72. THE MARQUIS OF HALIFAX (George Savile, first Marquis). By Burnet
73. SIR EDMUND SAUNDERS. By Roger North
74. TWO GROUPS OF DIVINES: (1. Benjamin Whitchcot, Ralph Cudworth, John
Wilkins, Henry More, John Worthington; 2. John Tillotson, Edward
Stillingfleet, Simon Patrick, William Lloyd, Thomas Tenison). By
Burnet
75. JAMES II. By Burnet
76. JAMES II. By Burnet




THE CHARACTER


The seventeenth century is rich in short studies or characters of its
great men. Its rulers and statesmen, its soldiers and politicians,
its lawyers and divines, all who played a prominent part in the public
life, have with few notable exceptions been described for us by their
contemporaries. There are earlier characters in English literature;
but as a definite and established form of literary composition
the character dates from the seventeenth century. Even Sir Robert
Naunton's _Fragmenta Regalia, or Observations on the late Queen
Elizabeth her Times and Favourites_, a series of studies of the great
men of Elizabeth's court, and the first book of its kind, is an old
man's recollection of his early life, and belongs to the Stuart period
in everything but its theme. Nor at any later period is there the same
wealth of material for such a collection as is given in this volume.
The eighteenth century devoted itself rather to biography. When the
facts of a man's life, his works, and his opinions claimed detailed