FOOTNOTES:

FOOTNOTES:[AH]Dec. 14th, 1627. [At the end, by way of Colophon:] at the top of page 1, in a different hand, "Edw. Blunt Author." This MS. was obviously one of "thewritten copies, passing severally from hand to hand, which grew at length to be a pretty number in a little volume." (See Blount's Preface to the Reader.)[AI]As it appears in Arber's Reprint.[AJ]The "Bright MS." was obviously later than that in the Durham Cathedral Library, since it contained several Characters known to have been added to the first edition.[AK]Joseph Haslewood, Antiquary. One of the founders of the Roxburghe Club.

[AH]Dec. 14th, 1627. [At the end, by way of Colophon:] at the top of page 1, in a different hand, "Edw. Blunt Author." This MS. was obviously one of "thewritten copies, passing severally from hand to hand, which grew at length to be a pretty number in a little volume." (See Blount's Preface to the Reader.)

[AI]As it appears in Arber's Reprint.

[AJ]The "Bright MS." was obviously later than that in the Durham Cathedral Library, since it contained several Characters known to have been added to the first edition.

[AK]Joseph Haslewood, Antiquary. One of the founders of the Roxburghe Club.

MICROCOSMOGRAPHY;ORA Piece of the World discovered;INESSAYS AND CHARACTERS.BY JOHN EARLE, D.D.OF CHRIST-CHURCH AND MERTON COLLEGES, OXFORD,AND BISHOP OF SALISBURY.A NEW EDITION.TO WHICH ARE ADDED,NOTES AND AN APPENDIX,BY PHILIP BLISS,FELLOW OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, OXFORD.LONDON:PRINTED FOR WHITE AND COCHRANE, FLEET-STREET;ANDJOHN HARDING. ST. JAMES'S-STREET.1811.

ESSAYS AND CHARACTERS.

BY JOHN EARLE, D.D.OF CHRIST-CHURCH AND MERTON COLLEGES, OXFORD,AND BISHOP OF SALISBURY.

A NEW EDITION.TO WHICH ARE ADDED,NOTES AND AN APPENDIX,BY PHILIP BLISS,FELLOW OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, OXFORD.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR WHITE AND COCHRANE, FLEET-STREET;ANDJOHN HARDING. ST. JAMES'S-STREET.1811.

The present edition of Bishop Earle's Characters was undertaken from an idea that they were well worthy of republication, and that the present period, when the productions of our early English writers are sought after with an avidity hitherto unexampled, would be the most favourable for their appearance.

The text has been taken from the edition of 1732, collated with the first impression in 1628. The variations from the latter are thus distinguished:—those words or passages which have been added since the first edition are contained between brackets, [and printed in the common type]; those which have received some alteration, are printed initalic, and the passages, as they stand in the first edition, are always given in a note.

For the Notes, Appendix, and Index, the editor is entirely answerable, and although he is fully aware that many superfluities will be censured, many omissions discovered, and many errors pointed out, he hopes that the merits of the original author will, in a great measure, compensate for the false judgment or neglect of his reviver.

January30, 1811.

[TO THE EDITION OF 1732[AL].]

This little book had six editions between 1628 and 1633, without any author's name to recommend it: I have heard of an eighth in 1664. From that of 33 this present edition is reprinted, without altering any thing but the plain errors of the press, and the old pointing and spelling in some places.

The language is generally easy, and proves our English tongue not to be so very changeable as is commonly supposed; nay, sometimes the phrase seems a little obscure, more by the mistakes of the printer than the distance of time. Here and there we meet with a broad expression, and some characters are far below others; nor is it to be expected that so great a variety of portraits should all be drawn with equal excellence, though there are scarce any without some masterly touches. The change of fashions unavoidably casts a shade upon a few places, yet even those contain an exact picture of the age wherein they were written, as the rest does of mankind ingeneral: for reflections founded upon nature will be just in the main, as long as men are men, though the particular instances of vice and folly may be diversified. Paul's Walk is now no more, but then good company adjourn to coffee-houses, and, at the reasonable fine of two or three pence, throw away as much of their precious time as they find troublesome.

Perhaps these valuable essays may be as acceptable to the public now as they were at first; both for the entertainment of those who are already experienced in the ways of mankind, and for the information of others who would know the world the best way, that is—without trying it[AM].

