he obtained a full pardon. He died on the 9th of April, 1626.

I now proceed to a brief account of the works of this great man, which are beyond all comparison the most important in our tional literature.

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1. During his stay in France, he composed a succinct "View of the State of Europe," at that time, which his biographer (Mallet) observes, was written when he was only nineteen; and it is very remarkable, that in this juvenile production, the same spirit of philosophy is discoverable which pervades his subsequent writings.

2. In 1596, he finished his "Maxims of the Law," which work, however, was not published till after his death, and is said to have sufered materially from that cause.

3. The next year he published the first part of his "Essays or Councils, Civil and Moral.”

4. In 1598, he wrote his "History of the Alienation Office," though it was not published till many years after his death; a work which displays an extensive knowledge of our history and antiquities, and clearly evinces his profound skill in his profession.

5. He has also left a memorial of the reign

of Elizabeth. This seems to have been com posed in the life time of that princess; though after her decease,it was newly methodized, revised, corrected, and translated into Latin. At the request of the author it was transmitted in MS. to M. de Thou, while engaged in the composition of his Universal History; and that historian has acknowledged the use he has made of it. This work, however, was not printed till a long while after his death; and discovers the extent of his learning, as well as the depth of his policy.

6. In 1605, he published his work entitled, "The Proficience and Advancement of Learning," which forms the first part of his great work, which he afterwards published under the title of Instauratio Scientiarum. The "Advancement of Learning" was written in English, and divided into two books. The first is chiefly employed in opposing certain objections to learning, and in pointing out the many impediments to its progress. In the second book, he proceeds to his distribution of knowledge, which is into three parts. He observes" The parts of human learning, have reference to the three parts of man's understanding, which is the seat of learning: history to his memory, poesy to his imagination.

and philosophy to his reason. He gives also a genealogical table of knowledge, agreeably to this distribution. I shall select a few extracts from each book, which will be sufficient to exhibit his general views of knowledge of all

sorts.

Book I.

There be chiefly three vanities in studies, whereby learning hath been most traduced. For those things we do esteem vain which are either false, or frivolous, those which have either no truth, or no use: and those persons we esteem vain, which are either credulous or curious; and curiosity is either in matter or words: so that in reason, as well as in experience, there fall out to be these three distempers, as I may term them, of learning: the first, fantastical learning; the second, contentious learning; and the last, delicate learning; vain imaginations, vain altercations, and vain affectations; and with the last I will begin.

Martin Luther, conducted no doubt by an higher providence, but in discourse of reason, finding what a province he had undertaken against the bishop of Rome, and the degenerate traditions of the church; and finding his own solitude, being no ways aided by the opinions of his own time, was enforced to awake all antiquity, and to call former times to his succour,

to make a party against the present time. So that the ancient authors, both in divinity and in humanity, which had long time slept in libraries, began generally to be read and revolved. This by consequence did draw on a necessity of a more exquisite travel in the languages original wherein those authors did write, for the better advantage of pressing and applying their words. And thereof grew again a delight in their manner of style and phrase, and an admiration of that kind of writing; which was much furthered and precipitated by the enmity and opposition, that the propounders of those primitive, but seeming new opinions, had against the schoolmen, who were generally of the contrary part, and whose writings were altogether in a different style and form, taking liberty to coin and frame new terms of art to express their own sense, and to avoid circuit of speech, without regard to the pureness, pleasantness, and as I may call it, lawfulness, of the phrase, or word. And again, because the great labour then was with the people, of whom the Pharisees were wont to say, Execrabilis ista turba quæ non novit legem; for the winning and persuading of them, there grew of necessity in chief price and request, eloquence and variety of discourse as the fittest and forciblest access into the capacity of the vulgar sort: so that these four causes concurring, the admiration of ancient authors, the hate of the

schoolmen, the exact study of languages, and the efficacy of preaching, did bring in an affected study of eloquence, and copia of speech, which then began to flourish. This grew speedily into an excess; for men began to hunt more after words than matter; and more after the choiceness of the phrase, and the round and clean composition of the sentence, and the sweet falling of the clauses, and the varying and illustration of their works with tropes and figures, than after the weight of matter, worth of subject, soundness of argument, life of invention, or depth of judgment. Then grew the flowing and watery vein of Osorius, the Portugal bishop, to be in price. Then did Sturmius spend such infinite and curious pains upon Cicero the orator, and Hermogenes the rhetorician, besides his own books of periods, and imitation, and the like. Then did Car of Cambridge, and Ascham, with their lectures and writings, almost deify Cicero and Demosthenes, and al- ́ lure all young men that were studious, unto that delicate and polished kind of learning. Then did Erasmus take occasion to make the scoffing echo; Decem annos consumpsi in legendo Cicerone: and the echo answered in Greek, *Ore, Asine. Then grew the learnutterly despised as barinclination and bent of

ing of the schoolmen to be

barous. In sum, the whole

those times was rather towards copia than weight.

Here therefore is the first distemper of learning,