and the critics set it down to your zeal for
sound learning, and your hatred of superficial
men. Finally, you dedicate to a bishop, whom
you call the ornament of the age (seculi
decus); and out comes your edition on
beautiful paper— a reproach (in the paper) to the
inferiority of Germany. Casaubon's labours
were of a severer character. He settled the
texts of his authors by infinite care— the
very first necessity being critical skill in the
tongues. His commentaries brought all
antiquity to illustrate each part of it. By the
time he was six-and-thirty, he had edited
Strabo, Theophrastus, the Apologia of
Apuleius, and Suetonius. He then devoted himself
to Athenæus and, at the age of thirty-eight,
moved from Geneva to Montpelier, and he
accepted a chair there. He commenced his
Diary at Montpelier, on his thirty-eighth
birthday. He kept it regularly till his death;
but about three years of it have been lost.
Let us now open it.

Casaubon begins his reading early in the
morning. You see at once that reading is
the passion of his life. The day commences
with prayer. Thus he reads from about five
until ten. After refreshment, he reads
again. If anybody calls on any manner of
business, or on any pretence of kindness, a
dismal groan is recorded. The business of
life is to get on with the classics:

"Morning. Prayer; books. Not wholly
uselessly employed, O God!"

This is a specimen of many a day. There
is an habitual tone of piety throughout; of
that fervid, living piety fostered in him from
infancy by his father, and kept warm by the
earnest spirit of the great town of the
Reformers.

"Studied—not without a grief of mind
from an internal cause known to thee, Lord.
My spouse, who ought to be an alleviation to
my labours, is sometimes an impediment,"

Was the marita, then, a shrew? No; she
was a good, faithful, wife; truly loved by
Casaubon, who generally calls her the most
beloved (the philtat in Greek). But
Casaubon was a little hasty-tempered, as he
himself regrets; and doubtless the philtat
was sometimes a bore, when he was puzzled
by a frightfully corrupt passage.

"Kal. Jan. (i.e., first of January), 1598.—A
present from a noble German."

Here we hae a glimpse of the way in
which supplies came in. The noble German
is some amateur of letters, no doubt, passing
through Montpelier, and sends a new year's
gift to the learned Monsieur Casaubon by
way of showing that he appreciates learning.

"Feb., 1598.—When shall I be wholly
given to my books? Grant this, O God;
but, above all, true piety and constant love of
the purer religion."

The purer religion. There is need to pray
for constancy, for an eminent Protestant is
harrassed with people wanting to convert
him. Temptation waits, too, in the form of
great offers. We shall see that Casaubon
was exposed through life to much pain and
annoyance on this side of affairs.

But duty is better than study; and Casaubon
was a good man in the best sense; for—

"Called from our studies by the widow of
Peter Galesius. The time was not ill-
bestowed. Duty is better than study."

The following is curious:—"Attempted the
interpretation of a law of Ulpian's which
contains the material of garments. Thou
knowest, God, that we have not undertaken
this rashly, knowing with what diligence we
have treated that subject."

So entirely had the feeling of duty taken
possession of his mind, that he carried this
solemn kind of earnestness into details. Thus
he would put up a prayer for a right
understanding of the nature of the Macedonian
Phalanx; a feeling quite Puritan in its
character, and one which, in various forms,
achieved immense results in those ages.

In the year fifteen hundred and ninety-
nine, Casaubon was summoned to an appointment
in Paris. From Montpelier he brought
away, as he tells us, good repute, and nothing
else. His means were, indeed, generally
limited enough, and his family expenses, as
the reader has seen, were likely to be
considerable.

In March of the above-mentioned year he
was at Lyons, and his wife paid a visit to
Geneva. He is still working at Athenæus;
and yet his nephew Peter will have a fight
with a servant (cum famulo). So down goes
a note of his misconduct in the Diary, and the
nineteenth century is indignant at Peter
accordingly.

He was for some time at Lyons, and also
visited Geneva this year. The time is
August. He has read, one day, from five
o'clock until ten. His wife and he sit down
to dinner in high spirits (hilariter), when
Madame is suddenly taken ill, and at night
gives birth to a boy. It is observable, that
whenever a child is born —though it be the
seventeenth or eighteenth—Casaubon piously
offers thanks for the blessing, and could not
be more grateful were he an old monarch,
wanting an heir to his kingdom. Here is an
entry in the September of this same year:

"Wife is ill, also little Philippa, John, and
nephew Peter. Add to this that one's affairs
are embarrassed. Who in such troubles
could find leisure for arduous study?"

Who, indeed! Yet, with all his troubles,
Casaubon became one of the first scholars in
Europe, which ought to stimulate many men,
and not scholars only. To these troubles
was to be added the old one, arising from his
Protestantism; for now that he was invited
to Paris, the orthodox were very busy about
him.

About the end of December, he talks with
"a certain Alchymist—certainly an ingenious
man, who told me some things worth hearing
about the secrets of his art." Casaubon