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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life and Times of John Wilkins, by 
+Patrick A. Wright-Henderson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Life and Times of John Wilkins
+       Warden of Wadham college, Oxford; master of Trinity college,
+       Cambridge; and Bishop of Chester
+
+Author: Patrick A. Wright-Henderson
+
+Release Date: September 20, 2008 [EBook #26674]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN WILKINS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+The Life and Times of John Wilkins
+
+[Illustration: WARDEN WILKINS.]
+
+Warden of Wadham College, Oxford; Master of Trinity College, Cambridge;
+and Bishop of Chester
+
+
+BY
+
+P. A. WRIGHT HENDERSON
+WARDEN OF WADHAM COLLEGE, OXFORD
+
+William Blackwood and Sons
+Edinburgh and London
+1910
+
+_ALL RIGHTS RESERVED_
+
+
+_DEDICATED TO THE MEMBERS OF WADHAM COLLEGE._
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+This little book is written as an offering to the Members of Wadham
+College for the Tercentenary of its foundation. The writer makes no
+pretensions to learning or research: the title of the book would be
+misleading and ridiculous if taken to imply a profound study of the
+times of Bishop Wilkins, from his birth in 1614 to his death in 1672,
+the most important, perhaps, certainly the most interesting, in the
+history of Great Britain. It has been attempted only to touch on the
+great questions and events which shaped the life and character of a
+remarkable man. Use has been made freely and often, without due
+acknowledgment, of the 'History of Wadham College,' written by Mr T. G.
+Jackson, R.A., one of its Honorary Fellows and distinguished alumni; a
+history of the building and architecture of the College, which no one
+but he could have written,--a history also of its social and academical
+life from its beginning to the present day.
+
+Nor has less use been made of Mr J. Wells' History of the College, of
+which he is a Fellow. He will, I am sure, pardon my impertinence in
+saying that in his book are combined diligent research and a sense of
+humour and of the picturesque, excellences rarely found together in
+historians. Mr R. B. Gardiner, formerly Scholar of Wadham, has earned
+its gratitude by his invaluable 'Registers of Admissions,' which, it is
+to be hoped, he will bring down to 1910 or later: they will make easy
+the work of some member of the College, who will doubtless arise to
+write a _magnum opus_, the history of the College in every
+aspect--architectural, social, and academical.
+
+For it the writer will use, as I have done for this little book, the
+notes and comments of Mr Andrew Clark on Wood's 'Life and Times,' and
+other volumes published by the Oxford Historical Society.
+
+My thanks are due also to Dr Butler, the Master of Trinity, Cambridge,
+for his kindness in telling me what little there is to tell of Wilkins'
+short tenure of the Mastership.
+
+The Bishop of Chester, Dr Jayne, formerly a Scholar of Wadham, now
+Bishop of the Diocese which Wilkins held, has helped me with information
+about the short episcopate of his predecessor. For it I am grateful to
+him, as well for the suggestion or command which led to my first
+attempt, made four years ago, to write something about Wilkins.
+
+The too short article in the 'Dictionary of National Biography' has been
+of much service: it gives the bibliography of the subject, or an
+equivalent, for no life of Wilkins has been written till now, and
+indicates the sources of information about him: it also puts in clear
+order the events of his varied life. Mr Sanders must know much which he
+should be gently forced to tell.
+
+Fain would I acknowledge to Wood and Aubrey the debt I owe to them,
+especially to Wood, and ask his pardon for occasional ill-natured
+remarks about him, as ill-natured nearly as his own about most of his
+contemporaries.
+
+The only merit claimed for this _libellus_ is its brevity--no small
+recommendation in this age of "exhaustive treatment" when, in
+bibliography especially, it is difficult to see the wood for the trees.
+It is an inadequate expression of the writer's affection for the College
+in which he has spent more than forty years of his life, and the
+unvarying kindness and indulgence which he has received from pupils and
+colleagues.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+
+CHAP.                                                        PAGE
+
+  I. HISTORY OF THE COLLEGE FROM ITS FOUNDATION TO
+        THE BEGINNING OF WILKINS' WARDENSHIP                    1
+
+ II. WILKINS' LIFE TILL HIS APPOINTMENT TO THE WARDENSHIP      30
+
+III. WILKINS' WARDENSHIP                                       54
+
+ IV. WILKINS AFTER HIS LIFE AT OXFORD                         105
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+
+                                               PAGE
+
+WARDEN WILKINS                     _Frontispiece_
+
+NICHOLAS WADHAM                                  12
+
+DOROTHY WADHAM                                   16
+
+ADMIRAL BLAKE                                    28
+
+WADHAM COLLEGE FROM THE WARDEN'S GARDEN          48
+
+WADHAM COLLEGE FROM THE COLLEGE GARDEN           78
+
+SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN                            100
+
+
+
+
+THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN WILKINS.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+HISTORY OF THE COLLEGE FROM ITS FOUNDATION TO THE BEGINNING OF WILKINS'
+WARDENSHIP.
+
+
+Wadham College was founded in 1610, when on July 31st the
+foundation-stone was laid; and opened in 1613, when, on April 20th, the
+Warden and Fellows elected by the Foundress were admitted; the Warden,
+by the Vice-Chancellor of the University in St Mary's Church; the
+fifteen Fellows by the Warden in the College Hall; the fifteen Scholars
+by the Warden and Fellows in the same place. All of them, from the
+Warden to the Junior Scholars, were sworn to obey the Statutes of the
+College, save three of the Scholars, who were supposed to be too young
+to understand the nature of an oath.
+
+A site had been found on the ground where had stood the Priory of the
+Augustine Friars, founded in 1268--suppressed in 1540. It had been
+gradually removed or destroyed by time and plunder of its materials: no
+traces of it are left, except on the west side of the Warden's garden, a
+postern-gate which he maintains was used by the friars for various
+purposes. Another memorial of the Priory survived till 1800--the phrase
+of "doing Austins." Up to that date, or near it, every Bachelor of Arts
+was required once in each year to "dispute and answer ad Augustinenses,"
+and the chapel or refectory of the Priory were convenient places in
+which to hold the disputations. In the University no official title, no
+name indeed of any kind, escapes abbreviation or worse indignity,
+instances of which will readily suggest themselves to the mind of any
+Oxford reader.
+
+The founders were Nicholas Wadham and Dorothy, his wife, of Merrifield
+and Edge in the county of Somerset. He was a squire of good estate and
+high degree, the last male descendant of the main line of Wadhams. Born
+in 1532, he was educated at Corpus or at Christ Church: there is a
+conflict of testimony on this point, but Corpus was probably his
+college. At the age of twenty-three he married Dorothy Petre. She was
+two years younger than her husband, born in 1534, the daughter of Sir
+William Petre of Writtle in Essex, near which much of the College
+property now lies. For his zeal in suppressing the monasteries Sir
+William had been rewarded by the grant of a large estate, and Wadham, so
+long a Whig and Evangelical College, was by the vicissitudes of fortune
+built both pecuniarily and materially on the ruins of the Roman Catholic
+Church.
+
+The young couple were wealthy and lived their lives in state at
+Merrifield, where they kept an open house, "an inn at all times for
+their friends, and a court at Christmas." Yet, owing probably to the
+management of Dorothy, a notable and prudent wife, they saved money, and
+the childless pair determined to devote their wealth to "the purposes of
+religion, learning, and education." Their creed, like that of many
+waverers in those days of transition, was by no means clear, possibly
+even to themselves. The Wadhams were suspected of being Recusants, and
+Dorothy was presented as such, even in the year 1613 when the College
+was completed. This may have given rise to Antony Wood's story that
+Nicholas was minded to found a College at Venice for Roman Catholic
+students, but the balance of probabilities is against its truth.
+
+It has been pointed out by Mr Jackson, on the suggestion of Mr Thorley,
+the late Warden, that "the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot in 1605 may
+have weakened his (Wadham's) attachment, in common with that of many
+liberal and loyal Catholics, to the cause of the old faith"; further,
+that "the Venice scheme comes very near, if it does not amount to, an
+offence which the law had anticipated and actually forbidden, and it
+would have exposed its author to the direful penalties of Pramunire,
+which by a Statute of 27 Elizabeth were denounced against any person
+contributing to the support of any College of Jesuits, or Seminary,
+erected, or hereafter to be erected, beyond the sea": and finally, Mr
+Jackson dwells on many evidences from facts that the Founder was in his
+later years strictly conformable to the Reformed Church. These are
+weighty arguments, and to them may be added others worthy of
+consideration. To a daughter of Sir William Petre her husband's design,
+if he ever entertained it, would have been more than distasteful, for
+its fulfilment would have meant a confession of sacrilege committed by
+her father and acquiesced in by herself: it would have meant also the
+establishment of a college beyond the sea, removed from the Founder's
+supervision and control. No one who knows human nature, or daughters,
+or Dorothy Wadham, can regard the story as more than an interesting
+fiction. And yet, is there no foundation for Wood's circumstantial
+narrative? Does the fact that the Foundress was presented as a Recusant
+mean nothing? The problem is one worthy of the industry and ingenuity of
+Mr Andrew Lang.
+
+The Founder died at the age of seventy-seven years in 1609. He was
+buried in "Myne Ile at Ilminster, where myne ancestors lye interred."
+The funeral was one befitting, in the estimation of those days, the
+obsequies of an important country gentleman: it cost £500, equivalent
+now to a sum sufficient for the public funeral of some great statesman.
+It is easy to condemn our ancestors; but their modes of extravagance
+were less frivolous than ours, if equally irrational.
+
+The building accounts have been preserved in the account-book treasured
+in the College archives: in it is recorded "every item of stone, wood,
+or metal used, and every workman's name and weekly wages," an important
+contribution to the history of prices. The architect was William
+Arnold, who combined in himself, as did architects in the middle ages
+and later, the functions of head workman, master mason, architect, and
+clerk of works in one--a master builder. The stones came from the
+quarries at Headington and Shotover; the slates from Stonesfield and
+Burford. Part of the beauty of the College is due to the soft colouring
+of the silver-grey stone, honeycombed and crumbled, on the south and
+west especially, where sun and wind and rain beat on it, giving it the
+appearance of indefinite antiquity; an appearance due, alas! also to the
+fact that stone from Headington is very friable, and little able to
+resist the Oxford air.
+
+One of the true College stories runs to the effect that Warden Griffiths
+used the account-book to refute the contention of a great historian of
+British architecture that Wadham College must have been built at
+different dates, because its architecture is of different styles--an
+improper combination of Jacobean and Perpendicular. Dr Griffiths was the
+kindliest of men, but the most accurate, and it gave him, for he was
+human, great pleasure to correct mistakes. He listened silently to the
+great man's argument: next morning, at a large breakfast party given in
+the College Common Room to the members of the British Association which
+met at Oxford in the year 1847, he quietly laid the Account-Book beside
+the plate of the unhappy dogmatist. The fact that the Chapel is
+Perpendicular while the Quadrangle is late Gothic has been explained by
+the late Mr J. H. Parker's reasonable, perhaps fanciful, suggestion that
+"the architect desired to emphasise by this variation of style the
+religious and secular uses of the several structures."[1]
+
+Wadham has been described by Ayliffe, and without much protest, as being
+"in respect of beauty the most regular and uniform of any in the
+University." It is the best specimen of that late Gothic style which
+makes the charm of Oxford, and which Mr Jackson has helped to preserve
+by his work there and elsewhere.
+
+The beauty of Wadham is of a singularly quiet and simple kind, the
+effect of proportion, of string-courses and straight lines, marred by
+little decoration. Except for buildings annexed from time to time, so
+plain that they are no disfigurement, the College stands as it stood
+three centuries ago. Mr Andrew Lang has remarked that it is "the only
+College in Oxford which has not been fiddled with"; this is high praise,
+and gratefully accepted. One defect the College has: the resources of
+the Founders sufficed to build only one quadrangle; they had not counted
+the cost of the stately Chapel and Hall, and little was left for College
+rooms. When will our benefactor come? But it would be ungracious in
+Wadham men to criticise the Founders of their College, to whom they owe
+the most beautiful of homes. It stood fifty years ago almost in the
+country, with nothing north or east of it save the Museum and green
+fields. It is still in a great measure what it was called, the Country
+College; for though it has neighbours close to it in Mansfield and
+Manchester Colleges, yet these and the cricket-grounds, which lie
+between Wadham and the Cherwell, and further north, the Parks, make one
+spacious region of almost country,--a region of grass and trees and
+silence, broken only by the sounds of birds, and the shouts of Matthew
+Arnold's "young barbarians all at play."
+
+It is a quiet old College,--not old as age is reckoned in Oxford,--like
+some great Elizabethan or Jacobean country-house turned into a College,
+splendid yet homely, possessing that double charm which no palace or
+castle or cathedral possesses in the same degree,--the charm of stately
+beauty and the charm of human interest which belongs to the home of
+generations who have spent there the happiest years of life, preparing
+for themselves distinction and success, or obscurity and failure. As you
+stand in the well-known College garden, one side of which is bounded by
+the chapel and long line of wall and gables showing half-white half-grey
+against the sward from which they rise, you might fancy, if you were a
+Platonist, that here Plato might have realised the dream of his
+Republic, and made a home for the chosen youths who were to rule and
+defend his state; here amid things beautiful "from which come effluences
+wholesome for the soul, like a breeze bringing health from blessed
+regions."
+
+The Educated Woman, with her unerring perception of the fitness of
+things, has already, it is whispered, marked Wadham for her own when the
+day of reckoning comes, and men will have to share with women not merely
+degrees but buildings and endowments. She has chosen well, for Tennyson
+could have imagined no fitter home for the Princess and her companions.
+
+Four days before his death Nicholas Wadham told his nephew, Sir John
+Wyndham, what were his objects in founding his College, and what were
+the provisions he wished made to effect them. His "instructions," two of
+which seemed strange to his nephew, and to need careful wording, ran as
+follows: "The one was that he would have an especial Statute to be made
+that neyther the head of the house, nor any of the fellowes should be
+married; the other that he would not tye any man to any profession, as
+eyther devinitie, lawe, or phisicke, but leave every man free to profess
+what he liked, as it should please God to direct him. He then told me
+that after they weare Masters of Arte of a competent number of yeares,
+that then he would have them absolutely to departe the Colledge, and not
+live there all theire lives like idle drones, but put themselves into
+the world, whereby others might growe up under them, his intente being
+chiefly to nourishe and trayne up men into Learninge. On the 19th of
+October, when he sealed the deede, I told him howe necessary it was for
+him to have a visitor of his Colledge, all the Colledges of Oxford
+having some Bishoppe appointed by the Founder for seeinge of the
+Statutes put in execution; and that in my opinion there was none fitter
+than the Bishoppe of Bathe and Welles, which he much applauded, and
+thanked me muche for putting him in minde of him; he also then sayd
+he would have his Colledge to be called Wadham Colledge."
+
+[Illustration: NICHOLAS WADHAM.]
+
+Our ancestors knew what they meant and how to express it in good
+English, though their spelling was irregular. In his instructions the
+Founder anticipated reforms made by the Commissioners of 1853 and 1882.
+They had the benefit of two and a half centuries' experience of national
+and academical life to guide them: Nicholas Wadham foresaw things and
+needs not foreseen or understood by his contemporaries or predecessors.
+His Fellowships were to be, all of them, open to laymen, and terminable
+after a tenure of years in which a young lawyer, of physician, might
+maintain and prepare himself till he had made a practice: eighteen years
+were allowed for that purpose, instead of the scanty seven with which a
+Prize Fellow must now content himself. It may be that Nicholas gave too
+much and the Commissioners gave too little; but that is a doubtful
+question.
+
+The Wardenship, as well as the Fellowships, could by the Founder's
+intention, and in the first draft of the Statutes, be held without the
+condition of Holy Orders. The Foundress, in this matter only, disobeyed
+her husband, and at the wish of the Society altered the Statutes, and by
+binding the Warden to take his Doctorate in Divinity made the office
+clerical for two hundred and sixty years. In all other points she
+followed the instructions which she may herself to some extent have
+inspired. Her Visitor was to be the Bishop of the diocese in which she
+had spent her life; her Warden was to be "a virtuous and honourable man
+of stainless life, not a bishop, nor a foreigner but born in Britain":
+the last word is significant. It was inserted in the Statutes by James
+I. in place of "England": even Dr Griffiths is known to have spoken of
+England as the kingdom in which he lived: further, the Warden was to be
+"thirty years old at least, and unmarried."
+
+There is nothing in Dorothy's grim features to suggest that she would
+have approved of one of the reforms or perversions of her Statutes
+ordained by the Commissioners, which gives a place in her College to a
+married Warden and to married Fellows, much less that she would have
+been willing to marry one of them herself. Thereby hangs a tale which
+might suggest a new situation to our exhausted novelists. The Foundress,
+so the story runs, chose for her first Warden a clergyman, Dr Robert
+Wright, whose _beaux yeux_ touched the heart of the lone widow: she
+loved him, and would fain have married him and reigned with him after
+the necessary alteration of the Statutes; but he was cold and
+irresponsive: the obligation of celibacy, save in the case of Warden
+Wilkins, remained incumbent on a Warden of Wadham till 1806, when it was
+removed by a special Act of Parliament. Modern criticism respects a
+love-story no more than it respects the Pentateuch. A comparison of
+dates shows that Dr Wright was fifty-four years old at the time of his
+appointment in 1613, and the Foundress was then seventy-nine. The
+difference of a quarter of a century makes the truth of the story not
+indeed impossible but improbable; the coy Warden held his office only
+for two months: the cause of his resignation or expulsion is not known,
+but was probably not "spretæ injuria formæ": the hero of the story
+wished to marry somebody else, and resigned his post because he was not
+permitted to do so, as Mr Wells informs us, adding a prosaic explanation
+of the lovers' quarrel, a disagreement about the appointment of an
+under-cook. Therefore "Dorothy's Romance" must take its place among the
+many College stories in which Oxford abounds, and become a forsaken
+belief. Wright was the first on the long roll of Wadham bishops, and
+played a not inconsiderable part at a crisis in English history. In
+December 1641, as Bishop of Lichfield, he was one of the twelve bishops
+who presented to Charles I. the famous protest against their exclusion
+by mob violence from the House of Lords, declaring all proceedings in
+their absence null and void: for this they were sent to the Tower as
+guilty of high treason. Wright was soon released, and died two years
+later defending his episcopal seat, Eccleshall Castle, against the
+Parliamentarians,--a member of the Church militant like Ancktill.
+
+[Illustration: DOROTHY WADHAM.]
+
+The history of the College from its foundation to the beginning of the
+Civil War is uneventful, one of great prosperity. Among the Fellows
+admitted in 1613, three, Smyth, Estcott, and Pitt, became Wardens: four
+of the Fellows were drawn from Exeter, then, as now, a west-country
+College like Wadham, though it has, more than Wadham, maintained its
+connection with the West of England. The Foundress showed her resolve
+that her husband's countryside should be well represented among the
+first members of the foundation: of the fifteen Fellows, eleven--of the
+fifteen Scholars, ten, came from western counties, especially from
+Somerset; the Commoners also were many of them western men. The value to
+a College of a local connection, not with a village or a small school,
+but with a county or a large town, was not understood by the
+Commissioners of 1853: they were under the tyranny of the formulæ
+current in their day, when "open competition" was supposed to be the
+solution of all the difficulties of life.
+
+In the first year of the College now opened for work, fifty-one
+undergraduates, including the Scholars, were admitted. The number of its
+inmates, from the Warden to the latest freshman, was therefore
+sixty-nine, including the two chaplains. The rooms were larger than most
+of the rooms in the older colleges, but fewer, and those available for
+undergraduates were not more than about forty: the freshmen of 1613 must
+have been closely packed, the Scholars especially, who had rooms three
+together, sleeping in the large chamber and working in the _muscoelæ_
+or small studies attached, now used as bedrooms, or as scouts' pantries.
+In the nine years following the admissions were necessarily
+fewer--averaging twenty-seven. It is probable that till the depletion of
+Oxford, when the Civil War began--_i.e._, during the first thirty years
+of its life--Wadham numbered on an average between eighty and ninety
+undergraduates, all of them resident in College, as was then required by
+the Statutes of the University. This estimate is based on imperfect
+data, and Mr Gardiner has pronounced that materials for any accurate
+calculation are not to be found. We do not know what was the usual
+length of undergraduates' residence at that time; some resided only for
+a year, some proceeded to a degree. Nor is it clear whether the Warden
+used all the rooms, eight in number, assigned to him, or gave, perhaps
+rented, some of them to undergraduates. The estimate, which can neither
+be confirmed nor disproved, is worth making only as helping us to
+imagine the condition of the College in its early days. One thing is
+certain, that Wadham was popular and fashionable, to use a modern
+curious name, as is shown by the record of admissions.
+
+Life, both for graduates and undergraduates, was harder then than it is
+now. The Fellows were required to reside for forty-six weeks, the
+Scholars, and probably the Commoners, for forty-eight weeks in each
+year. All undergraduates had to attend lectures or disputations for
+twenty-four hours in every week. These tasks were arranged with careful
+malignity to begin at 6 A.M., and resumed at 2 P.M. and 6 P.M. Nor were
+examinations wanting. The Bible was to be read during dinner in Hall by
+a Bible Clerk or Scholar, and heard attentively and reverently. Latin
+was to be spoken in Hall, and English only when the presence of an
+unlearned person or of a member of another college justified its use.
+The Chapel Service was held between 5 and 6 A.M. and between 8 and 9
+P.M.; and attendance twice a-day was required from bachelors and
+undergraduates, and rigidly enforced. Attendance at roll-call as a
+substitute for chapel was unheard of in those days, when all members of
+the colleges were, or were presumed to be, members also of the Church of
+England, nor would conscientious scruples have been treated with much
+courtesy. In other matters discipline was no less strict; clothes and
+boots were to be black, and gowns were to be long. No undergraduate was
+allowed to go out of College unaccompanied by a "discrete senior" of
+mature age as a witness to his good behaviour, unless to attend a
+lecture or a disputation: nor might he keep dogs, or guns, or ferrets,
+or any bird, within the precincts of the College, nor play any games
+with dice or cards or of any unseemly kind. Yet the Foundress showed a
+tenderness for human weakness by permitting the Fellows and Scholars to
+play cards in Hall on some of the Gaudy days for "moderate stakes and at
+timeous hours." Moreover, she ordained that £30 from the College
+revenues should be spent on College banquets to be held on Gaudy days,
+by which were meant the great Church festivals, the election days of
+Fellows and College officers, All Saints' Day, and, on what at first
+sight seems strange, the anniversary of her husband's death; but the
+strangeness disappears if it be remembered that October 20th comes close
+to All Saints' Day.
+
+This seems, in some of its provisions, Draconian legislation, but it was
+made for the government of boys, many of them only fourteen or fifteen
+years of age: how far it was, even in early days, unflinchingly
+enforced, we cannot tell. It began to fall into abeyance after the
+Restoration, if we are to believe Antony Wood. His statements are
+always to be received with caution; but they are on this point confirmed
+by other testimonies, and by the antecedent probability of a strong
+reaction against the Puritan _régime_. Eighteen months after the King's
+Restoration, he writes of the decay of learning and discipline in the
+University. "Before the warr wee had scholars that made a thorough
+search in scholasticall and polemicall divinity, in humane authors, and
+naturall philosophy. But now scholars studie these things not more than
+what is just necessary to carry them through the exercises of their
+respective Colleges and the Universitie. Their aime is not to live as
+students ought to do--viz., temperat, abstemious, and plaine and grave
+in the apparel; but to live like gentlemen, to keep dogs and horses, to
+turne their studies and coleholes into places to receive bottles, to
+swash it in apparell, to wear long periwigs, &c., and the theologists to
+ride abroad in grey coats with swords by their sides: the masters have
+lost their respect by being themselves scandalous, and keeping company
+with undergraduates." We cannot believe that Wadham escaped the
+contagion, and remained what its Foundress meant it to be. It would be
+interesting--but lack of space forbids--to compare the discipline
+prescribed with that administered in Wadham now. Sufficient to say--what
+indeed might go without saying--that the lapse of three hundred years
+has made changes desirable and necessary.
+
+The Foundress died on May 16, 1618, aged eighty-four. For five years she
+had watched over the infancy of her College, and had seen it grow into a
+vigorous child, with the promise of a robust manhood. The mythopoeic
+faculty is strong in all of us, and in Wadham has grown up a tradition
+that Dorothy was a strong-minded woman, and her husband a submissive man
+without character and will. The myth rests only on the science of
+physiognomy working on portraits,--a most insecure foundation. The
+Founders' portraits depict him as a gentle, placid person with
+melancholy eyes; her as a hard-featured woman with a long upper lip and
+an almost cruel mouth. Against the testimony, always dubious, of
+portraits, must be set the known facts of her loyal devotion in carrying
+out his wishes with scrupulous fidelity, and the sacrifices she made in
+doing so, of money and of laborious supervision in the last years of her
+long life.
+
+The College may do well to remember the closing of one of her last
+letters to the Warden and Fellows: "Above all things, I would have you
+to avoid contentions among yourselves, for without true charity there
+cannot be a true Society."--(Wells' 'History of Wadham,' p. 44.) She was
+buried beside her husband in the Wadham aisle at Ilminster.
+
+Only a few months after her death a question arose in which she would
+have taken a keen interest, and have supported her College to the
+uttermost. In October 1618 James I. set an example, which his grandson,
+James II., followed, of that contempt for law which proved fatal to the
+Stuarts. He wrote to his "trusty and well beloved, the Warden and
+Fellows of Wadham College, bidding them elect Walter Durham of St
+Andrews a Fellow, notwithstanding anything in their statutes to the
+contrary." Durham had not been a scholar, and the vacancy had been
+filled up by the Foundress, for whose death "their eyes were still wet."
+It is possible that Durham's being a Scotchman was another objection to
+his reception as a Fellow in those days when his aggressive countrymen
+had found the high-road to England: this objection the Society did not
+put before the King, but pleaded only the obligations of the statutes.
+Supported by the Earl of Pembroke, the Chancellor of the University,
+their resistance was successful. To Wadham belongs the honour of being
+the earliest Oxford champion of legality in the struggle of seventy
+years: as to Magdalen belongs the honour of the resistance which brought
+that struggle nearly to its close. From 1618 onward till--who can say
+when? the College has been on the popular or constitutional side, save
+in 1648. The portrait of James I., who gave the College its Charter,
+hangs in the Hall; there are no portraits there of Charles I., Charles
+II., James II.
+
+Among the admissions of this time the most illustrious name is that of
+Robert Blake, who matriculated at Alban Hall, but took his B.A. from
+Wadham in 1618, a few months before the Durham incident. The great
+admiral and soldier may therefore have learnt in Wadham the opinions
+which determined his choice of sides in the Parliamentary wars. The
+College possesses his portrait, and four gold medals struck to
+commemorate his victory over Van Tromp in 1653. It has never left the
+custody of the Warden, save when it was sent, concealed on the person of
+Professor and Commander Burroughs, to the Naval Exhibition some years
+ago; and last year, when after an interesting correspondence between the
+College and Colonel Maxse commanding the Coldstream Guards, leave was
+cordially given to that distinguished regiment to have an electrotype
+made of the Blake medal for its own exclusive use, and to be kept _in
+perpetuum_ among the memorials of its long history. It is the oldest
+regiment in the service, the only survivor of Cromwell's New Model; it
+was commanded by Monk, afterwards Duke of Albemarle, when he crossed the
+border to march to London, perhaps with no definite intention to restore
+the Monarchy--perhaps also prompted by his brother Nicholas, a Wadham
+man, to solve the great problem in that simple way. The rest of the New
+Model were disbanded after the Restoration, but, doubtless in deference
+to Monk, the Coldstreams were reformed, and became the King's Bodyguard.
+To Monk, who like Blake was half soldier, half sailor, one of the four
+medals had been awarded for his services against the Dutch. It was lost,
+and the replica will take its place. The other three medals are
+preserved--one in the possession of the representatives of the Penn
+family, one in the British Museum, one in Wadham: the last was sent to
+the British Museum for reproduction: it was carried by our historian Mr
+Wells, returned by him, and it now lies in the Warden's lodgings, in the
+cabinet of treasures bequeathed by Dr Griffiths, our benefactor in many
+ways unknown but to his friends. This tie of courtesy and history
+between a regiment and a college, arms and the gown, is worth recording
+and probably unique.
+
+No other name of real distinction than Blake's occurs in the registers
+of 1613 to 1648. But Colonel Henry Ancktill, "the priest and malignant
+doctor," as he was known among the Roundheads, one of the first Fellows,
+ought to be remembered, partly on his own account, for he was a vigorous
+and devoted Royalist, a fighting man when his cause was hopeless; partly
+because he may have been the original of Dr Rochcliffe in 'Woodstock.'
+Sir Walter Scott read the 'Athenæ Oxonienses,' and the resemblance
+between Ancktill and Rochcliffe is striking; but who can say what a
+great writer finds or creates in fiction or in history!
+
+[Illustration: ADMIRAL BLAKE.]
+
+A perusal of the register shows that in Wadham both of the great parties
+in Church and State were represented. There were represented also all
+classes of society, from Dymokes, Herberts, Russells, Portmans,
+Strangways, to the humblest _plebeiorum filii_, a fact which proves the
+falsity of the assertion made forty years ago, that Oxford was once a
+place for "gentlemen only."
+
+The history of the College at this time was not one of unbroken peace:
+occasional quarrels between members of the governing body are
+recorded,--evidences of the unrest of a time when greater questions than
+the interpretation of a Statute or the disputed election of a College
+officer were already in the air. The only dissension of any interest was
+one which led to an appeal to the Visitor: the Visitor was Laud, the
+Bishop of Bath and Wells, who showed great gentleness and patience in
+dealing with a person even more provoking than he found the worst of
+Scotch Presbyterians.
+
+We have now reached, "longas per ambages," the times of Wilkins'
+manhood: he was born a year later than the opening of the College which
+he was to rule.
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[1] See Messrs Peel and Minchin's 'Oxford,' p. 130.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+WILKINS' LIFE TILL HIS APPOINTMENT TO THE WARDENSHIP.
+
+
+In the Common Room of Wadham College hangs the portrait of John Wilkins,
+Warden from 1648 to 1659. It is probably a faithful likeness, for
+Wilkins is described by Aubrey as "a lustie, strong-grown, well-set,
+broad-shouldered person, cheerful and hospitable; no great-read man, but
+one of much and deepe thinking, and of a working head; and a prudent man
+as well as ingeniose." In the portrait these characteristics, physical
+and mental, are well displayed: sanity of mind--that is, clearness,
+shrewdness, courage, kindliness, the contentment which makes the best of
+good and evil fortune, are, to the imaginative mind, written in the
+face, as presented in his picture, of this great man. His greatness fell
+short of genius, for it was the effect of ordinary qualities, rarely
+combined and tempered into one character; but more effective for useful
+work in the world than genius without sanity.
+
+He was born in 1614 at Fawsley in Northamptonshire. His father was
+Walter Wilkins, a goldsmith in Oxford, like his son "ingeniose, and of a
+very mechanicall head, which ran much upon the perpetuall motion,"--a
+problem less hopeful than most, not all, of those which attracted his
+more practical son, who inherited from him his "insatiable curiosity."
+
+It is from Aubrey that we derive the fullest account of the facts of
+Wilkins' life, as well as of his character. It is given in one of those
+"Brief Lives" which might well serve as models to modern biographers;
+lives compressed into two pages of nervous English, adorned here and
+there, rather than disfigured, by quaint pedantic words and phrases,
+relics of the euphuism of the sixteenth century. Aubrey is credulous,
+appallingly frank, a strong partisan, a man of great industry and
+learning, by no means trustworthy, but none the less entertaining and
+delightful. He tells us that Wilkins had his "grammar learning from Mr
+Sylvester, 'the common drudge of the University,' who kept a private
+school: that he entered Magdalen Hall from New Inn Hall in 1627 at the
+age of thirteen, and there was placed under the tutorship of 'the
+learned Mr John Tombs, the Coryphæus of the Anabaptists.'" Tombs was a
+man of great ability, notable for his "curious, searching, piercing
+witt, of whom it was predicted that he would doe a great deale of
+mischiefe to the Church of England, as great witts have done by
+introducing new opinions." He was a formidable disputant, so formidable
+that when he came to Oxford in 1664, and there "sett up a challenge to
+maintain 'contra omnes gentes' the doctrines of the Anabaptists, not a
+man would grapple with him, their Coryphæus; yet putting aside his
+Anabaptisticall opinions he was conformable enough to the Church of
+England"; so much so that he held a living at Leominster, and was the
+friend of two Bishops, Sanderson and Seth Ward. It is doubtful whether
+Mr Tombs would now, if he came back, move in Episcopal circles. His
+career gives us a glimpse into those puzzling times of confusion and
+cross-purposes, when compromise and toleration co-existed, both in
+parties and in individuals, with bitter fanaticism, more commonly than
+is supposed, or can be explained.
+
+It is easy to see what was the influence exercised by Tombs on a clever
+boy like Wilkins. He was probably trained to be a Latitudinarian; for
+Tombs, despite his strong opinions, could admire and praise sincerity in
+opponents: he was heard to say that "though he was much opposite to the
+Romish religion, truly for his part should he see a poor zealous friar
+goeing to preach he should pay him respect." Utterances of this kind, if
+heard by Wilkins, would make a strong impression on a youth by nature
+singularly tolerant.
+
+Wilkins took his B.A. degree in 1631, his M.A. in 1634. For a few years
+he took pupils--read to pupils (as the phrase was),--the common resource
+then, as now, of young Oxonians, who think themselves qualified to
+teach, and must support themselves till a Fellowship comes, or till they
+have chosen a profession.
+
+In 1637 he took Holy Orders in the Church of England, and became curate
+of Fawsley, the place in which he had been born. A country living was
+too small a sphere for a young man of twenty-three, conscious of his
+powers, ambitious and desirous to see the world of letters, science, and
+politics in those eventful days. Aubrey tells us that "he has sayd often
+times that the first rise, or hint of his rising, was from goeing
+accidentally a courseing of a hare, when an ingeniose gentleman of good
+quality falling into discourse with him, and finding him to have a very
+good witt, told him that he would never gett any considerable preferment
+by continuing in the University, and that his best way was to betake
+himself to some lord's or great person's house that had good benefices
+to conferre. Sayd Mr Wilkins, I am not knowne in the world; I know not
+to whom to addresse myself upon such a designe. The gentleman replied,
+'I will commende you myselfe,' and did so to (as I think) Lord Viscount
+Say and Seale, where he stayed with very good likeing till the late
+civill warres."
+
+It is not clear whether this worldly but sound advice was given to
+Wilkins before or after he became a country clergyman, for the words
+"continuing in the University" might mean either residence there, or
+occasional visits to it. Coursing of a hare was, perhaps is, an
+amusement equally of University men and of the country clergy: the last
+alone can tell us whether they still "goe a courseing
+accidentally"--(the word is worth noting)--and whether conversations of
+this profitable kind occur in the intervals of sport. But the date of
+the incident is of less importance than its result; it was the
+turning-point of Wilkins' life. When he became chaplain to Lord Say and
+Seale he was introduced into a sphere of politics and action.
+
+William Fiennes, the first Viscount, was a man of light and leading in
+the Parliamentary party; "the oracle," as Clarendon styles him, "of
+those who were called Puritans in the worst sense, and steered all their
+counsels and designs." He deserved his nickname, Old Subtlely, for he
+had a clear insight into the real issues from the very beginning of the
+great quarrel: he headed in Oxfordshire the resistance to the levying of
+Ship-money, and was the champion of the Independents, the most
+determined of the king's opponents. His sons, John and Nathaniel
+Fiennes, were no less resolute and effective Puritans than the head of
+their house; more so indeed, for they were believed, and soon known to
+be, "for root and branch."
+
+At Broughton, Wilkins, now chaplain and resident there, met the most
+prominent men of the party which was against the Government. He must
+have heard "great argument about it and about"; whether "evermore he
+came out by the same door wherein he went" we cannot tell, for he
+possessed to an extraordinary degree the faculty of seeing the two sides
+of a question: as he stayed at Broughton "with very good likeing" for
+five or six years, it may be presumed that the discreet and morigerous
+man concealed the difficulty which he felt in accepting some of the
+views maintained at Broughton. Some light is thrown on his real opinions
+by words found in the sermon preached at his funeral by Lloyd, his
+friend and pupil. "When some thought these dissents ground enough for
+war, he declared himself against it, and confirmed others in their
+allegiance: he profest to the last a great hatred of that horrible
+rebellion." He doubtless resembled another
+Latitudinarian--Cudworth--whom Burnet describes as "a man of great
+competence and prudence upon which his enemies did very falsely accuse
+him of craft and dissimulation."
+
+When the Civil War broke out Wilkins removed to London and became
+Chaplain to Lord Berkeley, and later to Charles Lewis, Prince Elector
+Palatine, nephew of Charles I., and elder brother of Prince Rupert. The
+Elector was then an _émigré_ in England, hoping to be restored to his
+dominions by the aid of his uncle, who was then struggling to hold his
+own inheritance. During his seven years' residence in London, Wilkins
+became the friend, perhaps the leader, of the natural philosophers, who
+later formed themselves into the Royal Society. Thus, before he had
+reached "the middle of the way of life," he had seen much of the world.
+Like Ulysses, whom in many ways he resembled, "he saw the cities of many
+men and knew their mind."
+
+Dr Walter Pope, his half-brother, who wrote a life of Bishop Ward, and,
+curiously enough, a life also of Claude Duval, the famous highwayman,
+which had a wider circulation, says of Wilkins that he was "a learned
+man and a lover of such; of comely aspect and gentlemanlike behaviour.
+He had been bred in the court, and was also a piece of a traveller."
+The last sentence refers mainly to Wilkins' life after the Restoration;
+but he had travelled before then, and his acquaintance with the
+Fiennes', with the Elector, and with London society, had taught him
+"gentlemanlike behaviour" before he became a Head of a House,--a lesson
+which, apparently, some other Heads in his time had not learnt; for Pope
+goes on to say, "He had nothing of bigotry, unmannerliness or
+censoriousness, which then were in the zenith amongst some of the Heads
+and Fellows of Colleges in Oxford." It is to be hoped that such
+criticisms would not now be made on the manners of the senior members of
+the University, and that in this respect Oxford has been reformed, to
+the approval of all concerned.
+
+While Wilkins was experimenting and philosophising in London, events had
+been marching rapidly in England and in Oxford. In Wood's 'Life and
+Times' is written the history of the city of Oxford, of the University
+and of himself, from the day of his birth till his death in 1681. The
+three histories are mingled in a quaint and incoherent fashion. Wood is
+a chronicler like Aubrey, his friend, with whom he quarrelled, as
+antiquarians and historians do. Both were industrious, uncritical,
+and--Wood especially--sometimes venomous; both were vivid and
+picturesque, keen observers, and had a wonderful power of saying much in
+few words.
+
+Antony Wood, the son of Thomas Wood, Bachelor of Arts and of Civil Law,
+was born in 1632 at Oxford, where his father lived, in the Collegiate
+parish of St John Baptist de Merton. He was educated at New College
+School, in Oxford, and later at Thame Grammar School; was admitted into
+Merton College at the age of fifteen as a "filius generosi," and became
+Bible Clerk in 1650. When ten years old he saw the king, with his army
+of foot, his two sons, Charles and James, his nephews, Rupert and
+Maurice, enter Oxford after the battle of Edgehill. The incident was
+impressed on his memory by the expulsion of his father from the house
+in Merton Street, and the removal of the boys of New College School to
+the choristers' chamber at the east end of the College hall, "a dark
+nasty room, very unfit for such a purpose, which made the scholars often
+complaine, but in vaine." From this time onward Wood, a clever and
+observant boy, kept both his ears and eyes open, and accumulated from
+all quarters materials for his narrative which covers fifty years, the
+most interesting and important half century in the history of Oxford.
+
+
+     "Your orthodox historian puts
+       In foremost rank the soldier thus,
+     The redcoat bully in his boots
+       That hides the march of men from us."
+
+
+The "redcoat bully," as Thackeray somewhat harshly calls him, figures
+largely in the early pages of Wood's 'Life and Times,' but does not hide
+the march of men. In August 1642, "the members of the University began
+to put themselves in a posture of defence," and till June 1646, when
+Oxford was surrendered to Fairfax, it was a garrison town, the centre
+and object of much fighting, and of many excursions and alarms, as being
+"the chiefest hold the King had."
+
+Fain would the writer extract almost bodily Wood's description of the
+four years' occupation, but some things he cannot forbear from
+mentioning, for they throw light on the history of Wilkins' Oxford, and
+on the problems with which he had to deal after the war was ended. Mr
+Haldane would read with interest and approval how the Oxford
+undergraduates of 1642 responded to a call to arms, as he hopes their
+successors will respond, if and when need comes.
+
+"Dr Pink of New College, the deputy Vice-Chancellor, called before him
+to the public schools all the priviledged men's arms to have a view of
+them; when, not only priviledged men of the University and their
+servants, but also many scholars appeared, bringing with them the
+furniture of armes of every College that then had any." The furniture
+for one man was sent by Wood's father--viz., "a helmet, a back and
+breast plate, a pike, and a musquet." The volunteers, both graduates,
+some of them divines, and undergraduates, mustered in New College
+quadrangle, and were drilled in the Newe Parkes (the Parks of our day)
+to the number of four hundred, "in a very decent arraye, and it was
+delightsome to behold the forwardnesse of so many proper yonge gentlemen
+so intent, docile, and pliable to their business." Town and gown took
+opposite sides: the citizens were, most of them, ready to support the
+Parliament, or the King and Parliament, but not the King against the
+Parliament. Long before the Civil War began there were in Oxford and in
+the kingdom, as always in our history, though called by different names,
+three parties, divided from each other by no very fast or definite
+lines; the King's, the Parliament's and the party of moderate men, to
+which Wilkins belonged; the Constitutional party in the strict meaning
+of the word, who wished both to preserve and reform the constitution. In
+those days of confusion and perplexity, when men's hearts were failing
+them for fear and for looking after those things which were to come,
+many knew not what to think or do. It was a miserable time both for
+Roundheads and Cavaliers, and most of all for those who were not sure
+what they were. If Hyde and Falkland wavered for a time, how must the
+timid and lukewarm have wavered? Though the great questions were fairly
+clear, the way to solve them, and the end to which any way would lead,
+were dark and gloomy. It is an error to think that the Civil War was a
+sudden outbreak, a short struggle on simple issues between two sharply
+divided parties, assured of their beliefs and interests. The French
+Revolution was that, or nearly that; but our revolutions are managed
+deliberately, and lead to conclusive and permanent results: the art of
+revolution belongs to the English race.
+
+In Oxford there must have been much bewilderment and questioning among
+citizens and gownsmen when Lord Say and Seale, the new Lord-Lieutenant
+of the county appointed by the Parliament, came into the town on
+September 14, 1642, and ordered that the works and trenches made by the
+scholars should be demolished; yet next day he "sent a drumme up and
+downe the towne for volunteers to serve the King and Parliament." What
+did that mean? Almost any answer might have been given to the question.
+His lordship's opinions soon became clearer than his puzzling
+proclamation; on September the 24th he sent for the Heads of Houses to
+rebuke them for having "broken the peace and quiet of the University,"
+so much broken it that "they had nowe left no face of a Universitie, by
+taking up armes and the like courses." He had before this interview
+"caused diverse popish bookes and pictures taken out of churches, and of
+papish houses, here and abroad, to be burned in the street over against
+the signe of the Starre, where his Lordship laye." We know not what is
+meant by "papish bookes and pictures," but the Puritan Lord Say may not
+have discriminated sharply between them and the books and ornaments of
+the High Party in the Church of England.
+
+For seven or eight weeks before the battle of Edgehill, Oxford swarmed
+with soldiers. It had been held for a fortnight by the King's men, who
+were succeeded by the Parliamentary troopers brought in by Lord Say.
+Some disturbances took place, in which the soldiers from Puritan London
+especially distinguished themselves: one of them, when flushed with wine
+presented by the Mayor "too freely," went so far as to "discharge a
+brace of bulletts at the stone image of Our Lady over the church St
+Mairie's parish, and at one shott strooke off her hed, and the hed of
+her child which she held in her right arme: another discharged his
+musket at the image of our Saviour over All Soule's gate, and would have
+defaced all the worke there, had it not been for some townsmen, who
+entreated them to forbeare, they replienge that they had not been so
+well treated here at Oxford as they expected: many of them came into
+Christ Church to viewe the Church and paynted windowes, much admiringe
+at the idolatry thereof, and a certain Scot, beinge amongst them, saide
+that he marvaylled how the Schollers could goe for their bukes to these
+paynted idolatrous wyndoes." From a Scot of that time this utterance was
+not surprising: bukes had been substituted for paynted wyndowes
+destroyed in his country many years before his visit to Oxford. But to
+the honour of the Puritans be it said, there were no serious outrages on
+person or property in Oxford, and that its citizens had to endure
+nothing more than fear and discomfort: in no other country in Europe at
+that time would a city occupied by troops have suffered as little as did
+Oxford in those two months.
