ART. II. The Works of Henry Peacham.

The Compleat Gentleman: fashioning him absolute in the most necessary and commendable qualities concerning Mind or Body, that may be required in a person of Honor. To which is added the Gentleman's Exercise, or an exquisite practice, as well for drawing all manner of Beasts, as for making Colours, to be used in Painting, Limming, &c. By HENRY PEACHAM, Mr. of Arts, somtime of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge.

Inutilis olim

Ne videar vixisse".

The Third Impression. London: Printed for Richard Thrale, at the signe of the Cross Keys at St. Paul's Gate, 1661, [Small 4to, pp. 455.] The Worth of a Penny; or, a Caution to keep Money. With the Causes of the Scarcity, and Misery of the want thereof, in these hard and merciless times : as also how to save it, in our Diet, Apparel, Recreations, &c. And also what honest courses men in want may take to live. By HENRY PEACHAM, Mr. in Arts, &c. Now newly reprinted, &c. London: Printed by S. Griffin, for William Lee, at the Turk's Head in Fleet-street, over against Fetter-lane, 1669. [Small 4to, pp. 36.]

The Art of Living in London: or, a Caution how Gentlemen, Countreymen and Strangers, drawn by occasion of businesse, should dispose of themselves in the thriftiest way, not onely in the Citie, but in all other populous places. As also a direction to the Poorer Sort that come thither to seeke their Fortunes. By H. P. Printed for John Gyles, and are to be sold by Samuel Rand, at his shop at Barnard's Inne in Holborne, 1642. [Small 4to, pp. 8.]

DOCTOR Johnson has rendered the name of the author of these

treatises familiar to many, by frequent citations from them for his Dictionary; and this is good primâ facie evidence of their excellence. The 'Compleat Gentleman' is, as its title imports, a code of rules for the education and conduct of those whom Providence has placed in the higher walks of life; and we think that a few pages of the Retrospective Review may be appropriately devoted to what was the standard work on this important subject two hundred years ago. The seventeenth-century gentleman differed in many material respects from his representative of the present day, as well as from his ancestor of the middle ages. One of the most remarkable features in the social history of this class in old times is, that, in spite of their professed

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contempt of trade and every sordid occupation, hundreds of wellborn persons were dependent upon the nobility, served them in what would now be regarded as very derogatory employments, and even wore their livery. This custom was not extinct in Peacham's time; for he gives us in his 'Epistle to the Reader' an incidental instance of it. While he was on a visit to a man of distinction on the borders of Artois, a young English gentleman who had been on his travels and exhausted his purse, so that he had no means of accomplishing the short remainder of the journey, applied to the great man, desiring "entertainment into his service." He was asked what he could do; "for I keep none," said my Lord, "but such as are commended for some good quality or other, and I give them good allowance; some an hundred, some sixty, some fifty crowns by the year and calling some about him (very gentlemen-like, as well in their behaviour as their apparel), This, saith he, rides and breakes my great horses; this is an excellent lutenist; this, a good painter and surveyor of land; this, a passing linguist and scholler, who instructeth my sons, &c." "Sir (quoth this young man), I am a gentleman born, and can only attend you in your chamber, or wait upon your lordship abroad,”—and into the office of lacquey he was, at Peacham's request, immediately inducted! Thus, with all the pride of ancestry strong upon them, necessitous gentlemen would often undertake employments, which none but people of the humblest grade now fulfil. The case of the young clergy, retained in great families (and not unfrequently as well descended as their patrons themselves) was still worse. Macaulay's 'Young Levite' has been objected to as an exaggeration or a caricature; but none will deny the contemporary evidence of our author who, while writing for a particular class, had no motive, but a sense of justice, for holding up the faults and errors of that class to public view.

