in Athens, the philosophers made the people knowing, and therefore they thought themselves wise enough to govern, so does preaching with us, and that makes us affect a democracy; for upon these two grounds we all would be governors; either because we think ourselves as wise as the best, or because we think ourselves the elect, and have the spirit, and the rest a company of reprobates that belong to the devil.

LXXIX.

LECTURERS.

1. LECTURERS do in a parish church what the friars did 10 heretofore; get away not only the affections, but the bounty, that should be bestowed upon the minister.

Καὶ διὰ τοῦτ ̓ ἴσως ἐβασιλεύοντο πρότερον, ὅτι σπάνιον ἦν εὑρεῖν ἄνδρας πολὺ διαφέροντας κατ' ἀρετήν, ἄλλως τε καὶ τότε μικρὰς οἰκοῦντας πόλεις. Ἔτι δ ̓ ἀπ ̓ εὐεργεσίας καθίστασαν τοὺς βασιλεῖς, ὅπερ ἐστὶν ἔργον τῶν ἀγαθῶν ἀνδρῶν. Ἐπεὶ δὲ συνέβαινε γίγνεσθαι πολλοὺς ὁμοίους πρὸς ἀρετήν, οὐκέτι ὑπέμενον ἀλλ' ἐζήτουν κοινόν τι, καὶ πολιτείαν καθίστασαν.—iii. 14. ΙΙ.

He shows elsewhere how at Athens successive popular leaders and demagogues ὥσπερ τυράννῳ τῷ δήμῳ χαριζόμενοι τὴν πολιτείαν εἰς τὴν νῦν δημοκρατίαν κατέστησαν.—ii. 12. 4 and 5.

1. 10. Lecturers do in a parish church &c.] In the early part of Charles's reign, the lecturers were under the control of the bishops, and we have frequent proof of the trouble which they caused, and of the pains taken by Laud and by other bishops to keep a tight hand upon them, and to see that they did not abuse the somewhat anomalous position which they occupied as licensed trespassers on another man's ground. By the parliamentary party they were regarded with great favour, and were, so to say, established by an Order of the House (Sept. 6, 1641) 'that it shall be lawful for the Parishioners of any Parish in the Kingdom of England or Dominion of Wales, to set up a lecture, and to maintain an orthodox minister at their own charge, to preach every Lord's day where there is no preaching, and to preach one day in every week where there is no weekly lecture.'

'Thus (says Nalson) did they set up a spiritual Militia of those lecturers who were to marshall their troops . . . neither parsons,

...

2. Lecturers get a great deal of money, because they preach the people tame [as a man watches a hawk] and then they do what they list with them.

3. The lecture in Black-friars, performed by officers of the army, tradesmen, and ministers, is as if a great man should make a feast, and he would have his cook dress one dish, and his coachman another, his porter a third, &c.

vicars, nor curates, but like the order of the Friers Predicants among the Papists, who run about tickling the people's ears with stories of legends and miracles, in the meantime picking their pockets, which were the very faculties of these men.' Nalson, Collections, ii. 447, 8. 1. 2. as a man watches a hawk] i.e. forces it to watch; keeps it without sleep. For this obsolete use of the word, conf.:

'Another way I have to man my haggard,

To make her come and know her keeper's call,
That is to watch her, as we watch these kites
That bate and beat and will not be obedient . .

Last night she slept not, nor to-night she shall not,' &c.
Taming of the Shrew, iv. sc. 1.

'my lord shall never rest,

I'll watch him tame.' Othello, iii. sc. 3.

This is still a known method by which wild hawks are tamed: see 'I have trained haggards or wild hawks perfectly in three weeks. This is done by keeping them awake at night and during the day, until tame.' Corballis, Forty-five Years of Sport. Falconry, p. 463.

1. 4. The lecture in Black-friars &c.] By 1647, after a good deal of alarm had been caused to the Presbyterian party by the growing influence of the Independents, and after several efforts had been made to put down their unlicensed preaching in the army and elsewhere, 'liberty of conscience was now become the great charter; and men who were inspired, preached and prayed when and where they would. Cromwell himself was the greatest preacher; and most of the officers of the army, and many common soldiers, shewed their gifts that way. Clarendon, Hist. iii. 175.

Walker, in his History of Independency, gives a specimen of a common soldier's sermon, preached in 1649; and tells how, on the Sunday after Easter day, six preachers militant at Whitehall tired the patience of their hearers, until at last the Spirit of the Lord called up Oliver Cromwell, who spent an hour in prayer and an hour and a half in a sermon. Part ii. pp. 152, 153 (ed. of 1660).

LXXX.

LIBELS.