+
+In 'John Inglesant' a man of genius has drawn a picture of Oxford when
+it was the residence of the King and Queen and Court. His description is
+so vivid that one is tempted to believe it to be history: it is that,
+and not mere fiction, for it is based on a careful study of facts, and,
+allowance made for the writer's strong Royalist bias, it is true
+ethically or in spirit, that highest truth which accurate and laborious
+historians often fail to reach.
+
+John Inglesant entered Wadham before the war began--the date of his
+admission is obviously uncertain--and lived there from time to time till
+the rout at Naseby, in 1645, brought about the surrender of Oxford to
+the Parliament in 1646. It was by a sure instinct that he chose Wadham,
+that quiet and beautiful college, for his home. He was a dreamer, and in
+no place could he have dreamt more peacefully and happily than there,
+though sometimes perhaps, even in his first term, he must have been
+disturbed by the ominous sounds of axe and hammer, pick and spade, busy
+on the "fortifications in making about the towne on the north and
+north-west thereof," and, later, on the east, toward Headington Hill and
+close to Wadham. A trace of them remains in the terrace on the east of
+the Warden's garden, which did not then exist for Inglesant to walk
+in, and muse on the problems of the day.
+
+[Illustration: WADHAM COLLEGE FROM THE WARDEN'S GARDEN.]
+
+Oxford in his time at Wadham presented a curious spectacle. Huddled
+together were soldiers, courtiers, ladies beautiful, gay, and famous in
+many ways, severe Divines and College Heads, to whom such surroundings
+were unfamiliar and perhaps not uninteresting: masques and revels were
+frequent; Christ Church meadow and the grove at Trinity were the resort
+of a brilliant throng, more brilliant even than the gatherings which
+fill Oxford at Commemoration time in our more sober age. But beneath
+this merriment there were doubtless in the minds at least of those who
+thought, or stopped to think, terrible anxieties and the grimmest of
+forebodings. It was becoming clearer every month that Edgehill had not
+broken the rebellion; that the struggle would be long, and that the
+issue was uncertain; events soon justified these fears. On January 10,
+1643, "the Kinges letters came to all the Colledges and Halls for their
+plates to be brought into the mint at Oxford, there to be coyned into
+money with promise of refunding it, or payeinge for it again after five
+shillings the ounce for silver, five and sixpence for silver and gilt."
+The fruitless sacrifice was made by no college with more unhesitating
+devotion than by Wadham, which preserves the letter addressed by Charles
+I. to "our trusty and well-beloved ye Warden and Fellows of Wadham
+College," and the receipt for 124 lb. of plate from the king's officers
+of the mint, a liberal contribution from a college only thirty years
+old. Few relics of the ancient Collegiate plate are now to be found in
+the University; in most instances pieces, either bestowed or given by
+special benefactors: the Communion vessels of the Colleges were not
+taken by the king--a loyal son of the Church. Six colleges, among them
+Wadham, retained theirs through all the confusion of the war, and still
+possess them.
+
+In February 1643 warning came of fresh troubles from the north: three
+Commissioners representing the nobility, clergy, gentry, and commons of
+Scotland presented themselves to the king, "to press his Majestie that
+the Church of England might be made conformable in all points to the
+Church of Scotland." To Charles, himself a Scot, this request must have
+seemed an outrageous insult, inflicted on him by those of his own
+household, and an omen of his desertion by his warlike countrymen, whom,
+despite their resistance to the English Liturgy, he trusted to be
+faithful to a Stuart.
+
+On June 24, 1646, the last fighting Royalist left Oxford. In the
+following Michaelmas, Wood returned "to the home of his nativitie." He
+found Oxford "empty as to scholars, but pretty well replenished with
+Parliamentarian soldiers." In his opinion the young men of the city and
+the University had reaped less benefit from the Royalist occupation than
+their seniors; the latter had gained "great store of wealth from the
+court and royalists that had for several years continued among them";
+the former he "found many of them to have been debauched by bearing
+arms, and doing the duties belonging to soldiers, as watching, warding,
+and sitting in tipling houses for whole nights together." Nor were the
+spiritual teachers sent by Parliament to restore good manners and
+religion, in Wood's opinion, fitted for their mission: they were six
+Presbyterian Ministers, "two of them fooles, two knaves, two madmen."
+
+With the history of Oxford for the next eighteen months, important and
+interesting though it is, we are not concerned. The scholars returned
+slowly to the half-empty colleges, where admissions had dwindled almost
+to vanishing point. At Wadham, for instance, the admissions in 1643 were
+only seven; in 1644, three; in 1645, none; in 1646, seven; in 1647, when
+the worst of the fighting was over, they rose to nineteen. The
+Independents and the Presbyterians were now in possession of Oxford. In
+spite of both oppressors the undergraduates, of Wood's College at least,
+enjoyed themselves, as undergraduates do in the darkest times, and
+played "high jinks" on Candlemas Day, compelling the freshmen "to
+speake some pretty apothegme or make a jest or bull," or take strange
+oaths "over an old shoe," and suffer indignities if they were shy or
+stupid. "Naturam expellas furca tamen usque recurrit."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+WILKINS' WARDENSHIP.
+
+
+In 1647 a Commission, as it would now be called, was appointed by
+Parliament to conduct the visitation of the University. 'Lord have mercy
+upon us; or, the Visitation at Oxford,' is the title of one of the
+numerous pamphlets relating to this Oxford revolution; Tragi-comoedia
+Oxonienses' is the title of another, and both suggest curious
+reflections to Oxonians at the present time. The visitors did their
+business effectually. They set to work in 1648, and purged the
+University by ejecting from the colleges all who did not by a certain
+day give in their assurance that they would submit to the visitors and
+their visitation appointed by Parliament. No party in our country can
+claim the monopoly of loyalty to conviction attested by self-sacrifice.
+In England, non-jurors and dissenters; in Scotland, Episcopalians,
+Covenanters, and Free Churchmen; in Ireland, Roman Catholics, have "gone
+out," or stayed out, for some lost cause. In Oxford, Royalists, from
+Heads to Servitors, stood by their colours manfully. It is uncertain how
+many submitted, how many were expelled. The estimates vary from
+Clarendon's statement that almost all the Heads and Fellows of Colleges
+were ejected, "scarce one submitting," to Wood's estimate of 334; it is
+probable that 400--that is, about half of the whole number of Heads,
+Fellows, and Scholars then resident in the University--"made the great
+refusal," not to accept office, but to retain it. Antony Wood did not
+show himself ambitious of martyrdom. On May 12, 1648, he, along with
+other members of his College, appeared before the Visitors. When asked
+by one of them, "Will you submit to the authority of Parliament in this
+visitation?" he wrote on a paper lying on the table, "I do not
+understand the business, and therefore I am not able to give a direct
+answer." "Afterwards his mother and brother, who advised him to submit
+in plaine terms, were exceedingly angry with him, and told him that he
+had ruined himself and must therefore go a-begging." Women, then as now,
+ready to sacrifice themselves, are less ready to permit those dear to
+them to be overscrupulous. Wood's mother made intercession for him to
+Sir Nathaniel Brent, President of the Visitors and Warden of Merton, and
+"he was connived at and kept in his Postmastership, otherwise he had
+infallibly gon to the pot."
+
+At Wadham the Visitors met with an obstinate resistance: Dr Pitt, then
+Warden, was a stout Royalist, and refused to acknowledge the authority
+of a Parliament acting without the king's consent. He was expelled on
+April 13, 1648, along with nine of his thirteen Fellows, nine of his
+fourteen Scholars, and many of his Commoners, all of them save one to
+return no more. John Wilkins was put in his place by the Visitors on
+the same day, and held it till his resignation on September 3, 1659.
+
+Before the end of his stay in London he had taken the covenant and
+definitely given his allegiance to the Parliamentarian party. He was
+marked out for promotion as a known man of great ability, and he had
+made many friends among influential persons by his courtesy and tact. It
+was inevitable that a distinguished Oxford man should be chosen for an
+important post in the University, which Cromwell desired to convert from
+a hotbed of Royalism into a nursery of Puritans. Wilkins was qualified
+by his common-sense and genial ways for what would have been a hopeless
+task to the clumsy fanatics ready enough to undertake it.
+
+The new Warden must have found himself in a difficult position. There
+were in Oxford the three parties into which Englishmen and Scotchmen
+invariably divide themselves. These parties are called by different
+names at different times, and are formed on different questions, but
+remain essentially the same. In Oxford they were called Royalists,
+Presbyterians, Independents; the questions at issue were the life,
+discipline, and religion of the University.
+
+This classification has all the faults which a classification can have;
+it is not exhaustive, for the variations, religious and political, being
+infinite, cannot be included under three heads; nor do the _membra
+dividentia_ exclude each other: among the Royalists were some members of
+the established Church, of Calvinistic opinions, who were hardly
+distinguishable from Presbyterians; and some professed Presbyterians
+would have stood by Charles had not Laud driven them away, for they had
+in their nature some of the best elements of conservatism, the
+historical sense, and a love of order and discipline, especially as
+administered by themselves. But classifications may be illogical yet
+useful, and Wilkins would have accepted this one, in his practical way,
+for working purposes.
+
+The Presbyterians were for forcing on the Church of England, the
+Covenant, the Westminster Confession, and the deposition of the Bishop
+by the Presbyter, or a board of Presbyters. The Independents conceived
+that every Christian congregation had, under Christ, supreme
+jurisdiction in things spiritual; that appeals to provincial and
+national synods were scarcely less Scriptural than appeals to the Court
+of Arches or to the Vatican, and that Popery, Prelacy, Presbyterianism,
+were merely three forms of one great apostacy. In politics the
+Independents were, to use the phrase of their time, "root and branch
+men," or, to use the kindred phrase of our own time, radicals: not
+content with limiting the power of the monarch, they were desirous to
+erect a commonwealth on the ruins of the old English polity. Macaulay's
+vigorous words explain the difference between the Presbyterians and the
+Independents: that difference is explained also by Wood in words as
+vigorous but less dignified and scholarly. "The Presbyterians," he says,
+"with their disciples seemed to be very severe in their course of life,
+manners or conversation, and habits or apparell; of a Scoth (_i.e._,
+Scotch) habit, but especially those that were preachers. The other (the
+Independents) were more free, gay, and, with a reserve, frollicsome, of
+a gay habit, whether preachers or not." John Owen, Dean of Christ
+Church--to be distinguished from Thankful Owen, President of St
+John's--seems to have been of a specially gay habit; when
+Vice-Chancellor "he had alwaies his hair powdred, cambric bands with
+large costly band strings, velvet jacket, his breeches set round at knee
+with ribbons pointed, Spanish leather boots with cambric tops, &c.,--all
+this was in opposition to prelattical cutt." The habit of a
+Vice-Chancellor, even in full dress, is nowadays far less gay, and of
+the Presbyterian rather than the Independent fashion. Whatever may have
+been their difference in dress, both parties were "void of public and
+generous spirits: the Presbyterians for the most part preached nothing
+but damnation, the other not, but rather for libertie; yet both joyne
+together to pluck downe and silence the prelattical preachers, or at
+least to expose their way to scorne." Wood carries his comparisons
+further, and tells, perhaps invents, many things about their common
+hatred of Maypoles, players, cassocks, surplices, and the use of the
+Lord's Prayer in public religious service. He more than hints at darker
+sins,--drunkenness, and immorality cloaked by hypocrisy, the favourite
+theme of the Restoration dramatists. His account of the Puritan
+domination in Oxford is, despite his bitter prejudices, historically
+important, and must have been used by Scott when he wrote 'Woodstock.'
+
+It seems at first sight strange that the Independents should have been
+"gay," and, even with a reserve, frolicsome, for they were originally
+the soldiers of Cromwell's "New Model," "honest and religious men." But
+Wood describes them as he knew them many years after Naseby and Marston
+Moor, when their character had changed with changing circumstances.
+Triumphant success seldom improves the morale of any party. Oxford
+proved a Capua to the Independents who lived in it after the strain of
+war was over: the very principle of Independency, liberty of opinion and
+action given to every Christian congregation, came to be applied to the
+life of the individual: freedom to reject any doctrine or practice which
+you do not like naturally ends in much gaiety and frolicsomeness,
+especially if your lines are cast in pleasant places: it becomes
+difficult not to slide into practical Antinomianism. What a place to
+live in for eleven years! yet Wilkins did so with success and general
+applause. He was inclined by temperament to the freedom of mellowed
+Independency rather than to the stiffness of the Presbyterians, who more
+successfully than their rivals resisted the enervating influences of
+life in Oxford. Circumstances as well as inclination led him to become
+an Independent: his marriage with Cromwell's sister, and the appointment
+to be one of the Commissioners to execute the office of Chancellor,
+perhaps also his appointment to the Wardenship, all tended to draw him
+to the side of Ireton and the Protector. Of the latter he saw much, and
+was consulted by him on academical and ecclesiastical affairs.
+
+Lord Morley[2] records "a story told by Bishop Wilkins, who was the
+husband of Cromwell's youngest sister Robina, that the Protector often
+said to him that no temporal government could have a sure support
+without a national church that adhered to it, and that he thought
+England was capable of no constitution but Episcopacy." Lord Morley
+thinks that "the second imputation must be apocryphal." That is by no
+means clear: Cromwell may have said what Wilkins probably did not
+invent, meaning that he thought Episcopacy good enough for England, for
+Englishmen were incapable of any better constitution; or he may have
+modified his judgment of Episcopacy,--who knows all that Cromwell came
+to think in his latter days, a time when most men revise their opinions?
+He may have felt the disenchantment which awaits success.
+
+Wilkins' marked success, both in his College and in his University, can
+be explained only by the fact that he possessed the qualities necessary
+for the work he had to do,--strong common-sense, moderation, and
+geniality. He had to live, as the most prominent man, in a society
+composed of three factions crowded together within the narrow limits of
+a University town, which even in quiet times is not always the abode of
+peace. He had to deal with the most burning questions, religious and
+political, which divide communities: questions which had been stifled
+for a time by force, and therefore, when force was removed or slackened,
+came back into vigorous life, and were constantly and bitterly
+discussed. But he was the man for the time and the place.
+
+His College flourished under his wise and kindly rule. Dr Pope tells us
+that "many country gentlemen, of all persuasions, but especially those
+then called Cavaliers and Malignants for adhering to the King and to the
+Church, sent their sons to his College to be under his government. The
+affluence of gentlemen was so great that I may fairly say of Wadham
+College that it was never before in so flourishing a condition." The
+"affluence of gentlemen" of all sorts, Fellow Commoners, Commoners,
+Servitors, and migrants from Cambridge, was, in 1649, fifteen; in 1650,
+fifty-one; in 1651, twenty-four; in 1652, forty. In the ten complete
+years of Wilkins' Wardenship the average of admissions was thirty. The
+large admission made in 1650 was due to the reputation of Wilkins as an
+able and tolerant College Head, as well as to the belief that the tumult
+of war had died away. Men's thoughts were turning to civil affairs and
+the ordinary business of life, especially to education, the preparation
+for it.
+
+In the registers of the period between 1648 and 1659, are found many
+names either of distinction in themselves, or of interest as showing
+that the connection of Wadham with the western counties was well
+maintained. Walter Pope, who has been already mentioned, was appointed
+Scholar by the Visitors in 1648, perhaps on the suggestion of the new
+Warden, his half-brother. He filled many offices in the College, was one
+of the original Fellows of the Royal Society, and became Professor of
+Astronomy in Gresham College. He deserves to be remembered as the author
+of a quaint and interesting little book, in which he gives a brief
+account of Wilkins, Lawrence Rooke, and Isaac Barrow, as well as a
+complete life of Seth Ward, Bishop of Salisbury. It is full of
+digressions on the manners and customs of the time, written with much
+humour, and is worthy of a humble place beside the diaries of Evelyn and
+Pepys.
+
+Seth Ward was a Scholar of Sidney Sussex, ejected from his College and
+from Cambridge because "he refused the Covenant and other oaths." He
+went to London, and, like Wren and Wallis, studied mathematics under
+William Oughtred, the author of the 'Clavis Mathematica,'--"a little
+book, but a great one as to the contents,"--which brought its author a
+great name, as well it might. When in London Ward met Wilkins and
+formed a lifelong friendship with him. They were both men of learning,
+moderate, dexterous, and successful. Ward entered Wadham as a Fellow
+Commoner in October 1649, became Savilian Professor of Astronomy, and in
+1659 President of Trinity. Like Wilkins, he was ejected from his
+Headship at the Restoration, and like him obtained high preferment under
+the new _régime_ and became a Bishop. Both of them, when in Oxford,
+"became liable to the persecutions of peevish people who ceased not to
+clamour, and even to article against them as Cavaliers in their
+hearts--meer moral men without the Power of Godliness." "You must know,"
+continues Pope, "that a moral and unblamable person, if he did not herd
+with them, was an abomination to that Party. I have heard one of them
+deliver himself in this manner." The "manner" is impossible to quote; it
+is to the effect that the speaker's opponents were hypocrites and
+Pharisees of the worst kind, and "in a desperate condition, on whom
+Jesus Christ can take no hold." The passage is instructive; it reveals
+the exasperation of party feeling in those times, and gives much food
+for reflection.
+
+Christopher Wren belongs both to Wadham and to All Souls. He was
+admitted Fellow Commoner of Wadham in 1649, and migrated to All Souls in
+1653, but maintained his connection with his first College, and for
+several years occupied the chamber over the gateway. Of him, the close
+friend of Wilkins, the scientist and architect, the President of the
+Royal Society, nothing more need here be said. His portrait hangs in
+Wadham College Hall, beneath that of Robert Blake.
+
+Less known is Thomas Sprat, admitted Scholar of Wadham in 1651. Of him
+Wood says that he was "an excellent poet and orator, and one who arrived
+at a great mastery of the English language." His reputation does not
+rest on his poetry: he was known by the strange and dubious title of
+"Pindarick Sprat." But his History of the Royal Society justifies Wood's
+encomium; and he wrote a 'Relation of the late wicked contrivance of
+Stephen Blackhead and of Robert Young,' of which Macaulay, who does not
+praise lightly, says that "there are few better narratives in the
+language." Sprat became Bishop of Rochester and Chaplain to Charles II.,
+though in his youth he had written an Ode on the death of Oliver
+Cromwell.
+
+Lawrence Rooke was admitted in 1650 from King's College, Cambridge. He
+accompanied Ward in his migration to Oxford, "and seated himself in
+Wadham College for the benefit of his conversation." Pope "never was
+acquainted with any person who knew more and spoke less." He was a
+prominent member of the band of philosophers who met in Wilkins'
+Lodgings; and after the Restoration held the Professorship of Astronomy
+in Gresham College, and was a Fellow of the Royal Society. Pope's
+account of him is well worth reading: of his travels in France; of his
+encounter with the redoubtable Thomas Hobbes, whose quadrature of the
+circle he proved false: that hard-headed philosopher's logic or
+"computation" must have failed him on this occasion, for finding, as he
+thought, errors in Rooke's criticism, he concluded that his own solution
+must be true. With Ward and Wallis Hobbes had still more fierce
+encounters on the same question.
+
+Gilbert Ironside, admitted in 1650, became Warden, Vice-Chancellor of
+the University, and, as his father had been, Bishop of Bristol, and
+finally of Hereford. He was the "rudest man in the University," and that
+without respect of persons, for he remonstrated, in a tone not far
+removed from rudeness, with James II. when he visited Oxford in 1687 to
+enforce his mandate on Magdalen College.
+
+William Lloyd, who entered Wadham in 1655, was a learned Divine, with
+his learning at command, of whom Burnet says that "he had the most
+learning in ready cash of any one he knew." He devoted himself to the
+interpretation of prophecy. His labours were rewarded by the title of
+Pseudopropheta Canus, bestowed on him when he was old and white-haired,
+by the _terræ filius_ of 1703. He had himself in his younger days shown
+some tendency to irreverent joking, by inventing an Eastern Patriarch, a
+native of London, a man of venerable appearance and dressed to suit the
+character, who deceived some eminent members of the University, and gave
+them his blessing; an incident of which Lloyd used to make his "bragge"
+long afterwards. He became Bishop of St Asaph, and was one of the Seven
+Bishops committed to the Tower. William III. rewarded him with the
+Bishoprics of Lichfield and Coventry, and finally of Worcester.
+
+Samuel Parker matriculated in 1657, and became Bishop of Oxford in 1686.
+In the following year he was intruded by James II. into the President's
+place at Magdalen College, but held his office for only five months. He
+died in his Lodgings, and was buried in the ante-chapel, but honoured by
+no memorial to mark the place of his interment. His must have been a
+dismal reign.
+
+Beside these names of bishops and philosophers occur names of interest
+of various kinds: historic names--Russell, Lovelace, Windham,
+Strangways; one also of quite different associations, Sedley, who
+entered Wadham in 1656, the boon companion later of Rochester, who, also
+a Wadham undergraduate, was his junior by four years. Both of them were
+libertines and wits, who received at their College, it may be presumed,
+an education the precepts of which they did not practise at the Court of
+Charles II. Other entries show the continued connection of the College
+with the West of England--with Somerset, the Wadhams' county; with
+Devon, Dorset, Hampshire, and Gloucestershire.
+
+Enough has been said to prove that Wadham under Wilkins was a college of
+high reputation and efficiency. It was a nursery of bishops,
+contributing to the bench no less than six, including Wilkins himself; a
+nursery also of Fellows of the Royal Society,--Wilkins, Ward, Rooke,
+Wren, Sprat, and Pope were original members of the "invisible college."
+Not only to the Church and to Science did Wadham do good service, but
+more directly to the State, by educating together impartially the youth
+of both the great parties. "When the hurly-burly's done, when the
+battle's lost and won," it is above all things desirable to allay bitter
+feelings, and bring the former combatants together. For this most
+difficult and delicate of tasks Wilkins was well qualified. He was
+beloved by the Cavaliers because he treated all his undergraduates
+kindly, Royalists and Puritans alike, in marked contrast with other
+Heads of Houses, who appear to have dealt faithfully with young
+Malignants, the sons of their political opponents.
+
+That Wilkins possessed great administrative abilities and vigour is
+shown by his work in the University and in his College. He had seen much
+of the world, and was in the prime of life, and already a man of
+eminence--a combination of qualities as rare in Heads of Houses as in
+Cabinet Ministers. He persuaded the Visitors that Wadham and Trinity
+were fitted, specially and immediately, in 1651 for freedom to elect
+their Fellows--a privilege of which all the Colleges had been deprived
+in 1648. The administration of the College estates and finances was
+carefully revised, and the Statutes were amended. Wilkins' life was
+varied and full of activities outside as well as within his College. He
+was selected to deal with problems more difficult and pressing than
+Compulsory Pass Greek, or degrees for women. Was Oxford to be
+dismantled? Its security had been threatened by a rising of the
+"Levellers"; and in 1649 Wilkins, along with the Proctor and a Canon of
+Christ Church, was appointed to confer with the mayor and the citizens
+on this important question, not then decided.
+
+Two years later he served on a Commission appointed to consider how to
+suppress troubles caused by sturdy beggars, "poore soldiers, cashiered
+or maimed, and Irish people with petitions, that pretended to be undon
+by the late rebellion there,"--the miserable sequel of the civil war.
+He helped in the revision of the College and University Statutes, and on
+the nomination of Cromwell was made one of the Commissioners for
+executing the office of Chancellor, proving himself a man of affairs as
+well as of learning. For ten years, as critical as any in the history of
+Oxford, he took a leading part in its academical and municipal
+administration.
+
+Yet he found time to avail himself of the privilege to marry given to
+the Warden of Wadham: it was accorded to him by a dispensation of the
+Visitors, who doubtless thought that enforced celibacy savoured of
+Popery. The privilege was withdrawn after the Restoration, as being a
+concession made by Puritans, whose views on the marriage of the clergy
+were not the views of the High Church party. Leave to marry was given to
+all Wardens of Wadham by a special Act of Parliament in 1806, and not,
+as the College story goes, by a clause tacked on to a Canal or Turnpike
+Bill.
+
+Pope's account of Wilkins' marriage is a strange solution of an always
+interesting question, and not altogether complimentary to the lady of
+his choice. "Dr Ward," he says, "rid out of this storm,"--the storm of
+obloquy which broke out on him and Wilkins as being "mere moral men."
+Wilkins "put into the port of matrimony," apparently as a harbour of
+refuge in distress. He married Robina, the Protector's sister, widow of
+Dr Peter French, Canon of Christ Church. Her first husband was "a pious,
+humble, and learned person, and an excellent preacher," the best, in
+Pope's opinion, of the censorious party. Ward did not imitate his
+friend, though, if we believe Pope, he had many opportunities for doing
+so. "He was never destitute of friends of the Fair Sex, never without
+proffers of Wives," which became increasingly frequent as he rose in the
+world. Pope professes to have known "several persons of great quality
+and estates who found ways to make it known to Ward, that if he would
+address himself to them in the honourable way of marriage, he should not
+want a kind entertainment." But he, then Bishop of Salisbury, had
+before his eyes the fate of one of his predecessors who married after he
+became a bishop, and "upon that had received so severe a reprimand from
+his brother, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and laid it so much to heart
+that it accelerated his death." This story may be apocryphal; it is
+certainly startling. Do ladies of quality still give such hints to
+bishops? Do bishops die of a rebuke from the archbishop of their
+province?
+
+Wilkins' marriage "gained him a strong interest and authority in the
+University, and set him at safety, and out of the reach of his
+Adversaries." We may trust that it was for his happiness in other ways.
+
+Of his wife little is known, nor is there a portrait of her in the
+College. She had a son by her second marriage, Joshua Wilkins, who
+became Dean of Down: by her first marriage she had a daughter, Elizabeth
+French, the wife of Tillotson. The writer once amused himself with the
+fancy that the Archbishop to-be met and courted Miss French in the
+Warden's Lodgings at Wadham, which have few romantic associations; but
+chronology proves that Tillotson, a Cambridge man, born in 1630, would
+probably not have made acquaintance with Wilkins before 1659, when he
+became Master of Trinity. The romance had therefore to be transferred to
+the Master's Lodge. Even there it could not stay, for Tillotson's first
+meeting with his future wife in all likelihood took place in London,
+when he was appointed Tuesday Lecturer at St Lawrence Jewry, the
+vicarage of which was one of Wilkins' earliest preferments after his
+ejection from the Mastership of Trinity. When Tillotson made suit for
+the hand of his stepdaughter, Wilkins, upon her desiring to be excused,
+said, "Betty, you shall have him, for he is the best polemical Divine
+this day in England." Though excellence in polemical divinity has not an
+attraction for most women, she consented, and they were married in 1664.
+The stories both of Dorothy and Betty are myths, which fade away at the
+first touch of criticism.
+
+[Illustration: WADHAM COLLEGE FROM THE COLLEGE GARDEN.]
+
+Wilkins was a diligent student, and wrote books of many kinds. These
+books the writer does not pretend to have read, save in the most
+hurried, even careless way, except two of them, the 'Real Character' and
+'Natural Religion.' The others are of interest to natural philosophers,
+as containing anticipations of discoveries and ideas which belong to a
+later age, and as showing that Wilkins possessed the inspiring
+conviction of all genuine men of Science, that for it the word
+impossible does not exist.
+
+In 1638 he published his first work, an Astronomical treatise, the fruit
+of his studies at Oxford and at Fawsley. It is entitled 'The Discovery
+of a World in the Moone, or a discourse tending to prove that there may
+be another habitable World in that Planet': in the third impression,
+issued in 1640, is added a "Discourse concerning the Possibility of a
+Passage thither." Like Lucian he imagined a voyage to the moon, though
+he admits that the journey through the air was a formidable difficulty.
+He successfully defended his views against an objection raised by the
+Duchess of Newcastle. That clever and eccentric lady, the authoress of
+many "fancies," philosophical and poetical, asked him where she was to
+bait her horses if she undertook the journey. "Your Grace could not do
+better," he replied, "than stop at one of your castles in the air." In
+his treatment of the difficulties caused by the apparent conflict
+between certain passages of Scripture and the conclusions of
+Astronomical Science, which he accepts, he anticipates in a remarkable
+way that explanation of them which rests on the understanding of the
+meaning of the Bible and of the nature of inspiration. The book was
+parodied in the story of 'Peter Wilkins' Journey to the Moon,' which
+even usually well-informed persons have been known to attribute as a
+_jeu-d'esprit_ to the Warden of Wadham. It was written by Robert
+Paltock, and published in 1751.
+
+His next production was 'Mercurie; or the Secret and Swift
+Messenger,'--a treatise on Cryptography or ciphers; curious
+contrivances whereby A can communicate with C without B's suspecting or
+understanding, by signs, gestures, parables, and transpositions of the
+alphabet: such as the writer looked at seemed to confirm the view that
+every cipher which depends on system, and not on an arrangement of a
+capricious kind, can be interpreted by an expert, a title to which he
+lays no claim. The book was meant perhaps for use in the Civil War, as
+was the system of Wilkins' friend, Dr Wallis, who could both invent and
+solve such puzzles, and distinguished himself by deciphering the letters
+of the king which fell into the hands of the Parliamentarians at Naseby.
+There is also among the "Tracts of Bishop Wilkins," a treatise dated
+1648, entitled 'Mathematical Magic; or, the Wonders worked by Mechanical
+Powers and Motions,' subdivided, according to that distinction, into two
+books, styled Archimedes and Dædalus. The names are quaint, and the
+classical illustrations are very numerous. The work is a kind of
+handbook for engineers, enlivened by quotations, not always apposite,
+from ancient authors, as was the fashion when high literary culture and
+science could be more easily combined than in our days of ruthless
+specialism. It is dedicated in very courtly language to the Prince
+Elector Palatine. Wilkins looks forward to the Prince's restoration to
+his dominions--a curious aspiration to be professed by a man who did
+not, then at least, put his trust in princes. But he did not foresee
+what was to come, both to himself or others.
+
+His two books of a devotional character were, one on 'The Gift of
+Prayer,' a formal and elaborate treatise with many divisions and
+subdivisions, in spirit earnest and devout. Its companion treatise,
+'Ecclesiastes; or the Gift of Preaching,' shows a high conception of the
+learning which he thought necessary for one who would preach well;
+knowledge of commentators; of preachers, especially of English
+sermon-writers; of works on Christian doctrine, on the history of
+Christianity; of all subjects which can be included in Theology. The
+list of books recommended is enormous, and beyond the reach of any
+man--even of Wilkins or Casaubon: it must have been intended to be a
+work of reference, a catalogue from which a student might select. It,
+like his 'Sermons Preached on Several Occasions,' is illumined by quaint
+utterances, humorous, sensible, and devout; qualities more frequently
+combined in those days than in our own, when the "dignity of the
+pulpit," a lamentable superstition, has weakened its influence, and has
+made religion appear to simple people remote from common life.
+
+Wilkins' most original and valuable contribution to Theology is 'The
+Principles and Duties of Natural Religion,' written in his later years,
+and published after his death by Tillotson. Mr Sanders, the writer of
+the too short article on Wilkins in the 'Dictionary of National
+Biography,' says that "in this work there are thoughts which anticipate
+the argument of Butler's 'Analogy.'" Wilkins, like Butler and Newman,
+draws distinctions between different kinds of evidence and different
+degrees of consequent assent. He points out that neither Natural
+Religion nor Christianity can be proved true by demonstration like a
+conclusion in geometry, or in any kind of mathematical reasoning; that
+in default of this inference from self-evident premises to propositions
+of equal cogency, we must, in a matter of paramount practical
+importance, be content to judge, as fairly and soberly as we can, by
+that "probability" which Butler calls "the guide of life." Wilkins
+perceived, what few in his time perceived, that there are no
+"demonstrations" of Christianity, nor even of Theism; that faith is
+faith. Further, he emphasises the harmony between Natural and Revealed
+Religion, the fact that one is the complement of the other. But in him
+there are not the depth, candour, and seriousness of Butler, nor that
+sense of mystery which makes him the weightiest of Christian Apologists
+in the estimation both of disciples and opponents.
+
+The book by which Wilkins will always be remembered among curious
+students and philologers is his 'Essay towards a Real Character and a
+Philosophical Language.' It is a quarto of 600 pages, including an
+alphabetical dictionary of English words, with their equivalents in what
+may be called, without irreverence, Wilkinese. It was written at the
+request of the Royal Society, and, by its order, published in 1688. The
+meaning of the somewhat obscure title is explained by Wilkins in a very
+interesting preface. Character means language, or rather writing, and a
+universal character is the script of a language like that which was
+spoken before the confusion of tongues; a language for and of all men.
+By "Real" is signified that the new language is founded on a study of
+things which are "better than words"; of "the nature of things, and that
+common notion of them wherein mankind does agree." The making of such a
+language "will prove the shortest and plainest way for the attainment of
+real knowledge," and the language thus made will be truly philosophical,
+or, to use our modern term, scientific. The labour bestowed by Wilkins
+on his magnificent project was immense, but the result was failure.
+"Sunt lacrimæ rerum," and tears were never shed over a greater waste of
+ingenuity and heroic toil, if indeed a fine example of fruitless
+devotion is to be called waste. With apologies to the Esperantists, it
+must be said that the invention of a universal language, of any but the
+narrowest compass, seems impossible, for language, in any real sense, is
+not made but grows. It is dangerous, however, to dogmatise on
+possibilities. Misled, as we can gather from his preface, by the proved
+usefulness of mathematical signs, Wilkins attempted to provide for
+philosophers of all countries a better means of communication than
+Latin, then the universal language of literature and science, but in his
+opinion unscientific, full of anomalies and difficult to acquire; for in
+it there were, he said, thirty thousand words. In his language there
+were only three thousand, and they could be learnt by a man of good
+capacity in a month. His estimate of capacity and diligence is somewhat
+high. It is possible to explain the principles on which he constructed
+his new tongue. He began by dividing the universe, the sum total of
+existence, things, thoughts, relations, after the manner of Aristotle,
+though not into ten, but into forty categories, or genera, or great
+classes, such as World, Element, Animal, and apparently species of
+animals, such as Bird, Fish, Beast: for each of these great classes he
+devised a monosyllabic name--_e.g._, De for Element, Za for Fish; each
+of these genera is subdivided into species indicated by the addition of
+a consonant, and these are again subdivided into subordinate species
+distinguished by a vowel affixed. For example--De means an Element, any
+of the four, Fire, Air, Earth, Water; add to it B, which, as the first
+consonant, stands for the first species of a genus, and you will have
+the significant word DEB, which means Fire, for it, we know not why, is
+the first of the four Elements. Let us take a more complex instance--his
+name for Salmon. The salmon is a species of Za or Fish, a particular
+kind of fish called N, namely, the Squameous river fish. This class ZaN
+is subdivided into lower classes, and the lower class Salmon is called
+A, which means the red-fleshed kind of squameous river fish, and so a
+salmon is a ZaNA. If you wished to state the fact that a salmon swims,
+you would use the words ZaNA GoF, for Go stands for the great category
+of motion, F for the particular kind of motion meant, swimming. Voice,
+tense, and mood are indicated by lines of different lengths, straight or
+curved, crossed, hooked, looped; adverbs and conjunctions by dots or
+points differently arranged.
+
+Wilkins' universal character therefore means a kind of shorthand writing
+of his Real Language.
+
+The writer fears that he may only have confused his readers and himself
+by his bold but poor attempt to express in a few lines the meaning of
+six hundred pages. He would be the last to ridicule the "folly" of a
+great man, whose system he has made no very laborious effort to
+understand, for it seems to be built on sand, on a classification of
+things superficial, imperfect, and capricious, which would not have been
+accepted by learned men, and if accepted would have become obsolete in a
+quarter of a century. The syllable Co stands for all relations between
+human beings, and these relations are of eight kinds. What would a
+professor of social science now say to this? What would an ichthyologist
+say to Wilkins' definition of a salmon? The interest of the book lies in
+its being the most striking of many proofs of the wide intellectual
+interests, the alert and insatiable curiosity, and the extraordinary
+industry of its writer. It has also the pathetic interest of "love's
+labour lost," for who now reads the 'Real Character,' or who read it
+twenty years after Wilkins' death? His name was "writ in water," for he
+spent himself on many things, and did little because he did too much.
+
+The "greatest curioso" of his time relieved his toils by music. Nowhere
+are Wood's vanity and self-consciousness shown more vividly than in his
+account of a musical entertainment given by Wilkins in honour of Thomas
+Baltzar, "the most famous artist for the violin which the world had yet
+produced. The books and instruments were carried thither," to the
+Warden's lodgings, "but none could be persuaded there to play against
+him in consort on the violin. At length the company, perceiving A. W.
+standing behind in a corner neare the dore, they haled him in among
+them, and play forsooth he must against him: whereupon, he being not
+able to avoid it, took up a violin, and behaved himself as poor Troylus
+did against Achilles." Wood consoled himself for his failure by the
+honour he acquired from being asked to play with the Master, of whom he
+maliciously remarks that "he was given to excessive drinking,"--a
+characteristic comment.
+
+Wilkins' greatest achievement was the founding of the Royal Society. He
+may be called its founder, if that high title can be given to any one of
+the eminent men who, in Oxford and in London, revived or regenerated
+the study of natural philosophy. Pope, Aubrey, and Sprat differ from
+Wallis in their accounts of the origin of the mother of scientific
+parliaments. The first three find that origin in meetings held in Wadham
+College under the presidency of Wilkins. Wallis traces the beginnings of
+the Royal Society to meetings held in London in 1645. "In that year," he
+writes, "there had sprung up an association of certain worthy persons
+inquisitive in Natural Philosophy, who met together, first in London,
+for the investigation of what was called the new or experimental
+philosophy, and afterwards several of the more influential of the
+members, about 1648 or 1649, finding London too much distracted by civil
+commotions, commenced holding their meetings in Oxford." Among those who
+removed to Oxford were, "first, Dr Wilkins, then I, and soon after Dr
+Goddard, whereupon our company divided. Those at London (and we when we
+had occasion to be there) met as before. Those of us at Oxford, with Dr
+Ward, Dr Petty, and many others of the most inquisitive persons in
+Oxford, met weekly for some years at Dr Petty's lodgings, on the like
+account, to wit, so long as Dr Petty continued in Oxford, and for some
+while after, because of the conveniences we had there (being the house
+of an apothecary) to view and make use of drugs, and other like matters
+as there was occasion. We did afterwards (Dr Petty being gone to Ireland
+and our numbers growing less) remove thence, and (some years before his
+Majesty's return) did meet at Dr Wilkin's lodgings in Wadham College."
+
+This account is plain enough: it differs from the story told by Sprat in
+this point only, that Sprat omits reference to the first meetings in
+London between 1645 and 1648, and to the meetings in Oxford at Dr
+Petty's lodgings. The causes of these omissions are not far to seek.
+Sprat was a youth of seventeen in 1651, the year of his admission into
+Wadham: it is difficult to believe that he was present at the gatherings
+of men many years his senior in Dr Petty's lodgings, or knew as much as
+Wallis did of the infancy of the Royal Society. No Oxford man is to be
+entirely trusted when writing about his own College, and Sprat laudably
+claimed for Wadham the honour of being the cradle of the great
+association.
+
+In his history of the Royal Society, published in 1667, he gives a full
+account of its growth and objects, though not of its beginnings.
+
+"It was some space," he writes, "after the end of the Civil Wars at
+Oxford, in Dr Wilkins, his lodgings, in Wadham College, which was then
+the place of resort for virtuous and learned men, that the first
+meetings were held which laid the foundation of all this that followed.
+The University had at this time many members of its own who had begun a
+free way of reasoning; and was also frequented by some gentlemen of
+philosophical minds, whom the misfortunes of the kingdom, and the
+security and ease of a retirement among Gownsmen had drawn thither.
+Their first purpose was no more than only the satisfaction of breathing
+a freer air, and of conversing in quiet one with another, without being
+engaged in the passions and madness of that dismal Age. And from the
+Institution of that Assembly, it had been enough if no other advantage
+had come but this: that by this means there was a race of young men
+provided, against the next Age, whose minds, receiving from them their
+first impressions of sober and general knowledge, were invincibly armed
+against the enchantments of Enthusiasm. But what is more, I may venture
+to affirm that it was in good measure by the influence which these
+Gentlemen had over the rest, that the University itself, or at least any
+part of its Discipline or Order was saved from ruine. For such a candid
+and impassionate company as that was, and for such a gloomy season, what
+could have been a fitter subject to pitch upon than Natural Philosophy?
+To have been always tossing about some Theological question would have
+been to have made that their private diversion the excess of which they
+themselves disliked in the public. To have been eternally musing on
+Civil business and distresses of their Country was too melancholy a
+reflection. It was Nature alone which could pleasantly entertain them in
+that estate."
+
+It would be superfluous to praise this noble and pathetic passage. It
+shows the weariness of political and religious controversy which
+oppressed men's minds; the discouragement, almost hopelessness, which
+made the Restoration welcome, and Puritanism odious, for a time at
+least, to the majority of Englishmen. The word Enthusiasm is of strange
+significance; then and for more than a hundred years later it connoted
+extravagance and fanaticism. Worthy of notice also are Sprat's words to
+the effect that the influence of Wilkins and his friends was on the side
+of discipline and order in the University, and saved it from "ruine."
+They ought to please and encourage, perhaps instruct, the modern
+apostles of science who are with us now.
+
+From a comparison of Wallis' and Sprat's accounts, it is clear that the
+dispute, if dispute there be, whether Wadham or London was the cradle of
+the Royal Society, can be settled more easily than most contested claims
+of this kind. The facts are ascertained: the question turns on the
+meaning of the words "founder" and "foundation." The first meetings of
+the Philosophical Club, which became the Royal Society, were
+unquestionably held in London, and were continued there, at the Bull's
+Head Tavern in Cheapside, after Wilkins had removed to Oxford in 1648,
+and gathered round him there the members of a new philosophical society,
+which may be called, if that name be preferred, an offshoot from the
+parent stem: the two clubs co-existed till the Restoration, when most of
+the Oxford philosophers migrated or returned to London, and were
+incorporated into one society which received its name and charter from
+Charles II. in July 1662.
+
+Metaphors do not always illustrate, but the facts may be stated thus:
+the Royal Society was born in London or cradled there; the infant did
+not thrive, and was put out to nurse at Oxford where it waxed and
+prospered: it was a proper child of three years old when (on Petty's
+leaving Oxford in 1651) it found a settled home in the Warden's lodgings
+in Wadham for eight years; grown and strengthened, the boy was brought
+back to his birthplace, and was recognised and named. In this sense it
+may be said that the Royal Society was founded by Wilkins in Wadham:
+that College was its early home, and Wilkins was the most prominent and
+active man in the Philosophical Club.
+
+A very clear and short account of many of its members is given in the
+'History of the Oxford Museum,' by Dr Vernon and Miss Vernon, which, if
+I may presume to praise it, resembles the work of Oughtred before
+mentioned, as being "a little book, but a great one as to the contents."
+Sprat enumerates as "the principal and most constant of those who met at
+Wadham, Dr Seth Ward, Mr Boyle, Dr Wilkins, Sir William Petty, Dr
+Wallis, Dr Goddard, Dr Willis, Dr Bathurst, Mr Matthew Wren, Dr
+Christopher Wren, Mr Rooke, besides several others, who joyn'd
+themselves to them, upon occasion." The list is remarkable; it
+represents the science of the time,--Mathematics, Astronomy, Chemistry,
+Physics, Engineering, Architecture, Theology, and Political Economy or
+Arithmetic, for nothing "scibile" was alien to these inquisitive
+persons. "Their proceedings," we are told, "were rather by action than
+discourse, chiefly attending some particular Trials in Chymistry or
+Mechanicks: they had no Rules nor Method fixed: their intention was more
+to communicate to each other their discoveries which they could make in
+so narrow a compass, than an united, constant, or regular inquisition."
+They were probably "clubbable" persons, friends with a common interest,
+each pursuing his own path with perfect freedom, a method which must
+have enhanced the harmony and efficiency of their meetings. The Club, or
+a branch of it, survived at Oxford the departure of Wilkins and most of
+the philosophers. To Robert Boyle was mainly due the continuance of the
+faithful remnant. In the year 1659 he imported into Oxford Peter
+Sthael, a noted Chemist and Rosicrucian, "a great hater of women and a
+very useful man." Among those who attended his lectures were Antony
+Wood, Wallis, Wren, Bathurst, and, not least, Locke, who was
+troublesome, and "scorned to take notes"--why we are not told, and may
+imagine as we please. Wood's account of this survival is obscure--he
+seems uncertain as to the relation of Sthael's pupils to the Royal
+Society at Oxford: they were probably the same, and incurred the wrath
+and misrepresentations of Henry Stubb, who inveighed against them as
+dangerous,--the Society had become obnoxious to the University, being
+suspected of a desire to confer degrees, against which the University
+"stuck," to use Wood's word, not unreasonably.
+
+The Oxford meetings in Wilkins' time, after 1651, were held, not in the
+room over the gateway, but in the dining-room or drawing-room of the
+Warden's lodgings. By the direction of the Foundress "the chamber over
+the great gate" had been assigned to the Warden, as commanding the
+entrance into the College, and a view of all who should go in or out: he
+was to have also for his own use seven rooms next adjoining on the north
+side. It is uncertain at what date he migrated to his present lodgings,
+but there is abundant evidence to show that it was before the time of
+Wilkins, for from 1640 to 1663 the great chamber was occupied by various
+tenants,--among them Seth Ward and Christopher Wren. The writer is
+therefore warranted in picturing to the eye of his imagination the
+personages of the club assembled in his drawing-room, a club less
+famous, but no less worthy of fame, than the Literary Club of Johnson,
+Goldsmith, Burke, and Reynolds.
