For the old misers it was pleasant to go down into their bullion vaults, and feel that they were rich enough to buy up all the town with the proud Earl in his mortgaged castle. And to many people there is a peculiar satisfaction in the society of the great and learned; nor can they forget the time when they talked to the great poet, or had a moment's monopoly of royalty. But

"That place that doth contain

My books, the best companions, is to me

A glorious court, where hourly I converse
With the old sages and philosophers;

And sometimes for variety I confer

With kings and emperors, and weigh their counsels."

Not only is there the pleasant sense of property-the rare editions, and the wonderful bargains, and the acquisitions of some memorable self-denial-but there are grateful memories and the feeling of a high companionship. When it first arrived, this volume kept its owner up all night, and its neighbour introduced him to realms more delightful and more strange than if he had taken Dr Wilkins' lunar journey. In this biography, as in a magician's mirror, he was awed and startled by foreshadowings of his own career; and, ever since he sat at the feet of yonder sacred sage, he walks through the world with a consciousness, blessed and not vain-glorious, that his being contains an element shared by few besides. And even those heretics inside the wires-like caged wolves or bottled vipers -their keeper has come to entertain a certain fondness for them, and whilst he detests the species, he would feel a pang in parting with his own exemplars.

Now that his evening lamp is lit, let us survey the Doctor's library. Like most of its coeval collections, its foundations are laid with massive folios. As yet there exist no Critici Sacri nor Poli Synopsis, nor has Brian Walton yet carried through the press his mighty undertaking; but these stately

tomes are the Polyglotts of Antwerp and Paris. The colossal theologians who flank them are Augustine and Jerome, Anselm and Aquinas, Calvin and Episcopius, Bellarmine and Jansenius, Baronius and the Magdeburg Centuriators-natural enemies, here bound over to their good behaviour. These dark veterans are Jewish Rabbis-Kimchi, Abarbanel, and, like a row of rag-collectors, a whole Monmouth Street of rubbishbehold the entire Babylonian Talmud. These tall Socinians are the Polish brethren, and the dumpy vellums overhead are Dutch divines. The cupboard contains Greek and Latin manuscripts, the cherished collections of the late King's librarian, Patrick Young; and those spruce fashionables are Spenser, and Cowley, and Sir William Davenant. And the new books which crown the upper shelves, still uncut and fresh from the publisher, are the latest brochures of Mr Jeremy Taylor and Mr Richard Baxter.*

* In his elaborate "Memoirs of Dr Owen," Mr Orme mentions that "his library was sold in May 1684, by Millington, one of the earliest of our book auctioneers ;" and adds, "Considering the Doctor's taste as a reader, his age as a minister, and his circumstances as a man, his library, in all probability, would be both extensive and valuable." Then, in a footnote, he gives some interesting particulars as to the extent of the early Nonconformist libraries, viz., Dr Lazarus Seaman's, which sold for £700; Dr Jacomb's, which sold for £1300; Dr Bates's, which was bought for five or six hundred pounds by Dr Williams, in order to lay the foundation of Red Cross Street library; and Dr Evans's, which contained 10,000 volumes; again subjoining, "It is probable Dr Owen's was not inferior to some of these." It would have gratified the biographer had he known that a catalogue of Owen's library is still in existence. Bound up with other sale-catalogues in the Bodleian is the "Bibliotheca Oweniana: sive catalogus librorum plurimis facultatibus insignium, instructissimæ Bibliothecæ Rev. Doct. Viri D. Joan. Oweni (quondam Vice-Cancellarii et Decani Edis Christi in Academia Oxoniensi) nuperrime defuncti ; cum variis manuscriptis Græcis, Latinis, &c., propria manu Doct. Patricii Junii aliorumq. conscriptis: quorum auctio habebitur Londini apud domum auctionariam, adverso Nigri Cygni in Vico vulgo dicto Ave Mary Lane, prope Ludgate Street, vicesimo sexto die Maii, 1684. Per Eduardum Millington, Bibliopolam." In the Preface, the auctioneer speaks of Dr Owen as "a person so generally known as a generous buyer and great

THE YOUNG STUDENT.

5

This night, however, the Doctor is intent on a new book nowise to his mind. It is the "Redemption Redeemed" of John Goodwin. Its hydra-headed errors have already drawn from the scabbard the sword of many an orthodox Hercules on either side of the Tweed; and now, after a conference with the other Goodwin, the Dean takes up a ream of manuscript and adds a finishing touch to his refutation.

