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Law and Dr. Bentley.

factory pupil occurs thirteen years later, when Byrom, who was rather given to asking awkward questions, asked Law ' about the story of his setting young Gibbon and his father at odds about his smoking;' to which Law replied 'that he had never spoken to him in his life about it; that he had reconciled them when he was turned out of doors.'

In March 1731 we have an entry in Byrom's journal which is provoking on account of its brevity. Met Dr. Bentley in the park, and Mr. Abbot, and we had talk about Mr. Law, charity, and religion.' Mr. Abbot was an Emmanuel man and doubtless knew Law well; but as he was in no way remarkable, there would have been no particular interest in hearing what he had to say about Law. But one would have liked to know what the greatest scholar and critic of his age thought of the only man who had shown himself capable of writing a piece of slashing controversial divinity equal to his own immortal 'Remarks on a Discourse of Freethinking;' for I have no hesitation in saying that Law in his Remarks on the Fable of the Bees' as completely annihilated Mandeville as 'Phileleutherus Lipsiensis' annihilated Collins.

In May of the same year, Byrom gives his wife a pretty picture of a somewhat unwonted scene for Law to figure in. 'I told Phoebe,' he writes, 'how Mr. Houghton, Lloyd, Chaddock, and I and Mr. Law came in a boat from Putney to London, and what kind of conversation we had; when I asked him first what he thought of Mrs. Bourignon, he said he wished he could think like her, by which thou mayst guess that he and I should not much disagree about matters. Our young brethren were mightily pleased with him, as anybody must have been, and have seen by the instance of a happy poor man that true happiness is not of this world's growth. I wish thou hadst been there and Josiah, &c. I think you would all have liked him, for all he

Law's Conversations with Byrom.

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is such an unfashionable fellow-perhaps for that reason among others.

Passing over such unimportant notices as- I met Mr. Law in the street to-day and had a great deal of talk with him. I wish thou [Mrs. Byrom] hadst been with us;' 'Put on a shirt to go to Mr. Law;'-which are of constant occurrence, we come to a long entry which is singularly interesting as illustrative of Mr. Law's opinions at this period on a variety of subjects expressed with all the frankness which a man uses when he pours out his soul to a confidential friend. It will be remembered that Byrom before his acquaintance with Law had been much fascinated with the writings of Madame Bourignon; to wean him from his excessive attachment to this interesting, pious, but wildly extravagant writer was evidently one of the objects of Law's remarks. The sort of half-fear, half-love with which Byrom was beginning to regard Law; the touching naïveté with which he records the severe rebukes which he submissively received from his mentor; the austere views which mysticism had not yet toned down in the author of the 'Serious Call ;' and, finally, the utter want in Law of that power of influencing the lower classes which his fellowreformer John Wesley possessed in so remarkable a degree; -all this is very vividly illustrated in the following entry : 'June 7, 1735. I went to Putney afoot, and walked past the house and into a field '-evidently because he could not yet summon up courage to meet the great man '—'and about three inquired for Mr. Law, and Miss Gibbon came to me and went with me into the garden, and brought me to him,

This is clear from what goes before. Having,' he tells us, 'put on my boots and coat and trunk-hose, and gone up to shave and powder, . . . I went to Putney, where I light at the King's Arms in Fulham, and stayed there till two o'clock, it being near one when I came.' Having fortified his courage with four Brentford rolls and half a pint of cider,' he went to Putney afoot,' as recorded above.

