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tale, forsooth, he cometh unto you, with a tale which holdeth children from play, and old men from the chimney corner; and pretending no more, doth intend the winning of the mind from wickedness to virtue ; even as the child is often brought to take most wholesome things, by hiding them in such other as have a re-pleasant taste; which, if one should begin to tell them the nature of the aloes or rhubarbarum they should receive, would sooner take their physic at their ears than their mouth. So is it in men (most of whom are childish in the best things, till they be cradled in their graves). Glad they will be to hear the tales of Hercules, Achilles, Cyrus, Æneas; and hearing them, must needs hear the right description of wisdom, valour, and justice; which, if they had been barely (that is to say, philosophically) set out, they would swear they be brought to school again.

still worse and worse. Then would he tell them stories of such gallants as he had known; and so, with pleasant company, beguiled the time's haste, and shortened the way's length, till they came to the side of the wood, where the hounds were in couples, staying their coming, but with a whining accent craving liberty; many of them in colour and marks so sembling, that it showed they were of one kind. The huntsmen handsomely attired in their green liveries, as though they were children of summer, with staves in their hands to beat the guiltless earth, when the hounds were at a fault; and with horns about their necks, to sound an alarm upon a silly fugitive; the hounds were straight uncoupled, and ere long the stag thought it better to trust to the nimbleness of his feet than to the slender fortification of his lodging; but even his feet betrayed him; for, howsoever they went, they themselves uttered themselves to the scent of their enemies, who, one taking it of another, and sometimes believing the wind's advertisements, sometimes the view of (their faithful counsellors) the huntsmen, with open mouths, then denounced war, when the war was already begun. Their cry being composed of so well-sorted mouths, that any man would perceive therein some kind of proportion, but the skilful woodmen did find a music. Then delight and variety of opinion drew the horsemen sundry ways, yet cheering their hounds with voice and horn, kept still, as it were, together. The wood seemed to conspire with them against his own citizens, dispersing their noise through all his quarters; and even the nymph Echo left to bewail the loss of Narcissus, and became a hunter. But the stag was in the end so hotly pursued, that, leaving his flight, he was driven to make courage of despair; and so turning his head, made the hounds, with change of speech, to testify that he was at a bay: as if from hot pursuit of their enemy, they were suddenly come to a parley.

[Praise of Poetry.]

The philosopher showeth you the way, he informeth you of the particularities, as well of the tediousness of the way, as of the pleasant lodging you shall have when your journey is ended, as of the many bye-turnings that may divert you from your way; but this is to no man, but to him that will read him, and read him with attentive studious painfulness; which constant desire whosoever hath in him, hath already passed half the hardness of the way, and therefore is beholden to the philosopher but for the other half. Nay, truly, learned men have learnedly thought, that where once reason hath so much overmastered passion, as that the mind hath a free desire to do well, the inward light each man hath in itself is as good as a philosopher's book; since in nature we know it is well to do well, and what is well and what is evil, although not in the words of art which philosophers bestow upon us; for out of natural conceit the philosophers drew it. But to be moved to do that which we know, or to be moved with desire to know, hoc opus hic labor est'-' this is the grand difficulty.']

LORD BURLEIGH.

Another of the favourites of Queen Elizabeth was WILLIAM CECIL, LORD BURLEIGH, who, for forty years, ably and faithfully served her in the capacity of secretary of state. He died in 1598, at the age of seventy-six. As a minister, this celebrated individual was distinguished for wariness, application, sagacity, calmness, and a degree of closeness which sometimes degenerated into hypocrisy. Most of these qualities characterised also what is, properly speaking, his sole literary production; namely, Precepts or Directions for the Well Ordering and Carriage of a Man's Life. These precepts were addressed to his son, Robert Cecil, afterwards Earl of Salisbury. Some of them are here subjoined.

[Choice of a Wife.]

