wrong side, in the struggle between Protestantism and Popery. It is almost unaccountable: but I cannot much regret it, because it is satisfactory to see that, even amidst all the delusions and falsehoods of Popery, it is still permitted for a man to walk by faith and love, and as a true follower of his Lord.

His next move was a much better one; he resolved to marry. "God," says one of his old biographers, "had allotted him for another state,-not to live solitary-but that he might be a pattern to reverend married men: how they should carefully bring up their children; how dearly they should love their wives; how they should employ their endeavours wholly for the good of their country, yet excellently perform the virtues of religious men, as piety, humility, obedience, yea, conjugal chastity." Never was a man more perfectly fitted for all the tranquil happiness of "his ain fireside." He had a sweet, gentle, loving temper; he was full of cheerful mirth; he ruled his household with sense, and with firmness; above all, he was deeply imbued with a spirit of loving and fearing God. In his behaviour to his children he seems exactly to have fulfilled the bidding of these beautiful lines of Coleridge:

"If in thine own house thou would'st bear firm rule,

And sun thee in the light of happy faces,

Love, hope, and patience, these must be thy graces,

And in thine own heart let them first keep school."

Of his courtship we have the following amusing account: "Sir Thomas having determined, by the advice and direction of his ghostly father, to be a married man, there was, at that time, a pleasant conceited gentleman, of an ancient family in Essex, one Mr. John Colt, of New Hall, that invited him unto his house, being much delighted with his company, proffering unto him the choice of any of his daughters, who were young gentlewomen of very good carriage, good complexions, and very religiously inclined; whose honest and sweet conversation, and virtuous education enticed Sir Thomas not a little;

and although his affection most served him to the second, for that he thought her the fairest and best favoured, yet when he thought unto himself that it would be a kind of grief, and some blemish to the eldest to have the younger sister preferred before her, he, out of a kind of compassion, settled his fancy upon the eldest, and soon after married her, with all her friends' good liking." Their union was singularly happy, and they lived in a house in Bucklersbury, in great contentment and peace.

He now set to work in good earnest at his profession, and rose rapidly at the bar; he also undertook the office of under-sheriff of London, which at that time was one of considerable dignity. When twenty-four years old he was returned to the House of Commons, and at once showed the boldness and integrity of his character by doing what no one had dared for a long time to do in Parliament-he thwarted, by an eloquent speech, the king's demand for a large supply of money! "so that," we are told, "Mr. Tyler, one of the king's privy-council, went presently from the house, and told his majesty that a beardless boy had disappointed him of all his expectations; whereupon the king, conceiving great indignation towards him, could not be satisfied until he had some way revenged it." He did not revenge it, however, on Mr. More, because Mr. More had at that time no property to lose, and Henry VII. had always an eye to the main chance: so the king scraped up a quarrel against Sir John More the father, and squeezed a fine of a hundred pounds out of him. Probably Henry would have done still more mischief, had he lived longer, and More had actually "determined to go over sea, thinking that being in the king's indignation he could not live in England without danger." He was forced to withdraw in great measure from the bar; but he employed the leisure thus gained in "perfecting himself in most of the liberal sciences, as music,

arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy, and growing to be a perfect historian:" he also studied the French tongue, and sometimes recreated his tired spirits by playing on the viol. Happily Henry VII. died before he had wreaked his full vengeance on the young patriot, and Henry VIII. came to the throne amid the joyful hopes of the whole nation.

More now resumed his profession, and we are told, that "at that time there was in none of the prince's courts of the laws of this realm, any matter of importance in controversy, wherein he was not with the one party of counsel." "He now gained, without grief, not so little as £400 a-year,” an income which, Lord Campbell says, was about equivalent to one of £10,000 a-year at the present day. The worst of all his good fortune was that it led him to what many men would have thought the very summit of their ambition, but which to him was a source of much vexation, and at last of a cruel death. The king, hearing of his merits, wished to be made acquainted with him, and having been present at a trial, wherein More acquitted himself extremely well, Henry much "praised him for his upright and commendable behaviour; and for no entreaty would henceforth be induced any longer to forbear his service." More accordingly was obliged to give up his lucrative practice at the bar; but was made Master of the Requests, and a Privy Councillor. Up to this time he had lived in a small house in Bucklersbury, which is a narrow street running out of the Poultry; but he now removed to Chelsea, at that time a country village, though now a mere suburb of London.