+
+[Illustration: SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN.]
+
+Fain would he ask questions of Wren or Ward or Wilkins, or any of the
+members of the club, most of whom he would recognise by their portraits
+in the College or elsewhere.
+
+
+On September 3, 1658, Oliver Cromwell died. To Wood the exact date is
+important, because "some writers tell us that he was hurried away by
+the Devill in a terrible raging wind on the 30th of August," a statement
+which the chronicler might have been expected to believe. Richard
+Cromwell was proclaimed Protector at Oxford on September 6th, in the
+usual places where kings had been proclaimed. The ceremony was disturbed
+by young scholars, who pelted with carrots and turnips the mayor,
+recorder, and town clerk, as well as Colonel Upton and his troopers.
+These missiles were symptoms of the reaction which was fast approaching.
+It belongs to the history of England, but so far as it showed itself in
+Oxford, it is part of the life of Wilkins. It must have given him much
+to think of during the last year of his Wardenship. In February 1659 the
+Vice-Chancellor wrote to the Dean of Christ Church, then in London, that
+"he must make haste to Oxford, for godliness laye a gasping." Nathaniel
+Crewe of Lincoln had in the same month drawn up a petition, which Wood
+signed, to put out the Visitors. He was a Presbyterian, and ready to
+have the Visitors "put downe, notwithstanding he had before submitted
+to them and had paid to them reverence and obedience. The Independants,
+who called themselves the godly party, drew up a petition contrary to
+the former, and said 'twas for the cause of Christ." The feud between
+the two parties was no less bitter, when their supremacy in Oxford was
+drawing to its end, than it had been many years before. Which of the
+petitions did Wilkins sign?
+
+A year later, in February 1660, Monk made a speech to Parliament of
+doubtful meaning, exhorting his hearers to be careful "that neither the
+Cavalier nor the phanatique party have yet a share in your civil or
+military power,"--on which utterance Wood notes that "the word
+phanatique comes much into fashion after this." Monk's meaning was
+quickly interpreted for him, both in London and in Oxford,--on February
+13th "there was great rejoicing here at Oxon for the news of a free
+parliament, ringing of bells, bonfires, &c.: there were rumps (_i.e._,
+tayles of sheep) flung in a bonfire at Queen's Coll., and some at Dr
+Palmer's window at All Soles." The joy of the Royalists especially was
+manifested by the reading at Magdalen parish church of Common Prayer,
+"after it had been omitted to be read in public places in Oxon since the
+surrender of the city or in 1647." All the tokens of Monarchy were
+restored: "the signe of the King's Head had been dashed out, or daubled
+over, tempore Olivari, and (in its place was written 'This was the
+King's Head') was new painted." On the 1st of May "a Maypole was set up
+against the Beare in All Hallows parish (_i.e._, opposite the Mitre of
+our time) on purpose to vex the Presbyterians and Independants," despite
+the interference of Dr Conant, the Vice-Chancellor. On the 10th the new
+King was proclaimed: on the 14th letters from Richard Cromwell to
+Convocation were read, whereby he resigned the Chancellorship of the
+University in dignified and courteous words. By May 29th the Restoration
+was complete, and the day was observed in all or in most towns in
+England, "particularly at Oxon, which did exceed any place of its
+bigness." Wood's comment on these events is worth giving in full: "The
+world of England was perfectly mad. They were free from the chains of
+darkness and confusion which the Presbyterians and phanatiques had
+brought upon them: yet some of them, seeing then what mischief they had
+done, tack'd about to participate of the universal Joy, and at length
+closed with the Royal partie." Here we take leave, for a time, of Antony
+Wood, who has been allowed to tell his story in his own words; unwilling
+leave, for though he is provoking, he is charming, with a keen eye for
+character, both of parties and individuals, and for the issues and
+events of real importance, never dull or lengthy, save when he descants
+on his family affairs or on the minutiæ of his occasionally meticulous
+antiquarianism, and even then to be forgiven for his zeal and industry.
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[2] See 'Cromwell,' p. 368, 2nd edition.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+WILKINS AFTER HIS LIFE AT OXFORD.
+
+
+Wilkins was spared the pain of witnessing the end of the Commonwealth in
+Oxford, and of being ejected from his post like other Heads of Houses.
+On September 3, 1659, he resigned the Wardenship, and was succeeded on
+September 5th by Walter Blandford, one of the Fellows who had submitted
+to the Visitors in 1648, and later, in that strange time of opinions
+which "could be changed," had made his peace with the Royalists. During
+his Wardenship of six years the College flourished. He was made Bishop
+of Oxford in 1665, and was in 1671 promoted to the See of Worcester,
+another of the many Wadham Bishops.
+
+Wilkins left Wadham to become Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. He
+had been invited there by the Fellows, on whose petition he was
+presented by Richard Cromwell. Thirty years later Cambridge, as if in
+exchange for value received, sent Richard Bentley to Wadham, who left it
+to return to Cambridge as Master of Trinity,--an interchange of which
+neither University can complain.
+
+At Cambridge Wilkins' stay was brief. He was Master of Trinity only for
+ten months, but in that short reign he proved himself as vigorous and
+effective as he had been at Wadham: he stimulated and organised the
+College teaching, and made his Fellows work, by instituting
+disputations, and examinations at elections, probably fallen out of use
+in the troubles of the fifteen previous years; yet here as elsewhere he
+was able to win and rule, for "he was honoured there and heartily loved
+by all." At Cambridge, Burnet tells us, "he joined with those who
+studied to propagate better thoughts, to take men off from being in
+parties, or from narrow notions, from superstitious conceits, and
+fierceness about opinions." He must have had as his allies there
+Cudworth and Whichcote, men of his own age, and one younger,
+Stillingfleet, the Latitudinarians, from whom our Broad Churchmen are
+theologically descended.
+
+The evil days came soon: despite the petition of the Fellows who wished
+to keep him, he was ejected from the Mastership when the King came back.
+"The whirligig of time brings in his revenges," and what Pitt had
+undergone Wilkins had to undergo.
+
+Pope describes, surely with some exaggeration, the troubles of Wilkins
+during the eight years between his departure from Cambridge and his
+being made Bishop of Chester. He was a man whom no misfortunes could
+crush--elastic, resolute, resourceful master of his fate,--
+
+
+     "Merses profundo, pulchrior evenit."
+
+
+He had many friends and a great reputation; they brought him various
+preferments,--the lectureship at Gray's Inn, the vicarage of St
+Lawrence Jewry, and the Deanery of Ripon, within a few years after his
+banishment from Cambridge. Preferment may not have brought him
+happiness, but it must have prevented his fortunes from being, as Pope
+says they were, "as low as they could be." He suffered indeed one
+calamity--a cruel one to a man of his pursuits and tastes: in the great
+fire of London the vicarage house of St Lawrence Jewry was burnt, and
+with it were destroyed his books and the collection of scientific
+instruments made during his residence at Oxford with the help of the
+members of the club.
+
+Add to this that he was out of favour both at Whitehall and at Lambeth
+on account of his marriage--for that reason "Archbishop Sheldon who had
+the keys of the Church for a great time in his power, and could admit
+unto it and keep out of it whom he pleased, I mean (Pope hastens to
+explain) disposed of all Ecclesiastical Preferments, entertained a
+strong prejudice against him." This prejudice the Archbishop, when
+later, on the introduction of Ward, he came to know him better,
+acknowledged to have been unjust, a signal instance of Wilkins' power of
+winning men. The Latitudinarian was at first coldly received at Lambeth:
+the brother-in-law of Cromwell was not acceptable at Whitehall. His
+friend Ward did not desert him, but "followed up good words with
+answerable actions," and procured for him the Precentor's place at
+Exeter,--"the first step which Wilkins ascended to a better fortune."
+
+In Charles II. he soon found a still more powerful friend. The King, who
+was himself the broadest of Latitudinarians, as far as Protestantism was
+concerned, was not repelled by Wilkins' theological views, and yielded
+readily to the attractions of a versatile and agreeable man of science.
+Science was the most creditable of Charles's tastes and occupations; the
+one in which he took a genuine and enduring interest.
+
+On November 28, 1660, the Invisible College was embodied, and became a
+tangible reality. At a meeting held in Gresham College, twelve persons
+of eminence in science and in other ways "formed the design," as the
+first Journal Book of the Royal Society records, "of founding a College
+for the promotion of Physico-Mathematicall Experimentall Learning."
+Among those present were Rooke, Petty, Wren, and Wilkins: a committee
+was formed, of which Wilkins was appointed chairman: the King gave his
+approval to the scheme drawn up by the committee, and offered to become
+a member of the new College: in 1662 he gave it the Charter of
+Incorporation which passed the Great Seal on July 13th of that year.
+Wilkins was not chosen President; that honour was given to Lord
+Brouncker.
+
+The Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge
+(its official title) took knowledge for its province; that is, natural
+knowledge, of Nature, Art, and Works, in preference to, though not
+necessarily to the exclusion of, moral and metaphysical philosophy,
+history and language. The experiments, its chief work, were to be
+productive both of light and fruit: the influence of Bacon is so great
+and evident that he might in a sense be called the founder of the Royal
+Society. Sprat's real preface to his History is Cowley's famous ode. The
+poet speaks of philosophy--_i.e._, natural philosophy, as the captive
+and slave of Authority and Words, set free by Bacon: its followers he
+likens to the Children of Israel wandering aimlessly from one desert to
+another till Moses brought them to the border of the promised land. The
+stately lines may well be quoted here:--
+
+
+     "From these and all long errors of the way
+       In which our wandering predecessors went,
+     And like th' old Hebrews many years did stray
+       In desarts but of small extent,
+     Bacon like Moses led us forth at last,
+     The barren Wilderness he past,
+     Did on the very Border stand
+     Of the blest promised land,
+     And from the Mountain Top of his Exalted Wit
+     Saw it himself and shew'd us it.
+     But Life did never to one Man allow
+     Time to discover Worlds and conquer too;
+     Nor can so short a line sufficient be
+     To fadome the vast depths of Nature's sea."
+
+
+Like all human institutions, the Royal Society was criticised, feared,
+misunderstood, and ridiculed. There is evidence of this in Sprat's
+anxiety to show that experiments "are not dangerous to the Universities
+nor to the Church of England," a contention which now would be admitted
+or denied if the term "experiments" were first defined. He labours, too,
+to show that they are not dangerous to the Christian religion, either
+its belief or practice. His remarks on this question are of great
+interest and value, and are strangely modern. He pleads that
+"experiments will be beneficial to our wits and writers." Alas! the wits
+at least benefited in a way which Sprat did anticipate. Shadwell in his
+'Virtuoso' found material for profane merriment in some of the
+unquestionably absurd inquiries made or suggested by the natural
+philosophers. "Science was then only just emerging from the Mists of
+Superstition." Astrology and Alchemy still infected Astronomy,
+Chemistry, and Medicine. A Fellow of the Royal Society, along with the
+Puritan, made a ridiculous figure on the stage. But Puritanism and
+Natural Philosophy both survived the "test of truth," and were better
+for the ordeal.[3]
+
+In 1668, through the influence of the Duke of Buckingham, Wilkins was
+made Bishop of Chester. The position of a Bishop in some ways resembles
+that of the Head of a College: Fellows are like canons and archdeacons;
+undergraduates are the "inferior clergy." The Bishop showed in the
+management of his diocese the moderation, tact, and charity which had
+made him a successful Warden. He brought back into the Church of
+England, or into loyalty to that Church, many ministers who had been
+ejected from their livings for non-compliance with the Act of
+Uniformity: his success in this good work was due to his "soft
+interpretation of the terms of conformity." They needed softening; no
+part of Macaulay's 'History of England' is more striking and instructive
+than his account in chapter ii. of the sufferings of the Puritans and
+Nonconformists of all descriptions. "It was made a crime to attend a
+dissenting place of worship. A new and most unreasonable test was
+imposed on divines who had been deprived of their benefices for
+Nonconformity; and all who refused to take that test were prohibited
+from coming within five miles of any town which was governed by a
+corporation, of any town which was represented in Parliament, or of any
+town where they had themselves resided as ministers. The magistrates by
+whom these vigorous statutes were to be enforced, were in general men
+inflamed by party spirit, and by remembrances of wrongs suffered in the
+time of the Commonwealth. The jails were therefore soon crowded with
+dissenters, and among the sufferers were some of whose genius and virtue
+any Christian society might well be proud."
+
+It is probable that Chester jail was less crowded than other jails in
+England, and that dissenters were allowed to come within five miles of
+Chester, even to the Bishop's palace.
+
+Wilkins, like many "moderate" men, had convictions, and was ready to
+make sacrifices in their defence. Not only in his diocese, but in the
+House of Lords, he pleaded for a lenient treatment of dissenters. In
+reference to the second Conventicle Act, Wilkins gained for himself, in
+the view of all right-minded men, especial honour. He argued earnestly
+against the Bill in the Upper House. Even when the king desired him to
+be silent, he replied "That he thought it an ill thing, both in
+conscience and policy, and therefore as an Englishman and a Bishop, he
+was bound to oppose it." Being still further requested by Charles not to
+go to the House while the Bill was pending, his answer was "That by the
+law and constitution of England, and by his Majesty's favour, he had a
+right to debate and vote: and he was neither afraid nor ashamed to own
+his opinion in this matter, and to act pursuant to it, and the king was
+not offended with his freedom."[4] He did not hesitate to endanger his
+favour with the king--perhaps not with him, for Charles was not by
+temper a persecutor, but with the party then in power. From the 'Church
+of England in the Reigns of the Stuarts,' I quote another instance of
+his moderation and clear-headedness in the fierce controversies of his
+time. In a conversation with Cosin, Bishop of Devon, who had censured
+him for his moderation, Wilkins frankly told him that he was a better
+friend to the Church of England than his lordship--"for while you," says
+he, "are for setting the top on the picqued end and downwards, you won't
+be able to keep it up any longer than you keep whipping and scourging;
+whereas I am for setting the broad end downwards, and so 'twill stand of
+itself." The metaphor has obvious defects, but expresses the broadness
+of the Broad party in the Church.
+
+Of Wilkins' work in his diocese few particulars are recorded: it is
+called by Wood the "kill Bishop see," a name which now happily it does
+not deserve. His had been a laborious life, and the last years of it
+must have been full of difficulties and anxieties to the friend of an
+unpopular cause. After four years' tenure of his bishopric, he died in
+the year 1672, at the age of fifty-eight, in Tillotson's house: he was
+buried in the churchyard of St Lawrence Jewry, his old vicarage. His
+College pupil, William Lloyd, preached the funeral sermon, in which he
+defends him against the charge of having looked with too much favour on
+the dissenters, urging as his excuse, "the vehemence of his desire to
+bring the Dissenters off their prejudices, and reduce them to the Unity
+of the Church"; no bad defence.
+
+It is pleasant to turn from Wilkins' public to his private life. There
+are many allusions to him in the Diaries of Pepys and Evelyn.
+
+Pepys made his first acquaintance with Wilkins in 1665: he was now a man
+widely known in London society, especially among learned men and natural
+philosophers. Pepys describes his first visit to him, paid at his house,
+then probably the Vicarage of St Lawrence Jewry. "And so to Dr Merritt"
+(a Fellow of the Royal Society), "and fine discourse among them to my
+great joy, so sober and ingenious: he is now upon finishing his
+discourse of a Universal Character." At a dinner-party later he met
+Wilkins, when "I choosing to sit next Dr Wilkins, Sir George Ent, and
+others whome I value, there talked of several things; Dr Wilkins of the
+Universal Speech, of which he hath a book coming out, and did first
+inform me how man was certainly made for society, without which he would
+be a very mean creature." In 1668 the book was published, carried home
+by Pepys, and carefully perused. He enjoyed the account given by Wilkins
+of the ark, and his solutions of the difficulties raised even in his
+time. The solutions, Pepys says, "do please me mightily, and are much
+beyond whatever I heard of the subject." This is easy to believe. He
+must have been impressed by Wilkins' contention that "few were the
+several species of beasts and fowls which were to be in the Arke"; a
+consequence of the fundamental error of his system, the belief that
+nature was easily classified, and her classes few. In Pepys' last
+important reference to Wilkins, he tells us that he "heard talk that Dr
+Wilkins, my friend the Bishop of Chester, shall be removed to Winchester
+and be made Lord Treasurer: though this be foolish talk, I do gather he
+is a mighty rising man, as being a Latitudinarian, and the Duke of
+Buckingham his friend."
+
+Evelyn was a warm friend of Wilkins, and a frequent visitor at his
+lodgings in Wadham. In 1654 he came to Oxford with his wife and
+daughter, as London visitors do now for a weekend, or for Commemoration.
+He "supped at a magnificent entertainment in Wadham Hall, invited by my
+dear and excellent friend Dr Wilkins," and met "that miracle of a youth,
+Mr Christopher Wren." Two years later, on another visit, he "dined with
+that most obliging and universally curious person Dr Wilkins at Wadham
+College." There he saw many wonderful things--transparent apiaries, a
+statue that spoke through a tube, a way-wiser (_i.e._, a kind of
+pedometer), dials, perspectives, mathematical and magical curiosities,
+the property or invention of Wilkins or of "that prodigious young
+scholar Christopher Wren." Alas! there are none of these magical
+curiosities in the Warden's lodgings now; they were taken to London and
+lost in the Great Fire.
+
+In 1665 Evelyn heard his friend preach before the Lord Mayor at St
+Paul's on the text, "Obedience is better than sacrifice,"--a curious
+text for him to choose, for it may be interpreted in more ways than one,
+and might have been taken by an enemy as a summary of the preacher's own
+career. Under the same entry Evelyn describes his friend as one "who
+took great pains to preserve the Universities from the ignorant and
+sacrilegious commanders who would have demolished all places and persons
+that pretended to learning"; another indication among many that the
+"obliging" Dr Wilkins was not invertebrate.
+
+In the same year Evelyn, calling at The Durdans, the home of Wilkins'
+former pupil, Lord Berkeley, found there a remarkable group, Petty,
+Rooke, and Wilkins, amusing themselves with "contrivances for chariots,
+and for a wheel for one to run races in,"--the first forms possibly of a
+hansom, and a cycle. "Perhaps," continues Evelyn, "three such persons
+were not to be found elsewhere in Europe for parts and ingenuity." Lord
+Rosebery, we may safely presume, would be glad to see them at The
+Durdans now.
+
+In November 1668, Evelyn went to London, "invited to the consecration of
+that excellent person, the Dean of Ripon, now made Bishop of Chester: Dr
+Tillotson preached." Then he went to a sumptuous banquet in the Hall of
+Ely House, where were "the Duke of Buckingham, Judges, the Lord Keeper,
+Noblemen, and innumerable other company, who were honourers of this
+incomparable man, universally beloved by all who knew him."
+
+Tillotson, who married Wilkins' stepdaughter, and may therefore have
+been prejudiced, though such relationships give rise to prejudices of
+various kinds, was deeply attached to him. He edited and wrote a preface
+to the book on 'Natural Religion,' and did the same pious duty in
+respect of the 'Sermons Preached on Several Occasions,' taking
+opportunity in the preface to defend him against the censures of Antony
+Wood. He edited also a pamphlet of an attractive title, which the writer
+has not seen and fain would see, 'The Moderate Man, the best subject in
+Church and State, proved from the arguments of Wilkins, with Tillotson's
+opinions on the subject.' Between them they must make a strong case for
+the Moderate Man. Tillotson says of his father-in-law: "I think I may
+truly say that there are or have been few in this age and nation so well
+known, and greatly esteemed, and favoured by many persons of high rank
+and quality, and of singular worth and eminence in all the learned
+professions." This eulogy has perhaps the ring of a time when rank and
+quality were made more of than they are now made, but it is quoted as an
+illustration of the change of feeling which would make it now impossible
+or indecorous to praise a bishop because he got on well with great
+people: allowance must be made for the difference between the
+seventeenth and the twentieth century.
+
+Funeral sermons are not always the naked truth, but Lloyd's fine saying
+about Wilkins bears on it the stamp of sincerity: "It was his way of
+friendship not so much to oblige men as to do them good."
+
+Burnet adds another testimony to Wilkins' singular power of winning
+affection. He writes: "Wilkins was a man of as great a mind, as true a
+judgement, as eminent virtues, and of as good a soul, as any one I ever
+knew. He was naturally ambitious, but was the wisest clergyman I ever
+knew. He was a lover of mankind, and had a delight in doing good."
+
+Burnet was a partisan, but these are the words of more than
+partisanship. In his 'History of his Own Time' he introduces Wilkins to
+his readers in very distinguished company, among the
+Latitudinarians--Whichcote, Cudworth, Tillotson, Lloyd, and
+Stillingfleet,--of whom he says that if such men had not appeared, of
+another stamp than their predecessors, "the Church had quite lost its
+esteem over the nation." Clarendon, whom he calls "more the friend of
+the Bishops than of the Church," had, in his opinion, endowed them and
+the higher clergy too well, and they were sunk in luxury and sloth. The
+Latitudinarians infused into the Church life, energy, and a sense of
+duty: they were, he adds, good preachers and acceptable to the king,
+who, "having little or no literature, but true and good sense," liked
+sermons "plain, clear, and short." "Incedo per ignes," but it is
+impossible to refrain from quoting Burnet's language, which, _mutatis
+mutandis_, would have expressed what High Churchmen felt towards the
+leaders of the Oxford movement, and with equal truth and justice.
+
+Here Antony Wood may be called in to play the part of the Advocatus
+Diaboli. He plays it in the following passage, as always, with great
+vigour and enjoyment: "Dr John Wilkins, a notorious complyer with the
+Presbyterians, from whom he obtained the Wardenship of Wadham; with the
+Independants and Cromwell himself, by whose favour he did not only get
+a dispensation to marry (contrary to the College Statutes), but also,
+because he had married his sister, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge:
+from which being ejected at the Restoration, he faced about, and by his
+smooth language, insinuating preaching, flatteries, and I know not what,
+got among other preferments the Deanery of Ripon, and at length by the
+commendation of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, a great favourer of
+fanaticks and atheists, the Bishopric of Chester."
+
+The passage is inaccurate both in grammar and in facts, but it is
+valuable as evidence of the venomous party spirit prevalent in the
+seventeenth century,--a spirit to which we can easily rise superior, we
+whose station, property, life, do not depend on the triumph of this or
+that opinion. In Oxford at least we do not now say such things about
+each other. But in another place Wood takes a less unfavourable view of
+Wilkins' character, and uses about him the politest language at his
+command. "He was a person of rare gifts, a noted theologist and
+preacher; a curious critick in several matters; an excellent
+mathematician and experimentalist, &c.; and I cannot say that there was
+anything deficient in him but a constant mind and settled principles."
+
+This is an outline of the facts and opinions about Wilkins which have
+come down to us. What are we to think of him?
+
+Unquestionably there lies against a man who prospered under Cromwell and
+Charles II., and was a favourite of both, a presumption of excessive
+pliancy, of too much readiness to adapt himself to his environment, of
+time-serving, if you like, and insincerity. It cannot be proved that he
+was not a Vicar of Bray, the title which at once suggests itself.
+Tolerance, geniality, and charity are virtues which have their own
+defects, and some measure of austerity is one of the ingredients of a
+perfect character. It has been said of Wilkins that two principles
+determined his career: a large tolerance of actions and opinions; a
+readiness to submit himself to "the powers that be," let them have been
+established if they might. These are the marks of a wise man, and of a
+man supremely useful in times of bitter hatred and uncompromising
+revenge: they are not the marks of a hero or a martyr.
+
+Wilkins was in fact a Trimmer. It may be said of him what has been said
+by Mr Herbert Paul of a more famous Trimmer, Lord Halifax (not our Lord
+Halifax), that "he was thoroughly imbued with the English spirit of
+compromise, that he had a remarkable power of understanding, even
+sympathetically understanding, opinions which he did not hold." Wilkins
+hated persecution, and that hatred nerves a Trimmer to defend unpopular
+persons and unpopular causes, as he did in his College and University
+and Diocese. Toleration has a courage of its own equal to that of
+fanaticism, and more useful and intelligent. It is now an easier and a
+safer virtue than it was two hundred and fifty years ago: it is not
+popular now; it was odious then, and men were impatient with those who
+took no side, or changed sides for reasons good or bad.
+
+Macaulay--who never knew a doubt, whose way was clear and easy in the
+struggles of his day, when reform and free trade in corn were obviously
+desirable and necessary--writes with contemptuous severity of the
+profligacy of politicians from the Restoration to the accession of the
+House of Hanover. "One who in such an age is determined to attain civil
+greatness must renounce all thought of consistency. Instead of affecting
+immutability in the midst of mutation, he must always be on the watch
+for the indications of a coming reaction. He must seize the exact moment
+for deserting a falling cause. He has seen so many institutions from
+which much had been expected produce mere disappointment, that he has no
+hope of improvement. There is nothing in the state which he could not,
+without a scruple, join in defending or destroying." Compare with these
+scathing words his estimate of the character of Halifax, the Whig: "The
+most estimable of the statesmen who were formed in the corrupt and
+licentious Whitehall of the Restoration. He was called inconsistent
+because the relative position in which he stood to the contending
+parties was perpetually varying. As well might the Polar Star be called
+inconsistent because it is sometimes to the east and sometimes to the
+west of the pointers. To have defended the ancient and legal
+constitution of the realm against a seditious populace at one
+conjunction, and against a tyrannical government at another; to have
+been the foremost champion of order in the turbulent Parliament of 1680,
+and the foremost champion of liberty in the servile Parliament of 1685;
+to have been just and merciful to the Roman Catholics in the days of the
+Popish Plot, and to the Exclusionists in the days of the Rye House Plot;
+this was a course which contemporaries, heated by passion, and deluded
+by names and badges, might not unnaturally call fickle, but which
+deserves a very different name from the late justice of posterity." More
+than one British statesman, Tory, be it observed, as well as Whig,
+needs and deserves a defence like this. Alter names and dates, and it
+will serve as a vindication of Wilkins' deficiency in a "constant mind
+and settled principles." Therefore the paradox is true that a Trimmer
+may be a man of firmness and courage; one who is bold enough to make
+many enemies and few friends; who has convictions of his own, but by a
+power of sympathy, one of the rarest and highest mental, half moral,
+half intellectual, qualities, can understand opinions which he does not
+hold; understand and pardon, as the French say.
+
+Whether Wilkins' tolerance was of the exalted kind, or alloyed by an
+admixture of that other tolerance which is no better than indifference
+and opportunism, it is impossible to say, for we do not know enough
+about him to pronounce a judgment. Our data are scanty and incoherent,
+scattered about in diaries and memoirs written by persons of different
+stations and opinions. This much is certain, that Pope, Aubrey, Sprat,
+Evelyn, Pepys, Tillotson, and Burnet speak of him with affection and
+respect: one note runs through all their eulogies, that he was
+universally beloved; yet he was not one of those nonentities whom now we
+style amiable persons, but a man of character and power.
+
+As a loyal son of the College, the writer is prepared to maintain that a
+Vicar of Bray could not have won love and admiration in his College, his
+University, and in his Diocese, and in a larger world than these; nor
+have been "laudatus a laudatis viris." It is more rational to believe
+that Wilkins was a good and wise man, who accepted the situations in
+which he found himself placed, and made the best of them, being more
+solicitous to do good than to preserve consistency, that most negative
+of virtues. Let him be judged by his best, as men are most fairly
+judged, and by another good criterion, the times in which he
+lived,--times of perpetual change, confusion, and perplexity.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[3] See Mr Pearson's instructive and amusing article on "The Virtuoso"
+in the 'Nineteenth Century,' November 1909.
+
+[4] This is an abbreviation of the passage in Burnet's 'History of his
+Own Time,' vol. i. p. 272. First edition.
+
+
+PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS.
+
+
+
+
+
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+  <head>
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" />
+    <title>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Life And Times Of John Wilkins, by P. A. Wright Henderson.
+    </title>
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life and Times of John Wilkins, by 
+Patrick A. Wright-Henderson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Life and Times of John Wilkins
+       Warden of Wadham college, Oxford; master of Trinity college,
+              Cambridge; and Bishop of Chester
+
+Author: Patrick A. Wright-Henderson
+
+Release Date: September 20, 2008 [EBook #26674]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN WILKINS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h1>The Life and Times of John Wilkins</h1>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<div class="center"><a name="i004" id="i004"></a><img src="images/i004.jpg" width='573' height='700' alt="WARDEN WILKINS" /></div>
+
+<h4>WARDEN WILKINS.</h4>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h1>The Life and Times<br />of John Wilkins</h1>
+
+<h3>Warden of Wadham College, Oxford;<br />Master of Trinity College, Cambridge;<br />and Bishop of Chester</h3>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h3>BY</h3>
+
+<h2>P. A. WRIGHT HENDERSON</h2>
+
+<h4>WARDEN OF WADHAM COLLEGE, OXFORD</h4>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h3>William Blackwood and Sons<br />Edinburgh and London<br />1910</h3>
+
+<p class="center"><i>ALL RIGHTS RESERVED</i></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h3><i>DEDICATED TO</i><br /><br /><i>THE MEMBERS OF WADHAM COLLEGE.</i></h3>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE"></a>PREFACE.</h2>
+
+<p>This little book is written as an offering to the Members of Wadham
+College for the Tercentenary of its foundation. The writer makes no
+pretensions to learning or research: the title of the book would be
+misleading and ridiculous if taken to imply a profound study of the
+times of Bishop Wilkins, from his birth in 1614 to his death in 1672,
+the most important, perhaps, certainly the most interesting, in the
+history of Great Britain. It has been attempted only to touch on the
+great questions and events which shaped the life and character of a
+remarkable man. Use has been made freely and often, without due
+acknowledgment, of the 'History of Wadham College,' written by Mr T. G.
+Jackson, R.A., one of its Honorary Fellows and distinguished alumni; a
+history of the building and architecture of the College, which no one
+but he could have written,&mdash;a history also of its social and academical
+life from its beginning to the present day.</p>
+
+<p>Nor has less use been made of Mr J. Wells' History of the College, of
+which he is a Fellow. He will, I am sure, pardon my impertinence in
+saying that in his book are combined diligent research and a sense of
+humour and of the picturesque, excellences rarely found together in
+historians. Mr R. B. Gardiner, formerly Scholar of Wadham, has earned
+its gratitude by his invaluable 'Registers of Admissions,' which, it is
+to be hoped, he will bring down to 1910 or later: they will make easy
+the work of some member of the College, who will doubtless arise to
+write a <i>magnum opus</i>, the history of the College in every
+aspect&mdash;architectural, social, and academical.</p>
+
+<p>For it the writer will use, as I have done<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[Pg ix]</a></span> for this little book, the
+notes and comments of Mr Andrew Clark on Wood's 'Life and Times,' and
+other volumes published by the Oxford Historical Society.</p>
+
+<p>My thanks are due also to Dr Butler, the Master of Trinity, Cambridge,
+for his kindness in telling me what little there is to tell of Wilkins'
+short tenure of the Mastership.</p>
+
+<p>The Bishop of Chester, Dr Jayne, formerly a Scholar of Wadham, now
+Bishop of the Diocese which Wilkins held, has helped me with information
+about the short episcopate of his predecessor. For it I am grateful to
+him, as well for the suggestion or command which led to my first
+attempt, made four years ago, to write something about Wilkins.</p>
+
+<p>The too short article in the 'Dictionary of National Biography' has been
+of much service: it gives the bibliography of the subject, or an
+equivalent, for no life of Wilkins has been written till now, and
+indicates the sources of information about him: it also puts in clear
+order the events of his varied life. Mr Sanders<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[Pg x]</a></span> must know much which he
+should be gently forced to tell.</p>
+
+<p>Fain would I acknowledge to Wood and Aubrey the debt I owe to them,
+especially to Wood, and ask his pardon for occasional ill-natured
+remarks about him, as ill-natured nearly as his own about most of his
+contemporaries.</p>
+
+<p>The only merit claimed for this <i>libellus</i> is its brevity&mdash;no small
+recommendation in this age of "exhaustive treatment" when, in
+bibliography especially, it is difficult to see the wood for the trees.
+It is an inadequate expression of the writer's affection for the College
+in which he has spent more than forty years of his life, and the
+unvarying kindness and indulgence which he has received from pupils and
+colleagues.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[Pg xi]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS.</h2>
+
+<div class="index">
+<ul>
+<li><span class="mono">CHAPTER</span></li>
+<li><span class="mono"><a href="#PREFACE">PREFACE.</a></span></li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_I">I.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;HISTORY OF THE COLLEGE FROM ITS FOUNDATION TO THE BEGINNING OF WILKINS' WARDENSHIP</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_II">II.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;WILKINS' LIFE TILL HIS APPOINTMENT TO THE WARDENSHIP</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_III">III.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;WILKINS' WARDENSHIP</li>
+<li><span class="mono">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="#CHAPTER_IV">IV.</a></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;WILKINS AFTER HIS LIFE AT OXFORD</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[Pg xiii]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2>ILLUSTRATIONS.</h2>
+
+<div class="index">
+<ul>
+<li><span class="mono"><a href="#i004">WARDEN WILKINS</a></span></li>
+<li><span class="mono"><a href="#i029">NICHOLAS WADHAM</a></span></li>
+<li><span class="mono"><a href="#i035">DOROTHY WADHAM</a></span></li>
+<li><span class="mono"><a href="#i049">ADMIRAL BLAKE</a></span></li>
+<li><span class="mono"><a href="#i071">WADHAM COLLEGE FROM THE WARDEN'S GARDEN</a></span></li>
+<li><span class="mono"><a href="#i103">WADHAM COLLEGE FROM THE COLLEGE GARDEN</a></span></li>
+<li><span class="mono"><a href="#i127">SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN</a></span></li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p>
+
+<h1>THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN WILKINS.</h1>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2>
+
+<h3>HISTORY OF THE COLLEGE FROM ITS FOUNDATION TO THE BEGINNING OF WILKINS' WARDENSHIP.</h3>
+
+<p>Wadham College was founded in 1610, when on July 31st the
+foundation-stone was laid; and opened in 1613, when, on April 20th, the
+Warden and Fellows elected by the Foundress were admitted; the Warden,
+by the Vice-Chancellor of the University in St Mary's Church; the
+fifteen Fellows by the Warden in the College Hall; the fifteen Scholars
+by the Warden and Fellows in the same place.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> All of them, from the
+Warden to the Junior Scholars, were sworn to obey the Statutes of the
+College, save three of the Scholars, who were supposed to be too young
+to understand the nature of an oath.</p>
+
+<p>A site had been found on the ground where had stood the Priory of the
+Augustine Friars, founded in 1268&mdash;suppressed in 1540. It had been
+gradually removed or destroyed by time and plunder of its materials: no
+traces of it are left, except on the west side of the Warden's garden, a
+postern-gate which he maintains was used by the friars for various
+purposes. Another memorial of the Priory survived till 1800&mdash;the phrase
+of "doing Austins." Up to that date, or near it, every Bachelor of Arts
+was required once in each year to "dispute and answer ad Augustinenses,"
+and the chapel or refectory of the Priory were convenient places in
+which to hold the disputations. In the University no official title, no
+name indeed of any kind, escapes abbreviation or worse indignity,
+instances of which will readily<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> suggest themselves to the mind of any
+Oxford reader.</p>
+
+<p>The founders were Nicholas Wadham and Dorothy, his wife, of Merrifield
+and Edge in the county of Somerset. He was a squire of good estate and
+high degree, the last male descendant of the main line of Wadhams. Born
+in 1532, he was educated at Corpus or at Christ Church: there is a
+conflict of testimony on this point, but Corpus was probably his
+college. At the age of twenty-three he married Dorothy Petre. She was
+two years younger than her husband, born in 1534, the daughter of Sir
+William Petre of Writtle in Essex, near which much of the College
+property now lies. For his zeal in suppressing the monasteries Sir
+William had been rewarded by the grant of a large estate, and Wadham, so
+long a Whig and Evangelical College, was by the vicissitudes of fortune
+built both pecuniarily and materially on the ruins of the Roman Catholic
+Church.</p>
+
+<p>The young couple were wealthy and lived their lives in state at
+Merrifield, where they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> kept an open house, "an inn at all times for
+their friends, and a court at Christmas." Yet, owing probably to the
+management of Dorothy, a notable and prudent wife, they saved money, and
+the childless pair determined to devote their wealth to "the purposes of
+religion, learning, and education." Their creed, like that of many
+waverers in those days of transition, was by no means clear, possibly
+even to themselves. The Wadhams were suspected of being Recusants, and
+Dorothy was presented as such, even in the year 1613 when the College
+was completed. This may have given rise to Antony Wood's story that
+Nicholas was minded to found a College at Venice for Roman Catholic
+students, but the balance of probabilities is against its truth.</p>
+
+<p>It has been pointed out by Mr Jackson, on the suggestion of Mr Thorley,
+the late Warden, that "the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot in 1605 may
+have weakened his (Wadham's) attachment, in common with that of many
+liberal and loyal Catholics, to the cause of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> old faith"; further,
+that "the Venice scheme comes very near, if it does not amount to, an
+offence which the law had anticipated and actually forbidden, and it
+would have exposed its author to the direful penalties of Pramunire,
+which by a Statute of 27 Elizabeth were denounced against any person
+contributing to the support of any College of Jesuits, or Seminary,
+erected, or hereafter to be erected, beyond the sea": and finally, Mr
+Jackson dwells on many evidences from facts that the Founder was in his
+later years strictly conformable to the Reformed Church. These are
+weighty arguments, and to them may be added others worthy of
+consideration. To a daughter of Sir William Petre her husband's design,
+if he ever entertained it, would have been more than distasteful, for
+its fulfilment would have meant a confession of sacrilege committed by
+her father and acquiesced in by herself: it would have meant also the
+establishment of a college beyond the sea, removed from the Founder's
+supervision and control. No one who knows human nature,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> or daughters,
+or Dorothy Wadham, can regard the story as more than an interesting
+fiction. And yet, is there no foundation for Wood's circumstantial
+narrative? Does the fact that the Foundress was presented as a Recusant
+mean nothing? The problem is one worthy of the industry and ingenuity of
+Mr Andrew Lang.</p>
+
+<p>The Founder died at the age of seventy-seven years in 1609. He was
+buried in "Myne Ile at Ilminster, where myne ancestors lye interred."
+The funeral was one befitting, in the estimation of those days, the
+obsequies of an important country gentleman: it cost &pound;500, equivalent
+now to a sum sufficient for the public funeral of some great statesman.
+It is easy to condemn our ancestors; but their modes of extravagance
+were less frivolous than ours, if equally irrational.</p>
+
+<p>The building accounts have been preserved in the account-book treasured
+in the College archives: in it is recorded "every item of stone, wood,
+or metal used, and every workman's name and weekly wages," an important
+contribution to the history of prices. The architect was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> William
+Arnold, who combined in himself, as did architects in the middle ages
+and later, the functions of head workman, master mason, architect, and
+clerk of works in one&mdash;a master builder. The stones came from the
+quarries at Headington and Shotover; the slates from Stonesfield and
+Burford. Part of the beauty of the College is due to the soft colouring
+of the silver-grey stone, honeycombed and crumbled, on the south and
+west especially, where sun and wind and rain beat on it, giving it the
+appearance of indefinite antiquity; an appearance due, alas! also to the
+fact that stone from Headington is very friable, and little able to
+resist the Oxford air.</p>
+
+<p>One of the true College stories runs to the effect that Warden Griffiths
+used the account-book to refute the contention of a great historian of
+British architecture that Wadham College must have been built at
+different dates, because its architecture is of different styles&mdash;an
+improper combination of Jacobean and Perpendicular. Dr Griffiths was the
+kindliest of men, but the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> most accurate, and it gave him, for he was
+human, great pleasure to correct mistakes. He listened silently to the
+great man's argument: next morning, at a large breakfast party given in
+the College Common Room to the members of the British Association which
+met at Oxford in the year 1847, he quietly laid the Account-Book beside
+the plate of the unhappy dogmatist. The fact that the Chapel is
+Perpendicular while the Quadrangle is late Gothic has been explained by
+the late Mr J. H. Parker's reasonable, perhaps fanciful, suggestion that
+"the architect desired to emphasise by this variation of style the
+religious and secular uses of the several structures."<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+<p>Wadham has been described by Ayliffe, and without much protest, as being
+"in respect of beauty the most regular and uniform of any in the
+University." It is the best specimen of that late Gothic style which
+makes the charm of Oxford, and which Mr Jackson has helped to preserve
+by his work there and elsewhere.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p><p>The beauty of Wadham is of a singularly quiet and simple kind, the
+effect of proportion, of string-courses and straight lines, marred by
+little decoration. Except for buildings annexed from time to time, so
+plain that they are no disfigurement, the College stands as it stood
+three centuries ago. Mr Andrew Lang has remarked that it is "the only
+College in Oxford which has not been fiddled with"; this is high praise,
+and gratefully accepted. One defect the College has: the resources of
+the Founders sufficed to build only one quadrangle; they had not counted
+the cost of the stately Chapel and Hall, and little was left for College
+rooms. When will our benefactor come? But it would be ungracious in
+Wadham men to criticise the Founders of their College, to whom they owe
+the most beautiful of homes. It stood fifty years ago almost in the
+country, with nothing north or east of it save the Museum and green
+fields. It is still in a great measure what it was called, the Country
+College; for though it has neighbours close to it in Mansfield and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span>
+Manchester Colleges, yet these and the cricket-grounds, which lie
+between Wadham and the Cherwell, and further north, the Parks, make one
+spacious region of almost country,&mdash;a region of grass and trees and
+silence, broken only by the sounds of birds, and the shouts of Matthew
+Arnold's "young barbarians all at play."</p>
+
+<p>It is a quiet old College,&mdash;not old as age is reckoned in Oxford,&mdash;like
+some great Elizabethan or Jacobean country-house turned into a College,
+splendid yet homely, possessing that double charm which no palace or
+castle or cathedral possesses in the same degree,&mdash;the charm of stately
+beauty and the charm of human interest which belongs to the home of
+generations who have spent there the happiest years of life, preparing
+for themselves distinction and success, or obscurity and failure. As you
+stand in the well-known College garden, one side of which is bounded by
+the chapel and long line of wall and gables showing half-white half-grey
+against the sward from which they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> rise, you might fancy, if you were a
+Platonist, that here Plato might have realised the dream of his
+Republic, and made a home for the chosen youths who were to rule and
+defend his state; here amid things beautiful "from which come effluences
+wholesome for the soul, like a breeze bringing health from blessed
+regions."</p>
+
+<p>The Educated Woman, with her unerring perception of the fitness of
+things, has already, it is whispered, marked Wadham for her own when the
+day of reckoning comes, and men will have to share with women not merely
+degrees but buildings and endowments. She has chosen well, for Tennyson
+could have imagined no fitter home for the Princess and her companions.</p>
+
+<p>Four days before his death Nicholas Wadham told his nephew, Sir John
+Wyndham, what were his objects in founding his College, and what were
+the provisions he wished made to effect them. His "instructions," two of
+which seemed strange to his nephew, and to need careful wording, ran as
+follows: "The one was that he would have an especial Statute to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> be made
+that neyther the head of the house, nor any of the fellowes should be
+married; the other that he would not tye any man to any profession, as
+eyther devinitie, lawe, or phisicke, but leave every man free to profess
+what he liked, as it should please God to direct him. He then told me
+that after they weare Masters of Arte of a competent number of yeares,
+that then he would have them absolutely to departe the Colledge, and not
+live there all theire lives like idle drones, but put themselves into
+the world, whereby others might growe up under them, his intente being
+chiefly to nourishe and trayne up men into Learninge. On the 19th of
+October, when he sealed the deede, I told him howe necessary it was for
+him to have a visitor of his Colledge, all the Colledges of Oxford
+having some Bishoppe appointed by the Founder for seeinge of the
+Statutes put in execution; and that in my opinion there was none fitter
+than the Bishoppe of Bathe and Welles, which he much applauded, and
+thanked me muche for putting him in minde<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> of him; he also then sayd
+he would have his Colledge to be called Wadham Colledge."</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<div class="center"><a name="i029" id="i029"></a><img src="images/i029.jpg" width='527' height='700' alt="NICHOLAS WADHAM" /></div>
+
+<h4>NICHOLAS WADHAM.</h4>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>Our ancestors knew what they meant and how to express it in good
+English, though their spelling was irregular. In his instructions the
+Founder anticipated reforms made by the Commissioners of 1853 and 1882.
+They had the benefit of two and a half centuries' experience of national
+and academical life to guide them: Nicholas Wadham foresaw things and
+needs not foreseen or understood by his contemporaries or predecessors.
