The academie of eloquence containing a compleat English rhetorique, exemplified with common-places and formes digested into an easie and methodical way to speak and write fluently according to the mode of the present times : together with letters both amorous and moral upon emergent occasions / by Tho. Blount, Gent. Blount, Thomas, 1618-1679. 1654 Approx. 390 KB of XML-encoded text transcribed from 123 1-bit group-IV TIFF page images. Text Creation Partnership, Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) : 2006-06 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1). A28452 Wing B3321 ESTC R15301 11720108 ocm 11720108 48341 This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal . The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. Early English books online. (EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A28452) Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 48341) Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 14:20) The academie of eloquence containing a compleat English rhetorique, exemplified with common-places and formes digested into an easie and methodical way to speak and write fluently according to the mode of the present times : together with letters both amorous and moral upon emergent occasions / by Tho. Blount, Gent. Blount, Thomas, 1618-1679. [8], 232 p. : ill. Printed by T.N. for Humphrey Moseley ..., London : 1654. Reproduction of original in Bodleian Library. Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford. Re-processed by University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. 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Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site . eng English language -- Rhetoric -- Early works to 1800. 2005-07 TCP Assigned for keying and markup 2005-11 SPi Global Keyed and coded from ProQuest page images 2006-01 Judith Siefring Sampled and proofread 2006-01 Judith Siefring Text and markup reviewed and edited 2006-04 pfs Batch review (QC) and XML conversion THE Academy of Eloquence By Tho : Blount Gent : Demosthenes . Cicero . Fr : Lo : Bacon . Sr : Ph : Sidney . W : Faithorne . Fe : THE ACADEMIE OF ELOQUENCE . Containing a Compleat ENGLISH RHETORIQUE , Exemplified , With Common-Places , and Formes , digested into an easie and Methodical way to speak and write , fluently , according to the mode of the present times , Together with LETTERS both AMOROVS and MORAL , Upon emergent occasions . By THO. BLOUNT Gent ' CICERO , Vt Hominis decus est ingenium : Sic ingenij lumen est Eloquentia . LONDON , Printed by T. N. for Humphrey Moseley , at the Princes-Arm's in S. Paul's Church yard . 1654. TO ALL NOBLE GENTLEMEN AND LADIES OF ENGLAND . WEre it absolutely necessary for him that should write of Eloquence to be perfectly Eloquent , I would easily confess my self too rash in this enterprise : But having seen often those treat knowingly of Painting , that never held Pencill ; and Cicero remarking that Aratus , by the comon consent of learned men , wrote excellently of the Heavens & Stars , though he was no celebrated Astronomer ; I 'm encourag'd to say , Why then may not I too discourse of Eloquence , without being a Orator ? Galen that great Master of Physick , who wrote so learnedly of every part of that Science , was little seen in the Practick ; Nor are those , that discourse best of the embattailing Armys , and differencing military functions , alwaies the best Warriers , or the most daring . The like may happen in this subject , that he , who is able to set down the Rules and Laws which ought to be observ'd in Speech or stile , may notwithstanding find himself defective in the application , and so may be said to give that to others , which he has not himself . The conceits of the mind are Pictures , whose Interpreter is the tongue , and the order of Gods Creatures in themselves , is not only admirable and glorious , but Eloquent ; he then , that could apprehend the consequence of things in their truths , and deliver his apprehensions as truely , were a perfect Orator ; Thus Cicero ; Dicere recte nemo potest nisi qui prudenter intelligit . Eloquence is equally fortunate in taming Passions and in charming senses : she imitates Musick , and makes use of the voice of Orators to enchant the Eares , with the cadence of Periods , and the harmony of Accents ; whilst the gestures , apt motions , Natural Aire , and all those graces , which accompany exact Recitation , steal away the Heart by the eyes , and work wonders upon the will. But Eloquence is chiefly grounded upon Wisdom , & Wisdom arises principally from a due pre-consideration of all our actions ; Hence that excellent saying of a modern French Author , Il est impossible de bien dire , sans avoir bien pensé , 't is impossible to speak well , without having first well considered what to speak . And Plotinus says , 't is wisdom to think upon any thing , before we execute it . Now , as 't is certain , that No harmony , can appear in his thoughts , nor soundness in his reason , whose speech is faltering and preposterous : So likewise no clearness nor perfection in that Fancy , which delivers it self by a confus'd abortion . Great is the disparagment which flows from the defailance of the Tongue : it not only dishonours the person of the Speaker , but even sullys the opinion of his reason and judgement with a disrepute , and oft-times renders the very truth suspected . If then it so befall our verball expressions , which are transient and less lyable to censure , and where one hansome expression may excuse a number of solaecismes ; how shall that person be esteem'd prudent , whose pen layes him wide open in a fungous and sordid stile ; how shall we expect ingenuity from him , whose leisure and Genius , assisted with the examen of his eyes , yeild us no spirit in his writing ? He that has worth in him and cannot express it , is a Cabinet keeping a rich Jewell and the key lost , sayes a modern . Author ; whereas a good stile , with choise matter and embroidery of well chosen words , is like a beautifull Woman with a virtuous Soul , who attracts the eyes and charmes the hearts of all beholders . This excellent faculty of speech ha's bin in high esteem even from the very infancy , & will be to the end of the World ; For in sacred Story we read , the wise in Heart shall be called prudent and the sweetness of the lips increaseth understanding : Pleasant words are as an honycomb ; sweet to the soul and health to the bones . Hence 't was , an ancient Author maintained , that Pericles ( the Orator ) was no less Tyrant in Athens then Pysistratus ; without acknowledging other difference , then that this exercis'd his Empire armed , the other without armes , by the sole terror of his speech , which Aristophanes compar'd to a thunder bolt , as Homer did that of Vlisses to a Torrent , that beares down all with its violence . And 't was said of old , that the tongue of Cyneas ( the fam'd Scholler of Demosthenes ) conquer'd more Citties , then the sword of Pyrrhus , the valiant King of Epire. To have said thus much , of the much more might be added in behalf of this charming Faculty , and of the disadvantage commonly attending those who are unskill'd in it , may serve as an inducement to the youth of both Sexes ( for whose benefit this little Work is chiefly intended , and to their acceptance consecrated ) to make the perusall of it their subservient Recreation for vacant houres , this w th little study , will not only facilitate your discourse into the moding language of these times , but adapt your pens too with a quaint & fluent stile , then which no qualities ( with confidence I speak it ) can render you more accomplish'd . Here shall you be furnisht with all necessary materialls and helps in order to the acquiring so great a treasure ; such helps as have bin advised and often wisht for , but never before published . I. The first part containes a more exact English Rhetorique , then has been hitherto extant , comprehending all the most usefull Figures , exemplifi'd out of the Arcadia and other our choisest Authors . II. In the second part , you have formulae majores or Common-places , upon the most usual subjects for stile and speech ; The use and advantage whereof is asserted by my Lord Bacon , who ( in his Advancement of learning ) sayes thus ; I hold the diligence and pain in collecting Common-places to be of great use and certainty in studying ; as , that which aids the memory subministers copy to invention , and contracts the sight of judgement to a strength . III. In the third place you shall find Formulae minores ( as my Lord calls them ) lesser formes , which he then reckon'd among the defects in our Language , and sayes , they are as it were , the Portals and postern dores of stile and speech , and of no smal use . IV. Lastly , you have a Collection of Letters and addresses written to , for , and by severall persons , upon emergent occasions ; with some particular Instructions and Rules premised , for the better attaining to a Pen-perfection . The Formula's are but Analects , which like the Humble-bec I gather'd in Spring time out of the choisest Flowers of our English Garden ; nor have I in the Rhetorick or Letters transplanted much from my own barren Seminary ; I may say to some noble Correspondents , what the Poet did of old in a like Case , sic vos non vobis — But , you will easily distinguish Tinsill from better mettal : what is mine will appear to be so , by the Bluntismes that frequently occur , the rest are of better allay ; So that , if the defects of my own Essayes be but pardoned , the rest I am confident will abide the touch , and pass for Sterling . T. B. AN English Rhetorique exemplified . FIgures and Tropes ( sayes Alexander the Sophister ) are the vertues of Speech and Stile , as Barbarismes and Solecismes are the vices ; we shall then begin with A METAPHOR or Translation is the friendly and neighbourly borrowing of a word , to express a thing with more light and better note , though not so directly and properly as the naturall name of the thing meant , would signifie . As to say , Drops of Dew are Pearls ; Flowers in Meadows are Starres , and the murmuring of waters , Musick ; that little Birds are Angels of the Forrests ; Whales are living Rocks , or Ships with souls ; that the Sea is a moving Earth ; and fountain water , liquid Crystall . And in expressing Desirous ; a kind of Desire , is thirst , and not much different from thirst is hunger ; Therefore for swords desirous of bloud , Sir Philip Sidney says , hungry of bloud . Where you may note three degrees of a Metaphor in the understanding ; First , the fitness to bloudshed in a weapon usurps the name of Desirous , which is proper to a living Creature , and then that it proceeds to thirst , and so to hunger . The rule of a Metaphor is , that it be not too bold nor too far fetch'd ; And though all Metaphors go beyond the true signification of things , yet are they requisite to express the roving fancies of mens minds , which are not content to fix themselves upon one thing intended , but must wander to the confines ; Like the eye that cannot chuse but view the whole knot , when it purposely beholds but one flower in the Garden ; Or like an Archer , that knowing his Bow will overcast or carry too short , takes an aim on this side or beyond the mark . Besides , a Metaphor is pleasant , because it enriches our knowledge with two things at once , with the Truth and a Similitude ; As this , Heads disinherited of their naturall Seigniories , whereby we understand both beheading , and the government of the head over the body , as the heir hath over the Lordship , which he inherits ; Of which in another place , To divorce the fair marriage of the Head and body ; where besides the cutting off of the head , we understand the conjunction of the head and body to resemble a marriage . The like in concealing love , uttered in these words , To keep love close Prisoner . There came along the street a whole fleet of Coaches , for a great number . Longinus saith , That Metaphors and exchanges of words , are of excellent use , and much conducing to height in eloquence . An Allegory is the continuall prosecuting of a Metaphor , ( which before I defined to be , a translation of one word , ) and that proportionably through the whole sentence , or through many sentences ; As Philoclea was so invironed with sweet Rivers of vertue , that she could neither be battered nor undermined : Where Philoclea is expressed by the similitude of a Castle ; her naturall defence , by the naturall fortification of Rivers about a Castle ; and the Metaphor continues in the attempting her by force or craft , expressed by battering or undermining . Another , But when she had once his Ensign in her mind , then followed whole squadrons of longings , that so it might be with a main battle of mislikings and repinings against their Creation ; where you have Ensigns , Squadrons , main Battels ; Metaphors still derived from the same thing . i. Warr. As I said before , a Metaphor might be too bold , or too far fe●ch'd , so I now remember it may be too base , and too bald a translation ; As the Tempest of judgment had broken the main mast of his will. A goodly Audience of sheep , Souldiers of friendship , or such like . Too base , as in that speech , Fritter of fraud , and seething pot of iniquity . And they that say , A Red herring is a shooing horn to a pot of Ale. But if you speak of disdainfull ●atter , you may use the grosser terms . Therefore for generall delight , take your expressions from ingenious Arts and Professions ; to please the learned in severall kinds ; As from the Meteors , Plants , Beasts in naturall Philosophy ; And from the Starres , Spheres and their motions in Astronomy ; from the better part of Husbandry ; from politick government of Cities ; from Navigation , from the military profession , from Physick ; but not out of the depth of those mysteries ; And ( unless your purpose be to disparage ) let the word be always taken from a thing of equall or ▪ greater dignity , As speaking of Vertue , The skie of your vertue overcast with sorrow , where 't was thought unfit to stoop to any Metaphor , lower then the Heaven . An Embleme , an Allegory , a Simile , a Fable , a Poeticall Fiction differ thus . An Embleme is but one part of the Similitude in the body and the other part under application in the words ; An Allegory is the similitude of the application exprest indifferently , and joyned in one sentence with words , some proper to one part , some to another ; A Simile hath two sentences of severall proper terms compared . A Fable is a Simile acted by Fictions in Beasts ; A Poets Tale , for the most part by Gods and Men. In the former example , Paint a Castle , compast with Rivers , and let the Motto be NEC OBSIDIONE NEC CUNICULIS , Neither by siege nor undermining , that is an Embleme . Lay it as it is in Sir Philips Philoclea ; Vertue , environed , Rivers , battering , undermining , the terms of the other part ; Put all these terms in one sentence , and it is an Allegory ; But let it be thus , There was a Lamb in a Castle , and an Elephant and a Fox besieged her ; The Elephant would have assaulted her , but he could not swim over the River ; the Fox would make an earth to get under her , but he feared the River would sink in upon him and drown him ; then it is a Fable . Let Spencer tell you such a Tale of a Fairy Queen , or Ovid of Danae , and 't is a Poeticall Fiction : But utter it thus in one sentence , As a Castle , compassed about with rivers , cannot be battered or undermined . ( And thus in another ) So Philoclea defended round about with vertuous resolution , could neither be forced nor surprized by deceit ; Then it is a Similitude in its own nature , which is the ground of all Emblemes , Allegories , Fables and Fictions . METONIMIA is an exchange of a name , when one word comes in lieu of another , not for a similitude , but for other naturall affinity and coherence ; As when the matter is used for that which consists thereof ; As , I want silver , for money . When the efficient or author is used for the thing made ; As my blade is right Sebastian ; for , of Sebastians making . The thing containing , for the thing or person contained ; As the the City met the Generall , for the Citizens . The adjunct , property , or quality , for the subject of it ; As , deserts are preferred , for men deserving . Take heed young idleness ; for , idle youth . Give room to the quoif , for , the Serjeant ; with the like . SYNECDOCHE is an exchange of the name of the part for the whole , or of the name of the whole for the part . There are two kinds of totall comprehensions ; An entire body , or a generall name ; As , my name is tossed and censured by many tōgues , for many men ; where the part of an intire body goes for the whole . Contrariwise he carries a Goldsmiths shop on his fingers , for Rings . He fell into the water and swallowed the Thames , for the water . So the generall name for the speciall ; Put up your weapon , for your Dagger . And the speciall , for the particular , As , the Admirall is gone to sea , for Admirall Blake . The particular for the speciall . As I would willingly make you a Sir Philip Sidney , for an eloquent , learned , valiant Gentleman ; or , for many ; as , the Hollander they say comes against us , for the Hollanders , and such like ; which ( because they are easie ) I have exemplified familiarly . Both these figures serve well , when you have mentioned somthing before , that may require Variety in repetition . CATACHRESIS , in English , Abuse , is now grown in fashion , as most abuses are ; It is somewhat more desperate then a Metaphor ; And is the expressing of one matter by the name of another , which is incompatible with , and sometimes clean contrary to it ; As , I gave order to some servants of mine , ( whom I thought as apt for such charities as my self ) to lead him out into a Forrest , and there kill him ; where Charity is used for Cruelty . But this may also be by the Figure IRONIA . The abuse of a word drawn from things far differing ; As , a voyce beautiful to his ears . Accusing in himself no great trouble in mind by his behaviour or action . Do you grudge me part of your sorrow being sister in Nature , I would I were not so far off a Kin in fortune ? This is a usuall figure with the fine conversants of our time , when they strain for extraordinary expressions ; As I am in danger of preferment . I am not guilty of those praises . I have hardly escaped good fortune . He threatens me a good turn . All by the contrary . And as he said that misliked a picture with a crooked Nose . The elbow of his Nose is disproportionable . The ear is not onely pleased with store and variety of words , but takes great delight in the repetition of the same words ; which , because they may be at the beginning , at the middle , in the end , and in sundry correspondencies of each of these places one to another ; it happens that it has purchased severall names of Figures ; As Repetition of the same word or sound immediatly without interposition of any other , is called EPIZEUXIS . O let not , let not from you be powred upon me destruction . Tormented , tormented ? torment of my soul , Philoclea tormented . This figure is not to be used but in passion . ANADIPLOSIS is a repetition in the end of a former sentence , and beginning of the next ; As , you fear lest you should offend ; offend , O how know you that you should offend ? Because she doth deny , deny ? now in earnest I could laugh , &c. Why loved I ? alas , alas ; why loved I ? to die wretched , and to be the example of the heavens hate , and hate , spare not ; for ●our worst blow is given . — From whom they have commonly such respect , and respect soon opens the door to perswasion , &c. This figure is often and handsomly used by Sir William Davenant in his Preface to Gondibert . And as no man strikes in thought upon any thing , but for some vehemency or distrust ; so in speech there is no repetition without importance . CLIMAX is a kinde of ANADIPLOSIS , by degrees making the last word a step to a further meaning . If it be turned to an argument , it is a SORITES ; A young man of great beauty , beautified with great honor , honored with great valor . You could not enjoy your goods , without government , no Government without a Magistrate , no Magistrate without obedience , and no obedience , where every one upon his private passion doth interpret the Rulers actions . Now to make it a SORITES or climing argument , joyn the first and the last with an ERGO . As ERGO you cannot enjoy your own goods , where every man upon his own private passions doth , &c , This in a penned speech is too Academicall , but in discourse more passable and plausible . Seeing to like , liking to love , loving to , &c. Deceived me , after deceit abused me , after abuse forsaken me . What doth better become wisdom then to discern what is worthy loving ? What more agreeable to goodness then to love it , so discerned ? and what to greatness of heart , then to be constant in it once loved . Where the last word or some one word in the last sentence begets the next clause . This Figure hath his time , when you are well entred into discourse , have procured attention , mean to rise and amplifie . ANAPHORA is when many clauses have the like beginning ; You whom vertue hath made the Princess of Felicity , be not the minister of ruine . You whom my choyce hath made the Goddess of my safety . You whom Nature hath made the Load-starr of comfort , be not the rock of shipwrack . This figure beats upon one thing , to cause the quicker apprehension of it in the audience , and to awake a sleepy or dull passion . EPISTROPHE is contrary to the former , when many clauses end with the same words ; Where the richness did invite the eyes , the fashion did en●ertain the eyes , and the device did teach the eyes . And all the night did nothing but weep . Philoclea , sigh Philoclea , and cry out Philoclea , &c. Either arm their lives , or take away their lives . This is rather a Figure of Narration or Instruction , then of motion . SIMPLOCE or COMPLEXIO , is when severall sentences have the same beginning and the same ending . The most covetous man longs not to get riches out of that ground which can bear nothing ; Why ? Because it is impossible . The most ambitious person vexes not his wits to climb to heaven . Why ? because it is impossible . This is the wantonest of Repetitions , and is not to be used in serious matters . EPANALEPSIS is the same in one sentence which SIMPLOCE or COMPLEXIO is in severall ; As , Severe to his servants , to his children severe . Or the same sound reiterated first or last in a sentence . As , His superior in means , in place his superior . In sorrow was I born , and must die in sorrow . Vnkindness moved me , and what can so trouble my courses , or wrack my thoughts as unkindness ? This is a mild and sweet Figure , and of much use , though single and by it self , not usuall in the Arcadia , unless thus , Overthrow of my desires , recompence of my overthrow . EPANADOS is when the midst and the end , or the midst and the beginning are the same , As , If there were any true pleasure in sleep and idleness , then no doubt the Heathen Philosophers would have placed some part of the felicity of their heathen Gods in sleep and idleness . Your diligence to speak well must be great , but you shall be abundantly recompenced for the greatness of your diligence in the success of perswasion . If I should ever wish the perfection of your eloquence , it is for your instruction , and for your benefit , that I would wish you eloquent . This kind of Repetition and the former EPANALEPSIS are most easily admitted into discourse , and are freest from the opinion of affectation ; because words recited at the beginning of many sentences , or at both ends of the same , are more remarkable . ANTIMETABOLE , or COMMUTATIO , is a sentence inverst , or turn'd back ; as , If any for love of honor , or honor of love , &c. That as you are the child of a mother : so you may be mother of a child , &c. They misliked what themselves did ; and yet still did what themselves misliked , &c. If before he languished , because he could not obtain his desiring ; he now lamented , because he could not desire the obtaining . — Either not striving , because he was contented ; or contented , because he would not strive — Just to exercise his might , mighty to exercise his justice . Learned Sir Philip slipt often into this Figure , yet he sometimes conceald the particularity of his affection to it , by not turning the words wholly back , as they lay ; To account it not a purse for treasure , but as a treasure it self worthy to be purs'd up , &c. Men venture lives to conquer ; she conquers lives without venturing , &c. Shewed such fury in his force , such stay in his fury ; which is rather EPANADOS ; Sometimes the same sense inverst in contrary words . As , Parthenia desir'd above all things to have Argalus ; Argalus feared nothing but to misse Parthenia . Where he returns fear to misse in stead of desire . Neither could you have thought so well of me , if extremity of love had not made your judgement partiall ; nor could you have loved me so intirely , if you had not been apt to make so great undeserved judgment of me . Where he returns , for , extremity of love ; loving intirely , and for partiall judgement ; great undeserved judgement . Though this be a sharp and witty Figure , and shews out of the same words , a pretty distinction of meaning very convenient for Schoolmen , yet to ●●e this or any other unreasonably or unseasonably , is ridiculous . Let discretion therefore be the greatest , and most generall Figure of Figures . PARANOMASIA is a present touch of the same letter , syllable or word , with a different meaning . And as for the running upon the letter more then very little , is more then too much , Sir Philip Sidney in Astropell and Stella , calls it the Dictionary method , and verses so made , Rimes running in ratling rowes , which is is an example of it . There is an old Swinish Poem made of it in Latine , call'd PUGNA PORCORUM . Hector , Hanno , Haniball dead , Pompey , Pyrrhus spild , Cyrus , Scipio , Caesar slain , And Alexander kill'd . Agnomination of some syllables is somtimes found in the Arcadia ; as , Alas what can saying make them believe , whom seeing cannot perswade . And , while he was so followed by the valiantest , he made a way for the vilest . She went away repining , but not repenting . Our Alms-deeds are turned into all Mis-deeds ; our praying into playing ; our fasting into feasting . That kinde of breaking words into another meaning , is much sed in Drolerie , and youthful Discourse ; as , you will have but a bare gain out of this bargain , A man not only fit for the gown , but for the gun ; for the pen , but for the pike ; for the book , but for the blade . The garnish of this figure hath been in much request in less serious matters , but the more learned have avoided this kinde of flourish , lest their writings should savour more of the general humor , then of private judgement . POLEPTOTON or TRADUCTIO , is a repetition of words of the same linage , that differ only in termination ; as , exceedingly , exceeding . His faulty using of our faults . Sometimes the same word in several cases ; as , for fear , conceal'd his fear . Sometimes the same word in several voyces ; as , forsaken by all friends , and forsaken by all comfort . Sometimes the same adjective in several comparisons ; as , much may be said in my defence , much more for love , and most of all for that divine creature , who hath joyned me and love together . This is a good figure , and may be used with or without passion , yet so as the use of it come from choice , and not from barrenness . To Amplifie and Illustrate , are two of the principal Ornaments of Eloquence , and gain mens mindes to the chiefest advantages , Admiration and Belief ; For how can you commend any thing more acceptable to our Attention , then by telling us it is extraordinary , and by demonstrating it to be evident . We love to look upon a Commet above all Stars , for these two excellencies , its Greatness and its Clearness ; such in speech is Amplification and Illustration . We amplifie five ways , by Comparison , Division , Accumulation , Intimation , and Progression . Comparison is either of things contrary or equal , or things different : Equal , as , Themisto●les and Coriolanus ( both great States-men , both of great deserts to their Countrey , both banished , both dead at one t●me : Themistocles his Councel could not prevail against the Ingratitude of the Athenians ; nor Coriolanus his Discretion overcome the unkindeness of the Romans ; the one was too excellent , the other too noble , for the envious eyes of their Countrymen to endure , such is the force of vertue , above all quarrels of Nations , or divisions of Allegiances ; that their exiles were honorably entertained , Coriolanus by the Volsci , Themistocles by the Persians , both by their enemies , and both leading great Armies against those Countreys , which so ingratefully expelled them ) were so inwardly restrained with a conscience of sacking their native soil , that they rather chose violence to their own lives , then to the lives of their fellow Citizens , and took it for a sufficient revenge , to make it evident that they might be revenged . But this is not so forcible an Amplification of things equal indeed ( wherein , as you see , all the several points of a consorted , equality are to be searched out ) , as when things seeming unequal are compared , and that in Similitudes , as well as in Examples ; for instance , where a woman is compared to a ship , out of Plautus , both ask much tacking , and sometimes rigging : And you shall profit most of all , by inventing matter of agreement in things most unlike : London and the Tennis-Court are like : for in both all the gains go to th● hazard . Policy is like the Sea , it serves for intercourse of profit , for defence against in●asions ; the●● are both ●●bings and flowings , calms and tempests ; the observation whereof may make a man first wise , then rich . But as the water serves for many outward uses , so can it not please , if it be inwardly swa●●wed . If you ●ail up●n it , it will carry you whereso'ere you will desire ; but if you drink it , it doth not satisfie , but increase desires . Again for Example ; Eriphyle and Tarpeia ( both women in whom nature should govern love , and love warrant fidelity ) were both easily induced to be false , with triffling temptations , they both betrayed , not one friend to another , nor the dearness of love for the height of preferment , but their most assured lovers to their most deadly enemies , for toys , jewels and bracelets ; Eriphyle , her husband Amphiaraus ( the stay of her life ) to Adrastus , his professed enemy : Tarpeia , the Capitol ( the defence of her Country ) to the Sabines , that besieged it , yet neither can remain as invitation , much less a encouragement to Treason ; For Eriphyle was slain by her son , whom nature should have bound to her defence ; Tarpeia by the Sabines , whom her deserts should have obliged to her safe-guard . In comparing of two , when you would raise the person or thing , which you intend to make excellent , you must take the meanest parts of a greater example , and match them with the best of your purpose , and by such partiality you shall amplifie and extol the subject you treat of ; as Isocrates did in his comparison of Cyrus and Thaagarus . Otherwise for impartial comparisons , which notwithstanding do amplifie , read the matches , or encounters of the most famous Grecian and Roman Examples in Plutark . Comparisons of things different . In the former Comparison , is a Composition of the points at first , because I presuppose the histories on both sides to be familiar unto you by reading ; but if you were to marshal histories , whereof both or either were not sufficiently known , then had you need to begin with single relations ; As if a man would compare Vascus G●ma with Sir Francis Drake , he might say , Sir Francis Drake indeed travelled round about the world in two years , saw divers Nations , endured many perils at sea , and returned laden with great Treasure ; And Vascus Gama first searched the Coast of Quiloa , Mozambique , and Calicute , and opened the passage to the East-Indies . But as it was easie for Drake to proceed further in discoveries , when he had entrance made by Columbus : So was it most dangerous and difficult for Gama to adventure a course , without example and direction : Drake scoured the Coasts with a sufficient company of ships , made pillage of others , and thereof furnished himself for his interprize ; Gama went but weak at first , lost most of his small Fleet , and met nothing at seas , but tempests and famine . Drake invaded upon opportunities , hazarded but his own fortune , and retired to sea upon all advantages : Gama had in charge an expedition of his Soveraigns Commandment , was constrained to victual himself amongst barbarous Nations , and not only buy provision in their continent with the price of his blood , but durst not depart without leaving his King proclaimed and possessed in their Territories , divers places of strength fortified , and established to his use : So that if Gama had been to pursue the example of Drake , as Drake had the light of Columbus and Magellus Travels , Vascus Gama ' s spirit was as like to have conquered the whole world , as Drakes fortune was to compass it . And where the parts of Collation are most obscure , there your narration must be the longer ; As , Cicero in comparing Marcellus and Verres , makes a long recitall of the acts of Marcellus to acquaint the hearers with them before comparison . In some cases , after good confidence of proof , your examples may come in more thick and plentiful ; As , If to protract a battell upon advice , be cowardize , then Ph●cion , then Metellus , then Fabius , and all the valiantest Captains of all ages were cowards . If to displant the rebellious natives of Scotland , and to root them out of that kingdom , be cruelty , then the Colonies translated by the Romans into Sicily , into France , into the severall coasts of Italy , & divers other places , testifie great cruelty . But comparison of things different is most commendable , where there seems to be great affinity in the matters conferred ; As in the King of Spains assisting the Irish , and the Queen of Englands aiding the Netherlands . The Spaniard gave assistance to a people untrue in their Treaties , uncivill in their manners , to those who have traiterously rebelled without provocation , and fled out contrary to their own submission , brake their own peace , and wasted their own Countrey . The Queen did but lend some few voluntaries to the protection of a Nation , peaceable in their lives , free by their priviledges , a people denying no claim of any true Prince , except perpetual servitude of their bodies , and importable exactions of their goods . Another example of things different compared . Is not the marriage of heads of Houses & Colledges as lawful as the marriage of the Doctors of the Arches , or the Clerks of the Chancery , both were interdicted by the same law , & yet I take it not indifferent , that both should by the abrogation of the same Law be equally repealed ; The one hath his living casuall by his temporall pains , the other his maintenance certain by Ecclesiastical provision ; The one may purchase by the improving his revenues , & so may lawfully raise a patrimony to maintain his posterity : The other can by no thrift upon the common goods , gather a living for a wife and children , without imbezeling from the poor , deducting from Hospitality , defeating the intent of the giver , or defrauding his succession . Lastly , the one hath all to the use of his office , the other is owner of nothing , but to his own behoof and disposition . In these two sorts of Amplifications you may insert all Figures , as the passion of the matter shall serve . Comparison of contraries is the third and most flourishing way of Comparison . Contraries are somtimes arranged together by pairs one to one , thus . Compare the ones impatiency with the others mildness , the ones insolency with the others submission , the ones humility with the others indignation , and tell me whether he that conquered seemed not rather confounded , then he that ●yeelded any thing discouraged . Compare not mind with mind lest it seem fantasticall , and beyond the triall of our senses ; But set the ones triumph against the others captivity , loss against victory , feasts against wounds , a Crown against fetters , misfortune against felicity , & the majesty of courage will be found in the overthrown . More examples of this you have in the figure Contentio , which is one of the instruments to aggravate , by way of Comparison . Yet one example more . He that prefers wealthy ignorance before chargeable study , prefers contempt before honor , darkness before light , death before life , and earth before , heaven . This is one way of arranging contrarieties . There is another way of ordering them with interchangeable correspondence in sentences , that though each