games and sports were always encouraged,— and the eldeft-born, now in India,-a great hand at Cricket and Foot-ball, and full of fun, -as he fhouldered his Bat for the next coming match, used to fmile at his father with unmiftakeable drollery, and fay,

"Voluptates commendat rarior ufus."

And the Old Vicar fmiled too! mumbling to himself his Favourite's lines,

"If all the year were playing holidays,

To fport would be as tedious as to work;

But, when they feldom come, they wished for come,
And nothing pleaseth but rare accidents."

Juv. Sat. xi.

208.

1 Hen. IV.,

A&t i. Sc. ii.

Lord Brooke,
Of Humane
Learning.

Bp. Reynolds,
Vol. ii. 427.

Pollok's Course of Time, Book iv.

A&t i. Sc. iii.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

Parochial Libraries,-joint Efforts,-and the
Neceffity of Mixed Works, Serious
and Entertaining.

"Yet not ashamed thefe verbalifts ftill are

From youth, till age or ftudy dimme their eyes,
To engage the grammar rules in civil warre,
For fome small fentence which they patronize;

As if our end lived not in reformation,

But verbes, or nouns to meafure, or declination."

"There is no part of learning in the whole circle thereof which is not helpful, and may not contribute to the understanding of Holy Scriptures, and to fome part or other of a divine employment."

"Books of this fort, or facred or profane,

Which virtue helped, were titled, not amifs,

"The medicine of the mind;' who read them, read
Wisdom, and was refreshed: and on his path
Of pilgrimage with healthier ftep advanced."

T is one of thofe fmall paffages well worthy of recollection, that, in earlier days, a large Top was kept by the Parish for the exercife and amusement of the peafantry,--a custom alluded to by Shakspeare in his Twelfth Night, when Sir Toby Belch fays, "He's a coward

and a coystril that will not drink to my niece,
till his brain turns o' the toe like a parish
top,"
"-and by Beaumont and Fletcher in
Thierry and Theodoret, where Martell, enter-
ing with Protaldye's sword, is made to say,

"I'll hazard

My life upon it that a boy of twelve

Should fcourge him hither like a parish top,
And make him dance before you."

And certainly, even this was better than guz-
zling and toping at the Public,-thofe houses
of fin, ycleped Beer-fhops, to which a fretting
leprofy is fure to attach first or last, not being
yet invented. But how much better than a
Parish top is a good Parish Library, fuch as
may now be easily procured, and at a moderate
price, from the Churchman's excellent De-
pofitory, "The Society for Promoting Chrif-
tian Knowledge." None could fay, now-a-days,
to one well read there, and it is pleasant to
think how many are well read,-

-

"Thou art the town top,

A boy will fet thee up, and make thee spin

Home with an eel-skin."

And yet, faid the Old Vicar to me one day, "Up to this time instead of establishing a Parochial or Lending Library, which by this time would have become a little Bodleian in

A& ii. Sc. iii.

Shirley, The
Ball, A&t iv.
Sc. i.

Act iv. Sc. ii.

its way, I have gone on giving, giving, giving, -and there is not a cottage in these Parishes, which, firft or laft, has not received a fhelf of books. For a long time after I came, a Lending Library would have been of little or no use,—now, it would be of great advantage, and, by and by, must be established. We are becoming a reading public! and Sir Nathanael's words in Love's Labour's Loft would be quite a reproach to our people. Sir! he

hath never fed of the dainties that are bred in
a book; he hath not eat paper, as it were;
he hath not drunk ink: his intellect is not
animal; only fenfi-

replenished, he is only an
ble in the duller parts.'

Within the last year or two I have heard words quite like these."

In one of the grand Sermons of Barrow, "Of Industry in our particular calling, as Scholars," are to be found the following very pertinent fentences, and as it is a rare thing now to hear one by the SEA-BOARD AND THE DOWN fay, "I am no fcholard,"-I fhall venture to Theol. Works, transcribe them. "It is a calling that fitteth a man for all conditions and fortunes, so that he can enjoy profperity with moderation, and fuftain adverfity with comfort: he that loveth a book will never want a faithful friend, a

iii. 240, 1.

Serm. liv.

wholesome counsellor, a cheerful companion, an effectual comforter. By ftudy, by reading, by thinking, one may innocently divert and pleasantly entertain himself, as in all weathers, fo in all fortunes.-The reading of books, what is it but converfing with the wisest men of all ages and all countries, who thereby communicate to us their most deliberate thoughts, choiceft notions, and best inventions, couched in good expreffion, and digefted in

exact method?"

"My opinion is," faid the Old Vicar one day, "that all country places efpecially would be benefited by Clerical and Parochial Libraries. Many are the young men,-young clergy too, who would read more if they had but the opportunity and the books at hand. Meanwhile days and hours pass, and in after life they try in vain to overtake what is gone for ever. You know the words of Pindar, Καιρὸς πρὸς ἄνθρωπον βραχὺ μέτρου Pyth. iv. 509. xu, or, in the words of one of our old Dramatists,

'Begin betimes, occafion's bald behind,

Stop not thine opportunity.'

And on this head we have had good examples fet us long ago. For example, in London,