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For the Schoolmaster.

Jeremy Taylor.

H.

Sketch of his Life and Character and the Times
-His Style-Specimens of his Power as a
Writer-Examples of his use of Illustration

-Conclusion.

Born, 1613; died, 1667.
James I.-1603-1625. Charles I.-1625-1649.
The Commonwealth-1649-1653.

The Protectorate-1653-1660. Charles II.

1660-1685.

JEREMY TAYLOR was a witness of the stormy scenes of the English Revolution. He lived to see the short reign of Charles, the martyr, best known by his faithlessness, the overthrow of the power of that perfidious king, the struggle which seated Cromwell in the chair of state, and finally, the revulsion of power after the death of Charles the First, which restored his son, Charles the Second, to the throne of the Stuarts. Through all the fortunes of Charles, this good man remained loyal to his king. He chose the side of the friends of the crown, and when they were conquered, he shared in their tribulations.

direction which that head-strong man, from some strange motive, gave to the growing talent of Taylor. He sent him to Oxford. Here the mental culture and training fitted him still better for his duties, while his lovely character gained for him the esteem of all who knew him. The Archbishop advanced Taylor to the rectory of Uppingham, whence he was promoted to the office of king's chaplain.

At this time, on account of the ambition of Charles and the distrust of his subjects, occurred that revolution which ended in placing the king and his party under the domination of the Roundheads, and which made Cromwell and his army the ruling power of the state. The fortunes and prospects of Taylor, in common with those of the same political opinion, were ruined. Taylor sought refuge from the storm, probably in Wales, where it is said he supported himself by teaching, and that he was attached as chaplain to the royal army. It is asserted that he was actually taken prisoner in one of the revolutionary

battles.

On the restoration of Charles II. were bestowed upon him the bishoprics of Down and Connor and Dromore, in Ireland. These favors were granted, possibly, in common with others, on account of his attachment to the crown. The degree of D. D. was also con

His birth was obscure. He was the son of a barber in Cambridge, in which town he received his elementary education. The talents which he possessed developed themselves very early in life. At thirteen, he entered Caius College, at Cambridge, and soon after he re-ferred upon him, and afterwards the office of ceived his degree of Master of Arts, he became public lecturer at St. Paul's, in London. The excellence of his discourses, the beauty and grace of his person attained for him a richly merited fame.

vice chancellor to the University of Dublin.

The honors received by this worthy man, who, like all truly great men, was truly humble, and the contemplation, in his retirement, of the various and abrupt changes of scene in The notorious Land was then Archbishop the political drama which was then enacting, of Canterbury. He soon heard of the rare strengthened his moral character, educated his and genuine talents of the young preacher and judgment and furnished him with ample matebecame interested in his welfare. Although rial for the study of human nature in its varied the name of Land suggests little of himself circumstances. To the truth of this asserbesides selfishness and misguided ambition, it tion, the character of his writings bears is worthy of some honor on account of the abundant testimony.

is to be feared in public; he is to be feared in private; if you go forth he spies you; if you go in, he sees you; when you light the candle, he observes you; when you put it out, then also God marks you. Be sure that while you are in his sight, you behave yourself as becomes so holy a presence.' But if you will sin, retire yourself wisely, and go where God cannot see; for no where else can you be safe. And certainly, if men would always actually consider, and really esteem this truth, that God is the great eye of the world, always watching over our actions, and an ever-open

His productions are distinguished for richness of illustration, for grace and dignity and for that directness and honesty which convinces more powerfully than argument. There is, indeed, in his writings, more of evidence than of argument. His is less the plea of a skilful lawyer than the charge of an experienced judge. In the mind there is no opposition to his precepts. He carries his readers with him, in his opinions, and he not only convinces, but he gains them. As illustrations of this power are the following examples given, from his "Holy Living and Dying," first, under the head of Purity of In-ear to hear all our words, and an unwearied arm ever lifted to crush a sinner into ruin, it would be the readiest way in the world, to make sin cease from amongst the children of men and for men to approach to the blessed estate of the saints in heaven, who cannot sin for they always walk in the presence, and behold the face of God."

tention:

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'Holy intention is to the actions of a man that which the soul is to the body, or form to its matter, or the root to the tree, or the sun to the world, or the fountain to a river, or the base to a pillar; for without these, the body is a dead trunk, the matter is sluggish, the tree is a block, the world is darkness, the river is quickly dry, the pillar rushes into flatness and a ruin; and the action is sinful or unprofitable and vain. The poor farmer, that gave a dish of cold water to Artaxerxes, was rewarded with a golden goblet; and he that gives the same to a disciple in the name of a disciple, shall have a crown: but if he gives water in despite, when the disciple needs wine or cordial, his reward shall be to want that water to cool his tongue."

