fined, when not many days before his death "he charged it to "prefent his God each morning and evening with a new and "fpiritual fong;" juftified by the example of King David and the good King Hezekiah, who upon the renovation of his years paid his thankful vows to Almighty God in a royal hymn, which he concludes in these words, "The Lord was ready to "fave, therefore I will fing my fongs to the ftringed inftru"ments all the days of my life in the temple of my God."

The latter part of his life may be faid to be a continued ftudy; for as he ufually preached once a-week, if not oftener, fo after his fermon he never gave his eyes reft till he had chofen out a new text, and that night caft his fermon into a form, and his text into divifions; and the next day betook himself to confult the fathers, and fo commit his meditations to his memory, which was excellent. But upon Saturday he usually gave himself and his mind a reft from the weary burthen of his week's meditations, and ufually spent that day in visitation of friends or fome other diverfions of his thoughts; and would fay, "that he gave both his body and mind that refreshment, "that he might be enabled to do the work of the day follow"ing, not faintly, but with courage and cheerfulness."

Nor was his age only fo induftrious, but in the most unfettled days of his youth, his bed was not able to detain him beyond the hour of four in a morning; and it was no common bufinefs that drew him out of his chamber till past ten; all which time was employed in ftudy, though he took great liberty after it. And if this feem ftrange, it may gain a belief by the visible fruits of his labours, fome of which remain as teftimonies of what is here written, for he left the refultance of

there is more of religious zeal, than of the beauties of poetry, Melior omnino Christianus est quàm Poeta. In the proem to the hymns of the Cathemerinon, having defcribed his conduct in the former part of his life, he declares his intention of celebrating God in daily hymns, and of exercifing himself in difcufsing facred subjects.

Pugnet contra hærefes; catholicam discutiat fidem;

Conculcet facra gentium;

"Labem, Roma, tuis inferat Idolis,

"Carmen Martyribus devoveat, laudet Apofiolos.

It was Dr. Hammond's method, and furely not unworthy of imi tation, "After every fermon to refolve upon the enfuing fubject; that being done, to purfue the courfe of ftudy which he was then in hand "with, referving the clofe of the week for the provifion for the next "Lord's Day; whereby not only a confiant progrefs was made in "science, but materials unawares were gained unto the immediate fu"ture work; For, he faid, be the subjects treated of never fo diftant, "fomewhat will infallibly fall in, conducible to the prefent purpose." (Fell's Life of Dr. Hammond, p. 11.)

1400 authors, most of them abridged and analyfed with his own hand; he left alfo fix fcore of his fermous, all written with his own hand; also an exact and laborious treatife concerning felf-murther ", called "Biathanatos," wherein all the

We have a full account of this tractate in the two following letters. "TO THE NOBLEST KNIGHT,

" SIR,

"SIR EDWARD HERBERT.

"I make account that thys booke hath enough perform'd yt wch yt "undertooke, both by argument and example. Itt fhall therefore the lefse need to bee yttfelfe another example of ye doctrine. Itt fhall not "therefore kyll yttfelfe; that ys, not bury yttfelfe; for if ytt fhould do "fo, thofe refons by wch that act fhould bee defended or excus'd, were "alfo loft with ytt. Since it is content to live, ytt cannot chufe a "wholfomer ayre than yor library, where autors of all complexions are "preferv'd. If any of them grudge thys booke a roome, and fufpect "ytt of new or dangerous doctrine, you, who know us all, can beft "moderate. To thofe reafons wch I know your love to mee wyll make "in my faver and difcharge, you may add thys, That though this doc"trine hath not been tought nor defended by writers, yet they, most of any forte of men in the world, have practis'd ytt.

Yor very true and earnest frinde, and fervant and lover,
"J. DONNE."

This addrefs to Sir Edward Herbert, is prefixed to the original MS. of Dr. Donne's BIA@ANATOƐ, which is now preserved in the Bodleian Library and was given to that place by Lord Herbert himself, in the year 1612, with the following infcription in capitals:

HUNC LIBRUM AB AUTHORE CUM EPISTOLA QUÆ PRAIT ΑΥΤΟΓΡΑΦΩ DONO SIBI DATUM DUM EQUESTRIS OLIM ESSET ORDINIS EDVARDUS HERBERT, JAM BARO DE CHERBURY IN ANGLIA, ET CASTRI INSULE DE KERRY IN HIBERNIA, E SUA BIBLIOTHECA IN BOD, LEIANAM TRANSTULIT MERITISS. IN ALMAM MATREM ACAD. OXON. PIETATIS ET OBSERVANTIÆ MNHMOƐYNON,

M, DC, XLII.