When it shall please God to bring thee to man's estate, use great providence and circumspection in choosing thy wife. For from thence will spring all thy future good or evil. And it is an action of life, like unto a stratagem of war; wherein a man can err but once. If thy estate be good, match near home and at leisure; if weak, far off and quickly. Inquire diligently of her disposition, and how her parents have been inclined in their youth. Let her not be poor, how generous soever. For a man can buy nothing in the market with gentility. Nor choose a base and uncomely creature altogether for wealth; for it will cause contempt in others, and loathing in thee. Neither make choice of a dwarf, or a fool; for, by the one thou shalt beget a race of pigmies; the other will be thy continual disgrace, and it will yirke thee to hear her talk. For thou shalt find it, to thy great grief, that there is nothing more fulsome than a she-fool.

[Domestic Economy.]

And touching the guiding of thy house, let thy hospitality be moderate, and, according to the means of thy estate, rather plentiful than sparing, but not costly. For I never knew any man grow poor by keeping an orderly table. But some consume themselves Now, therein, of all sciences (I speak still of human, through secret vices, and their hospitality bears the and according to the human conceit) is our poet the blame. But banish swinish drunkards out of thine monarch. For he doth not only show the way, but house, which is a vice impairing health, consuming giveth so sweet a prospect into the way, as will entice much, and makes no show. I never heard praise any man to enter into it. Nay, he doth, as if your jour- ascribed to the drunkard, but for the well-bearing of ney should lie through a fair vineyard, at the very first, his drink; which is a better commendation for a give you a cluster of grapes; that, full of that taste, brewer's horse or a drayman, than for either a gentleyou may long to pass farther. He beginneth not with man or a serving-man. Beware thou spend not above obscure definitions; which must blur the margin with three of four parts of thy revenues; nor above a third interpretations, and load the memory with doubtful- part of that in thy house. For the other two parts ness; but he cometh to you with words set in delight-will do no more than defray thy extraordinaries, which ful proportion, either accompanied with, or prepared for, the well enchanting skill of music; and with a

1 Well-born.

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ber 1600. A few days previously, his house was robbed, and when the fact was mentioned to him, he anxiously inquired whether his books and papers were safe. The answer being in the affirmative, he exclaimed, Then it matters not, for no other loss can trouble me.'

Hooker's treatise on 'Ecclesiastical Polity' displays an astonishing amount of learning, sagacity, and industry; and is so excellently written, that, according to the judgment of Lowth, the author has, in correctness, propriety, and purity of English style, hardly been surpassed, or even equalled, by any of his successors. This praise is unquestionably too high; for, as Dr Drake has observed, though the words, for the most part, are well chosen and pure, the arrangement of them into sentences is intricate and harsh, and formed almost exclusively on the idiom and construction of the Latin. Much strength and vigour are derived from this adoption, but perspicuity, sweetness, and ease, are too generally sacrificed. There is, notwithstanding these usual features of his composition, an occasional simplicity in his pages, both of style and sentiment, which truly charms. Dr Drake refers to the following sentence, with which the preface to the 'Ecclesiastical Polity' is opened, as a striking instance of that elaborate collocation which, founded on the structure of a language widely different from our own, was the fashion of the age of Elizabeth. Though for no other cause, yet for this, that posterity may know we have not loosely, through silence, permitted things to pass away as in a dream, there shall be, for men's information, extant this much concerning the preus, and their careful endeavours which would have sent state of the church of God established amongst upheld the same.'

