be looked on perhaps as a picture, drawn more according to fancy and invention, than after the life; if it were not that those who knew him well, establishing its credit in the present age, will make it pass down to the next with a clearer authority.

I shall pursue his praise no further in my own words, but shall add what the present lord chancellor of England said concerning him, when he delivered the commission to the lord chief justice Rainsford, who succeeded him in that office, which he began in this manner:

The vacancy of the seat of the chief justice of this court, and that by a way and means so unusual, as the resignation of him that lately held it; and this too proceeding from so deplorable a cause, as the infirmity of that body which began to forsake the ablest mind that ever presided here, hath filled the kingdom with lamentations, and given the King many and pensive thoughts how to supply that vacancy again.' And a little after, speaking to his successor, he said, 'the very labors of the place, and that weight and fatigue of business which attends it, are no small discouragements; for what shoulders may not justly fear that burthen, which made him stoop that went before you? Yet, I confess you have a greater discouragement than the mere burthen of your place, and that is the inimitable example of your last predecessor: Onerosum est succedere bono principi*, was

* It is a troublesome task to succeed a virtuous prince.

the saying of him in the panegyric: and you will find it so too, that are to succeed such a chief justice, of so indefatigable an industry, so invincible a patience, so exemplary an integrity, and so magnanimous a contempt of worldly things, without which no man can be truly great; and to all this, a man that was so absolute a master of the science of the law, and even of the most abstruse and hidden parts of it, that one may truly say of his knowledge in the law, what St. Austin said of St. Hierome's knowledge in divinity, Quod Hieronimus nescivit, nullus mortalium unquam scivit*. And therefore the king would not suffer himself to part with so great a man, till he had placed upon him all the marks of bounty and esteem which his retired and weak condition was capable of.'

To this high character, in which the expressions, as they well become the eloquence of him who pronounced them, so they do agree exactly to the subject, without the abatements that are often to be made for rhetoric. I shall add that part of the lord chief justice's answer, in which he speaks of his predeces.

sor.

-A person in whom his eminent virtues and deep learning have long managed a contest for the superiority, which is not decided to this day; nor will it ever be determined, I suppose, which shall get the upper hand: A person that has sate in this court these many years, of whose actions there I

* What Jerome was ignorant of, no man ever knew.

have been an eye and an ear-witness, that by the greatness of his learning always charmed his auditors to reverence and attention: A person of whom I think I may boldly say, that as former times cannot show any superior to him, so I am confident succeeding and future times will never shew any equal. These considerations, heightened by what I have heard of your lordship concerning him, made me anxious and doubtful, and put me to a stand, how I should succeed so able, so good, and so great a man : It doth very much trouble me, that I, who in compar. ison of him am but like a candle lighted in the sunshine, or like a glow-worm at mid-day, should succeed so great a person, that is and will be so eminently famous to all posterity: and I must ever wear this motto in my breast to comfort me, and in my ac. tions to excuse me :

Sequitur, quamvis non passibus æquis.**

Thus were panegyrics made upon him while yet alive, in that same court of justice which he had so worthily governed. As he was honored while he lived, so he was much lamented when he died: and this will still be acknowledged as a just inscription for his memory, though his modesty forbid any such to be put on his tombstone:

THAT HE WAS ONE OF THE greatest PATTERNS THIS AGE HAS AFFORDED, WHETHER IN HIS PRIVATE DEPORTMENT AS A CHRISTIAN, OR IN HIS PUBLIC EMPLOYMENTS, EITHER AT THE BAR OR ON THE BENCH."

*He follows his steps, though at a distance.

Besides the writings already mentioned, Sir Mat. thew Hale published during his life time several treatises on different subjects of natural philosophy; on the gravitation of fluids ;-on the Torricellian experiments; and on the principles of motion.

He published but one law tract himself; but after his death several volumes, to the number of nine or ten, some of them in folio and quarto, were publish. ed. They pertain to several different subjects of law and of legal learning. The following opinion of Lord Ellenborough, a great authority, will give the general reader a notion of the estimation in which he continues to be held as a lawyer:- My lord Hale," says he, "was one of the greatest judges that ever sat in Westminster Hall, who was as competent to express as he was able to conceive."

Hale left behind him many volumes of his own writings, on different subjects of law, of metaphysical and experimental philosophy, and of theology, which remain in manuscript.

He also bequeathed to the society of Lincoln's Inn his Ms. books, of inestimable value, which he had been near forty years collecting with great care and expense. These he left for the use of the members of that society, directing not to be printed, but kept together there. "They are,” says he, "a treasure not fit for every man's view, nor is every man capable of making use of them." C. S. H

AN ENQUIRY

TOUCHING

HAPPINESS.

1. Any man that compares the perfection of the human nature with that of the animal nature, will easily find a far greater excellence in the former than in the latter: For, 1. The faculties of the former are more sublime and noble. 2. The very external fabric of the former much more beautiful and fuller of majesty than the latter. 3. The latter seems to be in a very great measure ordained in subserviency to the former; some for his food, some for clothing, some for use and service, some for delight. 4. All the inferior animals seem to be placed under the discipline, regiment, and order of mankind; so that he brings them all, or the most of them, under his order or subjection.

2. It is therefore just and reasonable for us to think, that if the inferior animals have a kind of felicity or happiness attending their being, and suitable to it,