the doctor in his treatise on the cycloid. The distractions which followed the death of Cromwell led to the breaking up of Gresham college and the dispersion of its professors, whereupon Wren prudently withdrew himself from public life until affairs became somewhat settled. On the return of Charles II. Wren was appointed Savilian professor at Oxford; and, on the 15th of July, 1662, he enjoyed the satisfaction of witnessing the incorporation of the Royal society by a charter chiefly obtained through his exertions. To the interests of this society he continued throughout life warmly devoted, and the first volumes of its transactions bear ample testimony to the zeal, industry, and diversified attainments of this accomplished man. His contributions are chiefly in the exact sciences, and especially astronomy. Amongst his discoveries in the arts, some biographers attribute to him-and not Prince Rupert the invention of mezzotinto engraving. He appears also to have paid occasional court to the muses, and with some success, if we may trust his own correspondent, the bishop of Rochester, who, in a letter to Wren, alluding to some translations of Horace, says: "You have admirably well hit his genius; your verse is harmonious, your philosophy very instructive for life, your liberty in translating enough to make it seem to be an English original, and yet not so much but that the mind of the author is still religiously observed." A higher encomium than this could hardly be passed upon a translator; but without supposing that Wren deserved it all, we are still warranted to infer that his translations were exceedingly respectable. In 1662, his 'Prælectiones Academica' were published. About this time he appears to have received the suffrages of every man of talent in England, as one of the most accomplished philosophers of his age. Barrow, Wallis, Huygens, and Newton, speak of him in the very highest terms of commendation. In 1665 Wren went to Paris for the purpose of studying specimens of its finer architecture. He had already, indeed, exercised his skill in that art which was destined to confer on him his highest and most lasting distinction. As assistant or deputy to Sir John Denham, who proved himself a better poet than architect, he had superintended some of the government works; and, in 1663, he had been employed by Sheldon to erect a new theatre or hall for the university of Oxford. This latter building-celebrated for its unrivalled roof, eighty feet in length by seventy in breadth, supported without either arch or pillarwas begun in that year, although not completed till 1668. He had also been appointed, in 1663, one of the commissioners for superintending the projected repairs on the metropolitan cathedral of St Paul's. The destruction of that building by the great fire which broke out on the 22d of September, 1666, within a few months after Wren's return from Paris, put a stop to the plans for its repair, but opened up a better opportunity for the display of his genius and skill as an architect. Wren beheld and seized his opportunity. While the ashes of the vast conflagration were yet alive, he had conceived and sketched a plan for the restoration of the city, which, had it been carried into effect, would have rendered London the finest city in the world. "He proposed one main street from Aldgate to Temple bar, in the middle of which was to have been a large square capable of containing the new church of St Paul, with a proper distance for the view all round. The parish-churches PERIOD.] SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN. were to be rebuilt so as to be seen at the end of every vista of houses, 1 On the 20th of March, 1669, a few days after the death of Sir John Denham, Wren was appointed surveyor-general of the royal works. In 1672 he presented to the king his plans for the new cathedral, having, in the meantime, executed various minor buildings connected with the restoration of the city. The design for the new cathedral, which had been approved by the king, and to which the architect himself gave a decided preference, was unfortunately objected to by his brother-commissioners, who regarded it as involving too wide a departure from the usual form of cathedrals. They insisted, therefore, on the addition of aisles at the sides as they now stand, and Wren, though he actually shed tears in remonstrating against the alteration, was compelled to adopt it. The original design, as exhibited in a beautiful model made by Wren, and kept in the present cathedral, has been pronounced by all competent judges to be greatly superior in beauty and effect to the building in its present plan. It is also to be regretted that the architect should have been compelled to adopt two orders instead of one; but this he was necessitated to do by the want of blocks sufficiently large for the columns in his original model, in which he had employed only one order. With all these drawbacks, however, on the plan as originally conceived by Wren, St Paul's still remains the noblest ecclesiastical edifice in Europe after Michael Angelo's unrivalled edifice of "Its scale and beauty of internal ornament, as St Peter's at Rome. well as material, situation, and climate, the work of Wren cannot come in competition with its great