"From this sacred task he was called to London by the favour of King Henry VII. and made Dean of St. Paul's, president of his congregation, whose writings he so dearly loved. This is the highest dignity in England, though there be others with more ample revenue. This man, as if called to the labour, rather than to the dignity of the office, restored the decayed discipline of his congregation and, a novelty in that place, undertook to preach on every holy day in his own church, besides the extraordinary sermons which he delivered in the royal chapel and in various other places. In his preaching he did not take his subject by fragments from the Gospels or the apostolic letters, but he proposed some one topic and carried it out to the end in successive discourses: as for example the Gospel of Matthew, the Creed, the Lord's Prayer. He preached to crowded audiences in which were generally to be found the foremost men of the city and of the royal court. "The Dean's table, which had formerly under the name of hospitality degenerated into luxury, he brought within frugal limits." The occasion of eating was improved by learned and serious conversation. "He delighted especially in friendly discussions, which he often prolonged until late into the night, but all his discourse was of learning or of Christ. He often asked me to walk with him and then he was as gay as anyone, but ever a book was the companion of our walk and our discourse was still of Christ. He was impatient of all uncleanness and could not bear to hear language ungrammatical and defiled with barbarisms. All his household furniture, his dress, his books, he wished to have perfectly nice, but did not strive for show. He wore only sad-coloured garments, whereas priests and theologians there are generally clad in purple. His outer dress was always of plain woollen, lined with fur in winter. The whole income of his see he gave over to his agent to be spent in household matters and gave away his own ample income for pious purposes." [Illustration: JOHN COLET. FROM THE DRAWING BY HOLBEIN, IN WINDSOR CASTLE.] Then follows an account of the endowment by Colet of the famous St. Paul's school, to which he gave the best energies of his later years. "While everyone approved this work, many wondered at his building a splendid house on the grounds of the Carthusian monastery near the king's palace at Richmond. He used to say that he was preparing a retreat for his old age when he should be unequal to his work or broken by disease. It was his intention to live there the philosopher's life with two or three choice friends, among whom he used to count me, but his death came too soon."