The Perfect Civil Servant

Memoires for my Grandson. By John Evelyn. (Nonesuch

Press. 10s. (Id.) . • .

Tins is a handbook on the art of sober living, written by. John Evelyn in his eighty-fourth year to his grandson and heir. The young man was twenty-two, with life opening before him at the beginning of the eighteenth century. Their. two lives 'covered a period" of 148 years, from 1620 to 1763. Perhaps it was the most compactly civilized portion of our history: a period of conservation and quiet dwelling. I say his, believing that the revolution was the .re.' volt of conserva- sn.' against an arbitrary, 'capricions, and inspired -monarch. ic mysticism of that tithe was One of quietism, and' passion spres.sed itself in piety and an intense domestic consciousness. ever, perhaps, have English folk been so house-proud as ere those Caroline •gentry and yeomen.

John Evelyn is the perfect flower of that sobriety. Re stracted all that was good from' orthodoxy, and 'made a wtue from caution and discretion. He is the antithesis f the divine rebel, the choleric genius, the doubter and breaker, fo shatters the thousand worlds_ of the past and builds new one for the morrow. Mit he had his divine quality ; lere was something of motherhood in it—as with most men f practical affairs. He was a Martha rather than a Mary. "at is to say, he was the exemplary Civil Servant.

Indeed, we find him; under Charles II, holding many sts entailing much work and little limelight. He never jute(' to put into practice his belief that a man should ork quietly and consistently for the, public weal. To give ignity to this niceness for the technique of daily life, he ad a deep respect—perhaps rather than an aptitude—for Warship. Even this had to be expressed in a polite way, ad so he busied himself as one of the founders of the Royal

etc.

We find in these counsels to his grandson frequent passages hid" betray this temper of the right-minded Committeeman a_ real English type. Here, for instance, is a dictum which xpresses the very essence of the constitutional temper, and the official mind :—

-Do nothing then of whiehy- o.ti are in doubt as to the lawfullness it; tho' the thing perhaps may be good."

That is not the advice of a reformer, or a saint, or a pioneer. 'tut it is the very cornerstone of your Government Department, *hire the servant of the publie must sit, and labour obediently, yen though he lack conviction. Here is another remark the civil tradition :. _ "Avoyd Extreemes and he ever provided with some laudable

Such was the man through and throng'', from his menage . :!1) his religion. Tp him God was cs.surt of _Ultimate Secretary, *Awn his minutes and' accounts would finally cone, or '-11e:tlierefore4abotire4-46 Make each.detall:ferecti- and to tally every figure. To this end, he advised his grandson about the control of the household at Wotton. Re mentions -6Yen, thomImng. of the -dOorkeyS;:and having

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gone into_eycry -minute, point in, out, and..ahout the

place— including an adnuinislinierit' to adiipt " double-en—fly account books--he 'adds :L.—.

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" Your Wife will have the same Inspection of her maid,servaids and of the Goods, Vessels, and other furniture within the House and all its Appartments, Boding, Hangings, Plate,- pewter,

Kitchen furniture, laundry, larders, dairy, cellars, oven to the

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Garrets, to mend and keep all tight and to prevent all west. and, Imbeziling whatsoever by Chare Women and pretended helpers who will otherwise insensibly incroch, and are commonly introduc'd by' idle and lazy servants. Reguard must be likewise had of the Brew house, copers, coolers and other vessels, that there be no idle fellows hankering with their Tankards and leather bottles when they are Twining. -• •

But even the life of the perfect Civil Servant has its glimpses.

ofthe illimitable things. We find in Evelyn yearnings after, a knowledge and a scholarship that is greater than his civil needs. He even hankers after a modest fame, for we find that at the end of his advice to his grandson, he enumerates his various notebooks and writings-, his manuscripts preserved in leather bindings, and his schemes for further achievement... Amongst the last is this :- "I also made preparation for an History of Starrs, in Latine."

I confess that shook my sense of superiority. ;What pathos' lies in that prOposal which remained a proposal ; what sudden: gesture of revolt against an orderly life, a circumspect' intelligence - He , became, in that project, truly something' more than urbane.; he became religious in the Dionysian' sense of the .word: But prudence called WM back, and we find him projecting a . more reactionary scheme : " Animad-. versions On Spinosa."

• But es'en-tht negative grandeur dwindled, and the next proposal was _" Oeconomiks to a Marled Friend." Now he was hie& On safegidund, and no doubt he would have put. this idea into action, had his life not been so perfectly regulated,' . hour by hour, task by task, that no moment escaped from the curriculum in which to begin.

This little' book is one of the most perfect examples of

• medern printing I have seen., The Nonesuch Press have excelled themselves—and even the best printing of• the eighteenth century. Particularly intriguing are the little • colophons, each one forming a decoration round a planetary Symbol. When will' the. Nonesuch give us a Religio

done in this small perfection ? RICHARD C11171teli: RICHARD C11171teli: