be the noblest use, of biography, to operate as a moral antidote to the soul-hardening study of history-to correct what the habits of public life, the maxims of political economy, and even the pursuit of science itself, each, more or less, will generally produce,namely, a disposition to depreciate all individual agencies, to slight all faith in the energies of genius or of goodness, and to merge the personal being of men in the generalized qualities of the abstraction, Man. In no age since the world began has this. mechanical, this downright wedge and screw spirit been so tyrannically exclusive as in the present; every movement must be in bodies, and all existence marshalled, as if, in Coleridge's words,' the capital of national morality could be increased by making a jointstock of it.' The favourite phrase of the revolutionary faction in this country-borrowed, we believe from the French-now is, that this and that institution must be destroyed because the MASSES choose it-that the best and noblest citizens must be hunted down if these MASSES take offence at them! And this is but a vile juggle after all; for those who actually suggest the offence and do the dirty work of vulgar persecution are, for the most part, solitary individuals, without personal credit, or any known station or interest in society,-creatures not more malignant to every thing individually high and magnanimous, than abject to the basest string of sycophancy in their watchful adulation of the bewildered Demus, whom it is their sordid trade to agitate and inflate. But not only where the aim is directly evil is this tendency conspicuous; in the plans and pursuits of men, whose benevolent. intentions are indisputable, it is equally operative. Nevertheless, whether it be for immediate good or evil, the principle is equally unsound, demoralizing, and dangerous; and sure we are, that to those who, in disregard of the still voice of reason and humanity, trample on the sacred distinction between persons and things, that everlasting truth will sooner or later make itself intelligible in the murmurs of discontent, or in the shocks of revolution. The nature of man will right itself at last, and vindicate an individual' sphere and a personal end. Things were made for man-man' was made for himself; and those who would treat the one as the other, although they may do so without guile, will not long do it with impunity. But we have wandered from our subject.

The collection before us begins with the life of Marvell and ends with that of Fothergill-comprising in the interval, but not in any particular order, the lives of Bentley; Fairfax, the parliamentary general; James Earl of Derby, who was beheaded in 1651; Anne Clifford, the famous Countess of Dorset, Pembroke, &c.; Roger Ascham; Fisher, Bishop of Rochester; Mason the

poet;

poet; Arkwright; Roscoe; Captain Cook--and Congreve. And although we believe that the lives of all these individuals have been elsewhere written, and in the recent instances of Bentley and Roscoe, with ability,we can assure our readers that time will not be misspent in perusing the narratives contained in this volume. In particular, the life of Bentley before us, although founded of course on Bishop Monk's elaborate work, is a most original and spirited portrait of that prince of English scholars, by one who is evidently a very accomplished scholar himself, and who has well succeeded in expressing the coarse dignity and surly majesty with which Bentley still held his own: through the long series of violence, and litigation, and defeat which disgraced the latter years of his life. Perhaps, after all,' says Mr. H. Coleridge, speaking of Bishop Greene, the Visitor, the prelate was satisfied with having done what he could call his best, and was not anxious to drive the famous old man from his home. There is something in dauntless perseverance, however exercised, that overawes the weak and gains the respect of the noble,' In this life, there are some occasional flashes of opinion rather than definite positions, with respect to the rank and due relation of classical studies to other departments of knowledge, or, as we should say, to other modes or instruments of educating the mind, with which we entirely disagree, and which in fact we can scarcely believe to be the author's mature convictions. Yet, that he has some right to speak out, whatever he may think on such a subject, let the following passage witness:

