The low state of public education may also be inferred from the fact that when Archbishop Parker founded three scholarships at Cambridge, in 1567, provision was made that they were to be supplied by the most considerable schools in Kent and Norfolk, who were to be "the best and aptest scholars, well instructed in the grammar, and (if it may be) such as can make a verse." The state of the lower orders at this period is well described by the historian of the school in the following terms:- "As for the bulk of the people, they were but just emerging from a state of barbarism, the dupes of astrologers and alchemists. While the former pretended to foretell future events from the situation and various aspects of the heavenly bodies, and succeeded in deceiving numbers by their fallacious art, the latter affected to change the substance of metals, or extract medicines from them that should not only ease the most inveterate disorders, but prolong the life of man to the age of Methuselah. And therefore under these circumstances, it is no wonder that the ignorant paid attention to every superstitious tale or fabulous story, and led an uneasy life, always disturbed in mind, and dreading what might happen, firmly believing that there existed a philosophical tincture that could arm them against disease and death, but at the same time constrained to own and lament that it had not yet been discovered, or applied to any useful purpose. Chiromancy and every cabalistic delusion had its votaries. Though the populace would, in a body, attack those who lay under the odium of dealing with the devil, and commit the greatest outrages on their persons and property, they would individually have recourse to them for advice in difficulties-for information as to things lost or stolen-for the choice of fit days on which to commence any journey or undertaking, and for an insight into those contingencies which a benevolent Providence has thought fit to wrap in obscurity." Such was the condition of society at the period when the Merchant Taylors' Company conceived the laudable design of founding a grammar school for "the better education and bringing up of children in good manners and literature." Before we speak of the school, it may be necessary to say a few words respecting the Worshipful Company by which it was founded. This ancient guild or fraternity was undoubtedly in former times composed principally of persons engaged in manufacturing pavilions for our kings, (hence their arms, a pavilion between two royal mantles), robes of state for the nobles, and tents, &c., for the soldiers. But it must not be supposed that they were mere makers of ordinary garments, or that the company at present consists of persons who make clothes. On the contrary, the names of kings, princes, nobles, and prelates stand enrolled as members of the fraternity, and in the court of the company, according to Mr. Wilson, not one tailor by trade is to be found, while in the livery, composed of three hundred persons, and open to all trades and professions, only ten tailors are to be found. The Merchant Taylors' Company have been from age to age the almoners of the benevolent, and in so doing have acted with uprightness and honour. The school founded by this company was organized on the 24th September, 1561, on which day the statutes were framed, and a school-master chosen. The site chosen for the erection of the school-house was part of the manor of "The Rose," in the parish of St. Laurence Pountney, a mansion which had successively belonged to the Duke of Buckingham, the Marquis of Exeter, and the Earls of Sussex. Mr. Richard Hills, a leading member of the fraternity, generously contributed the sum of five hundred pounds towards the purchase of this site. The statutes provide for the due governance of the school, and ordain that there shall be first a High Maester" to direct, in doctrine, learning, and teaching, all the school. This master is to be chosen by Right Worshipful the Maister, Wardens, and Assistants, of the said Company of Marchaunt Taylors, with such advice and counsell of welle learned men as they can gett; a man in body whole, sober, discreete, honest, verteous, and learned, in good and cleane Latin literature, and also in Greeke, if such may be gotten." This master was not to consider his office perpetual, but was to submit to an examination, as to the manner in which his duties were performed, and failing in these, he was to depart, after reasonable warning. He was also not to absent himself from the school more than twenty working days in the year, without urgent cause. With respect to the number of his pupils we find the following statutes. "He shall nor have, nor teach, at one tyme within the foresaid schoole, nor ells where, above the number of two hundred and fyfty schollers. And he shall not refuse to take, receave, and teach in the said schoole freely, one hundreth schollers, parcel of the said number of two hnndred and fyfty schollers, being poore men's sonnes, and comyng thether to be taught, (yf such be meete and apt to learne,) without anything to be paid by the parints of the said one hundreth poore children for their instruction and learnyng. fyfty schollers more, being an other parcell of the said "And he shall also receave and teach in the said schoole number of two hundreth and fyfty schollers comyng thether to be taught, and being