history, he must go and see them for himself-witness Bishop Hall, John Ray, and James Balfour.

In the month of June 1655, Barrow left the shores of England. In an epistle of Latin hexameters, we have all the details of his voyage, performed-like most poetical voyages-in a crazy vessel, amidst sea-sickness, and retarded by a calm. At Paris he found the exiled court of Charles II., where his father was still in attendance, and like his prince, in poverty. It gratified the generous heart of Barrow, that out of his own slender resources he was able to administer to the wants of his father. The situation of Mr. Thomas Barrow gave his son near access to the Court, and favourable opportunities for observing the state of feeling in the high places of France. Those he improved with diligence, which showed a turn for diplomacy; and a long letter to his college, dated Feb. 7, 1656, presents us with some of the results of his observation.

Here public affairs present an aspect of external tranquillity. Everywhere peace smiles with benignant aspect; the whole kingdom throughout, the din of arms is not heard. Without, fortune flatters with prosperitywithin, all is afloat in luxury. In the palace, magnificence and revelry hold court-all is an endless round of play-acting, dancing, feasting, rejoicingevery man in his humour, and no day of evil coming. But what security there is for all this felicity, what heavings toward a storm may agitate the bosom of this deep, and what tempests may be struggling forth from the caverns of clandestine consultation, the more knowing must determine. The seeds of mischief have not yet shot through the thin mould that covers them; but perpetually watered as they are, it is easy for sharp eyes to see how far their roots are striking. For where violence is the basis, who can guarantee stability? and who can pledge the patience of an afflicted people, whilst the hooks of a ceaseless extortion are raking in their vitals? cujus viscera perpetuis exactionum hamis exenterantur. Where the memory of past wrong and the sense of present grievance inflame them against the nobles-where the administration of law is confided not to men of legal skill or blameless character, but to the best bidder-where military and civil promotion is ir respective of merit, and the strongholds of the public safety are opened by a golden key-where the soldiers, after lavishing their lives for the common. weal, get promises for pay, and count it good luck when they get a tenth of their wages-where, in short, the people are retained in allegiance, not by the silken cords of kindness, but by the reins of terror and the force of fear, where such scandals strike every eye, what tranquillity can be lasting?"

Then follows a character of the deep politician, at that time supreme in the councils of Louis XIV. As much in justice to Barrow as to Cardinal Mazarin, we give this sketch. "At the head of affairs is one sprung from the land of the giants, Sicily; who, rising from obscurity to the sacerdotal scarlet, presumed to dispute for the chief authority in the state with princes of royal lineage, and aided by their valour, prudence, and popularity-yet triumphed in the unequal contest. Again, battling with adverse

fortune, hurled from his eminence, in exile, and declared the public enemy, he contrived to procure his own return, to regain the helm, to check the triumph of his enemies, to convert some of them into instruments of his own, and drive the others off the field. Now that he is replaced in the seat of authority, he seems to occupy it more securely than ever. He has astricted to himself by matrimonial alliance, the chief of the nobility; the governors of the provinces wait upon his nod; and he has filled the frontier garrisons with men of his own creating, and who have nothing to hope except from him. The revenues of the realm flow through his coffers; and by him each appointment in the army, the state, the court, the law, is sold and settled, His word is law, his will the rule of duty, his command the decree of fate. Of course, one who managed to emerge from dust and darkness into such a splendour, who could project or execute such purposes, must have genius and great endowments. But these are all debased by abundance of dross. Whilst accounted powerful and fortunate, he has not yet earned the glory of greatness of soul. A want of good faith dims the lustre of good management, and a craving avarice imparts a meanness to all his grand exploits. Nor can he be popular to the last, who is monopolised by such a love of money. This is the engine which will hurl from its place our Marpesian rock-this Delos, ázivηtov nɛg touσav-which will upset this fortune so well founded and so strongly propped. Whilst by every device he scrapes together treasure for himself, along with the gold he pockets the hatred of the people; he is rich in money, but poor in good wishes; and whether his profits be not loss, time will discover."

Barrow was gratified to find that Protestantism was viewed with some favour at court. During an interview with the Queen, the Archbishop of Toulouse had complained of the progress of heresy in his province, and implored her Majesty's assistance in putting down those seditious innovators. The Queen instantly replied, that she had tried their allegiance, and had found them more faithful subjects than some who charged them with sedition. One of the marshals of France who stood by affirmed the same. And when the King, who happened to come up, learned the subject of conversation, he closed the discussion by saying, that he quite agreed with them, and would take care to perpetuate to his Protestant subjects every immunity secured to them by his predecessors.