touch not other , yet it affronts the other : As , Shall a Souldier ( for a blow with his hand given in warr to a Captain ) be disgraced ? And shall a Lawyer ( for the Bastinado given in a Court of Justice to his companion ) be advanced ? shall we that profess Laws , maintain outrage ? And shall they that break all Laws , yet in this observe civility ? Where you may see every word in the later sentence aggravated by opposition to every word in the former . Another , Did the most innocent vouchsafe a part of his glory to pray for his enemies ? And shall we the most sinfull esteem it a blot to our reputation to be unrevenged on our brethren ? Of this you shall have more examples hereafter . But unless it be for the Declamatory exercise , you are to avoyd too great swelling without substance . The second way of Amplification , is by Division , which ( as a modern Author says ) is to anatomize it into severall parts , and to examine it according to severall circumstances ; Not unlike the shew that Pedlers make of their Packs when they display them , contrary to the German magnificence , that serves in all the good meat in one dish . But whereas the same Author says , that this Art of Amplifying will betray it self in method and order . I think it rather adorns it self . For in stead of saying , He put the whole Law to the Sword ; let me reckon all ages and sorts , and say ; He neither saved the young men , as pittying the unripe flower of their youth ; nor aged men , as respecting their gravity ; nor children , as pardoning their weakness ; nor women , as having compassion on their Sex ; Souldier , Clergyman , Citizen ; armed or unarmed , resisting or submitting , all within the Town were destroyed by the fury of that bloody Executioner . Note that the divisions here , are taken from age , profession , sex , habit , or behaviour . It may likewise be from all circumstances ; All dance , the Heavens , Elements , mens mindes , Common-wealths , and so by part all dance . Another example varied , He apparels himselfe with great discretion ; Thus amplifie for circumstances , For stuffs , His cloathes were more rich then glittering : As to the fashion , rather usuall for his sort , then fantastical for his invention ; for colour , more grave and uniform then wild and light . For fitness , made as well for ease of exercise , as to set forth to the eye those parts which had in him any excellency . So , to say , he would take an occasion of discourse with a young witty Lady , and would raise it first from her behaviour . If she said nothing he would partly quarrell with her silence ; if she smiled , he would gather out of it some interpretation of praise of her favour , and of his own joy and good fortune ; if she frowned , he would both move her to mirth , and deny that she could be angry in earnest ; if she were sad , he would conform his speech and action in that soberness to her humor , as might beguile her passion , by way of false confederacy ; if she walked or played , the secret praise of her face , her eyes , her hair , her voyce , her hands , her body , her gait , was the application of most conceipts , whatever gave the ground of them ; yet with such dissembling art , as if forgetfulness or love alluded in them , not cunning or want of variety . So you may divide by the forms of speech in general ; as , he was never to seek how to propose or invent , raise or maintain , reconcile and distinguish any Arguments , Histories , Similitudes , Proverbs ; Jests attended him in great plenty , when he needed to imploy them : he would deliver strong Reasons carelesly , and choyce words smoothly and unaffectedly ; he used a sporting wisdom , an eloquent prating . But with Gallants and Ladies of better respect , and less curiosity , his duty , their kindeness , their common acquaintance , the occasion of his coming , the remembrance of his last conference , the place , the time , the last news of forraign parts , the Court , the Countrey , the City , fed his invention , and satisfied their ears . All this is but division of the persons , with whom you conversed , their Manners , Carriage , the Fashions and Ornaments , the Matter and Subject of discourse . This in some sort used , is more properly called Dilatation , then Amplification ; and being often practised , will inable you to discourse almost of any thing , wherein you are not precisely tyed to the exact manner of division , which Logicians use . But you have liberty of seeking all things comprized within the sence of your generall Theame , differ they essentially , or in any notable Property . You may also if you please , run over the intire part of Amplification ; as , the ship was blown up ; for the ship you may say the mast , sails , tacklings , keel , prowe , stern ; for blowing up , you may say rent , torn , smouthered , scattered in the ayr , sunk under the water , all the circumstances of blowing up . So in saying a fair tree , you may divide the tree into the root , body , branches and fruit ; and fairness , into talness , straitness , verdure , sweetness , and such things as are fair in a tree . In describing a gallant man , you may talk of his minde , person , his attempting , prosecuting and finishing an enterprize . And note , that this Amplification hath in it both credibility and instruction ; for it makes instances of that which being generally spoken , would seem but a flourish , and gives more special note of that kinde , which universally could not be conceived , without confusion and dulness . This kinde of Amplification is more taken up by Cicero then Demosthenes ; for Demosthenes never uses it , but as it falls in his way . The third way of Amplification , is Accumulation , which is a heaping up of many terms of praise or accusation , importing but the same matter , without descending into any part , and hath his due season after some argument of proof . Otherwise it is like a Schoolman foming out Synonima's , or words of one meaning , and will sooner beget a censure of superfluity of words , then of sufficiency , of matter . But let us give some example to amplifie a Sedition ; tumults , mutinies , uproars , desperate conspiracies , wicked confederacies , furious commotions , trayterous rebellions , associations in villany , distractions from allegiance , bloody garboyles , intestine Massacres of Citizens . But this example is somewhat too swelling . Now to describe a beautiful woman ; you may say , She hath a most winning countenance , a most pleasant eye , a most amiable presence , a cheerful aspect , she is a most delicate object , &c. The taste of former times hath termed it sweet , to bring in three clauses together of the same sense ; as , Your beauty ( sweet Lady ) hath conquered my reason , subdued my will , mastered my judgement . How this will hold amongst our curious successors in their time , I know not ; he that looks on the wearing of it , will finde it bare , how full of stuff soever it appears . First , it passeth for parts of division , when indeed it is but a variation of an English . Yet notwithstanding the practise will furnish you store of phrases , without which you shal never have choyce , the Mother of perfection . Cicero in his Orations uses it much ; some others follow it to four clauses , but he seldom exceeds three . It has this certain effect , that it will sufficiently secure your vein not to be dry and exhausted . But to return to our first sort of Accumulation , and reduce it with this under one precept . I take the use of this to be in anger , detestation , commiseration , and such passions , as you , seeming throughly possest with , would willingly stir up in others . The fourth way of Amplification is by Intimation , and leaves the collection of greatness to our understanding , by expressing some mark of it . It exceeds speech in silence , and makes our meaning more intelligible by a touch , then by direct treating ; as he that should say , you must live very many years in his company , whom you should account for your friend , says well ; but he that says , you had need eat a bushel of salt with him , saith more , and gives you to reckon more then many years in his company , whom you should account for your friend . It savours sometimes of Hyperbole ; as , that man that is grown gross , is grown from a body to a corporation ; again , for a little man on horse back , He was taken for a hat riding on the pommel of a saddle . Of this sort , examples are familiar ; So honest a wrangler , that his nose being betwixt , was the onely cause why his two eys went not to Law. So the hugeness of a Gyant is exprest , by saying , his skull held half a bushel of wheat . This may be done with Ironia , or denyal . He was no notorios malefactor , but he had been twice on the pillory , and once burnt in the hand for trifling oversights . So , by ambiguity of the word , he draws his sword oftner then his purse . This fashion of Amplification , I term Intimation , because it doth not directly aggravate ; but by consequence or proportion , intimate more to your minde , then to your ears . PROGRESSIO is the last kinde of Amplification , which by steps of comparison scorns every degree , till it come to the supreme ; and sometimes to advance the matter higher , it descends lower . It is an ornament in speech to begin at the lowest , that you may aspire to the highest Amplification . For example , in reprehending the prodigality ▪ of Monuments . I begin with the excesses of Alphonsus on his fathers funeral ; thence to Alexanders profusion upon one of his friends Tombs ; then to Urbanus , towards his servant ; thence to Caesar , on his horses burial ; after that , to the Molossians on their dogs ; and thence to the Egyptians , that charged themselves with the sumptuous burial of a Crocodil . So seeming in some sort , to admit the first less then the second , and by growing weaker and weaker in the excess of every one , as I proceed , the last will seem most rediculous , if not odious . So Cicero against Verres meaning to amplifie his Bribery and Extortions . It is rigorous exaction ( saith he ) not to absolve the innocent without money ; great cruelty to commit him , till be ransom himself ; but not to suffer the parties to have access unto him without reward , is wretched covetousness . To sell the egress and regress of them that shall bring him victuals ; nay , to take money that he shall have an easie death : To put a price upon the strokes that shall execute him ; So much , that he shall be beheaded at one blow ; so much , at two . This is beyond all degrees of most barbarous and intollerable extortion . So in another example ; He was careless of doing well , a loosness of youth ; he was inclined to do ill , a weakness of flesh ; his minde consented to offend , a shrewd temptation ; he committed the act , an unhappy fault ; he accustomed himself to abuse , a sad employment : yet he did not this alone , but infected others with his perswasion , and seduced them by his example . And not that only , but detained those he had drawn in , with fresh inventions , and disgraced the modesty of them who resisted his corruptions , with scorns and derisions , which could argue no less in him , then a most reprobate damnable resolution . The rule of this is , when you would praise or discommend any thing , to consider how many less things there are of that kinde , to which notwithstanding you would give some shew of importance . As he that would render sleep obnoxious , may say that Idleness ( which is less ) by Draco's Laws was Felony . Or , to give that Bishop his right , that built two absolute Colledges at his own charges , and indowed them with Lands . Look downwards how rare it is for a Prelate in these days , not to grant long Leases , diminish the revenues of his fee. How laudable it is to repair the ruines of his own decayed Palaces and Granges ? How magnificent an Act it is thought for a noble man to build an Hospital . How royal for two or three Princes to erect one Colledge . And can there be such an unthankfulness , as to bear but an ordinary remembrance of him , that inricht his Bishoprick , built two the most famous Nurseries of Learning in the Land , was liberal to all wants in his life , and left worthy bequests to all degrees at his death . In like sort , by an example of abusing the name of God. To make table talk of a mean mans name were injurious ; to run upon a Noble mans title , were great scandal ; to play with a Princes name , were Treason : And what shall it be to make a vanity of that name , which is most terrible even to Tyrants and Devils , and most reverend even to Monarchs and Angels ? There be two contrary ascents to the top of this form , either by extenuating the means , as in a former example : or by aggravating them , as in this last of swearing . And may not a matter be well amplified in this manner , by exchanging the comparison of every particular circumstance , that the whole may seem the greater ? As in this example , It is lamentable that a yong man should be offended with the advice of his experienced friend , tending to his profit . First , it is a hard case that counsel should be neglected , but harder that it should offend . It is a sad thing to see any displeased with good admonitions , but more sad , to see a youth so affected , Who would not grieve to have his advice ill taken ? but who would not grieve more , to see his experience controlled ? Vnhappy is that youth , that listens not to the good exhortations of the Skilful . But more , that disdains the instructions of his discreet friend . He is miserable and unfortunate , that quarrels with the sound precepts of his dear friends ; but more miserable and unfortunate , that mislikes directions given for his own good and advantage . This is a most easie , clear and usual kinde of Amplification ; For it gives more light and force to every circumstance . The circumstances are these . The persons , who and to whom , the matter , the intent , the time , the place , the manner , the consequence , and many more : Out of every one of which , any thing may be made more notable , and egregious by way of comparison . And that it may the better be remembred by you , let inquiry be made in every controversi● for the circumstances , and compare them with other less matters , and you shall hardly fail of discourse , or be left on ground for want of good invention . There is a richer shew in this kinde of amplifying by every circumstance , then in any other . First , you must begin every circumstance with a new figure . Sometimes with Affirmation , sometimes with Interrogation , sometimes with Admission , sometimes with Ironia . Secondly , when you , upon every circumstance , urge the whole sense , you are for every circumstance almost to vary the words : As before , for Lamentable ; unhappy , unfortunate , heavy , sad , grievous ; so for Counsel ; A●monitions , Advice , Exhortations , Instructions , Precepts , Directions . Again , I say , remember this kinde of Progression by circumstances , and urging and aggravating all the points of a Sentence : For you shall finde it used as much as any figure in Rhetorique , by all good Speakers and Writers . There are Figures that help Amplification , and make shew of setting forth a matter fairer then it is . The first of them is HIPERBOLE , whereof I will give you some such examples , as my own reading long since observed in the Arcadia . Sometimes it expresseth a thing in the highest degree of possibility beyond the truth , that in descending thence , you may finde the truth . Sometimes in flat impossibilities , that you may rather conceive the unspeakableness , then the untruth of the relation . Possibly , as for Hypocritical Hoste ; he gave as pleasing entertainment , as the falsest heart could give him , whom he means worst unto . That ever eye saw , or heart could imagine . For diligent inquiry ; making their eyes , their ears , and their tongue serve for nothing else , but for that inquiry . This is the utmost that is possible . But in the very frontiers of impossibility , thus , though a thousand deaths followed it , and every death were followed with an hundred dishonors . The world sooner wanted occasions , then he valour to go through them . Words and blows came so thick together , as the one seemed a lightning to the others thunder . Sometimes there is no certain quantity of a thing set , but plainly and ingeniously told unvariably . As , Beyond the bounds of conceipt , much more of utterance . And , this Figure is more for the credit of your wit , then of your speech . CORRECTIO , having used a word of sufficient force , yet pretending a greater strength of meaning , refuses it , and supplyes the place with one of more extension ; as , I perswade you not to let slip occasion , whilst it may not onely be taken , but offers , nay sues to be taken . Where the first rising of the matter is , upon , Not onely , but , then upon the correcting , Nay : Again , you must be content , nay you must be desirous to take pains , if you will write well ; It is the onely quality , which in all actions will gain you praise , praise ( said I , ) nay honor . This Figure is to be used , when you would make the matter more credible in it self , then by the manner of delivery ; 't is sometimes used upon passion , without intent to amplifie . As , you stars , if you do not succor me : no , no , you will not help me . O Parthenia , no more Parthenia , what art thou ? There are two contrary ways to this form , and both lead to Amplification , but in a dissembling sort . The first is by Ironia , which expresses a thing by the contrary , by shew of exhortation , where indeed it dehorteth . As , yet a while , sleep a while , fold thine arms a while : so shall necessity overtake thee , like a traveller , and poverty set on thee like an armed man. It was but small charges of idle money that the Egyptians bestowed in erecting of a Pyramis of Brick , when the expences in Onyons and garlike for Workmens dyet , came to about 238000 l. of our money . Milo had but slender strength , that carryed an Ox a furlong on his back , then killed him with his fist , and eat him to his Breakfast . Titornus had a reasonable good arm ; that could hold two bulls by the tails , the one in the one hand , and the other in the other , and never be stirred out of his place by their violence . Here small , slender and reasonable , amplifie as much as if you had said great , exceeding , or in●redible . Paralepsis ( the second counterfeit of Amplification ) is when you say you let pass that which not withstanding you touch at full : as , I make no account of any hinderance in other the direct studies of my course : I value not my pains in collecting these Observations . I will forget that I denyed the earnest intreaty of many kinde and learned Gentlemen , that sued to me for helps : I am loath to tell you they are notes of his whom your Masters of the Vniversity have thought as great a Reader , and a greater observer , then themselves ; I desire not , that you should make any greater estimation of them , then of a testimony of my love to you , and a pledge of my resolution to encourage those lovely sparks of good invention , which if you smother and quench in your self , you commit a kinde of intellectual murther . The like is used often in Progression . But an other , I urge not to you the hope of your friends , though that should animate you to answer their expectation , I lay not before you the necessity of the place , which you are to furnish , wherein to be defective and insufficient were some shame ; I omit the envious concurrencies , and some prepared comparisons in your Countrey , which have some feeling with yong men of fore-sight ; I onely say , how shall our promises give judgement against us ? how shall we discharge our own Engagements to your Father , if this time hath not taken his full effect of profit in our labours and endeavors . Two figures properly belong to this kinde of Amplification , which are called Accumulation and Division . The first is a round dispatching of much matter , not plainly and simply the same in sense , yet tending to the same end ; as , Loves companions be unquietness , longings , fond comforts , faint discomforts , hopes , jealousies , rages , carelesness , yieldings , &c. Spite , rage , disdain , shame , revenge came upon hatred . These examples are out of Arcadia . You may frame one thus , All men exclaim upon these exactions , Nobles , Gentry , Commonalty ; Poor , Rich , Schollers , Merchants , Peasants , Yong , Old , High , Low , and all cry out upon the hard impositions of these burthens . The second Figure differs not much from the first , but that the first is a sudden entrance into a confused heap of matter : This is a wilde and dissolute repetition of all that went before . As , you have heard of his pride , ambition , cozenage , robberies , mutinies , in the City , in the Camp , in the Country . What kinsman of his unabused , what friend undeceived , what companion uncorrupted , can speak for him ? where can he live without shame ? where can he dye with honor ? These two Figures do not only make your cause seem better , but skilfully and properly used , do amaze an adversary of mean ability . There are other Figures that come in fitly after Amplification ▪ or any great heat justly i●flamed , Interrogation and Exclamation . Interrogation is but a warm proposition , yet it oftentimes doth better then a bare Affirmation , which were but too easie and live-less a speech : as , The credit of behaviour , is to cover imperfection , and set forth your good parts better . Thus expressed , Is it not the chiefest credit of behaviour , to set forth your good parts fairly and clearly , and to cover imperfection . Men are ignorant , and therefore by good expressions without raunting or affectation , you shall gain a more general opinion , then by sufficiency smothered in too modest a silence . By Interrogation thus , Are not most men ignorant ? shall you not then by quaint expressions , withoutraunting or affectation , please more , and get a more general good opinion , then by great sufficiency concealed by your own shamefastness ? To dissemble excellencies is good policy in him , whom his course must at length necessarily draw into light and proof , and then all that he delivers will be admirable , because expectation forestall'd nothing of his worth ; which may likewise be turned into an Interrogation , and is very fit for a speech , addressed to many illiterate hearers ; is much used in Pirocles Oration to the seditious multitude , and then it may be well frequented and iterated . Did the Sun ever bring fruitful Harvest ; but was more hot then pleasant ? Have you any of your children , that be not sometimes cumbersom ? Have you any Fathers that be not sometimes froward ? shall we therefore curse the Sun ? hate our children ? and disobey our Fathers ? An example of many Interrogations . Have you not seen a stately kinde of courtesie , and a proud kinde of humility ? have you not seen a wise man withdraw himself from mean company , with better grace , and more kindeness , then some silly Gentleman that has bestowed himself on fools , thrown himself down into the midst of his miseries ? doth not a commendations , a hat , a good word , a good-morrow , p●rchase more hearts then a moneths familiar pratling ; with a flock of rude people ? Do you converse with your superiors , to learn of them to be able to judge them , and benefit your self ? And shall not your inferiours do the like with you ? Is it not a safer gain of popularity , with ceremonies , then with discovering your Nature ? Many such like Interrogations might be added ; but let it suffice , that it is easie and gentile to sharpen the flats of affirmations and down-right telling of Tales . EXCLAMATION is not lawful , but in the extremity of motion ; as Pyrocles , seeing the mild Philoclea innocently beheaded , cryed out , O Tyrant Heaven , and Traytor Earth , blind Providence , how is this done ? How is this suffered ? Hath this world a Government ? The like in the beginning of the second book of the Arcadia in the person of Ginetia tormented in mind . O Sun ! O Heavens ! O Deserts ! O Vertue ! O imperfect proportion ! And in another Author thus ; O endless endeavour ! O vain-glorious Ignorance ! Dost thou desire to be known ? Where ? In Europe , how canst thou be famous ? When Asia and Africa , that have thrice as many people , hear not of thy actions ? Art not thou then thrice as obscure as thou art renowned ? Dost thou look that all the world should take notice of thee , when for five thousand years three parts of the world took no notice of the fourth . But Europe is the house of Fame , beca●se it is the Nursery of Arts , and Books , wherein reports are preserved . O weak imagination ! O self-pleasing fancy ! Canst thou expect in these parts from 40 degrees to 90 Northward , such praises and honours for thy name , when every Map on every wall shews thee as much space from 40 to 90 Southward , inhabited with nothing but silence and forgetfulness . ACCLAMATION is a sententious clause of a discourse , or a report , such as Daniel in his Poems concludes with often . It is a generall instruction for every man commonly for his pains in reading a History , or other mens Books for some privat use of it to himself . Like a Cash-keeper , who drawing great sums of other mens money , challenges somwhat in the pound for his own Fee. It serves for Amplification , when after a great crime or Desert exclaim'd upon , or extol'd , it gives a morall note worth credit and observation . As after the true relation of Scipio Africanus's course , who having been chief governor of the greatest Armies in the world ; having all his life time Kings suiters for his favour , and nations kept in awe of his Name ; yet in 56 years neither bought nor sold goods or lands , built any House or Castle of his own , left not above 46. l. in Gold , and 6. l. in silver behind him at his death . It may be folded up in this Acclamation : So little need has he to stoop to privat cares , that thrives upon publick victories ; and so small leasure has he to be desirous of riches , that hath been so long possest and satisfied with honor , which is the immortall end of mortal actions . Such notes are th●se scraps of policy which some now-a-days gather out of Polybius and Tacitus , and not unlike are the Morals that hang upon Esops Fables . This Acclamation sometimes is the cause and reason of a former Narration , as a story of one , who being a servant to a family , and of mean quality , won the doting love of a witty Lady in the House , whereas she never looked upon the humble suits , the cunning insinuations , the noble deserts of many lovers of higher degree , but with free judgment and careless censure ; This close may follow , So hard entrance hath affection into a heart prepared to suspition , especially in the weakest natures , whose safeguard is mistrust : So easie is the increase of love by insensible steps , when the service you offer seems to proceed out of the goodness of your own disposition , which women expect to be permanent , and not out of the necessity of your suit , which may force you for the time to a wained difference from the proper humor . Yet if this be too much used , it is like a note-book gathered out of Histories . Contrary to Amplification is DIMINUTION , and this descends by the same steps that Amplification ascends , and differs no more then up Hill and down Dale , which is the same way , begun out of severall sentences ; Yet some examples in Arcadia , will make you observe two ways of Diminishing single terms , one by denying the contrary ; As if you should say , But reasonably pleasant ; Arcadia speech is , Not unpleasant , hardly liked , nor misliked . But why should I give examples of the most usuall phrases in the English tongue , as we say , Not the wisest that ever we saw , for a man of small wisdome . The second way is , by denying the right of the words , but by error of some ; As , Those fantasticall mind-infected people , which Children and Musicians call Lovers . That misfortune of letting fall his Dagger , which the rude Swaggerers of our time , call , being disarmed . That opinion of honesty , which hath lately been so proudly translated by the Souldier into the word ( Honor. ) And such like . But the former fashion of Diminution sometimes in Ironious sort goes for Amplification , As speaking of a great personage , No mean man ; This is an ordinary Figure for all kinds of speeches . The Figures following serve for Amplification . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a composition of contraries , and by both words intimates the meaning of neither precisely , but a moderation and mediocrity , As , bravery and raggery are contrary , yet somwhat better then both is meant by brave raggedness . So , wanton modesty ; inticing soberness . And with that she prettily smiled , which mingled with tears , a man could not tell , whether it were a mourning pleasure , or delightfull sorrow . With what a witty ignorance she would understand ? &c. Absented presence ; well-willing spight . The one contrary is aff●rmed to be in the other directly , by making the one the Substantive , the other the Adjective , as above in those examples ; or indirectly , as in these words following . Seeking Honor by dishonor ; And building safety upon ruine ; O foolish woman , and most miserable foolish woman , because wit makes thee foolish . Captivity might seem to have authority over tyranny . This is a gentile way to move admiration in the hearers , and make them think it a strange harmony , which must be exprest in such discord . Therefore this example shall conclude . There was a perfect agreement in so perfect a disagreement : like musick made of cunning discords . This is an easie Figure , and useful . CONTENTIO is contrary to the former ; That was a composition of Sturmius disagreement ; This is an opposition of them . As , there was strength against nimbleness , rage against resolution , pride against nobleness . He is a swaggerer amongst quiet men ? but is quiet among swaggerers ? Earnest in idle things , idle in matters of earnestness . Where there is both Antimetabole for the turning of the sentence back , and Contentio respecting the contra●iety of things meant thereby . Could not look on , nor would not look off . Neither the one hurt her , nor the other help her . Just without partiality , humble without contradiction , Liberall without profusion , Wise without curiosity . This Figure is fit to embelish a copious stile , and serves much for Amplification by Comparison . COMPAR is an even gait ▪ of sentences answering each other in measures interchangeably . Such as are in St. Augustine often , but oftner in Gregory the Divine ; And in Bishop Andrews works in English . But many do intermingle this Figure with Agnominatio , and Similiter cadens ; It is very usefull in elocution ; But in penning it must be used with modes●y and mediocrity . A touch of Agnomination of the Letter is tollerable with a Compar ; As , If ever I could wish my Faith untryed and my Councel untrusted . And ( where there is a similiter cadens , but a more evident falling alike ) in this . My years are not so many , but that one death may conclude them ; nor my faults so many , but that one death may satisfie them . Without consonancy of fall or harping upon a letter or syllable , yet a Compar ; because the words match each other in rank . Save his gray hairs from rebuke , and his aged mind from despair ; where gray hairs , aged mind , rebuke and despair answer each other . Again , Rather seek to obtain that constantly by courtesie , which you cannot assuredly enjoy by violence . Verb to Verb , Adverb , to Adverb , and Substantive to Substantive . Lovelines can neither warrant you from suspitions in others , nor defend you from melancholy in your self . In some places there is a shorter Compar : where word to word , or substantive to substantive , are joyned , and yet without conjunction , which is ASYNDETON . Her face with beauty , her head with wisdom , her eyes with Majesty , her countenance with gracefulness , her lips with loueliness ; Where many ( And 's ) are spared . In some places only the Conjunction is put in the last in a Compar of three ; As , her wit endeared by youth , her afction by birth , and her sadness by her beauty . A fair woman shal not onely command without intreaty , but perswade without speaking . This is an excellent Figure , in no place untimely , if not too often used ; It fits well the even pauses ▪ and interruptions of an eloquent tongue , seems to be rich and copious , and to contain many parts ( whereof each with a tedious man would be a sentence ) and make an impression upon the hearers senses ; It has long bin in request , ever since the dayes of Isocrates , whose Orations are full of it . This Figure belongs more properly to that part of Amplification , called Division , then to Accumulation . Sententia , if it be well used , is a Figure ; if ill and too much , a Style , of which none that wri●e humorously and factiously , can be clear in these days , when there are so many Schismes of Eloquence , We study now-a-days according to the predominancy of Criticall fancies . Whil●t Moral Philosophy was in request , it was rudeness , not to be sententious ; whilst Mathematicks were of late in vogue , all similitudes came from Lines , Circles and Angles ; But now that Mars is predominant , we must recruit our wits , and give our words a new Quarter . It is very true , that a Sentence is a pearl in a Discourse ; but it is a good Discourse that consists all of pearls . It is like an Eye in the body , nor is it monstrous to be all Eys . I take Cyclops to be as handsome a man , as Argos . And if a Sentence were as like a hand in the Text , as it is commonly noted with a hand in the Margent , yet I should rather like that work that had no more hands then Hercules , then that which had as many as Briarius . These are Sentences , The rich mans bounty is the poor mans Exchequer . The sickness of age is avarice ; The errors of youth profaneness . There is small difference between a Proposition and a Question , if I forget not Aristotle . ( 1. Top. ) Since length of acquaintance , mutual secresies , nor height of benefits could oblige a savage mind . There is a Sentence , and in it ZEUGMA , ASYNDETON , and METAPHORA . Guiltlesness is not always with ease oppressed , Where there is Meriosis , not always with ease , for , ever and hardly . Who stands onely upon defence , stands upon no defence ; A sentence with EPANADOS . Vnlawfull desires are punished after the effect of enjoying ; But impossible desires are punished in the desire it self . A Sentence with DISTINCTIO and CONTENTIO . Love to a yeilding heart is a King , but to a resisting , a Tyrant . COMPAR & CONTENTIO ; It is a foolish wittiness to speak of more then one thinks . Neither is this sentence without a Compar : it is a double sentence , as they call it ; To a heart fully resolved , counsel is tedious , and reprehension loathsome . And , There is nothing more terrible to a guilty heart , then the eye of a respected friend . There may be also Sentences particular to some men as well as generall ; As , — Amphialus , in whom abused kindness became spitefull rage . Fearfulness , contrary to all other vices , making Clinias think the better of another , the worse he found himself . Evarchus making his life the example of his lawes . All which may be taken for Rules and Common-places , by putting the generall name for the speciall , as they say , drawing it à THESI ad HYPOTHESIN . These Examples may make you believe , that a Sentence may be cours'd through the whole Figure-book , and that many Figures may easily assemble in one Clause , and any one Figure consort with another . Yet it were absurd to ground the form and fashion of your whole stile upon any one Figure . ILLUSTRATION consists either in things or words , in the description of things living or dead . And of living things , either reasonable , as men and their personages , and qualities ; or un●e●sona●le , as of Horses , Ships , Islands , Castles , and such like . Men are described most excellently in the Arcadia , As Basilius , Plexe●tus , Pirocles , Musidorus , Anaxius , &c. But he that will truly characterize a ●an , in a feigned Story , must first learn handsomly to describe a humour , a passion , a vertue , a vice , and therein , keeping decent proportion , add but names , and knit together the accidents and encounters . This perfect expressing of all qualities , is learn'd out of Aristotles tenth Book of Morall Philosophy . But because ( as Mac●iavel observes ) perfect vertue , or perfect vice is not seen in our time , which altogether is humorous and spirting : Therefore the understanding of Aristotles Rhetorique is held to be the best means to attain to true Eloquence ; Excellent on this subject also are Theophrasti imagines ; Heliodorus and Longinus in Greek ( the last lately well translated into English ) Zanaxarus his Arcadia in Italian , Diana de monte majori in Spanish , &c. But to our purpose , of personages and affections described in Arcadia . For men ; pleasant , idle retiredness in a King Basilius , and a dangerous end of it . Unfortunate valor in Plangus ; Courteous valor in Amphialus ; Proud valor in Anaxius ; Hospitality in Kalandar ; The mirror of true courage and friendship in Pirocles , and Musidorus ; Miserableness and ingratitude in Chremes ; Fear and false subtilty in Clynias ; Fear and rudeness , with ill affected civility in Dametas ; And through this Story Mutuall love in marriage in Argalus and Parthenia ; O●t of marriage in Pirocles and Philoclea , Musidorus and Pamela , True constant love unrespected in Plangus , in Helena , in the true Zelmane ; Inconstancy , envy , suspition and tyranny in a King and his Councellors ; Generall false love in Phamphilus ; and slight carriage and credulity in Chremes daughter ; base doting on a wife in Plangus father . But in women a mischievous and seditious stomack in Cecropia ; Prudent courage in Pamela ; Mild discretion in Philoclea● ; Pamela's prayer , her discourse , squeamish cunning ; Unworthiness in Artesia ; Respective & restless dotage in Gynetia's love . Proud ill-favoured , sluttish simplicity in Mopsa . Now in these persons is there ever a stedfast decency , and uniform difference of manners observed wheresoever you find them ? However each interrupt the others story and actions . And as for actions of persons , there are many rarely and perfectly described . As the mutiny and fire in a ship ; causes of an uproar ; The Garboyl ; an armed skirmish ; policy and preparation . Sometimes managing a Horse is described ; tilting and shews . Many other lively and notable portracts there are , which I will not set down to save you so sweet a labour , as the reading of that which alone will make you eloquent and wise . Sir Philip Sidneys course ( besides reading Aristotle and Theophrastus ) was to imagine the thing present , that his pen might the better describe it . Under this notion of Illustration may come lively descriptions , and the apt fitting a person represented with speech and action , both which grow into very pleasing acquaintance with the understanding and memory of the Reader . For speciall light in every Sentence , there are other sparks of Figures . First , if there be any doubt or ambiguity in the words , it is better left out then distinguished . But if you are to answer former speeches , that imply any doubtfulness , you may disperse all clouds , and remove all scruples with Distinction . As being charged you have brought very light reasons , you may answer , If by light you mean clear , I am glad you see them ; If by light , you mean of no weight , I am sorry you do not feel them . So you may express a man of hidden learning , Hidden as well for the obscure and mean estate of his person , as hidden for the unusuall and not vulgar conceit of the matter . But as ambiguity is not onely in words but in matter ; so both wayes it is taken away by Distinction . Sometimes it is in single words , as in these former , light and hidden . Somtimes in coherence of Sentences , by reason of the relation of each word to other , or by reason of the change of the pointing , which is cleared by delivery . You have many examples of this in the second Book of Tully de Oratore , and Quintilian , where there is mention of Jocus ab ambiguo . As also in Erasmus his Apothegmes . Distinction of ambiguity in matters of determination of the truth of generall propositions , is to tell wherein they are certain , wherein they are not . As , Travell in foreign Countreys , settles a young mans humor . If it be taken in this sort , that it will inforce him to wariness and secresie , and restrain him from pouring forth his counsails , it is very profitable : For he shall have few friends in whom to put confidence , and few companions with whom he might bestow his idle time , or communicate his youthfull thoughts . But if you intend that , by travell , all vanities should be cast off , it seems not so likely and admirable , because he shall walk through many ill examples , and great liberty . Another proposition distinguished . They are but frail merits that you shall bestow upon young mens friendship . 