabernacle for my God
-far away from the confines of Egypt. If you forgive me, I rejoice; if
-you are angry, I can bear it: the die is cast, the book is written; to
-be read either now or by posterity, I care not which: it may well wait
-a century for a reader, as God has waited six thousand years for an
-observer.”</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The substance of Kepler’s astrological opinions is contained in this
-work. It is remarkable that one whose candour and good faith are so
-conspicuous, one so intent on correcting his various theories by observation
-and experience, should have given in to this now generally
-rejected system of imposture and credulity; nay should profess to
-have been forced to adopt it from direct and positive observations.
-“A most unfailing experience (as far as can be hoped in natural phenomena),
-of the excitement of sublunary nature by the conjunctions
-and aspects of the planets, has instructed and compelled my unwilling
-belief.” At the same time he professed through life a supreme
-contempt for the common herd of nativity casters, and claimed to be
-the creator of a “new and most true philosophy, a tender plant which,
-like all other novelties, ought to be carefully nursed and cherished.”
-His plant was rooted in the sand, and it has perished; nor is
-it important to explain the fine-spun differences by which his own
-astrological belief was separated from another not more baseless.
-Poor through life, he relieved his ever recurring wants by astrological
-calculations: and he enjoyed considerable reputation in this
-line, and received ample remuneration for his predictions. It was
-principally as astrologers that both Tycho Brahe and Kepler were
-valued by the Emperor Rudolph: and it was in the same capacity
-that the latter was afterwards entertained by Wallenstein. One
-circumstance may suggest a doubt whether his predictions were
-always scrupulously honest. From the year 1617 to 1620, he published
-an annual Ephemeris, concerning which he writes thus: “In
-order to pay the expense of the Ephemeris for these two years, I have
-also written a <em>vile prophesying almanac</em>, which is hardly more respectable
-than begging; unless it be because it saves the Emperor’s credit,
-who abandons me entirely, and, with all his frequent and recent orders
-in council, would suffer me to perish with hunger.” Poverty is a hard
-task-master; yet Kepler should not have condescended to become the
-Francis Moore of his day.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>In 1620, Kepler was strongly urged by Sir Henry Wotton, then
-ambassador to Venice, to take refuge in England from the difficulties
-which beset him. This invitation was not open to the objections
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_65'>65</span>which had deterred him from accepting an appointment in Italy: but
-love of his native land prevailed to make him decline it also. He
-continued to weary the Imperial Government with solicitations for
-money to defray the expense of the Rudolphine Tables, which were
-not printed until 1627. These were the first calculated on the supposition
-of elliptic orbits, and contain, besides tables of the sun and
-planets, logarithmic and other tables to facilitate calculation, the places
-of one thousand stars as determined by Tycho, and a table of refractions.
-Similar tables of the planetary motions had been constructed
-by Ptolemy, and reproduced with alterations in the thirteenth century
-under the direction of Alphonso, King of Castile. Others, called the
-Prussian Tables, had been calculated after the discoveries of Copernicus,
-by two of that great astronomer’s pupils. All these, however,
-were superseded in consequence of the observations of Tycho Brahe,
-observations far more accurate than had ever before been made: and
-for the publication of the Rudolphine Tables alone, which for a long
-time continued unsurpassed in exactness, the name of Kepler would
-deserve honourable remembrance.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Kepler was the first of the Germans to appreciate and use
-Napier’s invention of logarithms: and he himself calculated and
-published a series, under the title ‘<span lang="la" xml:lang="la">Chilias Logarithmorum</span>,’ in 1624.
-Not long after the Rudolphine Tables were printed, he received
-permission from the Emperor Ferdinand to attach himself to the
-celebrated Wallenstein, a firm believer in the science of divination by
-the stars. In him Kepler found a more munificent patron than he
-had yet enjoyed; and by his influence he was appointed to a professorship
-at the University of Rostock, in the Duchy of Mecklenburgh.
-But the niggardliness of the Imperial Court, which kept him starving
-through life, was in some sense the cause of his death. He had claims
-on it to the amount of eight thousand crowns, which he took a journey
-to Ratisbon to enforce, but without success. Fatigue or disappointment
-brought on a fever which put an end to his life in November, 1630, in
-his 59th year. A plain stone, with a simple inscription, marked his
-grave in St. Peter’s church-yard, in that city. Within seventy paces of
-it, a marble monument has been erected to him in the Botanic Garden,
-by a late Bishop of Constance. He left a wife and numerous family
-ill provided for. His voluminous manuscripts are now deposited in
-the Imperial Library of St. Petersburg. Only one volume of letters,
-in folio, has been published from them; and out of these the chief
-materials for his biography have been extracted.</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id002'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_66'>66</span>
-<img src='images/i_066.jpg' alt='SIR MATTHEW HALE.' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <h2 class='c005'>SIR MATTHEW HALE.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c009'>Matthew Hale was born on the 1st of November, 1609, at
-Alderley, a small village situated in Gloucestershire, about two miles
-from Wotton-under-Edge. His father, Robert Hale, was a barrister
-of Lincoln’s Inn, and his mother, whose maiden name was Poyntz,
-belonged to an ancient and respectable family which had resided for
-several generations at Iron Acton. Hale’s father is represented to have
-been a man of such scrupulous delicacy of conscience, that he abandoned
-his profession, because he thought that some things, of ordinary
-practice in the law, were inconsistent with that literal and precise
-observance of truth which he conceived to be the duty of a Christian.
-“He gave over his practice,” says Burnet, in his Life of Hale, “because
-he could not understand the reason of giving colour in pleadings,
-which, as he thought, was to tell a lie.”</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/i_066fp.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic001'>
-<p><em>Engraved by J. W. Cook.</em><br /><br />HALE.<br /><br /><em>From an original Picture in the Library<br />of Lincolns Inn.</em><br /><br />Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.<br /><br /><em>London, Published by Charles Knight, Ludgate Street, &amp; Pall Mall East.</em></p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c000'>Hale had the misfortune to lose both his parents very early in life,
-his mother dying before he was three years old, and his father before
-he had attained his fifth year. Under the direction of his father’s will
-he was committed to the care of a near relation, Anthony Kingscote,
-Esq., of Kingscote in Gloucestershire. This gentleman, being inclined
-to the religious doctrines and discipline of the Puritans, placed him in
-a school belonging to that party; and, intending to educate him for a
-clergyman, entered him in 1626, at Magdalen Hall in Oxford. The
-strictness and formality of his early education seem to have inclined
-him to run into the opposite extreme at the university, when he
-became to a certain extent his own master. He is said to have been
-very fond at this time of theatrical amusements, and of fencing, and
-other martial exercises; and giving up the design of becoming a
-divine, he at one time determined to pass over into the Netherlands,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_67'>67</span>and to enlist as a volunteer in the army of the Prince of Orange.
-An accidental circumstance diverted him from this resolution. He
-became involved in a lawsuit with a gentleman in Gloucestershire,
-who laid claim to part of his paternal estate; and his guardian, being
-a man of retired habits, was unwilling to undertake the task of personally
-superintending the proceedings on his behalf. It became
-necessary therefore that Hale, though then only twenty years old,
-should leave the university and repair to London for the purpose of
-arranging his defence. His professional adviser on this occasion was
-Serjeant Glanville, a learned and distinguished lawyer; who, being
-struck by the clearness of his young client’s understanding, and by
-his peculiar aptitude of mind for the study of the law, prevailed upon
-him to abandon his military project, and to enter himself at one of
-the Inns of Court with the view of being called to the bar. He
-accordingly became a member of the society of Lincoln’s Inn in
-Michaelmas term 1629, and immediately applied himself with unusual
-assiduity to professional studies. At this period of his life, he is
-said to have read for several years at the rate of sixteen hours a day.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>During his residence as a student in Lincoln’s Inn, an incident
-occurred which recalled a certain seriousness of demeanour, for which
-he had been remarkable as a boy, and gave birth to that profound
-piety which in after-life was a marked feature in his character.
-Being engaged with several other young students at a tavern in the
-neighbourhood of London, one of his companions drank to such excess
-that he fell suddenly from his chair in a kind of fit, and for some time
-seemed to be dead. After assisting the rest of the party to restore
-the young man to his senses, in which they at length succeeded,
-though he still remained in a state of great danger, Hale, who was
-deeply impressed with the circumstance, retired into another room,
-and falling upon his knees prayed earnestly to God that his friend’s
-life might be spared; and solemnly vowed that he would never again
-be a party to similar excess, nor encourage intemperance by drinking
-a health again as long as he lived. His companion recovered, and to
-the end of life Hale scrupulously kept his vow. This was afterwards
-a source of much inconvenience to him, when the reign of licentiousness
-commenced, upon the restoration of Charles II.; and drinking
-the King’s health to intoxication was considered as one of the tests of
-loyalty in politics, and of orthodoxy in religion.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>His rapid proficiency in legal studies not only justified and confirmed
-the good opinion which had been formed of him by his early friend
-and patron, Serjeant Glanville, but also introduced him to the favourable
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_68'>68</span>notice of several of the most distinguished lawyers of that day. Noy,
-the Attorney-General, who some years afterwards devised the odious
-scheme of ship-money, and who, while he is called by Lord Clarendon
-“a morose and proud man,” is also represented by him as an “able
-and learned lawyer,” took particular notice of Hale, and advised and
-assisted him in his studies. At this time also he became intimate
-with Selden, who, though much older than himself, honoured him with
-his patronage and friendship. He was induced by the advice and
-example of this great man to extend his reading beyond the contracted
-sphere of his professional studies, to enlarge and strengthen his
-reasoning powers by philosophical inquiries, and to store his mind with
-a variety of general knowledge. The variety of his pursuits at this
-period of life was remarkable: anatomy, physiology, and divinity
-formed part only of his extensive course of reading; and by his subsequent
-writings it is made manifest that his knowledge of these
-subjects was by no means superficial.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The exact period at which Hale was called to the bar is not given
-by any of his biographers; and in consequence of the non-arrangement
-of the earlier records at Lincoln’s Inn, it cannot be readily
-ascertained. It is probable however that he commenced the actual
-practice of his profession about the year 1636. It is plain that he
-very soon attained considerable reputation in it, from his having
-been employed in most of the celebrated trials arising out of the
-troubles consequent on the meeting of Parliament in 1640. His
-prudence and political moderation, together with his great legal and
-constitutional knowledge, pointed him out as a valuable advocate for
-such of the court party as were brought to public trial. Bishop
-Burnet says that he was assigned as counsel for Lord Strafford, in
-1640. This does not appear from the reports of that trial, nor is it
-on record that he was expressly assigned as Strafford’s counsel by the
-House of Lords: but he may have been privately retained by that
-nobleman to assist in preparing his defence. In 1643 however he
-was expressly appointed by both Houses of Parliament as counsel for
-Archbishop Laud: and the argument of Mr. Herne, the senior
-counsel, an elaborate and lucid piece of legal reasoning, is said, but
-on no certain authority, to have been drawn up by Hale. In 1647 he
-was appointed one of the counsel for the Eleven members: and he is
-said to have been afterwards retained for the defence of Charles I.
-in the High Court of Justice: but as the King refused to own the
-jurisdiction of the tribunal, his counsel took no public part in the
-proceedings. He was also retained after the King’s death by the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_69'>69</span>Duke of Hamilton, when brought to trial for treason, in taking up
-arms against the Parliament. Burnet mentions other instances, but
-these are enough to prove his high reputation for fidelity and courage,
-as well as learning.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>In the year 1643 Hale took the covenant as prescribed by the
-Parliament, and appeared more than once with other laymen in the
-assembly of divines. In 1651 he took the “Engagement to be
-faithful and true to the Commonwealth without a King and House
-of Lords,” which, as Mr. Justice Foster observes, “in the sense of
-those who imposed it, was plainly an engagement for abolishing
-kingly government, or at least for supporting the abolition of it.”
-In consequence of his compliance in this respect he was allowed to
-practise at the bar, and was shortly afterwards appointed a member
-of the commission for considering of the reformation of the law. The
-precise part taken by Hale in the deliberations of that body cannot
-now be ascertained; and indeed there are no records of the mode in
-which they conducted their inquiries, and, with a few exceptions, no
-details of the specific measures of reform introduced by them. A
-comparison, however, of the machinery of courts of justice during the
-reign of Charles I., and their practice and general conduct during
-the Commonwealth, and immediately after the Restoration, will afford
-convincing proofs that during the interregnum improvements of great
-importance were effected; improvements which must have been
-devised, matured, and carried into execution by minds of no common
-wisdom, devoted to the subject with extraordinary industry and
-reflection.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>It was unquestionably with the view of restoring a respect for the
-administration of justice, which had been wholly lost during the reign
-of Charles I., and giving popularity and moral strength to his own
-government, that Cromwell determined to place such men as Hale on
-the benches of the different courts. Hale however had at first many
-scruples concerning the propriety of acting under a commission from
-an usurper; and it was not without much hesitation, that he at length
-yielded to the importunity of Cromwell and the urgent advice and
-entreaties of his friends; who, thinking it no small security to the
-nation to have a man of his integrity and high character on the bench,
-spared no pains to satisfy his conscientious scruples. He was made a
-serjeant, and raised to the bench of the Court of Common Pleas in
-January, 1653–4.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Soon after he became a judge he was returned to Cromwell’s first
-Parliament of five months, as one of the knights of the shire for the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_70'>70</span>county of Gloucester, but he does not appear to have taken a very
-active part in the proceedings of that assembly. Burnet says that
-“he, with a great many others, came to parliaments, more out of a
-design to hinder mischief than to do much good.” On one occasion,
-however, he did a service to his country, for which all subsequent
-generations have reason to be grateful, by opposing the proposition of
-a party of frantic enthusiasts to destroy the records in the Tower and
-other depositories, as remnants of feudality and barbarism. Hale
-displayed the folly, injustice, and mischief of this proposition with such
-authority and clearness of argument, that he carried the opinions of
-all reasonable members with him; and in the end those who had
-introduced the measure were well satisfied to withdraw it. That his
-political opinions at this time were not republican, is evident from
-a motion introduced by him, that the legislative authority should
-be affirmed to be in the Parliament, and an individual with powers
-limited by the Parliament; but that the military power should for
-the present remain with the Protector. He had no seat in the second
-Parliament of the Protectorate, called in 1656; but when a new
-Parliament was summoned upon the death of Cromwell in January,
-1658–9, he represented the University of Oxford.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>His judicial conduct during the Commonwealth is represented by
-contemporaries of all parties as scrupulously just, and nobly independent.
-Several instances are related of his resolute refusal to submit
-the free administration of the law to the arbitrary dictation of the
-Protector. On one occasion of this kind, which occurred on the
-circuit, a jury had been packed by express directions from Cromwell.
-Hale discharged the jury on discovering this circumstance, and refused
-to try the cause. When he returned to London, the Protector severely
-reprimanded him, telling him that “he was not fit to be a judge;”
-to which Hale only replied that “it was very true.”</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>It appears that at this period, he, in common with several other
-judges, had strong objections to being employed by Cromwell as
-commissioners on the trial of persons taken in open resistance to his
-authority. After the suppression of the feeble and ineffectual rebellion
-in 1655, in which the unfortunate Colonel Penruddock, with many
-other gentlemen of rank and distinction, appeared in arms for the King
-in the western counties, a special commission issued for the trial of the
-offenders at Exeter, in which Hale’s name was inserted. He happened
-to be spending the Lent vacation at his house at Alderley, to which
-place an express was sent to require his attendance; but he plainly
-refused to go, excusing himself on the ground that four terms and two
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_71'>71</span>circuits in the year were a sufficient devotion of his time to his judicial
-duties, and that the intervals were already too small for the arrangement
-of his private affairs; “but,” says Burnet, “if he had been
-urged to it, he would not have been afraid of speaking more clearly.”</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>He continued to occupy his place as a judge of the Common Pleas
-until the death of the Protector; but when a new commission from
-Richard Cromwell was offered to him, he declined to receive it:
-and though strongly urged by other judges, as well as his personal
-friends, to accept the office on patriotic grounds, he firmly adhered to
-his first resolution, saying that “he could act no longer under such
-authority.”</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>In the year 1660 Hale was again returned by his native county
-of Gloucester to serve in the Parliament, or Convention, by which
-Charles II. was recalled. On the discussion of the means by which
-this event should be brought about, Hale proposed that a committee
-should be appointed to look into the propositions and concessions offered
-by Charles I. during the war, particularly at the treaty of Newport,
-from whence they might form reasonable conditions to be sent over to
-the King. The motion was successfully opposed by Monk, who urged
-the danger which might arise, in the present state of the army and the
-nation, if any delay should occur in the immediate settlement of the
-government. “This,” says Burnet, “was echoed with such a shout
-over the House, that the motion was no longer insisted on.” It can
-hardly be doubted that most of the destructive errors of the reign of
-Charles II. would have been spared, if express restrictions had been
-imposed upon him before he was permitted to assume the reins
-of government. On the other hand it has been justly said, that
-the time was critical; that at that precise moment the army and the
-nation, equally weary of the scenes of confusion and misrule which
-had succeeded to Richard Cromwell’s abdication, agreed upon the
-proposed scheme; but that if delay had been interposed, and if debates
-had arisen in Parliament, the dormant spirit of party would in all
-probability have been awakened, the opportunity would have been
-lost, and the restoration might after all have been prevented. These
-arguments, when urged by Monk to those who were suffering under
-a pressing evil, and had only a prospective and contingent danger
-before them, were plausible and convincing; but to those in
-after times who have marked the actual consequences of recalling
-the King without expressly limiting and defining his authority, as
-displayed in the miserable and disgraceful events of his “wicked,
-turbulent, and sanguinary reign,” and in the necessary occurrence of
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_72'>72</span>another revolution within thirty years from the Restoration, it will
-probably appear that our ancestors paid rather too dearly on that
-occasion for the advantages of an immediate settlement of the nation.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Immediately after the restoration of the King in May, 1668, Lord
-Clarendon, being appointed Lord Chancellor, sought to give strength
-and stability to the new government, by carefully providing for the due
-administration of justice. With this view, he placed men distinguished
-for their learning and high judicial character upon the benches of the
-different courts. Amongst other eminent lawyers, who had forsaken
-their profession during the latter period of the Commonwealth, he
-determined to recall Hale from his retirement, and offered him the
-appointment of Lord Chief Baron. But it was not without great
-difficulty that Hale was induced to return to the labours of public life.
-A curious original paper containing his “reasons why he desired to be
-spared from any place of public employment,” was published some
-years ago by Mr. Hargrave, in the preface to his collection of law
-tracts. Amongst these reasons, which were stated with the characteristic
-simplicity of this great man, he urged “the smallness of his
-estate, being not above £500 per annum, six children unprovided
-for, and a debt of £1000 lying upon him; that he was not so
-well able to endure travel and pains as formerly; that his constitution
-of body required some ease and relaxation; and that he had of late
-time declined the study of the law, and principally applied himself to
-other studies, now more easy, grateful, and seasonable for him.” He
-alludes also to two “infirmities, which make him unfit for that
-employment, first, an aversion to the pomp and grandeur necessarily
-incident to it; and secondly, too much pity, clemency, and tenderness in
-cases of life, which might prove an unserviceable temper.” “But if,”
-he concludes, “after all this, there must be a necessity of undertaking
-an employment, I desire that it may be in such a court and way as may
-be most suitable to my course of studies and education, and that it
-may be the lowest place that may be, to avoid envy. One of his
-Majesty’s counsel in ordinary, or at most, the place of a puisne judge
-in the Common Pleas, would suit me best.” His scruples were
-however eventually overcome, and on the 7th of November, 1660, he
-accepted the appointment of Lord Chief Baron: Lord Clarendon
-saying as he delivered his commission to him that “if the King could
-have found an honester and fitter man for that employment he would
-not have advanced him to it; and that he had therefore preferred
-him, because he knew no other who deserved it so well.” Shortly
-afterwards he reluctantly received the honour of knighthood.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_73'>73</span>The trials of the regicides took place in the October immediately
-preceding his appointment, and his name appears among the commissioners
-on that occasion. There is however no reason to suppose
-that he was actually present; his name is not mentioned in
-any of the reports, either as interfering in the proceedings themselves,
-or assisting at the previous consultations of the judges; and
-it can hardly be doubted but that, if he had taken a part in the
-trials, he would have been included with Sir Orlando Bridgeman and
-several others in the bitter remarks made by Ludlow on their conduct
-in this respect. It has been the invariable practice from very early
-times to the present day, to include the twelve judges in all commissions
-of Oyer and Terminer, for London and Middlesex; and as, at
-the time of the trials in question, only eight judges had been appointed,
-it is probable that Hale and the other three judges elect were named in
-the commission, though their patents were not made out till the following
-term, in order to preserve as nearly as possible the ancient form.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Sir Matthew Hale held the office of Lord Chief Baron till the year
-1671; and during that period greatly raised the character of the
-court in which he presided, by his unwearied patience and industry,
-the mildness of his manners, and the inflexible integrity of his judicial
-conduct. His impartiality in deciding cases in the Exchequer where
-the interests of the Crown were concerned, is admitted even by Roger
-North, who elsewhere charges him with holding “demagogical
-principles,” and with the “foible of leaning towards the popular.”
-“I have heard Lord Guilford say,” says this agreeable but partial
-writer, “that while Hale was Chief Baron of the Exchequer, by means
-of his great learning, even against his inclination, he did the Crown
-more justice in that court, than any others in his place had done with
-all their good-will and less knowledge.”</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Whilst he was Chief Baron he was called upon to preside at the
-trial of two unhappy women who were indicted at the Assizes at Bury
-St. Edmunds, in the year 1665, for the crime of witchcraft. The
-Chief Baron is reported to have told the jury that, “he made no
-doubt at all that there were such creatures as witches,” and the women
-were found guilty and afterwards executed. The conduct of Hale on
-this occasion has been the subject of much sarcastic animadversion. It
-might be said in reply, that the report of the case in the State Trials
-is of no authority whatever; but supposing it to be accurate, it would
-be unjust and unreasonable to impute to Sir Matthew Hale as personal
-superstition or prejudice, a mere participation in the prevailing and
-almost universal belief of the times in which he lived. The majority
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_74'>74</span>of his contemporaries, even among persons of education and refinement,
-were firm believers in witchcraft; and though Lord Guilford
-rejected this belief, Roger North admits that he dared not to avow his
-infidelity in this respect in public, as it would have exposed him to the
-imputation of irreligion. Numerous instances might be given to show
-the general prevalence at that time of this stupid and ignorant
-superstition; and therefore the opinion of Hale on this subject does
-not appear to be a proof of peculiar weakness or credulity.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>On the occurrence of the great fire of London in 1666, an act of
-parliament passed containing directions and arrangements for rebuilding
-the city. By a clause in this statute, the judges were authorized to sit
-singly to decide on the amount of compensation due to persons, whose
-premises were taken by the corporation in furtherance of the intended
-improvements. Sir Matthew Hale applied himself with his usual
-diligence and patience to the discharge of this laborious and extrajudicial
-duty. “He was,” says Baxter, “the great instrument for
-rebuilding London; for it was he that was the constant judge, who for
-nothing followed the work, and by his prudence and justice removed a
-multitude of great impediments.”</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>In the year 1671, upon the death of Sir John Kelyng, Chief Justice
-of the Court of King’s Bench, Sir Matthew Hale was removed from
-the Exchequer to succeed him. The particular circumstances which
-caused his elevation to this laborious and responsible situation at a
-time when his growing infirmities induced him to seek a total retirement
-from public life, are not recorded by any of his biographers. For
-four years after he became Chief Justice he regularly attended to the
-duties of his court, and his name appears in all the reported cases
-in the Court of King’s Bench, until the close of the year 1675.
-About that time he was attacked by an inflammation of the diaphragm,
-a painful and languishing disease, from which he constantly predicted
-that he should not recover. It produced so entire a prostration of
-strength, that he was unable to walk up Westminster Hall to his
-court without being supported by his servants. “He resolved,” says
-Baxter, “that the place should not be a burden to him, nor he to
-it,” and therefore made an earnest application to the Lord Keeper
-Finch for his dismission. This being delayed for some time, and
-finding himself totally unequal to the toil of business, he at length, in
-February 1676, tendered the surrender of his patent personally to the
-King, who received it graciously and kindly, and promised to continue
-his pension during his life.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>On his retirement from office, he occupied at first a house at Acton
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_75'>75</span>which he had taken from Richard Baxter, who says “it was one
-of the meanest houses he had ever lived in; in that house,” he adds,
-“he liveth contentedly, without any pomp, and without costly or
-troublesome retinue of visitors, but not without charity to the poor; he
-continueth the study of mathematics and physics still as his great
-delight. It is not the least of my pleasure that I have lived some years
-in his more than ordinary love and friendship, and that we are now
-waiting which shall be first in heaven; whither he saith he is going
-with full content and acquiescence in the will of a gracious God, and
-doubts not but we shall shortly live together.” Not long before his
-death he removed from Acton to his own house at Alderley, intending
-to die there; and having a few days before gone to the parish church-yard
-and chosen his grave, he sunk under a united attack of asthma
-and dropsy, on Christmas-day, 1676.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The judicial character of Sir Matthew Hale was without reproach.
-His profound knowledge of the law rendered him an object of
-universal respect to the profession; whilst his patience, conciliatory
-manners, and rigid impartiality engaged the good opinion of all
-classes of men. As a proof of this, it is said that as he successively
-removed from the Court of Common Pleas to the Exchequer, and
-from thence to the King’s Bench, the mass of business always
-followed him; so that the court in which he presided was constantly
-the favourite one with counsel, attorneys, and parties. Perhaps indeed
-no judge has ever been so generally and unobjectionably popular.
-His address was copious and impressive, but at times slow and embarrassed:
-Baxter says “he was a man of no quick utterance, and often
-hesitant; but spake with great reason.” This account of his mode of
-speaking is confirmed by Roger North, who adds, however, that “his
-stop for a word by the produce always paid for the delay; and on
-some occasions he would utter sentences heroic.” His reputation
-as a legal and constitutional writer is in no degree inferior to his
-character as a judge. From the time it was published to the
-present day, his history of the Pleas of the Crown has always
-been considered as a book of the highest authority, and is referred
-to in courts of justice with as great confidence and respect as the
-formal records of judicial opinions. His Treatises on the Jurisdiction
-of the Lords’ House of Parliament, and on Maritime Law, which
-were first published by Mr. Hargrave more than a century after Sir
-Matthew Hale’s death, are works of first-rate excellence as legal arguments,
-and are invaluable as repositories of the learning of centuries,
-which the industry and research of the author had collected.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>After his retirement from public life, he wrote his great work called
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_76'>76</span>‘The primitive Origination of Mankind, considered and examined
-according to the light of nature.’ Various opinions have been
-formed upon the merits of this treatise. Roger North depreciates the
-substance of the book, but commends its style; while Bishop Burnet
-and Dr. Birch greatly praise its learning and force of reasoning.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Sir Matthew Hale was twice married. By his first wife, who was
-a daughter of Sir Henry Moore of Faley in Berkshire, he had ten
-children, most of whom turned out ill. His second wife, according to
-Roger North, was “his own servant maid;” and Baxter says, “some
-made it a scandal, but his wisdom chose it for his convenience, that
-in his age he married a woman of no estate, to be to him as a nurse.”
-Hale gives her a high character in his will, as “a most dutiful,
-faithful, and loving wife,” making her one of his executors, and intrusting
-her with the education of his grand-children. He bequeathed
-his collection of manuscripts, which he says had cost him much
-industry and expense, to the Society of Lincoln’s Inn, in whose
-library they are carefully preserved.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The published biographies of Hale are extremely imperfect, none
-of them containing a particular account of his personal history and
-character. Bishop Burnet’s Life is the most generally known, and,
-though far too panegyrical and partial, is perhaps the most complete;
-it has been closely followed by most of his subsequent biographers.
-In Baxter’s Appendix to the Life of Hale, and in his account of his
-own Life, the reader will find some interesting details respecting his
-domestic and personal habits; and Roger North’s Life of Lord Guilford
-contains many amusing, though ill-natured and sarcastic anecdotes of
-this admirable judge.</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/i_076.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic001'>
-<p>View of Alderley Church.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/i_077fp.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic001'>
-<p><em>Engraved by J. Thomson.</em><br /><br />FRANKLIN.<br /><br /><em>From an original Picture by J. A. Duplesis in the possession of M. Barnet<br />Consul General for the United States of America at Paris.</em><br /><br />Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.<br /><br /><em>London, Published by Charles Knight, Ludgate Street, &amp; Pall Mall East.</em></p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id002'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_77'>77</span>
-<img src='images/i_077.jpg' alt='FRANKLIN.' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <h2 class='c005'>FRANKLIN.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c009'>Benjamin Franklin was born at Boston in New England, January 6,
-1706. His father was a non-conformist, who had emigrated in 1682,
-and followed the trade of a tallow-chandler. Benjamin was one of
-the youngest of fourteen children, and, being intended for the ministry,
-was sent for a year to the Boston Grammar School; after which,
-poverty compelled his father to remove him, at ten years old, to assist
-in his business. The boy disliked this occupation so much, that he
-was bound apprentice to an elder brother, who was just established at
-Boston as a printer. Though but twelve years of age, he soon
-learnt all his brother could teach him; but the harsh treatment he met
-with, which he says first inspired him with a hatred for tyranny, made
-him resolve to emancipate himself on the first opportunity. All his
-leisure time was spent in reading; and having exhausted his small
-stock of books, he resorted to a singular expedient to supply himself
-with more. Having been attracted by a treatise on the advantages of
-a vegetable diet, he determined to adopt it, and offered to provide for
-himself, on condition of receiving half the weekly sum expended on
-his board. His brother willingly consented; and by living entirely
-on vegetables he contrived to save half his pittance to gratify his
-voracious appetite for reading. He continued the practice for several
-years, and attributes to it his habitual temperance and indifference
-to the delicacies of the table.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Some time before this the elder Franklin had set up a newspaper,
-the second ever published in America, which eventually gave Benjamin
-a pretext for breaking through the trammels of his apprenticeship. In
-consequence of some remarks which gave offence to the provincial
-authorities, the former was imprisoned under a warrant from the
-Speaker of the Assembly; and his discharge was accompanied with an
-order, that “James Franklin should no longer print the New England
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_78'>78</span>Courant.” In this dilemma the brothers agreed that it should be
-printed for the future in Benjamin’s name; and to avoid the censure
-that might fall on the elder as printing it by his apprentice, the old
-indenture was cancelled, and a new one signed which was to be kept
-secret; but fresh disputes arising, Benjamin took advantage of the
-transaction to assert his freedom, presuming that his brother would
-not dare to produce the secret articles. Expostulation was vain; but
-the brother took care to spread such reports as prevented him from
-getting employment at Boston. He determined therefore to go elsewhere;
-and, having sold his books to raise a little money, he set off
-without the knowledge of his friends, and wandered by way of New
-York to Philadelphia, where he found himself at seventeen with a
-single dollar in his pocket, friendless and unknown. He succeeded,
-however, at last in procuring employment with a printer of the name
-of Keimer, with whom he remained seven months. By some accident
-he was thrown in the way of the Governor, Sir William Keith,
-who promised to be of service to him in his business, if he could
-persuade his father to establish him in Philadelphia. His father,
-however, refused to advance any money, thinking him too young to be
-established in a concern of his own. He therefore once more engaged
-himself with Keimer, and remained with him a year and a half.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The favour of the Governor, who promised him introductions and a
-letter of credit, led Franklin to undertake a voyage to England, with
-a view of improving himself in his trade, and procuring a set of types.
-But he was severely disappointed, when, at the end of the voyage,
-upon applying to the Captain who carried the Governor’s despatches,
-he learnt that there were no letters for him, and that Governor<a id='t78'></a> Keith
-was one of that large class of persons who are more ready to excite
-expectations than to fulfil them. He soon however got employment,
-and, with frugality, contrived to maintain both himself and his friend
-Ralph, who had accompanied him to England on a literary speculation,
-which, after many failures in verse and prose, procured him at
-last a nook in the Dunciad, and a pension from the Prince of Wales,
-whose cause he had espoused in print against George II.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>During his voyage he attracted the notice of a merchant named
-Denham, who, again meeting him in London, became fond of him, and
-engaged his services as a clerk. After remaining a year and a half in
-London, he returned with Mr. Denham to Philadelphia. During this
-voyage he drew up a scheme for self-examination, and several prudent
-rules for the guidance of his future conduct, to which he steadily
-adhered through life. Indeed the remarkable success of most of his
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_79'>79</span>undertakings may be traced in a great measure to this faculty of
-profiting early by the lessons of experience, and abiding rigorously by
-a resolution once made.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>He had scarcely returned half a year when his patron died, leaving
-him again on the world at the age of twenty-one. But he had now
-acquired so much skill in his business, that he was gladly received at
-advanced wages into Keimer’s printing-house.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>About this time he set on foot a club, called “The Junto,” consisting
-of twelve persons of his own age, most of whom proved eminent
-men in after-life. This association had much influence on his
-fortunes, particularly when, having quarrelled with Keimer, he was
-induced to establish himself in partnership with a fellow-journeyman
-named Meredith, and needed both interest and money. By 1729 he
-had saved enough to buy out his partner, and make himself sole proprietor
-of the printing-house. In the following year he married a
-young woman named Reade, to whom he had been attached before he
-went to England.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>In 1732 he began to publish ‘Poor Richard’s Almanack.’ It was
-interspersed with many prudential maxims, which were printed with
-additions, in a collected form, in 1757, and have been translated into
-many languages. The annual sale of this Almanack reached 10,000
-copies, and, as it was continued for twenty-five years, was very profitable
-to the author.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>In 1736 he was appointed Clerk to the Assembly of Pennsylvania,
-and obtained their printing. The next year he was made Deputy
-Postmaster, and introduced so many judicious reforms into his
-department, that it began to bring in a considerable revenue, though
-up to that time it had before barely paid its own expenses. He also
-carried into effect many improvements at Philadelphia, as his credit
-with his fellow-townsmen increased; invariably taking care to introduce
-them as “the idea of a few friends,” or “the plan of some
-public spirited persons,” thus avoiding the odium which attaches to
-the corrector of abuses, and eventually securing the credit of having
-made useful suggestions. In these schemes he was well seconded by
-the “Junto.” Some of them were—Institutions for watching, paving,
-and lighting the city; the Union Fire Company, still, we believe, in
-useful operation; a Philosophical Society; an Academy for Education,
-now grown up into the University of Pennsylvania; and the City Hospital.
-But many of these improvements were brought forward at a
-later period; for until 1748, when he took a partner, his time was
-almost exclusively occupied in his printing-office.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_80'>80</span>Being now, comparatively, a man of leisure, he devoted more attention
-to philosophical pursuits and to public business, for which his fellow-citizens
-began to find his habits and talents exceedingly well suited.
-He became, in succession, magistrate, alderman, and member of the
-Assembly; and nothing of importance was transacted without his
-assistance or advice.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The first public mission in which he was engaged, was to a tribe of
-Indians in 1750, which was successful. In 1753 he was appointed
-Postmaster-General, with a salary of £300 a year.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The next year he produced a plan for the union of the American
-Provinces, for mutual defence against an apprehended invasion by the
-French from the Canada frontier. This seems to have been the first
-time that such an idea was broached; and, as he was fond of saying,
-like all good motions it was kept alive, though not carried into effect
-at the time.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Pennsylvania was then ruled by an Assembly elected annually,
-and a Governor appointed by the descendants of William Penn,
-who resided in England, and were the feudal lords of the soil. This
-anomalous kind of government naturally led to misunderstandings,
-which were among the causes that mainly contributed to alienate the
-affections of the provinces from the mother country. The Proprietaries,
-as they were called, laid claim to immunity from taxation, upon
-grounds which the Assembly refused to admit; and the Governor and
-his officers taking part with the Proprietaries, to whom they were indebted
-for their appointments, a controversy grew up, which was never
-entirely disposed of while the connexion with Great Britain subsisted.