rival; but in architectural excellence it has fair claims to be placed on an equality,-surpassing it in some The portico in front of St Peter's, things, if in others it falls short. both for its beauty of proportion and vast size, is admitted to be a feature of high excellence, and without any match in St Paul's: yet the whole front of St Peter's, terminating in a straight line at the top, cannot be said to afford such a pleasing variety as is bestowed by the elevation of the pediment in the middle, and the beautiful campanile towers at each end of the front of St Paul's. One of the happiest parts of the invention is in the intersection of the three vistas of the nave, the aisles, and the cross and transept, attained by the octangular arrangement of the piers, which is as beautiful as it is novel, giving four additional views to the usual arrangement, and with an effect reIn St Peter's the markable for its boldness and lightness. whole building is surrounded by a repetition of vast pilasters. In St Paul's, however, take the building in any point of view, it is highly 'Life of Sir C. Wren in Library of Useful Knowledge.' 3 B picturesque, the different returns and façades affording endless variety of views; no patching, no incongruous additions, disfigure the unity of the composition, which, as a whole, for harmony of design and justness of proportion, has certainly never been surpassed. The first stone of this noble edifice was laid by Wren, assisted by his mastermason, Mr Thomas Strong, on the 21st of June, 1675. The highest stone of the lantern on the cupola was laid by Christopher Wren, the son of the architect, as representing his venerable father, in 1710. It was thus completed in thirty-five years by one architect, and at the comparatively small cost of £736,000, which was raised by a small impost on coals brought into London, whilst St Peter's took one hundred and forty-five years to build, and employed a succession of twelve architects in its progress. Wren had been knighted at Whitehall on the 20th of November, 1673, after having resigned the Savilian professorship. He was twice in parliament, but does not appear to have signalised himself as a speaker, or taken any active part in the politics of the day. In 1680 he was elected president of the Royal society. The rewards, however, which this distinguished genius and most estimable man received, were only honorary. As architect of St Paul's, he received only £200 ayear of salary, and even the payment of this pittance was interrupted for some time by the interference of the narrow-minded commissioners, who took advantage of a clause in the act under which they sat, entitling them to keep back a moiety of the architect's salary till the work should be finished to their satisfaction. An attempt was even made to blacken his character by charging him with peculation in his office as architect of St Paul's,-a charge which, we need scarcely add, was instantly and triumphantly refuted by Sir Christopher. The death of Anne deprived Wren of the last of his royal patrons. German influence prevailed in the dispensing of all courtly favours; and to the eternal disgrace of the new reign, this eminent and amiable man, in the 49th year of his office as surveyor-general, and the 86th year of a life spent in promoting the best interests of his country and mankind, was deprived of his patent in favour of one Benson, a 'favourite of foreigners.' Sir Christopher bore his reverses with fortitude and resignation. He retired to his residence at Hampton court, and spent the remaining five years of his life chiefly in the study of the Scriptures. According to his son's testimony, "the vigour of his mind continued, with a vivacity rarely found in persons of his age, till within a short period of his death. And not till then could he quit the great aim of his whole life, to be to use his own words-a benefactor to mankind: his great humanity appearing to the last in benevolence and complacency, free from all moroseness in behaviour or aspect. He was happily endued with such an evenness of temper, steady tranquillity, and Christian fortitude, that no injurious incidents or inquietudes of human life could ever ruffle or discompose."3 He died calmly, and without a struggle, on the 25th of February, 1723. His remains were deposited in the crypt under the southernmost window of the cathedral of St Paul's. No monument marks his place of sepulture; but on the side of the window of the crypt is a tablet with this inscription : 2 Life of Sir C. Wren in Library of Useful Knowledge. Parentalia. Subtus conditur Hujus ecclesiæ et urbis conditor Qui vixit annos ultra nonaginta Thomas D'Urfey. DIED A. D. 1723. THOMAS D'URFEY was a native of Devonshire, and bred to the profession of the law, "which he forsook," says Hawkins, "under a persuasion, which some poets, and even players, have been very ready to entertain as an excuse for idleness, and an indisposition to sober reflection, viz. that the law is a study so dull that no man of genius can submit to it. With a full confidence in the powers of a mind thus liberally formed," continues Sir John, "D'Urfey enlisted himself in the service of the stage, and became an author of tragedies, comedies, and operas, of which he wrote near thirty. The