+His Fellowships were to be, all of them, open to laymen, and terminable
+after a tenure of years in which a young lawyer, of physician, might
+maintain and prepare himself till he had made a practice: eighteen years
+were allowed for that purpose, instead of the scanty seven with which a
+Prize Fellow must now content himself. It may be that Nicholas gave too
+much and the Commissioners gave too little; but that is a doubtful
+question.</p>
+
+<p>The Wardenship, as well as the Fellowships, could by the Founder's
+intention, and in the first<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> draft of the Statutes, be held without the
+condition of Holy Orders. The Foundress, in this matter only, disobeyed
+her husband, and at the wish of the Society altered the Statutes, and by
+binding the Warden to take his Doctorate in Divinity made the office
+clerical for two hundred and sixty years. In all other points she
+followed the instructions which she may herself to some extent have
+inspired. Her Visitor was to be the Bishop of the diocese in which she
+had spent her life; her Warden was to be "a virtuous and honourable man
+of stainless life, not a bishop, nor a foreigner but born in Britain":
+the last word is significant. It was inserted in the Statutes by James
+I. in place of "England": even Dr Griffiths is known to have spoken of
+England as the kingdom in which he lived: further, the Warden was to be
+"thirty years old at least, and unmarried."</p>
+
+<p>There is nothing in Dorothy's grim features to suggest that she would
+have approved of one of the reforms or perversions of her Statutes
+ordained by the Commissioners, which gives a place in her College to a
+married Warden and to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> married Fellows, much less that she would have
+been willing to marry one of them herself. Thereby hangs a tale which
+might suggest a new situation to our exhausted novelists. The Foundress,
+so the story runs, chose for her first Warden a clergyman, Dr Robert
+Wright, whose <i>beaux yeux</i> touched the heart of the lone widow: she
+loved him, and would fain have married him and reigned with him after
+the necessary alteration of the Statutes; but he was cold and
+irresponsive: the obligation of celibacy, save in the case of Warden
+Wilkins, remained incumbent on a Warden of Wadham till 1806, when it was
+removed by a special Act of Parliament. Modern criticism respects a
+love-story no more than it respects the Pentateuch. A comparison of
+dates shows that Dr Wright was fifty-four years old at the time of his
+appointment in 1613, and the Foundress was then seventy-nine. The
+difference of a quarter of a century makes the truth of the story not
+indeed impossible but improbable; the coy Warden held his office only
+for two months: the cause of his resignation or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> expulsion is not known,
+but was probably not "spret&aelig; injuria form&aelig;": the hero of the story
+wished to marry somebody else, and resigned his post because he was not
+permitted to do so, as Mr Wells informs us, adding a prosaic explanation
+of the lovers' quarrel, a disagreement about the appointment of an
+under-cook. Therefore "Dorothy's Romance" must take its place among the
+many College stories in which Oxford abounds, and become a forsaken
+belief. Wright was the first on the long roll of Wadham bishops, and
+played a not inconsiderable part at a crisis in English history. In
+December 1641, as Bishop of Lichfield, he was one of the twelve bishops
+who presented to Charles I. the famous protest against their exclusion
+by mob violence from the House of Lords, declaring all proceedings in
+their absence null and void: for this they were sent to the Tower as
+guilty of high treason. Wright was soon released, and died two years
+later defending his episcopal seat, Eccleshall Castle, against the
+Parliamentarians,&mdash;a member of the Church militant like Ancktill.</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<div class="center"><a name="i035" id="i035"></a><img src="images/i035.jpg" width='545' height='700' alt="DOROTHY WADHAM" /></div>
+
+<h4>DOROTHY WADHAM.</h4>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span></p><p>The history of the College from its foundation to the beginning of the
+Civil War is uneventful, one of great prosperity. Among the Fellows
+admitted in 1613, three, Smyth, Estcott, and Pitt, became Wardens: four
+of the Fellows were drawn from Exeter, then, as now, a west-country
+College like Wadham, though it has, more than Wadham, maintained its
+connection with the West of England. The Foundress showed her resolve
+that her husband's countryside should be well represented among the
+first members of the foundation: of the fifteen Fellows, eleven&mdash;of the
+fifteen Scholars, ten, came from western counties, especially from
+Somerset; the Commoners also were many of them western men. The value to
+a College of a local connection, not with a village or a small school,
+but with a county or a large town, was not understood by the
+Commissioners of 1853: they were under the tyranny of the formul&aelig;
+current in their day, when "open competition" was supposed to be the
+solution of all the difficulties of life.</p>
+
+<p>In the first year of the College now opened<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> for work, fifty-one
+undergraduates, including the Scholars, were admitted. The number of its
+inmates, from the Warden to the latest freshman, was therefore
+sixty-nine, including the two chaplains. The rooms were larger than most
+of the rooms in the older colleges, but fewer, and those available for
+undergraduates were not more than about forty: the freshmen of 1613 must
+have been closely packed, the Scholars especially, who had rooms three
+together, sleeping in the large chamber and working in the <i>musc&oelig;l&aelig;</i>
+or small studies attached, now used as bedrooms, or as scouts' pantries.
+In the nine years following the admissions were necessarily
+fewer&mdash;averaging twenty-seven. It is probable that till the depletion of
+Oxford, when the Civil War began&mdash;<i>i.e.</i>, during the first thirty years
+of its life&mdash;Wadham numbered on an average between eighty and ninety
+undergraduates, all of them resident in College, as was then required by
+the Statutes of the University. This estimate is based on imperfect
+data, and Mr Gardiner has pronounced that materials for any accurate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span>
+calculation are not to be found. We do not know what was the usual
+length of undergraduates' residence at that time; some resided only for
+a year, some proceeded to a degree. Nor is it clear whether the Warden
+used all the rooms, eight in number, assigned to him, or gave, perhaps
+rented, some of them to undergraduates. The estimate, which can neither
+be confirmed nor disproved, is worth making only as helping us to
+imagine the condition of the College in its early days. One thing is
+certain, that Wadham was popular and fashionable, to use a modern
+curious name, as is shown by the record of admissions.</p>
+
+<p>Life, both for graduates and undergraduates, was harder then than it is
+now. The Fellows were required to reside for forty-six weeks, the
+Scholars, and probably the Commoners, for forty-eight weeks in each
+year. All undergraduates had to attend lectures or disputations for
+twenty-four hours in every week. These tasks were arranged with careful
+malignity to begin at 6 <span class="smaller">A.M.</span>, and resumed at 2 <span class="smaller">P.M.</span> and 6 <span class="smaller">P.M.</span> Nor were
+examinations wanting. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> Bible was to be read during dinner in Hall by
+a Bible Clerk or Scholar, and heard attentively and reverently. Latin
+was to be spoken in Hall, and English only when the presence of an
+unlearned person or of a member of another college justified its use.
+The Chapel Service was held between 5 and 6 <span class="smaller">A.M.</span> and between 8 and 9
+<span class="smaller">P.M.</span>; and attendance twice a-day was required from bachelors and
+undergraduates, and rigidly enforced. Attendance at roll-call as a
+substitute for chapel was unheard of in those days, when all members of
+the colleges were, or were presumed to be, members also of the Church of
+England, nor would conscientious scruples have been treated with much
+courtesy. In other matters discipline was no less strict; clothes and
+boots were to be black, and gowns were to be long. No undergraduate was
+allowed to go out of College unaccompanied by a "discrete senior" of
+mature age as a witness to his good behaviour, unless to attend a
+lecture or a disputation: nor might he keep dogs, or guns, or ferrets,
+or any bird, within the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>precincts of the College, nor play any games
+with dice or cards or of any unseemly kind. Yet the Foundress showed a
+tenderness for human weakness by permitting the Fellows and Scholars to
+play cards in Hall on some of the Gaudy days for "moderate stakes and at
+timeous hours." Moreover, she ordained that &pound;30 from the College
+revenues should be spent on College banquets to be held on Gaudy days,
+by which were meant the great Church festivals, the election days of
+Fellows and College officers, All Saints' Day, and, on what at first
+sight seems strange, the anniversary of her husband's death; but the
+strangeness disappears if it be remembered that October 20th comes close
+to All Saints' Day.</p>
+
+<p>This seems, in some of its provisions, Draconian legislation, but it was
+made for the government of boys, many of them only fourteen or fifteen
+years of age: how far it was, even in early days, unflinchingly
+enforced, we cannot tell. It began to fall into abeyance after the
+Restoration, if we are to believe<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> Antony Wood. His statements are
+always to be received with caution; but they are on this point confirmed
+by other testimonies, and by the antecedent probability of a strong
+reaction against the Puritan <i>r&eacute;gime</i>. Eighteen months after the King's
+Restoration, he writes of the decay of learning and discipline in the
+University. "Before the warr wee had scholars that made a thorough
+search in scholasticall and polemicall divinity, in humane authors, and
+naturall philosophy. But now scholars studie these things not more than
+what is just necessary to carry them through the exercises of their
+respective Colleges and the Universitie. Their aime is not to live as
+students ought to do&mdash;viz., temperat, abstemious, and plaine and grave
+in the apparel; but to live like gentlemen, to keep dogs and horses, to
+turne their studies and coleholes into places to receive bottles, to
+swash it in apparell, to wear long periwigs, &amp;c., and the theologists to
+ride abroad in grey coats with swords by their sides: the masters have
+lost their respect by being <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span>themselves scandalous, and keeping company
+with undergraduates." We cannot believe that Wadham escaped the
+contagion, and remained what its Foundress meant it to be. It would be
+interesting&mdash;but lack of space forbids&mdash;to compare the discipline
+prescribed with that administered in Wadham now. Sufficient to say&mdash;what
+indeed might go without saying&mdash;that the lapse of three hundred years
+has made changes desirable and necessary.</p>
+
+<p>The Foundress died on May 16, 1618, aged eighty-four. For five years she
+had watched over the infancy of her College, and had seen it grow into a
+vigorous child, with the promise of a robust manhood. The mythop&oelig;ic
+faculty is strong in all of us, and in Wadham has grown up a tradition
+that Dorothy was a strong-minded woman, and her husband a submissive man
+without character and will. The myth rests only on the science of
+physiognomy working on portraits,&mdash;a most insecure foundation. The
+Founders' portraits depict him as a gentle, placid person with
+melancholy eyes;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> her as a hard-featured woman with a long upper lip and
+an almost cruel mouth. Against the testimony, always dubious, of
+portraits, must be set the known facts of her loyal devotion in carrying
+out his wishes with scrupulous fidelity, and the sacrifices she made in
+doing so, of money and of laborious supervision in the last years of her
+long life.</p>
+
+<p>The College may do well to remember the closing of one of her last
+letters to the Warden and Fellows: "Above all things, I would have you
+to avoid contentions among yourselves, for without true charity there
+cannot be a true Society."&mdash;(Wells' 'History of Wadham,' p. 44.) She was
+buried beside her husband in the Wadham aisle at Ilminster.</p>
+
+<p>Only a few months after her death a question arose in which she would
+have taken a keen interest, and have supported her College to the
+uttermost. In October 1618 James I. set an example, which his grandson,
+James II., followed, of that contempt for law which proved fatal to the
+Stuarts. He wrote to his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> "trusty and well beloved, the Warden and
+Fellows of Wadham College, bidding them elect Walter Durham of St
+Andrews a Fellow, notwithstanding anything in their statutes to the
+contrary." Durham had not been a scholar, and the vacancy had been
+filled up by the Foundress, for whose death "their eyes were still wet."
+It is possible that Durham's being a Scotchman was another objection to
+his reception as a Fellow in those days when his aggressive countrymen
+had found the high-road to England: this objection the Society did not
+put before the King, but pleaded only the obligations of the statutes.
+Supported by the Earl of Pembroke, the Chancellor of the University,
+their resistance was successful. To Wadham belongs the honour of being
+the earliest Oxford champion of legality in the struggle of seventy
+years: as to Magdalen belongs the honour of the resistance which brought
+that struggle nearly to its close. From 1618 onward till&mdash;who can say
+when? the College has been on the popular or constitutional side,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> save
+in 1648. The portrait of James I., who gave the College its Charter,
+hangs in the Hall; there are no portraits there of Charles I., Charles
+II., James II.</p>
+
+<p>Among the admissions of this time the most illustrious name is that of
+Robert Blake, who matriculated at Alban Hall, but took his B.A. from
+Wadham in 1618, a few months before the Durham incident. The great
+admiral and soldier may therefore have learnt in Wadham the opinions
+which determined his choice of sides in the Parliamentary wars. The
+College possesses his portrait, and four gold medals struck to
+commemorate his victory over Van Tromp in 1653. It has never left the
+custody of the Warden, save when it was sent, concealed on the person of
+Professor and Commander Burroughs, to the Naval Exhibition some years
+ago; and last year, when after an interesting correspondence between the
+College and Colonel Maxse commanding the Coldstream Guards, leave was
+cordially given to that distinguished regiment to have an electrotype
+made<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> of the Blake medal for its own exclusive use, and to be kept <i>in
+perpetuum</i> among the memorials of its long history. It is the oldest
+regiment in the service, the only survivor of Cromwell's New Model; it
+was commanded by Monk, afterwards Duke of Albemarle, when he crossed the
+border to march to London, perhaps with no definite intention to restore
+the Monarchy&mdash;perhaps also prompted by his brother Nicholas, a Wadham
+man, to solve the great problem in that simple way. The rest of the New
+Model were disbanded after the Restoration, but, doubtless in deference
+to Monk, the Coldstreams were reformed, and became the King's Bodyguard.
+To Monk, who like Blake was half soldier, half sailor, one of the four
+medals had been awarded for his services against the Dutch. It was lost,
+and the replica will take its place. The other three medals are
+preserved&mdash;one in the possession of the representatives of the Penn
+family, one in the British Museum, one in Wadham: the last was sent to
+the British Museum for reproduction: it was carried<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> by our historian Mr
+Wells, returned by him, and it now lies in the Warden's lodgings, in the
+cabinet of treasures bequeathed by Dr Griffiths, our benefactor in many
+ways unknown but to his friends. This tie of courtesy and history
+between a regiment and a college, arms and the gown, is worth recording
+and probably unique.</p>
+
+<p>No other name of real distinction than Blake's occurs in the registers
+of 1613 to 1648. But Colonel Henry Ancktill, "the priest and malignant
+doctor," as he was known among the Roundheads, one of the first Fellows,
+ought to be remembered, partly on his own account, for he was a vigorous
+and devoted Royalist, a fighting man when his cause was hopeless; partly
+because he may have been the original of Dr Rochcliffe in 'Woodstock.'
+Sir Walter Scott read the 'Athen&aelig; Oxonienses,' and the resemblance
+between Ancktill and Rochcliffe is striking; but who can say what a
+great writer finds or creates in fiction or in history!</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<div class="center"><a name="i049" id="i049"></a><img src="images/i049.jpg" width='525' height='700' alt="ADMIRAL BLAKE" /></div>
+
+<h4>ADMIRAL BLAKE.</h4>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>A perusal of the register shows that in Wadham both of the great parties
+in Church<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> and State were represented. There were represented also all
+classes of society, from Dymokes, Herberts, Russells, Portmans,
+Strangways, to the humblest <i>plebeiorum filii</i>, a fact which proves the
+falsity of the assertion made forty years ago, that Oxford was once a
+place for "gentlemen only."</p>
+
+<p>The history of the College at this time was not one of unbroken peace:
+occasional quarrels between members of the governing body are
+recorded,&mdash;evidences of the unrest of a time when greater questions than
+the interpretation of a Statute or the disputed election of a College
+officer were already in the air. The only dissension of any interest was
+one which led to an appeal to the Visitor: the Visitor was Laud, the
+Bishop of Bath and Wells, who showed great gentleness and patience in
+dealing with a person even more provoking than he found the worst of
+Scotch Presbyterians.</p>
+
+<p>We have now reached, "longas per ambages," the times of Wilkins'
+manhood: he was born a year later than the opening of the College which
+he was to rule.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTE:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> See Messrs Peel and Minchin's 'Oxford,' p. 130.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2>
+
+<h3>WILKINS' LIFE TILL HIS APPOINTMENT TO THE WARDENSHIP.</h3>
+
+<p>In the Common Room of Wadham College hangs the portrait of John Wilkins,
+Warden from 1648 to 1659. It is probably a faithful likeness, for
+Wilkins is described by Aubrey as "a lustie, strong-grown, well-set,
+broad-shouldered person, cheerful and hospitable; no great-read man, but
+one of much and deepe thinking, and of a working head; and a prudent man
+as well as ingeniose." In the portrait these characteristics, physical
+and mental, are well displayed: sanity of mind&mdash;that is, clearness,
+shrewdness, courage, kindliness, the contentment which makes the best of
+good and evil fortune, are,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> to the imaginative mind, written in the
+face, as presented in his picture, of this great man. His greatness fell
+short of genius, for it was the effect of ordinary qualities, rarely
+combined and tempered into one character; but more effective for useful
+work in the world than genius without sanity.</p>
+
+<p>He was born in 1614 at Fawsley in Northamptonshire. His father was
+Walter Wilkins, a goldsmith in Oxford, like his son "ingeniose, and of a
+very mechanicall head, which ran much upon the perpetuall motion,"&mdash;a
+problem less hopeful than most, not all, of those which attracted his
+more practical son, who inherited from him his "insatiable curiosity."</p>
+
+<p>It is from Aubrey that we derive the fullest account of the facts of
+Wilkins' life, as well as of his character. It is given in one of those
+"Brief Lives" which might well serve as models to modern biographers;
+lives compressed into two pages of nervous English, adorned here and
+there, rather than disfigured, by quaint pedantic words and phrases,
+relics of the euphuism of the sixteenth century.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> Aubrey is credulous,
+appallingly frank, a strong partisan, a man of great industry and
+learning, by no means trustworthy, but none the less entertaining and
+delightful. He tells us that Wilkins had his "grammar learning from Mr
+Sylvester, 'the common drudge of the University,' who kept a private
+school: that he entered Magdalen Hall from New Inn Hall in 1627 at the
+age of thirteen, and there was placed under the tutorship of 'the
+learned Mr John Tombs, the Coryph&aelig;us of the Anabaptists.'" Tombs was a
+man of great ability, notable for his "curious, searching, piercing
+witt, of whom it was predicted that he would doe a great deale of
+mischiefe to the Church of England, as great witts have done by
+introducing new opinions." He was a formidable disputant, so formidable
+that when he came to Oxford in 1664, and there "sett up a challenge to
+maintain 'contra omnes gentes' the doctrines of the Anabaptists, not a
+man would grapple with him, their Coryph&aelig;us; yet putting aside his
+Anabaptisticall opinions he was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span>conformable enough to the Church of
+England"; so much so that he held a living at Leominster, and was the
+friend of two Bishops, Sanderson and Seth Ward. It is doubtful whether
+Mr Tombs would now, if he came back, move in Episcopal circles. His
+career gives us a glimpse into those puzzling times of confusion and
+cross-purposes, when compromise and toleration co-existed, both in
+parties and in individuals, with bitter fanaticism, more commonly than
+is supposed, or can be explained.</p>
+
+<p>It is easy to see what was the influence exercised by Tombs on a clever
+boy like Wilkins. He was probably trained to be a Latitudinarian; for
+Tombs, despite his strong opinions, could admire and praise sincerity in
+opponents: he was heard to say that "though he was much opposite to the
+Romish religion, truly for his part should he see a poor zealous friar
+goeing to preach he should pay him respect." Utterances of this kind, if
+heard by Wilkins, would make a strong impression on a youth by nature
+singularly tolerant.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span></p><p>Wilkins took his B.A. degree in 1631, his M.A. in 1634. For a few years
+he took pupils&mdash;read to pupils (as the phrase was),&mdash;the common resource
+then, as now, of young Oxonians, who think themselves qualified to
+teach, and must support themselves till a Fellowship comes, or till they
+have chosen a profession.</p>
+
+<p>In 1637 he took Holy Orders in the Church of England, and became curate
+of Fawsley, the place in which he had been born. A country living was
+too small a sphere for a young man of twenty-three, conscious of his
+powers, ambitious and desirous to see the world of letters, science, and
+politics in those eventful days. Aubrey tells us that "he has sayd often
+times that the first rise, or hint of his rising, was from goeing
+accidentally a coursing of a hare, when an ingeniose gentleman of good
+quality falling into discourse with him, and finding him to have a very
+good witt, told him that he would never gett any considerable preferment
+by continuing in the University, and that his best way was to betake
+himself<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> to some lord's or great person's house that had good benefices
+to conferre. Sayd Mr Wilkins, I am not knowne in the world; I know not
+to whom to addresse myself upon such a designe. The gentleman replied,
+'I will commende you myselfe,' and did so to (as I think) Lord Viscount
+Say and Seale, where he stayed with very good likeing till the late
+civill warres."</p>
+
+<p>It is not clear whether this worldly but sound advice was given to
+Wilkins before or after he became a country clergyman, for the words
+"continuing in the University" might mean either residence there, or
+occasional visits to it. Coursing of a hare was, perhaps is, an
+amusement equally of University men and of the country clergy: the last
+alone can tell us whether they still "goe a courseing
+accidentally"&mdash;(the word is worth noting)&mdash;and whether conversations of
+this profitable kind occur in the intervals of sport. But the date of
+the incident is of less importance than its result; it was the
+turning-point of Wilkins' life.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> When he became chaplain to Lord Say and
+Seale he was introduced into a sphere of politics and action.</p>
+
+<p>William Fiennes, the first Viscount, was a man of light and leading in
+the Parliamentary party; "the oracle," as Clarendon styles him, "of
+those who were called Puritans in the worst sense, and steered all their
+counsels and designs." He deserved his nickname, Old Subtlely, for he
+had a clear insight into the real issues from the very beginning of the
+great quarrel: he headed in Oxfordshire the resistance to the levying of
+Ship-money, and was the champion of the Independents, the most
+determined of the king's opponents. His sons, John and Nathaniel
+Fiennes, were no less resolute and effective Puritans than the head of
+their house; more so indeed, for they were believed, and soon known to
+be, "for root and branch."</p>
+
+<p>At Broughton, Wilkins, now chaplain and resident there, met the most
+prominent men of the party which was against the Government. He must
+have heard "great argument<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> about it and about"; whether "evermore he
+came out by the same door wherein he went" we cannot tell, for he
+possessed to an extraordinary degree the faculty of seeing the two sides
+of a question: as he stayed at Broughton "with very good likeing" for
+five or six years, it may be presumed that the discreet and morigerous
+man concealed the difficulty which he felt in accepting some of the
+views maintained at Broughton. Some light is thrown on his real opinions
+by words found in the sermon preached at his funeral by Lloyd, his
+friend and pupil. "When some thought these dissents ground enough for
+war, he declared himself against it, and confirmed others in their
+allegiance: he profest to the last a great hatred of that horrible
+rebellion." He doubtless resembled another
+Latitudinarian&mdash;Cudworth&mdash;whom Burnet describes as "a man of great
+competence and prudence upon which his enemies did very falsely accuse
+him of craft and dissimulation."</p>
+
+<p>When the Civil War broke out Wilkins <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>removed to London and became
+Chaplain to Lord Berkeley, and later to Charles Lewis, Prince Elector
+Palatine, nephew of Charles I., and elder brother of Prince Rupert. The
+Elector was then an <i>&eacute;migr&eacute;</i> in England, hoping to be restored to his
+dominions by the aid of his uncle, who was then struggling to hold his
+own inheritance. During his seven years' residence in London, Wilkins
+became the friend, perhaps the leader, of the natural philosophers, who
+later formed themselves into the Royal Society. Thus, before he had
+reached "the middle of the way of life," he had seen much of the world.
+Like Ulysses, whom in many ways he resembled, "he saw the cities of many
+men and knew their mind."</p>
+
+<p>Dr Walter Pope, his half-brother, who wrote a life of Bishop Ward, and,
+curiously enough, a life also of Claude Duval, the famous highwayman,
+which had a wider circulation, says of Wilkins that he was "a learned
+man and a lover of such; of comely aspect and gentlemanlike behaviour.
+He had been bred in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> court, and was also a piece of a traveller."
+The last sentence refers mainly to Wilkins' life after the Restoration;
+but he had travelled before then, and his acquaintance with the
+Fiennes', with the Elector, and with London society, had taught him
+"gentlemanlike behaviour" before he became a Head of a House,&mdash;a lesson
+which, apparently, some other Heads in his time had not learnt; for Pope
+goes on to say, "He had nothing of bigotry, unmannerliness or
+censoriousness, which then were in the zenith amongst some of the Heads
+and Fellows of Colleges in Oxford." It is to be hoped that such
+criticisms would not now be made on the manners of the senior members of
+the University, and that in this respect Oxford has been reformed, to
+the approval of all concerned.</p>
+
+<p>While Wilkins was experimenting and philosophising in London, events had
+been marching rapidly in England and in Oxford. In Wood's 'Life and
+Times' is written the history of the city of Oxford, of the University
+and of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> himself, from the day of his birth till his death in 1681. The
+three histories are mingled in a quaint and incoherent fashion. Wood is
+a chronicler like Aubrey, his friend, with whom he quarrelled, as
+antiquarians and historians do. Both were industrious, uncritical,
+and&mdash;Wood especially&mdash;sometimes venomous; both were vivid and
+picturesque, keen observers, and had a wonderful power of saying much in
+few words.</p>
+
+<p>Antony Wood, the son of Thomas Wood, Bachelor of Arts and of Civil Law,
+was born in 1632 at Oxford, where his father lived, in the Collegiate
+parish of St John Baptist de Merton. He was educated at New College
+School, in Oxford, and later at Thame Grammar School; was admitted into
+Merton College at the age of fifteen as a "filius generosi," and became
+Bible Clerk in 1650. When ten years old he saw the king, with his army
+of foot, his two sons, Charles and James, his nephews, Rupert and
+Maurice, enter Oxford after the battle of Edgehill. The incident was
+impressed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> on his memory by the expulsion of his father from the house
+in Merton Street, and the removal of the boys of New College School to
+the choristers' chamber at the east end of the College hall, "a dark
+nasty room, very unfit for such a purpose, which made the scholars often
+complaine, but in vaine." From this time onward Wood, a clever and
+observant boy, kept both his ears and eyes open, and accumulated from
+all quarters materials for his narrative which covers fifty years, the
+most interesting and important half century in the history of Oxford.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<div>"Your orthodox historian puts</div>
+<div class="i1">In foremost rank the soldier thus,</div>
+<div>The redcoat bully in his boots</div>
+<div class="i1">That hides the march of men from us."</div>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The "redcoat bully," as Thackeray somewhat harshly calls him, figures
+largely in the early pages of Wood's 'Life and Times,' but does not hide
+the march of men. In August 1642, "the members of the University began
+to put<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> themselves in a posture of defence," and till June 1646, when
+Oxford was surrendered to Fairfax, it was a garrison town, the centre
+and object of much fighting, and of many excursions and alarms, as being
+"the chiefest hold the King had."</p>
+
+<p>Fain would the writer extract almost bodily Wood's description of the
+four years' occupation, but some things he cannot forbear from
+mentioning, for they throw light on the history of Wilkins' Oxford, and
+on the problems with which he had to deal after the war was ended. Mr
+Haldane would read with interest and approval how the Oxford
+undergraduates of 1642 responded to a call to arms, as he hopes their
+successors will respond, if and when need comes.</p>
+
+<p>"Dr Pink of New College, the deputy Vice-Chancellor, called before him
+to the public schools all the priviledged men's arms to have a view of
+them; when, not only priviledged men of the University and their
+servants, but also many scholars appeared, bringing with them the
+furniture of armes of every College<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> that then had any." The furniture
+for one man was sent by Wood's father&mdash;viz., "a helmet, a back and
+breast plate, a pike, and a musquet." The volunteers, both graduates,
+some of them divines, and undergraduates, mustered in New College
+quadrangle, and were drilled in the Newe Parkes (the Parks of our day)
+to the number of four hundred, "in a very decent arraye, and it was
+delightsome to behold the forwardnesse of so many proper yonge gentlemen
+so intent, docile, and pliable to their business." Town and gown took
+opposite sides: the citizens were, most of them, ready to support the
+Parliament, or the King and Parliament, but not the King against the
+Parliament. Long before the Civil War began there were in Oxford and in
+the kingdom, as always in our history, though called by different names,
+three parties, divided from each other by no very fast or definite
+lines; the King's, the Parliament's and the party of moderate men, to
+which Wilkins belonged; the Constitutional party in the strict meaning<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>
+of the word, who wished both to preserve and reform the constitution. In
+those days of confusion and perplexity, when men's hearts were failing
+them for fear and for looking after those things which were to come,
+many knew not what to think or do. It was a miserable time both for
+Roundheads and Cavaliers, and most of all for those who were not sure
+what they were. If Hyde and Falkland wavered for a time, how must the
+timid and lukewarm have wavered? Though the great questions were fairly
+clear, the way to solve them, and the end to which any way would lead,
+were dark and gloomy. It is an error to think that the Civil War was a
+sudden outbreak, a short struggle on simple issues between two sharply
+divided parties, assured of their beliefs and interests. The French
+Revolution was that, or nearly that; but our revolutions are managed
+deliberately, and lead to conclusive and permanent results: the art of
+revolution belongs to the English race.</p>
+
+<p>In Oxford there must have been much <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>bewilderment and questioning among
+citizens and gownsmen when Lord Say and Seale, the new Lord-Lieutenant
+of the county appointed by the Parliament, came into the town on
+September 14, 1642, and ordered that the works and trenches made by the
+scholars should be demolished; yet next day he "sent a drumme up and
+downe the towne for volunteers to serve the King and Parliament." What
+did that mean? Almost any answer might have been given to the question.
+His lordship's opinions soon became clearer than his puzzling
+proclamation; on September the 24th he sent for the Heads of Houses to
+rebuke them for having "broken the peace and quiet of the University,"
+so much broken it that "they had nowe left no face of a Universitie, by
+taking up armes and the like courses." He had before this interview
+"caused diverse popish bookes and pictures taken out of churches, and of
+papish houses, here and abroad, to be burned in the street over against
+the signe of the Starre, where his Lordship laye." We know<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> not what is
+meant by "papish bookes and pictures," but the Puritan Lord Say may not
+have discriminated sharply between them and the books and ornaments of
+the High Party in the Church of England.</p>
+
+<p>For seven or eight weeks before the battle of Edgehill, Oxford swarmed
+with soldiers. It had been held for a fortnight by the King's men, who
+were succeeded by the Parliamentary troopers brought in by Lord Say.
+Some disturbances took place, in which the soldiers from Puritan London
+especially distinguished themselves: one of them, when flushed with wine
+presented by the Mayor "too freely," went so far as to "discharge a
+brace of bulletts at the stone image of Our Lady over the church St
+Mairie's parish, and at one shott strooke off her hed, and the hed of
+her child which she held in her right arme: another discharged his
+musket at the image of our Saviour over All Soule's gate, and would have
+defaced all the worke there, had it not been for some townsmen, who
+entreated them to forbeare,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> they replienge that they had not been so
+well treated here at Oxford as they expected: many of them came into
+Christ Church to viewe the Church and paynted windowes, much admiringe
+at the idolatry thereof, and a certain Scot, beinge amongst them, saide
+that he marvaylled how the Schollers could goe for their bukes to these
+paynted idolatrous wyndoes." From a Scot of that time this utterance was
+not surprising: bukes had been substituted for paynted wyndowes
+destroyed in his country many years before his visit to Oxford. But to
+the honour of the Puritans be it said, there were no serious outrages on
+person or property in Oxford, and that its citizens had to endure
+nothing more than fear and discomfort: in no other country in Europe at
+that time would a city occupied by troops have suffered as little as did
+Oxford in those two months.</p>
+
+<p>In 'John Inglesant' a man of genius has drawn a picture of Oxford when
+it was the residence of the King and Queen and Court. His description is
+so vivid that one is tempted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> to believe it to be history: it is that,
+and not mere fiction, for it is based on a careful study of facts, and,
+allowance made for the writer's strong Royalist bias, it is true
+ethically or in spirit, that highest truth which accurate and laborious
+historians often fail to reach.</p>
+
+<p>John Inglesant entered Wadham before the war began&mdash;the date of his
+admission is obviously uncertain&mdash;and lived there from time to time till
+the rout at Naseby, in 1645, brought about the surrender of Oxford to
+the Parliament in 1646. It was by a sure instinct that he chose Wadham,
+that quiet and beautiful college, for his home. He was a dreamer, and in
+no place could he have dreamt more peacefully and happily than there,
+though sometimes perhaps, even in his first term, he must have been
+disturbed by the ominous sounds of axe and hammer, pick and spade, busy
+on the "fortifications in making about the towne on the north and
+north-west thereof," and, later, on the east, toward Headington Hill and
+close to Wadham. A trace of them remains in the terrace on the east of
+the Warden's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> garden, which did not then exist for Inglesant to walk
+in, and muse on the problems of the day.</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<div class="center"><a name="i071" id="i071"></a><img src="images/i071.jpg" width='700' height='486' alt="WADHAM COLLEGE FROM THE WARDEN'S GARDEN" /></div>
+
+<h4>WADHAM COLLEGE FROM THE WARDEN'S GARDEN.</h4>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>Oxford in his time at Wadham presented a curious spectacle. Huddled
+together were soldiers, courtiers, ladies beautiful, gay, and famous in
+many ways, severe Divines and College Heads, to whom such surroundings
+were unfamiliar and perhaps not uninteresting: masques and revels were
+frequent; Christ Church meadow and the grove at Trinity were the resort
+of a brilliant throng, more brilliant even than the gatherings which
+fill Oxford at Commemoration time in our more sober age. But beneath
+this merriment there were doubtless in the minds at least of those who
+thought, or stopped to think, terrible anxieties and the grimmest of
+forebodings. It was becoming clearer every month that Edgehill had not
+broken the rebellion; that the struggle would be long, and that the
+issue was uncertain; events soon justified these fears. On January 10,
+1643, "the Kinges letters came to all the Colledges and Halls for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> their
+plates to be brought into the mint at Oxford, there to be coyned into
+money with promise of refunding it, or payeinge for it again after five
+shillings the ounce for silver, five and sixpence for silver and gilt."
+The fruitless sacrifice was made by no college with more unhesitating
+devotion than by Wadham, which preserves the letter addressed by Charles
+I. to "our trusty and well-beloved ye Warden and Fellows of Wadham
+College," and the receipt for 124 lb. of plate from the king's officers
+of the mint, a liberal contribution from a college only thirty years
+old. Few relics of the ancient Collegiate plate are now to be found in
+the University; in most instances pieces, either bestowed or given by
+special benefactors: the Communion vessels of the Colleges were not
+taken by the king&mdash;a loyal son of the Church. Six colleges, among them
+Wadham, retained theirs through all the confusion of the war, and still
+possess them.</p>
+
+<p>In February 1643 warning came of fresh troubles from the north: three
+Commissioners<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> representing the nobility, clergy, gentry, and commons of
+Scotland presented themselves to the king, "to press his Majestie that
+the Church of England might be made conformable in all points to the
+Church of Scotland." To Charles, himself a Scot, this request must have
+seemed an outrageous insult, inflicted on him by those of his own
+household, and an omen of his desertion by his warlike countrymen, whom,
+despite their resistance to the English Liturgy, he trusted to be
+faithful to a Stuart.</p>
+
+<p>On June 24, 1646, the last fighting Royalist left Oxford. In the
+following Michaelmas, Wood returned "to the home of his nativitie." He
+found Oxford "empty as to scholars, but pretty well replenished with
+Parliamentarian soldiers." In his opinion the young men of the city and
+the University had reaped less benefit from the Royalist occupation than
+their seniors; the latter had gained "great store of wealth from the
+court and royalists that had for several years continued among them";
+the former he "found many of them to have been debauched<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> by bearing
+arms, and doing the duties belonging to soldiers, as watching, warding,
+and sitting in tipling houses for whole nights together." Nor were the
+spiritual teachers sent by Parliament to restore good manners and
+religion, in Wood's opinion, fitted for their mission: they were six
+Presbyterian Ministers, "two of them fooles, two knaves, two madmen."</p>
+
+<p>With the history of Oxford for the next eighteen months, important and
+interesting though it is, we are not concerned. The scholars returned
+slowly to the half-empty colleges, where admissions had dwindled almost
+to vanishing point. At Wadham, for instance, the admissions in 1643 were
+only seven; in 1644, three; in 1645, none; in 1646, seven; in 1647, when
+the worst of the fighting was over, they rose to nineteen. The
+Independents and the Presbyterians were now in possession of Oxford. In
+spite of both oppressors the undergraduates, of Wood's College at least,
+enjoyed themselves, as undergraduates do in the darkest times, and
+played "high jinks" on Candlemas<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> Day, compelling the freshmen "to
+speake some pretty apothegme or make a jest or bull," or take strange
+oaths "over an old shoe," and suffer indignities if they were shy or
+stupid. "Naturam expellas furca tamen usque recurrit."</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2>
+
+<h3>WILKINS' WARDENSHIP.</h3>
+
+<p>In 1647 a Commission, as it would now be called, was appointed by
+Parliament to conduct the visitation of the University. 'Lord have mercy
+upon us; or, the Visitation at Oxford,' is the title of one of the
+numerous pamphlets relating to this Oxford revolution; Tragi-com&oelig;dia
+Oxonienses' is the title of another, and both suggest curious
+reflections to Oxonians at the present time. The visitors did their
+business effectually. They set to work in 1648, and purged the
+University by ejecting from the colleges all who did not by a certain
+day give in their assurance that they would submit to the visitors and
+their visitation appointed by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> Parliament. No party in our country can
+claim the monopoly of loyalty to conviction attested by self-sacrifice.
+In England, non-jurors and dissenters; in Scotland, Episcopalians,
+Covenanters, and Free Churchmen; in Ireland, Roman Catholics, have "gone
+out," or stayed out, for some lost cause. In Oxford, Royalists, from
+Heads to Servitors, stood by their colours manfully. It is uncertain how
+many submitted, how many were expelled. The estimates vary from
+Clarendon's statement that almost all the Heads and Fellows of Colleges
+were ejected, "scarce one submitting," to Wood's estimate of 334; it is
+probable that 400&mdash;that is, about half of the whole number of Heads,
+Fellows, and Scholars then resident in the University&mdash;"made the great
+refusal," not to accept office, but to retain it. Antony Wood did not
+show himself ambitious of martyrdom. On May 12, 1648, he, along with
+other members of his College, appeared before the Visitors. When asked
+by one of them, "Will you submit to the authority of Parliament in this
+visitation?" he wrote on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> a paper lying on the table, "I do not
+understand the business, and therefore I am not able to give a direct
+answer." "Afterwards his mother and brother, who advised him to submit
+in plaine terms, were exceedingly angry with him, and told him that he
+had ruined himself and must therefore go a-begging." Women, then as now,
+ready to sacrifice themselves, are less ready to permit those dear to
+them to be overscrupulous. Wood's mother made intercession for him to
+Sir Nathaniel Brent, President of the Visitors and Warden of Merton, and
+"he was connived at and kept in his Postmastership, otherwise he had
+infallibly gon to the pot."</p>
+
+<p>At Wadham the Visitors met with an obstinate resistance: Dr Pitt, then
+Warden, was a stout Royalist, and refused to acknowledge the authority
+of a Parliament acting without the king's consent. He was expelled on
+April 13, 1648, along with nine of his thirteen Fellows, nine of his
+fourteen Scholars, and many of his Commoners, all of them save one to
+return no more.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> John Wilkins was put in his place by the Visitors on
+the same day, and held it till his resignation on September 3, 1659.</p>
+
+<p>Before the end of his stay in London he had taken the covenant and
+definitely given his allegiance to the Parliamentarian party. He was
+marked out for promotion as a known man of great ability, and he had
+made many friends among influential persons by his courtesy and tact. It
+was inevitable that a distinguished Oxford man should be chosen for an
+important post in the University, which Cromwell desired to convert from
+a hotbed of Royalism into a nursery of Puritans. Wilkins was qualified
+by his common-sense and genial ways for what would have been a hopeless
+task to the clumsy fanatics ready enough to undertake it.</p>
+
+<p>The new Warden must have found himself in a difficult position. There
+were in Oxford the three parties into which Englishmen and Scotchmen
+invariably divide themselves. These parties are called by different
+names at different times, and are formed on different<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> questions, but
+remain essentially the same. In Oxford they were called Royalists,
+Presbyterians, Independents; the questions at issue were the life,
+discipline, and religion of the University.</p>
+
+<p>This classification has all the faults which a classification can have;
+it is not exhaustive, for the variations, religious and political, being
+infinite, cannot be included under three heads; nor do the <i>membra
+dividentia</i> exclude each other: among the Royalists were some members of
+the established Church, of Calvinistic opinions, who were hardly
+distinguishable from Presbyterians; and some professed Presbyterians
+would have stood by Charles had not Laud driven them away, for they had
+in their nature some of the best elements of conservatism, the
+historical sense, and a love of order and discipline, especially as
+administered by themselves. But classifications may be illogical yet
+useful, and Wilkins would have accepted this one, in his practical way,
+for working purposes.</p>
+
+<p>The Presbyterians were for forcing on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> Church of England, the
+Covenant, the Westminster Confession, and the deposition of the Bishop
+by the Presbyter, or a board of Presbyters. The Independents conceived
+that every Christian congregation had, under Christ, supreme
+jurisdiction in things spiritual; that appeals to provincial and
+national synods were scarcely less Scriptural than appeals to the Court
+of Arches or to the Vatican, and that Popery, Prelacy, Presbyterianism,
+were merely three forms of one great apostacy. In politics the
+Independents were, to use the phrase of their time, "root and branch
+men," or, to use the kindred phrase of our own time, radicals: not
+content with limiting the power of the monarch, they were desirous to
+erect a commonwealth on the ruins of the old English polity. Macaulay's
+vigorous words explain the difference between the Presbyterians and the
+Independents: that difference is explained also by Wood in words as
+vigorous but less dignified and scholarly. "The Presbyterians," he says,
+"with their disciples seemed to be very severe in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> their course of life,
+manners or conversation, and habits or apparell; of a Scoth (<i>i.e.</i>,
+Scotch) habit, but especially those that were preachers. The other (the
+Independents) were more free, gay, and, with a reserve, frollicsome, of
+a gay habit, whether preachers or not." John Owen, Dean of Christ
+Church&mdash;to be distinguished from Thankful Owen, President of St
+John's&mdash;seems to have been of a specially gay habit; when
+Vice-Chancellor "he had alwaies his hair powdred, cambric bands with
+large costly band strings, velvet jacket, his breeches set round at knee
+with ribbons pointed, Spanish leather boots with cambric tops, &amp;c.,&mdash;all
+this was in opposition to prelattical cutt." The habit of a
+Vice-Chancellor, even in full dress, is nowadays far less gay, and of
+the Presbyterian rather than the Independent fashion. Whatever may have
+been their difference in dress, both parties were "void of public and
+generous spirits: the Presbyterians for the most part preached nothing
+but damnation, the other not, but rather for libertie; yet both<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> joyne
+together to pluck downe and silence the prelattical preachers, or at
+least to expose their way to scorne." Wood carries his comparisons
+further, and tells, perhaps invents, many things about their common
+hatred of Maypoles, players, cassocks, surplices, and the use of the
+Lord's Prayer in public religious service. He more than hints at darker
+sins,&mdash;drunkenness, and immorality cloaked by hypocrisy, the favourite
+theme of the Restoration dramatists. His account of the Puritan
+domination in Oxford is, despite his bitter prejudices, historically
+important, and must have been used by Scott when he wrote 'Woodstock.'</p>
+
+<p>It seems at first sight strange that the Independents should have been
+"gay," and, even with a reserve, frolicsome, for they were originally
+the soldiers of Cromwell's "New Model," "honest and religious men." But
+Wood describes them as he knew them many years after Naseby and Marston
+Moor, when their character had changed with changing circumstances.
+Triumphant success seldom <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>improves the morale of any party. Oxford
+proved a Capua to the Independents who lived in it after the strain of
+war was over: the very principle of Independency, liberty of opinion and
+action given to every Christian congregation, came to be applied to the
+life of the individual: freedom to reject any doctrine or practice which
+you do not like naturally ends in much gaiety and frolicsomeness,
+especially if your lines are cast in pleasant places: it becomes
+difficult not to slide into practical Antinomianism. What a place to
+live in for eleven years! yet Wilkins did so with success and general
+applause. He was inclined by temperament to the freedom of mellowed
+Independency rather than to the stiffness of the Presbyterians, who more
+successfully than their rivals resisted the enervating influences of
+life in Oxford. Circumstances as well as inclination led him to become
+an Independent: his marriage with Cromwell's sister, and the appointment
+to be one of the Commissioners to execute the office of Chancellor,
+perhaps also his appointment to the Wardenship, all tended to draw him
+to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> the side of Ireton and the Protector. Of the latter he saw much, and
+was consulted by him on academical and ecclesiastical affairs.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Morley<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> records "a story told by Bishop Wilkins, who was the
+husband of Cromwell's youngest sister Robina, that the Protector often
+said to him that no temporal government could have a sure support
+without a national church that adhered to it, and that he thought
+England was capable of no constitution but Episcopacy." Lord Morley
+thinks that "the second imputation must be apocryphal." That is by no
+means clear: Cromwell may have said what Wilkins probably did not
+invent, meaning that he thought Episcopacy good enough for England, for
+Englishmen were incapable of any better constitution; or he may have
+modified his judgment of Episcopacy,&mdash;who knows all that Cromwell came
+to think in his latter days, a time when most men revise their opinions?
