cannot match it. I believe
you are all of my opinion.' The lords all seconded the king,
and each spake his mind of it. 'I observe two things amongst
others,' said the king, 'very remarkable, if not admirable.
The first is, how is it possible that a young man of
twenty-one years of age (for he had asked the Lord of
Canterbury before, how old Nicholas Ferrar was) should ever
attain to the understanding and knowledge of more languages
than he is of years; and to have the courage to venture upon
such an Atlas work, or Hercules labour. The other is also of
high commendation, to see him write so many several
languages, so well as these are, each in its proper
character. Sure so few years had been well spent, some men
might think, to have attained only to the _writing_ thus
fairly, of these twenty-four languages!' All the lords
replied his majesty had judged right; and said, except they
had seen, as they did, the young gentleman there, and the
book itself, all the world should not have persuaded them to
the belief of it." _Ecclesiastical Biography_, vol. v., pp.
216, 220. But whatever degree of credit or fame of young
FERRARS might suppose to have been attached to the execution
of these "pieces," his emulation was not damped, nor did his
industry slacken, 'till he had produced a specimen of much
greater powers of book-decoration. His appetite was that of
a giant; for he was not satisfied with any thing short of
bringing forth a volume of such dimensions as to make the
bearer of it groan beneath its weight--and the beholders of
it dazzled with its lustre, and astonished at its amplitude.
Perhaps there is not a more curious book-anecdote upon
record than the following. "Charles the 1st, his son
Charles, the Palsgrave, and the Duke of Lennox, paid a visit
to the monastery of Little Gidding, in Huntingdonshire--the
abode of the Ferrars."--"Then, the king was pleased to go
into the house, and demanded where the GREAT BOOK was, that
he had heard was made for Charles's use. It was soon brought
unto him; and the _largeness_ and _weight_ of it was such
that he that carried it seemed to be _well laden_. Which the
duke, observing, said, 'Sir, one of your strongest guard
will but be able to carry this book.' It being laid on the
table before the