with certainty. He must, however, have been born either at the end of Queen Elizabeth's reign, or at the beginning of James the First's. He was probably connected, in quality of gentleman of the horse, or secretary, with the family of the Earl of Thomond; since in the dedication prefixed to the later editions of the Resolves, and addressed, "To the right honorable my most honored Lady, Mary, Countess Dowager of Thomond," he speaks of "most of them being composed under the coverture of her roof."

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Owen Felltham appears never to have followed any profession, and never to have been in affluent circumstances; yet to have possessed enough to satisfy one of his happy frame of mind, and to enable him with his well-ordered habits, to administer to the wants and necessities of others. He was a youth, when he thus spoke of himself, in one of his original Resolves, to be found only in the very early editions: “I live in a rank, though not of the highest, yet affording more freedom, as being exempt from those suspicious cares that prick the bosom of the wealthy man. It is such as might content my betters, and such as Heaven smiles on with a gracious promise of blessing, if my carriage be fair and honest; and without these, who is well? I have necessaries, and what is decent; and when I desire it, something for pleasure. Who hath more that is needful? If I be not so rich, as to sow alms by sackfulls, even my mite is beyond the superfluity of wealth; and my pen, my tongue, and my life, shall, I hope, help some to better treasure than the earth affords them.

I have food convenient for me; and I sometimes find exercise to keep my body healthful; when I do, I make it my recreation, not my toil. My raiment is not of the worst, but good, and than that, let me never have better. I can be as warm in a good kersey, as a prince in a scarlet robe. I live where there is means of true salvation; my liberty is mine own; I can both frequent them, and desire to profit by them."

In one of his letters, written at a much more advanced period of his life, he says, "I have lived in such a course, as my books have been my delight and recreation, but not my trade, though perhaps I could wish they had." Divine and moral contemplations and the quiet pursuits of literature were his favorite occupations.

Owen Felltham seems constitutionally to have been blessed with those dispositions, which, improved by the influence of religion on his heart and understanding, enabled him to preserve a resignation, and even a contentedness of spirit, in all the circumstances and vicissitudes of life. It may be collected from his writings that his was not a prosperous one, and that he did not escape those reverses of fortune which fell upon the good and great, in the revolutionary period in which it was his lot to be cast; but they appear not to have rendered him unhappy, to have affected his peace of mind, or even to have called forth from him the language of complaint or murmur on any one occasion.

He was highly gifted with those endowments of the mind which raise up man above the level

of his fellows; but it was contrary to his nature to assume a superiority on that account. He was too wise to be vain of his parts; and had too kind and benevolent a heart not to respect the feelings of others. He was a learned man, and his learning was of the same practical stamp and character as his religion. For though deeply versed in the philosophy of the schools, it served not to render him pedantical, or to unfit him for intercourse with the world. On the contrary, it qualified him the better to take a part in its affairs. His observations upon human conduct and manners, are, it is true, richly illustrated by that knowledge which can only be acquired by study in the closet; but they must have been primarily deduced from views of real life, and the study of man in the active pursuits and concerns of it.

Though he did not follow any profession, his acquirements in divinity learning, and the early application of his mind to this pursuit, render it probable, that he was originally destined for the church; but that he was diverted from adopting this plan of life, by the unsettledness of the times, and the troubles that were fast coming on the nation, from an early period of the reign of James the First.

It does not appear that he was of either of the Universities; but if of any, it was Cambridge. Wood, in his "Athene Oxonienses," makes no mention of him, and if he had studied at Oxford, he would hardly have escaped the notice of that industrious and minute biographer.

He would seem to have resided, for the most part, in the country, and probably spent more of his time there, than he would have chosen to do, had he been in a situation that left him independent and free to consult his own inclinations. In a letter to "Sir C. T." he writes thus, "I am now getting a while to London, which appears to this region as the heart to the body, through which its business, as the stirring blood, hath all its circulation. If you have not in the country, you may have something to do there."

His epistolary correspondence, or rather the few letters which he has himself given to the world, testify that he was a close observer of, and took a lively, though not an active part, in the passing events and circumstances of the eventful times in which he lived.

When he died is not known. Oldys thinks that if he was not dead before the publication of the edition of his Resolves in 1677, (the 10th,) "he did not live long after."

It was one great consolation of this good man's life, that he lived to witness the Restoration. Of this event he speaks in his Resolve "on Peace," in an affecting strain of eloquence. It was at this interesting period, that he wrote an Epitaph for himself, entitled "Quod in Sepulchrum volui."

"Postquam vidisset rotantem mundum,
Imaque summis supernatantia,
Prosperum Tyrio scelus imbutum,
Dum virtus sordidâ squallet in aulâ,
Securique cervicem præbuit;

Injusta tamen hominum

In justissima disponente Deo ;
Dum redux Cæsar nubila pellit,
Gloriamque gentis tollit in altum ;
Tandem evadens terris,

Exuvias hic reliquit FELLTHAM.” *

Felltham's only work of note, as an author, was his Resolves. The first edition is without date. It is in small duodecimo and beautifully printed, with an elegant allegorical frontispiece, and consists of one century of Resolves, to which is prefixed the motto from Horace:

"His ego commodius quam tu, præclare senator,
Millibus atque aliis vivo: "

and they are inscribed "To the most virtuous, discreet, and noble, the Lady Dorothy Crane, daughter to the right honorable and religious the Lord Hobart." At the head of the Errata, placed at the end of the volume, are these lines:

"When thou view'st this, mend faults,
That here are shown;

And when thou view'st thyself,

Then mend thine own."

"Hav

*The above epitaph may be thus translated: ing witnessed all the vicissitudes of this world, and that the very dregs of men often rise uppermost, that vice prospers and is clothed in purple, while virtue is reduced to rags, and sometimes to the stake; God meanwhile over-ruling the injustice of man to the general good; at the restoration of monarchy and glory to this nation, Felltham quitted the earth, and his mortal remains were here deposited."