plants. The thirty-first is the PONTIC RHODODENDRON, possessing a curious neclary, and a bee collecting from thence its honey, which proves deleterious to man. The thirty-second is the AMERICAN COWSLIP. The thirty-third, the NARROW LEAVED THALMA, an American plant, growing in a bog, surrounded by mountains covered with snow. The leaves of this plant are the food of the American elk, but honey collected from its flowers, is poisonous, which induced the congress to issue a caution on this subject. The thirty fourth is the CHINA LIMODORUM, a very beautiful plant with a pagoda in the back-ground. The thirt fifth is the INDIAN REED, a river in the back-ground, and au Indian building. The thirty-sixth is the SACRED EGYPTIAN BEAN, growing in the Nile. Three pyramids are seen in the distant scenery. Nothing can exceed the grandeur or beauty of this plant. The thirty-sixth is the BLUE EGYPTIAN WATER LILY, growing also in the Nile, with a distant view of Aboukir. The flowers are, upon the whole, a judicious selection for the purpose of illustrating the Sexual System of Linnæus. Their descriptions seem to us more copious than most that have hitherto appeared; but we are sorry to add that, by a great error in judgment, on each flower there is a copy of verses, sometimes from the author, but usually from his unpoetic friends, such as Dr. Shaw, Mr. Maurice, Mr. Pye, and Mr. Pratt. These of course detract from the value of the work, which we could have wished to consider in a botanical point of view that we might have bestowed upon it unqualified approbation,

ART. III-Memoirs of Sir Thomas More, with a new Translation of his Utopia, his History of King Richard III. and his Latin Poems By Arthur Cayley the Younger, Esq. 2 Vols. 4to. Cadell and Davies.

AS we have lately given an epitome of the life of Sir Thomas More in our review of Mr Macdiarmid's British Statesmen, and as the principal sources from which Mr. Cayley has derived his information are the same with those which Mr. Macdiarmid had previously consulted, we shall only mention some particulars of this extraordinay man which we have not already detailed, or some which Mr. Macdiar mid has omitted, or which Mr. Cayley has more copiously explained. Sir John More, the father of Sir Thomas was thrice married this was rather a bold venture in a man who

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compared the chances of a happy choice to one who dipped
his hand in a bag which contained twenty snakes and one
eel, it was twenty to one that he caught the eel.' While
Sir Thomas More was studying the law in London, his fa-
ther allowed him so little money that he could not dress
with decency, and exacted from him a most particular ac-
count of his expences. This conduct was applauded by
More in his riper years as having preserved him from idle-
ness, gaming, bad company and vice in general.' In the
poetry of More, the defects were those of his age, but the
beauties were his own.. It exhibits instances of polished
diction, of just conceptions, and beautiful combinations. The
following picture of Fortune is characteristic and appropriate.
Fast by her side doth weary Labour stand,
Pale Fear aiso and Sorrow all bewept,
Disdain and Hatred on that other hand

Eke restless Watch, from sleep with travail kept,
His eyes drowsy, and looking as he slept.

Before her standeth Danger and Envy,

Flatt'ry, Deceit, Mischief, and Tyranny.'

More's first wife, did not survive their union more than six years;

and two or three years after her death he married Mrs. Alice Middleton, a widow with one daughter, by whom he had no children. More used to say of this lady, that she was nec bella nec puella, and the great grandson's account of her and of her marriage with More are (is) curious. This he did not of any concupiscence, for he would often affirm that chastity is more hardly kept in wedlock than in a single life; but because she might have care of his children, which were very young, from whom of necessity he must be very often absent. She was of good years, of no good favour nor complexion, nor very rich; by disposition very near and worldly. I have heard it reported, he wooed her for a friend of his, not once thinking to have her for himself. But she wisely answering him, that he might speed if he would speak in his own behalf, telling his friend what she had said unto him, with his good liking he married her, and did that which otherwise he would perhaps never have thought to have done. And indeed her favour, as I think, would not have bewitched or scarce ever moved any man to love her.'

More appears early to have foreseen in the ferment of the human mind which was at that time but just beginning to appear, and in the concussion of new and old opinions which was then rather an object of gloomy apprehension than of actual experience, the ultimate triumph of the

principles of the reformation and the consequent subversion of the existing establishments. When Mr. Roper, who married his daughter and afterwards wrote an account of his life, was one day expatiating

'On the happy estate of this realm, which had so catholic a prince that no heretic dared to shew his face, so virtuous and learned a clergy, so grave and sound a nobility, and so loving obedient subjects, all in one faith ;-the knight replied, truth it is indeed, son Roper, and even exceeded him in commendation: and yet, son Roper, he continued, I pray God that some of us, as high as we seem to sit upon the mountains, treading heretics under our feet like unts, live not the day that we would gladly be at league and composition with them to let them have their churches quietly to themselves, so that they would be contented to let us have ours quietly to ourselves.'

In 1529, More, while attending the court at Woodstock, received intelligence that part of his dwelling house at Chelsea and all his barns, full of corn, had been consumed by fire, and that the barns of some of his near neighbours had been destroyed by the conflagration. The letter which he wrote to his wife on this occasion, displays in every part the serenity of a philosopher and the benevolence of a Christian.

