freeholder, and some who have no property at all, be allowed to canvas about for any one they have a fancy for, and must not the bishops, who have so large estates, and so much greater prudence to judge of the fitness of a choice, be tied up from assisting a person of merit in his competition? But the persons they appear for are whigs and fanaticks. And this is all vile calumny. I do not think there can be an instance given, in the whole nation, of a bishop's appearing for any gentleman, but who is an habitual member of the church of England. They have never opposed any gentleman's interest, but who has been of known, or, at least, suspected disaffection to the government; and to endeavour to keep out such, in this juncture of affairs, can need no apology. Every hearty lover of the King and our present constitution is a whig and fanatick to the jacobites; and this is all the title they have to those ill names, which their enemics so unkindly bestow upon them. Now, though the common people are frequently imposed upon by such slanderous characters, the bishops have sagacity enough to penetrate through the artifices of malice; and cannot think it just, that the nation should be deprived of the assistance of a member of worth and fidelity, for the sake of a few bespattering reflexions without any ground.

X. And now having, I think, sufficiently vindicated our present bishops against these imputations, by which some have endeavoured to sully their character, I beg leave to say something farther to engage our hearty love and esteem for them; and to let you understand that we have reason to bless God for raising up amongst us such excellent fathers in the church, that do so eminently adorn the high station they are in, by all the good qualifications which are desirable for that calling. For, as to their life and conversation, those, that are most calumniated amongst them, have nothing that can be objected to them upon this account; they having all along led lives of the greatest circumspection and exactness, and shewn forth shining examples of sobriety, meekness, and charity. Neither is their learning inferior to that of the bishops of the last age, and the books, which they have wrote, have such a vein of reasoning, and a calmness, running through them, as is superior to that of their predecessors. That humility, which adorns the life of every Christian, renders theirs illustrious; for I will defy the memory of the present age, or the annals of the former, to shew such a set of men, so famous for their personal qualifications, and raised to such an eminency of station, that have shewed such an obliging familiarity to those below them, as these bishops have done. This, next to the grace of God, is owing, I believe, to the long and painful discharge of their labours, in their parishes, before their promotion: being thereby freed from that high kind of deportment, which some of their predecessors have been charged with; who, having lived mostly in the grandeur of a cathedraical dignity, were trained up to a superiority over their rural brethren, which they did not, to be sure, forget, as their honour increased upon them. Nay, I will venture to say, That, when it shall please God to take to himself these good men, whom some of us do so disesteem, it will not be easy to find a great many amongst us, who will fill those p'aces as well as they have done.

Then what a pity is it, that they who are possessed of so much personal worth, and so much obliging condescension, should find so unkind returns from many of their own clergy? This can proceed only from a fore-conceived prejudice and misapprehension of their true character, which arises not from any just ground, but, from being engaged in a party, and, for that reason, unadvisedly believing all that is said in their disparagement. If this unhandsome and ungodly custom do not stop in good time, God knows whither it will at last carry us. The ancient heresies and schisms, which so sadly pestered the primitive church, had their original from presbyters quarrelling with their bishops. This gave a rise to the heresies of Arius and Novatianus, and to the schism of the Donatists. But I hope, the good God will afford us more grace and wisdom than to let matters run so far. I do not think this humour to be spread so very wide as to affect any great part of our clergy; the far greater number I am persuaded do stick fast to their ancient principles and duty, and have never ceased to pay that love and respect to their diocesans, which our forefathers were so hearty in; and that ill example, which some disobliged persons have set, will, I hope, be so far from being copied, that they themselves will see their error, and be sorry for it.

But I would not have you mistake me, as if I charged these faults upon the lower house of convocation, in their disputes with the bishops; for though, I confess, I cannot go into opinion with them in all they have advanced, yet they, as acting in a synodical authority, have a privilege to remonstrate upon any grievances they think to be hard upon them, without breach of their duty to superiors. Or, if rules of decency be sometimes transgressed, the warmth of the disputes, they may be engaged in, goes a good way in alleviation. But my business is to silence, if I could, the reflecting talk of those, who reproach the bishops without doors; which, though they were of the house, they have no synodical privilege to excuse them for. For every presbyter then is upon the level with you and me, and owe as much duty and regard to their respective bishops. But I am afraid, there are the greatest number of tongues running upon this theme, that have had no share in these disputes, but what they have been pleased to take to themselves, without being called to it. And I think it is time for all, who have nothing to do in these matters, to be quiet, when the chief managers of the lower house controversy, and all the worthy members of the body now met, seem inclined to peace, and the ancient good correspondence. Now these, I think, we may both of us, as occasion shall offer, put in mind of their duty, without assuming an authority which does not belong to us. For brotherly admonition is a common duty of Christianity; and therefore, to be sure, does not lie out of our way, that have the honour to take a share in the ministerial function. For, if you take seasonable opportunities to speak calmly upon these heads, or others, which yourself may suggest, where you shall find need, I doubt not, but in time, and with God's blessing, your discourse will have its desired effect in the neighbourhood; and, if others would take upon them to do the like elsewhere in the nation, I am persuaded we

should all grow into a good humour once again, and love our bishops as we have done formerly. Thus, recommending you to the divine protection, and praying for good success in the attempt you shall make in the kind I advise, or any other good work of your calling,

I am your faithful friend,

and brother in Christ, &c.

AN ACCOUNT

OF

THE ORIGINAL OF WRITING AND PAPER,

Out of a Book, intitled, La Libraria Vaticana,

Written by Mutio Pansa, Keeper of the said Library.
Printed at Rome. Quarto, containing thirty pages.

THA

1st, Of the Use of Books, and Invention of Letters.

DISCOURSE I.

