EARLE, JOHN, was born at York about 1601. Being sent to Oxford, and entered as a commoner at Christchurch College, he was afterwards, in 1620, admitted as a probationary fellow on the founda tion of Merton College. He took the degree of Master of Arts in 1624, and that of Doctor in Divinity in 1642. About 1631, when he was proctor, he was appointed chaplain to Philip, earl of Pembroke, who was then chancellor of the university, and lord chamberlain of the king's honsehohl. The earl presented him to the rectory of Bishop stone in Wiltshire, and to the same influence probably he owed also his appointment to be chaplain and tutor to Prince Charles, and chancellor of the cathedral of Salisbury. Of all these preferments he was soon deprived by the civil wars. After the battle of Worcester be fled from England, and, meeting Charles IL at Rouen, was made his chaplain and clerk of the closet. Earle remained abroad during the whole exile of his master. Immediately after the Restoration he was made Dean of Westminster. In 1662 he was consecrated Bishop of Worcester, whence he was translated in the next year to the see of Salisbury. Ile continued to attend much at court, and on the breaking out of the plague in 1665, he accompanied the king and queen to Oxford, whore, in University College, he died on the 17th of November in that year. His tomb Mande near the high altar of Merton College Chapel. Bishop Earle was a zealous cavalier and staunch high churchman, but is represented on all hands, by Baxter as well as others, as having been a man of moderate and kindly dispositions.
He is now remembered on account of his work called Microcosmo graphy, or a Piece of the World discovered, in Essays and Characters,' 8vo, 1628. This volume was several times reprinted with additions in the author's own lifetime, the eighth edition appearing in 1650. Tho edition by Dr. Bliss, 1811, 12mo, is the eleventh, and contains notices of the author's life and of his other works, with several small English poems of his, and specimens of his Latinity. Except these little pieces, and the • Microcosmography,' he published nothing but a Latin translation of the Icon Basilike; EIK6v Bacrauc, vel Imago Regis Caroli, in Ms stria /Ernmnis et Solitudino,' Hague, 1649, 12mo.
Wood mentions an unprinted Latin translation of Hooker's 'Eccle siastical Polity' by him, which however has not been seen by any one in modern times. Earle's Microcosmography ' is one of the best, as it was one of the most popular, among the brief sketches of character and manners which were so abundant in our literature for a century after the middle of Elizabeth's reign, and which, receiving the addition of narrative matter, were transformed, in the beginning of the 18th century, into the little novels of the 'Spectator' and other periodical works. The bishop's portraits, especially the ethical ones, abound both in shrewdness and in humour, and are very often expressed with great terseness and epigrammatic point.