"I will now mention who and whence I am. I was born at London of an honourable family: my father was distinguished by the undeviating integrity of his life; my mother, by the esteem in which she was held, and the alms which she bestowed. My father destined me from a child to the pursuits of literature; and my appetite for knowledge was so voracious, that from twelve years of age I hardly ever left my studies, or went to bed before midnight. This primarily led to my loss of sight: my eyes were naturally weak, and I was subject to frequent head-aches; which, however, could not chill the ardour of my curiosity, or retard the progress of my improvement. My father had me instructed daily in the grammar school, and by other masters at home: he then, after I had acquired a proficiency in various languages, and had made a considerable progress in philosophy, sent me to the University of Cambridge. Here I passed seven years in the usual course of instruction and study, with the approbation of the good, and without any stain upon my character, till I took the degree of Master of Arts. After this I retired of my own accord to my father's house, whither I was accompanied by the regrets of most of the fellows of the college, who showed me no common marks of friendship and esteem. On my father's estate, where he had determined to pass the remainder of his days, I enjoyed an interval of uninterrupted leisure, which I devoted entirely to the perusal of the Greek and Latin classics; though I occasionally visited the metropolis, either for the sake of purchasing books, or of learning something new in mathematics or in music, in which I at that time found a source of pleasure and amusement. In this manner I spent five years till my mother's deatb. I then became anxious to visit foreign parts, particularly Italy. My father gave me his permission; and I left home with one servant. On my departure, the celebrated Henry Wotton, who had long been King James's ambassador at Venice, gave me a signal proof of his regard, in an elegant letter which he wrote, breathing not only the warmest friendship, but containing some maxims of conduct, which I found very Useful in my travels. The noble Thomas Scudamore, King Charles's ambassador, to whom I carried letters of recommendation, received me most courteously at Paris. His lordship gave me a card of introduction to the learned Hugo Grotius, at that time ambassador from the Queen of Sweden to the French Court, whose acquaintance I anxiously desired, and to whose house I was accompanied by some of his lordship's friends. A few days after, when I set out for Italy, he gave me letters to the English merchants on my route, that they might show me any civilities in their power.

"Taking ship at Nice, I arrived at Genoa; and afterwards visited Leghorn, Pisa, and Florence. In the latter city, which I have always more particularly esteemed for the elegance of its dialect, its genius, and its taste, I stopped about two months; where I contracted an intimacv with many persons of rank and learning, and

was A constant attendant at their literary parties; a practice which prevails there, and tends so much to the diffusion of knowledge, and the preservation of friendship. No time will ever abolish the agreeable recollections which I cherish of Jacob Gaddi, Carolo Dati, Frescobaldo, Cultellero, Bonomathai, Clementillo Francisco, and others. From Florence I went to Sienna; thence to Rome; when, after I had spent about two inonths in viewing the antiquities of that renowned city, where I experienced the most friendly attention from Lucas Holstein,1 and other learned and ingenious men, I continued my route to Naples. There I was introduced, by a certain recluse with whom I travelled, to John Baptista Manso, marquis of Villa, a nobleman of distinguished rank and authority, to whom Torquato Tasso, the celebrated poet, inscribed his book on "Friendship." During my stay he gave me singular proofs of his regard: he himself conducted me round the city, and to the palace of the viceroy; and more than once paid me a visit at my lodgings. On my departure, he gravely apologised for not having shown me more civility, which he said he had been restrained from doing, because I had spoken with so little reserve on matters of religion. When I was preparing to pass over into Sicily and Greece, the melancholy intelligence which I received, of the civil commotions in England, made me alter my purpose; for I (bought it base to be travelling for amusement abroad, while my fellow-citizens were fighting for liberty at home. While I was on my way back to Rome, some merchants informed me that the English Jesuits had formed a plot against me, if I returned to Rome, because I had spoken too freely of religion: it was a rule which I laid down to myself in those places, never to be the first to begin any conversation on religion; but if any questions were put to me concerning my faith, to declare it without any reserve or fear. I nevertheless returned to Rome. I took no steps to conceal either my person or my character; and for about the space of two months I again openly defended, as I had done before, the Reformed Religion, in the very metropolis of Popery. By the favour of God I got back to Florence, where I was received with as much affection as if I had returned to my native country. There I stopped as many months as I did before, except that I made an excursion of a few days to Lucca; and, crossing the Apennines, passed through Bologna and Ferrara to Venice. After I had spent a month in surveying the curiosities of this city, and had put on board a ship the books I had collected in Italy, I proceeded through Verona and Milan, and along the Leman Lake to Geneva. The mention of this city brings to my recollection the slandering More; and makes me again call the Deity to witness, that in all those places where vice

