Biographical Fragment

Abstract

IT is not because WILLIAM PRYNNE stands in our literature as one of our most voluminous authors, nor because he is conspicuous in our history as a sufferer for conscience' sake, that I desire to interest the great body of English readers in his biography. His works, and the circumstances of his personal history, considered simply by themselves, deserve the attention ofthe scholar and the historian, but taken in connection with the general incidents of the times in which he lived they acquire a much higher importance and have a far more extensive application. Viewed in that relation, they enlarge our knowledge of the momentous transactions which occurred in England between 1625 and 1660; they give us views of men and events, nearer and more distinct than can be derived from the wide survey of the general historian; and they enable us—which is more valuable than anything else—to drink deep into the general spirit of that eventful period. It is of the greatest importance that the history of that birth-time of our modern freedom and our consequent greatness should be thoroughly understood I hope that the life of William Prynne, which 1 have endeavoured to write upon the principle I have indicated, will conduce in some slight degree to their being so.