Such," he says, "is the most base and ridiculous parsimony of many of our gentlemen (if I may so term them), that if they can they will procure some poor Batchelor of Art from the University to teach their children to say grace, and serve the cure of an impropriation, who, wanting means and friends, will be content upon the promise of ten pounds a-year at his first coming to be pleased with five; the rest to be set off in hope of the next advowson, (which perhaps was sold before the young man was born): or, if it chance to fall in his time, his lady or master tels him; indeed sir, we are beholden unto you for your pains; such a living is lately faln, but I had before made a promise of it to my butler or bailif for his true and extraordinary service; when the truth is, he hath bestowed it upon himself for 80 or an 100 pieces, which indeed his man two dayes before had fast hold of, but could

not keep. Is it not commonly seen, that most gentlemen will give better wages and deal more beautifully with a fellow who can but teach a dog, or reclaim an hawk than upon an honest, learned, and well-qualified man to bring up their children? It may be, hence it is that dogs are able to make syllogisms in the fields, when their young masters can conclude nothing at home, if occasion of argument or discourse be offered at the table."

The Compleat Gentleman' commences with a view of "Nobility in Generall: that it is a plant from heaven, the root, branches, and fruit." This chapter deals more in good sense and sound argument than its title would seem to promise; and abounds with illustrative anecdotes, many of which oppugn rather than support the notion prevalent in the author's times, that no good thing could come out of the Nazareth of plebeianism. Peacham, though a 'Mr. of Arts,' had not mastered the art of flattery, for he speaks out his mind in a courageous tone as often as a fair opportunity presents itself. For example, alluding to the lax morals of his period, he says: "Such are the miserable corruptions of our times, that vices go for prime virtues; and to be drunk, swear, wench, follow fashions, and do just nothing, are the attributes and markes now-a-dayes of a great part of our gentry." At the same time, he does not let slip any opportunity of decrying the vulgar and pretentious assumption of gentilitial honours, which seems to have been as common in the seventeenth as it is in the nineteenth century:

Having discoursed of nobility in general . . give me leave in a word to inveigh against the pittiful abuse thereof, which like a plague, I think, hath infected the whole world, every undeserving and base peasant aiming at nobility; which miserable ambition hath so furnished both town and countrey with coats of a new list, that were Democritus living, he might have laughing matter for his life. In Naples, such is the pride of every base groom, that though he be di stalla he must be termed Signore, and scarce wil open a note from a poor Calzolaiao, to whom he hath been a twelvemonth indebted for his boots, if Don be not the superscription. In Venice, likewise, every mechanick is a magnifico, though his magnificenza walketh in the market but with a chequin. In France, every peasant and common lacquey is saluted by name of Mounsieur, or Sire, the king himself having no other title.

In the Low Countries, mine old host of Arnhem in Gilderland changed his coat and crest thrice in a fortnight, because it did not please his young wife. For there, ye must understand, they are all gentlemen by a grant (they say) from Charles the Fifth, in consideration of a great sum of money they lent him in time of his wars. Come into any house soever, though mijn heer wert be but a gardener, ropemaker, or aqua vitæ seller, you shall be sure to have his arms, with the beaver full-faced (allowed to none but kings and princes) in his glasse window, with some motto or other, his own device.

Some again, by altering letters or syllables, or adding to their names, will insinuate themselves into noble houses, and not stick many times to bear their coats."

Hear this ye novi homines, ye Tayleures, and Smythes, and Brounes, and Robynsones; especially if you have made money by railways or cotton-mills; for Master Peacham elsewhere expressly tells us, that we must on no account reckon as noble or gentle those "who by mechanick means have raked up a masse of wealth."

The second chapter is an eulogium on learning, and the third treats "Of the time of Learning, Duty of Masters, and the fittest Method to be observed." The latter abounds with valuable hints, derived from the author's own experience as a teacher; for he had been, as he himself tells us, tutor to the Earl of Arundel's children. And it is curious, not to say painful, to observe that many of the educational errors and defects prevalent in the middle of the seventury remain unremedied down to the present day. Thus:

"For one discreet and able teacher you shall find twenty ignorant and carelesse; who where they make one scholler marre ten.”

