196 ENGLAND. 



to have considered their literary accomplishments as only secondary 

 to their civil. 



The encouragement of learned foreigners in England continued to 

 the reign of James I, who was very munificent to Casaubon, and 

 other foreign authors of distinction, even of different principles. 

 The second Bacon, who has been already mentioned, was by him 

 created viscount Verulam, and lord high chancellor of England. He 

 was likewise the patron of Camden and other historians, as well as- 

 antiquaries, whose works are to this day standards in those studies. 



His. son Charles I, cultivated the polite arts, especially sculpture, 

 painting,, and architecture. He was the patron of Rubens, Vandyke, 

 I^igo Jones, and other eminent artists ; so that, had it not been for 

 the civil wars, he would probably have converted his court and capi- 

 tal into a second Athens; and the collections he made for that pur- 

 pose, considering his pecuniary difficulties, were astonishing. His 

 favourite, the duke of Buckingham, imitated him in that respect, 

 and laid out the vast sum of 400,000/. upon his cabinet of paintings 

 and curiosities. 



The earl of Arundel was another Maecenas of that age, and greatly 

 distinguished himself by his collection of antiquities, particularly his 

 famous marble inscriptions, called the Arundelian marbles, now pre- 

 served at Oxford. Charles and his court had little or no relish for 

 poetry ; but such was his generosity in encouraging genius and merit 

 of every kind, that he increased the salary of his poet laureat, the 

 famous Ben Jonson, from 100 marks to 100 pounds per annum, and 

 a tierce of Spanish wine ; which salary is continued to this day. 



The public encouragement of learning and the arts suffered indeed 

 an eclipse, during the time of the civil wars, and the succeeding in- 

 terregnum. Many very learned men, however, found their situations 

 under Cromwell, though he was no stranger to their political senti- 

 ments, so easy, that they followed their studies to the vast benefit of 

 every brand) of learning : and many works of great literary merit 

 appeared even in those times of distraction. Usher, Walton, Willis, 

 Harrington, Wilkins, and a prodigious number of other great names, 

 were unmolested and even favoured by that usurper ; and he would 

 also have filled the universities with literary merit, could he have done 

 it with any degree of safety to his government. 



The reign of Charles II, was chiefly distinguished by the great 

 proiiciency made in natural knowledge, especially by the institution 

 of the Royal Society. The king was a good judge of those studies ; 

 and, though irreligious himself, England never abounded more with 

 learned and able divines than in his reign. He loved painting and 

 poetry, but was far more munificent to the former than the latter. 

 The incomparable Paradise Lost, by Milton, was published in his 

 reign, but was not read or attended to in proportion to its merit, though 

 it was far from being disregarded so much as has been commonly 

 apprehended. The reign of Charles II, notwithstanding the bad 

 taste of his court in several of the polite arts, by some is reckoned 

 the Augustan age in England, and is dignified with the names of 

 Boyle, Halley, Hooke, Sydenham, Harvey, Temple, Tillotson, Bar- 

 row, Butler, Cowley, Waller, Dryclen, Wycherley, and Otway. The 

 pulpit assumed more majesty, abetter style, and truer energy, than 

 it had ever known before. Classic literature recovered many of its 

 native graces ; and though England could not, under him, boast of a 

 Jones and a Vandyke, yet sir Christopher Wren introduced a more 



