died at Oxford, and from his teachers they soon became his best and intimate friends. With Linacre, the friend and tutor of Erasmus himself, he read the works of Plato and Aristotle and with William Lilly, charissimus rerum mearum socius,' as More himself calls him, he practised literary exercises, (Progymnasmata,) which consisted in translating a number of Greek epigrams into Latin, in their original metre. Here is a specimen : Οίνος, και τα λοετρα, και ἡ περι Κύπριν έρωη, οξυτερην πέμπει την ὁδον εἰς ἀηδιν. De Luxu et Libidini. Si quis ad infernos properet descendere manes, Præcipiti cursu balnea, vina, Venus.'-G. Lillii. More's acquaintance with Erasmus began at the table of the Lord Mayor, where without their knowing each other, they fell into a dispute, when Erasmus told him, Aut tu es Morus, aut nullus;' upon which More replied, Aut tu es Erasmus, aut Diabolus.' We cannot say much for the courtesy of the reply; but such is the anecdote, though it wants sufficient authority. But the acquaintance with that distinguished man certainly gave a new impulse to More in his ardent pursuit of truth, of science, and learning; and probably also inspired him with such a taste for Lucian, the favourite author of Erasmus, that he translated three of his Dialogues into Latin (the Cynicus, Necromantia, and Philopseudes). He afterwards challenged Erasmus himself, who should not only best translate the Tyrannicida' of the same author, but also frame the best reply to it. The palm may justly be adjudged to Sir Thomas More. But More was destined by his father to a life of activity, and returning to London, he was called to the Bar of New Inn. In the nineteenth year of King Henry VII. he was chosen member of parliament. The king asked a subsidy of 40,000l. for the marriage of his daughter Margaret to the king of Scots More opposed the demand with such energy and success, that it was rejected. It being reported to the king that a beardless boy had defeated his intentions, he was so much incensed, that he threw the father into prison, and fined him 1007., and More was obliged to seek refuge in a monastery. He had, however, by his resistance, effected thus much, that Henry, instead of 40,000., declared himself satisfied with 30,0001., which now were voted without further objection. More, in his retirement, had leisure again to indulge in his favourite pursuits of philosophy and theology, and of various languages. languages. A little earlier in life he had had a strong tendency towards a monastic life. He had early imbibed the spirit of monkish discipline, and practised on himself ascetic severity. 'When he was about eighteen or twenty years old,' says Cresacre More, he began to wear a sharp shirt of hair next the skin, which he never left off wholly, no, not when he was Lord Chancellor of England. Which my grandmother on a time in the heat of summer espying, laughed at, not being much sensible of spiritual exercises, being carried away in her youth with the bravery of the world, and not knowing quæ sunt spiritus," what is the true wisdom of a Christian man. He added also to his austerity a whip every Friday and high fasting days, thinking that such cheer was the best alms that he could bestow upon himself . . . . He used also much fasting and watching, lying often upon the bare ground, or upon some bench, laying some log under his head; allotting himself but four or five hours in a night at the most, for his sleep, imagining, with the holy saints of Christ's church, that his body was to be used as an ass, with strokes and hard fare, lest provender might prick it, and so bring his soul, like a head-strong jade, to the bottomless pit of hell He had enured himself with straitness, that he might the better enter in at the narrow gate of heaven, which is not got with ease, sed violenti rapiunt illud," that is, they that are boisterous against themselves snatch it away by force.' He dwelt near the Carthusians by the Charter House, and attended daily their spiritual exercises, and would have taken the yows of the Franciscans. Dean Colet, however, seems to have advised him to marry. He espoused Jane, eldest daughter of John Colt, Esq., of Newhall, Essex. This gentleman had three daughters, and More was attached to the second: he, notwithstanding, proposed to the eldest, fearful lest she would be pained on her younger sister being married before herself. This marriage, and the birth of a family, forced him to labour in his due profession. To follow the order of our author, the following is the account of More's person. According to the picture which Erasmus draws in that letter to his friend, V. Hutten, Sir Thomas was of a middling stature; all the members of his body were well-proportioned, only his hands were rather clumsy (manus tantum subrustica sunt); in his walk, the right shoulder appeared higher than the left, not from any natural defect, but from habit; his complexion was rather white than pale, a slight red shining through his skin; the colour of his hair was neither fair nor dark, but between both; that of his eye grey and dappled-their glance calni and penetrating; the nose strong; the mouth middling, with slender lips; the chin round and strong; his voice neither loud nor feeble, but easy to be understood. He loved music, music, and was a proficient on the viol. His face showed serenity and sweetness of temper, and seemed more inclined to hilarity than to the serious and severe mien of office; but this serenity seems to have disappeared from his brow in later years. 'More,' thus Erasmus continues, enjoys a good and strong health, which makes him fit for labour. The green old age of his father promises a long life to him also. His food is simple, his favourite dishes being salt meat, eggs, milk, and home-baked bread. In his clothes, too, he loves simplicity, disdaining silk, purple, and gold chains, which he only wears when necessary. Mere civilities he holds in very slight estimation, whence his neglect of them; as he does not ask them from anybody, so he is not over anxious to show them to others, either at meetings or feasts: he knows, however, how to use them when required, only judging it unmanly to waste time in such fooleries; therefore, nothing is more odious to him than the life at court, whereas he extols liberty and leisure above all things. In friendship he is a perfect pattern; and in the intercourse with approved friends consists his greatest pleasure-his chief diversion; for he detests cards and games of all kinds, which serve to kill the time of the multitude in high life. But there is no species of birds, or of other rare animals, as monkeys, foxes, ferrets, weasels, and the like, which he is not keeping at his house; and if any such are publicly shown, he is certain to go and see them, and even to buy some of