A Legal Beggar. At this point in the very midst of the biography let us also pause for lack of space, with the assurance that a reader of it to its end will find ample reward in its skilful characterization of the men of a day not so very far removed from our own, in sparkling anecdote, in wise suggestion, all clothed in racy and idiomatic words, and though at times biassed by friendship or animosity, always open and sincere. The spectacle of four brothers, all making a figure in the world, and all bound together not merely by kinship but by the ties of a strong, manly, and enduring friendship, is of itself animating and instructive to an intelligent and appre ciative reader. Moreover, one of them being a judge of the highest court in England (Lord Keeper), another at the bar, the third a great merchant and man of affairs, and the fourth an eminent divine, master of Trinity College, Cambridge, and for some time Clerk of the Closet to his Majesty, the group must have wielded a marked influence in the com monwealth. Had they been thoroughly bad men, inspired by malevolent designs, they might have menaced social order. Fortu nately they were not, if we may believe the biographer. He has supplied to posterity the
materials for a sound judgment as to their frailties and virtues, and so we may leave them. Even though the period which Roger North records should lose its interest, though this is quite unlikely, the biography with all its faults will endure, as it is not a eulogy, but a picture of the men of a stirring time, and is thoroughly human and true to nature after the manner of a photograph, but pos sessing what a photograph lacks, the charm of natural and well-harmonized colors. North's own words upon this point will make a fitting close to this article : " I fancy myself a picture-drawer, and aiming to give the same image to a spectator as I have of the thing itself which I desire should here be represented. As, for instance, a tree, in the picture whereof the leaves and minor branches are very small and confused, and give the artist more pain to describe than the solid trunk and greater branches; but if these small things were left out, it would make but a sorry picture of a tree. History is, as it were, the portrait or lineament, and not a bare index or catalogue of things done; and without the how and the why all history is jejune and unprofitable."
A LEGAL BEGGAR. By George F. Tucker. T T E 's not a slave to common vice, For none can say he owes a cent; His tailor never asks him twice; He always promptly pays his rent. But when he opes his neighbor's door, He shows his moral nature's flaw By pacing up and down the floor, And boldly begging points of law.
