already carried him too far from Eton college; and therefore I shall lead him back as gently and as orderly as I may to that place, for a further conference concerning Sir Henry Wotton.

Sir Henry Wotton had proposed to himself, before he entered into his collegiate life, to write the life of Martin Luther, and in it the history of the Reformation, as it was carried on in Germany. For the doing of which he had many advantages by his several embassies into those parts, and his interest in the several princes of the empire; by whose means he had access to the records of all the Hans towns, and the knowledge of many secret passages that fell not under common view; and in these he had made a happy progress, as is well known to his worthy friend Dr. Duppa, the late reverend Bishop of Salisbury. But in the midst of this design, his late majesty, king Charles the First, that knew the value of Sir Henry Wotton's pen, did, by a persuasive, loving violence, to which may be added a promise of five hundred pounds a year, force him to lay Luther aside, and betake himself to write the history of England: in which he proceeded to write some short characters of a few kings, as a foundation upon which he meant to build; but for the present meant to be more large in the story of Henry the Sixth, the founder of that college, in which he then enjoyed all the worldly happiness of his present being.

But Sir Henry died in the midst of this undertaking; and the footsteps of his labors are not recoverable by a more than common diligence.

This is some account both of his inclination, and the employment both of his time in the college, where he seemed to have his youth renewed by a continual conversation with that learned society, and a daily recourse of other friends of choicest breeding and parts; by which that great blessing of a cheerful heart was still maintained; he being always free, even to the last of his days, from that peevishness which so usually attends age.

And yet his mirth was sometimes damped by the remembrance of divers old debts, partly contracted in his foreign employments; for which his just arrears due from the king would have made satisfaction. But being still delayed with court-promises, and finding some decays of health, he did, about two years before his death, out of a Christian desire that none should be a loser by him, make his last will. Concerning which, a doubt still remains, namely, whether it discovered more holy wit or conscionable policy. But there is no doubt, but that his chief design was a Christian endeavour that his debts might be satisfied.

And that it may remain as such a testimony, and a legacy to those that loved him, I shall here impart it to the reader, as it was found written with his own hand.

"In the name of God Almighty and All-merciful, I Henry Wotton, Provost of his majesty's college by Eaton, being mindful of mine own mortality, which the sin of our first parents did bring upon all flesh, do, by this last will and testament, thus dispose of myself and the poor things I shall leave in this world. My soul I bequeath to the immortal God, my Maker, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, my blessed Redeemer and Mediator, through his all-sole sufficient satisfaction for the sins of the whole world, and efficient for his élect, in the number of whom I am one by his mere grace, and thereof most unremovably assured by his Holy Spirit, the true Eternal Comforter. My body I bequeath to the earth, if I shall end my transitory days at or near Eaton, to be buried in the chapel of the said college, as the Fellows shall dispose thereof, with whom I have lived, my God knows, in all loving affection; or, if I shall die near Bocton Malherbe, in the county of Kent, then I wish to be laid in that parish church, as near as may be to the sepulchre of my good father, expecting a joyful resurrection with him in the day of Christ."

After this account of his faith, and this surrender of his soul to that God that inspired it, and this direction for the disposal of his body, he proceeded to appoint, that his executors should

lay over his grave a marble stone, plain and not costly. And considering that time moulders even marble to the dust; for

"Monuments themselves must die;

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Therefore did he (waving the common way) think fit rather to preserve his name (to which the son of Sirach adviseth all men) by a useful apothegm, than by a large enumeration of his descent or merits, of both which he might justly have boasted; but he was content to forget them, and did choose only this prudent, pious sentence, to discover his disposition and preserve his memory. It was directed by him to be thus inscribed:

HIC JACET HUJUS SENTENTIÆ PRIMUS AUTHOR, DISPUTANDI PRURITUS ECCLESIARUM SCA.

BIES.

NOMEN ALIAS QUÆRE.

Which may be Englished thus:

HERE LIES THE FIRST AUTHOR OF THIS SENTENCE,

THE ITCH OF DISPUTATION WILL PROVE THE SCAB OF THE CHURCH.

INQUIRE HIS NAME ELSEWHERE.

And if any shall object, as I think some have, that Sir Henry Wotton was not the first author of this sentence, but that this, or a sentence like it, was long before his time; to him I answer, that Solomon says, "Nothing can be spoken, that hath not been spoken; for there is no new thing under the sun." But grant, that in his various reading he had met with this or a like sentence, yet reason mixed with charity should persuade all readers to believe, that Sir Henry Wotton's mind was then so fixed on that part of the communion of saints which is above, that a holy lethargy did surprise his memory. For doubtless, if he had not believed himself to be the first author of what he said, he was too prudent first to own, and then expose it to the public view and censure of every critic. And questionless it will be charity in all readers to think his mind was then so fixed on heaven, that a holy zeal did transport him; and that, in this sacred ecstasy, his thoughts were then only of the church triumphant, into which he daily expected his admission; and that Almighty God was then pleased to make him a prophet, to tell the church militant, and particularly that part of it in this nation, where the weeds of controversy grow to be daily both more numerous, and more destructive to humble piety; and where men have consciences that boggle at ceremonies, and yet scruple not to