energy, but with the meekness and charity of a retiring nature. How much he leant upon others appears in the narrative of his college life so different from the sturdy self-reliance of Johnson. Still more does this come out in Walton's well-known account of his visit to the "Shunamite's House" in London, when he went up from Oxford to preach. Reaching London on the back of a horse that would not or could not run, wet, weary, weather-beaten, numb with wind and rain, he bitterly refused to be persuaded that he could preach within two days; but the Shunamite, Mrs Churchman, by cosy nursing, "enabled him to perform the office of the day," and having given him such a taste of the comfort of womanly ministration, persuaded him that he needed a wife, drew from the unresisting man in his gratitude a commission to procure one, and provided him with her own daughter. There is hardly to be found in history a more extreme instance of a man wanting in selfwill, and submitting himself passively to the disposal of others.1

Opinions. One of the many eulogistic sayings concerning Hooker is that, "should the English Constitution in Church and State be unhappily ruined, the book" (Ecclesiastical Polity') "probably contains materials sufficient for repairing and rebuilding the shattered fabric." A less glowing admirer represents him as "the one adequate exponent of the religious ideas and policy of the age and reign of Elizabeth." Even this needs an explanation. Hooker was not, as this would imply, an impartial chronicler of all existing views of Church doctrine, ritual, and government. He was the champion of a religious party-of the adherents to Episcopacy. He expounded their views, and with such acceptance, that for more than 250 years he has been honoured as a main bulwark of the Church of England. Certainly he has a good claim to his title “the judicious Hooker!" The profound scholarship of the work, its "earnest longing desire to see things brought to a peaceable end," its entire freedom from partisan heat, and consequent appearance of impartiality, go a long way to account for his extraordinary popularity as a doctrinal writer.

Another cause may have helped in some small degree. We have

1 The story is doubted by Mr Keble, who also, by way of exalting Hooker's virtue, maintains that his meekness and patience under his wife was not constitutional, but a painfully acquired self-command. Had old Izaak Walton's ideal of virtue been the same as Mr Keble's, we should probably never have heard of Hooker's passive obedience in domestic life; but if we doubt this fact, we must doubt many others that confirm it. In Walton's Biography-and it is our only external authority-Hooker appears as an inactive man of feeble constitution, yielding willingly to the guidance of others. That he should show signs of an irritable temper in his writings is hardly to the purpose, if it could be established. Self-assertion upon paper and self-assertion in an actual presence are two very different things.

already mentioned his occasional vagueness, his hazy application of general principles and parallel citations. This dimness of expression has had curious results. Men of diametrically opposite opinions have sought to strengthen their cause with his authority. James II. was wont to say that Hooker's Polity converted him to Romanism. Bishop Hoadley, a Church polemic of Queen Anne's reign, cited Hooker in confirmation of his views, that the form of Church government is a matter of Christian expediency. In extreme opposition to this, the High Church party re-edited Hooker as a main instrument in keeping the Anglican Church" primitive truth and apostolical order," as upholding the divine. right of Episcopacy, and the doctrine of apostolical succession. Had Hooker expressed himself with greater distinctness, his reputation might have been less universal.

ELEMENTS OF STYLE.

near to

Vocabulary.-Hooker's diction is not so modern as Sidney's. A glossary to Hooker would be at least ten times as large as a glossary to an equal amount of writing by Sidney. In great measure, of course, this is due to the difference of subject. By Swift he is coupled with Parsons the Jesuit as writing a purer style than other theologians of his time. He did not coin words like Jeremy Taylor, nor employ them in meanings warranted by derivation but not by usage-very common errors among his more pedantic contemporaries. His usages are not peculiar and eccentric. Some of his words-such as "civil" for civilised, "regiment" for regimen or government, "put in ure" for put in use or practice-are now obsolete, but they were good current English in his day. His command of words is good, but he has not the rich variety of Sidney, much less of Bacon.

