Volume I Part 1 (1/2)

The Diary of John Evelyn

by John Evelyn

VOLUME I

EVELYN'S DIARY

The two chief diarists of the age of Charles the Second are, _mutatis mutandis_, not ill characterized by the remark of a wicked wit upon the brothers Austin ”John Austin,” it was said, ”served God and died poor: Charles Austin served the devil, and died rich Both were clever fellows

Charles was much the cleverer of the two” Thus John Evelyn and Samuel Pepys, the forrievous example of indecorum, have respectively left us diaries, of which the indecorous is to the decorous as a zoological garden is to a museum: while the disparity between the testamentary bequests of the two Austins but i to Pepys's account with posterity in conified contemporary

Museums, nevertheless, have their uses, and Evelyn's coation But for Pepys's aarrulity, qualities of which one cannot have too little in life, or too much in the record of it, Evelyn would have been esteee Unable for want of these qualifications to draw any adequate picture of the stirring life around him, he has executed at least one portrait admirably, his own The likeness is, moreover, valuable, as there is every reason to suppose it typical, and representative of a very important class of society, the well-bred and well-conducted section of the untitled aristocracy of England We may well believe that these men were not only the salt but the substance of their order There was an ill-bred section exclusively devoted to festivity and sport There was an ill-conducted section, plunged into the dissipations of court life But the majority were men like Evelyn: not, perhaps, equally refined by culture and travel, or equally interested in literary research and scientific experiers to the Court, yet hardly to be called courtiers, and preferring country to town; loyal to Church and King but not fanatical or rancorous; as yet but slightly iious liberty, yet adverse to carry the doght of succession; fortunate in having survived all ideas of serfdo few private interests not fairly reconcilable with the general good Evelyn wasto speak only for hi the Commonwealth and the Restoration, the conduct of the later Stuart Kings and the Revolution

Evelyn's Diary practically begins where , beyond the seas The position of a loyalist who solaces hi for his crown certainly requires explanation: it y for Evelyn that without the fa, and that these, lying near London, were actually in the grasp of the Parliae family and it was doubtless convenient that one member should be out of harm's way His three years'

absence (1643-6) has certainly proved advantageous to posterity Evelyn is, indeed, a ht-seer, but this renders his tour a precise record of the objects which the sight-seer of the seventeenth century was expected to note, and aof the ti, but there is curiosity about everything; there is no perception of the sentiment of a landscape, but real enjoyment of the landscape itself; antiquity is not unappreciated, but modern works impart more real pleasure Of the philosophical reflections which afterward rose to the e, and of course Evelyn is at an iives us exactly ant, the actual attitude of a cultivated young Englishman in presence of classic and renaissance art with its background of Southern nature We reat developion of the intellect, which i to co the visit to Italy supposed to have been lesant, who inevitably sees with the eyes of the nineteenth century Evelyn's casual reood sense, without extraordinary insight; in description he is frequently observant and graphic, as in his account of the galley slaves, and of Venetian feards Alpine scenery as ”land, Evelyn strictly follows the line of the average English country gentleusted beyond land service, but submissive to the powers that be until there are evident indications of a change, which he proh he is sincerely attached to the monarchy, the condition of the Church is evidently a reater concern to him: Crooverny and episcopacy The sans of Charles and James The exultation hich the Restoration is at first hailed soon evaporates The scandals of the Court are an offense, notwithstanding Evelyn's personal attach But the chief point is not vice or favoritiseainst Protestant nations Evelyn is enraged to see Charlesthe part so clearly pointed out to hiion all over Europe The conversion of the Duke of York is a fearful blow, James's ecclesiastical policy after his accession adds to Evelyn's discontent day by day, while political tyranny passes allad to welcoh he has no enthusias, he remains his dutiful subject Just because Evelyn was by no htforward sense of the English gentry The questions of the seventeenth century were far ” expressed the dearest convictions of the great lish country families, but when the two became incompatible they left no doubt which held the first place in their hearts They acted instinctively on the principle of the Persian lady who preferred her brother to her husband It was not i, but there was no alternative to the English Church

