William Temple

“ We doubt whether it will be found that the memory of Sir William Temple owes much to Mr. Courtenay’s researches. Temple is one of those men whom the world has agreed to praise highly without knowing much about them, and who are therefore more likely to lose than to gain by a close examination. Yet he is not without fair pretensions to the most honourable place among the statesmen of his time. A few of them equalled or surpassed him in talents; but they were men of no good repute for honesty. A few may be named whose patriotism was purer, nobler, and more disinterested than his ”

“ Both Sir William Temple and Joseph Glanvill were men of acute intelligence and complete sanity; the one an aged statesman deeply versed in the deceits and follies of men; the other a young cleric, educated in the Oxford of the Commonwealth, and stirred to enthusiasm by what he had there heard of the progress of natural philosophy. ”

“ TEMPLE, Sir WILLIAM (1555–1627) , fourth provost of Trinity College, Dublin, was a younger son of Anthony Temple. The latter was a younger son of Peter Temple of Dorset and Marston Boteler, Warwickshire, whose elder son, John, founded the Temple family of Stowe (cf. Lodge, Peerage, v. 233; Herald and Genealogist, 1st ser. iii. 398; Lipscomb, Buckinghamshire, iii. 85 ; and see art. Temple, Sir Richard, 1634-1697) . Sir William Temple's father is commonly identified with Anthony Temple (d. 1581) of Coughton, Warwickshire, whose wife was Jane Bargrave. ”

“ In the essay "Detached Thoughts on Books and Reading" Lamb says, "Shaftesbury is not too genteel for me."
Page 226, beginning. Sir William Temple. Sir William Temple (1628-1699) , diplomatist and man of letters, the patron of Swift, and the husband of the letter-writing Dorothy Osborne. His first diplomatic mission was in 1665, to Christopher Bernard von Glialen, the prince-bishop of Munster, who grew the northern cherries (see page 228) . Afterwards he was accredited to Brussels and the Hague, and subsequently became English Ambassador at the Hague. ”

“ The Golden Temple, however, is the one most visited by tourists, and it would be difficult to picture a less inviting place. The buildings are old and greasy, and the narrow streets are filled with images and thronged with beggars. One finds his interest in missionary work quickened if he wanders through these streets and sees the offering of incense to the elephant god and the monkey god, and to images innumerable. The air is heavy with perfume and the odor of decaying flowers, and one jostles against the sacred bulls as he threads his way through the crowd. ”

“ Sir William Temple was recalled from the Hague, and the Triple League between England, the States, and Sweden, which that skilful envoy had taken so much pains to cement, was broken up. Early in 1672 war was declared by England against the Dutch, and the armies of Louis, pouring into the United Provinces, became masters of all their chief strongholds "in as little time," to quote the vigorous comparison of one of William's biographers, "as travellers usually employ to view them." ”

“ And what a monument is Boro Boedoer to the zeal of the Buddhist priests, the skill of the Hindu architect and the patient industry of the Javanese! As a temple it is not surpassed, in labor expended upon its construction it is comparable with the pyramids, and in artistic skill displayed in design and execution, it is even superior to them. ”

“ TEMPLE, WILLIAM JOHNSTONE or JOHNSON (1739–1796) , essayist, and friend of Gray and Boswell, was the son of William Temple of Allerdean, near Berwick-on-Tweed, of which borough the father was mayor in 1750 and again in 1754 (Sheldon, Berwick-upon-Tweed, p. 255) . His mother was a Miss Stowe of Northumberland, connected with the family of Sir Francis Blake of Twizel Castle, near Norham, Northumberland, through Blake's aunt Anne, who married William Stowe of Berwick (Betham, Baronetage, iii. 439–40) . ”

“ Another name, of a man far less lovable, but perhaps more widely known, is that of Sir William Temple. [89] He was of excellent family, born in London, [225] highly cultivated, and lived all through the reign of Charles II., and much beyond. He represented England, in diplomatic ways, often upon the Continent, and with great success; he negotiated the so-called Triple Alliance; he also brought about that royal marriage of the daughter of the Duke of York (afterward James II.) , with William of Orange, and so gave to England that royal couple, William and Mary. ”

