he found all his circumstances "to be an heape and union of blessings;" and Cowley has the following address to Evelyn :— Happy art thou whom God does bless In books and gardens thou hast placed aright And in thy virtuous wife, where thou again dost meet The fairest garden in her looks, And in her mind the wisest books. Evelyn was a staunch adherent to the forms and usages of the church of England, and afforded shelter in his house to several of the silenced clergy. The incumbent of his parish church was, to use his own words, "somewhat of the Independent, yet he ordinarily preached sound doctrine;" but he says, he "seldom went to church on solemn feasts, but rather went to London, where some of the orthodox sequestered divines did privately use the common prayer, administer sacraments, &c. or else I procured one to officiate in my own house." On Sunday afternoons he frequently stayed at home to catechize and instruct his family. The death of Cromwell revived the hopes of the royalists, and emboldened them to act more openly for the restoration of Charles. Evelyn caught the general impulse of his party, and, in November 1659, published an apology for his party and for the king, which he says took universally. He had already appeared as an author; but in his former publications had studiously eschewed politics. The Restoration crowned Evelyn's earthly felicity, by bringing home his father-in-law, Sir Richard Browne. In 1664, when war was declared against the Dutch, he was appointed one of the four commissioners for taking care of the sick and wounded. While engaged in the humane but laborious duties of his office, the plague broke out in London; but, although Evelyn saw proper to send away his wife and family from the chance of contagion, he continued himself to look after his charge as commissioner, trusting in the providence and goodness of God. An extract from one of his letters written at this time, places his character in the most amiable point of view in which we have yet contemplated it: "one fortnight," he says, "has made me feel the utmost of miseries that can befall a person in my station and with my affections. To have 25,000 prisoners, and 1500 sick and wounded men, to take care of, without one penny of money, and above £ 2000 indebted." Again he writes to an official personage, "I beseech your honour let us not be reputed barbarians; or, if at last we must be so, let me not be the executor of so much inhumanity, when the price of one good subject's life is rightly considered of more value than the wealth of the Indies." The fire of London made another call on Evelyn's patriotism, and within two days after that terrible conflagration, we find him presenting to the king a plan for a new city, which coincided in many points with that of Wren. Evelyn enjoyed the uniform confidence of the king, who treated him with much affability and kindness; but the vices of the dissolute monarch, and the general licentiousness introduced by his practices, were a source of IV. 2 T unaffected regret to his faithful subject, and are often touchingly adverted to in his diary. Under James, he was nominated one of the commissioners for executing the office of privy-seal during Henry Lord Clarendon's lieutenancy in Ireland. The Revolution could hardly be said to find a staunch supporter in Evelyn; but it is certain, that from his attachment to the church of England, and dread of James's known leaning to popery, he approved of resistance at least being offered to some of that infatuated monarch's plans. After the Revolution he was made treasurer of Greenwich hospital. 6 The successive deaths of his two daughters and only remaining son were deeply felt by Evelyn, now bending under the weight of nearly fourscore years; but he retained his health and faculties unimpaired, until the 86th year of his age, when death removed him to a better world. Evelyn's Sylva,' or treatise on forest trees, and his Diary,' are both of them very delightful productions. The former is a great repository of all that was known, in the author's time, concerning the forest-trees of Great Britain, their growth and culture, and their uses and qualities real or imaginary. It has gone through nine editions since its first publication in 1664. The latter is one of the most amusing pieces of autobiography in the English language. His work entitled Numismata, a discourse of Medals,' is still held in high estimation. He was interred at Wotton, where his tomb bears an inscription expressing, according to his own intention, that "living in an age of extraordinary events and revolutions, he had learned from thence this truth, which he deemed might be thus communicated to posterity: that all is vanity which is not honest, and that there is no solid wisdom but in real piety."—His son, John Evelyn, was the author of several pieces in Dryden's miscellanies. Sir Charles Sedley. BORN A. D. 1639.