FOOTNOTES:[AL]London: Printed by E. Say, Anno Dominim.dcc.xxxii.[AM]A short account of Earle, taken from theAthenæ Oxoniensesis here omitted.

[AL]London: Printed by E. Say, Anno Dominim.dcc.xxxii.

[AM]A short account of Earle, taken from theAthenæ Oxoniensesis here omitted.

[TO THE EDITION OF 1786[AN].]

As this entertaining little book is become rather scarce, and is replete with so much good sense and genuine humour, which, though in part adapted to the times when it first appeared, seems, on the whole, by no means inapplicable to any æra of mankind, the editor conceives that there needs little apology for the republication. A farther inducement is, his having, from very good authority, lately discovered[AO]that theseCharacters(hitherto known only under the title ofBlount's[AP]),were actually drawn by the able pencil ofJohn Earle, who was formerly bishop of Sarum, having been translated to that see from Worcester, A.D. 1663, and died at Oxford, 1665.

Isaac Walton, in his Life of Hooker, delineates the character of the said venerable prelate.

It appears from Antony Wood's Athen. Oxon. under the Life of Bishop Earle, that this book was first of all published at London in 1628, under the name of "Edward Blount."

FOOTNOTES:[AN]"Microcosmography; or, a Piece of the World characterized; in Essays and Characters. London, printed A.D. 1650. Salisbury, Reprinted and sold by E. Easton, 1786. Sold also by G. and T. Wilkie, St. Paul's Church-yard, London."[AO]I regret extremely that I am unable to put the reader in possession of this very acute discoverer's name.[AP]This mistake originated with Langbaine, who, in his account of Lilly, calls Blount "a gentleman who has made himself known to the world by the several pieces of his own writing, (asHoræ Subsecivæ, hisMicrocosmography, &c.")Dramatic Poets, 8vo, 1691, p. 327.

[AN]"Microcosmography; or, a Piece of the World characterized; in Essays and Characters. London, printed A.D. 1650. Salisbury, Reprinted and sold by E. Easton, 1786. Sold also by G. and T. Wilkie, St. Paul's Church-yard, London."

[AO]I regret extremely that I am unable to put the reader in possession of this very acute discoverer's name.

[AP]This mistake originated with Langbaine, who, in his account of Lilly, calls Blount "a gentleman who has made himself known to the world by the several pieces of his own writing, (asHoræ Subsecivæ, hisMicrocosmography, &c.")Dramatic Poets, 8vo, 1691, p. 327.

The first edition (of which the Bodleian possesses a copy, 8vo. P. 154. Theol.) was printed with the following title: "Microcosmographie: or, a Peece of the World discovered; In Essayes and Characters. Newly composed for the Northerne parts of this Kingdome. At London. Printed by W. S. for Ed. Blount, 1628." This contains only fifty-four characters[AQ], which in the present edition are placed first. I am unable to speak of any subsequent copy, till one in the following year, (1629), printed for Robert Allot[AR], and called in the title "The first edition much enlarged." This, as Mr. Henry Ellis kindly informs me, from a copy in the British Museum, possesses seventy-six characters. Thesixthwas printed for Allot, in 1633, (Bodl. Mar.441,) and has seventy-eight, the additionalones being "a herald," and "a suspicious, or jealous man." Theseventhappeared in 1638, for Andrew Crooke, agreeing precisely with the sixth; and in 1650 theeighth. A copy of the latter is in the curious library of Mr. Hill, and, as Mr. Park acquaints me, is without any specific edition numbered in the title. I omit that noticed by the editor of 1732, as printed in 1664, for if such a volume did exist, which I much doubt, it was nothing more than a copy of the eighth with a new title-page. In 1732 appeared theninth, which was a reprint of thesixth, executed with care and judgment. I have endeavoured in vain to discover to whom we are indebted for this republication of bishop Earle's curious volume, but it is probable that the person who undertook it, found so little encouragement in his attempt to revive a taste for the productions of our early writers, that he suffered his name to remain unknown. Certain it is that the impression, probably not a large one, did not sell speedily, as I have seen a copy, bearing date 1740, under the name of "The World display'd: or several Essays; consisting of the various Characters and Passions of its principal Inhabitants," &c. London, printed for C. Ward, and R. Chandler. The edition printed at Salisbury, in 1786, (which has only seventy-four characters,) with that now offered to the public, close the list.

