These fanatics brought to civil and military affairs a coolness of judgment and an immutability of purpose which some writers have thought inconsistent with their religious zeal, but which were in fact the necessary effects of it. The intensity of their feelings on one subject made them tranquil on every other. One overpowering sentiment had subjected to itself pity and hatred, ambition and fear. Death had lost its terrors, and pleasure its charms. They had their smiles and their tears, their raptures and their sorrows, but not for the things of this world. Enthusiasm had made them Stoics, had cleared their minds from every vulgar passion and prejudice, and raised them above the influence of danger and of corruption. It sometimes might lead them to pursue unwise ends, but never to choose unwise means. They went through the world, like Sir Artegal's iron man Talus with his flail, crushing and trampling down. oppressors, mingling with human beings, but having neither part nor lot in human infirmities, insensible to fatigue, to pleasure, and to pain, not to be pierced by any weapon, not to be withstood by any barrier. THE PROGRESS OF ENGLAND THE history of England is emphatically the history of progress. It is the history of a constant movement in the public mind, of a constant change in the institutions of a great society. We see that society, at the beginning of the twelfth century, in a state more miserable than the state in which the most degraded nations of the East now are. We see it subjected to the tyranny of a handful of armed foreigners. We see a strong distinction of caste separating the victorious Norman from the vanquished Saxon. We see the great body of the population in a state of personal slavery. We see the most debasing and cruel superstition exercising boundless dominion over the most elevated 1 Sir Artegal . . . Talus, characters allegorically representing Justice and an attendant, in Spenser's "Faërie Queene" and benevolent minds. We see the multitude sunk in brutal ignorance, and the studious few engaged in acquiring what did not deserve the name of knowledge. In the course of seven centuries the wretched and degraded race have become the greatest and most highly civilized people that ever the world saw; have spread their dominion over every quarter of the globe; have scattered the seeds of mighty empires and republics over vast continents of which no dim intimation had ever reached Ptolemy1 or Strabo; 2 have created a maritime power which would annihilate in a quarter of an hour the navies of Tyre, Athens, Carthage, Venice, and Genoa together; have carried the science of healing, the means of locomotion and correspondence, every mechanical art, every manufacture, everything that promotes the convenience of life, to a perfection which our ancestors would have thought magical; have produced a literature which may boast of works not inferior to the noblest which Greece has bequeathed to us; have discovered the laws which regulate the motions of the heavenly bodies; have speculated with exquisite subtilty on the operations of the human mind; have been the acknowledged leaders of the human race in the career of political improvement. The history of England is the history of this great change in the moral, intellectual, and physical state of the inhabitants of our own island. There is much amusing and instructive episodical matter, but this is the main action. To us, we will own, nothing is so interesting and delightful as to contemplate the steps by which the England of the Domesday Book, the England of the Curfew and the Forest Laws, the England of crusaders, monks, schoolmen, astrologers, serfs, outlaws, became the England which we know and love, the classic ground of liberty and philosophy, the school of all knowledge, the mart of all trade. 1 a Greek-Egyptian astronomer of the second century 2 a Greek geographer, born about 60 B. C. 8 incidental * See Webster's Dictionary. FROUDE 1818-1894 JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE, the historian, was born in Devonshire, England, in 1818, and died there in 1894. He graduated at Oxford University, and became a Fellow of Exeter College. His first book, a novel entitled "The Shadows of the Clouds," is now forgotten. His second was entitled "The Nemesis of Faith,' -a theological work which attracted much atten tion. His third essay, made in the field of history, was conspicuously successful. His "History of England" embraces the period between the fall of Wolsey and the death of Elizabeth, and furnishes the completest view of that time that has yet been written. In its preparation the author availed himself of a large collection of manuscripts before unused, and these threw a strong light upon his subject. Froude is not absolutely impartial as an historian; he often gives way to his prejudices, and seems to turn his back upon testimony that is opposed to his own opinions. His treatment of the case of Mary Queen of Scots has been shown to be unjust. But he has admirable qualifications for historical writing; his philosophical reflections are judicious, and his style is spirited and forcible. Some of his dramatic passages are among the finest in our historical literature. Although best known, in this country at least, by his History, Froude wrote many essays on moral, social, and educational topics, some of which have been collected in a work entitled "Short Studies on Great Subjects," from which our second selection is taken. EXECUTION OF SIR THOMAS MORE1 Ar daybreak More was awoke 2 by the entrance of Sir Thomas Pope, who had come to confirm his anticipations and to tell him it was the king's pleasure that he should suffer at nine o'clock that morning. He received the news with utter composure. "I am much bounden to the king," he said, "for the benefits and honors he has bestowed on me; and, so help me God, most of all I am bounden to him that it pleaseth his Majesty to rid me so shortly out of the miseries of this present world." Pope told him the king desired that he would not "use many words on the scaffold." "Mr. Pope," he answered, “you do well to give me warning, for otherwise I had purposed somewhat to have spoken; but no matter wherewith his Grace should have cause to be offended. Howbeit, whatever I intended, I shall obey his Highness's command.” He afterwards discussed the arrangements for the funeral, at which he begged that his family might be present; and when all was settled, Pope rose to leave him. He was an old friend. He 1 Sir Thomas More, philosopher and statesman, author of the famous "Utopia," was born in London in 1480. In 1529 he was appointed Lord Chancellor by Henry VIII. in place of Cardinal Wolsey. More refused to sanction the divorce of Queen Catherine and the marriage of King Henry to Anne Boleyn, and for this refusal he was beheaded, July 6th, 1535. (See page 13.) Note the unusual form. took More's hand and wrung it, and, quite overcome, burst into tears. "Quiet yourself, Mr. Pope," More said, "and be not discomfited, for I trust we shall once see each other full merrily, when we shall live and love together in eternal bliss." As soon as he was alone he dressed in his most elaborate costume. It was for the benefit, he said, of the executioner, who was to do him so great a service.1 Sir William Kingston remonstrated, and with some difficulty induced him to put on a plainer suit; but that his intended liberality should not fail, he sent the man a gold angel2 in compensation, " as a token that he maliced him nothing, but rather loved him extremely." So about nine of the clock he was brought by the Lieutenant out of the Tower; his beard being long, which fashion he had never before used, his face pale and lean, carrying in his hands a red cross, casting his eyes often towards heaven. He had been unpopular as a judge, and one or two persons in the crowd were insolent to him; but the distance was short and soon over, as all else was nearly over now. The scaffold had been awkwardly erected, and shook as he placed his foot upon the ladder. "See me safe up," he said to Kingston. "For my coming down I can shift for myself." He began to speak to the people, but the sheriff begged him not to proceed, and he contented himself with asking for their prayers, and desiring them to bear witness for him that he died in the faith of the holy Catholic Church, and a faithful servant of God and the king. He then repeated the Miserere psalm on his knees; and when he had ended and had risen, the executioner, with an emotion which promised ill for the manner in which his part in the tragedy would be accomplished, begged his forgiveness. More kissed him. "Thou art to do me the greatest benefit that I can receive," he said. "Pluck up thy spirit, man, and be not afraid to do thine office. My neck is very short. Take heed, therefore, that thou strike not awry for saving of thine 1 The executioner received the clothes worn by the sufferer. 2 an old English coin |