years. Now, if ever, we should be able to form some notion of
that unparalleled figure in the annals of mankind--unparalleled for three
good reasons: first, because he was a man known to his contemporaries in
a halo of almost historical pomp, and to his remote descendants with an
indecent familiarity, like a tap-room comrade; second, because he has
outstripped all competitors in the art or virtue of a conscious honesty
about oneself; and, third, because, being in many ways a very ordinary
person, he has yet placed himself before the public eye with such a
fulness and such an intimacy of detail as might be envied by a genius
like Montaigne. Not then for his own sake only, but as a character in a
unique position, endowed with a unique talent, and shedding a unique
light upon the lives of the mass of mankind, he is surely worthy of
prolonged and patient study.

THE DIARY

That there should be such a book as Pepys's Diary is incomparably
strange. Pepys, in a corrupt and idle period, played the man in public
employments, toiling hard and keeping his honor bright. Much of the
little good that is set down to James the Second comes by right to Pepys;
and if it were little for a king, it is much for a subordinate. To his
clear, capable head was owing somewhat of the greatness of England on the
seas. In the exploits of Hawke, Rodney, or Nelson, this dead Mr. Pepys
of the Navy Office had some considerable share. He stood well by his
business in the appalling plague of 1666. He was loved and respected by
some of the best and wisest men in England. He was President of the
Royal Society; and when he came to die, people said of his conduct in
that solemn hour--thinking it needless to say more--that it was
answerable to the greatness of his life. Thus he walked in dignity,
guards of soldiers sometimes attending him in his walks, subalterns
bowing before his periwig; and when he uttered his thoughts they were
suitable to his state and services. On February 8, 1668, we find him
writing to Evelyn, his mind bitterly occupied with the late Dutch war,
and some thoughts of the different story of the repulse of the great
Armada: "Sir, you will not wonder at the backwardness of my thanks for
the present you made me, so many days since, of the Prospect of the
Medway, while the Hollander rode master in it, when I have told you that
the sight of it hath led me to such reflections on my particular
interest, by my employment, in the re