FOOTNOTES:[AQ]Having never seen or been able to hear of any copy of the second, third, or fourth editions, I am unable to point out when the additional characters first appeared.[AR]Robert Allot, better known as the editor ofEngland's Parnassus, appears to have succeeded Blount in several of his copy-rights, among others, in that of Shakspeare, as the second edition (1632) was printed for him.

[AQ]Having never seen or been able to hear of any copy of the second, third, or fourth editions, I am unable to point out when the additional characters first appeared.

[AR]Robert Allot, better known as the editor ofEngland's Parnassus, appears to have succeeded Blount in several of his copy-rights, among others, in that of Shakspeare, as the second edition (1632) was printed for him.

PAGEPreface to the Reprint of 1897vii.Advertisement to the present edition (1811)xlv.Preface to the edition of 1732xlvii.Advertisement to the edition of 1786xlix.Editions ofMicrocosmographyli.Blount's Preface to the Readerlix.A child1A young raw preacher4A grave divine8A meer dull physician11An alderman16A discontented man18An antiquary20A younger brother22A meer formal man25A church papist27A self-conceited man29A too idly reserved man31A tavern34A shark37A carrier40A young man42An old college butler45An upstart country knight48An idle gallant51A constable53A downright scholar54A plain country fellow57A player60A detractor63A young gentleman of the university65A weak man68A tobacco-seller70A pot poet71A plausible man74A bowl-alley76The world's wise man78A surgeon80A contemplative man82A she precise hypocrite84A sceptick in religion88An attorney93A partial man95A trumpeter97A vulgar spirited man98A plodding student101Paul's walk103A cook106A bold forward man108A baker111A pretender to learning112A herald115The common singing-men in cathedral churches116A shop-keeper118A blunt man119A handsome hostess122A critic123A serjeant, or catch-pole124An university dun126A stayed man128[All from this character were added after the first edition.]A modest man131A meer empty wit134A drunkard136A prison138A serving-man140An insolent man142Acquaintance144A meer complimental man147A poor fiddler149A meddling-man151A good old man153A flatterer155A high spirited man158A meer gull citizen160A lascivious man165A rash man167An affected man169A profane man171A coward173A sordid rich man174A meer great man177A poor man179An ordinary honest man181A suspicious, or jealous man183

Some account of bishop Earle[AS]186Characters of bishop Earle194List of Dr. Earle's Works197Lines on sir John Burroughs199Lines on the death of the earl of Pembroke201Lines on Mr. Beaumont203Dedication to the Latin translation of theΕικων Βασιλικη207Inscription on Dr. Heylin's monument211Correspondence between Dr. Earle and Mr. Bagster213Inscription in Streglethorp church217Chronological List of Books of Characters, from 1567 to 1700219Corrections and additions279A note on bishop Earle's arms, fromGuillim's Heraldry282Supplementary Appendix, 1897, (Durham MS., Letters of Earle and Clarendon, etc.)303

FOOTNOTES:[AS]It will be remarked, that Dr. Earle's name is frequently spelledEarleandEarlesin the following pages. Wherever the editor has had occasion to use the name himself, he has invariably called itEarle, conceiving that to be the proper orthography. Wherever it is foundEarles, he has attended strictly to the original, from which the article or information has been derived.

[AS]It will be remarked, that Dr. Earle's name is frequently spelledEarleandEarlesin the following pages. Wherever the editor has had occasion to use the name himself, he has invariably called itEarle, conceiving that to be the proper orthography. Wherever it is foundEarles, he has attended strictly to the original, from which the article or information has been derived.

I have (for once) adventured to play the midwife's part, helping to bring forth these infants into the world, which the father would have smothered; who having left them lapt up in loose sheets, as soon as his fancy was delivered of them, written especially for his private recreation, to pass away the time in the country, and by the forcible request of friends drawn from him: yet, passing severally from hand to hand, in written copies, grew at length to be a pretty number in a little volume: and among so many sundry dispersed transcripts, some very imperfect and surreptitious had liked to have passed the press, if the author had not used speedy means of prevention; when, perceiving the hazard he ran to be wronged, was unwillingly[AU]willing to let them pass as now they appear to the world. If any faults have escaped the press (as few books can be printed without), impose them not on the author, I intreat thee; but rather impute them to mine and the printer's oversight, who seriously promise, on there-impression hereof, by greater care and diligence for this our former default, to make thee ample satisfaction. In the mean while, I remain

Thine,Ed. Blount[AV].

