paid better, but he turned a deaf ear to them. Yet he could never give a reason why he should delight in those studies more than others, so prevalent was nature mixed with a generosity of mind, and a hatred to all that was servile, sneaking, or advantageous for lucre's sake.' Henceforth the real events of his life were not outward accidents, but acquisitions of fresh knowledge as new books or manuscripts fell into his clutches. This summer,' he notes in 1656, 'came to Oxon the Antiquities of Warwickshire, written by William Dugdale, and adorned with many cuts. This being accounted the best book of its kind that hitherto was made extant, my pen cannot enough describe how A. Wood's tender affections and insatiable desire of knowledge were ravished and melted down by the reading of that book. What with music and rare books that he found in the public library, his life, at this time and after, was a perfect Elysium.'

Wood's book is valuable not only for the portrait of the man and for its innumerable notes on the literary history of the period, but because it gives as vivid a picture of University life in the latter part of the seventeenth century as Pepys does of London life. It is full of little stories which illustrate the social life of the University, and the manners and morals of graduates and undergraduates. Take, for instance, the story of the proctor who fell off his horse and broke his neck, being drunk; or that of the handsome maid living in Cat Street,' who being deeply in love with a junior fellow of New College poisoned herself with ratsbane. This is mentioned,' says Wood, because it made a great wonder that a maid should be in love with such a person as he, who had a curld shagpate, was squint-eyed and purblind, and much deformed with the small pox.' The decay of learning and the corruption of manners are frequently lamented by Wood. is clear, if we accept his evidence, that the University was better governed in Cromwell's time than it was under the later Stuarts. Multitudes of alehouses, extravagance in apparel, disrespect to seniors and other evil signs marked the decadence of University discipline. He noted the growth of a party he termed the bibbing and pot party,' who controlled all the elections and appointed unfit men to University offices because of their social gifts, and set aside sober scholars. Patronage corrupted the colleges. Now,' he says in 1671, noblemen's sons are created artium magistri for nothing, get fellowships and canonries for nothing, and deprive others more deserving of their bread.'

It

We possess many other diaries of scholars and antiquaries—

Thoresby, De la Pryme, Dugdale1-but none throw so much light on the life of the time as Wood's.

There is another class of diaries and autobiographies which should be taken together-viz. the religious autobiographies, of which many examples of every kind exist. In one way their authors resemble the antiquarians- the moving incident is not their trade'; external events are less important than internal. One of the extremest representatives of this type is Bunyan's Grace Abounding, published in 1666. Bunyan had been a soldier, but the external events of his life are so vaguely alluded to that his biographers have been left in doubt whether he served in the King's or the Parliament's army. What concerned him was the civil war within himself, not that which shook England. Instead of battles and marches he related the trials and troubles of his soul, describing every turn in the conflict with the minuteness with which a military historian recounts a campaign, 'till the Lord through Christ did deliver him from all his guilt and terror that lay upon him.'

Many Quakers set down their spiritual experience for the benefit of their brethren, for instance George Fox and Thomas Ellwood. They state their motives for writing with great definiteness :

'That all may know the dealings of the Lord with me, and the various exercises, trials and troubles, through which he led me, in order to prepare and fit me for the work, unto which he had appointed me; and may thereby be drawn to admire and glorify his infinite wisdom and goodness; I think fit (before I proceed to set forth my publick travels in the service of truth) briefly to mention how it was with me in my youth; and how the work of the Lord was begun, and gradually carried on in me, even from my childhood.'2'

Although my station,' says Ellwood, 'not being so eminent either in the church of Christ or in the world as others who have moved in higher orbs, may not afford such considerable remarks as theirs, yet inasmuch as in the course of my travels through this vale of tears I have passed through various and some uncommon exercises, which the Lord hath been graciously pleased to support me under and conduct me through, I hold it a matter, excusable

1 Diary of Ralph Thoresby, edited by Joseph Hunter, 1830; Diary of Abraham de la Pryme, Surtees Society, 1870; Life, Diary and Correspondence of Sir W. Dugdale, edited by William Hamper, 1820.

2 The first edition of Fox's Journal was published in 1694. The original text, edited by Norman Penney, was published by the Cambridge University Press in

1911.

at least, if not commendable, to give the world some little account of my life.' 1

The lives of master and disciple supplement each other. Fox begins, like Bunyan, with the record of his spiritual troubles. 'I was often under great temptations: I fasted much and walked abroad in solitary places many days, and often took my Bible and went and sat in hollow trees and lonesome places till night came on; and frequently, in the night, walked mournfully about by myself; for I was a man of sorrows in the times of the first workings of the Lord in me.' Then it became clear to him that he was charged to preach certain truths, and he went about preaching them, and became familiar with every kind of physical suffering. He was beaten and imprisoned, and bore all with cheerful pertinacity. Here is my hair, here is my cheek, here is my back,' he would sometimes say to those who threatened him; at other times something in his look stopped those who sought his life, and pistols levelled at him missed fire or knives were dropped. 'Do not pierce me so with thy eyes,' said one man to him. Everywhere Fox argued as well as preached, argued with preachers of every kind-Presbyterians, Baptists, Ranters, parsons, and also with officers and magistrates. He began by going into churches and saying, 'Come down thou deceiver,' to the preacher; afterwards, his disputations were more orderly. Everywhere the result was the same: the antagonist was vanquished; 'His mouth was soon stopped,' or 'He could not open his mouth are the usual phrases. Of one adversary he says, 'His face swelled and was red like a turkey; his lips moved and he mumbled something; the people thought he would have fallen down.' Fox travelled all over England, and wherever he came ' priests and professors,' that is orthodox Puritan ministers and their flocks, trembled at his preaching. It shook the earthly and airy spirit in which they held their profession of religion and worship, so that it was a dreadful thing to them when it was told them The man in leather breeches is come.'

