heart to tell him much (somewhat I did) of my intention of selling, lest it should sound as a farther pressing upon him of whom I had received so much."

Milton terms Selden "the chief of learned men reputed in this land;" and Whitelocke states, "that his mind was as great as his learning, being very generous and hospitable." He was intimate with Ben Jonson, who addressed a poetical epistle to him, in which he styles his friend "monarch in letters." Clarendon, who could not regard Selden with any political partiality, though he had in early life been on terms of intimacy with him, describes him to have been " a person whom no character can flatter or transmit in any expressions equal to his merit or virtue. He was of so stupendous learning in all kinds and in all languages (as may appear in his excellent and transcendent writings), that a man would have thought he had been entirely conversant among books, and had never spent an hour but in reading and writing; yet his humanity, courtesy, and affability were such, that he would have been thought to have been bred in the best courts, but that his goodnature, charity, and delight in doing good, and in communicating all he knew, exceeded that breeding." Selden's name has been made familiar to the public by a small volume entitled Table Talk.' This valuable little collection of acute and learned remarks was first published in 1689, thirty-five years after Selden's death, in a quarto pamphlet with the title of Table Talk; being the discourses of John Selden, or his Sense of various matters of Weight and Consequence, relating especially to Religion and State.' The work was compiled by Selden's amanuensis, who states in the dedication that he had the opportunity of hearing Selden's discourses for twenty years together, and that of what is here collected "the sense and notion is wholly his and most of the words."

The motto adopted by Selden was περὶ παντὸς τὴν Xevlepiav (above all things, liberty), and it is to be found neatly written upon the first page of many of his MSS. Its spirit he extended to religious questions;

and there are many bold and vigorous passages in his writings in which the necessity of freedom of inquiry upon all subjects is strongly insisted on. Noticing upon one occasion a certain class of ancient philosophers, he remarks, "He who takes to himself their liberty of inquiry, is in the only way that, in all kinds of studies, leads and lies open even to the sanctuary of Truth; while others, that are servile to common opinion and vulgar suppositions, can rarely hope to be admitted nearer than into the base-court of her temple, which too speciously often counterfeits her innermost sanctuary." From the nature of his studies his writings are far from being popular, and are now but little read. They obtained, however, for their author, during an age abounding with illustrious and learned men, an honourable reputatation, among the most distinguished literary men of continental Europe, as well as among those of his own country. His works were edited by Dr. Wilkins, in 3 vols. folio, in 1726, to which a Latin Life of the Author' is prefixed.

ROBERT BLAKE was born at the seaport town of Bridgewater, in Somersetshire, in August, 1598. His father, Humphrey Blake, was a merchant at Bridgewater, in which neighbourhood he purchased an estate, having accumulated a considerable fortune in the Spanish_trade. Humphrey Blake had several children, of whom Robert was the eldest. He was educated in the free school of Bridgewater, whence he went to Oxford, and became a member of St. Alban's Hall in 1615, whence he removed to Wadham College. In 1617 he took the degree of B. A., and in 1619 was a candidate for a fellowship in Merton College, but was unsuccessful, as he had previously been in standing for a scholarship of Christ Church. He rose early, studied hard, and though he was fond of field sports and other violent exercises, seems to have acquired a fair quantity of scholastic learning. He returned to Bridgewater when about twenty-five years old, and lived quietly on his paternal estate till