Viscount Morley has said of History: I do not in the least want to know what happened in the past, except as it enables me to see my way more clearly through that which is happening to-day. Vane's biographer need not be afraid to have his work tried by this test, for he has to deal with many subjefis of perennial interest, and even of present-day importance. Vane himself was an ard ent democrat in politics, an apostle of religious toleration, and an advocate of the separation of Church and State. Indeed, so far from his vicws being fossilized with age, they have probably too much life and vigour for many in our own day.