How is it that any deeply-read historian should not see how imperfect and precarious the rights of personal liberty were during this period; or, seeing it, refuse to do justice to the patriots under Charles I? The truth is, that from the reign of Edward I, (to go no farther backward), there was a spirit of freedom in the people at large, which all our kings in their senses were cautious not to awaken by too rudely treading on it; but for individuals, as such, there was none till the conflict with the Stuarts. Ib. s. 84. Of such a conclusion of state, 'quæ aliquando incognita, semper justa', &c. This perversion of words respecting the decrees of Providence to the caprices of James and his beslobbered minion the Duke of Buckingham, is somewhat nearer to blasphemy than even the euphuism of the age can excuse. Ib. s. 85. ... tuus, O Jacobe, quod optas Explorare labor, mihi jussa capessere fas est. In our times this would be pedantic wit: in the days of James I, and in the mouth of Archbishop Williams it was witty pedantry. Ib. s. 89. He that doth much in a short life products his mortality. 'Products' for 'produces;' that is, lengthens out, 'ut apud geometros'. But why Hacket did not say 'prolongs,' I know not. Ib. See what a globe of light there is in natural reason, which is the same in every man: but when it takes well, and riseth to perfection, it is called wisdom in a few. The good affirming itself--(the will, I am)--begetteth the true, and wisdom is the spirit proceeding. But in the popular acceptation, common sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom. Ib. s. 92. A well-spirited clause, and agreeable to holy assurance, that truth is more like to win than love. Could the light of such a Gospel as we profess be eclipsed with the interposition of a single marriage? And yet Hacket must have lived to see the practical confutation of this shallow Gnathonism in the result of the marriage with the Papist Henrietta of France! Ib. s. 96. "Floud," says the Lord Keeper, "since I am no Bishop in your opinion, I will be no Bishop to you." I see the wit of this speech; but the wisdom, the Christianity, the beseemingness of it in a Judge and a Bishop,--what am I to say of that? Ib. And after the period of his presidency (of the Star Chamber), it is too well known how far the enhancements were stretched. 'But the wringing of the nose bringeth forth blood'. Prov. 30-33. We may learn from this and fifty other passages, that it did not require the factious prejudices of Prynne or Burton to look with aversion on the proceedings of Laud. Bishop Hacket was as hot a royalist as a loyal Englishman could be, yet Laud was 'allii nimis'. Ib. s. 97. New stars have appeared and vanished: the ancient asterisms remain; there's not an old star missing.