+He may have felt the disenchantment which awaits success.</p>
+
+<p>Wilkins' marked success, both in his College<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> and in his University, can
+be explained only by the fact that he possessed the qualities necessary
+for the work he had to do,&mdash;strong common-sense, moderation, and
+geniality. He had to live, as the most prominent man, in a society
+composed of three factions crowded together within the narrow limits of
+a University town, which even in quiet times is not always the abode of
+peace. He had to deal with the most burning questions, religious and
+political, which divide communities: questions which had been stifled
+for a time by force, and therefore, when force was removed or slackened,
+came back into vigorous life, and were constantly and bitterly
+discussed. But he was the man for the time and the place.</p>
+
+<p>His College flourished under his wise and kindly rule. Dr Pope tells us
+that "many country gentlemen, of all persuasions, but especially those
+then called Cavaliers and Malignants for adhering to the King and to the
+Church, sent their sons to his College to be under his government. The
+affluence of gentlemen was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> so great that I may fairly say of Wadham
+College that it was never before in so flourishing a condition." The
+"affluence of gentlemen" of all sorts, Fellow Commoners, Commoners,
+Servitors, and migrants from Cambridge, was, in 1649, fifteen; in 1650,
+fifty-one; in 1651, twenty-four; in 1652, forty. In the ten complete
+years of Wilkins' Wardenship the average of admissions was thirty. The
+large admission made in 1650 was due to the reputation of Wilkins as an
+able and tolerant College Head, as well as to the belief that the tumult
+of war had died away. Men's thoughts were turning to civil affairs and
+the ordinary business of life, especially to education, the preparation
+for it.</p>
+
+<p>In the registers of the period between 1648 and 1659, are found many
+names either of distinction in themselves, or of interest as showing
+that the connection of Wadham with the western counties was well
+maintained. Walter Pope, who has been already mentioned, was appointed
+Scholar by the Visitors in 1648,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> perhaps on the suggestion of the new
+Warden, his half-brother. He filled many offices in the College, was one
+of the original Fellows of the Royal Society, and became Professor of
+Astronomy in Gresham College. He deserves to be remembered as the author
+of a quaint and interesting little book, in which he gives a brief
+account of Wilkins, Lawrence Rooke, and Isaac Barrow, as well as a
+complete life of Seth Ward, Bishop of Salisbury. It is full of
+digressions on the manners and customs of the time, written with much
+humour, and is worthy of a humble place beside the diaries of Evelyn and
+Pepys.</p>
+
+<p>Seth Ward was a Scholar of Sidney Sussex, ejected from his College and
+from Cambridge because "he refused the Covenant and other oaths." He
+went to London, and, like Wren and Wallis, studied mathematics under
+William Oughtred, the author of the 'Clavis Mathematica,'&mdash;"a little
+book, but a great one as to the contents,"&mdash;which brought its author a
+great name, as well it might. When in London<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> Ward met Wilkins and
+formed a lifelong friendship with him. They were both men of learning,
+moderate, dexterous, and successful. Ward entered Wadham as a Fellow
+Commoner in October 1649, became Savilian Professor of Astronomy, and in
+1659 President of Trinity. Like Wilkins, he was ejected from his
+Headship at the Restoration, and like him obtained high preferment under
+the new <i>r&eacute;gime</i> and became a Bishop. Both of them, when in Oxford,
+"became liable to the persecutions of peevish people who ceased not to
+clamour, and even to article against them as Cavaliers in their
+hearts&mdash;meer moral men without the Power of Godliness." "You must know,"
+continues Pope, "that a moral and unblamable person, if he did not herd
+with them, was an abomination to that Party. I have heard one of them
+deliver himself in this manner." The "manner" is impossible to quote; it
+is to the effect that the speaker's opponents were hypocrites and
+Pharisees of the worst kind, and "in a desperate condition, on whom
+Jesus Christ<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> can take no hold." The passage is instructive; it reveals
+the exasperation of party feeling in those times, and gives much food
+for reflection.</p>
+
+<p>Christopher Wren belongs both to Wadham and to All Souls. He was
+admitted Fellow Commoner of Wadham in 1649, and migrated to All Souls in
+1653, but maintained his connection with his first College, and for
+several years occupied the chamber over the gateway. Of him, the close
+friend of Wilkins, the scientist and architect, the President of the
+Royal Society, nothing more need here be said. His portrait hangs in
+Wadham College Hall, beneath that of Robert Blake.</p>
+
+<p>Less known is Thomas Sprat, admitted Scholar of Wadham in 1651. Of him
+Wood says that he was "an excellent poet and orator, and one who arrived
+at a great mastery of the English language." His reputation does not
+rest on his poetry: he was known by the strange and dubious title of
+"Pindarick Sprat." But his History of the Royal Society justifies Wood's
+encomium; and he wrote a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> 'Relation of the late wicked contrivance of
+Stephen Blackhead and of Robert Young,' of which Macaulay, who does not
+praise lightly, says that "there are few better narratives in the
+language." Sprat became Bishop of Rochester and Chaplain to Charles II.,
+though in his youth he had written an Ode on the death of Oliver
+Cromwell.</p>
+
+<p>Lawrence Rooke was admitted in 1650 from King's College, Cambridge. He
+accompanied Ward in his migration to Oxford, "and seated himself in
+Wadham College for the benefit of his conversation." Pope "never was
+acquainted with any person who knew more and spoke less." He was a
+prominent member of the band of philosophers who met in Wilkins'
+Lodgings; and after the Restoration held the Professorship of Astronomy
+in Gresham College, and was a Fellow of the Royal Society. Pope's
+account of him is well worth reading: of his travels in France; of his
+encounter with the redoubtable Thomas Hobbes, whose quadrature of the
+circle he proved false: that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span>hard-headed philosopher's logic or
+"computation" must have failed him on this occasion, for finding, as he
+thought, errors in Rooke's criticism, he concluded that his own solution
+must be true. With Ward and Wallis Hobbes had still more fierce
+encounters on the same question.</p>
+
+<p>Gilbert Ironside, admitted in 1650, became Warden, Vice-Chancellor of
+the University, and, as his father had been, Bishop of Bristol, and
+finally of Hereford. He was the "rudest man in the University," and that
+without respect of persons, for he remonstrated, in a tone not far
+removed from rudeness, with James II. when he visited Oxford in 1687 to
+enforce his mandate on Magdalen College.</p>
+
+<p>William Lloyd, who entered Wadham in 1655, was a learned Divine, with
+his learning at command, of whom Burnet says that "he had the most
+learning in ready cash of any one he knew." He devoted himself to the
+interpretation of prophecy. His labours were rewarded by the title of
+Pseudopropheta Canus, bestowed on him when he was old and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span>white-haired,
+by the <i>terr&aelig; filius</i> of 1703. He had himself in his younger days shown
+some tendency to irreverent joking, by inventing an Eastern Patriarch, a
+native of London, a man of venerable appearance and dressed to suit the
+character, who deceived some eminent members of the University, and gave
+them his blessing; an incident of which Lloyd used to make his "bragge"
+long afterwards. He became Bishop of St Asaph, and was one of the Seven
+Bishops committed to the Tower. William III. rewarded him with the
+Bishoprics of Lichfield and Coventry, and finally of Worcester.</p>
+
+<p>Samuel Parker matriculated in 1657, and became Bishop of Oxford in 1686.
+In the following year he was intruded by James II. into the President's
+place at Magdalen College, but held his office for only five months. He
+died in his Lodgings, and was buried in the ante-chapel, but honoured by
+no memorial to mark the place of his interment. His must have been a
+dismal reign.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span></p><p>Beside these names of bishops and philosophers occur names of interest
+of various kinds: historic names&mdash;Russell, Lovelace, Windham,
+Strangways; one also of quite different associations, Sedley, who
+entered Wadham in 1656, the boon companion later of Rochester, who, also
+a Wadham undergraduate, was his junior by four years. Both of them were
+libertines and wits, who received at their College, it may be presumed,
+an education the precepts of which they did not practise at the Court of
+Charles II. Other entries show the continued connection of the College
+with the West of England&mdash;with Somerset, the Wadhams' county; with
+Devon, Dorset, Hampshire, and Gloucestershire.</p>
+
+<p>Enough has been said to prove that Wadham under Wilkins was a college of
+high reputation and efficiency. It was a nursery of bishops,
+contributing to the bench no less than six, including Wilkins himself; a
+nursery also of Fellows of the Royal Society,&mdash;Wilkins, Ward, Rooke,
+Wren, Sprat, and Pope were original<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> members of the "invisible college."
+Not only to the Church and to Science did Wadham do good service, but
+more directly to the State, by educating together impartially the youth
+of both the great parties. "When the hurly-burly's done, when the
+battle's lost and won," it is above all things desirable to allay bitter
+feelings, and bring the former combatants together. For this most
+difficult and delicate of tasks Wilkins was well qualified. He was
+beloved by the Cavaliers because he treated all his undergraduates
+kindly, Royalists and Puritans alike, in marked contrast with other
+Heads of Houses, who appear to have dealt faithfully with young
+Malignants, the sons of their political opponents.</p>
+
+<p>That Wilkins possessed great administrative abilities and vigour is
+shown by his work in the University and in his College. He had seen much
+of the world, and was in the prime of life, and already a man of
+eminence&mdash;a combination of qualities as rare in Heads of Houses as in
+Cabinet Ministers. He persuaded the Visitors<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> that Wadham and Trinity
+were fitted, specially and immediately, in 1651 for freedom to elect
+their Fellows&mdash;a privilege of which all the Colleges had been deprived
+in 1648. The administration of the College estates and finances was
+carefully revised, and the Statutes were amended. Wilkins' life was
+varied and full of activities outside as well as within his College. He
+was selected to deal with problems more difficult and pressing than
+Compulsory Pass Greek, or degrees for women. Was Oxford to be
+dismantled? Its security had been threatened by a rising of the
+"Levellers"; and in 1649 Wilkins, along with the Proctor and a Canon of
+Christ Church, was appointed to confer with the mayor and the citizens
+on this important question, not then decided.</p>
+
+<p>Two years later he served on a Commission appointed to consider how to
+suppress troubles caused by sturdy beggars, "poore soldiers, cashiered
+or maimed, and Irish people with petitions, that pretended to be undon
+by the late rebellion there,"&mdash;the miserable sequel of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> the civil war.
+He helped in the revision of the College and University Statutes, and on
+the nomination of Cromwell was made one of the Commissioners for
+executing the office of Chancellor, proving himself a man of affairs as
+well as of learning. For ten years, as critical as any in the history of
+Oxford, he took a leading part in its academical and municipal
+administration.</p>
+
+<p>Yet he found time to avail himself of the privilege to marry given to
+the Warden of Wadham: it was accorded to him by a dispensation of the
+Visitors, who doubtless thought that enforced celibacy savoured of
+Popery. The privilege was withdrawn after the Restoration, as being a
+concession made by Puritans, whose views on the marriage of the clergy
+were not the views of the High Church party. Leave to marry was given to
+all Wardens of Wadham by a special Act of Parliament in 1806, and not,
+as the College story goes, by a clause tacked on to a Canal or Turnpike
+Bill.</p>
+
+<p>Pope's account of Wilkins' marriage is a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> strange solution of an always
+interesting question, and not altogether complimentary to the lady of
+his choice. "Dr Ward," he says, "rid out of this storm,"&mdash;the storm of
+obloquy which broke out on him and Wilkins as being "mere moral men."
+Wilkins "put into the port of matrimony," apparently as a harbour of
+refuge in distress. He married Robina, the Protector's sister, widow of
+Dr Peter French, Canon of Christ Church. Her first husband was "a pious,
+humble, and learned person, and an excellent preacher," the best, in
+Pope's opinion, of the censorious party. Ward did not imitate his
+friend, though, if we believe Pope, he had many opportunities for doing
+so. "He was never destitute of friends of the Fair Sex, never without
+proffers of Wives," which became increasingly frequent as he rose in the
+world. Pope professes to have known "several persons of great quality
+and estates who found ways to make it known to Ward, that if he would
+address himself to them in the honourable way of marriage, he should not
+want a kind <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span>entertainment." But he, then Bishop of Salisbury, had
+before his eyes the fate of one of his predecessors who married after he
+became a bishop, and "upon that had received so severe a reprimand from
+his brother, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and laid it so much to heart
+that it accelerated his death." This story may be apocryphal; it is
+certainly startling. Do ladies of quality still give such hints to
+bishops? Do bishops die of a rebuke from the archbishop of their
+province?</p>
+
+<p>Wilkins' marriage "gained him a strong interest and authority in the
+University, and set him at safety, and out of the reach of his
+Adversaries." We may trust that it was for his happiness in other ways.</p>
+
+<p>Of his wife little is known, nor is there a portrait of her in the
+College. She had a son by her second marriage, Joshua Wilkins, who
+became Dean of Down: by her first marriage she had a daughter, Elizabeth
+French, the wife of Tillotson. The writer once amused himself with the
+fancy that the Archbishop to-be met<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> and courted Miss French in the
+Warden's Lodgings at Wadham, which have few romantic associations; but
+chronology proves that Tillotson, a Cambridge man, born in 1630, would
+probably not have made acquaintance with Wilkins before 1659, when he
+became Master of Trinity. The romance had therefore to be transferred to
+the Master's Lodge. Even there it could not stay, for Tillotson's first
+meeting with his future wife in all likelihood took place in London,
+when he was appointed Tuesday Lecturer at St Lawrence Jewry, the
+vicarage of which was one of Wilkins' earliest preferments after his
+ejection from the Mastership of Trinity. When Tillotson made suit for
+the hand of his stepdaughter, Wilkins, upon her desiring to be excused,
+said, "Betty, you shall have him, for he is the best polemical Divine
+this day in England." Though excellence in polemical divinity has not an
+attraction for most women, she consented, and they were married in 1664.
+The stories both of Dorothy and Betty are myths, which fade away at the
+first touch of criticism.</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<div class="center"><a name="i103" id="i103"></a><img src="images/i103.jpg" width='700' height='527' alt="WADHAM COLLEGE FROM THE COLLEGE GARDEN" /></div>
+
+<h4>WADHAM COLLEGE FROM THE COLLEGE GARDEN.</h4>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span></p><p>Wilkins was a diligent student, and wrote books of many kinds. These
+books the writer does not pretend to have read, save in the most
+hurried, even careless way, except two of them, the 'Real Character' and
+'Natural Religion.' The others are of interest to natural philosophers,
+as containing anticipations of discoveries and ideas which belong to a
+later age, and as showing that Wilkins possessed the inspiring
+conviction of all genuine men of Science, that for it the word
+impossible does not exist.</p>
+
+<p>In 1638 he published his first work, an Astronomical treatise, the fruit
+of his studies at Oxford and at Fawsley. It is entitled 'The Discovery
+of a World in the Moone, or a discourse tending to prove that there may
+be another habitable World in that Planet': in the third impression,
+issued in 1640, is added a "Discourse concerning the Possibility of a
+Passage thither." Like Lucian he imagined a voyage to the moon, though
+he admits that the journey through the air was a formidable difficulty.
+He successfully <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>defended his views against an objection raised by the
+Duchess of Newcastle. That clever and eccentric lady, the authoress of
+many "fancies," philosophical and poetical, asked him where she was to
+bait her horses if she undertook the journey. "Your Grace could not do
+better," he replied, "than stop at one of your castles in the air." In
+his treatment of the difficulties caused by the apparent conflict
+between certain passages of Scripture and the conclusions of
+Astronomical Science, which he accepts, he anticipates in a remarkable
+way that explanation of them which rests on the understanding of the
+meaning of the Bible and of the nature of inspiration. The book was
+parodied in the story of 'Peter Wilkins' Journey to the Moon,' which
+even usually well-informed persons have been known to attribute as a
+<i>jeu-d'esprit</i> to the Warden of Wadham. It was written by Robert
+Paltock, and published in 1751.</p>
+
+<p>His next production was 'Mercurie; or the Secret and Swift
+Messenger,'&mdash;a treatise on Cryptography or ciphers; curious
+contrivances<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> whereby A can communicate with C without B's suspecting or
+understanding, by signs, gestures, parables, and transpositions of the
+alphabet: such as the writer looked at seemed to confirm the view that
+every cipher which depends on system, and not on an arrangement of a
+capricious kind, can be interpreted by an expert, a title to which he
+lays no claim. The book was meant perhaps for use in the Civil War, as
+was the system of Wilkins' friend, Dr Wallis, who could both invent and
+solve such puzzles, and distinguished himself by deciphering the letters
+of the king which fell into the hands of the Parliamentarians at Naseby.
+There is also among the "Tracts of Bishop Wilkins," a treatise dated
+1648, entitled 'Mathematical Magic; or, the Wonders worked by Mechanical
+Powers and Motions,' subdivided, according to that distinction, into two
+books, styled Archimedes and D&aelig;dalus. The names are quaint, and the
+classical illustrations are very numerous. The work is a kind of
+handbook for engineers, enlivened by quotations,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> not always apposite,
+from ancient authors, as was the fashion when high literary culture and
+science could be more easily combined than in our days of ruthless
+specialism. It is dedicated in very courtly language to the Prince
+Elector Palatine. Wilkins looks forward to the Prince's restoration to
+his dominions&mdash;a curious aspiration to be professed by a man who did
+not, then at least, put his trust in princes. But he did not foresee
+what was to come, both to himself or others.</p>
+
+<p>His two books of a devotional character were, one on 'The Gift of
+Prayer,' a formal and elaborate treatise with many divisions and
+subdivisions, in spirit earnest and devout. Its companion treatise,
+'Ecclesiastes; or the Gift of Preaching,' shows a high conception of the
+learning which he thought necessary for one who would preach well;
+knowledge of commentators; of preachers, especially of English
+sermon-writers; of works on Christian doctrine, on the history of
+Christianity; of all subjects which can be included in Theology. The
+list of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> books recommended is enormous, and beyond the reach of any
+man&mdash;even of Wilkins or Casaubon: it must have been intended to be a
+work of reference, a catalogue from which a student might select. It,
+like his 'Sermons Preached on Several Occasions,' is illumined by quaint
+utterances, humorous, sensible, and devout; qualities more frequently
+combined in those days than in our own, when the "dignity of the
+pulpit," a lamentable superstition, has weakened its influence, and has
+made religion appear to simple people remote from common life.</p>
+
+<p>Wilkins' most original and valuable contribution to Theology is 'The
+Principles and Duties of Natural Religion,' written in his later years,
+and published after his death by Tillotson. Mr Sanders, the writer of
+the too short article on Wilkins in the 'Dictionary of National
+Biography,' says that "in this work there are thoughts which anticipate
+the argument of Butler's 'Analogy.'" Wilkins, like Butler and Newman,
+draws distinctions between different kinds of evidence and different
+degrees of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>consequent assent. He points out that neither Natural
+Religion nor Christianity can be proved true by demonstration like a
+conclusion in geometry, or in any kind of mathematical reasoning; that
+in default of this inference from self-evident premises to propositions
+of equal cogency, we must, in a matter of paramount practical
+importance, be content to judge, as fairly and soberly as we can, by
+that "probability" which Butler calls "the guide of life." Wilkins
+perceived, what few in his time perceived, that there are no
+"demonstrations" of Christianity, nor even of Theism; that faith is
+faith. Further, he emphasises the harmony between Natural and Revealed
+Religion, the fact that one is the complement of the other. But in him
+there are not the depth, candour, and seriousness of Butler, nor that
+sense of mystery which makes him the weightiest of Christian Apologists
+in the estimation both of disciples and opponents.</p>
+
+<p>The book by which Wilkins will always be remembered among curious
+students and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span>philologers is his 'Essay towards a Real Character and a
+Philosophical Language.' It is a quarto of 600 pages, including an
+alphabetical dictionary of English words, with their equivalents in what
+may be called, without irreverence, Wilkinese. It was written at the
+request of the Royal Society, and, by its order, published in 1688. The
+meaning of the somewhat obscure title is explained by Wilkins in a very
+interesting preface. Character means language, or rather writing, and a
+universal character is the script of a language like that which was
+spoken before the confusion of tongues; a language for and of all men.
+By "Real" is signified that the new language is founded on a study of
+things which are "better than words"; of "the nature of things, and that
+common notion of them wherein mankind does agree." The making of such a
+language "will prove the shortest and plainest way for the attainment of
+real knowledge," and the language thus made will be truly philosophical,
+or, to use our modern term, scientific. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> labour bestowed by Wilkins
+on his magnificent project was immense, but the result was failure.
+"Sunt lacrim&aelig; rerum," and tears were never shed over a greater waste of
+ingenuity and heroic toil, if indeed a fine example of fruitless
+devotion is to be called waste. With apologies to the Esperantists, it
+must be said that the invention of a universal language, of any but the
+narrowest compass, seems impossible, for language, in any real sense, is
+not made but grows. It is dangerous, however, to dogmatise on
+possibilities. Misled, as we can gather from his preface, by the proved
+usefulness of mathematical signs, Wilkins attempted to provide for
+philosophers of all countries a better means of communication than
+Latin, then the universal language of literature and science, but in his
+opinion unscientific, full of anomalies and difficult to acquire; for in
+it there were, he said, thirty thousand words. In his language there
+were only three thousand, and they could be learnt by a man of good
+capacity in a month. His estimate of capacity and diligence is somewhat<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span>
+high. It is possible to explain the principles on which he constructed
+his new tongue. He began by dividing the universe, the sum total of
+existence, things, thoughts, relations, after the manner of Aristotle,
+though not into ten, but into forty categories, or genera, or great
+classes, such as World, Element, Animal, and apparently species of
+animals, such as Bird, Fish, Beast: for each of these great classes he
+devised a monosyllabic name&mdash;<i>e.g.</i>, De for Element, Za for Fish; each
+of these genera is subdivided into species indicated by the addition of
+a consonant, and these are again subdivided into subordinate species
+distinguished by a vowel affixed. For example&mdash;De means an Element, any
+of the four, Fire, Air, Earth, Water; add to it B, which, as the first
+consonant, stands for the first species of a genus, and you will have
+the significant word DEB, which means Fire, for it, we know not why, is
+the first of the four Elements. Let us take a more complex instance&mdash;his
+name for Salmon. The salmon is a species of Za or Fish,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> a particular
+kind of fish called N, namely, the Squameous river fish. This class ZaN
+is subdivided into lower classes, and the lower class Salmon is called
+A, which means the red-fleshed kind of squameous river fish, and so a
+salmon is a ZaNA. If you wished to state the fact that a salmon swims,
+you would use the words ZaNA GoF, for Go stands for the great category
+of motion, F for the particular kind of motion meant, swimming. Voice,
+tense, and mood are indicated by lines of different lengths, straight or
+curved, crossed, hooked, looped; adverbs and conjunctions by dots or
+points differently arranged.</p>
+
+<p>Wilkins' universal character therefore means a kind of shorthand writing
+of his Real Language.</p>
+
+<p>The writer fears that he may only have confused his readers and himself
+by his bold but poor attempt to express in a few lines the meaning of
+six hundred pages. He would be the last to ridicule the "folly" of a
+great man, whose system he has made no very <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span>laborious effort to
+understand, for it seems to be built on sand, on a classification of
+things superficial, imperfect, and capricious, which would not have been
+accepted by learned men, and if accepted would have become obsolete in a
+quarter of a century. The syllable Co stands for all relations between
+human beings, and these relations are of eight kinds. What would a
+professor of social science now say to this? What would an ichthyologist
+say to Wilkins' definition of a salmon? The interest of the book lies in
+its being the most striking of many proofs of the wide intellectual
+interests, the alert and insatiable curiosity, and the extraordinary
+industry of its writer. It has also the pathetic interest of "love's
+labour lost," for who now reads the 'Real Character,' or who read it
+twenty years after Wilkins' death? His name was "writ in water," for he
+spent himself on many things, and did little because he did too much.</p>
+
+<p>The "greatest curioso" of his time relieved his toils by music. Nowhere
+are Wood's vanity<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> and self-consciousness shown more vividly than in his
+account of a musical entertainment given by Wilkins in honour of Thomas
+Baltzar, "the most famous artist for the violin which the world had yet
+produced. The books and instruments were carried thither," to the
+Warden's lodgings, "but none could be persuaded there to play against
+him in consort on the violin. At length the company, perceiving A. W.
+standing behind in a corner neare the dore, they haled him in among
+them, and play forsooth he must against him: whereupon, he being not
+able to avoid it, took up a violin, and behaved himself as poor Troylus
+did against Achilles." Wood consoled himself for his failure by the
+honour he acquired from being asked to play with the Master, of whom he
+maliciously remarks that "he was given to excessive drinking,"&mdash;a
+characteristic comment.</p>
+
+<p>Wilkins' greatest achievement was the founding of the Royal Society. He
+may be called its founder, if that high title can be given to any one of
+the eminent men who, in Oxford and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> in London, revived or regenerated
+the study of natural philosophy. Pope, Aubrey, and Sprat differ from
+Wallis in their accounts of the origin of the mother of scientific
+parliaments. The first three find that origin in meetings held in Wadham
+College under the presidency of Wilkins. Wallis traces the beginnings of
+the Royal Society to meetings held in London in 1645. "In that year," he
+writes, "there had sprung up an association of certain worthy persons
+inquisitive in Natural Philosophy, who met together, first in London,
+for the investigation of what was called the new or experimental
+philosophy, and afterwards several of the more influential of the
+members, about 1648 or 1649, finding London too much distracted by civil
+commotions, commenced holding their meetings in Oxford." Among those who
+removed to Oxford were, "first, Dr Wilkins, then I, and soon after Dr
+Goddard, whereupon our company divided. Those at London (and we when we
+had occasion to be there) met as before. Those of us at Oxford, with Dr
+Ward, Dr Petty, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> many others of the most inquisitive persons in
+Oxford, met weekly for some years at Dr Petty's lodgings, on the like
+account, to wit, so long as Dr Petty continued in Oxford, and for some
+while after, because of the conveniences we had there (being the house
+of an apothecary) to view and make use of drugs, and other like matters
+as there was occasion. We did afterwards (Dr Petty being gone to Ireland
+and our numbers growing less) remove thence, and (some years before his
+Majesty's return) did meet at Dr Wilkin's lodgings in Wadham College."</p>
+
+<p>This account is plain enough: it differs from the story told by Sprat in
+this point only, that Sprat omits reference to the first meetings in
+London between 1645 and 1648, and to the meetings in Oxford at Dr
+Petty's lodgings. The causes of these omissions are not far to seek.
+Sprat was a youth of seventeen in 1651, the year of his admission into
+Wadham: it is difficult to believe that he was present at the gatherings
+of men many years his senior<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> in Dr Petty's lodgings, or knew as much as
+Wallis did of the infancy of the Royal Society. No Oxford man is to be
+entirely trusted when writing about his own College, and Sprat laudably
+claimed for Wadham the honour of being the cradle of the great
+association.</p>
+
+<p>In his history of the Royal Society, published in 1667, he gives a full
+account of its growth and objects, though not of its beginnings.</p>
+
+<p>"It was some space," he writes, "after the end of the Civil Wars at
+Oxford, in Dr Wilkins, his lodgings, in Wadham College, which was then
+the place of resort for virtuous and learned men, that the first
+meetings were held which laid the foundation of all this that followed.
+The University had at this time many members of its own who had begun a
+free way of reasoning; and was also frequented by some gentlemen of
+philosophical minds, whom the misfortunes of the kingdom, and the
+security and ease of a retirement among Gownsmen had drawn thither.
+Their first purpose was no more than only the satisfaction<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> of breathing
+a freer air, and of conversing in quiet one with another, without being
+engaged in the passions and madness of that dismal Age. And from the
+Institution of that Assembly, it had been enough if no other advantage
+had come but this: that by this means there was a race of young men
+provided, against the next Age, whose minds, receiving from them their
+first impressions of sober and general knowledge, were invincibly armed
+against the enchantments of Enthusiasm. But what is more, I may venture
+to affirm that it was in good measure by the influence which these
+Gentlemen had over the rest, that the University itself, or at least any
+part of its Discipline or Order was saved from ruine. For such a candid
+and impassionate company as that was, and for such a gloomy season, what
+could have been a fitter subject to pitch upon than Natural Philosophy?
+To have been always tossing about some Theological question would have
+been to have made that their private diversion the excess of which they
+themselves<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> disliked in the public. To have been eternally musing on
+Civil business and distresses of their Country was too melancholy a
+reflection. It was Nature alone which could pleasantly entertain them in
+that estate."</p>
+
+<p>It would be superfluous to praise this noble and pathetic passage. It
+shows the weariness of political and religious controversy which
+oppressed men's minds; the discouragement, almost hopelessness, which
+made the Restoration welcome, and Puritanism odious, for a time at
+least, to the majority of Englishmen. The word Enthusiasm is of strange
+significance; then and for more than a hundred years later it connoted
+extravagance and fanaticism. Worthy of notice also are Sprat's words to
+the effect that the influence of Wilkins and his friends was on the side
+of discipline and order in the University, and saved it from "ruine."
+They ought to please and encourage, perhaps instruct, the modern
+apostles of science who are with us now.</p>
+
+<p>From a comparison of Wallis' and Sprat's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> accounts, it is clear that the
+dispute, if dispute there be, whether Wadham or London was the cradle of
+the Royal Society, can be settled more easily than most contested claims
+of this kind. The facts are ascertained: the question turns on the
+meaning of the words "founder" and "foundation." The first meetings of
+the Philosophical Club, which became the Royal Society, were
+unquestionably held in London, and were continued there, at the Bull's
+Head Tavern in Cheapside, after Wilkins had removed to Oxford in 1648,
+and gathered round him there the members of a new philosophical society,
+which may be called, if that name be preferred, an offshoot from the
+parent stem: the two clubs co-existed till the Restoration, when most of
+the Oxford philosophers migrated or returned to London, and were
+incorporated into one society which received its name and charter from
+Charles II. in July 1662.</p>
+
+<p>Metaphors do not always illustrate, but the facts may be stated thus:
+the Royal Society was born in London or cradled there; the infant did<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>
+not thrive, and was put out to nurse at Oxford where it waxed and
+prospered: it was a proper child of three years old when (on Petty's
+leaving Oxford in 1651) it found a settled home in the Warden's lodgings
+in Wadham for eight years; grown and strengthened, the boy was brought
+back to his birthplace, and was recognised and named. In this sense it
+may be said that the Royal Society was founded by Wilkins in Wadham:
+that College was its early home, and Wilkins was the most prominent and
+active man in the Philosophical Club.</p>
+
+<p>A very clear and short account of many of its members is given in the
+'History of the Oxford Museum,' by Dr Vernon and Miss Vernon, which, if
+I may presume to praise it, resembles the work of Oughtred before
+mentioned, as being "a little book, but a great one as to the contents."
+Sprat enumerates as "the principal and most constant of those who met at
+Wadham, Dr Seth Ward, Mr Boyle, Dr Wilkins, Sir William Petty, Dr
+Wallis, Dr Goddard, Dr Willis, Dr Bathurst, Mr Matthew Wren, Dr
+Christopher Wren, Mr<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> Rooke, besides several others, who joyn'd
+themselves to them, upon occasion." The list is remarkable; it
+represents the science of the time,&mdash;Mathematics, Astronomy, Chemistry,
+Physics, Engineering, Architecture, Theology, and Political Economy or
+Arithmetic, for nothing "scibile" was alien to these inquisitive
+persons. "Their proceedings," we are told, "were rather by action than
+discourse, chiefly attending some particular Trials in Chymistry or
+Mechanicks: they had no Rules nor Method fixed: their intention was more
+to communicate to each other their discoveries which they could make in
+so narrow a compass, than an united, constant, or regular inquisition."
+They were probably "clubbable" persons, friends with a common interest,
+each pursuing his own path with perfect freedom, a method which must
+have enhanced the harmony and efficiency of their meetings. The Club, or
+a branch of it, survived at Oxford the departure of Wilkins and most of
+the philosophers. To Robert Boyle was mainly due the continuance of the
+faithful remnant. In the year<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> 1659 he imported into Oxford Peter
+Sthael, a noted Chemist and Rosicrucian, "a great hater of women and a
+very useful man." Among those who attended his lectures were Antony
+Wood, Wallis, Wren, Bathurst, and, not least, Locke, who was
+troublesome, and "scorned to take notes"&mdash;why we are not told, and may
+imagine as we please. Wood's account of this survival is obscure&mdash;he
+seems uncertain as to the relation of Sthael's pupils to the Royal
+Society at Oxford: they were probably the same, and incurred the wrath
+and misrepresentations of Henry Stubb, who inveighed against them as
+dangerous,&mdash;the Society had become obnoxious to the University, being
+suspected of a desire to confer degrees, against which the University
+"stuck," to use Wood's word, not unreasonably.</p>
+
+<p>The Oxford meetings in Wilkins' time, after 1651, were held, not in the
+room over the gateway, but in the dining-room or drawing-room of the
+Warden's lodgings. By the direction of the Foundress "the chamber over
+the great gate" had been assigned to the Warden, as <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span>commanding the
+entrance into the College, and a view of all who should go in or out: he
+was to have also for his own use seven rooms next adjoining on the north
+side. It is uncertain at what date he migrated to his present lodgings,
+but there is abundant evidence to show that it was before the time of
+Wilkins, for from 1640 to 1663 the great chamber was occupied by various
+tenants,&mdash;among them Seth Ward and Christopher Wren. The writer is
+therefore warranted in picturing to the eye of his imagination the
+personages of the club assembled in his drawing-room, a club less
+famous, but no less worthy of fame, than the Literary Club of Johnson,
+Goldsmith, Burke, and Reynolds.</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<div class="center"><a name="i127" id="i127"></a><img src="images/i127.jpg" width='526' height='700' alt="SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN" /></div>
+
+<h4>SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN.</h4>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>Fain would he ask questions of Wren or Ward or Wilkins, or any of the
+members of the club, most of whom he would recognise by their portraits
+in the College or elsewhere.</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>On September 3, 1658, Oliver Cromwell died. To Wood the exact date is
+important, because "some writers tell us that he was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> hurried away by
+the Devill in a terrible raging wind on the 30th of August," a statement
+which the chronicler might have been expected to believe. Richard
+Cromwell was proclaimed Protector at Oxford on September 6th, in the
+usual places where kings had been proclaimed. The ceremony was disturbed
+by young scholars, who pelted with carrots and turnips the mayor,
+recorder, and town clerk, as well as Colonel Upton and his troopers.
+These missiles were symptoms of the reaction which was fast approaching.
+It belongs to the history of England, but so far as it showed itself in
+Oxford, it is part of the life of Wilkins. It must have given him much
+to think of during the last year of his Wardenship. In February 1659 the
+Vice-Chancellor wrote to the Dean of Christ Church, then in London, that
+"he must make haste to Oxford, for godliness laye a gasping." Nathaniel
+Crewe of Lincoln had in the same month drawn up a petition, which Wood
+signed, to put out the Visitors. He was a Presbyterian, and ready to
+have the Visitors<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> "put downe, notwithstanding he had before submitted
+to them and had paid to them reverence and obedience. The Independants,
+who called themselves the godly party, drew up a petition contrary to
+the former, and said 'twas for the cause of Christ." The feud between
+the two parties was no less bitter, when their supremacy in Oxford was
+drawing to its end, than it had been many years before. Which of the
+petitions did Wilkins sign?</p>
+
+<p>A year later, in February 1660, Monk made a speech to Parliament of
+doubtful meaning, exhorting his hearers to be careful "that neither the
+Cavalier nor the phanatique party have yet a share in your civil or
+military power,"&mdash;on which utterance Wood notes that "the word
+phanatique comes much into fashion after this." Monk's meaning was
+quickly interpreted for him, both in London and in Oxford,&mdash;on February
+13th "there was great rejoicing here at Oxon for the news of a free
+parliament, ringing of bells, bonfires, &amp;c.: there were rumps (<i>i.e.</i>,
+tayles of sheep) flung in a bonfire at Queen's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> Coll., and some at Dr
+Palmer's window at All Soles." The joy of the Royalists especially was
+manifested by the reading at Magdalen parish church of Common Prayer,
+"after it had been omitted to be read in public places in Oxon since the
+surrender of the city or in 1647." All the tokens of Monarchy were
+restored: "the signe of the King's Head had been dashed out, or daubled
+over, tempore Olivari, and (in its place was written 'This was the
+King's Head') was new painted." On the 1st of May "a Maypole was set up
+against the Beare in All Hallows parish (<i>i.e.</i>, opposite the Mitre of
+our time) on purpose to vex the Presbyterians and Independants," despite
+the interference of Dr Conant, the Vice-Chancellor. On the 10th the new
+King was proclaimed: on the 14th letters from Richard Cromwell to
+Convocation were read, whereby he resigned the Chancellorship of the
+University in dignified and courteous words. By May 29th the Restoration
+was complete, and the day was observed in all or in most towns in
+England,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> "particularly at Oxon, which did exceed any place of its
+bigness." Wood's comment on these events is worth giving in full: "The
+world of England was perfectly mad. They were free from the chains of
+darkness and confusion which the Presbyterians and phanatiques had
+brought upon them: yet some of them, seeing then what mischief they had
+done, tack'd about to participate of the universal Joy, and at length
+closed with the Royal partie." Here we take leave, for a time, of Antony
+Wood, who has been allowed to tell his story in his own words; unwilling
+leave, for though he is provoking, he is charming, with a keen eye for
+character, both of parties and individuals, and for the issues and
+events of real importance, never dull or lengthy, save when he descants
+on his family affairs or on the minuti&aelig; of his occasionally meticulous
+antiquarianism, and even then to be forgiven for his zeal and industry.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTE:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> See 'Cromwell,' p. 368, 2nd edition.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2>
+
+<h3>WILKINS AFTER HIS LIFE AT OXFORD.</h3>
+
+<p>Wilkins was spared the pain of witnessing the end of the Commonwealth in
+Oxford, and of being ejected from his post like other Heads of Houses.
+On September 3, 1659, he resigned the Wardenship, and was succeeded on
+September 5th by Walter Blandford, one of the Fellows who had submitted
+to the Visitors in 1648, and later, in that strange time of opinions
+which "could be changed," had made his peace with the Royalists. During
+his Wardenship of six years the College flourished. He was made Bishop
+of Oxford in 1665, and was in 1671 promoted to the See of Worcester,
+another of the many Wadham Bishops.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span></p><p>Wilkins left Wadham to become Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. He
+had been invited there by the Fellows, on whose petition he was
+presented by Richard Cromwell. Thirty years later Cambridge, as if in
+exchange for value received, sent Richard Bentley to Wadham, who left it
+to return to Cambridge as Master of Trinity,&mdash;an interchange of which
+neither University can complain.</p>
+
+<p>At Cambridge Wilkins' stay was brief. He was Master of Trinity only for
+ten months, but in that short reign he proved himself as vigorous and
+effective as he had been at Wadham: he stimulated and organised the
+College teaching, and made his Fellows work, by instituting
+disputations, and examinations at elections, probably fallen out of use
+in the troubles of the fifteen previous years; yet here as elsewhere he
+was able to win and rule, for "he was honoured there and heartily loved
+by all." At Cambridge, Burnet tells us, "he joined with those who
+studied to propagate better thoughts, to take men off from being in
+parties, or from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> narrow notions, from superstitious conceits, and
+fierceness about opinions." He must have had as his allies there
+Cudworth and Whichcote, men of his own age, and one younger,
+Stillingfleet, the Latitudinarians, from whom our Broad Churchmen are
+theologically descended.</p>
+
+<p>The evil days came soon: despite the petition of the Fellows who wished
+to keep him, he was ejected from the Mastership when the King came back.
+"The whirligig of time brings in his revenges," and what Pitt had
+undergone Wilkins had to undergo.</p>
+
+<p>Pope describes, surely with some exaggeration, the troubles of Wilkins
+during the eight years between his departure from Cambridge and his
+being made Bishop of Chester. He was a man whom no misfortunes could
+crush&mdash;elastic, resolute, resourceful master of his fate,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<div>"Merses profundo, pulchrior evenit."</div>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>He had many friends and a great reputation; they brought him various
+preferments,&mdash;the lectureship at Gray's Inn, the vicarage of St<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>
+Lawrence Jewry, and the Deanery of Ripon, within a few years after his
+banishment from Cambridge. Preferment may not have brought him
+happiness, but it must have prevented his fortunes from being, as Pope
+says they were, "as low as they could be." He suffered indeed one
+calamity&mdash;a cruel one to a man of his pursuits and tastes: in the great
+fire of London the vicarage house of St Lawrence Jewry was burnt, and
+with it were destroyed his books and the collection of scientific
+instruments made during his residence at Oxford with the help of the
+members of the club.</p>
+
+<p>Add to this that he was out of favour both at Whitehall and at Lambeth
+on account of his marriage&mdash;for that reason "Archbishop Sheldon who had
+the keys of the Church for a great time in his power, and could admit
+unto it and keep out of it whom he pleased, I mean (Pope hastens to
+explain) disposed of all Ecclesiastical Preferments, entertained a
+strong prejudice against him." This prejudice the Archbishop, when
+later, on the introduction of Ward, he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> came to know him better,
+acknowledged to have been unjust, a signal instance of Wilkins' power of
+winning men. The Latitudinarian was at first coldly received at Lambeth:
+the brother-in-law of Cromwell was not acceptable at Whitehall. His
+friend Ward did not desert him, but "followed up good words with
+answerable actions," and procured for him the Precentor's place at
+Exeter,&mdash;"the first step which Wilkins ascended to a better fortune."</p>
+
+<p>In Charles II. he soon found a still more powerful friend. The King, who
+was himself the broadest of Latitudinarians, as far as Protestantism was
+concerned, was not repelled by Wilkins' theological views, and yielded
+readily to the attractions of a versatile and agreeable man of science.
+Science was the most creditable of Charles's tastes and occupations; the
+one in which he took a genuine and enduring interest.</p>
+
+<p>On November 28, 1660, the Invisible College was embodied, and became a
+tangible reality. At a meeting held in Gresham College, twelve<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> persons
+of eminence in science and in other ways "formed the design," as the
+first Journal Book of the Royal Society records, "of founding a College
+for the promotion of Physico-Mathematicall Experimentall Learning."
+Among those present were Rooke, Petty, Wren, and Wilkins: a committee
+was formed, of which Wilkins was appointed chairman: the King gave his
+approval to the scheme drawn up by the committee, and offered to become
+a member of the new College: in 1662 he gave it the Charter of
+Incorporation which passed the Great Seal on July 13th of that year.
