much of the weakness of the preachers here recommended for study, and of a multitude of others who have exercised and do exercise the like office with theirs. Above all, it will serve as an admonition to us who have been called to that office, that we make it our supreme endeavour and most earnest prayer that we may ourselves be what we tell others that God, theirs and ours, would have us be.

J. E. K.

St. James's Rectory, 7th Sept. 1877.

*** It is hoped that this series may be followed next year by a second, comprising most of the following: Andrewes, Taylor, Sanderson, Hall, Horsley, Tillotson, Secker, Bull, Sharp, Horne, Paley and Leighton, if the last can be properly included amongst Preachers of the English Church.

DONNE,

THE POET-PREACHER.

"Tell me which of them will love him most."-St. Luke vii. 42. "There are last which shall be first."-St. Luke xiii. 30.

Donne's monument in St. Paul's-Its character and history an emblem of the man-His early life-His friendships-Donne as a poet-The double dislocation in his life-His conversion from Romanism-His earlier immorality and later penitence--Comparison with St. Augustine-Effects on his preaching-The secret of his power as a preacher-His reluctance to enter Holy Orders and ultimate ordination-His energy and reputation as a preacher -His extant sermons-Dean Milman's opinion-Animation of his preaching-Examples of his style-Appearance and manner of the preacher-Walton's description of him-His faults-Affectation overcome by the theme-His practical sense-His pointed sayings-His irony-The last sermon-His death-Lesson of his life and teaching.

AGAINST the wall of the south choir aisle in the Cathedral of St. Paul is a monument which very few of the thousands who visit the church daily observe or have an opportunity of observing, but which, once seen, is not easily forgotten. It is the long, gaunt, upright figure of a man, wrapped close in a shroud, which is knotted at the head and feet, and leaves only the face exposed-a face wan, worn, [ST. JAMES'S.]

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almost ghastly, with the eyes closed as in death. This figure is executed in white marble, and stands on an urn of the same, as if it had just risen therefrom. The whole is placed in a black niche, which, by its contrast, enhances the death-like paleness of the shrouded figure. Above the canopy is an inscription recording that the man whose effigy stands beneath, though his ashes are mingled with western dust, looks towards Him whose name is the Orient.*

This monumental figure is not less remarkable in its history than in its aspect. It is the sole memorial which has survived from the ancient church of St. Paul destroyed by the great fire. For many generations it lay neglected in the crypt, amidst mutilated fragments of other less fortunate monuments of the past, till, three or four years ago, it was rescued from its gloomy abode underground and erected in its present position, corresponding, as nearly as circumstances allowed, to the place which it occupied in the old Cathedral before the fire. The canopy and inscription were

restored from an ancient engraving. In its history and in its character alike this monument is a fit emblem of him whom it figures; for it speaks of a death, a resurrection, a saving as by fire. It is the effigy of John Donne, who was Dean of St. Paul's shortly before the outbreak of the Great Rebellion.

Moreover, it has a peculiar interest arising from the circumstances under which it was erected in the first instance. It was not such a memorial as Donne's surviving friends might think suitable to commemorate the deceased, but it was the very monument which Donne himself designed as a true emblem of his past life and his future hopes. His friend and biographer relates* that, being urged to give directions for his monument, he caused an urn to be carved; that he wrapped himself in a winding-sheet, and stood thereupon "with his eyes shut and with so much of the sheet turned aside as might show his lean, pale, and death-like face, which was purposely turned towards the East, from whence he expected the second coming of his and our Saviour Jesus ;" that, in this posture, he had a picture of himself taken, which "he caused to be set by his bedside, where it continued, and became his hourly object till his death;" and that from this picture the sculpture was executed after his decease, the inscription having

* Walton's 'Life of Donne,' p. | published by Causton, "with some 141. The edition quoted is that original notes by an Antiquary."

been written by Donne himself. In its quaint affectation and in its appalling earnestness this monument recalls the very mind of the man himself.

John Donne was born in 1573, the year after the Massacre of St. Bartholomew. He was the child of Roman Catholic parents, and in their faith he was brought up. At the age of eleven he went to Hart Hall, Oxford; at the age of fourteen, or thereabouts, he was "transplanted" to Trinity College, Cambridge. At neither University did he proceed to a degree, for his friends had a conscientious objection to his taking the required oath. He was still only in his seventeenth year, when he commenced the study of the law, and soon after he entered Lincoln's Inn. Of his subsequent life for some years we catch only glimpses here and there. He was a courtier and an associate of nobles and statesmen. He numbered among his friends and acquaintances nearly all the most famous literary men of the day-Ben Jonson, Francis Bacon, Sir Henry Wotton, Selden, Bishop Hall, Bishop Montague, Bishop Andrewes, George Herbert, Izaak Walton. He was a great traveller and a great linguist, a diligent student, a man of wide and varied accomplishments. His versatility is a constant theme of admiration with those who knew him.* At the age of twenty he wrote poems which

* See Grosart's preface to Donne's 'Poems,' ii. pp. xvi. sq. Coleridge also, comparing him

with Shakespeare, speaks of his "lordliness of opulence,” ib., xxxviii.

p.