success of his dramatic productions far exceeded their deserts; for, whether we consider the language, the sentiments, or the morals of his plays, they are in all these respects so exceptionable as to be below criticism, and to leave him in possession of that character only which he seemed most to affect, to wit, that of a pleasant companion. The time when D'Urfey lived was very favourable to men of his factious, and, we may say, licentious turn of manners. He came into the world a few years after the Restoration, when all was joy and merriment, and when to be able to drink and to sing were reckoned estimable qualities; D'Urfey could do both; and, superadded to these gifts, he had a talent of poetry, which he could adapt to any occasion; he wrote songs, and, though unskilled in music, and labouring under the impediment of stammering in his speech, having a tolerable voice, sung them himself frequently at public feasts and meetings, and not seldom in the presence of King Charles II. who, laying aside all state and reserve, would lean on his shoulder and look over the paper." The compositions of D'Urfey, such of them at least as were not liable to exception on account of gross indelicacy, became favourites with the whole kingdom. Addison, in a paper in the Guardian, after exhibiting a lively portrait of D'Urfey, whom he is pleased to call his old friend and contemporary, says, speaking to the ladies, his disciples, that he often made their grandmothers merry; and that his sonnets had perhaps lulled asleep many a toast among the ladies then living, when she lay in her cradle. And in another number of the Guardian, is a notification to the reader that a play of D'Urfey's, The Plotting Sisters,' which had been honoured with the presence of Charles II. three of its first five nights, was then shortly to be acted for his benefit, concluding with a recommendation of it as a pleasant entertainment. Three volumes, consisting mostly of songs written by himself, were published by D'Urfey, with the singular title of Laugh and be Fat, or Pills to purge Melancholy.' In the year 1719, with the assist ance of a numerous subscription, he republished them, with the addition of other three volumes, including a great number of orations, poems, prologues, and epilogues written by himself, and gave the whole collection the title of Wit and Mirth, or Pills to purge Melancholy; being a Collection of the best merry Ballads and Songs, old and new, fitted to all humours; having each their proper Tune for either Voice or Instrument. In this collection, besides a great number of singular humorous songs, are many that bespeak the political sentiments of their author. Tom, at least in the early part of his life, was a tory by principle, and never let slip an opportunity of representing his adversaries, the whigs, as a set of sneaking rascals. Mr Addison says that the song of Joy to great Cæsar,' gave them such a blow as they were never able to recover during the reign of Charles II. The paper in which these and other passages equally humorous, respecting D'Urfey and his compositions are contained, was written by Mr Addison with a view to fill the house at a play of his in June 1713. It concludes with the following sketch of D'Urfey. "As my friend, after the manner of the old lyrists, accompanies his works with his own voice, he has been the delight of the most polite companies and conversations, from the beginning of King Charles the second's reign to our present times. Many an honest gentleman has got a reputation in his country by pretending to have been in company with Tom D'Urfey. I might here mention several other merits in my friend, as his euriching our language with a multitude of rhymes, and bringing words together that without his good offices would never have been acquainted with one another so long as it had been a tongue. But I must not omit that my old friend angles for a trout the best of any man in England. May-flies come in late this season, or I myself should before now have had a trout of his hooking. After what I have said, and much more that I might say on this subject, I question not but the world will think that my old friend ought not to pass the remainder of his life in a cage like a singing-bird, but enjoy all the Pindarick liberty which is suitable to a man of his genius. He has made the world merry, and I hope they will make him easy so long as he stays among us. This I will take upon me to say, they cannot do a kindness to a more diverting companion, or a more cheerful, honest and good-natured man." This merry fellow died on the 26th of February, 1723. Humphrey Prideaux, D. D. BORN A. D. 1648.-DIED A. D. 1724. THIS very learned ecclesiastical writer was the third son of Edmund Prideaux of Padstow in Cornwall. After receiving the rudiments of education at Leskiard and Bodmin in his native county, he was sent to Westminster school, then under the charge of Dr Busby. Here he was chosen king's scholar, and elected to Christ-church, Oxford. His first literary effort was the superintendence, under Dr Fell, of an edition of Florus. Two years afterwards, on the arrival of the Arundelian marbles at Oxford, Prideaux was appointed to draw up and publish an account of them, which he did very successfully, in a work |