them. The pleasure he finds in them rekindles as often as he perceives others to be pleased in looking at them. Objects of plastic art are no less sure of engaging his attention. Never has the favour of the great made him overbearing; but amidst all his business he faithfully remembers his friends: to them and to the common weal all his influence is directed. Every one he endeavours to assistthere is nobody he dismisses without some consolation; so that More may be called the protector of all needy and suffering men, for he esteems it the greatest gain to relieve the oppressed, and to remove difficulties from those labouring under them.' With regard to his domestic discipline, the great principle of Sir Thomas was gentleness of behaviour towards his wife, his children, and his domestics. His first wife, Joan, had, during the six years they were married, brought him a child almost every year, of whom four survived him, namely, three daughters and a son. Margaret, his first-born, was his favourite, and in high esteem with Erasmus and other scholars, on account of her extensive knowledge, and the uncommon faculties of her mind. The second was Elizabeth; the third, Cecilia. His son, John, was the youngest, and grandfather to the Mr. T. More, who has written an account of the life of his great-grandfather. His wife dying soon after the birth of the son, Sir Thomas was not long in making another choice; and though, as as he himself tells us, Mrs. Alice, his second wife, was neither young nor beautiful, yet he lived with her, according to Erasmus, as happily as if she was the first of beauties. His courtship again has something peculiar; for he himself had at first not the least thought of marrying Mrs. Aloysia Middleton (she was a widow), but, on the contrary, was engaged to ask her for a friend. Of the learned education he bestowed on his daughters we shall hereafter have occasion to speak. To his domestics he was very attentive, careful of their being always well occupied, and never suffering them to play at cards, or other destructive games. He was so much convinced of the importance of domestic devotion, that he never, even when raised to the highest stations, omitted assembling his family, before going to bed, to pray with him; and even at table he would often have one or the other to read some passage of the Holy Scripture, till he gave a sign, upon which a more general conversation followed, which, on his part, was always pregnant with wit and good-humour. When with his more intimate friends, he would speak of the immortality of the soul in a manner sufficiently indicative of the firm belief and exulting hope with which he looked for it. Of More's literary productions we have to note here, first, his Epigrams. Though he himself does not seem to have valued them very much, they found numerous admirers among his contemporaries; and Beatus Rhenanus, in his letter to Bilibald Pirkheimer, comparing them with those of Marullus and Pontanus, writes- Jam inter Epigrammatographos Pontanum et Marullum in primis hodie miratur Italia, at dispeream si non tantundem in hoc est naturæ, utilitatis vero plus,' &c. At another place, he says- All he (More) writes is interwoven with so much agreeable pleasantry, that I am tempted to believe the Muses have heaped all their playful wit on his head. Even his satire is never lacerating, but entertaining and amusing, and anything but malicious,' &c. And again we find in the Collection of Choice Epigrams, edited by Leodegarius, then Professor of Humanity at Paris, a greater number taken from the epigrams of Sir Thomas than of any other writer. Some of them, indeed, exposed him to a fierce attack, which, however, seems to have more surprised than angered him, as he was easily prevailed upon to refrain from all reply to his antagonist. The occasion which gave rise to that literary feud was the following:-When Henry VIII. waged war with France, in consequence of the famous league of Cambray with the Pope and the King of Spain, Sir Thomas Knevet, Master of Horse, was sent to the coast of Brittany Brittany with a fleet of forty-five sail; and he carried with him many young courtiers, who longed for an opportunity for displaying their valour. After they had committed some depredations, a French fleet of thirty-nine sail issued from Brest, under the command of Primauget, and began an engagement with the English. Primauget, finding his destruction inevitable, bore down upon the vessel of the English admiral, and grappling with her, resolved to make her share his fate. · Both fleets,' writes Hume, stood some time in surprise as spectators of this dreadful engagement; and all men saw with horror the flames which consumed both vessels, and heard the cries of fury and despair which came from the miserable combatants. At last, the French vessel (la Cordelière) blew up, and at the same time destroyed the English (the Regent).' This exploit had been celebrated by a Frenchman, Germain de Brie, otherwise Brictius, in a Latin poem, styled Chordigera navis conflagratio, in which, however, he was not content to extol the valour and bravery of his countrymen, but indulged in many opprobrious expressions against the English. More ridiculed, in a number of epigrams, the extravagancies of the Frenchman. Brictius, on this, grew exasperated, and, notwithstanding the earnest dissuasion of Erasmus, who was friendly to both, he published his Antimorus, answering Erasmus, though contrary to truth, that when he received his letters it had been no longer in his power to suppress the publication; but when Erasmus wrote to the same effect to Sir Thomas More, imploring his forbearance, More, though vehemently and personally attacked, replied, I had hoped Brictius would produce something learned and witty, that might amuse even me, his antagonist, who am not apt to take offence at a joke. To this rude and envenomed concoction I could but laugh, and was resolved to give no answer at all. Other men, however, in whose judgment with regard to my affairs I have more confidence than in mine own, judged otherwise. They were of opinion that there could be some who would read the Antimorus of Brictius, without knowing the Chordigera and my epigrams; and that it might therefore be well done to publish all this together in one book, and thus to present it to the reader.' And yet, that thou mayst see, my Erasmus, (he wrote in a subsequent letter,) how much readier I am to obey thee than Brictius, know that, though, at the receipt of thy letter, my book was not only under the press, but already printed, I have yet bought in all the copies thereof, and keep them with me, with the exception only of the two copies sent to thee and Aegidius, and five others the printer had sold already.' This is certainly no common trait of moderation, especially |