BISHOP BURNET

[Gilbert Burnet was born in Edinburgh on the 18th of September 1643. He was educated, first at home, and subsequently at the Marischal College, Aberdeen. In 1661 he became a clergyman of the Scotch Church. He was always interested in general literature, and still more in politics, which attracted him to London. He became intimate with King Charles II., who made him a royal chaplain, and with James, Duke of York. But Burnet was a zealous Protestant, and a personal friend of Lord William Russell and the Earl of Essex, so that he lost favour with Charles, and on the accession of James thought fit to go abroad. He became intimate with the Prince and Princess of Orange, accompanied the expedition of 1688, and after the Revolution was rewarded with the Bishopric of Salisbury. He proved an excellent bishop, without ceasing to be an active politician. In 1698 he became Preceptor to the Duke of Gloucester, son of the Princess Anne. He suggested to Anne, when Queen, the provision for augmenting poor livings, known as Queen Anne's bounty. He died in London on the 7th of March 1715. For more than fifty years he had been a most prolific writer. He composed histories, biographies, theological treatises, sermons, and political pamphlets. A complete list of his writings will be found (vol. vi. pp. 331-352) in the Clarendon Press edition of his principal work The History of my Own Times.]

BURNET took so keen a part in the political and religious controversies of a troubled time that the worth of his writings has been very differently judged by Whigs and by Tories, by Low Churchmen and by High Churchmen, But after the lapse of nearly two centuries it is no longer difficult to determine his real position in literature. He was a man of quick feelings, extraordinary energy, varied experience, and very wide reading. He was not an original thinker or a master of literary expression. Most of his works were written for an immediate purpose. The many sermons and pamphlets which came from his pen are creditable productions of their kind, but possess none of those transcendant qualities which alone can raise a fugitive piece to the dignity of a classic. His works of divinity would hardly by themselves suffice to preserve his memory. That he still holds a place in English literature is due to his biographical and historical writings.

Some Passages of the Life and Death of John, Earl of Rochester, should not perhaps be termed a biography, since it passes very rapidly over Rochester's career to dwell upon the close of his life and his conversion by the author. One of the cleverest and most dissolute among the many men of wit and pleasure who gathered round Charles II., Rochester had exhausted a vigorous constitution and fine talents whilst yet little more than thirty years of age. His conversations with Burnet give a lively idea of the religious and moral scepticism which was then fashionable, and of the arguments with which it was assailed. The Life of Sir Matthew Hale, Lord Chief Justice of England, portrays a very different character, a great judge, and a man of antique virtue. In this work, also, the sermon encroaches on the biography. Yet, it is agreeable reading. The deficiencies of Burnet's thought and style are less remarkable in brief occasional performances of this class, than in longer and more elaborate compositions. Burnet's reputation as a historian rests chiefly on the History of the Reformation and the History of My Own Time. The first volume of 1679, the second in

He

the History of the Reformation appeared in 1681, and the third in 1714. Published at a time when the pretended discovery of the Popish plot had given a new edge to Protestant enthusiasm, the first volume received the formal thanks of the House of Commons. The whole work attracted considerable attention on the Continent as well as in England. Nor was this attention undeserved. For Burnet had shown considerable industry in research, and had as much regard for truth as is ever found in a zealous party man. But in writing the History of the Reformation he laboured under two grave disadvantages. had no access to many sources of information which have been laid open since his time. He wrote at a time when the conflict between Protestant and Catholic was still raging, and could not be expected to discuss the first phase of that conflict in the philosophical spirit, possible to those who write after the conflict has been decided. For these reasons the History of the Reformation has already become more or less obsolete. A more enduring importance belongs to the History of My Own Time, which was not published in the life of the author. Beginning with a sketch of the period of the Civil Wars and the Commonwealth, it traces the course of events in England and Scotland from the Restoration of Charles II. down to the close of the reign of Anne. For writing such a history Burnet possessed unusual

advantages. Engaged in politics for nearly fifty years, personally intimate with five English sovereigns, and the centre of a wide circle of acquaintance which comprised most of the men prominent, whether in Church or in State, both in England and in Scotland, he had every opportunity of collecting those precious facts which are not recorded in state papers but which illustrate the very soul of the time. As a contemporary narrative the History of My Own Time has the same indestructible value which belongs to the History of the Great Rebellion. As a work of literary art, however, Burnet's history cannot be compared with Clarendon's history. Clarendon's lofty rhythm, restrained pathos, and fine discrimination of language are all wanting to Burnet. Whatever the subject in hand, a battle or a revolution, the character of a great statesman or the untimely death of a dear friend, Burnet's narrative jogs along at the same slow apathetic pace. The lack of eloquence is not compensated by clearness or method, for the arrangement is careless and the impression left on the reader is one of confusion. Still less is the uncouthness of the form compensated by the profundity of the thought. That Burnet was a champion of the party which saved civil and religious freedom does not make him less a partisan. How much his perception of facts was impaired by his Whig zeal, may be gathered from the remonstrance against peace with France which he addressed to Anne after the Tories had come into power. "I said," he writes, "any treaty by which Spain and the West Indies were left to King Philip must in a little while deliver all Europe into the hands of France; and, if any such peace should be made, she was betrayed and we were all ruined; in less than three years time she would be murdered, and the fires would be again raised in Smithfield" (vol. vi. p. 71).