+Wilkins was not chosen President; that honour was given to Lord
+Brouncker.</p>
+
+<p>The Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge
+(its official title) took knowledge for its province; that is, natural
+knowledge, of Nature, Art, and Works, in preference to, though not
+necessarily to the exclusion of, moral and metaphysical philosophy,
+history and language. The experiments, its chief work, were to be
+productive both of light and fruit:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> the influence of Bacon is so great
+and evident that he might in a sense be called the founder of the Royal
+Society. Sprat's real preface to his History is Cowley's famous ode. The
+poet speaks of philosophy&mdash;<i>i.e.</i>, natural philosophy, as the captive
+and slave of Authority and Words, set free by Bacon: its followers he
+likens to the Children of Israel wandering aimlessly from one desert to
+another till Moses brought them to the border of the promised land. The
+stately lines may well be quoted here:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<div>"From these and all long errors of the way</div>
+<div class="i1">In which our wandering predecessors went,</div>
+<div>And like th' old Hebrews many years did stray</div>
+<div class="i1">In desarts but of small extent,</div>
+<div>Bacon like Moses led us forth at last,</div>
+<div>The barren Wilderness he past,</div>
+<div>Did on the very Border stand</div>
+<div>Of the blest promised land,</div>
+<div>And from the Mountain Top of his Exalted Wit</div>
+<div>Saw it himself and shew'd us it.</div>
+<div>But Life did never to one Man allow</div>
+<div>Time to discover Worlds and conquer too;</div>
+<div>Nor can so short a line sufficient be</div>
+<div>To fadome the vast depths of Nature's sea."</div>
+</div></div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span></p><p>Like all human institutions, the Royal Society was criticised, feared,
+misunderstood, and ridiculed. There is evidence of this in Sprat's
+anxiety to show that experiments "are not dangerous to the Universities
+nor to the Church of England," a contention which now would be admitted
+or denied if the term "experiments" were first defined. He labours, too,
+to show that they are not dangerous to the Christian religion, either
+its belief or practice. His remarks on this question are of great
+interest and value, and are strangely modern. He pleads that
+"experiments will be beneficial to our wits and writers." Alas! the wits
+at least benefited in a way which Sprat did anticipate. Shadwell in his
+'Virtuoso' found material for profane merriment in some of the
+unquestionably absurd inquiries made or suggested by the natural
+philosophers. "Science was then only just emerging from the Mists of
+Superstition." Astrology and Alchemy still infected Astronomy,
+Chemistry, and Medicine. A Fellow of the Royal Society, along with the
+Puritan, made a ridiculous figure on the stage.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> But Puritanism and
+Natural Philosophy both survived the "test of truth," and were better
+for the ordeal.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p>
+
+<p>In 1668, through the influence of the Duke of Buckingham, Wilkins was
+made Bishop of Chester. The position of a Bishop in some ways resembles
+that of the Head of a College: Fellows are like canons and archdeacons;
+undergraduates are the "inferior clergy." The Bishop showed in the
+management of his diocese the moderation, tact, and charity which had
+made him a successful Warden. He brought back into the Church of
+England, or into loyalty to that Church, many ministers who had been
+ejected from their livings for non-compliance with the Act of
+Uniformity: his success in this good work was due to his "soft
+interpretation of the terms of conformity." They needed softening; no
+part of Macaulay's 'History of England' is more striking and instructive
+than his account in chapter ii. of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> the sufferings of the Puritans and
+Nonconformists of all descriptions. "It was made a crime to attend a
+dissenting place of worship. A new and most unreasonable test was
+imposed on divines who had been deprived of their benefices for
+Nonconformity; and all who refused to take that test were prohibited
+from coming within five miles of any town which was governed by a
+corporation, of any town which was represented in Parliament, or of any
+town where they had themselves resided as ministers. The magistrates by
+whom these vigorous statutes were to be enforced, were in general men
+inflamed by party spirit, and by remembrances of wrongs suffered in the
+time of the Commonwealth. The jails were therefore soon crowded with
+dissenters, and among the sufferers were some of whose genius and virtue
+any Christian society might well be proud."</p>
+
+<p>It is probable that Chester jail was less crowded than other jails in
+England, and that dissenters were allowed to come within five miles of
+Chester, even to the Bishop's palace.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span></p><p>Wilkins, like many "moderate" men, had convictions, and was ready to
+make sacrifices in their defence. Not only in his diocese, but in the
+House of Lords, he pleaded for a lenient treatment of dissenters. In
+reference to the second Conventicle Act, Wilkins gained for himself, in
+the view of all right-minded men, especial honour. He argued earnestly
+against the Bill in the Upper House. Even when the king desired him to
+be silent, he replied "That he thought it an ill thing, both in
+conscience and policy, and therefore as an Englishman and a Bishop, he
+was bound to oppose it." Being still further requested by Charles not to
+go to the House while the Bill was pending, his answer was "That by the
+law and constitution of England, and by his Majesty's favour, he had a
+right to debate and vote: and he was neither afraid nor ashamed to own
+his opinion in this matter, and to act pursuant to it, and the king was
+not offended with his freedom."<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> He did not hesitate to endanger his
+favour with the king&mdash;perhaps not with him, for Charles was not by
+temper a persecutor, but with the party then in power. From the 'Church
+of England in the Reigns of the Stuarts,' I quote another instance of
+his moderation and clear-headedness in the fierce controversies of his
+time. In a conversation with Cosin, Bishop of Devon, who had censured
+him for his moderation, Wilkins frankly told him that he was a better
+friend to the Church of England than his lordship&mdash;"for while you," says
+he, "are for setting the top on the picqued end and downwards, you won't
+be able to keep it up any longer than you keep whipping and scourging;
+whereas I am for setting the broad end downwards, and so 'twill stand of
+itself." The metaphor has obvious defects, but expresses the broadness
+of the Broad party in the Church.</p>
+
+<p>Of Wilkins' work in his diocese few particulars are recorded: it is
+called by Wood the "kill Bishop see," a name which now happily it does
+not deserve. His had been a laborious life, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> the last years of it
+must have been full of difficulties and anxieties to the friend of an
+unpopular cause. After four years' tenure of his bishopric, he died in
+the year 1672, at the age of fifty-eight, in Tillotson's house: he was
+buried in the churchyard of St Lawrence Jewry, his old vicarage. His
+College pupil, William Lloyd, preached the funeral sermon, in which he
+defends him against the charge of having looked with too much favour on
+the dissenters, urging as his excuse, "the vehemence of his desire to
+bring the Dissenters off their prejudices, and reduce them to the Unity
+of the Church"; no bad defence.</p>
+
+<p>It is pleasant to turn from Wilkins' public to his private life. There
+are many allusions to him in the Diaries of Pepys and Evelyn.</p>
+
+<p>Pepys made his first acquaintance with Wilkins in 1665: he was now a man
+widely known in London society, especially among learned men and natural
+philosophers. Pepys describes his first visit to him, paid at his house,
+then probably the Vicarage of St Lawrence Jewry. "And so to Dr Merritt"
+(a Fellow of the Royal Society),<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> "and fine discourse among them to my
+great joy, so sober and ingenious: he is now upon finishing his
+discourse of a Universal Character." At a dinner-party later he met
+Wilkins, when "I choosing to sit next Dr Wilkins, Sir George Ent, and
+others whome I value, there talked of several things; Dr Wilkins of the
+Universal Speech, of which he hath a book coming out, and did first
+inform me how man was certainly made for society, without which he would
+be a very mean creature." In 1668 the book was published, carried home
+by Pepys, and carefully perused. He enjoyed the account given by Wilkins
+of the ark, and his solutions of the difficulties raised even in his
+time. The solutions, Pepys says, "do please me mightily, and are much
+beyond whatever I heard of the subject." This is easy to believe. He
+must have been impressed by Wilkins' contention that "few were the
+several species of beasts and fowls which were to be in the Arke"; a
+consequence of the fundamental error of his system, the belief that
+nature was easily classified, and her classes few. In Pepys'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> last
+important reference to Wilkins, he tells us that he "heard talk that Dr
+Wilkins, my friend the Bishop of Chester, shall be removed to Winchester
+and be made Lord Treasurer: though this be foolish talk, I do gather he
+is a mighty rising man, as being a Latitudinarian, and the Duke of
+Buckingham his friend."</p>
+
+<p>Evelyn was a warm friend of Wilkins, and a frequent visitor at his
+lodgings in Wadham. In 1654 he came to Oxford with his wife and
+daughter, as London visitors do now for a weekend, or for Commemoration.
+He "supped at a magnificent entertainment in Wadham Hall, invited by my
+dear and excellent friend Dr Wilkins," and met "that miracle of a youth,
+Mr Christopher Wren." Two years later, on another visit, he "dined with
+that most obliging and universally curious person Dr Wilkins at Wadham
+College." There he saw many wonderful things&mdash;transparent apiaries, a
+statue that spoke through a tube, a way-wiser (<i>i.e.</i>, a kind of
+pedometer), dials, perspectives, mathematical and magical curiosities,
+the property or <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span>invention of Wilkins or of "that prodigious young
+scholar Christopher Wren." Alas! there are none of these magical
+curiosities in the Warden's lodgings now; they were taken to London and
+lost in the Great Fire.</p>
+
+<p>In 1665 Evelyn heard his friend preach before the Lord Mayor at St
+Paul's on the text, "Obedience is better than sacrifice,"&mdash;a curious
+text for him to choose, for it may be interpreted in more ways than one,
+and might have been taken by an enemy as a summary of the preacher's own
+career. Under the same entry Evelyn describes his friend as one "who
+took great pains to preserve the Universities from the ignorant and
+sacrilegious commanders who would have demolished all places and persons
+that pretended to learning"; another indication among many that the
+"obliging" Dr Wilkins was not invertebrate.</p>
+
+<p>In the same year Evelyn, calling at The Durdans, the home of Wilkins'
+former pupil, Lord Berkeley, found there a remarkable group, Petty,
+Rooke, and Wilkins, amusing themselves<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> with "contrivances for chariots,
+and for a wheel for one to run races in,"&mdash;the first forms possibly of a
+hansom, and a cycle. "Perhaps," continues Evelyn, "three such persons
+were not to be found elsewhere in Europe for parts and ingenuity." Lord
+Rosebery, we may safely presume, would be glad to see them at The
+Durdans now.</p>
+
+<p>In November 1668, Evelyn went to London, "invited to the consecration of
+that excellent person, the Dean of Ripon, now made Bishop of Chester: Dr
+Tillotson preached." Then he went to a sumptuous banquet in the Hall of
+Ely House, where were "the Duke of Buckingham, Judges, the Lord Keeper,
+Noblemen, and innumerable other company, who were honourers of this
+incomparable man, universally beloved by all who knew him."</p>
+
+<p>Tillotson, who married Wilkins' stepdaughter, and may therefore have
+been prejudiced, though such relationships give rise to prejudices of
+various kinds, was deeply attached to him. He edited and wrote a preface
+to the book on 'Natural Religion,' and did the same pious duty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> in
+respect of the 'Sermons Preached on Several Occasions,' taking
+opportunity in the preface to defend him against the censures of Antony
+Wood. He edited also a pamphlet of an attractive title, which the writer
+has not seen and fain would see, 'The Moderate Man, the best subject in
+Church and State, proved from the arguments of Wilkins, with Tillotson's
+opinions on the subject.' Between them they must make a strong case for
+the Moderate Man. Tillotson says of his father-in-law: "I think I may
+truly say that there are or have been few in this age and nation so well
+known, and greatly esteemed, and favoured by many persons of high rank
+and quality, and of singular worth and eminence in all the learned
+professions." This eulogy has perhaps the ring of a time when rank and
+quality were made more of than they are now made, but it is quoted as an
+illustration of the change of feeling which would make it now impossible
+or indecorous to praise a bishop because he got on well with great
+people: allowance must be made for the difference<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> between the
+seventeenth and the twentieth century.</p>
+
+<p>Funeral sermons are not always the naked truth, but Lloyd's fine saying
+about Wilkins bears on it the stamp of sincerity: "It was his way of
+friendship not so much to oblige men as to do them good."</p>
+
+<p>Burnet adds another testimony to Wilkins' singular power of winning
+affection. He writes: "Wilkins was a man of as great a mind, as true a
+judgement, as eminent virtues, and of as good a soul, as any one I ever
+knew. He was naturally ambitious, but was the wisest clergyman I ever
+knew. He was a lover of mankind, and had a delight in doing good."</p>
+
+<p>Burnet was a partisan, but these are the words of more than
+partisanship. In his 'History of his Own Time' he introduces Wilkins to
+his readers in very distinguished company, among the
+Latitudinarians&mdash;Whichcote, Cudworth, Tillotson, Lloyd, and
+Stillingfleet,&mdash;of whom he says that if such men had not appeared, of
+another stamp than their predecessors, "the Church had quite<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> lost its
+esteem over the nation." Clarendon, whom he calls "more the friend of
+the Bishops than of the Church," had, in his opinion, endowed them and
+the higher clergy too well, and they were sunk in luxury and sloth. The
+Latitudinarians infused into the Church life, energy, and a sense of
+duty: they were, he adds, good preachers and acceptable to the king,
+who, "having little or no literature, but true and good sense," liked
+sermons "plain, clear, and short." "Incedo per ignes," but it is
+impossible to refrain from quoting Burnet's language, which, <i>mutatis
+mutandis</i>, would have expressed what High Churchmen felt towards the
+leaders of the Oxford movement, and with equal truth and justice.</p>
+
+<p>Here Antony Wood may be called in to play the part of the Advocatus
+Diaboli. He plays it in the following passage, as always, with great
+vigour and enjoyment: "Dr John Wilkins, a notorious complyer with the
+Presbyterians, from whom he obtained the Wardenship of Wadham; with the
+Independants and Cromwell himself,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> by whose favour he did not only get
+a dispensation to marry (contrary to the College Statutes), but also,
+because he had married his sister, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge:
+from which being ejected at the Restoration, he faced about, and by his
+smooth language, insinuating preaching, flatteries, and I know not what,
+got among other preferments the Deanery of Ripon, and at length by the
+commendation of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, a great favourer of
+fanaticks and atheists, the Bishopric of Chester."</p>
+
+<p>The passage is inaccurate both in grammar and in facts, but it is
+valuable as evidence of the venomous party spirit prevalent in the
+seventeenth century,&mdash;a spirit to which we can easily rise superior, we
+whose station, property, life, do not depend on the triumph of this or
+that opinion. In Oxford at least we do not now say such things about
+each other. But in another place Wood takes a less unfavourable view of
+Wilkins' character, and uses about him the politest language at his
+command. "He was a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> person of rare gifts, a noted theologist and
+preacher; a curious critick in several matters; an excellent
+mathematician and experimentalist, &amp;c.; and I cannot say that there was
+anything deficient in him but a constant mind and settled principles."</p>
+
+<p>This is an outline of the facts and opinions about Wilkins which have
+come down to us. What are we to think of him?</p>
+
+<p>Unquestionably there lies against a man who prospered under Cromwell and
+Charles II., and was a favourite of both, a presumption of excessive
+pliancy, of too much readiness to adapt himself to his environment, of
+time-serving, if you like, and insincerity. It cannot be proved that he
+was not a Vicar of Bray, the title which at once suggests itself.
+Tolerance, geniality, and charity are virtues which have their own
+defects, and some measure of austerity is one of the ingredients of a
+perfect character. It has been said of Wilkins that two principles
+determined his career: a large tolerance of actions and opinions; a
+readiness to submit<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> himself to "the powers that be," let them have been
+established if they might. These are the marks of a wise man, and of a
+man supremely useful in times of bitter hatred and uncompromising
+revenge: they are not the marks of a hero or a martyr.</p>
+
+<p>Wilkins was in fact a Trimmer. It may be said of him what has been said
+by Mr Herbert Paul of a more famous Trimmer, Lord Halifax (not our Lord
+Halifax), that "he was thoroughly imbued with the English spirit of
+compromise, that he had a remarkable power of understanding, even
+sympathetically understanding, opinions which he did not hold." Wilkins
+hated persecution, and that hatred nerves a Trimmer to defend unpopular
+persons and unpopular causes, as he did in his College and University
+and Diocese. Toleration has a courage of its own equal to that of
+fanaticism, and more useful and intelligent. It is now an easier and a
+safer virtue than it was two hundred and fifty years ago: it is not
+popular now; it was odious then, and men were impatient with those who
+took<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> no side, or changed sides for reasons good or bad.</p>
+
+<p>Macaulay&mdash;who never knew a doubt, whose way was clear and easy in the
+struggles of his day, when reform and free trade in corn were obviously
+desirable and necessary&mdash;writes with contemptuous severity of the
+profligacy of politicians from the Restoration to the accession of the
+House of Hanover. "One who in such an age is determined to attain civil
+greatness must renounce all thought of consistency. Instead of affecting
+immutability in the midst of mutation, he must always be on the watch
+for the indications of a coming reaction. He must seize the exact moment
+for deserting a falling cause. He has seen so many institutions from
+which much had been expected produce mere disappointment, that he has no
+hope of improvement. There is nothing in the state which he could not,
+without a scruple, join in defending or destroying." Compare with these
+scathing words his estimate of the character of Halifax, the Whig: "The
+most estimable of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> the statesmen who were formed in the corrupt and
+licentious Whitehall of the Restoration. He was called inconsistent
+because the relative position in which he stood to the contending
+parties was perpetually varying. As well might the Polar Star be called
+inconsistent because it is sometimes to the east and sometimes to the
+west of the pointers. To have defended the ancient and legal
+constitution of the realm against a seditious populace at one
+conjunction, and against a tyrannical government at another; to have
+been the foremost champion of order in the turbulent Parliament of 1680,
+and the foremost champion of liberty in the servile Parliament of 1685;
+to have been just and merciful to the Roman Catholics in the days of the
+Popish Plot, and to the Exclusionists in the days of the Rye House Plot;
+this was a course which contemporaries, heated by passion, and deluded
+by names and badges, might not unnaturally call fickle, but which
+deserves a very different name from the late justice of posterity." More
+than one British statesman, Tory, be it observed, as well as Whig,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span>
+needs and deserves a defence like this. Alter names and dates, and it
+will serve as a vindication of Wilkins' deficiency in a "constant mind
+and settled principles." Therefore the paradox is true that a Trimmer
+may be a man of firmness and courage; one who is bold enough to make
+many enemies and few friends; who has convictions of his own, but by a
+power of sympathy, one of the rarest and highest mental, half moral,
+half intellectual, qualities, can understand opinions which he does not
+hold; understand and pardon, as the French say.</p>
+
+<p>Whether Wilkins' tolerance was of the exalted kind, or alloyed by an
+admixture of that other tolerance which is no better than indifference
+and opportunism, it is impossible to say, for we do not know enough
+about him to pronounce a judgment. Our data are scanty and incoherent,
+scattered about in diaries and memoirs written by persons of different
+stations and opinions. This much is certain, that Pope, Aubrey, Sprat,
+Evelyn, Pepys, Tillotson, and Burnet speak of him with affection and
+respect:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> one note runs through all their eulogies, that he was
+universally beloved; yet he was not one of those nonentities whom now we
+style amiable persons, but a man of character and power.</p>
+
+<p>As a loyal son of the College, the writer is prepared to maintain that a
+Vicar of Bray could not have won love and admiration in his College, his
+University, and in his Diocese, and in a larger world than these; nor
+have been "laudatus a laudatis viris." It is more rational to believe
+that Wilkins was a good and wise man, who accepted the situations in
+which he found himself placed, and made the best of them, being more
+solicitous to do good than to preserve consistency, that most negative
+of virtues. Let him be judged by his best, as men are most fairly
+judged, and by another good criterion, the times in which he
+lived,&mdash;times of perpetual change, confusion, and perplexity.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> See Mr Pearson's instructive and amusing article on "The
+Virtuoso" in the 'Nineteenth Century,' November 1909.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> This is an abbreviation of the passage in Burnet's 'History
+of his Own Time,' vol. i. p. 272. First edition.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="center">PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS.</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life and Times of John Wilkins, by 
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life and Times of John Wilkins, by
+Patrick A. Wright-Henderson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Life and Times of John Wilkins
+       Warden of Wadham college, Oxford; master of Trinity college,
+       Cambridge; and Bishop of Chester
+
+Author: Patrick A. Wright-Henderson
+
+Release Date: September 20, 2008 [EBook #26674]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN WILKINS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+The Life and Times of John Wilkins
+
+[Illustration: WARDEN WILKINS.]
+
+Warden of Wadham College, Oxford; Master of Trinity College, Cambridge;
+and Bishop of Chester
+
+
+BY
+
+P. A. WRIGHT HENDERSON
+WARDEN OF WADHAM COLLEGE, OXFORD
+
+William Blackwood and Sons
+Edinburgh and London
+1910
+
+_ALL RIGHTS RESERVED_
+
+
+_DEDICATED TO THE MEMBERS OF WADHAM COLLEGE._
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+This little book is written as an offering to the Members of Wadham
+College for the Tercentenary of its foundation. The writer makes no
+pretensions to learning or research: the title of the book would be
+misleading and ridiculous if taken to imply a profound study of the
+times of Bishop Wilkins, from his birth in 1614 to his death in 1672,
+the most important, perhaps, certainly the most interesting, in the
+history of Great Britain. It has been attempted only to touch on the
+great questions and events which shaped the life and character of a
+remarkable man. Use has been made freely and often, without due
+acknowledgment, of the 'History of Wadham College,' written by Mr T. G.
+Jackson, R.A., one of its Honorary Fellows and distinguished alumni; a
+history of the building and architecture of the College, which no one
+but he could have written,--a history also of its social and academical
+life from its beginning to the present day.
+
+Nor has less use been made of Mr J. Wells' History of the College, of
+which he is a Fellow. He will, I am sure, pardon my impertinence in
+saying that in his book are combined diligent research and a sense of
+humour and of the picturesque, excellences rarely found together in
+historians. Mr R. B. Gardiner, formerly Scholar of Wadham, has earned
+its gratitude by his invaluable 'Registers of Admissions,' which, it is
+to be hoped, he will bring down to 1910 or later: they will make easy
+the work of some member of the College, who will doubtless arise to
+write a _magnum opus_, the history of the College in every
+aspect--architectural, social, and academical.
+
+For it the writer will use, as I have done for this little book, the
+notes and comments of Mr Andrew Clark on Wood's 'Life and Times,' and
+other volumes published by the Oxford Historical Society.
+
+My thanks are due also to Dr Butler, the Master of Trinity, Cambridge,
+for his kindness in telling me what little there is to tell of Wilkins'
+short tenure of the Mastership.
+
+The Bishop of Chester, Dr Jayne, formerly a Scholar of Wadham, now
+Bishop of the Diocese which Wilkins held, has helped me with information
+about the short episcopate of his predecessor. For it I am grateful to
+him, as well for the suggestion or command which led to my first
+attempt, made four years ago, to write something about Wilkins.
+
+The too short article in the 'Dictionary of National Biography' has been
+of much service: it gives the bibliography of the subject, or an
+equivalent, for no life of Wilkins has been written till now, and
+indicates the sources of information about him: it also puts in clear
+order the events of his varied life. Mr Sanders must know much which he
+should be gently forced to tell.
+
+Fain would I acknowledge to Wood and Aubrey the debt I owe to them,
+especially to Wood, and ask his pardon for occasional ill-natured
+remarks about him, as ill-natured nearly as his own about most of his
+contemporaries.
+
+The only merit claimed for this _libellus_ is its brevity--no small
+recommendation in this age of "exhaustive treatment" when, in
+bibliography especially, it is difficult to see the wood for the trees.
+It is an inadequate expression of the writer's affection for the College
+in which he has spent more than forty years of his life, and the
+unvarying kindness and indulgence which he has received from pupils and
+colleagues.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+
+CHAP.                                                        PAGE
+
+  I. HISTORY OF THE COLLEGE FROM ITS FOUNDATION TO
+        THE BEGINNING OF WILKINS' WARDENSHIP                    1
+
+ II. WILKINS' LIFE TILL HIS APPOINTMENT TO THE WARDENSHIP      30
+
+III. WILKINS' WARDENSHIP                                       54
+
+ IV. WILKINS AFTER HIS LIFE AT OXFORD                         105
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+
+                                               PAGE
+
+WARDEN WILKINS                     _Frontispiece_
+
+NICHOLAS WADHAM                                  12
+
+DOROTHY WADHAM                                   16
+
+ADMIRAL BLAKE                                    28
+
+WADHAM COLLEGE FROM THE WARDEN'S GARDEN          48
+
+WADHAM COLLEGE FROM THE COLLEGE GARDEN           78
+
+SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN                            100
+
+
+
+
+THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JOHN WILKINS.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+HISTORY OF THE COLLEGE FROM ITS FOUNDATION TO THE BEGINNING OF WILKINS'
+WARDENSHIP.
+
+
+Wadham College was founded in 1610, when on July 31st the
+foundation-stone was laid; and opened in 1613, when, on April 20th, the
+Warden and Fellows elected by the Foundress were admitted; the Warden,
+by the Vice-Chancellor of the University in St Mary's Church; the
+fifteen Fellows by the Warden in the College Hall; the fifteen Scholars
+by the Warden and Fellows in the same place. All of them, from the
+Warden to the Junior Scholars, were sworn to obey the Statutes of the
+College, save three of the Scholars, who were supposed to be too young
+to understand the nature of an oath.
+
+A site had been found on the ground where had stood the Priory of the
+Augustine Friars, founded in 1268--suppressed in 1540. It had been
+gradually removed or destroyed by time and plunder of its materials: no
+traces of it are left, except on the west side of the Warden's garden, a
+postern-gate which he maintains was used by the friars for various
+purposes. Another memorial of the Priory survived till 1800--the phrase
+of "doing Austins." Up to that date, or near it, every Bachelor of Arts
+was required once in each year to "dispute and answer ad Augustinenses,"
+and the chapel or refectory of the Priory were convenient places in
+which to hold the disputations. In the University no official title, no
+name indeed of any kind, escapes abbreviation or worse indignity,
+instances of which will readily suggest themselves to the mind of any
+Oxford reader.
+
+The founders were Nicholas Wadham and Dorothy, his wife, of Merrifield
+and Edge in the county of Somerset. He was a squire of good estate and
+high degree, the last male descendant of the main line of Wadhams. Born
+in 1532, he was educated at Corpus or at Christ Church: there is a
+conflict of testimony on this point, but Corpus was probably his
+college. At the age of twenty-three he married Dorothy Petre. She was
+two years younger than her husband, born in 1534, the daughter of Sir
+William Petre of Writtle in Essex, near which much of the College
+property now lies. For his zeal in suppressing the monasteries Sir
+William had been rewarded by the grant of a large estate, and Wadham, so
+long a Whig and Evangelical College, was by the vicissitudes of fortune
+built both pecuniarily and materially on the ruins of the Roman Catholic
+Church.
+
+The young couple were wealthy and lived their lives in state at
+Merrifield, where they kept an open house, "an inn at all times for
+their friends, and a court at Christmas." Yet, owing probably to the
+management of Dorothy, a notable and prudent wife, they saved money, and
+the childless pair determined to devote their wealth to "the purposes of
+religion, learning, and education." Their creed, like that of many
+waverers in those days of transition, was by no means clear, possibly
+even to themselves. The Wadhams were suspected of being Recusants, and
+Dorothy was presented as such, even in the year 1613 when the College
+was completed. This may have given rise to Antony Wood's story that
+Nicholas was minded to found a College at Venice for Roman Catholic
+students, but the balance of probabilities is against its truth.
+
+It has been pointed out by Mr Jackson, on the suggestion of Mr Thorley,
+the late Warden, that "the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot in 1605 may
+have weakened his (Wadham's) attachment, in common with that of many
+liberal and loyal Catholics, to the cause of the old faith"; further,
+that "the Venice scheme comes very near, if it does not amount to, an
+offence which the law had anticipated and actually forbidden, and it
+would have exposed its author to the direful penalties of Pramunire,
+which by a Statute of 27 Elizabeth were denounced against any person
+contributing to the support of any College of Jesuits, or Seminary,
+erected, or hereafter to be erected, beyond the sea": and finally, Mr
+Jackson dwells on many evidences from facts that the Founder was in his
+later years strictly conformable to the Reformed Church. These are
+weighty arguments, and to them may be added others worthy of
+consideration. To a daughter of Sir William Petre her husband's design,
+if he ever entertained it, would have been more than distasteful, for
+its fulfilment would have meant a confession of sacrilege committed by
+her father and acquiesced in by herself: it would have meant also the
+establishment of a college beyond the sea, removed from the Founder's
+supervision and control. No one who knows human nature, or daughters,
+or Dorothy Wadham, can regard the story as more than an interesting
+fiction. And yet, is there no foundation for Wood's circumstantial
+narrative? Does the fact that the Foundress was presented as a Recusant
+mean nothing? The problem is one worthy of the industry and ingenuity of
+Mr Andrew Lang.
+
+The Founder died at the age of seventy-seven years in 1609. He was
+buried in "Myne Ile at Ilminster, where myne ancestors lye interred."
+The funeral was one befitting, in the estimation of those days, the
+obsequies of an important country gentleman: it cost L500, equivalent
+now to a sum sufficient for the public funeral of some great statesman.
+It is easy to condemn our ancestors; but their modes of extravagance
+were less frivolous than ours, if equally irrational.
+
+The building accounts have been preserved in the account-book treasured
+in the College archives: in it is recorded "every item of stone, wood,
+or metal used, and every workman's name and weekly wages," an important
+contribution to the history of prices. The architect was William
+Arnold, who combined in himself, as did architects in the middle ages
+and later, the functions of head workman, master mason, architect, and
+clerk of works in one--a master builder. The stones came from the
+quarries at Headington and Shotover; the slates from Stonesfield and
+Burford. Part of the beauty of the College is due to the soft colouring
+of the silver-grey stone, honeycombed and crumbled, on the south and
+west especially, where sun and wind and rain beat on it, giving it the
+appearance of indefinite antiquity; an appearance due, alas! also to the
+fact that stone from Headington is very friable, and little able to
+resist the Oxford air.
+
+One of the true College stories runs to the effect that Warden Griffiths
+used the account-book to refute the contention of a great historian of
+British architecture that Wadham College must have been built at
+different dates, because its architecture is of different styles--an
+improper combination of Jacobean and Perpendicular. Dr Griffiths was the
+kindliest of men, but the most accurate, and it gave him, for he was
+human, great pleasure to correct mistakes. He listened silently to the
+great man's argument: next morning, at a large breakfast party given in
+the College Common Room to the members of the British Association which
+met at Oxford in the year 1847, he quietly laid the Account-Book beside
+the plate of the unhappy dogmatist. The fact that the Chapel is
+Perpendicular while the Quadrangle is late Gothic has been explained by
+the late Mr J. H. Parker's reasonable, perhaps fanciful, suggestion that
+"the architect desired to emphasise by this variation of style the
+religious and secular uses of the several structures."[1]
+
+Wadham has been described by Ayliffe, and without much protest, as being
+"in respect of beauty the most regular and uniform of any in the
+University." It is the best specimen of that late Gothic style which
+makes the charm of Oxford, and which Mr Jackson has helped to preserve
+by his work there and elsewhere.
+
+The beauty of Wadham is of a singularly quiet and simple kind, the
+effect of proportion, of string-courses and straight lines, marred by
+little decoration. Except for buildings annexed from time to time, so
+plain that they are no disfigurement, the College stands as it stood
+three centuries ago. Mr Andrew Lang has remarked that it is "the only
+College in Oxford which has not been fiddled with"; this is high praise,
+and gratefully accepted. One defect the College has: the resources of
+the Founders sufficed to build only one quadrangle; they had not counted
+the cost of the stately Chapel and Hall, and little was left for College
+rooms. When will our benefactor come? But it would be ungracious in
+Wadham men to criticise the Founders of their College, to whom they owe
+the most beautiful of homes. It stood fifty years ago almost in the
+country, with nothing north or east of it save the Museum and green
+fields. It is still in a great measure what it was called, the Country
+College; for though it has neighbours close to it in Mansfield and
+Manchester Colleges, yet these and the cricket-grounds, which lie
+between Wadham and the Cherwell, and further north, the Parks, make one
+spacious region of almost country,--a region of grass and trees and
+silence, broken only by the sounds of birds, and the shouts of Matthew
+Arnold's "young barbarians all at play."
+
+It is a quiet old College,--not old as age is reckoned in Oxford,--like
+some great Elizabethan or Jacobean country-house turned into a College,
+splendid yet homely, possessing that double charm which no palace or
+castle or cathedral possesses in the same degree,--the charm of stately
+beauty and the charm of human interest which belongs to the home of
+generations who have spent there the happiest years of life, preparing
+for themselves distinction and success, or obscurity and failure. As you
+stand in the well-known College garden, one side of which is bounded by
+the chapel and long line of wall and gables showing half-white half-grey
+against the sward from which they rise, you might fancy, if you were a
+Platonist, that here Plato might have realised the dream of his
+Republic, and made a home for the chosen youths who were to rule and
+defend his state; here amid things beautiful "from which come effluences
+wholesome for the soul, like a breeze bringing health from blessed
+regions."
+
+The Educated Woman, with her unerring perception of the fitness of
+things, has already, it is whispered, marked Wadham for her own when the
+day of reckoning comes, and men will have to share with women not merely
+degrees but buildings and endowments. She has chosen well, for Tennyson
+could have imagined no fitter home for the Princess and her companions.
+
+Four days before his death Nicholas Wadham told his nephew, Sir John
+Wyndham, what were his objects in founding his College, and what were
+the provisions he wished made to effect them. His "instructions," two of
+which seemed strange to his nephew, and to need careful wording, ran as
+follows: "The one was that he would have an especial Statute to be made
+that neyther the head of the house, nor any of the fellowes should be
+married; the other that he would not tye any man to any profession, as
+eyther devinitie, lawe, or phisicke, but leave every man free to profess
+what he liked, as it should please God to direct him. He then told me
+that after they weare Masters of Arte of a competent number of yeares,
+that then he would have them absolutely to departe the Colledge, and not
+live there all theire lives like idle drones, but put themselves into
+the world, whereby others might growe up under them, his intente being
+chiefly to nourishe and trayne up men into Learninge. On the 19th of
+October, when he sealed the deede, I told him howe necessary it was for
+him to have a visitor of his Colledge, all the Colledges of Oxford
+having some Bishoppe appointed by the Founder for seeinge of the
+Statutes put in execution; and that in my opinion there was none fitter
+than the Bishoppe of Bathe and Welles, which he much applauded, and
+thanked me muche for putting him in minde of him; he also then sayd
+he would have his Colledge to be called Wadham Colledge."
+
+[Illustration: NICHOLAS WADHAM.]
+
+Our ancestors knew what they meant and how to express it in good
+English, though their spelling was irregular. In his instructions the
+Founder anticipated reforms made by the Commissioners of 1853 and 1882.
+They had the benefit of two and a half centuries' experience of national
+and academical life to guide them: Nicholas Wadham foresaw things and
+needs not foreseen or understood by his contemporaries or predecessors.
+His Fellowships were to be, all of them, open to laymen, and terminable
+after a tenure of years in which a young lawyer, of physician, might
+maintain and prepare himself till he had made a practice: eighteen years
+were allowed for that purpose, instead of the scanty seven with which a
+Prize Fellow must now content himself. It may be that Nicholas gave too
+much and the Commissioners gave too little; but that is a doubtful
+question.
+
+The Wardenship, as well as the Fellowships, could by the Founder's
+intention, and in the first draft of the Statutes, be held without the
+condition of Holy Orders. The Foundress, in this matter only, disobeyed
+her husband, and at the wish of the Society altered the Statutes, and by
+binding the Warden to take his Doctorate in Divinity made the office
+clerical for two hundred and sixty years. In all other points she
+followed the instructions which she may herself to some extent have
+inspired. Her Visitor was to be the Bishop of the diocese in which she
+had spent her life; her Warden was to be "a virtuous and honourable man
+of stainless life, not a bishop, nor a foreigner but born in Britain":
+the last word is significant. It was inserted in the Statutes by James
+I. in place of "England": even Dr Griffiths is known to have spoken of
+England as the kingdom in which he lived: further, the Warden was to be
+"thirty years old at least, and unmarried."
+
+There is nothing in Dorothy's grim features to suggest that she would
+have approved of one of the reforms or perversions of her Statutes
+ordained by the Commissioners, which gives a place in her College to a
+married Warden and to married Fellows, much less that she would have
+been willing to marry one of them herself. Thereby hangs a tale which
+might suggest a new situation to our exhausted novelists. The Foundress,
+so the story runs, chose for her first Warden a clergyman, Dr Robert
+Wright, whose _beaux yeux_ touched the heart of the lone widow: she
+loved him, and would fain have married him and reigned with him after
+the necessary alteration of the Statutes; but he was cold and
+irresponsive: the obligation of celibacy, save in the case of Warden
+Wilkins, remained incumbent on a Warden of Wadham till 1806, when it was
+removed by a special Act of Parliament. Modern criticism respects a
+love-story no more than it respects the Pentateuch. A comparison of
+dates shows that Dr Wright was fifty-four years old at the time of his
+appointment in 1613, and the Foundress was then seventy-nine. The
+difference of a quarter of a century makes the truth of the story not
+indeed impossible but improbable; the coy Warden held his office only
+for two months: the cause of his resignation or expulsion is not known,
+but was probably not "spretae injuria formae": the hero of the story
+wished to marry somebody else, and resigned his post because he was not
+permitted to do so, as Mr Wells informs us, adding a prosaic explanation
+of the lovers' quarrel, a disagreement about the appointment of an
+under-cook. Therefore "Dorothy's Romance" must take its place among the
+many College stories in which Oxford abounds, and become a forsaken
+belief. Wright was the first on the long roll of Wadham bishops, and
+played a not inconsiderable part at a crisis in English history. In
+December 1641, as Bishop of Lichfield, he was one of the twelve bishops
+who presented to Charles I. the famous protest against their exclusion
+by mob violence from the House of Lords, declaring all proceedings in
+their absence null and void: for this they were sent to the Tower as
+guilty of high treason. Wright was soon released, and died two years
+later defending his episcopal seat, Eccleshall Castle, against the
+Parliamentarians,--a member of the Church militant like Ancktill.
+
+[Illustration: DOROTHY WADHAM.]
+
+The history of the College from its foundation to the beginning of the
+Civil War is uneventful, one of great prosperity. Among the Fellows
+admitted in 1613, three, Smyth, Estcott, and Pitt, became Wardens: four
+of the Fellows were drawn from Exeter, then, as now, a west-country
+College like Wadham, though it has, more than Wadham, maintained its
+connection with the West of England. The Foundress showed her resolve
+that her husband's countryside should be well represented among the
+first members of the foundation: of the fifteen Fellows, eleven--of the
+fifteen Scholars, ten, came from western counties, especially from
+Somerset; the Commoners also were many of them western men. The value to
+a College of a local connection, not with a village or a small school,
+but with a county or a large town, was not understood by the
+Commissioners of 1853: they were under the tyranny of the formulae
+current in their day, when "open competition" was supposed to be the
+solution of all the difficulties of life.
+
+In the first year of the College now opened for work, fifty-one
+undergraduates, including the Scholars, were admitted. The number of its
+inmates, from the Warden to the latest freshman, was therefore
+sixty-nine, including the two chaplains. The rooms were larger than most
+of the rooms in the older colleges, but fewer, and those available for
+undergraduates were not more than about forty: the freshmen of 1613 must
+have been closely packed, the Scholars especially, who had rooms three
+together, sleeping in the large chamber and working in the _muscoelae_
+or small studies attached, now used as bedrooms, or as scouts' pantries.
+In the nine years following the admissions were necessarily
+fewer--averaging twenty-seven. It is probable that till the depletion of
+Oxford, when the Civil War began--_i.e._, during the first thirty years
+of its life--Wadham numbered on an average between eighty and ninety
+undergraduates, all of them resident in College, as was then required by
+the Statutes of the University. This estimate is based on imperfect
+data, and Mr Gardiner has pronounced that materials for any accurate
+calculation are not to be found. We do not know what was the usual
+length of undergraduates' residence at that time; some resided only for
+a year, some proceeded to a degree. Nor is it clear whether the Warden
+used all the rooms, eight in number, assigned to him, or gave, perhaps
+rented, some of them to undergraduates. The estimate, which can neither
+be confirmed nor disproved, is worth making only as helping us to
+imagine the condition of the College in its early days. One thing is
+certain, that Wadham was popular and fashionable, to use a modern
+curious name, as is shown by the record of admissions.
+
+Life, both for graduates and undergraduates, was harder then than it is
+now. The Fellows were required to reside for forty-six weeks, the
+Scholars, and probably the Commoners, for forty-eight weeks in each
+year. All undergraduates had to attend lectures or disputations for
+twenty-four hours in every week. These tasks were arranged with careful
+malignity to begin at 6 A.M., and resumed at 2 P.M. and 6 P.M. Nor were
+examinations wanting. The Bible was to be read during dinner in Hall by
+a Bible Clerk or Scholar, and heard attentively and reverently. Latin
+was to be spoken in Hall, and English only when the presence of an
+unlearned person or of a member of another college justified its use.
+The Chapel Service was held between 5 and 6 A.M. and between 8 and 9
+P.M.; and attendance twice a-day was required from bachelors and
+undergraduates, and rigidly enforced. Attendance at roll-call as a
+substitute for chapel was unheard of in those days, when all members of
+the colleges were, or were presumed to be, members also of the Church of
+England, nor would conscientious scruples have been treated with much
+courtesy. In other matters discipline was no less strict; clothes and
+boots were to be black, and gowns were to be long. No undergraduate was
+allowed to go out of College unaccompanied by a "discrete senior" of
+mature age as a witness to his good behaviour, unless to attend a
+lecture or a disputation: nor might he keep dogs, or guns, or ferrets,
+or any bird, within the precincts of the College, nor play any games
+with dice or cards or of any unseemly kind. Yet the Foundress showed a
+tenderness for human weakness by permitting the Fellows and Scholars to
+play cards in Hall on some of the Gaudy days for "moderate stakes and at
+timeous hours." Moreover, she ordained that L30 from the College
+revenues should be spent on College banquets to be held on Gaudy days,
+by which were meant the great Church festivals, the election days of
+Fellows and College officers, All Saints' Day, and, on what at first
+sight seems strange, the anniversary of her husband's death; but the
+strangeness disappears if it be remembered that October 20th comes close
+to All Saints' Day.
+
+This seems, in some of its provisions, Draconian legislation, but it was
+made for the government of boys, many of them only fourteen or fifteen
+years of age: how far it was, even in early days, unflinchingly
+enforced, we cannot tell. It began to fall into abeyance after the
+Restoration, if we are to believe Antony Wood. His statements are
+always to be received with caution; but they are on this point confirmed
+by other testimonies, and by the antecedent probability of a strong
+reaction against the Puritan _regime_. Eighteen months after the King's
+Restoration, he writes of the decay of learning and discipline in the
+University. "Before the warr wee had scholars that made a thorough
+search in scholasticall and polemicall divinity, in humane authors, and
+naturall philosophy. But now scholars studie these things not more than
+what is just necessary to carry them through the exercises of their
+respective Colleges and the Universitie. Their aime is not to live as
+students ought to do--viz., temperat, abstemious, and plaine and grave
+in the apparel; but to live like gentlemen, to keep dogs and horses, to
+turne their studies and coleholes into places to receive bottles, to
+swash it in apparell, to wear long periwigs, &c., and the theologists to
+ride abroad in grey coats with swords by their sides: the masters have
+lost their respect by being themselves scandalous, and keeping company
+with undergraduates." We cannot believe that Wadham escaped the
+contagion, and remained what its Foundress meant it to be. It would be
+interesting--but lack of space forbids--to compare the discipline
+prescribed with that administered in Wadham now. Sufficient to say--what
+indeed might go without saying--that the lapse of three hundred years
+has made changes desirable and necessary.
+
+The Foundress died on May 16, 1618, aged eighty-four. For five years she
+had watched over the infancy of her College, and had seen it grow into a
+vigorous child, with the promise of a robust manhood. The mythopoeic
+faculty is strong in all of us, and in Wadham has grown up a tradition
+that Dorothy was a strong-minded woman, and her husband a submissive man
+without character and will. The myth rests only on the science of
+physiognomy working on portraits,--a most insecure foundation. The
+Founders' portraits depict him as a gentle, placid person with
+melancholy eyes; her as a hard-featured woman with a long upper lip and
+an almost cruel mouth. Against the testimony, always dubious, of
+portraits, must be set the known facts of her loyal devotion in carrying
+out his wishes with scrupulous fidelity, and the sacrifices she made in
+doing so, of money and of laborious supervision in the last years of her
+long life.
+
+The College may do well to remember the closing of one of her last
+letters to the Warden and Fellows: "Above all things, I would have you
+to avoid contentions among yourselves, for without true charity there
+cannot be a true Society."--(Wells' 'History of Wadham,' p. 44.) She was
+buried beside her husband in the Wadham aisle at Ilminster.
+
+Only a few months after her death a question arose in which she would
+have taken a keen interest, and have supported her College to the
+uttermost. In October 1618 James I. set an example, which his grandson,
+James II., followed, of that contempt for law which proved fatal to the
+Stuarts. He wrote to his "trusty and well beloved, the Warden and
+Fellows of Wadham College, bidding them elect Walter Durham of St
+Andrews a Fellow, notwithstanding anything in their statutes to the
+contrary." Durham had not been a scholar, and the vacancy had been
+filled up by the Foundress, for whose death "their eyes were still wet."
+It is possible that Durham's being a Scotchman was another objection to
+his reception as a Fellow in those days when his aggressive countrymen
+had found the high-road to England: this objection the Society did not
+put before the King, but pleaded only the obligations of the statutes.
+Supported by the Earl of Pembroke, the Chancellor of the University,
+their resistance was successful. To Wadham belongs the honour of being
+the earliest Oxford champion of legality in the struggle of seventy
+years: as to Magdalen belongs the honour of the resistance which brought
+that struggle nearly to its close. From 1618 onward till--who can say
+when? the College has been on the popular or constitutional side, save
+in 1648. The portrait of James I., who gave the College its Charter,
+hangs in the Hall; there are no portraits there of Charles I., Charles
+II., James II.
+
+Among the admissions of this time the most illustrious name is that of
+Robert Blake, who matriculated at Alban Hall, but took his B.A. from
+Wadham in 1618, a few months before the Durham incident. The great
+admiral and soldier may therefore have learnt in Wadham the opinions
+which determined his choice of sides in the Parliamentary wars. The
+College possesses his portrait, and four gold medals struck to
+commemorate his victory over Van Tromp in 1653. It has never left the
+custody of the Warden, save when it was sent, concealed on the person of
+Professor and Commander Burroughs, to the Naval Exhibition some years
+ago; and last year, when after an interesting correspondence between the
+College and Colonel Maxse commanding the Coldstream Guards, leave was
+cordially given to that distinguished regiment to have an electrotype
+made of the Blake medal for its own exclusive use, and to be kept _in
+perpetuum_ among the memorials of its long history. It is the oldest
+regiment in the service, the only survivor of Cromwell's New Model; it
+was commanded by Monk, afterwards Duke of Albemarle, when he crossed the
+border to march to London, perhaps with no definite intention to restore
+the Monarchy--perhaps also prompted by his brother Nicholas, a Wadham
+man, to solve the great problem in that simple way. The rest of the New
+Model were disbanded after the Restoration, but, doubtless in deference
+to Monk, the Coldstreams were reformed, and became the King's Bodyguard.
+To Monk, who like Blake was half soldier, half sailor, one of the four
+medals had been awarded for his services against the Dutch. It was lost,
+and the replica will take its place. The other three medals are
+preserved--one in the possession of the representatives of the Penn
+family, one in the British Museum, one in Wadham: the last was sent to
+the British Museum for reproduction: it was carried by our historian Mr
+Wells, returned by him, and it now lies in the Warden's lodgings, in the
+cabinet of treasures bequeathed by Dr Griffiths, our benefactor in many
+ways unknown but to his friends. This tie of courtesy and history
+between a regiment and a college, arms and the gown, is worth recording
+and probably unique.