'T is true , if you satisfie those desires which are like to depart with their youth ; As , gaming , feasting , idle sporting , you are like to be cast off with these toys , and forgotten . But if your deserts be in noble Exercises , learned Conferences , and civill frien●●y Offices , the remembrance thereof will increase as fast as their discretion . So much for Distinction ; Next follows Definition , which is the shortest and truest exposition of the nature of any thing ; hereof you have examples of all vertues in Aristotles Morals , of passions in his Rhetorique , both in Thomas Aquinas secunda and secundae , of many affections and perturbations in Tusculan's Questions , and Cicero de Finibus , as the generall definition of vertue is this , VIRTUS EST HABITUS RATIONI CONSENTANEUS . Vertue is a quality seated in Reason . Fear is an apprehenston of future harm . Thrift is a moderate and lawfull increase of wealth by carefull governmemt of your own estate . Complement is a performance of affected Ceremonies in words , looks , and gestures . Where Definition runs into division of seven or eight ways . Of Definition you may read Valerius his Logick . But ( to be most perfectly instructed ) read the sixth book of Aristotles Top. Your definitions need be no more tied to the Rules of Logicians , then your divisions . The matter is sometimes illustrated by Periphrasis ; As , spur'd his horse apace ; Made his spurre claim hast of his horse . A man not to be contemned ; Nor a man over whom contempt might make any just chalenge . Snorting lowd ; Snorting so lowd , that no man might lay the stealing of a nap to his charge . But of Pariphrasis and Periphrasis more severally . Sometimes a Parenthesis makes your discourse more gracefull and intelligible : As , Tell me ingenuously ( if there be any ingenuity in you ) whether , &c. That what his wit could conceive ( and his wit can conceive as far as the limits of reason stretch ) was all directed to the setting forth of his friend . Till the next morning ( better known to be so by the Hour-glass , then the days clearness ) having run fortune , &c. And indeed all Parentheses are in extreams , either graces or foyles to a Speech . If they be long , they seem interruptions , and therefore at the end of them must be a retreat to the matter , called ANTANACLASIS . As , Assure thy selfe most wicked woman ( that hast so plaguily a corrupted mind , as that thou canst not keep thy sickness to thy self , but must most wickedly infect others ) Assure thy self , I say , &c. Shall that heart ( which does not only feel them , but hath all motion of his life placed in them , ) Shall that heart , I say , &c. Division is a severing the whole into parts , as of time into that past , present , and to come , ( which is rather a breathing then a Division ) into supream or subordinate . From their order ; beasts or unreasonable creatures , into those of the Air , Water , Earth ; Love is either of Beauty , or of Vertue . From the object . Study is of Liberal or Mathematick Science . And so you may divide as many ways as things may differ , as by their beginnings , endi●gs , properties , marks , effects , times , tunes , place● , forms , persons , in whom they are , and howsoever , which properly belongs to Logick ; yet something is spoken thereof , in our second way of Amplification . Out of Divisions arise three severall inforcements and manifestations of your purpose , which ( though by Rhetoritians diversly handled and tearmed ) yet are they in effect grounded upon the Art of Distribution . The first is Expedition , which ( touching upon divers parts ) destroys all , but that , on which you mean to rest ; As , One of these courses must be taken , either you must distinctly observe and practise these Rules , or deny that ever you received Instructions , or alledge want of capacity in your self , or want of use of them in your life . That they are not necessary , you cannot say , for what more necessary in your life , then to write well ? That you are uncapable , is a slander , and a contradiction to your own conscience and my experience , that hath seen such fair Essayes of your endeavours . And to say you had never any directions , were to give your two eyes the lie , and to make me believe , that I did never but dream your good . Therefore must your labour conspire with my inventions , and so must you unavoidably become skilfull . This is Enumeration and Inference , whereupon is that which the Logicians call Induction , as in reckoning up . It is neither that nor this , therefore this . And as one merrily saith , It is the Dogs Syllogisme in a cross way , or that , or that , but I smell him not this way , nor this way , therefore he runs on his conclusion the third way , without smelling . The second of this sort is PROSOPODOSIS , that overthrows no part of the Division , but returns some part to each member . In Arcadia thus , Heretofore I accused the Sea , condemned the Pyrats , and hated my evil fortune , that deprived me of thee : But now thy self art the Sea , thy self the Pyrat , and thy will the evil fortune . Time at one instant seeming short and long to them ; short in the pleasingness of such presence , and long in stay of their desires . Your silence must carry with it a construction of contempt , unkindeness or displeasure . If you take me not for your friend , you offer unkindeness ; if you deem me unworthy of an answer , it proceeds of contempt ; if your Passion defers a reply , it argues displeasure . The first of these denyed all parts , save one : This affirms and keeps all sides up . The last is Dilemma , which proposes two sides , and overthrows both ability and will to write well : for to say I cannot , is Childish ; and I will not , is Womanish . PERIPHRASIS & PARAPHRASIS . There is in the best Writers oftentimes a vain of stile , wherein vulgar fancies are exceedingly pleased , and know not wherewith . For they admire this most , that there is some excellency in it , and yet they themselves suspect that it exceeds their admiration . In some examples I would gladly discover the reason hereof : It cannot be , that if either the meaning of the words be obscure , and unfamiliar to a mans understanding , that the speech so composed , should be so accepted : And yet it is possible that there may be some extraordinary fancy in ordinary words , and plain meanings , how then shall we determine ? It is as in many usual dishes at a table , both eyes and taste give them commendation , not for the substance , but for the dressing and service . What plainer meaning then , sleep among thieves ? And verily sleep , life trust and thieves , are common English words , yet is it no common way of speaking , to say , To trust a sleeping life among thieves . In the same sense , when they had slept a while , is ordinary . But when they had a while hearkened to the perswasion of sleep , is extraordinary . Though all the words of it by themselves are most known and f●miliar ; yet the ordering and fetch of it is strange and admirable to the ignorant ; We therefore call it Periphrasis or Circumlocution , and it is much helped by Metaphors , as before : inclined to sleep is exprest by a Metaphor taken from one who moves and inclines by perswasions . But let us have one combate more with our adversary sleep ; for , having risen early , having striven with the suns earliness ; Instead of Mopsa wept ill-favouredly , Mopsa disgraced weeping with her countenance . Instead of saying ▪ they that guarded Amphialus , were killed themselves ; it s said , seeking to save him , they lost the fortresses , which nature had planted them in . Instead of Plangus speech began to be suspected ; it is said , Plangus speech began to be translated into the language of suspicion . Thus purposely did Sir Philip write , to keep his stile from flatness . As being to name a Thresher , he calls him one of Ceres servants , Instead of his name was known to high and low ; he saith , That no Prince could pretend highness , nor beggar lowness , to bar him from the sound thereof . And this is by going a CONCRETO AD ABSTRACTUM , and divers other ways . If a short ordinary sense be oddely exprest by more words , it is Pariphrasis ; but if by as many other , it is Paraphrasis : as , manifest Oathes , plentiful perjury . To make a great shew of himself . To make a muster of himself in the Island : for kill any marryed man ; make his sword cursed by any widow , which is by consequence , seeking by curtesie , to undo him . Making curtesie the outside of mischief , by Similitude or Metaphor : so then the course is , instead of any ordinary words importing a trivial matter , to take the abstracts , or some consequence , similitude , note , property or effect , and thereby express it . These two figures serve for Illustration . It is sometimes requisite for gaining life and lustre in your discourse , to represent some unexpected strangeness , besides the tenor of your Theame or Story : and , as it were , to act your meaning ; which is done either by faigning the presence or the discourse of some such persons , as either are not at all : or if they be , yet speak not but by your imagination . The first is by Apostrophe or Prosopopeia . APOSTROPHE , is a turning of your speech to some new person , as to the people or witnesses , when it was before to the ●udges or Defendant : as , Herein you witnesses are to consult with your own consciences , and to enter into a true examination of your own memory . Did you mark ●is looks ? Did you note his speeches ? Did you truly conceive the particular proceedings of the Action ? To the people thus , Now let me intreat any man here present , that thinks himself not exempted from misfortunes , and priviledged from all mischiefs , to imagine himself in my case , and to undertake for my sake some few thoughts of my Distress . Sometimes the occasion is taken from some quality or other thing , whereto your self gives shew of life ; as , Hope tell me , what hast thou to hope for ? Love , be ashamed to be called Love. But to animate , and make dead men speak is PROSOPOPAEIA ; as , If your Ancestors were now alive , and saw you defacing so goodly a Monument by them erected , would they not say thus , &c. And as Sir Philip Sidney gives sense and speech to the Needle and Silk in Pamela's hands , as learning , as a Lily : as death it self is faigned to live , and make a speech . Another way of clearing and reviving your discourse , is by deliberating , by entring into communication , by preventing and answering Objections . In deliberating sometimes you are amazed ; as , Whom shall I blame ? what shall I pretend ? shall I make learning hateful to you by my reprehensions ? shall I make my silence accessary to your idleness ? It is not in my power , It is not in my discretion to reform it . Under this figure are Philoclea's wishes of Zelmaine . There is another kinde of Deliberation , which proposes many things with intricating or intangling a mans self : as Nothing can assure me of the countenance of your love towards me , if you discontinue the study of speaking well . For suppose you marry into some worthy Family ; suppose they inrich you with some new friends ; may not a vain of thriving rob me of your acquaintance ? may not I lose you ? nay , may not you lose your self in a labyrinth of worldly cares ? Sometimes we enter into Communication ; as , Were it your case , what would you answer ? Tell me , I appeal to your secret thoughts . Your friend hath esteemed better of his own stomack , then of the eternal love vowed betwixt you , and prefers the tryal of his valour , before the regard of both your credits , which must dye , however either or both of you survive the combat . Would you not judge him unworthy to be your friend , that began his fidelity with an inviolable Covenant never to be an Enemy . Prevention of an Objection hath two figures ; the one is Occupatio , the other Subjectio . Occupatio is thus , You will say to me , that in a factious Countrey , it is the only policy to stand neutral . I say , not unless many circumstances help you ; viz. These , if none of your friends be entred into the quarrel , If you be assured that your wealth and discretion is equal to the best . If there be a likelihood to scatter the reliance on both sides , and make a new park , then it is wisdom to stand aloof a while , that if you please , you may adde the victory to which side you will. But having declared your self , you intend to be upright ? you will grow contemptible , you offer Reconciliation ? your strength will forsake you , you dispraise your adversaries ? you will be deemed envious . You commend his wisdom ? you betray your own weakness : praise then his wealth , his Ancestors , his Beauty , his pleasures ; but praise not his foresight nor his valour . Are you Judge amongst your neighbors and inferiors ? be precisely just and rightful . Are you Assistant to your friend ? be advisedly and throughly partial . You would be counted liberal ? testifie it seldom ; but if publiquely , worthyly . You would thrive in bargaining ? let your transactions be private : for many small breaches of conscience are more infamous , then one great one . But ●ffend not your conscience willingly to be Treasurer of all the Indian Mynes . Thu● you see how Counsels , Precepts and Sentences may be tra●slated into the form of Occupatio and Subjectio . Sometimes Occupatio is left out , and an Argument brought to the contrary ; as Cecropia perswading her son Amphialus to offer violence to Philoclea , presupposed that he would say , He must be modest : she replyes , Each vertue hath his time , the souldier that should march formost , must not give way for modesty . There is Occupatio and Subjectio in Arcadia , if she contemned , then thus — if otherwise , then &c. Did I walk abroad to see my delight ? my walking was the delight it self . He saw her alive ; he was glad to see her alive . He saw her weep : he was sorry to see her wee● . He heard her comfortable speeches : nothing more joyful . This figure cannot be out of season , unless purposely , as it was in the fustian speech : You listen to my speeches , I must needs confess it ; you hearken to my words ? I cannot deny it ; you look for some sense ? I partly believe it : But you finde none ? I do not much regard it . There is another figure , which hath been called by the name of Concessio . But I mean to mistake Occupatio and Concessio , one for the other , till I can distinguish them better . The form of Concessio is this , I admit you are resolute : I grant your determination is immoveable , but it is in things against your friends judgements . And in things against your own praise and profit . OF EPITHETES . EPithetes do much embelish Stile or Discourse , yet they must be used ( according to the comparison of Demosthenes ) as sauce or seasoning , which whe●s the appetite , since they cannot pass for solid viands : otherwise in his opinion , there can be nothing more flat , and of less grace . Quintilian resembles a discourse , which is stuffed too full of Epithetes to an Army , wherein there are not more souldiers for service , then boys for attendance ; and which is , by that means , rendred very great in number , but weak in force and courage . Conform to this is that of Longinus , who advises that we moderately use such Epithetes , as are not too high swoln , nor far fetched , but such as are apposite to the subject . In these late● refined days , we have a kinde of compound Epithetes , annexed to a noun with a Proche or Division ( as the Printers call it ) which are much used in Poetry , and sometimes in Prose : of which let me give you some examples , and so leave them . The Quiver-bearing Meads . The Tempest-tossed seas . The Wool-ore-burthened sheep . The Meadow-loving sorrel . A horror-strucken minde . The Earth-encircling Ocean . An Heaven inspired art . Sence-distracting grief . Fancy-pleasing faces . The Pine-plow'd sea . The Green-mantled earth . Soul-subduing graces . A Heaven-faln star . A Self-condemning minde . An un-Sun-seen cave . Love-distilling tears . This Heaven-displeasing war. Liver-scalding lust . Marble-hearted cruelty . Time-beguiling pleasure . This Blood-be-dabled Kingdom . People-pleasing Lectures . Corner-haunting lust . A Life-Conferring form . &c. Formulae Majores . OR , COMMON PLACES . Absence . AS thou art the food of my thoughts , the relief of my wishes , and the onely life and repast of all my desires : So is thy love to me a continual hunger , and thine absence an extream famine . In absence my grief grows , in finding my present estate so weak in fortune , and my des●rts so slender in nature ; that not knowing w●th Anthony how to requite his Cleopatra , I onely rest with Anthony ▪ to dye for my Cleopatra . Tell him my love doth burn like vesta● fire , which ( with his memory , richer then all ●pices ) disperseth odours round about my foul , and did re●ress it , when 't was dull and sad with thinking of his absence . He more breath●d A.B. then the ayr it self ; and all her absences were to him so many deaths . I want no part of welfare , but your wished presence . The love which he bare to her at her return was as a torrent , ( which a●te● it hath a long time been restrained ) breaks the forced damm● , and with vigorous impetuousness drowns the fields . Holy Court. Hoping , forgetfulness ( which commonly waits upon absence ) might possess him , he departed . Since your absence , melancholy hath been my Concom●tant , and you● , remembrance my greatest comfort . I departed from you , like a hungry infant , pull'd from his nurses breast , or a thirsty Hart chased from a sweet fountain . Live I pray you in repose , as much as you may , during this absence ; and if my being away causes sorrow in you , let the assurance of my affection diminish it . — forced a tedious separation of those sacred bodies , whose souls are entirely link'd in divine affection . Acknowledgement . MY acknowledgement of your favours shall appear in my willingness to do you serv●ce And my self shall not onely acknowledge this favour with humb●est thankfulness , but &c. The acknowledgement of your favours shall be my meanest thanks ; and to thank you for those favours must be my best acknowledgement : I can do no more , I will do no less . They acknowledge ( with more or less degrees of homage ) some kinde of fealty . — It sh●ll not be without a just confession of the bond your benefits have , and ever shall hold upon me . Affection . THe construction of his Speech might best be made by the Grammer-Rules of affection . It is the flaming Agony of affection that works the chilling access of your fever . The coals of his affection were so kindled with wonder , and blown with delight , that — Suffering neither his unworthyness nor his wrongs to cover with forgetfulness , or diminish with consideration , the affection she had born him . — to whom with words ( which affection endited but amazement uttered ) he delivered — ( Looking down upon her from the high-top of affections Tower. ) If you retain as yet any spark of affection ( which you have often given me witness of ) kiss this paper in remembrance of him , who , &c. My affections no less love the light and witness , then they have conscience of your vertue . The high tide of overflowing affection restraining his tongue with astonishment , as unable to express an unexpressable passion . The blood of her face ebbing and flowing according to the tyde of affection . He grafted his affection in the stock of her constan●y . ( Testimo●ies of a never-silent hearty affection . ) But perceiving his affection so grounded , that striving against it , did more anger then heal the wound , and rather call his friendship in question , then give place to any friendly Counsel . — The large testimony of your affection makes me willin● to suppresse a great number of errours . She in an instant was made an unfortunate winter of affection . To intrinsecate my self in your affection . My affection shall finde no parallel in its well-wishes to you . The tender tinder of his affection began to sparkle . Striving to match her matchless beauty , with a ma●chless affection . He ( wh●se affection clymed by another stair ) — In ●rue affection , two so become one , as they both become two . Rel. Med. — You , in whom my affection holds a steady mansion . Nor life , nor death shall divorce my affection from you . Upon what bryars the roses of his affection grow . I conjure you to this by my aff●ction , that never had equal . Ar. The sight of this place doth call my thoughts to appear at the Court of affection , held by that 〈◊〉 Steward Remembrance . Th●se lines ●epresent in the poverty of fancy , the riches of my aff●ction . — Good offices are the marks and ciment of true affection . H.C. — The heart is the Continent of affection . Affection flows uncompelled . Anger . ANger is the feaver of the Soul , which makes the tongue talk idle : it puts a man into a tumult , that he cannot hear what counsel speaks : t is a raging sea , a troubled wa●er , that cannot be wholsom for the use of a●y . Feltham , — They are things below the merit of my indignation ; objects of scorn , which a little slighted , and not inflamed by opposition , or countenanced to a reply by confutation , will , within a whil● of themselves extinguish and vanish : like s●me dispersed roving winds , which without enc●unter are dispirited and dye . Doctor Wats upon Bacon . Beauty . THen was plainly to be seen the Empire , which humane beauty and an eloquent tongue have over earthly powers . Beauty consists in complexion , in lineaments , and in harmony . You are the most excellent star that shines in the bright element of Beauty . Some became Petitioners and Prisoners to her Beauty , others did homage to her vertues . Beauty is to be reckoned , but as an outward fading benefit , that nature hath bestowed . The Idol of beauty ought not to be honored with such oblations . My eyes drank much more eagerly of her beauty , then my mouth did of any other liquor . Her face is such a spark of beauty , as is able to en●●ame a world of love . — She , who in a definite compass , can set forth infinite beauty . The excellency of her returned beauty , was a credible embassador of her health . Where beauty is , there needs no other plea. S●ll not your soul for such a vanity as eye-pleasi●g beauty Vertue is nothing else but inward beauty ; and beauty nothing else but an outward vertue . Bacon . Making her beautiful beams to thaw away the former icyness of his — — Two sisters , about whom , as about two Poles , the sky of Beauty was turned . Rather then those eyes should over-flow their own beauties , or the sky of your beauty should be over clouded with sorrow , — Beauty in the heaven of her face ( two Suns eclipsed ) was wrapped up in paleness . Beauty which hath no grace , is a bait floating on the water without a hook , to be taken , and to catch nothing . Eustatius . Beauty is like the herb Larix , cool in the water , but hot in the stomack . I cannot but applaud the wonder of your beauty . Such is the divine power of loves deity , such the vertuous force of your heavenly beauty , and such the happy issue of our decreed destiny . Beauty without chastity , is like a Mandrake apple , comely in sh●w , but poysonful in taste ▪ I must accuse my self of presumption , for daring to consider any moles in that face , which you had marked for a beauty . Sir K.D. — A beauty , which always with too eloquent a tongue did dictate tacite perswasions to his heart ▪ What a fair vestment is to a deformed body , the same is a comely body to a deformed minde . Bacon . A fair soul in a fair body , is a river that windingly creepeth with many wavy-turnings within the ennamel of a beautiful meadow , and ravisheth the whole world with the admiration of its exc●llency . B●auty in it self is such a silent Orator , as ever i● pl●●ding for respect and liking : and by the eye● of others ▪ is ever sending to their hearts for love . Feltham . The modest sweetness of a lilied ●ace — Beauty is the wit of nature put into the frontispiece . I have seen ( and yet not with a partial eye ) such features , and such mixtures , as I have thought impossible for either nature to frame , or art to counterfeit : yet in the same face , I have se●n that which hath our gone them both , the countenance . Oh! if such glory can dwell with corruption , what Celestial excellencies are in the Saints above ? who would not gaze himself into admiration , when he shall see so rich a treasure in so pure a Cabinet , unmatched vertue in matchless beauty ? Feltham . Zeno said , grace of body was a voyce of flower , and a fl●wer of voyce : Voyce of flower , because it drawes amity to it , as the flower of a garden , not crying out nor tormen●ing it self ; a flower of voyce , because it is one of the most flowry elo●encies among the attractives of nature . What is temporal beauty , but a transitory charm , an illusion of senses , a voluntary imposture , a slave of pleasure , a flower which hath but a moment of life , a Diall on which we never look , but whilst the Sun shines on it ? What is human● beauty but a dunghill covered with snow , a glass painted with fals● col●urs , a prey pu●sued by many Dogs , a dange●ous h●stess in a ●rail house , a sugred fruit in a feast , which some dare not touch for respect ▪ & ●ther● gormandize through sensuality ? Go ●rust so a ●ing a good Go , b●take you to so ●nhappy a s●are : G● , tie your contentments to ●o sl●ppery a knot . What else will happen unto you , bu● to court a phantasie which loos●ing your hold , will leave you nothing but the sorrow of your illusions ? H. Court. Blush . AS she s●ake that word , her cheekes in ●ed Letters writ more then her tongue did speak . As the wonder strove to make her pale , warm love did fortifie her cheeks wi●h guilty blushes . — At whose presence a fr●sh vermilion dye bestowed a new complexion on her . Company . HIs pleasing company did beguile the times haste , and shortned the waies length . Why will you give me with so sparing a hand , the riches of your presence ? Constancy . She — whose constancy neither time nor absence , ( the mothes of affection ) nor , what is more , this my change in fortune , could alter . — He , who signed his faith with the seal of his constancy . Be but thou as constant a friend to my mind , as thou shalt be a true possessor of my heart , and I shall have as just a cause of joy , as thou no cause of doubt . Though the surging sea hath moved the humors of my body , yet it hath not power to change the inclinations of my mind ; for I love you no less at Antwerpe ( where I am arrived ) then I did at London , &c. He continued always constant , like the Needle of a Sea-compass in a storm . Constancy is the foundation of vertue . Bac. Fortune is lik Proteus ; if you persist , she returns to her true shape . Bacon . Comparisons . THis comfort in danger was but like the honey that Sampson found in the Lions jaws , or like lightning in a foggy night . R●solved he was not to touch the forbidden fruit , nor to drink on Circes cup ; he would not with the Spider suck poyson out of a fair flower In the greenest grasse is the greatest Serpent : ●n the clearest water the ugliest Toad ; In the most curious Sepulcher are inclosed rotten bones : The O●●●ich carrieth fair feathers , but rank flesh . As there hath been an unchast Helen in Greece ; so there hath been also a chast Penelope ; As there hath been a prodigious Pasiphae : so has there been a godly Theocrita . Hipp●manes ceased to run when she had gotten the Goal : Hercules to labour when he had obtained the victory : Mercury to pipe when he had cast Argus in a slumber : Every action hath his end . Each book sent into the world , is like a Bark put to sea , and as liable to censures , as the Bark is to ●oul weather . Herbert . Like the Citie Mindus , whose Gates were so big , that the City might go out of them . — Which like the flaming two edged waving sword of the Cherub cuts asunder on all sides , whatsoever does oppose it . Cressy . Li●e the stone that groweth in the River of Curia , which the more it is cut , the more it increaseth . There is no iron but will be softned with the fire ; So no , &c. — As a fair flower nipt with the morning frost ' hanging down his head , as much sorry for his declining glory . — When the Halcions hatch , the Sea is calm ; and the Phoenix never spreads her wings , but when the Sun shines on her nest : So — Like the Spaniel which gnaws upon the chain that ties him ; but sooner marres his teeth , then procures liberty . — Consider that the heavenly Sun disdains not to give light and shine upon the smallest worm . — In this 't is so evident that I will not light the Sun with a rush candle . He commends unto us a golden chain of Christian perfections , consisting of these links , Faith , Vertue , Patience , &c. We can expect but Polyphemus courtesie , to be last devoured . Romes Capitoll was not built in one day ; nor was Zeuxis Helena suddenly limn'd forth with one pensill . They have long sported in the bloud and treasure of the land , as the Leviathan doth in the Waters . His mind was all this while so fixed upon another devotion , that he no more marked his friends discourse , then the child that hath leave to play , marks the last part of his lesson , or the diligent Pilot in a tempest attends the unskilful words of a Passenger . She trembled like the unlickt lamb newly yean'd upon a sheet of s●ow . My expression is but like a picture drawn with a cole , wanting those lively colours which a more skilfull pen might give it . It is the Decree of Heaven , That every Composition here beneath , as well fram'd by the hand of Art , as fashioned by the help of Nature , should sustain some imperfection ; for glasse hath its lead , gold its drosse , corn its chaff . Helen her mole , the moon her spots , and the Sun its shade . Spa. Bawd. ( Like the Sun that illuminates the whole aire , ( if no cloud or solid opacous body intervene ) S. K.D. — Did make no more impressions on him , then . an Arrow on a rock of Adamant . — More impure then the stable of Augaeus . H. C As pensive as the night . — You , as cruell as the Duke of Muscovia , named Basilides , who commanded from his subjects a tribute of Sweat and of Nightingals in the midst of Winter . H Court. If thou be as hot as the mount Aetna , feign thy self as cold as the hill Caucasus : carry two faces in one hood . As ingenious Cicero could pick gold out of Ennius's dung ; so may — His Fetters ( like King Agrippa's golden chain ) more became him then his Imperiall D●adem . Ka meka thee ▪ As liberall as the Sun which shines on all . like Aesops Crow prankt up in borrowed feathers . Descriptions . — HE was even ravished with contentment , in beholding th●se goodly P●●aces , where was seen an admirable Consort of Art and Nature , so many H●lls , so well furnished within ; such rich hangings , such most exquisite pict●●es , such marbles , such guildings , and without mountains , which make a naturall Theater , tapistred without Art to surpasse all workmanship , forrests , which seem born with the world , hedges and knots curiously cut , Alleys and Mazes , where both eys and feet are lost , Rivers which creep along with silver purlings about gardens enameld with most fragrant flowers , caverns replenished with a sacred horror , grotts and fountains , which gently gliding , contend with the warble of birds , and so many other spectacles , which at first sight astonisht spirits and never satiate . H.C. — There were Hills which garnished their proud heights with tree●s , humble valleys , whose low estate seemed comforted with refreshing of silver rivers , meadows e●ameld with all sorts of eye-pleasing flowers , thickets , which being lined with most pleasant shade , were witnessed so too , by the cheerfull disposition of many well-tuned birds , each pasture stored w●th sheep , feeding with sober security , while the pretty lambs , with bleating oratory , craved the dams comfort ; Here a Shepheards Boy piping , as though he should never be old , there a young She●●●●rdesse knitting , and withall singing , and her hands kept time to her voyces musick , a shew as it were of an accompaniable solitariness , and of a civill wildeness . — Neither are the gardens to be omitted , which for their largeness have the face of a forrest , for their variety , of a Paradise ; Here Cypres Groves , there walks with Statues ; Here a Sea of fountains , there Swans , Ostri●hes , and other recreative creatures . Mer. Ital. — It is a place which now humbling it self in fallowed plains , ●ow prou● in wel-husbanded hils , marries barren woods to cultivated valleys , and joyns neat gardens to delicious fountains , &c. Death . DEath is that inconsiderable atome of time that divides the body from the soul , &c. Scaliger defines Death to be the Cessation of the souls functions . When Hadrian asked Secundus what Death was , he answered in these severall truths ; It is a sleep eternall , the bodies dissolution , the rich mans fear , the poor mans wish , an event inevitable , an uncertain journey , a thief that steals away man , sleeps father , lifes flight , the departure