Defects of method, of historical insight, and of impartiality are, however, equally conspicuous in Clarendon's history, and are perhaps inevitable in a contemporary record of political events. Burnet has been further charged with grave inaccuracy in his statement of facts, but this accusation is not well founded. The conclusion has evidently been elaborated with much care, and in point of style rises as far above Burnet's usual level as the rest of the history sinks below.

Burnet was not a great author, but his writings must be studied by all who would acquaint themselves with a memorable period in the history of England. F. C. MONTAGUE.

THE NATIONAL BLESSING OF RELIGION

THUS religion, if truly received and sincerely adhered to, would prove the greatest of all blessings to a nation; but by religion I understand somewhat more than the receiving some doctrines, though ever so true, or the professing them, and engaging to support them, not without zeal and eagerness. What signify the best doctrines, if men do not live suitably to them; if they have not a due influence upon their thoughts, their principles, and their lives? Men of bad lives, with sound opinions, are selfcondemned, and lie under a highly aggravated guilt; nor will the heat of a party, arising out of interest, and managed with fury and violence, compensate for the ill lives of such false pretenders to zeal; while they are a disgrace to that which they profess, and seem hot for. By religion, I do not mean an outward compliance with form and customs, in going to church, to prayers, to sermons, and to sacraments, with an external show of devotion, or, which is more, with some inward forced good thoughts, in which many may satisfy themselves, while this has no visible effect upon their lives, nor any inward force to subdue and rectify their appetites, passions, and secret designs. Those customary performances, how good and useful soever, when well understood and rightly directed, are of little value when men rest on them, and think that, because they do them, they have therefore acquitted themselves of their duty, though they continue still proud, covetous, full of deceit, envy, and malice; even secret prayer, the most effectual of all other means, is designed for a higher end, which is, to possess our minds with such a constant and present sense of divine truths, as may make these live in us, and govern us, and may draw down such assistances as may exalt and sanctify our natures.

So that by religion, I mean such a sense of divine truth as enters into a man, and becomes a spring of a new nature within him; reforming his thoughts and designs, purifying his heart,

and sanctifying him, and governing his whole deportment, his words as well as his actions: convincing him, that it is not enough not to be scandalously vicious, or to be innocent in his conversation, but that he must be entirely, uniformly, and constantly pure and virtuous, animating him with a zeal to be still better and better, more eminently good and exemplary, using prayers and all outward devotions, as solemn acts testifying what he is inwardly and at heart, and as methods instituted by God, to be still advancing in the use of them further and further into a more refined and spiritual sense of divine matters. This is true religion, which is the perfection of human nature, and the joy and delight of every one that feels it active and strong within him: it is true, this is not arrived at all at once; and it will have an unhappy allay, hanging long even about a good man; but, as those ill mixtures are the perpetual grief of his soul, so it is his chief care to watch over and to mortify them; he will be in a continual progress, still gaining ground upon himself; and, as he attains to a good degree of purity, he will find a noble flame of life and joy growing upon him. Of this I write with the more concern and emotion, because I have felt this the true, and, indeed, the only joy which runs through a man's heart and life; it is that which has been for many years my greatest support; I rejoice daily in it; I feel from it the earnest of that supreme joy which I pant and long for; I am sure there is nothing else that can afford any true or complete happiness. I have, considering my sphere, seen a great deal of all that is most shining and tempting in this world: the pleasures of sense I did soon nauseate; intrigues of state, and the conduct of affairs, have something in them that is more specious; and I was for some years deeply immersed in these, but still with hopes of reforming the world, and of making mankind wiser and better; but I have found that which is crooked cannot be made straight. I acquainted myself with knowledge and learning, and that in a great variety and with more compass than depth; but though wisdom excelleth folly as much as light does darkness, yet as it is a sore travail, so it is so very defective, that what is wanting to complete it cannot be numbered. I have seen that two were better than one, and that a three-fold cord is not easily loosed; and have therefore cultivated friendship with much zeal, and a disinterested tenderness; but I have found this was also vanity and vexation of spirit, though it be of the best and noblest sort. VOL. III

Y