doubt but that he will joyfully plunge in, and swim across
it. Of the parentage, birth, and education of Bodley there
seems to be no necessity for entering into the detail. The
monument which he has erected to his memory is lofty enough
for every eye to behold; and thereupon may be read the
things most deserving of being known. How long the subject
of his beloved library had occupied his attention it is
perhaps of equal difficulty and unimportance to know; but
his determination to carry this noble plan into effect is
thus pleasingly communicated to us by his own pen: "when I
had, I say, in this manner, represented to my thoughts, my
peculiar estate, I resolved thereupon to possess my soul in
peace all the residue of my days; to take my full farewell
of state employments; to satisfy my mind with that
mediocrity of worldly living that I have of my own, and so
to retire me from the Court; which was the epilogue and end
of all my actions and endeavours, of any important note,
till I came to the age of fifty-three years."--"Examining
exactly, for the rest of my life, what course I might take;
and, having, as I thought, sought all the ways to the wood,
I concluded, at the last, to set up my staff AT THE LIBRARY
DOOR IN OXON, being thoroughly persuaded, in my solitude and
surcease from the commonwealth affairs, I could not busy
myself to better purpose than by reducing that place (which
then in every part lay ruinated and waste) to the public use
of Students." Prince's _Worthies of Devon_, p. 95, edit.
1810. Such being the reflections and determination of Sir
Thomas Bodley, he thus ventured to lay open his mind to the
heads of the University of Oxford:

"_To the Vice-Chancellor (Dr. Ravis) of Oxon; about
restoring the public library._

(This letter was published in a convocation holden March 2,
1597)

SIR,

Although you know me not, as I suppose, yet for the
farthering an offer, of evident utility, to your whole
university, I will not be too scrupulous in craving your
assistance. I have been always of a mind that, if God, of
his goodness, should make me able to do any thing, for the
benefit of posterity, I would shew some token of affection,
that I have ever more borne, to the studies of good
learning. I know my porti