LYDIAT. 9 this want of civility, Selden would certainly have shevvn a in i greater and more pious mind forgiving t.. Mr. Lydiat, soon after he was restored to liberty, pre- sented a petition to King Charles, requesting his protection and patronage in an intended voyage to the East, for the purpose of collecting valuable manuscripts. The project displayed his zeal for the service of learning, but the ensuing political troubles prevented any attention being paid to his application. Though he was a man of low stature, and rather insignificant in appearance, he was a person of a great mind and of uncommon learning. He puzzled the learned Christopher Clavius, the whole college of mathema- ticians, and even that Goliah of literature, Joseph Scaliger himself; who, when he found himself 'outstripped, scorn- fully stigmatized Mr. Lydiat with being a beggarly, beardless priest. He was, nevertheless, highly esteemed by the most learned men at home and abroad. Sir Thomas Chaloner and other celebrated scholars, with those mentioned above, were among his familiar acquaintance. The virtuosi beyond sea were pleased to rank him with the celebrated Lord Mr. John Selden was sometimes styled " the great dictator of learning of the English nation," whom Grotius, his antagonist, calls " the glory of his country ;" and Sir Matthew Hale, "a resolved and serious christian." He was a man of as extensive and profound erudition as any of his time ; and was thoroughly skilled in every thing relating to his own profession of the law ; but the principal bent of his studies was to sacred and profane antiquity. The greater part of his works are on uncommon subjects. Like a man of genius, he was not content with walking in the beaten track of learning, but was concerned to strike out new paths, and enlarge the territories of science. Towards the close of life, he owned, that, out of the numberleis volumes he had read and digested, nothing stuck so close to his heart, or gave him such solid satisfaction, as the single passage of Paul in his epistle to Titus, ii. 11-14. He died in the year 1654; when the celebrated Archbishop Usher preached his funeral sermon, and, without scruple, declared " that he himself was scarcely worthy to carry his books after him." Mr. Selden was author of many learned publications, among whichwas The History of Tithes ;" for which, in 1618, he was convened before the high commission, and required tosubscribe a degrading recanta- tion. Afterwards, at an audience of King James, at the time when Montague was preparing a confutation of this 'worts, the worthless And arbitrary monarch sternly forbade him to snake any reply, saying, " If you or any of your friends shall write against this confutation, I will throw you into prison." He was a valuable memberof the long parlia- ment, and one of the lay members who sate with the assembly of divines. In their debates he spoke admirably, and confuted divers of them in their own learning. Sometimes, when they cited a text of scriptur.e to prove their assertion, he would tell them, " Perhaps in your little pocket Bibles with gilt leaves," 'which they would often pull out and read, " the translation may be thus, but the Greek or Hebrew signifiesthus and thus ;" and so would silence them.-Granger's Biog. Hist. vol. ii. p. 4/kin's Lives of Selden and Usher, p. 26, 287.-Eclectie Reyiete, vol. viii. p. 204.-Whitleckes Mem. p. 71. Edit. 1732.
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