Within thy mind, yet thou wert pleas'd to show
Some glimpses of it unto men below,
In visions, types, and prophecies, as we
Things at a distance in perspective see:

But thou wert pleas'd to let thy servant know
That that blest hour, that seem'd to move so slow
Through former ages, should at last attain

Its time, ere my few sands that yet remain
Are spent; and that these aged eyes

Should see the day when Jacob's star should rise.
And now thou hast fulfill'd it, blessed Lord,
Dismiss me now, according to thy word;
And let my aged body now return
To rest, and dust, and drop into an urn;
For I have liv'd enough, mine eyes have seen
Thy much-desired salvation, that hath been
So long, so dearly wish'd; the joy, the hope
Of all the ancient patriarchs, the scope
Of all the prophecies and mysteries,
Of all the types unveil'd, the histories.
Of Jewish church unriddled, and the bright
And orient sun arisen to give light
To gentiles, and the joy of Israel,

The world's Redeemer, bless'd Emanuel.
Let this sight close mine eyes, 'tis loss to see,
After this vision, any sight but Thee."

Thus he used to sing on the former Christmasdays, but now he was to be admitted to bear his part in the new songs above; so that day which he had spent in so much spiritual joy, proved to be indeed the day of his jubilee and deliverance, for between two and three in the afternoon he breathed out his righteous and pious soul. His end was peace; he had no strugglings, nor seemed to be in any pangs in his last moments. He was buried on the 4th of January; Mr. Griffith preaching the funeralsermon, his text was the 57th of Isaiah, 1st verse, "The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart; and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come." Which how fitly it was applicable upon this occasion, all that consider the course of his life will easily conclude. He was interred in the church-yard of Alderley, among his ancestors. He did not much approve of burying in churches, and used to say, the churches were for the living, and the church-yards for the dead. His monument was, like himself, decent and plain; the tombstone was black marble, and the sides were black and white marble, upon which he himself had ordered this bare and humble inscription to be made:

HIC INHUMATUR CORPUS

MATTHÆI HALE, MILITIS;

ROBERTI HALE, ET JOANNE

UXORIS EJUS, FILII UNICI.

NATI IN HAC PAROCHIA DE ALDERLY, PRIMO DIE NOVEMBRIS, ANNO DOM. 1609. DENATI VERO IBIDEM VICESIMO QUINTO DIE DECEMBRIS, ANNO DOM. 1676, ÆTATIS SUÆ LXVII.

Having thus given an account of the most remarkable things of his life, I am now to present the reader with such a character of him as the laying his several virtues together will amount to: in which I know how difficult a task I undertake, for to write defectively of him were to injure him, and lessen the memory of one to whom I intend to do all the right that is in my power: on the other hand, there is so much here to be commended, and proposed for the imitation of others, that I am afraid some may imagine I am rather making a picture of him from an abstracted idea of great virtues and perfections, than setting him out as he truly was: but there is great encouragement in this, that I write concerning a man so fresh in all people's remembrance, that is so lately dead,

and was so much and so well known, that I shall have many vouchers, who will be ready to justify me in all that I am to relate, and to add a great deal to what I can say.*

*

It has appeared in the account of his various learning, how great his capacities were, and how much they were improved by constant study: he rose always early in the morning; he loved to walk much abroad, not only for his health, but he thought it opened his mind, and enlarged his thoughts, to have the creation of God before his eyes. When he set himself to any study, he used to cast his design in a scheme, which he did with a great exactness of method; he took nothing on trust, but pursued his inquiries as far as they could go; and as he was humble enough to confess his ignorance, and submit to mysteries which he could not comprehend, so he was not easily imposed on by any shows of reason, or the bugbears of vulgar opinions: he brought all his knowledge as much to scientifical principles as he possibly could, which made him neglect the study of tongues, for the bent of his mind lay another way.

Dis

* One enemy only, Roger North (in his life of the Lord Keeper North), has endeavoured to lessen the respect due to Sir Matthew Hale's character; but in so doing, it has been justly remarked, has degraded his own. EDIT.

coursing once of this to some, they said, they looked on the common law as a study that could not be brought into a scheme, nor formed into a rational science, by reason of the indigestedness of it, and the multiplicity of the cases in it, which rendered it very hard to be understood, or reduced into a method; but he said, he was not of their mind, and so quickly after he drew with his own hand a scheme of the whole order and parts of it, in a large sheet of paper, to the great satisfaction of those to whom he sent it. Upon this hint, some pressed him to compile a body of the English law: it could hardly ever be done by a man who knew it better and would with more judgment and industry have put it into method; but he said, as it was a great and noble design, which would be of vast advantage to the nation; so it was too much for a private man to undertake: it was not to be entered upon but by the command of a prince, and with the communicated endeavours of some of the most eminent of the profession.

He had great vivacity in his fancy, as may appear by his inclination to poetry, and the lively illustrations and many tender strains in his Contemplations; but he looked on eloquence and wit as things to be used very chastely in serious matters, which should come under a