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Law's Conversations with Byrom.

walking by the green grass by a canal; he asked if I had dined? I said Yes; and after salutation and a turn or two: "Well, what do you say?" to which I answered that I had a great many things to say, but I dare not. It was not long before Mrs. Bourignon became the subject of his discourse, and he said much about her and against her; seemed to think she had great assistance from the Spirit of God, but questioned much if she did not mix her own as Luther did; said that he had locked her up that Miss Gibbon might not find her among his books, that he had not met with anybody fit to read her, and mentioned her saying that there were no Christians but herself; and, above all, her rendering the necessity of Christ's death needless, which was the very foundation of all Christianity; and that she would puzzle any man what to do, and that she thought the world would be at an end. He mentioned Mr. John Walker some time in the afternoon, that he had left his father because he could not comply, and yet he heard since that he went to assemblies, which was impossible for a true Christian to be persuaded to do; mentioned one that came to ask about some indifferent matter his advice, and he heard that since he was going to join holy orders and matrimony together; I suppose he meant Houghton. He said that Taulerus had all that was good in Mrs. Bourignon, but yet the humblest man alive. Upon my asking if Rusbrochius was the first of those writers, he said, "You ask an absurd question. Excuse me," says he, "for being so free;" that there never was an age since Christianity but there had been of those writers. Mentioned H. Suso's three rules for possessing money: first, to take necessaries only; second, to impart to any Christian that wanted; thirdly, if lost, not to be at all concerned; and For an account of Rusbrochius, Taulerus, Suso, and Madame Bourignon, see infra.

Law's Conversations with Byrom.

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this Suso did not know where to hide himself for humility. He said that the bottom of all was that this world was a prison into which we were fallen, that we had nothing to do but to get out of it, that we had no misery but what was in it, that to be freed from it was all that we wanted, that this was the true foundation of all; that if he was to preach, he would tell the people that he had nothing to tell them but this, that once knowing this they knew enough and had a light that would set everything in a true view; that the philosophers Epictetus, Socrates, had, by the grace of God and their own search, observed that this world could not be what God made it. He said that there was a necessity for everyone to feel the torment of sin; that it was necessary for them to die in this manner and to descend into hell with Christ, and so to rise again with Him; that every one must pass through this fiery trial in this world or another. He said I must tell the people to whom I had recommended Mrs. Bourignon that I meant only to recommend what she had said about renouncing the world, and not any speculations; that it was wrong to have too many spiritual books, that the first time a man was touched by the reading of any book that was the time to fall in with grace, that it passed into mere reading instead of practice. else; that if we received benefit from reading a book, the last person we ought to say so to should be the author, who might receive harm from it, and be tempted to take a satisfaction in it which he ought not; that a man suffering ought to abandon himself to God and rejoice "Gloria Patri," that some justice was done to God by his suffering; there was such music in "Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done." He said what little difference there was between a king upon a throne and a king in a play, between calling a man a lord in earnest and in jest. That he had reason

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Law's Conversational Powers.

to remember Dr. Richardson, his pupil, whom he called Richards, but was not sure that his father was minister of Putney, I think; that the preachers durst not speak upon the subject of the cross; that we do not know what our Lord suffered, that the sacrifice of His human body was the least thing in it. There were two men drawing the rollingstone, and he said how fine it would be if they would learn piety, but they would not be taught; that Mr. Gibbon's other daughter was married; that it was such an absurdity to come to the communion with patches or paint, which no Christian would have bore formerly.'

No one who is acquainted with Mr. Law's writings can doubt for one moment that we have in this queer, disjointed, fragmentary report a very faithful reproduction of his conversation. Not only are the sentiments his exactly, but, making allowance for its dilution in its passage through Byrom's mind, we have also Law's styleits curtness, its raciness, its keenness, and its vigour. It gives one the impression that Law was a good talker, as well as a good writer; and, as Byrom gives us the only materials we possess for judging of Law's powers in this department, as well as of Law's mode of life at Putney, there is hardly need to apologise for transcribing the accounts of other interviews between the two friends.

On Wednesday, April 13, 1737, Byrom writes: 'I went to Mr. Gibbon's, where the dinner was just going up. Mr. Law was in the dining-parlour by himself. I went in and came out again; and, upon Miss Gibbon telling me that it was he, I went in again; and he said, "Are you but just come in?" and I sat down by the fire, and they came in to dinner; and, being asked, I excused myself, and said that I had dined, and Mr. Gibbon saying "Where?" I said, 'On the other side of the bridge." He asked, among