that he infused his own opinions into those from whom he pre tended to learn and receive them. And even with them who were able to preserve themselves from his infusions (insinuations), and discerned those opinions to be fixed in him, with which they could not comply, he always left the character of an ingenious (ingenuous) and conscientious person. He was indeed a very wise man and of great parts, and possessed with (of) the most absolute' spirit of popularity, and the most absolute faculties to govern the people, of any man I ever knew. For the first year of the parliament he seemed rather to moderate and soften the violent and distempered humours than to inflame them. But wise and dispassioned men plainly discerned that that moderation proceeded from prudence, and observation that the season was not ripe, rather than that he approved of the moderation; and that he begot many opinions and notions, the education 2 (development) whereof he committed to other men; so far disguising his own designs, that he seemed seldom to wish more than was concluded; and in many gross (important) conclusions which would hereafter contribute to designs not yet set on foot, when he found them sufficiently backed by majority of voices, he would withdraw himself before the question (vote was taken), that he might seem not to consent to so much visible (apparent) unreasonableness, which produced as great a doubt in some, as it did approbation in others, of his integrity. What combination soever had been originally with the Scots for the invasion of England, and what farther was entered into afterwards in favour of them, and to advance any alteration of the government in parliament, no man doubts was at least with the privity (was done with the private knowledge) of this gentleman.

After he was, among those members (the five members), accused by the king of high treason, he was much altered; his nature and carriage seeming much fiercer than it did before. And without question, when he first drew his sword, he threw away the scabbard; for he passionately opposed the overture made by the king for a treaty from Nottingham (i.e. made from Nottingham by the king for a treaty), and as eminently (energetically) all expedients that might have produced any accommodations in this that was (in the treaty which

(1) Absolute (fr. Lat. absolvere, p.p. absolutum) means, literally, freed or loosed from; hence we speak of "absolute (i.e. independent of all limits) power," so of absolute command, one without conditions, and generally, freed from imperfections, perfect, which seems to be the meaning here.

(2) See note 2, p. 206.

was proposed) at Oxford; and was principally relied on to prevent any infusions which might be made into (any suggestions which might be made to) the Earl of Essex towards peace, or to render them ineffectual if they were made; and was indeed much more relied on by that party than the General himself. In the first entrance into the troubles, he undertook the command of a regiment of foot, and performed the duty of a colonel, upon all occasions, most punctually. He was very temperate in diet, and a supreme governor over all his passions and affections, and had thereby a great power over other men's. He was of an industry and vigilance not to be tired out, or wearied by the most laborious; and of parts not to be imposed upon by the most subtle or sharp; and of a personal courage equal to his best parts; so that he was an enemy not to be wished wherever he might have been made a friend; and as much to be apprehended (feared) where he was so as any man could deserve to be; and therefore his death was no less congratulated in the one party, than it was condoled in the other. In a word, what was said of Cinna might well be applied to him. "He had a head to contrive, and a tongue to persuade, and a hand to execute any mischief." His death, therefore, seemed to be a great deliverance to the nation.

2. CHARACTER OF FALKLAND.3

(FROM THE SAME WORK.)

FROM the entrance into this unnatural war his natural cheerfulness and vivacity grew clouded, and a kind of sadness and dejection of spirit stole upon him which he had never been used

(1) Apprehend, fr. Lat. apprehendere take by the hand, lay hold of, seize. Hence we apprehend with the mind that which looks alarming, and therefore feel afraid. This is the meaning above. The adjective apprehensive now has this last sense only, as "apprehensive of danger; " but once it meant, that which lays hold of and understands. "She was both apprehensive of (very well acquainted with) the plot, and very active to prosecute it."-Fuller. See Trench's "Select Glossary,' sub voce.

now.

(2) His death was congratulated, condoled. A construction quite inadmissible A man may be congratulated or condǝled with; but not a thing, abstract or concrete. We should say now, "his death was a subject of congratulation on the one side, and of condolence on the other."

(3) This is only a fragment of the splendid delineation of Falkland's character by Clarendon. In comprehensiveness of detail, and amplitude of style generally, it is a very remarkable piece of word-painting, and well deserves careful study.

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to; yet being one of those who believed that one battle would end all differences, and that there would be so great a victory on one side that the other would be compelled to submit to any conditions from the victor (which supposition and conclusion generally sunk into the minds of most men, and prevented the looking after many advantages that might then have been laid hold of), he resisted those indispositions. But after the king's return from Brentford, and the furious resolution of the two Houses not to admit any treaty for peace, those indispositions,' which had before touched him, grew into a perfect habit of uncheerfulness; and he, who had been so exactly (uniformly) easy and affable to all men, that his face and countenance was always present and vacants to his company, and [who] held any cloudiness and less pleasantness of the visage a kind of rudeness or incivility, became on a sudden less communicable; and thence very sad, pale, and exceedingly affected with the spleen. In his clothes and habit, which he had minded before always with more neatness, and industry, and expense, than is usual to so great a soul, he was not now only incurious (careless), but too negligent; and in his reception of suitors, and the necessary or casual addresses to his place, so quick, and sharp, and severe, that there wanted not some men (strangers to his nature and disposition) who believed him proud and imperious, from which [charge] no mortal was ever more

free.