-DIED A. D. 1702. THE witty and accomplished Sir Charles Sedley was the son of Sir John Sedley of Aylesford in Kent. He was born about the year 1639. His family were staunch royalists; and, at the Restoration, young Sedley was sent up to London to push his fortunes at court. His accomplishments, his handsome person, his wit, and his poetical talents, won him universal favour at the court of " the merrie monarch," where he soon became a leader in the universal revelry and debauchery, The poetasters did homage to his superior genius and better stars; Buckingham raved about "Sedley's witchcraft;" and the king himsel declared that, in the person of Sir Charles, his court was honoured with the attendance of Apollo's deputy. Yet the man to whom all this intoxicating flattery was presented was, as to poetical talents, nothing more than a writer of amorous verses, in which grossness of expression, and indelicacy of sentiment, were substituted for tenderness, pathos, and sensibility. The truth is, the manners of the man did more for him than his poetical talents. He was certainly one of the most accomplished gentlemen of his age, and in this respect was held up as a perfect model amongst the fashionable men of the day: wit ness the verses of Lord Rochester, beginning with "Sedley has that prevailing gentle art," in which the allusion evidently is to the unrivalled grace and ease of his personal address But our courtier's reputation for wit and gallantry was purchased at a heavy expense: his means were squandered, his morals utterly perverted, and he was daily sinking deeper and deeper into hopeless profligacy, when, by one of those sudden revulsions of feeling which occasionally though rarely occur in the history of early libertines, he was snatched from impending ruin, and induced to apply his thoughts and time to occupations more worthy of his genius and rank. He entered parliament, and soon became a frequent and distinguished speaker. During the reign of James II. he vigorously withstood the inroads which the infatuated monarch attempted to make upon the constitution; and he took an active part in bringing about the Revolution. His political conduct, however, it has been alleged, was prompted in this instance by personal hostility to James, who had corrupted Sir Charles' daughter, and rendered her infamy more conspicuous by creating her countess of Dorchester. Sedley's works were printed in two volumes, 8vo. in 1719. Robert Hooke. BORN A. D. 1635.-DIED A. D. 1702. THIS eminent mathematician and natural philosopher, was the son of the Rev. John Hooke of Freshwater, in the isle of Wight. He early betrayed a strong mechanical genius, to which he added more than ordinary docility in the acquisition of languages. The celebrated Dr Busby was for a time his preceptor, and under him he acquired a very respectable knowledge of Greek and Latin, to which he subsequently added some acquaintance with the Oriental languages. ments. In 1653 he entered Christ-church college, Oxford; and in 1655 he became a member of the philosophical society there. At this period he assisted Dr Wallis in his chemical experiments, and Dr Seth Ward in his astronomical observations. Under the guidance of these two men young Hooke made rapid advances in natural philosophy, and soon became their worthy collaborateur. He invented several astronomical instruments, and improved others; he was also particularly ser viceable to Mr Boyle while perfecting his invention of the air-pump. In 1664 the Royal society elected Hooke their curator of experiIn 1666 he was employed in surveying the city of London previous to its being rebuilt after the great fire. In 1677 he succeed ed Oldenburg as secretary to the Royal society. From this period he seems to have devoted himself exclusively to the study of natural philosophy in all its branches, and the inventing and perfecting of philosophical instruments. His health was considerably impaired, and his sight failed him some time previous to his death, which took place in 1702, in the sixty-seventh year of his age. He was interred in St Helen's church, London, his funeral being attended by nearly all the members of the Royal society. He was of an active and indefatigable genius, often continuing his studies all night. His temper was melan choly, mistrustful, and jealous, which increased with his years; and his penuriousness was such, that, although his circumstances were affluent, he could scarcely suffer himself to use even the common necessaries of life. He contrived the building of the College of physicians and the monument on Fish-Street Hill, London, and was often employed in designing other buildings. His writings consist of the Cutlerian lectures on mechanics; several descriptions of philosophical instruments, and some philosophical collections. Waller, his successor in the secretaryship of the Royal society, published a selection of his posthumous works. Some of the fundamental doctrines of modern chemistry are hinted at in his Micrographia' which was first published in 1664, and in his Lampas,' which appeared in 1667. He appears