of the living , and the resolution of all . Feltham . Death had no sooner absented him from her eyes but forgetfulness drew him out of her heart . When we once come in sight of the port of Death , to which all winds drive us ; and when by letting fall that fatall Anchor , which can never be weighed again , the Navigation of this life takes end : Then it is , I say , that our own cogitations ( those sad and severe cogitations formerly beaten from us by our health and felicity ) return again and pay us to the uttermost for all the pleasing passages of our lives past . Sir Wa. Rawl . Death deprived me of my paradized bliss , and not onely made my broken heart the sad habitation of woe , but also turned my mind ( which before was a kingdom to me ) into a hell of tormenting thoughts . Torches made of Aromatique wood , cast out their odoriferous exhalations when they are almost wasted : So the vertuous A. made all the good odors of her life evaporate in the last instant of her death Tha● he is dead , — As if she now scorn'd life , Death lends her cheeks his paleness , and her eyes tell down their drops of silver to the earth , wishing her tears might rain upon his grave , to make the gentle earth produce some flower should bear his name and memory . — She ( prostrated on the body of her Lover ) sought in his eclipsed eyes and dead lips , the remnant of her life . I shall not be unwilling to suffer a goal-delivery of my soul from the prison of my body , when I am called to it . — Delivered up to the immortality of another world . This deadly sha●t passing through him , so wounded me , that I my self was arrived within few paces of the land of darkness . In his silent marble , the best part of that small portion of joy I had in the world ▪ but all my hopes are entombed . Wats in Baa . Preface . ( Drawing neere to the confines of Deaths kingdom ▪ ) Death●rees ●rees a man from misery , and wafts him to the haven of his happiness . Her. As soon as Death hath played the Midwife to our second birth , our soul shall then see all truths more freely ▪ then our corporall eys at our first birth see all bodies and colours . Sir K.D. Desire . IF you desire that I make you a picture of the nature and perquisites of Desire , I wil tell you , It is a strange Countrey , whereunto the prodigall Child sailed , when he forsook his Fathers house to undertake a banishment : a Countrey where Corn is still in Grass ; Vines in the Bud ; Trees perpetually in Blossome , and Birds always in the Shell ; You neither see Corn , Fruit , nor any thing fully shaped , all is there onely in expectation : It is a Countrey full of Figures , Phantosmes , Illusions and hopes , which are dreams without sleep . A Countrey where the Inhabitants are never without Fevers , one is no sooner gone , but another comes into its place . There dwells Covetousness , a great woman , meager , lean , starven , having round about her , a huge swarm of winged boys , of which some are altogether languishing , others cast her a thousand smiles , as she passeth along ; upon herself she hath an infinite number of Horse-leeches , which suck upon her to the marrow . Time looks on her a far off , and never comes neer her , shewing her an inchanted Looking-glass , wherein she sees a thousand and a thousand false colours , which amuse her , and when she hath sported enough , she hath nothing to dinner but smoke . Holy Court. Albeit you can no ways quench the coals of Desire with forgetfulness , yet rake them up in the ashes of modesty . As Pharaoh longed to know his dream : so desired he to — Desire ( the nurse of perseverance ) gave him wings to make the more speed . Thus wishing my deserts still suitable to my desires , and my desires ever pleasing to your deserts . — More ready in desire , then able in power to serve you . — Then which nothing could shoot righter at the mark of my desires . — And wish you , as full of good Fortune , as I am of desire . She ●●a●d not 〈…〉 desires . Desire is a wind , that against the tide can carry us m●rrily ; with it , make us flie . Feltham . Desire so blew the fire of his new conceived rage , that — Desert . HOw much my sm●ll deserts are overballanced by your unspeakable goodn●ss ? — You , whose desert pass●th my best endeavours of requi●all . — I● flies to the sacred Al●ar of your immutable goodness , set off with all the additions of greatness which nature or affection can throw upon unmatched desert . — Thi● is the hard fate my just merit hath encountred . — It is a matter so far above my merits , that I 〈◊〉 not think upon i● without presumption . Despair ▪ THe fire of mine affection was blown by the bellows of despair . Despair of success was the hearse of his supposed idle thoughts . Love wanting desire , makes the mind desperate , and fixed fancy ●er●ft of love , turnes into fury . My Lords ! I speak to minds too Noble to be stifled in the narrow con●in●s of fear : follow your Prince , whose vertue the spight of Fortune , shall not wrack into despair . Whilst I wear a hand , commanded by a heart , that knows no fear , I shall not despair of — Displeasure . Y●u● displeasure is so contrary to my des●●t , and your w●rds so ●ar beyond all expectations , that I have least abili●y , now I have m●st need , to speak in the cause upon which my life depends . What hath your poor servant deserved to have his own misfortune loade● with your displeasure ? Eloquence . ELoquence is a way of speech prevailing over th●se whom we design it prevail ; That is , if we will take it in the short or Laconick way , a distilling our notions into a quintessence , or forming all our thoughts in a Cone and smiting with the point , &c. Mr. Hall in his Epistle before Longinus . — A man , who ( filling the sails of Eloquence ) as easily moved his auditors , as winds do the sands of Lybia , which stir at their pleasure . His Speech appeared in costly robes , adorned with lofty and glorious language , sweetned by many a pleasant and clear Simile , quickned by divers acute and learned Criticismes ; My Cabinet enshrineth no such treasure . Though I have not eloquence enough to win , yet I hope to find language enough to perswade . He was dazled with ●he brightness of her aspect ; bu● when she b●gan to unloose her tongue , never was Syren so attractive with songs , as she with words . — 'T is a speech wherein the abundance of supereminent conceits choakes not the grace , nor doth curiosity take any thing from the propriety there●f . — Your maner of speech is indeed Prin●●-like , flowing a● fr●m a fountain , and yet streaming and branching it sel● into Natures order , full of facility and felicity , imitating none , and inimitable of any Bacon . Your conceptions are inimitable , your language sweet and polite , your Sentences are ful of weight , your Arguments of force , and your Words glide along like a River , and ever bear in them some slashes of lightning — How greedily my ears did feed upon the sweet words she uttered . Were not your affection stronger tied to the Orator then the Oratory , I should not hope to perswade you that — Her. — He , with a fearless fashion , thus bespake the audience . — Every accent falls like a fresh jewell to increase her value . — His masculine eloquence was thought worthiest to enjoy the maidenhead of the Cities attention . — — Forcibly won by the smooth artifice of speech — It is no small dominion the imagination hath in perswasions , insinuated by the power of Eloquence . Bac. You have truly found out the Philosophers st●ne ; for every gross matter you can convert into the gold of fine language Eloqu●nce does commonly storm the mind of the Auditor , and at length take him in . Entertainment . I want expression to give you the circumstance ●it● what a ●owing l●ve , or rather with what 〈◊〉 de●o●ion , I entertain you . G●at . Ser. — Y●u much hon●r me ; for ●ill this white 〈◊〉 th●se walls were never proud to enclose a ●●●st , ●he G●nius of my house is , by s● gr●at a pre●●●●e wak●d ▪ and glories to entertain you . Could this roof ●e capable of ill , your only pre●●nce ( Lady ) would convert it ▪ There is a vertuous magick in y●ur eye , for wheresoe're it casts a beam , it does crea●es a g●odness . I am much confound●d for this honor you do me , Madam , but yet I am more ashamed ●o see you in a place , where vertue never entred but in your attndance . Ariana . Y'●re each of you a various banquet , where a breathing sweetness feasts the sp●ctators , and diverts all thought of ea●ing to beholding , and from beholding to enjoying . Am. War. Your presence is restorative . Friendship . AS Passion hath been well said to be Friendship run mad ; So Friendship may be properly stiled Sober passion , as having all the spirit and cordiality of the wine of Love , without the offensive fumes and vapours of it . Mr. Montagu in his Misce●lenea The love of men to women is a thing common , and of cou●se ; but the friendship of man to man is infinite and immortall . Plato . The words of a friend joyned with true affection , give life to the heart , and comfort to a care-oppressed mind . Chylo . The mutual habitude of no intermiting-friendship between us , hath strongly confirmed — ( Receiving so dear witnesses of your friendship ) The resemblance of their beauties and of their wits , joyned their souls together , and soon after , that of their fortunes made this friendship perfect . Ar. ( which your friendship rather finds , then I acknowledg● ) Hence gr●ws the height of friendship , when two similiary souls shal blend in their commixions . Feltham . As nothing unites more then a reciprocall exchange of affection : So there is nothing hinders the knot of friendship more then then apparent neglect of courtesies . Feltham . Friendship a diligen● Officer , takes care to see the bonds thereof fully executed . Frindship i● the soul of humane society . F●iendship is a pleasant sauce to any temporall happiness . Bacon . The worst solitude is be destitute of sincere friendship . Gift . TRuly ( Sir ) I doubt whether is greater the poverty of the Gift , or the boldness of the giver , who●e true respects have encouraged him to this small expression of service . I beseech you to excuse me , that this Present is not corr●spondent to your merit . Please to respect the enlarged heart of the giver , more then the quality of the gift ; Since the meanness of this , can onely serve to express the well-meaning of the other . Hypocrisie . DO not we know that Hypocrisie is the same the same thing to vertue , which painting is to Faces , and that it is the very moath which devours sanctity . What doth not a plaistered sanctity for the subversion of the simple ? What doth not a bad servant when once he possesseth the easie nature of his Master ? Inconstancy . INconstancy is properly a levity and an irresolution of mind , which shewes it self in his manners , actions and words , who is touched with it . To say truth , this passion is a Divell that inhabits in a land of Quicksilver , where Earthquakes are al●ost perpetuall , windes blow on each side , and blowing , make many weather-cocks turn to & fro and every moment change posture . In this place a● admirable creature is to be seen , who is not what she is , and is that she is not , so many faces and figures she hath : She likewise is still upon transformations , and seems to do nothing at all , but to make and unmake herself . One while she is great , another while little ; one while gross , another while sl●nder ; one while affable , anoth●r while harsh ; one while serious , another while gamesome , but ever slippery ; and if you lay hold of her , you catch nothing . She goes forth of her lodging to appear in publique , as if she came into a Theater , cloathed one while in changeable Taffata , another while with different pieces , set together out of a singular fantastick addleness of wit. She alone represents all personages , talkes with all kind of voices , and in all manner of languages , &c. H. Court. Hast . ( BEing born away with the hasty Tide of smallest leasure ▪ ) — Going with a pace not so much too fast for her body , as slow for her mind . With such hast ( as if her ears hunted for words ) desired to know . — Hope . HOpe is the gate of a great Palace replenished with riches . It is in my opinion the place which Tertullian termes , The Porteress of Nature . It hath two arms , with which it endeavours to pursue and embrac● objects , whereof the one is called Desire , and ●he the other Belief to be able to obtain what one desireth , &c. H. Court. The Babylon of worldly hopes shews it self in the beginning , as a miracle ; but if we proceed further , we find those desires , that were as pleasing as the dawning of the day ( which at its first springing ●appeares all over studded with Emeralds and Rubies ) turn at last , and are changed into the horrors of a sad tempest . Humane life hath not a surer friend , nor many times a greater enemy , then Hope . 'T is the miserable mans God , which in the had●st gripe of calamity , never fails to yeeld him beams of c●mf●●t . It is the presumpt●●us mans Divell , which leads him a while in a smo●th way , & then makes him break his neck o● the sudden . Hope is to man as a bladder to a learning swimmer , &c. Feltham — The sight wherof made Hope ( the Harbinger of happiness ) to breath in her this pleasing c●mfort . Sweet , I see is the hope that springs in the bud , but most s●rrowfull I find is the hap that decays in the blossome . Our teeming hopes will ever be delivered of a gracious birth . — She whose weaker Bow●ls were streight full with the least liquor of hope . Hope is but the dream of a man awake . You have blasted the harvest of my hopes . Jealousie . IEalousie is a disease of the mind , proceeding from a fear which a man hath , that that thing is communicated to another , which he would not have common , but privat to himself : it is also bred of that love which will not suffer a partner in the thing beloved . Thereupon a furious jealousie , as if it had been breath'd from hell , began to lay hold on this gentle spirit , all the objects of what was past returned to thicken this black-vapour , to frame a cloud thereof , and resolve it into a storm . H.C. What is it that you should thus conceal from me ? Be my ears unworthy , or my tongue suspected ? Love , as it is Divine with loyalty : so is it Hell , with jealousie . There can be no greater Tyranny then jealousie whereby a man continually murthers himselfe living . All his actions began to be translated into the language of suspition . Jealousie is a Gin that we set to catch Serpents , which , as soon as we have caught them , sting us . Feltham . Jealousie is the Canker of Wedlock . Jealousie continually studies the Anatomy of hearts , and shews great severity to the least defective part . Montagu . He is as jealous as a Turky . Ingratitude . INgratitude chalenges revenge by Custome , and is a vice most hatefull before God and Man. Ingratitude deserves , that all the elements with their best forces , should conspire in its avengement . An unthankfull man is compared to a vessell ul of holes . Joy. JOy triumpht in his eys ▪ and comfort lodg'd in his heart , and in this haven of happiness he would have swimmed still , but that — Joyes had their fresh supplies , as if some golden dream had imparadised their thoughts with some glorious vision . — Lifted up from a Hell of grief to a Heaven of joy . Through how many restless nights , and less restless thoughts do we ●ncounter these sweet-bitter joys : And as the more we grasp the water into our hands , the loss we hold : So is content the farther from us , the more we seek it in these fading glories of the world ; which , like an Ignis Fatuus , first light us through wilde untrodden pathes unto th●●selves , then through vast aeiry thoughts they lead u● up to that precipice , from whence we fall , and th●●e they leave us . Her. — This Charm reduc'd his passion to that contentment , brought his hopes to that height , and plac'd his soul in a heaven of such divine pleasures , that he was even ready to expire in this pleasing Extasie . O what a source of joy did then overflow her breast , that treasury of chast delights ! The Sun ne're met the Summer with more joy . Letters . LEtters are the very thoughts of the heart , but once removed , where all the scapes of nature or breeding are most like to harbor . Rey. of Cab. These Paper presents are but weak reflections of stronger affections , yet being the best sacrifice of a friend , they deserve the higher place in your esteem . Letters are the sweet communication of fancy , which have been always esteemed the best fuel of affection , and the very marrow of friendship . Absence entertained by Letters full of confidence , is not always without its profit ; for the foul by the memory tasteth what it hath taken in by the understanding , and gives it self more leasure to recogitate its pleasure , which is not so well perceived , when presence drencheth the minde in a deluge of contentments , and gives it not leasure to bethink it self . H.C. If I write a Letter , I imagine Love gives me the pen , that I dip it in my tears , that the paper is all over filled with flowers of affection , and that I send my thoughts and sighes , as courtiers , to seek out the well beloved of my heart . H.C. You have prostituted my chast and holy Letters , to the base adulteries of all common eyes . Words are the images of cogitations : Letters are the images of words . I will not load your ears with those frivolous impertinencies , which would swell this Letter beyond your patience . An amorous Letter to a youthful heart , is a learned inchantment . The hooks of such Characters are artificial pick-lock-tools , to open the secret b●lt of a heart . To see a leaf written , is like seeing an Army in the field ; every line is a file of men Words give battel to the minde , and overcome it : For there is no force more powerfull , then that of words , to batter a minde . Stratonica . Loquacity . LOquacity is the Fistula of the minde , ever running , and almost incurable . A talkative fellow is the unbrac'd drum , which beats a wise man out of his wits . Love. LOve ( in the interpretation of the envious ) is sof●ness ; in the wicked , good men suspect it for lust ; and in the good , some spiritual men have given it the name o● Charity : And these are but terms to this , which seems a more considerate def●nition , That indefinite Love is Lust : and Lust when it is determin●d to one , is Love. This definition ●oo , does but intrude it self on what I was about to say , which is ( and spoken with soberness , though like a Lay-man ) that Love is the most acceptable imposition of nature , the cause and preservation of life , and the very healthfulness of the minde , as well as of the body : But Lust ( our raging feaver ) is more dangerous in Cities , then the Calenture in ships . Sir William Davenant in his Preface to Gondibert , Love ( in the most obnoxious interpretation ) is natures preparative to her greatest works , which is the making of life . ibid. Love in humane nature is both the source and center of all passion● ; for not only hope , f●ar and joy , but even anger and hatred rise first out of the spring of love . Mr. Montagu . To be in love , is the most intensive appropria●ion of all the powers of our minde to one design . ibid. Sensual love is the most fatal plague among all passions . It is not a simple malady , but one composed of all the evils in the world ; it hath the shiverings and heats of Feavers , the ach and prickings of the Meagrum , the rage of Teeth , the stupe●action of the Vir●●go , the furies of Frenzie , the black vapors of the Hypocondry , the disturbances of the Waking , the stupidities of the Lethargy , the fits of the Falling-sickness , the faintness of the Tysick , the heavings of the passions of the heart , the pangs of the Colick , the infections of the Leprosie , the venom of Vlcers , the malignity of the Plague , the putrifaction of the Gangrene , and all , which is ho●rible in nature . Holy Court. Love ! Care is thy Court , Tyranny thy Raign , Slaves thy Subjects , Folly thy Attendance , Lust thy Law , Sin thy Service , and Repentance thy Wages . Fear breedeth Wit , Anger is the cradle of courage , Joy opens and enables the Heart , Sorrow weakneth it ; but love is engendred betwixt lust and idleness , his companions are unquietness , longings , fond comforts , faint discomforts , hopes , j●alousies , ungrounded rages , causeless yieldings ; the highest end it aspires to , is a little pleasure , with much pain before , and great repentance after . At that time the flames of his chast love , began to burn more forcible then ever . He loved her with a love , mingled with respect of merit and compassion of her persecuted innocency . To love is natural : not to love is monstrous . H.C. Such was the unresistable force of his unlimitable affection , that in spite of reason , he was enforced to do homage unto passion . Her love was a rich rock of defence against all Syrene songs . — It received such an impression of that wonderful passion , which to be defined is impossible , because no words reach to express the strange effects of it , they only know it , who inwardly feel it , it is called Love. He besought him not to make account of his speech , which if it had been over passionate , yet was it to be born withal , because it proceeded out of an affection much more vehement . Humanity enjoyns you to love me , seeing I hold my life an easie sacrifice to enjoy you , It is no pilgrimage to travel to your lips . Worldly loves are the true Gardens of Adonis , where w● can gather nothing but trivial flowers , surrounded with many bryars . Christian Diary . A silent expression gives the pregnant'st testimony of a deep grounded affection , where every look darts forth love . Nothing shall have power to alien my love from you . Let me draw from your look one blush of love , or line of fancy . Let me become an abject in the eyes of fame , an object o● contempt to the world , if my faithful devotion and observance supply not all my defects . I am he , who either you have great cause to love or no cause to hate . She loved him as the pledge-bearer of her heart . You — towards whom I know not whether my love or admiration be greater . Your affection hath got a Lordship in my thoughts . Love to a yielding heart is a King , but to a resisting , is a Tyrant . ( Sealing up all thoughts of love , under the image of her memory . ) The extream bent of my affection compells me to — Love in the heart is an exhalation in a cloud , it cannot continue idle there ; it daily forms a thousand imaginations , and brings forth a thousand cares , it findes out an infinity of inventions to advance the good of the beloved , &c. H.C. Death may end my life , but not my love , which ( as it is infinite ) must be immortal . — Him , whose love went beyond the bounds of conceit , much more of utterance , that in her hands the ballance of his life or death did stand . Such a love as mine , wedded to vertue , can never be so adulterated by any accident , no nor yet ravish'd by passion , as to bring forth a bastard disobedience , whereof ( my very conscience not being able to accuse my thoughts ) I come to clear my self . The proportion of my love is infinite . So perfect a thing my love is to you , as it suffers no question , so it seems to receive injury by addition of any words unto it . The more notable demonstrations you make of the love ( so far beyond my desert ) with which it pleaseth you to make me happy , the more am I , even in course of hu●anity , b●und to seek requitals witness . — ( Having embarked my careful love in the ship of my desire ) — Good God! what sublimate is made in the lymbeck of Love. His eyes were so eager in b●●●lding her , that they were like those of the Bird , that ●atches her eggs with her looks . Stratonica . He expected her at A. with so great impatience of love , that he would have willingly hastned the course of the Sun , to measure it by his affections . He , beholding her so accomplished , easily felt the glances shot from her eyes , were rays from her ▪ but arrows for his heart , from whence he could receive nought but honorable wounds . If you have as much confidence in me , as I have love towards you ; — Love is in effect , a force ( pardon the exorbitancy of the word ) that is unresistable , so strong a war is that , which the appetite wageth against reason . Then , then in the pride of your perfections you paradized me in the heaven of your love . The rare Idea that thus ( through the applause of mine eye ) hath bewitched my heart , is the beautious image of your sweet self ( pardon me if I presume , when the extremity of love pricks me forward . ) Faults that grow by affection ought to be forgiven , because they come of constraint : Then ( Madam ! ) read with favor , and censure with mercy ; — Why should not that , which is one , rest in unity ? Bacon . His bosom was the Cell , wherein I hid my secrets ; his mouth was the Oracle , whereby I directed my actions ; As I could not be without his presence , so I never would do any thing without his counsel . When I am from you , I am dead till I be with you ; when I am with you , I am not satisfied , but would still be nearer you : vnited souls are not satisfied with imbraces . Rel. Med. In the intercourse of affection , my love surmounts yours . Fire comes out of the hardest Flint with a steel ; oyl out of the driest jet by fire ; love out of the stoniest heart by faith , by trust , by time . Eupheus . I cannot but admire thy love , knowing from what height of vertue it proceeds : as I will not envy thee thy death , so I wish a glory may await thy end , great as the constancy that advanc'd thee to it . Her. Two neighbouring Lillies , whom rude winds disperse ' mongst restless dust , may sooner meet upon their stacles again , and kiss each other in a second growth , then we our loves renew . Love is the good , which , by being diffused , is corrupted ; she that loves one , another and a thrid ; takes in men at the coyle , and loves onely for her pleasure . The object of true love is but one : From the Infancy of Time to her decrepitude , the love between two hath been held most honorable ▪ Heroinae . Our mutuall mindes thus combined , was like the Garden of Eden , wherein grew more delights , then either Nature now affords , or Art can exp●ess . Gra●ious is the face that promiseth nothing but love , and most celestiall the resolution that lives upon chastity . She had a pure flame shot from heaven into her breast : from no other place could so generous a mind be fired . My love shall never end , but with my life . There is nothing that belongs to us both , that can be divided : our wills united make but one mind , which ruling all our actions , it seems we are in like manner but one body . Ariana . — He was so rapt with these dear engagements , that the commotions of his heart disturbed his mind , and stop'd the freedom of his thoughts . I must confess my self in prison , but 't is a prison of love , where my desires , my thoughts , my hopes , my joys , are chains . H.C. Chast love . ] She changes the fire of Babylon into that of Jerusalem . Her h●irs , which were the nets wherein so many captive souls did sigh under the yoke of wan●●n love , are now ( as the Ensignes and Standards of wicked Cupid ) tra●pled under the feet of the Conqueror . Those kisses , which carried the poyson of a luxurious passion in her heart , do now breath f●om her nothing but th● delicacies of chas●i●y . Her leasing od●urs , which before were vowed to sensuality , are now become the sweetest exhalations from that Amber Isle , which brings forth an odoriferous perfume . Entertainments for Lent. My passion hath for its object a thing too perfect to permit me a thought that may be unworthy of the cause of it . I like that love , which by a soft ascension , does degree it self in the soul . Feltham . Your presence is like Homers Nepenthe , that can banish the sadness of the mind . The heart of a lover is a Citie , in which upon one and the same day are seen sports and bankets , battels and funerals . Plutarch . Who does not know , that love took away the senses of wise Solomon , and made him violate the sacred law . Love moved Biblis to be enamoured on her own brother Caunus , and Pasiphae to accompany vvith a Bull ? Love is like a pan of Charcoal , vvhich meeting vvith the vvind , its contrary , makes it turn more ardent , or like a rapid torrent , vvhich justing against adam , swells higher : so love meeting with opposition , grows hotter and stronger . Dodona's Grove . — These two hearts ; being dissolved into love , spake in thoughts , not having language enough to express their affection . H.C. Since then I cannot retaliate your love , or retribute your favours , yet vvill I receive them vvith a desire ●o pay . The vvorthy St. Dionysius , in the book of Divine Attributes , distinguisheth three sorts of love , one is called circular , the other love in a right line , and the third oblique . Love ( sa●th an ancient Lover ) hath made a But of my heart , vvhere , so soon as it had shot all its arrows , it threw it self as an inflamed dart into the bottom of my heart , to set me all on fire . There is nothing comparable to the Martyrdom of love : It is an exhalation in a cloud : It is a fire in a Mine , a torrent shut up in ditches ; a night of s●paration lasteth ages , and all waxeth old for it , but its desires . The life of this young Hero , ( vvhich vvas ever hanging about the heart of his Mistress , ever in the contemplation of her goodness , perpetually in the furnace of love ) vvholly tranformed it self into his vvel-beloved , as one vvax melted into another , as a drop of vvater poured into a great vessell of Wine , as incense wasted in flames . H. Court. He said what a warm lover ( when desire makes eloquent ) could speak , he said she was both Star and Pilot. No birth or estate can chalenge a prerogative in love . The deep wound of his love , being rubbed afresh with — began to bleed again . Love is to the soul , that which vvings are to Birds , to carry us to its fruition . For vvant of vvell loving , vve apply the most precious thing , which is love , to gain wretched creatures , as if one used a golden hook to fish for frogs , and a scepter to shake hay . I 'le always dwell with you like your shade . I 'le keep a Jubile to your memory . My eyes pay tribute where my heart pays love . I vvill repay your love vvith usury . ( Love making in the field of his memory a muster of the vertues of that Lady . ) The man that applies not himself to some love , is like a body vvithout life . Love is the Wine of the soul . Love is the greatest Philosopher in the vvorld ; He can transmute substances vvithout altering the accidents . Man commended . MAn is the pride of Heavens creation ▪ 〈◊〉 — A man , vvhose life needs no Advocate , vvhom detraction it self cannot mention vvithout ▪ addition of some Epithetes of respect , to conclude him in a vvord no object for any evill passion but envy ; and a subject for no discourse , but vvhat ends vvith admiration . It seems Nature from above had been dispatch'd as a brave Harbinger , to score out a lodging for this great Soul , and give him a Body suitable to the vigor of his Spirit ( so vvel vvas it composed , ) &c. H. Court. — What he is according to nature , a Master ▪ piece , vvhere many prerogatives meet together , a Body composed of a marvellous Architecture , a Soule endowed vvith — He is the Orpheus , vvho vvith his looks onely , vvithout setting his hand to the Lyre , enchants and ravishes the most savage of our Wilderness . Aristotle ( that Linceus of Nature ) — Nature vvas sent by God ( as a gallant Harbinger ) to compose a Body for him suitable to his great Spirit . He did vvith great nobleness and bounty ( which vertues at that time had their turns in his Nature ) restore — Lo. Bacon . I find not any man , over vvhom he has not some advantage , nor any one life , vvhich ( take it altogether ) is so admirable as his . The Prince . He is an Anthony in clemency , a Trajan in bounty ▪ and another Augustus in wisdom . Though he exceeds not in those vertues which g●t admiration , as depth of wisdom , height of courage , and the like , yet he is notable for those qualities which stir affection , as truth of word , meekness , courtesie , mercifulness and liberality . He was Lord of great Revenues , to which his vertue not his fortune was his Title ; his mind was richly embroydered with all the studied ornaments of learning , &c. — Heroinae . Bravest A ! sooner shall the fathers bowels be silent at the sight of his long unseen son , then posterity forget thy name . — Nor shall I rest content , till I bring one grain of incense more to that great oblation , which I hope the Muses will offer ere long in publick to his memory , thereby to induce Historians , ( those Goldsmiths of time ) in their elaborate rings , the Chronicles and Relations of these days , curiously to enchase this choycer Diamond to the delight and benefit of succeeding ages . Of Sir I.S. The worth of worthiness hath his whole Globe comprised in his breast . The gallantry of his mind was plainly legible to every eye that was acquainted with the characters of vertue . — In this man there were such great abilities of wit and understanding , that into what Climate s●ever his nativity had cast him , he seem'd to be able to command of f●rtune . Bacon . — Men , wh●●e Sentiments are Maximes and Oracles to govern the worlds beliefs and actions . Sir K.D. — So wel was he studied in the Art of Dying , that by continuall watchings , fastings , prayers , and such like acts of Christian humiliation , his flesh was rarified into spirit , and the whole man so fitted for eternall glories , that he was more then halfe in heaven , before Death brought his bloody ( but triumphant ) Chariot to convey him thither , His head did bear the Calender of age . Every man is a vast and spacious Sea : His passions are the winds that swell him in disturbant waves , &c. Feltham . A good man is like the day , enlightning & warming all he shines on , and is always raising upwards to a Region of more constant purity , then that wherein it finds the object . The bad man is like the night , dark , obtruding fears , and dimitting unwholsome vapouts upon all that rest beneath . Envy her self could not detract from his worth ; he was learned even to an example , pious up to a proverb . — A person that in the Hurricans of great transactions is serenely pleas'd to throw off the publick person , and adopt into his tenderness and protection , all that , unto which worth and letters may make a claim . Mr. Halls Epistle before Longinus . Of the K : and his letters intercepted . 1645. AS a Man , see , but with what sagacity he writes , and with what judgement ; see , but what a clean sense he hath of things , which does so overlook all his most perplexed affairs , that they seem to blush they have no better difficulties . See , but how farre his wisdom looks into mens persons , which doth so weigh them and their actions with the grains and allowance of their unworthy servile ends , that he seems not more to observe then prophesie . See , but what an even spirit of Elegancy runs through every line , vvhich beats and leaps as much in the description of his saddest condition , as of his serenest fortune ; Insomuch that posterity will a little love his misery for her very clothing . Then , as a Husband , do but observe how kind he is , and withall how chast ? how full of warm expressions of love , and yet how far from wanton ? Do but observe how he vveighs his own health by his vvives Standard , every line bears a Venus in it , and yet no Doves ; and he drives the trade of thoughts between the Q. and him , with so much eagerness , and yet with so much innocence in all his letters , as if he meant they should be intercepted . As a Christian , see , but what a conscience he makes of oaths , esteeming them ( not according to the popular account ) as if their ceremony made them the less sacred , or ( as too many use them in the vvorld ) as bracelets to their speech , not ( as they are indeed ) as chains unto their souls ; look but how he startles at the name of Sacriledge , though never so commodious a sin , &c. Last of all , as a King , see , but vvhat a constant and true soul he bears to Justice , vvhich none of his sad infelicities can alter . A soul that vvould come off true , vvere it put to Plato's triall , vvho said , That for a man to approve himselfe a true just man indeed , His vertue must be spoyld of all her ornaments . Key K. Cabinet . So many excellent pens have vvritten upon his brave acts , and made them so well known to all the vvorld , that it vvere to bring light into day , to go about to mention them . H. Court. He is the Pelops of wisdom , and Minos of all good government . Who hath not known or read of that prodigy of vvit and fortune , Sir Wa. Ra. a man infortunate in nothing , but in the greatness of his vvit and advancement , vvhose eminent vvorth vvas such , both in domestick policie , forreign expeditions and discoveries , in arts and literature , both practick and contemplative , that it might seem at once to conquer both example and imitation . Mr. Nath. Carpenter . — Man , vvho contracts in himselfe all the draughts and vvorks of the Divine hand , and epitomizeth the vvhole world in his perfections , and bears the most animated Character of the living God. H.C. He is a noble , generous , and vvell-manur'd youth , bears beauties ensignes in his gracious looks , has that supream Divinity in his eyes , as sparkleth flames able to fire all hearts , and the superlative vertue of his mind transcends his outvvard figure ; he is vvise , as most mature age , valiant in resolve , as fames beloved child , reputaon , conjoyns the masculine graces of his soul vvith lovely carriage and discreet dicourse , &c. Argalus and Parth. — I could say much more of his vvorth , vvithout flattery , did I not fear the imputation of presumption , and vvithall suspect , that it might befall these papers of mine , ( though the losse vvere little ) as it did the pictures of Q. Eliz. made by unskilfull and common Painters , which by her own commandement vvere knockt to pieces , and cast into the fire . For ill Artists , in setting out the beauty of the externall ; and weak Writers , in describing the vertues of the internal , do often leave to posterity of well-formed faces , a deformed memory ; and of the most perfect and Princely minds , a most defective representation . Sir. Wa. Rawl . in Preface . He was a man whose brave undaunted Spirit dignified his Family many stories high in the estimate of Fame . The excellent endowments of his soul , acknowledged even by Envy , and admired by Truth , together with his known propension to goodness , invited me to — I have been possessed with extream wonder , when I consider the excellency of those vertues and faculties in him , which the Philosophers call intellectuall , the capacity of his mind comprehending so many , and so great notions , the faithfulsness of his memory , the swiftness of his apprehension , the penetrati●n of hi● judgement , the order and facility of his Eloc●tion . &c. Bacon . — He derived many streams from Sidney's great River into hi● own Chanels . His Countenance ( which by nature had no vulgar Air in it ) grown lean by affliction , expressed ( in a pale disagreement of colours ) that the harmony of his individuum began its dissolution from the head . Nature . NAture is that Spirit or Divine Reason , which is the efficient cause of natural works , &c. — You whom nature hath made to be the Load-star of comfort , be not the rock of shipwrack . The errors in his nature were excused , by reason of the greenness of his youth . Nature having done so much for him of nothing , as that it made him Lord of something . Nature is the mirror of Art. — They wrastled with the disadvantage of single nature , and at last threw it into rule . — Then does Art appear perfect , when she can scarce be distinguished from Nature it self , and again , nature is ever happy , because she always carries a hidden Art in her own bosom . Longinus . Silence and Secresie . SIlence is the fermentation of our thoughts . Bacon . — Assuring you in the faith of a friend , that you shall deposite it in the deepest and darkest de● of silence , never to come to light . It is hard to be silent , &c. since nature hath not made us like Crocodiles , who are said to have eyes to weep , and not a tongue to complain . I hope I shall finde your ears faithful Treasurers . I will cover it under the vail of silence . Silence , in bashful signs , blush'd out a dumb reply . — till when I lock these projects in the closet of your secrecy . There followed so deep and unbroken a silence , that midnight seem'd thunder , it compa'rd to it . Similitudes , see Comparisons , page 58. Sorrow . SOrrow is a grief or heaviness for things which are done and past , it is t●e ●●ly friend to solitariness , enemy to company , and heir to desperation . Though his attached tongue could pay no tribute to his dumb sorrow , yet did his silent woes shew his speaking grief . O happy Portia ! they dead sad woes are all buried in my long liv'd griefs ; and Hecuba's tears are all drowned in the sea of my sorrow . Lymbecks were her eyes of tears , a furnace was her breast of scalding sighes , a constant feaver surpriz'd her joynts , yet with this did her sweet condition enforce a smile , ( and with this ( mixed with a pearly tear ) did she beg this boon of , &c. — Holy Court. — Whereat the yce of his heart dissolved , and began already to evaporate through his eyes . He endeavored to speak , but the more he strove , the more the sobs choaked up his words . — Assaulted with a furious squadron of remediless dolours . ( Drenched in a Sea of Sorrow . — Love , jealousie , anger and sorrow divided his heart , and drew strange sighes from him . He bare the image of his sorrow in his dejected countenance . He knew not how to answer her , but with the moist dew of his eyes , which began to do the office of his lips . Sh● made the apple of her weeping eyes speak to him in continual prayers . — ( after the Flood of her tears was grown to an ebb . ) — After she had bathed the beauty of her eyes in the sorrow of her tears . — My grief was at the highest before , and now like swelling Nilus it disdaineth bounds . That ( washing anew her face in the balmy drops of her love-distilling tears ) she began . — He banished both sleep and food , as enemies to his mourning , which passion perswaded him was reasonable . He opened his mouth , as a Floodgate for sorrow . I had in the furnace of my agonies , this refreshing . — The breath , almost formed into words , was again stopt by her , and turned into sighes . Let the tribute-offer of my tears procure — — It deserves of me a further degree of sorrow , then tears . — Finding by the pittiful oration of a languishing behaviour , and the easily deciphered-Character of a sorrowful face , that — — With a demeanor , where , in the book of beauty , there was nothing to be read but sorrow , for kindeness was blotted out , and anger was never there . Suffer not the weakness of sorrow , to conquer the strength of your vertues . — His soul drinking up woe with great draughts . — Her tears were like , when a few April drops are scattered by a gentle Zephirus among fine coloured flowers . She painted out the lightsome colours of affection , shaded vvith the deepest shadows of sorrow . — Suffering her sorrow to melt it self into an abundance of tears , and giving grief a free dominion . At length letting her tongue go ( as dolourous thoughts guided it ) she thus ( with lamentable demeanor ) spake , — Wilt thou give my sorrows no truce ? Tears and sighes interrupt my speech , and force me to give my self over to private sorrow . Though ●y memory be a continued Record of much sorrow , yet among the many stories grief hate engraven in me , there is none to be compared with t●e disaster of — — This said , she wept the rest . But he not daunted at that majesty of sorrow that sate inthron'd in Crystal ; nor at her vvords , that would ●●arm ●●e most inhumane : but rather vvhet , then ●efin'd in passion , unloads his lust . — Her. — She , in whom sorrow had swell'd it self so high , that rather then break out , it threatned to break her heart . — Appearing in his countenance a doleful Copy of what he would relate . — ( Able to make an Adamant turn Niobe . When I am b●reft of thee , in whom all my joys are so wealthily summ'd up , that thy loss will make my life my greatest curse , then will I dye in honor , and think it fitter for my fame , then linger out my life in sorrow . Her. She was Empress of a minde , unconquered of sin or sorrovv . It is not the tears of our eyes only , but of our friends also , that do exhaust the current of our sorrows , which falling into many streams run more peaceably , and are contented with a narrower channel . She melts her heart in a sacred Limbeck of love , and distills it out by her eyes . They resented his loss with as many griefs , as his desert and their good nature could produce in them . Arc. To give over sorrovv I must of necessity give over remembring you , and that can I not , but vvith my life . — To see her countenance ( through which there shin'd a lovely majesty , even to the captivating of admiring souls ) novv altered to a frightful paleness , and the terrors of a gastly look . Feltham . — These are calamities , vvhich challenge the tribute of a bleeding eye . — Tell him I do invvardly dissolve into a devv of bleeding passion for his loss , and vvould , to re-invest blest quiet i● his heart , act o're the scene of dangers I have pass'd since I knevv earliest manhood . Arg. and Parth. — I am past the thought of grief for this sad fact , and am griefs individual substance . — She poured her self into tears without comfort , as her misery seemed devoid of remedy . — Thy looks upon a sudden are becom dismall , thy brow dull as Saturns issue , thy lips are hung vvith black , as if thy tongue vvere to pronounce some funerall . Sorrow having clos'd up all the entries of thy mind . He made a shady tree his pavillion , vvith intention to make forgetting sleep comfort a sorrowfull memory . He gave such tokens of true felt sorrow , as no imagination could conceive greater . Compassion procured his eyes vvith tears to give testimony . — He departed , as if he had been the Coffin that carried himself away . The river of your tears ( if not stopped ) vvill soon loose their fountain . — Pitie my sorrows , which are onely mine , because I am extreamly yours . — Lost in my thoughts , I see my self wandring in various objects , and , for a height in mysery , I walk in the night of a heart darkned vvith sadnesse . The melancholy complexion of my mind encilnes to hold a sympathy with all sorrow , that my senses communicate to me . The remembrance of her former ingratitudes delivered over such feeling arguments of her sad remorse , as were able to strike the water of tears out of the stoniest hearts of her beholders : Like the Rod of Moses , which drove vvater out of the Rock , &c. Sir To. Math. — A subject I confesse so full of lamentation and horror , as would require some Homer to express it , or rather the mind and pen of Heraclitus , to weep and write together . Suffer mine eyes to discourse my griefs . You temporize with sorrow , mine is sincere . — Untill mine eyes became the sad oblation of a fainting voyce . It is hard to describe with what affection her eyes , big with grief , brought forth fears . The fair Lady in that Art resembled Aurora in travell of the day . Her tears much exceeded the morning dew in beauty . Stratonica . Speech . SPeech is nothing else but an expression to another man of the images one hath within himself . Sir K. Digby . Reason is as it were the soul of speech . Ba●on . Lecture is the aliment of speech . As houses without Dores are unprofitable : so are men that have no rule of their speech . — The very Order of his speech seem'd to be Disorderly : and his disorders were rang'd into a certain kind of order . — Though courted with all the blandishments and graces of speech , yet he could not be perswaded . Thoughts . THought , generally is all the imaginations of ●ur brain , vvhich being a proposed object of the heart , makes it continually revolve , and work upon those conceits . Thoughts are but over-flowings of the minde and the to●gue is but a servant of the ●h●ught● . Speech and Thought are two sisters , the youngest whereof is created , that the eldest may be known . Philo. The more I exercise my thoughts , the more they inc●ea●e the appetite of my desires . What a paradise of unspotted goodness his filthy though●s sought to defile ? — ( Thinking to set my muti●ous thoughts at peace . ) He made his thoughts more obligatory to her favours ; and he fashioned his favours more complementory to her fortunes . My thoughts were winged vvith desire . You ( the Secretary of all my thoughts ) — Distill●ng my active thoughts in a continued study to serve you . — My hopes of honour , then which noth●ng but your fair selfe is so neer unto my thoughts . She , conjur'd with this tyranny of complement , with as undistracted words as could be pumpt from the deepest confusion of thoughts , makes her reply — Her. — His word led by his thought , and followed by his deed . I could wish you were secretary of my thoughts , or that there were a Crystall casement in my breast , through which you might espy the inward motions and palpitations of my heart , then would you be certified of the sincerity of this protestation . Pleasing , but too ambitious thoughts ! whither do you lead me ? — Give my long imprisoned thoughts leave to appear in words . Let truth make up a part in the harmony of your noble thoughts . Thus when my thoughts are at a stand , and can raise my present happiness no higher , let me call to mind how — — Since you have tied your thoughts in so wilful a knot . A tumultuous Army of thoughts shall strike up an Alarm to your repose . H.C. Continually floating in a tempestuous Sea of thoughts , vvithout either finding bottome or shore . And after I had run over all the pedigree of my thoughts , new thoughts possessed me . Weighing her resolutions by the counterpoise of his own youthfull thoughts . Using his own Bias to bowle neer the Mistress of his own thoughts . Words may be said to be a kind of body to thoughts . Montagu . My thoughts supplied the place of sacrifices . My very thoughts , I hope , are wing'd with innocence . Vanity . VAnity at this day opens all her gates to manif●st divers men to the vvorld , vvho should otherwise be buried in obscurity . It makes some app●ar ●y the luxurious excess of th●ir apparel , as so many ●●le creatures , whose heads ( being high & costly dressed up ) go to the market of idle love . Others by the riches and pomps of the world , others by honors and dignities , others by the spirit of industry , and others by deeds of arms and policy . Every one sets out himself to be seen and esteemed in the world . It seems that life is made for nothing , but to be shewed , and that we should always live , for that which makes us dye . Holy Court. Vertue . VErtue ( like the clear heaven ) is without C●ouds . He ●●●●me ●er servant by the bonds , which vertue laid ●pon him . Vertue● ( if his face be not a false witness ) do apparel his minde . — Formed by nature and framed by education to the true exercise of vertue . — Mindes , vvhich neither absolutely climb the ●●●k of vertue , nor fre●ly sink into the sea of vanity . — She , ( in whose minde ve●tue governed with the scept●● of knovvledge . ) — — She , to whose unstained vertue , it hath been my unspeakable misery , that my name should be become a blot . — ( Far engaged to the memory of your vertues . ) — Vertue is the tenure , by which we hold of heaven : without this we are but Outlaws , that cannot claim protection . Feltham . Vertue ha●h nothing to do with the vail of untruths to cover it . Vertue is as the Geometrical Cube , on what side soever it is cast , it always finds his Basis . Vertue and grace ●un parallel with heaven . Women Commended . WOmen , being of one and the self same substance with man , are what man i● , only so much more imperfect , as they are created the weaker vessel● . — She , whose vertue deserves to be consecrated with a pen of adamant in the Temple of Eternity , since she is able to dazle the eyes of the most hardy , to fill the mouthes of the most eloquent , and ravish the mindes of those , who admire no vulgar things . H.C. A●k Sense what she is : Sense will tell us , Her face is the unclouded welkin in the infancy of day ; her eyes the Sun and Moon that sleep by turns , lest they should leave the world in darkness : her tongue the harmony of Spheres and Nature : her breasts heavens milkly way , spangled with azure stars : her arms Castor and Pollux : her other parts because of ●ower function , are but the Symmetry of all the beauties of her sex : she is too much first to have any second , from the third , fourth and fifth form of women , from a million or all of them , you may take some peece of her , not all , for she her self is the All. Ask Reason what she is : Reason will tell you , she is her Directress , that she keeps the elements at peace within us : our fire she confines to religious zeal , and suffers it not to enflame either to lust or supersti●ion : our watry element she hath designed to quench unlawful flames , &c. — Ask faith what she is : Faith will tell you , she hath yours and mine , and an hundred other souls in one soul , &c. — Were there , or were there no night : yet were she an everlasting day . Were there none bad : yet were she unparalleledly good . Were there any or none to be compar'd to her : yet vvere she superlative . All of her is an eaven proportion of extreams . Heroinae . — Those eyes more eloquent then all Rhetorick , that would raise an Anchoret from his grave , and turn the Feind Fury , into the Cherubin Pitty — Those vvhite and red Roses ( vvhich no rain , but vvhat fell from those heavenly eyes ) could colour or sweeten . Those lips that stain the rubies , and make the roses blush , those lips that command the scarlet coloured morn into a cloud to hide his shame : That breath , vvhich makes us all Chamaelions , should be vvasted into unregarded sighes : Those breasts eternally chaste and vvhite as the Aples : those legs , columns of the fairest Parian ma●ble , columns that support this monument of all pens , — her skin , smooth as the face of youth , soft as a bed of violets , white as the Queen of innocence , sweet as bean blossoms after rain , &c. — She , shaking off those glorious loads of state , retired from the crowding tumults of the Court , into a solitary and truly happy Country-condition , there to spin out her thred of life ●● her homely distaff , where we will leave her a verier wonder , then the Phoenix in the desart , the alone paragon of all peerless perfections . Her actions ( so above the Criticism of my purblinde judgment ) I am not able to comprehend , much less contradict or controvert . — You are the beauty of the world , the pride of all joys , the sweetest fruit of best content , and the highest mark of true loves ambition . To her alone , it appeared , that heaven with a hand rather prodigal then liberal , would give what it had of most value in the rich treasury of nature Stratonica . Women are Angels , clad in flesh . The Roman Story ( big with variety of wonder ) writes Lucretia the female glory . She was natures fairest paper , not compounded of the rags of common mortality , but so searsed and refined , that it could receive no impression , but that of spotless innocence . — Her. Where'ere she comes , her presence makes perpetual day . — They discovered A. ( the rich triumph of nature ) and in her as much as the world could boast of . Her eyes inviting all eyes , her lips all lips , her face loves banquet , where she riots in the most luxuriant feast of sense : — She was the model of divine perfection . — A flock of unspeakable vertues , laid up delightfully in that best builded fold . In this , a very good Orator might have a fair field to use eloquence . Her eyes seemed a Temple , wherein love and beauty were married . — So many things united in perfection . She hath an easie melting lip , a speaking eye . Venus compar'd to her was but a blowz . As you are to me a Venus , and strike a warm flame in me , so you are Diana too , and do infuse a chaste , religious coldness . Amorous war. I stand before you like stubble before a burning glass , your eyes at every glance convert me into flame . Her voyce was no less beautiful to his ears , then her goodliness was full of harmony to his eyes . Thy heavenly face is my Astronomy , thy sweet vertue , my sweet Philosophy . You are the Diamond of the world , the chief work of natures workmanship . The patern of perfection , and the quintessence of worth . Your fair forehead is a field where all my fancies fight , and every hair of your head seems a strong chain that ties me . You are the ornament of the earth , the vessel of all vertue . — With so gracious a countenance , as the goodness of her minde had long exercised her unto . — She , whose many excellencies won as many hearts , as she had beholders , nature making her beauty and shape , but the most fair Cabinet of a far fai●er minde . There 's musick in her smiles . A mart of beauties in her visage meet . — A woman in whom vertue was incorporated , goodness ( which comes to others by study ) seemed hers by nature . — You ( the type of my felicity ) to whom all hearts , respects , hopes , fears and homages are sacrificed . — Her countenance was too sweet , her speech too proper , her deportments too candid , to cover so b●ack a mischief . — She took hearts captive , and made them do vassalage and homage to ●er will. — Where they found A. accompanied vvith other Ladies , amongst vvhom her transcendent beauty and incomparable vertues , made her shine with as much superiority , as a star of a g●eater magnitude exceeds in splendor the less●●●●minaries of its own Spheare . Her haire seemed to stand in competition with the beams of the Sun. — She , whose rare qualities , whose courteous behaviour without curiosity ; whose comely f●ature , without fault ; whose filed speech , without fraud , hath wrapped me in this misfortune . Eupheus . Nature framed her to be the object of thoughts , The love of hearts , the admiration of souls . This is she , who is singularly priviledged fr●m heaven with beauties of body , but incomparably heightned vvith gifts of the mind . Such is her learning , that she transcends men in their best faculties . She , — this bright morning Star , alwayes bears in the rays thereof , joy , comfort , &c. She was able to enthrall a●l hearts with so many supereminent excellencies , as heaven had conferred upon her . She had a strong and pleasing spirit , a s●lid piety , an a●akened wisdome , an incomparable grace to gain ●earts to her devotion . H.C. Nature in her promiseth nothing but goodness . He could not sufficiently admire the vivacity of her spirit , the solidity of her judgement , the equity ●f h●r counsels , and the happiness which ordinarily accompanied her resolutions , H.C. She gained hearts by sweetness , therein imitating the Sun , which neither breakes Dores nor Windows to enter into houses ; but penetrates very peaceably with the benignity of his favourable b●ams . The eye and tongue of this creature mutually divided his heart , at one and the same instant love surprized him by the eyes and ears . Endowed vvith an admirable grace and singular beauty , to serve even as an Adamant to captivate hearts . Fair as the Firmament , vvhich vve see enamelled with so many starres , that resplendently shine , as Torches lightned before the Altars of the Omnipotent . — ●he vvho vvas the Adamant of all loves . — A Lady , vvhose eyes vvil make a Souldier melt , if ●e were compos'd of marble , vvhose very smile hath a magnetick force to draw up souls , vvhose voy●e vvill charm a Satyr , and turn a mans prayer into ambition , make a Hermite run to Hell , &c. Gr. Serv. — Whose exquisite beauty was so beautified vvith rarest vertues , that men honored Nature as a God in her perfections , and held her more then a Woman in her veru●s . Par. & Vienna . — She vvhose beauty vvas far fairer then the evening Star , and vvhose vertue vvas more powerful 〈…〉 greatest C●nstellati●n . The renown of her att●active vertues , and the vertue of h●r moving per●ections ha●h so captivated my freest thoughts , that , vvondring at her same , I am wounded with fancy , and my desire is — I would vvillingly here draw to the life the Portraiture of this Lady , if my black Ink vvere not too unfit a colour to set forth a celestiall beauty . You have far more perfections then years , and more inward excellence then extern beauty , yet so beautifull , as few so fair , though none more vertuous . She had a mind of excellent composition , a piercing wit voyd of ostentation , high erected thoughts , seated in a heart of courtesie , an eloquence as sweet in the uttering , as slow to co●e to the uttering , a behaviour so noble , as gave a Majesty to adversity . Arcadia . — Shee 's a Virgin happy in all endowments vvhich a Poet could fancy in his Mistress , being her selfe a School of goodness , vvhere chaste maids may learn ( without the aids of foraign principles ) by the example of her life and pureness , to be ( as she is ) excellent . I but give you a bri●f Epitome of her vertues , vvhich dilated on at large , and to their merit , vvould make an ample story . Were all her other graces worn in clouds , That eye , that very eye would charm a Lucrece . Her name ( like some celestiall fire ) quickens my spirits . I never knew vertue and beauty meet in a sweeter nature . Thou art a virgin sweet , so pretious in thy frame , that with the cordage of thy hair , thou mightst have fettered Kings . Thy voyce has mar'd the beauties of the night ; when thou did●t sing , the quiet stars would wink and fall assee . I could gaze on her , till my wonder did convert me into marble , and yet my s●ul would in her self retain a fire , lively , as that which bold Prometheus stole . Madam ! you are so large a Theam to treat of , and every grace about you off●rs to me such Copie of language , that I stand doubtfull which first to touch at ; if I erre ( as in my choyce I may ) let me intreat you , before I offend , to sign my pa●d●n . Wh●ther we consider her face or beauty , pleasi●gness ( that charms hearts ) and sweet majesty have spent all their riches upon her . Ariana . She breathes forth nothing but the sweets of love The eyes are the wonders of the face , and dark figures ●f Divinity ; we may call them too the Dials ●f love , which fastned on the wall of a countenance , shew with the stile of their looks , the minutes of hours , either happy or unhappy to Lovers . Fame , which is accustomed to increase the desert of every thing it would commend , hath been constrained to diminish yours , being impossible to be published according to the greatness of it . It is a mark of great vertue not to be able to endure to be commended . She was crown'd with a garland of odoriferous flowers , and her delicate hair in tresses , falling upon a neck of snow , did set forth the beauties of this divine face , whose splendor dazled mens eyes so , that there was not any one that could support unwound●d the sight of so many wonders . Lesser lights borrow beams of radiance from your great●r Orb , which doth illumine and heat our N●rt●ern cly●e with celestiall ardors . Ho. Court. Madam , if the duty ( which commands me to serve all Ladies ) did not ordain me this obedience , your birth and so many ●air qualities I see in you , oblige me to it . Ariana . — My eye of contemplation was fixed on this bright Sun , as long as it was able to endure the radiant beams of it , wh●se redundant light ve●les the looker on with a dark mist . Sir K.D. I esteem , reverence and adore you in the most secret and recluse withdrawings of my heart . — Her face did shine with so great evidence , as it defied the noon-tide Sun in its greatest brightnesse . Albeit Medea were wicked , yet Penelope was peerless ; If Clytemnestra were naught , yet Alcestes was passing good : If Phaedra were damnable , yet there was another laudable . Camd. Rem . — She had the spirit of a man in a feminine body . She 's a burning mirror , in which all the beams of beauty are united . She is the Star , by whom my Fate is led . — Modest she was , and so lovely , that whosoever look'd but stedfastly upon her , could not but-soul himself in her . Feltham . Her eyes , swift , as the shoots of lightning , nimbler then thought , and bright as the polisht Diamond . — She is of so specious a glory , that though she need not the applause of any , to add to her happiness , yet she attracts the hearts of all that know her , to love , service , admiration . To apparell any more in these paper vestments , I should multiply impertinents , and perhaps displease . For I have ever found face commendation to dye wisdoms cheeks of a blush-colour . — All lips are opened with singular prerogatives in honour of this Lady , and are all dried up in the abundance of her praises . In her person alone , a plenitude of all perfections does inhabit . H.C. In her , all the most delicious attractives of beauty , and the most conspicuous characters of power , are assembled together . This Aglae was a Roman Dame of prime quality , having a delicate wit in a beautifull body , and powerfull passions in a great fortune . She had been married , but becoming a widow in an age , as yet furnished with verdant freshness , grace and beauty , she had not buried all her affections in the Tomb of her husband . After she had a little wiped away the first tears , which nature exacts as tribute in such like accidents , she quickly plaid so much the Courtier in her slight sorrow , that she seemed greatly to desire , as soon as might be , to finish what she had never well begun . Holy Court. But by successe of time she felt her passion so much enkindled towards him , that she neither thought , spake , nor liv'd , but for him . The fair Aretaphila inflames all hearts with the musick of her voyce ; myriads of joys are in her looks , her eyes are natures richest Diamonds , set in foils of polisht Ebony , her breath expires Odors more sweet then issued from the trees of Balm in Paradise , Argal. & Parth. — She — upon whose meanest thought the Art of memory 's grounded , and inspires each Organ of our meditating sense with their perfections merit . Ibid. She , in whom the sum and abridge of all sorts of excellencies are met , like paralels in their proper center . Herb. Travails . — Whose listning ears were well pleased with the sweet harmony of her well-tun'd words , and whose liking eyes were ravish'd with the sight of her perfections . — She — the ornament of the earth , the modell of heaven , the triumph of Nature , the life of beauty , the Queen of love . Her action was beautified by nature , and apparell'd with skill ; her gesture gave such a way unto her speech , through the rugged wilderness of his imaginations , that — Her voice represented the heavenly seven-sphear'd harmony . Such an extraordinary Majesty shines in all her actions , as surely either Fortune by parentage , or Nature in creation hath made her — Pilgrimes , who come from the remotest confines of the world , cannot see any thing in all the affluent wealth thereof , comparable to her . Insomuch that I wish all the members of my body were changed into tongue , and that I were nought but voyce , to be throughout the whole Universe , the trumpet of her praises . H.C. Her gracious soul hath more Antidote in it , then all the world hath poyson , which will therfore in her affliction make her like the Sun , which shewes his greatest countenance in his lowest declension , and bring her out of it , lik● gold out of the fire , refined , not consumed . Lost . Sh. My prayer shall be , That your Fortune may surmount your greatness , and your vertue your fortune ; that your greatnesse may be above envy , your goodnesse above detraction : that your illustrious example may darken the ages past , and lighten them to come ; that you may live beloved , and die lamented , lamented by earth , but joy'd by heaven , &c. She suffer'd no mutiny of passions against reason , nor of reason against God. She resolved to work with perspective Glasses , of d●fferent , yea and even c●ntrary kindes ; for when she described her own v●rtues , she served he●self● of a Diminishing Glasse , which made them seem so little , as to be no more th●n a kind of nothing , But on the other side , when she gave account of her imperfections , she would by no means know them , by any other name then of Vices and Sins , because she took a Multiplying glasse to her self , lest else those Mole-hils should not seem mountains . Sir Tob. Mat. in his preface to S. Teresa's life . You must give me leave to adjourn you ( for more ample satisfaction of this expectation ) to those drops , which I may perhaps both be able and willing to derive and draw out of the Sea of her perfections , &c. Ib. I shall onely say in very few words ( by way ( as it were ) of antepast , till the Feast come in ) that she had a heart as open as day , in the exercise of bounty ; But above all things , she was so perfect a lover of Truth , that she would no more have even so much as but disguised it , and much lesse varied from it in the least kind , then she would have sold her self for a slave , &c. Ib. I le assure you this Elogium has no more in it , of the Panegyrick , then of the just praise ; I am rather her debtor then her creditor herein . She puts that in execution , which turns nature into admiration . — She , whose two eyes were the Suns that rul'd my day , and to whom onely her absence did make night ; she whose mild vertue and beauteous looks , were a soft , visible musick , which entranc'd the lookers ●n , and struck harmonious raptures into every chaft soul , and instilled pure fires into every unchast , &c. Amor. War. A pretty smile made a kind of day-break in her face . She is wholly made of charm . — She is the star that rules my faculties . Women discommended . LOose Women are whoups , proud birds , which have nothing but crest , and naturally delight in ordure ; they are Bats which cannot endure one little ray of light , but seek to hide themselves under the mantle of night ; they are Horseleeches , which draw blood from the veins of a House and State , where they exercise their power . They are Syrens of the earth , which cause shipwracks without water . They are Lamiae , who have Hosteries of cut-throats , that kill men under pretext of good usage . They are Harpies , who surprize even from Altars , and in the end become envenomed Dipsades , which enforce an enraged thirst upon those , whom they have once bitten . Ho. Court. A woman without devotion is like a Bee without a sting , which will make neither honey nor wax ; is a case covered with pretious stones , to preserve a dunghill . The tongues of women are like the bells of the Forrest Dodona , which make a prodigious jangling ▪ O God! What a dangerous beast is the spirit of a woman ! It is able to create as many monsters in essence , as fantasie can form in painting . No Owle will live in Creet : In Rhodes no Eagle will build her nest ▪ no wit spring in the will of women . It is an infinite simplicity to commit secrets to a woman , whose heart is as fit to keep what it out to conceal , as a Sieve to hold water . — As well may I collect the scattered wind into a bag , or from the watery surface scrape the guilt reflections of the Sun , as bring her heart within the quiet list of wives that will obey and love . Incestuous strumpet ! more wanton then Lamia , more lascivious then Lais , and more shameless th●n Pasophane ; whose life as it hath been shadowed with painted holiness , so hath it been full of pestilent villanies . Her Carcasse ( a better name I can hardly afford her outside ) was the inside of a Sepulcher , her head was unth●cht as an old Parsonage , her eyes ( like lights at the last snuff , when the extinguisher is ready to make their Epitaphs ) sunk low into their Candlesticks ; her ears , now deaf , now happy , ( such was her tongue ) they have lost their sense , her nose worm'd like a piece of Homer of the first bind , offended with her breath , bowed to her chin to dam it up ; her cheeks hol'd , as the earth in Dog ▪ days drowth ; her lips fit to be kist by none but themselves ; her teeth rotten as her soul , hollow as her heart , loose as the shingles of an old silenc'd steeple , scragged as a disparked pale , stood at that distance one could not bite another ; her tongue , so weakly guarded , scolds like the Alarm of a clock ; her chin was down'd with a China beard of twenty hairs , her breast lank as a quick-sand , wasted as an hourglasse at the eleventh use ; one arm , one leg , one foot she doff'd with day , and , as a resurrection , don'd with the morrow ; her bones ( pithless as a stallion for seven posterities ) the slightest fears might now make rattle in her skin ; her body ( wasted to no waist , blasted with lust , as an Oke with lightning ) was as familiar with diseases as a Physitian : To conclude , she is odious beyond all comparison : one sight of her would make the heat of youth recoyl into an infant continence . Heroinae . The look of a lascivious woman is like that of a Basili●k , which kils Chastity by beholding it . Diogenes snarled bitterly , when ( walking with another ) he spyed two women talking , and said , See , the Viper and the Asp are changing poyson . Feltham . No Weather-cock under heaven is so variable as an inconstant woman : Every breath of wind forces her to a various shape : As if her mind were so neer a kin to air , as it must with every motion , be in a perpetuall change . Idem . Women are feathers blown in the bluster of their own loose passions , and are meerly the dalliance of the flying winds . There are that account women onely as Seed-plots for posterity : others worse , as only quench for their fires . Our daily experience teacheth us , that there are women very crafty , and such as under a pure and delicate skin , with a tongue distilling hony , often hide the heart of a Panther , all spotted over with subtilty , as the skin of this beast with diversity of colours . H. Court. — Women are more inconstant then light Whirlwinds ; trust the Sea with feathers , or March winds with dust rather , and let their words , oaths , tears , vows passe ▪ as words in water writ or slippery glasse . Arg. & Parth. No Hell so low which lust and women cannot lead unto . Her tongue is like the sting of a Scorpion . A Woman is the unnecessary Parenthesis of Nature . VVorld . THis word ( World ) called in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifi●s as much as ornament , or a well dispos●d order of things . The exterior luster of the world , is but a cloud in painting , a petty vapour of water , a Fable of Time , a Diall , &c. He that wil now-a-days live in the world , must have a veil over his eyes , a key on his eare , a compass on his lips . This world is a chain , which setters men to the ●ivel● ; but rep●ntance is the hand which lifts 〈◊〉 up to God. He that is enamored of the world , is like one ●hat enters into the sea ; for if he escape perils , men wi●l say he is fortunate , but if he perish , they will say he is wilfully deceived . If it be needfull to shew your self to the world , 〈◊〉 then known by your vertues , which are Characters of the Divinity . Let men know you by your good examples , which are the seeds of eternity , and of all fair actions . Sir B B. I have ever thought the prosperity of the world was a current of ●resh water , which looks not back on any thing , but hastens to pour it self into the salt sea . H.C. The world 's a Theater of theft , great rivers rob the smaller brooks , and them the Ocean . Youth . I Have throughly sifted the disposition of youth , wherein I have found more bran then meale , more dough then leven , more rage then reason . Eup. Wine , Love , Play , Rashness were the Chariot which drew his youth to downfall . — Constrained to obey the transport of youthfull fancies . Let me call to mind all the violent pleasures of my heady youth : let me sum up their extent , according to those deceitfull measures I then rated happiness by : let me in my fancy chew over again the excessive good I then fondly imagined in them : And to all this let me add as much more joy and felicity , as , in my weak thoughts I am able to fadom , or but aim at ; and then let me say , ( and with rigorous truth I shall say it ) all this excess of bliss will be resumed , will be enjoyed to the full in one indivisible moment , of that bliss , which a well passed life in this world , shall bring me to in the next . Sir K.D. in his Treatise of Bodies . — So as vvhosoever he be , to vvhom Fortune hath been a servant , and the time a friend , let him but take the account of his memory ( for wee have no other keeper of our pleasures past ) and truly examine vvhat it hath reserved either of beauty or youth , or fore gone delights ; vvhat it hath saved , that it might last , of his dearest affection , or of vvhat-ever else the amorous spring-time gave his thoughts of contentment , then unvaluable ; and he shall find that all the Art , which his elder years have , can draw no other vapours out of these dissolutions , then heavy , secret , and sad sighs . He shal find nothing remaining but those sorrows vvhich grow up after our fast-springing youth , overtake it , vvhen it is at a stand , and overtop it utterly , vvhen it begins to wither , &c. S. Walt. Rawl . in Preface . The harvest of his sins yeelded him now more increase of vvoes , then the lusts of his youth afforded him pleasures . Formulae Minores , OR , LITTLE FORMS For Style or Speech . — HE , having waded thus far into the depth of his awaked intentions , thought good to sound the Foord at full , by — He took opportunity by the fore-part , and ( imprisoning his worthy resolution within the Closet of his secret thought● ) did — He summon'd his wits together , and set them all on the Rack of Invention . Violent streams being once run out , the mud will appear in the bottom — Doubt ( the Herse of my desires ) — To Seal the Deed of my purchased favour , is the Gordian knot I most wish to unloose . — Who ( during these tempestuous storms ) lay at anchor in his own priv●t harbour . To weave the web of his own wo , and spin the thread of his own thraldom . I vvish he vvould repaire hither , that the sight of him might mitigate some part of my martyrdom . Assure your self I 'le be your finger next your thumb . He erected Trophies of his own dishonor , and covered his ulcer with a golden veil . — Like Elia's Chariot , all flaming with glory . O that the Odors of my Sacrifices might ascend even to thy Altars ! Your mind 's a shop , where all good resolutions are forg'd . Our understanding is the steel and our will the flint-stone : as soon as they touch one another , we see the sparks of holy affection flye out . — It bloometh in the eyes , that it may at leasure blossom in the heart That I may see some sparkles of hope glimmer in my affairs . To gnaw the bridle of your impatience . He felt fiery arrow● flye from her eyes , so sharp , that they transfixed his heart with compassion . Love , anger , jealousie , suspition , drew him with four horses . — As innocently spoken , as treacherously interpreted . They murmured as do the waves of a mutinous Sea. Exercise the vivacity of your wit. In a vast Ocean of affairs , he hath liv'd as fishes , who keep silence within the loud noyse of waves , and preserve their plump substance fresh in the brackish waters . He sheltred himself with subtilties , as a Hedge hog with his quils . To behold , ( as in the glasse of a bright mirror ) on the one side — on the other — As soon as break of day drew the Curtain of Heaven — Virginity is as redolent Balm , which ascends to Heaven in a perpetuall sacrifice . Religion is the hive where the hony of good Doctrine is made . He put them in the furnace of tribulation to purifie them . O what may not depraved love do , since sincere amity cannot avoid suspition ? — Comforted with the sweet rays of this bright day-break . — Which hath been sufficiently declared by the sequell of his deportments . She had not so much hony , but withall a sting . — He so breath'd the air of ambition , that — To as little purpose as to cast chains into the Sea , to tie the Ocean in fetters . It was but dust he bare in his hands , blown away by the wind of presumpti●n . She sent it as an earnest of her comma●d . — He returned amply laden with victorious palms . — He went daily hunting after change , in the infinity of forbidden loves . I shal● offer my homage at your Altar . Ponds that are seldom scoured , will easily gather mud ; So — Your heart is the Altar of love , and seat of friendship . Upon my Virgin heart I 'le build a flaming Altar to offer up a thankfull sacrifice for his return . My heart shall know no other love but his . Let Venus speed his plow. He received it at her hands with more content then Paphos Queen did the golden fruit . Let patience conduct thee out of this stormy sea into a more quiet Port. How canst thou be a stranger to my purposes , that art the Treasurer of my secrets ? That I may disperse those terrifying clouds , that threa●en shipwrack to my desires . To ●east his eyes , and to paradise his heart with the beloved sight of his all-admired and affected mistress . His muddy-clouded affection eclipsed the Sun-shine of her far more glorious worth . Casting his eye ( the Messenger of his heart ) upon — Seest not thou these Trophies erected in his honor , and his honour shining in these Trophies ? In vain it is to water the plant , the root being perished : or to — I here vow repay to the debt of my error , with the interest of all my endeavours . — I will not adventure my fortune upon the rock of this hazard . My business ( Lady ) is your vvill ; my suit , your service ; your service , my chief desire ; and my desire , your favourable contenance . Your suit shall n●t be non ▪ suit . They knit two hearts in one , and parted one will in two , and so departed . During these Halcion dayes , — ●e ●ailed in a ship with●ut a stern . Happy in my self , because happy in you . — Sailing with as many contrary thoughts , as E●lus sent out winds upon the Trojan Fl●et . He saw the cloud a farre off , before the storm fell . She ( great with child with the expectation of her friends welfare ) longed to be delivered with the notice of his health . I cannot use many words , where every vvord wounds me with a new carefull conceit , and every conceit kils me with a fearfull doubt . He set up the main sail of his obscured glory , in the wind of her mill . Who ( smoothing the angry furrows of his discontment ) seemed — She gave fire to his fancy . What ominous cloud shadows the brightnesse of this second Sun , that she appears not in her all-admired glory . — His wasted words died in their own sound , and all his hopes were utterly shipwrack'd . — She gave fuell to his enraged will , and blew the coals of his displeasure . Her restraint is ( I fear ) like fire raked up in embers , that covertly will kindle , and openly burst forth into a flame . — He ( whose senses held now a Synod ) vvas driven to such an exigent , that ( not knowing how to avoid the Check without a Mate ) vvas perforce forced to — My Fortunes admit of no such Soveraignty . Who , swelling vvith irefull disdain ( like the disturbed Ocean ) breathed out dire●ull rerenge . — He craved pardon till the infancy of his weak merit were grown stronger in better deserts . That I vvrite to thee , may be thy glory , and that I love thee , let it be thy happiness . If thou wilt live like the King of Bees , seek h●ny at my hive . — Drowning the late flowing streams of his gotten glory in the full Sea of his preterhand haps . His unwished presence gave my tale a conclusion , before it had a beginning . I vvould her injury could blot out mine affection , or mine affection could forget her injury . Reverence and desire did so divide him , that he did at one instant both blush and quake . — Unsealing his long silent lips — Happy in wanting little , because not desirous of much . His countenance vvith silent eloquence , desired it modestly . Beyond the degree of ridiculous . — But I fear I have given your ears too great a sur●et vvith the grosse discourse of that — Restraint of liberty causeth more increase of that evill , for vvhich they are so kept under , then otherwise : See vvhether a Dog grow not fiercer with tying . There is nothing so certain as our continuall incertainty . While there is hope left , let not the weakness of sorrow , make the strength of it languish . More determinate to doe , then skilfull how-to ▪ doe . Under the leave of your better judgement , I must say thus much — About the time that Candles begin to inherit the Suns office . — So●times he thought one thing , sometimes another ; but the more he thought the more he knew not vvhat to think , armies of objections rising against any accepted opinion . — Actions worthy to be registred in the Rolls of Fame . Occasions try'd him , and all occasions were but steps for him to climb fame by . — To loose the reins to his own motions . — My selfe am vvitnesse against my selfe of my own imperfections , and therefore will not defend them in me . To a heart fully resolute , counsell is tedious , but reprehension is loathsom . — And thus have you heard my Comedy , acted by my self . To you will I repair , because as my fortune either ebbs or flows , amends or impairs , I may declare it unto you . — Time at one instant seeming both short and long , short in the pleasingness in calling to mind , long in the stay of his desires . He talked with such vehemency of passion , as though his heart would climb up into his mouth to take his tongues office . Upon what Briers the Fruits he laboured for , grew . Idleness is an Ant-heap of sins . But alas , how can speech produce belief in him , whom sight cannot perswade ? I refuse not to make my life a sacrifice to your wrath . Exercise your indignation upon me . If your occasions can make use of my best endeavours , the employment shall be a favour . The hast of the bearer , admits no further liberty to proceed . Your desire is with me an absolute command . Thus far re hath your command and my duty led me . There is no man can better witness it then my self , whose experience is grounded upon triall . I have left nothing unsaid , which enquiry could make me know , or your command required of my duty . Give me leave to digress a little . I offer my weak and imperfect lines at the Altar of your favour . — Rapt with the wonder of your vertues . — Under the shadow of your favour . Silent admiration was the sole Orator of my affection . How much those lines ( sweetned with your Character ) have transported me , my endearest thoughts cannot impart unto you . Be it your goodness to beleeve me , I will sooner cease to live , then — — Him , who will hold himselfe unworthy of that life , vvhich shall not be employed to serve you . Your zeal to goodness assures me . No line can limit my love ; no distance divide my heart . — she appeared an Adamant to my fancy . As those easie errors ( which too deservingly bred your distaste ) may be redeemed by a fuller surplusage of content . Be it your piety to have mercy . Thou bringest hearbs to Jarak . i. Coals to Newcastle . Lines cannot blush ; so as modesty admits a freedom to my pen , which would be taxed immodesty being delivered by the tongue . She made me ( though most unworthy ) the master of her desires , that vvas , and still am , a servant to her will. — He ( vvhose smallest sails of hope , the least winds did blow . ) — After he had stretcht and tentred his wit , and set all possibilities on the rack of his invention . And longer may not I enjoy what I now possess , then you shal find my promises full laden with rich performances . And as I only breath by your favour , and live through your love ; so will I ever owe you sealty for the one , and still do you homage for the other . He read her discontentment in the deep Characters of her face . The angry Ocean swelled not , as he seemed to storm . The Imperious Mistres of my enthralled heart . To imprison in silence . How great soever my businesse be , it shall wilingly yeeld to so noble a cause . At that time ( when he thought the ship of his good fortune sailed vvith a prosperous wind towards the desired Port ) a contrary chance raised up in this calm Sea , such a tempestuous storm , that he feared a thousand times to see it sunk . — She vvho till then seemed to be a miracle of beauty , did now appear to be a monster of uglinesse . If you will raise me to that height of happinesse . They gave him the Parabien of his safe arrivall . Vouchsafe me your pardon for presuming , and your patience in accepting at my hands this — — This partly ( if the great arrerage of duty and thankfulness which I ow you , do not challenge priority ) hath moved me to present — I dare not give sail into the Ocean of your vast soul , vvhich is capable of all things from the highest to the lowest in perfection . Like a man whose heart disdained all desires but one Which authority ( too great a sail for so small a Boat ) did — He made his eyes quick Messengers to his mind . Betwixt her breasts ( vvhich sweetly rose up like two fair mountainers in the pleasant vale of Tempe ) ●ere hung — At vvhich the Clouds of my thoughts quite vanished . Blushing like a fair morning in May. Do you not see that this is a sallet of wormwood , vvhile mine eyes feed upon the Ambrosia of your beauty ? Here I make a full point of a hearty sigh . This promise bound him Prentice . He thought so much of , — that all other matters were but digressions unto him . ( Not spoken by Ceremony , but by truth ) — I am too unfit a vessel , in whom so high thoughts should be engraven . Thus was the riches of the time spent . Despair is the bellows of my affection . — As if his motions vvere chain'd to her look . — Whose name vvas sweetned by your breath . Most blessed paper , vvhich shall kisse that hand , vvhereto all blessednesse is in nature a servant , do not — ( Beautifying her face vvith a sweet smile . ) — Humbly besought her to keep her speech for a vvhile vvithin the paradice of her mind . If in my desire I wish , or in my hopes aspire , or in my imagination feign to my self any thing — — With all the conjuring vvords vvhi●h desire could endite , and authority utter . ( A new swarm of thoughts stinging her mind ) — Vouchsafe ( onely height of my hope ) to — I desire that my desire may be weighed in the ballances of Honor , and let Vertue hold them . — More or lesse according as the Ague of her passion , vvas either in the fit or intermission . His sports vvere such as carried riches of knowledge upon the stream of delight . Then she began to display the storehouse of her desires . — Perceiving the flood of her fury began to ebb , he thought it policy to take the first of the tide , — — ( Making vehement countenances the Ushers of his speech ) began — Hide my fault in your mercy . I 'le centinell your safety . Your words to me are Acts , your promises are Deeds . You wrap me up with wonder . Can your belief lay hold on such a miracle ? Her mind ( being an apt matter to receive what form his amplifying speeches would lay upon it ) danced so pretty a measure to his false musick , that — — Clouded with passion — Never did pen more quakingly perform his Office , never was paper more doubly moistned with ink and tears , never words m●re slowly married together — Fearing how to end , before he had re●ol●ed how to begin . — — Having the cold ashes of care cast upon the coals of his desire . — House . The seat Nature bestowed , but Art gave the building . It was hard to say , whether pitie of the one , or r●venge against the other , held as then the soveraignty in his passions . — 'T was a Magnes stone to his courage . His arm no oftner gave blows , then the blows gave wounds , then the wounds gave death . — Her hand ( one of the chiefest of Cupids firebrands ) — By the foolish Idolatry of affection . — ( When the morning had won the field of darkness ) I 'le sooner trust a Sinon . 'T is now about the noon of night . ( Too mean a Shrine for such a Relique . ) — — Carried by the tide of his imaginations — But when her breath broke the prison of her fair lips , and brought memory ( with his servant senses ) to his naturall office , then — I pray God make my memory able to contain the treasure of this wise speech — Her arms and her tongue ( Rivals in kindness ) embracing — Whilst the Roses of his lips made a Flower of affection with the Lilies of her hands . Your will ( directress of my destiny ) is to me a Law , yea an Oracle . She incorporated her hand with his . Then ( as after a great tempest ) the sky of her countenance cleared . As in a clear mirror of sincere good will , he saw a liv●ly picture of his own gladness . — In my mind ; as yet a Prentice in the painfull mystery of passions , brought me into a n●w traverse of my thoughts . I have not language enough to fadom the d●pth of your vertues I 'le reare a Pyramis to your memory . My want of power to satisfie so great a debt , makes me accuse my fortunes . Such endearments wil too much impoverish my gratitude . How can I commit a sacriledge against the sweet Saint that lives in my inmost Temple ? I am too weake a band to tye so heavenly a knot . The greatnesse of the benefit goes beyond all measure of thanks . While she spake , the quintescence of each word distilled down into his affected soul . Departing , he bequeathed by a will of words , sealed with many kisses , a full gift of all his love and life to — Having with a pretty palenesse ( which left milky lines upon her Rosie cheeks ) paid a little duty to humane fear . — — You , whom I have cause to hate , before I have means to know . I will not die in debt to mine own duty . — She , in whom nature hath accomplish'd so much , that — Imagine , vouchsafe to imagine — His fault found an easie pardon at the Tribunall he appealed to . — O my Dear , — ! said she , and then kist him , as loath to leave so perfect a sentence without a Comma . — Dearly purchasing the little ease of my body with the afflictions of my mind . I am not Oedipus enough to understand you . All things lye levell to your wishes . They began to imp the wings of time , with the Feathers of severall recreations . — When my wishes be at anchor in so secure a haven . You are the Life and Being of what I onely esteem happy . ( For the Heavens had made this the Rendezvouz where his misfortunes should meet ) — It is a fit soyl for praise to dwel upon . Thus great with child to speak — You ( the secretary of all my thoughts ) — Which ( as the Pole-star ) is ever in motion , but never setteth . — This is no Benefice , but a Malefice , a golden snare , a Carcanet of Medaea , a Trojan Horse , which will produce Arms — He went like a Torrent , whither passion transported him , and where the blast , of Ambition breathed . — More fruitfull in strong imaginations , then Religious in choyce of words , and polished in periods . Your words are full of cunning , your cunning of promises , your promises of wind . He is a Phaeton of pride . I 'le bosome what I think . She was the object of his thoughts , the entertainment of his discourse , the contentment of his heart . My happiness being in the wane , or my misfortune growing towards the full . From a Window he sent his soule unto me by his eyes — I remain impossibilited to do otherwise then — That so I may be raised from the ground of my misery to the heaven of my desire . — Esteeming more this instant of glory which I enjoy in seeing you , then any other happinesse saving that which is eternall . To deny me this favour , and give me my death , is one and the same thing , To wander in the America and untravelled parts of truth . He led our expectation into thoughts of great relief . Whetting his tender wit upon the sandy stone of her edging importunity — Let purpose be made servant to more apt opportunity . — Him , with whom compar'd , I am less then a shadow . — If I should expatiate upon this subject , I could not be held a flatterer , but rather a Suffragan to Truth , The onely Quint-essence , that hitherto the Alchymie of wit could draw out of — — But then , as though he had been suddenly ravish'd with divine afflation , and struck into a transport , he swears — We utterly conde●n and renounce ( as Atalanta's Apple , which retards the Race ) that unseasonable and childish humor of accelerating early pledges of new works . Bacon . — Rendred in an equal felicity of expression , to — It comes in , but Ex obliquo — — He died ( Sicca morte ) his own naturall death . — Forcibly carried away ( I know not by what Fate , against the bent of my own Genius ) to — Fortune hath somewhat of the nature of a woman , that if she be too much wooed , she is the further off . You out-shot me in my own Bow. Many strange and absurd imaginations cam● into his mind , and peopled his brain . Pardon my rude expressions , extorted from me by the nature of the matter . — This is indeed a service , whereunto I acknowledge my self able to b●ing more zeal and good affection , then any other abilities . ( Till these late years of frenzy ) — So we may both redime the fault passed , and with the same diligence provide against future inconveniencies . That every one may understand , I seek not to balk any thing by silence , or to cloud any thing by words . Bacon . Your bounty ( like a new Spring ) has reviv'd the Autumn of my years . — It took me up little more time , then Nature uses to bestow in the production of a Mushrome , a day and a night — — When this succeeded not , I travelled in my mind over . Thus like Noahs Dove , vvearying my self with flying up and down , and finding no rest for the sole of my foot , I was at last forced to — Cressy . What a world of inavoidable inconveniencies did presently throng into my understanding ! To bury a Fly in a Sepulcher of Amber . My desire to see , took away my sight , as it fares with those who are suddenly taken with a killing beauty , or gaze upon the Sun , Herb. Travels . — I plead guilty to unworthiness , and all the imperfections you can throw upon youth or hast . None can think so ill of me , as I do of my self , the rather that your pardon may flow freely , and work a kind of miracle upon me , in raising my dead thoughts to life . — Discovering my self nakedly , to my very thoughts . Be pleased therefore with your naturall benignity , to admit into your peaceful solitude this — ; a blessing which the Author ( alas ! ) dares not promise to himself , since by himself he is judged unworthy , and by others incapable of it . Cressy . I 'le rather doubt an Oracle , then question what you deliver . I will lead you through no more extravagancies , lest your intreated patience turn into exotick passion . Herb. Trav. You have endeavoured to make A. the Foyle , that should set off your brightness , and yet you prove but the cloud that darkens his light . To sail in the Aegean Sea. i. to be incumbred with difficulties . He ( being a man of an early , as well as an implacable malice ) did — A. was an Actor in that Tragedy , yet laid the blame on B. as the Cuckow lays her brood in other nests . I will at length put an end to this tedious ( but that it is so necessary ) a discourse — This ( if passion and interest doe not interpose ) will satisfie — In the strength of this wel-meaning , and holy kind of Error , which he incur'd ( if any error may well deserve so indulgent a name ) he did — — Driven too too hastily on by the impulse of a kind of inordinate humility . Sir. Tob. Mat. Preface . This which I promise shall be performed ( upon the price of being otherwise accounted an Infidell ) — Let me thrive as my intents are honest . When I compared that kind of descant with my plain song , I found — Such who have been cast over-board from Grace , into the storm and tempest of a sinfull life , may yet , &c. Intellectuals and morals , I count but as the simples of the soul . — To such ( if any be ) I heartily wish a procul it● . In these times ( wherein the Tongue and Presse assume so luxurious a latitude ) — He came ( as the Italian says ) a buóna luna , in a good hour , or happy time . A Cavallo a Cavallo . In post hast . Give me leave to fear ( and I heartily wish , that it may be a causlesse and mistaken fear ) that such — For divisions ( I speak it with depth of sadness ) he need not — — Taking this result of — as an opiate to allay the fumes of all our distempers . Montagu . — Carried away with the Whirlwind of Ambition — It did ( after the manner of the Tartars bow ) shoot back from whence it came . Bacon . The amazed Sun hid his face behind a mask of clouds . Be not too indulgent to your folly . I cannot cloath my thoughts in better language . The nights black mantle overspreads the sky . Your language is more dubious then an Oracle . — Then , when the Morns fair cheek had not yet lost her tears . Words are airy shades , they are deeds that please . Your heart is not confederate with your tongue . Night clad in black , mourns for the loss of day . The face is the Index of the mind . I am but coffin to my cares . As not by my assent , so neither by my silence , must I have any hand in the Midwifery of so monstrous productions . I will out-toyl the day for your content . I liftned for that string , and you have touch'd it — ( Affairs being drawn to the very dregs of malice ) — They are divided to so high a rivalry , as — By exquisite methods of cunning and cruelty , I must be compelled first to follow the Funerals of my honor , and then be destroyed . Icon. Basil . I am content so much of my heart should be discovered to the world , without any of those dresses or popular captations , which some men use in their Speeches and Expresses . The highest tide of successe set me not above a treaty , nor the lowest ebb below a fight . A little leven of new distast , doth commonly sowre the whole lump of former merits . Bacon Hen. 7. These lines ( the weak and feminine issue of my sick and distempered age ) — Bp. Londons Legacy . But above all remember ( and let this be still rivited in your thoughts ) the time — A Christian mans care ought to begin and end in the circle of himself . Tu tibi primus & ultimus . Give me leave to unbreast the secrets of my thoughts to you . He undertakes to correct Magnificat . — The Fates of whose House they seem with great affection to espouse , and think with their bladders to buoy up his sinking ship . Nahash redivivus . With unblushing importunity . Sooner shall the Seas ebbing and flowing forsake the Moons course , then — But ( the better to enliven our discourse with examples ) My understanding's not so fraught with prejudice , nor acquainted with uncoth evasions , as to — — The trees are widowed of their leaves . — That Ember-week-fa●e of thine . Passed over , like great King Xerxes in a Sculler Thou bringest straw to Aphraim . To doubt of — is an effeminacy of belief . Ex abundanti amoris , out of the surplusage of love . — Sucking her sweet breath , determined in hims●lf there had been no life to a Camelions , if he might be suffered to enjoy that food . A little wealth shall suffice to put me in — safeguard against the accidents ●f a necessitous life . ( Surfeting in the pride of his 〈◊〉 content ) If I satisfie you I satisfie my selfe , desiring the one , because I wish for the other . The promise is great , but the performance shall be no lesse . His rudeness was interpreted plainnesse , though there be great difference between them . I will not leave a mark in my selfe of an unredeemable trespass . I with as much confidence as necessity , flye to you , who have always had your determinations bounded with equity . The abortive issue of my wit. — — That moves not within the Zodiack of my expectation . It hath turn'd my cordials into corrasives . — Seeing the glory of this sun to obscure the lesser lamp of his reputation . — Which alone was the center of her felicity . — Sealed by your solemn protestation , which is the non ultra of assurance . This is a syllogisme of the fourth figure , absurd and ridiculous . Get thee to bed , the casements of thine eyes are shut , imprisoning their dear light . Heaven has made your memory too humble thus to record your creatures service . — Protesting that the period of his obedience should be the end of his life . — Which the unseasonable sins of these seasons , make so seasonable . — Men , who leave the fountains of the living waters , and take themselves to cisterns of their own digging . I have by diligent search found ou● Ariadne's thread , to winde you out of the perplexed mazes of a subtile Daedalus . — Your eyes ( though now perhaps dimmed with ignorance , or bloud-shorten with passion ) shall plainly discern — — He left the rude lump of his begun projects to be licked over with the industry of — I have sacred this offertory of my thoughts to you . — Persons , whom the conscience of their guilt hurries on to despair . If the happy Daemon of Vlysses direct not the wandring Planet of my wit within the decent orb of wisdom ( my stammering pen seeming farre overgone with superfluity of phrase ) yet — — As delightfull as the delays of parting Lovers . Gond. Many months are now past , since my heart hath increased the number of your vassals . Strat. I speak this , but en passant . To finish the Sacrifice of your intemperate cruelty . — My pen hath been redundant , as to due measure , but very scanty as to the matter . When corruption of manners had ravish'd away the worlds virginity , and turn'd men from fervently devour in to a churlish and penurious tepidity ; then was it . — Though your goodness rejects no emanation of a grea● affection , yet — — Which are the Passe-temps of your severest hours . — I had rather your vertue should blush , then my unthankfulness make me ashamed . D. Taylor . I●structions for writing and addressing LETTERS , IN writing of Letters there may be four things regarded , the Invention ; the Fashion , or inditing ( as we call it ) ; the Hand-writing , and the Orthography ; though the two first are most considerable . Invention ariseth from your business , whereof there can be no Rules of more c●rtainty , or precepts of better direction given , then conjecture may lay down of the severall occasions of all mens particular lives and vocations . But sometimes men make business of kindness ; As , I could not satisfie my self , till I had discharged my remembrance , and charged my Letters with commendations to you . My business is no other but to testifie my love to you , and to put you in mind of my willingness to do you any service : Or , have you leasure to descend to the remembrance of that assurance you have long had in me ; and upon your next opportunity to make me happy with any imployment , you shall assign me , &c. or such like words , which go a begging for some meaning , and labour to be delivered of the great Burden , Nothing . When you have invented , if your business be matter , and not bare form , not meer ceremony , but of some concern , Then you are to proceed to the ordering it , and digesting the parts , which is sought out of two circumstances : One is the understanding of the reasons to whom you write ; the other is the coherence of the matter ; for mens capacity and delight , you are to weigh what will be apprehended first with greatest attention and pleasure , what next regarded & longed for especially , and what last will leave most satisfaction , & as it were the sweetest relish & memorial of all that is past in his understanding to whom you write . For the consequence of sentences , you must see that every clause do as it were give the cue to the other and seem to be bespoken ere it come , order & coherence in writing being that fire of Prom●theus , without which all our works would appear inanimate . Now for Fashion , it consists in four qualities of your Style . The first is Brevity ; For Letters must not be Treatises or d●scourses , except it be amongst learned men , and even amongst them there is a kind of thrift and saving of words . You are therefore to examine the clearest passages of your understanding , and through them to convey the sweetest and most significant English words you can devise , that you may the easier teach them the readiest way to another mans fancy , and to pen it fully , smoothly , and distinctly ; so as the Reader may not think a second view cast away upon your Letters . In eff●ct , th● goodness of words is , as the foundation of all Eloquence ; and he said well , who compared them to garments , that were invented for necessity , yet did also serve for ornament . But though respect be a part after this , yet must I here remember it . If you write to a person , with whose condition and humor you are well acquainted , you may be the bolder to set a ●ask to his brain . If to your superior , you are bound to measure in him three further points ; First , your Interest in him ; secondly , his capacity of your Letters ; thirdly , his leasure to peruse them . For your interest , or favour with him , you are to be the shorter or longer , more familiar or submiss , as he will afford you time . For his Capacity , you are to be quainter , or fuller of those reaches or glances of wit or learning , according to his comprehension ; For his leasure , you are commanded to the greater brevity , as his place is of greater discharges and cares . With your betters , you are not to put Riddles of wit , by being too niggardly of your words , nor to cause the trouble of making Breviats , by writing too copiously , or wastingly . Brevity is attain'd upon the matter , by avoiding idle complements , prefaces , protestations , long Parentheses , supplications , wanton circuits of Figures , and digressions , by composition , omitting conjunctions , Not onely but also , the one and the other , whereby it comes to passe , &c. and such like particles , that have no great business in a serious Letter ; By breaking off sentences ; as oftentimes a short journey is made long by many baits . But as Quintilian saith , There is a briefness of the parts sometimes , that makes the whole long ; As , I came to the stairs , I took a pair of Oares , they lanched out , rowed apace , I landed at Westminster , I paid my Fare , went to the Parliament House , asked for a Member , I was admitted . All this is , but I went to Westminster , and spake with my friend . Under this Notion somewhat may be said of Periods , which ought not to bee too long , nor yet too short , QVO MAGIS VIRTVS , EO MAGIS MEDIETAS . All vertue consists in a certain Geometricall mediocrity , equally distant from excess and default . Some Writers have prescribed a Period not to exceed that length which a man may well pronounce in a breath . There ought likewise to be a speciall regard had to the cadence of the words , that the whole contexture of the Period may yeeld a certain kind of harmony to the ear ; for Longinus says , The true sounds and tones of Periods may be compared to a great Feast made up of many dishes , The next property of Epistolary Style , is , Perspicuity , which is not seldom endangered by the former quality . Brevity oftentimes by affectation of some wit , or ostentation of some hidden termes of Art , is ill angled for ; few words darken speech , and so do too many ; as well too much light hurts the eyes , as too little ; and a long Bill of Chancery confounds the understanding as much as the shortest note . Therefore let not your letter be pen'd like an English Statute , and be sure to avoid fungous words , and empty inflations ; which may best be done by considering your business , and distinctly understanding your self ; and this will be much furthered by examining your thoughts , and exposing them as well to the light and judgment of your own outward senses , as to the censure of other mens ears . 