OF SAMUEL HARTLIB. 41 



for colleges, in his measures for extending rural 

 economy_, in his plan of an office of address,, and, in 

 short, in all matters under his own immediate direction, 

 we find every performance reduced to a system ; the 

 design always being to promote the public weal by 

 some hopeful philanthropic scheme, either educational, 

 religious, or political ; and the better to carry out a plan 

 of such enlarged usefulness, he was unwearying in 

 searching for truth, in attaining information, in sur- 

 rounding himself with varied talents, and in engaging, 

 as best he could, the services and assistance of good 

 men^s pens and purses. He seems to have been par- 

 ticularly endowed by nature with a disposition and 

 abilities eminently calculated for the furtherance of this 

 herculean labour, at a period of our history when it 

 was a marvel to find such a living monument of public 

 usefulness, moving, too, in no ordinary' sphere, but 

 approved, commended, and extolled by men of all 

 ranks, degrees, sects, and parties, both at home and 

 abroad. 



He was a man of various and refined tastes ; indeed 

 it is interesting to observe how happily he associated 

 himself with scholars of every grade ; and, without evinc- 

 ing any profound knowledge of literature or science, often 

 acquiring much of their own enthusiasm in their several 

 pursuits. Such a disposition shows both an elevated and 

 active mental constitution, rising above all mere sordid 

 desires, happy only in a society where mental endow- 



