re easy to
despise than to acquire; while his other brothers, the republicans of
literature, want a heart to admire the man who has resisted the perpetual
seductions of a court-life for the silent labours of his closet. Yet if
Alphonsus of Arragon be still a name endeared to us for his love of
literature, and for that elegant testimony of his devotion to study
expressed by the device on his banner of _an open book_, how much more
ought we to be indulgent to the memory of a sovereign who has written one
still worthy of being opened?

We must separate the literary from the political character of this
monarch, and the qualities of his mind and temper from the ungracious and
neglected manners of his personal one. And if we do not take a more
familiar view of the events, the parties, and the genius of the times, the
views and conduct of James the First will still remain imperfectly
comprehended. In the reign of a prince who was no military character, we
must busy ourselves at home; the events he regulated may be numerous and
even interesting, although not those which make so much noise and show in
the popular page of history, and escape us in its general views. The want
of this sort of knowledge has proved to be one great source of the false
judgments passed on this monarch. Surely it is not philosophical to decide
of another age by the changes and the feelings through which our own has
passed. There is a chronology of human opinions which, not observing, an
indiscreet philosopher may commit an anachronism in reasoning.

When the Stuarts became the objects of popular indignation, a peculiar
race of libels was eagerly dragged into light, assuming the imposing form
of history; many of these state-libels did not even pass through the
press, and may occasionally be discovered in their MS. state. Yet these
publications cast no shade on the _talents_ of James the First. His
literary attainments were yet undisputed; they were echoing in the ear of
the writers, and many proofs of his sagacity were still lively in their
recollections.

* * * * *

THE FIRST MODERN ASSAILANTS OF THE CHARACTER OF JAMES THE FIRST.

Burnet, the ardent champion of a party so deeply concerned to oppose as
well the persons as the principles of the Stuarts, levelled the father of
the race; we read with delight pages which warm and hurry us on, mingling
truths with rumours, and known with suggested events, with all the spir