ections, and is exactly what
its title implies--a succinct account of England, beginning with its
name, its climate, its topography, and giving information, now
invaluable, about everything included in its constitution and in its
economy. The extract printed here is, as is indicated, from pp. 383-389
and p. 401. The work passed through two editions in the year of its
appearance, the second bearing the author's name, and at the time of
Chamberlayne's death it had, with successive amplifications, reached its
twentieth edition.

Of a very different order to Chamberlayne's work is the remarkable tract
which follows. The author, John Eachard, was born about 1636, at what
date is doubtful, but he was admitted into Catherine Hall, Cambridge, in
May 1653. Becoming Fellow of the Hall in 1658, he was chosen, on the
death of Dr. Lightfoot, Master. His perfectly uneventful life closed on
the 7th of July 1697. Personally he was a facetious and agreeable man,
and had the reputation of being rather a wit and humorist than a divine
and scholar. Baker complained of his inferiority as a preacher; and
Swift, observing 'that men who are happy enough at ridicule are
sometimes perfectly stupid upon grave subjects,' gives Eachard as an
instance. _The Grounds and Occasions of the Contempt of the Clergy and
Religion enquired into, In a letter written to R.L._, appeared
anonymously in 1670. This anonymity Eachard carefully preserved during
the controversies which it occasioned. It is difficult to understand how
any one after reading the preface could have misunderstood the purpose of
the book. But Eachard's fate was Swift's fate afterwards, though there was
more excuse for the High Church party missing the point of the _Tale of a
Tub_ than for the clergy generally missing that of Eachard's plea for
them. Ridicule is always a dangerous ally, especially when directed
against an institution or community, for men naturally identify
themselves with the body of which they are members, and resent as
individuals what reflects on them collectively. When one of the opponents
of Barnabus Oley in his preface to Herbert's _Country Parson_ observed:
'The pretence of your book was to _show_ the occasions, your book is
_become_ the occasion of the contempt of God's ministers,' he expressed
what the majority of the clergy felt. The storm burst at once, and the
storm raged for months. 'I have had,' wrote Eachard in one of his many
rejoinders, 'as many several nam