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and great in the estimation of the world, and you will find the comfort of it, when all this noise and hurry shall vanish as a dream, and leave nothing to support us in time of need. I am persuaded you often make these reflections, from your own great judgment, and experiences of the vicissitudes of things present, and prospect of the future, which is only worth our solicitude."

At the close of the year which was marked by these afflictions, he writes in his journal;-" Dec. 31. Recollecting the passages of the year past, made up accounts, and humbly besought Almighty God to pardon those my sins which had provoked him to discompose my sorrowful family; that he would accept of our humiliation, and in his good time restore comfort to it. I also blessed God for all his undeserved mercies and preservations, begging the continuance of his grace and preservation."

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CHAPTER VI.

HIS OLD AGE AND DEATH.

Nor shall dull age, as worldlings say,
The heavenward flame annoy;

The Saviour cannot pass away,
And with him lives our joy.

Even the richest, tenderest glow
Sets round th' autumnal sun-

But there sight fails; no heart may know
The bliss when life is done.

Christian Year.

THE portion of the journal which follows is chiefly taken up with public affairs, which were in a state most unsatisfactory to Mr. Evelyn. He looked with the deepest regret upon king James's attachment to popery, and his measures for promoting the interests of that religion in England ;* and being appointed one of the Commission

* The zeal of the papists may be illustrated by an anecdote in the Diary, which will be interesting to the readers of the Life of Archbishop Usher.“ 1686, April 18. In the afternoon I went to Camberwell to visit Dr. Parr. After sermon, I accompanied him to his house, where he shewed me the Life and Letters of the late learned Primate of Armagh, (Usher,) and among them that letter of bishop Bramhall's to the primate, giving notice of the popish practices to pervert this nation, by sending a hundred priests into England [during the commonwealth], who were to conform themselves to all sectaries and conditions, for the more easily dispersing their doctrine This letter was the cause of the whole impression being among us. seized, upon pretence that it was a political or historical account of things, not relating to theology, though it had been licensed by the

ers for executing the office of Lord Privy Seal, at the beginning of the reign, he refused to put the seal to a licence for printing certain popish books, which by act of parliament were expressly forbidden to be sold; and on other occasions absented himself from the meetings of the commissioners, when measures were to be passed which he could not approve. He afterwards put the bishops on their guard against some of the plans of the jesuits; and prayed that God would "direct the counsels of the nation to his glory and the good of the church." He considered that the church was strong in argument, and in the purity of her doctrine, against the "emissaries and instruments of the church of Rome;" and was confident that even if God, for the punishment of a nation so unworthy," should suffer darkness and superstition again to prevail, yet that "the doctrine of the church of England would never be extinguished;" "in all events," he added, "whatever do become of that church, it is certainly, of all the christian professions on earth, the most primitive, apostolical, and excellent." At that anxious time he rejoiced to observe that "the English clergy every where preached boldly against the superstitions and errors of popery, and were wonderfully followed by the people. The party," he says, "were exceedingly put to the worst by the preaching and writing of the protestants in many excellent treatises, evincing the doctrine and discipline of the reformed religion, to the manifest disadvantage of their adversaries."

He was an anxious spectator of the great revolution in bishop; which plainly showed what an interest the papists now had, that a protestant book, containing the life and letters of so eminent a man, was not to be published. There were also many letters to and from most of the learned persons, his correspondents, in Europe. The book will, I doubt not, struggle through this unjust impediment."

1688; but much as he deprecated the principles of king James, political and religious, he was evidently not prepared for so strong a step as that which brought king William to the throne. The evils of former social convulsions were fresh in his memory, and not foreseeing the happy issue of that brief struggle, he dreaded the return of tumults and civil war.

On his next birthday, however, when he entered his seventieth year, referring to the recent events, he speaks as if he was satisfied with the course which affairs had taken. "Blessed Father, who hast prolonged my years to this great age, and given me to see so great and wonderful revolutions, and preserved me amidst them to this moment, accept, I beseech thee, the continuance of my prayers and thankful acknowledgments, and grant me grace to be working out my salvation, and redeeming the time, that thou mayest be glorified by me here, and my immortal soul saved, whenever thou shalt call for it, to perpetuate thy praises to all eternity in that heavenly kingdom, where there are no more changes or vicissitudes, but rest, and peace, and joy, and consummate felicity for ever. Grant this, O heavenly Father, for the sake of Jesus thine only son, and our Saviour. Amen."

In 1693, his only surviving daughter Susannah was married, by his friend bishop (afterwards archbishop) Tenison, to William Draper, Esq. of Adscomb in Surrey. "I pray Almighty God," he says, "to give his blessing to this marriage. She is a good child, religious, discreet, ingenious, and qualified with all the ornaments of her sex. She has a peculiar talent in design, as painting in oil and miniature, and an extraordinary genius for whatever hands can do with a needle. She has the French tongue, has read most of the Greek and Roman authors and poets, using her talents with great modesty ;

exquisitely shaped, and of an agreeable countenance. This character is due to her, though coming from her father." A few years after, he speaks of Mr. Draper as being a "most deserving husband, a prudent, well-natured gentleman, a man of business, like to be very rich, and deserving to be so; among the happiest pairs I think in England, and to my daughter's and our heart's desire. She has.... a mother-in-law, exceedingly fond of my daughter, and a most excellent woman, charitable, and of a very sweet disposition. They all live together, keep each their coach, and with as suitable an equipage as any in town."

After the marriage of his daughter, he was invited by his brother to occupy some apartments in the house at Wotton; and in the spring of 1694 he removed his books, pictures, and " much furniture of all sorts," from Sayes Court, in which he had lived for more than forty years. He left three servants, however, in the house, and sufficient furniture for his "son-in-law Draper to pass the summer in, and such longer time as he should think fit to make use of it." Sayes Court was subsequently let to captain (afterwards admiral) Benbow, where Evelyn had the mortification of seeing every day much of his former labours and expense there impairing, for want of

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a more polite tenant." And when Peter the Great, of Russia, went to Deptford to study the art of ship-building, he hired Evelyn's house, and made it his court and palace. The servants of the house were not well pleased with their royal visiter: one writes to his master "There is a house full of people, and right nasty. The czar lies next your library, and dines in the parlour next your study..... The king is expected there this day, the best parlour is pretty clean for him to be entertained in."

The gardens were sadly injured by this tenant,

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