-In this dispute Franklin took an active share, and sided with the opposition,
-rejecting frequent overtures from the government; with which,
-however, he continued to keep on good terms, never losing sight of
-the duty of a citizen, in supporting the authority of the laws, and
-defending the state against its foreign and domestic enemies by his
-writings and example. In following this course on various occasions,
-especially that of the French invasion from Canada, he not only
-warmly exerted himself in person, but advanced a good deal of money,
-which, to the disgrace of the British Government, was never wholly
-repaid.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>In 1757 he was appointed to manage the controversy with the Proprietaries
-in England. Thither he accordingly repaired after some
-vexatious delays, and proceeded in the object of his mission with his
-accustomed energy; and though he met with many obstacles, his
-efforts were at length successful, and the Penns gave up their claim to
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_81'>81</span>be exempt from contributing to the burdens of the state. But they
-still held the power of appointing the Governor, which the Province
-wished to be transferred to the Crown, and the dispute was afterwards
-renewed. The conduct of Franklin in this affair gained him so much
-credit in America, that he received the additional appointments of
-Agent for Maryland, Massachusetts, and Georgia, each of which
-provinces had grievances of its own requiring redress.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>During this absence in England, Franklin was presented by the
-Universities of St. Andrew’s and Oxford with the degree of D.C.L.,
-and took his place as Fellow of the Royal Society, which honour, with
-many similar distinctions, had been conferred upon him some years
-before for his discoveries in electricity. The chief of these were, the
-identity of electricity with lightning, and the mode of protecting
-buildings by pointed metallic conductors. The simplification which
-he effected in the theory of electricity, by showing how all the phenomena
-are explicable by the hypothesis of a single electric fluid,
-forms a remarkable example of philosophical generalization, and a
-lasting monument of its author’s genius<a id='r3' /><a href='#f3' class='c010'><sup>[3]</sup></a>. He was also consulted on
-American affairs by Lord Chatham, who, by his advice, as it is
-believed, withdrew a part of the British force then acting with the
-King of Prussia, and directed it with so much secrecy and success
-against Canada, that the French had no intelligence of the danger
-of the province till they heard of its irretrievable loss.</p>
-
-<div class='footnote' id='f3'>
-<p class='c000'><span class='label'><a href='#r3'>3</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;</span>See the Library of Useful Knowledge—Treatise on Electricity, § 48, &amp;c.</p>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c000'>In the summer of 1762 he returned to Philadelphia, where he
-received public thanks, and a grant of £5000 for his services. His
-popularity was such, that he had been re-elected annually to the
-Assembly, and he immediately resumed the active part which he had
-formerly taken in its proceedings.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Among other projects for reform, that relating to the appointment of
-Governor, which the Proprietaries seem to have exercised with very
-little regard to the public interest, gave rise to much stormy discussion
-during the next two years. Franklin’s share in it procured him many
-enemies, who succeeded in preventing his election in 1764. Yet, a
-strong petition to the Crown on the subject having been disregarded, he
-was a second time appointed agent for enforcing the views of the Assembly
-upon the authorities in England. When there, he by no means limited
-his exertions to this narrow point: minor dissensions were now merging
-in the final struggle for national independence, to which the passing
-of the Grenville Stamp Act in 1763 gave the immediate impulse.
-Franklin reprobated this tax as arbitrary and illegal, when it was
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_82'>82</span>first reported to the Assembly; and his writings in the papers against
-it with his examination in Parliament, are thought to have contributed
-much to its repeal under the Rockingham administration, in 1766.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>In this and the three next years he paid several visits to the Continent,
-where he was received with much distinction. He began already
-to record his observations upon the part the different powers would be
-likely to take in case of a rupture between England and her colonies:
-an event which a thorough knowledge of the temper of both led him,
-even thus early, to contemplate as by no means improbable. The
-closure of the port of Boston in 1773, and the quartering of troops in
-the town, filled up the measure of discontent. Franklin was then
-agent for three provinces besides Pennsylvania; and their remonstrances,
-which he lost no opportunity of forcing on the attention of
-the English public as well as the Government, found in him a most
-efficient supporter. At length, finding all his efforts to bring about
-a reconciliation entirely fruitless, and having met with much misconstruction
-and personal indignity at the hands of successive administrations,
-he resigned his agencies and set sail for Philadelphia, where
-he arrived in the spring of 1775, after an absence of eleven years.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>In the preceding autumn a Congress of delegates from the Assemblies
-of all the provinces, the idea of which seems to have originated
-with Franklin, had met at Philadelphia; and their first act was to
-sign a Declaration of Rights, which had been transmitted to Franklin
-and the other agents for presentation. The day after his return he
-was himself elected to serve in this Congress for Pennsylvania, and
-was intrusted with the management of several important negotiations.
-In the mean time collisions had taken place between the troops at
-Boston and the inhabitants, which led to the actions of Lexington
-and Bunker’s Hill. These events quickened the deliberations of the
-Congress; and after one more fruitless petition for redress, the
-Declaration of Independence was published, July 4, 1776, and warlike
-preparations were actively commenced. The English Ministry now
-sent out Lord Howe, with full powers to concede every thing but
-absolute independence; but as the Commissioners appointed to confer
-with him, of whom Franklin was one, were instructed to treat upon
-no other terms, the negotiation abruptly terminated.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>After his return from a short but unsuccessful mission to Canada,
-Dr. Franklin had been appointed President of the Convention for settling
-the constitution of Pennsylvania; but he had not long held the
-office before his services were again put in requisition by the Congress,
-as head of the Commission to the Court of France, with powers to
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_83'>83</span>negotiate loans, purchase stores, and grant letters of marque. He
-consented, with all the alacrity of youth, to undertake this charge,
-though in his 71st year; and, crossing the Atlantic for the fourth time,
-arrived in France with his colleagues before the end of 1776, and
-took up his residence at Passy, a village near Paris. The nation at
-large received the Commission with open arms, and rendered them
-much assistance, in which the Government secretly participated. But
-it was not till the surrender of Burgoyne’s army, in October 1777, that
-the reluctance of the Court to hazard a war with England was overcome.
-The treaty of alliance, and recognition of the United States,
-was signed in February 1778, and war immediately was declared
-against England.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The principal object of the Commission being thus gained, Franklin
-still continued in France with the character of plenipotentiary during
-the seven remaining years of the war, till 1783, when England consented
-to recognize the independence of her late colonies. The definitive
-treaty for that purpose was signed by himself, and on the part
-of England by David Hartley, September 3, 1783.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>He had of late years been afflicted with those painful disorders the
-gout and stone, and at last received permission to return, of which he
-availed himself the following spring, having just completed his 79th
-year. He was, as may be supposed, most enthusiastically received at
-Philadelphia, after an absence of eight years and a half; but the
-Congress, with an ingratitude which has often been justly laid to the
-charge of republics, made him no acknowledgment or compensation for
-his long and arduous services; and he felt the neglect rather keenly.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>In a very short time we find him again busily engaged in public
-employments; first as a member of the Supreme Executive Council,
-and of the Commission for the settlement of the National Confederacy,
-and soon afterwards as President of the state of Pennsylvania,
-which he retained for the full legal period of three years. He was
-also a leading member in several societies for public and charitable
-purposes. One of the latter was a Society for the Abolition of Slavery,
-and his last public act was a memorial to Congress on this subject.
-He then wholly retired from public employments, after a life spent in
-labours through which nothing could have supported him but a consciousness
-of the high responsibilities of a mind gifted like his own, and
-the magnitude of the cause for which his powerful advocacy was so
-long engaged. He died about two years after his retirement, at the
-age of eighty-four, in the full enjoyment of all his faculties. Few men
-ever possessed such opportunities or talents for contributing to the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_84'>84</span>welfare of mankind; fewer still have used them to better purpose:
-and it is pleasant to know, on his own authority, that such extensive
-services were rendered without any sacrifice of his own happiness. In
-his later correspondence he frequently alludes with complacency to a
-favourite sentiment which he has also introduced into his Memoirs;—“That
-he would willingly live over again the same course of life, even
-though not allowed the privilege of an author, to correct in a second
-edition the faults of the first.”</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>His remarkable success in life and in the discharge of his public
-functions is not to be ascribed to genius, unless the term be extended
-to that perfection of common sense and intimate knowledge of mankind
-which almost entitled his sagacity to the name of prescience,
-and made ‘Franklin’s forebodings’ proverbially ominous among
-those who knew him. His preeminence appears to have resulted
-from the habitual cultivation of a mind originally shrewd and
-observant, and gifted with singular powers of energy and self-control.
-There was a business-like alacrity about him, with a
-discretion and integrity which conciliated the respect even of his
-warmest political foes; a manly straight-forwardness before which
-no pretension could stand unrebuked; and a cool tenacity of temper
-and purpose which never forsook him under the most discouraging
-circumstances, and was no doubt exceedingly provoking to his
-opponents. Indeed his sturdiness, however useful to his country in
-time of need, was perhaps carried rather to excess; his enemies
-called it obstinacy, and accused him of being morose and sullen.
-No better refutation of such a charge can be wished for than the
-testimony borne to his disposition by Priestley (Monthly Magazine,
-1782), a man whom Franklin was justly proud to call his friend.
-In private life he was most estimable; two of his most favourite
-maxims were, never to exalt himself by lowering others, and in
-society to enjoy and contribute to all innocent amusements without
-reserve. His friendships were consequently lasting, and chosen at
-will from among the most amiable as well as the most distinguished
-of both sexes, wherever his residence happened to be fixed.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>His chief claims to philosophical distinction are his experiments
-and discoveries in electricity; but he has left essays upon various
-other matters of interest and practical utility; an end of which he
-never lost sight. Among these are remarks on ship-building and
-light-houses; on the temperature of the sea at different latitudes
-and depths, and the phenomena of what is called the Gulf-stream
-of the Atlantic; on the effect of oil poured upon rough water, and
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_85'>85</span>other subjects connected with practical navigation; and on the proper
-construction of lamps, chimneys, and stoves. His suggestions on
-these subjects are very valuable. His other writings are numerous;
-they relate chiefly to politics, or the inculcation of the rules of prudence
-and morality. Many of them are light and even playful; they
-are all instructive, and written in an excellent and simple style; but
-they are not entirely free from the imputation of trifling upon serious
-subjects. The most valuable of them is probably his autobiography,
-which is unfortunately but a fragment.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>As a speaker he was neither copious nor eloquent; there was even
-a degree of hesitation and embarrassment in his delivery. Yet as he
-seldom rose without having something important to say, and always
-spoke to the purpose, he commanded the attention of his hearers, and
-generally succeeded in his object.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>His religious principles, when disengaged from the scepticism of
-his youth, appears to have been sincere, and unusually free from
-sectarian animosity.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Upon the whole, his long and useful life forms an instructive
-example of the force which arises from the harmonious combination
-of strong faculties and feelings when so controlled by sense and
-principle that no one is suffered to predominate to the disparagement
-of the rest.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>An excellent Life, in which his autobiography is included, with
-a collection of many of his miscellaneous writings, and much of his
-correspondence, has been published in six octavo volumes, by his
-grandson Temple Franklin, who accompanied him during his mission
-to France, and possessed the amplest means of verifying his statements
-by reference to the original papers.</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id002'>
-<img src='images/i_085.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id002'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_86'>86</span>
-<img src='images/i_086.jpg' alt='SCHWARTZ.' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <h2 class='c005'>SCHWARTZ.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c009'>It is refreshing to turn from the scenes of war and bloodshed, and
-frequently of perfidy and oppression, by which our European empire
-in India was established and consolidated, to watch the progress
-of a benevolent and peaceful enterprise, the substitution of the
-Christian faith for the impure, and bloody, and oppressive superstitions
-of the Hindoos. We augur well of its success, though it is still far
-from its accomplishment; for, since the first hand was put to it, it
-has advanced with slow, yet certain and unfaltering steps. Many
-able and good men have devoted themselves to the cause, and
-none with more distinguished success than he who has been called
-the Apostle of the East, <span class='sc'>Christian Schwartz</span>. The saying of an
-eminent missionary, who preached to a far different people, the stern
-and high-minded Indians of North America, is exemplified in his life,—“Prayer
-and pains, through faith, will do any thing.” For years
-Schwartz laboured in obscurity, with few scattered and broken rays
-of encouragement to cheer his way. But his patience, his integrity,
-his unwearied benevolence, his sincerity and unblemished purity of
-life, won a hearing for his words of doctrine; and he was rewarded
-at last by a more extended empire in the hearts of the Hindoos, both
-heathen and convert, than perhaps any other European has obtained.</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/i_086fp.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic001'>
-<p><em>Engraved by E. Scriven.</em><br /><br />SCHWARTZ.<br /><br /><em>From an original Picture in the possession of<br />the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge Lincolns Inn Fields.</em><br /><br />Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.<br /><br /><em>London, Published by Charles Knight, Ludgate Street, &amp; Pall Mall East.</em></p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c000'>Christian Frederic Schwartz was born at Sonnenburg, in the New
-Mark, Germany, October 26, 1726. His mother died while he was
-very young, and, in dying, devoted the child, in the presence of her
-husband and her spiritual guide, to the service of God, exacting from
-both of them a promise that they would use every means for the
-accomplishment of this, her last and earnest wish. Schwartz received
-his education at the schools of Sonnenburg and Custrin. He
-grew up a serious and well-disposed boy, much under the influence of
-religious impressions; and a train of fortunate circumstances deepened
-those impressions, at a time when the vivacity of youth, and the excitement
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_87'>87</span>which he was dedicated. When about twenty years of age he entered
-the University of Halle, where he obtained the friendship of one of the
-professors, Herman Francke, a warm and generous supporter of the
-missionary cause. While resident at Halle, Schwartz, together with
-another student, was appointed to learn the Tamul or Malabar language,
-in order to superintend the printing of a Bible in that tongue. His
-labour was not thrown away, though the proposed edition never was
-completed; for it led Francke to propose to him that he should go out
-to India as a missionary. The suggestion suited his ardent and laborious
-character, and was at once accepted. The appointed scene of his labours
-was Tranquebar, on the Coromandel coast, the seat of a Danish mission:
-and, after repairing to Copenhagen for ordination, he embarked from
-London for India, January 21, 1750, and reached Tranquebar in July.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>It is seldom that the life of one employed in advocating the faith of
-Christ presents much of adventure, except from the fiery trials of
-persecution; or much of interest, except to those who will enter into
-the missionary’s chief joy or sorrow, the success or inefficiency of his
-preaching. From persecution Schwartz’s whole life was free; his
-difficulties did not proceed from bigoted or interested zeal, but from the
-apathetic subtlety of his Hindoo hearers, ready to listen, slow to be
-convinced, enjoying the mental sword-play of hearing, and answering,
-and being confuted, and renewing the same or similar objections at
-the next meeting, as if the preacher’s former labours had not been.
-The latter part of his life was possessed of active interest; for he was
-no stranger to the court or the camp; and his known probity and
-truthfulness won for him the confidence of three most dissimilar
-parties, a suspicious tyrant, an oppressed people, and the martial and
-diplomatic directors of the British empire in India. But the early
-years of his abode in India possess interest neither from the marked
-success of his preaching, nor from his commerce with the busy scenes
-of conquest and negotiation. For sixteen years he resided chiefly at
-Tranquebar, a member of the mission to which he was first attached;
-but at the end of that time, in 1766, he transferred his services to the
-Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, with which he acted
-until death, and to which the care of the Danish mission at Tranquebar
-was soon after transferred. He had already, in 1765, established a
-church and school at Tritchinopoly, and in that town he now took up
-his abode, holding the office of chaplain to the garrison, for which he
-received a salary of £100 yearly. This entire sum he devoted to the
-service of the mission.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>For several years Schwartz resided principally at Tritchinopoly,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_88'>88</span>visiting other places, from time to time, especially Tanjore, where his
-labours ultimately had no small effect. He was heard with attention,
-he was everywhere received with respect, for the Hindoos could not
-but admire the beauty of his life, though it failed to win souls to his
-preaching. “The fruit,” he said, “will perhaps appear when I am
-at rest.” He had, however, the pleasure of seeing some portion of it
-ripen, for in more than one place a small congregation grew gradually
-up under his care. His toil was lightened and cheered in 1777,
-when another missionary was sent to his assistance from Tranquebar.
-Already he had derived help from some of his more advanced converts,
-who acted as catechists, for the instruction of others. He was
-sedulous in preparing these men for their important duty. “The
-catechists,” he says, “require to be daily admonished and stirred up,
-otherwise they fall into indolence and impurity.” Accordingly he
-daily assembled all those whose nearness permitted this frequency of
-intercourse; he taught them to explain the doctrines of their religion;
-he directed their labours for the day, and he received a report of those
-labours in the evening.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>His visits to Tanjore became more frequent, and he obtained the
-confidence of the Rajah, or native prince, Tulia Maha, who ruled that
-city under the protection of the British. In 1779 Schwartz procured
-permission from him to erect a church in his capital, and, with
-the sanction of the Madras Government, set immediately to work on
-this task. His funds failing, he applied at Madras for further aid;
-but, in reply, he was summoned to the seat of government with all
-speed, and requested to act as an ambassador, to treat with Hyder
-Ally for the continuance of peace. It has been said, that Schwartz
-engaged more deeply than became his calling in the secular affairs of
-India. The best apology for his interference, if apology be needful,
-is contained in his own account:—“The novelty of the proposal surprised
-me at first: I begged some time to consider of it. At last I
-accepted of the offer, because by so doing I hoped to prevent evil, and
-to promote the welfare of the country.” The reason for sending him
-is at least too honourable to him to be omitted: it was the requisition
-of Hyder himself. “Do not send to me,” he said, “any of your
-agents; for I do not trust their words or treaties: but if you wish me
-to listen to your proposals, send to me the missionary of whose character
-I hear so much from every one; him I will receive and trust.”</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>In his character of an envoy Schwartz succeeded admirably. He
-conciliated the crafty, suspicious, and unfeeling despot, without compromising
-the dignity of those whom he represented, or forgetting the
-meekness of his calling. He would gladly have rendered his visit to
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_89'>89</span>Seringapatam available to higher than temporal interests: but here
-he met with little encouragement. Indifferent to all religion, Hyder
-suffered the preacher to speak to him of mercy and of judgment; but
-in these things his heart had no part. Some few converts Schwartz
-made during his abode of three months; but on the whole he met
-with little success. He parted with Hyder upon good terms, and
-returned with joy to Tanjore. The peace, however, was of no long
-continuance; and Schwartz complained that the British Government
-were guilty of the infraction. Hyder invaded the Carnatic, wasting it
-with fire and sword; and the frightened inhabitants flocked for relief
-and protection to the towns. Tanjore and Tritchinopoly were filled
-with famishing multitudes. During the years 1781, 2, and 3, this
-misery continued. At Tanjore, especially, the scene was dreadful.
-Numbers perished in the streets of want and disease; corpses lay
-unburied, because the survivors had not energy or strength to inter
-them; the bonds of affection were so broken that parents offered their
-children for sale; and the garrison, though less afflicted than the
-native population, were enfeebled and depressed by want, and threatened
-by a powerful army without the walls. There were provisions
-in the country; but the cultivators, frightened and alienated by the
-customary exactions and ill-usage, refused to bring it to the fort. They
-would trust neither the British authorities nor the Rajah: all confidence
-was destroyed. “At last the Rajah said to one of our principal
-gentlemen, ‘We all, you and I, have lost our credit: let us try whether
-the inhabitants will trust Mr. Schwartz.’ Accordingly, he sent
-me a blank paper, empowering me to make a proper agreement with
-the people. Here was no time for hesitation. The Sepoys fell down
-as dead people, being emaciated with hunger; our streets were lined
-with dead corpses every morning—our condition was deplorable. I
-sent therefore letters every where round about, promising to pay any
-one with my own hands, and to pay them for any bullock which might
-be taken by the enemy. In one or two days I got above a thousand
-bullocks; and sent one of our catechists, and other Christians, into
-the country. They went at the risk of their lives, made all possible
-haste, and brought into the fort, in a very short time, 80,000 kalams
-of grain. By this means the fort was saved. When all was over, I
-paid the people, even with some money which belonged to others,
-made them a small present, and sent them home.”</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The letter from which this passage is extracted was written to the
-Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, in consequence of an
-attack made by a member of Parliament upon the character of
-the Hindoo converts, and depreciation of the labours of the missionaries.
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_90'>90</span>To boast was not in Schwartz’s nature; but he was
-not deterred by a false modesty from vindicating his own reputation,
-when it was expedient for his master’s service: and there has seldom
-been a more striking tribute paid to virtue, unassisted by power, than
-in the conduct of the Hindoos, as told in this simple statement. His
-labours did not cease with this crisis, nor with his personal exertions.
-He bought a quantity of rice at his own expense, and prevailed on
-some European merchants to furnish him with a monthly supply; by
-means of which he preserved many persons from perishing. In 1784
-he was again employed by the Company on a mission to Tippoo Saib;
-but the son of Hyder refused to receive him. About this period his
-health, hitherto robust, began to fail; and in a letter, dated July,
-1784, he speaks of the approach of death, of his comfort in the prospect,
-and firm belief in the doctrines which he preached. In the
-same year the increase of his congregation rendered it necessary to
-build a Malabar church in the suburbs of Tanjore, which was done
-chiefly at his own expense. In February, 1785, he engaged in a
-scheme for raising English schools throughout the country, to facilitate
-the intercourse of the natives with Europeans. Schools were
-accordingly established at Tanjore and three other places. The
-pupils were chiefly children of the upper classes—of Bramins and
-merchants; and the good faith with which Schwartz conducted these
-establishments deserves to be praised as well as his religious zeal.
-“Their intention, doubtless, is to learn the English language, with a
-view to their temporal welfare; but they thereby become better
-acquainted with good principles. No deceitful methods are used to
-bring them over to the doctrines of Christ, though the most earnest
-wishes are felt that they may attain that knowledge which is life
-eternal.” In a temporal view, these establishments proved very serviceable
-to many of the pupils: but, contrary to Schwartz’s hopes and
-wishes, not one of the young men became a missionary.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>In January, 1787, Schwartz’s friend, the Rajah of Tanjore, lay at
-the point of death. Being childless, he had adopted a boy, yet in his
-minority, as his successor: a practice recognised by the Hindoo law.
-His brother, Ameer Sing, however, was supported by a strong British
-party, and it was not likely that he would submit quietly to his exclusion
-from the throne. In this strait Tulia Maha sent for Schwartz,
-as the only person to whom he could intrust his adopted son.
-“This,” he said, “is not my, but your son; into your hands I deliver
-the child.” Schwartz accepted the charge with reluctance; he represented
-his inability to protect the orphan, and suggested that Ameer
-Sing should be named regent and guardian. The advice probably
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_91'>91</span>was the best that could be given: but the regent proved false, or at
-least doubtful in his trust; and the charge proved a source of trouble
-and anxiety. But by Schwartz’s care, and influence with the Company,
-the young prince was reared to manhood, and established in
-possession of his inheritance. Nor were Schwartz’s pains unsuccessful
-in cultivation of his young pupil’s mind, who is characterized
-by Heber as an “extraordinary man.” He repaid these fatherly cares
-with a filial affection, and long after the death of Schwartz testified,
-both by word and deed, his regard for his memory.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>We find little to relate during the latter part of Schwartz’s life,
-though much might be written, but that the nature of this work
-forbids us to dilate upon religious subjects. His efforts were unceasing
-to promote the good, temporal as well as spiritual, of the Indian
-population. On one occasion he was requested to inspect the watercourses
-by which the arid lands of the Carnatic are irrigated;
-and his labours were rewarded by a great increase in the annual
-produce. Once the inhabitants of the Tanjore country had been so
-grievously oppressed, that they abandoned their farms, and fled the
-country. The cultivation which should have begun in June was not
-commenced even at the beginning of September, and all began to
-apprehend a famine. Schwartz says in the letter, which we have
-already quoted, “I entreated the Rajah to remove that shameful
-oppression, and to recall the inhabitants. He sent them word that
-justice should be done to them, but they disbelieved his promises.
-He then desired me to write to them, and to assure them that he, at
-my intercession, would show kindness to them. I did so. All immediately
-returned; and first of all the Collaries believed my word, so
-that 7,000 men came back in one day. The rest of the inhabitants
-followed their example. When I exhorted them to exert themselves
-to the utmost, because the time for cultivation was almost lost, they
-replied in the following manner:—‘As you have showed kindness to
-us, you shall not have reason to repent of it: we intend to work night
-and day to show our regard for you.’”</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>His preaching was rewarded by a slow, but a progressive effect;
-and the number of missionaries being increased by the Society in
-England, the growth of the good seed, which he had sown during a
-residence of forty years, became more rapid and perceptible. In the
-country villages numerous congregations were formed, and preachers
-were established at Cuddalore, Vepery, Negapatam, and Palamcotta,
-as well as at the earlier stations of Tranquebar, Tritchinopoly, and
-Tanjore, whose chief recreation was the occasional intercourse with
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_92'>92</span>each other which their duty afforded them, and who lived in true
-harmony and union of mind and purpose. The last illness of Schwartz
-was cheered by the presence of almost all the missionaries in the south
-of India, who regarded him as a father, and called him by that
-endearing name. His labours did not diminish as his years increased.
-From the beginning of January to the middle of October, 1797, we are
-told by his pupil and assistant, Caspar Kolhoff, he preached every
-Sunday in the English and Tamul languages by turns; for several
-successive Wednesdays he gave lectures in their own languages to the
-Portuguese and German soldiers incorporated in the 51st regiment;
-during the week he explained the New Testament in his usual order
-at morning and evening prayer; and he dedicated an hour every day to
-the instruction of the Malabar school children. In October, he who
-hitherto had scarce known disease, received the warning of his mortality.
-He rallied for a while, and his friends hoped that he might yet be
-spared to them. But a relapse took place, and he expired February 13,
-1798, having displayed throughout a long and painful illness a beautiful
-example of resignation and happiness, and an interest undimmed
-by pain in the welfare of all for and with whom he had laboured.
-His funeral, on the day after his death, presented a most affecting
-scene. It was delayed by the arrival of the Rajah, who wished to
-behold once more his kind, and faithful, and watchful friend and
-guardian. The coffin lid was removed; the prince gazed for the last
-time on the pale and composed features, and burst into tears. The
-funeral service was interrupted by the cries of a multitude who loved
-the reliever of their distresses, and honoured the pure life of the
-preacher, who for near fifty years had dwelt among them, careless alike
-of pleasure, interest, and ambition, pursuing a difficult and thankless
-task with unchanging ardour, the friend of princes, yet unsullied even
-by the suspicion of a bribe, devoting his whole income, beyond a scanty
-maintenance, to the service of the cause which his life was spent in
-advocating.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The Rajah continued to cherish Schwartz’s memory. He commissioned
-Flaxman for a monument erected to him at Tanjore; he
-placed his picture among those of his own ancestors; he erected more
-than one costly establishment for charitable purposes in honour of his
-name; and, though not professing Christianity, he secured to the
-Christians in his service not only liberty, but full convenience for the
-performance of their religious duties. Nor were the Directors backward
-in testifying their gratitude for his services. They sent out a
-monument by Bacon to be erected in St. Mary’s Church at Madras,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_93'>93</span>with orders to pay every becoming honour to his memory, and especially
-to permit to the natives, by whom he was so revered, free access to
-view this memorial of his virtues.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>It is to be regretted that no full memoir of the life and labours of this
-admirable man has been published. It is understood that his correspondence,
-preserved by the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge,
-would furnish ample materials for such a work. The facts of
-this account are taken from the only two memoirs of Schwartz which
-we know to be in print,—a short one for cheap circulation published
-by the Religious Tract Society; and a more finished tribute to his
-memory in Mr. Carne’s ‘Lives of Eminent Missionaries,’ recently
-published. We conclude in the words of one whose praise carries
-with it authority, Bishop Heber: “Of Schwartz, and his fifty years’
-labour among the heathen, the extraordinary influence and popularity
-which he acquired, both with Mussulmans, Hindoos, and contending
-European governments, I need give you no account, except that my
-idea of him has been raised since I came into the south of India. I
-used to suspect that, with many admirable qualities, there was too
-great a mixture of intrigue in his character—that he was too much of
-a political prophet, and that the veneration which the heathen paid,
-and still pay him (and which indeed almost regards him as a superior
-being, putting crowns, and burning lights before his statue), was purchased
-by some unwarrantable compromise with their prejudices. I
-find I was quite mistaken. He was really one of the most active and
-fearless, as he was one of the most successful missionaries, who have
-appeared since the Apostles. To say that he was disinterested in
-regard of money, is nothing; he was perfectly careless of power, and
-renown never seemed to affect him, even so far as to induce an outward
-show of humility. His temper was perfectly simple, open, and cheerful;
-and in his political negotiations (employments which he never
-sought, but which fell in his way) he never pretended to impartiality,
-but acted as the avowed, though certainly the successful and judicious
-agent of the orphan prince committed to his care, and from attempting
-whose conversion to Christianity he seems to have abstained from a
-feeling of honour<a id='r4' /><a href='#f4' class='c010'><sup>[4]</sup></a>. His other converts were between six and seven
-thousand, being those which his companions and predecessors in the
-cause had brought over.”</p>
-
-<div class='footnote' id='f4'>
-<p class='c000'><span class='label'><a href='#r4'>4</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;</span>He probably acted on the same principle as in conducting the English schools above-mentioned,
-using “no deceitful methods.” That he was earnest in recommending the <em>means</em>
-of conversion, appears from a dying conversation with his pupil, Serfogee Rajah.</p>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id002'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_94'>94</span>
-<img src='images/i_094.jpg' alt='BARROW.' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <h2 class='c005'>BARROW.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c009'>The name of <span class='sc'>Isaac Barrow</span> stands eminent among the divines
-and philosophers of the seventeenth century. Of the many good and
-great men whom it is the glory of Trinity College, Cambridge, to
-number as her foster-sons, there is none more good, none perhaps,
-after <span class='sc'>Bacon</span> and <span class='sc'>Newton</span>, more distinguished than he: and he has
-an especial claim to the gratitude of all members of that splendid
-foundation as the projector of its unequalled library, as well as a
-liberal benefactor in other respects.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The father of Barrow, a respectable citizen of London, was linen-draper
-to Charles I., and the son was naturally brought up in royalist
-principles. The date of his birth is variously assigned by his biographers,
-but the more probable account fixes it to October, 1630. It is
-recorded that his childhood was turbulent and quarrelsome; that he
-was careless of his clothes, disinclined to study, and especially addicted
-to fighting and promoting quarrels among his school-fellows; and of
-a temper altogether so unpromising, that his father often expressed a
-wish, that if any of his children should die, it might be his son Isaac.
-He was first sent to school at the Charter House, and removed thence
-to Felstead in Essex. Here his disposition seemed to change: he
-made great progress in learning, and was entered at Trinity College
-in 1645, in his fifteenth year, it being then usual to send boys to
-college about that age. He passed his term as an under graduate with
-much credit. The time and place were not favourable to the promotion
-of Royalists; for a royalist master had been ejected to make room
-for one placed there by the Parliament, and the fellows were chiefly
-of the same political persuasion. But Barrow’s good conduct and
-attainments won the favour of his superiors, and in 1649, the year
-after he took his degree, he was elected fellow. It deserves to be
-known, for it is honourable to both parties, that he never disguised or
-compromised his own principles.</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/i_094fp.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic001'>
-<p><em>Engraved by B. Holl.</em><br /><br />BARROW.<br /><br /><em>From the original Picture by Isaac Whood<br />at Trinity College, Cambridge.</em><br /><br />Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.<br /><br /><em>London, Published by Charles Knight, Ludgate Street, &amp; Pall Mall East.</em></p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c000'>His earlier studies were especially turned towards natural philosophy;
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_95'>95</span>and, rejecting the antiquated doctrines then taught in the
-schools, he selected Bacon, Galileo, and Descartes as his favourite
-authors. He did not commence the study of mathematics until after
-he had gained his fellowship, and was led to it in a very circuitous
-way. He was induced to read the Greek astronomers, with a view to
-solving the difficulties of ancient chronology; and to understand their
-works a thorough knowledge of geometry was indispensable. He
-therefore undertook the study of that science; which suited the bent of
-his genius so well, that he became one of the greatest proficients in it
-of his age. His first intention was to become a physician, and he
-made considerable progress in anatomy, chemistry, botany, and other
-sciences subservient to the profession of medicine; but he changed
-his mind, and determined to make divinity his chief pursuit. In
-1655 he went abroad. His travels extended through France, Italy,
-and the Levant, to Constantinople; and, after an absence of four
-years, he returned to England through Germany and Holland.
-During this period he lost no opportunity of prosecuting his studies;
-and he sent home several descriptive poems, and some letters, written
-in Latin, which are printed in his Opuscula, in the fourth volume of
-the folio edition of his works. In the voyage to Smyrna he gave a
-proof of the high spirit, which, purified from its childish unruliness and
-violence, continued to form part of his character through life. The
-vessel being attacked by an Algerine corsair, Barrow remained on
-the deck, cheerfully and vigorously fighting, until the assailant sheered
-off. Being asked afterwards why he did not go into the hold, and
-leave the defence of the ship to those whom it concerned, he replied,
-“It concerned no one more than myself. I would rather have died
-than fallen into the hands of those merciless pirates.” He has
-described this voyage, and its eventful circumstances, in a poem contained
-in his Opuscula.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>He entered into orders in 1659, and in the following year was made
-Greek Professor at Cambridge. The numerous offices to which he
-was appointed about this time, show that his merits were generally
-and highly esteemed. He was chosen to be Professor of Geometry at
-Gresham College in 1662; and was one of the first fellows elected into
-the Royal Society, after the incorporation of that body by charter in
-1663; in which year he was also appointed the first mathematical
-lecturer on the foundation of Mr. Lucas, at Cambridge. Not that he
-made sinecures of these responsible employments, or thought himself
-qualified to discharge the duties of all at once: for he resigned the
-Greek professorship, on being appointed Lucasian Professor, for reasons
-explained in his introductory oration, which is extant in the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_96'>96</span>Opuscula. The Gresham professorship he also gave up in 1664,
-intending thenceforth to reside at Cambridge. Finally, in 1669, he
-resigned the Lucasian chair to his great successor, Newton, intending
-to devote himself entirely to the study of divinity. Barrow received
-the degree of D.D. by royal mandate, in 1670; and, in 1672, was
-raised to the mastership of Trinity College by the King, with the
-compliment, “that he had given it to the best scholar in England.”
-In that high station he distinguished himself by liberality: he remitted
-several allowances which his predecessors had required from the
-college; he set on foot the scheme for a new library, and contributed
-in purse, and still more by his personal exertions, to its completion.
-It should be remarked that his patent of appointment being drawn up,
-as usual, with a permission to marry, he caused that part to be struck
-out, conceiving it to be at variance with the statutes. He was cut off
-by a fever in the prime of life, May 4, 1679, aged 49, during a visit
-to London. His remains were honourably deposited in Westminster
-Abbey, among the worthies of the land; and in that noble building a
-monument was erected to him by the contributions of his friends.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Of Barrow’s mathematical works we must speak briefly. The
-earliest of them was an edition of Euclid’s Elements, containing
-all the books, published at Cambridge in 1655, followed by an edition
-of the Data in 1657. His <span lang="la" xml:lang="la">Lectiones Opticæ</span>, the first lectures delivered
-on the Lucasian foundation, were printed in 1669, and attracted
-the following commendation from the eminent mathematician, James
-Gregory. “Mr. Barrow, in his Optics, shows himself a most subtle
-geometer, so that I think him superior to any that ever I looked
-upon. I long exceedingly to see his geometrical lectures, especially
-because I have some notions on that subject by me.” In this work,
-(we speak on the authority of Montucla, part iv. viii.), Barrow has
-applied himself principally to discuss subjects unnoticed or insufficiently
-explained by preceding authors. Among these was the general
-problem, to determine the focus of a lens; which, except in a few cases,
-as where the opposite sides of the lens are similar, and the incident
-rays of light parallel to the axis, had hitherto been left to the practical
-skill and experience of the workman. Barrow gave a complete
-solution of the problem, comprised in an elegant formula which
-includes all cases, whether of parallel, convergent, or divergent rays.
