salvation to the world. And Eliot, separated from them by many centuries, yet full of the same spirit, has borne the like message to the new world of the west. Since the first days of Christianity there has been no man more worthy to be numbered in the brotherhood of the apostles than Eliot.-HAWTHORNE, NATHANIEL, 1841, Grandfather's Chair.

In his intercourse with his parishioners, and in his private life, Eliot was remarkable for mildness, meekness, and generosity. He combined with the latter virtue a total forgetfulness of self, and his household affairs would often have been in sorry plight, had he not had a good wife who shared his old age as she had his youth, to look after them. She one day, by way of a joke, pointing out their cows before the door, asked him whose they were, and found that he did not know.

The treasurer of his church paying him a portion of his salary on one occasion, tied the coin in the pastor's pockethandkerchief with an abundance of knots, as a check to his freedom of disbursement in charity. On his way home, the good man stopped to visit a destitute family, and was soon tugging at the knots to get at his money. Quickly growing impatient he gave the whole to the mother of the family, saying, "Here, my dear, take it; I believe the Lord

designs it all for you."-DUYCKINCK, EVERT A. AND GEORGE L., 1855-65-75, Cyclopædia of American Literature, ed. Simons, vol. I, p. 46.

He was the first to carry the gospel to the red man, and perhaps the earliest who championed the negro. Strangers with whom he came in contact spoke of the peculiar charm of his manners. He united fervent piety and love of learning to burning enthusiasm for evangelisation, these qualities being tempered with worldly wisdom and shrewd common sense. Taking into consideration the nature of his life, his literary activity is remarkable. No name in the early history of New England is more revered than his. Eliot was truly a saintly type, without fanaticism, spiritual pride, or ambition.—TEDDER, H. R., Dictionary of National Biography, vol. XVII, p. 192.

Although producing little that can be accounted as literature. John Eliot deserves prominent mention in the history. of American letters. Eliot's Bible is now the most valuable relic of a vanished race. Aside from its great interest to the ethnologist and the antiquarian, it has the added interest of being the first Bible printed in America. Copies of it are exceedingly rare and costly. PATTEE, FRED LEWIS, 1896, History of American Literature, pp. 33, 34.

PERSONAL

Nature, you know, intended me for an idle fellow, and gave me passions and qualities fit for that blessed calling, but fortune has made a changeling of me, and necessity now forces me to set up for a fop of business.-ETHEREDGE, SIR GEORGE, 1687, The Letterbook,; Gosse, SeventeenthCentury Studies, p. 264

Sir George Etherege was as thorough a fop as ever I saw; he was exactly his own

Sir Fopling Flutter. And yet he designed Dorimant, the genteel rake of wit, for his own picture.-LOCKIER, DR. DEAN OF PETERBOROUGH, 1730-32, Spence's Anecdotes, ed. Singer, p. 47.

In the words of Oldys, Sir George Etherege was "a man of much courtesy and delicate address." Profligacy, sprightliness, and good humour, seem to have been his principal characteristics. In person he is described as a "fair, slender, and

genteel man," and his face is said to have been handsome. In later times, however, his comeliness is reported to have been spoiled by the effect of intemperance and the exceeding irregularity of his career. -JESSE, JOHN HENEAGE, 1839-57, Memoirs of the Court of England during the Reign of the Stuarts, Including the Protectorate, vol. III, p. 324.

There seems no clue whatever to the date of his death, except that in an anonymous pamphlet, written by John Dennis, and printed in 1722, Etheredge is spoken of as having been dead "nearly thirty years." Dennis was over thirty at the Revolution, and is as trustworthy an authority as we could wish for. By this it would seem that Etheredge died about 1693, nearer the age of sixty than fifty. But Colonel Chester found the record of administration to the estate of a Dame Mary Etheredge, widow, dated Feb. 1, 1692.

As we know of no other knight of the name, except Sir James Etheredge, who died in 1736, this was probably the poet's relict; and it may yet appear that he died in 1691. He was a short, brisk man, with a quantity of fair hair, and a fine complexion, which he spoiled by drinking. He left no children, but his brother, who long survived him, left a daughter, who is said to have married Aaron Hill. GOSSE, EDMUND, 1883, Seventeenth-Century Studies,p. 265.

GENERAL

George Etheridge a Comical writer of the present age, whose two Comedies, "Love in a Tub," and "She would if she could," for pleasant wit and no bad Oeconomy are judged not unworthy the applause they have met with.—PHILLIPS, EDWARD, 1675, Theatrum Poetarum Anglicanorum, ed. Brydges, p. 130.

Shakespear and Jonson

Whom refin'd Etherege copies not at all, But is himself a sheer Original.

ROCHESTER, JOHN WILMOT, EARL, 1678, An Allusion to the Tenth Satire of the First Book of Horace.