don, Sandys made a strong appeal to his father in
behalf of Hooker, the result of which was the ap-
pointment of the meek divine, in 1585, to the office
of master of the Temple. He accordingly removed
to London, and commenced his labours as forenoon
preacher. It happened that the office of afternoon
lecturer at the Temple was at this period filled by
Walter Travers, a man of great learning and elo-
quence, but highly Calvinistical in his opinions,
while the views of Hooker, on the other hand, both
on church government and on points of theology,
were of a moderate cast. The consequence was,
that the doctrines delivered from the pulpit varied
very much in their character, according to the
preacher from whom they proceeded. Indeed, the
two orators sometimes preached avowedly in oppo-
sition to each other-a circumstance which gave
occasion to the remark, that the forenoon sermons
spoke Canterbury, and the afternoon Geneva.' This
disputation, though conducted with good temper,
excited so much attention, that Archbishop Whitgift
suspended Travers from preaching. There ensued
between him and Hooker a printed controversy,
which was found so disagreeable by the latter, that
he strongly expressed to the archbishop his wish to
retire into the country, where he might be permitted
to live in peace, and have leisure to finish his treatise
Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, already begun.
A letter which he wrote to the archbishop on this
occasion deserves to be quoted, as showing not only
that peacefulness of temper which adhered to him
through life, but likewise the object that his great
work was intended to accomplish. It is as follows:-
'My lord-When I lost the freedom of my cell,
which was my college, yet I found some degree of it
in my quiet country parsonage. But I am weary of
the noise and oppositions of this place; and, indeed,
God and nature did not intend me for contentions,
but for study and quietness. And, my lord, my par-
ticular contests here with Mr Travers have proved the
more unpleasant to me, because I believe him to be a
good man; and that belief hath occasioned me to
examine mine own conscience concerning his opinions.
And to satisfy that, I have consulted the holy Scrip-
ture, and other laws, both human and divine, whether
the conscience of him and others of his judgmentment,
ought to be so far complied with by us as to alter our
frame of church government, our manner of God's
worship, our praising and praying to him, and our
established ceremonies, as often as their tender con-
sciences shall require us. And in this examination
I have not only satisfied myself, but have begun a
treatise in which I intend the satisfaction of others,
by a demonstration of the reasonableness of our laws
of ecclesiastical polity. But, my lord, I shall never
be able to finish what I have begun, unless I be re-
moved into some quiet parsonage, where I may see
God's blessings spring out of my mother earth, and
eat my own bread in peace and privacy: a place
where I may, without disturbance, meditate my ap-
proaching mortality, and that great account which all
flesh must give at the last day to the God of all
spirits.'

In consequence of this appeal, Hooker was presented, in 1591, to the rectory of Boscomb, in Wiltshire, where he finished four books of his treatise, which were printed in 1594. Queen Elizabeth having in the following year presented him to the rec tory of Bishop's-Bourne, in Kent, he removed to that place, where the remainder of his life was spent in the faithful discharge of the duties of his office. Here he wrote the fifth book, published in 1597; and finished other three, which did not appear till after his death. This event took place in Novem

The argument against the Puritans is conducted by Hooker with rare moderation and candour, and certainly the church of England has never had a more powerful defender. The work is not to be regarded simply as a theological treatise; it is still referred to as a great authority upon the whole range of moral and political principles. It also bears a value as the first publication in the English language which observed a strict methodical arrangeand presented a train of clear logical reasoning. As specimens of the body of the work, several extracts are here subjoined :

[Scripture and the Law of Nature.]

points it doth perform. Howbeit, that here we swerve What the Scripture purposeth, the same in all not in judgment, one thing especially we must observe; namely, that the absolute perfection of Scripture is seen by relation unto that end whereto it tendeth. And even hereby it cometh to pass, that, first, such as imagine the general and main drift of the body of sacred Scripture not to be so large as it is, nor that God did thereby intend to deliver, as in truth he doth, a full instruction in all things unto salvation necessary, the knowledge whereof man by nature could not otherwise in this life attain unto; they are by this very mean induced, either still to look for new revelations from heaven, or else dangerously to add to the word of God uncertain tradition, that so the doctrine of man's salvation may be complete; which doctrine things added, to be so complete, that we utterly refuse we constantly hold in all respects, without any such further. Whatsoever, to make up the doctrine of as much as once to acquaint ourselves with anything man's salvation, is added as in supply of the Scripthis, hath perfectly and fully done it. Again, the ture's insufficiency, we reject it; Scripture, purposing

* Essays Illustrative of the Tatler, &c., i. 10.

PROSE WRITERS.