-This book, says Montucla, is a mine of curious and interesting propositions
-in optics, to the solution of which geometry is applied with
-peculiar elegance.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The <span lang="la" xml:lang="la">Lectiones Geometricæ</span>, full of profound researches into the
-metaphysics of geometry, the method of tangents, and the properties
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_97'>97</span>of curvilinear figures, appeared in the following year, 1670. The vast
-improvements in our methods of investigation, arising out of the
-invention of the fluxional or differential calculus, have cast into the
-shade the labours, and in part the fame, of the early geometricians,
-and have made that easy, which before was all but impossible. This
-work, however, is remarkable as containing a way of determining the
-subtangent of a curve, justly characterized by Montucla as being so
-intimately connected with the above-named method of analysis, that
-it is needless to seek in subsequent works the main principle of the
-differential calculus. The inquiring reader will find a full account of
-it in Montucla, or in Thomson’s History of the Royal Society, page
-275. There is an English translation of the <span lang="la" xml:lang="la">Lectiones Geometricæ</span>
-by Stone, published in 1735. Barrow also edited the works of
-Archimedes, the Conics of Apollonius, and the Spherics of Theodosius,
-in a very compressed form, in 1 vol. 8vo. Lond. 1675. The treatise
-of Archimedes on the Sphere and Cylinder, and the <span lang="la" xml:lang="la">Mathematicæ
-Lectiones</span>, a series of Lucasian lectures, read in 1664 and subsequent
-years, were not printed until 1683, after the author’s death. This
-work, or at least Kirby’s translation, published about 1734, contains
-the Oration which he made before the University on his election to
-the Lucasian chair. For further detail see Ward’s Lives of the
-Gresham Professors.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>It is however as a theologian that Barrow is best known to the
-present age. Unlike his scientific writings, his theological works
-never can grow obsolete, for they contain eternal truths set forth with a
-power of argument, and force of eloquence, which must ever continue to
-command the admiration of those who are capable of appreciating and
-relishing the noblest qualities and products of the human mind. The
-light of revelation shone clearly and steadily then as now; no modern
-discoveries can increase or diminish its brightness; no new methods
-of reasoning, no more convenient forms of notation or expression, can
-supersede the sterling excellences which we have just ascribed to
-this great divine. Others may rise up (they are yet to come) equal
-or superior to him in these very excellences; still their fame can never
-detract from his; and Barrow with his great predecessor, Hooker,
-will not fail to be classed among the luminaries of the English
-church, and the standard authors of the English language. Copious
-and majestic in his style, his sermons were recommended by the great
-Lord Chatham to his great son, as admirably adapted to imbue the
-public speaker with the coveted “abundance of words” the knowledge
-and full command of his native language. He himself neglected not
-to increase his stores from the models of ancient eloquence; and his
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_98'>98</span>manuscripts, preserved in Trinity College Library, bear testimony to
-the diligence with which he transcribed the finest passages of the
-Greek and Latin authors, especially Demosthenes and Chrysostom.
-His sermons were long, too long it was thought by many of his hearers;
-but they were carefully composed, written and rewritten again and
-again, and their method, argumentative closeness, and abundant learning,
-show that he thought no pains too great to bestow on the important
-duty of public teaching. Warburton said that in reading Barrow’s
-sermons, he was obliged to think. They are numerous, considering
-their nature and the comparatively short period of the author’s clerical
-life. The first edition of his works, by Archbishop Tillotson, to whom,
-in conjunction with his friend and biographer Mr. Hill, Barrow left his
-manuscripts, contains seventy-seven sermons on miscellaneous subjects,
-of which only two were printed, and those not published, during
-the author’s life; together with a series of thirty-four sermons on
-the Apostle’s Creed. Mr. Hughes, the late editor of his works, has
-added to the former collection five more, printed for the first time from
-the original MSS. in Trinity Library. We quote from the life
-prefixed to that edition, the eloquent passage in which Mr. Hughes
-speaks of these admirable works.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>“Never, probably, was religion at a lower ebb in the British
-dominions, than when that profligate Prince Charles II., who sat
-unawed on a throne formed as it were out of his father’s scaffold, found
-the people so wearied of puritanical hypocrisy, presbyterian mortifications,
-and a thousand forms of unintelligible mysticism, that they were
-ready to plunge into the opposite vices of scepticism or infidelity, and
-to regard with complacency the dissolute morals of himself and his vile
-associates. To denounce this wickedness in the most awful terms;
-to strike at guilt with fearless aim, whether exalted in high places,
-or lurking in obscure retreats; to delineate the native horrors and sad
-effects of vice, to develope the charms of virtue, and inspire a love
-of it in the human heart; in short, to assist in building up the fallen
-buttresses and broken pillars of God’s church upon earth, was the high
-and holy duty to which Barrow was called.”</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Besides his sermons, Barrow wrote a shorter Exposition of the Creed,
-an Exposition of the Decalogue, an Exposition of the Lord’s Prayer, and
-a short account of the doctrine of the Sacraments. These were composed
-in 1669, the year in which the <span lang="la" xml:lang="la">Lectiones Opticæ</span> were published,
-in obedience to some college regulation, and, Mr. Hughes conjectures,
-as exercises for a college preachership. Barrow says, in a letter,
-that they so took up his thoughts, that he could not easily apply them
-to any other matter. His great work on the Pope’s Supremacy was
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_99'>99</span>not composed till 1676. The pains which he took with it were immense;
-and we are told by the same authority that “the state of his
-MS. in Trinity Library shows that probably no piece was ever composed
-more studiously, digested more carefully, or supported by more numerous
-and powerful authorities.” Barrow states in this work the several
-positions, on which the Romanists ground their claim on behalf of the
-Bishop of Rome, for universal supremacy over the Christian church.
-These he divides into seven heads, which he proceeds severally and
-successively to refute. “This treatise,” says Dr. Tillotson, in his
-preface to it, “he gave to me on his death-bed, with the character that
-he hoped it was indifferent perfect, though not altogether as he had
-intended it, if God had granted him longer life. He designed indeed
-to have transcribed it again, and to have filled up those many spaces
-which were purposely left in it for the farther confirmation and illustration
-of several things, by more testimonies and instances which he
-had in his thoughts. And it would certainly have added much to the
-beauty and perfection of this work, had it pleased God that he had
-lived to finish it to his mind, and to have given it his last hand. However,
-as it is, it is not only a just, but an admirable discourse on this
-subject, which many others have handled before, but he hath exhausted
-it; insomuch that no argument of moment, nay, hardly any consideration
-properly belonging to it, hath escaped his large and comprehensive
-mind. He hath said enough to silence the controversy for ever, and
-to deter all wise men of both sides from meddling any further with
-it.” Appended to this treatise on the Supremacy of the Pope, is a
-discourse on the Unity of the Church.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>We conclude with a few scattered notices of the character and
-person of this excellent man. His habits, it will readily be supposed,
-were very laborious. Dr. Pope, in his Life of Bishop Ward, says
-that during winter Barrow would rise before light, being never without
-a tinder-box, and that he has known him frequently rise after his first
-sleep, light and burn out his candle, and then return to bed before
-day. In pecuniary affairs he was generous in the extreme. Of his
-liberality to his college we have already spoken. We may add that,
-being appointed to two ecclesiastical preferments, he bestowed the
-profits of both in charity, and resigned them as soon as he became
-master of Trinity. He left no property but books and unpublished
-manuscripts. Pure in his morals, he was the farthest possible from
-moroseness; amiable, lively, and witty in his temper and conversation,
-he was impatient of any looseness, irreverence, or censoriousness of
-speech, “being of all men,” says Dr. Tillotson, in his Address to the
-Reader, “I ever had the happiness to know, the clearest of this
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_100'>100</span>common guilt, and most free from offending in word; coming as near
-as it is possible for human frailty to do, to the perfect idea of St.
-James, his <em>perfect man</em>.”</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>His figure was low and spare, but of uncommon strength; and
-his courage, devoid of all alloy of quarrelsomeness, was approved in
-more than one instance related by the biographers of his peaceful
-life. It was among his peculiarities that he never would sit for his
-portrait; but some of his friends found means to have it taken without
-his knowledge, while they engaged his attention in discourse. There
-is a full length of him in the hall of Trinity, in fit conjunction with
-those of Newton and Bacon.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The earliest authority for Barrow’s life is a short memoir by his
-friend and executor, Mr. Hill, prefixed to the first edition of his works.
-Mr. Ward added some particulars, in his Lives of the Gresham Professors.
-The fullest accounts are to be found in the second edition
-of the Biographia Britannica, and in the life prefixed to Mr. Hughes’s
-edition of his theological works. In this the editor has given an
-analysis of the contents of each piece, calculated to assist the student
-to a thorough understanding of the author’s train of argument.</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/i_100.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic001'>
-<p>Monument of Barrow in Westminster Abbey.</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/i_101fp.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic001'>
-<p><em>Engraved by W. Hopwood.</em><br /><br />D’ALEMBERT.<br /><br /><em>From the original Picture by De la Tour<br />in the Collection of the Institute of France.</em><br /><br />Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.<br /><br /><em>London, Published by Charles Knight, Ludgate Street, &amp; Pall Mall East.</em></p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id002'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_101'>101</span>
-<img src='images/i_101.jpg' alt='D’ALEMBERT.' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <h2 class='c005'>D’ALEMBERT.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c009'>Jean le Rond D’alembert, one of the most distinguished mathematicians
-of the last century, owed none of his eminence to the
-accidents of birth or fortune. Even to a name he had no legal title;
-he derived the one half of that which he bore from the church of St.
-Jean le Rond in Paris, near which he was exposed; and the other
-probably from his foster-mother, a glazier’s wife, to whose care he
-was intrusted by a commissary of police, who found him. It is conjectured
-that both the exposure and the adoption of the infant were
-preconcerted; for a short time the father appeared, and settled on him
-a yearly pension of twelve hundred francs, equivalent to about £50.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Owing to these circumstances the date of D’Alembert’s birth is not
-exactly known; it is said to have been the 16th or 17th of November,
-1717. He commenced his studies at the <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Collège des Quatre Nations</span>
-when twelve years old. Mathematics and poetry seem to have been his
-favourite pursuits, since his instructors, he says, endeavoured to turn him
-from them; making it a charge against the former, that they dried up the
-heart, and recommending that his study of the latter should be confined
-to the poem of St. Prosper upon Grace. He was permitted, however, to
-study the rudiments of mathematics: and we may infer that he was
-little indebted either to books or teachers, from the mortification which
-he felt somewhat later in life, at finding that he had been anticipated
-in many things which he had believed to be discoveries of his own.
-He meant, at one time, to follow the profession of the law, and proceeded
-so far as to be admitted an advocate. Finding this not to his
-taste, he tried medicine; and, resolute in good intentions, sent his mathematical
-books to a friend, to be retained till he had taken his doctor’s
-degree. But he reclaimed book after book on various pretexts, and
-finally determined to content himself with his annuity of fifty pounds,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_102'>102</span>and liberty to devote his whole time to the scientific pursuits which he
-loved so much. His mode of life at this period has been described by
-himself:—“He awoke,” he says, “every morning, thinking with pleasure
-on the studies of the preceding evening, and on the prospect of
-continuing them during the day. When his thoughts were called off
-for a moment, they turned to the satisfaction he should have at the
-play in the evening, and between the acts of the piece he meditated on
-the pleasures of the next morning’s study.”</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The history of D’Alembert’s life is soon told. Some memoirs written
-in 1739 and 1740, and some corrections which he made in the <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Analyse
-Démontrée</span> of Reynau, a work then much esteemed in France, obtained
-for him an entrance into the <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Académie des Sciences</span> in 1741, at the
-early age of twenty-four. Simple in his habits, careless of his own
-advancement, or of the favours of great men, he refused several advantageous
-offers, which would have withdrawn him from the society of
-Paris, and from the libraries and other literary advantages of that great
-metropolis. Frederic II. of Prussia sought to tempt him to Berlin in
-1752, and again in 1759. The invitation was again repeated and
-urged upon him in 1759 and 1763; and on the last occasion the King
-assured D’Alembert that, in rejecting it, he had made the only false
-calculation of his whole life. In 1762 Catharine of Russia wished him
-to undertake the education of her son, and endeavoured to overcome
-his reluctance to leave Paris, by promising him an income of ten
-thousand francs, and a kind reception to as many of his friends as
-would accompany him. “I know,” she said, “that your refusal arises
-from your desire to cultivate your studies and your friendships in quiet.
-But this is of no consequence: bring all your friends with you, and I
-promise you that both you and they shall have every accommodation
-in my power.” But his income had been rendered sufficient for his
-wants by a pension of twelve hundred francs from the King of Prussia,
-and an equal sum from the French Government; and he declined to
-profit by any of these liberal offers.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>It is to D’Alembert’s honour that, until the end of her life, he repaid
-the services of his foster-mother with filial attention and love. It is
-said that when his name became famous, his mother, Mademoiselle
-de Tencin, a lady of rank and wit, and known in the literary circles
-of the day, sent for him, and acquainted him with the relationship
-which existed between them. His well-merited reply was, “You are
-only my step-mother, the glazier’s wife is my mother.” He lived
-unmarried, but the latter years of his life were overcast in consequence
-of a singular and unfortunate attachment to a M<sup>lle.</sup> de l’Espinasse,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_103'>103</span>a young lady of talent, whose society was much courted by the
-literary men of Paris. She professed to return this attachment;
-insomuch that when D’Alembert was attacked by a severe illness in
-1765, she insisted on becoming his nurse, and after his recovery took
-up her abode under his roof. The connexion is said to have been
-purely Platonic; and this, it has been observed, <em>may</em> be believed, because,
-had the fact been different, there was little reason for concealing it,
-according to the code of morals which then regulated Parisian society.
-But the lady proved fickle; and worse than fickle, for she treated
-D’Alembert, who still retained his affection for her, with contempt and
-unkindness. Yet this ill usage did not alienate his regard. Upon her
-death he fell into a state of profound melancholy, from which he never
-entirely recovered. He died October 29, 1783. Not having conformed,
-on his death-bed, to the requisitions of the Roman church,
-some difficulty was experienced in procuring the rites of burial; and
-in consequence his interment was strictly private.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>In his personal character D’Alembert was simple, benevolent, warm in
-his attachments, a sworn foe to servility and adulation, and no follower
-of great men. This temper stood in the way of his progress to riches.
-It was his maxim, that a man should be very careful in his writings,
-careful enough in his actions, and moderately careful in his words;
-and the latter clause was probably that which he best observed. In
-more than one instance his plain drollery gave offence to persons of
-influence at court, and frustrated the exertions of his friends to
-improve his fortunes. Fortunately he united simple tastes with an
-independent, fearless, and benevolent mind; and it is said that he
-gave away one half of his income, when it did not amount to £350.
-His own account of his own character, written in the third person,
-runs in the following terms, and is confirmed by the testimony
-of his friends:—“Devoted to study and privacy till the age of
-twenty-five, he entered late into the world, and was never much
-pleased with it. He could never bend himself to learn its usages and
-language, and perhaps even indulged a sort of petty vanity in despising
-them. He is never rude, because he is neither brutal nor severe;
-but he is sometimes blunt, through inattention or ignorance. Compliments
-embarrass him, because he never can find a suitable answer
-immediately; when he says flattering things, it is always because he
-thinks them. The basis of his character is frankness and truth, often
-rather blunt, but never disgusting. He is impatient and angry, even
-to violence, when any thing goes wrong, but it all evaporates in words.
-He is soon satisfied and easily governed, provided he does not see what
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_104'>104</span>you aim at; for his love of independence amounts to fanaticism, so
-that he often denies himself things which would be agreeable to him,
-because he is afraid that they would put him under some restraint;
-which makes some of his friends call him, justly enough, the slave
-of his liberty.” In his religious opinions D’Alembert was, in the
-true meaning of the word, a sceptic, and his name has obtained an
-unenviable notoriety as co-editor, with Diderot, of the celebrated Encyclopédie.
-His superintendence, however, extended only to the end
-of the second volume, after which the work was stopped by the French
-Government; and on its resumption D’Alembert confined himself
-strictly to the mathematical department. In one respect his conduct
-may be advantageously contrasted with that of some of his colleagues;
-he intruded his own opinions on no man, and he took no pleasure in
-shocking others, by insulting what they hold sacred. “I knew
-D’Alembert,” says La Harpe, “well enough to say that he was
-sceptical in every thing but mathematics. He would no more have
-said positively that there was no religion, than that there was a God;
-he only thought that the probabilities were in favour of theism, and
-against revelation. On this subject he tolerated all opinions: and
-this disposition made him think the intolerant arrogance of the
-Atheists odious and unbearable. I do not think that he ever printed
-a sentence, which marks either hatred or contempt of religion.”</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>We proceed to mention the most remarkable of D’Alembert’s
-mathematical works. He published in 1743 a treatise on Dynamics,
-in which he enunciated the law now known under the name of
-D’Alembert’s principle, one of the most valuable of modern contributions
-to mechanical science. In the following year appeared a
-treatise on the Equilibrium and Motion of Fluids; and in 1746,
-Reflections on the general Causes of Winds, which obtained the prize
-of the Academy of Berlin. This work is remarkable as the first
-which contained the general equations of the motion of fluids, as well
-as the first announcement and use of the calculus of partial differences.
-We may add to the list of his discoveries, the analytical solutions of
-the problem of vibrating chords, and the motion of a column of air; of
-the precession of the equinoxes, and the nutation of the earth’s axis,
-the phenomenon itself having been recently observed by Bradley.
-In 1752 he completed his researches into fluids, by an Essay on the
-Resistance of Fluids. We have to add to the list his Essay on the
-Problem of Three Bodies, as it is called by astronomers, an investigation
-of the law by which three bodies mutually gravitating affect
-each other; and Researches on various points connected with the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_105'>105</span>system of the Universe: the former published in 1747, and the latter
-in 1754–6. His Opuscules, or minor pieces, were collected in eight
-volumes, towards the end of his life.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Of his connexion with the Encyclopédie, we have already spoken.
-He is said to be singularly clear and happy in his expositions of the
-metaphysical difficulties of abstract science. He is also honourably
-known in less abstruse departments of literature by his <span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Mélanges de
-Philosophie</span>, Memoirs of Christina of Sweden, Essay on the Servility
-of Men of Letters to the Great, Elements of Philosophy, and a work
-on the Destruction of the Jesuits. On his election to the office of
-perpetual Secretary to the Academy, he wrote the Eloges of the members
-deceased from 1700 up to that date. His works and correspondence
-were collected and published in eighteen volumes 8vo.
-Paris, 1805, by M. Bastien, to whose first volume we refer the reader
-for complete information on this subject.</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id002'>
-<img src='images/i_105.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id002'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_106'>106</span>
-<img src='images/i_106.jpg' alt='HOGARTH.' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <h2 class='c005'>HOGARTH.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c009'>“I was born,” says Hogarth in his Memoirs of himself, “in the city
-of London, November 10, 1697. My father’s pen, like that of many
-authors, did not enable him to do more than put me in a way of
-shifting for myself. As I had naturally a good eye, and a fondness for
-drawing, shows of all sorts gave me uncommon pleasure when an
-infant; and mimicry, common to all children, was remarkable in me.
-An early access to a neighbouring painter drew my attention from
-play; and I was, at every possible opportunity, employed in making
-drawings. I picked up an acquaintance of the same turn, and soon
-learnt to draw the alphabet with great correctness. My exercises
-when at school were more remarkable for the ornaments which
-adorned them, than for the exercise itself. In the former I soon
-found that blockheads with better memories could much surpass me;
-but for the latter I was particularly distinguished.”</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>To this account of Hogarth’s childhood we have only to add, that
-his father, an enthusiastic and laborious scholar, who like many of his
-craft owed little to the favour of fortune, consulted these indications of
-talent as well as his means would allow, and bound his son apprentice
-to a silver-plate engraver. But Hogarth aspired after something
-higher than drawing cyphers and coats-of-arms; and before the
-expiration of his indentures he had made himself a good draughtsman,
-and obtained considerable knowledge of colouring. It was his ambition
-to become distinguished as an artist; and not content with being
-the mere copier of other men’s productions, he sought to combine the
-functions of the painter with those of the engraver, and to gain
-the power of delineating his own ideas, and the fruits of his acute
-observation. He has himself explained the nature of his views in a
-passage which is worth attention.</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/i_106fp.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic001'>
-<p><em>Engraved by J. Mollison.</em><br /><br />HOGARTH.<br /><br /><em>From the original Picture by Himself<br />in the National Gallery.</em><br /><br />Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.<br /><br /><em>London, Published by Charles Knight, Ludgate Street, &amp; Pall Mall East.</em></p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_107'>107</span>“Many reasons led me to wish that I could find the shorter path,—fix
-forms and characters in my mind,—and instead of copying the
-lines try to read the language, and, if possible, find the grammar
-of the art by bringing into one focus the various observations I had
-made, and then trying by my power on the canvass how far my plan
-enabled me to combine and apply them to practice. For this purpose
-I considered what various ways, and to what different purposes,
-the memory might be applied; and fell upon one most suitable to my
-situation and idle disposition; laying it down first as an axiom, that he
-who could by any means acquire and retain in his memory perfect
-ideas of the subjects he meant to draw, would have as clear a
-knowledge of the figure as a man who can write freely hath of the
-twenty-five letters of the alphabet and their infinite combinations.”
-Acting on these principles, he improved by constant exercise his
-natural powers of observation and recollection. In his rambles among
-the motley scenes of London he was ever on the watch for striking
-features or incidents; and not trusting entirely to memory, he was
-accustomed, when any face struck him as peculiarly grotesque or expressive,
-to sketch it on his thumb-nail, to be treasured up on paper at
-his return home.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>For some time after the expiration of his apprenticeship, Hogarth
-continued to practise the trade to which he was bred; and his shop-bills,
-coats-of-arms, engravings upon tankards, &amp;c., have been collected with
-an eagerness quite disproportionate to their value. Soon he procured
-employment in furnishing frontispieces and designs for the booksellers.
-The most remarkable of these are the plates to an edition of Hudibras,
-published in 1726: but even these are of no distinguished
-merit. About 1728 he began to seek employment as a portrait
-painter. Most of his performances were small family pictures, containing
-several figures, which he calls “Conversation Pieces,” from
-twelve to fifteen inches high. These for a time were very popular,
-and his practice was considerable, as his price was low. His life-size
-portraits are few; the most remarkable are that of Captain Coram in
-the Foundling Hospital, and that of Garrick as King Richard III.
-But his practice as a portrait painter was not lucrative, nor his popularity
-lasting. Although many of his likenesses were strong and characteristic,
-in the representation of beauty, elegance, and high-breeding,
-he was little skilled. The nature of the artist was as uncourtly as his
-pencil; he despised, or affected to despise, what is called embellishment,
-forgetting that every great painter of portraits has founded his
-success upon his power of giving to an object the most favourable
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_108'>108</span>representation of which it is susceptible. When Hogarth obtained
-employment and eminence of another sort, he abandoned portrait
-painting, with a growl at the jealousy of his professional brethren,
-and the vanity and blindness of the public.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>March 23, 1729, Hogarth contracted a stolen marriage with the
-only daughter of the once fashionable painter, Sir James Thornhill.
-The father, for some time implacable, relented at last; and the reconciliation,
-it is said, was much forwarded by his admiration of the
-“Harlot’s Progress,” a series of six prints, commenced in 1731, and
-published in 1734. The novelty as well as merit of this series of
-prints won for them extraordinary popularity; and their success encouraged
-Hogarth to undertake a similar history of the “Rake’s
-Progress,” in eight prints, which appeared in 1735. The third, and
-perhaps the most popular, as it is the least objectionable of these
-pictorial novels, “Marriage Alamode,” was not engraved till 1745.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The merits of these prints were sufficiently intelligible to the
-public: their originality and boldness of design, the force and freedom
-of their execution, rough as it is, won for them an extensive
-popularity and a rapid and continued sale. The Harlot’s Progress was
-the most eminently successful, from its novelty rather than from its
-superior excellence. Twelve hundred subscribers’ names were entered
-for it; it was dramatized in several forms; and we may note,
-in illustration of the difference of past and present manners, that
-fan-mounts were engraved, containing miniature copies of the six
-plates. The merits of the pictures were less obvious to the few who
-could afford to spend large sums on works of art; and Hogarth, too
-proud to let them go for prices much below the value which he put
-upon them, waited for a long time, and waited in vain, for a purchaser.
-At last he determined to commit them to public sale; but instead of
-the common method of auction, he devised a new and complex plan,
-with the intention of excluding picture-dealers, and obliging men of
-rank and wealth, who wished to purchase, to judge and bid for themselves.
-The scheme failed, as might have been expected. Nineteen
-of Hogarth’s best pictures, the Harlot’s Progress, the Rake’s Progress,
-the Four Times of the Day, and Strolling Actresses dressing
-in a Barn, produced only 427<i><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">l.</span></i> 7<i><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">s.</span></i>, not averaging 22<i><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">l.</span></i> 10<i><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">s.</span></i> each.
-The Harlot’s Progress was purchased by Mr. Beckford, at the rate of
-fourteen guineas a picture; five of the series perished in the fire at
-Fonthill. The Rake’s Progress averaged twenty-two guineas a
-picture; it has passed into the possession of Sir John Soane, at the
-advanced price of five hundred and seventy guineas. The same eminent
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_109'>109</span>architect became the proprietor of the four pictures of an Election, for
-the sum of 1732<i><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">l.</span></i> Marriage Alamode was disposed of in a similar way
-in 1750; and on the day of sale one bidder appeared, who became
-master of the six pictures, together with their frames, for 115<i><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">l.</span></i> 10<i><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">s.</span></i>
-Mr. Angerstein purchased them, in 1797, for 1381<i><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">l.</span></i>, and they now
-form a striking feature in our National Gallery.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The number and variety of Hogarth’s moral and satiric works
-preclude our naming any but the more remarkable. To those
-already mentioned we would add the March to Finchley, Southwark
-Fair, the Distressed Poet, the Enraged Musician, Modern Midnight
-Conversation, Gin Lane and Beer Street, the four prints of an
-Election, and two entitled “The Times,” which would hardly require
-notice, except for having produced a memorable quarrel between
-himself on one side, and Wilkes and Churchill on the other. The
-satire of the first, published in 1762, was directed, not against
-Wilkes himself, but his political friends, Pitt and Temple; nor is
-it so biting as to have required Wilkes, in defence of his party, to
-retaliate upon one with whom he had lived in familiar and friendly
-intercourse. He did so, however, in a number of the North Briton,
-containing not only abuse of the artist, but unjust and injurious
-mention of his wife. Hogarth was deeply wounded by this attack,
-and he retorted by the well-known portrait—it ought not to be
-called a caricature—of Wilkes with the cap of liberty. “I wished,”
-he says, “to return the compliment, and turn it to some advantage.
-The renowned patriot’s portrait, drawn as like as I could, as to
-features, and marked with some indications of his mind, answered
-every purpose. A Brutus, a saviour of his country, with such an
-aspect, was so arrant a farce, that though it gave rise to much
-laughter in the lookers-on, it galled both him and his adherents.
-This was proved by the papers being crammed every day with invectives
-against the artist, till the town grew sick of thus seeing me
-always at full length. Churchill, Wilkes’s toad-eater, put the North
-Briton into verse in an epistle to Hogarth; but as the abuse was
-precisely the same, except a little poetical heightening, it made no
-impression, but perhaps effaced or weakened the black strokes of the
-North Briton. However, having an old plate by me, with some parts
-ready sunk, as the back-ground and a dog, I began to consider how I
-could turn so much work laid aside to some account; and so patched
-up a print of Master Churchill in the character of a bear.” The
-quarrel was unworthy of the talents either of the painter or poet.
-“Never,” says Walpole, “did two angry men of their abilities throw
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_110'>110</span>dirt with less dexterity.” It is the more to be regretted, because its
-effects, as he himself intimates, were injurious to Hogarth’s declining
-health. The summer of 1764 he spent at Chiswick, and the free
-air and exercise worked a partial renovation of his strength. The
-amendment, however, was but temporary; and he died suddenly,
-October 26, the day after his return to his London residence in
-Leicester Square.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>If we have dwelt little upon Hogarth’s merits in his peculiar style
-of art, it is still less necessary to say much concerning his historical
-pictures. Of their merits he himself formed a high and most exaggerated
-estimate, not hesitating to give out that nothing but envy and
-ignorance prevented his own pictures from commanding as much
-admiration, and as high prices, as the most esteemed productions of
-foreign masters. Posterity has confirmed the judgment of his contemporaries,
-and Hogarth’s serious compositions are very generally
-forgotten. The only one which merits to be excepted from this
-observation is his Sigismunda, painted in 1759, in competition with
-the well-known and beautiful picture, ascribed by some to Correggio,
-by others to Furino. Our painter’s vanity and plain dealing had
-raised up a host of enemies against him among painters, picture-dealers,
-and connoisseurs; and all whose self-love he had wounded, or
-whose tricks he had denounced, eagerly seized this opportunity to
-vent their anger in retaliation. The picture is well known, both by
-engravings and by Walpole’s severe criticism. We abstain from
-quoting it: we have passed lightly over a great artist’s excellences, and
-it would be unfair to expatiate on his defects and errors. Besides
-this, Hogarth’s chief historical works are the Pool of Bethesda and
-the Good Samaritan, executed in 1736 as a specimen of his powers,
-and presented to St. Bartholomew’s Hospital; Paul before Felix,
-painted for the Hall of Lincoln’s Inn, in 1749; and Moses brought
-before Pharaoh’s daughter, painted in 1752, and presented to the
-Foundling Hospital.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Hogarth was not a mere painter: he used the pen as well as the
-pencil, and aspired to teach as well as to exercise his art. He has left
-a memoir of his own life, which contains some curious and interesting
-and instructive matter concerning his own modes and motives of
-thought and action. He wrote verses occasionally in a rough and
-familiar style, but not without some sparkles of his humorous turn.
-But his most remarkable performance is the “Analysis of Beauty,”
-composed with the ambitious view of fixing the principles of taste,
-and laying down unerring directions for the student of art. Its leading
-principle is, that the serpentine line is the foundation of all that is
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_111'>111</span>beautiful, whether in nature or art. To the universality of this
-assertion we should be inclined to demur; Nature works by contrast,
-and loves to unite the abrupt and angular with the flowing and graceful,
-in one harmonious whole. The work, however, unquestionably
-contains much that was original and valuable. But when it was
-found that Hogarth, a man unpolished in conversation, not regularly
-trained either to the use of the pen or the pencil, and, above all, a
-profound despiser of academics, of portrait painters, and of almost all
-things conventionally admired, had written a book professing to teach
-the principles of art, the storm of criticism which fell upon him was
-hot and furious. It was discovered that Hogarth was not the author
-of the book, that the principle was false and ridiculous, and that every
-body had been in possession of it long before. The last objection, certainly,
-is so far true, that every one instinctively must feel a line of easy
-curvature to be more graceful than one of abrupt and angular flexure.
-But the merit of first enunciating this as a rule of art belongs to
-Hogarth; and it is recorded to have been the opinion of West,
-uttered after the author’s death, that the Analysis is a work of the
-highest value to the student of art, and that, examined after personal
-enmity and prejudice were laid to sleep, it would be more and more
-read, studied, and understood. We doubt whether this judgment of
-the President is altogether sanctioned by the practice of the present
-day; but time, without altogether establishing the author’s theory,
-has at least laid asleep the malicious whispers which denied to
-Hogarth the merit of it, whatever that may be.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>In the executive part of his art, either as painter or engraver,
-Hogarth did not attain to first-rate excellence. His engravings are
-spirited, but rough; but they have the peculiar merit (one far above
-mechanical delicacy and correctness of execution) of representing
-accurately, by a few bold touches, the varied incidents and expression
-which he was so acute and diligent in observing. A faithful copier,
-his works are invaluable as records of the costume and spirit of the
-time; and they preserve a number of minute illustrative circumstances,
-which his biographers and annotators have laboured to
-explain, with the precision used by critics in commenting upon Aristophanes.
-Wit and humour are abundant in all of them, even in
-accessories apparently insignificant; and they require to be studied
-before half the matter condensed in them can be perceived and apprehended.
-“It is worthy of observation,” says Mr. Lamb, “that Hogarth
-has seldom drawn a mean or insignificant countenance.” This is so
-far true, that there are few of his faces which do not contribute to
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_112'>112</span>the general effect. Mean and insignificant in the common sense of
-the words they often are, and the fastidious observer will find much to
-overcome in the general want of pleasing objects in his compositions.
-But the vacancy or expression, the coarseness or refinement of the
-countenance, are alike subservient to convey a meaning or a moral;
-and in this sense it may justly be said, that few of Hogarth’s faces are
-insignificant. Through the more important of his works, a depth and
-unity of purpose prevails, which sometimes rises into high tragic
-effect, the more striking from the total absence of conventional objects
-of dignity, as in the two last plates of the “Rake’s Progress.”
-“Gin Lane” has been included by Mr. Lamb in the same praise, and
-its power cannot be denied; but it contains too much that is purely
-disgusting, mixed with much that is in the nature of caricature, to be
-a general favourite.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The nationality of Hogarth’s prints has given to them a more
-lasting and extensive popularity than any class of engravings has
-ever enjoyed. Not to mention the large impressions from the original
-plates, which were touched and retouched again and again, they
-have been frequently engraved on a smaller scale, accompanied with
-an historical and descriptive text; and there is scarcely a library of
-any pretensions which has not a “Hogarth Illustrated,” in some
-shape or other, upon its shelves. Of these works, the first was Dr.
-Trusler’s “Hogarth Moralized,” republished lately in a very elegant
-shape; the most complete is the quarto edition of Hogarth’s works,
-by Nichols and Stevens. There is a long and valuable memoir of
-the artist in Rees’s “Cyclopædia,” by Mr. Phillips, R.A., and an
-extended life by Allan Cunningham in the “Family Library.” The
-works of Walpole, Gilpin, Hazlitt, and others, will furnish much of
-acute criticism; and we especially recommend the perusal of an
-Essay by Charles Lamb on the “Genius and Character of Hogarth,”
-published originally in the “Reflector,” No. 3. It is chiefly occupied
-by a minute criticism upon the “Rake’s Progress,” and though, in
-our opinion, somewhat partial and excessive in praise, is admirably
-calculated to show the reader in what spirit the moral works of
-Hogarth should be studied.</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id002'>
-<img src='images/i_112.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/i_113fp.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic001'>
-<p><em>Engraved by Rob<sup>t</sup>. Hart.</em><br /><br />GALILEO.<br /><br /><em>From a picture by Ramsay<br />in Trinity College, Cambridge.</em><br /><br />Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.<br /><br /><em>London, Published by Charles Knight, Ludgate Street, &amp; Pall Mall East.</em></p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id002'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_113'>113</span>
-<img src='images/i_113.jpg' alt='GALILEO.' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <h2 class='c005'>GALILEO.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c009'>The great Tuscan astronomer is best known as the first telescopic
-observer, the fortunate discoverer of the Medicean stars (so Jupiter’s
-satellites were first named): and what discovery more fitted to
-immortalize its author, than one which revealed new worlds, and
-thus gave additional force to the lesson, that the universe, of which
-we form so small a part, was not created only for our use or pleasure!