2. The Presence of God:

3. The Value of Time:

"It is very remarkable, that God who giveth plenteously to all creatures, he hath scattered the firmament with stars, as a man sows corn in his fields, in a multitude bigger than the capacities of human order; he hath made so much variety of creatures, and gives us great choice of meats and drinks, although any one of both kinds would have served our needs; and so in all necessities of nature; yet in the distribution of our time God seems to be straight-handed and gives it to us, not as nature gives us rivers, enough to drown us, "The consideration of this great truth is of but drop by drop, minute after minute, so that a very universal use, in the whole course of we can never have two minutes together, but the life of a Christian. All the consequences he takes away one when he gives us another. and effects of it are universal. He that re- This should teach us to value our time, since members that God stands as a witness and a God so values it, and by his so small distrijudge, beholding every secresy besides his im-bution of it, tells us it is the most precious piety, must have put on impudence, if he be not much restrained in his temptation to sin. A fine specimen of true poetry, an instance For the greatest part of sin is taken away, if of the author's exquisite power in illustraa man have witness of his conversation. He tion, is the well-known passage—

thing we have."

Jeremy Taylor's description of the Lark, which they who have not patience to read the preceding extracts will find worthy a careful perusal. It is in illustration of the subject, Prayer:

"For so have I seen a lark rising from his bed of grass, and soaring upwards, singing as he rises, and hopes to get to heaven, and climb above the clouds; but the poor bird was beaten back with the loud sighing of an eastern wind, and his motion made irregular and inconstant, descending more at every breath of the tempest than it could recover by the libration and frequent weighing of his wings; till the little creature was forced to sit down and pant, and stay till the storm was over; and then it made a prosperous flight, and did rise and sing, as if it had learned music and motion from an angel as he passed sometimes through the air about his ministries here below. So is the prayer of a good man."

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There is sweetness and grace in the dictioned of the following story.

The Imitation of Christ:

"It is reported in the Bohemian story, that St. Wenceslaus, their king, one winter night going to his devotions, in a remote church, barefooted in the snow and sharpness of unequal and pointed ice, his servant Podavivus, who waited upon his master's piety, and endeavored to imitate his affections, began to faint through the violence of the snow and cold, till the king commanded him to follow him, and set his feet in the same footsteps, which his feet should mark for him: the servant did so, and either fancied a cure, or found one; for he followed his prince, helped forward with shame and zeal to his imitation, and by the forming footsteps for him in the In the same manner does the blessed

nations of our own age; while the sportive

sallies, which often lie in wait behind the solemn looking Greek type of Aristophanes, or sparkle in the dignified hexameters of Juvenal, supply a proof of the love of jesting among

Nor are such works the men of olden time. by any means valueless to the philosophic student of men and manners. A single satirical scene in the comedy of the "Clouds" often gives a far clearer insight into the hearts and homes of Athens, than many a duller and more sober page of Plutarch. There are innumerable passages in Terence, and in the Satires of Horace, which illustrate the intellectual and the moral peculiarities of representative men from all classes of Roman society with a more picturesque air of reality than ever surrounds the beautiful compositions of Cicero. Indeed our clearest, if not our only correct, ideas of the manners of the These examples may give some ideas of the Augustan age are due to the assiduous tristyle of the writer whom we have been study-fling of the "friend of Mæcenas."

snow.

Jesus."

ing. In this day of haste and unnatural ex

Displays of intellectual agility also promote

our appreciation of the characteristics of men | each of which it is probably used by distant from us in time and place. On how Hierocles: 1st. A school-man, or man of much more familiar terms we are with Samson, after he has proposed his riddle to the Philistines! How much more closely we sympathize with the hero, Edipus, when he displays the identity of our own human nature with his by solving the question of the Sphinx, "What being with four feet has two feet, and three feet, and only one voice; whose feet vary, and when it has most is the weakest ?"

In the light of a study in human nature, a certain sort of value and interest surrounds the jests of Hierocles. The authorship of these Greek jeu d'esprits," is generally imputed to a New Platonist, who lived in Alexandria about the middle of the fifth century, and acquired celebrity by his commentary on the Golden Verses of Pythagoras. Whatever opinion may prevail in respect of their authenticity however, there can be no doubt that these productions are worthy of our notice as illustrations of the modes of thought of both writer and readers at a very early period. They were first drawn from the obscurity of the manuscript by Marq. Freherus, Landenburg, 1605, and have since been printed in several different forms at Leipsic, Paris, and London.