On the merits and defects of Bentley's Horace none but the ac complished scholar can expatiate, and none but professional scholars could feel much interest in the discussion. The intrusion of the conjectural readings into the text has been censured as altogether unwarrantable. Many of them go to crop the most delicate flowers of Horatian fancy, and shear away the love-locks which the world has doted on. The value of the work consists in the extraordinary display of learning and ingenuity which the defence of these innovations called forth,—in the skilful allegation of parallel passages,—in the wonderful adroitness with which every line and every letter that supports the proposed change is hunted out from the obscurest corners of Roman literature, and made to bear on the case in point,—and in the logical dexterity with which apparent objections are turned into confirmations. Vast as was Bentley's reading, none of it was superfluous, for he turns it all to account; his felicity in fixing his eye at once on what he needed, in always finding the evidence that he wanted, often where no one else would have thought of looking for it, is almost preternatural. His learning suggested all the phrases that might be admitted in any given passage; but his taste did not always lead him to select the best.'-p. 120. This

This is in one sense just; yet it does not quite render full justice to Bentley. We have no respect for his slashings,' and think his si non scripsit Horatius, debuit scripsisse, a mere freak,—criticism run mad; but still it should be remembered and stated that, independently of what may be called the collateral erudition of his annotations, the value of which, nevertheless, to the general scholar can hardly be overrated,-he in many well-known instances corrected the Horatian text upon the ground of critical canons, the accuracy of which has been universally acknowledged, and which now constitute guiding lights in fixing the idiom of the Latin language. The same may be said of his Terence,-a wonderful work, and to which philology, in its widest sense, must ever be deeply indebted. It is, perhaps, deserving of notice, that the modern German scholars, who have, we fear, but small respect for our English classical erudition in the present day, rarely mention Bentley without prefixing an epithet denoting transcendant excellency to his name. Hermann generally writes summus Bentleius.

The Life of Fairfax is one of the most important in this volume, in respect equally of the general wisdom of its political reflections, and of the brilliant powers of description which it displays. In the following passage Mr. H. Coleridge is considering one of the effects of the peaceful policy of James I. There may be, perhaps, something rash, if not quasi-Machiavellic, in the first paragraph, and certainly there are in the last some sentences touching bishops and prelates, which we hold to be mistaken ; but upon the whole we think it a passage of deep insight and weighty truth, conceived and expressed in the spirit of philosophic history:

• The long peace, which James I. so prided himself in preserving, was unable to extinguish the warlike quality of English blood. The noble youth sought action in foreign campaigns; and many of lower grade, or desperate fortunes, adventurers who had spent all," younger sons of younger brothers," and the like "cankers of a calm world," adopted, in countries not their own, the mercenary trade of war, which, perhaps, after all, is neither more sinful nor less honourable than the gentlemanly profession of arms; at least it has as much of "the dignity of danger." But it is a great neglect in the policy of any state to suffer its subjects, at their own discretion, to adopt a foreign service; and a great error in a monarch to keep his dominions so long in peace that the art military is forgotten, and military habits of unconditional obedience and undeliberative execution become obsolete. "No bishop, no king," was the favourite maxim of the Rer pacificus. "No soldier, no king," is the doctrine of historic experience. Monarchy, at least the feudal monarchy, established on the downfall of the Roman empire, is an institution essentially military. A crown is a bauble without a helmet; the true sceptre is the sword. Under

Under the feudal system, the whole constitution of society was military; to bear arms was the distinction of free-birth, to be a lay-man of peace, was to be a churl, a knave, a villain, a slave.