HAT the use of books and libraries is very ancient, appears by many authors, both Christian and heathen, from whom it may in some measure be gathered, that they have been in use ever since the world began; for we read, that Jude the Apostle, in one of his epistles quotes the book of Enoch, which was before the flood. (The words of the epistle are: And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, &c.' So that here is a prophecy, but nothing expresly of a book of his writing, whence a debate may arise, whether this prophecy was not left by oral tradition, without more positive proof; but to return to our author.) And tho' authors differ very much concerning the invention of letters, of which afterwards books were composed; yet we take it for granted, that they were invented by Adam, his sons, and grandsons, in the first age of the world, before the flood, and were after preserved by Noah and his progeny, till they came to Abraham, and so to Moses; and of this opinion was St. Augustin, lib. xv. de Civitate Dei, and Josephus, a Jewish writer of great credit, who, in

the first book of his antiquities, writes, That Adam's grandsons, the sons of Seth, erected two pillars, the one of stone and the other of brick, on which they left written, and engraved, all the arts discovered by them, and he affirms he saw one of the pillars in Syria; from the which, I am of opinion, the Egyptians afterwards learnt the way of writing, and expressing their mysteries with those characters called hieroglyphicks, on several obelisks, wherein Egypt formerly so much abounded, that some of them are still to be seen in Rome, whither they were transported by the first Emperors. This is the more credible, because we read, that Adam was by God created in so great a state of perfection, of knowledge, and of wisdom, that he gave names to all things, according to their nature and qualities; and that none ever so well understood the revolutions of the heavens, the motions of the stars and planets, and so thoroughly knew the nature of herbs, plants, animals, and all other things in the world, as he did. It is therefore to be believed, that he found out the method for preserving the memory hereof to posterity. Pliny, in his Nat. Hist. lib. vii. cap. ult. confirms this opinion; for there, after delivering the sentiments of many concerning the invention of letters, as that some pretend they were invented in Syria by the Assyrians, and others in Egypt by Mercury; that they were brought into Italy by the Pelasgi, and into Greece by the Phoenicians, and Cadmus their leader; that Palamedes, during the Trojan war, added four more; he concludes, it is his opinion, that letters were eternal, which is almost the same, as to say they began with the world. Hence it follows, that their opinion is vain, who say the Egyptians were the inventors of letters and arts, as Diodorus Siculus holds lib. i. where he says, that Mercury found them out in Egypt; though, in his fourth book, he writes, that others think the Ethiopians had letters before, and the Egyptians from them. Hence we may further infer, that Moses was not the first inventor of letters, as some Jews and Christians affirm, because he was ancienter than any one of those by whom they are said to have been first found; as Cadmus, who lived in the days when Othoniel governed Israel, which was forty-seven years after the written law was given to Moses; and therefore the Egyptians learnt the letters of him, and they communicated them to the Phoenicians, whence Cadmus carried them into Greece. True it is, that Attabanus and Eupolemus, heathen authors, say, that Moses was by the Egyptians called Mercury, and the same that taught them letters. Thus, we see, the invention of letters was ancienter than Philo the Jew believes it, who says, that Abraham first found them; for, as has been said, they were in being even in the days of Adam and his children, and afterwards preserved by Noah, who was a man of learning and letters, and it is to be believed that he saved them with him in the ark; though, after the confusion of tongues at the tower of Babel, most nations might lose the letters, and the knowledge of them might only remain in the family of Heber, from whom the Hebrews afterwards descended, who lost not their first language, as St. Augustin, Eusebius, and most learned men of our time affirm. Philo, and the rest, who thought that Moses had been the inventor of letters, were the more easily deceived, because it is manifest, that the books and history writ by Moses are the

ancientest in the world, or than the wisdom of the Egyptians, or the philosophy of the Greeks, as is made out by St. Augustin and Josephus writing against Appion the grammarian, as also by Eusebius and Justin Martyr: And that there were letters before Moses is visible, because we find it written, that he learnt in Egypt unto Pharoah the arts and wisdom of the Egyptians; nor do I know how this could be, unless they had letters before, though, it is true, we know they had some characters called hieroglyphicks, by which they taught most of their sciences. Howsoever it was, the invention of letters is certainly divine, as being those that preserve and secure all other invention, for without them none can subsist; and they are of such worth, that they make men immortal, rendering those things present which happened a thousand years ago, and joining those which are distant, communicating them, as if they were not asunder. By them are known and learnt all sorts of sciences, teaching those in being all that past ages knew, and preserving for posterity all that those now living found out. In short, the benefit of them is almost infinite and inexpressible, and therefore their invention may deservedly be called rather divine than human. What order was observed in the characters of ancient times, methinks is not to be sought after, as depending on the will and pleasure of the inventor; as we daily see is done by those who frame cyphers or characters, and other sorts of common letters, who observe no order. It is true they were, in process of time, for the more distinction, put into that order we now see them: And, because many afterwards successively added other letters, or made new characters, therefore many were thought the inventors of them; of whom we shall speak to purpose hereafter, when we come to discourse of the pictures in the Vatican library, among which are those, of all such as were famous in the world for the invention of letters, or for adding any to them.

Of the Paper of the Ancients, of the Papyrus of the Romans, of the several sorts of it, and of the Paper of our Times.

DISCOURSE II.

HAVING hitherto discoursed of the letters, it will now be convenient to say something of paper, as the matter on which they are made; and, to speak the truth, it is no small difficulty to decide what they writ on in former ages, because we have no account in history what they did write on before the flood, but what we said before, that Adam's grandchildren, the sons of Seth, writ an account of arts on those two pillars abovementioned. After the flood, all authors agree that men had no paper, but writ on the leaves of palm trees, whence, to this