THOUGH SOME make slight of libels, yet you may see by them how the wind sits. As take a straw and throw it up into the air, you shall see by that which way the wind is, which you shall not do by casting up a stone. More solid things do not shew the complexion of the times so well as ballads and libels.

LXXXI.

LITURGY.

I. THERE is no church without a liturgy, nor indeed can there be conveniently, as there is no school without a 10 grammar. One scholar may be taught otherwise upon the stock of his acumen, but not a whole school. One or two that are piously disposed, may serve themselves their own way, but hardly a whole nation.

2. To know what was generally believed in all ages, the way is to consult the liturgies, not any private man's writing. As if you would know how the Church of England serves God, go to the Common-prayer book, consult not this, or that man. Besides, liturgies never compliment1, nor use high expressions. The fathers oft-times speak 20 oratoriously.

LXXXII.

LORDS BEFORE THE PARLIAMENT.

I. GREAT lords, by reason of their flatterers, are the first that know their own virtues, and the last that know their 1 Compliment] complement, MSS.

own vices. Some of them are ashamed upwards, because their ancestors were too great. Others are ashamed downwards, because they are too mean.

2. The prior of St. John of Jerusalem is said to be primus baro Angliæ, the first baron of England; because being last of the spiritual barons, he chose to be first of the temporal. He was a kind of an otter, a knight half spiritual, and half temporal.

3. Question. Whether is every baron a baron of some 10 place?

IO

Answer. 'Tis according to his patent. Of late years they have been made baron of some place, but anciently not, called only by their sirname, or the sirname of some family into which they have been married.

4. The making of new lords lessens all the rest. 'Tis in the business of lords as 'twas with St. Nicholas's image: the countryman, you know, could not find in his heart1 to adore the new image, made of his own plum-tree, though he had formerly worshipped the old one. The lords that 20 are ancient we honour, because we know not whence they were; but the new ones we slight, because we know their beginning.

5. For the Irish lords here to take upon them in Eng

1 In his heart, H. 2] in his own heart, H.

1. 4. The prior of St. John &c.] See Excursus D.

1. 11. 'Tis according to his patent &c.] See Selden's Titles of Honour, Part ii. ch. 5, sec. 28, where the whole subject is discussed at length, and illustrations are given of the earlier and later forms of patents of nobility. Works, iii. 774.

1. 23. For the Irish lords here &c.] In 1626 a petition was addressed to the King, complaining that Scotch and Irish Lords, presuming on a precedence which had been granted them by courtesy, 'do by reason of some late created dignities in those kingdoms of Scotland and Ireland, claim precedency of the peers of this realm, which tends both to the disservice of your Majesty and these realms, and to the great disparagement of the English nobility. . . . 'We therefore humbly beseech your Majesty that some course may be taken .. so as the inconvenience to your Majesty may be

...

1

land, is as if the cook in the friars 1 should come to my lady Kent's kitchen, and take upon him to roast the meat there, because he is a cook in another place.

LXXXIII.

LORDS IN THE PARLIAMENT.

I. THE lords' giving protections is a scorn upon them. A protection means nothing actively, but passively. He

1 In the friars, H. original reading, with 'fayrs' written over it, and with

'friars' restored in the margin in a different hand] faires, H. 2; fayers, S.

prevented, and the prejudice and disparagement of the Peers and nobility of this kingdom be redressed.' Rushworth, Collections, i. 233. Among the reasons given in support of the petition is a statement that these Scotch and Irish Lords, whatever titles they bear, are ‘in the eye of the Law no more than mere Plebeians.'

1. 1. cook in the friars] After the death of the Earl of Kent, Selden lived with the Countess Dowager, generally at her house in Whitefriars. The obtrusive 'cook in the Friars' may be understood therefore as the cook from some neighbour's house. The var. lec. 'fair' or 'fairs' seems to have been put in by some one who did not bear in mind where Selden had been domiciled.

1. 5. The lords' giving protections &c.] The effect of a protection was that the person holding it could not be arrested for debt. It was rightfully given to a servant of a member of either House, and was sought and obtained and used by many persons who had no rightful claim to it, and who used it to evade payment of their just debts.

In 1641 a petition was delivered to the Commons by divers citizens of London, against the abuses of Parliamentary protections, alleging that if there were not some speedy order for the calling in or regulating the same, they would occasion the undoing of many families. Rushworth, Collections, iv. 279.

It appears from the Lords' Journals that this petition was addressed to both Houses, and was considered by both. A few days afterwards a Committee of the House sat, and concluded that divers protections should be annulled, some being surreptitiously obtained, others procured by persons of ability, on purpose to defeat their creditors. iv. 282. This abuse of protections was felt by London tradesmen as a greater grievance than ship-money. iv. 396.