Richard Owen

“ To this is added ‘A True Catalogue of the Names of all the Cities, Townes, and other places where the Jesuits have any Colledges or Religious Houses in Europe.’ One copy is in the Bodleian Library, and another, bound up with Sir Edwin Sandys's ‘Europæ Speculum,’ and dated 1632, is in the British Museum Library.
If Owen is rightly identified with the grandson of Lewis Owen the judge, he must have succeeded his mother's brother, William David Lloyd, in the Peniarth estate, Merionethshire, and died in 1633, leaving two daughters. The elder, Margaret, married (1) Richard Owen (d. 1627?) ”

“ Villages are pestilential traps, swarming with pretty girls. Just the place where Owen will fall into the worst scrape of all—matrimony. He is a good-looking chap; they’ll all be after him!”
“I don’t believe there’s a woman in Ottinge under forty, and I never saw a more hard-featured lot—never. You know I stayed in the neighbourhood with the Davenants years ago.”
“Another thing—no one can take Owen for anything but a gentleman!” and Sir Richard put up his glasses and surveyed his niece, with an air as much as to say, “There’s a poser!” ”

“ And such was the zeal which he brought to bear on the studies and the secular interests of the place, that the deserted courts were once more populous with ardent and accomplished students, and in alumni like Sprat, and South, and Ken, and Richard Cumberland, the Church of England received from Owen's Oxford some of its most distinguished ornaments; whilst men like Philip Henry and Joseph Alleine, went forth to perpetuate Owen's principles ”

“ But with all this the King was burning to crush Owen and chastise the Welsh, and it was from no want of will or vigour that he had for so many weeks to nurse his wrath. Richard, Earl de Grey, had been left in charge of the South Wales Marches, while the Earl of Arundel was doing his best to keep order north of the Severn. On July 23rd the King was at Lilleshall, in Shropshire. Provisions, arms, and men were pouring into Welshpool, Ludlow, and Montgomery, Hereford, Shrewsbury, and Chester. Money was scarcer than ever, and had to be borrowed in every direction from private individuals. ”

“ He thought the present fossil presented some Chelonian characters, but that in many Lizards we may find indications of a dentition similar to that of the fossil. He considered that there could be no doubt as to the connexion between Reptiles and Mammals, and that Prof. Huxley was wrong in his views as to the relationship between Birds and Reptiles. Every mammalian type has a reptilian brain in its earliest stages. ”

“ He looked white and wan, as he whispered softly, "There is 'no sorrow' with it, cousin Clarice, though the pain is so bad."
"Poor boy," she whispered, softly stroking his head, "I wish I could bear it for you. But Jesus knows, and He will help you through all."
"Oh, He does; He comforts me so. When I was all alone, He gave me such happy thoughts of going soon to be with Him and father."
"I hope you will not go yet awhile, Owen. But how were you alone in the night? I thought David was with you." ”

“ It is well known that our king and queen were beyond all others for royalty of look and ways, and I will venture to say that neither of the ealdormen had their equals, save in Nunna, anywhere. But it is not my word only, for it was a common saying, that Owen seemed most royal next to the king himself. Grave he always was, but with a ready smile and pleasant, in the right place, and though he was now about five-and-forty he had changed little to my eyes from what he was twelve years ago, when he saved me from the wolves. He was one of those men who age but slowly. ”

“ The vertebral theory of the skull had practically disappeared from anatomical science when the labours of Cuvier drew to their close. In Owen’s Archetype and Homologies of the Vertebrate Skeleton the idea was not only revived but worked out for the first time inductively, and the theory rightly stated, as follows: “The head is not a virtual equivalent of the trunk, but is only a portion, i.e. certain modified segments, of the whole body. The jaws are the ‘haemal arches’ of the first two segments; they are not limbs of the head” (p. 176) . ”

“ Father always used to say that it paid best to be honest and upright in every way, even if it were not a question of right. Dishonest people must always live in fear of being found out. Father said we must always live open lives, and then everything would be right."
"Your father was a good man, Owen. I can't think how I came to suspect you. Only get well, and I will do all I can for you."
"Thank you, uncle; I am very glad you know I did not do it," replied the boy, as if he could not forget how heavy a weight had been lifted off him.
"It troubled you?" asked Mr. Hadleigh, kindly. ”

