tion. It was said that the Archbishop of Thoulouse, a man of high character for erudition, having lately arrived from his province, had been with the queen-mother, Anne of Austria, and made bitter complaints against the liberty accorded to members of the reformed church there, whom he dignified by the epithets of heretics and rebels, imploring her Majesty's aid against their evil machinations. Instead, however, of the reply which he expected, the queen informed him that better subjects did not exist in all the realm, and extolled their loyalty far above that of their accusers. To this opinion one of the marshals of France, present at the conference, warmly assented, as did the king also himself, who came in soon after and learned the subject of their conversation: he added moreover his determination of securing to his protestant subjects all the liberty which they had obtained by the edicts of his predecessors. Yet this was the bigoted tyrant who in a few years afterwards revoked the Edict of Nantes, exposed these best of subjects to the most horrible persecutions, and by one execrable act of despotism forced thousands to seek for liberty and life far from the limits of their native land. Turning to the subject of literature and science, Barrow laments the present deficiency of talent, and can find no names worthy of being mentioned but those of Arnaud and Robervalle. In perambulating the numerous colleges, he sees nothing eminent except their roofs; nothing con. spicuous but their walls; declaring that the Sorbonne, the College of Navarre, and that of the Jesuits, all put together, would not equal Trinity either in splendor or in size. This leads him to a pleasing display of affection towards that beloved place of his education, in comparison with which all the wonders that attract his notice in foreign realms are considered as vile trash. Quam ægre a vobis divellor! quam difficile jam alienas cogitationes admitto! Cras Italiam, postridie Germaniam cogitem, hodiè vestræ soli recordationi defixus immorabor; a vobis auspicatus sum, in vobis desinam. Suo præsidio Cœleste Numen vos protegat, inque sinus vestros copiam, concordiam, virtutem, sapientiam liberaliter infundat. Valete. By another letter,* dispatched from Constantinople, we learn that Barrow, after residing a few months in Paris, proceeded through the south of France to Genoa, and from thence to Florence, where he made good use of the liberty granted him of reading in the Grand Duke's library, and of inspecting 10,000 medals, which were under the care of Mr. Fitton, a learned Englishman, who had been invited by his Highness to take charge of the collection. But whilst he was thus eagerly employed in the pursuit of knowlege, he became so straitened in pecuniary resources, that he must have returned instantly to England, had he not been relieved from this embarrassment by Mr. Stock,+ a young merchant of London, who generously supplied him with money to prosecute his travels. From visiting Rome, the great object of his ardent curiosity, he was deterred by news of the plague having burst out at Naples, and which, as he had anticipated, soon reached the Eternal City. In the perplexity caused by this circumstance, he heard of an English vessel bound • This epistle is not published in Barrow's Opuscula, but is inserted in the Appendix to Ward's Lives of the Gresham Professors. To this gentleman he afterwards dedicated his edition of Euclid's Data. for Constantinople, in the port of Leghorn, whither he immediately repaired, and set sail for the ancient capital of the east. The ship in which he now embarked, and which was very superior to that in which he left the shores of England, soon encountered a rough gale, the ludicrous effects of which on the passengers at their dinner-table are well described in a copy of elegiacs inserted among his Opuscula. He next touches on the beautiful countries by which they coasted: but an attack made on them in the Ionian Sea, by an Algerine corsair, forms a long episode in this poetic strain. The barbarian ran up boldly and grappled with their vessel, but met with so stout a resistance, that after a desperate and long struggle he was glad to sheer off, and leave them to pursue their voyage as conquerors. Nec tamen erigimus ventis afflanda secundis Barrow exhibited great intrepidity in this engagement; proving that, although his quarrelsome propensities had ceased, his courage did not fail him. Dreading, as he observes, nothing more than slavery, the most terrible prospect for a noble mind, he stuck manfully to his gun, and contributed, no less by his efforts than his example, to the admirable resistance made by the brave captain and his crew. Dr. Pope relates, that when he asked him the question, why he did not go down into the hold, and leave the defence of the ship to those whom it concerned, his reply was; "it concerned no one more than myself. I would rather have lost my life than have fallen into the hands of those merciless infidels." Hence there can be no doubt but that his energetic lines to Liberty came warm from the heart: Nos urit justum decus, indignatio pungit Libertas! bullit cor, animusque tumet; &c. In prosecuting this strain, and enumerating all the evils which he would rather undergo than fall into the hands of the barbarians, he mentions poverty; poverty worse even than what he then bore Quam fero. -paupertas durior illâ And it is no slight proof of the spirit, good conduct, and resources of this extraordinary man, that he was able, with such limited means, to visit so many distant countries, and in such times. After the interruption occasioned by this engagement, they pursue their course near to the little island of Cerigo, which gives the poet an opportunity of adverting to the ancient opulence and glory of Peloponnesus: they refit their shattered vessel at Milo, and thence sailing through the Cyclades, of which the beautiful and now wretched Isle of Scio is selected for a particular description, Ubertate soli reliquas cultuque sorores, Edibus, ingenio, moribus exsuperans; they arrive at Smyrna, where our traveller experiences a very hospitable reception from Mr. Spencer Bretton, the English consul, whose excellent endowments both of mind and body he celebrates not only in the present elegy, but in an epitaph composed at his death. It would seem from Barrow's account, that many relics of antiquity, which then threw an interest over this great commercial city, have since perished. Nunc quoque magnificæ jactas monumenta ruinæ, Splendoris testes relliquiasque tui; Saxorum cumulos, inscriptaque marmora claris Priscorum titulis, nominibusque ducum; &c. No Grecian city at present exhibits so few remains of ancient art! On the eighth day they again set sail, when a poetical contribution is levied on the islands in the northern part of the Ægean, on the shores of Troy, the Hellespont, Propontis, and Bosporus, until at length the imperial seat of the eastern Cæsars, usurped by Ottoman barbarians, comes full into view. -attollunt septem fastigia turres, Et patet urbs longæ meta statuta* viæ. At Constantinople Barrow met with a cordial reception from the English ambassador, Sir Thomas Bendish, and from one of the principal merchants, Sir Jonathan Dawes ; with whom he afterwards kept up an intimate friendship and correspondence. He did not however forget his college, to the members of which he sent a long letter, together with a copy of hexameters, consisting of near a thousand verses, (though it is but a fragment,) on the religion of the Turks. * It seems extraordinary that Barrow's own ear, certainly not an unmusical one, did not lead him to select the word petita in this passage; though the rule of prosody, forbidding a short vowel to remain so before s and another consonant, seems to have been totally unknown to him, as he violates it in a thousand instances. |