+
+No other name of real distinction than Blake's occurs in the registers
+of 1613 to 1648. But Colonel Henry Ancktill, "the priest and malignant
+doctor," as he was known among the Roundheads, one of the first Fellows,
+ought to be remembered, partly on his own account, for he was a vigorous
+and devoted Royalist, a fighting man when his cause was hopeless; partly
+because he may have been the original of Dr Rochcliffe in 'Woodstock.'
+Sir Walter Scott read the 'Athenae Oxonienses,' and the resemblance
+between Ancktill and Rochcliffe is striking; but who can say what a
+great writer finds or creates in fiction or in history!
+
+[Illustration: ADMIRAL BLAKE.]
+
+A perusal of the register shows that in Wadham both of the great parties
+in Church and State were represented. There were represented also all
+classes of society, from Dymokes, Herberts, Russells, Portmans,
+Strangways, to the humblest _plebeiorum filii_, a fact which proves the
+falsity of the assertion made forty years ago, that Oxford was once a
+place for "gentlemen only."
+
+The history of the College at this time was not one of unbroken peace:
+occasional quarrels between members of the governing body are
+recorded,--evidences of the unrest of a time when greater questions than
+the interpretation of a Statute or the disputed election of a College
+officer were already in the air. The only dissension of any interest was
+one which led to an appeal to the Visitor: the Visitor was Laud, the
+Bishop of Bath and Wells, who showed great gentleness and patience in
+dealing with a person even more provoking than he found the worst of
+Scotch Presbyterians.
+
+We have now reached, "longas per ambages," the times of Wilkins'
+manhood: he was born a year later than the opening of the College which
+he was to rule.
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[1] See Messrs Peel and Minchin's 'Oxford,' p. 130.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+WILKINS' LIFE TILL HIS APPOINTMENT TO THE WARDENSHIP.
+
+
+In the Common Room of Wadham College hangs the portrait of John Wilkins,
+Warden from 1648 to 1659. It is probably a faithful likeness, for
+Wilkins is described by Aubrey as "a lustie, strong-grown, well-set,
+broad-shouldered person, cheerful and hospitable; no great-read man, but
+one of much and deepe thinking, and of a working head; and a prudent man
+as well as ingeniose." In the portrait these characteristics, physical
+and mental, are well displayed: sanity of mind--that is, clearness,
+shrewdness, courage, kindliness, the contentment which makes the best of
+good and evil fortune, are, to the imaginative mind, written in the
+face, as presented in his picture, of this great man. His greatness fell
+short of genius, for it was the effect of ordinary qualities, rarely
+combined and tempered into one character; but more effective for useful
+work in the world than genius without sanity.
+
+He was born in 1614 at Fawsley in Northamptonshire. His father was
+Walter Wilkins, a goldsmith in Oxford, like his son "ingeniose, and of a
+very mechanicall head, which ran much upon the perpetuall motion,"--a
+problem less hopeful than most, not all, of those which attracted his
+more practical son, who inherited from him his "insatiable curiosity."
+
+It is from Aubrey that we derive the fullest account of the facts of
+Wilkins' life, as well as of his character. It is given in one of those
+"Brief Lives" which might well serve as models to modern biographers;
+lives compressed into two pages of nervous English, adorned here and
+there, rather than disfigured, by quaint pedantic words and phrases,
+relics of the euphuism of the sixteenth century. Aubrey is credulous,
+appallingly frank, a strong partisan, a man of great industry and
+learning, by no means trustworthy, but none the less entertaining and
+delightful. He tells us that Wilkins had his "grammar learning from Mr
+Sylvester, 'the common drudge of the University,' who kept a private
+school: that he entered Magdalen Hall from New Inn Hall in 1627 at the
+age of thirteen, and there was placed under the tutorship of 'the
+learned Mr John Tombs, the Coryphaeus of the Anabaptists.'" Tombs was a
+man of great ability, notable for his "curious, searching, piercing
+witt, of whom it was predicted that he would doe a great deale of
+mischiefe to the Church of England, as great witts have done by
+introducing new opinions." He was a formidable disputant, so formidable
+that when he came to Oxford in 1664, and there "sett up a challenge to
+maintain 'contra omnes gentes' the doctrines of the Anabaptists, not a
+man would grapple with him, their Coryphaeus; yet putting aside his
+Anabaptisticall opinions he was conformable enough to the Church of
+England"; so much so that he held a living at Leominster, and was the
+friend of two Bishops, Sanderson and Seth Ward. It is doubtful whether
+Mr Tombs would now, if he came back, move in Episcopal circles. His
+career gives us a glimpse into those puzzling times of confusion and
+cross-purposes, when compromise and toleration co-existed, both in
+parties and in individuals, with bitter fanaticism, more commonly than
+is supposed, or can be explained.
+
+It is easy to see what was the influence exercised by Tombs on a clever
+boy like Wilkins. He was probably trained to be a Latitudinarian; for
+Tombs, despite his strong opinions, could admire and praise sincerity in
+opponents: he was heard to say that "though he was much opposite to the
+Romish religion, truly for his part should he see a poor zealous friar
+goeing to preach he should pay him respect." Utterances of this kind, if
+heard by Wilkins, would make a strong impression on a youth by nature
+singularly tolerant.
+
+Wilkins took his B.A. degree in 1631, his M.A. in 1634. For a few years
+he took pupils--read to pupils (as the phrase was),--the common resource
+then, as now, of young Oxonians, who think themselves qualified to
+teach, and must support themselves till a Fellowship comes, or till they
+have chosen a profession.
+
+In 1637 he took Holy Orders in the Church of England, and became curate
+of Fawsley, the place in which he had been born. A country living was
+too small a sphere for a young man of twenty-three, conscious of his
+powers, ambitious and desirous to see the world of letters, science, and
+politics in those eventful days. Aubrey tells us that "he has sayd often
+times that the first rise, or hint of his rising, was from goeing
+accidentally a courseing of a hare, when an ingeniose gentleman of good
+quality falling into discourse with him, and finding him to have a very
+good witt, told him that he would never gett any considerable preferment
+by continuing in the University, and that his best way was to betake
+himself to some lord's or great person's house that had good benefices
+to conferre. Sayd Mr Wilkins, I am not knowne in the world; I know not
+to whom to addresse myself upon such a designe. The gentleman replied,
+'I will commende you myselfe,' and did so to (as I think) Lord Viscount
+Say and Seale, where he stayed with very good likeing till the late
+civill warres."
+
+It is not clear whether this worldly but sound advice was given to
+Wilkins before or after he became a country clergyman, for the words
+"continuing in the University" might mean either residence there, or
+occasional visits to it. Coursing of a hare was, perhaps is, an
+amusement equally of University men and of the country clergy: the last
+alone can tell us whether they still "goe a courseing
+accidentally"--(the word is worth noting)--and whether conversations of
+this profitable kind occur in the intervals of sport. But the date of
+the incident is of less importance than its result; it was the
+turning-point of Wilkins' life. When he became chaplain to Lord Say and
+Seale he was introduced into a sphere of politics and action.
+
+William Fiennes, the first Viscount, was a man of light and leading in
+the Parliamentary party; "the oracle," as Clarendon styles him, "of
+those who were called Puritans in the worst sense, and steered all their
+counsels and designs." He deserved his nickname, Old Subtlely, for he
+had a clear insight into the real issues from the very beginning of the
+great quarrel: he headed in Oxfordshire the resistance to the levying of
+Ship-money, and was the champion of the Independents, the most
+determined of the king's opponents. His sons, John and Nathaniel
+Fiennes, were no less resolute and effective Puritans than the head of
+their house; more so indeed, for they were believed, and soon known to
+be, "for root and branch."
+
+At Broughton, Wilkins, now chaplain and resident there, met the most
+prominent men of the party which was against the Government. He must
+have heard "great argument about it and about"; whether "evermore he
+came out by the same door wherein he went" we cannot tell, for he
+possessed to an extraordinary degree the faculty of seeing the two sides
+of a question: as he stayed at Broughton "with very good likeing" for
+five or six years, it may be presumed that the discreet and morigerous
+man concealed the difficulty which he felt in accepting some of the
+views maintained at Broughton. Some light is thrown on his real opinions
+by words found in the sermon preached at his funeral by Lloyd, his
+friend and pupil. "When some thought these dissents ground enough for
+war, he declared himself against it, and confirmed others in their
+allegiance: he profest to the last a great hatred of that horrible
+rebellion." He doubtless resembled another
+Latitudinarian--Cudworth--whom Burnet describes as "a man of great
+competence and prudence upon which his enemies did very falsely accuse
+him of craft and dissimulation."
+
+When the Civil War broke out Wilkins removed to London and became
+Chaplain to Lord Berkeley, and later to Charles Lewis, Prince Elector
+Palatine, nephew of Charles I., and elder brother of Prince Rupert. The
+Elector was then an _emigre_ in England, hoping to be restored to his
+dominions by the aid of his uncle, who was then struggling to hold his
+own inheritance. During his seven years' residence in London, Wilkins
+became the friend, perhaps the leader, of the natural philosophers, who
+later formed themselves into the Royal Society. Thus, before he had
+reached "the middle of the way of life," he had seen much of the world.
+Like Ulysses, whom in many ways he resembled, "he saw the cities of many
+men and knew their mind."
+
+Dr Walter Pope, his half-brother, who wrote a life of Bishop Ward, and,
+curiously enough, a life also of Claude Duval, the famous highwayman,
+which had a wider circulation, says of Wilkins that he was "a learned
+man and a lover of such; of comely aspect and gentlemanlike behaviour.
+He had been bred in the court, and was also a piece of a traveller."
+The last sentence refers mainly to Wilkins' life after the Restoration;
+but he had travelled before then, and his acquaintance with the
+Fiennes', with the Elector, and with London society, had taught him
+"gentlemanlike behaviour" before he became a Head of a House,--a lesson
+which, apparently, some other Heads in his time had not learnt; for Pope
+goes on to say, "He had nothing of bigotry, unmannerliness or
+censoriousness, which then were in the zenith amongst some of the Heads
+and Fellows of Colleges in Oxford." It is to be hoped that such
+criticisms would not now be made on the manners of the senior members of
+the University, and that in this respect Oxford has been reformed, to
+the approval of all concerned.
+
+While Wilkins was experimenting and philosophising in London, events had
+been marching rapidly in England and in Oxford. In Wood's 'Life and
+Times' is written the history of the city of Oxford, of the University
+and of himself, from the day of his birth till his death in 1681. The
+three histories are mingled in a quaint and incoherent fashion. Wood is
+a chronicler like Aubrey, his friend, with whom he quarrelled, as
+antiquarians and historians do. Both were industrious, uncritical,
+and--Wood especially--sometimes venomous; both were vivid and
+picturesque, keen observers, and had a wonderful power of saying much in
+few words.
+
+Antony Wood, the son of Thomas Wood, Bachelor of Arts and of Civil Law,
+was born in 1632 at Oxford, where his father lived, in the Collegiate
+parish of St John Baptist de Merton. He was educated at New College
+School, in Oxford, and later at Thame Grammar School; was admitted into
+Merton College at the age of fifteen as a "filius generosi," and became
+Bible Clerk in 1650. When ten years old he saw the king, with his army
+of foot, his two sons, Charles and James, his nephews, Rupert and
+Maurice, enter Oxford after the battle of Edgehill. The incident was
+impressed on his memory by the expulsion of his father from the house
+in Merton Street, and the removal of the boys of New College School to
+the choristers' chamber at the east end of the College hall, "a dark
+nasty room, very unfit for such a purpose, which made the scholars often
+complaine, but in vaine." From this time onward Wood, a clever and
+observant boy, kept both his ears and eyes open, and accumulated from
+all quarters materials for his narrative which covers fifty years, the
+most interesting and important half century in the history of Oxford.
+
+
+     "Your orthodox historian puts
+       In foremost rank the soldier thus,
+     The redcoat bully in his boots
+       That hides the march of men from us."
+
+
+The "redcoat bully," as Thackeray somewhat harshly calls him, figures
+largely in the early pages of Wood's 'Life and Times,' but does not hide
+the march of men. In August 1642, "the members of the University began
+to put themselves in a posture of defence," and till June 1646, when
+Oxford was surrendered to Fairfax, it was a garrison town, the centre
+and object of much fighting, and of many excursions and alarms, as being
+"the chiefest hold the King had."
+
+Fain would the writer extract almost bodily Wood's description of the
+four years' occupation, but some things he cannot forbear from
+mentioning, for they throw light on the history of Wilkins' Oxford, and
+on the problems with which he had to deal after the war was ended. Mr
+Haldane would read with interest and approval how the Oxford
+undergraduates of 1642 responded to a call to arms, as he hopes their
+successors will respond, if and when need comes.
+
+"Dr Pink of New College, the deputy Vice-Chancellor, called before him
+to the public schools all the priviledged men's arms to have a view of
+them; when, not only priviledged men of the University and their
+servants, but also many scholars appeared, bringing with them the
+furniture of armes of every College that then had any." The furniture
+for one man was sent by Wood's father--viz., "a helmet, a back and
+breast plate, a pike, and a musquet." The volunteers, both graduates,
+some of them divines, and undergraduates, mustered in New College
+quadrangle, and were drilled in the Newe Parkes (the Parks of our day)
+to the number of four hundred, "in a very decent arraye, and it was
+delightsome to behold the forwardnesse of so many proper yonge gentlemen
+so intent, docile, and pliable to their business." Town and gown took
+opposite sides: the citizens were, most of them, ready to support the
+Parliament, or the King and Parliament, but not the King against the
+Parliament. Long before the Civil War began there were in Oxford and in
+the kingdom, as always in our history, though called by different names,
+three parties, divided from each other by no very fast or definite
+lines; the King's, the Parliament's and the party of moderate men, to
+which Wilkins belonged; the Constitutional party in the strict meaning
+of the word, who wished both to preserve and reform the constitution. In
+those days of confusion and perplexity, when men's hearts were failing
+them for fear and for looking after those things which were to come,
+many knew not what to think or do. It was a miserable time both for
+Roundheads and Cavaliers, and most of all for those who were not sure
+what they were. If Hyde and Falkland wavered for a time, how must the
+timid and lukewarm have wavered? Though the great questions were fairly
+clear, the way to solve them, and the end to which any way would lead,
+were dark and gloomy. It is an error to think that the Civil War was a
+sudden outbreak, a short struggle on simple issues between two sharply
+divided parties, assured of their beliefs and interests. The French
+Revolution was that, or nearly that; but our revolutions are managed
+deliberately, and lead to conclusive and permanent results: the art of
+revolution belongs to the English race.
+
+In Oxford there must have been much bewilderment and questioning among
+citizens and gownsmen when Lord Say and Seale, the new Lord-Lieutenant
+of the county appointed by the Parliament, came into the town on
+September 14, 1642, and ordered that the works and trenches made by the
+scholars should be demolished; yet next day he "sent a drumme up and
+downe the towne for volunteers to serve the King and Parliament." What
+did that mean? Almost any answer might have been given to the question.
+His lordship's opinions soon became clearer than his puzzling
+proclamation; on September the 24th he sent for the Heads of Houses to
+rebuke them for having "broken the peace and quiet of the University,"
+so much broken it that "they had nowe left no face of a Universitie, by
+taking up armes and the like courses." He had before this interview
+"caused diverse popish bookes and pictures taken out of churches, and of
+papish houses, here and abroad, to be burned in the street over against
+the signe of the Starre, where his Lordship laye." We know not what is
+meant by "papish bookes and pictures," but the Puritan Lord Say may not
+have discriminated sharply between them and the books and ornaments of
+the High Party in the Church of England.
+
+For seven or eight weeks before the battle of Edgehill, Oxford swarmed
+with soldiers. It had been held for a fortnight by the King's men, who
+were succeeded by the Parliamentary troopers brought in by Lord Say.
+Some disturbances took place, in which the soldiers from Puritan London
+especially distinguished themselves: one of them, when flushed with wine
+presented by the Mayor "too freely," went so far as to "discharge a
+brace of bulletts at the stone image of Our Lady over the church St
+Mairie's parish, and at one shott strooke off her hed, and the hed of
+her child which she held in her right arme: another discharged his
+musket at the image of our Saviour over All Soule's gate, and would have
+defaced all the worke there, had it not been for some townsmen, who
+entreated them to forbeare, they replienge that they had not been so
+well treated here at Oxford as they expected: many of them came into
+Christ Church to viewe the Church and paynted windowes, much admiringe
+at the idolatry thereof, and a certain Scot, beinge amongst them, saide
+that he marvaylled how the Schollers could goe for their bukes to these
+paynted idolatrous wyndoes." From a Scot of that time this utterance was
+not surprising: bukes had been substituted for paynted wyndowes
+destroyed in his country many years before his visit to Oxford. But to
+the honour of the Puritans be it said, there were no serious outrages on
+person or property in Oxford, and that its citizens had to endure
+nothing more than fear and discomfort: in no other country in Europe at
+that time would a city occupied by troops have suffered as little as did
+Oxford in those two months.
+
+In 'John Inglesant' a man of genius has drawn a picture of Oxford when
+it was the residence of the King and Queen and Court. His description is
+so vivid that one is tempted to believe it to be history: it is that,
+and not mere fiction, for it is based on a careful study of facts, and,
+allowance made for the writer's strong Royalist bias, it is true
+ethically or in spirit, that highest truth which accurate and laborious
+historians often fail to reach.
+
+John Inglesant entered Wadham before the war began--the date of his
+admission is obviously uncertain--and lived there from time to time till
+the rout at Naseby, in 1645, brought about the surrender of Oxford to
+the Parliament in 1646. It was by a sure instinct that he chose Wadham,
+that quiet and beautiful college, for his home. He was a dreamer, and in
+no place could he have dreamt more peacefully and happily than there,
+though sometimes perhaps, even in his first term, he must have been
+disturbed by the ominous sounds of axe and hammer, pick and spade, busy
+on the "fortifications in making about the towne on the north and
+north-west thereof," and, later, on the east, toward Headington Hill and
+close to Wadham. A trace of them remains in the terrace on the east of
+the Warden's garden, which did not then exist for Inglesant to walk
+in, and muse on the problems of the day.
+
+[Illustration: WADHAM COLLEGE FROM THE WARDEN'S GARDEN.]
+
+Oxford in his time at Wadham presented a curious spectacle. Huddled
+together were soldiers, courtiers, ladies beautiful, gay, and famous in
+many ways, severe Divines and College Heads, to whom such surroundings
+were unfamiliar and perhaps not uninteresting: masques and revels were
+frequent; Christ Church meadow and the grove at Trinity were the resort
+of a brilliant throng, more brilliant even than the gatherings which
+fill Oxford at Commemoration time in our more sober age. But beneath
+this merriment there were doubtless in the minds at least of those who
+thought, or stopped to think, terrible anxieties and the grimmest of
+forebodings. It was becoming clearer every month that Edgehill had not
+broken the rebellion; that the struggle would be long, and that the
+issue was uncertain; events soon justified these fears. On January 10,
+1643, "the Kinges letters came to all the Colledges and Halls for their
+plates to be brought into the mint at Oxford, there to be coyned into
+money with promise of refunding it, or payeinge for it again after five
+shillings the ounce for silver, five and sixpence for silver and gilt."
+The fruitless sacrifice was made by no college with more unhesitating
+devotion than by Wadham, which preserves the letter addressed by Charles
+I. to "our trusty and well-beloved ye Warden and Fellows of Wadham
+College," and the receipt for 124 lb. of plate from the king's officers
+of the mint, a liberal contribution from a college only thirty years
+old. Few relics of the ancient Collegiate plate are now to be found in
+the University; in most instances pieces, either bestowed or given by
+special benefactors: the Communion vessels of the Colleges were not
+taken by the king--a loyal son of the Church. Six colleges, among them
+Wadham, retained theirs through all the confusion of the war, and still
+possess them.
+
+In February 1643 warning came of fresh troubles from the north: three
+Commissioners representing the nobility, clergy, gentry, and commons of
+Scotland presented themselves to the king, "to press his Majestie that
+the Church of England might be made conformable in all points to the
+Church of Scotland." To Charles, himself a Scot, this request must have
+seemed an outrageous insult, inflicted on him by those of his own
+household, and an omen of his desertion by his warlike countrymen, whom,
+despite their resistance to the English Liturgy, he trusted to be
+faithful to a Stuart.
+
+On June 24, 1646, the last fighting Royalist left Oxford. In the
+following Michaelmas, Wood returned "to the home of his nativitie." He
+found Oxford "empty as to scholars, but pretty well replenished with
+Parliamentarian soldiers." In his opinion the young men of the city and
+the University had reaped less benefit from the Royalist occupation than
+their seniors; the latter had gained "great store of wealth from the
+court and royalists that had for several years continued among them";
+the former he "found many of them to have been debauched by bearing
+arms, and doing the duties belonging to soldiers, as watching, warding,
+and sitting in tipling houses for whole nights together." Nor were the
+spiritual teachers sent by Parliament to restore good manners and
+religion, in Wood's opinion, fitted for their mission: they were six
+Presbyterian Ministers, "two of them fooles, two knaves, two madmen."
+
+With the history of Oxford for the next eighteen months, important and
+interesting though it is, we are not concerned. The scholars returned
+slowly to the half-empty colleges, where admissions had dwindled almost
+to vanishing point. At Wadham, for instance, the admissions in 1643 were
+only seven; in 1644, three; in 1645, none; in 1646, seven; in 1647, when
+the worst of the fighting was over, they rose to nineteen. The
+Independents and the Presbyterians were now in possession of Oxford. In
+spite of both oppressors the undergraduates, of Wood's College at least,
+enjoyed themselves, as undergraduates do in the darkest times, and
+played "high jinks" on Candlemas Day, compelling the freshmen "to
+speake some pretty apothegme or make a jest or bull," or take strange
+oaths "over an old shoe," and suffer indignities if they were shy or
+stupid. "Naturam expellas furca tamen usque recurrit."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+WILKINS' WARDENSHIP.
+
+
+In 1647 a Commission, as it would now be called, was appointed by
+Parliament to conduct the visitation of the University. 'Lord have mercy
+upon us; or, the Visitation at Oxford,' is the title of one of the
+numerous pamphlets relating to this Oxford revolution; Tragi-comoedia
+Oxonienses' is the title of another, and both suggest curious
+reflections to Oxonians at the present time. The visitors did their
+business effectually. They set to work in 1648, and purged the
+University by ejecting from the colleges all who did not by a certain
+day give in their assurance that they would submit to the visitors and
+their visitation appointed by Parliament. No party in our country can
+claim the monopoly of loyalty to conviction attested by self-sacrifice.
+In England, non-jurors and dissenters; in Scotland, Episcopalians,
+Covenanters, and Free Churchmen; in Ireland, Roman Catholics, have "gone
+out," or stayed out, for some lost cause. In Oxford, Royalists, from
+Heads to Servitors, stood by their colours manfully. It is uncertain how
+many submitted, how many were expelled. The estimates vary from
+Clarendon's statement that almost all the Heads and Fellows of Colleges
+were ejected, "scarce one submitting," to Wood's estimate of 334; it is
+probable that 400--that is, about half of the whole number of Heads,
+Fellows, and Scholars then resident in the University--"made the great
+refusal," not to accept office, but to retain it. Antony Wood did not
+show himself ambitious of martyrdom. On May 12, 1648, he, along with
+other members of his College, appeared before the Visitors. When asked
+by one of them, "Will you submit to the authority of Parliament in this
+visitation?" he wrote on a paper lying on the table, "I do not
+understand the business, and therefore I am not able to give a direct
+answer." "Afterwards his mother and brother, who advised him to submit
+in plaine terms, were exceedingly angry with him, and told him that he
+had ruined himself and must therefore go a-begging." Women, then as now,
+ready to sacrifice themselves, are less ready to permit those dear to
+them to be overscrupulous. Wood's mother made intercession for him to
+Sir Nathaniel Brent, President of the Visitors and Warden of Merton, and
+"he was connived at and kept in his Postmastership, otherwise he had
+infallibly gon to the pot."
+
+At Wadham the Visitors met with an obstinate resistance: Dr Pitt, then
+Warden, was a stout Royalist, and refused to acknowledge the authority
+of a Parliament acting without the king's consent. He was expelled on
+April 13, 1648, along with nine of his thirteen Fellows, nine of his
+fourteen Scholars, and many of his Commoners, all of them save one to
+return no more. John Wilkins was put in his place by the Visitors on
+the same day, and held it till his resignation on September 3, 1659.
+
+Before the end of his stay in London he had taken the covenant and
+definitely given his allegiance to the Parliamentarian party. He was
+marked out for promotion as a known man of great ability, and he had
+made many friends among influential persons by his courtesy and tact. It
+was inevitable that a distinguished Oxford man should be chosen for an
+important post in the University, which Cromwell desired to convert from
+a hotbed of Royalism into a nursery of Puritans. Wilkins was qualified
+by his common-sense and genial ways for what would have been a hopeless
+task to the clumsy fanatics ready enough to undertake it.
+
+The new Warden must have found himself in a difficult position. There
+were in Oxford the three parties into which Englishmen and Scotchmen
+invariably divide themselves. These parties are called by different
+names at different times, and are formed on different questions, but
+remain essentially the same. In Oxford they were called Royalists,
+Presbyterians, Independents; the questions at issue were the life,
+discipline, and religion of the University.
+
+This classification has all the faults which a classification can have;
+it is not exhaustive, for the variations, religious and political, being
+infinite, cannot be included under three heads; nor do the _membra
+dividentia_ exclude each other: among the Royalists were some members of
+the established Church, of Calvinistic opinions, who were hardly
+distinguishable from Presbyterians; and some professed Presbyterians
+would have stood by Charles had not Laud driven them away, for they had
+in their nature some of the best elements of conservatism, the
+historical sense, and a love of order and discipline, especially as
+administered by themselves. But classifications may be illogical yet
+useful, and Wilkins would have accepted this one, in his practical way,
+for working purposes.
+
+The Presbyterians were for forcing on the Church of England, the
+Covenant, the Westminster Confession, and the deposition of the Bishop
+by the Presbyter, or a board of Presbyters. The Independents conceived
+that every Christian congregation had, under Christ, supreme
+jurisdiction in things spiritual; that appeals to provincial and
+national synods were scarcely less Scriptural than appeals to the Court
+of Arches or to the Vatican, and that Popery, Prelacy, Presbyterianism,
+were merely three forms of one great apostacy. In politics the
+Independents were, to use the phrase of their time, "root and branch
+men," or, to use the kindred phrase of our own time, radicals: not
+content with limiting the power of the monarch, they were desirous to
+erect a commonwealth on the ruins of the old English polity. Macaulay's
+vigorous words explain the difference between the Presbyterians and the
+Independents: that difference is explained also by Wood in words as
+vigorous but less dignified and scholarly. "The Presbyterians," he says,
+"with their disciples seemed to be very severe in their course of life,
+manners or conversation, and habits or apparell; of a Scoth (_i.e._,
+Scotch) habit, but especially those that were preachers. The other (the
+Independents) were more free, gay, and, with a reserve, frollicsome, of
+a gay habit, whether preachers or not." John Owen, Dean of Christ
+Church--to be distinguished from Thankful Owen, President of St
+John's--seems to have been of a specially gay habit; when
+Vice-Chancellor "he had alwaies his hair powdred, cambric bands with
+large costly band strings, velvet jacket, his breeches set round at knee
+with ribbons pointed, Spanish leather boots with cambric tops, &c.,--all
+this was in opposition to prelattical cutt." The habit of a
+Vice-Chancellor, even in full dress, is nowadays far less gay, and of
+the Presbyterian rather than the Independent fashion. Whatever may have
+been their difference in dress, both parties were "void of public and
+generous spirits: the Presbyterians for the most part preached nothing
+but damnation, the other not, but rather for libertie; yet both joyne
+together to pluck downe and silence the prelattical preachers, or at
+least to expose their way to scorne." Wood carries his comparisons
+further, and tells, perhaps invents, many things about their common
+hatred of Maypoles, players, cassocks, surplices, and the use of the
+Lord's Prayer in public religious service. He more than hints at darker
+sins,--drunkenness, and immorality cloaked by hypocrisy, the favourite
+theme of the Restoration dramatists. His account of the Puritan
+domination in Oxford is, despite his bitter prejudices, historically
+important, and must have been used by Scott when he wrote 'Woodstock.'
+
+It seems at first sight strange that the Independents should have been
+"gay," and, even with a reserve, frolicsome, for they were originally
+the soldiers of Cromwell's "New Model," "honest and religious men." But
+Wood describes them as he knew them many years after Naseby and Marston
+Moor, when their character had changed with changing circumstances.
+Triumphant success seldom improves the morale of any party. Oxford
+proved a Capua to the Independents who lived in it after the strain of
+war was over: the very principle of Independency, liberty of opinion and
+action given to every Christian congregation, came to be applied to the
+life of the individual: freedom to reject any doctrine or practice which
+you do not like naturally ends in much gaiety and frolicsomeness,
+especially if your lines are cast in pleasant places: it becomes
+difficult not to slide into practical Antinomianism. What a place to
+live in for eleven years! yet Wilkins did so with success and general
+applause. He was inclined by temperament to the freedom of mellowed
+Independency rather than to the stiffness of the Presbyterians, who more
+successfully than their rivals resisted the enervating influences of
+life in Oxford. Circumstances as well as inclination led him to become
+an Independent: his marriage with Cromwell's sister, and the appointment
+to be one of the Commissioners to execute the office of Chancellor,
+perhaps also his appointment to the Wardenship, all tended to draw him
+to the side of Ireton and the Protector. Of the latter he saw much, and
+was consulted by him on academical and ecclesiastical affairs.
+
+Lord Morley[2] records "a story told by Bishop Wilkins, who was the
+husband of Cromwell's youngest sister Robina, that the Protector often
+said to him that no temporal government could have a sure support
+without a national church that adhered to it, and that he thought
+England was capable of no constitution but Episcopacy." Lord Morley
+thinks that "the second imputation must be apocryphal." That is by no
+means clear: Cromwell may have said what Wilkins probably did not
+invent, meaning that he thought Episcopacy good enough for England, for
+Englishmen were incapable of any better constitution; or he may have
+modified his judgment of Episcopacy,--who knows all that Cromwell came
+to think in his latter days, a time when most men revise their opinions?
+He may have felt the disenchantment which awaits success.
+
+Wilkins' marked success, both in his College and in his University, can
+be explained only by the fact that he possessed the qualities necessary
+for the work he had to do,--strong common-sense, moderation, and
+geniality. He had to live, as the most prominent man, in a society
+composed of three factions crowded together within the narrow limits of
+a University town, which even in quiet times is not always the abode of
+peace. He had to deal with the most burning questions, religious and
+political, which divide communities: questions which had been stifled
+for a time by force, and therefore, when force was removed or slackened,
+came back into vigorous life, and were constantly and bitterly
+discussed. But he was the man for the time and the place.
+
+His College flourished under his wise and kindly rule. Dr Pope tells us
+that "many country gentlemen, of all persuasions, but especially those
+then called Cavaliers and Malignants for adhering to the King and to the
+Church, sent their sons to his College to be under his government. The
+affluence of gentlemen was so great that I may fairly say of Wadham
+College that it was never before in so flourishing a condition." The
+"affluence of gentlemen" of all sorts, Fellow Commoners, Commoners,
+Servitors, and migrants from Cambridge, was, in 1649, fifteen; in 1650,
+fifty-one; in 1651, twenty-four; in 1652, forty. In the ten complete
+years of Wilkins' Wardenship the average of admissions was thirty. The
+large admission made in 1650 was due to the reputation of Wilkins as an
+able and tolerant College Head, as well as to the belief that the tumult
+of war had died away. Men's thoughts were turning to civil affairs and
+the ordinary business of life, especially to education, the preparation
+for it.
+
+In the registers of the period between 1648 and 1659, are found many
+names either of distinction in themselves, or of interest as showing
+that the connection of Wadham with the western counties was well
+maintained. Walter Pope, who has been already mentioned, was appointed
+Scholar by the Visitors in 1648, perhaps on the suggestion of the new
+Warden, his half-brother. He filled many offices in the College, was one
+of the original Fellows of the Royal Society, and became Professor of
+Astronomy in Gresham College. He deserves to be remembered as the author
+of a quaint and interesting little book, in which he gives a brief
+account of Wilkins, Lawrence Rooke, and Isaac Barrow, as well as a
+complete life of Seth Ward, Bishop of Salisbury. It is full of
+digressions on the manners and customs of the time, written with much
+humour, and is worthy of a humble place beside the diaries of Evelyn and
+Pepys.
+
+Seth Ward was a Scholar of Sidney Sussex, ejected from his College and
+from Cambridge because "he refused the Covenant and other oaths." He
+went to London, and, like Wren and Wallis, studied mathematics under
+William Oughtred, the author of the 'Clavis Mathematica,'--"a little
+book, but a great one as to the contents,"--which brought its author a
+great name, as well it might. When in London Ward met Wilkins and
+formed a lifelong friendship with him. They were both men of learning,
+moderate, dexterous, and successful. Ward entered Wadham as a Fellow
+Commoner in October 1649, became Savilian Professor of Astronomy, and in
+1659 President of Trinity. Like Wilkins, he was ejected from his
+Headship at the Restoration, and like him obtained high preferment under
+the new _regime_ and became a Bishop. Both of them, when in Oxford,
+"became liable to the persecutions of peevish people who ceased not to
+clamour, and even to article against them as Cavaliers in their
+hearts--meer moral men without the Power of Godliness." "You must know,"
+continues Pope, "that a moral and unblamable person, if he did not herd
+with them, was an abomination to that Party. I have heard one of them
+deliver himself in this manner." The "manner" is impossible to quote; it
+is to the effect that the speaker's opponents were hypocrites and
+Pharisees of the worst kind, and "in a desperate condition, on whom
+Jesus Christ can take no hold." The passage is instructive; it reveals
+the exasperation of party feeling in those times, and gives much food
+for reflection.
+
+Christopher Wren belongs both to Wadham and to All Souls. He was
+admitted Fellow Commoner of Wadham in 1649, and migrated to All Souls in
+1653, but maintained his connection with his first College, and for
+several years occupied the chamber over the gateway. Of him, the close
+friend of Wilkins, the scientist and architect, the President of the
+Royal Society, nothing more need here be said. His portrait hangs in
+Wadham College Hall, beneath that of Robert Blake.
+
+Less known is Thomas Sprat, admitted Scholar of Wadham in 1651. Of him
+Wood says that he was "an excellent poet and orator, and one who arrived
+at a great mastery of the English language." His reputation does not
+rest on his poetry: he was known by the strange and dubious title of
+"Pindarick Sprat." But his History of the Royal Society justifies Wood's
+encomium; and he wrote a 'Relation of the late wicked contrivance of
+Stephen Blackhead and of Robert Young,' of which Macaulay, who does not
+praise lightly, says that "there are few better narratives in the
+language." Sprat became Bishop of Rochester and Chaplain to Charles II.,
+though in his youth he had written an Ode on the death of Oliver
+Cromwell.
+
+Lawrence Rooke was admitted in 1650 from King's College, Cambridge. He
+accompanied Ward in his migration to Oxford, "and seated himself in
+Wadham College for the benefit of his conversation." Pope "never was
+acquainted with any person who knew more and spoke less." He was a
+prominent member of the band of philosophers who met in Wilkins'
+Lodgings; and after the Restoration held the Professorship of Astronomy
+in Gresham College, and was a Fellow of the Royal Society. Pope's
+account of him is well worth reading: of his travels in France; of his
+encounter with the redoubtable Thomas Hobbes, whose quadrature of the
+circle he proved false: that hard-headed philosopher's logic or
+"computation" must have failed him on this occasion, for finding, as he
+thought, errors in Rooke's criticism, he concluded that his own solution
+must be true. With Ward and Wallis Hobbes had still more fierce
+encounters on the same question.
+
+Gilbert Ironside, admitted in 1650, became Warden, Vice-Chancellor of
+the University, and, as his father had been, Bishop of Bristol, and
+finally of Hereford. He was the "rudest man in the University," and that
+without respect of persons, for he remonstrated, in a tone not far
+removed from rudeness, with James II. when he visited Oxford in 1687 to
+enforce his mandate on Magdalen College.
+
+William Lloyd, who entered Wadham in 1655, was a learned Divine, with
+his learning at command, of whom Burnet says that "he had the most
+learning in ready cash of any one he knew." He devoted himself to the
+interpretation of prophecy. His labours were rewarded by the title of
+Pseudopropheta Canus, bestowed on him when he was old and white-haired,
+by the _terrae filius_ of 1703. He had himself in his younger days shown
+some tendency to irreverent joking, by inventing an Eastern Patriarch, a
+native of London, a man of venerable appearance and dressed to suit the
+character, who deceived some eminent members of the University, and gave
+them his blessing; an incident of which Lloyd used to make his "bragge"
+long afterwards. He became Bishop of St Asaph, and was one of the Seven
+Bishops committed to the Tower. William III. rewarded him with the
+Bishoprics of Lichfield and Coventry, and finally of Worcester.
+
+Samuel Parker matriculated in 1657, and became Bishop of Oxford in 1686.
+In the following year he was intruded by James II. into the President's
+place at Magdalen College, but held his office for only five months. He
+died in his Lodgings, and was buried in the ante-chapel, but honoured by
+no memorial to mark the place of his interment. His must have been a
+dismal reign.
+
+Beside these names of bishops and philosophers occur names of interest
+of various kinds: historic names--Russell, Lovelace, Windham,
+Strangways; one also of quite different associations, Sedley, who
+entered Wadham in 1656, the boon companion later of Rochester, who, also
+a Wadham undergraduate, was his junior by four years. Both of them were
+libertines and wits, who received at their College, it may be presumed,
+an education the precepts of which they did not practise at the Court of
+Charles II. Other entries show the continued connection of the College
+with the West of England--with Somerset, the Wadhams' county; with
+Devon, Dorset, Hampshire, and Gloucestershire.
+
+Enough has been said to prove that Wadham under Wilkins was a college of
+high reputation and efficiency. It was a nursery of bishops,
+contributing to the bench no less than six, including Wilkins himself; a
+nursery also of Fellows of the Royal Society,--Wilkins, Ward, Rooke,
+Wren, Sprat, and Pope were original members of the "invisible college."
+Not only to the Church and to Science did Wadham do good service, but
+more directly to the State, by educating together impartially the youth
+of both the great parties. "When the hurly-burly's done, when the
+battle's lost and won," it is above all things desirable to allay bitter
+feelings, and bring the former combatants together. For this most
+difficult and delicate of tasks Wilkins was well qualified. He was
+beloved by the Cavaliers because he treated all his undergraduates
+kindly, Royalists and Puritans alike, in marked contrast with other
+Heads of Houses, who appear to have dealt faithfully with young
+Malignants, the sons of their political opponents.
+
+That Wilkins possessed great administrative abilities and vigour is
+shown by his work in the University and in his College. He had seen much
+of the world, and was in the prime of life, and already a man of
+eminence--a combination of qualities as rare in Heads of Houses as in
+Cabinet Ministers. He persuaded the Visitors that Wadham and Trinity
+were fitted, specially and immediately, in 1651 for freedom to elect
+their Fellows--a privilege of which all the Colleges had been deprived
+in 1648. The administration of the College estates and finances was
+carefully revised, and the Statutes were amended. Wilkins' life was
+varied and full of activities outside as well as within his College. He
+was selected to deal with problems more difficult and pressing than
+Compulsory Pass Greek, or degrees for women. Was Oxford to be
+dismantled? Its security had been threatened by a rising of the
+"Levellers"; and in 1649 Wilkins, along with the Proctor and a Canon of
+Christ Church, was appointed to confer with the mayor and the citizens
+on this important question, not then decided.
+
+Two years later he served on a Commission appointed to consider how to
+suppress troubles caused by sturdy beggars, "poore soldiers, cashiered
+or maimed, and Irish people with petitions, that pretended to be undon
+by the late rebellion there,"--the miserable sequel of the civil war.
+He helped in the revision of the College and University Statutes, and on
+the nomination of Cromwell was made one of the Commissioners for
+executing the office of Chancellor, proving himself a man of affairs as
+well as of learning. For ten years, as critical as any in the history of
+Oxford, he took a leading part in its academical and municipal
+administration.
+
+Yet he found time to avail himself of the privilege to marry given to
+the Warden of Wadham: it was accorded to him by a dispensation of the
+Visitors, who doubtless thought that enforced celibacy savoured of
+Popery. The privilege was withdrawn after the Restoration, as being a
+concession made by Puritans, whose views on the marriage of the clergy
+were not the views of the High Church party. Leave to marry was given to
+all Wardens of Wadham by a special Act of Parliament in 1806, and not,
+as the College story goes, by a clause tacked on to a Canal or Turnpike
+Bill.
+
+Pope's account of Wilkins' marriage is a strange solution of an always
+interesting question, and not altogether complimentary to the lady of
+his choice. "Dr Ward," he says, "rid out of this storm,"--the storm of
+obloquy which broke out on him and Wilkins as being "mere moral men."
+Wilkins "put into the port of matrimony," apparently as a harbour of
+refuge in distress. He married Robina, the Protector's sister, widow of
+Dr Peter French, Canon of Christ Church. Her first husband was "a pious,
+humble, and learned person, and an excellent preacher," the best, in
+Pope's opinion, of the censorious party. Ward did not imitate his
+friend, though, if we believe Pope, he had many opportunities for doing
+so. "He was never destitute of friends of the Fair Sex, never without
+proffers of Wives," which became increasingly frequent as he rose in the
+world. Pope professes to have known "several persons of great quality
+and estates who found ways to make it known to Ward, that if he would
+address himself to them in the honourable way of marriage, he should not
+want a kind entertainment." But he, then Bishop of Salisbury, had
+before his eyes the fate of one of his predecessors who married after he
+became a bishop, and "upon that had received so severe a reprimand from
+his brother, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and laid it so much to heart
+that it accelerated his death." This story may be apocryphal; it is
+certainly startling. Do ladies of quality still give such hints to
+bishops? Do bishops die of a rebuke from the archbishop of their
+province?
+
+Wilkins' marriage "gained him a strong interest and authority in the
+University, and set him at safety, and out of the reach of his
+Adversaries." We may trust that it was for his happiness in other ways.
+
+Of his wife little is known, nor is there a portrait of her in the
+College. She had a son by her second marriage, Joshua Wilkins, who
+became Dean of Down: by her first marriage she had a daughter, Elizabeth
+French, the wife of Tillotson. The writer once amused himself with the
+fancy that the Archbishop to-be met and courted Miss French in the
+Warden's Lodgings at Wadham, which have few romantic associations; but
+chronology proves that Tillotson, a Cambridge man, born in 1630, would
+probably not have made acquaintance with Wilkins before 1659, when he
+became Master of Trinity. The romance had therefore to be transferred to
+the Master's Lodge. Even there it could not stay, for Tillotson's first
+meeting with his future wife in all likelihood took place in London,
+when he was appointed Tuesday Lecturer at St Lawrence Jewry, the
+vicarage of which was one of Wilkins' earliest preferments after his
+ejection from the Mastership of Trinity. When Tillotson made suit for
+the hand of his stepdaughter, Wilkins, upon her desiring to be excused,
+said, "Betty, you shall have him, for he is the best polemical Divine
+this day in England." Though excellence in polemical divinity has not an
+attraction for most women, she consented, and they were married in 1664.
+The stories both of Dorothy and Betty are myths, which fade away at the
+first touch of criticism.
+
+[Illustration: WADHAM COLLEGE FROM THE COLLEGE GARDEN.]
+
+Wilkins was a diligent student, and wrote books of many kinds. These
+books the writer does not pretend to have read, save in the most
+hurried, even careless way, except two of them, the 'Real Character' and
+'Natural Religion.' The others are of interest to natural philosophers,
+as containing anticipations of discoveries and ideas which belong to a
+later age, and as showing that Wilkins possessed the inspiring
+conviction of all genuine men of Science, that for it the word
+impossible does not exist.
+
+In 1638 he published his first work, an Astronomical treatise, the fruit
+of his studies at Oxford and at Fawsley. It is entitled 'The Discovery
+of a World in the Moone, or a discourse tending to prove that there may
+be another habitable World in that Planet': in the third impression,
+issued in 1640, is added a "Discourse concerning the Possibility of a
+Passage thither." Like Lucian he imagined a voyage to the moon, though
+he admits that the journey through the air was a formidable difficulty.
+He successfully defended his views against an objection raised by the
+Duchess of Newcastle. That clever and eccentric lady, the authoress of
+many "fancies," philosophical and poetical, asked him where she was to
+bait her horses if she undertook the journey. "Your Grace could not do
+better," he replied, "than stop at one of your castles in the air." In
+his treatment of the difficulties caused by the apparent conflict
+between certain passages of Scripture and the conclusions of
+Astronomical Science, which he accepts, he anticipates in a remarkable
+way that explanation of them which rests on the understanding of the
+meaning of the Bible and of the nature of inspiration. The book was
+parodied in the story of 'Peter Wilkins' Journey to the Moon,' which
+even usually well-informed persons have been known to attribute as a
+_jeu-d'esprit_ to the Warden of Wadham. It was written by Robert
+Paltock, and published in 1751.
