Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Excerpt from The Theological Works of Isaac Barrow, Vol. 1 of 8
When the time came that Barrow could be chosen fellow, he obtained that distinction solely by his great merit; since nothing else could have recommended him to his electors, whose political opinions were generally ad verse to his own his case afl'ords but an example of that strict impartiality which seems ever to have distinguished the rulers of this noble college, when left to the free ex ercise of their elective rights. In 1651 be commenced Master of Arts; and from a Latin speech preserved in his Opuscula, it appears that he executed the oflice of Mode rator that same year.* In the speech alluded to, which is a very remarkable specimen of mature judgment, as well as of various and extensive scholarship, in so young a man, he gives many admirable instructions both to young and old indignantly reprehends the vices and follies of a dissolute age; indicates the best remedies; and recom mends the noblest objects of study; but in particular he inveighs with caustic severity against that licentiousness which, in the place of wit, seems to have tainted the speeches of his predecessors in the schools; insomuch that custom demanded of him to undertake, as it were, the combined character of Ulysses and Thersites, of Demo critus and Heraclitus; or on the same stage to act the part of Cato and of Roscius. Barrow however, after a severe objurgation of his audience, who stood gaping for their accustomed jests, refuses to become a bufl'oon for their amusement, or a pandar to their depraved taste.
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