writings indicate that he possessed a cheerful and healthy disposition, and that he was capable of discovering enjoyment in everyday pleasures, and of appreciating human life and character in a wide variety of aspects. He seems to have had a special delight in outward nature-as he expressed it, he loved “ to see God's blessing spring out of his mother earth ”; and he spent much of his spare time in visiting his parishioners, his deference towards them, if excessive, being yet mingled with a grave dignity which rendered unwarrantable liberties impossible. As a preacher, though singularly devoid of the qualities which win the applause of the multitude, he always excited the interest of the more intelligent, the breadth and finely balanced wisdom of his thoughts and the fascination of his composition greatly modifying the impression produced by his weak voice and ineffective manner. Partly, doubtless, on account of his dim sightedness, he never removed his eye from his manuscript,

and, according to Fuller, “ he may be said to have made good music with his fiddle and stick alone, having neither pronunciation nor gesture to grace his matter.”

To accede without explanation to the claim put forth for the Ecclesuutzcal Pottly of Hooker, that it marks an epoch in English prose literature and English thought, would both be to do some lll llIsIILC to rtters previous to him, and, lf not to overestimate his influence, to misinterpret its character. By no means can his excursions in English prose be regarded as chiefly those of a pioneer; and not only is his intellectual position inferior to that of Shakespeare Spenser and Bacon# who alone can be properly reckoned as tne master spirits of the age, but in reality what effect he may hae had upon the thought of his contem oraries was soon disregarded and scpt out of sight in the hancfito-hand struggle with l'ur1tan1~.m, and his influence, so far from being immediate and confined to one particular era, has since the reaction against Puritantsm been slowly and imperceptibly permeating and colouring English thought Hts ork is, however, the earliest in English prose with enough of the presery ing salt of excellence to adapt it to the mental palate of modern readers. Attempts more elaborate than those of the old chroniclers had been made two centuries previously to employ hnghsh prose both for narrative and for discussion; and, a few years before htm, Roger Ascham, Sir Thomas More, Latimer, Sir Philip Sidney, the compilers of the prayer book, and various translators of the Bible had in widely different departments of literature brought to light many samples of the rich wealth of expression that was latent in the language; but Hooker's is the fxrst independent work in English prose of notable power and genius, and the vigour and grasp of its thought are not more remarkable than the felicity of its literary style Its more usual and obvious excellence's are clearness of expression, notwithstanding occasionally complicated methods; great aptness and conciseness in the formation of individual clauses, and such a fine sense of proportion and rhythm in their arrangement as almost conceals the difficulties of syntax by which he was hampered, finished simplicity, notwithstanding a statehness too umform and unbroken; a nice discrimination in the choice of words and phrases, so as both to portra the exact shade of his meaning, and to express each of his thoughts with that degree of emphasis appropriate to its place in his composition. In regard to qualities more relating to the matter than the manner we may note the subtle and partly hidden humour; the strong enthusiasm underlying that seemingly calm and passionless exposition of principles which continu-1lly led him away from the minutiae of temporary dis utes, and has tarned for him the somewhat misleading epithet ofp" jud1c1ous;” the sohdity of learning, not ostentatiously displayed, but indicated in the character and variety of his illustrations and his com rehensixe mastery of all that relates to his subyect, the breadth of) his conceptions, and the sweep and ease of lns movements in the highest regions of thought, the fine poetical descriptions occasionally introduced, in which lns eloquence attains a grave, rich and massive harmony that compares not unfavourably with the finest prose of Milton His manner is, of course, defective in the flexibility and yarictx characteristic of the best models of English prose literature afttr the language had been enriched and perfected by long use, and his sentences, constructed too much according to Latin usages, are often tautological and too protracted into long concatenations of tlauscs, bnt if, when regarded superficially, his style presents in some respects a stiff and antiquated aspect, It yet possesses an original and innate charm that has retained its freshness after the lapse of nearly three centuries

lbe dtrcct mtcrest in the Etcleszastzral Polzty is now philosophical and pohtnal rather than theological, for what theological importance it possessed nas rather in regard to the spirit and method in which theology should be discussed than in regard to the decision of strictl Y

theological points Hooker bases his reasoning on principles which lf Bacon was the author of The Cfzzgwn Paradmces his philosoplnt al standpoint in reference to religion was not onlv less advanced than that of Hooker, but m a sense directly opposed to it X111 2).

