Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 24.djvu/46

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Hales
32
Hales

any 'commessation or compotation,' and the funeral was to be 'at the time of the next evensong after my departure.' His will is dated on the day of his death. A monument was placed to his memory by Peter Curwen, formerly one of his scholars at Eton. No portrait of him is known; but we have Aubrey's graphic description of him as he found him, in his last year, 'reading Thomas à Kempis.' He was then 'a prettie little man, sanguine, of a cheerful countenance, very gentle and courteous,' to which Wood adds 'quick and nimble.' He did not dress in black, but in 'violet-coloured cloth.' Aubrey says he had a moderate liking for 'canarie;' Wood that he fasted every week 'from Thursday dinner to Saturday.' His life was to have been written by Farindon; but Farindon died before the issue of the 'Golden Remains,' to which his sole contribution is a letter to Garthwait the publisher. It is said that Bishop Pearson was asked to take up Farindon's task; but he contented himself by prefixing to the 'Remains' a few pages of discriminating eulogy. Farindon's materials passed to William Fulman [q. v.], who likewise failed to write the memoir. Use has been made of Fulman's papers by Walker :and Chalmers.

Andrew Marvel justly describes Hales as 'one of the clearest heads and best prepared breasts in Christendom.' The richness of his learning impresses us even less than his felicity in using it. His humour enables him to treat disturbing questions with attractive lightness of touch. His strength lies in an invincible core of common sense, always blended with good feeling, and issuing in a wise and thoughtful charity.

Hales can hardly be said to have written anything for publication. Repeatedly urged to write, he was, says Pearson, 'obstinate against it.' His works are: 1. 'Oratio Funebris habita in Collegio Mertonensi . . . quo die . . . Thomse Bodleio funus ducebatur/ &c., Oxford, 1613, 4to. 2. 'A Sermon . . . concerning the Abuses of the obscure places of Holy Scripture,' &c., Oxford, 1617, 4to. 3. The sermon 'Of Dealing with Erring Christians,' preached at St. Paul's Cross, seems also to have been printed, at Farindon's instigation. 4. The sermon 'Of Duels,' preached at the Hague, is said to have been printed, though Farindon implies the contrary. Other pieces, published during his lifetime, but apparently without his authority, were: 5. 'The Way towards the Finding of a Decision of the Chief Controversie now debated concerning Church Government,' &c., 1641, 4to, anon. 6. 'A Tract concerning Schisme and Schismatiques, ... by a learned and judicious divine,' &c., 1642, 4to; two London editions, same year, also one at Oxford, with animadversions. 7. 'Of the Blasphemie against the Holy Ghost,' &c., 1646, 4to, anon. Posthumous were : 8. 'Golden Remains of the Ever Memorable Mr. John Hales,' &c., 1659, 4to; 2nd edit., with additions, 1673, 4to; 3rd edit., 1688, 8vo. 9. 'Sermons preached at Eton', &c., fol. 10. 'Several Tracts,' &c., 1677, 8vo; 2nd edit., 1716, 12mo, with addition of the letter to Laud. The 'Works . . . now first collected,' &c., were edited by Sir David Dalrymple, lord Hailes [q. v.], and printed at Glasgow by Foulis, 1765, 16mo, 3 vols. The collection embraces all that had been previously published with several new letters, and is a beautiful specimen of typography. It should be observed, however, that some few obsolete words are occasionally altered,' and the editor has expunged, on fastidious grounds,' two passages in the sermons.' The Socinian tracts falsely accredited to Hales are the 'Anonymi Dissertatio de Pace,' &c., by Samuel Przypkowski, and the 'Brevis Disquisitio,' &c., by Joachim Stegmann the elder. Curll printed in 1720 'A Discourse of several Dignities and Corruptions of Man's Nature since the Fall,' &c., which he assigned to Hales. It is an abridgment of a treatise by Bishop Reynolds of Norwich.

[Des Maizeaux's Historical Account, 1719; Wood's Athenae Oxon. (Bliss), iii. 409 sq.; Wood's Fasti, ii. 299, 334; Walker's Sufferings of the Clergy, 1714, ii. 87, 93 sq.; Clarendon's Life, 1759, i. 27 sq.; Aubrey's Lives, 1813, p. 364; Suckling's Works, 1696, pp. 8, 32 sq.; Dryden's Essay of Dramatic Poesie, 1693, p. 32; Howe's Life of Shakespeare, prefixed to Works, 1709, i. p. xiv; Marvell's Rehearsal Transpos'd, 1672, p. 175; Heylyn's Life of Laud, 1668; Chalmers's Gen. Biog. Dict. 1814, xvii. 32 sq.; Tulloch's Rational Theology, 1872, vol. i.]

A. G.

HALES, JOHN (d. 1679), painter. [See Hayls.]

HALES, STEPHEN (1677–1761), physiologist and inventor, was born in September 1677 at Bekesbourne in Kent. His birthday is given variously as 7 Sept. and 17 Sept. He was baptised on 20 Sept. (Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. iv. 407). He was the fifth or sixth son of Thomas Hales, by Mary, daughter of Richard Wood of Abbots Langley, Hertfordshire. Thomas Hales, who was the eldest son of Sir Robert Hales, bart., died in his father's lifetime, and the baronetcy is now extinct. The family was a younger branch of the family of Hales of Woodchurch, to which Sir Edward Hales [q. v.] belonged. Stephen was entered as a pensioner at Corpus