hope upon entering into a happy immortality in another existence. His bursts of repentance and remorse were humiliating and instructive; and terminated with propriety the tenour of a life which had never experienced the satisfaction and the transports of patriotism and probity.

GILBERT STUART.

JOHN KNOX.

THE zeal which he had displayed in overturning popery, and in resisting the despotic projects of Mary of Lorraine, have distinguished and immortalized his name; and, upon the establishment of the Reformation, he continued to act with fortitude according to his principles. His piety was ardent, and his activity indefatigable; his integrity was superior to corruption; and his courage could not be shaken by dangers or death. In literature and learning his proficiency was slender and moderate; and to philosophy he was altogether a stranger. His heart was open, his judgment greater than his penetration, his temper severe, his behaviour rustic. The fears and contempt he entertained of popery were extravagant; and while he propagated the reformed doctrines he fancied he was advancing the purposes of Heaven. From his conviction that the ends he had in view were the noblest that can actuate a human creature, he was induced to imagine that he had a title to prosecute them by all the methods within his power. His motives of conduct were disinterested and upright; but

the strain of his actions and life deserves not commendation. He was ever earnest to promote the glory of God; but he perceived not that this sublime maxim, in its unlimited exercise, consists not with the weakness and imperfections of man. It was pleaded by the murderers of Cardinal Beaton, and he scrupled not to consider it as a sufficient vindication of them. It was appealed to by Charles IX. as his apology for the massacre of Paris; and it was urged by Ravaillac as his justifying motive for the assassination of Henry IV. The most enormous crimes have been promoted by it, and it stimulated this reformer to cruel devastations and outrages. Charity, moderation, the love of peace, patience and humanity, were not in the number of his virtues. Papists as well as popery were the objects of his detestation; and though he had risen to eminence by exclaiming against the persecutions of priests, he was himself a persecutor. His suspicions that the queen was determined to reestablish the popish religion were rooted and uniform; and upon the most frivolous pretences he was strenuous to break that chain of cordiality which ought to bind together the prince and the people. He inveighed against her government, and insulted her person with virulence and indecency. It flattered his pride to violate the duties of a subject, and to scatter sedition. He affected to direct the politicians of his age; and the ascendant he maintained over the people drew to him their respect and obeisance. He delivered his sentiments to them with the most unbounded freedom; and he sought not to restrain or to

disguise his impetuosity, or his peevishness. His advices were pressed with heat; his admonitions were pronounced with anger; and whether his theme was a topic of policy or of faith, his knowledge appeared to be equally infallible. He wished to be considered as an organ of the divine will. Contradiction inflamed him with hostility; and his resentments took a deep and a lasting foundation. He considered the temporal interests of society as inferior to the ecclesiastical; and, unacquainted alike with the objects of government and the nature of men, he regarded the struggles of ambition as impious and profane; and knew not that the individual is carried to happiness and virtue on the tide of his passions, and that admiration and eminence are chiefly to be purchased by the vigour, the fortitude, and capacity which are exerted and displayed in public occupations. He inculcated retired and ascetic virtues. He preached the unlimited contempt of this world; he was a mortal enemy to gaiety and mirth; and it was his opinion that human life ought to be consumed in the solemnities of devotion, in sufferance, and sorrow. pride of success, the spirit of adulation, the awe with which he struck the gaping and ignorant multitude, inspired him with a superlative conception of his own merits. He mistook for a prophetic impulse the illusions of a heated fancy; and, with an intemperate and giddy vanity, he ventured at times to penetrate into the future, and to reveal the mysteries of Providence. Not contented with being a saint, he aspired to be a prophet. In discharging the

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functions of his ministry, his ardour was proportioned to his sincerity. Assiduous and fervent toils, watchful and anxious cares, wasted his strength and hastened his dissolution. He saw it approach without terror; spoke with exultation of the services which he had rendered to the gospel and the church; and was constantly in prayer with the brethren. His confidence of a happy immortality was secure and firm, and disdained the slightest mixture of suspicion or doubt. He surrendered his spirit with cheerfulness, and without a struggle. It belongs to history to describe with candour his virtues as well as his imperfections and it may be observed, in alleviation of the latter, that the times in which he lived were rude and fierce; and that his passion for converts, and his proneness to persecution, while they rose more immediately out of the intenseness of his belief, and the natural violence of his temperament, were keenly and warmly fostered by his professional habits.

GILBERT STUART.

CARDINAL WOLSEY.

THE character of Wolsey has been portrayed by the pencil of Erasmus, who had tasted of his bounty, and by that of Polydore, whom his justice or policy had thrown into confinement. Neglecting the venal praise of the one, and the venomous slander of the other, we may pronounce him a minister of consummate address and commanding abilities; greedy of wealth and power

and glory; anxious to exalt the throne on which his own greatness was built, and the church of which he was so distinguished a member; but capable, in the pursuit of these different objects, of stooping to expedients which sincerity and justice would disavow, and of adopting, through indulgence to the passions and caprice of the king, measures which often involved him in contradictions and difficulties, and ultimately occasioned his ruin. As legate, he is said to have exercised without delicacy his new superiority over the archbishop of Canterbury, and to have drawn to his court the cognizance of causes which belonged to that primate: but the question of right between them admitted of much dispute, and it is acknowledged, on the other hand, that he reformed many abuses in the church, and compelled the secular and regular clergy to live according to the canons. His office of chancellor afforded him the opportunity of displaying the versatility and superiority of his talents. He was not, indeed, acquainted with the subtleties and minutia of legal proceedings, and on that account was careful to avail himself of the knowledge and experience of others: but he always decided according to the dictates of his own judgment; and the equity of his decrees was universally admitted and applauded. To appease domestic quarrels, and reconcile families at variance with each other, he was accustomed to offer himself as a friendly arbitrator between the parties: that the poor might pursue their claims with facility and without expense, he established courts of requests: in the ordinary administration of