of displeasing the people. He is a poor divine that cannot sever the good from the bad.

5. It is good to have translations, because they serve as a comment, so far as the judgment of one man goes.

6. In answering a book, 'tis best to be short; otherwise he that I write against will suspect I intend to weary him, not to satisfy him. Besides in being long I shall give my adversary a huge advantage; somewhere or other he will pick a hole.

7. In quoting of books, quote such authors as are usually read; others you may read for your own satisfaction, but not name them.

8. Quoting of authors is most for matter of fact; and then I write them as I would produce a witness; sometimes for a free expression, and then I give the author his due, and gain myself praise by reading him.

9. To quote a modern Dutchman where I may use a classic author, is as if I were to justify my reputation, and I neglect all persons of note and quality that know me, and bring the testimonial of the scullion in the kitchen.

X.

CANON LAW.

If I would study the canon-law, as it is used in England, I must study the heads here in use, then go to the practisers in those courts where that law is practised, and know their customs. So for all the study in the world.

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XI.

CEREMONY.

1. CEREMONY keeps up all things; 'tis like a penny glass to a rich spirit, or some excellent water; without it the water will be spilt, the spirits lost.

2. Of all people, ladies have no reason to cry down ceremonies, for they take themselves extremely slighted without it. And were they not used with ceremony, with compliments and addresses, with legs, and kissing of hands, they were the pitifullest creatures in the world: but yet (methinks) to kiss their hands after their lips, as some do, is like little boys, that after they have eat the apple, fall to the paring, out of a love they have to the apple.

ΤΟ

XII.

CHANCELLOR.

1. THE bishop is not to sit with the chancellor in his court as being a thing either beneath him or beside him, no more than the king is to sit in the king's bench, when he has made a lord-chief-justice.

2. The chancellor governed in the church, who was a layman. And therefore 'tis false which they charge the bishops with, that they challenge sole jurisdiction. For the bishop can no more put out the chancellor, than the 1 Without it, H. 2] without, H.

1. 4. with legs,] The 'leg' is an old-fashioned bow or courtesy, in which the leg is drawn back. The word occurs again in 'Poetry' sec. 4 and in 'Thanksgiving.' Conf. 'I think it much more passable to put off the hat and make a leg like an honest country gentleman, than like an ill-fashioned dancing master.' Locke, Some Thoughts concerning Education, § 196.

1. 10. The bishop is not to sit &c.] This seems aimed at Canon xi. of the Constitutions and Canons of 1640, which ordains 'that hereafter no bishop shall grant any patent to any chancellor... otherwise than with express reservation to himself and his successors of the power to execute the said place, either alone or with the chancellor, if the bishop shall please to do the same.' Wilkins, Concilia, iv. 551.

The next clause in the Table Talk must have been spoken before this Canon had been put out. The Canon clearly gives the bishop a 'sole jurisdiction,' as often as he chooses to claim it.

chancellor the bishop. They were many of them made chancellors for their lives: and he is the fittest man to govern, because divinity so overwhelms all other things.

XIII.

CHANGING SIDES.

1. 'Tis the trial of a man to see if he will change his side; and if he be so weak as to change once, he will change again. Your country fellows have a way to try if a man be weak in the hams, by coming behind him, and giving him a little blow unawares; if he bend once, he will bend again.

2. The lords that fall from the king, after they have got estates by base flattery at court, and now pretend conscience, do as a vintner, that when he first sets up, you may bring your wench to his house, and do your things there; but when he grows rich, he turns conscientious, and will sell no wine on the sabbath-day.

3. Colonel Goring serving first the one side and then

1. 2. for their lives] Singer suggests that 'for their learning' would give a better sense here, but there is no authority for the change.

ΙΟ

1. 17. Colonel Goring &c.] Goring, in 1641, gave evidence in Parliament about a real or alleged plot of the King for bringing up the army to London to surprise the Tower and overawe the Parliament. His disclosures were thought so important that he received public thanks 'for preserving the kingdom and the liberties of Parliament.'