At this period Dr Owen would be forty years of age, for he was born in 1616. His father was minister of a little parish in Oxfordshire, and his ancestors were princes in Wales; indeed, the genealogists claimed for him a descent from King Caractacus. He himself was educated at Queen's College, and, under the impulse of an ardent ambition, the young student had fully availed himself of his academic privileges. For several years he took no more sleep than four hours a-night, and in his eagerness for future distinction he mastered all attainable knowledge, from mathematics to music. But about the time of his reaching majority, all his ambitious projects were suspended by a visitation of religious earnestness. In much ignorance of the divine specific, his conscience grew tender, and sin appeared exceeding sinful. It was at this conjuncture that Archbishop Laud imposed on Oxford a new code of statutes, which scared away from the University the now scrupulous scholar. Years of anxious thoughtfulness followed, partly filled up by his duties as chaplain successively to Sir Robert Dormer and Lord Lovelace, when about the year 1641 collector of the best books;" and after adverting to his copies of Fathers, Councils, Church Histories, and Rabbinical Authors, he adds, " All which considered together, perhaps for their number are not to be paralleled, or upon any terms to be procured, when gentlemen are desirous of, or have a real occasion for the perusal of them." The number of volumes is 2889. For the knowledge of the existence of this catalogue, and for a variety of curious particulars regarding it, we are indebted to a distinguished friend, whose bibliographical information is only exceeded by the obligingness with which he puts it at the command of others, the Rev. Dr Macbride, Principal of Magdalene Hall.

he had occasion to reside in London. Whilst there he went one day to hear Edmund Calamy; but instead of the famous preacher there entered the pulpit a country minister, who, after a fervent prayer, gave out for his text-" Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?" The sermon was a very plain one, and Owen never ascertained the preacher's name; but the perplexities with which he had long been harassed disappeared, and in the joy of a discovered gospel and an ascertained salvation, the natural energy of his character and the vigour of his constitution found again their wonted play.

Soon after this happy change, his first publication appeared. It was a "Display of Arminianism," and, attracting the attention of the Parliamentary "Committee for purging the Church of Scandalous Ministers," it procured for its author a presentation to the living of Fordham, in Essex. This was followed by his translation to the more important charge of Coggeshall, in the same county; and so rapidly did his reputation rise, that besides being frequently called to preach before the Parliament, he was, in 1649, selected by Cromwell as the associate of his expedition to Ireland, and was employed in remodelling and resuscitating Trinity College, Dublin. Most likely it was owing to the ability with which he discharged this service that he was appointed Dean of Christ Church in 1651, and in the following year Vice-Chancellor of Oxford. It was a striking incident to find himself thus brought back to scenes which, fourteen years before, he had quitted amidst contempt and poverty, and a little mind would have been apt to signalise the event by a vain-glorious ovation or a vindictive retribution. But Owen returned to Oxford in all the elevation of a Godfearing magnanimity and a Christian patriotism, and his only solicitude was to fulfil the duties of his office. Although himself an Independent, he promoted well-qualified men to responsible posts, notwithstanding their Presbyterianism or their Prelacy; and, although the law gave him ample powers to

DEAN OF CHRIST CHURCH.

disperse them, such were his respect for the rights of conscience, and his love of all good men, that he never molested the liturgical meetings of his Episcopalian neighbours. From anxiety to promote the spiritual welfare of the students, in addition to his engagements as a divinity lecturer and the resident head of the University, along with Dr Goodwin he undertook to preach, on alternate Sabbaths, to the great congregation in St Mary's. And such was the zeal which he brought to bear on the studies and the secular interests of the place, that the deserted courts were once more populous with ardent and accomplished students, and in alumni like Sprat, and South, and Ken, and Richard Cumberland, the Church of England received from Owen's Oxford some of its most distinguished ornaments; whilst men like Philip Henry, John Howe, and Joseph Alleine, went forth to perpetuate Owen's principles; and in founding the English schools of metaphysics, architecture, and medicine, Locke, and Wren, and Sydenham, taught the world that it was no misfortune to have been the pupils of the Puritan. It would be pleasant to record that Owen's generosity was reciprocated, and that if Oxford could not recognise the Nonconformist, neither did she forget the Republican who patronised the Royalists, and the Independent who befriended the Prelatists. According to the unsuspected testimony of Grainger, and Burnet, and Clarendon, the University was in a most flourishing condition when it passed from under his control; but on the principle which excludes Cromwell's statue from Westminster Palace, the picture-gallery at Christ Church finds no place for the greatest of its Deans.*

*In his notice of Henry Stubb, the second keeper of the Bodleian, who took his degree in the days of Owen, Anthony à Wood, a very unexceptionable witness, records-" While he continued under-graduate, it was usual with him to discourse in the public schools very fluently in the Greek tongue. But since the King's restoration, we have had no such matter, which shews that education and discipline were more severe then than after, when scholars were given more to liberty and frivolous studies."