ENGLISH LITERATURE.

scope and purpose of God in delivering the holy Scrip-
ture, such as do take more largely than behoveth,
they, on the contrary, side-racking and stretching it
further than by him was meant, are drawn into sun-
dry as great inconveniences. They, pretending the
Scripture's perfection, infer thereupon, that in Scrip-
ture all things lawful to be done must needs be con-
tained. We count those things perfect which want
nothing requisite for the end whereto they were in-
stituted. As, therefore, God created every part and
particle of man exactly perfect that is to say, in all
points sufficient unto that use for which he appointed
it so the Scripture, yea, every sentence thereof, is
perfect, and wanteth nothing requisite unto that pur-
pose for which God delivered the same. So that, if here-
upon we conclude, that because the Scripture is per-
fect, therefore all things lawful to be done are com-
prehended in the Scripture; we may even as well
conclude so of every sentence, as of the whole sum
and body thereof, unless we first of all prove that it
was the drift, scope, and purpose of Almighty God in
holy Scripture to comprise all things which man may
practise. But admit this, and mark, I beseech you,
what would follow. God, in delivering Scripture to
his church, should clean have abrogated among them
the Law of Nature, which is an infallible knowledge
imprinted in the minds of all the children of men,
whereby both general principles for directing of human
actions are comprehended, and conclusions derived
from them; upon which conclusions groweth in parti-
cularity the choice of good and evil in the daily affairs
of this life. Admit this, and what shall the Scripture
be but a snare and a torment to weak consciences,
filling them with infinite perplexities, scrupulosities,
doubts insoluble, and extreme despairs? Not that the
Scripture itself doth cause any such thing (for it
tendeth to the clean contrary, and the fruit thereof
is resolute assurance and certainty in that it teacheth);
but the necessities of this life urging men to do that
which the light of nature, common discretion, and
judgment of itself directeth them unto; on the other
side, this doctrine teaching them that so to do were to
sin against their own souls, and that they put forth
their hands to iniquity, whatsoever they go about, and
have not first the sacred Scripture of God for direc-
tion; how can it choose but bring the simple a thou-
sand times to their wits' end; how can it choose but
vex and amaze them? For in every action of common
life, to find out some sentence clearly and infallibly
setting before our eyes what we ought to do (seem we
in Scripture never so expert), would trouble us more
In weak and tender minds, we
little know what misery this strict opinion would
breed, besides the stops it would make in the whole
course of all men's lives and actions. Make all things
sin which we do by direction of nature's light, and by
the rule of common discretion, without thinking at
all upon Scripture; admit this position, and parents
shall cause their children to sin, as oft as they cause
them to do anything, before they come to years of
capacity, and be ripe for knowledge in the Scripture.
Admit this, and it shall not be with masters as it was
with him in the gospel; but servants being com-
manded to go, shall stand still till they have their
errand warranted unto them by Scripture. Which, as
it standeth with Christian duty in some cases, so in
common affairs to require it were most unfit.

than we are aware.

[Zeal and Fear in Religion.]

Two affections there are, the forces whereof, as they bear the greater or lesser sway in man's heart, frame accordingly to the stamp and character of his religionthe one zeal, the other fear. Zeal, unless it be rightly guided, when it endeavoureth most busily to please God, forceth upon him those unseasonable offices which

please him not. For which cause, if they who this
way swerve be compared with such sincere, sound, and
service of the one is like unto flattery, the other like
discreet as Abraham was in matter of religion, the
the faithful sedulity of friendship. Zeal, except it
be ordered aright, when it bendeth itself unto conflict
with all things either indeed, or but imagined to be,
opposite unto religion, useth the razor many times
with such eagerness, that the very life of religion itself
is thereby hazarded; through hatred of tares the corn in
the field of God is plucked up. So that zeal needeth both
ways a sober guide. Fear, on the other side, if it have
not the light of true understanding concerning God,
wherewith to be moderated, breedeth likewise super-
stition. It is therefore dangerous that, in things divine,
or fear. Fear is a good solicitor to devotion. Howbeit,
we should work too much upon the spur either of zeal
sith fear in this kind doth grow from an apprehension
of Deity endued with irresistible power to hurt, and
is, of all affections (anger excepted), the unaptest to
admit any conference with reason, for which cause the
wise man doth say of fear, that it is a betrayer of the
men know beforehand what manner of service pleaseth
forces of reasonable understanding; therefore, except
God, while they are fearful they try all things which
fancy offereth. Many there are who never think on
God but when they are in extremity of fear; and then,
because what to think, or what to do, they are uncer-
tain; perplexity not suffering them to be idle, they
think and do, as it were in a phrensy, they know not
what. Superstition neither knoweth the right kind,
nor observeth the due measure, of actions belonging
to the service of God, but is always joined with a
wrong opinion touching things divine. Superstition
is, when things are either abhorred or observed, with
a zealous or fearful, but erroneous relation to God.
By means whereof, the superstitious do sometimes
serve, though the true God, yet with needless offices,
and defraud him of duties necessary, sometimes load
others than him with such honours as properly are his.