While this system continued in vigour, the pride of heraldry retained a meaning, and the throne was respected as the fountain of honour even when the king was persecuted, deposed, or assassinated. But when the constitution of general society grew pacific, it became necessary that the power of the sword should centre in permanent bodies, more immediately devoted to the sovereign-wherein, by an obvious and intelligible necessity, the monarchical principle is preserved untainted-and which may supply at once a safe channel for the ambition of enterprising youth, and a regular occupation for those unruly natures among the commonalty, for whom the ordinary restraints of civil life are as insufficient as the engagements of humble industry are irksome; those choice spirits, in a word, that would rather fight than work. The policy, perhaps the religion, of the first James, (for there appears no good ground for suspecting him of disgraceful cowardice, and the strongest reason for believing, that amid all his strange vanity and vicious infatuations, he still retained a conscience,) made him averse to war; the interests of the nation (considered as distinct from those of the monarch) allowed and required peace; and the learned king fondly imagined that, by maintaining the monarchical principle in the church, he was raising around the throne a host of bloodless champions, who would secure the allegiance of the nation by all the fears of eternal punishment:-Not considering that, while he bound the hierarchy to himself, he was setting them at an incommunicable distance from the people, and leaving a gap for the disaffected, who were sure to make a dangerous use of the favour and attention which the multitude always bestow on those who persuade them that they are not taught or governed as they should be. He found the church divided into two parties, and thought by his regal authority to give the victory to the anti-popular side. Thus he hastened the schism which might yet have been prevented; arrayed all the discontent of the country against the doctrines which he patronized; gave to the demagogue preachers the speciem libertatis, the show of freedom and the glory of daring, and brought upon the court ecclesiastics the odium of flatterers and self-seekers. The best arguments of the Arminians and prelatists were disregarded, because they had too visible an interest in their tenets-while the wildest declamation of the Puritans passed for gospel, because they declaimed at the risk of their ears.

'Meanwhile, the youth and valour of the kingdom, engaged as volunteers in the contests of Holland, France, and Germany, were imbibing principles and acquiring habits, by no means favourable to the state of things which the king was desirous to establish and uphold. Even the few expeditions undertaken by command, or with the countenance of the state, were all in behalf of revolted nations; and the assistance afforded to the United Provinces, to the French Hugonots,

and

and to the German Protestants, was a practical acknowledgment of the right of resistance. The alliance of France with the insurgent Americans contributed not more to the French revolution, than the alliance of England with the continental Protestants to the temporary suspension of English monarchy. The Dutch, adopting a republican government, consistently adopted a Presbyterian church; and though the German Lutherans retained the name of Episcopacy, the Lutheran bishop fell so far short of the wealth, pomp, aristocratic rank, and apostolical pretensions of the English prelate, as to bear a much nearer resemblance to the plain, if not humble presbyter. There were no doubt very good and sufficient reasons for the difference;-but they were not reasons likely to occur to a young man, whose slender stock of theology was derived from Scripture and his own unlearned judgment-not perhaps wholly unbiassed by that love of novelty which is as endemic a disease of youth as poetry or love. And the hotblooded gallants, who cared for none of these things, at all events lost some of their attachment to ancient custom; the line of their associations was broken; if, on their return, they proved ever so loyal, they were lawless in their loyalty; and under all suppositions, they had been habituated to separate the idea of military from that of civil: obedience; to obey, where they owed not a subject's allegiance, and to command without their sovereign's commission.'-p. 178.

We are much surprised and grieved that Mr. H. Coleridge, in this last paragraph, is so inaccurate, and so injuriously, though unintentionally, unfair, as to contrast the Lutheran bishop' with the 'English prelate.' The comparison is in alio genere. The Bishop, of London is a bishop and a prelate-episcopus ecclesiæ Christiprælatus ecclesiæ nationis. The Christian Church and the National Church are distinct, though, blessed be God! in this yet. mercifully-preserved country, they are not separate. The English bishops of the present day, as ministers in Christ's spiritual church, may calmly submit to a comparison with the bishops of any other section of the Christian world;-as prelates of the national establishment, they stand on the constitution of their country, and have duties to perform, and a position to defend, in respect of which they are no more fit parallels with a Lutheran bishop than is an English Baron with the curate of Langdale or Buttermere.

In a very different strain from the foregoing passage, is the following splendid picture of the armies which met on Marston Moor:-

Fifty thousand subjects of one king stood face to face on Marston Moor. The numbers on each side were not far unequal, but never were two hosts speaking one language of more dissimilar aspects. The Cavaliers, flushed with recent victory, identifying their quarrel with their honour and their love, their loose locks escaping beneath