-Those, however, who consider Galileo only as a fortunate observer,
-form a very inadequate estimate of one of the most meritorious and
-successful of those great men who have bestowed their time for the
-advantage of mankind in tracing out the hidden things of nature.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Galileo Galilei was born at Pisa, February 15, 1564. In childhood
-he displayed considerable mechanical ingenuity, with a decided taste
-for the accomplishments of music and painting. His father formed a
-just estimate of his talents, and at some inconvenience entered him,
-when nineteen years old, at the university of his native town, intending
-that he should pursue the medical profession. Galileo was then entirely
-ignorant of mathematics; and he was led to the study of geometry by
-a desire thoroughly to understand the principles of his favourite arts.
-This new pursuit proved so congenial to his taste, that from thenceforward
-his medical books were entirely neglected. The elder Galilei,
-a man of liberal acquirements and enlarged mind, did not require the
-devotion of his son’s life to a distasteful pursuit. Fortunately the
-young man’s talents attracted notice, and in 1589 he was appointed
-mathematical lecturer in the University of Pisa. There is reason to
-believe that, at an early period of his studentship, he embraced, upon
-inquiry and conviction, the doctrines of Copernicus, of which through
-life he was an ardent supporter.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_114'>114</span>Galileo and his colleagues did not long remain on good terms.
-The latter were content with the superstructure which <i><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">à priori</span></i> reasoners
-had raised upon Aristotle, and were by no means desirous of the
-trouble of learning more. Galileo chose to investigate physical truths
-for himself; he engaged in experiments to determine the truth of some
-of Aristotle’s positions, and when he found him in the wrong, he said
-so, and so taught his pupils. This made the “paper philosophers,” as
-he calls them, very angry. He repeated his experiments in their
-presence; but they set aside the evidence of their senses, and quoted
-Aristotle as much as before. The enmity arising from these disputes
-rendered his situation so unpleasant, that, in 1592, at the invitation of
-the Venetian commonwealth, he gladly accepted the professorship of
-mathematics at Padua. The period of his appointment being only six
-years, he was re-elected in 1598, and again in 1606, each time with
-an increase of salary; a strong proof of the esteem in which he was
-held, even before those astronomical discoveries which have immortalized
-his name. His lectures at this period were so fully attended,
-that he was sometimes obliged to adjourn them to the open air. In
-1609 he received an invitation to return to his original situation at
-Pisa. This produced a letter, still extant, from which we quote a
-catalogue of the undertakings on which he was already employed.
-“The works which I have to finish are principally two books on the
-‘System or Structure of the Universe,’ an immense work, full of
-philosophy, astronomy, and geometry; three books on ‘Local Motion,’
-a science entirely new, no one, either ancient or modern, having discovered
-any of the very many admirable accidents which I demonstrate
-in natural and violent motions, so that I may, with very great reason,
-call it a new science, and invented by me from its very first principles;
-three books of mechanics, two on the demonstration of principles,
-and one of problems; and although others have treated this same
-matter, yet all that has been hitherto written, neither in quantity nor
-otherwise, is the quarter of what I am writing on it. I have also
-different treatises on natural subjects—on Sound and Speech, on
-Light and Colours, on the Tides, on the Composition of Continuous
-Quantity, on the Motions of Animals, and others besides. I have
-also an idea of writing some books relating to the military art, giving
-not only a model of a soldier, but teaching with very exact rules
-every thing which it is his duty to know, that depends upon mathematics,
-as the knowledge of castrametation, drawing up of battalions,
-fortification, assaults, planning, surveying, the knowledge of artillery,
-the use of instruments, &amp;c.” Out of this comprehensive list, the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_115'>115</span>treatises on the universe, on motion and mechanics, on tides, on fortification,
-or other works upon the same subjects, have been made
-known to the world. Many, however, of Galileo’s manuscripts,
-through fear of the Inquisition, were destroyed, or concealed and
-lost, after the author’s death.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>In the same year, 1609, Galileo heard the report, that a spectacle-maker
-of Middleburg, in Holland, had made an instrument by which
-distant objects appeared nearer. He tasked his ingenuity to discover
-the construction, and soon succeeded in manufacturing a telescope.
-His telescope, however, seems to have been made on a different construction
-from that of the Dutch optician. It consisted of a convex
-and concave glass, distant from each other by the difference of their
-focal lengths, like a modern opera-glass; while there is reason to
-believe that the other was made up of two convex lenses, distant by
-the sum of their focal lengths, the common construction of the
-astronomical telescope. Galileo’s attention naturally was first turned
-to the moon. He discovered that her surface, instead of being smooth
-and perfectly spherical, was rough with mountains, and apparently
-varied, like the earth, by land and water. He next applied to Jupiter,
-and was struck by the appearance of three small stars, almost in a
-straight line, and close to him. At first he did not suspect the nature
-of these bodies; but careful observation soon convinced him that these
-three, together with a fourth, which was at first invisible, were in
-reality four moons revolving round their primary planet. These
-he named the Medicean stars. They have long ceased to be known
-by that name; but so highly prized was the distinction thus conferred
-upon the ducal house of Florence, that Galileo received an intimation,
-that he would “do a thing just and proper in itself, and at the
-same time render himself and his family rich and powerful for ever,”
-if he “named the next star which he should discover after the name
-of the great star of France, as well as the most brilliant of all the
-earth,” Henry IV. These discoveries were made known in 1610, in
-a work entitled “<span lang="la" xml:lang="la">Nuncius Sidereus</span>,” the Newsman of the Stars: in
-which Galileo farther announced that he had seen many stars invisible
-to the naked eye, and ascertained that the nebulæ scattered
-through the heavens consist of assemblages of innumerable small
-stars. The ignorant and unprejudiced were struck with admiration;
-indeed, curiosity had been raised so high before the publication of this
-book, as materially to interfere with the convenience of those who
-possessed telescopes. Galileo was employed a month in exhibiting his
-own to the principal persons in Venice; and one unfortunate astronomer
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_116'>116</span>was surrounded by a crowd who kept him in durance for
-several hours, while they passed his glass from one to another. He
-left Venice the next morning, to pursue his inquiries in some less
-inquisitive place. But the great bulk of the philosophers of the day
-were far from joining in the general feeling. They raised an outcry
-against the impudent fictions of Galileo, and one, a professor of
-Padua, refused repeatedly to look through the telescope, lest he should
-be compelled to admit that which he had predetermined to deny. In
-the midst of this prejudice and envy, Kepler formed a brilliant exception.
-He received those great discoveries with wonder and delight,
-though they overturned some cherished theories, and manifested an
-honest and zealous indignation against the traducers of Galileo’s fame.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>In particular his wrath broke out against a <i><span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">protégé</span></i> of his own,
-named Horky; who, under the mistaken notion of gaining credit with
-his patron, wrote a violent attack on Galileo, and asserted, among
-other things, that he had examined the heavens with Galileo’s own
-glass, and that no such thing as a satellite existed near Jupiter. The
-conclusion of the affair is curious and characteristic. Horky begged
-so hard to be forgiven, that, says Kepler, “I have taken him again
-into favour, upon this preliminary condition, to which he has agreed,—that
-I am to show him Jupiter’s satellites, <em>and he is to see them, and
-to own that they are there</em>.”</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>It was not long before Galileo had new, and equally important
-matter to announce. He observed a remarkable appearance in Saturn,
-as if it were composed of three stars touching each other; his telescope
-was not sufficiently powerful to resolve into them Saturn and his ring.
-Within a month he ascertained that Venus exhibits phases like those of
-the moon,—a discovery of great importance in confirming the Copernican
-system. The same phenomenon he afterwards detected in Mars.
-We close the list with the discovery of the revolution of the sun round
-his axis, in the space of about a lunar month, derived from careful
-observation of the spots on his surface.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>About this time (1610–11) Galileo took up his abode in Tuscany,
-upon the invitation of the Grand Duke, who offered to him his
-original situation at Pisa, with a liberal salary, exemption from the
-necessity of residence, and complete leisure to pursue his studies. In
-1612 he published a discourse on Floating Bodies, in which he
-investigates the theory of buoyancy, and refutes, by a series of beautiful
-and conclusive experiments, the opinion that the floating or
-sinking of bodies depends on their shape.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Neither Copernicus nor his immediate followers suffered inconvenience
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_117'>117</span>or restraint on account of their astronomical doctrines: nor
-had Galileo, until this period of his life, incurred ecclesiastical censure
-for any thing which he had said or written. But the Inquisition now
-took up the matter as heretical, and contrary to the express words of
-Scripture; and in 1616, Copernicus’s work ‘De Revolutionibus,’ Kepler’s
-Epitome, and some of Galileo’s own letters, were placed on the list
-of prohibited books; and he himself, being then in Rome, received
-formal notice not to teach that the earth revolves round the sun. He
-returned to Florence full of indignation; and considering his hasty
-temper, love of truth, and full belief of the condemned theory, it is
-rather wonderful that he kept silence so long, than that he incurred at
-last the censures of the hierarchy. He did, however, restrain himself
-from any open advocacy of the heretical doctrines, even in composing
-his great work, the ‘Dialogue on the Ptolemaic and Copernican
-Systems.’ This was completed in 1630, but not printed till 1632,
-under licence from officers of the church, both at Rome and Florence.
-It is a dialogue between Simplicio, an Aristotelian, Salviati, who represents
-the author, and Sagredo, a half convert to Salviati’s opinions. It
-professes “indeterminately to propose the philosophical arguments,
-as well on one side as on the other:” but the neutrality is but ill
-kept up, and was probably assumed, not with any hope that the court
-of Rome would be blinded as to the real tendency of the book, but
-merely that it would accept this nominal submission as a sufficient
-homage to its authority. If this were so, the author was disappointed;
-the Inquisition took cognizance of the matter, and summoned him to
-Rome to undergo a personal examination. Age and infirmity were
-in vain pleaded as excuses; still, through the urgent and indignant
-remonstrances of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, he was treated with
-a consideration rarely shown by that iniquitous tribunal. He was
-allowed to remain at the Florentine ambassador’s palace, with the
-exception of a short period, from his arrival in February, until the
-passing of sentence, June 21, 1633. He was then condemned, in the
-presence of the Inquisitors, to curse and abjure the “false doctrines,”
-which his life had been spent in proving; to be confined in the prison
-of the Holy Office during pleasure, and to recite the seven penitential
-psalms once a week during three years. The sentence and the abjuration
-are given at full length in the Life of Galileo, in the ‘Library
-of Useful Knowledge.’ “It is said,” continues the biographer, “that
-Galileo, as he rose from his knees, stamped on the ground, and whispered
-to one of his friends, ‘<i><span lang="it" xml:lang="it">e pur si muove</span></i>,’ (it does move though.”)</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Galileo’s imprisonment was not long or rigorous; for after four days
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_118'>118</span>he was reconducted to the Florentine ambassador’s palace: but he
-was still kept under strict surveillance. In July he was sent to
-Sienna, where he remained five months in strict seclusion. He
-obtained permission in December to return to his villa at Arcetri,
-near Florence: but there, as at Sienna, he was confined to his own
-premises, and strictly forbidden to receive his friends. It is painful
-to contemplate the variety of evils which overcast the evening of this
-great man’s life. In addition to a distressing chronic complaint,
-contracted in youth, he was now suffering under a painful infirmity
-which by some is said to have been produced by torture, applied in
-the prisons of the Inquisition to extort a recantation. But the arguments
-brought forward to show that the Inquisitors did resort to
-this extremity do not amount to anything like direct proof. In
-April, 1634, Galileo’s afflictions were increased by the death of
-a favourite, intelligent, and attached daughter. He consoled his
-solitude, and lightened the hours of sickness, by continuing the
-observations which he was now forbidden to publish to the world;
-and the last of his long train of discoveries was the phenomenon
-known by the name of the moon’s libration. In the course of
-1636–7 he lost successively the sight of both his eyes. He mentions
-this calamity in a tone of pious submission, mingled with a not
-unpleasing pride. “Alas, your dear friend and servant Galileo has
-become totally and irreparably blind; so that this heaven, this earth,
-this universe, which with wonderful observations I had enlarged
-a hundred and thousand times beyond the belief of by-gone ages,
-henceforward for me is shrunk into the narrow space which I myself
-fill in it. So it pleases God: it shall therefore please me also.” In
-1638 he obtained leave to visit Florence, still under the same restrictions
-as to society; but at the end of a few months he was remanded
-to Arcetri, which he never again quitted. From that time, however,
-the strictness of his confinement was relaxed, and he was allowed
-to receive the friends who crowded round him, as well as the many
-distinguished foreigners who eagerly visited him. Among these we
-must not forget Milton, whose poems contain several allusions to the
-celestial wonders observed and published by the Tuscan astronomer.
-Though blind and nearly deaf, Galileo retained to the last his intellectual
-powers; and his friend and pupil, the celebrated Torricelli, was
-employed in arranging his thoughts on the nature of percussion, when
-he was attacked by his last illness. He died January 8, 1642, aged
-seventy-eight.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>It was disputed, whether, as a prisoner of the Inquisition, Galileo
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_119'>119</span>had a right to burial in consecrated ground. The point was conceded;
-but Pope Urban VIII. himself interfered to prevent the
-erection of a monument to him in the church of Santa Croce, in
-Florence, for which a large sum had been subscribed. A splendid
-monument now covers the spot in which his remains repose with
-those of his friend and pupil, the eminent mathematician Viviani.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>In 1618, Galileo published, through the medium of Mario Guiducci,
-an Essay on the Nature of Comets. His opinions (which, in fact, were
-erroneous) were immediately attacked under the feigned signature of
-Lotario Sarsi. To this antagonist he replied in a work entitled
-‘<span lang="it" xml:lang="it">Il Saggiatore</span>,’ the Assayer, which we select for mention, not so
-much for the value of its contents, though, like the rest of his works,
-it has many remarkable passages, as for the high reputation which
-it enjoys among Italian critics as a model of philosophical composition.
-The “Dialogues on Motion,” the last work of consequence which
-Galileo published, contain investigations of the simpler branches of
-dynamics, the motion of bodies falling freely or down inclined
-planes, and of projectiles; determinations of the strength of beams,
-and a variety of interesting questions in natural philosophy. The
-fifth and sixth are unfinished; the latter was intended to comprise the
-theory of percussion, which, as we have said, was the last subject
-which occupied the author’s mind. For a full analysis of this and the
-other treatises here briefly noted, and for an account of Galileo’s
-application of the pendulum to the mensuration of time; his invention
-of the thermometer, though in an inaccurate and inconvenient form;
-his methods of discovering the longitude, and a variety of other
-points well worth<a id='t119'></a> attention, we must refer to the Life of Galileo
-already quoted. The numerous extracts from Galileo’s works convey
-a lively notion of the author’s character, and are distinguished by a
-peculiar tone of quaint humour. For older writers we may refer
-to the lives of Viviani, Gherardini, and Nelli; and to the English one
-by Salusbury, of which however the second volume is so rare that the
-Earl of Macclesfield’s copy is the only one known to exist in England.
-Venturi has given to the world some unpublished manuscripts, and
-collected much curious and scattered information in his “<span lang="it" xml:lang="it">Memorie e
-Lettere de Gal. Galilei</span>.” Of Galileo’s works several editions exist:
-the most complete are those of Padua, in four volumes quarto, 1744,
-and of Milan, in thirteen volumes octavo, 1811.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>In conclusion, we quote the estimate of Galileo’s character, from the
-masterly memoir from which this sketch is derived. “The numberless
-inventions of his acute industry; the use of the telescope, and the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_120'>120</span>brilliant discoveries to which it led; the patient investigation of the
-laws of weight and motion, must all be looked upon as forming but
-a part of his real merits, as merely particular demonstrations of the
-spirit in which he everywhere withstood the despotism of ignorance,
-and appealed boldly from traditional opinions to the judgment of
-reason and common sense. He claimed and bequeathed to us the right
-of exercising our faculties in examining the beautiful creation which
-surrounds us. Idolised by his friends, he deserved their affection
-by numberless acts of kindness; by his good humour, his affability,
-and by the benevolent generosity with which he devoted himself, and
-a great part of his limited income, to advance their talents and
-fortunes. If an intense desire of being useful is everywhere worthy
-of honour; if its value is immeasurably increased when united to
-genius of the highest order; if we feel for one, who, notwithstanding
-such titles to regard, is harassed by cruel persecution, then none
-deserve our sympathy, our admiration, and our gratitude, more than
-Galileo.”</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/i_120.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic001'>
-<p>[Monument to Galileo in the Church of Santa Croce at Florence.]</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/i_121fp.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic001'>
-<p><em>Engraved by R. Woodman.</em><br /><br />REMBRANDT.<br /><br /><em>From the original Picture by himself<br />in his Majesty’s Collection.</em><br /><br />Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.<br /><br /><em>London, Published by Charles Knight, Ludgate Street, &amp; Pall Mall East.</em></p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id002'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_121'>121</span>
-<img src='images/i_121.jpg' alt='Rembrandt.' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <h2 class='c005'>REMBRANDT.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c009'>Born June 15, 1606. His father was a miller, named Gerretz, who
-lived near Leyden, on the banks of the Rhine. Hence Rembrandt
-assumed the higher-sounding title of Van Ryn, in exchange for his paternal
-appellation. The miller was sagacious enough to perceive that
-his son had talent, but not to discover the direction in which it lay; and
-sent him to study Latin, and qualify himself for one of the learned
-professions at the University of Leyden. He had no turn for scholarship;
-indeed, through life, his literary acquirements were decidedly
-below par: but he showed great expertness in drawing any object
-which caught his notice. The miller wisely yielded to what appeared
-the natural bent of his son’s genius, and suffered him to
-pursue painting as a profession. He studied first for three months
-at Amsterdam, in the school of Jacob Van Swannenberg, then six
-months with Peter Lastman, and six with Jacob Pinas. It is
-somewhat surprising that he should have continued so long with
-these masters, from whom he could learn no more than the rudiments
-of execution. Had they been better, he would have gained little but
-manual skill from them; for, from the first, his style was essentially his
-own. Nature was his preceptress, and his academy was his father’s
-mill. There he found those unique effects of light and shadow
-which distinguish his pictures from all others. The style of art which
-astonished his contemporaries by its novelty and power, and will ever
-continue to influence the practice of later artists, was founded on
-and formed out of the brilliant contrasts exhibited by a beam of
-light admitted through a narrow aperture, and rapidly subsiding
-into darkness: a spectacle which, familiar to his childhood, seems
-to have left an indelible impression on his imagination. He studied
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_122'>122</span>with great assiduity, but seems to have scarcely been conscious of
-his own strength until the commendation of his fellow-students
-roused him. At the suggestion of one of them he took a painting
-which he had just finished to an amateur at the Hague, who gave the
-best proof of his approbation by paying a hundred florins for it on the
-spot. The sudden acquisition of so much wealth almost turned the
-young artist’s head. He went on foot to the Hague; but he posted
-home to his father’s mill in a chariot. Extravagance, however, was
-not one of his characteristics, and this was his last, as it was his first
-act of ostentatious disbursement.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>He remained for some time in his native village, induced, perhaps,
-by the facilities which the banks of the Rhine presented to him for the
-study of landscape. Even in that department of art he selected those
-phases of nature which harmonized with his usual management of
-<em>chiar’ oscuro</em>: such as effects of twilight, or the setting sun, or any
-combinations of clouds, rocks, trees, or other objects, which formed
-large masses of shade relieved by light concentrated in one spot. But
-being frequently summoned to Amsterdam by commissions for portraits,
-he settled in that city in 1630. At the same time he married
-a pretty peasant girl from Ramsdorp, whose portrait he has often
-introduced in his pictures. He received several pupils into his house,
-who paid largely for his instructions.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>One of Rembrandt’s earliest and most steadfast patrons was the
-burgomaster Six, for whom he painted the celebrated picture now
-in the National Gallery, of ‘The Woman taken in Adultery.’ If
-this be an average specimen of his style at this time, no wonder
-can be felt that his reputation rose to a prodigious height, and
-that he obtained large prices for his performances. The style
-of this picture, though approaching to the elaborate finishing of
-Mieris or Gerard Dow, is yet as broad as in any of his subsequent
-works, after he had adopted a bolder method of execution. Refinement
-of character we never must expect in Rembrandt; but in this
-picture we are not shocked by that uncalled-for coarseness which
-debases many of his later works. In the figure of Christ especially,
-there is some attempt to rise above the level of common life, which he
-usually contents himself with copying. The picture exhibits his usual
-grandeur and solemnity of light and shade, and is remarkable for
-brilliancy of colouring.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>As Rembrandt’s practice became more and more lucrative, he gave
-way to a vice which certainly is not the besetting one of artists, and grew
-insatiably avaricious. His engravings were sought with even more
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_123'>123</span>avidity than his pictures; and he left unemployed no artifice by which
-their popularity might be turned to account. Impressions were
-taken off and circulated when the plates were half finished, then
-the work was completed, and the sale recommenced. Alterations
-were then made in the perfect engraving, and these botched prints were
-again sent into the market. Impressions of the same plate in all
-these stages of transformation were eagerly sought by the idle foppery
-of collectorship; and it was held a serious impeachment of taste not to
-possess proofs of the little Juno with and without a crown; the young
-Joseph with the face light, and the same Joseph with his face dark;
-the woman with the white bonnet, and the same woman without
-a bonnet; the horse with a tail, and a horse without a tail, &amp;c. Ungentlemanly
-tricks were practised to enhance the price of his works.
-He often expressed an intention of quitting Amsterdam altogether.
-Once he was announced to be dangerously ill; at another time he was
-reported to be dead. It is strange that he should not have felt these
-petty artifices to be unworthy of his genius, and unnecessary to his
-fame or fortune; but it seems not improbable that some of his
-eccentricities were played off to attract attention. Being occupied one
-day in painting the picture of a burgomaster and his family, word was
-brought that his favourite monkey was dead. He made great parade
-of his distress, and as some alleviation of it, proceeded to paint
-the monkey into the picture. The civic dignitary remonstrated in
-vain against this extraordinary addition to the family group: Rembrandt
-refused to finish the picture unless the monkey kept his place,
-and accordingly it was allowed to remain. That he was not unconscious
-of the absurdity of such caprices, may be inferred from his quick
-turn for humour, and the shrewdness and sagacity of his remarks.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The roughness and apparent negligence in the execution of his
-works astonished many of the Dutch connoisseurs, who had been so
-used to minute delicacy of finish as to consider it essential to excellence.
-To these critics he replied in a tone of irony, requesting that
-when they perceived anything particularly wrong in his works, they
-would believe that he had a motive for it. To others who examined
-his pictures too closely, he observed, that the smell of the paint was
-unwholesome, adding a very just observation, that the picture is
-finished when the painter has expressed his intention.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Numerous copies of Rembrandt’s pictures were made by his pupils,
-which he retouched and sold as originals. Sandraart asserts that he
-gained one thousand two hundred florins yearly by this commerce. It
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_124'>124</span>is proper, however, to state that most of the great masters have, more
-or less, availed themselves of the labour of their scholars.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>In one respect, however, Rembrandt acted worthily of his genius.
-He never allowed the love of gain to interfere with or limit the time
-and labour which were required to give excellence to his paintings.
-The bravura of hand by which his later works are distinguished, has
-led to an idea that he painted them carelessly and with great dispatch.
-No doubt he wrought with firmness and decision when his plan was
-fixed; but various studies are extant, which show that, before commencing
-a picture, he constructed and reconstructed his design with
-indefatigable attention. This was especially the case with his historical
-works; yet in portrait painting he was scarcely less particular.
-Frequently when the picture was considerably advanced, struck by
-some new arrangement, an effect of light, a happy turn of drapery, a
-better position of the head, he would begin again; and the patience of
-the sitter was sometimes so much tried by a succession of these alterations,
-that works would have been left unfinished on the artist’s
-hands, but for that confidence in the ultimate excellence of the
-pictures, which rendered his employers anxious to possess them at any
-outlay of time, patience, or money.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Descamps, the French biographer of the Flemish painters, enlarges
-on Rembrandt’s misfortune in not having been born in Italy, or, at least,
-not having spent some years there. “How different a painter would he
-have been,” he says, “had he been familiar with the works of Raphael and
-Titian.” That he would have been a different painter may be doubted;
-that he would have been a better one is still less probable. Descamps
-adds, that he owed his genius to nature and instinct alone; a much
-more rational remark, and so true, that it appears almost demonstrable
-that no system of discipline or education would have materially altered
-his turn of mind. He was sufficiently well acquainted, through the
-medium of prints, casts, and marbles, with the leading works both of
-ancient and modern art; but he had no taste for refinement, and he
-knew that what is called high art was not his vocation. He had collected
-quantities of old armour, rich draperies, grotesque ornaments,
-and military weapons, which he jocularly called his antiques; and he
-made no scruple of deriding the exclusive claims to taste set up
-by particular schools. He felt that he had no occasion to ask his passport
-to reputation from others; but that, as Fuseli expresses it, he
-could enter the temple of fame by forging his own keys.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Few painters, indeed, have so full a claim to the merit of originality
-as Rembrandt. It would be hard to point out any of his predecessors
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_125'>125</span>to whom he is indebted for any part of his style; but he has opened a
-rich treasure of excellence for his successors to profit by. The full
-powers of the management of light and shade, which we denominate
-by the Italian phrase <em>chiar’ oscuro</em>, were not known until Rembrandt
-developed them. It might have been supposed that the power and
-harmony, and splendour of Corregio left nothing to be desired in this
-department of the art; but Rembrandt gave to his masses a force and
-depth, and concentration, unequalled, and peculiar to himself. Nor is
-<em>chiar’ oscuro</em> in his hands merely an instrument of picturesque effect;
-it is also a most powerful vehicle of sentiment, especially in subjects
-characterized by solemnity or terror. The ‘Crucifixion,’ ‘Christ and
-St. Peter in the Storm,’ and ‘Sampson seized by the Philistines,’ are
-striking but not singular examples of this:—it is the excellence which
-pervades his works. ‘Jacob’s Dream,’ in the Dulwich Gallery, deserves
-mention as a most remarkable instance of his peculiar powers,
-for it embodies images so vague and undefinable, that they might be
-thought beyond the grasp of painting. Forms float before us, apparently
-cognizable by our senses, yet so vague, that when examined,
-they lose the semblance of form which at first they wore, receding
-gradually to so immeasurable a distance, that it would seem as if
-in truth the heavens were opened. It is the most <em>spiritual</em> thing
-conceivable, and breathes the very atmosphere of a dream.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>As a colourist Rembrandt has scarcely a superior: if his tints are
-not equal in truth and purity to those of Titian, yet his admirable
-management of light and shadow gives to his colouring an almost
-unrivalled splendour. In that quality of execution which painters call
-<em>surface</em>, he was eminently skilled; perhaps none but Corregio and
-Reynolds can compare with him in it. To his portraits he gave
-a most speaking air of identity; but his delineations of the human
-form and character in works of imagination are almost ludicrous, and
-little better than travesties of the subject. Beauty certainly must
-have come in his way; but he seems to have avoided and rejected it
-for the sake of ugliness and vulgarity. The picture of a ‘Woman
-Bathing,’ in the National Gallery, is a good instance both of his
-merits and faults, treating with the utmost fidelity and beauty of
-execution a subject so disagreeable, that admiration is neutralized by
-disgust. Indeed his genius has no greater triumph than that of
-reconciling us to his defects.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Rembrandt’s style of engraving, as of painting, is in great measure
-of his own invention. His plates are partly etched, assisted with the
-dry point, and sometimes, but not often, finished with the graver.
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_126'>126</span>His prints possess the effect of colouring in a surprising degree;
-the light and shade is managed, as might be expected, with consummate
-skill, and the touch has a lightness and apparent negligence,
-which give to his etchings an indescribable charm.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>De Piles and some other writers have asserted that Rembrandt
-was at Venice in the year 1635 or 1636. This mistake arose from
-the dates, and the name of Venice which Rembrandt put at the
-bottom of some of his prints, with the view of enhancing the price of
-them. He never quitted Amsterdam after he first established himself
-there in 1630. He could have had no inducement indeed
-to absent himself from a city in which he was so rapidly acquiring both
-fame and fortune. In what related to his art he never looked out of
-himself; and he was so far from seeking any general acquaintance
-with the world, that he associated only with a small circle in his
-own city, and that of an inferior class. The burgomaster Six, who
-appreciated his extraordinary talents, and wished to see him fill a
-place in society worthy of them, often attempted to lead him among
-the wealthy and the great; but that inveterate want of refinement
-which is visible in his works, pervaded his character, and he confessed
-that he felt uneasy in such company; adding, that when he left
-his painting-room, it was for the purpose of relaxation, which he was
-more likely to find among his humble associates, and in the convivialities
-of the tavern. He lived nearly to the age of sixty-eight
-years, and died at Amsterdam in 1674.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Those who may be curious to know the different impressions and
-variations of Rembrandt’s plates, and their respective rarity and value,
-will find information in the catalogue of his works, first published by
-Gersaint, at Paris, and P. Yver, at Amsterdam; which was afterwards
-enlarged by our countryman Dalby, and has since been added to in a
-publication by Adam Bartset, printed at Vienna in 1797.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Rembrandt’s works are nowhere more valued than in this country,
-which may account for the vast influx of them hither. Originals
-are not often met with on the Continent: here they may be found in
-every great collection. The National and the Dulwich Galleries
-contain some of his finest performances. Particulars of Rembrandt’s
-life and works may be found in La Vie des Peintres Flamands, par
-Descamps, and in De Piles. In English, in Bryan’s ‘Dictionary of
-Painters,’ and in Pilkington.</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/i_127fp.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic001'>
-<p><em>Engraved by C. E. Wagstaff.</em><br /><br />DRYDEN.<br /><br /><em>From a Picture by Houdson<br />in the Hall of Trinity College Cambridge.</em><br /><br />Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.<br /><br /><em>London, Published by Charles Knight, Ludgate Street, &amp; Pall Mall East.</em></p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id002'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_127'>127</span>
-<img src='images/i_127.jpg' alt='DRYDEN.' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <h2 class='c005'>DRYDEN.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c009'>John Dryden was born at Aldwinkle, near Oundle, in Northamptonshire,
-August 9, 1631, according to Dr. Johnson; but Mr. Malone
-raises a doubt concerning the accuracy of this date. The inscription
-on his monument says, only, <i><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">natus</span></i>, 1632. He was educated at Westminster
-School, under Dr. Busby, and elected Scholar of Trinity
-College, Cambridge, in 1650. The year before he left the university,
-he wrote a poem on the death of Lord Hastings. Of this production
-Dr. Johnson says, that “it was composed with great ambition
-of such conceits as, notwithstanding the reformation begun by Waller
-and Denham, the example of Cowley still kept in reputation.”
-Dryden’s vacillation, both in religion and politics, proves, that though
-perhaps not completely dishonest, he had no firm and well-considered
-principles. His heroic stanzas on Oliver Cromwell, written after the
-Protector’s funeral in 1658, were followed on the restoration by his
-Astrea Redux, and in the same year by a second tribute of flattery to
-his sacred Majesty, ‘A Panegyric on his Coronation.’ The <span lang="la" xml:lang="la">Annus
-Mirabilis</span> is one of his most elaborate works; a historical poem in celebration
-of the Duke of York’s victory over the Dutch. He succeeded
-Sir William Davenant as poet laureat. He did not obtain the laurel
-till August 18, 1670; but according to Malone, the patent had a retrospect,
-and the salary commenced from the Midsummer after Davenant’s
-death, in 1668. He was also made historiographer to the king, and
-in the same year published his Essay on Dramatic Poetry.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Among the works of so voluminous a writer, we can only notice those
-which are distinguished by excellence, or by some strong peculiarity.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Dryden was more than thirty years of age when he commenced dramatic
-writer. His first piece, the Wild Gallant, met with so mortifying
-a reception, that he resolved never more to write for the stage.
-The hasty resolutions of anger are seldom kept, and are seldom worth
-keeping; but in the present instance it would have been well had he
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_128'>128</span>adhered to the first dictates of his resentment. We should not then
-have had to regret, that so large a portion of a great writer’s life and
-labour has been wasted on twenty-eight dramas: the comedies exhibiting
-much ribaldry and but little wit; with neither ingenuity nor
-interest in the fable; with no originality in the characters: the tragedies
-for the most part filled with the exaggerations of romance, and
-the hyperboles of an extravagant imagination, in the place of nature
-and pathos. His tragedy seldom touches the passions: his staple
-commodities are pompous language, poetical flights, and picturesque
-description. His characters all speak in one language—that of the
-author. Addison says, “It is peculiar to Dryden to make all his
-personages as wise, witty, elegant, and polite as himself.” In confirmation
-of the proofs internally afforded by his writings, that his taste
-for tragedy was not genuine, he expresses his contempt for Otway,
-master as that poet was of the tender passions. But however uncongenial
-with his natural talent dramatic composition might be, his temporary
-disgust soon passed away. In his Essay on Dramatic Poetry,
-he tells his patron, Dorset, that the writing of that treatise served as an
-amusement to him in the country, when he was driven from London
-by the plague; that he diverted himself with thinking on the theatres,
-as lovers do by ruminating on their absent mistresses. But whatever
-opinion he might entertain of his own tragic style, he was himself
-sensible that his talents did not lie in the line of comedy. “Those who
-decry my comedies do me no injury, except it be in point of profit:
-reputation in them is the last thing to which I shall pretend.” He
-retaliated on the criticisms levelled against his extravagances in
-tragedy, by an ostentatious display of defiance. We find in his Dedication
-of the Spanish Friar, “All that I can say for certain passages
-of my own Maximin and Almanzor is, that I knew they were bad
-enough to please when I wrote them.”</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>In 1671 he was publicly ridiculed on the stage in the Duke of
-Buckingham’s comedy of the Rehearsal. The character of Bayes
-was at first named Bilboa, and meant for Sir Robert Howard; but
-the representation of the piece in its original form was stopped by
-the plague in 1665: it was not reproduced till six years afterwards,
-when it appeared with alterations in ridicule of the pieces brought out
-in the interval, and with a correspondent change of the hero. Dryden
-affected to despise the satire. In the Dedication to his Translation
-of Juvenal, he says, “I answered not to the Rehearsal, because I
-knew the author sat to himself when he drew the picture, and was
-the very Bayes of his own farce.”</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>An Essay on Satire, said to be written jointly by Dryden and Lord
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_129'>129</span>Mulgrave, was first printed in 1679. This piece was handed about in
-manuscript, for some time before its publication. It contained reflections
-on the Duchess of Portsmouth and Lord Rochester. Anthony
-Wood says, that suspecting Dryden to be the author, the aggrieved parties
-hired three ruffians, who cudgelled the poet in Will’s coffee-house.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>In 1680 a translation of Ovid’s Epistles into English came out: two
-of which, together with the Preface, were by Dryden. In the following
-year he published Absalom and Achitophel; a work of first-rate
-excellence as a political and controversial poem. Dr. Johnson ascribes
-to it “acrimony of censure, elegance of praise, artful delineation of
-character, variety and vigour of sentiments, happy turns of language,
-and pleasing harmony of numbers; and all these raised to such a
-height as can scarcely be found in any other English composition.”
-In the same year, the Medal, a satire, was given to the public. This
-piece was occasioned by the striking of a medal, on account of the
-indictment against Lord Shaftesbury being thrown out, and is a severe
-invective against that celebrated statesman.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>In 1682 Dryden published ‘<cite><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">Religio Laici</span></cite>,’ in defence of revealed
-religion against Deists, Papists, and Presbyterians. Yet soon after the
-accession of James the Second, he became a Roman Catholic; and in
-the hope of promoting Popery, was employed on a translation of Maimbourg’s
-History of the League, on account of the parallel between the
-troubles of France and those of Great Britain. This extraordinary
-conversion exposed him to the ridicule of the wits, and especially to the
-gibes of the facetious and celebrated Tom Brown.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The Hind and Panther, a controversial poem in defence of the
-Romish church, appeared in 1687. The Hind represents the church of
-Rome, the Panther the church of England. The first part of the poem
-consists mostly of general characters and narration; which, says the
-author, “I have endeavoured to raise, and give it the majestic turn of
-heroic poetry. The second, being matter of dispute, and chiefly concerning
-church authority, I was obliged to make as plain and perspicuous
-as possibly I could, yet not wholly neglecting the numbers, though
-I had not frequent occasion for the magnificence of verse. The third,
-which has more of the nature of domestic conversation, is, or ought to
-be, more free and familiar than the two former. There are in it two
-episodes, or fables, which are interwoven with the main design; so
-that they are properly parts of it, though they are also distinct stories
-of themselves. In both of these I have made use of the commonplaces
-of satire, whether true or false, which are urged by the members of
-one church against another.” The absurdity of a fable exhibiting two
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_130'>130</span>beasts discoursing on theology, was ridiculed in the City Mouse and
-Country Mouse, a burlesque poem, the joint production of Montague,
-afterwards Earl of Halifax, and Prior, who then put forth the first
-sample of his talents. Dryden is supposed to have been engaged for
-the translation of Varillas’s History of Heresies, but to have dropped
-the design, from a feeling of his own incompetency to theological controversy.
