Carey Lucius Eustache, second Lord Falkland, and eldest son of Henry, the first Viscount Falkland, is supposed to have been born at Burford, in Oxfordshire, about the year 1610. When a boy, he lived at Coventry, where he sat up very late at night to study. He was in the habit of resorting to the library of the Grammar-School in that city, of which Philemon Holland, the translator of several of the Greek and Latin Classics, and of Camden's Britannia, was the Master. He afterwards lived much at Great Tew, a pleasant country seat about twelve miles from Oxford, which, together with the Priory of Burford, he inherited from his mother, who was daughter of Tanfield, Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer. He completed his education at Trinity College, Dublin, and St. John's College, Cambridge.

At first he was guilty of some youthful indiscretions; but, being sent to travel under the care of a prudent tutor, he soon shook off all tendency to dissipation, and became remarkable for his studious habits, and the general propriety of his demeanour. The literary pursuits most fashionable at that time in England were poetry, and controversy with the Church of Rome; and to both these he ardently devoted himself. Sir John Suckling pays him the following compliment in his " Session of the Poets."

Lord Falkland was but little known in the character of a poet to readers of the present generation, till some of his pieces were collected, and inserted in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1835 and 1838. Among these are Eclogues on the Death of Ben Jonson, and the Marchioness of Hamilton; an Address prefixed to Sandys's Version of " Christ's Passion" by Grotius; and other addresses to the same poet on his Paraphrases of the Psalms, Job, Ecclesiastes and Lamentations. The very choice of these subjects evinces the serious turn, which his Lordship's mind had now taken.

Sandys was one of his literary companions. Aubrey also mentions, among the number of his friends, Mr. John Earle, of Merton College, afterwards Bishop Earle, who wrote a book of Characters, entitled "Microcosmography;" Ben Jonson, the dramatist; Edmund Waller, the poet; and the celebrated Thomas Hobbes, of Malmsbury. But Chillingworth was his chief favourite, and inseparable companion. These, and other eminent literary characters of the time, were his frequent visiters at Great Tew, to which they are said to have resorted, as to a college situated in a purer air. "Truly his whole conversation," says Lord Clarendon, "was one continued Convivium Philosophicum, or Convivium Theologicum, enlivened and refreshed with all the facetiousness of wit, and good humour, and pleasantness of discourse, which made the gravity of the argument itself, (whatever it was,) very delectable. His house where he usually resided (Tew, or Burford, in Oxfordshire) being within ten or twelve miles of the University, looked like the University itself, by the company that was always found there. There were Dr. Sheldon, Dr. Morley, Dr. Hammond, Dr. Earles, Mr. Chillingworth, and indeed all men of eminent parts and faculties in Oxford, besides those who resorted thither from London, who all found their lodgings there, as ready as in the Colleges: nor did the lord of the house know of their coming, or going, nor who were in his house, till he came to dinner, or supper, where all still met; otherwise there was no troublesome ceremony, or constraint to forbid men to come to the house, or to make them weary of staying there; so that many came thither to study in a better air, finding all the books they could desire in his library, and all the persons together, whose company they could wish, and not find, in any other society. Here Mr. Chillingworth wrote, and formed, and modelled his excellent book against the learned Jesuit Mr. Nott, after frequent debates upon the most important particulars; in many of which, he suffered himself to be overruled by the judgment of his friends, though in others he still adhered to his own fancy, which was sceptical enough, even in the highest points."

Bishop Barlow says, "When Mr. Chillingworth undertook the defence of Dr. Potter's book against the Jesuit, he was almost constantly at Tew with my Lord, examining the reasons of both parties, pro and con, and their invalidity or consequence; where Mr. Chillingworth had the benefit of my Lord's company, and his good library. The benefit he had by my Lord's company, and rational discourse, was very great, as Mr. Chillingworth would modestly, and truly confess. And so was also that which he received from his library, which was well furnished with choice books, such as Mr. Chillingworth neither had, nor ever heard of many of them, till my Lord shewed him the books, and the passages in them, which were significant, and pertinent to the purpose. So that it is certain, most of those ancient authorities which Mr. Chillingworth makes use of, he owes, first to my Lord of Falkland's learning, that he would give so good directions; and next to his civility and kindness, that he would direct him."

His Lordship, as may be inferred from these accounts of him, was a man of extensive reading; and with his books around him, he was never at a loss for employment. One of his favourite sayings was, "I pity unlearned gentlemen on a rainy day." Among other things, he made himself master of the Greek language in an incredibly short time; and before he was twenty-three years of age, he had read all the Greek historians. He was not content to take upon trust what others had said respecting the patristical writings, and therefore read for himself the Greek and Latin Fathers; and the conclusion at which he arrived was that of the celebrated French Minister, Daille, of whose work on the use of the Fathers he was a great admirer, and whom he calls " our Protestant Perron." He once contemplated, and half finished, a translation of that treatise; but his papers were unfortunately lost, or destroyed. In the few that escaped, he makes honourable mention of Daille, whose acquaintance, he was wont to say, was worth a voyage to Paris.

On the political career of Lord Falkland, it is unnecessary to dwell at any length in the present connexion. It may be sufficient to remark, that, in the Civil Wars, he adhered to Charles I., who, after the battle of Edge-Hill, made him Principal Secretary of State. Both in this capacity, and as a Privy Councillor, he served the King with great ability and integrity; but he was unfortunate in advising his Majesty to sit down before Gloucester, which was bravely defended by Colonel Massey. By this false step the royal army was weakened and dispersed; and it ultimately led to the ruin of the royal cause.

From the beginning of the Civil Wars, Lord Falkland's natural vivacity forsook him; and his uneasiness at length proceeded to such an extremity, as to hurry him on to his destruction. On the morning before the first battle of Newbury, he called for a clean shirt; and being asked the reason of it, he answered, that if he were slain in battle, they should not find his body in foul linen. His friends urged him not to expose himself to the hazards of war, as there was no occasion for it, and he had not been trained to the use of arms. But their remonstrances were thrown away. He replied, that he was weary of the times; that he foresaw much misery to his country; and that he believed he should be out of it before night. Putting himself, therefore, in the first rank of Lord Byron's regiment, he received a musket shot, and fell dead from his horse. This was on the 20^th of September, 1643, before he had completed the thirty-fourth year of his age. But young as he was, he had sufficiently distinguished himself, to merit the eulogium afterwards pronounced on him by Pope.

See, Falkland dies! the virtuous and the just!

The singular purity of this great man's life, his honesty as a statesman, his learning, and his patronage of literature, are perpetuated, by an everlasting monument, in Clarendon's "History of the Rebellion." The splendid character given of him by that noble author is such as Walpole's flippant censures can neither tarnish nor destroy. This eccentric biographer accuses Falkland of superstition, mental weakness, and infatuation; but we learn from a far higher, and better authority—"that he was a person of such prodigious parts of learning and knowledge, of that inimitable sweetness, and delight in conversation, of so flowing and obliging a humanity, and goodness to mankind, and of that primitive simplicity and integrity of life, that if there were no other brand upon this odious and accursed Civil War, than that single loss, it must be most infamous and execrable to all posterity."

That Lord Falkland was a Christian has never been questioned: that he outwardly conformed to the Church of England is equally certain: but that he was at heart a Trinitarian is more than doubtful. This question, which long remained undecided, was at length set at rest, by the publication of "Letters written by Eminent Persons; and Lives of Eminent Men, by John Aubrey, Esq. London, 1813," 8vo. From this work we learn, that his Lordship's mother was a zealous Roman Catholic; and was desirous that he should be brought up in the same faith. "Her son, upon that occasion," says Aubrey, (Vol. II. p. 348,) "labouring hard to find the Trueth, was so far at last from setling on the Romish Church, that he setled and rested in the Polish (I mean Socinianisme). He was the first Socinian in England."

