descended from the family of the Berrys in Kent: so that by his extraction on the one side, which we trace down from the Souths of Kelstone, and Keilby in Lincolnshire, (whereof we find one sir Francis of that name to be the head,) and his origin on the other, much celebrated for the productions of many eminent men, (among whom sir John Berry, the late admiral in king Charles the IId's reign, that commanded the Gloucester, wherein king James the IId, then duke of York, had like to have been shipwrecked, deserves a place,) he was sufficiently entitled to the name and quality of a gentleman.

In the year 1647, after he had gone through the first rudiments of learning previous thereunto with uncommon success, we find him entered one of the king's scholars in the college at Westminster, where he made himself remarkable the following year, by reading the Latin prayers in the school, on the day of king Charles the first's martyrdom, and praying for his majesty by name: so that he was under the care of Dr. Richard Busby, who cultivated and improved so promising a genius with such industry and encouragement for four years, that, after the expiration of that time, he was admitted, an. 1651, student of Christ Church in Oxford.

He was elected with the great Mr. John Locke, an equal ornament of polite and abstruse learning. His studentship, with an allowance of 30%. per ann. from his mother, and the countenance of his relation, Dr. John South, of New college, regius professor of the Greek tongue, chanter of Salisbury, and vicar of Writtle in Essex, enabled him to obtain those acquirements that made him the admiration and esteem of the whole university, and drew upon him the eyes of the best masters of humanity and other studies, by the quick progress he made through them.

He took the degree of bachelor of arts, which he completed by his determination, in Lent 1654-5. The same year he wrote a Latin copy of verses, published in the university book, set forth to congratulate the protector Oliver ▸ Cromwell upon the peace then concluded with the Dutch; upon which some people have made invidious reflections, as

if contrary to the sentiments he afterwards espoused; but these are to be told, that such exercises are usually imposed by the governors of colleges upon bachelors of arts and undergraduates: I shall forbear to be particular in his, as being a forced compliment to the usurper.

Not but even those discover a certain unwillingness to act in favour of that monster, whom even the inimitable earl of Clarendon, in his History of the grand Rebellion, distinguishes by the name and title of a GLORIOUS VILLAIN.

After he had thus gained the applause of all his superiors, and by many lengths outstripped most of his contemporaries, by his well digested and well approved exercises preparatory thereunto, he proceeded to the degree of master of arts in June 1657, not without some opposition from Dr. John Owen, who supplied the place of dean of Christ Church, and officiated as head of that royal foundation, with other sectaries called canons, during the deprivation and ejection of the legal and orthodox members of the said chapter. This man (if he deserves the name of one, that was guilty of a voluntary defection from the church established, after he had regularly received ordination at the hands of a protestant bishop, contrary to the oaths he had taken to his rightful and lawful prince, and his obedience that was due to the canons of the church) was one of the earliest of the clergy who joined with the rebels in parliament assembled, that dethroned their natural liege lord and king, and altered the form of government in matters ecclesiastical and civil, and in recompence of his zeal for that end, after the martyrdom of his royal sovereign, had been gifted with this undeserved promotion. In gratitude for which, if that word may be applied to creatures divested of all qualities that point towards the least symptoms of humanity, he thought himself obliged to bestir himself heartily for what was then called the good old cause, against all those who should swerve or deviate from it, especially such as should be found peccant against the orders of the Directory, and should be unwarrantably, according to pretended laws then in being, found in episcopal meetings, making use of the Common Prayer.

Among these was this our candidate for the degree of master of arts, being excited thereunto by the example of Mr. John Fell, of the same college with him, but of much longer standing, and ejected by the commissioners authorized thereunto from the council of state; and was caught in the very act of worshipping God after the manner and form of the church of England; whereupon Dr. Owen, who was then vice-chancellor, and had been invested with that character some years before, was pleased to express himself very severely, and after threatening him with expulsion, if he should be guilty of the like practices again, to tell him, that" He could do no less in gratitude to his highness the

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protector, and his other great friends who had thought "him worthy of the dignities he then stood possessed of." To which Mr. South made this grave, but very smart reply: "Gratitude among friends is like credit amongst tradesmen ; "it keeps business up, and maintains the correspondence: "and we pay not so much out of a principle that we ought "to discharge our debts, as to secure ourselves a place to "be trusted another time:" and in answer to the doctor's making use of the protector's and his other great friends' names, said, "Commonwealths put a value upon men, as "well as money; and we are forced to take them both, not "by weight, but according as they are pleased to stamp "them, and at the current rate of the coin:" by which he exasperated him two different ways, and made him his enemy ever after; as he verified his own sayings, which were frequently applied by him to his fellow students, viz. "That few people have the wisdom to like reproofs that "would do them good, better than praises that do them "hurt."