found apte and meete to learne, as aforesaid, and being poore men's children, so that their poore parents, or other their friends, will pay, and give to the High Maister for their instruction and learninge, after two shillings and two-pence by the quarter, for a peece of them*. "And he shall also receave and teach in the said schoole, one other hundreth more of schollers, being the residue of the said number of two hundreth and fyfty schollers comyng thether to be taught, &c., as aforesaid, being riche or meane men's children, so that their parents, or other friends will give for every of these hundreth schollers five shillings by the quarter for their instruction and learning." Then follow rules relative to the chief usher or second master, who is required to be "some sober, discreete man, verteous in lyving and well-learned," and if he be required of him, then on the vacancy of the situation of in "literature, discretion and honest lief," such as is high maister this chief usher is to be chosen. If either the high maister or the chief or underushers fell sick "of any curable disease or axes (agues)," the sick person was to be "tollerated," and have his full wages, and if both master and ushers were sick at the same time the school was to be closed for a season. 66 as and verteous learned young men." They were to be There were to be two under-ushers, "good, honest, strictly under control of the chief master, teaching to him might seem convenient, and none otherwise." Lodgings were provided in the establishment, for all the teachers engaged in the school, but the under-ushers in noe wise, but at liberty according to their deserving, and "not to have their roomes by writing or by seale, only so long as the High Maister shall like their demeanour and teaching." were Neither the chief master nor the subordinates were to hold any benefice with cure, occupation, office, or with their duties at the school. service, nor any other faculty which might interfere The statute relating to the admission of children to the school is as follows:-" There shalbe taught in the said schoole children of all nations and countreyes indifferentlyt, comyng thither to be taught, to the number of two hundredth and fyfty, in manner and forme as is afore devised and appointed. But first see that they can the catechisme in English or Latyn, and that every of the said Schollers can read perfectly, and write competently, or else lett them not be admytted in no wise.-And that every scholler at his first admyssion, once for ever, shall pay twelve pence for writing in of his name, and the same shal be given to such one, as shal be appointed by the said High Maister and the Surveyors to sweepe the schoole, and keepe the Court of the Schoole cleane, and see the Street nigh to *This and the following statute were altered in 1805, when on the Report of the Committee it was agreed that, owing to the alteration in the value of money since the institution of the school, it was expedient that the Quarterage (exclusive of the breaking up-money) should be raised to ten shillings. + Without partiality the Schoole-gate cleansed of all manner of fylth and uncleane things, out of good order, or extraordynarily there thrown." The children were to go to school at seven in the morning both winter and summer, and tarry till eleven, and return at one in the afternoon and depart at five. Thrice in the day, morning, noon, and evening, they were to repeat the prayers set up in a tablet in the school-room. They were never to use tallow-candles in the school, but wax only; nor were they to eat and drink in the school, nor to indulge in cock-fighting, tennis-play, nor " riding about of victoring," nor disputing. They were to have no leave to play, except once in the week, and that only on a holiday. If a child, after admission into this school, went to any other to learn there, or was absent from the school for the space of three weeks at one time, without any reasonable cause, he was refused re-admission. The master, warden, and assistants were required with the advice of learned men to examine every year whether the master and ushers had done their duties in the school, and how the children had profited under them, as well as what reformations and amendments might be required. Alterations have been from time to time introduced into these statutes, but they are not considerable. The boys do not now go to school until eight in the morning, from the first of November to the first of March. The morning business still concludes at eleven; but in the afternoon the school does not open till two, and closes for the day at four. The appointment of under-teachers, at first the business of the chief master, is now held by the company. An order of the court dated 16th December, 1731, excludes the children of Jews from the privileges of the school. The entrancemoney, stated above to be twelve pence, has been raised from time to time, until in 1805 it was fixed at twenty shillings. The statute restricting the pupils from leave to play, except once in the week, was superseded by order of the court, and that which related to absence from school, was modified thus. "No scholar who has been absent from school more than three months, shall, unless in case of sickness, be received into the same with out consent of the master and wardens for the time being." The statutes being thus ordained by the company their next step was to choose proper officers for the establishment, and to arrange the scholastic duties of the several classes. These we shall notice in another article. Br a peculiar prerogative, not only each individual is making daily advances in the sciences, and may make advances in morality (which is the science, by way of eminence, of living well and being happy), but all mankind together, are making a continual progress, in proportion as the universe grows older; so that the whole human race, during the course of so many ages, may be considered as one man, who never ceases to live and learn.