tual revolution which was accomplished about this time, both by their mathematical labours, and as direct assailants of the authority of Aristotle, though they had no share in the construction of that better system by which his philosophy was finally supplanted. This was the work of Bacon alone. It is a curious fact, however, on the other hand, that the true theory of the heavens was rejected by this great philosopher, as it was also by Des Cartes, even after it had been adopted, defended, and illustrated by Kepler and Galileo. But Bacon, with all his learning and extraordinary powers, was but slightly acquainted with the mathematics, which, prophet of the sciences as he was, he never anticipated would share so largely as they have done in the triumphs of modern discovery. Sir Robert Cotton. BORN A. D. 1570.-DIED A. D. 1631. SIR ROBERT COTTON-or, as he used frequently to write his name, Robert Cotton Bruce, from the circumstance of his being descended from Robert Bruce-was an eminent antiquary; one, "whose name," says Dr Johnson, "must always be mentioned with honour, and whose memory cannot fail of exciting the warmest sentiments of gratitude, whilst the smallest regard for learning subsists among us." He was descended from an ancient family, originally of Cheshire, but settled in Huntingdonshire, in which county he was born in 1570, January 22d. He was admitted a student of Trinity college, Cambridge, where he took the degree of B. A. in 1585; after which he went to London, where, from his taste for antiquities, he was introduced to, and made a member of a society of gentlemen, who met at stated periods to assist each other in their pursuit of a knowledge of antiquities. This was the origin of the present society of antiquaries, and their meetings took place every Friday, when two questions were proposed, which were to be elucidated at the next meeting. Here he indulged his taste in the prosecution of that study for which he afterwards became so famous, and he soon distinguished himself as a diligent collector of records, charters, and instruments of all kinds, relative to the ancient history of the country; and as the late dissolution of the monasteries had caused many manuscripts to fall into private hands, he enjoyed peculiar advantages in forming his collection. He was intimate with the famous Camden, whom, in 1600, he accompanied in an excursion to Carlisle, for the purpose of examining the Picts' wall, and other remains of antiquity. On the accession of James the First, he received the honour of knighthood, and during the whole of that reign he was consulted by persons in office upon points relative to the constitution, and to ancient usages. He drew up memorials and discourses upon various subjects of this nature, some of real and national importance, others perhaps interesting to antiquarians only. The prodigality with which the royal revenue had been squandered, necessitated the construction of some plan by which this waste might be repaired. Sir Robert was therefore employed to examine into the "manner and means how the kings of England have, from time to time, supported and repaired their estates." Of all the methods suggested, none proved so agreeable to the king as the creating a new order of knights, called baronets; by which he could easily raise a hundred thousand pounds, as each baronet was to pay, in three instalments, as much as would maintain for the space of three years, thirty foot soldiers, to serve in the province of Ulster in Ireland, at Sd. a-day, which amounted to £1095. This title was not unknown in our records, for, by 13th Edward III., it was granted to William de la Pole and his heirs; and mention is made of it in an agreement between King Richard II. and several earls, barons, and baronets. He was afterwards employed by King James to vindicate the conduct of Mary, Queen of Scots, from the supposed misrepresentations of Buchanan and Thuanus; and his writings on this subject are thought to be interwoven in Camden's Annals of Queen Elizabeth,' or subjoined to Camden's 'Epistles.' He was also, in 1616, engaged by the king to examine whether the Papists, whose numbers then made the nation uneasy, ought by the laws of the land to be put to death, or to be imprisoned. This task he performed with great learning, and produced upon that occasion twenty-four arguments, which were published afterwards in 1672, among the 'Cottoni Posthuma;' about which time, it is surmised, he composed a piece still preserved in MS., entitled, Considerations for the repressinge of the encrease of Priests, Jesuits, and Recusants, without drawinge of blood.' When the Spanish match for Prince Charles was in agitation, Sir Robert was desired by the house of Commons to draw up an historical proof of the bad faith of the house of Austria in all their dealings with England, and of their schemes for universal monarchy. This is printed among the 'Cottoni Posthuma,' under the title of 'A remonstrance of the treaties of amity,' &c. He also wrote in 1621, a tract, which now bears the title of 'The Antiquity and Dignity of Parliaments,' and, subsequently, A Vindication of the Ecclesiastical Constitution of England.' This was first printed in 1651. He was a member of the first parliament of Charles the First, and joined in the complaints of the grievances which the nation was said, in 1628, to groan under; but he was always the advocate of mild remedies, zealous for the honour and safety of the king, and