SIR MATTHEW HALE, one of the most distinguished lawyers of England, was born at Alderley, in Gloucestershire, November 1st, 1609. Entering Oxford University, and devoting himself to study for the Church, he suddenly changed his mind, left the university, joined a theatrical company, and resolved to be a soldier. A fortunate lawsuit, in which his patrimony was involved, brought him to the notice of Sergeant Glanville, who persuaded him to adopt the law as a profession. Admitted to the bar in 1637, he soon became eminent. In the quarrel between King and Parliament, he took no aggressive part. Leaning to the Royalist side, he conformed, nevertheless, to the Protector’s government and became a judge in the court of common pleas under it. After the Restoration Charles II. made him Chief Baron of the Exchequer, and eleven years later, Lord Chief-Justice. He retired in February, 1676, because of failing health, and died in December of the same year. So great was his learning in the laws and customs of England, that it is said the memoranda of his commonplace books “may be considered a corpus juris, embracing and methodizing all that an English lawyer in any emergency could desire to know.” Among his miscellaneous writings his “Advice to His Children and Grandchildren” is of greatest general interest; but he wrote also “An Essay Touching the Gravitation and Nongravitation of Fluid Bodies,” “Contemplations, Moral and Divine,” “Difficiles Nugæ,” and the “Primitive Organization of Man.” He presided at trials for witchcraft held in 1664, and almost the only reproach ever brought against him is that he sentenced to death two unfortunate women on their conviction for that imaginary offense. This, however, merely shows how hard it is for even the greatest mind to free itself wholly from the influence of the average intellect of its generation.