-PASCAL. In entering upon any scientific pursuit, one of the student's first endeavours ought to be to prepare his mind for the reception of truth, by dismissing, or at least loosening his hold on, all such crude and hastily adopted notions respect ing the objects and relations he is about to examine, as may tend to embarrass or mislead him; and to strengthen himself by something of an effort and a resolve, for the unprejudiced admission of any conclusion, which shall appear to be supported by careful observation and logical argument, even should it prove of a nature adverse to notions he may have previously formed for himself, or taken up, without examination, on the credit of others. Such an effort is, in fact, a commencement of that intellectual discipline, which forms one of the most important ends of all science. It is the first movement of approach towards that state of mental purity, which alone can fit us for a full and steady perception of moral beauty, as well as physical adaptation. It is the "euphrasy and rue" with which we must purge our sight, before we can receive and contemplate, as they are, the lineaments of truth.-SIR JOHN HERSCHEL. ON HOSPITALS. I. THE word HOSPITAL, or Spital, had formerly a more extended signification than we usually attach to it at the present day. It is derived from the Latin word hospes, or host, which signified both a person lodged and entertained by another, and he who afforded the accommodation. In ancient times, when houses for the entertainment of travellers did not exist, services of this kind conferred most important obligations, which were often invested with something of an almost sacred character. The earliest hospitals then were established, not only for administering hospitality to the needy sick, for the education of poor children, and affording asylums for the aged and decayed, but also for the reception of the traveller. Thus, the hospital, at Spital, in Yorkshire, was founded by one Acehorne, in the reign of Athelstan, for the protection of travellers from the wolves and other wild animals, then abounding in those parts. Even in the present day, we do not confine the term to institutions for lodging and treating the sick; for we say Christ's Hospital*, when speaking of that establishment for education, St. Catherine's Hospitalt, when alluding to the asylum for the aged, in the Regent's Park, (although institutions of this latter description are usually termed Alms-houses,) and Chelsea‡ and Greenwich§ Hospitals for aged soldiers and seamen. The institution of hospitals is one of the great practi cal results of Christianity. We find no account of any such establishments in the writings of the Greeks, the Romans, or the Jews. In Athens, those who suffered in the public service were fed in the Prytaneum; the sick were also sometimes carried to the temples of Esculapius; but in no instance were there any institutions analogous to hospitals. Nay, in those countries where the metempsychosis is an article of belief, hospitals for the lower animals have been founded, although none have been devoted to the relief of human creatures. The difference of the treatment of the suffering poor in modern and ancient times is a necessary result of the doctrines of Christianity. The great bulk of the lowest orders were in the ancient states in a state of slavery, and considered as beings of an almost inferior nature, whose treatment in sickness was abandoned to the caprice or interests of their proprietors, and, therefore, often cruelly neglected; Christianity taught an universal love for all mankind, and insisted upon the individual importance of each of its followers, and thus inculcated the relief of his miseries, while it elevated him in his social position, and cheered and comforted him by its promises. Long before any building was expressly erected for the reception of the suffering, portions of the churches, or of the bishop's residences, were set apart for this purpose, and the houses of the early Fathers of the Church often had, especially during severe visitations, all the epidemic of St. Anthony's fire, the house of the bishop appearances of hospitals. Mezerai states that during an of Metz was filled with the sick. The earliest hospitals residences: that of Strasburg was contiguous to the were always placed close to the cathedrals, or bishops' bishop's kitchens. St. Chrysostom exhorted his hearers to establish domestic hospitals, by devoting a room in each house to the reception of the necessitous. It is to the fourth century that the erection of hospitals, properly so called, must be referred. Fabiola, a pious lady of Rome, founded one there at that period, and a large one was built by St. Basil at Cæsarea. Shortly after St. Chrysostom