nows most? It is delightful to listen to the
simplicity and force with which an author in the reign of our first
James opens himself without reserve.

"My true end is the advancement of knowledge; and therefore have I
published this poor work, not only to impart the good thereof to those
young ones that want it, but also to draw from the learned the supply
of my defects. Whosoever will charge these my travels [labours] with
many oversights, he shall need no solemn pains to prove them. And upon
the view taken of this book sithence the impression, I dare assure
them that shall observe most faults therein, that I, by gleaning after
him, will gather as many omitted by him, as he shall show committed by
me. What a man saith well is not, however, to be rejected because he
hath some errors; reprehend who will, in God's name, that is, with
sweetness and without reproach. So shall he reap hearty thanks at my
hands, and thus more soundly help in a few months, than I, by tossing
and tumbling my books at home, could possibly have done in many
years."

This extract discovers Cowel's amiable character as an author. But he
was not fated to receive "sweetness without reproach."

Cowel encountered an unrelenting enemy in Sir Edward Coke, the famous
Attorney-General of James I., the commentator of Littleton. As a man,
his name ought to arouse our indignation, for his licentious tongue,
his fierce brutality, and his cold and tasteless genius. He whose
vileness could even ruffle the great spirit of Rawleigh, was the
shameless persecutor of the learned Cowel.

Coke was the oracle of the common law, and Cowel of the civil; but
Cowel practised at Westminster Hall as well as at Doctors' Commons.
Coke turned away with hatred from an advocate who, with the skill of a
great lawyer, exerted all the courage. The Attorney-General sought
every occasion to degrade him, and, with puerile derision, attempted
to fasten on Dr. Cowel the nickname of _Dr. Cowheel_. Coke, after
having written in his "Reports" whatever he could against our author,
with no effect, started a new project. Coke well knew his master's
jealousy on the question of his prerogative; and he touched the King
on that nerve. The Attorney-General suggested to James that Cowel had
discussed "too nicely the mysteries of his monarchy, in some points
derogatory to the supreme power of his crown; asserting that the royal
prerogative was in some cases limited." So subtly the serpent
whisper