ered by Hugo Grotius to be
the glory of the English nation--John Selden. Nowadays, when we choose
our glories among other classes of men than jurists and wits, it is more
than possible for even cultured persons who are interested in books to
go through life very happily without knowledge at all of this great man,
the friend of great men and the writer best endowed with common sense of
any of his day. From Selden's _Table Talk_ I take a few passages on the
homelier side, to be read at Salvington:--

[Sidenote: JOHN SELDEN'S WISDOM]

FRIENDS.

Old Friends are best. King James used to call for his old Shoes;
they were easiest for his Feet.

CONSCIENCE.

Some men make it a Case of Conscience, whether a Man may have a
Pigeon-house, because his Pigeons eat other Folks' Corn. But there
is no such thing as Conscience in the Business; the Matter is,
whether he be a Man of such Quality, that the State allows him to
have a Dove-house; if so, there's an end of the business; his
Pigeons have a right to eat where they please themselves.

CHARITY.

Charity to Strangers is enjoin'd in the Text. By Strangers is there
understood those that are not of our own Kin, Strangers to your
Blood; not those you cannot tell whence they come; that is, be
charitable to your Neighbours whom you know to be honest poor
People.

CEREMONY.

Ceremony keeps up all things: 'Tis like a Penny-Glass to a rich
Spirit, or some excellent Water; without it the Water were spilt,
the Spirit lost.

Of all people Ladies have no reason to cry down Ceremony, for they
take themselves slighted without it. And were they not used with
Ceremony, with Compliments and Addresses, with Legs and Kissing of
Hands, they were the pitifullest Creatures in the World. But yet
methinks to kiss their Hands after their Lips, as some do, is like
little Boys, that after they eat the apple, fall to the Paring, out
of a Love they have to the Apple.

RELIGION.

Religion is like the Fashion: one Man wears his Doublet slashed,
another laced, another plain; but every Man has a Doublet. So every
man has his Religion. We differ about Trimming.

Alteration of Religion is dangerous, because we know not where it
will stay: 'tis like a _Millstone_ that lies upon the top of a pair
of Stairs; 'tis hard to remov