Here he took into

evidently he had His first wife had now married again,

his hands a large farm and garden, and great enjoyment in these country pursuits. died, leaving him with four children; and he in order to provide them with a caretaker; at least it can hardly have been a love match, for the lady was a widow of good

years, and of no good favour or complexion." She was a kind

stepmother to his children, and affectionate to him, but she seems to have been a foolish and worldly minded woman. More himself used to say after, that "she was penny wise and pound foolish, saving a candle's end, and spoiling a velvet gown;" while she would rate him for not trying harder to rise in the world; and when he said he preferred peace and tranquillity to the whirl and risk of an ambitious life, she exclaimed, "Tillie vallie, tillie vallie; will you sit and make goslings in the ashes? My mother hath often said unto me, it is better to rule than to be ruled." "Now in truth," answered he, "that is truly said, good wife, for I never found you yet willing to be ruled." However, though perhaps there were some drawbacks to his matrimonial bliss, and, to use his father's metaphor, he had not got an eel out of the bag, still she was not an absolute viper; and Erasmus, who lived a great deal with them, says that "No husband ever gained so much obedience from a wife by authority and severity, as More by gentleness and pleasantry. Though verging on old age, and not of a yielding temper, he prevailed on her to take lessons on the lute, the cithara, the viol, the monchord, and the flute, which she daily practised to him.” More's personal appearance has been thus described by his great-grandson. "He was of a middle stature, well proportioned, of a pale complexion; his hair of chestnut colour, his eyes gray, his countenance mild and cheerful; his voice not very musical, but clear and distinct; his constitution, which was good originally, was never impaired by his way of living, otherwise than by too much study. His diet was simple and abstemious, never drinking any wine but when he pledged those who drank to him, and rather mortifying than indulging his appetite in what he ate."

He had a large family party assembled round him, for his daughters and their husbands and children all lived under his roof, and a more cheerful and affectionate family it would not

be easy to imagine than they seem to have formed, and this amiability was elevated and secured by piety. Morning and evening did he and his household join together in prayer and praise to God. "Religion," says Erasmus, "was their first care, and their leisure was given to liberal studies and profitable reading. No wrangling, no angry word was heard in it; no one was idle; every one did his duty with alacrity and with a temperate cheerfulness." More himself gives us a pleasant glimpse of his home life in one of his letters. He complains that he has so little time for study, because all his day is so full of business; and then, says he, "when I go home, I must give my time to my family. I must gossip with my wife, chat with my children, talk to my servants, and so on; for all these things I reckon part of my business unless I would become a stranger to my own house; for with whomsoever either nature or choice or chance has engaged a man in any relation of life, he must endeavour to make himself as acceptable to them as he possibly can."

Unhappily for him he was so much too charming, that he lost a great deal of domestic enjoyment, and of time for the literary pursuits of which he was so fond. He was a good deal run after at home by distinguished foreigners and others; and what was far worse, the king took such an immense fancy to him, that poor Sir Thomas was almost plagued to death by incessant commands to attend upon the selfish young monarch. "The king's custom was, upon holidays, when he had done his own devotions, to send for Sir Thomas into his traverse, and there, sometimes upon matters of astronomy, geometry, and divinity, and such other faculties, to sit and confer with him; otherwhile also, in the clear night, he would have him walk with him on the leads, there to discourse with him of the diversity of the courses, motions, and operations of the stars; and because he was of a very pleasant disposition, it pleased His Majesty