INTRODUCTION. IN an article on the "Sylloge Confessionum sub tempus reformandæ Ecclesiæ," in the CRITICAL REVIEW, Vol. VII. 3rd Series, the writer, alluding to certain reprints which had lately issued from the Clarendon Press, states, in special reference to HOOKER'S Works, that, "It might have been both serviceable and satisfactory if the editors would have vouchsafed to prefix occasionally a few prefatory remarks, to detail the reasons which may have induced them to the republication of this or that work, in preference to others which treat of the same argument; to give some account of the author or his book; and to add such other observations as their learning and experience might easily have supplied, and which could hardly have failed of rendering the several volumes more interesting and profitable, especially to youthful readers. A few Notes here and there interspersed to elucidate the difficult, or to restore the corrupted passages, to warn against some latent error, to point out peculiar excellence, or to supply any remarkable deficiency by better arguments or more extensive references, might also have conferred a great additional obligation on the public..... The Life does not contain a word respecting Hooker's having been appointed to the honourable office of reading the Hebrew Lecture in his University, and the still more interesting information of his expulsion from College..... The additions to the Life, by J. S. are valuable ... but it might further have been satisfactory to inform us, what is far from being generally known, that this J. S. was honest John Strype, the Ecclesiastical historian." These, with other strictures, were replied to in the GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE, Vol. LXXVI. Part II. The Reply is signed "Oxoniensis," and contains indications of having emanated from Authority. It informs us that, "The Delegates have not undertaken to put out critical and improved editions of the Works in question. They have printed them as employment for their Press when not otherwise occupied, meaning to sell them at a moderate price, for the common use of Schools, Universities, or the Clergy. In such case, if they put into the hands of their printer a good copy, and make reasonable provision for properly correcting the Work, they have a right to think themselves discharged of their duty: without being bound to see that such copy is perfectly corrected, and to search here and there for every error that has been discovered in it; a business of time, labour, and expense, which would often put off the publication to an inconvenient season, if not altogether. Neither is the very best copy always to be had for the use of the printer..... As to adding Notes or elucidations, &c. this would have been publishing upon another scale, and according to another plan." It is due to the Delegates, to notice that their latest edition of Hooker (1820) is printed from better copies than the edition of which the Reviewer complained. Still, however, "the best" copies were not resorted to; and neither in the Oxford, nor in any other edition, has the AUTHOR (whose decease did not permit him to complete his labours by superintending their entire publication) had that justice rendered to him which the principal object of his labours, and his " pragmatical wisdom,"* have demanded from Episcopalians. It is almost superfluous to add, that the high and deserved estimation in which the Author is held, among all parties, for the astonishing purity and richness of his diction, his profound erudition-classic dignity, and political wisdom-imperatively requires the utmost care and fidelity in the collation of the early editions and the revision of his invaluable Works. The present Edition of Hooker's Works owes its origin to these and similar considerations. Among the many advantages which it presents to the Reader, he is informed that it contains the very rare and important "CHRISTIAN LETTER," printed in forty-seven quarto pages, in 1599, but never re-published. As this Tract created a feature in Hooker's history, being alleged to have "procured" his death; and is remarkable for being the first publication of the Doctrinal Puritans, it must of itself give a new and extraordinary interest to these Volumes. This Edition also contains the "JUST AND TEMPERATE DEFENCE Of the Five Books of Ecclesiastical Policie," by William Covel, D. D.; an excessively rare Tract, never reprinted. It is dated 1603, and consists of one hundred and fifty-four pages, 4to. It forms an appendix to the Second Volume, which indeed is its most appropriate place; but had the Editor possessed the Tract earlier, Hooker's Sixth Book might have been added to the Second Volume, and Covel have been placed at the end of the Third Volume; because the proximity of Hooker's respective Books had then been preserved. As it is, however, the Editor is gratified in a further opportunity of rendering his Edition of Hooker's Works incomparable, and in making his candour less liable to be questioned. He might have supplied Covel's Tract with additional Notes, but + See Covel's Tract. Bp. HEBER, ut infra. necessity compelled him to content himself with placing only such references to the text of Hooker and to the Christian Letter as the claims on his time permitted. The Editor indulges the hope that his LIFE OF CARTWRIGHT will not be deemed the least interesting portion of his labours. He had not found till his other matter was far advanced at the Press, that no existing Life of Cartwright presented such a view of his character, talents, and intimate connexion with the "Ecclesiastical Polity," as was requisite. The Editor was therefore compelled to begin it even at the risk of delay at the Printing Office. Hooker's EPISTLE TO LORD BURGHLEY (Vol. I. P. 1.) is now for the first time admitted among his other productions. * Powerful, and inimitably great, as HOOKER is as a writer, the Editor trusts that he shall not be chargeable with presumption in asserting, that while he has been anxious to do justice to the Author's talents, he has, in his NOTES and REFERENCES,† which are distinguished from Hooker's by being placed between crotchets [], ventured to adduce arguments meriting the most serious consideration of every candid and impartial inquirer after Truth. Genuine editions of the first five Books of the ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY having come into the Editor's possession, and a number of discrepancies being noticed between the oldest and recent copies, the conclusion became obvious, that the TEXT of Hooker, more perhaps, than that of any other of our most eminent classic authors,‡ needed * "Hooker is incomparable in strength and sanctity. His first books are wonderful. I do not perfectly meet him, as he advances towards the close."-Remains of the Rev. R. Cecil, M. A. Edit. 1825. 8vo. p. 285. "Neal's History of the Puritans I took home to my house; and, at breakfast time, filled the margins quite through."-Bp. WARBURTON'S Works. 1788. 4to. Vol. VII. p. 891. "Let Hooker's writings be compared with the best of those of more modern date; and, I believe, it will be found that in correctness, propriety, and purity of English style, he hath hardly been surpassed, or even equalled, by any of his successors."-Bishop LOWTH, Eng. Grammar. Edit. 1791. 12mo. Pref. "HOOKER claims the foremost rank in sustained and classic dignity of style, in political and pragmatical wisdom.”Works of the Right Rev. JEREMY TAYLOR, D. D. &c. 1822. 8vo. Life, by Bp. HEBER, Vol. I. p. ccciii. "HOOKER is the eldest of that tribe of powerful spirits, whose appearance at nearly the same period, forms a golden era in our language; a race of literary giants, whose ponderous weapons are gazed upon with admiration as proofs of the muscular energy of the arm that wielded them, but which in these degenerate times it costs an effort to lift: without a metaphor, what that age produced, it is, in this, esteemed a labour to peruse. The Ecclesiastical Polity is a treasury of knowledge, and a 'well of English undefiled' (Spenser's Faery Queene, Book IV. c. ii. st. 32). The style is, for the time at which it was written, singularly chaste. Although the production of a pedantic age, the extensive learning it displays is untainted with pedantry. What is still more admirable, in an age of coarseness, its Author's purity of taste never suffered him to descend to a phraseology bordering upon grossness or impropriety. A composed and sober gravity, a modest dignity reigns throughout the composition; while there is a grandeur in the very march of his periods, which has upon the imagination the effect of solemn music. Perhaps one of the most eloquent passages of the work, is the section (38, Book V.) in which he dwells upon the power of musical harmony."-Eclec. Rev. Mar. 1820. p. 254. "For our own part, we could not derive greater pleasure from reading him, were we never so firmly attached to the ecclesiastical system which he |