"to which he frankly answered him that he "would, and Sir Jeoffrey as generously pro"mifed him that he fhould have his confent. "And they both kept their words afterwards. "very honourably."

BISHOP BEDELL.

THIS excellent Prelate, to whom the Irish are indebted for the tranflation of the Bible into their language, was Bifhop of Kilmore in Ireland. Like the late Bishop Berkeley, he would never be tranflated from one See to another, thinking with him, that his church was his wife, and his diocefe his children, from whom he fhould never be divorced.

"Bishop Bedell lived with his clergy," fays his Biographer, "as if they had been his brethren. "When he went his vifitations, he would not "accept of the invitations that were made to "him by the great men of the country, but "would needs eat with his brethren, in fuch

poor inns, and of fuch coarse fare, as the

places afforded. He went about always on "foot when he was at Dublin, (one servant only attending him,) except upon public occafions, "that obliged him to ride in proceffion with his "brethren

"brethren. He never kept a coach in his life, "his strength always enabling him to ride on "horfeback. Many poor Irifh families about "him were maintained out of his kitchen, and " in the Christmas-time he had the poor always "eating with him at his own table, and he brought himself to endure both the fight of "their rags and their rudeness. He by his will "ordered that his body fhould be buried in a "church-yard, with this infcription:

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DEPOSITUM GULIELMI QUONDAM

EPISCOPI KILMORENSIS.

"He did not like," continues his Biographer, "the burying in a church; for as, he observed, "there was much both of fuperftition and pride "in it, fo he believed it was a great annoyance

to the living, where there was fo much of the ❝fteam of dead bodies rifing about them. He 66 was likewife much offended at the rudeness "which the crouding the dead bodies in a fmall "parcel of ground occafioned; for the bodies

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already laid there, and not yet quitè rotten, "were often raised and mangled; fo that he "made a Canon in his Synod against burying "in churches, and recommended that burying"places fhould be removed out of towns. In "this he was imitated by the Cardinal de Lo

menie, Archbishop of Sens, who published, "fome years ago, a very eloquent mandement on the subject."

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22

SIR HENRY WOTTON.

THE Conclufion of the Infcription which this learned man used to put under the Achievement of his Arms, when he left them in foreign Inns in his Travels, after the enumeration of his qua lities, and of the Embaffies in which he had been engaged, was

" HENRICUS WOTTON, tandem hoc didicit "Animas fieri fapientiores quiefcendo."

He gave this excellent character of Sir Philip Sydney's wit, "That it was the very measure of congruity."

According to his Biographer, Sir Henry had made fome progrefs in a work which he had be gun on the Reformation, and which he gave up at the defire of his Sovereign Charles the First, who wished him to write the History of England. It were, indeed, much to be wished, that it were poffible to procure Sir Henry's Manufcripts of his intended work.

He wrote a very excellent Treatife on the. "Elements of Architecture," in which the idea of Home, that scene of every man's happiness or mifery, is thus pathetically defcribed: Every "man's proper manfion-house and home being "the theatre of his hofpitality, the feat of felf"fruition,

15

"fruition, the comfortableft part of his own "life, the noblest of his fon's inheritance, a "kind of private princedom, nay, to the pof"feffors thereof, an epitome of the whole world,

may well deferve by these attributes, accord"ing to the degree of the master, to be de"cently and delightfully adorned." He wrote likewife "A Survey of Education," which he calls Moral Architecture, in which he well obferves, that the way to knowledge by epitome is too ftreight, and by commentaries too much about. When," adds he, "I mark in chil"dren much folitude and filence, I like it not, "nor any thing born before its time, as this "must needs be in that fociable and expofed age, as they are for the most part. When either "alone or in company they fit still without doing any thing, I like it worse. For furely all dif

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pofition to idleness or vacancy, even before they

grow habits, is dangerous; and there is com"monly but little distance in time between do"ing of nothing and doing of ill."

Sir Henry fays beautifully, in his character of a Happy Life

I.

How happy is he born and taught

That ferveth not another's will,

Whofe armour is his honeft thought,
And fimple truth his utmost skill:

Whole

II.

Whose paffions not his masters are, Whofe foul is ftill prepared for death; Untied unto the world by care

Of public fame or private breath :

III.

Who envies none that chance doth raise, Nor vice hath ever understood,

How deepest wounds are given by praise, Nor rules of State, but rules of good:

IV.

Who hath his life from rumours freed, Whose conscience is his ftrong retreat, Whofe ftate can neither flatterers feed, Nor ruin make oppressors great:

V.

Who God doth late and early pray More of his grace than gifts to lend,

And entertains the harmless day

With a religious book or friend:

VI.

This man is freed from fervile bands,
Of hope to rife, or fear to fall;
Lord of himself, though not of lands,

And having nothing, yet hath all.