that led him to decline taking a part in the conflicts of parliamentary debate, or allying himself, otherwise than by his sentiments and intimacies, to either of the contending parties. Shall we say that he had too much good sense to be ambitious, or that he was too modest to be aspiring, or too pious to sell himself to the dirty service of the State? He was not wholly destitute of ambition, he had a taste for public life, and was susceptible of the full impression of whatever grandeur can attach to the pomp of office and the dignity of station. His loyalty, too, was a passionate sentiment, intimately blending with his religious feelings, and borrowing something of their character it was that of a Tory of the old school, who, when once he had lived to see the King restored, and Church and State re-established on their old basis, could have chaunted the Nunc-Dimittis, all his solicitudes for his country being then over. The marked proofs of favour and confidence which Mr. Evelyn continued to receive from the restored Monarch, are recorded with an evident sense of the gratification he derived from them. But he was made for better things than to be a courtier. The favourite pursuits to which the ardour of his mind was devoted, and which, re-acting upon his character, contributed to determine its bias, were natural philosophy and agricultural science. These pursuits, by pre-occupying his taste and his ambition, saved him from the necessity of seeking in the service of a party or of the Court, less innocent-at least, more hazardous employment; saved him, too, from hankering after those empty distinctions which are the bribe or the reward of political service; and armed him, within the very magic circle of the Court, with a counter-spell that baffled its Circean influence, so that he came forth in all the integrity of a man. The declaration which, in pursuance of his intention, is inscribed upon his tomb, speaks the result of his experience: That all 'is vanity which is not honest, and that there is no solid wisdom but in real piety."

Evelyn has been best known to posterity as the Author of the Sylva; and to his talents as an agreeable and accomplished Writer, he will be indebted for his lasting fame. It is certain,' says the Author of the article EVELYN in the Biographia Britannica, that very few Authors who have written in our lan'guage, deserve the character of able and agreeable writers so well as Mr. Evelyn, who, though he was acquainted with most 'sciences, and wrote upon many different subjects, yet was very far, indeed the farthest of most men of his time, from being a

For an account of this work, the reader may consult ECLECTIC REVIEW, Old Series. Vol. viii. P. 1108.

superficial writer. He had genius, he had taste, he had learning; and he knew how to give all these a proper place in his works, so as never to pass for a pedant, even with such as were least in love with literature, and to be justly esteemed a 'polite author by those who knew it best.' His works are sufficiently numerous to have precluded his being regarded as a literary idler, even if his whole time had been occupied with such pursuits; but the fact is, that they are the fruits of inter-. vals of leisure in the busy life of a man who took a very active part in society. An enumeration of the posts he occupied, will at once shew the consideration in which he was held by his contemporaries, and the activity of his mind.

His first public appointment was in 1662, as a Commissioner for reforming the buildings, ways, streets, and incumbrances, and regulating Hackney coaches in London. In the same year, he sat as a Commissioner on an inquiry into the conduct of the Lord Mayor, &c. concerning Sir Thomas Gresham's charities. In 1664, he was in a Commission for regulating the Mint; and in the same year he was appointed one of the Commissioners for the care of the sick and the wounded in the Dutch War; and was continued in the same employment in the second War with that country. He was one of the Commissioners for the repair of St. Paul's Cathedral shortly before it was burnt in 1666. In that year he was in a Commission for regu lating the farming and making of saltpetre. In 1671, he was made a Commissioner of Plantations on the establishment of the Board, to which the Council of Trade was added in 1672. In 1685, he was one of the Commissioners of the Privy Seal during the absence of the Earl of Clarendon, (who held that office,) on his going Lord Lieutenant to Ireland. On the foundation of Greenwich Hospital in 1695, he was one of the Commissioners; and on 30th June, 1696, he laid the first stone of that building, being appointed Treasurer.'

