And if I shall now be demanded, as once Pompey's poor bondman was;---(the grateful wretch had been left alone on the fea-fhore, with the forfaken dead body of his once glorious lord and mafter: and, was then gathering the scattered pieces of an old broken boat to make a funeral pile to burn it, which was the cuftom of the Romans)" Who art thou that alone "haft the honour to bury the body of Pompey the great* ?" fo, who am I that do thus officioufly fet the Author's memory on fire? I hope the queftion will prove to have in it, more of wonder than difdain. But wonder indeed the reader may, that I, who profefs myself artlefs, fhould prefume with my faint light to fhew forth his life whofe very name makes it illuftrious! but be this to the disadvantage of the perfon represented: Certain I am, it is to the advantage of the beholder, who fhall here fee the Author's picture in a natural drefs, which ought to beget faith in what is spoken; for he that wants fkill to deceive, may fafely be trusted, And if the Author's glorious fpirit, which now is in heaven, can have the leifure to look down and fee me, the pooreft, the meaneft of all his friends, in the midst of his officious duty, confident I am, that he will not difdain this well-meant facrifice to his memory: for, whilft his converfation made me and many others happy below, I know his humility and gentlenefs were then eminent; and, I have heard divines fay, thofe virtues that were but fparks upon earth, become great and glorious flames in heaven. Before I proceed further, I am to entreat the reader to take notice, that when Doctor Donne's Sermons were first printed, this was then my excufe for daring to write his life; and, I dare not now appear without it. Philip, the freed-man of Pompey, watched the dead body of his master, till the multitude had fatisfied their curiofity; and then washing it with fea-water, he wrapt it up in a garment of his own, and finding fome rotten planks of a little fisherman's Loat, he gathered them together for a funeral pile. Lucan has given a long description of Pompey's unhappy deftiny. According to his account, the body was thrown into the fea, and Servius Codrus,. once his quæftor and his friend, brought it to fhore, and paid the last honours to it. E latebris pavidus decurrit ad æquora Codrus Plutarch's Lives. LUCAN. L. VIII. ver. 720. THE LIFE OF JOHN DONNE. MASTER John Donne was born in London, in the year 1573, of good and virtuous parents: and though his own learning and other multiplied merits may juftly appear fufficient to dignify both himself and his pofterity, yet the reader may be pleased to know, that his father was mafculinely and lineally defcended from a very ancient family in Wales, where many of his name now live, that deferve and have great reputation in that country. By his mother he was defcended of the family of the famous and learned Sir Thomas Moor, fometime Lord Chancellor of England; as alfo from that worthy and laborious Judge Raftall, who left pofterity the vast statutes of the law of this nation moft exactly abridged. He had his first breeding in his father's house, where a private tutor had the care of him, until the tenth year of his age; and in his eleventh year was fent to the University of Oxford; having at that time a good command both of the French and Latin Tongue. This, and fome other of his remarkable abilities, made one then give this cenfure of him; That this I 2 age Fuller's Church Hiftory, B. x. p. 112. John Raftall, a celebrated printer, married Elizabeth the fifter of Sir Thomas Moor. William, their fon, was brought up to the bar, and was appointed one of the Juftices of the King's Bench in 1558. Upon the demife of Queen Mary, he steadily adhered to his religion, left England, and spent the remainder of his days at Louvain. He published the works of his uncle Sir Thomas Moor in one volume. He alfo formed a collection of and wrote a comment on the ftatutes, and a very useful book entitled "Les Termes de la Ley," or "An explication of certain difficult and obfcure words and terms of the common laws and statutes of this realm now in ufe." The author of feveral tracts against Bishop Jewell was John Raftall, who left the Church of England, in which he had been ordained priest, went to Rome, and with this his kinsman was admitted into the fociety of Jesus. age had brought forth another Picus Mirandula "; of whom story says, that he was rather born, than made wife by ftudy. There he remained fome years in Hart-Hall', having, for the advancement of his ftudies, tutors of several sciences to attend and inftruct him, till time made him capable, and his learning, expreffed in public exercifes, declared him worthy to receive his first degree in the schools, which he forbore by advice from his friends, who being for their religion of the Romish perfuafion, were conscionably averfe to fome parts of the oath that is always tendered at thofe times, and not to be refufed by thofe that expect the titulary honour of their ftudies. About the fourteenth year of his age, he was tranfplanted from Oxford to Cambridge; where, that he might receive nourishment from both foils, he stayed till his seventeenth year; all which time he was a most laborious ftudent, h Picus Prince of Mirandula, a duchy in Italy, now the property of the Dukes of Modena, was born in 1463, and having refigned his fovereignty in favour of his nephew, he died in 1494. He is faid to have made fo wonderful a progrefs in ftudy, as to understand twentytwo languages at the age of eighteen years, and at the age of twenty-four years to dispute with great fuccess, de omni fcibili. "Picus Mirandula 32 ætatis anno quo obiit omni disciplinarum genere non modo tinctus, fed plane imbutus erat, ut Encyclopediam Scientiarum jure fibi vindicare potuerit, longiore vitâ plané digniffimus princeps." (Scaligerana.)—He was honoured with this pompous Epitaph "Hic fitus eft Picus Mirandula: cætera norunt "Et Tagus et Ganges, forfan et Antipodes." On which it has been justly remarked, that "his name, then celebrated in the remotest cor"ners of the earth, is now almoft forgotten, and his works then studied, admired, and ap"plauded, are now mouldering in obfcurity." (Dr. Johnson's works, vol. 2. p. 273.)