صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

vice, promised him the reversion of an office which was fit to be turned into present money, which he wanted, for a supply of his present necessities, and also granted him the reversion of the Master of the Rolls' place, if he outlived charitable Sir Julius Cæsar, who then possessed it, and then grown so old, that he was said to be kept alive, beyond nature's course, by the prayers of those many poor which he daily relieved.

But these were but in hope; and his condition required a present support. For, in the beginning of these employments, he sold to his eldest brother, the lord Wotton, the rent-charge left by his good father, and (which is worse) was now, at his return, indebted to several persons, whom he was not able to satisfy, but by the king's payment of his arrears, due for his foreign employments. He had brought into England many servants, of which some were German and Italian artists. This was part of his condition, who had many times hardly sufficient to supply the occasions of the day for it may by no means be said of his providence, as himself said of Sir Philip Sydney's wit, That it was the very measure of congruity; he being always so careless of money, as though our Saviour's words, Care not for to-morrow, were to be literally understood.

But it pleased the God of providence, that, in this juncture of time, the Provostship of his Majesty's College of Eton became void, by the death of Mr. Thomas Murray; for which there were (as the place deserved) many earnest and powerful suitors to the king. And Sir Henry, who had for many years, like Sisyphus,

rolled the restless stone of a state employment, knowing, experimentally, that the great blessing of sweet content was not to be found in multitudes of men or business, and that a college was the fittest place to nourish holy thoughts, and to afford rest both to his body and mind, which his age (being now almost threescore years) seemed to require, did therefore use his own, and the interest of all his friends, to procure that place. By which means, and quitting the king of his promised reversionary offices, and a piece of honest policy (which I have not time to relate), he got a grant of it from his majesty.

Being thus settled according to the desires of his heart, his first study was the statutes of the College; by which he conceived himself bound to enter into holy orders, which he did; being made deacon, with all convenient speed: shortly after which time, as he came in his surplice from the church-service, an old friend, a person of quality, met him so attired, and joyed him of his new habit: to whom Sir Henry Wotton replied, "I thank God and the king, by whose goodness I now am in this condition; a condition, which that Emperor, Charles the Fifth, seemed to approve; who, after so many remarkable victories, when his glory was great in the eyes of all men, freely gave his crown, and the many cares that attended it, to Philip, his son; making a holy retreat to a cloisteral life, where he might, by devout meditations, consult with God (which the rich or busy men seldom do), and have leisure, both to examine the errors of his life past, and prepare for that great day, wherein all

up

flesh must make an account of their actions. And, after a kind of tempestuous life, I now have the like advantage, from Him that makes the outgoings of the morning to praise him; even from my God, whom I daily magnify for this particular mercy, of an exemption from business, a quiet mind, and a liberal maintenance, even in this part of my life, when my age and infirmities seem to sound me a retreat from the pleasures of this world, and invite me to contemplation, in which I have ever taken the greatest felicity."

And now, to speak a little of the employment of his time in the college. After his customary public devotions, his use was to retire into his study, and there to spend some hours in reading the Bible, and authors in divinity; closing up his meditations with private prayer: this was, for the most part, his employment in the forenoon. But, when he was once set to dinner, then nothing but cheerful thoughts possessed his mind; 'and those still increased by constant company, at his table, of such persons as brought thither additions, both of learning and pleasure: but some part of most days was usually spent in philosophical conclusions. Nor did he forget his innate pleasure of angling, which he would usually call, his idle time, not idly spent; saying often, he would rather live five May months than forty Decembers.

He was a constant cherisher of all those youths, in that school, in whom he found either a constant diligence, or a genius that prompted them to learning. For whose encouragement he was (besides many other things of necessity and beauty) at the charge of setting

up in it two rows of pillars, on which he caused to be choicely drawn the pictures of divers of the most famous Greek and Latin historians, poets, and orators: persuading them not to neglect rhetoric; because "Almighty God has left mankind affections to be wrought upon." And he would often say, "that none despised eloquence but such dull souls as were not capable of it." He would also often make choice of some observations out of those historians and poets; and would never leave the school without dropping some choice Greek or Latin apophthegm, or sentence, that might be worthy of a room in the memory of a growing scholar.

Concerning Sir Henry Wotton's Epitaph, Izaak Walton relates: He, waiving the common way, did think fit rather to preserve his name by a useful apophthegm, than by a large enumeration of his descent or merits; of both which he might justly have boasted but he was content to forget them; and did choose only this prudent, pious sentence, to discover his disposition, and preserve his memory. It was directed by him to be thus inscribed :

HIC JACET HUJUS SENTENTIA PRIMUS AUTHOR,

66

DISPUTANDI PRURITUS ECCLESIÆ SCABIES.
NOMEN ALIAS QUÆRE.*

Thus Englished by Izaak Walton :

HERE LIES THE FIRST AUTHOR OF THIS SENTENCE,

"THE ITCH OF DISPUTATION WILL PROVE THE SCAB OF THE CHURCH." INQUIRE HIS NAME ELSEWHERE.

And, questionless, it will be charity, in all readers, to think his mind was then so fixed on heaven, that a holy zeal did transport him; and that, in this sacred ecstacy, his thoughts were then only of the Church triumphant, into which he daily expected his admission; and that Almighty God was then pleased to make him a prophet, to tell the Church militant, and particularly that part of it in this nation, where the weeds of controversy grow to be daily more numerous, and more destructive to humble piety; and where men have consciences that boggle at ceremonies, and yet scruple not to speak and act such sins as the ancient humble Christians believed to be a sin to think; and where, as our reverend Hooker says, "Former Simplicity, and Softness of Spirit is not now to be found; because Zeal hath drowned Charity; and Skill, Meekness.'

دو

HYMN, COMPOSED BY SIR HENRY WOTTON, IN HIS LAST SICKNESS.

O THOU Great Power, in whom I move,
For whom I live, to whom I die,
Behold me, through thy beams of love,
Whilst on this couch of tears I lie ;
And cleanse my sordid soul within,
By thy Christ's blood, the bath of sin!

G

« السابقةمتابعة »