The moral temperament of More was characterized by an undeviating probity. This he evinced in the most delicate and trying situations: Not all the terrors of Henry's capricious and unrelenting tyranny could make him swerve from the strait line of rectitude and of truth. In his judicial administration the most rigid Roman could not have been more inflexibly just. No private nor personal regards were ever suffered in the smallest degree to influence his decisions. The following anecdote, though it relates to a frivolous occurrence, is characteristic of the man:

While he was sitting in his hall one day, a beggar came to him to complain that Lady More detained a little dog which belonged to her. The chancellor sent for his lady and ordered her to bring the dog with her. He took it into his hands, and placing lady More at the upper end of the hall, desired the beggar to stand at the lower end. I sit here, he said, to do every one justice; and he desired each of them to call the dog. The little favourite immedi.. ately forsook his new mistress and ran to the beggar; upon which lady More was compelled to indulge her partiality by purchasing

the animal.'

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When More resigned his office of lord chancellor, which his determination not to assent to what he deemed the un-' warrantable measures of the king, would no longer suffer him to hold, a great change was produced in his external circumstances, but none in the internal cheerfulness and serenity of his mind. His wife, however, whose affections were more fixed on the things of this world, could not endure this revolution in his circumstances with the same pious equanimity. The following anecdote marks the characteristic difference between the philosopher and his lady:

'During his chancellorship, one of More's attendants had been in the habit, after the church service was over, of going to his lady's pew to inform her when the chancellor was gone. The first holiday

His

after the resignation of his office, Sir Thomas came to the pew himself, and, making a low bow, said, madam, my lord is gone. lady at first imagined this to be one of his jest, and took little notice of it; but when he informed her seriously that he had resigned the seal, she was in a passion. The facetious knight called his daughters, and asked them if they could espy no fault in their mother's appearance? Being answered in the negative, he replied, do ye not perceive that her nose standeth somewhat awry? The good lady is reported to have exclaimed with her usual worldly feeling on this occasion. Tili vally, what will you do Mr. More? will you sit and make goslings in the ashes? it is better to rule than to be ruled.'

After his resignation of the chancellorship, More's income amounted to little more than one hundred pounds a year; and as he had hitherto lived under the same roof with his children and grandchildren, in a style of unrestrained hospitality, a great reduction became necessary in his establishment, that he might be able to provide for himself and relatives, with whom he cheerfully shared his remaining means, the common necessaries of life. The magnanimity and generosity of a truly noble mind are best seen when conflicting with indigence and misfortune.

More's knowledge of Henry's character made him anticipate his fate before it came; and one of his great endeavours appears to have been to prepare his family for the sad event. For this purpose he frequently descanted on the blessedness of those who endured every extremity of evil rather than violate their principles of rectitude.

He would talk,' says Mr. Roper, unto his wife and children of the joys of heaven and pains of hell, of the lives of holy martyr", of their grievous martyrdoms, of their marvellous patience, and of

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their passions and deaths; which they suffered rather than they would offend God. And what a happy and blessed thing it was, for the love of God to suffer the loss of goods, imprisonment, loss of lands, and life also. Wherewith and the like virtuous talk, he had so long before his trouble encouraged them, that when he afterward fell into trouble indeed, his trouble was to them a great deal less.'

The following letter was written by More to his favourite daughter, Margaret, on July 5th, 1535, the day before his

execution.

Sir Thomas More to Mrs. Roper.

'Our Lord bless you, good daughter, and your good husband, and your little boy, and all yours; and all my children, and all my godchildren and all our friends. Recommend me when you may to my good daughter Cicily, whom I beseech our Lord to comfort! and I will send her my blessing, and to all her children, and pray her to pray for me. I send her an handkerchief; and God comfort my good son her husband!

My good daughter Daunce hath the picture in parchment which you delivered me from my lady Coniers; her name is on the backside. Shew her that I heartily pray her, that you may send it in my name to her again, for a token from me to pray for me.

'I like special weli Dorothy Coly, I pray you be good unto her! I would wit whether this be she whom you wrote me of? If not, yet I pray you be good to the other, as you may in her affiction, and to my god-daughter Joan Aleyn too. Give her, I pray you, some kind answer; for she sued hither to me this day, to pray you, be good to her.

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I cumber you, good Margaret, much; but I would be sorry if it should be any longer than to-morrow. For it is St. Thomas even, and the ntas of St. Peter; and therefore to morrow long I to go to I never God, it were a day very meet and convenient for me. liked your manners toward me better than when you kissed me last; for I love when daughterly love and dear charity hath no leisure to look to worldly courtesy. Farewell my dear child and pray for me; and I shall for you and all your friends, that we may inerrily meet in heaven. I thank you for your great cost. I send now to my god-daughter Clement her algorism stone; and I send her, and my god-son and all hers, God's blessing and mine. I pray you, at time convenient, recommend me to my good son, John More. I liked well his natural fashion. Our Lord bless him and his good wife my loving daughter! to whom I pray him be good as he hath great cause; and that if the land of mine come to hisAnd hand, he break not my will concerning his sister Daunce. our Lord bless Thomas and Austin and all that they shall have.'