—The life of this prodigy of learning, written with great elegance of language by John Francis Prince of Mirandula is inferted in Bates's Vita fele&torum, &c. p. 90. i "He continued for three years at Hart-Hall, which was fo called from Elias de Hertford, who lived in the tenth year of Edward the firft. An. Dom. 1282. In 1312 it changed its name to Stapledon Hall, but upon the fettlement of Exeter College it returned to its former appellation." (Le Neve.)-In 1740 it was by a royal charter erected into a college by thename of "Hertford College in the University of Oxford," to confift of a principal, four fenior, and eight junior Fellows. *To Trinity College in Cambridge, where he was fellow pupil with Mr. Samuel Brook, who fucceeded Dr. Leonard Maw in the maftership of that college. ftudent, often changing his ftudies, but endeavouring to take no degree, for the reafons formerly mentioned. About the feventeenth year of his age, he was removed to London, and then admitted into Lincoln's Inn, with an intent to ftudy the law; where he gave great teftimonies of his wit, his learning, and of his improvement in that profeffion: which never ferved him for other use than an ornament and felf-fatisfaction. His father died before his admiffion into the fociety; and being a mer-chant, left him his portion in money. (It was 3000l.) His mother and those to whose care he was committed, were watchful to improve his knowledge, and to that end appointed him tutors both in the mathematics, and in all the other liberal sciences, to attend him. But with these arts they were advised to inftil into him particular principles of the Romish Church; of which those tutors profeft (though fecretly) themselves to be members. They had almoft obliged him to their faith; having for their advantage, befides many opportunities, the example of his dear and pious parents, which was a moft powerful persuasion, and did work much upon him, as he professeth in his preface to his Pfeudo-Martyr'; a book of which the reader fhall have fome account in what follows. He was now entered into the eighteenth year of his age; and at that time had betrothed himself to no religion that might give him any other denomination than a Chriftian. And reafon, and piety had both perfuaded him, that there could be no fuch fin as Schifm, if an adherence to fome visible church were not neceffary. About the nineteenth year of his age; he being then unrefolved what religion to adhere to, and confidering how much it concerned his foul to choose the most orthodox, did therefore (though his youth and health, promifed him a long life), to rectify all fcruples that might concern that, presently "I had alonger work to do than many other men: for I was first to blot out certaine impreffrons of the Romane religion and to wrestle both against the examples and against the reasons, by which fome hold was taken, and fome anticipations early layde upon my confcience, both by perfons who by nature had a power and fuperiority over my will, and others who by their learning and good life feemed to me juftly to claime an intereft for the guiding and rectifying of mine understanding in these matters." (Preface to the Pfeudo-martyr, which is pronounced by Mr. Granger to be the most valuable of Donne's profe-writings.) (Biographical Hift. vel 1. p. 357.) · prefently lay afide all ftudy of the law, and of all other fciences that might give him a denomination; and begun ferioufly to furvey and confider the body of divinity", as it was then controverted betwixt the reformed and the Roman Church. And as God's bleffed fpirit did then awaken him to the fearch, and in that industry did never forfake him, (they be his own words in his preface to Pfeudo-martyr) To he calls the fame holy spirit to witness this proteftation; that, in that difquifition and fearch, he proceeded with humility and diffidence in himself; and, by that which he took to be the safest way; namely, frequent prayers, and an indifferent affection to both parties: and indeed, truth had too much light about her to be hid from fo fharp an inquirer; and, he had too much ingenuity, not to acknowledge he had found her. Being to undertake this fearch, he believed the Cardinal Bellarmine" to be the best defender of the Roman caufe, and therefore betook himself to the examination of his reafons. The caufe was weighty: and wilful delays had been inexcufable both towards God and his own confcience; he therefore The principal heads of this controverfy have been difcuffed with great ability and candour by the most eminent divines of our church, and particularly by thofe of them, who lived in the reign of James II. Mr. Pope, in a letter to Bishop Atterbury, tells his Lordship, that when he was fourteen years old, he read the controverfies between the two churches. He adds, "and the confequence was, I found myself a Papist and a Proteftant by turns, according to the last book I read." This, as the writer of his life obferves, is an admirable defcription of every reader bufied in religious controverfy, without poffeffing the principles on which a right judgment of the points in question is to be regulated. If Mr. Pope had pursued this inquiry with the fame preparatory knowledge, with the fame humble diffidence that attended Dr. Donne, it is reafonable to think that the refult of his refearches would have been different from what he has reprefented it. n Robert Bellarmine, raised to the purple in 1599 by Pope Clement VIII. was born in 1542, and died at Rome in 1621. He was efteemed by the Jefuits as the brightest ornament of their order, and the Proteftant writers have always confidered him as the moft learned advocate of the church of Rome. His great work has been called "Opus abfolutiffimum, quod controverfiarum fermé omnium corpus dici queat." The following eulogium is prefixed to a print of him by Bolfwert. "Robertus Bellarminus Politianus Societatis Jefu animi fubmiffione quam purpurâ major :-nec pio minus quam docto in hærefes controverfiarum calamo orbi "notiffimus: virtutum ut amator ita cultor omnium. Quam a Motre Virgine carnem acceperat, quam a facro lavacro innocentiam Deo reddidit: nullius fibi vitâ omni mendacii confcius: cujus etiam medicam manum in vario morborum genere experti non pauci. Vivere hic defiit, cælo incepit anno MDCXXI. ætatis fue LXXIX. |