Arthur Wilson gives short characters of Essex, Warwick, and Say: '_Saye_ and _Seale_ was a seriously subtil _Peece_, and alwayes averse to the Court wayes, something out of pertinatiousnesse; his _Temper_ and _Constitution_ ballancing him altogether on that _Side_, which was contrary to the _Wind_; so that he seldome tackt about or went upright, though he kept his _Course_ steady in his owne way a long time: yet it appeared afterwards, when the harshnesse of the humour was a little allayed by the sweet _Refreshments_ of Court favours, that those sterne _Comportments_ supposed _naturall_, might be mitigated, and that indomitable Spirits by gentle usage may be tamed and brought to obedience' (_Reign of King James I_, p. 162). 49. Clarendon, MS. Life, pp. 48-9: _Life_, ed. 1759, p. 16. This and the four following characters of men of learning and letters are taken from the early section of the _Life_ where Clarendon proudly records his friendships and conversation with 'the most excellent men in their several kinds that lived in that age, by whose learning and information and instruction he formed his studies, and mended his understanding, and by whose gentleness and sweetness of behaviour, and justice, and virtue, and example, he formed his manners.' The characters of Jonson, Falkland, and Godolphin which belong to the same section have already been given. Page 167, l. 27. _his conversation_, fortunately represented for us in his _Table-Talk_, a collection of the 'excellent things that usually fell from him', made by his amanuensis Richard Milward, and published in 1689. Page 168, l. 3. _M'r Hyde_, i.e. Clarendon himself. l. 5. _Seldence_, a phonetic spelling, showing Clarendon's haste in composition. l.10. Selden was member for Oxford during the Long Parliament. ll. 15, 16. Compare Clarendon's _History_, vol. ii, p. 114: 'he had for many years enjoyed his ease, which he loved, was rich, and would not have made a journey to York, or have lain out of his own bed, for any preferment, which he had never affected. Compare also Aubrey's _Brief Lives_, ed. A. Clark, vol. ii, p. 224: 'He was wont to say "I'le keepe myselfe warme and moyst as long as I live, for I shall be cold and dry when I am dead ".' 50. Clarendon, MS. Life, p. 57; _Life_, ed. 1759, pp. 26-7. Izaak Walton included a short character of Earle in his _Life of Hooker_, published in the year of Earle's death: 'Dr. Earle, now Lord Bishop of Salisbury, of whom I may justly say, (and let it not offend him, because it is such a trifle as ought not to be concealed from posterity, or those that now live, and yet know him not,) that since Mr. Hooker died, none have lived whom God hath blessed with more innocent wisdom, more sanctified learning, or a more pious, peaceable, primitive temper: so that this excellent person seems to be only like himself, and our venerable Richard Hooker.' See also _Athenæ Oxonienses_, ed. Bliss, vol. iii, cols. 716-9.