A translation of a few of these jests will show that Irish Bulls were sometimes heard in the streets of Alexandria, and that some, at least, of our most brilliant newspaper witticisms have come out of the land of Egypt.

The most unpalatable feature to "R. I. Schoolmasters" is the fact, that all the jokes are cracked at the expense of "Scholasticus," the type of a class of foolish pedants, who devoted all their leisure to unpractical speculations. It is curious to trace the origin of this word Scholasticus." It is derived from Schole, meaning literally, leisure, but in fact exactly our own word school. From this root, "Scholasticus" gains two signfications, in

leisure, who improves his time, but grows unpractical. 2d. A lazy, ignorant man of leisure, who has neither theoretical nor practical wisdom. What a sermon to school-men of the present day is wrapped up in the etymology of this single word! Among the brilliant sayings and doings of this class of persons are the following. The first reminds us of the New England clergyman who carefully replanted all his young bean-plants in a reversed position, thinking that nature had made a mistake in her first intention.

1. A silly fellow having a cask of Aminaean wine impressed his seal on the orifice. But his servant having bored through it from below, and drawn out some of the wine, the master wondered to see that it had decreased before the seals were broken." See if it is not drawn from below," said his friend. "You fool," he answered," the empty space is not at the bottom; it's at the top."

2. Another stupid pedant going out into his fields asked the servant if the water in the well there was good to drink. Being answered that it was, for his parents had drunk of it, he exclaimed, "What long necks they must have had to drink from such a deep well!"

3. A foolish school-man being told that crows would live upwards of two hundred years, bought one to try the experiment.

This is obviously the production of a mind similar to that which made up the common story in our own country about the cedarposts that have been again and again proved to be capable of "lasting forever."

So the next strongly resembles the story now imputed to an Irishman.

4. A stupid fellow suffering shipwreck in a storm, when he saw each of his companions embracing some piece of furniture for safety, threw his arms around one of the anchors.

5. A silly pedant wishing to know if he looked well asleep, shut his eyes and looked in the glass.

One of our commonest jokes is told of6. A silly fellow, who, wishing to learn to swim, was almost drowned. So he swore that he would never touch the water again till he had learned to swim.

7. Another, wishing to teach his horse to live without eating much, gave him no food at all. When finally the horse starved to death, his master said, "I have met with a great loss, for my poor horse died just at the very time that he had learned to live without eating."

14. A silly fellow meeting his friend, exclaimed, "I saw you in a dream the other night." "Pardon me," said the other, "that I did not notice you."

15. A foolish pedant, seeing some sparrows on a tree, crept slyly under and shook it, spreading out his lap to catch them.

16. A stupid fellow meeting a physician exclaimed, "Pardon me, and do not blame me for being so well."

17. A silly "Scholasticus" went to visit a sick friend, and asked him how he did. But he was too weak to answer. This made him so angry that he exclaimed, "I hope I shall be sick before long, and I wont answer gou if

8. Another wishing to sell his house car- you come to see me." ried round a stone for a sample.

9. A foolish school-man meeting another said, "I heard that you were dead." "But you see I am not," he returned. At that the silly fellow answered, "I would believe the man who told me a great deal quicker than I would you."

10. One of two brothers died, and a foolish fellow meeting the other, asked, "Is it you that are dead, or is it your brother?"

11. A simpleton wishing to cross a river went aboard the ferry boat on horse-back. "Why do you do so?" some one asked. "To go quicker," said he.

The examples which we have given afford sufficient evidence of the similar tastes of Greeks in Egypt, and of Anglo Saxons in America, if we may judge by tne avidity with which such jests are now collected for newspapers and "Editors' Drawers."

For the Schoolmaster.
School Exhibitions.

THE following letter, from an esteemed correspondent, a Rhode Island teacher, brings to our attention a subject of great importance. He writes that the thoughts here presented

One or two of the jests pertain more partic- have been long struggling for expression; and ularly to the life of the student.

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remarks that after the letter was commenced he read that "a resolution was introduced before the meeting of the school committee of Providence, in relation to school exhibitions." The Providence Journal of Feb. 13, gives the following report of the proceedings of the school committee relative to the subject:

"Mr. Barstow offered a resolution, directing the Superintendent of Public Schools to inform the teachers of the several schools that in the exhibitions, at the close of the spring

A few have never appeared in any English terms, the committee will expect an absence dress, so far as we know.

of all scenic representations and costumes

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