'T is for want of this consideration that many good Scholers speak but faltringly , like a rich man that for want of particular note and difference , can bring you no ware readily out of his shop . By this means talkative shallow men sometimes content the hearers more then the wise . But this may find a speedier redress in writing , where all comes under the last examination of the Eyes . First , mind it well , then pen it , then examine it , then amend it , and you may be in the better hope of writing accurately . Under this vertue may come Plainness , which is , not to be too curious in the order ; as to answer a Letter , as if you were to answer Interrogatories , To the first , first , to the second , secondly ; But in the method , to use as Ladies do in their attire , a diligent kind of negligence ; NON ENIM ELOQVENTIAM EX ARTIFICIO , SED ARTIFICIVM EX ELOQVENTIA NATVM , says Cicero . And Longinus hath this excellent observation , That Art does then appear perfect , when she can scarce be distinguished from Nature her self . And though with some men you are not to jest , or practise capricio's of wit ; yet the delivery of the most weighty and important matter , may be carried with such an easie grace , as it may tickle the fancy of the Reader , and yeeld a recreation to the Writer , as Plato observes , lib. 6. de Legib. There must be variety , but not excess of terms , as if you are to name store , sometimes you may call it choyce , sometimes plenty , sometimes copie , or variety , But ever so , as the word that comes in . lieu , have no such difference of meaning , as to put the sense in hazard to be mistaken . You are not to cast a ring for the perfumed moding terms of the time ; as to acquiesce , to espouse an interest , to cajole , to incommode , to have a pique against one , &c. but use them properly in their places , as others ; matter & substance being preferra●le before words or form : For as a modern French Author says , the most excellent words without solidity of matter , are no more considerable , then the burst of a Cannon without Ball , which makes a great noyse , but does no execution . Besides , a vain curiosity of words hath so much scandalized some Philosophers , that Seneca ( in one of his Epistles ) says , Had it been possible to make himself understood by signes , he would rather serve himself of them , then of discourse , to the end he might the ●etter avoid all manner of affectation . Whereunto may pertinently be subjoyned those excellent lines of Mr. Hobbs ( in his answer to Sir Will. Davenants Preface ) in these words : As the sense we have of bodies , consists in-change and varity of impression ; so also does the sense of language in variety and changeable use of words : I mean not in the affectation of words newly brought home from travell , but in the new ( and withall significant ) translation to our purposes , of those that be already received , and in far-fetch'd ( but withall apt , instructive and comely ) similitudes . There follows Life , which is the strength and sinews ( as it were ) of your style , by pretty sayings , similitudes and conceits , allusions , some known history or other Common-place , such as are in the second book of Tully , de Oratore . And ( if we may credit Hermogenes ) a moderate interlacing of verse among prose , is not without its gentilesse . But too great a mixture of other languages in your style , some ( and those of the more learned ) have compared to a party coloured coat , made up of severall pieces of stuff ; others to Anacr●ons Swan , which had neither blood , flesh , nor bone . The fourth is Respect , to discern what befits your self , him to whom you write , and the matter you treat of , which is a quality fit to conclude the rest , because it does include the rest ; and that must proceed from ripeness of judgment , which ( as an Author truly says ) is gotten by four ways , by the gift of God , by Nature , diligence , and conversation ; serve the first well , and the rest will serve you . In the close of your letter you must by all means endeavour to come off handsomly , by avoyding those trite and over-worn conclusions , Thus I rest , So I remain , Thus I take my leave , & the like ; and by taking rise from the next precedent matter of your letter , make your subscription appendent thereto . For the Hand-writing , if you attain not to perfection , it ought at least to be legible , and the matter fairly written , and truly pointed , with Comma ( , ) Colon ( : ) Semicolon ( ; ) Period ( . ) Parentheses ( Interrogation ( ? ) and Admiration ( ! ) points , as the matter requires . The last is the Orthography , or true writing of words , which ( though not much valued by some , yet ) I hold a quality so incident to a good Pen-man , that he cannot be said to be perfect in that faculty , without it ; nor do I beleeve that one of ten , even among Scholars , are well skild therein . And of this Orthography , as it were too long to be here treated of , so may I haply give you hereafter some observations thereupon . LETTERS . I. A Letter to revive Freindship in the Son , by remembrance of the Fathers love . SIR , AS worth is not confin'd to place ; so not the affection of friends to presence : your excellent deserts command my respects where ever , your absence drawes these following salutes , as the testimonies of my esteems and well-wishes . In your noble Father I lost a worthy friend , in you I find him again : you no less inherit his goodness , then estate ; this entitles me your neighbour , that makes his loves lineall and sure ; and as neither with decrease , so both to the augmentation of my acknowledgements ; The power of my friend is a shelter and joy , his faithfulness my security , yet I love for worth , not-profit . This name of Friendship I grant is spreadly appellative , but the thing it self as rare in experience , as lowd in vogue . Your fathers love I enjoy'd in calm times ; I prove yours in the tempests of Fortune : My confidence assures me he would not have faild the Test , my triall proves you do not ; a certainty that precludes doubt , and no less obliges my proportion'd gratitude . It were easie now ( Sir ) to say , were you under my Stars , I would be the same I find you ; I would so , nay should hate my self , did I feel but an inclination to the contrary . Yet all this evinces no more , then what you please to believe ; Professions and Performances are not the same ; what I would be , will not surmount conjecture ; your nobleness shews it self in effects irrefragable . I know nothing can make me truly miserable , but my self ; and as well I know and feel in lowring times , how consolatory is the countenance of a reall friend ; such your best self , to whom I shall always subsign my self Sir , A most humble servant , D.W. LETTER II. SIR , A Great Philosopher complain'd , that the Fabrick of mans body was defective ; For ( said he ) Nature should have made a window in the Breast , by which we might look into the bottom of his heart , to see , when he speaks , whether his words be conform to the dictates of his heart , and whether that which we see without , have an uniform relation to that within . Trust me ( Sir ) though I quarrel not with Nature in this kind , yet I wish my Breast transparent , that you might see in what deep characters your affection is ingraven in my heart , and how really I am ( what you ●ave made me ) Sir , Your most faithfull servant , T. B. III. A Letter of Acknowledgement . SIR , I Have long studied an acknowledgment in some sort answerable to your many favours , but Fortune hath deal● so sparingly with me , that ● ( who have most desire ) a● least able to shew my remerciaments otherwi●● , 〈…〉 a course paper present ; yet I wish I 〈…〉 some ●a●ing monument , that migh● 〈…〉 my engagements , w●ereby 〈…〉 might know , that though I had no● 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 , yet I had a heart to be thankfull , which shall always pronounce me Sir , Your most obliged friend and servant , T. B. IV. Another . THough my acquaintance with you , for time & conversation , hath had the misfortune to be but small : yet is my experience of your excellent worths both full and satisfied , even to admiration . With some natures , I confesse , much salt is to be eaten , before judgement can be prudentially setled ; Others like the Sun , or Light , have power to blazon themselves in a moment : This excellency seems to shine in your nobler constitution ; and this commands my so sudden esteem and affections . Sir , you have then a servant , but he wants power to express how much he is so ; If I say , all I am , is at your devotion , 't is not all I am ready to perform , because desire and readiness surpass in me my too much limited abilities . You see then your creature and instrument expects but your pleasure for operation , as far as he is apt , yet some offices he wil● undertake uncommanded , ( viz , ) his daily oraisons for your good , chiefly that which is soveraign ; In which to make him more active , your consent and call , shall be the welcom●st imployment the world can lay upon him . Future occasions may enlarge my expressions ; I shall now content my self , that I have presumed to salute you with these generals , wh●m I have devoted my selfe to honour in all particulars . Now let me thank you for all received favours , for those immerited regards that began my obligations and continue my gratitude ; for your late kind token , which was of multiplied value drawn from the sender●●lf these find acceptance , and their presumption pardon , 't will animate him hereafter not to be silent , that shall live by being , if he may be ( as he would ) Sir , Intirely yours , D.W. V. A Letter to excuse silence . Madam , MY teeming hopes have been fed even with an assurance , that London should e're this have been made happy with your presence , else I had not thus long hazarded the loss of your good opinion by my silence ; since I confesse to owe a debt to your goodness , which all the respect and service my poore abilities are able to perform , can never throughly satisfie . I beg , at present , but a continuance of your favours towards me ; and ( because I know you just ) shall onely expect them hereafter according to the measure of my services , which I have faithfully devoted to your best sel , in quality of , Madam , Your vertues humble honourer , T. B. VI. A Letter from a Gentleman banished the Lines of Communication , to a Lady in London . Madam , IF I could decline the thought of a necessity of being here , and believe this Banishment to be a voluntary retirement , I should account my self extreamly happy ; for here we freely enjoy those felicities so much sought for in London , the fresh air , and singing of the Nightingale ; yet I must confesse I begin to be satiated with these solitary pleasures , not so suitable with my disposition , as the conversation of my friends ; and could willingly exchange the company of Birds and Beasts , for the society of men . But , pardon me ( Madam ) it was not my intention to trouble you with what I do or suffer , or to wish you where I would not be my self ; but to beseech you to retain a memory of me , till I am restor'd to the honour of kissing your hands , a happiness daily desired by Madam , The humblest of your servants . VII . A second Letter of salutation , upon the miscarriage of a former . SIR , I Have addressed my salutes before , but hear they miscarried . The labour to repeat them is not burthensom , yet lest their losse might bring you into susp●tion , that I was as silent as their miscarriage makes me seem , I add these to try better fortune ; in which , if more happy , they know their errand , to present me & my loves to your devotion . If they stammer in the delivery , they best e●press my self , whose expression ( surcharg'd by your deserts ) must conceive more obligation , smother more affection , then I can utter . You can mend both by the clearnesse of a candid interpretation , till both are able to be more articulate and plain ; None can better expound gratitude , then he who most merits it . Sir , I forget not the delights of your ingenious conversations , those sweet ( but too short ) moments of my contents . I remember your ready favors , your reall endearments , I remember all , and for all am thankfull . Will you have more ? More then this you cannot , I am ( what I am ) Very much yours . D.W. VIII . An Answer to a Letter of kindness . Most honored Cosen , THe great measure of content I received at your being here , and since that , the favour to be the unworthy object of your remembrance , makes me even proud of my own happiness . The truth is , I wish no other heaven upon earth , then always to enjoy your presence , that the influence of your many vertues may create in me some kind of goodness . But since there must needs be a separation , excuse it I beseech you if in this homely manner , I present you with the service and best affection of him that is , Most happy in your acknowledgment , T B. IX . A passionate letter of affection . Madam , SInce that very hour , wherein Fortune made me happy in your knowledge , next under God I neither have love , care , hope , nor contentment , but for you : The day yeelds up all my thoughts , as a tribute to your memory , and the night ( which was made to arrest the agitations of Spirit ) never removes the remembrance of you from my heart ; over which , as you have already gain'd an absolute dominion , so shall it yeeld you a constant sacrifice of an affection which shall be permanent , as the Being of Madam , Your most devoted servant , T. B. X. A Letter from a Commander in war to his Mistress . Madam , THough I have lately been brought even to the confines of Deaths Kingdom , yet I reteine so much strength , as to tell you I am alive ; and must crawe leave to renue that ● protestation , which I have heretofore so often made , not to be willing to live but for your service . The scars of war in some sort resemble the wounds of love , since those which I received , have not at all diminished the desire I had to serve my Religion , and these , which you gave me , have increas'd that passion to honor you which reignes within my soul . My hand has not strength eno●gh to write more , and its weakness may serve as a proof of my affection , which shall be always greater then my power , as the effects of my obedience shall ever be lesse , then my devotion to serve you , all days of my life , in quality of Madam , The dearest lover of your best selfe , T. B. XI . A Consolatory Letter . Noble Madam , I Have received your gracious lines , of which I make a Jewel ; because both in themselves good , as also because I take them not to be common . For these are the conditions , that upon most things set a value ; But could those be wanting , yet would they not want a high rate , had they no other vertue , then the coming from you ; If their kindnes to me had bin accompanied with the characters of your own more wished Fortunes , they had by far , been more contentfull : whereas now , as they tell me , I have a friend , they at the same view add , she 's far less happy then I could wish her ; Thus the same syllables make the same thoughts at once , both hapless and fortunate . But , Madam , as the news generall , and your particular , share both in malignity , because both bad ; so I hope yours at least is at the worst , and by sequele upon amendment ; and hopes of better is always a fair point of good fortune , which to make more sure , you to your self will not ( I hope ) be wanting . There was a Phylosopher said , that each one is the framer of his own Fate ; and I am partly of his Sect , at least so farre as I believe no fate so bad , but 't is in the power of the sufferer to make it ( if not good ) better . And so Madam ( I hope ) will both your wisdom and vertue endeavour ; and this by solid grounds and ways , without which the rest will be labour in vain . The task you have set me to this end ( to wit ) my prayers , I both daily have , do , & wil perform ; and if a partner in misfortunes might lessen the burthen , as some have thought , I I cannot be without my part in yours . Nor , wer 't in my power , should your Ladiship be a moment without better comforts . But I leave this sad strain till fitter opportunity , and rest , Madam , Your Ladiships humble servant , D.W. XII . A passionate Letter of affection . My inestimable Jewell , THe long continuance of all things ( my infinite love to you excepted ) does by little and litle decay them ; but 't is my pride , that each grey hair time adds to the affection I bear you ( which again I pronounce infinite ) brings an inclination to a second infinity , and remains the onely excusable dotage now extant , turning my present solitary life to one of much business ; for always to think of you I esteem my business , my faith , my every thing . Your constancy can never find out a greater then mine ; for 't is a vast one , and shall out-last all things about it ; Therefore look that yours be as true marble , as you will otherwise answer the utter undoing of Madam , Your truly , truly , truly , constant servant . XII . To a Landlord in behalf of his Tenants . Most honored Sir , TO move you to justice were in some sort to conclude you guilty of injustice , and to request your pitie in hehalf of your poor and long oppressed Tenants , were to proclaim you hard-hearted against them ; but experience tells me you are free from both , and your own works pronounce your worth . Onely thus much I am bold to beg of you , that the false informations of A.B.C.D. and others of broken credits , as well as Estates , may not take place against these bearers , men of honor and good fortunes , and such as I dare presume will inform you of nothing but truth . In confidence whereof I assume the liberty to subsubscribe my selfe , Sir , Your very humble servant . XIV . A second Letter , upon a late acquaintance . SIR , AFter one Letter ( long since sent ) and often inquiries , I have , at last , had the happiness to hear your safety and health . The Relator had an accidentall view of you , and I a reall comfort . I was once made fortunate by opportunity to enjoy your obliging conversation , and engag'd by your noble endearments , but this lost , almost as soon as gain'd ; so vanishing the chiefe enjoyances of this fickle life , so unlasting those contents we esteem most ingenious and innocent . Sir , I have many ties to be yours , and not fewer misfortunes , that I may not be so as much as I would . But this is a world of crosses , such as , though it hath pull'd many down , yet hath it set others up in the stead . And this must be so , since without a cross we cannot arrive our Crown . However , neither distance of place , nor intervall of time can change those respects to your noble self , that took both root and date from our first enterview . Affection grounded on vertue , must parallell it in content , or be injurious . Your true worth engaged me in ever-honoring esteems , and these I must be unworthy if I recall . Nor are our immortall souls so mensurated to place , but they can meet ; though our duller clay be confin'd to the accident of commensuration ; what they cannot perform by presence , by operation they can ; remain where they live , and be where they love ; in the circumference be dis-joyned , yet united in the center of hearts , which is their life and Being ; and this is God. Here ( Sir ) was our first union , and here , I hope , nothing shall separate : yea each flying moment of time drawes to a more embosoming neerness . Sir , when we parted you enjoyned me to continue you in my best thoughts , This not to remember , I account to forget my self . That I am not banished your memory , one word from your pen , would not onely cherish and confirm , but honor and oblige , Sir , Your most devoted and humble servant , D.W. XV. A Letter to excuse silence , &c. SIR , VVHat to you I know not , but to me it seems long , since my pen presented my respects . 'T is true , I wrote last , but this wil not excuse . Gratitude makes my addresses due ; when you salute , your salutes are pure favours : still oblige , never incurre obligation . If then I have been too remiss , I flie to the Asyle of your pardon ; and to render me more capable of it , give me leave to add this qualif●cation : That not neglect , but fear to be troublesome , caused the intervall . Est modus in rebus — I would observe duty , I hate to be unseasonable : He that can light on the Mean , attains the accomplishment of Office ; he that misses , may mean well , but is guilty of some defection towards an extream . But as that morall Decorum is the beauty of humane life ; so a precise niceness with friends , hath too much of scruple . Seemliness should not be transgrest , yet Friendship is not stern in her Laws . I may be bold with my self , and next with my friend . Whom endearment makes mutuall , love intitles to a latitude of honest action . o Sir , that I bear the stile of your Friend , is the greatest adjunct the world can make me happy in ; I desire no more splendor of honor , no relation to me is so pretious . My request is , it may continue ; my endeavour shall be to deserve the continuance ; not that I presume I can deserve it , but rather , that I hope , not by a voluntary guilt , to forfeit what you freely conferre . Nor wil you easily ( your goodness is too constant ) reject , whom you have ( with so much condescence ) adopted . My resolve is unchangeable , and that is , to be Sir , Ever and most intirely your devoted servant , D.W. XVI . To a Mother . Madam , THis short time of absence make me sensible of that great good which Nature gave me , when she ordain'd you to be the Parent & me the child ; for now I feel my self deprived of those joyes , which your presence was wont to afford me ; now I want those lovefull aspects , wherewith your indulgent eye was wont to solace me . In a word , I want all things , which an affectionate mother did ever bestow upon an undeserving , yet dutifull child , for such is T. B. XVII . A Letter to beg acquaintance . Sir , YOu may wonder at this boldness : but your worth animates it , and the same , I hope , will pardon what it causes . I have often heard of you , and once I saw you ; and by the conversation of a few words , I perceiv'd plentifull evidence , that what I have heard of your merits , was answered in the truth . This your humility may reply was too short a time for experience . I grant it : but not to confirm what both the Good and Wise by report had made credible : the senses should not be deceived in their proper objects ; and Hearing is a sense as wel as Seeing : and ( if it follow the right Rules ) perhaps as little erring ; chiefly if a rationall hearing , to which I have som title by essence . Report the subject ; that you are deserving , the reported ; this aver'd by wise men and good men , yea by all men that know you ; which I must either believe or be irrationall . Sir , the truth is , I am so fully perswaded of this verity , that I am truly ambitious of your more acquaintance ; and that this may be by pen , till more joyn'd aboads afford a presentiall intercourse . If your thoughts answer , no greater obligation can be laid upon Sir , Your most faithfull servant , D.W. XVIII . In answer to a Letter of Complement . Sir , THat I live ( though absent ) thus fresh in your memory , I count my glory , and that you write to me , my happiness ; which favours , that I may seem in some measure to deserve , I address these , not as satisfactory Acquittances ( for such my weak merit , does not aim at ) but as respective acknowledgements , which your greater goodness commands from me . I have now throughly both seen and felt the Bath , and as I find my self nothing ameliorated in complexion of face , or temperature of body ; so is the disposition of my mind to serve you nothing lessened , but does adequately increase , with the obligations of Sir , Your unalterable servant , T. B. XIX . A facetious letter upon sending a Christmas Pye to a Friend . Sir , I Salute you with a poor token , a pastry Bak'd-meat , as a recognition of my gratitude for your noble entertainments ; and not entertainments only , but even harbour in a push of necessity , which I construe to have multiplied the curtesie to many degrees of height . These to requite I confess my self unable , and to forget as unwilling . The mean of both I undertake , that is to greet you with my gratefull and remembring respects : which if you please to entertain in my sense , it shall be interpreted a new added favour , and speak me thankful . Gratefull minds can acknowledge what they cannot retribute , and this is both my fortune and meaning . Sir , that I may be some imperfect Index , or like the Westminster Tomb-shewer , tell who or what lyes here : You have or shall find in the center , a Neats Tongue , empanched by a Goose ; next both tongue and Goose , like the Isle of Candia , swallowed up by the Turk ; Round these , some few other Volatils , as lookers on , and though not main Partizans , yet not unimbroyl'd in the danger , for their curiosity . At last comes fierce Generall Cook , and fortifies all ( as he hopes ) with a strong line of Circumvallation , and having perfected his works , sends the besieged captive to your best appetite , whereto they are left for triumph and conquest . Sir , now were it not for fear of making this our Post-paste over tedious , and coming too neer the heels of time , I could so compare these Animals , or their corps , that there might rise upon their conditions both Emblems and Morals . But this saceteness I will leave to your self and good company , to recreate and abetter your digestion with . What I chiefly desire to hear in this point , is , that you have been merry in parting the fray , friendly accepted what was cordially meant : That you have vanquished the cruell Turk , the peevish Goose , the betrayi●g Tongue , the wild Pouline , the long-nos'd Woodcocks ; yea that you have raz●d the very proud out-works to the ground . This done , I pray , you may conquer your worse enemies , and number me in the Alb● of Your humble servants , D.W. XX. A Letter to excuse silence , and acknowledge past favours . Sir , I Have long done you the service , not to trouble you with my lines , but durst no longer pursue this method , lest it might degenerate into the semblance of neglect . It ver●ue ( for her better practice ) be enthron'd twixt two extreams , writing ( as an act of vertue ) must also keep due distance with them ; neither lean to importune frequency without leave , nor be benumb'd by the Lethargy of Omission . And you , whose favours have always engaged me yours , will believe my aimes have no other end , then to be so , as well in forbearances as actions ; provided I fail not as your votary ; a crime I should hate my self to think I could be wicked enough to commit ; and am sure I never yet was . Sir , you have , I know , received my former Letter , and dained the civility of receiving from it my humble gratitudes , for the liberalities it acknowledged . This wil not so far encroach upon the Office of my better expressions , as to repent that duty , but must again and again pronounce me Sir , Your gratefull servant , D.W. XXI . A Letter of thanks , &c. Honored Sir , I Have received your friendly Letter , and ( by Proxie ) your bounty : I am obliged by both , yet am by you debar'd , by pen , to answer either . You fetter me in the limits of ten lines , and these too must be silent of your self , the best subject ; I could observe your number , and yet be tedious , did I write short hand , or would I imitate the Lawyers length of a Chancery Bill . But I will not force a double sense on your sincerity ; What you will not have in paper , shall warm my br●ast , those gratefull thoughts , and unfeigned devotions , that vow and maintain me Sir , Your ever most affectionate servant , D.W. XXII . To a Lady upon her weaving hair-bracelets . Madam , LAst night when I found you in a pretty harmless employment , weaving hair-bracelets , you commanded me to make you some Poesies for that purpose , which I told you was a work fitter for Poets and men of wit , then for me , whose Cabinet enshrineth no such Treasure ; yet ( Madam ) that you may see what a supremacy of power you have over all my faculties , I send you these inclosed ; if any of which prove worth your use , the composure must be ascribed to the vertue of your commands , rather then to any skill of mine , which as I disclaim to have , out of a just sense of my own imperfections ; so must I always subscribe my selfe ( out of a like sense of your worth ) Madam , Your most devoted servant , T. B. Qui est tout de Coeur ; n'a point de langue . Qui dedit : se dedit . ( Nec fallit nec fallitur . A se convertitur in se . ( Vnus : una : unum . Wear this ( dear heart ) and prove as true In faith to me , as I to you . This gift shall tell you , that I do Love you alone , and none but you . No heart more true , Then mine to you . Cupid has bound me by this band , To be your servant at command . I find it true , since you are gone , That Love makes perfect union . XXIII . A Letter complaining of Absence . Madam , IF I could find out words to express the language of my heart , I should then be able to demonstrate how little I enjoy my self , whilst I am absent from you , in whom all my joyes and all my felicities are so wealthily sum'd up ; that as I live by none but you ; so , were it as much in my power as desires , I should never be absent from you ; But since Fate hath thus decreed a separation , I beseech you let nothing make you forget him , who always remembers you , in quality of Madam , Your greatest admirer , T. B. XXIV . In answer to one that congratulated an arrivall in the Countrey . Sir , THat you congratulated our well-coming to G. was so necessary for us , and so great a mark of goodness in you , that I believe without your good wishes , we had taken up our quarters on Saturday night in the Forrest , where we were benighted ( a sad thing to think on ) and lost our way ; But being ( as I say ) arrived here , by the help of God , and your good wishes , I find little subject for envy in our enjoyments , not a Deer being left in the Park , nor a Kid in season , ( unless a woodden one ) nor a Walk dry enough for a Spanish-leather shooe ; and I am sure you will not envy us a little fresh air , since we have paid so dear for it , by the fatigues of a long journey . Trust me ( Sir ) these things ( however you value them ) bend my thoughts towards London , and the rather , in respect of your dear self , to whom I am ( by manifold obligations ) An affectionate humble servant , T. B. XXV . Vpon the late Commotions . SIR , HAd not Pithagoras excepted our Terrestriall Orbe , when hee asserted the Orbes harmonious ; this Age had clearly confuted him . For how musicall soever those higher are ; this I am sure sounds nothing but harsh Discords : and so lowd ; that wee cannot but hear them ; so unpleasant , that the dinne discomposes quiet minds . The way to ease our selves is hard , yet not impossible : but what is it ? 't is this , To elevate our abode : To Compose our own interiour . He that enjoyes in time Peace , is not open to extern broiles : they may beat the out side , but cannot enter ; batter the walls of flesh and bloud , but the Citadell of reason is safe ; and if reason sway , wee fly up to mansions indisturbd . We are all Citizens of the lower World , I grant , must wish 't is good ; may deplore it's evills ; Yet our own private welfare , ought to be to us most precious . This were a Paradox with Polititians ( if not well glossed ) and so I allow it ( each part was made for the whole . ) But our Placite still stands : and stands in this : each mortall is nearest to himself . My own preservation , lessens not my contribution to the Publicke ▪ must I bee , or I cannot be able ? I must be able , or I cannot aid it . Of Aides , there is more then one sort . All were not fram'd for the same function , or influence . The Martiall blade , and bullet has it's office ; so policy military ; these we leave to the sons of Mars . Yet we have our duty too , and this is piety . Piety first calmes it's own lares ; then becomes instrumentall to others reconcilement . When heaven sees mee at peace within , I am approved , fit to pacify . To complain of exterior commotions , and my self to be torn by the disorder of my own Passions , is an improper address , a mediation ineffectuall . It was well dream't by Scipio , when he said ; as the intelligences guided ( by a regular Order ) the upper Spheres ; so ought our intellectuall powers govern our own little World. Where the superiour portion of the soul obeys the divine Lawes , and the part irrationall acquiesces to the mind ; ( in the mind ( and all man ) resounds a harmony far surpassing Pithagorean accents . Ah! ( my friend ) were mentall and private tumults appeas'd , the civill would cease , and whilst these ( with you and I ) are setled , the civill cannot annoy us . A compos'd soul miseries may try , cannot disorder . Whilst others , then fight for earth , and purple it with native bloud ; let us aspire higher enterprises : pray for their peace , secure our own . Let us fix our thoughts where ambition reaches not , where War embroiles not , where tranquillity eternally triumphes . Thus shall we offer our selves a piacular sacrifice before the high Altar of God , in our own condition acceptable , in alien behoof not despised . The incessant vowes , of Sir , Your most devoted servant , W.D. XXVI . ANSWER . SIR , YOu have given us , ( who are indeed Terrestriall Cosmopolites ) most excellent prescriptions , for the composure and regiment of the inward man in these times of fluctuation , whereby those that are at War within themselves , may know how to seek , and where to find a lasting peace , a peace with truth and endles repose , and those that are at peace may learne how to settle the soules Militia in an unconquerable posture of defence against the Common enemy ; In a word there 's a volume of rich Apothegmes abridg'd into the compendium of your letter ; heavens make my breast a fit repository for such treasure . But in conclusion you evidence the vertue of self-abnegation to be one part of the Cargazon of your ship ; For you still work with the old Perspectives , by serving your self of a diminishing Glasse , when you mention your own perfections , and of one , that multiplies , when you make the mole hills of your friends qualities ( if any were ) to seem mountains . Alas ! what is my plain song , if compared with your heavenly descant ; Majores majora canunt - It must content mee to contemplate you in a higher Orbe , whilst I ly mudling here below , even Sir , The humblest of your servants , T. B. XXVII . To a Lady , upon her leaving the City . Madam , EVer since you left London , all joyes and good fortune have left us , the heavens have not ceased to shed continual | teares for your absence , and Mars has frownd upon all our undertakings , nor can we hope to receive good news or enjoy fair weather , till the rayes and vertue of your presence returne hither , to uncloud the watry element and uncharm the fortune of War. Whilst in this sadnes , I was studying what might render my lines worthy your acceptance , the enclosed arrives with the much wish'd for news of — And if this prove in any measure an Antidote to prevent the contagion of sadder thoughts , which these times are apt to administer , I shall enjoy the height of my ambition , which holds no title in competition with that of Madam , Your humble servant , T. B. XXVIII . To excuse the not taking leave , and to acknowledge received favours . SIR . BEfore I left London I did endeavour to have given my personall attendance upon your noble self , with an address of thankfulnes for your generous favours , and free entertainments ; But this devoir ( by your absenting occasions ) being frustrate ; I am forced upon pen-supply . Wherein yet the most I can express to the purpose , is ingeniously to avow , I owe more to your bounties than I can expresse ; more expressions to your high Worths , then I can make legible . Which defect of Language ( I humbly yet conceive ) you of all ( Sir , ) have most reason to indulge ; since your great merits of mee , and your own self-nobleness , has most put it to silence . Be then above my feeble Oratory , as your endearments transcend my deserts ; 't is praise enough , as you aim not at empty Epithets , so your reall perfections are abundant and natively clear to be their own encomiums . I with admiring gratitude will remember what I cannot utter . Yet ( Sir ) take this unfeigned image of my thoughts ; that from the first houre I received the honour of your acquaintance , I have singularly honour'd your self ; and since you have bin pleased to rank mee in the albe of your servants , and priviledge mee not onely with your friendly familiarities , but also signall favours , I confesse my self bound for requitall of all , as to yeeld to none in my respect , so to be ever ( as I professe I am obliged ) Sir , Your servant and votary . D.W. XXIX . A Ladies Answer to her servants first letter . SIR , THat upon so small acquaintance , you should make mee such friendly and passionate expressions , I cannot but take as a civility , being apt to make the best construction of every ones actions ; yet ( Sir ) that so many moneths should passe in silence , since I saw you , is enough to make me believe your letter meerly complementall ; For these times afford many of your sex , whose pens or tongues can speak one language , and their hearts another When I shall find cause to believe your professions real , I shall set a greater value upon your respect : Mean time civility invites mee to subscribe my self Sir , Your humble servant , V.T. XXX . A Complementall Addresse from one Lady to another . Madam , I Have not so much vanity to think to make a return , worthy the honour I have recieved , nor do I bear so little justice to my own gratitude , as not to witnes my resentment , though great , yet in huge disproportion to your merit , whose vertues and goodnes I hold in equall value with those of demi-Gods : I receive the new assurances of your Ladyships favour , as a blessing sent mee from heaven , which bids me cherish it and live , since I can relish no felicity without it . Indeed ( Madam ) I know not what Sacrifice to offer you for such a bounty ; All hearts are made tributary to your Commands ; yet none with so much obligation , as that of August . Madam , Your servant , E.D. XXXI . The Answer . Madam , YOu may say of mee , as a Cavalier once said of the late Synod , that they had sate long and at length hatch'd a Monster ( meaning the Directory : ) So have I bin long in answering yours , & at length my dull Genius produces this ill-shapd letter : Madam , if the faculty of my pen were correspondent to the devotion of my heart , I could say much , when as now I must be silent ; Yet not silent neither ; For every cast of my eye upon your lines begets a wonder & wonder makes mee break silence ; I have alwayes had your sweet person and vertues in a reverentiall esteem , and now the charmes of your pen have hurld mee into new admirations ; yet not so , as to forget the old , nor at any time to be lesset he● October , Madam , The most humble of your Devotes , A.T. XXXII . A letter from the Author of a book to the approver , Sir , N. B. SIR , THis hand which hath stood so long before your Barr , comes now to accuse it self of a fault by which the Judge must needs have suffered much from the offender , since the soulnesse of the Copy , is like to have tryed your patience , more then the worth of the cause can hope to have recompencd your paines ; Wherefore these lines come before you to offer satisfaction at least to your civility , if they fail of giving it to your judgment , and the course of my life qualifies me better for civill discharges , then for litterate satisfactions ; You shall then Sir , receive by this a return of much sense of your fair and obliging carriage towards mee in the examination of my papers ; wherein I must desire you to consider the whole designe , which aimes solely at morall regulations , and does rather decline then accept any inducements to controversiall doctrines ; if there bee any point so incident to the subjects , as my opinion must needs appeare in some dark light , this may well bee connived at by so ingenious a Judge , as your self , who cannot expect I should dissemble my Principles , though in discretion I was forbid to declaime upon them ; So that I conceive your abilities , will make a due difference , between what may critically be sifted out , and what does litterally professe it self ; and of this last sort , I presume you will find nothing in the whole work , that has an open face of contention or offence ; Wherefore upon your animad versions , I have changed the looks of such places , as had any apparant features of enmity , and have offered you such satisfaction upon the other points , I have not altered , as I hope your candor and dispassionate temper may admit ; Upon the opinion whereof , I shall conclude , that if you have found , in these my meditations , more matter promising good influencies upon the affections of our Country , then projecting any dangerous infusions , you will allow them your contribution to that effect I have singly proposed in them ; In order whereunto my prayers shall intend the suppliment of my pens deficiency ; which the lesse worthy it is of this exposure to the World , the more must it owe your patience and civility for your favour to Your most affectionate servant W.M. XXXIII . Vpon the New-year . SIR . MY present Theme is , to give you the cerimonies ( in real wishes ) of a happy New-year . Nor shall I doubt the effect , since I cannot your Piety or Prudence . No revolution of time can be inauspicious , where these fair pair of twin-virtues are fixt , and in action . Time tells our hours , produces change , but our happines , or infortunes onely from our selves . 