Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/852

tree. At length, continues South, the Church-History came forth with its 166 dedications to wealthy and noble friends; and with this huge volume under one arm, and his wife (said to be little of stature) on the other, he ran up and down the streets of London, seeking at the houses of his patrons invitations to dinner, to be repaid by his dull jests at table. This speech, although exaggerated, throws light upon the social qualities of Fuller, who had many kind friends amongst the nobility. His last and best patron was the Hon. George Berkeley of Cranford House, Middlesex, whose chaplain he was, and who gave him Cranford rectory, 1658. To this nobleman Fuller's reply to Heylin, called The Appeal of Injured Innocence, 1659, was inscribed. This remarkable and instructive book embraces, as its editor, Mr James Nichols, has remarked, “almost every topic within the range of human disquisition, from the most sublime mysteries of the Christian religion, and the great antiquity of the Hebrew and Welsh languages, down to The Tale of a Tub, and criticisms on Shakespeare's perversion of the character of Sir John Falstaff.” At the end of the Appeal is an elegant epistle “to my loving friend Dr Peter Heylin,” conceived in the admirable Christian spirit which characterized all Fuller's dealings with controversialists. “Why should Peter” he asked, “fall out with Thomas, both being disciples to the same Lord and Master? I assure you, sir, whatever you conceive to the contrary, I am cordial to the cause of the English Church, and my hoary hairs will go down to the grave in sorrow for her sufferings.” The only other important works issued by Fuller in his lifetime were connected with the Restoration. The revived Long Parliament, December 1659, proposed an oath of fealty to the Commonwealth, and the abjuration of Charles II. and his family. The matter was much debated; and in an able letter published in February 1660, which went into a third edition, called An Alarum to the Counties of England and Wales, Fuller discussed the proposal. His arguments tended to swell the cry for a free and full parliament,—free from force, as he expressed it, as well as from abjurations or previous engagements. In anticipation of the meeting of the new parliament, 25th April, and as if foreseeing the unwise attitude of those in power in relation to the reaction, Fuller put forth his Mixt Contemplations in Better Times, 1660, dedicated to Lady Monk. It tendered advice in the spirit of its motto, “Let your moderation be known to all men: the Lord is at hand.” There is good reason to suppose that Fuller was at the Hague immediately before the Restoration, in the retinue of Lord Berkeley, one of the commissioners of the House of Lords, whose last service to his friend was to interest himself in obtaining him a bishopric. A Panegyrick to His Majesty on his Happy Return was the last of Fuller's verse efforts. On 2d August, by royal letters, he was admitted D.D. at Cambridge, as a scholar of integrity and good learning, who had been hindered in the due way of proceeding to his degree. His former preferments were restored to him. At the Savoy Pepys heard him preach; but he preferred his conversation or his books to his sermons. Fuller's last promotion was that of chaplain in extraordinary to Charles II. In the summer of 1661 he visited the west in connexion with the business of his prebend, and upon his return he was seized with a kind of typhus-fever called the “new disease.” On Sunday, 12th August, while preaching a marriage sermon at the Savoy, he was disabled from proceeding; and at the close of the service he was carried home in a sedan to his new lodgings in Covent-Garden, where he expired, Thursday, 16th August, aged 54. On the following day 200 of his brethren attended his corpse to its resting place, in the chancel of Cranford Church, where Dr Hardy preached a funeral sermon. A mural tablet was afterwards set up on the north side of the chancel with an epitaph, which, though perhaps longer than Fuller’s essay on tombs might allow him to approve, contains a conceit worthy of his own pen, to the effect that while he was endeavouring (viz., in The Worthies) to give immortality to others, lie himself attained it. It is said that the thought of that unfinished work troubled him upon his deathbed, and that he often incoherently called out to his attendants for pen and ink, as if to complete it.

Dr Fuller was in stature somewhat tall, “with a proportionable bigness to become it,” and his gait was graceful. He was of a sanguine temperament, and had a ruddy countenance and light curled hair. Some of these features are pleasingly depicted in his portrait at Cranford House. His personal character was admirable. The charm of his manners was felt by all, his deportment being “according to the old English guise.” His disposition was genial, leading him to embrace goodness wherever he found it. To these fine qualities of mind he added prudence. “By his particular temper and management,” said the historian Echard, “he weathered the late great storm with more success than many other great men.” He had many of the peculiarities of scholars. He was known as “a perfect walking library.” The strength of his memory was proverbial, and some amusing anecdotes are connected with it.

His writings were the product of a highly original mind, and their moral tone was excellent. He had a fertile imagination and a happy faculty of illustration. His diction in the main was elegant, and more idiomatic than that of Taylor or Browne. Antithetic and axiomatic sentences abound in his pages, embodying literally the wisdom of the many in the wit of one. He was “quaint,” and something more. “Wit,” said Coleridge, in a well-known eulogy, “wit was the stuff and substance of Fuller’s intellect. It was the element, the earthen base, the material which he worked in; and this very circumstance has defrauded him of his due praise for the practical wisdom of the thoughts, for the beauty and variety of the truths, into which he shaped the stuff. Fuller was incomparably the most sensible, the least prejudiced, great man of an age that boasted a galaxy of great men.” This opinion was formed after the perusal of the Church-History. That work and The Worthies of England are unquestionably Fuller’s greatest efforts. They embody the collections of an entire life; and since his day they have been the delight and the solace of their readers, and the incentive which has directed or allured many English scholars into historical and topographical studies. The Holy State has taken rank amongst the best books of characters. Fuller’s works, according to Charles Lamb, were, in the early portion of this century, scarcely perused except by antiquaries; but since that time, mainly through the appreciative criticisms of Coleridge, Southey, Crossley, and others, they have received more general attention; and nearly the whole of his extant writings have been reprinted of late years.

(j. e. b.)

FULLER’S EARTH (Germ. Walkererde, Fr. Terre à foulon, Argile smectique), so named from its use by fullers as an absorbent of the grease and oil of cloth, is an earthy hydrated silicate of aluminium, containing, according to one analysis, silica 53·0, alumina 10, ferric oxide 9·75, magnesia 1·25, lime ·5, sodium chloride ·1, water 24 per cent., and a trace of potash. It has a specific gravity of l·7–2·4, and a shining streak; is unctuous to the touch; is commonly greenish-brown or greenish-grey, sometimes bluish-grey, whitish, or red-brown in colour; adheres but slightly to the tongue; becomes translucent in water, and falls to powder; and before the blowpipe gives a porous slag, melting eventually to a white glass. Among the localities where fuller’s earth is found are Nutfield near Reigate in Surrey, Renton in Yorkshire, Quarry Wood in Morayshire, Rosswein in Saxony, and Zwikowetz in Bohemia. Fuller’s or “Walker’s” earth is