But though the doctor did what he could to shew his resentment by virtue of his office, the majority of those in whose power it was to give him the degree he had regularly waited the usual terms for, was an overmatch to all opposition; and he had it conferred on him. This enabled him some time after to pay the doctor in his own coin, and to let him know, that he likewise was not without

a will to use means, when they were put into his hands, for requiting an injury; and notwithstanding he could readily forgive, could not forget an ill turn. For when this vicechancellor took upon him to stand as candidate to serve in parliament for the university, and in order thereunto had renounced his holy orders, that he might the more easily gain his purpose, Mr. South so managed matters with the doctors, bachelors of divinity, and masters of arts, the electors, that he was very difficultly returned, and, after a few days sitting in the house, had his election declared null and void, because his renunciation was not reputed valid.

This puts me in mind of another story, which Dr. South told a friend of mine, concerning the said Owen; who, at his being soon after removed from his place of vice-chancellor by the chancellor Richard, son of Oliver Cromwell, and from the pulpit of St. Mary's, which was cleansed of him and the rebel Goodwin, president of St. Mary Magdalen's college, at one and the same time, cried out, "have "built seats at Mary's; let the doctors find auditors, for I "will preach at Peter's:" thereby insinuating, that none ut he could have full congregations. Though, whatever his thoughts of the affections of those who were misler li his doctrines, the very selfsame opiniative man himself very much out in his conjectures of abiding at Christ Church, or of preaching at St. Peter's long; for he was ejected from his deanery at the latter end of the year 1659 by the government, that was then paving the way for the restoration of the king and royal family; and soon after succeeded by Dr. John Fell, who first was installed canon of Christ Church, in the room of Ralph Button, M. A. and formerly of Merton college, by the commissioners appointed by the king; Mr. South having the orator's place of the university of Oxford, vacant by the dismission of the said Button.

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This brings me to a second digression, which the reader's patience, it is hoped, will forgive, for its brevity. Mr. Anthony à Wood, the famous antiquary, in his Athenæ Oxonienses, gives us to understand, that this Ralph Button, at

his election into his fellowship of Merton college, which he gained solely by his merit, while others that were chosen with him obtained theirs by favour and the custom of seniority, gave occasion for a notable pun made by Dr. Prideaux, then rector of Exeter college, who said, "That all "that were elected besides him were not worth a Button.” The said gentleman afterwards succeeded to a canonry of Christ Church, in the room of the learned and pious Dr. Henry Hammond, who was removed by the iniquity of the times; and at his own ejection afterwards by the commissioners appointed by the king, upon his majesty's most happy restoration, while his goods were carrying out of possession, upon hearing the two bells ringing for canonical prayers in Christ Church, cried, "There now go the mass bells; and "let those that are affected that way go to the church; for "be sure I shall not." He went from Oxford to Islington, near London, where he continued a dissenting teacher and a schoolmaster till the year 1680, when he died, and was buried with his son (who departed this life at the same time) in Islington church.

In 1659 Mr. South, after having been admitted into holy orders the year before, according to the rites and ceremonies of the church of England, (then abolished,) by a regular, though deprived bishop, was pitched upon to preach the assize sermon before the judges. For which end, he took his text from the tenth chapter of St. Matthew's gospel, ver. 33. Whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. This sermon was called by him, Interest deposed, and Truth restored, &c. and had this remarkable paragraph in it concerning the teachers of those days, viz. "When such men preach of self"denial and humility, I cannot but think of Seneca, who "praised poverty, and that very safely, in the midst of his "great riches and gardens, and even exhorted the world to "throw away their gold, perhaps (as one well conjectures) that "he might gather it up: so these desire men to be humble, "that they may domineer without opposition. But it is an easy matter to commend patience, when there is no danger