Page:Cousins's Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature.djvu/211

Rh ture, a masterpiece of reasoning and eloquence, in a style stately and sonorous, though often laborious and involved. Hallam considered that no English writer had better displayed the capacities of the language. The argument is directed against the Romanists on the one hand and the Puritans on the other, and the fundamental idea is "the unity and all embracing character of law as the manifestation of the divine order of the universe." The distinguishing note of H.'s character was what Fuller calls his "dove-like simplicity." Izaak Walton, his biographer, describes him as "an obscure, harmless man, in poor clothes, of a mean stature and stooping his body worn out, not with age, but study, and holy mortification, his face full of heat-pimples  and tho' not purblind, yet short, or weak, sighted." In his calling as a parish priest he was faithful and diligent. In preaching "his voice was low gesture none at all, standing stone-still in the pulpit." The sixth book of the Ecclesiastical Polity has been considered of doubtful authority, and to have no claim to its place, and the seventh and eighth are believed to have been put together from rough notes. Some of his MSS. were destroyed after his death by his wife's relatives. The epithet "judicious" attached to his name first appears in the inscription on his monument at Bishopsbourne.

Works, ed. by Keble (1836); new ed. revised by Church, etc. (1888). It includes the Life by I. Walton.

  (1727-1803).—Translator, s. of a watch-maker and inventor, was b. in London, and was in the India House, of which he rose to be principal auditor (1744-83). He translated Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered (1763), and Ariosto's Orlando Furioso (1773-83), as well as other works from the Italian. He was also the author of three dramas, which failed. He is described by Scott as "a noble transmuter of gold into lead."

  (1770-1831).—Novelist and writer on art, was a wealthy merchant of Amsterdam, of Scotch descent, his family having emigrated to Holland in the 17th century. In early life he spent much time in travel, studying architecture, and collecting objects of art. Returning, he settled in London, and occupied himself in arranging his vast collections. In 1807 he pub. a work on Household Furniture and Decoration, which had a great effect in improving the public taste in such matters. This was followed by two magnificent works, On the Costume of the Ancients (1809), and Designs of Modern Costumes (1812). Up to this time his reputation had been somewhat that of a transcendent upholsterer, but in 1819 he astonished the literary world by his novel, Anastasius; or, Memoirs of a Modern Greek, a work full of imagination, descriptive power, and knowledge of the world. This book, which was pub. anonymously, was attributed to Byron, and only credited to the author on his avowing it in Blackwood's Magazine. H. also wrote a treatise on the Origin and Prospects of Man, and Essays on Architecture. He was a munificent and discerning patron of rising artists.

 ' or ' (1803-1884).—Eccentric poet, was b. in London, and ed. at Sandhurst for the East India Company Service, but failed to get a nomination. After a