No More Learning

Next, whether any truth ;
for true jests are those that do the greatest execution.
And lastly, it were not amiss that they gave some
account, too, of their Christianity ; for the world has
hitherto been so uncivil as to expect something of that
from the clergy, in the design and style even of their
lightest and most uncanonical writings. "

MarveH's learning must have been very exten-
sive. His education was superior; and as we
have seen from the testimony of Milton, his indus-
try had made him master, during his long sojourn
on the Continent, of several continental languages.
It is certain also, that he continued to be a stu-
dent all his days : his works bear ample evidence
of his wide and miscellaneous reading. He ap-
pears to have been well versed in most branches
of literature, though he makes no pedantic dis-
play of erudition, and in this respect is favourably
distinguished from many of his contemporaries;
yet he cites his authors with the familiarity bf a
thorough scholar. In the department of history
be appears to have been particularly well read;



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Xlviii NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR.

and derives his witty illustrations from such re-
mote and obscure sources, that Parker did not
hesitate to avow his belief that he had sometimes
drawn on his invention for them. In his Reply,
Marvell justifies himself in all the alleged in-
stances, and takes occasion to show that his oppo-
nent's learning is as hollow as all his other pre-
tensions.

Numerous examples show, that it is almost
impossible for even the rarest talents to confer
permanent popularity on books which turn on
topics of temporary interest, however absorbing
at the time. If Pascal's transcendent genius has
been unable to rescue even the Letters Promn-
dales from partial oblivion, it is not to be expected
that Marvell should have done more for the Jie-
hearsal Transprosed, Swift, it is true, about half
a century later, has been pleased, while express-
ing this opinion, to make an exception in favour
of Marvell. "There is indeed," says he, "an
exception, when any great genius thinks it worth
his while to expose a foolish piece : so we still
read MarvcU's answer to Parker with pleasure,
though the book it answers be sunk long ago. '*
But this statement is scarcely applicable now. It
is true that the " Rehearsal " is occasionally read
by the curious ; but it is by the resolutely curious
alone.

But admirable as were Marvell's intellectual
endowments, it is his moral worth, after all, which



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NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR.
xlxix

constitutes his principal claim on the admiration of posterity, and which sheds a redeeming lustre
on one of the darkest pages of the English annals.
Inflexible integrity was the basis of it — integrity
by which he has not unworthily earned the glo-
rious name of the " British Aristides. ** With
talents and acquirements which might have justi-
fied him in aspiring to almost any office, if he
could have disburdened himself of his conscience ;
with wit which, in that frivolous age, was a surer
passport to fame than any amount either of intel-
lect or virtue, and which, as we have seen, molli-
fied even the monarch himself in spite of his
prejudices ; Marvell preferred poverty and inde-
pendence to riches and servility. He had learned
the lesson, practised by few in that age, of being
content with little — so that he preserved his con-
science. He could be poor, but he could not be
mean ; could starve, but could not cringe. By
economizing in the articles of pride and ambition,
he could afford to keep what their votaries were
compelled to retrench, the necessaries, or rather
the luxuries, of integrity, and a good conscience.
Neither menaces, nor caresses, nor bribes, nor
poverty, nor distress, could induce him to abandon
his integrity ; or even to take an office in which
it might be tempted or endangered. He only who
has arrived at this pitch of magnanimity, has an
adequate security for his public virtue. He who
cannot subsist upon a little; who has not learned.
d



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1 NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR.

to be content with such things as he has, and even
to be content with almost nothing ; who has not
learned to familiarize his thoughts to poverty,
much more readily than he can familiarize them
to dishonour, is not yet free from peril. Andrew
Marvell, as his whole course proves, had done
this. But we shall not do full justice to his public
integrity, if we do not bear in mind the corruption
of the age in whicb he lived; the manifold apos-
tasies amidst which he retained his conscience ;
and the effect which such wide -spread profligacy
must have had in making thousands almost scep-
tical as to whether there were such a thing as
public virtue at all. Such a relaxation in the
code of speculative morals, is one of the worst
results of general profligacy in practice. But
Andrew Marvell was not to be deluded ; and
amidst corruption perfectly unparalleled, he still
continued untainted. We are accustomed to hear
of his virtue as a truly Roman virtue, and so it
was ; but it was something more.