"TO SIR ROBERT CARRE, NOW EARL OF ANKERAM, " WITH MY BOOK BIA@ANATOE, AT MY GOING INTO GERMANY, "SIR,

་་

"I had need to do fomewhat towards you above my promifes; How "weak are my performances, when even my promises are defective? I "cannot promife, no not in mine own hopes, equally to your merit towards me. But befides the poems, of which you took a promise, I “fend you another book, to which there belongs this hiftory. It was "written by me many years fince, and because it is upon a mifinterpretable fubject, I have always gone fo near fupprefsing it, as that it "is onely not burnt: No hand hath pafsed upon it to copy it, nor many eyes to read it; onely to fome particular friends in both Univerfities then when I wait it did I communicate it; and I remember I

:

"had

laws violated by that act are diligently furveyed, and judiciously cenfured; a treatife written in his younger days, which alone might declare him then not only perfect in the Civil and

"had this anfwer, that certainly there was a false thread in it, but not Seafily found. Keep it, I pray, with the fame jealoufie; let any that your difcretion admits to the fight of it know the date of it, and that "it is a book written by Jack Donne, and not by Dr. Donne. Re“serve it for me if I live, and if I die I only forbid it the presse and the "fire: Publish it not, but yet burn it not; and between thofe do what 'you will with it. Love me ftill thus far for your own fake, that when 'you withdraw your love from me, you will find fo many unworthi"nefses in me, as you grow afhamed of having had fo long and fo much, fuch a thing as

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"Your poor fervt. in Chr. Jef.

"J. DONNE."

It was first published by authority in 1644, and dedicated by his fon, John Donne, to Lord Philip Herbert. In this dedication he afsigns the reafon of his disobedience to his father's order. "It was writ long "fince by my father, and by him forbid both the prefse and the fire; "neither had I fubjected it now to the publique view, but that I could "finde no certain way to defend it from the one, but by committing it "to the other; for fince the beginning of this war my ftudy having been often fearched, all my books (and al-mofi my braines, by their "continuall allarums) fequeftered for the use of the committee; two dangers appeared more eminently to hover over this, being then a manufcript; a danger of being utterly loft, and a danger of being utterly found, and fathered by fome of thofe wild Atheifis, who, as if they came into the world by conqueft, owne ail other men's wits, and "" are refolved to be learned in defpite of their fiarres, that would fairely "have enclined them to a more modeft and honeft courfe of life." The fyftem advanced in this book has been accurately examined, and with great firength of argument refuted by the Rev. Charles Moore, in his "Full Enquiry into the Subject of Suicide," vol. I. p. 83,-103, and vol. II. p. 1,41. The learned author of that excellent work, in his letter, dated Jan. 27, 1794, informs me, that fince its publication he has feen a final tract, called "Life's Prefervative againft Self-killing, &c. by John Syer, Minifter of Leigh in Efsex, London, 1637," which, though publifhed after Dr. Donne's death, yet before the Biathanatos appeared, is in effect a very full and complete anfwer to it, written' in its own method of fcholaftic divifions and fub-divifions, ad infinitum. The following extract, containing a hort criticifm on this work of Donne, will not be unacceptable to the learned reader. Donne, "docteur Anglois et fçavant Theologien de ce fiecle, ett connu par un "livre en fa langue, imprimé à Londres fous ce titre: Bialavaros. C'est "une efpece d'apologie du Suicide. Il cite, pour appuyer fes danger"eufes idées, l'example d'un grand nombre de heros paiens, enfuite "celui de quelques faints de l'ancien Teiament, d'une foule de martyrs, "de confefseurs, de penitens, &c. Jefus Chrift même eft amené en preuve de fon fyfiéme. Un livre aufsi extraordinaire n'empêche pas l'auteur de devenir Doyen de S. Paul, parce qu'il fut regardé comme une forte de confolation qu'il vouloit donner à fes compatriots, que la "melancolie jette fouvent dans cette fureur."-(Nougeau. Dict. Hist. -Caen. 1783.)

Canon Law, but in many other fuch ftudies and arguments, as enter not into the confideration of many that labour to be thought great clerks, and pretend to know all things.

Nor were thefe only found in his ftudy, but all businesses that pafsed of any public confequence, either in this or any of our neighbour-nations, he abbreviated either in Latin, or in the language of that nation, and kept them by him for ufeful memorials: So he did the copies of divers letters and cafes of confcience that had concerned his friends, with his obfervations and folutions of them, and divers other bufinefses of importance, all particularly and methodically digefted by himself.