Barrow gives a melancholy account of the state of learning in the university. With the exception of Arnauld, whom the Jesuits had expelled for favouring the Jansenists, and Robervalle, the mathematician, he looked in vain for a successor to the Petaviuses, the Sirmonds, and the Gassendis of the past. He was disappointed even with the extent of the collegiate buildings. Though they should all be piled into one mass, they could not rival Trinity, either in extent or magnificence. This mention of his Alma Mater gives occasion to his ending his epistle with a most passionate apostrophe to that home of his learning: "Though I should traverse all the regions on which the sun looks down, never do I hope to see the match of you! At the very thought of you, how is my spirit refreshed, and how does my heart

rejoice! How hard to be separated from you! how hard to think of any thing besides To-morrow shall I turn my thoughts to Italy-to Germany next day. This day let me dwell with you. With you I began, and with you must end. The Most High defend you, and pour into your bosom peace and plenty, worth and wisdom!" Whatever might be Barrow's reason for setting out on his travels, disgust with the Fellows of his college was not the cause.

When some months had passed in Paris, he proceeded to Florence, where also he made a lengthened stay. The chief attractions of that city were the library and museum of the Grand Duke. Besides perusing many of the rarer volumes in that noble collection, he seems to have been much interested by the study of 10,000 medals, which formed a cabinet under the charge of Mr. Fitton, an English antiquarian patronised by the duke.

From Florence he wished to proceed to Rome, but was deterred by tidings of the plague. He therefore took advantage of an English vessel in the port of Leghorn, bound for the Levant, to prosecute his journey as far as Constantinople. He has given an amusing account of his voyage in a long set of Latin elegiacs. In this poem, by far the most admirable thing is his sketch of their English captain :

Cor bene compositum, frons exporrecta, benignum

Ingenium, sermo comis, aperta manus.

On ship-board and at sea, so steady and so thoughtful-ashore, so reckless
and jolly. As soon as he discharged his cargo, he dismissed his cares.
Lætus amicorum cunctas circumvolat ædes,
Alternusque illos in sua regna rapit.
Colloquio, cantu, vino, conviva benignus,
Tædia fert lucis, tædia nocte tulit.
Integra ventre giganteo vineta recondit,

Nec dubitat plenos evacuare cados.

Nec vino cerebrum gerit expugnabile, &c.

During the voyage, the courage of that gallant commander was tested by an Algerine pirate. They were attacked in the Ionian Sea, but gave the corsair so warm a reception, that he was fain to sheer off, and leave them to prosecute their voyage. Throughout the engagement Barrow kept on deck, and stood to his gun with the rest of the crew.*

Much earlier than this, Barrow had given a proof not more of great courage than great strength, and more than either, of a highly generous spirit. When a youth, he was on a visit to a friend in the country. Being a very early riser, he had sauntered out into the garden before any of the family had appeared; when a fierce mastiff, which had been let loose from his chain for the protection of the premises during the night, attacked him with great fury. He seized the animal by the throat, and contrived to throw him down and lie upon him; and whilst matters were in this situation, his first impulse was to despatch his assailant. However, it struck him that it would be exceedingly unjust to kill even a dog for doing his duty-as he himself had no business to be wandering about before break of day. Accordingly, exerting his voice, he called so loud that some of the household were alarmed, and hastening to his assistance, rescued the scholar and the dog from their perilous predicament. E

VOL. I.

After touching at Smyrna, they arrived at Constantinople in the close of 1657. Barrow's stay of twelve months at Constantinople is usually mentioned merely as a stage in his travels. To us it seems important as a stage in his mental history. It was at Constantinople that he formed his acquaintance with the works of Chrysostom. It must have been inspiration to read the Homilies of that prince of preachers, in the city where he penned and spoke them twelve centuries before. Do the Sermons of Barrow retain no trace of this inspiration? We cannot imagine such a student, in such circumstances, perusing page by page-for he read the whole-each folio of the great Greek father-without transfusing somewhat of his spirit into his own. It was for something better than quotations-though he quotes from him abundantly—that our author was indebted to John of Constantinople. In thus pointing out Chrysostom as one of the sources of Barrow's eloquence, we surely need not say that we are not charging him with plagiarism. Plagiarism is the vice of intellectual poverty; and a mind so rich in its own resources as to be capable of thoroughly appreciating Chrysostom would be incapable of stealing from him. It would have no occasion, and it would not know how to appropriate the pilfered treasure. Borrowed materials are not available to such minds, for they cannot be fitted into their own workmanship; but borrowed skill in the use of materials is always valua

ble.