[Defence of Reason.]

But so it is, the name of the light of nature is made hateful with men ; the star of reason and learning, and all other such like helps, beginneth no otherwise to be thought of, than if it were an unlucky comet; or as if God had so accursed it, that it should never shine or give light in things concerning our duty any way towards him, but be esteemed as that star in the revelation, called Wormwood, which, being fallen from heaven, maketh rivers and waters in which it falleth so bitter, that men tasting them die thereof. A number there are who think they cannot admire as they ought the power and authority of the word of God, if in things divine they should attribute any force to man's reason; for which cause they never use reason so willingly as to disgrace reason. Their usual and common discourses are unto this effect. First, the natural man perceiveth not the things of the spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned,' &c. &c. By these and the like disputes, an opinion hath spread itself very far in the world; as if the way to be ripe in faith, were to be raw in wit and judgment; as if reason were an enemy unto religion, childish simplicity the mother of ghostly and divine wisdom.

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To our purpose, it is sufficient that whosoever doth serve, honour, and obey God, whosoever believeth in him, that man would no more do this than innocents and infants do but for the light of natural reason that shineth in him, and maketh him apt to apprehend those things of God, which being by grace discovered, are effectual to persuade reasonable minds, and none other, that honour, obedience, and credit, belong

237

aright unto God. No man cometh unto God to offer him sacrifice, to pour out supplications and prayers before him, or to do him any service, which doth not first believe him both to be, and to be a rewarder of them who in such sort seek unto him. Let men be taught this, either by revelation from heaven, or by instruction upon earth; by labour, study, and meditation, or by the only secret inspiration of the Holy Ghost; whatsoever the mean be they know it by, if the knowledge thereof were possible without discourse of natural reason, why should none be found capable thereof but only men; nor men till such time as they come unto ripe and full ability to work by reasonable understanding? The whole drift of the Scripture of God, what is it, but only to teach theology? Theology, what is it, but the science of things divine? What science can be attained unto, without the help of natural discourse and reason? Judge you of that which I speak, saith the apostle. In vain it were to speak anything of God, but that by reason men are able somewhat to judge of that they hear, and by discourse to discern how consonant it is to truth. Scripture, indeed, teacheth things above nature, things which our reason by itself could not reach unto. Yet those also we believe, knowing by reason that the Scripture is the word of God. The thing we have handled according to the question moved about it, which question is, whether the light of reason be so pernicious, that, in devising laws for the church, men ought not by it to search what may be fit and convenient? For this cause, therefore, we have endeavoured to make it appear, how, in the nature of reason itself, there is no impediment, but that the self-same spirit which revealeth the things that God hath set down in his law, may also be thought to aid and direct men in finding out, by the light of reawhat laws are expedient to be made for the guiding of his church, over and besides them that are in Scripture.

son,

*

[Church Music.]

