Discovery of Witches | Page 3

Browne without pleasurable associations."]
[Footnote 6: Those who wish to have presented to them a faithful
likeness of Sir Matthew Hale must not consult Burnet or Baxter, for
that great judge, like Sir Epicure Mammon, sought "for his meet
flatterers the gravest of divines," but will not fail to find it in the pages
of Roger North, who has depicted his character with a strength and
accuracy of outline which no Vandyck or Lely of biography ever
surpassed. Would that we could exchange some of those "faultless
monsters" with which that fascinating department of literature too
much abounds, for a few more such instantly recognised specimens of
true but erring and unequal humanity, which are as rare as they are
precious. In the unabridged life of Lord Guildford by Roger North,
which, with his own most interesting and yet unpublished
autobiography, are in my possession in his autograph, are found some
additional touches which confirm the general accuracy of the portrait
he has sketched of Hale in the work which has been printed. (Vide
North's Life of Lord Guildford, by Roscoe, vol. i. p. 119.)]
[Footnote 7: See his Dialogue on the Common Laws of England.]
[Footnote 8: Dr. Cudworth was the friend whom More refers to without
naming, Collections of Relations, p. 336, edit. 1726, 8vo.]
[Footnote 9: There is no name in this catalogue that excites more
poignant regret than that of Dr. Henry More. So exalted was his
character, so serene and admirable his temper, so full of harmony his
whole intellectual constitution, that, irradiated at once by all the lights
of religion and philosophy, and with clearer glimpses of the land of
vision and the glories behind the veil than perhaps uninspired mortality
ever partook of before, he seems to have reached as near to the full
standard of perfection as it is possible for frail and feeble humanity to
attain. Dr. Outram said that he looked upon Dr. More as the holiest
person upon the face of the earth; and the sceptical Hobbes, who never
dealt in compliment, observed, "That if his own philosophy were not
true, he knew of none that he should sooner like than More's of

Cambridge." His biographer, Ward, concludes his life in the following
glowing terms:--"Thus lived and died the eminent Dr. More: thus set
this bright and illustrious star, vanishing by degrees out of our sight
after, to the surprise and admiration of many, (like that which was
observed in Cassiopeia's chair,) it had illuminated, as it were, both
worlds so long at once." At the lapse of many years I have not forgotten
the impassioned fondness with which the late and most lamented
Robert Southey dwelt upon the memory of the Cambridge Plato, or the
delight with which he greeted some works of his favourite author
which I was fortunate enough to point out to him, with which he had
not been previously acquainted. The sad reverse of the picture will he
seen by those who consult the folio of More's philosophical works and
Glanville's Sadducismus Triumphatus, the greatest part of which is
derived from More's Collections. His hallucinations on the subject of
witchcraft, from which none of the English writers of the Platonic
school were exempt, are the more extraordinary, as a sister error,
judicial astrology, met in More with its most able oppugner. His tract,
which has excited much less attention than its merit deserves, (I have
not been able to trace a single quotation from it in any author during the
last century,) is entitled "Tetractys Anti-astrologica, or a Confutation of
Astrology." Lond. 1681, 4to. I may mention while on the subject of
More, that the second and most valuable part of the memoir of him by
Ward, his devoted admirer and pupil, which was never printed, is in my
possession, in manuscript.]
[Footnote 10: See Boyle's letter on the subject of the latter, in the 5th
vol. of the folio edition of his works.]
[Footnote 11: I have always considered the conclusion of Bodin's book,
De Republica, the accumulative grandeur of which is even heightened
in Knolles's admirable English translation, as the finest peroration to be
found in any work on government. Those who are fortunate enough to
possess a copy of his interdicted Examination of Religions, the title of
which is, "Colloquium heptaplomeres de abditis sublimium rerum
arcanis, libris 6 digestum," which was never printed, and of which very
few MSS. copies are in existence, are well aware how little he felt
himself shackled in the spirit of examination which he carried into the

most sacred subjects by any respect for popular notions or received
systems or great authorities. My MS. copy of this extraordinary work,
which came from Heber's Collection, is contained in two rather thick
folio volumes.]
[Footnote 12: Few authors are better