ESSAYS,

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL.

LIFE AND WRITINGS OF THOMAS FULLER.*

THE republication, within the last few years, of all the principal works of this singular author, affords us an opportunity, by no means unwelcome, of canvassing his merits, and assigning him his proper niche in the temple of our literature. Nor is it necessary, we are sure, to make any apology for dedicating a few of our pages to such a subject. He cannot be unworthy of attention, who was a favourite author of Coleridge and Lamb, and of whom the former (certainly in a

* Edinburgh Review,' Jan. 1842.

1. The Church History of Britain. By THOMAS FULLER, D.D. New Edition. 3 vols. 8vo. London: 1831.

2. The Worthies of England. By THOMAS FULLER, D.D. New Edition. 3 vols. 8vo. London: 1840.

3. The History of the Holy War. By THOMAS FULLER, D.D. New Edition. 12mo. London: 1840.

4. The Holy State and the Profane State. By THOMAS FULLER, D.D. New Edition. 8vo. London: 1841.

5. Good Thoughts in Bad Times, and Good Thoughts in Worse Times. By THOMAS FULLER, D.D. New Edition. 12mo. London: 1840.

moment of unreflecting enthusiasm) could write thus : 'Next to Shakspeare, I am not certain whether Thomas Fuller, beyond all other writers, does not excite in me the sense and emotion of the marvellous; - the degree in which any given faculty, or combination of faculties, is possessed and manifested, so far surpassing what one would have thought possible in a single mind, as to give one's admiration the flavour and quality of wonder.' Let this statement of a critic, the soundness of whose judgments, though they are generally correct and often admirable, cannot always be relied upon, require what abatement it may, it may be safely said, that there is scarcely any writer, whose intellectual character will better repay an attempt at analysis than that of Fuller.

We set about our task the more willingly, as we believe it to be an act of bare justice. We are convinced that posterity has dealt hardly by his memory, and that there are hundreds who have been better remembered with far less claims to that honour. Thus, it is singular that even Mr. Hallam, in his recent 'History of European Literature,' should not have bestowed upon him any special notice; dismissing him with only a slight allusion, in a note upon another subject.* Yet Fuller was not only one of the most voluminous—an equivocal indication of merit, it must be allowed--but one of the most original writers of our language. If he had merely resembled those of his dull contem

*Hallam, vol. iii. p. 104. It must not be supposed that any serious censure of Mr. Hallam's great work is here intended. If it be singular that Fuller has been so summarily dealt with, it would have been far more singular had there been no important omissions. The real wonder is, that the author should have been able at all to dispose of subjects, so immense and so multifarious, in so moderate a compass; to daguerrotype so boundless a landscape, on so small a surface, with such fidelity and distinctness.

poraries, who wrote apparently for writing's sake, without genius or fancy, without any of those graces of thought or diction, which have a special claim on the historian of literature; - if his folios had been collections of third-rate sermons or heavy commentaries; of common-place spread out to the last degree of tenuity, scarcely tolerable even in the briefest form in which truisms can be addressed to our impatience, and perfectly insupportable when prolonged into folios - there would be sufficient reason for the critic's neglect. But it is far otherwise: though Fuller's works, like those of many of his contemporaries, are sometimes covered with rubbish, and swollen with redundancies, they are, as is the case also with some of them, instinct with genius. Like Taylor, and Barrow, and Sir Thomas Brown, he wrote with a vigour and originality, with a fertility of thought and imagery, and a general felicity of style, which, considering the quantity of his compositions, and the haste with which he produced them, impress us with wonder at his untiring activity and preternatural fecundity. He has scattered with careless prodigality, over the pages of his many works, thoughts and images which, if collected, properly disposed, and purified from the worthless matter which encrusts, and often buries them, would have insured him a place beside those who, by writing less and elaborating it more, by concentrating their strength on works of moderate compass and high finish, have secured themselves a place not only in the libraries, but in the memories, of their readers; and are not simply honoured with an occasional reference, but live in perpetual and familiar quotation.

Before proceeding further with the analysis of Fuller's intellectual character, it may be advisable to give a rapid sketch of the principal events of his life.

He was born in 1608 at Aldwincle, in Northamptonshire; his father was the Rev. T. Fuller, rector of St. Peter's in that village. His early education seems to have been conducted chiefly under the paternal roof, and that so successfully, that at twelve years of age he was sent to Queen's College, Cambridge; the Master of which was his maternal uncle, Dr. Davenant, afterwards Bishop of Salisbury. In 1624-5, he took his degree of B. A., and that of M. A. in 1628. He then removed to Sidney College, and, after a short interval, was chosen minister of St. Bennet's, Cambridge, where his great talents as a preacher soon rendered him extremely popular. Preferment now came rapidly. In 1631, he was chosen fellow of Sidney College, and made a prebendary of Salisbury. The same year was signalised by his maiden publication. Like many other men of powerful imagination, who have eventually distinguished themselves as prose writers, he had in early life toyed a little with the Muses. His first work was poetical, and we may be sure that it was steeped in the quaintness which was equally characteristic of the age and of the individual. The very title, indeed, smacks of that love of alliteration of which his writings are so full. It was entitled 'David's Heinous Sin, Hearty Repentance, and Heavy Punishment.' It is now extremely scarce. Peace to its ashes! its author's prose writings have a better and a surer claim to remembrance.

In

Soon after entering priests' orders, he was presented to the rectory of Broad Winsor, in Dorsetshire. 1635 he repaired again to Cambridge, to take his degree of Bachelor of Divinity; and, on his return to Broad Winsor, got rid of another kind of bachelorship in a happy marriage. This event took place in 1638; but his felicity was not of long continuance.