king occasioned him was not so much in the king himself as in his own volatile spirit.

The table of James I. was a trial of wits, says a more learned courtier, who often partook of these prolonged conversations : those genial and convivial conferences were the recreations of the king, and the means often of advancing those whose talents had then an opportunity of discovering themselves. A life so constant in its pursuits was to have been expected from the temper of him who, at the view of the Bodleian library, exclaimed, "Were I not a king, I would be an university man; and if it were so that I must be a prisoner, I would have no other prison than this library, and be chained together with all these goodly authors'."

Study, indeed, became one of the businesses of life with our contemplative monarch; and so zealous was James to form his future successor, that he even seriously engaged in the education of both his sons. James I. offers the singular spectacle of a father who was at once a preceptor and a monarch: it was in this spirit the king composed his. "Basilicon Doron, or his Majesty's Instructions to his dearest Son Henry the Prince," a work of which something more than the intention is great; and he directed the studies of the unfortunate Charles. That both these princes were no common pupils, may be fairly attributed to the king himself. Never did the character of a young prince shoot out with nobler promises than Henry : an enthusiast for literature and arms, that prince early showed a great and commanding spirit. Charles was a man of fine taste he had talents and virtues, errors and misfortunes; but he was not without a spirit equal to the days of his trial.

FACILITY AND COPIOUSNESS OF HIS COMPOSITION.

THE mind of James I. had at all times the fulness of a student's, delighting in the facility and copiouness of composition. The king wrote in one week one hundred folio pages of a monitory address to the European sovereigns; and, in as short a time, his apology, sent to the pope and cardinals. These he delivered to the bishops merely as notes for their use; but they were declared to form of themselves a complete answer. Qua felicitate they were done, let others judge; but, Qua celeri

'In this well-known exclamation of James I., a witty allusion has been probably overlooked. The king had in his mind the then prevalent custom of securing books by fastening them to the shelves by chains, long enough to reach to the reading-desks under them.

tate, I can tell," says the courtly bishop who collected the king's works, and who is here quoted, not for the compliment he would infer, but for the fact he states. The week's labour of his majesty provoked from Cardinal Perron about one thousand pages in folio, and replies and rejoinders from the learned in Europe 1.

HIS ELOQUENCE.

THE eloquence of James is another feature in the literary character of this monarch. Amid the sycophancy of the court of a learned sovereign, some truths will manifest themselves. Bishop Williams, in his funeral eulogy of James I., has praised with warmth the eloquence of the departed monarch, whom he intimately knew; and this was an acquisition of James's, so manifest to all, that the bishop made eloquence essential to the dignity of a monarh; observing, that "it was the want of it that made Moses, in a manner, refuse all government, though offered by God." He would not have hazarded so peculiar an eulogium, had not the monarch been distinguished by that talent. Hume first observed of James I., that "the speaker of the

'Mr. Lodge, in his "Illustrations of British History," praises and abuses James I. for the very same treatises. Mr. Lodge, dropping the sober character of the antiquary for the smarter one of the critic, tells us, "James had the good fortune to gain the two points he principally aimed at in the publication of these dull treatises - the reputation of an acute disputant, and the honour of having Cardinal Bellarmin for an antagonist." Did Mr. Lodge ever read these "dull treatises?" I declare I never have; but I believe these treatises are not dull, from the inference he draws from them : for how any writer can gain the reputation of "an acute disputant" by writing "dull treatises," Mr. Lodge only can explain. It is in this manner, and by unphilosophical critics, that the literary reputation of James has been flourished down by modern pens. It was sure game to attack James I.!

2 This funeral sermon, by laying such a stress on the eloquence of James I., it is said, occasioned the disgrace of the zealous bishop; perhaps, also, by the arts of the new courtiers practising on the feelings of the young monarch. It appears that Charles betrayed frequent symptoms of impatience.

This allusion to the stammering of Moses was most unlucky; for Charles had this defect în his delivery, which he laboured all his life to correct. In the first speech from the throne, he alludes to it: " Now, because I am unfit for much speaking, I mean to bring up the fashion of my predecessors, to have my lordkeeper speak for me in most things.” And he closed a speech to the Scottish parliament by saying, that "he does not offer to endear himself by words, which indeed is not my way." This, however, proved to be one of those little circumstances which produce a more important result than is suspected. By this substitution of a lord-keeper instead of the sovereign, he failed in exciting the personal affections of his parliament. Even the most gracious speech from the lips of a lord-keeper is but formally delivered, and coldly received; and Charles had not yet learned that there are no deputies for our feelings.

House of Commons is usually an eminent man; yet the harangue of his Majesty will always be found much superior to that of the speaker in every parliament during this reign." His numerous proclamations are evidently wrought by his own hand, and display the pristine vigour of the state of our age of genius. That the state-papers were usually composed by himself, a passage in the Life of the Lord-keeper Williams testifies; and when Sir Edward Conway, who had been bred a soldier, and was even illiterate, became a viscount, and a royal secretary by the appointment of Buckingham, the king, who in fact wanted no secretary, would often be merry over his imperfect scrawls in writing, and his hacking of sentences in reading, often breaking out in laughter, exclaiming, "Stenny has provided me with a . secretary who can neither write nor read, and a groom of my hed-chamber who cannot truss my points,"-this latter person having but one hand! It is evident, since Lord Conway, the most inefficient secretary ever king had, and I have myself seen his scrawls, remained many years in office, that James I. required no secretary, and transacted his affairs with his own mind and hand. These habits of business and of study prove that James indulged much less those of indolence, for which he is so gratuitously accused.

