ACCOUNT OF BOOKS. 473
St, (he replied in her accuftomed manner, * Tilly Vally, what will
- you do, Mr. More ? Will you fit
- and make goflings in the afhes ?
' What, is it not better to rule
- than to be ruled ?' But to divert
the ill-humour which he faw fhe was in, he began to find fault with her drefs; which fhe chiding her daughters for not feeing, and they affirnr.ing that there was no fault to be found, he replied with great mirth, * Don't you perceive
- your mother's nofe is fomewhat
- awry?' Upon which (he went
from him in a paffion. It muft be confeffed that this is a trifling ftory to relate in the life of fo great a man ; But the reader mult obferve, that the charadters of men are learnt belt from trifles. It is related here however to fhew, thac his facetious humour was natural to him without any affedation ; and that powers, honours, and great revenues, had not charms for him, who could part with them fo freely, and with fuch a mirthful temper of mind. It will likewife ihew, it was his opinion, that in his condu('las a itatefman, his lady had jio right to be confulted, or to in- termeddle.
The firft thing that he fet about after the furrender of his office, was to provide places for all his gentlemen and fervants among the nobility and the bifliops ; that they might not fuffer by any adl of his. This being done to his fatisfa<5lion, he next called all his children and their hufljands round him ; and telling them that he could not now, as he was wont and flill gladly would, bear ajl their expence himfelf, afked their advice what they ihould do that they might continue to live toge- ther, as he much defired : And
finding them all filent, he told them, that though he had beea brought up from the lowefl de- gree to the highelt, yet he had now in yearly revenues left him but a very little above an hundred pounds a year ; fo that hereafter, if they lived together, they muft be contented to become contri- butors. Notwithn;anding the king had taken him from his profeflion, and employed him in the moft im- portant fervices to himfelf and the kingdom, daring the befl: part of his life, yet he made fo little ad- vantage of his majefty's fervice or that of the public, that all the land which ever he parchafed, and he purchai'ed it all be- fore he was Lord Chancellor
was not above the value of twenty marks a year : and after all his debts were paid when he re- figned that office, he had not lefc in gold and filver, his chain ex- cepted, the worth of one hundred pounds."
The fcene between him and his daughter, after his fentence, is ex- tremely pathetic and wel! painted.
" Haying taken his leave of the court in this folemn mannner, he was conduced rrom the bar to the Tower, with the axe earned be- fore him in the ufual .manner after condemnation : And whea he came to the Tower wharfe, his favourite daughter Mrs. Roper, thinking this would be the laft opportunity flie fhould ever have, was waiting there to fee hiin. As foon as he appeared in fight, (he burli through the throng and guard that farrounded him ; and having received his bleiling upon her knees, (he embraced him ea- gerly before them all; and amid;!: a flood of tears and a thoufand kifles of tendernefs and aiiedion,
her