A Gentleman sufficiently eminent in the Town for his Wit and Parts, and One whose tallent in sound Sence, and the Knowledge of true Wit and Humour, are sufficiently conspicuous. "Comical Revenge." This Comedy tho' of a mixt nature, part of it being serious,

This

and writ in Heroick Verse; yet has us ceeded admirably on the Stage, it having always been acted with general approbation. "Man of Mode, or Sir Fopling Flutter.' This Play is written with great Art and Judgment, and is acknowledg'd by all, to be as true Comedy, and the Characters as well drawn to the Life, as any Play that has been Acted since the Restauration of the English Stage. "She wou'd if she cou'd.” Comedy is likewise accounted one of the first Rank, by several who are known to be good Judges of Dramatick Poesy. Nay our present Laureat says, 'Tis the best Comedy written since the Restauration of the Stage. I heartily wish for the publick satisfaction, that this great Master would oblidge the World with more of his Performances, which would put a stop to the crude and indigested Plays, which for want of better, cumber the Stage.-LANGBAINE, GERARD, 1691, An Account of the English Dramatick Poets, pp. 186, 187

The standard of thy style let Etheredge be.-DRYDEN, JOHN, 1692, To Mr. South

ern.

This expedient to supply the deficiencies of wit, has been used more or less by most of the authors who have succeeded on the stage; though I know but one who has professedly writ a play upon the basis of the desire of multiplying our species, and that is the polite Sir George Etheridge; if I understand what the lady would be at, in the play called "She would if She could." Other poets have, here and there, given an intimation that there is this design, under all the disguises and affectations which a lady may put on: but no author except this, has made sure work of it, and put the imaginations of the audience upon this one purpose, from the beginning to the end of the comedy. It has always fared accordingly; for whether it be that all who go to this piece would if they could, or that the innocents go to it, to guess only what she would if she could, the play has always been well received. ADDISON, JOSEPH, 1711, Indecency Proceeds From Dulness, The Spectator, No. 51, Apr. 28.

He seems to have possessed a sprightly genius, to have had an excellent turn for comedy, and very happy in a courtly dialogue. We have no proof of his being a

scholar, and was rather born, than made a poet. He has not escaped the censure of the critics; for his works are so extremely loose and licentious, as to render them dangerous to young, unguarded minds and on this account our witty author is, indeed, justly liable to the severest censure of the virtuous, and sober part of mankind. CIBBER, THEOPHILUS, 1753, Lives of the Poets, vol. III, p. 39.

Lastly, that I may leave the reader in better humour with the name at the head of this article, I shall quote one scene from Etherege's "Love in a Tub," which for exquisite, genuine, original humour, is worth all the rest of his plays, though two or three of his witty contemporaries were thrown in among them, as a make weight. COLERIDGE, SAMUEL TAYLOR, 1812, Omniana, ed. Ashe, p. 388.

I have only to add a few words respecting the dramatic writers about this time, before we arrive at the golden period of our comedy. Those of Etherege are good for nothing, except "The Man of Mode, or Sir Fopling Flutter," which is, I think, a more exquisite and airy picture of the manners of that age than any other extant. Sir Fopling himself is an inimitable coxcomb, but pleasant withal. He is a suit of clothes personified. Doriman (supposed to be Lord Rochester) is the genius of grace, gallantry and gaiety. The women in this courtly play have very much the look and air (but something more demure and significant) of Sir Peter Lely's beauties. Harriet, the mistress of Dorimant, who "tames his wild heart to her loving hand," is the flower of the piece. Her natural, untutored grace and spirit, her meeting with Dorimant in the Park, bowing and mimicking him, and the luxuriant description which is given of her fine person, altogether form one of the chefs-d'œuvre of dramatic painting. I should think this comedy would bear reviving; and if Mr. Liston were to play Sir Fopling, the part would shine out with. double lustre, "like the morn risen on mid-noon."-HAZLITT, WILLIAM, 1818, Lectures on the English Comic Writers, p. 78.

George Etheredge first distinguished himself among the libertine wits of the age by his "Comical Revenge, or Love in a Tub." He afterwards gained a more deserved distinction in the comic drama

by his "Man of Mode, or Sir Fopling Flutter," a character which has been the model of all succeeding stage petitsmaîtres. CAMPBELL, THOMAS, 1819, Specimens of the British Poets.

Etheredge is the first to set the example of imitative comedy in his "Man of Fashion."--TAINE, H. A., 1871, History of English Literature, tr. Van Laun, vol. I, bk. iii, ch. i, p. 479.

Etheredge's comedies possess, in their chronological progression, both importance and interest, as furnishing earlyprobably the earliest examples of a style of comic dialogue which was of natural growth and which owed much less than might at first be supposed to French examples. He wrote as a man of the world for men and women of the world, who flocked to his plays to see themselves in his comic mirror, and pointed the way to the style of English comedy, of which Congreve afterwards shone as the acknowledged master. Of characterisation few traces are perceptible in Etheredge's comedies; and in this respect too he anticipated Congreve.— WARD, ADOLPHUS WILLIAM, 1875-99, A History of English Dramatic Literature, vol. III, pp. 443, 444.

