"A Collection of Letters made by Sir Toby Matthews, Knight, with a character of the most excellent Lady, Lucy Countess of Carlisle, by the same author; to which are added, several letters of his own to several persons of honour, who were contemporary with him," printed in 1660, in 8vo. Dr. Donne neither consulted the reputation of his father, nor the public good, when he caused the Biathanatos to be printed. If he was determined, at all events, to disregard the injunctions of parental authority, would it not have been more expedient to have committed the manuscript to the flames, rather than to have encountered the hazard of diffusing certain novel opinions, from which no good consequences could possibly arise? For though those effects did not actually follow, which are mentioned by an industrious foreign writer, who tells us that on the first publication of this work, m'any persons laid violent hands on themselves; yet the most remote probability of danger accruing from it should have induced him entirely to have suppressed it. But to return from this digression

9 Hearne, in his MS. Coll., says, "One Joseph Kannell, of Lincoln College, has writ a short discourse against selfmurther, in opposition to Dr. Donne. He made some application a little while since to get it printed, but could not prevail with any one to undertake it, being a book for which there is no manner of occasion. I am informed he is quite off

Walton's narrative of the vision in the Life of Dr. Donne, has subjected him to some severe animadversions. Let it, however, be remembered, that he probably related the particulars with cautious and discreet fidelity, as they were really represented to him. The account is not inserted in the earlier editions, hence, we may presume that the strictest and most severe inquiry was made before their introduction. Plutarch is not esteemed a credulous writer :-yet he has given a full and circumstantial history of the appearances that presented themselves to Dion and to Brutus; and in modern times, Dr. Doddridge, a most sedulous examiner of facts, and of all men the least liable to credulity and weakness of understanding, published a relation of an extraordinary vision. Let it also be remarked that, according to the opinion of a medical writer of great eminence, a discriminating symptom of human insanity, is "rising up in the mid of images not distinguishable by the patient from impressions upon the senses"-to a momentary delusion, originating from some bodily disorder, we may safely attribute the visions or false perceptions, of which many authentic descriptions

publishing it, being laughed at by some in the college, who entitle the book Dr. Donne undone." Kannell died in 1710.

Dr. John Donne, junior, died in 1682, and was buried in the church-yard of St. Paul's, Covent-garden.-ED.

D

have been transmitted to us; and we may easily suppose that Dr. Donne, separated from his beloved wife and family, whom he had left in a very distressful situation, must have suffered the most poignant anxiety of mind, and of course, much indisposition of body.

When the first years of man have been devoted to the diligence of trade, and noiseful gain,' we have no reason to hope that his mind will be replenished by study, or enriched with literature. In the lucrative, as well as in the political life, men are tempted to assume some of those habits or dispositions, which are not entirely consistent with the principles of justice or honour; and an eagerness to amass wealth, not seldom extinguishes every other affection. But it was not thus with Isaac Walton. Firm and uncorrupted in his integrity, he no sooner bade farewell to his commercial concerns, than he gave the most convincing proofs of his attention to the most laudable pursuits. He had already written the life of one friend, and he now undertook to exhibit a testimony of respect to the memory of another. In 1651, he edited " Reliquiæ Wottonianæ, or a Collection of Lives, Letters, Poems, with Characters of sundry Personages, and other incomparable Pieces of Language and Art, by the curious Pencil of the ever-memorable Sir Henry Wotton, Knt., late Provost of Eton College." Lady Mary

Wotton, relict of the last Lord Wotton, and her three noble daughters, to whom Walton dedicated this Collection, communicated to him many original letters, written by their illustrious relation*, cf whom, after the dedication, follows the Life. In the succeeding editions, the volume is inscribed to the Right Honourable Philip, Earl of Chester

* Sir Richard Baker, a contemporary writer, has thus delineated the characters of Dr. Donne and Sir Henry Wotton: -"To speak it in a word, the Trojan horse was not fuller of heroic Grecians, than King James's reign was full of men excellent in all kinds of learning. And here I desire the reader's leave to remember two of my own old acquaintance: the one was Mr. John Donne, who, leaving Oxford, lived at the Inns of Court, not dissolute, but very neat; a great visitor of ladies, a great writer of conceited verses, until such time as King James, taking notice of the pregnancy of his wit, was a means that he took him to the study of divinity, and thereupon proceeding doctor, was made Dean of St. Paul's, and became so rare a preacher, that he was not only commended, but even admired by all that heard him. The other was Henry Wotton, mine old acquaintance, also, as having been fellow pupils and chamber-fellows in Oxford, divers years together. This gentleman was employed by King James in embassage to Venice; and, indeed, the kingdom afforded not a fitter man for matching the capaciousness of the Italian wits; a man of so able dexterity with his pen, that he hath done himself much wrong, and the kingdom more, in leaving no more of his writings behind him."-Chronicle of the Kings of England, edit. 1733, folio. p. 423-4.

field, Lord Stanhope, of Shelford', and great nephew to Sir Henry Wotton. This nobleman, accompanying his mother, the Lady Catharine Stanhope, into Holland, where she attended the Princess of Orange, daughter to Charles I., had his education along with William, Prince of Orange, afterwards advanced to the throne of England, and became very serviceable in promoting the Restoration of the Royal Family. He loved the memory, and imitated the virtues of his generous uncle. By a life of strict temperance he attained to a great age, and died January 28, 1713. It is proper to observe, that a later edition of the Reliquia Wottonianæ, namely, that of 1685, in 8vo., is enriched with Sir Henry Wotton's Letters to Lord Zouch, who was eminent among his contemporaries as an able statesman and an accomplished scholar.

The Church History of Great Britain, compiled by Dr. Thomas Fuller, whose writings, though far from being without blemish, are of inestimable

5 The mother of this Lord Chesterfield was Catharine, the eldest daughter of Thomas Lord Wotton, and relict of Henry Lord Stanhope, who died before his father, the Earl of Chesterfield. She had been governess to Mary, Princess of Orange; and, after the restoration, was made Countess of Chesterfield.

Walpole's "Anecdotes of Painting,” vol. ii, p: 113.