The San Francisco call., 1908-11-22
SAMUEL PEPYS NOT
A GOSSIPING FOOL
investigations Reveal Worthy
Side of the Noted
Diarist
Renders Valuable Services TO
Britain While Secretary
of the Admiralty

1t is probable that nine out of any
ten persons asked the question, VINO
was Samuel Pepys?" would content
themselves by describing him as a
gossipfng diarist. Sixty years or so
ago even Lockhart referred to him con-
temptuously as "a vain, silly, trans
parent coxeomb, without either solid
talents or solid virtues and despite
the more appreciative remarks Of Sir
Walter Scott, the ideas of vanity and
Stiffness long remained in men's S
minds as the dominant characteristics.
But thanks to the later and fuller in
vestigation we know-or may know If
we will-that Lockhart's description
is about as erroneous as description
can well be, except perhaps with re-
gard to the item of vanity. A man
who has been styled the best admiralty
secretary that has ever been, and whose
regulations and system are the founda-
tion Of those in force to this day; who
was at various times a Cambridge mas
ter Of arts, clerk Of the acts, clerk of
the privy seal, master OF the Trinity
house, member OF parliament and
president OF the Royal society, the
friend and confidant of sovereigns and
statesmen-can by no conceivable
stretch of the imagination be held to
have been silly, transparent or with
out solid talent
And hut for the immortal Diary, bio
graphical dictionaries would present
him to us as a man with these claims
TO our consideration and respect. But
by a queer irony Of fate and criticism
all Pepys' solid work and worth has
been overshadowed, one might almost
say totally eclipsed, by the style and
matter Of the Diary. There Is no doubt
whatever that Pepys wrote his diary
for no eyes but his own; he recorded in
1t his most secret doings and thoughts,
confessed to it his hopes and weak
nesses and triumphs. 1t is in this re-
spect that Pepys' Diary is unique; we
have Confessions" and autobiographies
and diaries in plenty, but they differ
from his in this salient particular
they are all written or revised with an
eye to the public; his was for no ones
sight but his own.
But II we feel an amused contempt
for the man whose diary tells US of the
delight with which he put on his new
clothes, and his pleasure at the respect
and consideration he met with, and the
friendly notice of great people, Of his
junketings and philanderings, his good
resolves and lapses. his love of sight
seeing. his love for his wife, coupled
with continuous admiration for other
pretty women, his simple pleasure as
he finds his means and position i'm
prove. his feverish anxiety to avoid any
persons or things that might impair
the latter-let us always remember
that all this time Pepys was doing
things, was working early and late
for the countrys service, and so com
porting himself as to be held in hon.
or by those with whom he had to do
He was a consummate organizer: en-
tering upon his official duties COM
pletely ignorant OF everything con-
nected with them, he earned the eulogy
Of Monk as being the right hand OF
the navy: when the plague sent men
Of all ranks fleeing from London, this
vain. silly coxcomb, without solid vir-
tues" remained at his post in the
thick of the infection and writes to e
soldier friend, You took your turn OF
the sword; I must not. therefore
grudge to take mine of the pestilence.' .
Another Of the strange misconcep-
tions one meets with among those who
know the Diary by hearsay only is
that Pepys' wife was shrewish elderly
person. AS a matter of fact, she was
very young and beautiful girl. wh3
was married when only Is and die1
when she was 80. That Pepys was
genuinely devoted to her can not BE-
doubted, despite his occasional lapses;
conjugal fidelity was not at its zenith
in the reign of the Merry Monarch
Nor is our belief in his love lesseneA
even when we read of the "amantfuul
irae"-s1ittle iovins." as Sam Weller
described them-which are duly noted.
1t is useless TO attempt to qualify the
admission that Pepys was by no means
immaculate, and that in many cases