According to all the bibliographers, old and new, Etheredge's first play was "She Would if She Could," 1668, immediately followed by "The Comical Revenge," first printed in 1669. If this were the case, the claim of Etheredge to critical attention would be comparatively small. Oldys, however, mentions that he had heard of, but never seen, an edition of this latter play of 1664. Neither Langbaine, Gildon, or any of their successors believe in the existence of such a quarto, nor is a copy to be found in the British Museum. However, I have been so fortunate as to pick up two copies of this mythical quarto of 1664, the main issue of which I suppose to have been destroyed by some one of the many accidents that befell London in that decade, and Etheredge's precedence of all his more eminent comic contemporaries is thus secured. The importance of this date, 1664, is rendered still more evident when we consider that it constitutes a claim for its author for originality in two distinct kinds. "The Comical Revenge, or Love in a Tub," which was acted at the Duke of York's

preach'd on 2 Eccles. v. 26. He concluded with an eulogy due to the deceas'd, who made God and Religion the scope of all his excellent tallents in the knowledge of nature, and who had arriv'd to so high a degree in it, accompanied with such zeale and extraordinary piety, wh he shoew'd in the whole course of his life, particularly in his exemplary charity on all occasions. He dilated on his learn

ing in Hebrew and Greek, his reading of the Fathers, and solid knowledge in theology, once deliberating about taking holy orders, and that at the time of the restoration of K. Cha. 2, when he might have made a greate figure in the nation as to secular honour and titles, his fear of not being able to discharge so weighty a duty as the first, made him decline that, and his humility the other. He spake of

his civility to strangers, the greate good which he did by his experience in medicine and chemistry, and to what noble. ends he applied himself to his darling studies; the works both pious and useful, which he publish'd; the exact life he led, and the happy end he made.—EVELYN, JOHN, 1691-92, Diary, Jan. 6.

He was looked upon by all who knew him as a very perfect pattern. He was a very devout Christian; humble and modest, almost to a fault; of a most spotless and exemplary life in all respects. He was highly charitable, and was a mortified. and self-denied man that delighted in nothing so much as doing good.—BURNET, GILBERT, 1715-34, History of My Own Time.

Mr. Boyle, was tall of stature, but slender, and his countenance pale and emaciated. His constitution was so tender and delicate that he had divers sorts of cloaks to put on when he went abroad, according to the temperature of the air, and in this he governed himself by his thermometer. He escaped, indeed, the small-pox, during his life, but for almost forty years he laboured under such a feebleness of body and lowness of strength and spirits that it was astonishing how he could read meditate, try experiments, and write as he did. He had likewise a weakness in his eyes, which made him very tender of them, and extremely apprehensive of such distempers as might affect them.-BIRCH, THOMAS, 1741-44, Life of the Hon. Robert Boyle, p. 86.

We are at a loss which to admire most, his extensive knowledge, or his exalted piety. These excellences kept pace with each other: but the former never carried him to vanity, nor the latter to enthusiasm. He was himself The Christian virtuoso which he has described. Religion never sat more easy upon a man, nor added greater dignity to a character. He particularly applied himself to chymistry; and made such discoveries in that branch of science, as can scarce be credited upon less authority than his own.-GRANGER, JAMES, 1769-1824, Biographical History of England, vol. v, p. 283.

Mr. Boyle, the glory of his age and nation. To the accomplishments of a scholar and a gentleman, he added the most exalted piety, the purest sanctity of manners. His unbounded munificence was extended to the noblest, and most honourable purposes, the advancement of true religion, in almost all parts of the world. A firm friend to the church of England, he was one of her brightest ornaments. brightest ornaments. So long as goodness, learning, and charity, are held in estimation, the name of BOYLE will be revered.-ZOUCH, THOMAS, 1796, ed., Walton's Lives, vol. II, p. 265.

Eton can point to Robert Boyle as one of the purest and the best, as well as one of the most renowned of her sons. CREASY, SIR EDWARD, 1850-76, Memoirs of Eminent Etonians, p. 139.

There are many other philosophers, ancient and modern, with whom we have taken similar pains; but Boyle is the most admirable character we have met with in the whole range of philosophy, science, and literature; and if instead of being born in Ireland he had been a Hindoo, a Laplander, or an African, we would have sought to do him equal justice, and to prove that wherever his ancestors were born, whether they were persons who threw down mass-houses or "transplanted multitudes of barbarous septs" from their own soil into "the wilds and deserts," he was not a degenerate son, but far nobler than any of his ancestors-vastly superior to any "great Earl" that ever oppressed a generous people.-SEARS, EDWARD I., 1866, Robert Boyle, National Quarterly Review, vol. 14, p. 84.

His services to science were unique. The condition of his birth, the elevation of his