« Holstenius was then keeper of the Vatican library, and had studied three years at Oxford. He introduced him to the distinguished Cardinal Barberini, who treated him with marked kindness.

meets with so little discouragement, and is practise with so little shame, I never once deviated from the paths of integy and virtue ; and perpetually reflected that, though my conduct might escape the notice of man, it would not elude the inspection of God. At Geneva I held daily conference with John Diodati, the learned professor ol theology. Then pursuing my former route through France, I returned to my native country, after an absence of one year and three months, at the time when Charles, having broken the peace, was renewing what is called the Episcopal war with the Scots; in which the royalists being routed hi the first encounter, and the English being universally and justly disaffected, the necessity of his affairs at last obliged him to convene a parliament. As soon as I was able, I hired a spacious house in the city, for myself and my books; when I again with rapture renewed my literary pursuits, and where I calmly awaited the issue of the contest, which I trusted to the wise conduct of Providence, and to the courage of the people. I saw that a way was opening for the establishment of real liberty; that the foundation was laying for the deliverance of man from the yoke of slavery and superstition; that the principles of religion, which were the first objects of our care, would exert a salutary influence on the manners and constitution of the republic: and as I had from my youth studied the distinctions between religious and civil rights, I perceived that if I ever wished to be of use, I ought at least not to be wanting to my country, to the church, and to so many of my fellow-christians, in a crisis of so much danger. I therefore determined to relinquish the other pursuits in which I was engaged, and to transfer the whole force of my talents and my industry to this one important object."

In the Preface to the second book of his "Reason of Church Government," he states that he engaged in polemical and political controversy from a painful sense of duty; and expresses a hope of completing some great poetic work, at a future time, that would live, and raise the literary fame of his country:—

"I must say, therefore, that after I had for my first years, by the ceaseless diligence and care of my father, (whom God recompense!) been exercised to the tongues, and some sciences, as my age would allow, by different masters and teachers, at home and at school, it was found that whether aught was imposed on me by them that had the overlooking, or was betaken to of my own choice in English, or other tongue,—prosing or versing, but chiefly this latter, the style, by certain vital signs it had, was likely to live. But much latelier in the private academies of Italy, whither I was favoured to resort, perceiving that some trifles which I had in memory, composed at under twenty, or thereabout, (for the manner is, that every one must give some proof of his wit and reading there,) met with acceptance above what was looked for; and other things which I had shifted, in scarcity of books and conveniences, to pack up among, were re

ceived with written encomiums, which the Italian is not forward to bestow on men of this side the Alps; I began thus far to assert to them, and several of my friends here at home, and not less to an inward prompting, which now grew daily upon me, that with labour and intense study, (which I take to be my portion in this life) joined with strong propensity of nature, I might perhaps leave something so written to after times, as that they should not willingly let it die. For which cause (and not only for that I knew it would be hard to arrive at the second rank among the Latins,) I applied myself to that resolution which Ariosto followed, against the persuasions of Bembo—to fix all the industry and art I could unite, to the adorning of my native language; not to make verbal curiosities the end, (that were a toilsome vanity,) but to be an interpreter and relater of the best and sagest things among mine own citizens, throughout this island, in the mother dialect: that what the greatest and choicest wits of Athens, Rome, or modern Italy, and those Hebrews of old, did for their country, I, in my proportion, with this over and above, of being a Christian, might do for mine.