During his residence in Turkey, Barrow was much occupied in studying the Mahometan religion. It possessed more theological importance in those days than now; for it was not then so decidedly the exhausted and waning superstition which it now is. It usually occupied a place second only to Popery in the systems of that century; but in the discourses of Barrow it receives a prominence which it did not usually obtain in the pulpit, and which shows that his mind had been specially arrested by its peculiarities. In his miscellaneous Latin works, are an epitome of the Turkish faith, and a very long fragment of a poem, "De Religione Turcicâ."

One of the most remarkable things in Barrow's travels is the number of friendships which he contracted as he passed along. At Florence, he not only gained the good graces of Fitton the medallist, but so completely attached to himself a young merchant from London, that when he was on the point of returning to England, because his finances were exhaused, his mercantile friend generously supplied him with as much money as he required. At Smyrna he received many attentions from the English consul, Spencer Bretton, on whose death he wrote a Latin Elegy, still extant. And at Constantinople he contracted a friendship, which lasted through life, with Sir Thomas Bendish the English ambassador, and Sir Jonathan Daws. Those friendships were not such deciduous intimacies as strangers of the same nation will form when casually thrown together in a foreign land; but they were cemented by a sincere and mutual affection, and became perpetual. This fact says much for the frank and amiable dispositions of our author. His delight in society might be almost inferred from the longing regrets with

which he recalls at a distance the pleasant fellowship of Trinity.* "Collo quiis istis lepidis, ingeniosis, proficuis, quoties me immiscui! Quoties foco vestro assidere visus sermonibus vestris avidus inhiavi, nec non ipse pro more meo raras voces, plerumque ad rem parum spectantes interserui!"

Immediately on his return, he procured Episcopal ordination from Bishop Brownrigg. In doing so, he gave a proof of his scrupulous conscientiousness. The statutes of Trinity require that every Fellow shall within a certain time enter into orders, or quit the college. At that period the statute was frequently violated. Many made the depressed state of Episcopacy a reason for not obtaining ordination, whilst they still continued on the foundation. Barrow's casuistry determined otherwise.

There was not a more loyal subject than Isaac Barrow. His devotion to the Stuarts was more than loyalty. It was idolatrous adulation.

Tres modo Carolida; numero gaudet Deus isto,
Lætitiam minui ne sinat ille suam;

hardly matched by his Epithalamium on King Charles and Queen CatherineΚαι Σολομῶν αρκτοιο δ μεν, βασιλισσα νοτοιο

Ήδε, σοφοσ Καρολος, και Καθαρινα καλη, κ. τ. λ.

The Solomon of the north had no reason to complain of his share in the flattery; but if her Majesty had Greek enough to understand the flattery, she may have thought it a doubtful compliment to be styled "fair as the queen of the South." The Restoration excited his unfeigned joy, and no sermon of his concludes in more glowing strains than the Thanksgiving "upon the King's Happy Return." He was not content with prose. He dealt out his congratulation in sixty-five laborious Alcaics, and bestowed on General Monk a panegyric of nearly equal length :

Quæ te nunc altera, Monke,

Laus manet, &c.

Tu nisi nutantem validis cervicibus axem,
Anglicus Alcides, fulcisti . . . .

Bellerophon noster, nosterque Georgius, &c.

It is a pity that he should have stooped to panegyric so excessive, and-even though it had been true-so dangerous. It did no good either to the king or himself. Charles did not requite congratulatory odes with bishoprics. But the Restoration indirectly led to Barrow's preferment. It occasioned the resignation of the Greek chair by Professor Widdrington; and though an unsuccessful candidate before, he was elected without opposition. It would be difficult to name the professorship for which Barrow was not qualified, or

Of his way of discourse I shall here note one thing, that when his opinion was demanded, he did usually speak to the importance as well as to the truth of the question : this was an excellent advantage, and to be met with in few men's conversation.