In 1642 we hear of him as Governor of Portsmouth, 'having found means to make good impressions again in their Majesties of his fidelity.'

In the course of the same year, having come under the suspicion of the Parliament, and having been called to account by them, he contrived so to clear himself that 'they desired him to repair to his government, and to finish those works which were necessary for the safety of the place. They supplied him with money for

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the other, did like a good miller, that knows how to grind which way soever the wind sits.

4. After Luther had made a combustion in Germany about religion, he was sent to by the pope, to be taken off, and offered any preferment in the church, that he would make choice of: Luther answered, if he had

the purpose, and gave him a lieutenant-general's commission in the Parliamentary army. On his return to Portsmouth he declared for the King.

His next act was to surrender Portsmouth to the Parliament, treacherously according to Clarendon, but certainly not without having made strenuous efforts for its defence.

In 1643 he was appointed to a command in the King's army at York by the Queen's favour notwithstanding all former failings,' and from this date onwards he continued to serve the King. Clarendon sketches his character and conduct in terms of great bitterness, very unlike Selden's easy-going remark. See Hist. of Rebellion, i. 414-417, 651, 1114-1119; ii. 27, 212, 830 ff.

1.3. After Luther had made a combustion &c.] The story of the offers made to Luther by the Pope's legate, and of Luther's reply to them, rests on the authority of Father Paul Sarpi. But Selden does not tell it quite fairly to Luther. What Sarpi says is that in 1535 the legate, Vergerio, had a special commission to treat with Luther and with other prominent persons among the reformers, and to make all sorts of promises to them, if only he could bring them to terms. Vergerio, accordingly, arranged a meeting with Luther at Wittemburg, and threw out some very clear hints of what the Pope, Paul III, would do to reward him if he would but cease from troubling the Church and the world. Luther's answer was that the offers had come too late, for he had been driven by the harshness with which he had been formerly treated, to make a more exact enquiry into the errors and abuses of the papacy, and knowing what he now knew he could not in conscience refrain from telling it out to the world. See Istoria del Concilio Tridentino, lib. i. sec. 53 (edition of 1835, in 7 vols.), Luther speaks of this interview in a letter to Jonas, written in the same year, but he says only that he met the Pope's legate by invitation,- sed quos sermones habuerim non licet homini scribere.' (De Wette, Luther's Briefe, iv. 648.) Sarpi's story must be taken for what it is worth. His authority is not by any means unimpeachable, and Pallavicino (iii. c. 18) ridicules the tale as a romance, I am indebted to the Bishop of Peterborough for all the above references.

offered half as much at first, he would have accepted it, but now he had gone so far, he could not come back. In truth he had made himself a greater thing than they could make him; the German princes courted him; he was become the author of a sect ever after to be called Lutherans. So have our preachers done that are against the bishops, they have made themselves greater with the people than they can be made the other way, and therefore there is the less probability of1 bringing them off. Charity to strangers is enjoined in the text. By strangers 10 is there understood, those that are not of your own kin, strangers to your blood, not those you cannot tell whence they come; that is, be charitable to your neighbours whom you know to be honest poor people.

XIV.

CHRISTIANS.

I, IN the church of Jerusalem, the Christians were but another sect of Jews, that did believe the Messias was come. To be called, was nothing else but to become a Christian, to have the name of a Christian, it being their own language; for among the Jews, when they made a 20 doctor of law, 'twas said he was called.

2. The Turks tell their people of a heaven where there is a sensible pleasure, but of a hell where they shall suffer they do not know what, The Christians quite invert this order; they tell us of a hell where we shall feel sensible pain, but of a heaven where we shall enjoy we cannot tell what,

3. Why did the heathen object to the Christians, that 1 Less probability of. Singer conjecturally] less charity probably of, MSS.

1. 28. Why did the heathen &c.] On the identification of Jews and Christians, and on the reasons for it, Selden speaks in several places.