BYGONE SUSSEX - online book

Essays, Sketches and Illustrations of bygone Sussex

	THE MILLER'S TOMB.                        227 Honesty! thou art welcome unto me, Enter, be seated ; I would not closed be ; Thief! be gone; I open not to thee.* From this little cottage Selden went to Chichester Grammar School, and from thence to Oxford, and became the wonder of his age for learn­ing. In the Inner Temple he had a choice library of books, of which in the beginning of all or most he wrote either in the title or leaf before it, This is a noble motto for a scholar. Selden's " History of Tithes" was suppressed in 1619, by the High Commission Court, and he was forbidden by the King to reply to those who had endeavoured, with very poor success, to con­trovert the positions he had defended. Selden's is an impressive if not an heroic figure. He was on the side of liberty but made no sacrifices. There was a humorous side to his character. He sat as a lay member of the Assembly of Divines, and took part in their debates. " And sometimes," we are told " when they had cited a text of scripture to prove their assertion, he would tell * There is a less literal rendering,— Dear to my heart, the honest, here shall find The gate wide open, and the welcome kind : Hence, thieves away, on you my door shall close Within these walls, the wicked ne'er repose !