erected several in Constantinople, and various others soon made their appearance in the different countries of Christendom. During the sixth, seventh, and eighth centuries, these institutions were very numerous in Italy, Spain, and France. See Saturday Magazine, Vol. XVII., p. 193, 201, 225, 241. In the eighth century there were five at Rome. Pope | reached so great an height, that, at the Council of Stephen II. much enlarged that of the Holy Ghost, founded by Pope Sixtus III., which acquired a great reputation for its size and excellent management. These hospitals were designated, in the barbarous Latin and Greek of the period, differently, according to their destinations, as the Brephotrophium, for suckling children; Nosocomium, for the sick; Xenodochium, for strangers, &c They were considered as appertaining to the religious edifices to which they were usually attached, and hence were called in France Hôtels-Dieu, or Maisons-Dieu, Houses of God. We must not imagine that the accommodation they afforded resembled that bestowed by the hospitals of the present day: it was, however, proportionate to the degree of civilization then existing; and, thus it was considered as no hardship by the poor, that while they were sheltered from the cold, and supplied with food, they should be kept in close unventilated rooms, and that many should be obliged to occupy the same bed, however dissimilar their diseases-not always enjoying the luxury even of being separated from each other by a wooden plank. Vienne, 1311, it was determined that the administration of these charities should be taken out of the hands of the clergy, and confided to responsible laymen, acting under the sanction of an oath. Although this decree was effectual in some instances, in others it remained almost a dead letter, until the Council of Trent, at its seventh sitting, 1563, determined that it should be carried completely into effect. The ordonnance of Blois, decreed by Henry the Third of France, in 1576, commanded that the officers of the hospitals should be changed every three years, and that they should be chosen from citizens of a respectable standing, and of good business habits. In our own country, the Reformation destroyed the system of mysterious and often abused management adopted by the ecclesiastics, and, after an interval of distress and confusion incident upon the great changes caused by that event, the hospitals were chiefly confided, as on the Continent, to the citizens of their localities, and have since been conducted upon a much more satisfactory footing. ROSES IN THE EAST. Sometimes churches, used also as places of sepulture, were converted upon an emergency into receptacles for the sick. All the monasteries relieved the sick and poor, daily, and were used as houses of entertainment by mary, even of the nobility and gentry, who, on their travels, dined at one, slept at another, and so on. Those hospitals especially destined for the reception of the weary pilgrim, were usually built upon the road-surface of each water-jar were scattered a few leaves of side. The management of these charitable institutions was placed entirely in the hands of the clergy. Indeed, in those times the priests were the only persons sufficiently instructed to undertake the duties of attending to the sick; and thus William the Conqueror, during an illness he suffered under, was treated by a bishop and an abbot. The superintendence of the hospitals was one of the functions of the bishops and chapters of cathedrals, and a fourth part of the revenues of the church, together with the donations and bequests of the humane, furnished the fund whence the expenses were defrayed. The immediate services were performed by priests (generally of the order of St. Augustine), who devoted themselves especially to this task, and who were frequently united into religious orders, under the name of Hospitallers*, of whom many congregations under different denominations existed, and a remnant of which still exists on the Continent. Many of such societies were founded at Marseilles, in order to be in readiness to receive the pilgrims returning from the Holy Land. These associations were very numerous and active, and form redeeming points in the features of the Middle Ages. After the eleventh century, many women de voted themselves to like offices, under the name of the Grey Sisters, or Sisters of Charity, and whose active assistance is still so beneficially rendered in the French Hospitals. Some of the Hospitallers were military orders, as the Knights of St. Lazarus, and the wellknown Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. There is every reason to believe that the revenue devoted to the sick and needy was faithfully administered in the early ages of the Church; but, as the bequests made by the pious and generous became more frequent, and the manners and morals of the priesthood more relaxed, abuse after abuse crept into the management, and were often most severely commented on by the superiors and the well-disposed of the Church. The priests, in many cases, converted the greater part of the funds into benefices for their own emolument, regardless of the original objects of the charities. These abuses, commencing about the eleventh century, See Saturday Magazine, Vol. III., p. 126; Vol. XVII., pp. 82, 250; Vol. XXI., pp. 33, 73, 97, 113, 137. THE greatest luxury I