firm constitution. As for my library it is wholly at your use and service. The same liberty which my father gave to the learned Mr. Selden I give to you. But Mr. Selden was too free in lending out books, which after his death were never restored. I cannot forbear sometimes to scribble something in poesy. I send you a late morning meditation, upon my Saviour's being crucified upon the cross.

Cum subit illius tristissima lucis imago,

Qua cruce pendentem te video Dominum:
Tunc tua sunt imis mihi vulnera fixa medullis,
Mens stupet, et tantis ingemit usque malis.
Peccatum est homicida meum, tu criminis expers,
Debentur lateri vulnus et hasta meo.

I take great confidence to entertain you thus frequently with my verses; my only excuse is, that to you, who are (to use St. Paul's word) apapromeres to so divine an employment, since the subject I write is divine, they may not be altogether unacceptable. Were it not for this, you might justly blame me as Martial doth Ligurinus, for being nimis poeta.

I am, yours most affectionately,

J. COTTON.

* Rom. i. 1.

SIR,

LETTER XIII.

From the same to the same.

Stratton, Jan. 15, 1694.

of

my

I RECEIVED your's, and it is a great joy and pleasure to me that I live in the memory friends. I endeavour what I can to defend myself against the infirmities of old age, which is commonly morose and querulous. And truly the consideration of my age is not unpleasant to me. For to use the prince of the Roman orators words, Quo proprius ad mortem accedo, eo citius quasi terram videre videor, aliquandoque in portum ex longa navigatione esse venturus. As for our present affairs, and the miserable war which doth afflict all Europe, I cannot be of King Priamus his opinion, whom Homer brings in caressing Helena with the appellation of Qihov TEXOS, and tells her,

Ουτι μοι αιτιη εσσι, θεοι νυ μοι αιτιοι εισιν,
Οι μοι εφωρμησαν πολεμον πολυδακρυν Αχαιων.

But in another place Homer seems to be in the right:

Αυτων γαρ σφετέρησιν ατασθαλίησιν ολονία
Νηπιοι

This is consonant to the scripture, Perditio

tua ex te. That there may be a general and lasting peace, and that the effusion of so much christian blood may be stopped, is the earnest desire and prayer of

Yours, most affectionately,

J. COTTON.

SIR

LETTER XIV.

From the same to the same.

I RETURN you many thanks for the poems you sent me of the learned Huetius. They are very elegant and seem to contend with the ancients. For the inscription upon my grandfather's monument, it was writ by my father; I only added out of Lucan, Communis Mundo superest Rogus.

I give you likewise very many thanks for the specimen you have sent me of my grand-father's life. I make no doubt but that it is performed with all the exactness that becomes a learned and

judicious writer. Gruterus, in his edition of Cicero's works, in his preface, doth make mention of my grand-father amongst the learned men; as Daniel Heinsius, Thuanus, Sir H. Saville, and many others. Bishop Montague gives him the title of a Magazine of Learning. I enjoy (Ges didouros) indifferent good health, con

sidering my age; and to divert melancholy, sometimes I write verses. Hoc est mediocribus illis Ex vitiis unum. I take the confidence to send you a specimen of some of them. They are moral, and upon the same subject.

Hic dolor, et tristes posuere cubilia curæ,
Fer bene, fit levius quod bene fertur onus.
Ista tributa tuæ sunt vitæ, fortiter omnes

Fer casus, si vis vivere, disce pati.

Casibus infesta est vita hæc, et plena malorum,
Pax nulli longa est, vix equidem induciæ.

LETTER XV.

Dr. LLOYD (Bishop of St. Asaph) to Dr. FELL (Bishop of

Oxford.)

Relating to the Duke of Monmouth, written the day after the execution of that unfortunate Nobleman.

MY LORD,

July 16, [16]85.

I RECEIVED your Lordship's letter by the last post, with two enclosed, one to the Duke of Ormond, the other to the Lord PrivySeal; both which letters I delivered to their owne hands, and they promised to answer them.

For the King's Inauguration, I know my Lord of Canterbury has made ready an office to be used every year, the 6th of February, so that there will need no question concerning it.

I was this day again at Sir H. Foxe's, to speak with him, but he was not at home. I will try again to-morrow.

I told your Lordship in my last the Bishop of Ely was appointed by his Majesty to attend the Duke of Monmouth, and to prepare him to die the next day. The Duke wrote to his Majesty, representing how usefull he might and would be, if his Majesty would be pleased to grant him his life. But if it might not be, he desired a longer time, and to have another divine to assist him, Dr. Tennison, or whom else the King should appoint. The King sent him the Bishop of Bath and Wells to attend, and to tell him he must die the next morning. The two Bishops sate up in his chamber all night, and watcht while he slept. In the morning by his Majesty's order, the Lords Privy-Seale and Dartmouth brought him also Dr. Tennison and Dr. Hooper. All these were with him till he died.

They got him to owne the King's title to the crown, and to declare in writing that the last King told him he was never married to his mother, and by word of mouth to acknowledge his invasion was sin; but could never get him to confess it was a rebellion. They got him to owne that he and Lady Harriot Wentworth had lived in all points like man and wife, but they could not make him confess it was adultery.

He acknowledged that he and his Duchess