Besides these engagements, (some of which were of a light and temporary nature, but others were extremely laborious and of longer duration), he was a very active member of the Royal Society, in the institution of which he had a considerable share. On its establishment in 1662, he was appointed one of the Council, and in 1672, was chosen Secretary. He obtained for this society the splendid gift of the Arundelian library, as he had before prevailed upon Lord Henry Howard to bestow the Arundelian marbles on the University of Oxford. His whole life, which was extended to 86 years, amply justified the encomium pronounced by Lord Orford; it was a course of inquiry, study, curiosity, instruction, and benevolence.'

The Kalendarium,' as the Writer styles it, commences with some brief memoranda of his parentage and early life. Under the year 1631, occurs a notice of the extraordinary dearth which occurred in England in that year. And now, Evelyn tells us,

in imitation of what I had seen my Father do, I began to ' observe matters more punctualy, which I did use to set downe ' in a blanke almanac.' He was at this time but eleven years of age. The Diary itself was commenced, or transcribed, at a later period, but it appears to have originated in this simple circumstance, and to have been prosecuted without the most distant view to its being made public. Of his father, he speaks in terms of the most exemplary reverence and affection; and he appears to have been held by all his acquaintance in the highest consideration.

1634. My Father was appointed Sheriff for Surrey and Sussex before they were disjoyned. He had 116 servants in liverys, every one livery'd in greene sattin doublets; divers gentlemen and persons of quality waited on him in the same garb and habit, which at that time (when 30 or 40 was the usual retinue of the High Sheriff) was esteemed a great matter. Nor was this out of the least vanity that my Father exceeded (who was one of the greatest decliners of it), but because he could not refuse the civility of his friends and relations, who voluntarily came themselves, or sent in their servants.'

In illustration of his being a studious decliner of honours ' and titles,' there is given in a note, the copy of a curious voucher for the receipt of £50by waie of composic'one to 'the use of his Matie, for his (Richard Evlinge's) fine for not apearinge at the time and place apoynted for receavinge order ' of K'hood.'

In Dec. 1840, Mr. Evelyn's father died: he had lost his mother five years before; and thus,' he says, we were bereft of both our parents in a period when we most of all stood in need of their counsel and assistance.'

But so it pleased God to make tryall of my conduct in a conjuncture of the greatest and most prodigious hazard that ever the youth of England saw. If I did not amidst all this peach my liberty, nor, my vertue, with the rest who made shipwreck of both, it was more the infinite goodness and mercy of God than the least discretion of myne owne, who now thought of nothing but the pursuite of vanity, and the confused imaginations of young men.'

On the 3d of November of the same year, ('a day,' he remarks, never to be mentioned without a curse,') he had seen the King proceed in state, after his return from his Northern expedition, to that long, ungratefull, foolish, and fatal Parliament, the beginning of all our sorrows for twenty years ' after, and the period of the most happy monarch in the world.' On the 12th of May, 1641, he beheld on Tower Hill, the fatal 'stroke that severed the wisest head in England from the shoulders of the Earl of Strafford.' Dismayed at this ill 'face of things,' he took the prudent resolution to absent himself from his country till the storm should have blown over,

