Lives of John Donne, Henry Wotton, Richd Hooker, George Herbert, | Page 2

and the fortune of him
and his. Which enquiry hath given me much advantage in the
knowledge of what is now under my consideration, and intended for the

satisfaction of my Reader.
[Sidenote: Conclusion]
I had also a friendship with the Reverend Dr. Usher,[2] the late learned
Archbishop of Armagh; and with Dr. Morton, the late learned and
charitable Bishop of Durham; as also the learned John Hales, of Eton
College; and with them also--who loved the very name of Mr.
Hooker--I have had many discourses concerning him; and from them,
and many others that have now put off mortality, I might have had
more informations, if I could then have admitted a thought of any
fitness for what by persuasion I have now undertaken. But though that
full harvest be irrecoverably lost, yet my memory hath preserved some
gleanings, and my diligence made such additions to them, as I hope
will prove useful to the completing of what I intend: in the discovery of
which I shall be faithful, and with this assurance put a period to my
Introduction.
[Footnote 1: A native of Suffolk, one of the Clerks of Corpus Christi
College, Oxford, and Greek Reader. He entered Orders, became a noted
Preacher, Chaplain to James I., and a great admirer of Richard Hooker
and the famous Dr. John Reynolds, the latter of whom he succeeded as
Master of his College. About four years after Hooker's death, he
published the Five Books of Ecclesiastical Polity, with a Preface; and
dying on April 3rd, 1614, was buried at Oxford.]
[Footnote 2: The illustrious Primate of Ireland, born in Dublin, Jan. 4th,
1580. He was the first Student of Trinity College, in 1593, and in 1610
he was made Bishop of Meath, whence he was translated to Armagh, in
1625. In the Irish Rebellion, he lost every thing but his library, which
he conveyed to England, where he died in retirement, March 21st,
1655-56.]

THE LIFE OF MR. RICHARD HOOKER.
[Sidenote: Birth and parentage]
It is not to be doubted, but that Richard Hooker was born at Heavy-tree,
near, or within the precincts, or in the City of Exeter; a City which may
justly boast, that it was the birth-place of him and Sir Thomas Bodley;
as indeed the County may, in which it stands, that it hath furnished this
nation with Bishop Jewel, Sir Francis Drake, Sir Walter Raleigh, and
many others, memorable for their valour and learning. He was born

about the year of our Redemption 1553, and of parents that were not so
remarkable for their extraction or riches, as for their virtue and industry,
and God's blessing upon both; by which they were enabled to educate
their children in some degree of learning, of which our Richard Hooker
may appear to be one fair testimony, and that nature is not so partial as
always to give the great blessings of wisdom and learning, and with
them the greater blessings of virtue and government, to those only that
are of a more high and honourable birth.
[Sidenote: "His complexion"]
His complexion--if we may guess by him at the age of forty--was
sanguine, with a mixture of choler; and yet his motion was slow even in
his youth, and so was his speech, never expressing an earnestness in
either of them, but an humble gravity suitable to the aged. And it is
observed,--so far as enquiry is able to look back at this distance of
time,--that at his being a school-boy he was an early questionist, quietly
inquisitive "why this was, and that was not, to be remembered? why
this was granted, and that denied?" This being mixed with a remarkable
modesty, and a sweet serene quietness of nature, and with them a quick
apprehension of many perplexed parts of learning, imposed then upon
him as a scholar, made his Master and others to believe him to have an
inward blessed divine light, and therefore to consider him to be a little
wonder. For in that, children were less pregnant, less confident and
more malleable, than in this wiser, but not better, age.
[Sidenote: Early training]
This meekness and conjuncture of knowledge, with modesty in his
conversation, being observed by his Schoolmaster, caused him to
persuade his parents--who intended him for an apprentice--to continue
him at school till he could find out some means, by persuading his rich
Uncle, or some other charitable person, to ease them of a part of their
care and charge; assuring them that their son was so enriched with the
blessings of nature and grace, that God seemed to single him out as a
special instrument of his glory. And the good man told them also, that
he would double his diligence in instructing him, and would neither
expect nor receive any other reward,