Sylva, Vol. 1 | Page 4

of a Pharisee with regard to certain conventionalities of life.
Complete disregard for the maintenance of some sort of standard of
outward appearances is the absolute vanishing point of self-respect. Till
that has been reached by any individual the hope of his reformation is
not lost, though at the same time successful dissimulation makes the
prospect of a turning point in a vicious career but remote. Still, "it is a
long lane that has no turning." It is therefore most probable that the
leaving behind of the key to the cipher was rather due to inadvertence
than to intention and design. And if this view be correct, then Pepys'

charming Diary was the purely natural outpouring of his mind without
ever a thought being bestowed on authorship and ultimate publication.
With Evelyn's Diary, however, it was different. Although it was not
published until 1818, and though it may never have been intended by
its writer to have been given to the world in book form, yet it was very
clearly intended to be an autobiographical legacy to his family. Hence
it is no mere outpouring of the spirit upon pages meant only for the
subsequent perusal of him who thus rendered in indelible characters his
passing thoughts of the moment. And this being the case, comparison
between the two Diaries would be just as unfair as it is unnecessary.
The one is the fruit of unrestrained freedom and a mirthful mind, while
the other is the product of cultured leisure and a refined literary method.
When Evelyn was Commissioner for the maintenance of the Dutch
prisoners (1664-70) he had frequent communications with Pepys, then
of the Navy, and there are special references to him in Evelyn's
memoirs. That an intimate friendship existed there is no doubt, and that
they each held the other in great respect as a man of intellect, as well as
of good business capacity, is equally clear. Thus, in June, 1669, he
encouraged Pepys to be operated on 'when exceedingly afflicted with
the stone;' and on 19 February, 1671, 'This day din'd with me Mr.
Surveyor, Dr. Christopher Wren, and Mr. Pepys, Cleark of the Acts,
two extraordinary ingenious and knowing persons, and other friends. I
carried them to see the piece of carving which I had recommended to
the King.' This was a masterpiece of Grinling Gibbon's work, which
Charles admired but did not purchase; so Gibbon not long after sold it
for £80, though 'well worth £100, without the frame, to Sir George
Viner.' Evelyn at this time got Wren, however, to promise faithfully to
employ Gibbon to do the choir carving in the new St. Paul's Cathedral.
Each of their Diaries teems with reference to the other. Pepys asked
Evelyn to sit to Kneller for his portrait which he desired for 'reasons I
had (founded upon gratitude, affection, and esteeme) to covet that in
effigie which I most truly value in the original.' This refers to the
well-known portrait, now at Wotton, that has been copied and
engraved.

It appears to have been begun in October, 1685, but it was not till July,
1689, that the commission was actually completed. The portrait
exhibits the face of an elderly man distinctly of a high-strung and
nervous temperament, though not quite to the extent of being 'sicklied
oer with the pale caste of thought.' His right hand, too, which grasps his
Sylva is one very characteristic of the nervous disposition. A bright,
shrewd intellect, lofty thoughts, high motives, good resolves, and--last,
tho' by no means least--a serene mind, the mens conscia recti which
Pepys bluntly called 'a little conceitedness,' are all stamped upon his
well-marked and not unshapely features. It is eminently the face of a
philosopher, an enthusiast, a studious scholar, and a gentleman.
No one can ever know Evelyn so well as Pepys did; and here is his
opinion of John Evelyn, expressed in the secret pages of his cipher
Diary on November, 1665:--'In fine, a most excellent person he is, and
must be allowed a little for a little conceitedness; but he may well be so,
being a man so much above others.' And this just exactly bears out the
rough general impression conveyed by the perusal of Evelyn's Diary
and his other literary works. The long friendship of these two was only
terminated by the death of Pepys on 26th May, 1703, not long before
Evelyn had himself to depart from this life. 'This day died Mr. Sam.
Pepys, a very courtly, industrious and curious person, none in England
exceeding him in knowledge of the navy, in which he had passed
through all the most considerable offices, Clerk of the Acts and
Secretary of the Admiralty, all which he performed with great integrity.
When King James II., went out of England, he laid