Hold no truth worthy to be known Not as they are, but as they please; In vain strive Nature to suborn, And for their pains are paid with scorn." XXXII. THE DIARIES OF SAMUEL PEPYS AND JOHN EVELYN. T is one of the weaknesses of human nature to relish IT gossip; to be interested in details about one's neighbors; to want to know what they have been doing, what sort of clothes they wear, and what they had for dinner on a feast-day. The student in history and literature finds just this kind of relish in gossip about people of the past. He likes to know all the little facts about them, as what they wore and what they ate for dinner; and thus it is quite natural that two old books full of gossip and small-talk about the time of Charles II. have come to be two of the most read books written in that age. These are the diaries of John Evelyn and Samuel Pepys, both of whom kept a careful record of their daily life and all that was going on about them. There is no history of their time which gives such a familiar picture of the life of the day, and the people who figured in it, as either of these two books. 1620-1706 JOHN EVELYN was a gentleman of leisure and fortune, of rather scholarly habits, and the author of several books, all dignified and learned. He had a fine house and a good library, and his home was resorted to by many literary men and men of learning, who were his friends. Cowley the poet was one of his intimates, and Jeremy Taylor, with whom he kept up many years a correspondence, was a very dear friend. Cowley and Evelyn sympathized in a taste for gardening, and the latter was noted for the beauty of his trees and plants, his fine hedges and smooth lawns. When Peter the Great, Czar of Russia, was in London, in the last part of the century, he rented Evelyn's house for his royal quarters; and the Russian autocrat used to take a barbaric delight in demolishing the fine garden of his landlord. Among other things, he used to amuse himself by driving a wheelbarrow through the thick garden hedge which Evelyn had cultivated with great care. Evelyn's diary, although it is full of details, is yet dignified, like himself, and makes us respect him in all his goings and comings. 1632-1703 SAMUEL PEPYS, who was his exact contemporary in time, has left a journal less dignified, but a great deal more amusing. Pepys was a Secretary of the Navy, and was constantly in court circles, so that he knew all that was said and done there. He had an excellent faculty for business, was a good financier, and a man of taste in artistic matters, in books, music, and the drama. He also wrote some books, now almost forgotten, and he kept his journal in a sort of short-hand of his own, which was not deciphered till long after his death. Probably he never would have written with quite the frankness he has shown there if he had known that two hundred years later we should be gloating over his pages. But as he believed it to be solely for his own eye, he wrote down at night all the petty occurrences of his day, mingled with a great deal that goes to make up history. He is a garrulous, delightful old gossip, who tells the color of his silk stockings; how much his new suit cost; when his wife had a new dress and how she looked in it; what play he saw at the theatre, and how he liked it; how King Charles behaved when he was on his most unkingly behavior; and all the scandal of the palace at Whitehall. One gets from this an excellent idea of the manners of the court of Charles II., and can see what very bad manners they were. In order that you may see what a gossip Samuel Pepys was, and how many things, both little and great, he touches on in his diary, I IT gossip; to be bors; to want to sort of clothes they a feast-day. just this kind of rel He likes to know a they wore and what th natural that two old about the time of Ch the most read books wri diaries of John Evelyn an kept a careful record of t going on about them. The which gives such a familiar p and the people who figured in books. 1620-1706 house and a good library, and his home was many literary men and men of learning, who we Cowley the poet was one of his intimates, a Taylor, with whom he kept up many years a co ence, was a very dear friend. thized in a taste for gardening, am going to quote most of his entries for the last month of the year 1663, beginning with the last Sunday in November: “Nov. 29th,— Lord's Day. — This morning I put on my best black-cloth suit, trimmed with scarlet ribbons, very neat, with my cloak lined with velvet, and a new beaver, which altogether is very noble, with my black silk knit canons I bought a month ago. -... "30th. At Whitehall, Sir W. Penn and I met the [Duke of York] in the matted gallery, and then he discoursed with us; and by and by my Lord Sandwich came and stood by and talked; but it being St. Andrew's Day, he went to the chapel, and we parted. แ "Dec. 1st.- At noon I home to dinner with my poor wife, with whom nowadays I enjoy great pleasure in her company and learning of arithmetic. After dinner I to the Guildhall to hear a trial at King's Bench before Lord Chief Justice Hyde, about the insurance of a ship; . . . and it was pleasant to see what mad sort of testimonies the seamen did give, and could not be got to speak in order, and then their terms such as the judge could not understand; and to hear how sillily the counsel and judge would speak as to the terms necessary in the matter, would make one laugh; and above all, a Frenchman that was forced to speak in French and took an English oath he did not understand, and had an interpreter sworn to tell us what he said, which was the best testimony of all. 7th. At Whitehall I hear and find that there was the last night the greatest tide that ever was remembered in England to have been in this river, - all Whitehall having been drowned. ... To Whitehall, and anon the King, and Duke [of York] and Duchess came to dinner in the vane-room, where I never saw them before; but it seems since the tables are done he dines there altogether. The Queen is pretty well, and goes out of her chamber to her little chapel in the house. The King of France, they say, is hiring of sixty sail of ships of the Dutch, but it is not said for what design. "Ioth. - To St. Paul's Churchyard, to my bookseller's. . . . I could not tell whether to lay out my money for books of pleasure, as plays, which my nature was most earnest in ; but at last, after seeing Chaucer, Dugdale's History of Paul's, Stow's London, besides Shakespeare's, Jonson's, and Beaumont's plays, I at last chose Doctor Fuller's Worthies, the Cabbala, or Collection of Letters of State, with another little book or two, all of |