and at first, no doubt, you will be inclined to wonder at the strange agility of their imaginations and compass of their inventions and nimbleness of their utterance. But if you shall attend them calmly and constantly the vizor will be quickly pulled off, though they manage it never so dexterously; you will at last find that they only walk forward and backward and round about one, it may be, in a larger labyrinth than another, but in a labyrinth still; through the same turnings and windings again and again, and, for the most part, guided by the same clue.

The explanations, perhaps, of their texts, the connections and transitions of the parts, and some sudden glosses and descants and flights of fancy may seem new to you. But the material points of doctrine and the commonplaces to which upon any loss or necessity they have recourse, these they frequently repeat, and apply to several subjects with very little alteration in the substance, oftentimes not in the words. These are the constant paths which they scruple not to walk over and over again, 'till, if you follow them very close, you may perceive, amidst all their extempore pretensions, they often tread in the same rounds, till they have trodden them bare enough.

But, God be thanked, the Church of England neither requires, nor stands in need of any such raptural (if I may so call it) or enthusiastic spirit of preaching. Here the more advised and modest, the more deliberate and prepared the preacher is, the better he is furnished, by God's grace, to deliver effectually our Church's solid sense, its fixed precepts, its unalterable doctrines. Our Church pretends not to enter into men's judgments merely by the affections; much less by the passions to overthrow their judgments. The door, which that strives first to open, is of the understanding and conscience: it is content, if by them a passage shall be made into the affections.

(From a Visitation Discourse.)

THE DEFENCE OF ENGLISH ELOQUENCE AND
LETTERS

CONCERNING the English eloquence, he bravely declares, that all their sermons in the pulpit, and pleadings at the bar, consist of nothing but mean pedantry. The censure is bold, especially

from a man that was so far from understanding our language, that he scarce knew whether we move our lips when we speak. But to show him, that we can better judge of Monsieur de Sorbière's eloquence, I must tell him that the Muses and Parnassus are almost whipped out of our very schools; that there are many hundreds of lawyers and preachers in England, who have long known how to contemn such delicacies of his style. I will give only one instance for all. I believe he could scarce have bribed any scrivener's clerk, to describe Hatfield as he has done, and so to conclude "that the fishes in the ponds did often leap out of the water into the air, to behold, and to delight themselves with, the beauties of the place."

I will not attempt to defend the ornaments, or the copiousness of our language, against one that is utterly ignorant of it. But to show how plentiful it is, I will only repeat an observation which the Earl of Clarendon has made : "that there is scarce any language in the world, which can properly signify one English expression, and that is good nature.” Though Monsieur de Sorbière will not allow the noble author of this note to have any skill in grammar learning, yet he must pardon me if I still believe the observation to be true; at least, I assure you, sir, that after all my search, I cannot find any word in his book, which might incline me to think otherwise.

But I will be content to lay the whole authority of his judgment in matters of wit and elegance upon what he says concerning the English books. He affirms "that they are only impudent thefts out of others, without citing their authors, and that they contain nothing but ill rhapsodies. of matter, worse put together." And here, Sir, I will for once do him a courtesy. I will suppose him not to have taken this one character of us, from the soldier, the Zealander, the Puritans, or the rabble of the streets I will grant he might have an ill conceit of our writings, before he came over, from the usual judgment, which the southern wits of the world, are wont to pass on the wit of all northern countries. 'Tis true indeed, I think the French and the Italians would scarce be so unneighbourly as to assert that all our authors are thievish pedants. That is Monsieur de Sorbière's own addition, but yet they generally agree, that there is scarce anything of late written, that is worth looking upon, but in their own language. The Italians did at first endeavour to have it thought that all matters of elegance had never yet

passed over the Alps; but being soon overwhelmed by number, they were content to admit the French, and the Spaniards, into some share of the honour. But they all three still maintain this united opinion, that all wit is to be sought for nowhere but amongst themselves; it is their established rule that good sense has always kept near the warm sun, and scarce ever yet dared to come farther than the forty-ninth degree northward. This, sir, is a pretty imagination of theirs, to think they have confined all art to a geographical circle, and to fancy that it is there so charmed as not to be able to go out of the bounds which they have set it. It were certainly an easy and a pleasant work to confute this arrogant conception by particular examples; it might quickly be shown that England, Germany, Holland, nay, even Denmark and Scotland, have produced very many men who may justly come into competition with the best of these Southern wits, in the advancement of the true arts of life, in all the works of solid reason, nay, even in the lighter studies of ornament and humanity. And, to speak particularly of England, there might be a whole volume composed in comparing the chastity, the newness, the vigour of many of our English fancies, with the corrupt and the swelling metaphors wherewith some of our neighbours, who most admire themselves, do still adorn their books. But, this, sir, will require a larger discourse than I intend to bestow on Monsieur de Sorbière. I am able to

dispatch him in fewer words. For I wonder how, of all men living, it could enter into his thoughts to condemn in gross the English writings, when the best course that he has taken to make himself considered as a writer, was the translation of an English author.

(From Observations on Monsieur de Sorbière's Voyage into England.)

BISHOP KEN

[Thomas Ken (1637-1711), Bishop of Bath and Wells, was born at Great or Little Berkhampstead in July 1637. His father was a lawyer of Furnival's Inn, who married twice, Thomas being the son of the second wife. He lost both his parents while he was yet a boy, but found a home with his sister Anna, many years his senior, who had married the famous Izaak Walton. On 26th September 1651 he was elected scholar of Winchester, where he remained more than four years; in 1656 he was elected to New College, Oxford, but as there was no immediate vacancy he spent a few terms at Hart Hall before proceeding to New. In 1661 he took his B. A. degree, and became Tutor of New College. About the same time he received Holy Orders, and in 1663 was presented by Lord Maynard to the rectory of Little Easton in Essex. He resigned this living in 1665 in order to become domestic chaplain to Bishop Morley at Winchester, where he also undertook gratuitously the charge of the poor parish of St. John in the Soke. In 1666 he was elected Fellow of Winchester, and in 1667 accepted the living of Brightstone in the Isle of Wight, which he held until 1669, when he was made a Prebendary of Winchester and Rector of East Woodhay. In 1672 he resigned East Woodhay in favour of George Hooper, who was afterwards his successor at Bath and Wells, and returned to Winchester, resuming the charge of St. John in the Soke. In 1679 he went to reside at The Hague as chaplain to the Princess Mary of Orange. In 1680 he returned to Winchester, and soon became one of the King's chaplains. It was probably in the summer of 1683 that he refused to receive Eleanor Gwynne into his prebendal house; and in the same year he went to Tangier as chaplain to Lord Dartmouth, commander of the fleet. In 1684 he was appointed Bishop of Bath and Wells by the express wish of King Charles II., who is said to have declared that no one should have the see, but " 'the little black fellow that refused his lodging to poor Nelly." He was consecrated 25th January 1685, and in the same year he was summoned to the death-bed of King Charles, when he spoke "like one inspired." He ministered to the Duke of Monmouth on the night before his execution and on the scaffold, and he interceded, not without effect, with King James, who always respected him, in behalf of the prisoners after the Battle of Sedgmoor. In 1687 he was one of the seven bishops who were committed to the Tower for refusing to oblige their clergy to read in church the King's declaration of indulgence. After the Revolution he refused to take the oaths of allegiance and abjuration, and was deprived of his see in 1691. Henceforth he lived in poverty and retire

ment, chiefly at Longleat, the seat of Lord Weymouth, who was his staunch and kind friend. In 1702, Queen Anne offered to restore him to his bishopric, but his conscience would not allow him to accept it. He did not, however, sympathise with the extreme party among the Non-jurors, among whom he incurred much obloquy by making a cession of the canonical right to his see in favour of George Hooper, whom he had long known, and in whose Church principles he had the fullest confidence. He died at Longleat, 19th March 1711, and was buried beneath the east window of the parish church of Frome.]

IF this were a hagiology there would be much to be said about the saintly character of Bishop Ken; or if it were a critique on poetry the writer of the most popular hymns in the English language might claim a high place; but as a prose writer Ken holds a very subordinate position. In the first place, he would fall under the condemnation which Dr. Johnson pronounced upon Gray: he was "a barren rascal." A Manual of Prayers for the use of the Winchester Scholars, an Exposition of the Church Catechism entitled The Practice of Divine Love, and three single sermons, Prayers for the use of all Persons who come to the Baths (that is Bath) for cure, with a short but interesting introduction, one or two pastoral addresses to his clergy, and a number of private letters, exhaust the list of writings in prose which are universally acknowledged to be his, though there are a few which almost certainly and a few more which possibly came from his pen. His undoubted prose works, all told, are not sufficient to fill one decently sized volume; and, such as they are, they would scarcely have attracted much attention if they had been written by any one else. It is the man who gives an interest to the writings, rather than the writings that enhance the reputation of the man. At the same time, what he has written makes us wish that he had written more. The sermons especially are the compositions of a good and effective preacher, who might with advantage have left many more to posterity. He had a wonderfully high reputation as a preacher among his contemporaries; this may no doubt be partly accounted for by the halo of sanctity which surrounded the man, and partly by the action and energy with which his sermons are said to have been delivered; but, even when read in cold blood, the three specimens still extant are not disappointing; they are lively, earnest, and written in an easy and pure style. One of his chief merits is that he never loses sight of his text, which, like Bishop Andrews, he pricks to the bone;