New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1893-05-07

clerk Of the acts and Secretary 70 The Admiralty.
Fright. VI. A.. from the shorthand manuscript in
the pepyS"n LH59ry Masialene College am
with additions by Henry b. whcatley. F. S. A.
Vol. 1. PIP lix, 34s. George Bell q Sons.
II the cynical remark OF an Englishman be true
that every Engishman Is at heart lackey. then
Samuel Pepys beyond comparison the greatest
Engllshnan who lived. In the noble game OF
ruft hunting he could give points to every rival before
his time or since. and then win with his hands In HIS
pockets. The volume cited above. though 1t gives
promise OF considerable additions TO the immortal
diary. contains nothing and presages nothing In Its
successors which Is likely TO change the opinion Of the
world respecting the author as man OF great
ecutive capacity, adroIt In politics. inventive In official
routine. tenacious OF place. trI6ing in humor majestic
In his vanity. lie may never have meant that his
journal should be published yet he left the key for its
dcoiphcrment and though he lived some years after
Its last pages written failed to put IT into the
only place where its secrets would have been safe
namely, the fire.
There Is only argument TO show that Pepys
meant TO have Kept concealed what Lowell so felicf
tously characterized his unbuttoned familiarity
with himself" and that Is the secreveness Of ordinary
humanity respecting certain classes OF individual
traits certain daily rccurrent acts But 1t must
be remembered that the process OF going over such
mass VI manuscript Pcpys produced by little ana
little, even II II had been writ plain. became u'y
after day and year after year more laborious. Mem
ory always ready to play the traitor while seeming
TO keep vivid grasp on the whole, would reaii!
treasure only those things most striking to the MIND
Of the writer Now there some men with whom
memory plays the dsigrceiblc trick OF recalling moa
vividv the episodes In their lives OF which they arr
most ashamed II could not have been with Pepy'
lie was not, indeed, always content with himself
sometimes when he made n night OF 1t and rose tD
next day with a head that fitted neither his Wig nT
b,s Init he called himself fool lie bcsoueht Gd
n forgive him for strlngng his lutte OF sunday aid
for Iecpnc through dull sermon but his conscience
does not seem to have troubled him much In greater
matters. In memory he must have returned almet
exclusively to those passages In his diary whth
shaved himself 10 himself In the aspect which he
hopcd was the only one the world knew. How 20
lighted he WIS when with the fleet 10 that oh,rs
came and went at his command How rapt his con.
formulation OF his greatness he gazed al q
letter subscribed with the magic legend Samuel
p.pys csa nor could his mcditations have been hss
comfortable when he included In the Inscription on
n book. plate the words: Descended from the nnten
family OF Pepys, OF Cottcnham, I'm Cambridgcshrc."
Ills conscience had that wonderfully useful
trait OF putting the cap that fitted him anothcrs
head as when he went 10 church with companion
20 whom he genally allotted all the rebnkc ;hcre wis
In u "vcry eloquent sermon abOut the duty Of all 10
give good example In lives and conversation
which fear he himself was most guilty OF not doint."
witness also his fine sc0rn because a vcnlson pay
was pnlpable beef which not handsome" Need
less 10 say this was feature OF another mans dnner
table. lie called the naval officer who invited him
to dine In tavern and then let me pay my cub "
rogne but when he practically forced others 70 pay
his reckoning he remarked sedately 81. by having
but hreepcnce In my pocket made shift 10 spehu 10
more, whereas II i had had had spent more ah
Tie rest dld, 30 that see 1t IL an advah'ase "