-Bishop Burnet, in his Reflections on the Ninth Book of the
-first Volume of M. Varillas’s History, classes together that work, and
-the Hind and Panther, as “such extraordinary things of their kind, that
-it will be but suitable to see the author of the worst poem become likewise
-the translator of the worst history that the age has produced.” Dr.
-Johnson supports the Bishop’s hostile criticism so far as to pronounce
-the scheme of the work injudicious and incommodious, and to censure
-the absurdity of making one beast advise another to rest her faith
-on a pope and council: but he allows it to be written “with great
-smoothness of metre, a wide extent of knowledge, and an abundant
-multiplicity of images; the controversy to be embellished with pointed
-sentences, diversified by illustrations, and enlivened by sallies of invective;”
-and a poem inlaid with such ornaments, however little worth
-the solid material might be, was but peevishly represented as “the
-worst that the age had produced.” Pope, a higher authority than the
-honest Bishop in such matters, considered it as the most correct specimen
-of Dryden’s versification. Malone has shown that Burnet was
-mistaken in attributing to our author the answer to Burnet’s Remarks
-on the History.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>In 1688 Dryden published Britannia Rediviva, a poem on the birth
-of the Prince afterwards known by the title of the Pretender. The
-poem is to be noticed only for its extravagant and ill-timed adulation,
-which deservedly involved the author in the disgrace and fall of his
-party. But even had he not so identified himself with the ejected
-dynasty, his conversion to Popery disqualified him for holding his place.
-He was accordingly dispossessed of it; and the mortification of its
-being conferred on an object of his confirmed dislike, aggravated the
-pecuniary loss, which he could ill afford. Shadwell, his successor, was
-an old enemy, whom he had formerly stigmatized under the name of
-Og. In consequence of this appointment, Dryden again attacked
-him in a poem called MacFlecknoe; one of the severest as well as
-most witty satires in the English language. The poetry of the new
-laureat was so indifferent, as to give ample scope for ridicule:—</p>
-
-<div class='lg-container-b c011'>
-  <div class='linegroup'>
-    <div class='group'>
-      <div class='line'>This Flecknoe found, who, like Augustus, young</div>
-      <div class='line'>Was call’d to empire, and had governed long;</div>
-      <div class='line'>In prose and verse, was own’d, without dispute,</div>
-      <div class='line'>Through all the realms of nonsense, absolute.</div>
-    </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_131'>131</span>Although these lines be written of Flecknoe, Shadwell is the hero of
-the piece, introduced as if selected by Flecknoe to succeed him on
-the throne of dulness. Richard Flecknoe was an Irish priest, well
-known about the court; but notwithstanding Cibber’s assertion in
-his Lives of the Poets, he was never poet laureat. The above is the
-story told by all the biographers; but if Mr. Malone’s laborious and
-minute researches have been pursued with his usual accuracy, they
-have been mistaken in the date of the publication, which he fixes in
-October, 1682. If this be correct, the satire must have been a sportive
-anticipation of an event, which its author little expected to come to
-pass; and not the ebullition of revenge for the loss of an honourable and
-lucrative employment. Taking the earlier as the true date, we might
-suspect that the prophecy was fulfilled in the person of Shadwell, as a
-vindictive aggravation of the deposed laureat’s fall. Yet it is difficult
-to reconcile it to probability that Dryden should have dishonoured an
-office which he had been holding for the last twelve years, and must
-then have calculated on holding for his life, by a fictitious successive
-inauguration of two blockheads, who “never deviated into sense.”</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Pope’s Dunciad, though more extended in its plan, and more diversified
-in its incidents, was professedly written in imitation of this poem.
-The leisure and pains bestowed on his performance gave the imitator
-the superiority in point of elaborate execution; but there are bursts of
-pleasantry in MacFlecknoe, and sallies of wit and humour, equal if not
-superior to any thing in Pope or Boileau, or perhaps in any poet excepting
-Horace. Dr. Joseph Warton says of it, that “in point of satire, both
-oblique and direct, contempt and indignation, clear diction, and melodious
-versification, this poem is perhaps the best of its kind in any
-language.”</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Dr. Johnson doubts whether Dryden was the translator of the Life
-of Francis Xavier, by Father Bouhours, to which his name is affixed.
-The borrowing of popular names for title-pages was very prevalent in
-those days, and the loan probably not without profit to the lenders.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>In 1693 a translation of Juvenal and Persius appeared. The first,
-third, sixth, tenth, and sixteenth satires of Juvenal, and the whole of
-Persius, are Dryden’s: also the Dedication to Lord Dorset, a long and
-ingenious discourse, in which the writer gives an account of a design,
-which he never carried into effect, of writing an epic poem either on
-Arthur or the Black Prince. Lord Dorset well deserved the compliment
-of so masterly a dedication; for he continued to patronise the
-poet in the reverse of his fortunes, and allowed him an annuity equal
-to the salary which he had lost.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>In 1694 Dryden published a prose translation of Du Fresnoy’s Art
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_132'>132</span>of Painting, with a Preface, exhibiting a parallel between painting and
-poetry. Pope addressed a copy of verses to Jervas, the painter, in
-praise of this work.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The most laborious of Dryden’s works, the translation of Virgil,
-was given to the world in 1697. The Pastorals were dedicated to
-Lord Clifford, the Georgics to Lord Chesterfield, and the Æneid to
-Lord Mulgrave: an economical and lucrative combination of flattery
-which the wits suffered not to pass unnoticed. The translation had an
-extensive sale, and has since passed through many editions. Like
-most of Dryden’s longer productions, it has many careless passages,
-which do not well accord with an original so remarkable for finish
-and correctness; but it still stands its ground, and is a stock-book in
-the face of the more careful and perhaps more scholarlike performances
-of Warton, Sotheby, and Pitt.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Besides the original pieces and translations already mentioned,
-Dryden wrote many others, the most important of which were published
-in six volumes of Miscellanies, to which he was the principal
-contributor. They consist of translations from the Greek and Latin
-poets; epistles, prologues, and epilogues; odes, elegies, epitaphs, and
-songs. Alexander’s Feast, an ode for Saint Cecilia’s Day, displays
-one of the highest flights within the compass of lyric poetry. Dryden,
-although no lover of labour, is said to have devoted a fortnight to this
-masterpiece. Yet the poetic fervour is so supported throughout, that
-it reads as if struck off at a heat; so much so, that the few negligences
-which escaped the enthusiasm of the writer are scarcely ever noticed.
-Dr. Johnson, seldom carried beyond the wariness of criticism by the
-inspiration of his author, did not discover that some of the lines are
-without correspondent rhymes, till after an acquaintance with it of
-many years. The splendour of this poem eclipsed that of his first
-ode for Saint Cecilia’s Day, which would have fixed the fame of
-any other poet. In Alexander’s Feast the versification is brilliantly
-worked up, and abruptly varied, according to the rapid transitions of
-the subject; the language is natural though elevated, and the sentiments
-are suited to the age and occasion. Had Dryden never written
-another line, his name would yet be as undying as the tongue in
-which he wrote. His Fables in English verse from Homer, Ovid,
-Boccaccio, and Chaucer, were his last work; they were published
-in 1698. The preface gives a critical account of the authors from
-whom the Fables are translated. In this work he furnished us
-with the first example of the revival of ancient English writers
-by modernizing their language. Yet those readers who can master
-Chaucer’s phraseology, and have an ear so practised as to catch the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_133'>133</span>tune of his verse, will like him better in the simplicity of his native
-garb, than in the elaborate splendour of his borrowed costume.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Dryden was a voluminous writer in prose as well as in verse, and
-quite as great a master of the English language in the former as in
-the latter. His performances in prose consist of Dedications, Prefaces,
-and controversial pieces; the Lives of Plutarch and Lucian,
-prefixed to the translation of those authors by several hands; the Life
-of Polybius, prefixed to the translation of that historian by Sir Henry
-Shears; and the Preface to Walsh’s Dialogue concerning Women.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Dryden died on the 1st of May, 1701, and was buried in Westminster
-Abbey. He married Lady Elizabeth Howard, daughter to the Earl
-of Berkshire. He had three sons by this lady; Charles, John, and
-Henry. They were all educated at Rome, where John died of a fever.
-He translated the fourteenth satire of Juvenal, and was author of a
-comedy. Charles translated the seventh satire. There is a confused
-story respecting some vexatious and tumultuary incidents occurring at
-Dryden’s funeral, which rests on no satisfactory authority; and, even
-if true, would occupy more room in the detail, than would square either
-with our limits or its own importance.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Dryden was the father of English criticism; and his Essay on
-Dramatic Poetry is the first regular and judicious treatise in our language
-on the art of writing. Although, after so many valuable discourses
-have been delivered to the public on the same subject during
-the century and a half which has elapsed since his original attempts,
-his prose works may now be read more for the charm of their pure
-idiomatic English, than for their novelty or instructive matter, yet the
-merits of a discoverer must not be underrated because his discoveries
-have been extended, or his inventions improved upon. Before his time,
-those who wished to arrive at just principles of taste, or a rational
-code of criticism, if they were unacquainted with the works of the
-ancients and the modern languages of Italy and France, had no guides
-to lead them on their way. Dryden communicated to his own
-learning, which, though not deep nor accurate, was various and extensive,
-the magic of his style and the popular attraction of his mother
-tongue: the Spectator followed his lead, in essays less diffusive, and
-therefore more within the reach of the million: in our day, such is the
-accumulation of material, and so cheap and copious the power of circulating
-knowledge, that the poorest man who can read may inform his
-mind on subjects of general literature, to the enlargement of his understanding,
-and the improvement of his morals. But we must not
-forget our obligations to those who began that hoard, whence we
-have the privilege of drawing at will.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_134'>134</span>With respect to those prose works of our author which are devoted to
-controversy, their interest has quite passed away, farther than as they may
-evince his powers in argument, or command of language. Dr. Johnson
-gives a just estimate of his general character. “He appears to
-have a mind very comprehensive by nature, and much enriched with
-acquired knowledge. His compositions are the effects of a vigorous
-genius, operating upon large materials.”</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Dryden’s works have been constantly before the public, in various
-shapes and successive editions. Those best deserving a place in the
-library are, his Prose Works in four volumes, edited by Mr. Malone;
-his Poetical Works in four volumes, with notes, by Dr. Joseph
-Warton, and his son, the Rev. John Warton; and the whole of his
-Works in eighteen volumes octavo, by Sir Walter Scott. The earlier
-authorities for his Life are Wood’s <span lang="la" xml:lang="la">Athenæ Oxonienses</span>; the Biographia
-Britannica; and a Life by Derrick, poorly executed, prefixed to
-Tonson’s edition, in 1760. Johnson’s admirable Essay on this subject
-is in the hands of every reader, and is one of the most masterly among
-his Lives of the Poets. He was peculiarly well qualified to appreciate
-a writer in whom, to use his own words, “strong reason rather predominated
-than quick sensibility.” Scott also has written a copious
-Life, occupying the first volume of his edition of Dryden’s Works.</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/i_134.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic001'>
-<p>[Monument of Dryden in Westminster Abbey.]</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/i_135fp.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic001'>
-<p><em>Engraved by T. Woolnoth.</em><br /><br />LA PÉROUSE.<br /><br /><em>From a Miniature in the possession of<br />La Perouse’s niece at Alby.</em><br /><br />Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.<br /><br /><em>London, Published by Charles Knight, Ludgate Street, &amp; Pall Mall East.</em></p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id002'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_135'>135</span>
-<img src='images/i_135.jpg' alt='La Perouse.' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <h2 class='c005'>LA PEROUSE.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c009'>The latter half of the last century was distinguished by a rekindling
-of that spirit of maritime discovery which, active at the close of the
-sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth centuries, had lain comparatively
-dormant for many years. The voyages of Wallis and
-Carteret, the circumnavigation of the globe by Anson, had done something
-to enlarge our knowledge, and to recall to mind the discoveries
-of Dampier, Tasman, and other early navigators of the western world.
-The leading objects, however, of those voyages were political and
-warlike; the information gleaned in them was secondary and incidental;
-and the first expedition sent out expressly for scientific
-purposes was that under the command of Cook, of which we have
-formerly given a short account. The brilliant success of that admirable
-navigator roused France to emulation; and, under the auspices
-of Louis XVI., a voyage of discovery was planned, and entrusted to
-La Perouse, a name well known for the interest excited by his mysterious
-disappearance, and for the frequent and (for a long time)
-fruitless attempts which have been made to trace his fate, and which
-interest has been recently renewed, by the unexpected discovery of the
-place and manner in which he perished.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Jean Francois Galaup de la Perouse was born at Albi, in 1741,
-where he entered the French marine in 1756; and, after passing
-regularly through the subordinate ranks, in the course of which
-he saw some active service, was promoted to the command of a
-frigate in 1778. In that year hostilities broke out between France
-and England, in the course of which La Perouse had the honour of
-capturing more than one British ship of war. In 1782 he was
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_136'>136</span>appointed to command a small squadron sent to attack our settlements
-in Hudson’s Bay. The object of the expedition was trifling, being
-confined to the capture of a few insignificant forts, which made no
-resistance. But La Perouse had the opportunity of displaying his
-merits as a seaman in the successful navigation of a tempestuous and
-icy sea, rendered more dangerous by the prevalence of thick fogs;
-and the credit which he thus acquired caused him to be selected as a
-proper leader in an intended voyage of discovery. He is entitled to
-still higher praise for his humanity, in leaving a provision of food and
-arms for the support and protection of those English residents who
-had fled into the woods on his approach.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The expedition in question was planned in conformity with the
-views of Louis XVI. Attached to the science, and well versed
-in the study of geography, he was desirous, on behalf of France, at
-once of emulating the glory which England had just acquired through
-Cook’s discoveries, and of opening new channels for her commerce in
-the most distant regions. A rough draft of the intended course was
-made out in conformity with the king’s views, and submitted to his
-perusal; and the nature of the scheme is concisely explained in a few
-sentences appended to the document by Louis himself. “To sum
-up the contents of this paper, and my own observations on them, the
-objects in view belong to the two heads of commerce and discovery.
-Of the former class there are two principal ones: the whale fishery
-in the southern ocean, and the trade in furs in the north-west of
-America, for transport to China, and, if possible, to Japan. Among
-the points to be explored, the principal are the north-west of America,
-which falls in with the commercial part of the scheme; the seas
-round Japan, which do the same, but I think the season proposed
-for this in the paper is ill chosen; the Solomon Islands, and the
-south-west of New Holland. All other objects must be made subordinate
-to these: we must confine ourselves to what is most useful, and
-can be accomplished without difficulty in the three years proposed.”</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>La Perouse’s official instructions were only a development of this
-sketch. Men of science were invited to communicate their views
-as to the objects to be pursued, and the best manner of pursuing
-them; and the expedition was fitted out with every appliance calculated
-to promote its success. It consisted of two frigates, La
-Boussole, commanded by La Perouse, and L’Astrolabe, commanded
-by an accomplished officer, his friend, named Delangle; each of them
-with a complement of a hundred men. They sailed August 1, 1785,
-doubled Cape Horn without adventures worthy of notice, and cast
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_137'>137</span>anchor in the Bay of La Conception, February 22, 1786. Hence he
-steered northward, touching at Easter and the Sandwich islands,
-until he reached the coast of America, at Mount St. Elias, in about the
-sixtieth degree of north latitude. In prosecution of the first part of
-his instructions, he ran down southwards, examining the coast minutely,
-to the harbour of Monterey, in California, a distance between
-five and six hundred leagues: hence he sailed for Japan, September
-24. In crossing the Pacific, the group of small islands named
-after the statesman Necker was discovered. During this run, the
-two frigates, which were instructed always to keep close to each other,
-were in imminent danger of being wrecked on an unknown reef.
-They were upon it so suddenly, that La Boussole was thought scarcely
-to have cleared the rock by a hundred fathoms. They reached Macao
-without more adventures, visited Manilla, where they spent some time,
-and then set sail for the Japanese isles, and the coast of Tartary, a
-part of the globe little known, except through the reports of missionaries.
-La Perouse sailed up the narrow channel, called the Gulf of
-Tartary, lying between the Asiatic continent and the almost unknown
-island of Segalien, or Sagalin. His progress was stopped by shoals,
-consisting of the deposits brought down by the river Amoor; but he
-went far enough to be satisfied that Sagalin is not united to the continent;
-and his belief has since been shown to be correct. He discovered
-and gave his own name to the strait which separates that
-island from the neighbouring one of Jesso, or Matsmai; and having
-thus ascertained that the land to the north of the principal island of
-Japan, hitherto believed to be one island, consisted of two, he sailed
-northward, traversing the Kurile Islands, visited Kamtschatka, and
-passing southwards by the Friendly Islands, dropped anchor in
-Botany Bay, January 16, 1788.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>It should be mentioned that from the harbour of St. Peter and St.
-Paul, in Kamtschatka, M. de Lesseps was dispatched home overland,
-bearing the navigator’s charts and journals up to the period of their
-arrival at that place. To this precaution the world owes that any
-record of La Perouse’s wanderings and discoveries has been preserved;
-for neither vessel ever was seen or heard of, after they left
-Botany Bay. The last communication which reached home from La
-Perouse was dated February 7, 1788; and expressed his intention of
-returning to the Friendly Islands, of exploring the southern coast
-of New Caledonia, and the Louisiade of Bougainville. He proposed
-to coast the western side of New Holland to Van Dieman’s Land, so
-as to arrive at the Mauritius in the close of the same year. Of this
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_138'>138</span>scheme but a small portion could have been executed. Both ships
-were lost, there is every reason to believe, on the island of Mallicolo,
-or Vanicoro, one of the New Hebrides, a group lying about the sixteenth
-degree of south latitude; but the exact time and circumstances
-remain unknown, for not one of the crews ever reached an European
-settlement. When the non-arrival of La Perouse in France began
-to be the subject of alarm, an expedition was fitted out under Admiral
-d’Entrecasteaux, with orders strictly to pursue the route laid down
-above, and to use every means of ascertaining the fate of, and if they
-yet lived, ministering relief to, his unfortunate countrymen. The
-service was performed with zeal and ability, but without success.
-Chance led a private English trader to the solution of this question,
-vainly, yet anxiously, sought for many years.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>In 1813, Mr. Dillon, a subordinate officer on board a Calcutta
-trading vessel, escaped almost by miracle from an affray with the
-natives of the Fegee, or Beetee islands, a group lying to the west of
-the Friendly Islands, about the eighteenth degree of south latitude, in
-which fourteen of the ship’s crew were killed, and of his immediate
-companions only two survived. One of these was a Prussian, named
-Martin Busshart, who had been for some time on the island where
-this tragical event occurred. This man, certain of being sacrificed
-to the revenge of the natives, of whom many were killed, if he
-remained there, requested to be transported to some other spot; and
-he was put ashore upon an island named Tucopia. In time Mr.
-Dillon became owner and commander of a vessel named the St.
-Patrick, and being again in those seas, he visited Tucopia in May,
-1826, to procure some tidings of his old companion in danger. Here
-a silver sword-guard was offered for sale. Inquiry being made how
-the article was obtained, it was replied, that “when the old men in
-Tucopia were boys,” two ships had been wrecked on an island not
-very far off, called Mallicolo, or Vanicoro, and that there yet remained
-large quantities of the wreck. Captain Dillon guessed that these
-might be La Perouse’s vessels, and made sail for the island pointed
-out; but he was baffled by adverse circumstances, and forced to
-pursue his course to Calcutta without obtaining the desired satisfaction.
-Arrived at the capital of India, he laid before the government
-information and evidence which was deemed sufficiently conclusive
-to warrant the fitting out a ship, named the Research, with
-the design of fetching off two white men, who were said to have
-escaped, and to be living on the island; or, at least, to seek, by inquiry
-on the spot, some conclusive evidence of the fate of La Perouse.
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_139'>139</span>Captain Dillon reached Vanicoro, and obtained an ample harvest of
-European articles, both in wood and metal. The tale told by the
-natives was simple and probable: “A long time ago the people of
-this island, upon coming out one morning, saw part of a ship on the
-reef opposite to Paiow, where it held together till the middle of the
-day, when it was broken by the sea, fell to pieces, and large parts of it
-floated on shore along the coast. The ship got on the reef in the
-night, when it blew a tremendous hurricane, which broke down a
-considerable number of our fruit-trees. We had not seen the ship
-the day before. Four men were saved from her, and were on the
-beach at this place, whom we were about to kill, supposing them to
-be spirits, when they made a present to our chief of something, and
-thus saved their lives. They lived with us a short time, and then
-joined their people at Paiow, who built a small ship there, and went
-away in it. The things which we sell you now have been procured
-from the ship wrecked on that reef, on which, at low water, our people
-were in the habit of diving, and bringing up what they could find.
-The same night another ship struck on a reef near Whannow, and
-went down. There were several men saved from her, who built a
-little ship and went away, five moons after the big one was lost.
-While building it they had a great fence of trees round them, to
-keep off the islanders, who being equally afraid of them, they consequently
-kept up but little intercourse. The white men used often
-to look at the sun through something, but we have none of those things.
-Two white men remained behind after the last went away: the one
-was a chief, and the other a common man, who used to attend on the
-white chief, who died about three years ago. The chief, with whom
-the white man resided, was obliged, about two years and a half ago,
-to fly from his country, and was accompanied by the white man. The
-only white people the inhabitants of this island have ever seen were,
-first, the people of the wrecked ship; and, secondly, those before me
-now.”—Dillon’s Discovery of the Fate of La Perouse, vol. ii. p. 194.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Whannow and Paiow are two villages about ten nautical miles
-distant from each other in a straight line, on the western side of the
-island, which is nearly surrounded by an abrupt and dangerous coral
-reef. The climate is reported to be wet and hazy, so that probably
-the sufferers were not aware of their approach to danger till all chance
-of escape was past. The story just related is consistent and probable,
-and it was confirmed by examination of the shore at Paiow, where a
-small cleared space, of about an acre (the only one on the island), was
-found, in a place well suited for building and launching a ship; and
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_140'>140</span>in the neighbourhood of which stumps of trees, evidently felled with
-axes many years before, were discovered. The spot where one of the
-ships had struck was ascertained, and some heavy articles, as guns,
-raised in the shallow water on the reef. No trace of the others could
-be found; and it was said by the natives to have gone down in deep
-water. Captain Dillon returned to Calcutta, and thence to England,
-bringing the articles he had obtained along with him.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>No doubt can be entertained but that two French ships, apparently
-ships of war, were wrecked at Vanicoro. There are no other vessels
-whose loss is to be accounted for, and the apparent length of time since
-their destruction, corresponds with the date of La Perouse’s expedition.
-There is therefore the strongest presumptive evidence for concluding
-that the fate of that intrepid navigator is at length revealed: but the
-articles collected, though indisputably belonging to French ships,
-could not be conclusively identified as having been on board La Boussole
-and L’Astrolabe. It was suggested that the point might be
-determined by comparing the marks of the cannon with the registers
-of the French ordnance, in which the numbers and weight of the
-guns supplied to each ship would of course be set down. We do not
-know whether, or with what success, this has been done. But the
-French government appears to have been satisfied; for on visiting
-Paris Captain Dillon received the personal thanks of Charles X., and
-the cross of the Legion of Honour, together with a liberal pecuniary
-reward for his exertions.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The French, even during the excitement of the early part of the
-revolution, manifested a lively interest for La Perouse and his crew.
-D’Entrecasteaux, we have said, was sent out expressly in quest of
-them; and a reward was offered to whosoever should bring intelligence
-of their fate, which Captain Dillon was the first to claim.
-A narrative of the voyage, compiled from the papers brought home
-by M. de Lesseps, was printed in four quarto volumes, with an atlas,
-at Paris, 1797, at the national expense, and a certain number of copies
-being reserved, the rest of the impression was presented to La Perouse’s
-widow, who continued to receive her husband’s pay. Recently the
-“Voyage de la Perouse” has been compiled from the original documents,
-with notes by M. de Lesseps, in an octavo volume, with an
-Appendix, containing an account of Captain Dillon’s researches, and
-of the voyage of a French ship, L’Astrolabe, which was engaged at
-the same time in the same office. To this work, to Captain Dillon’s
-publication above quoted, and to the “<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Bulletins de la Société de Géographie<a id='t140'></a></span>,”
-we refer the readers for a full account of all that is known
-of the progress and catastrophe of this celebrated expedition.</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/i_141fp.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic001'>
-<p><em>Engraved by W. Holl.</em><br /><br />CRANMER.<br /><br /><em>From an original Picture in the Collection<br />at Lambeth Palace.</em><br /><br />Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.<br /><br /><em>London, Published by Charles Knight, Ludgate Street, &amp; Pall Mall East.</em></p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id002'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_141'>141</span>
-<img src='images/i_141.jpg' alt='CRANMER.' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <h2 class='c005'>CRANMER.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c009'>Thomas Cranmer was born July 2, 1489, at Aslacton, in Nottinghamshire.
-He was descended from an ancient family, which had
-long been resident in that county. At the age of fourteen he was
-sent to Jesus College, Cambridge; where he obtained a fellowship,
-which he soon vacated by marriage with a young woman who
-is said to have been of humble condition. Within a year after his
-marriage he became a widower, and was immediately, by unusual
-favour, restored to his fellowship. In 1523, he was admitted to the
-degree of doctor of divinity, and appointed one of the public examiners
-in that faculty. Here he found an opportunity of showing the
-fruits of that liberal course of study which he had been for some time
-pursuing. As soon as his teachers left him at liberty, he had wandered
-from the works of the schoolmen to the ancient classics and
-the Bible; and, thus prepared for the office of examiner, he alarmed
-the candidates for degrees in theology by the novelty of requiring
-from them some knowledge of the Scriptures.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>It was from this useful employment that he was called to take part
-in the memorable proceedings of Henry the Eighth, in the matter of
-his divorce from Catherine.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Henry had been counselled to lay his case before the universities,
-both at home and abroad. Cranmer, to whom the subject had been
-mentioned by Gardiner and Fox, went a step farther, and suggested
-that he should receive their decision as sufficient without reference to
-the Pope. This suggestion was communicated to the king, who,
-observing, with his usual elegance of expression, that the man had got
-the sow by the right ear, summoned Cranmer to his presence, and
-immediately received him into his favour and confidence.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>In 1531, Cranmer accompanied the unsuccessful embassy to Rome,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_142'>142</span>and in the following year was appointed ambassador to the Emperor.
-In August, 1532, the archbishopric of Canterbury became vacant by
-the death of Warham, and it was Henry’s pleasure to raise Cranmer
-to the primacy. The latter seems to have been truly unwilling to
-accept his promotion; and when he found that no reluctance on his
-part could shake the king’s resolution, he suggested a difficulty which
-there were no very obvious means of removing. The Archbishop
-must receive his investiture from the Pope, and at his consecration
-take an oath of fidelity to his Holiness, altogether inconsistent with
-another oath, taken at the same time, of allegiance to the king. All
-this had been done without scruple by other bishops; but Cranmer
-was already convinced that the Papal authority in England was a
-mere usurpation, and plainly told Henry that he would receive the
-archbishopric from him alone. Henry was not a man to be stopped by
-scruples of conscience of his own or others; so he consulted certain
-casuists, who settled the matter by suggesting that Cranmer should
-take the obnoxious oath, with a protest that he meant nothing by it.
-He yielded to the command of his sovereign and the judgment of the
-casuists. His protest was read by himself three times in the most public
-manner, and solemnly recorded. It is expedient to notice that the
-transaction was public, because some historians, to make a bad matter
-worse, still talk of a private protest.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>In 1533, he pronounced sentence of divorce against the unhappy
-Catherine, and confirmed the marriage of the king with Anne Boleyn.
-He was now at leisure to contemplate all the difficulties of his
-situation. It is commonly said that Cranmer himself had, at this time,
-made but small progress in Protestantism. It is true that he yet
-adhered to many of the peculiar doctrines of the Roman Church;
-but he had reached, and firmly occupied, a position which placed him
-by many degrees nearer to the reformed faith than to that in which
-he had been educated. By recognising the Scriptures alone as the
-standard of the Christian faith, he had embraced the very principle
-out of which Protestantism flows. It had already led him to the
-Protestant doctrine respecting the pardon of sin, which necessarily
-swept away all respect for a large portion of the machinery of
-Romanism. As a religious reformer, Cranmer could look for no
-cordial and honest support from the king. Every one knows that
-Henry, when he left the Pope, had no mind to estrange himself more
-than was necessary from the Papal Church, and that the cause of
-religious reformation owes no more gratitude to him, than the cause of
-political liberty owes to those tyrants who, for their own security, and
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_143'>143</span>often by very foul means, have laboured to crush the power of equally
-tyrannical nobles. From Gardiner, who, with his party, had been
-most active and unscrupulous in helping the king to his divorce and
-destroying papal supremacy, Cranmer had nothing to expect but open
-or secret hostility, embittered by personal jealousy. Cromwell, indeed,
-was ready to go with him any lengths in reform consistent with his
-own safety; but a sincere reformer must have been occasionally
-hampered by an alliance with a worldly and unconscientious politician.
-The country at large was in a state of unusual excitement; but the
-rupture with Rome was regarded with at least as much alarm as
-satisfaction; and it was notorious that many, who were esteemed for
-their wisdom and piety, considered the position of the church to be
-monstrous and unnatural. The Lollards, who had been driven into
-concealment, but not extinguished, by centuries of persecution, and the
-Lutherans, wished well to Cranmer’s measures of reform: but he was
-not equally friendly to them. They had outstripped him in the search
-of truth; and he was unhappily induced to sanction at least a miserable
-persecution of those men with whom he was afterwards to be numbered
-and to suffer.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>His first and most pressing care was by all means to reconcile the
-minds of men to the assertion of the king’s ecclesiastical supremacy,
-because all further changes must necessarily proceed from the royal
-authority. He then addressed himself to what seem to have been the
-three great objects of his official exertions,—the reformation of the
-clerical body, so as to make their ministerial services more useful;
-the removal of the worst part of the prevailing superstitious observances,
-which were a great bar to the introduction of a more
-spiritual worship; and above all, the free circulation of the Scriptures
-among the people in their own language. In this last object he was
-opportunely assisted by the printing of what is called Matthews’s Bible,
-by Grafton and Whitchurch. He procured, through the intervention
-of Cromwell, the king’s licence for the publication, and an injunction
-that a copy of it should be placed in every parish church. He hailed
-this event with unbounded joy; and to Cromwell, for the active part
-he took in the matter, he says, in a letter, “This deed you shall hear of
-at the great day, when all things shall be opened and made manifest.”</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>He had hardly witnessed the partial success of the cause of Reformation,
-when his influence over the king, and with it the cause which
-he had at heart, began to decline. He had no friendly feeling for those
-monastic institutions which the rapacity of Henry had marked for
-destruction; but he knew that their revenues might, as national
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_144'>144</span>property, be applied advantageously to the advancement of learning
-and religion, and he opposed their indiscriminate transfer to the
-greedy hands of the sycophants of the court. This opposition gave to
-the more unscrupulous of the Romanists an opportunity to recover
-their lost ground with the king, of which they were not slow to avail
-themselves. They were strong enough at least to obtain from Parliament,
-in 1539, (of course through the good will of their despotic
-master,) the act of the Six Articles, not improperly called the
-“Bloody Articles,” in spite of the determined opposition of Cranmer:
-an opposition which he refused to withdraw even at the express command
-of the king. Latimer and Shaxton immediately resigned their
-bishoprics. One of the clauses of this act, relating to the marriage of
-priests, inflicted a severe blow even on the domestic happiness of Cranmer.