He did prepare to leave the world before life left him, making his will when no faculty of his foul was damped or made defective by pain or fickness, or he furprifed by a fudden apprehenfion of death; but it was made with mature deliberation, exprefsing himself an impartial father by making his children's portions equal, and a lover of his friends, whom he remembered with legacies fitly and difcreetly chofen and bequeathed. I cannot forbear a nomination of fome of them; for, methinks, they be perfons that feem to challenge a recordation in this place; as namely, to his brother-in-law Sir Thomas Grimes, he gave that ftriking clock which he had long worn in his pocket; to his dear friend and executor Dr. King (late Bishop of Chichester), that model of gold of the Synod of Dort, with which the States prefented him at his laft being at the Hague; and the two pictures of Padre Paolo,

× CHARLES I. on the morning of his execution, presented his attendant, Mr. Thomas Herbert, with his silver clock.

y The States General directed a gold medal to be firuck in commemoration of the Synod held at Dort. On one fide is reprefented the Afsembly of the Synod, with this infcription, "ASSERTA RELIGIONE.” On the reverfe, a mountain, on the fummit of which is a temple, to which men are afcending along a very fteep path. The four winds are blowing with great violence againft, the mountain. Above the temple is written the word JEHOVAH, in Hebrew characters. The infcription is "ERUNT UT MONS SION. CIƆDCXIX." Thefe winds are intended to reprefent thofe who at that time much difturbed the tranquillity of the church. (Histoire Metallique de la Republique de Hollande, par M. Bizot. tom. I. p. 139.)

z "Let me be bold to fend you for a new-year's gift, a certain me"morial not altogether unworthy of fome entertainment under your root, a true picture of Padre Paolo the Servita, which was first taken by a painter, whom I fent unto him from my houfe then neighbouring his monattery. I have newly added thereunto a title of mine own conception. • Councilii Tridentini Evifcerator.'. You will find "a fear in his face, that was from a Roman afsafsinate that would have "killed him as he was turned to a wall near his convent." (Sir Henry Wotton's Letter to Dr. Samuel Collins, Provost of King's College, and Professpr Regius of Divinity, Jan 17, 1637.)

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In this letter the character of Father Paul is drawn in fuch pleafing colours, that the reader cannot be difpleafed with a tranfcript of it.

"I am

and Fulgentio, men of his acquaintance when he travelled Italy, and of great note in that nation for their remarkable learning. To his ancient friend, Dr. Brook (that married him) Mafter of Trinity College in Cambridge, he gave the picture of the blessed Virgin and Jofeph.-To Dr. Winniff (who fucceeded him in his Deanery) he gave a picture called the "Skeleton."-To the fucceeding Dean, who was not then known, he gave many necefsaries of worth, and useful for his houfe; and also several pictures and ornaments for the chapel, with a defire that they might be registered, and remain as a legacy to his fuccefsors. To the Earls of Dorfet and Carlifle, he gave feveral pictures, and fo he did to many other friends; legacies, given rather to exprefs his affection than to make any addition to their eftates: But unto the poor he was full of charity, and unto many others, who, by his conftant and long-continued bounty, might entitle themselves to be his alms-people; for all thefe he made provifion, and fo largely, as, having then fix children living, might to fome appear more than proportionable to his eftate. I forbear to mention any more, left the reader. may think I trefpafs upon his patience; but I will beg his favour to prefent him with the beginning and end of his will.

"I am defirous of characterifing a little unto you fuch part of his na"ture, cuftomes, and abilities, as I had occafion to know by fight or by inquiry. He was one of the humbleft things that could be seen "within the bounds of humanity; the very pattern of that precept "Quantò doctior tanto submissior,' and enough alone to demonftrate, "that knowledge well digefted non inflat. Excellent in pofitive, excel"lent in fcholaftical and polemical Divinity; a rare mathematician, even in the most abftrufe parts thereof, as in Algebra and the Theo"riques; and yet withal fo expert in the hiftory of plants, as if he had "never perufed any book but Nature. Lafily, a great Canonift, which was the title of his ordinary fervice with the flate; and certainly in "the time of the Pope's interdict they had their principal light from "him. When he was either reading or writing alone, his manner was "to fit fenced with a cafile of paper about his chair and over head; "for he was of our Lord of St. Alban's thinking, That all air is "prædatory,' and efpecially hurtful when the fpirits are most employed. "He was of a quiet and fettled temper, which made him prompt in "his counfels and anfwers, and the fame in confultation which The“ miftocles was in alion αυτοσχεδιάζειν ἱκανώτατος.”

64

a The friend and biographer of Father Paul, and celebrated for the dignity and freedom with which he preached the pute word of God. Of the real excellence of his difcourfes, no better teftimony can be adduced than the declaration of Pope Paul V. "He has indeed fome good fermons, but bad ones withai: He flands too much upon Scripture, which is a book that if any man will keep close to, he will quite "ruin the Catholic Faith." (Father Paul's Letters, Let. XXVI.) ́ Induced by fome fpecious promites of the Pope's Nuncio to leave Venice, and under a fafe conduct to go to Rome, he at first met with a kind reception, but was afterwards burnt in the Field of Flora. (Fuller's Church Hist. Cent, XVII. B. X. p. 98.)