“ Thomas Temple's great-grandson Peter became lessee of Stowe in Buckinghamshire, and died on 28 May 1577. He had two sons—John, who purchased Stowe on 27 Jan. 1589–90, and Anthony, father of Sir William Temple (1555–1627) [q. v.] John was succeeded by his eldest son Thomas, who was knighted in June 1603 and created a baronet on 24 Sept. 1611. He married Hester, daughter of Miles Sandys of Latimer, Buckinghamshire, by whom he had four sons. ”

“ One of the temples was built by two brothers and the guide tells of a tradition that these brothers, tiring of their money, decided to bury it, but on digging in the earth they found more, and considering it a gift from the gods, built this temple. The buildings are not large, and seen from the outside are disappointing, but once within one marvels at the richness of the carving. The pillars and vaulted ceilings are of the purest white marble, brought from no one knows where, and every inch of the surface is covered with figures of gods, human beings, animals, fowls and flowers. ”

“ Temple was a man of the world among men of letters, a man of letters among men of the world.—Macaulay: Review of Life and Writings of Sir William Temple.
Greswell in his "Memoirs of Politian" says that Sannazarius himself, inscribing to this lady [Cassandra Marchesia] an edition of his Italian Poems, terms her "delle belle eruditissima, delle erudite bellissima" (most learned of the fair; fairest of the learned) .
Qui stultis videri eruditi volunt stulti eruditis videntur (Those who wish to appear wise among fools, among the wise seem foolish) .—Quintilian, x. 7. ”

“ Infinitely interesting to recover, in the history of a mind, for those concerned, these movements of the spirit, these tides and currents of growth—though under the inconvenience for the historian of such ramifications of research that here at any rate I feel myself warned off. There appeared to us at Newport the most interesting, much, of the Albany male cousins, William James Temple—coming, oddly enough, first from Yale and then from Harvard; so that by contact and example the practicability of a like experience might have been, and doubtless was, put well before us. ”

“ At twenty-one years of age he took chambers in the Middle Temple, where we first hear of the dejection of spirits that accompanied him periodically through manhood. He was called to the bar in 1754. In 1759 he removed to the Inner Temple and was made a commissioner of bankrupts. ”

“ The year of his birth cannot consequently be dated later than 1555, and when Anthony Temple of Coughton died in 1581, he must have been at least five-and-twenty.
William was educated at Eton, whence he passed with a scholarship to King's College, Cambridge, in 1573 (Harwood, Alumni) . In 1576 he was elected a fellow of King's, and graduated B.A. in 1577-8 and M.A. in 1581. Though destined for the law, he became a tutor in logic at his college and a earnest student of philosophy. ”

“ Templar replied, “You see us externally, but not internally; take heed what you do; but I shall say no more;” and the deponent further declares, that on another occasion the said Master William entered into the Temple Hall, and found there an old Templar, who was playing at the game called Daly; and the old Templar observing that there was no one in the hall besides himself and the said Master William, said to the latter, “If you enter into our order, it will be the worse for you.” ”

“ Time was, when, immersed in man made systems of faith, and wont to walk abroad in the green fields and woods, by the sea-side, and on the mountains—we found it difficult, nay we should rather say impossible, to see the God we read of in our books, and thought of in our chamber, to be the same kind Father to whom those wide and beauteous scenes owed their existence. Justification by faith—Jerusalem—the Jews—ephod and teraphim—the Temple, and the sacrifice—seemed to have no connection with the landscape, the wind, the falling rain, the flowing river, and the broad and limitless ocean. ”

“ Some years afterwards, through the exertions and at the expense of William, whom the earl had made prior of Walden Abbey, his absolution was obtained from pope Alexander the Third, so that his body was permitted to be received amongst Christians, and the divine offices to be celebrated for him. The prior accordingly endeavoured to take down the corpse and carry it to Walden; but the Templars, being informed of his design, buried [Pg 322] it in their own cemetery at the New Temple, [498] in the portico before the western door of the church. ”

