CHAP. IV.] ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM. 245

prime Lycurgus. But when I saw what a fewmeagre trivialities they are which obtained himthat estimation, I was wholly astonished. Not asingle principle of any importance, or generalitydo they contain. The very first words prove thatRaymond had no idea of forming a rule; but onlyof commenting on some of the minor obligationscontained in a rule which had been sworn to byhim and the other members of the order, andtherefore well known to them all. Perhapssome of the brotherhood had been a little remissin the particulars he notices. Like most subsequentgrand masters and chapters, he found somethingto condemn or amend, not as to the establishedrule, but as to the mode of executing some of itsarticles. But as he was the first grand master,posterity thought they could go no higher. Thefounder was gone, and when his rule was lost,it was not hard to pass olf this as a substitute; soas not read, but received with blind or dishonestcredulit}'; not even the shadow of a rule, but onlya parcel of bye-laws, chiefly regarding the sick, orpunishment for some diminutive misconduct intrifles scarce deserving notice: no few of themutterly childish and ridiculous, clownish, and butpractical jests. The impression it cannot but leavein any one that has the patience to examine the