enjoyed during this sultry season, was a visit to the English factory at Cambay, in Guzerat, where the Resident had one room, dark and cool, and set apart for the porous earthen vessels containing the water for drinking; which were disposed with as much care and regularity as the milk-pans in an English dairy. On the the Damascus rose; not enough to communicate the flavour of the flower, but to convey an idea of fragrant coolness when entering this delightful receptacle: to me a draught of this water was far more grateful than the choicest wines of Schiraz, and the delicious sensations from the sudden transition of heat, altogether indescribable. Chardin mentions that the Persians use rose-water for cleansing the leathern bottles which contain the water for drinking; they cause them to imbibe the rose-water, to Orientals upon all occasions. The nosegays of roses and take off the taste of the skin: roses are the delight of the other flowers, gathered on the cool of the morning, and brought in with a basket of fruit and vegetables to the English breakfast-table in India, are very pleasing and refreshing: so are the Japan roses, oleanders, and other richly-coloured flowers, which ornament the ewer presented to each guest for ablution after dinner.-FORBES' Oriental Memoirs. DR. LINDSAY, an American physician, remarks that the causes. LET us take heed we do not sometimes call that, zeal for God and his Gospel, which is nothing else but our own tempestuous and stormy passion. True zeal is a sweet, heavenly, and gentle flame, which maketh us active for God, but always within the sphere of love. It never calls for fire from heaven to consume those that differ a little lightning (which the philosophers speak of) that melts the from us in their apprehensions. It is like that kind of sword within, but singeth not the scabbard: it strives to save the soul, but hurteth not the body.-CUDworth. BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF HUGO GROTIUS. I. THE remarkable man whose history we are about to present to our readers was born at Delft, in Holland, on Easter Sunday, 10th of April, 1583. He presents a signal exception to the rule which obtains in the ordinary course of things, i. e., that precocious children exhaust their mental and physical powers in early life, and arrive at mature age with enfeebled minds and constitutions. Never was there, perhaps, a more wonderful development of the mind in early youth than in the case of Hugo Grotius, and seldom have the expectations formed of a child been so fully realized. We are Grotius was descended from a noble family, and enjoyed every advantage in his early education that could be procured for him by wise and judicious parents. It appears to have been the aim of his father, in particular, to make him a pious as well as a learned man, so that his infant mind was early imbued with Christian principles, the effects of which were visible throughout his subsequent career. Some of the historians of Grotius assert that his mother held the faith of Rome, and that when only twelve years of age Grotius earnestly sought to effect her conversion from a creed I which he felt and believed to be erroneous. told that the attempt was successful, and thus we may conclude that amid more important benefits, he was the instrument of increasing domestic happiness and unity. Towards the close of his life, however, we find Grotius himself evidently leaning towards the opinions of the Church of Rome, and endeavouring by arguments which, even in his hands are feeble and unsatisfactory, to apologize for some of the prominent errors of that church. But to return to the period of his infancy, we must state that he displayed such extraordinary capacity that he was soon spoken of among learned men as the prodigy of the age. The poet Barlæus said that the childhood of Grotius astonished all the old men. Daniel Heinsius maintained that Grotius was a man from the moment of his birth, and never had discovered any signs of childhood. John Douza celebrated him in verse, and said that he could scarcely believe that the great Erasmus promised so much as the young Grotius. Meursius, Gilot, and Isaac Pontanus spoke of him in similar terms, and it was confidently affirmed that this child would soon excel all his contemporaries, and be fit to be compared with some of the most esteemed of the ancients. The circumstances which awakened such high expectations, were the great aptitude displayed by the child in the acquisition of learning, his taste, judgment, application, and wonderful memory. Some Latin verses written by him in his eighth year are said to be still extant. At a very early age he was sent to school at the Hague. He boarded with Mr. Utengobard, a celebrated clergyman among the Arminians, and to his connexion with that gentleman, for whom he formed a strong attachment, many of the proceedings of his after, course may probably be attributed. At the age of twelve, (or, as some say eleven) he was sent to the university at Leyden, which was at that time the most learned seminary in Europe. Here he continued three years, residing in the house of Junius, a distinguished professor of Divinity; and winning by his modesty and talents the attention and regard of Scaliger and other eminent men. When he had only reached the age of fourteen, Grotius defended public theses in mathematics, philosophy, and