Evelyn'sthe modest measure of worth allowed the one to fix the date of a particular event, but for little besides” The Diary's direct contribution to historical accuracy is insignificant; it is an index, not to chronological ress of moral and political ioes too far in asserting that ”All that e of his opinions, his feelings and syradual widening of Evelyn's syood men of all parties, and to find hi the evidence produced in support of the Popish Plot on the one hand, and deploring the just condeernon Sydney on the other It is true that, so far as the sufferings of his country are concerned, his attitude is rather that of the Levite than of the Samaritan; but more lively popular sy to the testimony of the reluctant witness

We should, for exa fronificant indeed:--

_October 14, 1688_--The King's birthday No guns fro This day signal for the victory of Williaainst Harold, near Battel in Sussex The wind, which had been hitherto west, was east all this day Wonderful expectation of the Dutch fleet Public prayers ordered to be read in the churches against invasion

It ht be difficult to produce a nearer approximation in secular literature to Daniel's ”_Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin_”

There is little else in the Diary equally striking, though Evelyn's description of Whitehall on the eve of the death of Charles the Second ranks ae It is nevertheless full of interesting anecdotes and curious notices, especially of the scientific research which, in default of any adequate public organization, was in that age more efficaciously promoted by students than by professors De Quincey censures Evelyn for o to record the conversation of the men hom he associated, but he does not consider that the Diary in its present shape is a digest ofpreviously, and that time failed at one period and memory at the other

De Quincey, whose extreative side of a question, saw the weak points of the Diary upon its first publication much more clearly than his contemporaries did, and was betrayed into illiberality by resentue Evelyn has in truth been fortunate; his record, which his contelected, appeared (1818) just in tilican movement, a tendency evinced in a similar fashi+on by the vindication, no doubt mistaken, of the Caroline authorshi+p of the ”Icon Basilike” Evelyn was a welcoht, and was hailed as a model of piety, culture, and urbanity, without sufficient consideration of his deficiencies as a loyalist and a patriot It also conduced to his reputation that all his other writings should have virtually perished except his ”Sylva,” like his Diary a landh in a widely different departht be compared with an eminent and much applauded, but in our times somewhat decrescent, contemporary, Sir William Temple Both these e in posterity, and have effected more for its instruction and entertainnity with an infusion of the grotesqueness, ill not say of Pepys, but of Roger North To theh we could have wished theeniality, we must feel indebted to them for their preservation of a refined social type

[Illustration: Richard Garnett (signature)]

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION

Evelyn lived in the busy and i Charles II, King Ja Willias as occurred, which he thought worthy of remembrance He was known to, and had s Charles II and Jareat intimacy with many of the ministers of these two monarchs, and with y as the laity

Foreigners distinguished for learning, or arts, who ca hies contribute extensive and important particulars of this eminent man They show that he did not travel merely to count steeples, as he expresses himself in one of his Letters: they develop his private character as one of thepredilection for s Charles II and James II, formed when they resided at Paris, he was yet utterly averse to the arbitrary ly and steadily attached to the doctrine and practice of the Church of England, he yet felt the most liberal sentiments for those who differed from him in opinion He lived in intimacy with men of all persuasions; nor did he think it necessary to break connection with anyone who had ever been induced to desert the Church of England, and e to the brother of a gentleman thus circumstanced, in 1659, he expresses himself in this admirable manner: ”For the rest, we ation of proselytical fervors; having for reat charity for all who sincerely adore the Blessed Jesus, our co full of hope that God (however the present zeal of some, and the scandals taken by others at the instant [present] affliction of the Church of England may transport them) will at last conorances, superstructures, passions, and errors of corrupt times and interests, of which the Romish persuasion can no way acquit herself, whatever the present prosperity and secular polity s manifest in his own time, only let us possess ourselves in patience and charity This will cover a reatthat soated; but of the Jesuits he had the very worst opinion, considering theerous Society, and the principal authors of theJames II, and of the horrible persecutions of the Protestants in France and Savoy

He must have conducted himself with uncommon prudence and address, for he had personal friends in the Court of Cro with his father-in-law, Sir Richard Browne, the A Charles II at Paris; and at the sa, he raced minister

In his travels, he , but with enious in every art and profession