Dr. Hugh Paulin Cressey, of Merton College, Oxford, about the year 1638, went over to Ireland with Lord Falkland, in the capacity of Chaplain, and lived with him upon the most intimate and confidential terms. In the year 1669, he told Aubrey, at Samuel Cowper's, that he was himself the first person who brought Socinus's books into England; that, soon after he was in possession of them, Lord Falkland came, and glancing his eye over them, at once expressed a wish to borrow, and read them; and that his Lordship "was so extremely taken, and satisfied with them, that from that time was his conversion." In 1642, Dr. Cressey was nominated to a Canonry in the Collegiate Church of Windsor, and to the Deanery of Leighlin, in Ireland; but owing to the disturbed state of the times, he never came into actual possession of these preferments. He lost his kind patron in 1643, and soon afterwards renounced the Protestant Religion, and turned Benedictine Monk. It is by no means improbable, that Dr. Cressey's own mind had been unhinged by the perusal of Socinus's writings; and that, finding no safe intermediate path between the unfettered guidance of human reason, and the acknowledgment of an infallible head, he recoiled, like some of our modern Tractarians of the Oxford school, from the consequences of the former, and finally took refuge in the bosom of the Catholic Church.

A curious passage, bearing upon our present subject, occurs in the " Sidney Papers," in a letter written "from before Gloucester," by Henry, Earl of Sunderland, August 25^th, 1643. It is quoted by Whitaker, in his "Origin of Arianism disclosed," (pp. 484, 485,) for the purpose of proving that Chillingworth was a Socinian; and the reader is left to infer, that Falkland, on that occasion, appeared under the character of an opponent of Sociuianism. The passage, as given by Whitaker, is as follows. "This country is very full of little private cottages, in one of which I am quartered; where my Lord Falkland did me the honour, last night to sup: Mr. Chillingworth is now here with me—; our little engineer comes not hether, so much out of kindness to me, as for his own conveniency, my quarter being three or four miles nearer the leager, than my Lord of Devonshire's, with whom he stayed, till he was commanded to make ready his engines with all possible speed. It is not to be imagined, with what diligence and satisfaction (I mean to himself) he executes this command; for my part, I think it not unwisely done of him to change his profession; and I think you would have been of my mind, if you had heard him dispute last night with Lord Falkland, in favour of Socinianism, wherein he was by his Lordship so often confounded, that really it appeares he has much more reason for his engine, than for his opinion." From this passage, pointed as it now stands, the reader is unavoidably led to the inference, that it was Chillingworth, and not Lord Falkland, who argued "in favour of Socinianism;" but this is at variance with the statement of Aubrey, that Lord Falkland was himself a Socinian, and is besides opposed to the testimony of several writers of undoubted judgment and veracity, who assert that Chillingworth was no Socinian.

"I know not how it comes to pass," says Archbishop Tillotson, (Works, Fol., London, 1722, Vol. II. Serm. 170, p. 464,) "but so it is, that every one that offers to give a reasonable account of his Faith, and to establish Religion upon rational Principles, is presently branded for a Socinian; of which we have a sad Instance in that incomparable Person Mr. Chillingworth, the Glory of his Age and Nation, who for no other Cause that I know of, but his worthy and successful Attempts to make the Christian Religion reasonable, and to discover those firm and solid Foundations upon which our Faith is built, hath been requited with this black and odious Character."

"The Roman Catholics," says the author of a "Brief Memoir of Mr. Chillingworth," in the Monthly Repository for 1814, (Vol. IX. p. 214,) "charged him with Socinianism out of resentment, that being an obnoxious hypothesis; such fanatics as Cheynell took up the reproach, in their anger at his holding the necessity of reason in religion, though Richard Baxter declared his approbation of this principle; and from the reiteration of the charge, impartial men who were not very inquisitive took it for granted, and it has been generally admitted, to the no small scandal of Protestantism, and the honour of what is now falsely called Socinianism." Hence, the writer just mentioned remarks, that "this dispute between the two friends might be nothing more than one of those trials of skill to which they were so frequently accustomed." But may not the sense usually attributed to the passage under consideration be the result of a faulty punctuation? The meaning is just reversed, by changing the position of the comma, and reading, "if you had heard him dispute last night, with Lord Falkland in favour of Socinianism;" and though this construction may, at first view, appear harsh, it is not more so than the expression, "dispute in favour of Socinianism." The sense, 'which the writer intended to convey, probably was, that if his Lady, (to whom the letter was addressed,) had heard Chillingworth in the character of a religious disputant, with Lord Falkland, as his antagonist, arguing in favour of Socinianism, she would have thought, with himself, that the weight of the argument preponderated in favour of the latter.

