im from any
"alteration." In the same letter there is another reference to what Earle
had written about Lord Falkland--no such work I understand survives--"I
would desire you at your leisure to send me that discourse of your own
which you read to me in the end of your _Contemplations upon the Proverbs_
in memory of my Lord Falkland: of whom, in its place, I intend to speak
largely--"so far from being an indecorum (it will be) no less the business
of history than the truth of things."

Anthony Wood's opinion [Bliss's reference to Wood is very brief] of Earle
may be added to Clarendon's testimonies: "This Dr. Earl was a [EP]_very
genteel man_, a contemner of the world, religious, and most worthy of the
office of a Bishop." He is elsewhere styled by him "learned and
godly,"--but the epithet "genteel" gives an extra touch that we should be
loth to lose. In reference to his Latin Translation of Hooker's
Ecclesiastical Polity he adds: "He was only the fit man to make the
learned of all nations happy." Of the Hortus Mertonensis he tells us that
it was one "of several copies of his ingenuity and poetry that were
greedily gathered up" at the University.

I have said in the Preface that nothing is known to Earle's disparagement.
It is true that Ludlow says[EQ]: "Dr. Earle told me that by abolishing
episcopacy we took away all the encouragement to learning; for that men
would not send their sons to the University had they not some hopes that
they would attain preferment." And he is very severe on "this sordid
principle and consideration." That it was not the recommendation of
learning to Earle is abundantly proved by the Microcosmography--but he
might well think the University ought not to lose the advantage of any
material inducements such as might appeal to ordinary men.

Earle, moreover, was a humourist, and may have amused himself with
arguments which seemed good enough for his audience. Lord Macaulay must
not be supposed indifferent to learning because he told his nephew to "get
a good degree at College and become a Fellow--_for then_ he would have
almonds and raisins for the rest of his life for nothing!"

My interleaved copy of Bliss has on the fly-leaf the words "the castrated
title and leaf are preserved, with the addition of a proof title page with
Dr. Bliss's name omitted." The copy is announced in a catalogue slip
pasted in at the end of the book as containing[ER] MS. notes by Joseph
Haslewood and Dr. Bliss. The wor