“ William Asheby granted them the estate whereon the house and church of Temple Bruere were afterwards erected; [42] and the order continued rapidly to increase in power and wealth in England and in all parts of Europe, through the charitable donations of pious Christians.
After the miserable failure of the second crusade, [43] brother Everard des Barres, the Master of the Temple, returned to Paris, with his friend and patron Louis, the French king; and the Templars, deprived of their chief, were now left alone and unaided to withstand the victorious career of the fanatical [Pg 43] Mussulmen. ”

“ Thou liest in Abraham's bosom all the year;
And worshipp'st at the Temple's inner shrine,
God being with thee when we know it not. ”

“ Be it known to all persons present and to come, that in the year of the incarnation 1209, in the month of December, I, William D. G., count of Forcalquier, and son of the deceased Gerald, being inspired with the love of God, of my own free will, and [Pg 311] with hearty desire, dedicate my body and soul to the Lord, to the most blessed Virgin Mary, and to the house of the chivalry of the Temple, in manner following. If at any time I determine on taking the vows of a religious order, I will choose the religion of the Temple, and none other ”

“ Knowledge from every branch of science was being brought to bear on the interpretation of human history and human society, and the permanence of this book is due to Temple's belief in this study as one science among the others. ”

“ The temple of fame stands upon the grave: the flame that burns upon its altars is kindled from the ashes of great men. ”

“ William Lord of Asheby gave to the Templars the perpetual advowson of the church of Asheby in Lincolnshire, and they in return agreed to find him a priest to sing for ever twice a week in his chapel of St. Margaret. [131]
In Yorkshire the Templars possessed the manors of Temple [Pg 96] Werreby, Flaxflete, Etton, South Cave, &c.; the churches of Whitcherche, Kelintune, &c.; numerous windmills and lands and rents at Nehus, Skelture, Pennel, and more than sixty other places besides. ”

“ He is abandoned, in everything that he says to the prejudice of the fraternity, by James of Vitry, bishop of Acre, a learned and most talented prelate, who wrote in Palestine subsequently to William of Tyre, and has copied largely from the history of the latter. The bishop of Acre speaks of the Templars in the highest terms, and declares that they were universally loved by all men for their piety and humility. ”

“ The Master, Philip of Naplous, resigned his authority after a short government of three years, and was succeeded by Brother Odo de St. Amand, a proud and fiery warrior, of undaunted courage and resolution; having, according to William, Archbishop of Tyre, the fear neither of God nor of man before his eyes. [76]
The Templars were now destined to meet with a more [Pg 61] formidable opponent than any they had hitherto encountered in the field, one who was again to cause the crescent to triumph over the cross, and to plant the standard of the prophet upon the walls of the holy city. ”

“ There's nothing ill can dwell in such a temple. If the ill spirit have so fair a house, Good things will strive to dwell with't. ”

“ From the inquiry made in pursuance of this writ before John de Shorditch, a baron of the Exchequer, it further appears that on the said residue of the Temple upon the land then remaining in the custody of William de Langford, and withinside the great gate of the Temple, were another HALL [559] and four chambers connected therewith, a kitchen, a garden, a stable, and a chamber beyond the great gate; also eight shops, seven of which stood in Fleet Street, and the eighth in the suburb of London, without the bar of the New Temple ”

“ The window was a square of greenly translucent light, as though it were the side of an artificially illuminuated aquarium, and glaring through it at me was William Blake's nightmare vision of the devil.
The eyes burned into mine, the fangs were revealed in a tiger's grin—the whole effect was that of a monster aflame with sadistic appetite measuring its distance for a pounce at my throat.
I'm afraid I fainted. It's a weakness no man likes to admit to, but it does happen. ”

“ Well, 'tis no Miracle however to see a Man who is perfectly so unacquainted with his own Humour to be a Stranger to all the rest of Mankind. The Author of the Memoirs was at this time prevailed with by the King to have a Part in a New Constitution of Council ”

“ The Towns stomached the breach of their Charters, the People of their Liberties, the Knights of the Golden-Fleece the Charters of their Order, by these new and odious Courts of Judicature; All complain of the disuse of the States, of the introduction of Armies, but all in vain: The King was constant to what he had determined; Alva was in his nature cruel and inexorable; the new Army was fierce and brave, and desirous of nothing so much as a Rebellion in the Country ”