"Time serves not now, and perhaps I might seem too profuse, to give any certain account of what the mind at home, in the spacious circuits of her musing, hath liberty to propose to herself, though of highest hope, and hardest attempting; whether that epic form, whereof the two poems of Homer, and those other two of Virgil and Tasso, are a diffuse, and the book of Job a brief model; and whether the rules of Aristotle are herein, strictly to be kept, or nature is to be followed, which in them that show art, and use judgment, is no transgression, but an enriching of art; or lastly, what king or knight before the Conquest might be chosen, in Whom to lay the pattern of a Christian hero. And, as Tasso gave to a prince of Italy bis choice, whether he would command him to write of Godfrey's expedition against the infidels, or Belisarius's against the Goths, or Charlemagne's against the Lombards; if to the instinct of nature, and the emboldening of art, aught may be trusted, and there be nothing adverse in our climate, or the fate of this age, it haply wpuld be no rashness, from an equal diligence and inclination, for me to present the like offer in our ancient stories: or whether those dramatic compositions, wherein Sophocles and Euripides reign, shall be found more doctrinal and exemplary to a nation.

6

"The Scripture also affords us a divine pastoral drama, in The Song of Solomon,' consisting of two persons, and a double chorus, as Origen rightly judges. And the Apocalypse' of St. John is the majestic image of a high and stately tragedy, shutting up and intermingling her solemn scenes and acts with a sevenfold chorus of hallelujahs, and harping symphonies; and this my opinion, the grave authority of Paræus, commenting that book, is sufficient to confirm; or if occasion shall lead to imitate those magnific odes and hymns, wherein Pindarus and Callimachus are in most things worthy, some

others are in the frame judicious,—in their matter, the chief end, faulty. But those frequent songs throughout the Law and Prophets, beyond all these, not in their divine arguments alone, but in the very critical art of composition, may be easily made appear over all kinds of lyric poesy to be incomparable. Neither do I think it shame to covenant with my knowing reader, that for some years yec I may go in trust with him towards the payment of what I am now indebted, as being a work that requires industrious and silent reading, steady observation, insight into all seemly and generous arts; and as being a work not to be raised from the heat of youth, or the vapours of wine, nor to be obtained from the invocation of Dame Memory, and her Syren daughters; but by devout prayer to that Eternal Spirit, who can enrich with all utterance and knowledge, and sends out his Seraphim with the hallowed fire of his altar, to touch and purify the lips of whom he pleases."

Again, he thus describes his own appearance and physical qualities; to which it may be necessary only to add, that in his youth his hair was auburn, evenly divided at the top of his large full forehead, and hanging in clusters down to his back and shoulders; his face was large and oval, and all his features were individually perfect. He was considered very handsome; but his beauty, from the regularity of his features, their general harmony, and the modesty and composure of his demeanour and look, was thought to be of the feminine order; hence he was called in the university, the Lady of Christ Church: his eyes were blue. It is generally asserted that, in his description of Adam, b. iv. 300, he sketched off his own pic

ture:—

"His fair large front and eye sublime declared

Absolute rule; and hyacinthine locks

Round from his parted forelock manly hung

Clustering, but not beneath his shoulders broad."

"I do not believe that I was ever once noted for deformity by any one who ever saw me ; but the praise of beauty I am not anxious to obtain. My stature certainly is not tall; but it rather approaches the middle than the diminutive. Yet what if it were diminutive, when so many men illustrious both in peace and war have been the same? And how can that be called diminutive, which is great enough for every virtuous achievement? Nor, though very thin, was I ever deficient in courage or strength; and I was wont constantly to exercise myself in the use of the sword, as long as it comported with my habit and my years. Armed with this weapon, as I usually was, I should have thought myself quite a match for any one, though much stronger than myself; and I felt perfectly secure against the assault of any open enemy. At this moment I have the same courage, the same strength, though not the same eyes; yet so little do they betray any external appearance of injury, that they look as unclouded and bright as the eyes of those who most distinctly see.