, 1873-01-05

! turns and griuds and bruises the wheat to 1ou1
| II you put no wheat, it still grinds ON but the
'tis itself it grinds and wears away" Sometime
| he tells good story, as this: *'An idle priest
instead Of reciting his breviary, used to r1n ore
| the alphabet, and then Bay % my Col, tax
this alphabet, and put it together how yo1
| will T." Had Dr.. Martin lived in our day, b.
would perhaps have thrown his inkstand at som
other pcrsonB besides the devil. It is plain tia
he had no sympathy with blucstockings or ''worn
a1l's-rightsers," for he says "There il no gow1
| or garment TINT worse becomes woman thai
when she will be wisa." Though often deep1,
depressed, he always counscl1ed gaiety OF hear
! in others. "The birds, +" he said, "nust fly ove
onr heads, but why allow them to roost in on
! hnir."
Treading close upon the heels Of Luther, comes
another royal talker, Scaliger not Julius
Cesar, but Joseph-whose "Ana" Hallam pro
nounccs tho best ever published. His enormous
memory, which held everything IS with hooks o1
steel, and his prodigious learning, were the won
der Of the world. His pride was as imperial as
his genius; and his egotism was ab5olutelg
sublime. No King or Emperor, he declares,
was 80 handsome as his father, and then
adds: "Look st ms; I am exac.; like
him, and especially the aquiline nose!" He
regarded himself as the monarch Of the literary
realm, and spoke OF contemporary scholars
with contempt and scorn. They wore all
or nearly au, atheists, pedants, apes, OF
assos, unworthy to loose oven the latchet Of his
shoes. OF Juslus lipsius he says: II care as
little for Lipsius' Latin as he does for Ccoro's;''
and Of the Germans, The Germans are indif-
terent what wine they drink, 30 that it ia wine,
OF what Latin they speak, 80 thatit ia Latin"
In the next century, the most brilliant talk to
be heard in Europe was that Of the Wits Of the
t'Mernaid" in London, whose conversational
fame, had they but had Menago or other
schiel amang them taking notes." would havo
rivalled, II not eclipsed, that Of the dise1trs
Of Louis the Fourteenth'a age in France. To
this famous haunt came the "my1iad- minded"
Shakespeare the brawny egotist, Ben Jonson !;
the metaphysican, divine, geer, pedant, and
poet, Donne; that encyclopaedia on legs, Seldom;
Beaumont, Fletcher, Chapman, Raleigh, and
other gods Of intellect, who, seated in room
well filed with tobacco smoke, and at q table
covered with cups Of canary, passed many an
hour 'ayant the twal" in exchanging their
bolts and hashes- It was here that came of
those merry meetings and wit-combats which
Fuller has celebrated and Beaumont 80 fnaly
painted:
What thIngs have we seen
Done at the Mermaid hard words that have been
50 nirnble, and 80 full Of subtle flame,
As II that every from whom they came
Had meant to put his whola wit In ; Jest,
A. Ana ar had d., resolved SCI to lve fool tho rest
We LIFT ID air behind ua, which a1ono ~
Was ab1e to make the two next companies
Right witty, though but downright foola.
OF all these flashes OF wit and sentiment
rha- har oh mt
scintillation. The chasm is one Of the most
deplorable in literature. Think Of shakspearo'a
talk reported with the fulness and accuracy OF
Boswell Luckily wo hare few jottings OF
sold Ben's talk while he waa visiting Drum
go meagre and fragmentary, aud como
pe2e He7'cu1n hardly applies. There arc
enough Of them, however, to show that he was
what We should infer from his plays,-an English
man to the backbone. His blun, hearty manner,
his staggering; boastful way OF speaking Of his
own works, his vanity, egotisu, love OF deep
potations, his dosged self-will, stern integrity,
hatred Of basenoss and meanness, aud vein OF
sterling sense, MI peep out even in these imper-
feet notes, and give us q tolerable photograph OF
tho man. t:He would not flatter," hc said,
L.
be said that "She never saw herself, after sho
became old, in q true glass; they painted her,
md sometimes ,could rermilion her nose"
OF al styles, he said be most loved to
bo named Honest; and hath Of that one
hundred letters 30 naming him" That he had
felt tho gripe Of poverty VIC have painful proof
in the statement that "sundry tymes he hath
aevoured his books" that is, sold them to supply
himself With food. His judgments on other |
poets were insolenuy magisterial. and remind |
one Of 6caliger. Donne, for ''not keeping OF
accent, deserved hanging;" sharpham, Day, and
Dekkar we're nj rogues; and Abram Fraunce, in |
his English hexameters, "was q foole-" The |
rsnark in which he most vividly photographs
1imse1f, is this: "He hath consumed Il whole !
night in lying looking to his great too, about |
1hich ho hath seen Tarta1a and Turks, Romans, |
md Carthaginians fight in his imagination
OF that ''guK OF Learning" John selden, wo J
have, most fortunately, some Of the treasures in
lis f'Tablo Talk n published BY his amanuensis,
Richard Milwa1d, in 1859. In reading it's pages, |
t seems difficult to bellows that We are listening
% the great Bencher Of the Inner Temple, who |
vas "the 1aw-book Of the Judges; )" to the orator
sho thundered against "tonnage and pound !
'ge" in the House Of Commons; still 1ess, to !
ne aQt0Cf OF tne uf} '4lllc8 OF dou0l, anu |
he poni.arous, grabbed Marmorn ArundeHana, |
live Sara Graeca InciBa." But 6elden had an |
Intellect Of wondrous denbility; like the ele- !
,hant's trunk, it could uproot m oak, or pick up
pin. Dry and bristlng with love in bis writings,
10 can bo in his conversation as simple and play |
ul as child. He is, s*still, the great scholar |
md the tough parliarentarian, but merry,
amiliar, and witty. Tho dne1ithn'on gelasma is
N the sea OF his vast intellect. Ho writes like J
he opponent OF Grotius; he talks like the
riend OF Ben Jonson." Our inexorable limits
'revent us from giving many bits OF his talk,
mt ne present q few. OF friends, he says ]
Old friends are best, King James used to call
Or his old Shoes they were easiest for his |
'eet," Under Language, We read: "Wo1ds /
must be fitted to mans mouth 'twaa well said !
i the Fellow that Was to make Speech for my
.ord Mavor, he des.zed to take measure Of his |
.ordshp's Mouth"
It is in this "Table-Ta1k" that is found the
aging 80 admired BY coleridge, that transub~
tantiation is only rhetoric turned into losic;"
nd the happy comparison Of faith and works to
ig1t and heat "Put out the candle and they
1c both gone; one remains not without the