So

Ellwood, on the other hand, had no touch of the prophet about him. In his childhood he tells us he was waggish' and 'full of spirits' ('few boys in the school wore out more birch than I'); at the moment when his autobiography begins he was a very sober, well-conducted young man of eighteen or nineteen. The preaching of the Quakers cast a spell over him; with quiet fervour and

1 The History of the Life of Thomas Ellwood was first published in 1714. The most convenient is that by Henry Morley in 1885.

invincible patience he began to put in practice the principles they taught. First he came into collision with his father, who objected to be addressed with 'thee' and 'thou,' and was enraged when his son insisted on wearing his hat at meals. Sirrah, if ever I hear you say 'thou' or 'thee' to me again, I'll strike your teeth down your throat,' said Mr. Ellwood. . . . 'If you cannot come to dinner without your hive on your head, take your dinner somewhere else.' Later came more serious troubles-assaults and imprisonments. Ellwood gives an admirable account of life in Bridewell and Newgate. The recollections of the Quakers afford ample materials for the history of prisons in the seventeenth century. Sometimes in the lives of the Quakers we get glimpses of great men and great events. Fox's Journal brings Cromwell before us; in Ellwood's Life Milton appears for a moment; the story of a sailor who served under Blake before he was converted supplies us with one of the best accounts of the battle of Santa Cruz. But in general the special merit of the lives of the Quakers is that they introduce us to a wider circle than the memoirs of courtiers and noblemen all sorts and conditions of men appear in their pages; a picture of the middle classes and the people could be put together from them.

One class was particularly given to writing diaries or autobiographies, namely, the Nonconformist clergy. The early part of Baxter's life of himself is excellent; later the author loses himself in a morass of ecclesiastical controversy which few readers can struggle through.' Edmund Calamy's life is also excellent, but a little too much limited by his professional interests. There are several minor lives, such as those of Adam Martindale 3 and Oliver Heywood, which afford evidence for social history, and not merely materials for the historians of Nonconformity.

There is yet another class of Autobiographies of which something must be said those written by seventeenth century women. The English women of the seventeenth century did not write long stories about affairs of state in which their personal adventures formed but a small part; they were not like Madame de Motteville or Madame de Boigne. Their memoirs are more purely memoirs of themselves-domestic chronicles, which incidentally 1 1 Reliquiae Baxterianae, edited by Matthew Sylvester, 1698.

2 A Historical Account of my own Life, by Edmund Calamy. Edited by J. T. Rutt, 1830.

3 Edited by Richard Parkinson for the Chetham Society in 1845.

Edited by J. H. Turner, 3 vols. 1882.

throw some light on the time, but aim at narrating their personal history, and are valuable for the picture they give of daily life and the illustrations they afford of contemporary customs and modes of thinking. While some of the ladies are charming, several are very edifying. Alice Thornton's autobiography belongs to the class of religious autobiographies.' She begins by saying that it is the duty of every true Christian to remember and take notice of all God's gracious acts of providence and merciful dealings with them, and sets down those which have happened to herself. The first section is headed Upon my deliverance from a fall when I was three years old, when I cut a great wound in my forehead of above an inch long. The next is an accident which happened when at the age of four, 'a surfeit by eating some beef which was not well boiled.' She records forty years of her own life in this fashion with appropriate reflections, sometimes supplying some atoms of useful information about household management or country life, but in the main somewhat tedious and unprofitable. Mary Boyle, afterwards Countess of Warwick, is another edifying lady. The chaplain who preached her funeral sermon entitled it Eureka or the Vertuous Woman Found. But her autobiography 2 is much more interesting than Mrs. Thornton's. During the early part of her life she was a mere worldling. Her father, the Earl of Cork, was rich, and the report that he could give me a very great fortune made him have for me many very great and considerable offers, both of persons of great birth and fortune; but I still continued to have an aversion to marriage, living so much at my ease that I was unwilling to close with any offered match.' Moreover, her friendship with a Maid of Honour led Mary Boyle into evil ways: her having so brought me to be very vain and foolish, enticeing me to spend (as she did) my time in seeing and reading plays and romances, and in exquisite and curious dressing.' At last she met Charles Rich, second son to the Earl of Warwick. He became a most diligent gallant to me, seeking by a most humble and respectful address to gain my heart.' So she goes on to relate with brevity, and yet with some interesting detail, the story of her courtship and marriage. Mrs. Thornton omits this part of her career: her marriage, it is evident, was a marriage of reason to be included in a list of providences, because Mr. Thornton was 'a godly sober and discreet person,' but she says much more about her settlement than her courtship. 1 Surtees Society, 1875.

2 Edited by T. Crofton Croker, for the Percy Society, 1848.