*

Touching musical harmony, whether by instrument or by voice, it being but of high and low in sounds a due proportionable disposition, such notwithstanding is the force thereof, and so pleasing effects it hath in that very part of man which is most divine, that some have been thereby induced to think that the soul itself by nature is, or hath in it, harmony; a thing which delighteth all ages, and beseemeth all states; a thing as seasonable in grief as in joy; as decent, being added unto actions of greatest weight and solemnity, as being used when men most sequester themselves from action. The reason hereof is an admirable facility which music hath to express and represent to the mind, more inwardly than any other sensible mean, the very standing, rising, and falling, the very steps and inflections every way, the turns and varieties of all passions whereunto the mind is subject; yea, so to imitate them, that, whether it resemble unto us the same state wherein our minds already are, or a clean contrary, we are not more contentedly by the one confirmed, than changed and led away by the other. In harmony, the very image and character even of virtue and rice is perceived, the mind delighted with their resemblances, and brought by having them often iterated into a love of the things themselves. For which cause there is nothing more contagious and pestilent than some kinds of harmony; than some, nothing more strong and potent unto good. And that there is such a difference of one kind from another, we need no proof but our own experience, inasmuch as we are at the hearing of some more inclined unto sorrow and heaviness, of some more mollified and softened in mind; one kind apter to stay and settle us, another to move and stir our affections; there is that draweth to a marvellous grave and sober mediocrity; there is

also that carrieth, as it were, into ecstacies, filling the mind with a heavenly joy, and for the time in a manner severing it from the body; so that, although we lay altogether aside the consideration of ditty or matter, the very harmony of sounds being framed in due sort, and carried from the ear to the spiritual faculties of our souls, is, by a native puissance and efficacy, greatly available to bring to a perfect temper whatsoever is there troubled; apt as well to quicken the spirits as to allay that which is too eager; sovereign against melancholy and despair; forcible to draw forth tears of devotion, if the mind be such as can yield them; able both to move and to moderate all affections. The prophet David having, therefore, singular knowledge, not in poetry alone, but in music also, judged them both to be things most necessary for the house of God, left behind him to that. purpose a number of divinely-indited poems, and was further the author of adding unto poetry melody in public prayer; melody, both vocal and instrumental, for the raising up of men's hearts, and the sweetening of their affections towards God. In which considerations the church of Christ doth likewise at this present day retain it as an ornament to God's service, and an help to our own devotion. They which, under pretence of the law ceremonial abrogated, require the abrogation of instrumental music, approving, nevertheless, the use of vocal melody to remain, must show some reason wherefore the one should be thought a legal ceremony, and not the other. In church music, curiosity or ostentation of art, wanton, or light, or unsuitable harmony, such as only pleaseth the ear, and doth not naturally serve to the very kind and degree of those impressions which the matter that goeth with it leaveth, or is apt to leave, in men's minds, doth rather blemish and disgrace that we do, than add either beauty or furtherance unto it. On the other side, the faults prevented, the force and efficacy of the thing itself, when it drowneth not utterly, but fitly suiteth with matter altogether sounding to the praise of God, is in truth most admirable, and doth much edify, if not the understanding, because it teacheth not, yet surely the affection, because therein it worketh much. They must have hearts very dry and tough, from whom the melody of the psalms doth not sometime draw that wherein a mind religiously affected delighteth.

LORD BACON.

But the fame of Hooker, as indeed of all his contemporaries, is outshone by that of the illustrious LORD BACON. Francis Bacon, son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, lord-keeper of the great seal, was born in London on the 22d of January 1561, and in childhood displayed such vivacity of intellect and sedateness of behaviour, that Queen Elizabeth used to call him her young lord-keeper. At the age of thirteen, he was sent to Cambridge, where, so early as his sixteenth year, he became disgusted with the Aristotelian philosophy, which then held unquestioned sway in the great English schools of learning. This dislike of the philosophy of Aristotle, as Bacon himself declared to his secretary Dr Rawley, he fell into not for the worthlessness of the author, to whom he would ever ascribe all high attributes, but for the unfruitfulness of the way; being a philosophy, as his lordship used to say, only strong for disputations and contentions, but barren of the production of works for the benefit of the life of man.* After spending about four years at Cambridge, he travelled in France, his acute observations in which country were afterwards published in a work entitled Of the State of Europe. By the sudden death of his father in 1579, he was compelled to return hastily to England, and engage

*Rawley's Life of Bacon.

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