FOOTNOTES:[AT]Gentile, or Gentle, 8th edit. 1650.[AU]Willingly, 8th edit. evidently a typographical error.[AV]Edward Blount, who lived at the Black Bear, Saint Paul's Church-yard, appears to have been a bookseller of respectability, and in some respects a man of letters. Many dedications and prefaces, with as much merit as compositions of this nature generally possess, bear his name, and there is every reason to suppose that he translated a work from the Italian, which is intituled "The Hospitall of Incurable Fooles," &c. 4to. 1600. Mr. Ames has discovered, from the Stationer's Register, that he was the son of Ralph Blount or Blunt, merchant-taylor of London; that he was apprenticed to William Ponsonby, in 1578, and made free in 1588. It is no slight honour to his taste and judgment, that he was one of the partners in the first edition of Shakspeare.

[AT]Gentile, or Gentle, 8th edit. 1650.

[AU]Willingly, 8th edit. evidently a typographical error.

[AV]Edward Blount, who lived at the Black Bear, Saint Paul's Church-yard, appears to have been a bookseller of respectability, and in some respects a man of letters. Many dedications and prefaces, with as much merit as compositions of this nature generally possess, bear his name, and there is every reason to suppose that he translated a work from the Italian, which is intituled "The Hospitall of Incurable Fooles," &c. 4to. 1600. Mr. Ames has discovered, from the Stationer's Register, that he was the son of Ralph Blount or Blunt, merchant-taylor of London; that he was apprenticed to William Ponsonby, in 1578, and made free in 1588. It is no slight honour to his taste and judgment, that he was one of the partners in the first edition of Shakspeare.

or,

A piece of the World characterized.

Is a man in a small letter, yet the best copy of Adam before he tasted of Eve or the apple; and he is happy whose small practice in the world can only write his character. He is nature's fresh picture newly drawn in oil, which time, and much handling, dims and defaces. His soul is yet a white paper[1]unscribbled with observations of the world, wherewith, at length, it becomes a blurrednote-book. He is purely happy, because he knows no evil, nor hath made means by sin to be acquainted with misery. He arrives not at the mischief of being wise, nor endures evils to come, by fore-seeing them. He kisses and loves all, and, when the smart of the rod is past, smiles on his beater. Nature and his parents alike dandle him, and tice him on with a bait of sugar to a draught of wormwood. He plays yet, like a young prentice the first day, and is not come to his task of melancholy. [[2]All the language he speaks yet is tears, and they serve him well enough to express his necessity.] His hardest labour is his tongue, as if he were loath to use so deceitful an organ; and he is best company with it when he can but prattle. We laugh at his foolishports,

Shakspeare, of a child, says,"—— the hand of timeShall draw this brief into as huge a volume."K. John II.i.

Shakspeare, of a child, says,"—— the hand of timeShall draw this brief into as huge a volume."

K. John II.i.

but his game is our earnest; and his drums, rattles, and hobby-horses, but the emblems and mocking of man's business. His father hath writ him as his own little story, wherein he reads those days of his life that he cannot remember, and sighs to see what innocence he hath out-lived. The elder he grows, he is a stair lower from God; and, like his first father, much worse in his breeches.[3]He is the Christian's example, and the old man's relapse; the one imitates his pureness, and the other falls into his simplicity. Could he put off his body with his little coat, he had got eternity without a burden, and exchanged but one heaven for another.

FOOTNOTES:[1]So Washbourne, in hisDivine Poems, 12mo. 1654:"—— ere 'tis accustom'd unto sin,The mind white paperis, and will admitOf any lesson you will write in it."—p. 26.[2]This, and every other passage throughout the volume, [included between brackets,] does not appear in the first edition of 1628.[3]Adam did not, to use the words of the old Geneva Bible, "make himself breeches," till he knew sin: the meaning of the passage in the text is merely that, as a child advances in age, he commonly proceeds in the knowledge and commission of vice and immorality.

[1]So Washbourne, in hisDivine Poems, 12mo. 1654:"—— ere 'tis accustom'd unto sin,The mind white paperis, and will admitOf any lesson you will write in it."—p. 26.

[1]So Washbourne, in hisDivine Poems, 12mo. 1654:

"—— ere 'tis accustom'd unto sin,The mind white paperis, and will admitOf any lesson you will write in it."—p. 26.

[2]This, and every other passage throughout the volume, [included between brackets,] does not appear in the first edition of 1628.