“ We workin' folks can't afford to lay up an' buy ourselves doctors' stuff."
"And how am I to get among the right class?" retorted Owen, sucking the ends of his moustache into his mouth and chewing them savagely. "A more confounded set of stuck-up, beggarly aristocrats I never met than your people here." His discontented eye rested on Mrs. Tourtel. "That Mrs. Pedvinn is the wife of Pedvinn the Jurat, I suppose?" - "Yes, de Pedvinns of Rohais." - "Good people," said Owen thoughtfully; in with the de Caterelles, and the Dadderney (d'Aldenois) set. "Are there children?" ”

“ Owen looked up inquiringly; he did not quite know his friend's meaning.
"The blessed Saviour loves you, my boy; have you no love in your heart for Him? Those who belong to Him can never say they have nobody to love them. Are you not his child?"
The question was asked very tenderly, and Owen looked into the kind face that watched his so earnestly, as he said, slowly, "I don't think so."
"Then I am sure you are both poor and lonely."
"Yes, I am poor, because father had very little to leave me—only a few books and furniture. [34] But I have come to Barmston to make my fortune." ”

“ But nothing came of it, beyond the translation of his son, Robert Dale Owen, to this country,—a very clever, well-educated, and earnest, though rather awkward and sluggish young man, who has achieved a large reputation here, and will be yet more distinguished if he lives, being well grounded and rooted in the foundation principles of government, and both conscientious and fearless. ”

“ The first Sunday or two Owen was very miser [32] able. Sundays had been such bright days in his old home. He had always gone to church with his father in the morning, and to a class he held for elder boys in the afternoon; and though he had not always taken heed to the lessons as he ought, he had at any rate enjoyed the time. And he looked back to the Westbrook Sundays as days of peaceful rest. The first Sunday after he had found out that David was a cousin of his old friend Sam, he ventured to ask his uncle if he might go and spend the afternoon with the Netherclifts. ”

“ Not long was Owen asleep when there came a knock at the door.
"Get up, Owen O'Mulready, and go with a letter from the master to America."
Owen got up, and put his feet into his boots, saying to himself, "It's late you come, messenger."
He took the letter, and he went forward and never tarried till he came to the foot of Sliabh Charn, where he met a cow-boy, and he herding cows.
"The blessing of God be with you, Owen O'Mulready," says the boy.
"The blessing of God and Mary be with you, my boy," says Owen. "Every one knows me, and I don't know any one at all." ”

“ We can well believe this, and the Life is full of touching references to her solicitude for her darling son. The interest she felt in all that he did even led her to read through his scientific papers and his catalogue of the Hunterian collection, with what profit to herself we are not informed. Her husband died in 1809; but the family seem to have been left in fairly affluent circumstances, and continued to live, as before, at Lancaster. Owen’s education began at the grammar-school there in 1810, when he was 349six years old, and ended in 1820, when he was apprenticed to a local surgeon. ”

“ He clutched at the bits of ashes, coal and pebbles which were falling through his fingers, the wealth which the Gods had lavished on him so prodigiously.
"Tell me," he cried hoarsely, "are your eyes not blinded by the brilliance of my stones?"
"My surprise at what you tell me is acute," I declared truthfully. "I can scarcely find words to express my thoughts."
"Don't try," said John Rust grandly. "The greatest rhetoricians the world has ever known have never invented words even to suggest their true magnificence. . . . . Nor is this treasure all I possess. I own the world! ”

“ As soon as the shop was closed Mr. Hadleigh came up himself to visit his nephew, and assure him that he would take all care of him, and that he was not to trouble about the accusation, for the more he watched him, the more he was convinced that he was innocent, though where the goods had gone to was a great mystery.
"David shall sit up with you to-night," he said, "and we will see about a better nurse in the morning."
Owen was much surprised at his uncle's tender manner, for he had always been too absorbed in business to speak kindly to any of his family. ”