jurisprudence, and thus gained much applause, while he exhibited a maturity of talents and attainments far beyond his years. About this time he published some elegant Latin verses, and also a Greek ode addressed to the Prince of Orange. During the same year (1597), he accompanied Count Justin of Nassau and the grand pensionary Barneveldt to the court of France. Henry the Fourth received the young scholar graciously, decorated him with a gold chain, to which was appended a portrait of the monarch, and showing him to his court said, " Voilà le miracle de la Hollande !" Grotius remained in the French capital nearly a year, and was loaded with the most flattering distinctions. The young prince of Condé took great pleasure in his society, and named him his secretary, but the entreaties of his friends induced Grotius to return to Holland, and he departed for his own home after having taken his degree of LL.D. at the university of Orleans. From some unexplained cause Grotius missed seeing the celebrated President de Thou during his stay in Paris, but a friendly correspondence afterwards sprang up between them. De Thou in vain attempted to dissuade his young friend from entering on the path of religious controversy to which he was strongly inclined. The violent dissensions then existing between the followers of Calvin and Arminius excited the zeal of Grotius, and made him consider it as a duty to advocate what he believed to be the truth, for the sake of his country, his church, and those to whom he owed obedience. Grotius, who had resolved to make the law his profession, was called to the bar in 1599, and pleaded his first cause at Delft. But while diligently engaged in the studies connected with his profession, he also found time to superintend the publication of some learned works, which he had prepared for the press. The first of these, commenced when he was only fourteen years old, was a new edition of the works of Martianus Capella. Rightly to understand Capella, Grotius needed an acquaintance with all the sciences, and Burigny, his biographer, cannot help suspecting that the learned Scaliger had some hand in the undertaking, though we find that Scaliger was one of those who bestowed the most flattering encomiums on the young author, and celebrated in verse the publication of such a work by a child of fifteen. Burigny tells us that Grotius took no money from his bookseller, but only required a hundred copies of the work, handsomely bound, to present to his friends. His next work was a translation into Latin of a work on Navigation, which showed his profound acquaintance with mathematics. This he dedicated to the Republic of Venice. The year following, he published a poetical treatise on Astronomy, written in Greek by Aratus, more than two hundred years before the birth of Christ, with Cicero's Latin translation, as far as it has been preserved, Grotius supplying the vacancies. The best judges of the time considered this work as a prodigy of science and erudition, the parts supplied by Grotius being deemed nowise inferior to those written by Cicero, while his notes displayed an acquaintance with Rabbinical writings, and some knowledge of Arabic. When Grotius published this work he was seventeen years of age, and he received the complimentary remark from more than one learned writer, that, although so young, he had accomplished by force of genius and labour what few could do in the flower of their age. Grotius received these honours very modestly, and acknowledged the assistance of his father in some of these works. At the same time that the young author was astonishing the world with his profound learning, he found time to indulge his taste for poetry. Besides lesser poems he wrote three tragedies, Adam in banishment, Christ suffering, and the Story of Joseph in Egypt, Lauder accused Milton of having borrowed from the second of these tragedies. Speaking of these poetical compositions one of his biographers remarks that an eminent rank among the Latin poets has always been assigned to Grotius, whose diction is always classical, while his sentiments are just; but that "those who are accustomed to the wood notes of the bard of Avon, will not admire the scenic compositions, however elegant and mellifluous, of the Batavian bard." The literary reputation of Grotius procured for him the unsought honour of being appointed Historian to the Republic; and his brilliant success at the bar led to his promotion, at the age of twenty-four, to the important office of Advocate-General of Holland and Zealand. The method followed by Grotius in his pleading may be gathered from the advice which he gave, in after years, to his son. He says That you may not be embarrassed by the little order observed by those against whom you speak, mind one thing, of which I have found the advantage. Distribute all that can be said on both sides under certain heads, which imprint strongly in your memory; and whatever your adversary says, refer it to your own division, and not to his. That his employment as an advocate, notwithstanding the honour it brought him, was not entirely consonant with his feelings, appears in the following extract from one of his letters: Besides that law-suits are improper for a peaceful man what doth he derive from them? They procure him hatred from those against whom he pleads, small acknowledgements from his