had no views but for the nation's advantage. This disposition impelled him to oppose strenuously those gentlemen who refused to contribute to the loan raised to supply those necessities of the king to which the parliament refused to attend. He earnestly endeavoured to impress on the minds of the king and council, that the parliament was the only legiti mate power through which to raise money, and that their soundest policy was to gain its good will, by removing all jealousies concerning religion and liberty. From these proofs of attachment to the constitution, he was considered as no friend to the exertions of the royal prerogative; which circumstance, together with the enmity of the bishops Laud and Neile, was probably the occasion of a singular attack upon his liberty and reputation, which embittered his latter days. A Mr Richard James, who had lived with Sir Robert, lent to one Mr St John a tract, drawn up by Sir Robert Dudley, in 1613, whilst he was in exile at Florence, for the purpose of ingratiating himself with King James, and, by that means, to prepare the way for his return to his own country. The title of this tract was, 'A Proposition for his Majesty's service to bridle the impertinency of Parliaments.' Mr St John showed the book, or a copy, to the earl of Bedford, who exhibited it to others; and so it passed from hand to hand, till at last it was shown to Sir Robert himself, who immediately had it transcribed by his amanuensis,—a circumstance plainly proving that Sir Robert was quite unconscious that the tract originally came out of his own library. This amanuensis, it seems, imitating the said James, secretly made a copy for himself, and from his own transcript sold several copies, till at last one of them came into the hands of the then lord-deputy of Ireland. He acquainted the lords and others of the privy-council with it. They sent for the young man, and questioned him as to whence he had taken his copy; he declared that the book was put into his hands by Sir Robert Cotton, Whereupon, in the beginning of November, in the same year, 1629, Sir Robert Cotton was examined, and others, till it was traced to Mr St John himself, who was conceived to be the author of the book, and committed to the tower. Fear, that the results of this suspicion might affect his life, induced this gentleman to avow that the book was lent to him by that disreputable Richard James. Cotton, however, was very soon sued in the star-chamber, and his library locked up from him, two or more guards keeping continual watch upon his house. This implication of his honour was so great an indignity, that it undermined Sir Robert's health, reducing him from a hale, ruddy, and well-coloured man, to one of a grim blackish paleness, nearly resembling the hue of death. The real author of the tract being sworn to by Sir David Foulis, most of the parties were released, and Sir Robert Cotton had his library restored to him again. Sir Robert Cotton's claims to our gratitude, are founded not so much on the productions of his pen-which, nevertheless, are numerous and valuable as on the services he has rendered to the history and antiquities of Great Britain, by the library he collected. This library was placed in his own house at Westminster, near the house of commons, and very much augmented by his son, Sir Thomas Cotton, and his grandson, Sir John. In 1700, an act was passed for the better securing and preserving this library in the name and family of the Cottons, for the benefit of the public. Sir John, great-grandson of Sir Robert, having sold Cotton-house to Queen Anne in 1706, to be a repository for the royal, as well as the Cottonian library, an act was passed for the better securing her majesty's purchase of that house, and both house and library were vested in trustees. The Cottonian library was subsequently removed to different places; and once suffered considerably by fire. In 1753, it was placed in the British museum, where it now remains. It is almost incredible how much we are indebted to this library for what we know of our own country; indeed, it is the source of information to almost every book that has since appeared, relating to the history and antiquities of Great Britain and Ireland. Sir Robert's correspondents and acquaintance included all the virtuosi and learned of his own country, with many of high reputation abroad, as Gruterus, Sweertius, Duchesne, Bourdelot, Puteanus, Peiresk, and many others. The merit of Sir Robert Cotton is well depicted in the preface to the Harleian Catalogue. "Bodley's great contemporary, Sir Robert Cotton, had been equally diligent in collecting ancient manuscripts. The study of antiquities, particularly those of this kingdom, had engaged his at tention, though he always showed a high regard for every part of philological learning, in all which he was extremely conversant. He had observed with regret, that the history, laws, and constitution of Britain, were in general very insufficiently understood; and being fully convinced, that the preservation of such monuments of antiquity, and other documents as were conducive to render the knowledge of them and their deductions from their primary state more accurate and universal, would necessarily redound to the advantage of the public, he had, in an expensive and indefatigable labour of upwards of forty years, accumulated those numerous and inestimable treasures which compose the Cottonian library, and now remain an indisputable testimony