[3]Adam did not, to use the words of the old Geneva Bible, "make himself breeches," till he knew sin: the meaning of the passage in the text is merely that, as a child advances in age, he commonly proceeds in the knowledge and commission of vice and immorality.

Is a bird not yet fledged, that hath hopped out of his nest to be chirping on a hedge, and will be straggling abroad at what peril soever. His backwardness in the university hath set him thus forward; for had he not truanted there, he had not been so hasty a divine. His small standing, and time, hath made him a proficient only in boldness, out of which, and his table-book, he is furnished for a preacher. His collections of study are the notes of sermons, which, taken up at St. Mary's,[4]he utters in the country: andif he write brachigraphy,[5]his stock is so much the better. His writing is more than his reading, for he reads only what he gets without book. Thus accomplished he comes down to his friends, and his first salutation is grace and peace out of the pulpit. Hisprayer is conceited, and no man remembers his college more at large.[6]The pace of his sermon is a full career, and he runs wildly over hill and dale, till the clock stop him. The labour of it is chiefly in his lungs; and the only thing he has made[7]init himself, is the faces. He takes on against the pope without mercy, and has a jest still in lavender for Bellarmine: yet he preaches heresy, if it comes in his way, though with a mind, I must needs say, very orthodox.His action is all passion, and his speech interjections. He has an excellent faculty in bemoaning the people, and spits with a very good grace. [His stile is compounded of twenty several men's, only his body imitates some one extraordinary.] He will not draw his handkercher out of his place, nor blow his nose without discretion. His commendation is, that he never looks upon book; and indeed he was never used to it. He preaches but once a year, though twice on Sunday; for the stuff is still the same, only the dressing a little altered: he has more tricks with a sermon, than a taylor with an old cloak, to turn it, and piece it, and at last quite disguise it with a new preface. If he have waded farther in his profession, and would shew reading of his own, his authors are postils, and his school-divinity a catechism. His fashion and demure habit gets him in with some town-precisian, and makes him a guest on Friday nights. You shall know him by his narrow velvet cape, and serge facing; and his ruff, next his hair, the shortest thing about him.The companion of his walk is some zealous tradesman, whom he astonishes with strange points, which they both understand alike. His friends and much painfulness may prefer him to thirty pounds a year, and this means to a chambermaid; with whom we leave him now in the bonds of wedlock:—next Sunday you shall have him again.

FOOTNOTES:[4]St. Mary's church was originally built by king Alfred, and annexed to the University of Oxford, for the use of the scholars, when St. Giles's and St. Peter's (which were till then appropriated to them,) had been mined by the violence of the Danes. It was totally rebuilt during the reign of Henry VII., who gave forty oaks towards the materials; and is, to this day, the place of worship in which the public sermons are preached before the members of the university.[5]Brachigraphy, or short-hand-writing, appears to have been much studied in our author's time, and was probably esteemed a fashionable accomplishment. It was first introduced into this country by Peter Bales, who, in 1590, publishedThe Writing Schoolmaster, a treatise consisting of three parts, the first "of Brachygraphie, that is, to write as fast as a man speaketh treatably, writing but one letter for a word;" the second, of Orthography; and the third, of Calligraphy. Imprinted at London, by T. Orwin, &c. 1590. 4to. A second edition, "with sundry new additions," appeared in 1597. 12mo. Imprinted at London, by George Shawe, &c. Holinshed gives the following description of one of Bale's performances:—"The tenth of August (1575,) a rare peece of worke, and almost incredible, was brought to passe by an Englishman borne in the citie of London, named Peter Bales, who by his industrie and practise of his pen, contriued and writ within the compasse of a penie, in Latine, the Lord's praier, the creed, the ten commandements, a praier to God, a praier for the queene, his posie, his name, the daie of the moneth, the yeare of our Lord, and the reigne of the queene. And on the seuenteenthe of August next following, at Hampton court, he presented the same to the queene's maiestie, in the head of a ring of gold, couered with a christall; and presented therewith an excellent spectacle by him deuised, for the easier reading thereof: wherewith hir maiestie read all that was written therein with great admiration, and commended the same to the lords of the councell, and the ambassadors, and did weare the same manie times vpon hir finger."Holinshed's Chronicle, page 1262, b. edit, folio, Lond. 1587.[6]It is customary in all sermons delivered before the University, to use an introductory prayer for the founder of, and principal benefactors to, the preacher's individual college, as well as for the officers and members of the university in general. This, however, would appear very ridiculous when "he comes down to his friends" or, in other words, preaches before a country congregation.[7]of, first edit. 1628.