-In his last visit to the continent, he had taken, for his second
-wife, a niece of the celebrated divine Osiander. By continuing to
-cohabit with her, he would now, by the law of the land, be guilty of
-felony; she was therefore sent back to her friends in Germany.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>From this time till the death of Henry in 1546, Cranmer could do
-little more than strive against a stream which not only thwarted his plans
-of further reformation, but endangered his personal safety; and he had
-to strive alone, for Latimer and other friends among the clergy had
-retired from the battle, and Cromwell had been removed from it by the
-hands of the executioner. He was continually assailed by open
-accusation and secret conspiracy. On one occasion his enemies
-seemed to have compassed his ruin, when Henry himself interposed
-and rescued him from their malice. His continued personal regard
-for Cranmer, after he had in a measure rejected him from his confidence,
-is a remarkable anomaly in the life of this extraordinary king;
-of whom, on a review of his whole character, we are obliged to
-acknowledge, that in his best days he was a heartless voluptuary, and
-that he had become, long before his death, a remorseless and sanguinary
-tyrant. It is idle to talk of the complaisance of the servant
-to his master, as a complete solution of the difficulty. That he was,
-indeed, on some occasions subservient beyond the strict line of
-integrity, even his friends must confess; and for the part which he
-condescended to act in the iniquitous divorce of Anne of Cleves, no
-excuse can be found but the poor one of the general servility of the
-times: that infamous transaction has left an indelible stain of disgrace
-on the Archbishop, the Parliament, and the Convocation. But
-Cranmer could oppose as well as comply: his conduct in the case of
-the Six Articles, and his noble interference in favour of Cromwell
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_145'>145</span>between the tiger and his prey, would seem to have been sufficient to
-ruin the most accommodating courtier. Perhaps Henry had discovered
-that Cranmer had more real attachment to his person than any of his
-unscrupulous agents, and he may have felt pride in protecting one
-who, from his unsuspicious disposition and habitual mildness, was
-obviously unfit, in such perilous times, to protect himself. His
-mildness indeed was such, that it was commonly said, “Do my Lord
-of Canterbury a shrewd turn, and you make him your friend for life.”</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>On the accession of Edward new commissions were issued, at the
-suggestion of Cranmer, to himself and the other bishops, by which
-they were empowered to receive again their bishoprics, as though they
-had ceased with the demise of the crown, and to hold them during the
-royal pleasure. His object of course was to settle at once the question
-of the new king’s supremacy, and the proceeding was in conformity
-with an opinion which at one time he undoubtedly entertained, that
-there are no distinct orders of bishops and priests, and that the office
-of bishop, so far as it is distinguished from that of priests, is simply of
-civil origin. The government was now directed by the friends of Reformation,
-Cranmer himself being one of the Council of Regency; but
-still his course was by no means a smooth one. The unpopularity, which
-the conduct of the late king had brought on the cause, was even aggravated
-by the proceedings of its avowed friends during the short reign of
-his son. The example of the Protector Somerset was followed by a herd
-of courtiers, and not a few ecclesiastics, in making reform a plea for the
-most shameless rapacity, rendered doubly hateful by the hypocritical
-pretence of religious zeal. The remonstrances of Cranmer were of course
-disregarded; but his powerful friends were content that, whilst they
-were filling their pockets, he should complete, if he could, the establishment
-of the reformed church. Henry had left much for the Reformers
-to do. Some, indeed, of the peculiar doctrines of Romanism had been
-modified, and some of its superstitious observances abolished. The
-great step gained was the general permission to read the Scriptures;
-and, though even that had been partially recalled, it was impossible to
-recall the scriptural knowledge and the spirit of inquiry to which it
-had given birth. With the assistance of some able divines, particularly
-of his friend and chaplain Ridley, afterwards Bishop of London,
-Cranmer was able to bring the services and discipline of the church,
-well as the articles of faith, nearly to the state in which we now see
-them. In doing this he had to contend at once with the determined
-hostility of the Romanists, with dissensions in his own party, and
-conscientious opposition from sincere friends of the cause. In these
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_146'>146</span>difficult circumstances his conduct was marked generally by moderation,
-good judgment, and temper. But it must be acknowledged that
-he concurred in proceedings against some of the Romanists, especially
-against Gardiner, which were unfair and oppressive. In the composition
-of the New Service Book, as it was then generally called, and of
-the Articles, we know not what parts were the immediate work of
-Cranmer; but we have good evidence that he was the author of three
-of the Homilies, those of Salvation, of Faith, and of Good Works.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>It should be observed, that Cranmer, though he early set out from a
-principle which might be expected eventually to lead him to the full
-extent of doctrinal reformation, made his way slowly and by careful
-study of the Scriptures, of which he left behind sufficient proof, to that
-point at which we find him in the reign of Edward. It is certain that
-during the greater part, if not the whole, of Henry’s reign, he agreed
-with the Romanists in the doctrine of the corporal presence and
-transubstantiation.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The death of Edward ushered in the storms which troubled the
-remainder of his days. All the members of the council affixed their
-signatures to the will of the young king, altering the order of succession
-in favour of the Lady Jane Grey. Cranmer’s accession to
-this illegal measure, the suggestion of the profligate Northumberland,
-cannot be justified, nor did he himself attempt to justify it. He appears,
-weakly and with great reluctance, to have yielded up his better
-judgment to the will of his colleagues, and the opinion of the judges.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Mary had not been long on the throne before Cranmer was committed
-to the Tower, attainted of high treason, brought forth to take
-part in what seems to have been little better than a mockery of disputation,
-and then sent to Oxford, where, with Latimer and Ridley,
-he was confined in a common prison. The charge of high treason,
-which might undoubtedly have been maintained, was not followed up,
-and it was not, perhaps, the intention of the government at any time
-to act upon it: it was their wish that he should fall as a heretic. At
-Oxford he was repeatedly brought before commissioners delegated
-by the Convocation, and, in what were called examinations and disputations,
-was subjected to the most unworthy treatment. On the 20th
-of April, 1554, Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer were publicly required to
-recant, and on their refusal were condemned as heretics. The commission
-however having been illegally made out, it was thought expedient
-to stay the execution till a new one had been obtained; which,
-in the case of Cranmer, was issued by the Pope. He was consequently
-dragged through the forms of another trial and examination; summoned,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_147'>147</span>whilst still a close prisoner, to appear within eighty days at
-Rome; and then, by a sort of legal fiction, not more absurd perhaps
-than some which still find favour in our own courts, declared contumacious
-for failing to appear. Finally, he was degraded, and delivered
-over to the secular power. That no insult might be spared him,
-Bonner was placed on the commission for his degradation, in which
-employment he seems to have surpassed even his usual brutality.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Cranmer had now been a prisoner for more than two years, during
-the whole of which his conduct appears to have been worthy of the
-high office which he had held, and the situation in which he was
-placed. Whilst he expressed contrition for his political offence, and
-was earnest to vindicate his loyalty, he maintained with temper and
-firmness those religious opinions which had placed him in such fearful
-peril. Of the change which has thrown a cloud over his memory,
-we know hardly any thing with certainty but the fact of his recantation.
-Little reliance can be placed on the detailed accounts of the circumstances
-which accompanied it. He was taken from his miserable cell
-in the prison to comfortable lodgings in Christchurch, where he is said
-to have been assailed with promises of pardon, and allured, by a treacherous
-show of kindness, into repeated acts of apostacy. In the mean
-while the government had decreed his death. On the 21st of March,
-1556, he was taken from his prison to St. Mary’s Church, and exhibited
-to a crowded audience, on an elevated platform, in front of the
-pulpit. After a sermon from Dr. Cole, the Provost of Eton, he uttered
-a short and affecting prayer on his knees; then rising, addressed an
-exhortation to those around him; and, finally, made a full and distinct
-avowal of his penitence and remorse for his apostacy, declaring, that
-the unworthy hand which had signed his recantation should be the
-first member that perished. Amidst the reproaches of his disappointed
-persecutors he was hurried from the church to the stake, where
-he fulfilled his promise by holding forth his hand to the flames. We
-have undoubted testimony that he bore his sufferings with inflexible
-constancy. A spectator of the Romanist party says, “If it had been
-either for the glory of God, the wealth of his country, or the testimony
-of the truth, as it was for a pernicious error, and subversion of true
-religion, I could worthily have commended the example, and matched
-it with the fame of any Father of ancient time.” He perished in his
-sixty-seventh year.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>All that has been left of his writings will be found in an edition of
-“The Remains of Archbishop Cranmer,” lately published at Oxford,
-in four volumes 8vo. They give proof that he was deeply imbued
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_148'>148</span>with the spirit of Protestantism, and that his opinions were the result
-of reflection and study; though the effect of early impressions occasionally
-appears, as in the manner of his appeals to the Apocryphal
-books, and a submission to the judgment of the early fathers, in a
-degree barely consistent with his avowed principles. See his First
-Letter to Queen Mary.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>This brief memoir does not pretend to supply the reader with materials
-for examining that difficult question, the character of the Archbishop.
-It is hardly necessary to refer him to such well-known books
-as Strype’s Life of Cranmer, and the recent works of Mr. Todd and
-Mr. Le Bas.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The time, it seems, has not arrived for producing a strictly impartial
-life of this celebrated man. Yet there is doubtless a much nearer
-agreement among candid inquirers, whether members of the Church
-of England or Roman Catholics, than the language of those who have
-told their thoughts to the public might lead us to expect. Those who
-are cool enough to understand that the credit and truth of their respective
-creeds are in no way interested in the matter, will probably allow,
-that the course of reform which Cranmer directed was justified to
-himself by his private convictions; and that his motive was a desire
-to establish what he really believed to be the truth. Beyond this they
-will acknowledge that there is room for difference of opinion. Some
-will see, in the errors of his life, only human frailty, not irreconcileable
-with a general singleness of purpose; occasional deviations from
-the habitual courage of a confirmed Christian. Others may honestly,
-and not uncharitably, suspect, that the habits of a court, and constant
-engagement in official business, may have somewhat marred the simplicity
-of his character, weakened the practical influence of religious
-belief, and caused him, whilst labouring for the improvement of others,
-to neglect his own; and hence they may account for his unsteadfastness
-in times of trial.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>In addition to the works mentioned above, we may name as easily
-accessible, among Protestant authorities, Burnet’s History of the
-Reformation; among Roman Catholic, Lingard’s History of England.
-Collier, in his Ecclesiastical History, stands, perhaps, more nearly on
-neutral ground, but can hardly be cited as an impartial historian.
-Though a Protestant, in his hatred and dread of all innovators, and
-especially of the Puritans, he seems ready to take refuge even with
-Popery; and examines always with jealousy, sometimes with malignity,
-the motives and conduct of Reformers, from his first notice of
-Wiclif to the close of his history.</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/i_149fp.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic001'>
-<p><em>Engraved by Rob<sup>t</sup>. Hart.</em><br /><br />TASSO.<br /><br /><em>From a Print by Raffaelle Morghen.</em><br /><br />Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.<br /><br /><em>London, Published by Charles Knight, Ludgate Street, &amp; Pall Mall East.</em></p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id002'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_149'>149</span>
-<img src='images/i_149.jpg' alt='TASSO.' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <h2 class='c005'>TASSO.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c009'>Torquato Tasso, born at Sorrento March 11, 1544, was the son of
-Bernardo Tasso by Portia de Rossi, a lady of a noble Neapolitan
-family. His father was a man of some note, both as a political and
-as a literary character; and his poem of ‘Amadigi,’ founded on the
-well-known romance of Amadis de Gaul, has been preferred by
-one partial critic even to the Orlando Furioso. Ferrante Sanseverino,
-Prince of Salerno, chose him for his secretary, and with him
-and for him Bernardo shared all the vicissitudes of fortune. That
-Prince having been deprived of his estates, and expelled from the
-kingdom of Naples by the court of Spain, Bernardo was involved
-in his proscription, and retired with him to Rome. Tarquato, then five
-years old, remained with his mother, who left Sorrento and went to
-reside with her family in Naples.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Bernardo Tasso having lost all hopes of ever returning to that capital,
-advised his wife to retire with his daughter into a nunnery, and to
-send Torquato to Rome. Our young poet suffered much in parting
-from his mother and sister; but, fulfilling the command of his parents,
-he joined his father in October, 1554. On this occasion he composed
-a canzone, in which he compared himself to Ascanius escaping from
-Troy with his father Æneas.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The fluctuating fortunes of the elder Tasso caused Torquato to visit
-successively Bergamo, the abode of his paternal relatives, and Pesaro,
-where his manners and intelligence made so favourable an impression,
-that the Duke of Pesaro chose him for companion to his son, then
-studying under the celebrated Corrado of Mantua. In 1559, he accompanied
-his father to Venice, and there perused the best Italian
-authors, especially Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio. The next year
-he went to the University of Padua, where, under Sperone Speroni,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_150'>150</span>and Sigonio, he studied Aristotle and the critics; and by Piccolomini
-and Pandasio he was taught the moral and philosophical doctrines of
-Socrates and Plato. However, notwithstanding his severer studies,
-Torquato never lost sight of his favourite art; and, at the age of seventeen,
-in ten months, he composed his <cite>Rinaldo</cite>, a poem in twelve
-cantos, founded on the then popular romances of Charlemagne and his
-Paladins. This work, which was published in 1562, excited great
-admiration, and gave rise to expectations which were justified by the
-Gerusalemme Liberata. The plan of that immortal poem was conceived,
-according to Serassi’s conjecture, in 1563, at Bologna, where
-Tasso was then prosecuting his studies. The first sketch of it is
-still preserved in a manuscript, dated 1563, in the Vatican Library,
-and printed at Venice in 1722. Unfortunately, while thus engaged,
-he was brought into collision with the civil authorities, in consequence
-of some satirical attacks on the University, which were falsely
-attributed to him. The charge was refuted, but not until his papers
-had been seized and himself imprisoned. This disgusted him with
-Bologna, and he returned to Padua in 1564. There he applied all
-his faculties to the accomplishment of his epic poem; collected immense
-materials from the Chronicles of the Crusades; and wrote, to
-exercise his critical powers, the <cite><span lang="it" xml:lang="it">Discorsi</span></cite> and the <cite><span lang="it" xml:lang="it">Trattato sulla Poesia</span></cite>.
-While thus engaged, the Cardinal Luigi d’Este appointed him a
-gentleman of his court. Speroni endeavoured to dissuade the young
-poet from accepting that office, by relating the many disappointments
-which he had himself experienced while engaged in a similar career.
-These remonstrances were vain. Tasso joined the Cardinal at Ferrara
-at the end of October, 1564, and soon attracted the favourable notice
-of the Duke Alphonso, brother of the Cardinal, and of their sisters;
-one of whom, the celebrated Eleonora, is commonly supposed to have
-exercised a lasting and unhappy influence over the poet’s life. Ferrara
-continued to be his chief place of abode till 1571, when he was summoned
-to accompany his patron the Cardinal to France. The gaieties
-of a court, celebrated in that age for its splendour, did not prevent his
-prosecuting his poetic studies with zeal; for it appears from his will,
-quoted by Mr. Stebbing, that, at his departure for France, he had
-written a considerable portion of the Gerusalemme, besides a variety
-of minor pieces. His reputation was already high at the court of
-France, where he was received by Charles IX. with distinguished
-attention. But he perceived, or fancied that he saw, a change in the
-Cardinal’s demeanour towards him, and, impatient of neglect, begged
-leave to return to Italy. In 1572, he was at Rome with the Cardinal
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_151'>151</span>Ippolito d’Este. In the same year he entered the service of the Duke
-of Ferrara, and resumed with zeal the completion and correction of
-the Gerusalemme.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>In 1573, Tasso wrote his beautiful pastoral drama <span lang="it" xml:lang="it">Aminta</span>. This
-new production added greatly to his reputation. He chose simple
-Nature for his model; and succeeded admirably in the imitation of her.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The Gerusalemme Liberata was completed in 1575. Tasso submitted
-it to the criticism of the most learned men of that age. The
-great confusion which prevailed in the remarks of his critics caused
-him extraordinary uneasiness and labour. To answer their objections,
-he wrote the <cite><span lang="it" xml:lang="it">Lettere Poetiche</span></cite>, which are the best key to the true
-interpretation of his poem.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>During 1575, Tasso visited Pavia, Padua, Bologna, and Rome,
-and in 1576 returned to Ferrara. His abode there never was a happy
-one; for his talents, celebrity, and the favour in which he was held,
-raised up enemies, who showed their spleen in petty underminings
-and annoyances, to which the poet’s susceptible temper lent a sting.
-He was attracted, however, by the kindness of the Duke and the
-society of the beautiful and accomplished Eleonora, the Duke’s sister,
-for whom the poet ventured, it is said, to declare an affection, which,
-according to some historians, did not remain unrequited. The portrait
-of Olinda, in the beautiful episode which relates her history, is
-generally understood to have been designed after this living model:
-while some have imagined that Tasso himself is not less clearly pictured
-in the description of her lover Sofronio. But about this time,
-whether from mental uneasiness, or from constitutional causes, his
-conduct began to be marked by a morbid irritability allied to madness.
-The Gerusalemme was surreptitiously printed without having
-received the author’s last corrections; and he entreated the Duke,
-and all his powerful friends, to prevent such an abuse. Alfonso and
-the Pope himself endeavoured to satisfy Tasso’s demands, but with
-little success. This circumstance, and other partly real, partly imaginary
-troubles, augmented so much his natural melancholy and apprehension,
-that he began to think that his enemies not only persecuted
-and calumniated him, but accused him of great crimes; he
-even imagined that they had the intention of denouncing his works
-to the Holy Inquisition. Under this impression he presented himself
-to the Inquisitor of Bologna; and having made a general confession,
-submitted his works to the examination of that holy father, and begged
-and obtained his absolution. His malady, for such we may surely call
-it, was continually exasperated by the arts of his rivals; and on one
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_152'>152</span>occasion, in the apartments of the Duchess of Urbino, he drew his
-sword on one of her attendants. He was immediately arrested;
-and subsequently sent to one of the Duke’s villas, where he was kindly
-treated and supplied with medical advice. But his fancied injuries
-(for in this case they do not seem to have been real) still pursued him;
-and he fled, destitute of every thing, from Ferrara, and hastened to his
-sister Cornelia, then living at Sorrento. Her care and tenderness very
-much soothed his mind and improved his health; but, unfortunately, he
-soon repented of his hasty flight, and returned to Ferrara, where his
-former malady soon regained its power. Dissatisfied with all about him,
-he again left that town; but, after having wandered for more than a year,
-he returned to Alfonso, by whom he was received with indifference
-and contempt. By nature sensitive, and much excited by his misfortunes,
-Tasso began to pour forth bitter invectives against the Duke
-and his court. Alfonso exercised a cruel revenge; for, instead of
-soothing the unhappy poet, he shut him up as a lunatic in the Hospital
-of St. Anne. This act merits our unqualified censure; for if Tasso
-had in truth any tendency to madness, what so likely to render it incurable
-as to shut him up in solitary confinement, in an unhealthy
-cell, deprived of his favourite books, and of every amusement? Yet,
-strange to say, notwithstanding his sufferings, mental and bodily, for
-more than seven years in that abode of misery and despair, his powers
-remained unbroken, his genius unimpaired; and even there he composed
-some pieces both in prose and verse, which were triumphantly
-appealed to by his friends in proof of his sanity. To this period we
-may probably refer the ‘<span lang="it" xml:lang="it">Veglie</span>,’ or ‘Watches’ of Tasso, the manuscript
-of which was discovered in the Ambrosian Library at Milan,
-towards the end of the last century. They are written in prose, and
-express the author’s melancholy thoughts in elegant and poetic language.
-The Gerusalemme had now been published and republished
-both in Italy and France, and Europe rang with its praises; yet the
-author lay almost perishing in close confinement, sick, forlorn, and
-destitute of every comfort.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>In 1584, Camillo Pellegrini, a Capuan nobleman, and a great admirer
-of Tasso’s genius, published a Dialogue on Epic Poetry, in
-which he placed the Gerusalemme far above the Orlando Furioso.
-This testimony from a man of literary distinction caused a great sensation
-among the friends and admirers of Ariosto. Two Academicians of
-the Crusca, Salviati and De Rossi, attacked the Gerusalemme in the
-name of the Academy, and assailed Tasso and his father in a gross
-strain of abuse. From the mad-house Tasso answered with great
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_153'>153</span>moderation; defended his father, his poem, and himself from these
-groundless invectives; and thus gave to the world the best proof of
-his soundness of mind, and of his manly philosophical spirit.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>At length, after being long importuned by the noblest minds of
-Italy, Alphonso released him in 1586, at the earnest entreaty of Don
-Vincenzo Gonzaga, son of the Duke of Mantua, at whose court the
-poet for a time took up his abode. There, through the kindness and
-attentions of his patron and friends, he improved so much in health
-and spirits, that he resumed his literary labours, and completed his
-father’s poem, Floridante, and his own tragedy, Torrismondo.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>But, with advancing age, Tasso became still more restless and
-impatient of dependence, and he conceived a desire to visit Naples, in
-the hope of obtaining some part of the confiscated property of his
-parents. Accordingly, having received permission from the Duke,
-he left Mantua, and arrived in Naples at the end of March,
-1588. About this time he made several alterations in his Gerusalemme,
-corrected numerous faults, and took away all the praises he
-had bestowed on the House of Este. Alfieri used to say, that this
-amended Gerusalemme was the only one which he could read with
-pleasure to himself, or with admiration for the author. But as
-there appeared no hope that his claims would be soon adjusted, he
-returned to Rome, in November, 1588. Ever harassed by a restless
-mind, he quitted, one after another, the hospitable roofs which gave
-him shelter; and at last, destitute of all resources, and afflicted with
-illness, took refuge in the hospital of the Bergamaschi, with whose
-founder he claimed relation by the father’s side: a singular fate for
-one with whose praises Italy even then was ringing. But it should
-be remembered, ere we break into invectives against the sordidness
-of the age which suffered this degradation, that the waywardness of
-Tasso’s temper rendered it hard to satisfy him as an inmate, or to
-befriend him as a patron.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Restored to health, at the Grand Duke’s invitation, he went to
-Florence, where both prince and people received him with every
-mark of admiration. Those who saw him, as he passed along the
-streets, would exclaim, “See! there is Tasso! That is the wonderful
-and unfortunate poet!”</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>It is useless minutely to trace his wanderings from Florence to Rome,
-from Rome to Mantua, and back again to Rome and Naples. At the
-latter place he dwelt in the palace of the Prince of Conca, where he
-composed great part of the Gerusalemme Conquistata. But having
-apprehended, not without reason, that the prince wished to possess
-himself of his manuscripts, Torquato left the palace to reside with his
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_154'>154</span>friend Manso. His health and spirits improved in his new abode;
-and besides proceeding with the Conquistata, he commenced, at the
-request of Manso’s mother, ‘<span lang="it" xml:lang="it">Le Sette Giornate del Mondo Creato</span>,’
-a sacred poem in blank verse, founded on the Book of Genesis, which
-he completed in Rome a few days before his death.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>He visited Rome in 1593. A report that Marco di Sciarra, a
-notorious bandit, infested the road, induced him to halt at Gaeta,
-where his presence was celebrated by the citizens with great rejoicing.
-Sciarra having heard that the great poet was detained by fear of him,
-sent a message, purporting, that instead of injury, Tasso should receive
-every protection at his hands. This offer was declined; yet Sciarra,
-in testimony of respect, sent word, that for the poet’s sake he would
-withdraw with all his band from that neighbourhood; and he did so.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>This time, on his arrival at Rome, Tasso was received by the
-Cardinals Cinzio and Pietro Aldobrandini, nephews of the Pope, not
-as a courtier, but as a friend. At their palace he completed the
-Gerusalemme Conquistata, and published it with a dedication to
-Cardinal Cinzio. This work was preferred by its author to the Gerusalemme
-Liberata. It is remarkable that Milton made a similar error
-in estimating his Paradise Regained.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>In March, 1594, Tasso returned to Naples in hope of benefiting his
-rapidly declining health. The experiment appeared to answer; but
-scarcely had he passed four months in his native country, when
-Cardinal Cinzio requested him to hasten to Rome, having obtained for
-him from the Pope the honour of a solemn coronation in the Capitol.
-In the following November the poet arrived at Rome, and was received
-with general applause. The Pope himself overwhelmed him with
-praises, and one day said, “Torquato, I give you the laurel, that
-it may receive as much honour from you as it has conferred upon
-them who have worn it before you.” To give to this solemnity greater
-splendour, it was delayed till April 25, 1595; but during the winter
-Tasso’s health became worse. Feeling that his end was nigh, he
-begged to be removed to the convent of St. Onofrio, where he was
-carried off by fever on the very day appointed for his coronation. His
-corpse was interred the same evening in the church of the monastery,
-according to his will; and his tomb was covered with a plain stone, on
-which, ten years after, Manso, his friend and admirer, caused this
-simple epitaph to be engraved,—<span class='sc'><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">Hic Jacet Torquatus Tasso</span></span>.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Tasso was tall and well proportioned; his countenance very expressive,
-but rather melancholy; his complexion of a dark brown,
-with lively eyes. Our vignette is taken from a cast in wax, made after
-his death. He has left many beautiful and remarkable pieces, both in
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_155'>155</span>verse and prose; but his fame is based upon the Gerusalemme Liberata:
-the others are comparatively little read. Among his countrymen,
-the comparative merits of this great work, and of the Orlando
-Furioso, have, ever since the days of Pellegrini, been a favourite subject
-of controversy. Some who persist in asserting that Ariosto was
-the greater poet, do not refuse to allow the superiority of the Gerusalemme
-as a poem; and of this opinion was (at least latterly) Metastasio,
-who, in his youth, was so great an admirer of the Orlando, that
-he would not even read the Gerusalemme. In after-life, however,
-having perused it with much attention, he was so enchanted by its
-beauties and regularity, that, being requested to give his opinion on
-the comparative merits of the two, he wrote in these words:—“If it
-ever came into the mind of Apollo to make me a great poet, and were
-he to command me to declare frankly whether I should like to choose
-for model the Orlando or the Gerusalemme, I would not hesitate to
-answer, the Gerusalemme.”</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The principal biographers of Tasso, among his own countrymen,
-are his friend Manso, who wrote his Life in 1600, six years only after
-the poet’s death; and the Abate Serassi, whose work was first published
-at Rome in 1785, and again at Bergamo in 1790. Besides these is
-his Life, in French, by the Abbé de Charnes (1690); and that by
-M. Suard, prefixed to the translation of the Gerusalemme by Prince
-Lebrun (1803, two tom. 8vo.): while in English we have a Life of
-Tasso by Mr. Black (1810); and a Memoir by the Rev. Mr. Stebbing
-(1833). The best complete edition of Tasso’s works is that of
-Molini, in eight volumes 8vo., Florence, 1822–6.</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/i_155.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic001'>
-<p>[From a Cast taken after death.]</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id002'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_156'>156</span>
-<img src='images/i_156.jpg' alt='BEN JONSON.' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <h2 class='c005'>BEN JONSON.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c009'>The rapid growth and early maturity of the drama form a remarkable
-portion of the literary history of Britain. Within forty years
-from the appearance of the first rude attempts at English comedy,
-all the most distinguished of our dramatists had graced the stage
-by their performances. Among the worthies, he whom we familiarly
-call Ben Jonson holds a prominent place. He was born
-in Westminster, June 11, 1574, and placed, at a proper age, at
-Westminster School, where Camden then presided. He made unusual
-progress in classical learning, until his mother, who was left
-in narrow circumstances, married a bricklayer, and removed her son
-from school, that he might work with his step-father in Lincoln’s-Inn.
-In his vexation and anger at this domestic tyranny, he enlisted as a
-private soldier, was sent abroad to join the English army in the
-Netherlands, and distinguished himself against the Spaniards by a
-gallant achievement. In an encounter with a single man of the
-enemy, he slew his opponent, and carried off his spoils in the view
-of both armies.</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/i_156fp.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic001'>
-<p><em>Engraved by E. Scriven.</em><br /><br />BEN JONSON.<br /><br /><em>From a Picture in the possession of M<sup>r</sup>. Knight.</em><br /><br />Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.<br /><br /><em>London, Published by Charles Knight, Ludgate Street, &amp; Pall Mall East.</em></p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c000'>On his return home, he resumed his former studies at St. John’s,
-Cambridge; but thither the miseries of slender means followed him,
-and he quitted the University after a short residence. He then turned
-his thoughts to the stage. The encouragement afforded to dramatic
-talent coincided with his taste and inclination; and the example of
-Shakspeare, who had successfully adopted the same course under similar
-difficulties, determined his choice. He was admitted into an obscure
-theatre, called the Green Curtain, in the neighbourhood of Shoreditch
-and Clerkenwell; but his salary there must have been insufficient for
-his support, and his merits were too meagre to entitle him to a place
-in any respectable company. While in this humble station, he fought
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_157'>157</span>a duel with one of the players, in which he was wounded in the arm,
-but killed his antagonist, who had been the challenger. During his
-imprisonment for this offence, he was visited by a Popish priest, who
-profited by his depressed state of mind to win him over to the Church
-of Rome, within the pale of which he continued for twelve years.
-Thus did melancholy produce a change in his religious condition;
-but his spirits returned with his release, and he ventured to offer up
-his recovered liberty on the altar of matrimony.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Considering that he was only about twenty-four years of age when
-he rose to reputation as a dramatic writer, his life had been unusually,
-but painfully, eventful. He had made some attempts as a playwright
-from his first entrance into the profession, but without success. His
-connexion with Shakspeare has been variously related. It has been
-stated that when Jonson was unknown to the world, he offered a play
-to the theatre, which was rejected after a very careless perusal; but
-our great dramatist, having accidentally cast his eye on it, thought well
-of the production, and afterwards recommended the author and his
-writings to the public. For this candour he is said to have been repaid
-by Jonson, when the latter became a poet of note, with an envious
-disrespect. Farmer, of all Shakspeare’s commentators, was most inclined
-to depart from these traditions, and to think the belief in Jonson’s
-hostility to Shakspeare absolutely groundless. This question,
-triumphantly, but with needless acrimony, argued by Mr. Gifford,
-we regard as now determined in Jonson’s favour. Without any imputation
-of ingratitude, the acknowledged superior in learning might
-chequer his commendations with reproof; as he undeniably did, partly
-from natural temper, and partly from a habit of asserting his own preeminence,
-as having first taught rules to the stage. He has been loosely,
-not to say falsely, accused of endeavouring to depreciate The Tempest,
-by calling it a <em>foolery</em>, a term which unquestionably cannot be applied to
-any work without such design. But he called it, not a <em>foolery</em>, but a
-<em>drollery</em>. In present acceptation the terms may be nearly equivalent;
-but in that age, the word conveyed no censure. Dennis says, in one
-of his letters, that he went to see the Siege of Namur, a <em>droll</em>. In
-after-times, the word implied a farcical dialogue in a single scene.
-Where Jonson says, “if there be never a servant-monster in the fair,
-who can help it?”—he is supposed to fling at Caliban; but the satire
-was general. Creatures of various kinds, taught a thousand antics,
-were the concomitants of puppet-shows. In the Dumb Knight, by
-Lewis Machin, 1608, Prate, the orator, cautions his wife thus:—“I
-would not have you to step into the suburbs, and acquaint yourself
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_158'>158</span>either with <em>monsters</em> or <em>motions</em>; but holding your way strictly homeward,
-show yourself still to be a rare housewife.” It has been alleged
-in the controversy, that Jonson seems to ridicule the conduct of
-Twelfth Night in his Every Man out of his Humour, where he makes
-Mitis say, “that the argument of the author’s comedy might have
-been of some other nature, as of a duke to be in love with a countess,
-and that countess to be in love with a duke’s son, and the son to love
-the ladies’ waiting-maid; some such cross-wooing, with a clown to
-their serving-men, better than to be thus near, and familiarly attired
-to the time.” Unfortunately for Stevens’s application of this passage,
-Ben Jonson could not have ridiculed Twelfth Night, which was produced
-at least eight years after the play quoted. Among the commendatory
-poems prefixed to the editions of Shakspeare, Jonson’s is
-not only the first in date, but the most judicious, zealous, and affectionate.
-His personal attachment is expressed on various occasions
-with more enthusiasm than is apt to be felt by men of his temperament.
-We have no right to doubt its sincerity.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>We are told that, “having improved his fancy by keeping scholastic
-company, he betook himself to writing plays.” The comedy entitled
-Every Man in his Humour was his first successful piece. It was
-produced in 1598, on the stage with which Shakspeare was connected,
-and the generous poet and proprietor sanctioned it by playing the part
-of Kno’well. This was followed the next year by Every Man out of
-his Humour. After this time he produced a play every year, for
-several years successively. In 1600 he paid his court to Queen Elizabeth,
-by complimenting her under the allegorical character of the
-goddess Cynthia, in his Cynthia’s Revels, which was acted that year
-by the choristers of the Queen’s Chapel, In his next piece, The
-Poetaster, which was represented in 1601 by the same performers,
-he ridicules his rival Decker under the character of Crispinus. Some
-reflections in it were also supposed to allude to certain well-known
-lawyers and military men. A popular clamour was raised against
-him; in vindication of himself, he replied in an apologetical dialogue,
-which was once recited on the stage, and on the publication of his
-works annexed to this play. But Decker was bent on revenge, and
-resolved, if possible, to conquer Jonson at his own weapons. He
-immediately wrote a play called Satiromastix, or the Untrussing of
-the Humourous Poet, in which Jonson is introduced under the character
-of Horace Junior. Jonson’s enemies industriously gave out
-that he wrote with extreme labour, and was not less than a year
-about every play. Had it been so, it was no disgrace: the best
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_159'>159</span>authors know by experience, that what appears to be the most natural
-and easy writing is frequently the result of study and close application.
-But the insinuation was meant to convey, that Jonson had heavy
-parts, and little imagination: a charge which applies only to two
-of his works, Sejanus and Catiline. Jonson retorted upon Decker
-in the prologue to Volpone, or The Fox. We are there told that this
-play, which is one of his best, was finished in five weeks. He professes
-that, in all his poems, his aim has been to mix profit with pleasure;
-and concludes with saying, that all gall is drained from his ink,
-and “only a little salt remaineth.”</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>“Eastward Hoe” was the joint production of Ben Jonson, George
-Chapman, and John Marston. What part each author had in it
-is not known; but the consequences were near being very serious to
-them all. They were accused of reflecting on the Scots, who crowded
-the court at that time to the utter disgust of the English gentlemen;
-and, in perfect unison with the arbitrary temper of the times, were
-all three not only committed to prison, but in peril as to their ears and
-noses. On submission however they received pardons. Jonson, on
-his releasement from prison, gave an entertainment to his friends,
-among whom were Camden and Selden. His mother seems now to
-have risen mightily in her ideas, and to have affected the Roman
-matron, although the bricklayer’s wife would, in past time, have bound
-her son to the hod and trowel. In the midst of the entertainment she
-drank to him, and produced a paper of poison, which she intended to
-have mixed with his liquor, having first taken a portion of it herself,
-if the punishment of mutilation had not been remitted.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>That mixture of poetry and spectacle, which, in our ancient literature,
-is termed a masque, had been encouraged by Elizabeth,
-and became still more fashionable during the reigns of James and
-Charles. The queens of both monarchs, being foreigners, understood
-the English language but imperfectly, so that the music, dancing,
-and decorations of a masque were better adapted to their amusement
-than the more intellectual entertainment of the regular drama. After
-Queen Elizabeth’s example, they occasionally assisted in the representation,
-and probably were still better pleased to be performers than
-spectators. Jonson was the chief manufacturer of this article for the
-court; and a year seldom passed without his furnishing more than
-one piece of this sort. They were usually got up, as the phrase is,
-with the utmost splendour. In the scenery, Jonson had Inigo Jones
-for an associate. As compositions, these trifles rank little higher
-than shows and pageants; but they possessed a property peculiarly
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_160'>160</span>acceptable at court—they abounded with incense and servility. However
-crusty Jonson might be as a critical censor, he saw plainly what
-food his royal master relished, and furnished the table plentifully.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>This occupation interrupted the periodical production of his regular
-plays; but the interval had not been frivolously passed. In 1609,
-he produced “Epicœne, or the Silent Woman.” This was generally
-esteemed to be the most perfect pattern of a play hitherto brought
-out in England, and might be selected as a proof that its author was
-a careful and learned observer of the dramatic laws. We are assured
-that Jonson was personally acquainted with a man quite as ridiculous
-as Morose is represented to be. It may here be observed that the description
-of humour, drawn from the knowledge and observation of
-particular persons, was in the line of this author’s peculiar genius and
-talent. There is more wit and fancy in the dialogue of this play
-than in any by the same hand. Truewit is a scholar, with an alloy
-of pedantry; but he is the best gentleman ever drawn by Jonson,
-whose strength, in general, was not properly wit or sharpness of
-conceit, but the natural imitation of various and contrasted follies.
-The Alchemist came out in 1610. Jonson shows in it much learning
-relative to changes in the external appearance of metals, and uses
-some of the very terms of art met with in Eastward Hoe; which
-makes it probable that the passages in which they are contained are
-from his pen. This piece was unusually free from personal allusions;
-yet it was not popular at first. The partisans of inferior writers were
-constantly let loose whenever Jonson brought out a new play; but
-their censure was harmless, for he numbered among his friends and
-admirers, Shakspeare, Beaumont, Fletcher, Donne, Camden, Selden,
-and a host of worthies of every class. In 1613, he made the tour of
-France, and was introduced to Cardinal Perron, who showed him his
-translation of Virgil; but Perron not being his master and sovereign,
-but a foreign cardinal, with his customary bluntness he told him it was
-a bad one. About this time he and Inigo Jones quarrelled; and he
-ridiculed his colleague of the Masques, under the character of Sir
-Lantern Leatherhead, a Hobby-horse Seller. His next play was
-“The Devil is an Ass,” 1616.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>In 1617, the salary of poet-laureat was settled on him for life by
-King James, and he published his works in one folio volume. His
-fame, both as to poetry and learning, was now so fully established,
-that he was invited to the University of Oxford by several members,
-and particularly by Dr. Corbet, of Christ Church. That college was
-his residence during his stay, and he was created Master of Arts in
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_161'>161</span>full convocation, in July, 1619. In the following October, on the
-death of Daniel, he received the appointment of Poet-laureat, after
-having discharged the duties of the office for some time. At the latter
-end of this year he travelled into Scotland on foot, to visit his correspondent,
-Drummond of Hawthornden. Jonson had formed a design
-of writing on the history and geography of Scotland, and had
-received some curious documents from Drummond. The acquisition
-of additional materials appears to have been the main object of his
-journey. In the freedom of social intercourse, he expressed his sentiments
-strongly concerning the authors and poets of his own time.
-Drummond committed the heads of their conversations to writing,
-and has been severely censured on account of what he has left us concerning
-his guest. He says that he was “a great lover and praiser
-of himself; a contemner and scorner of others; chusing rather to lose
-his friend than his jest; jealous of every word and action of those
-about him, especially after drink, which was one of the elements in
-which he lived; a dissembler of the parts which reigned in him; a
-bragger of some good that he wanted; he thought nothing right,
-but what either himself or some of his friends had said or done. He
-was passionately kind and angry; careless either to gain or keep;
-vindictive, but if he was well answered, greatly chagrined; interpreting
-the best sayings and deeds often to the worst. He was for
-either religion, being versed in both; oppressed with fancy, which
-over-mastered his reason, a general disease among the poets.” Drummond’s
-letters exhibit Jonson in a much more favourable light; and
-this inconsistency may, perhaps, be explained by supposing that they
-exhibit the Scotch poet’s deliberate opinion of his guest, while the
-strictures contained in his loose notes were probably penned in a
-moment of irritation, to which he appears to have been subject.
