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even the very beasts are under the power of naof-natural affections, and often shew them.*

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After Sir Thomas was beheaded, Mrs. Roper, took care for the burial of his body in the chapel of St. Peter's, ad vincula, within the Tower; and afterwards she procured it to be removed to the chancel of the church at Chelsea. His head having remained about fourteen days on London bridge, was then cast into the Thames, but this heroic woman, who had her father's spirit, and a considerable portion of his learning and genius, purchased it of some watermen, and when summoned before the council, she gloried in what she had done, and said that, "her father's head should not be food for fishes." She died in 1544, aged 36, and was buried in St. Dunstan's church, in Canterbury, according to her desire, with her father's head, in a leaden box, on the coffin.

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Besides her, Sir Thomas had two other daughters, and a son named after his grandfather John. His wife had long desired a boy, and at last she, brought Sir Thomas this son, who proved little better than an idiot, on which he told her "she, had prayed so long for a boy, that now she had one who would prove a boy as long as he lived."

As a literary character, Sir Thomas is now principally known by his "Utopia," a philosophical romance, written first in latin, and afterwards translated by himself into English. It is

Knight's Life of Erasmus,

the

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the description of the manners and polity of a supposed country in America, and the account given by one Hythlodicus, who sailed in a voyage of discovery with Americus Vesputius. The fiction was so well supported, that many learned men were pleased with the description of the climate and manners of the people, and Budæus, in particular, expressed kis zealous desire that missionaries should be sent thither to convert the inhabitants to Christianity. It is remarkable enough that though the author afterwards manifested so much fervid zeal against heretics, yet in this book he unequivocally expresses his opinion in favour of a liberal toleration. It has been since well translated into modern english by bishop Burnet.

Besides this book, which stamps Sir Thomas as an original genius, he wrote the " History of Richard the Third," whom he describes as having been deformed, and in this particular he has been implicitly followed by succeeding historians.

Sir Thomas displayed great animation in the service of the church of Rome, and wrote several tracts against Luther and the reformers in general. These polemical effusions shew more virulence than argument; and though there can be no doubt of the author's sincerity, since he gave the strongest proofs possible of it, yet his bigotry and superstition appear to great disadvantage in the foul and indecent language which he pours upon his antagonists.

In a letter to Erasmus, he

scrupled not to say, that he so far hated that sort of men called heretics, that unless they repented, (or in other words implicitly submitted to the usurpation of the pope, and the corruptions of the church of Rome) he would be as troublesome to them as he could!”

But notwithstanding these shades in his character, every impartial person will see cause to admire Sir Thomas More as a man of unquestionable integrity, of a firm and unshaken mind; an upright magistrate, amiable in his domestic relations, and of undoubted piety, though mistaken in his religious opinions.

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FRANCIS BACON,

LORD VERULAM, VISCOUNT ST. ALBAN.

THIS illustrious man, who has been beautifully called the "Chancellor of Human Nature," was the son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, lord keeper of the great seal in the reign of queen Elizabeth. Sir Nicholas was a man of great talents, profoundly skilled in the law, and of spotless integrity. His leading maxim-" Let us stay a little, that we may have done the sooner;" and his mottoMediocra firma, 'firm in the middle state,' shew the caution and equanimity of his temper. He was a man of great modesty, and of uncommon corpulence, and when the queen visited him at the house which he built at Redgrave, she told him that his house was too little for him: Not so, Madam,' said he, but your Majesty has made me too great for my house.' After having held the great seal above twenty years, he died suddenly in the following remarkable manner :-he was under the hands of his barber, and the weather being sultry, the lord keeper ordered a window to be opened before which he sat. He soon after fell asleep, in the current of fresh air that was blowing strong upon him. When he awoke, he found himself in a feverish state, and asked the servant "Why he suffered him to sleep so exposed?" The fellow replied that he durst not

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presume to disturb him; "then," said the lord keeper, "by your civility I shall lose my life,”— which accordingly happened a few days after, viz. in 1579. Camden's character of him is concise, but very expressive, Vir præpinguis, ingenio acerrimo, singulari prudentia, summa eloquentia, tenaci memoria, et sacris conciliis alterum columen-i. e. ‘a man of a gross body, but most quick wit, singular prudence, supreme eloquence, happy memory, and in judgment the other pillar of the state.'

His youngest son, Francis, has gained an immortal name by his inestimable writings, though some failings plunged him into disgrace in his life-time, and have given occasion to writers of little judgment or liberality to pour abuse upon his name. He was born at York-house, in the Strand, in 1561, and so soon did the extraordinary powers of his mind expand themselves, that even in his tender years persons of the highest rank and abilities delighted in his conversation. Queen Elizabeth, being one day at the lord keeper's, took particular notice of Francis, and asked him his age, to whom he elegantly replied, 'that he was just two years younger than her majesty's happy reign! From that time she took a pleasure in conversing with him, and was accustomed to call him her young lord keeper.'

At the age of twelve he was sent to Trinity-college, Cambridge, where he had for his tutor that able divine, Dr. John Whitgift, afterwards arch-'

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