.ri^raSaaWjKa'MBIfey

JAMES THE SECOND.

that he had been educated at St. Omers, and others, that hehad been ordained at Rome. These calumnies , indeed,"could find credit only with the undiscerning multitude: butwith these calumnies were mingled accusations much betterfounded.*

To speak the whole truth concerning Penn is a task whichrequires some courage; for he is rather a mythical than ahistorical person. Rival nations and hostile sects have agreedin canonizing him. England is proud of his name. A greatcommonwealth beyond the Atlantic regards him with a reve-rence similar to that which the Athenians felt for Theseus,and the Romans for Quirinus. The respectable society ofwhich he was a member honours him as an apostle. By piousmen of other persuasions he is generally regarded as a brightpattern of Christian virtue. Meanwhile admirers of a verydifferent sort have sounded his praises. The French philo-sophers of the eighteenth century pardoned what they re-garded as his superstitious fancies in consideration of his con-tempt for priests, and of his cosmopolitan benevolence, im-partially extended to all races and to all creeds. His namehas thus become, throughout all civilised countries, a syno-nyme for probity and philanthropy.

Nor is this high reputation altogether unmerited. Pennwas without doubt a man of eminent virtues. He had a strongsense of religious duty and a fervent desire to promote thehappiness of mankind. On one or two points of high impor-tance he had notions more correct than were, in his day, com-

* Penn’s visits to Whitehall, and levees at Kensington, are describedwith great vivacity, though in very bad Latin, by Gerard Croese.“Sumebat,” he says, “rex seepe secrelum, non horarium, vero horarumplurium, in quo de variis rebus cum Penno serio sermonem conferebal,et interim differebat audire praecipuorum nobilium ordinem, qui hocinterim spatio in procoetone, in proximo, rcgem conventum praestoerant." Of the crowd of suitors at Penn’s house, Croese says, “Vidiquandoque de hoc genere hominum non minus bis centum.” — IlistoriaQuakeriana, lib. ii. 1695.

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