efficacious when given in honey as if administered in its native state, and has the advantage, moreover, of not being succeeded by nausea in the patient. Giraldus was generally regarded as a well-meaning man, and, in his bluff Welsh way, was permitted to say things no one else would have dared to utter; things, notwithstanding, which proved his moral courage to have been as unbounded as his physical bravery. He never failed to express his opinion manfully. The Church of Rome was notoriously venal, and on his first introduction to Innocent he did not fail to let that prelate know he was acquainted with this fact. "Others give you money," he said, “I offer you only books;" or, to quote his punning sentence, Præsentant vobis alii Libras, sed nos Libros. And in his dedication to John of his " Conquest," he tells that monarch some home truths, under the phrase, "permit me to offer you some advice," which must have surprised his former pupil by his freedom of speech. In these cases no offence was meant, and no offence could be taken. "My habit of outspoken"ness," he used to say, "is natural to Welshmen "like myself; we can neither alter it, nor get rid "of it." But there were times (as in his early contests with the sheriff of Pembroke and the bishop of St. Asaph) when his bark was followed by a terrible bite, and when he took care that there should be no

HIS LOVE OF ORDER AND OF LAW. 143

mistake as to his intention to wound. What chiefly characterized him, however, is his love of order, of precedent, of law. He was essentially the type of a medieval churchman, even more than of a mediæval man of letters. The indications that manifested themselves on the white sands of Manorbeer at the first page of his life accompanied him to the close of his days. He loved the Church, and followed her precepts; requiring, at the same time, that others over whom he had control, should likewise do so. None more than he differed from some of her teachings. He doubted whether sins could be remitted by pontifical indulgence. Clear-sighted enough to see the inconveniencies from enforced celibacy of the clergy, he shows that neither in the Gospels nor in the apostolical writings is to be found any prohibition against their marriage; but so long as the restriction remained he would not permit his clergy to keep their focariæ in peace, but would extirpate them root and branch. 'Tis great pity to require in your ministers such a sacrifice; but no man is compelled to be a churchman, and if the vow is voluntarily made by the candidate for ordination, he must abide by it, and maintain the strictest observance of discipline. Keep your promise; be true to yourself: was the tenour of his whole life-teaching. Do you obey, for then only may you expect obedience

from others. Look not upon the Church as designed for your convenience-if you are of it, you must be faithful to it and to its teachings. He was himself faithful, and he expected others to be as faithful as himself.

He was at once a genuine churchman and a genuine man of letters.

MONTAIGNE.

HE fame of Montaigne is on the increase.

The "

Essays" have been translated into the languages of all civilized

nations, and edition after edition has been called for and exhausted in each. They have not in any country had for readers what is known as the general public, but have obtained only what Mr. Emerson calls a chosen circulationnamely, among courtiers, soldiers, princes, men of the world, and men of wit and generosity. There are signs, however, that the appreciation is extending in the old world and the new; cheap editions of his great work are issued, and the manner in which they have been received may fairly be taken as indicative that the Essayist is becoming known to readers who hitherto were acquainted only with his name. In France there are men who make the old Gascon the study of their lives, who devote

L

themselves to the elucidation of his writings, and who quarrel over the interpretation of one of his phrases with as much zest, if not with as much acrimony, as scholars among ourselves quarrel over the meaning of a passage in Shakespeare. Since the revival of letters no French writer has exercised so much influence upon our own literature. The Shakespeare Plays contain passages almost literally extracted from him,* and ever since the appearance of the translation by Florio into English, all who have made the study of man their theme exhibit in their writings undoubted traces of familiarity with his speculations. If he is not known at first hand so well as he should be, he is well known at second.

* By the favour of the Head of the British Museum I have examined the autograph, said to be of Shakespeare, in the copy of Florio's Translation belonging to that Institution. Sir Frederick Madden, in Archæologia, vol. xxvii. p. 113, has described this autograph, and given an interesting history of the volume as far as it is known. It is now thirty years since Sir Frederick made his communication to the Society of Antiquaries, and expressed his unhesitating belief in the authenticity of the signature, and he tells me he is still of the same opinion. There is no questioning the authority of so eminent a Palæographer. I must mention, however, that not a tittle of external evidence exists to support the belief that the volume was Shakespeare's, "and is the only book which we certainly "know to have been in the poet's library."