+
+His next production was 'Mercurie; or the Secret and Swift
+Messenger,'--a treatise on Cryptography or ciphers; curious
+contrivances whereby A can communicate with C without B's suspecting or
+understanding, by signs, gestures, parables, and transpositions of the
+alphabet: such as the writer looked at seemed to confirm the view that
+every cipher which depends on system, and not on an arrangement of a
+capricious kind, can be interpreted by an expert, a title to which he
+lays no claim. The book was meant perhaps for use in the Civil War, as
+was the system of Wilkins' friend, Dr Wallis, who could both invent and
+solve such puzzles, and distinguished himself by deciphering the letters
+of the king which fell into the hands of the Parliamentarians at Naseby.
+There is also among the "Tracts of Bishop Wilkins," a treatise dated
+1648, entitled 'Mathematical Magic; or, the Wonders worked by Mechanical
+Powers and Motions,' subdivided, according to that distinction, into two
+books, styled Archimedes and Daedalus. The names are quaint, and the
+classical illustrations are very numerous. The work is a kind of
+handbook for engineers, enlivened by quotations, not always apposite,
+from ancient authors, as was the fashion when high literary culture and
+science could be more easily combined than in our days of ruthless
+specialism. It is dedicated in very courtly language to the Prince
+Elector Palatine. Wilkins looks forward to the Prince's restoration to
+his dominions--a curious aspiration to be professed by a man who did
+not, then at least, put his trust in princes. But he did not foresee
+what was to come, both to himself or others.
+
+His two books of a devotional character were, one on 'The Gift of
+Prayer,' a formal and elaborate treatise with many divisions and
+subdivisions, in spirit earnest and devout. Its companion treatise,
+'Ecclesiastes; or the Gift of Preaching,' shows a high conception of the
+learning which he thought necessary for one who would preach well;
+knowledge of commentators; of preachers, especially of English
+sermon-writers; of works on Christian doctrine, on the history of
+Christianity; of all subjects which can be included in Theology. The
+list of books recommended is enormous, and beyond the reach of any
+man--even of Wilkins or Casaubon: it must have been intended to be a
+work of reference, a catalogue from which a student might select. It,
+like his 'Sermons Preached on Several Occasions,' is illumined by quaint
+utterances, humorous, sensible, and devout; qualities more frequently
+combined in those days than in our own, when the "dignity of the
+pulpit," a lamentable superstition, has weakened its influence, and has
+made religion appear to simple people remote from common life.
+
+Wilkins' most original and valuable contribution to Theology is 'The
+Principles and Duties of Natural Religion,' written in his later years,
+and published after his death by Tillotson. Mr Sanders, the writer of
+the too short article on Wilkins in the 'Dictionary of National
+Biography,' says that "in this work there are thoughts which anticipate
+the argument of Butler's 'Analogy.'" Wilkins, like Butler and Newman,
+draws distinctions between different kinds of evidence and different
+degrees of consequent assent. He points out that neither Natural
+Religion nor Christianity can be proved true by demonstration like a
+conclusion in geometry, or in any kind of mathematical reasoning; that
+in default of this inference from self-evident premises to propositions
+of equal cogency, we must, in a matter of paramount practical
+importance, be content to judge, as fairly and soberly as we can, by
+that "probability" which Butler calls "the guide of life." Wilkins
+perceived, what few in his time perceived, that there are no
+"demonstrations" of Christianity, nor even of Theism; that faith is
+faith. Further, he emphasises the harmony between Natural and Revealed
+Religion, the fact that one is the complement of the other. But in him
+there are not the depth, candour, and seriousness of Butler, nor that
+sense of mystery which makes him the weightiest of Christian Apologists
+in the estimation both of disciples and opponents.
+
+The book by which Wilkins will always be remembered among curious
+students and philologers is his 'Essay towards a Real Character and a
+Philosophical Language.' It is a quarto of 600 pages, including an
+alphabetical dictionary of English words, with their equivalents in what
+may be called, without irreverence, Wilkinese. It was written at the
+request of the Royal Society, and, by its order, published in 1688. The
+meaning of the somewhat obscure title is explained by Wilkins in a very
+interesting preface. Character means language, or rather writing, and a
+universal character is the script of a language like that which was
+spoken before the confusion of tongues; a language for and of all men.
+By "Real" is signified that the new language is founded on a study of
+things which are "better than words"; of "the nature of things, and that
+common notion of them wherein mankind does agree." The making of such a
+language "will prove the shortest and plainest way for the attainment of
+real knowledge," and the language thus made will be truly philosophical,
+or, to use our modern term, scientific. The labour bestowed by Wilkins
+on his magnificent project was immense, but the result was failure.
+"Sunt lacrimae rerum," and tears were never shed over a greater waste of
+ingenuity and heroic toil, if indeed a fine example of fruitless
+devotion is to be called waste. With apologies to the Esperantists, it
+must be said that the invention of a universal language, of any but the
+narrowest compass, seems impossible, for language, in any real sense, is
+not made but grows. It is dangerous, however, to dogmatise on
+possibilities. Misled, as we can gather from his preface, by the proved
+usefulness of mathematical signs, Wilkins attempted to provide for
+philosophers of all countries a better means of communication than
+Latin, then the universal language of literature and science, but in his
+opinion unscientific, full of anomalies and difficult to acquire; for in
+it there were, he said, thirty thousand words. In his language there
+were only three thousand, and they could be learnt by a man of good
+capacity in a month. His estimate of capacity and diligence is somewhat
+high. It is possible to explain the principles on which he constructed
+his new tongue. He began by dividing the universe, the sum total of
+existence, things, thoughts, relations, after the manner of Aristotle,
+though not into ten, but into forty categories, or genera, or great
+classes, such as World, Element, Animal, and apparently species of
+animals, such as Bird, Fish, Beast: for each of these great classes he
+devised a monosyllabic name--_e.g._, De for Element, Za for Fish; each
+of these genera is subdivided into species indicated by the addition of
+a consonant, and these are again subdivided into subordinate species
+distinguished by a vowel affixed. For example--De means an Element, any
+of the four, Fire, Air, Earth, Water; add to it B, which, as the first
+consonant, stands for the first species of a genus, and you will have
+the significant word DEB, which means Fire, for it, we know not why, is
+the first of the four Elements. Let us take a more complex instance--his
+name for Salmon. The salmon is a species of Za or Fish, a particular
+kind of fish called N, namely, the Squameous river fish. This class ZaN
+is subdivided into lower classes, and the lower class Salmon is called
+A, which means the red-fleshed kind of squameous river fish, and so a
+salmon is a ZaNA. If you wished to state the fact that a salmon swims,
+you would use the words ZaNA GoF, for Go stands for the great category
+of motion, F for the particular kind of motion meant, swimming. Voice,
+tense, and mood are indicated by lines of different lengths, straight or
+curved, crossed, hooked, looped; adverbs and conjunctions by dots or
+points differently arranged.
+
+Wilkins' universal character therefore means a kind of shorthand writing
+of his Real Language.
+
+The writer fears that he may only have confused his readers and himself
+by his bold but poor attempt to express in a few lines the meaning of
+six hundred pages. He would be the last to ridicule the "folly" of a
+great man, whose system he has made no very laborious effort to
+understand, for it seems to be built on sand, on a classification of
+things superficial, imperfect, and capricious, which would not have been
+accepted by learned men, and if accepted would have become obsolete in a
+quarter of a century. The syllable Co stands for all relations between
+human beings, and these relations are of eight kinds. What would a
+professor of social science now say to this? What would an ichthyologist
+say to Wilkins' definition of a salmon? The interest of the book lies in
+its being the most striking of many proofs of the wide intellectual
+interests, the alert and insatiable curiosity, and the extraordinary
+industry of its writer. It has also the pathetic interest of "love's
+labour lost," for who now reads the 'Real Character,' or who read it
+twenty years after Wilkins' death? His name was "writ in water," for he
+spent himself on many things, and did little because he did too much.
+
+The "greatest curioso" of his time relieved his toils by music. Nowhere
+are Wood's vanity and self-consciousness shown more vividly than in his
+account of a musical entertainment given by Wilkins in honour of Thomas
+Baltzar, "the most famous artist for the violin which the world had yet
+produced. The books and instruments were carried thither," to the
+Warden's lodgings, "but none could be persuaded there to play against
+him in consort on the violin. At length the company, perceiving A. W.
+standing behind in a corner neare the dore, they haled him in among
+them, and play forsooth he must against him: whereupon, he being not
+able to avoid it, took up a violin, and behaved himself as poor Troylus
+did against Achilles." Wood consoled himself for his failure by the
+honour he acquired from being asked to play with the Master, of whom he
+maliciously remarks that "he was given to excessive drinking,"--a
+characteristic comment.
+
+Wilkins' greatest achievement was the founding of the Royal Society. He
+may be called its founder, if that high title can be given to any one of
+the eminent men who, in Oxford and in London, revived or regenerated
+the study of natural philosophy. Pope, Aubrey, and Sprat differ from
+Wallis in their accounts of the origin of the mother of scientific
+parliaments. The first three find that origin in meetings held in Wadham
+College under the presidency of Wilkins. Wallis traces the beginnings of
+the Royal Society to meetings held in London in 1645. "In that year," he
+writes, "there had sprung up an association of certain worthy persons
+inquisitive in Natural Philosophy, who met together, first in London,
+for the investigation of what was called the new or experimental
+philosophy, and afterwards several of the more influential of the
+members, about 1648 or 1649, finding London too much distracted by civil
+commotions, commenced holding their meetings in Oxford." Among those who
+removed to Oxford were, "first, Dr Wilkins, then I, and soon after Dr
+Goddard, whereupon our company divided. Those at London (and we when we
+had occasion to be there) met as before. Those of us at Oxford, with Dr
+Ward, Dr Petty, and many others of the most inquisitive persons in
+Oxford, met weekly for some years at Dr Petty's lodgings, on the like
+account, to wit, so long as Dr Petty continued in Oxford, and for some
+while after, because of the conveniences we had there (being the house
+of an apothecary) to view and make use of drugs, and other like matters
+as there was occasion. We did afterwards (Dr Petty being gone to Ireland
+and our numbers growing less) remove thence, and (some years before his
+Majesty's return) did meet at Dr Wilkin's lodgings in Wadham College."
+
+This account is plain enough: it differs from the story told by Sprat in
+this point only, that Sprat omits reference to the first meetings in
+London between 1645 and 1648, and to the meetings in Oxford at Dr
+Petty's lodgings. The causes of these omissions are not far to seek.
+Sprat was a youth of seventeen in 1651, the year of his admission into
+Wadham: it is difficult to believe that he was present at the gatherings
+of men many years his senior in Dr Petty's lodgings, or knew as much as
+Wallis did of the infancy of the Royal Society. No Oxford man is to be
+entirely trusted when writing about his own College, and Sprat laudably
+claimed for Wadham the honour of being the cradle of the great
+association.
+
+In his history of the Royal Society, published in 1667, he gives a full
+account of its growth and objects, though not of its beginnings.
+
+"It was some space," he writes, "after the end of the Civil Wars at
+Oxford, in Dr Wilkins, his lodgings, in Wadham College, which was then
+the place of resort for virtuous and learned men, that the first
+meetings were held which laid the foundation of all this that followed.
+The University had at this time many members of its own who had begun a
+free way of reasoning; and was also frequented by some gentlemen of
+philosophical minds, whom the misfortunes of the kingdom, and the
+security and ease of a retirement among Gownsmen had drawn thither.
+Their first purpose was no more than only the satisfaction of breathing
+a freer air, and of conversing in quiet one with another, without being
+engaged in the passions and madness of that dismal Age. And from the
+Institution of that Assembly, it had been enough if no other advantage
+had come but this: that by this means there was a race of young men
+provided, against the next Age, whose minds, receiving from them their
+first impressions of sober and general knowledge, were invincibly armed
+against the enchantments of Enthusiasm. But what is more, I may venture
+to affirm that it was in good measure by the influence which these
+Gentlemen had over the rest, that the University itself, or at least any
+part of its Discipline or Order was saved from ruine. For such a candid
+and impassionate company as that was, and for such a gloomy season, what
+could have been a fitter subject to pitch upon than Natural Philosophy?
+To have been always tossing about some Theological question would have
+been to have made that their private diversion the excess of which they
+themselves disliked in the public. To have been eternally musing on
+Civil business and distresses of their Country was too melancholy a
+reflection. It was Nature alone which could pleasantly entertain them in
+that estate."
+
+It would be superfluous to praise this noble and pathetic passage. It
+shows the weariness of political and religious controversy which
+oppressed men's minds; the discouragement, almost hopelessness, which
+made the Restoration welcome, and Puritanism odious, for a time at
+least, to the majority of Englishmen. The word Enthusiasm is of strange
+significance; then and for more than a hundred years later it connoted
+extravagance and fanaticism. Worthy of notice also are Sprat's words to
+the effect that the influence of Wilkins and his friends was on the side
+of discipline and order in the University, and saved it from "ruine."
+They ought to please and encourage, perhaps instruct, the modern
+apostles of science who are with us now.
+
+From a comparison of Wallis' and Sprat's accounts, it is clear that the
+dispute, if dispute there be, whether Wadham or London was the cradle of
+the Royal Society, can be settled more easily than most contested claims
+of this kind. The facts are ascertained: the question turns on the
+meaning of the words "founder" and "foundation." The first meetings of
+the Philosophical Club, which became the Royal Society, were
+unquestionably held in London, and were continued there, at the Bull's
+Head Tavern in Cheapside, after Wilkins had removed to Oxford in 1648,
+and gathered round him there the members of a new philosophical society,
+which may be called, if that name be preferred, an offshoot from the
+parent stem: the two clubs co-existed till the Restoration, when most of
+the Oxford philosophers migrated or returned to London, and were
+incorporated into one society which received its name and charter from
+Charles II. in July 1662.
+
+Metaphors do not always illustrate, but the facts may be stated thus:
+the Royal Society was born in London or cradled there; the infant did
+not thrive, and was put out to nurse at Oxford where it waxed and
+prospered: it was a proper child of three years old when (on Petty's
+leaving Oxford in 1651) it found a settled home in the Warden's lodgings
+in Wadham for eight years; grown and strengthened, the boy was brought
+back to his birthplace, and was recognised and named. In this sense it
+may be said that the Royal Society was founded by Wilkins in Wadham:
+that College was its early home, and Wilkins was the most prominent and
+active man in the Philosophical Club.
+
+A very clear and short account of many of its members is given in the
+'History of the Oxford Museum,' by Dr Vernon and Miss Vernon, which, if
+I may presume to praise it, resembles the work of Oughtred before
+mentioned, as being "a little book, but a great one as to the contents."
+Sprat enumerates as "the principal and most constant of those who met at
+Wadham, Dr Seth Ward, Mr Boyle, Dr Wilkins, Sir William Petty, Dr
+Wallis, Dr Goddard, Dr Willis, Dr Bathurst, Mr Matthew Wren, Dr
+Christopher Wren, Mr Rooke, besides several others, who joyn'd
+themselves to them, upon occasion." The list is remarkable; it
+represents the science of the time,--Mathematics, Astronomy, Chemistry,
+Physics, Engineering, Architecture, Theology, and Political Economy or
+Arithmetic, for nothing "scibile" was alien to these inquisitive
+persons. "Their proceedings," we are told, "were rather by action than
+discourse, chiefly attending some particular Trials in Chymistry or
+Mechanicks: they had no Rules nor Method fixed: their intention was more
+to communicate to each other their discoveries which they could make in
+so narrow a compass, than an united, constant, or regular inquisition."
+They were probably "clubbable" persons, friends with a common interest,
+each pursuing his own path with perfect freedom, a method which must
+have enhanced the harmony and efficiency of their meetings. The Club, or
+a branch of it, survived at Oxford the departure of Wilkins and most of
+the philosophers. To Robert Boyle was mainly due the continuance of the
+faithful remnant. In the year 1659 he imported into Oxford Peter
+Sthael, a noted Chemist and Rosicrucian, "a great hater of women and a
+very useful man." Among those who attended his lectures were Antony
+Wood, Wallis, Wren, Bathurst, and, not least, Locke, who was
+troublesome, and "scorned to take notes"--why we are not told, and may
+imagine as we please. Wood's account of this survival is obscure--he
+seems uncertain as to the relation of Sthael's pupils to the Royal
+Society at Oxford: they were probably the same, and incurred the wrath
+and misrepresentations of Henry Stubb, who inveighed against them as
+dangerous,--the Society had become obnoxious to the University, being
+suspected of a desire to confer degrees, against which the University
+"stuck," to use Wood's word, not unreasonably.
+
+The Oxford meetings in Wilkins' time, after 1651, were held, not in the
+room over the gateway, but in the dining-room or drawing-room of the
+Warden's lodgings. By the direction of the Foundress "the chamber over
+the great gate" had been assigned to the Warden, as commanding the
+entrance into the College, and a view of all who should go in or out: he
+was to have also for his own use seven rooms next adjoining on the north
+side. It is uncertain at what date he migrated to his present lodgings,
+but there is abundant evidence to show that it was before the time of
+Wilkins, for from 1640 to 1663 the great chamber was occupied by various
+tenants,--among them Seth Ward and Christopher Wren. The writer is
+therefore warranted in picturing to the eye of his imagination the
+personages of the club assembled in his drawing-room, a club less
+famous, but no less worthy of fame, than the Literary Club of Johnson,
+Goldsmith, Burke, and Reynolds.
+
+[Illustration: SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN.]
+
+Fain would he ask questions of Wren or Ward or Wilkins, or any of the
+members of the club, most of whom he would recognise by their portraits
+in the College or elsewhere.
+
+
+On September 3, 1658, Oliver Cromwell died. To Wood the exact date is
+important, because "some writers tell us that he was hurried away by
+the Devill in a terrible raging wind on the 30th of August," a statement
+which the chronicler might have been expected to believe. Richard
+Cromwell was proclaimed Protector at Oxford on September 6th, in the
+usual places where kings had been proclaimed. The ceremony was disturbed
+by young scholars, who pelted with carrots and turnips the mayor,
+recorder, and town clerk, as well as Colonel Upton and his troopers.
+These missiles were symptoms of the reaction which was fast approaching.
+It belongs to the history of England, but so far as it showed itself in
+Oxford, it is part of the life of Wilkins. It must have given him much
+to think of during the last year of his Wardenship. In February 1659 the
+Vice-Chancellor wrote to the Dean of Christ Church, then in London, that
+"he must make haste to Oxford, for godliness laye a gasping." Nathaniel
+Crewe of Lincoln had in the same month drawn up a petition, which Wood
+signed, to put out the Visitors. He was a Presbyterian, and ready to
+have the Visitors "put downe, notwithstanding he had before submitted
+to them and had paid to them reverence and obedience. The Independants,
+who called themselves the godly party, drew up a petition contrary to
+the former, and said 'twas for the cause of Christ." The feud between
+the two parties was no less bitter, when their supremacy in Oxford was
+drawing to its end, than it had been many years before. Which of the
+petitions did Wilkins sign?
+
+A year later, in February 1660, Monk made a speech to Parliament of
+doubtful meaning, exhorting his hearers to be careful "that neither the
+Cavalier nor the phanatique party have yet a share in your civil or
+military power,"--on which utterance Wood notes that "the word
+phanatique comes much into fashion after this." Monk's meaning was
+quickly interpreted for him, both in London and in Oxford,--on February
+13th "there was great rejoicing here at Oxon for the news of a free
+parliament, ringing of bells, bonfires, &c.: there were rumps (_i.e._,
+tayles of sheep) flung in a bonfire at Queen's Coll., and some at Dr
+Palmer's window at All Soles." The joy of the Royalists especially was
+manifested by the reading at Magdalen parish church of Common Prayer,
+"after it had been omitted to be read in public places in Oxon since the
+surrender of the city or in 1647." All the tokens of Monarchy were
+restored: "the signe of the King's Head had been dashed out, or daubled
+over, tempore Olivari, and (in its place was written 'This was the
+King's Head') was new painted." On the 1st of May "a Maypole was set up
+against the Beare in All Hallows parish (_i.e._, opposite the Mitre of
+our time) on purpose to vex the Presbyterians and Independants," despite
+the interference of Dr Conant, the Vice-Chancellor. On the 10th the new
+King was proclaimed: on the 14th letters from Richard Cromwell to
+Convocation were read, whereby he resigned the Chancellorship of the
+University in dignified and courteous words. By May 29th the Restoration
+was complete, and the day was observed in all or in most towns in
+England, "particularly at Oxon, which did exceed any place of its
+bigness." Wood's comment on these events is worth giving in full: "The
+world of England was perfectly mad. They were free from the chains of
+darkness and confusion which the Presbyterians and phanatiques had
+brought upon them: yet some of them, seeing then what mischief they had
+done, tack'd about to participate of the universal Joy, and at length
+closed with the Royal partie." Here we take leave, for a time, of Antony
+Wood, who has been allowed to tell his story in his own words; unwilling
+leave, for though he is provoking, he is charming, with a keen eye for
+character, both of parties and individuals, and for the issues and
+events of real importance, never dull or lengthy, save when he descants
+on his family affairs or on the minutiae of his occasionally meticulous
+antiquarianism, and even then to be forgiven for his zeal and industry.
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[2] See 'Cromwell,' p. 368, 2nd edition.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+WILKINS AFTER HIS LIFE AT OXFORD.
+
+
+Wilkins was spared the pain of witnessing the end of the Commonwealth in
+Oxford, and of being ejected from his post like other Heads of Houses.
+On September 3, 1659, he resigned the Wardenship, and was succeeded on
+September 5th by Walter Blandford, one of the Fellows who had submitted
+to the Visitors in 1648, and later, in that strange time of opinions
+which "could be changed," had made his peace with the Royalists. During
+his Wardenship of six years the College flourished. He was made Bishop
+of Oxford in 1665, and was in 1671 promoted to the See of Worcester,
+another of the many Wadham Bishops.
+
+Wilkins left Wadham to become Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. He
+had been invited there by the Fellows, on whose petition he was
+presented by Richard Cromwell. Thirty years later Cambridge, as if in
+exchange for value received, sent Richard Bentley to Wadham, who left it
+to return to Cambridge as Master of Trinity,--an interchange of which
+neither University can complain.
+
+At Cambridge Wilkins' stay was brief. He was Master of Trinity only for
+ten months, but in that short reign he proved himself as vigorous and
+effective as he had been at Wadham: he stimulated and organised the
+College teaching, and made his Fellows work, by instituting
+disputations, and examinations at elections, probably fallen out of use
+in the troubles of the fifteen previous years; yet here as elsewhere he
+was able to win and rule, for "he was honoured there and heartily loved
+by all." At Cambridge, Burnet tells us, "he joined with those who
+studied to propagate better thoughts, to take men off from being in
+parties, or from narrow notions, from superstitious conceits, and
+fierceness about opinions." He must have had as his allies there
+Cudworth and Whichcote, men of his own age, and one younger,
+Stillingfleet, the Latitudinarians, from whom our Broad Churchmen are
+theologically descended.
+
+The evil days came soon: despite the petition of the Fellows who wished
+to keep him, he was ejected from the Mastership when the King came back.
+"The whirligig of time brings in his revenges," and what Pitt had
+undergone Wilkins had to undergo.
+
+Pope describes, surely with some exaggeration, the troubles of Wilkins
+during the eight years between his departure from Cambridge and his
+being made Bishop of Chester. He was a man whom no misfortunes could
+crush--elastic, resolute, resourceful master of his fate,--
+
+
+     "Merses profundo, pulchrior evenit."
+
+
+He had many friends and a great reputation; they brought him various
+preferments,--the lectureship at Gray's Inn, the vicarage of St
+Lawrence Jewry, and the Deanery of Ripon, within a few years after his
+banishment from Cambridge. Preferment may not have brought him
+happiness, but it must have prevented his fortunes from being, as Pope
+says they were, "as low as they could be." He suffered indeed one
+calamity--a cruel one to a man of his pursuits and tastes: in the great
+fire of London the vicarage house of St Lawrence Jewry was burnt, and
+with it were destroyed his books and the collection of scientific
+instruments made during his residence at Oxford with the help of the
+members of the club.
+
+Add to this that he was out of favour both at Whitehall and at Lambeth
+on account of his marriage--for that reason "Archbishop Sheldon who had
+the keys of the Church for a great time in his power, and could admit
+unto it and keep out of it whom he pleased, I mean (Pope hastens to
+explain) disposed of all Ecclesiastical Preferments, entertained a
+strong prejudice against him." This prejudice the Archbishop, when
+later, on the introduction of Ward, he came to know him better,
+acknowledged to have been unjust, a signal instance of Wilkins' power of
+winning men. The Latitudinarian was at first coldly received at Lambeth:
+the brother-in-law of Cromwell was not acceptable at Whitehall. His
+friend Ward did not desert him, but "followed up good words with
+answerable actions," and procured for him the Precentor's place at
+Exeter,--"the first step which Wilkins ascended to a better fortune."
+
+In Charles II. he soon found a still more powerful friend. The King, who
+was himself the broadest of Latitudinarians, as far as Protestantism was
+concerned, was not repelled by Wilkins' theological views, and yielded
+readily to the attractions of a versatile and agreeable man of science.
+Science was the most creditable of Charles's tastes and occupations; the
+one in which he took a genuine and enduring interest.
+
+On November 28, 1660, the Invisible College was embodied, and became a
+tangible reality. At a meeting held in Gresham College, twelve persons
+of eminence in science and in other ways "formed the design," as the
+first Journal Book of the Royal Society records, "of founding a College
+for the promotion of Physico-Mathematicall Experimentall Learning."
+Among those present were Rooke, Petty, Wren, and Wilkins: a committee
+was formed, of which Wilkins was appointed chairman: the King gave his
+approval to the scheme drawn up by the committee, and offered to become
+a member of the new College: in 1662 he gave it the Charter of
+Incorporation which passed the Great Seal on July 13th of that year.
+Wilkins was not chosen President; that honour was given to Lord
+Brouncker.
+
+The Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge
+(its official title) took knowledge for its province; that is, natural
+knowledge, of Nature, Art, and Works, in preference to, though not
+necessarily to the exclusion of, moral and metaphysical philosophy,
+history and language. The experiments, its chief work, were to be
+productive both of light and fruit: the influence of Bacon is so great
+and evident that he might in a sense be called the founder of the Royal
+Society. Sprat's real preface to his History is Cowley's famous ode. The
+poet speaks of philosophy--_i.e._, natural philosophy, as the captive
+and slave of Authority and Words, set free by Bacon: its followers he
+likens to the Children of Israel wandering aimlessly from one desert to
+another till Moses brought them to the border of the promised land. The
+stately lines may well be quoted here:--
+
+
+     "From these and all long errors of the way
+       In which our wandering predecessors went,
+     And like th' old Hebrews many years did stray
+       In desarts but of small extent,
+     Bacon like Moses led us forth at last,
+     The barren Wilderness he past,
+     Did on the very Border stand
+     Of the blest promised land,
+     And from the Mountain Top of his Exalted Wit
+     Saw it himself and shew'd us it.
+     But Life did never to one Man allow
+     Time to discover Worlds and conquer too;
+     Nor can so short a line sufficient be
+     To fadome the vast depths of Nature's sea."
+
+
+Like all human institutions, the Royal Society was criticised, feared,
+misunderstood, and ridiculed. There is evidence of this in Sprat's
+anxiety to show that experiments "are not dangerous to the Universities
+nor to the Church of England," a contention which now would be admitted
+or denied if the term "experiments" were first defined. He labours, too,
+to show that they are not dangerous to the Christian religion, either
+its belief or practice. His remarks on this question are of great
+interest and value, and are strangely modern. He pleads that
+"experiments will be beneficial to our wits and writers." Alas! the wits
+at least benefited in a way which Sprat did anticipate. Shadwell in his
+'Virtuoso' found material for profane merriment in some of the
+unquestionably absurd inquiries made or suggested by the natural
+philosophers. "Science was then only just emerging from the Mists of
+Superstition." Astrology and Alchemy still infected Astronomy,
+Chemistry, and Medicine. A Fellow of the Royal Society, along with the
+Puritan, made a ridiculous figure on the stage. But Puritanism and
+Natural Philosophy both survived the "test of truth," and were better
+for the ordeal.[3]
+
+In 1668, through the influence of the Duke of Buckingham, Wilkins was
+made Bishop of Chester. The position of a Bishop in some ways resembles
+that of the Head of a College: Fellows are like canons and archdeacons;
+undergraduates are the "inferior clergy." The Bishop showed in the
+management of his diocese the moderation, tact, and charity which had
+made him a successful Warden. He brought back into the Church of
+England, or into loyalty to that Church, many ministers who had been
+ejected from their livings for non-compliance with the Act of
+Uniformity: his success in this good work was due to his "soft
+interpretation of the terms of conformity." They needed softening; no
+part of Macaulay's 'History of England' is more striking and instructive
+than his account in chapter ii. of the sufferings of the Puritans and
+Nonconformists of all descriptions. "It was made a crime to attend a
+dissenting place of worship. A new and most unreasonable test was
+imposed on divines who had been deprived of their benefices for
+Nonconformity; and all who refused to take that test were prohibited
+from coming within five miles of any town which was governed by a
+corporation, of any town which was represented in Parliament, or of any
+town where they had themselves resided as ministers. The magistrates by
+whom these vigorous statutes were to be enforced, were in general men
+inflamed by party spirit, and by remembrances of wrongs suffered in the
+time of the Commonwealth. The jails were therefore soon crowded with
+dissenters, and among the sufferers were some of whose genius and virtue
+any Christian society might well be proud."
+
+It is probable that Chester jail was less crowded than other jails in
+England, and that dissenters were allowed to come within five miles of
+Chester, even to the Bishop's palace.
+
+Wilkins, like many "moderate" men, had convictions, and was ready to
+make sacrifices in their defence. Not only in his diocese, but in the
+House of Lords, he pleaded for a lenient treatment of dissenters. In
+reference to the second Conventicle Act, Wilkins gained for himself, in
+the view of all right-minded men, especial honour. He argued earnestly
+against the Bill in the Upper House. Even when the king desired him to
+be silent, he replied "That he thought it an ill thing, both in
+conscience and policy, and therefore as an Englishman and a Bishop, he
+was bound to oppose it." Being still further requested by Charles not to
+go to the House while the Bill was pending, his answer was "That by the
+law and constitution of England, and by his Majesty's favour, he had a
+right to debate and vote: and he was neither afraid nor ashamed to own
+his opinion in this matter, and to act pursuant to it, and the king was
+not offended with his freedom."[4] He did not hesitate to endanger his
+favour with the king--perhaps not with him, for Charles was not by
+temper a persecutor, but with the party then in power. From the 'Church
+of England in the Reigns of the Stuarts,' I quote another instance of
+his moderation and clear-headedness in the fierce controversies of his
+time. In a conversation with Cosin, Bishop of Devon, who had censured
+him for his moderation, Wilkins frankly told him that he was a better
+friend to the Church of England than his lordship--"for while you," says
+he, "are for setting the top on the picqued end and downwards, you won't
+be able to keep it up any longer than you keep whipping and scourging;
+whereas I am for setting the broad end downwards, and so 'twill stand of
+itself." The metaphor has obvious defects, but expresses the broadness
+of the Broad party in the Church.
+
+Of Wilkins' work in his diocese few particulars are recorded: it is
+called by Wood the "kill Bishop see," a name which now happily it does
+not deserve. His had been a laborious life, and the last years of it
+must have been full of difficulties and anxieties to the friend of an
+unpopular cause. After four years' tenure of his bishopric, he died in
+the year 1672, at the age of fifty-eight, in Tillotson's house: he was
+buried in the churchyard of St Lawrence Jewry, his old vicarage. His
+College pupil, William Lloyd, preached the funeral sermon, in which he
+defends him against the charge of having looked with too much favour on
+the dissenters, urging as his excuse, "the vehemence of his desire to
+bring the Dissenters off their prejudices, and reduce them to the Unity
+of the Church"; no bad defence.
+
+It is pleasant to turn from Wilkins' public to his private life. There
+are many allusions to him in the Diaries of Pepys and Evelyn.
+
+Pepys made his first acquaintance with Wilkins in 1665: he was now a man
+widely known in London society, especially among learned men and natural
+philosophers. Pepys describes his first visit to him, paid at his house,
+then probably the Vicarage of St Lawrence Jewry. "And so to Dr Merritt"
+(a Fellow of the Royal Society), "and fine discourse among them to my
+great joy, so sober and ingenious: he is now upon finishing his
+discourse of a Universal Character." At a dinner-party later he met
+Wilkins, when "I choosing to sit next Dr Wilkins, Sir George Ent, and
+others whome I value, there talked of several things; Dr Wilkins of the
+Universal Speech, of which he hath a book coming out, and did first
+inform me how man was certainly made for society, without which he would
+be a very mean creature." In 1668 the book was published, carried home
+by Pepys, and carefully perused. He enjoyed the account given by Wilkins
+of the ark, and his solutions of the difficulties raised even in his
+time. The solutions, Pepys says, "do please me mightily, and are much
+beyond whatever I heard of the subject." This is easy to believe. He
+must have been impressed by Wilkins' contention that "few were the
+several species of beasts and fowls which were to be in the Arke"; a
+consequence of the fundamental error of his system, the belief that
+nature was easily classified, and her classes few. In Pepys' last
+important reference to Wilkins, he tells us that he "heard talk that Dr
+Wilkins, my friend the Bishop of Chester, shall be removed to Winchester
+and be made Lord Treasurer: though this be foolish talk, I do gather he
+is a mighty rising man, as being a Latitudinarian, and the Duke of
+Buckingham his friend."
+
+Evelyn was a warm friend of Wilkins, and a frequent visitor at his
+lodgings in Wadham. In 1654 he came to Oxford with his wife and
+daughter, as London visitors do now for a weekend, or for Commemoration.
+He "supped at a magnificent entertainment in Wadham Hall, invited by my
+dear and excellent friend Dr Wilkins," and met "that miracle of a youth,
+Mr Christopher Wren." Two years later, on another visit, he "dined with
+that most obliging and universally curious person Dr Wilkins at Wadham
+College." There he saw many wonderful things--transparent apiaries, a
+statue that spoke through a tube, a way-wiser (_i.e._, a kind of
+pedometer), dials, perspectives, mathematical and magical curiosities,
+the property or invention of Wilkins or of "that prodigious young
+scholar Christopher Wren." Alas! there are none of these magical
+curiosities in the Warden's lodgings now; they were taken to London and
+lost in the Great Fire.
+
+In 1665 Evelyn heard his friend preach before the Lord Mayor at St
+Paul's on the text, "Obedience is better than sacrifice,"--a curious
+text for him to choose, for it may be interpreted in more ways than one,
+and might have been taken by an enemy as a summary of the preacher's own
+career. Under the same entry Evelyn describes his friend as one "who
+took great pains to preserve the Universities from the ignorant and
+sacrilegious commanders who would have demolished all places and persons
+that pretended to learning"; another indication among many that the
+"obliging" Dr Wilkins was not invertebrate.
+
+In the same year Evelyn, calling at The Durdans, the home of Wilkins'
+former pupil, Lord Berkeley, found there a remarkable group, Petty,
+Rooke, and Wilkins, amusing themselves with "contrivances for chariots,
+and for a wheel for one to run races in,"--the first forms possibly of a
+hansom, and a cycle. "Perhaps," continues Evelyn, "three such persons
+were not to be found elsewhere in Europe for parts and ingenuity." Lord
+Rosebery, we may safely presume, would be glad to see them at The
+Durdans now.
+
+In November 1668, Evelyn went to London, "invited to the consecration of
+that excellent person, the Dean of Ripon, now made Bishop of Chester: Dr
+Tillotson preached." Then he went to a sumptuous banquet in the Hall of
+Ely House, where were "the Duke of Buckingham, Judges, the Lord Keeper,
+Noblemen, and innumerable other company, who were honourers of this
+incomparable man, universally beloved by all who knew him."
+
+Tillotson, who married Wilkins' stepdaughter, and may therefore have
+been prejudiced, though such relationships give rise to prejudices of
+various kinds, was deeply attached to him. He edited and wrote a preface
+to the book on 'Natural Religion,' and did the same pious duty in
+respect of the 'Sermons Preached on Several Occasions,' taking
+opportunity in the preface to defend him against the censures of Antony
+Wood. He edited also a pamphlet of an attractive title, which the writer
+has not seen and fain would see, 'The Moderate Man, the best subject in
+Church and State, proved from the arguments of Wilkins, with Tillotson's
+opinions on the subject.' Between them they must make a strong case for
+the Moderate Man. Tillotson says of his father-in-law: "I think I may
+truly say that there are or have been few in this age and nation so well
+known, and greatly esteemed, and favoured by many persons of high rank
+and quality, and of singular worth and eminence in all the learned
+professions." This eulogy has perhaps the ring of a time when rank and
+quality were made more of than they are now made, but it is quoted as an
+illustration of the change of feeling which would make it now impossible
+or indecorous to praise a bishop because he got on well with great
+people: allowance must be made for the difference between the
+seventeenth and the twentieth century.
+
+Funeral sermons are not always the naked truth, but Lloyd's fine saying
+about Wilkins bears on it the stamp of sincerity: "It was his way of
+friendship not so much to oblige men as to do them good."
+
+Burnet adds another testimony to Wilkins' singular power of winning
+affection. He writes: "Wilkins was a man of as great a mind, as true a
+judgement, as eminent virtues, and of as good a soul, as any one I ever
+knew. He was naturally ambitious, but was the wisest clergyman I ever
+knew. He was a lover of mankind, and had a delight in doing good."
+
+Burnet was a partisan, but these are the words of more than
+partisanship. In his 'History of his Own Time' he introduces Wilkins to
+his readers in very distinguished company, among the
+Latitudinarians--Whichcote, Cudworth, Tillotson, Lloyd, and
+Stillingfleet,--of whom he says that if such men had not appeared, of
+another stamp than their predecessors, "the Church had quite lost its
+esteem over the nation." Clarendon, whom he calls "more the friend of
+the Bishops than of the Church," had, in his opinion, endowed them and
+the higher clergy too well, and they were sunk in luxury and sloth. The
+Latitudinarians infused into the Church life, energy, and a sense of
+duty: they were, he adds, good preachers and acceptable to the king,
+who, "having little or no literature, but true and good sense," liked
+sermons "plain, clear, and short." "Incedo per ignes," but it is
+impossible to refrain from quoting Burnet's language, which, _mutatis
+mutandis_, would have expressed what High Churchmen felt towards the
+leaders of the Oxford movement, and with equal truth and justice.
+
+Here Antony Wood may be called in to play the part of the Advocatus
+Diaboli. He plays it in the following passage, as always, with great
+vigour and enjoyment: "Dr John Wilkins, a notorious complyer with the
+Presbyterians, from whom he obtained the Wardenship of Wadham; with the
+Independants and Cromwell himself, by whose favour he did not only get
+a dispensation to marry (contrary to the College Statutes), but also,
+because he had married his sister, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge:
+from which being ejected at the Restoration, he faced about, and by his
+smooth language, insinuating preaching, flatteries, and I know not what,
+got among other preferments the Deanery of Ripon, and at length by the
+commendation of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, a great favourer of
+fanaticks and atheists, the Bishopric of Chester."
+
+The passage is inaccurate both in grammar and in facts, but it is
+valuable as evidence of the venomous party spirit prevalent in the
+seventeenth century,--a spirit to which we can easily rise superior, we
+whose station, property, life, do not depend on the triumph of this or
+that opinion. In Oxford at least we do not now say such things about
+each other. But in another place Wood takes a less unfavourable view of
+Wilkins' character, and uses about him the politest language at his
+command. "He was a person of rare gifts, a noted theologist and
+preacher; a curious critick in several matters; an excellent
+mathematician and experimentalist, &c.; and I cannot say that there was
+anything deficient in him but a constant mind and settled principles."
+
+This is an outline of the facts and opinions about Wilkins which have
+come down to us. What are we to think of him?
+
+Unquestionably there lies against a man who prospered under Cromwell and
+Charles II., and was a favourite of both, a presumption of excessive
+pliancy, of too much readiness to adapt himself to his environment, of
+time-serving, if you like, and insincerity. It cannot be proved that he
+was not a Vicar of Bray, the title which at once suggests itself.
+Tolerance, geniality, and charity are virtues which have their own
+defects, and some measure of austerity is one of the ingredients of a
+perfect character. It has been said of Wilkins that two principles
+determined his career: a large tolerance of actions and opinions; a
+readiness to submit himself to "the powers that be," let them have been
+established if they might. These are the marks of a wise man, and of a
+man supremely useful in times of bitter hatred and uncompromising
+revenge: they are not the marks of a hero or a martyr.
+
+Wilkins was in fact a Trimmer. It may be said of him what has been said
+by Mr Herbert Paul of a more famous Trimmer, Lord Halifax (not our Lord
+Halifax), that "he was thoroughly imbued with the English spirit of
+compromise, that he had a remarkable power of understanding, even
+sympathetically understanding, opinions which he did not hold." Wilkins
+hated persecution, and that hatred nerves a Trimmer to defend unpopular
+persons and unpopular causes, as he did in his College and University
+and Diocese. Toleration has a courage of its own equal to that of
+fanaticism, and more useful and intelligent. It is now an easier and a
+safer virtue than it was two hundred and fifty years ago: it is not
+popular now; it was odious then, and men were impatient with those who
+took no side, or changed sides for reasons good or bad.
+
+Macaulay--who never knew a doubt, whose way was clear and easy in the
+struggles of his day, when reform and free trade in corn were obviously
+desirable and necessary--writes with contemptuous severity of the
+profligacy of politicians from the Restoration to the accession of the
+House of Hanover. "One who in such an age is determined to attain civil
+greatness must renounce all thought of consistency. Instead of affecting
+immutability in the midst of mutation, he must always be on the watch
+for the indications of a coming reaction. He must seize the exact moment
+for deserting a falling cause. He has seen so many institutions from
+which much had been expected produce mere disappointment, that he has no
+hope of improvement. There is nothing in the state which he could not,
+without a scruple, join in defending or destroying." Compare with these
+scathing words his estimate of the character of Halifax, the Whig: "The
+most estimable of the statesmen who were formed in the corrupt and
+licentious Whitehall of the Restoration. He was called inconsistent
+because the relative position in which he stood to the contending
+parties was perpetually varying. As well might the Polar Star be called
+inconsistent because it is sometimes to the east and sometimes to the
+west of the pointers. To have defended the ancient and legal
+constitution of the realm against a seditious populace at one
+conjunction, and against a tyrannical government at another; to have
+been the foremost champion of order in the turbulent Parliament of 1680,
+and the foremost champion of liberty in the servile Parliament of 1685;
+to have been just and merciful to the Roman Catholics in the days of the
+Popish Plot, and to the Exclusionists in the days of the Rye House Plot;
+this was a course which contemporaries, heated by passion, and deluded
+by names and badges, might not unnaturally call fickle, but which
+deserves a very different name from the late justice of posterity." More
+than one British statesman, Tory, be it observed, as well as Whig,
+needs and deserves a defence like this. Alter names and dates, and it
+will serve as a vindication of Wilkins' deficiency in a "constant mind
+and settled principles." Therefore the paradox is true that a Trimmer
+may be a man of firmness and courage; one who is bold enough to make
+many enemies and few friends; who has convictions of his own, but by a
+power of sympathy, one of the rarest and highest mental, half moral,
+half intellectual, qualities, can understand opinions which he does not
+hold; understand and pardon, as the French say.
+
+Whether Wilkins' tolerance was of the exalted kind, or alloyed by an
+admixture of that other tolerance which is no better than indifference
+and opportunism, it is impossible to say, for we do not know enough
+about him to pronounce a judgment. Our data are scanty and incoherent,
+scattered about in diaries and memoirs written by persons of different
+stations and opinions. This much is certain, that Pope, Aubrey, Sprat,
+Evelyn, Pepys, Tillotson, and Burnet speak of him with affection and
+respect: one note runs through all their eulogies, that he was
+universally beloved; yet he was not one of those nonentities whom now we
+style amiable persons, but a man of character and power.
+
+As a loyal son of the College, the writer is prepared to maintain that a
+Vicar of Bray could not have won love and admiration in his College, his
+University, and in his Diocese, and in a larger world than these; nor
+have been "laudatus a laudatis viris." It is more rational to believe
+that Wilkins was a good and wise man, who accepted the situations in
+which he found himself placed, and made the best of them, being more
+solicitous to do good than to preserve consistency, that most negative
+of virtues. Let him be judged by his best, as men are most fairly
+judged, and by another good criterion, the times in which he
+lived,--times of perpetual change, confusion, and perplexity.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[3] See Mr Pearson's instructive and amusing article on "The Virtuoso"
+in the 'Nineteenth Century,' November 1909.
+
+[4] This is an abbreviation of the passage in Burnet's 'History of his
+Own Time,' vol. i. p. 272. First edition.
+
+
+PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life and Times of John Wilkins, by
+Patrick A. Wright-Henderson
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