The Diary of John Evelynesq F R S Author:John Evelyn Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: MEMORIAL PREFACE On the 27th of February, 1/06, exactly two centuries ago, there died at the great age of eighty six John Evelyn, who will ever remain in ... more »the memory of his countrymen as an example of the cultured man of the world, and the model English country gentleman. His works proclaim him as a patriot and a man of taste, who was anxious to advance the knowledge and prosperity of his country. These will always be of interest, but Time has its revenges, and their influence on the world is mostly a thing of the past. They will be remembered, but they are not likely again to be much read. The books by which he will always remain in the affections of the public are two posthumous publications, viz., his Diary, and his Life of Mrs. Godolphin. It is well that the bicentenary of Evelyn's death should be honoured in his native country, and no better expression of appreciation can be found than the publication of a library edition of his ever-living Diary. Three years ago was the bicentenary of the death of Samuel Pepys (26th May, 1703), a public- spirited official, who in his later years was known as the " Nestor of the Navy," although he was thirteen chapter{Section 4years younger than his friend Evelyn, who survived him. These two men had equal points of likeness and unlikeness, both were hard-working men, although one was by birth a man of leisure and the other Secretary to the Admiralty. Both were staid and highly respected men, and both were connoisseurs and collectors. Death made a great difference in the fame of the two men. Evelyn was to some extent a classic, and in one instance his great work on Forestry, after which he was often styled " Sylva " Evelyn, was elaborately edited and republished by Dr. A. Hunter seventy years after his death.1 Pepys was forgo...« less