HIS WIT.

AMID all the ridicule and contempt in which the intellectual capacity of James I. is involved, this college-pedant, who is imagined to have given into every species of false wit, and never to have reached beyond quibbles, puns, conceits, and quolibets,— was in truth a great wit; quick in retort, and happy in illustration; and often delivering opinions with a sententious force. More wit and wisdom from his lips have descended to us than from any other of our sovereigns. One of the malicious writers of his secret history, Sir Anthony Weldon, not only informs us that he was witty, but describes the manner. "He was very witty, and had as many witty jests as any man living; at which he would not smile himself, but deliver them in a grave and serious manner.' Thus the king was not only witty, but a dextrous wit: nor is he one of those who are recorded as having only said one good thing in their lives; for his vein was not apt to dry.

His conversations, like those of most literary men, he loved to prolong at table. We find them described by one who had partaken of them :

"The reading of some books before him was very frequent,

while he was at his repast; and otherwise he collected knowledge by variety of questions, which he carved out to the capacity of different persons. Meehought his hunting humour was not off, while the learned stood about him at his board; he was ever in chace after some disputable doubts, which he would wind and turn about with the most stabbing objections that ever I heard; and was as pleasant and fellow-like, in all discourses, as with his hunstsman in the field. Those who were ripe and weighty in their answers, were ever designed for some place of credit or profit."

SPECIMENS OF HIS HUMOUR, AND OBSERVATIONS ON HUMAN LIFE.

THE relics of his witticisms and observations on human life, on state affairs, in literature and history, are scattered among contemporary writers, and some are even traditional; I regret that I have not preserved many which occurred in the course of reading. It has happened, however, that a man of genius has preserved for posterity some memorials of the wit, the learning, and the sense of the monarch 2.

In giving some loose specimens of the wit and capacity of a man, if they are too few, it may be imagined that they are so from their rarity; and if too many, the page swells into a mere collection. But truth is not over nice to obtain her purpose, and even the common labours she inspires are associated with her pleasures.

Early in life James I. had displayed the talent of apt allusion,

'Hacket's curious Life of the Lord-keeper, Williams, p. 38, Part 11.

2 In the Harl. MSS. 7582, Art. 3, one entitled "Crumms fallen from King James's Table; or his Table-Talk, taken by Sir Thomas Overbury. The original being in his own handwriting.” This MS. has been, perhaps, imperfectly printed in "The Prince's Cabala, or Mysteries of State," 1715. This Collection of Sir Thomas Overbury was shortened by his unhappy fate, since he perished early in the reign. Another Harl. MS. contains things as they were at sundrie times spoken by James I." I have drawn others from the Harl. MSS. 6395. We have also printed, "Wittie Observations gathered in King James's ordinary Discourse," 1643; "King James his Apothegmes or Table Talk as they were by him delivered occasionally, and by the publisher his quondam servant carefully received, by B. A. gent. 4°. in eight leaves, 1643." The collector was Ben". Agar, who had gathered them in his youth; Witty Apothegmes, delivered at several times by King James, King Charles, the Marquis of Worcester," etc. 1658.

The collection of Apothegms formed by Lord Bacon offers many instances of the king's wit and sense. See Lord Bacon's Apothegms new and old; they are numbered to 275 in the edition 1819. Basil Montague in his edition has scparated what he distinguishes as the spurious ones.

and his classical wit on the Spaniards, that "He expected no other favour from them than the courtesy of Polyphemus to Ulysses-to be the last devoured,” delighted Elizabeth, and has even entered into our history. Arthur Wilson, at the close of his Life of James I., has preserved one of his apothegms, while he censures him for not making timely use of it. "Let that prince, who would beware of conspiracies, be rather jealous of such whom his extraordinary favours have advanced, than of those whom his displeasure hath discontented. These want means to execute their pleasures, but those have means at pleasure to execute their desires."-Wilson himself ably developes this important state-observation, by adding, that "Ambition to rule is more vehement than malice to revenge" A pointed reflection, which rivals a maxim of Rochefoucault.

The king observed, that "Very wise men and very fools do little harm; it is the mediocrity of wisdom that troubleth all the world." He described, by a lively image, the differences which rise in argument: "Men, in arguing, are often carried by the force of words farther asunder than their question was at first; like two ships going out of the same haven, their landing is many times whole countries distant."

One of the great national grievances, as it appeared both to the government and the people, in James's reign, was the perpetual growth of the metropolis; and the nation, like an hypochondriac, was ludicrously terrified that their head was too monstrous for their body, and drew all the moisture of life from the remoter parts. It is amusing to observe the endless and vain precautions employed to stop all new buildings, and to force persons out of town to reside at their country mansions. Proclamations warned and exhorted, but the very interference of prohibition rendered the crowded town more delightful. One of its attendant calamities was the prevalent one of that day, the plague; and one of those state libels, which were early suppressed, or never printed, entitled, "Balaam's Ass," has this passage: "In this deluge of new buildings, we shall be all poisoned with breathing in one another's faces; and your Majesty hath most truly said, England will shortly be London, and London, England." It was the popular wish, that country gentlemen should reside more on their estates, and it was on this occasion the king made that admirable allusion, which has been in our days repeated in the House of Commons: "Gentlemen resident on their estates were like ships in port-their value and magnitude were felt and acknowledged; but, when at a distance, as their size seemed insignificant, so their worth and importance were not duly estimated." The king abounded with similar observations; for he drew from life more than even from books.