When there was any overture or hope of peace, he would be more erect and vigorous, and exceedingly solicitous to press anything which he thought might promote it; and sitting among his friends, often, after a deep silence and frequent sighs,

(1) Indisposition denotes the neutral shade, the alteration of the temperament; but the "habit of uncheerfulness" marks the settled gloom which was enveloping him.

(2) Face and countenance. See note 2, p. 157.

(3) Present and vacant. A "vacant countenance," now, would convey a totally different idea from that intended by Clarendon. By a countenance "always present and vacant to his company," he seems to mean, always attentive and occupied with his company. It is the Latin usage (vacare, to be at leisure) which controls the sense both of present and vacant. The countenance was not kept hidden, but directed towards his company, and was vacant, not preoccupied, but sympathising with the various moods of his friends.

(4) Spleen. We rarely refer now to the excuse for all dyspeptic, and other fancies. were handed over to the "vapours," and Smart's Dictionary, sub voce.

P

spleen; but it was once a convenient In Pope's time the spleen's functions now the "nerves" hold them. See

would, with a shrill and sad accent, ingeminate (utter over and over again) the word peace, peace, and would passionately profess, "that the very agony of the war and the view of the calamities and desolation the kingdom did and must endure, took his sleep from him, and would shortly break his heart." This made some think, or pretend to think, "that he was so much enamoured on (of) peace, that he would have been glad the king should have bought it at any price;" which was a most unreasonable calumny. As if a man that was himself the most punctual and precise in every circumstance that might reflect upon conscience or honour, could have wished the king to have committed a trespass against either. And yet this senseless scandal made some impression upon him, or at least he used it for an excuse of the daringness of his spirit; for at the leaguer (camp) before Gloucester, when his friend passionately reprehended him for exposing his person unnecessarily to danger (for he delighted to visit the trenches and nearest approaches, and to discover what the enemy did), as being so much beside the duty of his place, that it might be understood rather to be against it (ie. as endangering a very valuable official life), he would say merrily, "that his office could not take away the privilege of his age; and that a secretary in war might be present at the greatest secret of danger;" but withal alleged seriously, "that it concerned him to be more active in enterprises of hazard than other men, that all might see that his impatiency for peace proceeded not from pusillanimity or fear to adventure his own person."

In the morning before the battle (i.e. of Newbury, June 18, 1643), as always upon (before) action, he was very cheerful, and put himself into (volunteered into) the first rank of the Lord Byron's regiment [of cavalry], then advancing upon the enemy, who had lined the hedges on both sides with musketeers; from whence he was shot with a musket in the lower part of the belly, and in the instant falling from his horse, his body was not found till the next morning; till when there was some hope he might have been a prisoner; though his nearest friends, who knew his temper (bravery), received small comfort from that imagination. Thus fell that incomparable young man, in the four and thirtieth year of his age, having so much dispatched the true business of life, that the eldest rarely attain to that immense knowledge, and the youngest enter not into the world with more innocency: whosoever leads such a life, needs be the less anxious upon how short warning it is taken from him.

ISAAC BARROW.'

1. WISDOM.

(FROM "SERMONS," PUBLISHED IN 1678.)

WISDOM distinguishes the circumstances, limits the measures, determines the modes, appoints the fit seasons of action; so preserving decorum and order, the parent of peace, and preventing confusion, the mother of iniquity (injustice), strife, and disquiet. 'Tis in the business of human life, as in a building; a due proportion of bigness, a fit situation of place, a correspondency of shape and suitableness of colour, is to be observed between the parts thereof; a defect in any of which requisites, though the materials hap (happen) to be choice and excellent, makes the whole fabric deformed and ugly to judicious apprehensions (taste). The best actions, if they swell and exceed their due measure, if they be unskilfully misplaced, if in uncouth manner performed, they lose their quality, and turn both to the disgrace and disadvantage of life. 'Tis commendable to pray, but they that would be always performing that duty, by their absurd devotion procured to themselves the title of heretics; and they that will stand praying in places of public concourse, deserved our Saviour's reprehensions; and those men who, against the custom and ordinary use, would needs pray with their faces covered, you know St. Paul insinuates of them, that they were fond (foolish) and contentious persons.3

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(1) "As a writer his style is strong, flowery, and cumulative, not entirely free from vulgarism, sometimes weakened by parentheses, yet on the whole dignified and impressive. He closes, as Coleridge remarks, the first great period of English literature; Dryden begins the second."-Angus's Handbook of Eng. Lit., p. 440.

The critique just quoted omits one noticeable quality (or characteristic) of Barrow's style-his exactness and propriety in the use of words. This is a good specimen-"Wisdom distinguishes the circumstances, limits the measures, determines the modes, appoints the seasons of action." Each word here is admirably chosen, and, perhaps, no one of those marked could be displaced for a better.

(2) Disgrace is here the opposite of "grace," in the sense of gracefulness, and does not involve the idea of moral turpitude. Fitness, and harmony, and propriety in actions-the doing them at the right time and place, and in the right mannerin one word, wisdom, tends both to gracefulness and utility, and the want of wisdom, therefore, to the disgrace and disadvantage of life.

(3) “Every man, praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoureth his head."-1 Cor. xi. 4.