of his benevolent disposition towards his native country. The late general dissolution of religious houses had dispersed an infinite number of curious manuscripts. Many of these were secured by the nobility and gentry; but no inconsiderable number falling into the hands of peasants, mechanics, and other persons, ignorant of their importance, and totally inattentive to their preservation, were easily to be purchased. From this source Sir Robert Cotton had supplied his library with a multitude of rare manuscripts; and to them Mr Camden, Mr Lambard, Dr Dee, and Sir Christopher Hatton, had kindly contributed their stores." Sir Robert Cotton's wife was one of the daughters and co-heirs of William Brocas, Esq. of Thedingworth, in Leicestershire, by whom he left one only son, Sir Thomas Cotton, Bart. Sir Robert died of a fever in his house at Westminster, on the 6th of May, 1631, having completed sixty years. John Donne. BORN A. D. 1573.-DIED A. D. 1631. THIS eminent divine and poet was born in London in 1573. His father was of Welsh descent; his mother was related to Chancellor More; both were strongly attached to the church of Rome. Young Donne received the rudiments of education at home, under a private tutor; but his proficiency was so remarkable that he is said to have been sent to the university of Oxford before he had completed his twelfth year. At this time, we are told, he understood the French and Latin languages thoroughly, and had in other respects so far exceeded the usual attainments of boyhood as to be compared to Picus Mirandola, one that was "rather born, than made wise by study." Religious scruples prevented his taking any degree at Oxford. He removed to Cambridge in his fourteenth year, and prosecuted his studies at that university with great diligence and success; but the same causes which hindered his obtaining a degree at Oxford, operated here also. In his seventeenth year he repaired to London, and entered at Lincoln's inn ; but his father's death having put him, about this time, in possession of a patrimony of £3,000, he gave up close study for a season, and betook himself to the easier and pleasanter task of inditing amatory verses. For a time this employment satisfied him, and his poetry, though often grossly indelicate in language and ideas, became highly popular, and introduced him to the company of the young men of fashion of the day, with whom he launched out into such extravagance as quickly dissipated his fortune. Donne's mind, however, was naturally of a studious and contemplative cast, and he soon recovered himself from the temporary delusion into which he had allowed himself to be betrayed. In his nineteenth year he began to study the controversy between the catholics and protestants. The religion of his family had taken a deep hold of his mind, but the result of an anxious and minute investigation was his espousing the doctrines of the reformed church. In the following rugged but emphatic lines of his third satire, he has recorded his conviction of the right and duty of private judgment in matters of faith: "Fool and wretch! wilt thou let thy soul be tied To man's laws, by which she shall not be tried At the last day? Or will it then boot thee To say, a Philip, or a Gregory, A Harry, or a Martin taught me this? Is not this excuse for mere contraries Equally strong? Cannot both sides say so? That thou mayest rightly obey power, her bounds know; In 1596, Donne accompanied the earl of Essex in his expedition to Calais and his Island voyage. He did not return to England until he had travelled through Italy and Spain. Soon after his return, he was appointed secretary to Sir Thomas Egerton, keeper of the seals, who became very fond of him, and marked him out for further promotion. In this honourable employment he passed five years, and would probably have risen to some more important employment in the state, but for his having clandestinely married a niece of Sir Thomas's lady. The lady's father was greatly incensed at the lovers, and made them both feel the bitter effects of his resentment. But the kindness of Sir Francis Wooley, son to Lady Ellesmere by her first husband, preserved the young couple from want, and ultimately brought about a reconciliation betwixt them and the offended parent, Sir George Moore. His friend Dr Morton, then dean of Gloucester, urged him strongly at this time to take orders; and generously offered, in the event of his doing so, to resign a valuable living to him. But Donne, after deliberately considering the dean's proposal, declined following his advice, ingenuously confessing that the clerical profession was to him unlawful, since he found in himself no higher vocation to it than the want of a maintenance. In 1612, Donne accompanied Sir Robert Drury's embassy to Paris. 6 Before his visit to Paris, Donne had been presented to King James, and made a very favourable impression on that monarch by his powers of conversation and his acquaintance with scholastic theology. A treatise which he published soon after, on the lawfulness of the oath of allegiance to a catholic, under the title of the Pseudo-martyr,' confirmed James in the opinion he had formed of Donne, and made him determine to force him into the church if it were possible. Accordingly, on his return from Paris, Donne was again urged by his majesty to take orders, and, after long and severe struggles with himself, consented. Being admitted by royal mandate to a doctor's degree at Cam |