But we see,

"The self-same method agrees not with all alike. out of the master's carterly judgment, like horses in a team they are set to draw all alike, when some one or two prime and able wits in the school, avrodidaktoι, (which he culs out to admiration if strangers come, as a costardmonger his fairest pippins!) like fleet hounds go away with the game, when the rest need helping over a stile a mile behind."

"Some affect, and severer schools enforce, a precise and tedious strictness, in long keeping the scholars by the walls; as from before six in the morning till twelve, or past; so likewise in the afternoon: which beside the dulling of the wit and dejecting of the spirit (for, Otii non minùs quam negotii ratio extare debet) breeds in him afterwards a kind of hate and carelessness of study when he comes to be at his own liberty."

Many others of a similar kind might be adduced did our space permit it. In some things, however, the modern pedagogue stands in favourable contrast to his predecessor in the days of the Charleses. "I knew one," says Peacham, "who in winter would ordinarily in a cold morning whip his boyes over but for no other purpose than to get himself a heat: another beat them for swearing, and all the while sweares himself, with horrible oathes, that he would forgive any fault saving that!" And we trust that there are now-a-days few masters like our author's own Hertfordshire preceptor, who would never teach his pupils anything that their fathers had not learned before them, lest they should "prove saucy rogues and controle those fathers." Noble friend of "progress!"

The chapters on the "Duties of Parents in their Children's Education,” and “of a Gentleman's Carriage in the University" display

much sound judgment. The sixth, "of style in Speaking and Writing, and of History," is an excellent practical essay which a modern student might advantageously peruse. In recommending models of English style, he enumerates Sir Thomas More's 'Life of Richard the Third,' Sydney's Arcadia,' Bacon's 'Essays,' Hooker's 'Ecclesiastical Polity,' Hayward's 'Henry the Fourth and Edward the Sixth,' and Sir Robert Cotton's 'Henry the Third.' But he would not confine himself exclusively to these:

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“Procure, if you may, the speeches made in parliament; frequent learned sermons; in term time resort to the star chamber, and be present at the pleadings in other public courts, whereby you shall better your speech, enrich your understanding, and get more experience in one moneth than in other four by keeping your melancholy study, and by solitary meditation, as Contemplatio mortis et immortalitatis by the Earl of Manchester, and the mirrour which flatters not by De la Serres. Imagine not that hereby I would bind you from reading all other books, since there is no book so bad, even Sir Bevis himself, Owleglasse, or Nashes Herring, but some commodity may be gotten by it. For as in the same pasture the ox findeth fodder, the hound a hare, the stork a lizard, the fair maid flowers, so we cannot, except we list ourselves (saith Seneca) but depart the better from any book whatever."

The chapter "of Cosmography" would be best described by the epithet queer, but as it only copies the strange theories believed in before the introduction of the Newtonian philosophy, we cannot afford space for quoting from it. Chapters viii and ix comprise remarks. on Geography and on Geometry, or rather upon curious mechanical contrivances. Chapter x is a clever essay on Poetry, and Chapter xi an eulogium of Music. After commemorating several distinguished personages who had been eminent in this art, he introduces us to a living worthy who was hardly surpassed in accomplishments by Crichton himself. This is the Landgrave Maurice of Hesse, "who carrieth away the palme for excellency, not only in musick, but in whatsoever is to be wished in a brave prince." He composed motets for his own chapel, and was his own organist-spoke with fluency ten or twelve different languages-and was so universal a scholar that, on coming to the University of Marpurge (Marburg), he would dispute ex tempore, in boots and spurs, upon any question posted up for argumentation, according to the then-prevailing German fashion, and that, too, with the most eminent professors of the several faculties; and, as the culminating point of his genius, he was accounted "the best bone-setter in the country!" Chapter xii "of Antiquities," treats principally of statues, inscriptions, and coins, giving precedence to statues on account of "their greater standing