[4]St. Mary's church was originally built by king Alfred, and annexed to the University of Oxford, for the use of the scholars, when St. Giles's and St. Peter's (which were till then appropriated to them,) had been mined by the violence of the Danes. It was totally rebuilt during the reign of Henry VII., who gave forty oaks towards the materials; and is, to this day, the place of worship in which the public sermons are preached before the members of the university.

[5]Brachigraphy, or short-hand-writing, appears to have been much studied in our author's time, and was probably esteemed a fashionable accomplishment. It was first introduced into this country by Peter Bales, who, in 1590, publishedThe Writing Schoolmaster, a treatise consisting of three parts, the first "of Brachygraphie, that is, to write as fast as a man speaketh treatably, writing but one letter for a word;" the second, of Orthography; and the third, of Calligraphy. Imprinted at London, by T. Orwin, &c. 1590. 4to. A second edition, "with sundry new additions," appeared in 1597. 12mo. Imprinted at London, by George Shawe, &c. Holinshed gives the following description of one of Bale's performances:—"The tenth of August (1575,) a rare peece of worke, and almost incredible, was brought to passe by an Englishman borne in the citie of London, named Peter Bales, who by his industrie and practise of his pen, contriued and writ within the compasse of a penie, in Latine, the Lord's praier, the creed, the ten commandements, a praier to God, a praier for the queene, his posie, his name, the daie of the moneth, the yeare of our Lord, and the reigne of the queene. And on the seuenteenthe of August next following, at Hampton court, he presented the same to the queene's maiestie, in the head of a ring of gold, couered with a christall; and presented therewith an excellent spectacle by him deuised, for the easier reading thereof: wherewith hir maiestie read all that was written therein with great admiration, and commended the same to the lords of the councell, and the ambassadors, and did weare the same manie times vpon hir finger."Holinshed's Chronicle, page 1262, b. edit, folio, Lond. 1587.

[6]It is customary in all sermons delivered before the University, to use an introductory prayer for the founder of, and principal benefactors to, the preacher's individual college, as well as for the officers and members of the university in general. This, however, would appear very ridiculous when "he comes down to his friends" or, in other words, preaches before a country congregation.

[7]of, first edit. 1628.

Is one that knows the burthen of his calling, and hath studied to make his shoulders sufficient; for which he hath not been hasty to launch forth of his port, the university, but expected the ballast of learning, and the wind of opportunity. Divinity is not the beginning but the end of his studies; to which he takes the ordinary stair, and makes the arts his way. He counts it not prophaneness to be polished with human reading, or to smooth his wayby Aristotle to school-divinity. He has sounded both religions, and anchored in the best, and is a protestant out of judgment, not faction; not because his country, but his reason is on this side. The ministry is his choice, not refuge, and yet the pulpit not his itch, but fear. His discourse is substance, not all rhetoric, and he utters more things than words. His speech is not helped with inforced action, but the matter acts itself. He shoots all his meditations at one but; and beats upon his text, not the cushion; making his hearers, not the pulpit groan. In citing of popish errors, he cuts them with arguments, not cudgels them with barren invectives; and labours more to shew the truth of his cause than the spleen. His sermon is limited by the method, not the hour-glass; and his devotion goes along with him out of the pulpit. He comes not up thrice a week, because he would not be idle; nor talks three hours together, because he would not talk nothing: but his tongue preaches at fit times, and his conversation is the every day's exercise. Inmatters of ceremony, he is not ceremonious, but thinks he owes that reverence to the church to bow his judgement to it, and make more conscience of schism, than a surplice. He esteems the church hierarchy as the church's glory, and however we jar with Rome, would not have our confusion distinguish us. In simoniacal purchases he thinks his soul goes in the bargain, and is loath to come by promotion so dear; yet his worth at length advances him, and the price of his own merit buys him a living. He is no base grater of his tythes, and will not wrangle for the odd egg. The lawyer is the only man he hinders, by whom he is spited for taking up quarrels. He is a main pillar of our church, though not yet dean or canon, and his life our religion's best apology. His death is the last sermon, where, in the pulpit of his bed, he instructs men to die by his example.[8]

Back to Index Next