Sentences.-Hooker affords our first example of an elaborate, high-sounding "periodic style." His sentences, in their general character, are long and involved an extreme contrast to the light and pointed style of John Lyly, though of their kind they are quite as finished. With all their excellences, they are not good models for English periods. In writing our first elaborate theological treatise, his fine ear was irresistibly caught by the rhythm of Latin models; and while he learned from them a more even proportion of sentence, he learned also to build an elaborate rhythm at the expense of native idiom.1 The following example of his "elaborate collocation" is quoted by Dr Drake :

1 We have seen Hallam's conception of our author's sentences. Dr Drake's is more moderate, and nearer the facts: "Though the words for the most part are well chosen and pure, the arrangement of them into sentences is intricate and harsh, and formed almost exclusively on the idiom and construction of the Latin. Much strength and vigour are derived from this adoption; but perspicuity, sweetness, and ease are too generally sacrificed."

"Though for no other cause, yet for this, that posterity may know we have not loosely, through silence, permitted things to pass away as in a dream, there shall be for men's information, extant this much concerning the present state of the Church of God established amongst us, and their careful endeavours which would have upheld the same.'

Here the last clause is very awkwardly placed. In the following sentence the first clause is still more awkward, and towards the end the influence of Latin models is still more apparent :

"And beyond seas, of them which fled in the days of Queen Mary, some contenting themselves abroad with the use of their own service-book at home authorised before their departure out of the realm, others liking better the Common Prayer-book of the Church of Geneva translated, those smaller contentions before begun were by this means somewhat increased."

In the parts italicised the violation of English idiom and order is peculiarly marked. As at least one-half of the Polity is written in this style, Hallam must have been thinking of very select passages when he spoke of Hooker's "racy idiom."

Sometimes, in his more animated moments, he surprises us with a run of shorter sentences. These occur but rarely, and are not long sustained. The following is an example:

"But wise men are men, and the truth is truth. That which Calvin did for establishment of his discipline, seemeth more commendable than that which he taught for the countenancing of it established. Nature worketh in us all a love to our own counsels. The contradiction of others is a fan to inflame that love. Our love set on fire to maintain that which once we have done, sharpeneth the wit to dispute, to argue, and by all means to reason for it. Wherefore a marvel it were if a man of so great capacity," &c.

Here he returns to his usual length of sentence.

Occasionally

we meet with balanced passages. In such cases, from aiming at point, he is more idiomatic and also less intricate. The following comes much nearer the modern standard than our previous

"These men in whose mouths at the first sounded nothing but mortification of the flesh, were come at the length to think they might lawfully have their six or seven wives apiece; they which at the first thought judgment and justice itself to be merciless cruelty, accounted at the length their own hands sanctified with being imbrued in Christian blood; they who at the first were wont to beat down all dominion, and to urge against poor constables 'kings of nations;' had at the length both consuls and kings of their own erection amongst themselves: finally, they which could not brook at the first that any man should seek, no not by law, the recovery of goods injuriously taken or withheld from him, were grown at the last to think they could not offer unto God more acceptable sacrifice, than by turning their adversaries clean out of house and home, and by enriching themselves with all kind of spoil and pillage; which thing being laid to their charge, they had in a readiness their answer, that now the time was come, when according to the Saviour's promise 'the meek ones must inherit the earth;' and that their title hereunto was the same which the righteous Israelites had unto the goods of the wicked Egyptians."

His inversions sometimes have the effect of putting the emphatic words in the emphatic places; for example, in the following harsh construction :

"That which by wisdom he saw to be requisite for that people, was by as great wisdom compassed."

Now quite as good emphasis might be had without such a sacrifice of euphony and idiom. But apart from this, the theory that all his inversions have this object is not tenable. His construction is ruled chiefly by fascination for the rhythm that goes with the Latin idiom. Thus, in a sentence quoted at p. 213, he weakens the emphasis by reserving the verb "doth dwell" to the end, after the fashion of the Latin, and that, too, when English idiom permitted the inversion. "Wherein doth dwell nothing but light and blessed immortality," &c., would have been perfectly good English idiom, and would have given better emphasis. But Hooker's ear was tuned to a foreign rhythm. A close examination of almost any passage would show great room for improvement in the way of emphasis. In no era of English style has much regard been paid to the placing of words except for rhythm.