apprehensive that the national calamities were but yet in their infancy.' At Chatham, he saw the Soveraigne' man of war, for burthen, defense, and ornament, the richest that ever 'spread cloth before the wind, and especially for this remarkable, that her building cost his Ma'tie the affections of his 'subjects, who quarrell'd with him for a trifle, refusing to contr"bute either to their own safety or his glory.' These expressions are worth quoting, only as they serve to indicate the very simplehearted, but very ill-informed and inadequate notions, which the Writer had taken up with regard to the great political questions that were then agitating the country. Nobody could be more free from the spirit of a partizan than he appears to have been ; and yet almost all his references to political affairs are in the same strain of partial or erroneous representation. Mr. Evelyn embarked at Chatham for Flushing on the 21st of July; and passed nearly three months in the Netherlands. Soon after his return to England, the differences between the King and the Parliament arrived at their crisis. Evelyn, now only one and twenty, joined the King's army with his horse and arms after the battle of Brentford; but the tender of his service appears to have been declined out of consideration of the certain ruin to which it would have exposed him and his brothers, without any advantage to his Majesty.' His martial ardour, fortunately, did not disdain to be regulated by prudence, nor was his loyalty a passion so entirely ungovernable as to content itself with nothing short of a complete abandonment of self-interest. Finding it impossible, if he continued in this country, to remain neutral, or at least 'to evade the doing of very unhandsome things,' he obtained his Majesty's license to travel again; and in Nov. 1642, returned to the Continent. The Diary is now occupied, to the extent of more than two hundred pages, with our Traveller's memoranda of sights and adventures on passing through France and various parts of Italy. If we meet with no very novel or important information, nor with any profound remarks, we are at least never offended with any affectation or impertinence. Of the Journalist's simplicity of style and of character, the following may serve as a specimen.

We began to enter the plains of Rome, at which sight my thoughts were strangely elevated, but soon allay'd by so violent a shower which fell just as we were contemplating that proud mistress of the world, and descending by the Vatican (for at that gate we entered), that before we got in into the Citty I was wet to the skin!'

At Rome he spent about seven months, and having recommendations to several English residents of distinction, had no difficulty in gratifying his curiosity with the survey of all the architectural wonders, the treasures of antiquity, and the eccle

siastical shows which at that period it contained. Among the virtuosi to whom he was introduced, was an amusing personage named Hippolito Vitellesco, afterwards Bibliothecary of the Vatican library,' who possessed one of the best collections of statues in Rome; to which,' we are told, he frequently talked, as if they were living, pronouncing now and then, orations, 'sentences, and verses, sometimes kissing and embracing them.' This same gentleman had not long before purchased land in the kingdom of Naples, in the hope, by digging, to find more statues ; and it seems had been so far successful as to obtain more than compensated for the purchase. An edifying exhibition of the zeal of the Papal court for the conversion of the Jews, formed part of one day's amusement to the young Englishman.

Jan. 7. A Sermon was preach'd to the Jewes at Ponte Sisto, who are constrain'd to sit till the hour is don; but it is with so much malice in their countenances, spitting, hum'ing, coughing, and motion, that it is almost impossible they should heare a word from the preacher. A conversion is very rare.'

The reflection does not appear to have at all occurred to the heretical spectator of the scene, to what, in fact, under the name of Christianity, this precious scheme was designed to convert the infidel audience. On a subsequent occasion, he was actually invited by a Dominican friar to be godfather to a converted Turk and Jew, with which extraordinary request he did not scruple to comply.

The ceremonie was perform'd in the Church of St. Maria Sopra la Minerva, neere the capitol. They were clad in white, then exorcis'd at their entering the Church with aboundance of ceremonies, and when led into the choir were baptiz'd by a Bishop in pontificalibus. The Turk lived afterwards in Rome, sold hot waters, and would bring us presents when he met us, kneeling and kissing the hems of our cloaks; but the Jew was believ'd to be a counterfeit.'

From Rome, he proceeded to Naples, then a dangerous journey by reason of the banditti who infested the neighbourhood of the capital; and our Traveller was but ill mounted on his base, unlucky, stiff-necked, trotting, carrion mule,'' which are in the world,' he says, 'the most wretched beasts:' the party were therefore faine to hire a strong convey of about 'thirty firelocks' to guard them as far as Nova Fossa. With the scenery of Naples and its classical environs, Evelyn was highly delighted, but he was struck with the licentiousness of

manners.

The building of the Citty is for the size the most magnificent of any in Europe, the streetes exceeding large, well paved, having vaults and conveyances under them for the sullage, which renders them very sweete and cleane even in the midst of winter. To it belongeth more than 3000 Churches and Monasteries, and those the