mmanders who would have demolished all places and persons
that pretended to learning"; another indication among many that the
"obliging" Dr Wilkins was not invertebrate.

In the same year Evelyn, calling at The Durdans, the home of Wilkins'
former pupil, Lord Berkeley, found there a remarkable group, Petty,
Rooke, and Wilkins, amusing themselves with "contrivances for chariots,
and for a wheel for one to run races in,"--the first forms possibly of a
hansom, and a cycle. "Perhaps," continues Evelyn, "three such persons
were not to be found elsewhere in Europe for parts and ingenuity." Lord
Rosebery, we may safely presume, would be glad to see them at The
Durdans now.

In November 1668, Evelyn went to London, "invited to the consecration of
that excellent person, the Dean of Ripon, now made Bishop of Chester: Dr
Tillotson preached." Then he went to a sumptuous banquet in the Hall of
Ely House, where were "the Duke of Buckingham, Judges, the Lord Keeper,
Noblemen, and innumerable other company, who were honourers of this
incomparable man, universally beloved by all who knew him."

Tillotson, who married Wilkins' stepdaughter, and may therefore have
been prejudiced, though such relationships give rise to prejudices of
various kinds, was deeply attached to him. He edited and wrote a preface
to the book on 'Natural Religion,' and did the same pious duty in
respect of the 'Sermons Preached on Several Occasions,' taking
opportunity in the preface to defend him against the censures of Antony
Wood. He edited also a pamphlet of an attractive title, which the writer
has not seen and fain would see, 'The Moderate Man, the best subject in
Church and State, proved from the arguments of Wilkins, with Tillotson's
opinions on the subject.' Between them they must make a strong case for
the Moderate Man. Tillotson says of his father-in-law: "I think I may
truly say that there are or have been few in this age and nation so well
known, and greatly esteemed, and favoured by many persons of high rank
and quality, and of singular worth and eminence in all the learned
professions." This eulogy has perhaps the ring of a time when rank and
quality were made more of than they are now made, but it is quoted as an
illustration of the change of feeling which would make it now impossible
or indecorous to praise a bishop because he got on well with great
people: allowance must be made for the difference between the
seventeenth and the twentieth centur