-If, indeed, the received notions of Jonson’s heat of temper had any
-foundation, we may suppose him and his northern host to have been
-occasionally so far advanced in disputation, that “testy Drummond
-could not speak for fretting.” Jonson recorded his adventures on this
-journey in a poem, which was accidentally burnt; a loss which he
-lamented in another poem called “An Execration upon Vulcan.”</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The laureateship obliged him annually to provide, besides other entertainments
-of the court, the Christmas Masque: of these we have a
-series in his works, from 1615 to 1625. In 1625, his comedy called
-The Staple of News was exhibited. In 1627, The New Inn was performed
-at the Blackfriars theatre, and deservedly hissed off the stage.
-Three of Jonson’s plays underwent that fate. He was so much incensed
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_162'>162</span>against the town, that in 1631 he published it with the following title:
-“The New Inn, or the Light Heart, a comedy; as it was never acted,
-but most negligently played, by some, the king’s servants, and more
-squeamishly beheld and censured by others, the king’s subjects, 1629;
-and now at last set at liberty to the readers.” To this he annexed an
-ode to himself, threatening to leave the stage, which was sarcastically
-parodied by Owen Feltham, a writer of note, and author of a book
-called “Resolves.” Jonson’s mingled foibles and excellencies are pleasantly
-touched by Sir John Suckling, in his “Session of the Poets.”
-An improbable story is told by Cibber, and repeated by Smollet, that
-in 1629, Ben, being reduced to distress, and living in an obscure alley,
-petitioned his Majesty to assist him in his poverty and sickness; but
-that, on receiving ten pounds, he said to the messenger who brought the
-donation, “His Majesty has sent me ten pounds, because I am poor
-and live in an alley: go and tell him that his soul lives in an alley.” His
-annual pension had been increased from a hundred marks to a hundred
-pounds, with the welcome addition of a yearly tierce of Canary
-wine. He received from the king a further present of one hundred
-pounds in that very year, which he acknowledged in an epigram published
-in his works. Could he, as he does in his “Epistle Mendicant,”
-have further solicited the Lord Treasurer for relief in 1631, had he
-been guilty of such an insult to royalty in 1629? There is reason to
-believe that he had pensions from the city, and from several of the
-nobility and gentry; particularly from Mr. Sutton, the founder of the
-Charter-house. Yet, with all these helps, his finances were unredeemed
-from disorder.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>In his distress, he came upon the stage again, in spite of his last
-defeat. Two comedies without a date, “The Magnetic Lady,” and
-“The Tale of a Tub,” belong to these latter compositions, which
-Dryden has called his dotages; at all events, they are the dotages of
-Jonson. Alexander Gill, a poetaster of the times, attacked him with
-brutal fury, on account of his “Magnetic Lady.” Gill was a bad
-man as well as a bad poet; and Jonson availed himself of his adversary’s
-weak points in a short but cutting reply. His last masque was
-performed July 30, 1634, and the only piece extant of later date is
-his “New Year’s Ode for 1635.” He died of palsy, August 6, 1637,
-in his sixty-third year, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. His
-grave-stone only bears the quaint inscription,—“<span class='sc'>O rare Ben
-Jonson!</span>”</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>In the beginning of 1638, elegies on his death were published,
-under the title of “Jonsonius Virbius, or, the Memory of Ben Jonson
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_163'>163</span>Revived, by the Friends of the Muses.” This collection contains
-poems by Lord Falkland, Lord Buckhurst, Sir John Beaumont, Sir
-Thomas Hawkins, Mr. Waller, Mayne, Cartwright, Waryng, the
-author of “<span lang="la" xml:lang="la">Effigies Amoris</span>,” and other contributors of note. In
-1640, the former volume of his works was reprinted; with a second,
-containing the rest of his plays, masques, and entertainments; Underwoods;
-English Grammar; his translation of Horace’s Art of Poetry;
-and Discoveries. The latter is a prose work of various and extensive
-learning, containing opinions on all subjects, worthy to be weighed
-even at this distant period. In 1716, his works were reprinted in six
-volumes octavo. Another edition appeared in 1756, under the care of
-Mr. Whalley, of St. John’s, Oxford, with notes, and the addition of a
-comedy not inserted in any former edition, called “The Case is Altered.”
-But all former editions are superseded in value by that of Mr. Gifford.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Jonson was married, and had children; particularly a son and a
-daughter, both celebrated by him in epitaphs at their death; but
-none of his children survived him.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>As a dramatic writer, he is remarkable for judgment in the arrangement
-of his plots; a happy choice of characters; and skill in maintaining
-character throughout the piece. The manners of the most
-trifling persons are always consistent. Dryden censures him for exhibiting
-<em>mechanic humour</em>, “Where men were dull and conversation
-low.” This remark is so far just, that Jonson chiefly aimed at mirth
-by the contrast and collision of what Dryden terms <em>humour</em>. The
-reader, however, would do the dramatist injustice, were he to apply
-the word humour to him in its modern and confined sense. Jonson
-cultivated it according to a more philosophical definition; as a technical
-term for characters swayed and directed by some predominant
-passion, the display of which, under various circumstances, formed
-the strength of the comedy. Among the writers of that age, Jonson
-alone perhaps felt all the impropriety arising from frequent
-and violent change of scene. Yet Jonson himself, who disapproved
-of Shakspeare’s practice in that particular, was not wholly free from
-it, as Dryden has remarked with some appearance of triumph. Pope
-has touched on his genius in respect to dramatic poetry. He says,—“That
-when Jonson got possession of the stage, he brought critical
-learning into vogue; and this was not done without difficulty, which
-appears from those frequent lessons, and indeed almost declamations,
-which he was forced to prefix to his first plays, and put into the
-mouths of his actors the grex, chorus, &amp;c., to remove the prejudices
-and reform the judgment of his hearers. Till then the English
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_164'>164</span>authors had no thoughts of writing upon the model of the ancients;
-their tragedies were only histories in dialogue, and their comedies
-followed the thread of any novel as they found it, no less implicitly
-than if it had been true history.” In fact, this author’s object was to
-found a reputation on understanding, and submitting to the discipline
-of the ancient stage; but his success fell short of his just expectations,
-and he growls on every occasion against the rude taste of an age
-which preferred to his laboured and well-concocted scenes, the more
-glowing, wild, and irregular effusions of his unlearned contemporaries.
-Beyond this there appears nothing to confirm the eagerly propagated
-opinion of his pride and malignity, at least in the earlier part of his life.
-At that time he contributed an encomium to almost every play or
-poem that appeared, from Shakspeare down to the translator of
-Du Bartas. His antagonist, Decker, seems to hint at a personal
-failing, seldom allied to malignity, when, in the “Satiromastix,” Sir
-Vaughan says to Horace, that is, Jonson, “I have some cousin-german
-at court shall beget you the reversion of the master of the king’s
-revels, or else to be his <em>Lord of Misrule</em> now at Christmas.” We
-have already quoted Drummond to the purport, that “drink was one
-of the elements in which he lived;” which accounts but too well for the
-poverty of his latter days, in spite of royal and noble munificence. In
-reference to this unfortunate propensity, the following amusing story is
-told:—Camden had recommended him to Sir Walter Raleigh, who
-trusted him with the care and education of his eldest son Walter, a
-gay spark, who could not brook Ben’s rigorous treatment; but perceiving
-one foible in his disposition, made use of that to throw off the
-yoke of his government. This was an unlucky habit Ben had contracted,
-through his love of jovial company, of being overtaken with
-liquor, which Sir Walter did of all vices most abominate, and hath
-most exclaimed against. One day, when Ben had taken a plentiful
-dose, and was fallen into a sound sleep, young Raleigh got a great
-basket, and a couple of men, who laid Ben in it, and then with a pole
-carried him between their shoulders to Sir Walter, telling him their
-young master had sent home his tutor.</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/i_165fp.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic001'>
-<p><em>Engraved by J. Posselwhite.</em><br /><br />CANOVA.<br /><br /><em>From a Picture by</em><br />Sir Thomas Lawrence,<br /><em>in the possession of the Abate Canova at Rome</em>.<br /><br />Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.<br /><br /><em>London, Published by Charles Knight, Ludgate Street, &amp; Pall Mall East.</em></p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id002'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_165'>165</span>
-<img src='images/i_165.jpg' alt='CANOVA.' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <h2 class='c005'>CANOVA.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c009'>About the middle of the last century the art of Sculpture, which
-had been long on the decline, may be said to have reached the lowest
-point to which it has sunk since the revival of the arts; for, although
-the seventeenth century was the great æra of bad taste, the genius
-which was often apparent in the mannered productions of that time,
-no longer survived in those of the imitators who succeeded. The
-works of Bernini in Italy, and of Puget in France, both men of
-extraordinary talent but most mistaken principles, were still regarded
-as types of excellence. Their fame still produced a host
-of followers, who, with perhaps the single exception of Duquesnoy,
-called Fiammingo, naturally aimed at the extravagances and
-peculiarities of their models; and the consequence was, a constantly
-increasing deviation from nature, and a total misconception of the
-style and limits of the art. The works which were produced in Rome
-about the period alluded to, thus fluctuated between manner and insipidity;
-till the art had relapsed into a state of such lethargic mediocrity,
-that even sculptors of note, such as Cavaceppi, Pacetti, and
-Albacini, were content to occupy themselves in restoring and mending
-antique statues. But the germs of a better taste, and a more rational
-imitation, were already expanding. If the mania for collecting antique
-statues had the temporary effect of paralysing invention in the
-artist, and diverting the means of patronage, a gradual appreciation of
-the principles of ancient art was, nevertheless, the result; while the
-illustration and description of museums, and the works of Winkelmann,
-all tended to awaken the attention of the connoisseur to the
-amazing difference between the ill-advised caprices of the Bernini
-school and the sagacious simplicity of the ancients.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>These circumstances concurred ultimately to work a change and an
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_166'>166</span>improvement of taste among the artists themselves, and thus prepared
-a better æra of sculpture. The partiality of the Italians may be excused,
-when they attribute the reformation of the art to the single
-efforts of Canova, although the designs of Flaxman, composed about the
-same time that the Italian artist was beginning his career, exhibit a
-more decided feeling for the long-lost purity of the antique, and a more
-thorough comprehension of the style and language of sculpture, than
-we find in the works of his continental contemporaries. But it is time
-to give a more particular account of the subject of this memoir.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Antonio Canova was born <span class='sc'><span lang="la" xml:lang="la">A.D.</span></span> 1757, at Possagno, a small town in
-the province of Treviso. His father, Pietro Canova, was a stonemason
-and builder; and the first occupation of the future sculptor
-taught him to use the chisel with dexterity. At the age of fourteen,
-he was introduced to the notice of Giovanni Faliero, a Venetian
-senator, who used annually to pass the autumn near Possagno. By
-the kind assistance of this nobleman, the young Canova was placed
-with one Torretti, a sculptor who had studied in Venice, and who
-resided in a neighbouring town. On the return of this artist to
-Venice, Canova accompanied him. A year afterwards however
-Torretti died, and the young sculptor, unwilling to continue with
-Ferrari, his master’s nephew and heir, established himself in a
-<em>studio</em> of his own. While with Ferrari, he produced his first work,
-a pair of baskets of fruit and flowers, done for the noble Faliero.
-They are still to be seen in the stair-case of the Farsetti palace, in
-Venice, more generally known as the <span lang="it" xml:lang="it">Albergo della Gran Bretagna</span>.
-The same patron next employed him on two statues of Orpheus and
-Eurydice, preserved in the villa of Pradazzi, near Possagno. After
-one or two other less important performances, he executed his Dædalus
-and Icarus, for the Procurator Pisani. In all these works he aimed
-at a close imitation of individual nature, and this was carried so far in
-the Dædalus, that, when it was afterwards shown in Rome, the sculptor
-was hardly believed when he asserted that it was not moulded from
-a living model.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The imitation of the softness, surface, and accidents of skin
-was an early excellence and a lasting peculiarity of Canova; and
-however he may have been smitten with the antique statues in Rome,
-it is certain that, while in Venice, where he remained till the age of
-twenty-two, he paid little attention to the specimens of ancient art
-in the Farsetti Gallery. It is probable that the prejudice against the
-antique, which had prevailed ever since Bernini’s time, was hardly
-yet effaced in Venice; and if Canova’s admiration of the ancients
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_167'>167</span>increased in Rome, it was undoubtedly greatly owing to the opinion
-and examples of those among whom he had the good fortune to be
-first thrown.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>In 1779, Girolamo Zulian being appointed ambassador of the Republic
-at Rome, Faliero recommended Canova to his notice. The
-young sculptor had already determined to visit the metropolis of the
-arts, and soon followed the ambassador thither. The course of study
-which he adopted, founded on the comparison of nature with the best
-specimens of art, showed that he was earnest to improve; and his
-new patron Zulian, who had introduced him to the distinguished
-amateurs and artists residing in Rome, recommended him to send for
-a cast of his Dædalus and Icarus, in order to show them what he had
-done, and profit by their advice. He did so, and the day on which
-that group was submitted to the judgment of the connoisseurs was a
-memorable one for Canova. His work by no means excited unqualified
-approbation. It was, indeed, so different from the style which was
-then prevalent, that his judges remained silent, till the generous Gavin
-Hamilton openly declared, that it was a simple imitation of nature,
-which showed that the artist had nothing to unlearn; at the same
-time reminding him, that although the greatest artists had always
-begun thus, they had subsequently refined their taste by comparison
-and selection, and their execution by an ampler and larger treatment;
-all which, aiming at the grandest impressions of nature, but by no
-means departing from nature, approaches what is called the divine
-and ideal in art. This opinion, from so good a judge as Hamilton,
-delighted Zulian, who asked “what was to be done with the young
-man?” “Give him a block of marble,” said Hamilton, “and let him
-follow his own feeling.” From this hour the fate of the young artist
-was decided: Zulian furnished him with a <em>studio</em> and materials, and
-he began his career in Rome.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Canova always spoke with gratitude of Gavin Hamilton, and acknowledged
-that he owed to him every sound principle of art. The
-vast knowledge of the antique which the Scotch artist possessed, gave
-more than common weight and value to his advice respecting its imitation.
-Canova’s first work in Rome, was an Apollo crowning himself.
-The sculptor himself was not satisfied with it, and felt all the difficulty
-of uniting a purer and broader style with a sufficient attention
-to the details of nature. His engagements soon after recalled him to
-Venice, to complete an unfinished work, the statue of the Marquis
-Poleni, placed in the Prato della Valle, at Padua. It was probably
-hurried, that he might get back sooner to Rome.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>On his return to Rome, he produced his celebrated group of Theseus
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_168'>168</span>sitting on the slain Minotaur. The moment chosen was recommended
-by Hamilton, who observed, that it was generally safer for young
-artists not to aim at too much action in their subjects. In this composition
-Canova endeavoured to infuse still more of the style of the
-antique, and he succeeded so well, that the exhibition of it may be
-considered an epoch in the art. Quatremère de Quincy (an eminent
-French sculptor) spoke of it in these words in 1804:—“This group
-struck foreigners even more than the Romans, who were still attached
-to their accustomed manner. Nevertheless, Canova, from that time,
-was considered the sculptor who was destined to restore good taste,
-and to reduce the art to its grand principles.” The fame which this
-work gained for its author has been allowed, on all hands, to have been
-justly awarded; and, after the efforts of the artist to fix his style and
-define the mode of imitation which he believed to be the best, it may
-be supposed that the praises he received would have confirmed him
-in the principles he had formed to himself, and encouraged him to
-carry them farther. None of his Italian biographers, however, have
-taken sufficient notice of the fact, that he never followed up the style
-which is observable in this group. His subsequent works were
-undoubtedly more refined in execution and more anatomically studied;
-but it is quite certain that he never approached the breadth of the
-antique so much in any later works. Hence it would appear that, in
-this effort, he was in some degree doing violence to his real feelings;
-and having once established his reputation, he was more likely afterwards
-to exercise his own unbiassed taste. It was, indeed, some time before
-he was occupied on a subject which afforded a display of the figure.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>His next work was the monument of Ganganelli (Clement XIV.),
-placed in the Church de’ Santi Apostoli at Rome; in this he was again
-fortunate. Its originality and simplicity, for such was the character of
-the design, compared with the extravagant compositions of preceding
-artists, gave very general satisfaction; but the advocates of the taste
-of a former age did not remain silent. Pompeo Battoni, the most celebrated
-Italian painter of his day, having condescended to accompany
-Hamilton to see the model of the monument while it was in the clay,
-observed, in Canova’s hearing, that the young artist had talent, but that
-it was a pity he had chosen a bad road, and that it would be better to
-retrace his steps while there was time. Hamilton, in consoling Canova
-afterwards, reminded him, that it was the style of Pietro da Cortona,
-Carlo Maratti, and Bernini, which Battoni considered synonymous with
-excellence; and it was the departure from this, in search of the purer
-style of sculpture, which he called “the bad road.” The fastidious
-Milizia, on the other hand, gave this work unqualified approbation.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_169'>169</span>The monument of Rezzonico (Clement XIII.), which was the next
-subject the sculptor was invited to treat, was begun in 1787, and only
-placed in St. Peter’s in 1795. While engaged on this, and the monument
-of Ganganelli, other works of less extent were from time to time
-finished. Among these were a group of Cupid and Psyche, a group
-of Venus and Adonis, which, however, was not executed in marble,
-and a second composition of Cupid and Psyche, the one in which Psyche
-is recumbent. These were the works which first procured for their
-author, among his Italian admirers, the reputation and title of the
-sculptor of the Graces; and it was in these that a certain effeminacy of
-style—at least what would be so called by less indulgent critics—seemed
-to supersede the simplicity, and almost severity, which he had appeared
-to aim at in the Theseus and Minotaur. To the same period belong
-most of the bassi relievi of Canova. These were composed and executed
-when his imagination was warmed by the study of the ancient
-poets; and although wrought in the intervals of greater occupations,
-there can be no doubt that they received his mature attention, and
-exhibited the free expression of his own taste. Of all the works of the
-artist, these bassi relievi have, perhaps, been most universally and
-deservedly condemned; but, defective as they are, they are still purer
-in the forms and drapery than the works of his predecessors.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The monument of Rezzonico completely established Canova’s reputation;
-the expression and attitude of the kneeling Pope, and the novelty
-and happy execution of the lions, excited the utmost admiration. The
-figure of the Genius is again an instance of a total dereliction of the
-style of the antique, for a soft and pulpy fleshiness without sufficient
-characteristic marking; but even this was found to be new and agreeable,
-and the drapery of the figure of Religion was almost the only
-part of the work which was criticised. On revisiting Venice, after
-an illness brought on by severe application, the Venetian government
-commissioned him to execute a monument for the Procurator Angelo
-Emo, which was afterwards placed in the arsenal. He returned to
-Rome to execute this work; but first revisited his native village, where
-he was surprised, and somewhat disconcerted, at finding a fête prepared
-for his welcome. A deputation of the inhabitants lined the
-roads to receive him; the streets were strewed with laurel; the bells
-of the campanile, and the <i><span lang="it" xml:lang="it">mortaletti</span></i>, usually fired on festivals, saluted
-him as he entered; and a band of music accompanied him to his
-mother’s house. The enthusiasm of his countrymen went so far, that
-a statue was erected to him even in early life, and placed in the Prato
-della Valle, at Padua.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>A group of Venus and Adonis was next completed, and sent to
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_170'>170</span>Naples, where it contributed to spread his fame. A new group of
-Cupid and Psyche, standing, done for Murat, was sent to Paris, and
-being fortunately one of his best works, it excited a great sensation
-when exhibited there. The reputation Canova had acquired in Italy
-naturally provoked a close and keen scrutiny into the merits and defects
-of this work; but its success was complete, and from that time
-his great merit was as fully acknowledged in France as elsewhere.
-Some of his subsequent works exhibited in the Louvre were, it is
-true, severely criticised, but they always found ardent defenders, and
-those among the most respectable connoisseurs and artists.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The celebrated kneeling Magdalen, which ultimately became the
-property of Count Sommariva, and adorned his house in Paris, was
-Canova’s next performance; it was afterwards, like many of his
-works, copied, or rather repeated, for other amateurs.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>This statue created a still greater sensation than the Cupid and Psyche
-when it was exhibited in Paris. The well-known Hebe was executed
-about the same time; this, too, was often repeated, and one copy was
-exhibited in the Louvre bearing a golden vase and cup, and with the
-lips and cheeks slightly tinged with vermilion. These innovations were
-severely objected to by the French critics, while the general taste of
-this and other works of the artist was still less indulgently treated in
-London. But the execution of individual parts of his statues was
-every where allowed to be exquisite, and many a time, in Rome, artists
-who were his professed rivals have purchased casts of the joints and
-extremities of his figures as models of perfect imitation: such detached
-portions have even been mistaken for casts from the antique.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Much has been said by the Italian eulogists of Canova of his skill
-in painting, and a story is told of his having done a pretended portrait
-of Giorgione on an old panel, which Angelica Kaufmann, and other
-very sufficient judges, for a time believed to be an original by the
-Venetian master. Canova’s attempts at painting were regarded with
-complacency, at least by himself, remarkable as he was for great
-modesty in speaking of his works in sculpture. He seems never to have
-forgotten that he was a Venetian, and gloried in the perfections, and
-almost in the defects, of the painters of that school. It is not impossible
-that this predilection may have operated in some degree to
-check his pursuit of the severe style of the ancients in sculpture, and it
-may, perhaps, account for the picturesque licences which he sometimes
-indulged in, as, for instance, in the Hebe; but if his efforts in
-painting were naturally defective in execution, they were still more
-open to criticism in their invention and taste, and, on the whole, call
-rather for indulgence than admiration.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_171'>171</span>The unsettled state of Italy consequent upon the French Revolution,
-and the troubles in Rome, induced Canova, about the close of the
-century, to retire for a time to his native province. From thence he
-accompanied the Senator Rezzonico into Germany, and visited Munich,
-Vienna, Dresden, and Berlin. At Vienna, he received from Duke
-Albert of Saxe Teschen, the commission for the monument to Maria
-Christina of Austria.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>His first ambition, however, on returning to Italy, was to embody
-in a picture some of the impressions he had received from contemplating
-the galleries of Germany, and particularly the Notte of Correggio;
-and he actually painted a large altar-piece for the parochial
-church of Possagno. This work, though since considered unworthy
-of criticism, was highly extolled at the time it was done. On his
-return to Rome, he began the model of his celebrated group of Hercules
-and Lichas, a work which found favour even with those who had
-objected to the want of manliness of taste in his treatment of most
-other subjects. It is indeed impossible to contemplate this group,
-without feeling it to be the production of a man of genius; while the
-patient elaboration of the anatomical details, and the power and knowledge
-with which the difficulties of the composition are overcome,
-have never failed to excite the high praise which is awarded to rare
-excellence. The originality of the idea has, however, been lately
-disputed; and a bronze has come to light which, if its history be true,
-at least proves that some earlier sculptor than Canova had conceived
-the subject nearly in the same manner. This grand work, first intended
-for Naples, was purchased by Torlonia, Duke of Bracciano,
-and is now the principal ornament of the Bracciano Palace in Rome.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Soon after this the Perseus was produced, a statue which, by command
-of Pius VII., received the unparalleled honour of being placed
-in the Vatican, in a situation similar to that of the Apollo, or rather
-to supply its place, for the Apollo at this time was not returned from
-Paris. The honour was even greater when that statue was restored to
-Rome, for the Perseus then remained as a companion or pendant to it.
-The two Pugilists were modelled soon after for the same patron,
-Pope Pius VII., and were placed, when finished, in the Vatican,
-together with the Perseus. A cast of the Creugas, one of these figures,
-exhibited about the same time at Paris, was very generally admired, and
-very ably and generously defended from the hostile criticisms it called
-forth, by the sculptor Quatremère de Quincy. The high estimation in
-which Canova was held, and his zeal for the preservation of the ancient
-monuments in Rome, as well as the frescoes of the Vatican, induced
-the Pope to confer on him the appointment and title of Inspector-General
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_172'>172</span>of the Fine Arts. Though at first unwilling to assume the
-responsibility of this charge, Canova at last undertook it; and it appears
-that his conscientious attention to the duties connected with it,
-gave a new impulse to the Roman school, and excited in all a zeal
-and ardour for the preservation of the precious remains of antiquity.
-The conduct of Canova in furthering the general interests of the arts
-of his country is worthy of all praise: his private benevolence is well
-known. It may be said that his happy freedom from jealousy was
-owing to the quiet security of established fame; but he was equally
-remarkable for magnanimity when placed in competition with those
-whom he had reason to regard as possible rivals.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>After finishing a model of the colossal statue of the King of Naples,
-Canova received a flattering invitation to visit the court of Bonaparte,
-then First Consul; and in obedience to the wishes even of the Pope
-he proceeded to Paris. His conversations with Bonaparte during
-this and a subsequent visit have been preserved; and it appears
-that he lost no opportunity of representing the fallen and impoverished
-state of Italy (the consequence of the French invasion) to the arbiter
-of its destinies, whom he dexterously reminded of his Pisan or Florentine
-origin. His recommendation of the arts in Rome was at least
-successful, for soon after his return thither ample funds were forwarded
-by command of Bonaparte for the revival and extension of the
-Academy of St. Luke, of which Canova was naturally appointed the
-Director, and for prosecuting the excavations in the Forum. When
-Canova, in one of his visits to Paris, ventured to ask for the restitution
-of the statues that had been taken from Rome, the French ruler replied,
-that “they might dig for more.”</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Having modelled the bust of Bonaparte, Canova returned to Italy
-to complete the colossal statue of Napoleon, now in the possession
-of the Duke of Wellington. In this work, which he considered
-an heroic representation, he elevated the forms to his highest conceptions
-of an abstract style, and, probably in imitation of the statue
-of Pompey, exhibited the figure naked. The censures which were
-passed on this bold attempt were most satisfactorily answered by the
-celebrated Visconti. In Canova’s second visit to Paris, Napoleon
-himself remarked, that his statue should have been in the ordinary
-dress, to which Canova replied, “Our art, like all the fine arts, has its
-sublime language; this language in sculpture is the naked, and such
-drapery as conveys a general idea.” The extensive monument for
-Vienna was next finished, and Canova repaired to the Austrian capital
-to see it put together. The artist’s general deviation from the style
-of sculpture practised by the ancients, may be illustrated by this work,
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_173'>173</span>admirable as it is for its details. The real aperture, or door of the
-tomb, into which the procession is entering, the literal reality of the
-steps, the accurately-imitated drapery, and other circumstances, are all
-nearer to nature than the flesh, the reverse of the principle of the
-Greeks. The partial or absolute truth of the accessories thus reminds
-us that colour and life are wanting in the figures—a discovery the
-spectator should never be permitted to make. Again, the indistinctness
-which must exist more or less in an assemblage of figures similar
-in colour (the unavoidable condition of the art), far from being
-obviated by indiscriminate imitation, requires rather to be counteracted
-by those judicious conventions which, in some measure, represent the
-varieties of nature, and constitute the style of sculpture. The Venus
-for Florence, (afterwards more than once repeated,) and the statues
-of the Princess Borghese, and the mother of Napoleon, were the
-next works of Canova. The attitude and treatment of the last
-seem to have been inspired by the statue of Agrippina; it was completely
-successful in Paris. After these, the well-known Dancing
-Nymphs occupied him, and seem to have been favourite works of his
-own. Although these statues excited more attention in Paris than
-perhaps any of his former works, and raised his reputation more than
-ever, they have since been very generally censured as meretricious in
-their taste. The portrait statues of the Princess Borghese and
-Madame Letitia, invited many other commissions of the same kind,
-which it would be long to recount. The monument of Alfieri, and
-the statues of Hector and Ajax, the latter admirable for their details,
-but with little of the antique character in their general treatment, were
-successively produced, together with many busts of individuals and of
-ideal personages. An opportunity was soon after afforded the sculptor,
-in a statue of Paris for the Empress Josephine, of exhibiting his best
-powers to the French critics. He was perhaps better satisfied with
-this than with any other single figure he had done. It was much
-admired when exhibited in the Louvre, and Quatremère de Quincy
-published an eulogium on it.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>In 1810, Canova again proceeded to the French capital to receive
-the commands of Napoleon, and modelled the bust of Maria Louisa.
-The statue of the Empress, as Concord, and of the Princess Eliza, in
-the character of a Muse, were finished on his return to Rome. The
-group of the Graces, and a statue of Peace, were next completed.
-The colossal horse, first intended to bear Napoleon, and then Murat,
-was finally surmounted with the statue of Charles III. of Naples, and
-placed in that city. A recumbent nymph, Canova’s next work, was
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_174'>174</span>succeeded by one of his most extraordinary productions, the Theseus
-and Centaur, a group now in Vienna, where it is placed in a temple
-built for its reception. Opinions are divided between the merits of
-this work and of his Hercules and Lichas.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>In 1815, when the Allies occupied Paris, Canova was sent there
-by Pope Pius VII. on an honourable and interesting mission, namely,
-to intercede with the French government and the invading powers, for
-the restitution of the works of art which had been torn from Rome by
-the treaty of Tolentino. The French ministry resisted his application,
-and it was ultimately by the decision of the Allied Powers, and literally
-under the protection of foreign bayonets, that Canova removed
-the objects in question from the Louvre. The gratitude of the
-Pope to the British government on this occasion led to Canova’s visit
-to London. The honours he received in England from George IV.,
-then Prince Regent, from the nobility, and the professors of the arts,
-perhaps even exceeded the homage which had been paid him on the
-continent; and it ought not to be forgotten, that the great Flaxman,
-who was among the warmest in welcoming him, wrote a letter to
-Canova on his return to Rome, which did honour to both, and in which
-he says, “You will be always a great example in the arts, not only in
-Italy, but in Europe.”</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Canova’s return to Rome, in 1816, was little short of a triumph.
-The Pope created him Marquis of Ischia, with an annual pension of
-three thousand crowns; but the noble-minded artist divided this sum,
-till his death, among the institutions of the arts, in premiums for the
-young and in aids for the old and decayed. Long was his benevolence
-to rising artists the general theme of gratitude and regret; and
-in every case of ill-rewarded industry, or fancied oppression, the
-exclamation was, “Ah! if Canova were alive!”</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The statue of Washington; the Stuart monument in St. Peter’s;
-the group of Mars and Venus, which was done for George IV.; the
-Sleeping Nymphs; the recumbent Magdalen, executed for the Earl
-of Liverpool, were successively produced at this highly-honoured
-period of his life; and a third monument in St. Peter’s, viz., that of
-Pope Pius VI.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The last great act of Canova’s life was the foundation of a magnificent
-church at Possagno, the first stone of which was laid by him
-July 11, 1819. The monument for the Marquis Salsa Berio, sent to
-Naples, the figures of which are in basso relievo; seven mezzi relievi
-for the metopes of the frieze of his church at Possagno, the design of
-which combines the forms of the Parthenon and the Pantheon; and
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_175'>175</span>the beautiful group of the Pietà, or dead Christ in the lap of the
-Virgin at the foot of the cross, accompanied by the Magdalen, intended
-for the altar of the same church, were the last works of Canova.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>In 1822, he visited Possagno, partly to see the progress of the
-building, and still more on account of his infirm state of health.
-After a short stay in the neighbourhood, his illness increased so much
-that he was forced to repair to Venice for medical assistance; but his
-recovery was hopeless, and he died October 13, 1822, in the 65th year
-of his age. Gratitude was among the prominent virtues of Canova,
-and among his legacies, it is pleasing to observe that the sons of
-Faliero, his earliest patron, were remembered. He was buried at
-Possagno; but his funeral obsequies were celebrated throughout
-Italy, and a statue to his memory was afterwards placed in the
-Academy of St. Luke, at Rome.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Ample details of Canova’s life, his precepts on art, and conversations
-with Napoleon, will be found in the account of him by Missirini: for
-a catalogue and eulogy of his works, Cicognara’s ‘<span lang="it" xml:lang="it">Storia della
-Scultura</span>’ may be consulted. The memoir of him by that nobleman,
-together with his own ‘Thoughts on the Arts,’ taken down and recorded
-by Missirini, will be found in the splendid edition of Canova’s
-works, engraved in outline by Moses.</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/i_175.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic001'>
-<p>[Monument to the Archduchess Maria Christina.]</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id002'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_176'>176</span>
-<img src='images/i_176.jpg' alt='CHAUCER.' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <h2 class='c005'>CHAUCER.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c009'>There is considerable discrepance between the generally received and
-the probable date of Geoffrey Chaucer’s birth. In the life prefixed
-to the edition of his works by Speght, it is stated, that he “departed
-out of this world in the year of our Lord 1400, after he had lived
-about seventy years.” The biographer’s authority for this is “Bale,
-out of Leland.” Leland’s accuracy on this, as on many other points,
-may be doubted, since he believed Oxfordshire or Berkshire to have
-been the poet’s native county. But Chaucer himself, in his Testament of
-Love, mentions London as the “place of his kindly engendure.” The
-received date of his birth is 1328: if that be correct, he was fifty-eight
-in 1386. But a record in the Appendix to Mr. Godwin’s Life shows
-that in that year he was a witness on oath, in a question between Sir
-Richard le Scrope and Sir Robert Grosvenor. The point at issue occasioned
-an inquiry to be made as to Chaucer’s age, which he stated to
-be “forty years and upwards.” Eighteen years upon forty is a large
-<em>upwards</em> on a sworn examination. Mr. Sharon Turner, therefore, in
-his History of the Middle Ages, suggests, with every appearance of
-reason, that 1340, or thereabouts, is a date fairly corresponding with
-the witness’s “forty years and upwards,” and even necessary to vindicate
-his accuracy in a predicament requiring the most scrupulous adherence
-to truth. Chaucer might not be certain as to the precise year of
-his birth; and, in that case, it was natural to fix on the nearest round
-number. The chronology of his Works must be deeply affected by this
-difference of twelve years: it will be to be seen whether the few authenticated
-facts of his life are to be reconciled with this presumptive later
-date.</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/i_176fp.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic001'>
-<p><em>Engraved by J. Thomson.</em><br /><br />CHAUCER.<br /><br /><em>From a Limning in Occleve’s Poems<br />in the British Museum.</em><br /><br />Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.<br /><br /><em>London, Published by Charles Knight, Ludgate Street, &amp; Pall Mall East.</em></p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c000'>Chaucer is represented by Leland to have studied both at Cambridge
-and at Oxford. At the latter University, he is said to have
-diligently frequented the public schools and disputations, and to have
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_177'>177</span>affected the opinions of Wiclif in religion. “Hereupon,” says Leland,
-“he became a witty logician, a sweet rhetorician, a pleasant poet,
-a grave philosopher, and a holy divine.” But Mr. Tyrwhitt thinks
-that nothing is known as to his education, and doubts his having
-studied at either University. The evidence that he was of the Inner
-Temple seems to rest on a record of that house, seen some years afterwards
-by one Master Buckley, showing that Geoffrey Chaucer was
-fined two shillings for beating a Franciscan Friar in Fleet Street.
-Mr. Tyrwhitt complains of the want of date to this record. The
-sally is plainly a youthful one, and inclines him to believe that Chaucer
-was of the Inner Temple before he went into the service of Edward
-III. That he could have been engaged in the practice of the
-law in after-life, as stated by Leland, is shown by Mr. Tyrwhitt to
-be utterly inconsistent with his employments under the crown. In
-the paucity of biographical anecdotes, Chaucer’s personal career will
-be most satisfactorily ascertained by following the succession of his
-appointments, as verified by the public documents in Mr. Godwin’s
-valuable appendices. In 1367, Edward III. granted him, for his good
-services, an annuity of twenty marcs, payable out of the Exchequer.
