Hart Hall, since merged in Magdalen Hall, Oxford. On
leaving the university he was admitted a member of Clifford's Inn; but
in 1604 removed to the Inner Temple. Wood, in his _Athenae Oxonienses_,
says of him that 'after he had continued there a sedulous student for
some time, he did, by the help of a strong body and a vast memory, not
only run through the whole body of the law, but became a prodigy in most
parts of learning, especially in those which were not common or little
frequented or regarded by the generality of students of his time. So
that in a few years his name was wonderfully advanced not only at home
but in foreign countries, and he was usually styled the great dictator
of learning of the English nation.... He was a great philologist,
antiquary, herald, linguist, statesman, and what not.' Selden devoted
his time rather to chamber practice and to legal researches and the
study of history and antiquities than to the more active part of his
profession. It is said he wrote his first work, _Analecton
Anglo-Britannicon_, as early as 1607, when only twenty-two years of age,
but it was not published until eight years later. _The Duello_,
_England's Epinomis_, and _Jani Anglorum Facies Altera_ appeared in
1610, _Titles of Honour_ in 1614, _De Diis Syris Syntagmata Duo_ in
1617, and _The History of Tithes_ in 1618, wherein he allows the legal,
but denies the divine, right of the clergy to the receiving of tithes.
The more important of his later works are _Marmora Arundeliana_,
published in 1628, _De Successionibus_ in 1631, _Mare Clausum_ in 1635,
_De Jure Naturali et Gentium juxta Disciplinam Ebraeorum Libri VII_. in
1640, and _Fleta, seu Commentarius Juris Anglicani_, an ancient
manuscript which he edited and annotated, in 1647. Among his other
literary labours are the notes appended to Drayton's _Polyolbion_. A
volume of his _Table Talk_ was published after his death in 1689, and
his complete works in 1726, in three volumes folio. In 1621 Selden was
committed to prison for having advised the House of Commons to assert
its right to offer advice to the Crown, but was released after an
imprisonment of five weeks. He first entered the House of Commons in
1623 as Member for Lancaster, and for some years took a very prominent
part in its proceedings. During the later disputes between Charles and
the Parliament he acted with great moderation, and it is said that at
one time the King thought of intrusting him with the Grea