to have given much of his attention to the improvement of telegraphic communications, of which, however, the marquess of Worcester had unquestionably given the first hint. To Hooke also we are indebted for the invention of the wheel-barometer, the universal joint, the screw-divided quadrant, telescopic sights for astronomical instruments, and sundry pieces of watch and clock machinery. Hooke does not appear to have been one of the most amiable of men; and he has been charged with laying claim to the inventions and discoveries of others. His first employment of the conical pendulum was no less ingenious than original. He employed it to represent the mutual gravitation of the planets,- —a fact which he had previously announced in his writings and lectures. He conceived that a force perfectly analogous to that of gravity on the surface of our earth operated on the surface of the moon and of Jupiter; and he inferred that it was the same power which maintained the orbicular form of the sun and the other planets. He inferred the law of a universal gravitation of the larger bodies of our system towards the sun; and that it was not the body of the earth, but the centre of gravity of the earth and the moon, which traced out an elliptical path around the sun. He therefore invented a conical pendulum whose tendency to assume a vertical position represented the gravitation towards the sun, and which was projected at right angles to the vertical plane; and then he showed experimentally how the different proportions of the projectile and centripetal tendencies produced various degrees of eccentricity in the orbit. He then added another pendulum, which he made to describe a cone round the first, while the first was describing a cone round the vertical line, and endeavoured to fix what point between them described the ellipse. The experiment failed, but the idea was highly ingenious. It was left for Sir Isaac Newton to determine the true law of gravitation, which would produce the description of an ellipse round the assigned focus. Thomas Betterton. BORN A. D. 1635.-DIED A. D. 1710. WHATEVER opinions may be entertained as to the effect of theatrical entertainments on public morals, it is certain that the stage has exercised a powerful influence over English literature, and it will be expected that a few at least of our pages shall be devoted to some brief notices of the principal histrionic artists that have appeared amongst us. We possess almost no authentic materials for the memoirs of any of the English players who flourished previous to the days of Thomas Betterton. This actor was born in Tothill-street, Westminster, in August, 1635. His father was undercook to Charles I. The boy's fondness for reading induced his father to apprentice him to one Rhodes, a bookseller, near Charing-cross. This Rhodes had been wardrobekeeper to the theatre in Blackfriars, and about the year 1659, he obtained a license for a company of players, for whose performances he fitted up the cockpit in Drury-lane. All his actors were new hands, and the two principal of them were two apprentices of his own, Betterton, and Kynaston. The former, having a strong sonorous voice and manly bearing, was selected for the leading male parts in the plays which Rhodes's company performed; the latter was better adapted, in his slight handsome person and soft pronunciation, to sustain the female parts of the drama. It was not until after the Restoration that the gravity of English morals was so far relaxed as to allow of women appearing on the stage. In the spring of 1662, Rhodes's company was placed under the superintendence of Sir William Davenant, and assumed the title of the duke of York's company: his majesty had the other companies collected into one establishment, under the name of the king's company. These two establishments greatly interested the court and nobility, and afforded abundant employment to their royal patrons by their continual disputes and wranglings. They were both liberally patronised, how.. ever. Cibber says, that plays having been so long prohibited, people came to them now with greater eagerness, like folks after a long fast to a great feast; and that the introduction of women to the stage was felt to be a great improvement on the former practice of having the female parts borne by boys or young men of effeminate aspect and manners. He takes notice also of a rule which was laid down for the prevention of disputes betwixt the two companies: namely, that no play which was acted at one house should ever be attempted at the other. All the principal plays of Shakspeare, Fletcher, Jonson, and the other dramatists, were divided betwixt the two companies, so that while Hart had the uncontrolled range of, and grew great in, Othello, Betterton was no less fortunate in the exclusive possession of Hamlet.' It is said that in the character of the prince of Denmark-in which, according to all contemporary evidence, Betterton was uncommonly splendid that 'See Apology. |