-In 1370, he was sent to the Continent on the king’s business. Two
-years afterwards, he, with two others, was employed on an embassy
-to the Doge of Genoa. This negotiation probably regarded the hiring
-of ships for the king’s navy. In those times, although the necessity
-for naval armaments was frequent, very few ships were built by the
-English. This deficiency was supplied by the free states either in
-Germany or Italy. The age of thirty and thirty-two squares well
-enough with such appointments. In 1374, the king granted to him
-a pitcher of wine daily, to be delivered by the Butler of England.
-At the same time, he made him Comptroller of the Customs of London,
-for wool, wool-fells, and hides, on condition of his executing the
-office in person, and keeping the accounts with his own hand. In the
-following year he obtained from the king the wardship of the lands
-and body of Sir Edmund Staplegate, a young Kentish heir. In 1377,
-the last year of King Edward, “Geoffrey Caucher” is mentioned by
-Froissart as one of those envoys employed abroad, as his protection
-expresses it, “on the king’s secret service.” The object of the
-mission is divulged by the French historian; it was a treaty between
-the Kings of England and France, in which the marriage of Richard
-with the French Princess Mary was debated; but neither the peace
-nor the marriage were brought about. Here end both the commissions
-and benefactions received by Chaucer from Edward III.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_178'>178</span>Some time after 1370, and before 1381, according to Mr. Turner’s
-calculation, but in 1360 according to others, Chaucer married a lady
-who, according to documents taken from Rymer, had been one of the
-“domicellæ,” damsels, or, in modern court phrase, maids of honour to
-Queen Philippa. Mr. Turner places the marriage within those limits, on
-the following grounds:—Chaucer, in his “Treatise on the Astrolabe,”
-dates an observation as made in 1391, and mentions his son Lewis as
-being then ten years old. A grant to the queen’s damsel, on quitting
-her service, is dated 1370, and made to her by her maiden name. The
-“Astrolabe” and the grant together furnish conclusive evidence in
-favour of Mr. Turner’s limits; but the current story of the Duke and
-Duchess of Lancaster having concocted the match, can only be reconciled
-with the earlier date, as the duchess died in 1369. It is unnecessary
-to enumerate those various grants made to Chaucer by Richard II.,
-which bear on no other events of his life. An important document of
-the year 1398, states that the king had ordered Chaucer to expedite
-several urgent affairs for him, as well in his absence as in his presence,
-in various parts of England. As a security against alarms expressed
-by Chaucer respecting suits and other molestations, Richard granted
-him a protection from arrest, injury, violence, or impediment, for two
-years. Richard was deposed in August of the following year. In
-October, Henry IV. confirmed Richard’s donations, with an additional
-annuity of forty marcs. The last document as to Chaucer is an
-indenture of lease to him, dated 24th December, 1399, of a tenement
-in the Priory Garden of Westminster, for a term of fifty-three years.
-Chaucer, therefore, was active at the end of 1399, and seems, from the
-length of his lease, still to have thought himself a good life, as he well
-might, if his age were only sixty; but his biographers (probably because
-they traced him in no later documents, and thought seventy-two
-a good old age) in the absence of any other positive evidence, than the
-date on a monument erected in the sixteenth century, have fixed his
-death in 1400.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>We have thought it expedient not to mix up the facts proved by
-official documents, with the few others to be gleaned from passages in
-his works. Such as are attested by neither of these vouchers have no
-claim to implicit credit. In his Testament of Love, he speaks of
-having “endured penance in a dark prison.” Again, “Although I
-had little in respect of other great and worthy, yet had I a fair parcel,
-as methought for the time; I had riches sufficiently to wave need. I
-had dignity to be reverenced in worship; power methought that I had
-to keep from mine enemies, and me seemed to shine in glory of
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_179'>179</span>renown.” With this picture of former prosperity, he contrasts his
-present state. “For riches now have I poverty; instead of power,
-wretchedness I suffer; and for glory of renown, I am now despised
-and foully hated.” We cannot with certainty connect this reverse
-of personal fortune with any passage of general history. He alludes
-to it thus:—“In my youth I was drawn to be assenting, and in my
-might helping to certain conjurations, and other great matters of
-ruling of citizens, so painted and coloured, that at first to me seemed
-then noble and glorious to all the people.” He intimates that he had
-made some discoveries concerning certain transactions in the city. He
-was, consequently, exposed to calumny, and the charge of falsehood.
-To prove his veracity, he offered an appeal to arms, and “had prepared
-his body for Mars’s doing, if any contraried his saws.” He alludes to
-his escape out of the kingdom, when we are told by his biographers
-that he spent his time in Hainault, France, and Zealand, where he
-wrote many of his books. He himself says, that during his exile
-those whom he had served never refreshed him with the value of the
-least coined plate; those who owed him money would pay nothing,
-because they thought his return impossible. Mr. Godwin, like preceding
-biographers, refers these personal misfortunes to his support
-of John Comberton, generally styled John of Northampton, who, in
-1382, attempted reform in the city on Wiclif’s principles. This was
-highly resented by the clergy; Comberton was taken into custody, and
-Chaucer is stated to have fled the kingdom. Mr. Turner thinks,
-that as the date assigned to these reverses is purely conjectural,
-they may be referred with more probability to a later period. He
-argues that, had Chaucer joined any party against the court, he
-would not have enjoyed Richard’s continued favour. The protection
-from the king, in 1398, implies that he was intermeddling
-in hazardous concerns; and in the Testament of Love, which may
-be considered as an autobiography composed of hints rather than
-facts, there is this remarkable passage. “Of the confederacies made
-by my sovereigns, I was but a servant; and thereof ought nothing in
-evil to be laid to me wards, sithen as repentant I am turned.” Mr.
-Turner infers, from the singular protection granted to Chaucer, in the
-very year when, after Gloucester’s murder, Richard adopted his most
-illegal and tyrannical measures, that the poet was prosecuted as an
-accomplice in those measures; that Henry might have thrown him
-into prison, as implicated in the deposed monarch’s unlawful acts;
-but on his professions of repentance, and in consideration of his connexion
-and alliance with his own father, might have pardoned him
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_180'>180</span>with others, at his coronation. In this difference of opinion, or rather
-of conjecture, between the biographers and the historian, we may, perhaps,
-be allowed to hazard the supposition, that those scattered allusions
-in the Testament may refer not to the same, but to different
-periods of evil fortune; indeed, the very expressions quoted seem
-hardly reconcileable with any one event. The “conjurations, noble and
-glorious to the people,” seem to point at some measures distasteful
-to the higher powers: and as both Chaucer and his patron the Duke
-of Lancaster had adopted many of Wiclif’s tenets, it seems not improbable
-that the conspiracy alluded to may be identified with that
-of John of Northampton. Delicately as the circumstance is glossed
-over by the poet, he appears to have turned what in homely phrase
-is called <em>king’s evidence</em>, the imputation of which he parries by a
-chivalrous appeal to “Mars’s doing.” This will account for his
-being received back into royal favour, and for his lending himself in
-after-time, no longer to the conjurations of the people, in plain
-English, the rebellion of the commons, but to the confederacies of
-his sovereigns. If his allusion to his personal misfortunes, and his
-expressions of conscientious remorse, may be referred to different
-periods, and to events of opposite character; in that view of the case,
-neither Mr. Godwin nor Mr. Turner may be in the wrong.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Few particulars of Chaucer’s private history are to be gathered
-from his poems. In his Dream, of which Blanche, Duchess of Lancaster,
-is the subject, the poet describes himself as a victim to nervous
-melancholy from habitual want of sleep, accompanied with a dread
-of death. The translation of Boethius, and occasional quotations from
-Seneca and Juvenal, attest that he retained through life his juvenile
-acquaintance with the Latin classics. The chronology of his works
-must be rendered doubtful by the uncertainty respecting that of his
-life. Mr. Turner places the time of his death later than 1400, but
-before 1410. The poet is said to have had the unusual honour of being
-brother-in-law to a prince of the blood, by the marriage of John of
-Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, with Catherine, widow of Sir Hugh Swinford,
-and sister to Chaucer’s wife. He is said to have lived at Woodstock
-at a late period of his life, and finally, to have retired to Donnington
-Castle on the Duke of Lancaster’s death. By his wife, Philippa, he
-had two sons, Thomas and Lewis. Thomas was Speaker of the House
-of Commons in the reign of Henry IV., ambassador to France and Burgundy,
-and discharged other public duties. Chaucer’s principal biographers
-are Leland, Thomas Speght, Mr. Tyrwhitt, and Mr. Godwin.
-The work of the latter would have been more valuable had it been less
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_181'>181</span>voluminous, less discursive, and less conjectural. Mr. Tyrwhitt’s edition
-of the Canterbury Tales is a model of criticism on an old English
-classic. His Introductory Discourse on the Language and Versification
-of Chaucer will enable its readers to form just and clear ideas of
-the history of our ancient tongue, and Chaucer’s peculiar use of it.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Chaucer was held in high estimation by his most distinguished
-contemporaries. John the Chaplain, who translated Boethius into
-English verse, as Chaucer had into prose, calls him the Flower of
-Rhetoric. Occleve laments him with personal affection as his father
-and master, and styles him the honour of English tongue. Lydgate,
-the monk of Bury, mentions him as a chief poet of Britain; the
-loadstar of our language; the notable rhetor. Dryden says, in the
-preface prefixed to his Fables,—“As Chaucer is the father of English
-poetry, so I hold him in the same degree of veneration as the Grecians
-held Homer, or the Romans Virgil; he is a perpetual fountain of good
-sense, learned in all sciences, and therefore speaks properly on all
-subjects; as he knew what to say, so he knows also when to leave off,
-a continence which is practised by few writers, and scarcely by any
-of the ancients, excepting Virgil and Horace.”</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Our account of his principal works must be brief. The Romaunt
-of the Rose is professedly a translation of the French Roman de la
-Rose. It is a long allegory, representing the difficulties and dangers
-encountered by a lover in the pursuit of his mistress, who is emblematically
-described as a Rose, and the plot, if so it may be called,
-ends with his putting her in a beautiful garden.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Troilus and Creseide is for the most part a translation of the Filostrato
-of Boccaccio, but with many variations and large additions. As
-a tale, it is barren of incident, although, according to Warton, as long
-as the Æneid; but it contains passages of great beauty and pathos.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The story of Queen Annelida and false Arcite is said to have been
-originally told in Latin. Chaucer names the authors whom he professes
-to follow. “First folwe I Stace, and after him Corinne.”
-The opening only is taken from Statius, so that Corinne must be supposed
-to have furnished the remainder; but who she was has never
-yet been discovered. False Arcite is a different person from the
-Arcite of the Knight’s Tale. It is probable therefore that this poem
-was written before Chaucer had become acquainted with the Teseide
-of Boccaccio.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The opening of the Assembly of Foules is built on the Somnium
-Scipionis of Cicero. The description of a garden and temple is almost
-entirely taken from the description of the Temple of Venus in the
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_182'>182</span>Fourth Book of the Teseide. Mr. Tyrwhitt suspects this poem to
-allude to the intended marriage between John of Gaunt and Blanche
-of Lancaster, which took place in 1359.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Warton, in his History of English Poetry, intimates his belief that
-the House of Fame was originally a Provençal composition. But
-Mr. Tyrwhitt differs from him in opinion, and states that he “has not
-observed, in any of Chaucer’s writings, a single phrase or word which
-has the least appearance of having been fetched by him from the
-South of the Loire.” With respect to the matter and manner of his
-compositions, Mr. Tyrwhitt adds, that he “shall be slow to believe
-that in either he ever copied the poets of Provence,” or that he had
-more than a very slender acquaintance with them. The poem is an
-allegorical vision; a favourite theme with all the poets of Chaucer’s
-time, both native and foreign.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The Flower and the Leaf was printed for the first time in Speght’s
-edition of 1597. Mr. Tyrwhitt suggests a doubt of its correct ascription
-to Chaucer; but it seems to afford internal evidence of powers
-at all events congenial with those of Chaucer, in its description of rural
-scenery and its general truth and feeling. Dryden has modernised it,
-without a suspicion of its authenticity.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Chaucer’s prose works are—his Translation of Boethius, the Treatise
-on the Astrolabe, and the Testament of Love. The Canterbury Tales
-were his latest work. The general plan of them is, that a company of
-Pilgrims, going to Canterbury, assemble at an inn in Southwark, and
-agree that each shall tell at least one tale in going and another on returning;
-and that he who shall tell the best tales shall be treated by
-the rest with a supper at the inn, before they separate. The characters
-of the Pilgrims, as exhibited in their respective Prologues, are drawn
-from the various departments of middle life. The occurrences on the
-journey, and the adventures of the company at Canterbury, were intended
-to be interwoven as Episodes, or connected by means of the
-Prologues; but the work, like its prototype the Decameron, was
-undertaken when the author was past the meridian of life, and was
-left imperfect. Chaucer has, in many respects, improved on his model,
-especially in variety of character and its nice discrimination; but the
-introductory machinery is not contrived with equal felicity. Boccaccio’s
-narrators indulge in the ease and luxury of a palace; a journey
-on horse-back is not the most convenient opportunity of telling long
-stories to a numerous company.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The works of Chaucer, notwithstanding the encomiums of four
-successive centuries, emanating from poets and critics of the highest
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_183'>183</span>renown and first authority, are little read excepting by antiquaries
-and philologers, unless in the polished versions of Dryden and Pope.
-This is principally to be attributed neither to any change of opinion
-respecting the merit of the poet, nor to the obsoleteness of the language;
-but to the progressive change of manners and feelings in
-society, to the accumulation of knowledge, and the improvement of
-morals. His command over the language of his day, his poetical
-power, and his exhibition of existing characters and amusing incidents,
-constitute his attractions; but his prolixity is ill suited to our
-impatient rapidity of thought and action. Unlike the passionate and
-natural creations of Shakspeare, which will never grow obsolete, the
-sentiments of Chaucer are not congenial with our own: his love is
-fantastic gallantry; he is the painter and panegyrist of exploded
-knight-errantry. Hence the preference of the Canterbury Tales above
-all his other works; because the manners of the time are dramatized,
-in other ranks of life than that of chivalry; his good sense, and capacity
-for keen observation are called forth, to the exclusion of conventional
-affectations. With respect to his prose, it is curious as that
-“strange English” and “ornate style,” adopted by him as a scholar
-for the sake of distinction, rather than as a specimen of the language
-and mode of expression characteristic of his age.</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/i_183.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic001'>
-<p>[The Wife of Bath, from Stothard’s Canterbury Pilgrimage.]</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id002'>
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_184'>184</span>
-<img src='images/i_184.jpg' alt='SOBIESKI.' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <h2 class='c005'>SOBIESKI.</h2>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c009'>So rapid and complete has been the decay of the Ottoman empire
-as an aggressive power, that any person now living, unacquainted with
-history anterior to the date of his own birth, would treat the notion
-of danger to Christian Europe from the ambition of Turkey, as the
-idle fear of an over-anxious mind. Yet there was a time, and that
-within a century and a half, when Popes summoned the princes of
-Europe to support the Cross, and the Eastern frontier of Christendom
-was the scene of almost constant warfare between Christian and Moslem.
-That period of danger was to Poland a period of glory; and
-the brightest part of it is the reign of the warrior-king, John
-Sobieski. It proved, indeed, no better than an empty glitter, won at
-a vast expense of blood and treasure, the benefits of which were chiefly
-reaped by the faithless and ungrateful Austria.</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id001'>
-<img src='images/i_184fp.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-<div class='ic001'>
-<p><em>Engraved by J. Thomson.</em><br /><br />JOHN SOBIESKI.<br /><br /><em>From an original Picture, in the<br />Gallery of the Louvre.</em><br /><br />Under the Superintendance of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.<br /><br /><em>London, Published by Charles Knight, Pall Mall East.</em></p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p class='c000'>Sobieski was the younger son of a Polish nobleman, high in rank and
-merit. He was born in 1629. The death of his brother, slain in warfare
-with the Cossacks of the Ukraine, in 1649, placed him in possession
-of the hereditary titles and immense estates of his house. To
-these distinctions he added high personal merits, an athletic body, a
-powerful, active, and upright mind, and, as the result proved, the
-qualities which make a general and statesman. It is no wonder therefore
-that, in the wars carried on by Poland during his youth against
-Tartars, Cossacks, and Swedes, he won laurels, though the Republic
-gained neither honour nor advantage. At an early age he acquired
-the confidence of Casimir, the reigning king of Poland, and was employed
-in various services of importance. On the revolt of Lubomirski,
-Grand Marshal of Poland, Sobieski was invested with that
-office, and soon after made Lieutenant-General (if we may so translate
-it) of the Polish army. In that capacity he led the royal troops
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_185'>185</span>against Lubomirski. The king’s obstinacy forced him to give battle
-at a disadvantage, and he was defeated, July 13, 1666; but the blame
-of this mishap was universally thrown on the right person, while the
-skilful conduct of Sobieski’s retreat obtained general admiration.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>He married Marie de la Grange d’Arquien, a French lady of noble
-birth, who had accompanied the queen into Poland. She was a
-woman of wit and beauty, who exercised throughout life an unusual
-and unfortunate influence over a husband devotedly attached to her.
-Aided by her favour with her mistress, Sobieski obtained the highest
-military office, that of Grand General, in 1667. Happy for Poland,
-that in this instance favour and merit went hand in hand: for a
-host of fourscore thousand Tartars broke into the kingdom, when
-its exhausted finances could not maintain an army, and its exhausted
-population could hardly supply one. By draining his own purse,
-pledging his own resources, and levying recruits on his immense
-estates, the General raised his troops from twelve to twenty
-thousand, and marched fearlessly against a force four times as great.
-The scheme of his campaign was singularly confident, so much so as
-to excite the disapprobation even of the intrepid Condé. He detached
-eight thousand men in several corps, with secret orders, and took
-post with the remaining twelve thousand in a fortified camp at Podahiecz,
-a small town in the Palatinate of Russia, to stand the attack of
-eighty thousand Tartars, while his detachments were converging to
-their assigned stations. The assault was renewed for sixteen successive
-days; and day after day the assailants were repulsed with slaughter.
-On the seventeenth, Sobieski offered battle in the open field. A
-bloody contest ensued; but while victory was doubtful, the Polish
-detachments appeared on the Tartar flanks, and turned the balance.
-Disheartened by their loss, the Tartars made overtures of peace, which
-was concluded equally to the satisfaction of both the belligerents,
-October 19, 1667.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The circumstances attendant on the abdication of Casimir, in 1668,
-and the election of his successor Michael Wiesnowieski, do not demand
-our notice, for Sobieski took little part in the intrigues of the
-candidates, or the deliberations of the Diet. The new king wept and
-trembled as he mounted a throne to which he had never aspired, and
-which he protested himself incapable to fill; and the event proved that
-he was right. Yet, when he had tasted the sweets of power, he
-looked jealously on the man most highly esteemed and most able to do
-his country service, and therefore most formidable to a weak and suspicious
-prince. The Ukraine Cossacks had been converted by oppression
-from good subjects into bad neighbours, and on the accession of
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_186'>186</span>Michael they again raised the standard of war. Partly by negotiation,
-partly by force, the Grand General reduced all the country from
-the Bog to the Dniester in the campaign of 1671, and he received
-the thanks of the Republic for performing such eminent services with
-such scanty means. It is still more to his credit that he interfered,
-not for the first time, in favour of the revolted Cossacks, and insisted
-on their being received into allegiance with kindness, and encouraged
-to good behaviour by equitable and friendly treatment.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>King Michael was of a very different mind in this matter. Determined
-on the subjugation of the whole Ukraine, he intrigued to hinder
-the Diet from confirming the peace, and thus induced the Cossacks
-to call in the help of Turkey, by threatening which they had stopped
-the progress of Sobieski. This brought on a fresh discussion in the
-Diet, in which Sobieski warmly urged the expediency of concession.
-Michael, however, persisted in his course; and from this period we
-may date the commencement of a league to dethrone him. In this,
-at first, Sobieski took no active, certainly no open, part. When compelled
-to declare himself, he asserted, with zeal, the right of the Republic
-to depose a prince who had shown himself unfit to reign. The
-consequences of this discord were very serious. At a Diet held in the
-spring of 1672, Michael was openly required to abdicate. To avoid
-this he summoned the minor nobility, who had no seats in the Diet,
-and with whom, having formerly been of their body, he was more popular,
-to meet in the field of Golemba, on the bank of the Vistula; and
-he thus raised a sort of militia, to the number of a hundred thousand,
-ready to uphold him as the king. Sobieski, encamped at Lowicz
-with an army devoted to him, maintained the cause of the confederate
-nobles. Neither party, however, was in haste to appeal to arms; and
-in the interim, Mahomet IV., with 150,000 Turks and 100,000 Tartars,
-invaded Poland. The king, instead of marching against the
-enemy, contented himself with setting a price on Sobieski’s head, in
-whom alone the hope of Poland rested. Too weak however to oppose
-the Turks, he sought the Tartars, who had dispersed to carry ruin
-through the country, routed them in five successive battles, and recovered
-an immense booty and thirty thousand prisoners from their
-hands. Meanwhile the Turks overran Podolia, and took its capital
-town, the strong fortress of Kaminiec, the bulwark of Poland. Incapable
-himself of action, and apprehensive alike of the failure or success
-of Sobieski, Michael hastily concluded an ignominious peace, by
-which the Ukraine and part of Podolia were ceded to Turkey, and the
-payment of an annual tribute was agreed upon.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>This treaty of Boudchaz, signed October 8, 1672, prevented Sobieski
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_187'>187</span>from continuing the war, and he returned indignantly to his
-camp at Lowicz. Before the end of the year, the king found it necessary
-to adopt conciliatory measures, and Sobieski, and other nobles
-who had been outlawed with him, were restored to civil rights and
-the enjoyment of their property. At the Diet held in February,
-1673, he inveighed against the scandalous treaty of Boudchaz, which,
-in truth, was void, being concluded without the sanction of that body,
-and it was resolved to renounce the treaty, and renew the war.
-Eighty thousand Turks were stationed in a fortified camp at
-Choczim, to overawe the newly-conquered provinces. November 12,
-1673, Sobieski stormed their camp. Observing that the infantry
-wavered, he dismounted his own regiment of dragoons, and led them
-to the ramparts, which they were the first to scale. The infantry
-rushed forward to support their general; the entrenchments were won,
-and the Turks routed with great slaughter, and entirely disorganized.
-This victory was disgraced by the massacre of a great number of prisoners
-in cold blood. Soon after it the death of Michael relieved
-Poland from the burden of a weak king, and the Interrex stopped the
-victorious general’s progress, by requiring his attendance in Poland.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The diet of election commenced its sittings May 1, 1674. As
-before, there were a number of foreign candidates, but none who commanded
-a decisive majority among the electors; and at last the choice
-of the assembly fell on Sobieski, who, whatever his secret wishes or
-intrigues may have been, had never openly pretended to the crown.
-That choice was received with general rejoicing. The new king’s
-first care was to follow up the blow struck at Choczim, and wrest the
-Ukraine from Turkey. During this and the two following years, that
-unhappy country was again the scene of bloodshed and rapine. There
-is little in the history of the war to claim our attention. It was concluded
-at the memorable leaguer of Zurawno, where, with a policy
-somewhat similar to that which he pursued at Podahiecz, he advanced
-to meet an invading army outnumbering his own six to one. Fortunately
-the Turkish government stood in need of peace, and their general
-had authority and orders to put an end to the war in the best
-manner he could; and after besieging the Polish camp for five weeks,
-he consented to a treaty, signed October 29, 1676, the terms of which
-were far more favourable than could have been anticipated by Poland.
-Two-thirds of the Ukraine, and part of Podolia, were restored to her,
-and the tribute imposed by the treaty of Boudchaz was given up.
-These terms were ratified by the Porte, and seven years of peace
-succeeded to almost constant war.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'><span class='pageno' id='Page_188'>188</span>This interval of rest from arms is not important in the history of
-Sobieski’s life. As he had anticipated, he found the throne no easy
-seat; and his criminal weakness in admitting the queen, who never
-scrupled at disturbing public affairs to gratify her own passions or
-prejudices, to an undue weight in his counsels, lessens our sympathy
-with his vexations, and casts a shade over his brilliant qualities. In
-1680, greater matters began to be moved. Ever watchful of the Porte,
-Sobieski knew through his spies that Mahomet was preparing for
-war with Austria, as soon as the existing truce expired; and he conceived
-the project of uniting the money of Rome, and the arms of
-Austria and Venice, with those of Poland; and, by thus distracting the
-power of Turkey, to regain more easily the much coveted fortress of
-Kaminiec, and the remnant of Podolia. He had, indeed, sworn
-solemnly to maintain a treaty, which the Turks religiously observed;
-but the Pope was ready to absolve him from the oath, and this the
-morality of the age thought quite sufficient. For a time his views
-were frustrated, both at home and abroad; but as the political storm
-which was collecting grew darker and darker, both Pope and Emperor
-entered more heartily into the scheme, and an offensive and defensive
-treaty was concluded between Austria and Poland.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The Turkish troops assembled in the plains of Adrianople, in May,
-1683, in number, according to the calculations of historians, upwards
-of 200,000 fighting men. The brave Hungarians, heretofore the bulwark
-of Austria against the Ottoman, but now alienated by oppression
-and misgovernment, revolted under the celebrated Tekeli, and opened
-a way into the heart of the Austrian empire. Kara Mustapha commanded
-the immense army destined by the Porte for this warfare,
-and for once he showed judgment and decision in neglecting small
-objects and pushing forward at once to Vienna. Leopold fled in
-haste with his court: the Imperial General, the brave Charles of
-Lorraine, threw in part of his small army to reinforce the garrison,
-but was unable to oppose the progress of the besiegers. The trenches
-were opened July 14, and the heavy artillery of the Turks crumbled
-the weak ramparts, and carried destruction into the interior of the
-city. Unhappy is the country which trusts to foreign aid in such a
-strait! The German princes had not yet brought up their contingents;
-and even Sobieski, the last man to delay in such a cause,
-could not collect his army fast enough to meet the pressing need of
-the occasion. Letter reached him after letter, entreating that he
-would at least bring the terror of his name and profound military
-skill to the relief of Austria; and he set off to traverse Moravia with
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_189'>189</span>an escort of only two thousand horse, leaving the Grand General
-Jablonowski to bring up the army with the utmost speed. After all,
-the Polish troops reached Tuln, on the Danube, the place of rendezvous,
-before the Bavarians, Saxons, and other German auxiliaries
-were collected. September 7, the whole army was assembled, in
-number about 74,000. Vienna was already in the utmost distress.
-Stahremberg, the brave commandant, had written to the Duke of
-Lorraine a letter, containing only these pithy words, “No more time
-to lose, my Lord; no more time to lose.” Incapable of resisting with
-its enfeebled garrison a general assault, the place must have fallen but
-for the avarice and stupid pride of Mustapha, who thought that the
-imperial capital must contain immense treasures, which he was loth to
-give up to indiscriminate plunder; and never dreamed that any one
-would be hardy enough to contest the prize with his multitudes before
-it fell into his hands from mere exhaustion. There was indeed no
-more time to lose: it was calculated on August 22, that Vienna could
-only hold out three days against a general assault; and September 9
-arrived before the Christian army moved from Tuln. Five leagues of
-mountain road still separated it from Vienna, in any part of which its
-progress might have been stopped by such a detachment as the immense
-Turkish army might well have spared.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The battle of deliverance, fought September 12, 1683, was short
-and decisive: the Turks were disgusted and disheartened by their
-general’s misconduct. Sobieski was not expected to command in person;
-but the Tartars had seen him lead his cavalry to the charge too
-often to overlook the signs which marked his presence, and the knowledge
-of it sunk their hearts still more. “Allah!” said the brave
-Khan of the Tartars, as he pointed out to the Visir the pennoned
-lances of the Polish Horse Guards, “Allah! but the wizard is amongst
-them, sure enough.” The Visir attempted to atone by courage for
-his past errors, but despair or disaffection had seized on soldiers and
-officers. Even the veteran Tartar chief replied to his entreaties,—“The
-Polish king is there. I know him well. Did I not tell you
-that all we had to do was to get away as fast as possible?” The Polish
-cavalry pushed forward to the Visir’s tent, and cut their way through
-the Spahis, who alone disputed the victory; and with the capture of their
-great standard the consternation and confusion of the Turks became
-final and complete. Entering Vienna the next day, Sobieski was
-received with an enthusiasm little pleasant to the jealous temper of
-the Emperor, who manifested his incurable meanness of disposition,
-not only in his cold reception and ungracious thanks of the deliverer
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_190'>190</span>of his kingdom, but in the ingratitude and perfidy of all his subsequent
-conduct.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Whether from pure love of beating the Turks, or from a false hope
-that Leopold might be induced to perform his promises, Sobieski,
-contrary to the wishes of the Republic, pursued the flying enemy
-into Hungary. Near Gran, on the Danube, he met with a severe
-check, in which his own life had nearly been sacrificed to the desire
-of showing the Imperialists that he could conquer without their help.
-This he acknowledged after his junction with the Duke of Lorraine.
-“Gentlemen,” he said, “I confess I wanted to conquer without you,
-for the honour of my own nation. I have suffered severely for it,
-being soundly beat; but I will take my revenge both with you and
-for you. To effect this must be the chief object of our thoughts.”
-The disgrace was soon wiped off by a decisive victory gained nearly
-on the same spot. Gran capitulated, and the king led his army back
-to Poland in the month of December.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The glory of this celebrated campaign fell to Poland, the profit
-accrued to Austria. Kaminiec was still in the possession of Turkey,
-and continued so during the whole reign of Sobieski: not from
-want of effort, for the recovery of that important fortress was the leading
-object of the campaigns of 1684, 5, and 7; but the Polish army
-was better suited for the open field than for the tedious and expensive
-process of a siege. In 1686, Leopold, apprehensive lest Sobieski
-should break off an alliance distasteful to his subjects and unsatisfactory
-to himself, (for the Emperor had broken every promise and
-failed in every inducement which he had held out to the Polish
-sovereign,) threw out another bait, which succeeded better than the
-duplicity and ingratitude of the contriver deserved. He suggested
-the idea of wresting from the Turks Moldavia and Wallachia, to be
-held as an independent and hereditary kingdom by Sobieski and his
-family, and promised a body of troops to assist in the undertaking.
-The great object of Sobieski’s ambition, by pursuing which he lost
-much of his popularity and incurred just censure, as aiming at an
-unconstitutional object by unconstitutional means, was to hand the
-crown of Poland to his son at his own decease, and render it, if possible,
-hereditary in his family. The possession of the above-named
-provinces was most desirable as a step to this; or, if this wish were still
-frustrated, it was yet desirable as placing his posterity among the royal
-houses of Europe: and with a preference of private to public interest,
-which is not less censurable for being common, he rejected an offer
-made by Mahomet to restore Kaminiec, and to pay a large sum to
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_191'>191</span>indemnify Poland for the expenses of the war, that he might pursue
-his favourite scheme of family aggrandizement. Satisfied, however,
-with having engaged him in this new diversion of the Turkish power,
-Leopold had not the smallest intention of sending the promised troops;
-and the King of Poland was involved in great danger from their
-non-appearance at the expected place. This campaign, however, was
-so far satisfactory, that Moldavia yielded without resistance or bloodshed;
-a second and a third expedition, undertaken in 1688 and 1691,
-to consolidate and extend this conquest, were unsuccessful, and the
-sovereignty soon passed back into the hands of Turkey. The campaign
-of 1691 was the last in which Sobieski appeared in the field.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The reader will see from this brief account that he added few
-laurels, after the campaign of Vienna, to those by which his brows
-were so profusely garlanded. Indeed he scarcely deserved to do so;
-for great and disinterested as his conduct often was, in this juncture
-he sacrificed national to family interests, and consumed the blood and
-riches of his countrymen in a needless and fruitless war.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>Sobieski’s internal policy has little to recommend it, or to exalt his
-fame. Devoted to his wife, who proved herself unworthy his affection
-by the most harassing demands upon his time and attention, and
-still more by a pertinacious, unwise, and unconstitutional interference
-in state affairs, which had not even the excuse of being well directed,
-but was continually employed to promote private interests, to gratify
-private prejudices, and, ultimately, at once to violate the laws and sow
-dissension in her own family by securing the crown of Poland to her
-own son, and choosing a younger in preference to the elder branch, the
-king lowered his popularity and reputation by thus weakly yielding
-to an unworthy influence, and, as the natural consequence, he was
-continually thwarted by a harassing and often factious opposition.
-Civil discord, family quarrels, and the infirmities of a body worn out
-prematurely by unsparing exposure for more than forty years to the
-toils of war, combined to embitter the decline of his life. In the five
-years which elapsed from Sobieski’s last campaign to his death, the
-history of Poland records much of unprincipled intriguing, much
-personal ingratitude, and some upright opposition to his measures,
-but nothing of material importance to his personal history. He died
-June 17, 1696, on the double anniversary, it is said, of his birth and
-his accession to the throne; and by another singular coincidence, his
-birth and death were alike heralded by storms of unusual violence.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The character of Sobieski is one of great brilliancy and considerable
-faults. As a subject, he displayed genuine, disinterested patriotism;
-<span class='pageno' id='Page_192'>192</span>as a king, the welfare of his family seems to have been dearer to him
-than that of his country. Nor did his domestic government display
-the vigour and decision which we might reasonably have expected
-from his powerful mind. But his justice was unimpeachable; he was
-temperate, and unrevengeful even when personally affronted, which
-often happened in the tumultuous Diets of Poland; and, in a bigoted
-age, he displayed the virtue of toleration. The constant labours of an
-active life did not choke his literary taste, and his literary attainments
-were considerable; he spoke several languages, aspired to be a poet,
-and loved the company of learned men. He was remarkable for the
-suavity of his temper and the charms of his conversation. Such a
-character, though far from perfection, is entitled to the epithet <span class='fss'>GREAT</span>,
-which he won and enjoyed; and, as a soldier, he has a claim to our
-gratitude, which not every soldier possesses. His warfare was almost
-uniformly waged against an aggressive and barbarian power, which,
-in the utmost need of Christian Europe, he stood forward to resist,
-and finally broke. Like other nations, Turkey has had its alternations
-of success and loss; but never, since the campaign of Vienna, have
-the arms of the East threatened the repose of Europe.</p>
-
-<p class='c000'>The history of Sobieski’s life and reign is told at large in the works
-of his countryman Zaluski; in the Life by the Abbé Coyer, of which
-there is an English translation; and in a recent publication by M.
-Salvandy. The same writer has republished a most interesting collection
-of Letters, written by Sobieski to his queen during the campaign
-of Vienna, printed for the first time in Poland about ten years ago.</p>
-
-<div  class='figcenter id002'>
-<img src='images/i_192.jpg' alt='' class='ig001' />
-</div>
-
-<div class='pbb'>
- <hr class='pb c003' />
-</div>
-<div class='tnotes'>
-
-<div class='chapter'>
-  <h2 class='c005'>TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES</h2>
-</div>
- <ol class='ol_1 c002'>
-    <li>Changed “General Keith” to “Governor Keith” on p. <a href='#t78'>78</a>.
-
-    </li>
-    <li>Changed “well worthy attention” to “well worth attention” on p. <a href='#t119'>119</a>.
-
-    </li>
-    <li>Changed “Geographie” to “<span lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Géographie</span>” on p. <a href='#t140'>140</a>.
-
-    </li>
-    <li>Silently corrected typographical errors.
-
-    </li>
-    <li>Retained anachronistic and non-standard spellings as printed.
-    </li>
-  </ol>
-
-</div>
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-<pre>
-
-
-
-
-
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