John Hall was born in 1627 at Durham, and was admitted to St. John's College, Cambridge, on February 26, 1645-46. Within a few months after his entry there, he published his first literary work, Horae Vacivae, or Essays. Some Occasional Considerations. But this work was probably the product of three years of reading that the youthful Hall had done in the Durham library before he went to Cambridge.

The fourteen essays fill a duodecimo volume of two hundred pages and average about one thousand words in length. The subjects are those usual in essays of the period. They are: Of Opinions, Of Time, Of Felicity, Of Preaching, Of Fame, Of Studies, Of Company, Of Friends, Of Dissimulation, Of Recreations, Of Warre, Of Religion, Of Rewards, Of Fables. Most of them are subjects used by Bacon.