“ The reason for this great promotion was assigned by some to his wife’s influence with the queen, by others to the favour of Lord Rochester, and on his death he was currently reported to have paid dear for the place. Among the Latin epigrams of John Owen is one (bk. vi. No. 20) to the effect that while the king committed to Carew the care of the wards, he showed himself to have a care for Carew's merits. In August 1612 he was a member of the commission for raising money for our soldiers in Denmark, and with that appointment his official life was over. ”

“ And they are riches that will last for ever."
"How can we get them?"
"By first of all realising our poverty, that we, you and I, are poor lost sinners in ourselves, fit for nothing but hell, and that we can do nothing to save ourselves. Then, knowing this fact, because God says it, to come just as we are, and believe in His Son, who died to save us from all sin."
Owen listened earnestly, the boy's heart was roused; it was God's message to him. He looked thoughtfully into the fire for a few moments. Presently he said, "Father's last words to me were to seek the heavenly riches." ”

“ Then I asked if our king had been told of all this, and I learnt that he had heard at once, and had written back to Owen to say that he would pay any ransom that might be asked for me if I yet lived, as was hoped. The outlaws had told of Evan's plan, but it was not known if I had been taken out of the country yet.
"All is well that ends well," Owen said; "but I asked Ina not to say aught of the matter yet for a while. There is one at least in Glastonbury who might be sorely terrified for you." ”

“ A multitude of orders were being given there, the valet was searching anxiously in the large wardrobe, piled high with many various coats and trousers; Owen stood before the looking-glass tying a white scarf, and two footmen watched each movement, dreading a mistake. She remembered that she had been amused at the time, and she never recalled the scene without smiling. But she had liked Owen better for the innumerable superfluities, all of which were necessary to his happiness, the breakdown of any one of which made him the most miserable man alive. ”

“ With a shrill yell no Indian could surpass, and a bound like a tiger, Owen came down in the midst of them, every stroke of his powerful blackthorn telling on his man as unerringly as though it were wielded by the hand of a giant.
“Save the young Master, Owen! Shelter him! Stand over him, Owen Connor!” were how the cries from all sides; and the stout-hearted peasant, striding over the body of young Leslie, cleared a space around him, and, as he glanced defiance on all sides, called out, “Is that your courage, to beat a young gentleman that never handled a stick in his life? ”

“ No member of her family accompanied her to the chair. It might have given the impression that the Yangs were saddened by her going, as indeed they were. It was hard to lose a daughter whom they had cared for so devotedly even though she was to dwell in the Blue Lacquer Palace of the young Prince, on Frozen Pearl Lake.
Demurely, dressed in simple red garments, for red is the color of happiness, she walked down the marble path to the entrance gate where the retinue waited. Her only companion was her old Amah who had been her nurse when she was a child, and her maid as she grew older. ”

“ As soon as he recovered his powers of speech, of which astonishment had for a moment deprived him, he began earnestly to dissuade the Ensign from the enterprise; but Owen knew his man too well, and had too much youthful vivacity of will to allow much time for remonstrance.
“Look you, Major,” said he, “I’m positive I can’t live without Juana. I’ll make a bold stroke for a wife. ”

“ She had heard scraps of his conversation with the French and English noblemen who had stopped to speak to him; and now, as Owen was getting into the victoria, after a brief visit to some great lady who had sent her footman to fetch him, a man, who looked to Evelyn like a sort of superior groom, came breathless to their carriage. He had only just heard that Owen was on the course. He was the great English trainer from Chantilly, and had tried Armide II. to win with a stone more on his back than he had to carry.
"That is the horse," and Owen pointed to a big chestnut. ”

“ Mitchell?"
"A neighbour of ours. She said it was best to get 'durable riches.'"
"What sort of riches are they?"
"I don't quite know, but they are in the Bible; I read it there."
"Oh," said Clarice, "I don't know much of the Bible. Perhaps it would be better if I did, but father would not like me to spend time reading it. Will you have some more tea? No? Then we had better go down, and father and mother can come up. Father never likes to leave the counting-house unless one of us is there, but I don't see why he can't trust Dawson."
Owen followed his cousin downstairs. ”