l

he discovered in Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, but the intellectual atmosphere of his age was different from that which surrounded them, he was acted upon by new and more various impulses enabling him to imblbe more thoroughly the spirit of Greek thought which was the source of their inspiration, and thus to reacli a higher and freer region than scholasticism, and in a sense to inaugurate modern philosophy in England It may be admitted that his principles are only partially and in some degree capriciously wrought out-that if he is not under the dominion of intellectual tendencies leading to opposite results there are occasional blanks and gaps in his argument where he seems sometimes to be groping after a meaning w ich he cannot fully grasp; but he is often charged with obscurity simply because readers of various theological schools, beholding in his principles what seem the outline and justification of their own ideas, are disappointed when they find that these outlines instead of acuiring as they narrowly examine them the full and definite form of llheir anticipations, widen out into a region bey ond their notions and sympathies, and therefore from their point of view enveloped in mist and shade. It is the exposition of philosophical principles in the first and second books of the Polzty, and not the application of these principles in the remaining books that gives the work its standard place in English literature. It was intended to be an answer to the attacks of the Presbyterians on the Episcopalian poltty and customs. but no attempt is made directly to oust Presb terianlsm from the place it then held in the Church of England. Tfie work must rather be regarded as a remonstrance against the narrow giound chosen by the Presbyterians for their basis of attack, Hooker's exact position being that “ a necessity of polity and regiment may be held in all churches without holding any form to be necessary The general purpose of his reasoning is to vindicate Episcopac from objections that had been urged against it, but he attains a resullt which has other and wider consequences than this. The fundamental principle on which he bases his reasoning is the unity and all embracing character of law-law “ whose seat, ” he beautifully says, “ is the bosom of God, whose voice the harmony of the world ” Lawas operative in nature, as regulating each man's individual character and actions, as seen in the formations of societies and government sis equally a manifestation and development of the divine order according to which God Himself acts, is the expression in various forms of the divine reason. He makes a distinction between natural and positive laws, the one being eternal and immutable, the other varying according to external necessity and expediency; and he includes all the forms of gov ernment under laws that are positive and therefore alterable according to circumstances. Their application is to be determined by reason, reason enlightened and strengthened by every variety of knowledge, discipline and experience. The leadln feature in his system is the high place assigned to reason, for, thouglg affirming that certain truths necessary to salvation could be made known only by special divine revelation, he yet elevates reason into the criterion by which these truths are to be judged, and the standard to determine what in revelation is temporal and what eternal. “ It is not the word of God itself, " he says, “ which doth or possibly can assure us that we do well to think it His word.” At the same time he saves himself from the dangers of abstract and rash theorizing by a deep and absolute regard for facts, the diligent and accurate study of which he makes of the first importance to the pro er use of reason. “ The general and perpetual votee of men is, ” fic says, “as the sentence of God Himself. For that which all men have at all times learned, nature herself must needs have taught; and, God being the author of nature, her voice is but His instrument." Applying his principles to man individually, the foundation of morality is, according to Hooker, immutable, and rests “ on that law which God from the beginning hath set Himself to do all things by "; this law is to be discovered by reason; and the perfection which reason teaches us to strive after is stated, with characteristic breadth of conception and regard to the facts of human nature, to be “ a triple perfection: first a sensual, consisting in those things which very life Itself requlreth, either as necessary supplements, or as beauties or ornaments thereof; then an intellectual, consisting in those things which none underneath man is either capable of or acquainted with, lastly, a. spiritual or divine, consisting in those things where unto we tend by supernatural means here, but cannot here attain unto them. Applying his princi les to man as a member of a community, he assigns practically the same origin and sanctions to ecclesiastical as to civil government. His theory of goy ernment forms the basis of the Treatzse on Czwl Government by Locke, although Locke develo ed the theory in a way that Hooker would not have sanctioned. The force and justification of government Hooker derives from ubhc approbation, either given directly by the parties immediately concerned, or indirectly through inheritance from their ancestors. says, ' naturally have no full and perfect power to poltttc multitudes of men, therefore utterly without could in such sort be at no 1nan's commandment

be commanded we do consent, w hen that society

pait hath at any tnne before consented, without “ Sith men, " he

command whole

onr consent we

hying. And to

whereof we are

revoking the same after, by the like universal agreement" His theory as he stated it is in various of tts aspects and applications liable to objection; but taken as a whole it is the first lnlosophical statement of the principles which, though disregarded) in the suc eeeding age, have since regulated political progress in England

II