In the distribution of his matter into sentences, Hooker is more correct than Sidney is in the Apology. He observes much better the requirements of unity; his aiming at the period prevented rambling. In this respect he will bear comparison with any writer of the seventeenth century; it helps greatly to give him a modern air.

Paragraphs.-Attention to clearness and simplicity in the structure of paragraphs was a thing unknown in the age of Elizabeth, and Hooker was in this respect neither better nor worse than the good writers of his time. Sometimes when he is dealing confusedly with an obscure subject, the connection between one sentence and another becomes very difficult to trace. Every sentence stands on its own bottom. It would be hard to find a more hopelessly perplexed paragraph than the following. After close scrutiny, we find that each sentence contains a different idea from its predecessor :

"Wherefore to return to our former intent of discovering the natural way, whereby rules have been found out concerning that goodness wherewith the Will of man ought to be moved in human actions; as every thing naturally and necessarily doth desire the utmost good and greatest perfection whereof Nature hath made it capable, even so man. Our felicity therefore being the object and accomplishment of our desire, we cannot choose but wish and covet it. All particular things which are subject unto action, the Will doth so far incline unto, as Reason judgeth them the better for us, and consequently the more available to our bliss. If Reason err, we fall into evil, and are so far forth deprived of the general perfection we seek. Seeing therefore that for the framing of men's actions the knowledge of good from evil is necessary, it only resteth that we search how this may be had.

Neither must we suppose that there needeth one rule to know the good a another the evil by. For he that knoweth what is straight doth even the by discern what is crooked, because the absence of straightness in bod capable thereof is crookedness. Goodness in actions is like unto straig ness; wherefore that which is done well we term right. For as the straig way is most acceptable to him that travelleth, because by it he come soonest to his journey's end; so in action, that which doth lie the event between us and the end we desire must needs be the fittest for our us Besides which fitness for use, there is also in rectitude, beauty; as co trariwise in obliquity, deformity. And that which is good in the actions men, doth not only delight as profitable, but as amiable also. In whic consideration the Grecians most divinely have given to the active pe. fection of men a name expressing both beauty and goodness, because good ness in ordinary speech is for the most part applied only to that which i beneficial. But we in the name of goodness do here imply both."

Figures of Speech.-So far from being, as Hallam says, "rich in figures," Hooker is for his age singularly devoid of ornament. As among the great Elizabethan writers his languid vitality is a marked contrast to the general plenitude of life, so his unadorned gravity of style is a contrast to the general figurative exuberance. Similitudes might be quoted from him-some very apposite, and some very pleasing; but the vein is neither abundant nor original. His habitual personification of nature is the manner of the time. If we regard law in its strict scientific meaning as an express command sanctioned by threat of punishment, Hooker's extension of the term to the order of nature, the angelic manner of life, and suchlike, is metaphorical; but the metaphor neither began nor ended with Hooker.

QUALITIES OF STYLE.

Simplicity. In this as in other respects Hooker is very unequal. Taken all in all, and compared with the best English standards, his style is not readily intelligible to a modern reader: apart from obsolete words, which might soon be mastered, the unfamiliar Latin idiom, and the elaborate accumulation of clauses, make it stiff and perplexing. This is the general character of his style; occasional passages are more flowing and idiomatic, and may be read almost as fluently as good modern prose.

As compared with the average of his contemporaries, he appears to advantage. He is nearly, if not quite, free from some of their prevailing vices; he has few, if any, pedantic barbarisms; and his pages are not encumbered with superfluous quotation and illustration.

Clearness. Speaking of Sidney, we remarked that in English literature, as in every other, exact expression is a thing of later growth. In such subjects as occupied our earliest writers, narratives, practical treatises-on hawking, chess, shooting-sermons