clients, and not much honour from the public. Add to this that the time spent in things so little agreeable, might be employed in acquiring others more useful. Soon after he was made Advocate-General, Grotius married Mary Reigesberg, of one of the first families in Zealand, whose high encomium is that she was worthy of such a husband. The most perfect harmony subsisted between them, and Grotius held her in the highest esteem. A number of poems were written in celebration of this alliance; and Grotius himself made it the subject of verse in Latin, and also in French. About this time he was occupied with a professional work which appeared in 1609. It was his Freedom of the Ocean, or the Right of the Dutch to trade to the Indies. This led to much controversy, and Grotius found an antagonist worthy of him in the celebrated Selden. In 1613, Grotius was made pensionary or syndic of Rotterdam, and fixed his residence in that city. In the course of the same year, he was sent on a mission to the court of England to remonstrate against the arbitrary proceedings of the English, in claiming an exclusive right to the Greenland fisheries. His visit was ineffectual as to his principal object, but he deemed it a | high privilege to form a personal acquaintance, at the English court, with Isaac Casaubon, a man of great worth and learning. King James also gave Grotius a most honourable reception, and was charmed with his conversation and manners. Casaubon and Grotius possessed, in addition to their mutual learning, another bond of sympathy and union. They both longed earnestly to advance a scheme, which has met with its supporters in later times, but will probably ever remain impossible to be accomplished. This was to unite the differing views on religious subjects, and to bring all Christians, of whatever denomination, to profess one and the same creed. Much as all true Christians desire and pray for unity, it cannot be promoted by the sacrifice of principle, and such a sacrifice, according to the system of Grotius, would, undoubtedly, have been required of the Protestant church generally. Yet that he was actuated in his endeavours by the best inotives, there is every reason to believe, and we cannot read Casaubon's description of him, at this period, without feeling that he must have been a singularly gifted and a good man: I cannot say enough (says this eminent individual,) of my felicity in enjoying the friendship of such a great man as Grotius. O that incomparable man! I knew him before: but fully to comprehend the excellency of his His countenance speaks probity, and his discourse discovers divine genius, one must see him, and hear his conversation. the deepest learning, and the most sincere piety. Think not that I only am his admirer; all learned and good men entertain the same sentiments for him, particularly the King. ROUGHNESS of manners, far from being in itself a mark of sincerity, as is sometimes supposed, is merely the natural expression of one character, as gentleness is of another; and it should always be remembered, that to connect the idea injustice to the character of virtue. of a good quality with a disagreeable appearance, is to do A JUDICIOUS observation, a rational maxim, a generous sentiment, when unaffectedly introduced in the course of conversation, may make an impression on those who are not in the habit of thinking for themselves. THOSE qualities that dispose us to make a right use of the knowledge of mankind, contribute at the same time to increase that knowledge. The heart which is merely selfish does not understand the language of benevolence, disinterestedness, and generosity, and therefore is very liable to misinterpret it; while those who feel themselves capable of great and worthy actions, will find no difficulty in believing that others may do so too, and will have an idea of a character which can hardly ever be perfectly understood by those who feel nothing like it in themselves.BoWDLER'S Essays. THERE is a kind of literature, a knowledge falsely so called, that deserveth not to be pleaded for. But the noble and generous improvement of our understanding faculty, in the true contemplation of the wisdom, goodness, and other attributes of God, in this great fabric of the universe, cannot easily be disparaged, without a blemish cast upon the Maker of it. Doubtless, we may as well enjoy that which God hath communicated of himself to his creatures, by this larger faculty of our understandings, as by those narrow and low faculties of our senses; and yet nobody counts it to be unlawful to hear a lesson played upon the lute, or to smell at a rose. And these raised improvements of our natural understandings, may be as well subservient and subordinate to a Divine light in our minds, as the natural use of these outward creatures here below to the life of God in our hearts. Nay, all true knowledge doth of itself naturally tend to God, who is the fountain of it; and would ever be raising of our souls up upon its wings thither, did not we detain it, and hold it down, in unrighteousness. All philosophy to a wise man, to a truly sanctified mind, as he in Plutarch speaketh, is but matter for divinity to work upon. Religion is the queen of all those inward endowments of the soul: and all pure natural knowledge, all the virgin arts and sciences, are her handmaids, that rise up, and call her blessed.-CUDWORTII. |