with Mr. Henry Justell, secretary and counsellor to Lewis XIV. and a zealous Protestant. From him they obtained the most authentic information of the resolution of the French Court to revoke the Edict of Nantes *. This perfidious and cruel purpose, which was not actually put in execution until some years afterward, was the result of a premeditated plan to extirpate the Protestant Faith. Mr. Justell consigned to the care of Mr. Hickes the original Greek manuscript of the of the Canones Ecclesiæ Universalis, edited by his father †, with several

* The Edict of Nantes, originally granted by Henry III. for the security of the Protestants, had been confirmed in 1621, and again in 1625. Nothing tended more to preserve the internal tranquillity of France. By it religious and civil feuds were lulled asleep, all restrictions were removed, and a free admission to employments of profit and honour was conceded to those of the Reformed Faith. It's repeal, in 1685, by Lewis XIV. produced scenes of unprecedented devastation." If you had no other reason," says Martin Luther, "to go out of the Roman Church, this alone would suffice; that you see, and hear, how contrary to the law of God they shed innocent blood. This single circumstance shall, God willing, ever separate me from the Papacy: and if I was now subject to it, and could blame nothing in any of their doctrines, yet for this crime of cruelty I would fly from her community, as from a den of thieves and murtherers."

+ Archbishop Usher undertook to compose a Digest of the Canons of the Ancient Church, as extant in this MS. See one of his Letters to Dr. Ward.

other valuable manuscripts, under an express injunction to present them to the University of Oxford, and from that learned body received in return the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws by Diploma *. In 1681, in order to secure himself from the horrors of the persecution then ready to burst forth, he fled to England, where protection was liberally accorded. He was appointed Keeper of the Royal Library at St. James', and retained that office till the time of his demise, when he was succeeded by the illustrious Bentley.

In May, 1671, Mr. Hickes returned to England. When it was objected to him, in the latter period of his life, that while he was abroad he communicated with the French Protestants who professed the same principles with the Presbyterians and equal hostility to the Church of England,' he made the following reply, in a letter addressed to Dr. Turner, President of Corpus Christi College, Oxford:-" When I was in France thirty-four years ago, I went to Charenton, and once there received the sacrament, and afterward at Blois. But when I came to Montpelier, I declined the sacrament, though I went to the

* In this Diploma his character as a scholar is thus expressed: Non modò omni scientiarum et virtutum genere per se excelluit, verùm etiam parentis optimi et eruditissimi Christoph. Justelli doctrinam et merita ornando atque excolendo sua fecit.

(Wood's Ath. Ox. II. 199.)

temple; having by reading, and conferring about the mission of the French Protestant Ministers, altered my opinion. We went from Montpelier to Lyons, where I was a month, and never went to the temple: thence we went to Geneva, where once, out of curiosity, I went to the great church, and once to the church on the bridge upon invitation to hear their most celebrated preacher, who preached one of Dr. Sanderson's sermons in French. There, also, I was invited to the sacrament by Mr. Diodati : but not going, he told me, he believed I absented myself, as many English did, who questioned their mission;' and, afterward, he grew cold and dry in his conversation with me."

Nothing could exceed the affection shown by Mr. Wheler to the friend of his youth, who has thus expressed the sentiments of his grateful heart: 66 Among the many other favours received from you, I cannot here forbear to mention the kind and seasonable offer you made me to accompany you in your travels at the time when my physician charged me, as I loved my life, to leave the College for a year, and travel about my own country. No blessing, Sir, ever happened more providentially to a man, than this did to me. For while I travelled with you at your own charges in France, I perfectly recovered my health; and therefore you must allow me to say, that to you, under God, I owe my life."

It

is pleasing to add, that these two persons maintained throughout their lives the utmost harmony of friendship.

Mr. Wheler having employed nearly two years in surveying various parts of France, Switzerland, and Italy, resolved to make a voyage into the Levant, and for this purpose hastened to Venice; where he engaged Dr. Spon, a member of the College of Physicians at Lyons, to accompany him. This discreet and ingenious man, the learned son of a learned father*, was a native of Lyons. With a taste for antiquities considerably improved by the instruction of the celebrated M. Vaillant, whom he attended in a journey through Italy, it was impossible for Mr. Wheler to have selected a companion better qualified to assist him in his investigation of the monuments of ancient literature. They were congenial in their dispositions and pursuits. Of their travels a very interesting history is given by

*That father lived to see his son more illustrious than himself. To him were applied the lines in Ovid,

......

natique videns benefacta fatetur

Esse suis majora, et vinci gaudet ab illis.

Mr. Boyle's eulogy of the worth of Spon is strictly just, when he declares, that "the qualities of a learned and of an honest man were never more happily united than in him.” He represents his compagnon de voyage as a "Gentilhomme d'honneur, qui n'a pas moins de sincerilé-ayant eu d'aussi bons yeux que moi?'

Mr. Wheler himself *. His laudable motives for undertaking this work cannot be more clearly expressed than in his own words: "When I considered the many and imminent dangers and difficulties I had by God's wonderful providence been delivered from, the many obligations and signal honours I had received from several illustrious societies and generous friends, both at home and abroad, with the happiness, peace, freedom, and tranquillity I was returned to, and we of this country enjoy above any nation in the world; I concluded it would misbecome me to bury such blessings in oblivion, without erecting the least monument of gratitude in remembrance of them. Therefore enjoying some leisure in the country-solitudes I chose to retire to after my return, I made this and my books my divertise

*The excellency of Mr. Wheler's volume of Travels is acknowledged by every one, who has traversed the same districts. The admirer of classic antiquity will be highly gratified by it's account of ancient medals and inscriptions: but, above all, the botanist, notwithstanding later improvements in his favourite science, will find a rich fund of entertainment. Nor wil less delight arise from the incidental elucidation of other parts of natural history. See, particularly, the description of the Camelion (III. 247.) and compare it with that of the same animal given in Hasselquist's Travels into the East. Spon has, also, employed six pages (I. 373-379.) upon the subject. Mr. Wheler, however, in his Preface, modestly acknowledges "that others have published writings on great part of this subject, aided by parts and learning, far exceeding any thing he could pretend to." (p. i.)