ears, had never once visited the
metropolis. On this fact he makes a curious observation: "The wisdom and
frugality of that time being such, that few gentlemen made journeys to
London, or any other expensive journey, but upon important business, and
their wives never; by which Providence they enjoyed and improved their
estates in the country, and kept good hospitality in their house,
brought up their children well, and were beloved by their neighbours."
This will appear a very coarse homespun happiness, and these must seem
very gross virtues to our artificial feelings; yet this assuredly
created a national character; made a patriot of every country
gentleman; and, finally, produced in the civil wars some of the most
sublime and original characters that ever acted a great part on the
theatre of human life.

This was the age of DIARIES! The head of almost every family formed one.
Ridiculous people may have written ridiculous diaries, as Elias
Ashmole's;[103] but many of our greatest characters in public life have
left such monuments of their diurnal labours.

These diaries were a substitute to every thinking man for our
newspapers, magazines, and Annual Registers; but those who imagine that
_these_ are a substitute for the scenical and dramatic life of the diary
of a man of genius, like Swift, who wrote one, or even of a lively
observer, who lived amidst the scenes he describes, as Horace Walpole's
letters to Sir Horace Mann, which form a regular diary, only show that
they are better acquainted with the more ephemeral and equivocal
labours.

There is a curious passage in a letter of Sir Thomas Bodley,
recommending to Sir Francis Bacon, then a young man on his travels, the
mode by which he should make his life "profitable to his country and his
friends." His expressions are remarkable. "Let all these riches be
treasured up, not only in your memory, where time may lessen your stock,
but rather in _good writings_ and _books of account_, which will keep
them safe for your use hereafter." By these _good writings_ and _books
of account_, he describes the diaries of a student and an observer;
these "good writings" will preserve what wear out in the memory, and
these "books of account" render to a man an account of himself to
himself.

It was this solitary reflection and industry which assuredly contributed
so largely to form the gigantic minds of the Seldens, the Camdens, the
Cokes, and others of that vigorous age of genius