We shall close this account with a list of Lord Falkland's productions in verse and prose.

1. An Eclogue on the Death of Ben Jonson, between Meliboeus and Hylas; printed in "Jonson us Virbi us, or the Memorie of Ben Jonson revived by the Friends of the Muses. 1638," 4to.

2. A Poetical Address prefixed to " Sandys's Translation of Christ's Passion, by Grotius. 1640," 12mo.

3. To my Noble Friend Mr. George Sandys, upon his excellent Paraphrase of the Psalms.

4. To my Noble Friend Mr. Sandys, upon his Job, Ecclesiastes, and the Lamentations, clearly, learnedly, and eloquently paraphrased. ,

5. An Eglogue uppon the Death of the Ladie Marquesse Hamilton, betweene Amarillis and Cloris. Harleian MS. No. 6947, Art. 31.

6. An Epitaph upon the excellent Countess of Huntingdon: prefixed to "a Sermon preached at Ashby de la Zouch, at the Funeral of Elizabeth, Daughter and Co-heir of Ferdinand, Earl of Derby, and Wife to Henry, Earl of Huntingdon, the fifth Earl of that Family, 9th February, 1633."

7. A Speech Of ill Counsellors about the King: in 1640.

8. A Speech concerning Lord Keeper Finch and the Judges; said to be the same as the Speech about Ship Money.

9. A Speech against the Bishops, Feb. 9th, 1640.

10. A Draught of a Speech concerning Episcopacy, by the Lord Falkland: found since his Death amongst his Papers, written with his own Hand. Oxford, one Sheet. Printed for Leonard Lichfield, Printer to the University. 1644, 4to.

11. A Discourse concerning Episcopacy. London, 1660, 4to.

12. A Discourse of the Infallibility of the Church of Rome. Oxford, 1645, 4to.

13. A View of some Exceptions made against the "Discourse of the Infallibility of the Church of Rome." Oxford, 1646, 4to. The Exceptions were made by George Holland, a Cambridge Scholar, and afterwards a Romish Priest. No. 12 and 13 were afterwards printed, together with a Preface signed J. P., supposed to be John Pearson. They were again reprinted in 1651, with the following title. "Sir Lucius Cary, late Lord Viscount of Falkland, his Discourse of Infallibility; with an Answer to it, and his Lordship's Reply, never before published; together with Mr. Walter Montague's Letter concerning the Changing of his Religion, answered by my Lord Falkland." This letter of Mr. W. Montague is dated from Paris, Nov. 21st, 1635.

14. A Letter to Mr. F. M., 1636, printed at the end of

Gataker's "Answer to five captious Questions propounded

by a Factor for the Papacy, &c. London, 1673," 4to.

(Vidend. Aubrey's Lives of Eminent Men, Vol. II. pp. 346—351. Biographia Britannica, 2nd Ed. Vol. III. Art. Ca»y, Chillingwobth andCressey. Gen. Mag. Vol. IV. N. S. (July to Dec. 1835) pp. 42 —48. 268—272. 389—392; Vol. IX. (Jan. to June, 1838) pp. 153— 160. Testimonies prefixed to A Treatise concerning the Right Use of the Fathers, written in French by John DaiUi. London, 1651, 4to. Bishop Barloufs Genuine Remains, &c. London, 1693, 8vo. p. 329. Memorials, Letters and State Papers of the Sidney Family, Vol. II. p. 665, etc.)