AN

HISTORICAL ACCOUNT

OF

MY OWN LIFE,

WITH SOME REFLECTIONS ON THE TIMES I HAVE LIVED IN.

THE INTRODUCTION.

FROM my younger years, and ever since I have had a capacity of making remarks, or passing a judgment either on persons or things, I have taken a particular pleasure in reading the published epistles and lives of such as came into the world either before, or since my own appearing in it; and I have, in both of them, observed many things, and some of them curious and instructive, that do not occur elsewhere.

As to epistles, I have found that many of them discover secrets, and contain facts and passages, that would in all likelihood have been entirely buried in oblivion, if not this way preserved. The writers of them, very often, draw their own native characters,

without at all designing it; and generally touch, and sometimes dilate upon, a variety of things out of the common road.

Many of them I have read, and some I greatly admire and value; particularly those of Erasmus,* Melancthon,+ and Grotius. It has been the com

Of these Epistles, Dr. Knight largely availed himself, in 1726, to the entertainment and instruction of his readers, in his "Life of Erasmus; more particularly that part of it, which he spent in England." His later English biographer says:

"Le Clerc, whilst he was concerned in publishing an edition of the works of Erasmus, at Leyden, drew up his life in French, collected principally from his letters, and inserted in the Bibliotheque Choisie."

This Dr. Jortin took " as a ground-work to build upon, translated, not superstitiously, but with much freedom, and with more attention to things than to words."-Preface to "Life of Erasmus," 1758.

"The author hath interspersed," says Dr. Disney, "many valuable remarks, which are made with such pointed force to certain circumstances which remained the same in his own time, as in the days of Erasmus, that he hath deeply interested his contemporaries of his own country, and, indeed, until the scene of things shall be changed, they will continue to interest every succeeding generation." See "Memoirs of the Life and Writings of John Jortin, D.D." (1792) p. 235; "A Collection of Letters and Essays in favour of public liberty," iii. 261, Ibid.-ED.

+ From one of these, to Erasmus, in 1524, I cannot forbear to give the following passage, (" a light shining in a dark place,") which Dr. Jortin quotes, con amore.

"It would be mere tyranny to hinder any man from giving his opinion in the church of Christ, concerning any points of religion. This ought to be free to every one, who will deliver his sentiments without passion and partiality. You know that we

mon opinion of the learned, that there are no performances, either of antients or moderns, of that kind, that are preferable to Monsieur de Thou's Epistle, before his History ;* Casaubon's before his Commentaries upon Polybius ;† and Calvin's before his In

ought to examine, and not to despise prophecies." See "Life of Erasmus," pp. 343, 344.

Yet Melancthon could excuse, what probably, he could never have resolved to perpetrate, the betraying of Servetus to the prison and the stake. When, however, one appeared "in conversation to deny the existence of the devil," he " threatened to delate the man to the magistrates, to have him put in prison; Se effecturum apud Magistratum, ut statim in vincula conjiceretur.” See "Histoire de Michel Servet," in Bib. Angloise, (1719) ii. 87, 88. "Life of Servetus," (1771), pp. 199, 200.-ED.

"His letters," says M. de Burigny, "may be regarded as a treasure, not only of public, but of literary history, always accompanied with instructing reflections." See "Life of Grotius," (1754) pp. 279, 280.

The learned and liberal-minded lawyer, Mr. Solom Emlyn, in the preface to his edition of the State-Trials, in 1730, refers to "Grotius's Letters, (Let. 693,) wherein he approves the omission of the practice of torture in England." State Trials, (1776,) i. p. 3. note k.-Ed.

* Dedicated to Henry IV. in 1601. My Epistle," says Thuanus, "concludes with a prayer-that liberty, fidelity, and truth, may be manifested in my writings, to the present and fu ture generations; and may they be as free from the suspicion, as they are exempt from the necessity of flattery and malevolence." See Collinson's "Life of Thuanus," (1807,) pp. 389-443.--ED.

+ Dr. Calamy must refer to Isaac Casaubon's "Dedication to Henry IV." in 1609, described as a "master-piece of the kind," in which "he praises without low servility, and in a manner remote from flattery."- Biog. Brit. (1784,) iii. 304.-ED.

stitutions.*

And whereas, there is a vast multitude of volumes extant, (even enow to make a tolerable library) of the epistles of men of letters, it is easy to observe, that they have, very generally, been as much esteemed as any part of their works.

As to lives, I have not only read those written by Plutarch, Diogenes Laertius, and Cornelius Nepos, among the antients; but have run over the historical account given by several, both of the antients and moderns, of their own lives, intermixed with the occurrences of their several times, with no small satisfaction; and have been often tempted to wish, that I could have met with many more writings of the same kind.

I should, particularly, have been extremely pleased to have had the lives of those two great men, Erasmus of Rotterdam, and Father Paul of Venice, fully drawn up by their own hands. The former

* A prefatory dedication to Francis I., from Basil, Aug. 1, 1536, which has, I believe, been generally admired, among other merits, for the purity of the Latin.

A Catholic biographer of Calvin says; "Il composa cet ouvrage fameux pour servir d'apologie aux Reformés, condamnés aux flammes par Francois I.;" to whom he describes it as dedicated, avec une préface pleine d'éloquence d'addresse et d'artifice."-Nouv. Dict. Hist. (1789,) ii. 355.

Bayle says, "the dedication to Francis I., is one of the three that have been highly admired. That of Thuanus to his History, and Casaubon's to Polybius, are the two others."-Gen. Biog. Dict. (1784,) iii. 101.-ED.

+ There is a short Life of Erasmus, prefixed to the Elzevir edition of his Colloquies, of which he himself is said of have