'T is vain then to accuse deaf fate , when we are our own destiny , or at least it in our arbitrement . Prudence , ( the eye of our life ) foresees , disposes our affaires ; Piety , our selves . That discharges our devoirs , This guides all events ( prosperous or adverse ) to our eternal ( if it cannot temporall ) felicity . Hence we have a method either to prevent misery , or of turning it into better luck , by being unhappy . Cross chances I grant , are but sower friends , rather to be entertained then invited ; yet 't is too visible none are more wretched , then those that most court fortune . Give mee Indifferency and I 'le bee fortunes fate , and fortunate , maugre her despight . As to time it self , the best description of it , is to employ it well . 'T is a thing of so swift an Essence , that 't is gone before we can think what it is . 'T is the measure of sublunary beings , and proclaimes to us , ( by its height ) how fast wee our selves fade , and dwindle away . The past is no more ours , then frugall usage ▪ has made it so . The future is not ; and so , uncertain whether 't will ever be in our power . What of it we can own is only the present , and this so coy , that if not taken by the sore-top , 't is vanisht , like a Ghost ▪ and leaves us nothing , but cause to repent and gaze . Ah! my friend , how pretious our moments ; on these short Instances depends our whole Eternity . Temporall existence is as fickle as temporall happinesse ; both participate of the nature of time , are fleeting● In this casualty then , let us fix on what is truely durable : above floating ▪ incertainties , beyond temporall lastingnesse . Whilst our minutes fly from us , our selves speed faster towards unchangeable permanency , so we doe in naturall tendency ; but let us by virtue's vigours . Each hour posts away with it's length of our life ; The old year is gone , if ou● imperfections with it , 't was well spent ; if not , there 's the more ne●d we spend the New better ▪ And lest we live not to the end , let 's take advantage of the begining : make that our own that is so . Thrift of our dayes is th' only end to make our selves in time eternally happy . But I fear by this rude Rhapsody of the initiate yeare , I have wasted your hourglass too much , rendring my prayer of your prosperous future , your present Domage ; But pardon , because my subject ( time ) as wel as my distracted capacity fail'd me . Suffice it , I wish you more then I can utter or need perscribe you the way to ; and whilst you are blest , I patrake 31 Decemb. Sir Your happy friend and joy'd servant . W.D. XXXIV . To a Lady , residing in a Town that had lately bin besiegd . Madam , AFter the disquiet of your late Alarms , I am bold to congratulate the re-enjoyment of your wonted repose , which ( had I bin Generall ) no cause nor quarrel should have made me hazard ; since in all things I value your content above my own ; My regard to your safety had bin in such case motive enough with mee , to have suspended the chastisment of that mutinous City . Madam , If ( as I hope and pray ) you are now both free from dis●uietude and from fear ; I have my hearts wish ; desiring ( as you know ) nothing more , then by continued devotion to your self and service ; to purchase at length the esteem of Madam , Your most faithfull servant , T.B. XXXV . To his Lady M ri● , complaining of her cruelty . Madam , TYranny as ill becomes a subject as a Prince , and cruelty is the natural issue of that Monster ; To say your Ladyship is guilty of both in some kind , is a truth undeniable : For ever since fortune made me happy in your knowledge , my affection hath had no Centre , but your breast ; my faith , no fellow ; and my constancy such as can never admit a change ; yet my sighes are unpittied , my love unregarded , my faith and constancy answered with nothing , but your disproportionate denialls ; Nor can I , without wonder , consider , that your Ladyship should be 〈◊〉 all the world so perfectly charitable , to mee so cruell , unles 't were ordained by fate , That the first fruits of my love ( which should be the first step to happines ) must be made abortive by your incompassion . Madam , the more you deny , the more fuel you add to those flames , which ( if not suddenly allai'd by your pittie ) will consume my very being into ashes of mortalitie ; These are Madam , the reall dictates of a heart , that 's wholly ben● To serve you , T. B. XXXVI . A consolatory letter to a Mother upon the death of her first born Honoured Madam , THe sad need a Comforter , and a Soul , in desolation , requires to bee assisted with reasons to bear the cause of its griefs . That you are both sad and grieved , I can no more doubt , then I can be without a share in your passions . That you have many comforters , because friends , many solid considerations from your own pietie and pious wisdome to salve your sorrowes , I am as confident ; Yet as none more tenders your happinesse then my self , so could not I alone be silent in this motive of your teares ; what I would say is , Dearest Madam , be comforted , and this ( were 't in my power ) I would effect . The reason of your sable thoughts , the spring that streames your cheekes , rise I know from the sad accident of your childs death . It was I confess the first image of your likenes , the first bless●●g that heaven honored your body with , the first pledge of nature , the first title you had to be a Mother . And to bee deprived of this , almost as soon as 't was given , could not but find and afford matter both for teares and grief , in a disposition so natural and good . But Madam , there 's a time for all , and a meane also . What could not be denied to your sweetness , must be moderated by your discretion . 'T is true , that sweet infant was yours , 't was your first , 't was dear , and you suffered many dolours , to give it life ; But withall you consider , as 't was yours , so given you by God ; as the first , so more due to him ; as dear , yet could it not be too dear for him that hath it ; Although of painfull birth ; yet that your throwes brought forth a Saint , that your dolours were endured , so soon to enthrone a part of your self among the Angels ; these dolours , these throwes , happily suffered . Those whom God makes Parents , he makes but Nurses of his own children , he lends them to be brought up for heaven : and if hee hath so soon discharged you of this obligation , t is not so much a cross , as a blessing ; Had it lived to mature age , perhaps he saw danger both to It and you : it might have been more cause of grief to you , more loss to it self ; it might have been unfortunate in life , in death unhappy ; 'T is not the being children of either good or great extract , that makes them alwayes either good or happy . And this perhaps God ( that provident Parent of all ) foresaw . Be it so , or not , certaine it is , the bodies but the souls prison , wherein 't is no soner breathed from Heaven , but 't is maculated by this corrupt Earth : and in this , as it longer sojournes , so is it not only debarred of its true happiness & welfare , but also offends its great Creator ; and consequently is miserable . Therefore would God make the cradle of yours , its death bed , that he might hasten its blisse . As he breathed a pure soul into it , so would he again take it before defiled by the actuall blemishes of sin . Had it liv'd , it could have afforded no comfort to your piety , but being in health , prosperity , and pious ; and can it be more pious , then in heaven , more prosperous , then in heavens joyes , more healthfull then in the enjoyance of immortality . O consider , t is now past all danger , 't is freed from all misery , 't is blessed in blessedness , it prayes for you . And can there be any sorrow so great that these considerations cannot consolate ? O what more happy then to be so happy a Mother ; no sooner a Mother , then a Mother to heaven . Nor doubt ( dear Madam , ) but hee that gave you this dear pledge of his love , will give you more , and , as he took this to his own joyes , so will he leave in its stead more to your comfort . This he took to give it as soon happiness as being , and therein to try your virtue and resignation to his will : this as I doubt not but he will find , so may you be confident he will bee bountifull : a sure rewarder , of your patience , a prosperer of your soul , body , and its fruitfulness . But pardon ( most honoured Madam ) my loves redousness ; and if in this unpolishd Consolatory I have errd , let it be as it is loves fault , a fault that your nobleness I am certain will remit . Thus with humblest respects he takes his leave that will no longer bee , then be yours , the daily Petitioner to heaven for your most wished comforts of both Worlds . Madam , Your humble and most affectionate servant , D.W. XXXVII . To excuse the not answering a letter . SIR , THat I have committed so great a Solaecisme in good manners , as to receive two letters from you , without giving you humble thanks for either ; I beseech you ascribe not to any want of zeal to your service ; for in earnest you cannot make me more happy , then in vouch safing mee the honour of your commands , which shall alwayes find as ready an obedience in mee , as any thing that most concernes my own interest ; In the assurance ●●ereof I give you the humble respects of Sir , Yours ad nutum , T. B. XXXVIII . Vpon a Motion of marriage . Dear Sir , I Give you many humble thanks , for your tendring mee a wife , and your good advise in that affair ; I well remember the Counsell of a prudent friend was , not to marry till I were 30 years of age , and then to have a wife ten years younger then my self ; because women ( especially teeming ones ) sooner decay , then men . I have also read , that there are 3 principall motives to a wedded life ; Procreatio Prolis : Conservatio Domus : and Consolatio vitae . Now the gentlewoman you write of , in stead of being ten years younger , I believe is ten years elder , then my self ; and so may be in danger to frustrate the two first motives , by being issue-less . Yet if she have so many fill'd baggs as you mention , it may bee a shrewd temptation : But in marriage , Love ( as you well observe ) is most preferrable , provided there be a competency of fewel ( which is riches ) to keep it warm ▪ Now t is like I might love the Lady you motion mee unto , with an ordinary conjugall love , but perhaps not with an eminent dear affection , and on this subject I remember to have read these old but well meaning verses . Who makes the object of his fancy , gold , Grows cold-in fancy , when his money 's told : And she who faines to love , to live a Lady , Is honors fawn , I know not what she may be . Examples are too frequent in this age of the infelicity of those Matches , which are meerly concluded for wealth , without love : Therefore in this ( as a choise , whereon the happines of my whole life depends ) I shall be very deliberate in resolving , yet ever glad to receive your advise , as being Sir , Your most respective nephew and humble servant . XXXIX . The first addresse to his Mistresse . Madam , THat fear is an individuall companion to sincere affection , and that the heartiest devotions , are brokenly expressed , are Maximes in humanity , and however Errors , yet veniall ; The discreetest love is seldome without some annexed passion , which oft-times fetters the faculties and leads understanding captive ; that which did and justly might deter , doth now animate ; The moon in her farthest distance from the Sun , and greatest opposition , receives most light ; The poorer they bee to whom charity is extended , the greater the merit ; Worth gaines most honour by enobling unworthiness ; Nature never ordaind two Suns to shine in one firmament . I list not to expatiate in this kind . In the discription of your worth this short expression shall suffice ; That would Earths Monarch pay his devotions before perfections Altar , he need seek no further then your breast . To express my devoted affection by deep protests and multiplyed vowes doth nothing please , my Motto is , rather in deed then in word . Till matters be maturely discussed , and the advise of friends on both sides had , I aime no higher then to be enstil'd your servant ; Deliberation ( if in any case ) in this most necessary . I honour you too much to wish you the smallest amiss , though the sum of my earthly felicity depended thereon . My affection is no frenzy ; if my Starrs mean mee not the enjoying of such happiness , I must frame a content . For conclusion , I will only add , that though you may have your choice of many in all points more accomplishd , yet none that shall so truely love you ; My lines are confused like my thoughts ; your milder censure hee persumes on , who truely honours your worth and rests Solely devoted to your virtues . T. B. LX. In answer to an expostulatory letter . SIR , THe receipt of yours brought with it some amazement to see my self almost ship-wrackt in your good opinion , when my own Vessel was full fraught with respect , which I intended to di-simbark at your haven . I am first to thank you , for your plainness and ingenuity in my charge , and shall assume the same freedome in my own acquitall . The story told you by Mr. W. from Mris. P. a womans discourse ( for those I suppose the parties mentioned in yours ) I deny to have been either Author or Promulgator of , and must assure you , that such like , with other volatile reports were here before my return ; yet I must tell you ( since it so much concernes mee ) that I had Commission to make some inquisition in the Country upon a preconceived neglect in you , and other rumours , but do assure you , what I said was with such modesty , and so short of what common fame delivered , nay with such regret to have said any thing at all , that it will hereafter appeare , I have been so far from being disaffected to this your service , that I have run my self into an Oblique opinion elsewhere , for promoting it , and I am confident the young Lady ( when you shall be felicitated with her enjoyment ) will assure you asmuch , nor indeed could I possibly have said less , in performance of that trust which was reposed in mee . Sir , if this give you not satisfaction , I shall be glad to know what may , because I professe to owe you much service , and the more in order to that approaching happiness , which your Starrs have assigned you , whereto no wishes of a happy confarreation shall more readily concurr , then those of Sir , Your very humble servant , T. B. XLI . A REPLY . Lady , TIll I was bless'd with the happy sight of yours I labour'd in a strange perplexity , believing that either the attempt of mine had purchased your disfavour , or otherwise ( by some harder fate ) I had suffered in your good opinion , then which Peru is to mee of lesse value . These feares I must confesse with-held mee till now from a second addresse of service , though not from offering continuall thoughts of respect to your merit , and of perfect obedience to your commands , nor shall I longer live , then breath the air of such devotion , being professedly . Lady , Yours in firme affection , T. B. XLII . IN ANSWER . SIR , I Am ( as you say ) indeed alwayes pleased to accept , what time permits you to write . Your lines please , and cannot chuse , being full of erudition , full of love , and guided by a judgement not vulgar ; And , what ever your time is , your men●all store ●ailes not : what others with many a sc●atched brow cannot invent , you with facility dictate , and as copiously pen ; Then for my acceptance , there 's , no benignity required , but gratitude , and gratitude not common , but such as ought to quadre with merits impararelld . That you daigne to entertain mine but with a superficiall view , adds honour and value , adds courage and alacrity . We see many things carry price , not from innate worth , but the esteemers fancy : So Jewells and other rarities , which humane estimate and not nature , have made pretious : The rule is Opinion ; and if any mans approbation could make my lines accurate ( that is , what they are not ) sooner to yours should I yeeld the efficiency , and with much reason ; for there 's none I approve more . Whilst I am jejune and empty , you are polite , and even upon my deficiencies , raise Trophies to your own Genius ; Thus what I am not my self , I make you , by accident ; So increases a black spot the candour of a blanchd vesture ; So gloomy shades seem to augment the Phaebean radiances , and so are your perfections set off by the foiles of Sir , Your servant , W.D. XLIII . A conceited letter of thanks for favours . SIR . YOu know that I ( with friendship and affection my sureties ) stand already bound to you in an obligation , for requitall of a larger summe of favours , then my poore abilities can any wayes satisfy , yet now you make a large addition to the principall debt by — Till fortune better enable mee , I much beg your acceptance of thankfulnes , which I designe in liew of interest , and ( for you better security ) my Bond renewed for the rest , with the addition of another surety , my service , seald with the privy signet of my love , attested by two witnesses , gratitude and acknowledgment , and subscribed by Sir , Your faithfull servant , T. B. XLIV . In answer to a letter from a dear friend . SIR , OF late my many evocations render mee , as , inconstant in residency , so in my letters and addresses both various and uncertain ; Hence have proceeded ( and a while I fear must ) the languishment of my lines , the alteration of my weekes ; Yet with this added disadvantage , that the more time may seem given mee to write , the less I have to be accurate . I received your last abroad , and am never yet more at home , then where they find mee , or I them . A virtue that ( with mee ) accompanies yours , and yours only . And being it wants a name , let it be a Sympathy : a Sympathy 'twixt you and mee , so charming , that by reading your characters , I draw in my own Idea's ( but abettered and so fall , by an introversion , into my self . By this you may guesse how much you endear your friend ; by so expressing your self his , to make him ( even in the midst of distractions , and fatigues ) his own ; and yet only to own him , to be more yours and Gods. Know then , I am yet free from misfortune , nor enfeebled by any mortall malady , that 's sensible ; Some grudgings of a Caduque being , and the unwholsome seasons effects if I feel , they are but the antecedents of what I am sure at last must follow . But since you stile my sickness , your infirmity , my infortunes , your mishapps , I would be well , to encrease your Vigours ; fortunate to lessen your least bad events . The Heavens influence and their interpreting Predictions now we hear begin to work in your clime ; and as the operation bodens stupendious revolutions , so are we tickled with curiosity to know your changes , and ●y what steps , the main Designes are ascended to ? and what you conceive will be the sequels , chiefly of neerest connexion ? In the mean we will hope and feare ; Two passions that will blend all the fore-casts of humane life . Be carefull of your health that you may enjoy your self in a distracted Age : So shall you bee safe in the guards of your own virtues ; and in the innocency of your life , with comfort consolate your friends . Amongst whom not the least dependent , is ever , 21 April 1653. Dear Sir , Your intirely affectionate D.W. XLV . Vpon a promise to write to one . SIR , THe inconsiderate promise I made to render you my thoughts in writing during this absence , was grounded upon a just sence of my obligations , without the least reflection upon my disabilities for any such performance ; And in this respect I might justly have been disobliged without breach of faith , but that ( seriously ) I had rather discover my imperfections in this kind , then be any waies wanting in my remerciaments , which are much indebted to your many favours : And therefore I send this small tribute , as an earnest of the much greater affection of Sir Your cosen and servant , T. B. XLVI . Dear Cosen , AMong the various contentments , which the Country yeelds in this season , I have met with none equall to that which the receit of your letter affords mee ; for ( trust mee ) I am so ravished with the contents , that whensoever I perceive that sadnes to invade mee , which the want of your sweet presence often begets , I have instantly recourse to your letter for cure . Thus do I honour the lines for your dear sake that sent them , nor shall I ever cease to acknowledge your numberless favours , whilst I have breath but to pronounce mee Your most affectionate Cosen and servant , T. B. XLVII . In Answer to an elegant letter . Sir , WHen I observe the equall facility and felicity of your expression , I loath the rudenes and indigestion of mine , and when I consider the pith and plenitude of your lines , I look upon the emptines and inainty of my own with much indignation : yet though I were not born a Cicero for Eloquence , I am and must be another Achates for affection . If there bee any thing in this World can deserve the name of good , 't is really in the fruition of you ; in and by whom I am so perfectly beatified , that I count my self in a Paradice , when I am gathering the fruits of your presence . Fortune ( in other things less liberall ) hath given mee many friends , and Correspondents , yet none so reall , none so learned , as your self ; I never made so happy a bargaine ( if I may so rudely stile it ) as when I contracted this intertrafique of love , I never hear from you or see you , but I make an infinite purchase of piety , and knowledge , from your weighty lines and solid discourse ; But above all , I have gained ( yet blush to think with how little desert ) in you a friend , whose bosome is an Archive , fit to treasure up the greatest secret , and in whose hands I can repose my life , nay ( which is dearer ) my soul ; O happiness ; happiness said I ? 't is beyond the degree of common happiness ; Such pious condescendings ( where you give pure Gold and receive nothing but dross in exchange ) argue a goodnes in you , beyond the reach of my pen to delineate , which I must content my self , to admire . Sir , you have here the reall dictates of my inmost thoughts , though wrapt up in a homely dress ; for I am as yet hardly entred into the Suburbs of good Language , yet do but pardon these my rude expressions , & I may hope ( by your conduct ) in time to enter that City , where you , by due merit , command in chief . To morrow I am bound for the frigid Zone , yet will assure you , that no change of Climate shall have power to alter or frigidify the affections of Sir , Your devoted servant , and therein most happy . T. B. XLVIII . REPLY . SIR , YOurs , as a suddain joy , have surprised mee . So accort your stile , so pathetike your love , that I am both rapt and enflamed : you could never in better time have made your friendly addresses . They came as cordialls to refresh my exhausted Spirits . I was even spent in dispatches , distracted with unexpected visits of friends . From these , as a reviving refrigeration , I cast my eyes and thoughts on your emphatick straines . In which I am lost ; Can wonder but not reply . In short I am so variously divided this day ; and chiefly for the moments of the Messengers stay , that I have not respite of reply . Before you direct your course , toward the North Pole , I hope to get so much pause , as to be my own , that I may make some suppletory addition . Pardon these extemporaries : what in sense and language is deficient , that affection supplies , which really ever stiles mee Sir , Yours , D.W. XLIX . A further reply . SIR , MY hestern note answered yours , with apology , that I wanted time to answer them ; I promis'd also to be more responsary , and now repent it . My leasure's as interrupted , and second revisings of your accurate lines disanimate . What is most delightfull to view , is as hard to paralell . Sir , the flote of your Eloquence runs high , and where ( by the Art of self-annihilation , ) you would seem to depress your sufficiency , there you most rise ; And indeed skill cannot but by skill be hid , nor perspicuous abilities better blazond , then when most curiously mantled by arted invelopings . You are no Cicero born , 't is confessd , yet I think born to be an English Cicero ; of this , nature has given ripe specimens , and industry as fast polishes , judgement matures . In one letter I trace you flourishing in various figures ; in the property and store of words choise , in c●mposure compt ; in sense acute . Trust mee , I admire , yet cannot envy ; For whilst an Achates in affection , your embellishments are mine . The Accessory ( you know ) in Law follows the Principall , and love makes all common . If then by this inviolable tie we are one , your endowments entitle me joinct owner ; a riches , I prepone to Monarchies . Sir , I were happy did I rightly own the least degree in the litterary attributes you please to give mee ; those of endeared passion I doe ; those of reality I cannot refuse . It is indispensably your claime ; what e're I am or shall be ( that 's commendable ) is dedicated to your loyall friendship ; honour me with belief till I faile . My breast ( as long as the harbour of a heart ) shall be a safe repository ; I was never by ingenerate disposition futile and porous , and with so prudent and embosom'd a friend , I shall not sure begin . Upon secrets I do not wittingly encroach , yet if ( by freedom of a friend ) committed , the gastly terrours of death unlock them not ; He that wants this guist has no challenge to Amities sacred interest . But I am now interturb'd , and my pen ( dear friend ) is snatch'd off , yet first take these votary wishes ; Propitious be your guiding Stars ; inspiring the Muses ; a safe journey ; fortunately our expeditions , and a speedy circuit to your City entertainments and suspir'd retires ; It is almost your peculiar felicity , that , where others are chiefly scattered , you can find or make an improving secess ; An evidence as you are studious ; so you can be , in all places , the commander of your self and houres . Well! my loves , longings and prayers shall accompany this forcd vagary , and with as much joy welcome you home . Interstices locall may divide bodies & abodes ; vinted minds know no separation . Hence wherever I , in my better part , am with you concommitant , and lastingly Oxford 29 Sept. Sir , Yours , D.W. L. ANSWER . SIR , HItherto I have been in a superlative degree , both felicitated by the riches of your presence and enriched by the wealth of your lines ; But I have learnt there 's nothing permanent in this world , otherwise 3 weeks absence from the one and deprivement of the other , would be more afflictive , then words can express ; For in earnest you are to me that fire of Prometheus , without which all my actions seem inanimate , detaine but the food of your favours from mee & I am a meer nothing . Though I am now bound ( as you know ) for the North , yet believe it my daily best thoughts shall steer West-ward , where ( how far soever distant in person ) I leave the hearty affections of Sir , Your faithfull servant , T.B. LI. Answer to a quaint Letter . SIR . WHen will your treasury of choise words be exhausted , when will your fountain of Eloquence be drawn dry , when will your Magazin of rich matter be emptied ? never ; I now plainly see the more you write , the more you have to write , and may ( with reverence ) not ineptly compare your Cranium to the holy Chrismatory of France ; you still take out , yet leave it without the least diminution ; Prodigy of nature ! It fares much otherwise with mee ; I ( if at any time big with words ) fall into a painfull labour , and after many throwes , am alwaies by abortion diliver'd of a thing like a Bear 's whelp , which I can lick into no form . Every Bucket drawn from mine own Well , goes neerer the bottome , the reason is , there 's no springs for repletion of that store ; yet in earnest the influence of your teeming Muse has ( me thinks ) in some measure fertilis'd my siccaneous and Barren soyle . But whether rove I ? Now for News ( which is the primum quaerite of these dayes ) I must tell you , thus — Sir , the length of my letter and this shortest of daies doe not well quadre ; This is the winter Solstice , So is it also the station both of my invention and paper , the first is at a non p●us ultra of matter , the last only affords me roome to subscribe my self 13 Decembr . 1652. Sir , Your vowed servant , T.B. LII . To a Brother . Dear brother , YOurs equally full of love and good Councell came to my hands with no small contentment , since I perceive you interesse your self ( as a very kind friend ) in all things that concern my good , which as I can never forget , so do I ever account my self most happy , when I hear of your progresse in all perfections and good qualities , wherewith to see you accomplished is the passionate desire of Your most affectionate brother , T.B. LIII . To Mr. G. SIR , THis is only to give you many humble thanks for the favour you did mee to the D : If I live not to be able to strike Taleys with you , yet I shall alwaies record your kindnes with a thankfull reminiscence : And though I am blunt in my expression , yet believe it , I shall most willingly in - Gage in any service that may approve mee Sir , Your faithfull servant , T.B. LIV. Another to him in Fustian . SIR , MY last was from Dunstable , and ( though I am in person removed thence yet ) I fear the matter of this may come from thence too , being not as yet sufficiently rudimented , in your Accademy for such susceptions . I must tell you ( with some regret ) that I find , not an Academick ( except the noble Brittan ) in all our voisinage ; so that if we converse at all , it must be with Labradors and such out of whose hebetudinous cerebrosity , we may as soon extract A●rum potabile , as the Elixer of any knowledge ; Their querilous outcry is , that the continuall siccity of this season , ha's inusted all their herbiferous grounds , which mny happily breed a dearth of Aliment , as there is already of litterature in these parts . Thus much ex obliquo , now to the purpose , I hope your late obstreperous Alarmes , have not interturbed the procedure of our noble Authors Miscelany , which is a principall point in my Card. Sir , believe it without some Missive of Consolation from you , the Country will soon put me into a Chagrin , therefore be no longer costive , as you love 10 Aug. Your servant , T.B. LV. ANSWER . SIR , HAving by the inclosed given you some few serious lines , let me now answer your facetious letter ( of 10 August ) with a joculatory line or two ; And first by way of allauding your acuminous Exordium ; but withall of shewing , you imediately mistake the word susception , if you think it can stand in a sober sence for understanding , however in a way of Raillery it may pass . Again rudimented for taught is harsh ; so is hebetudinous cerebrosity . Documented for taught may pass in a serious Line , and plumbious , better then hebetudinous ; for inusted , you should say exusted ; so for herbiferous , frugiferous ; because herbes and plants are the less principall children of the Earth ; whereas Corn and all sorts of grain are the most principall for Mans use ; for so you must mean by the word ( aliment ) that followes in the text of your letter . And by this you see there is a kind of Elegance to be observed in a fustian phrase ; nay I say more , the lepid lines of fustian are lost , when 't is not genuine but strained ; And trust me ( Sir ) I hold it a piece of greater Art to line a letter with proper fustian , then with silken language , especially when friends resolve to be merry by distantiall salutes , your French Chagrin and Spanish Labrador may pass as apposite , because proper to the sense , and nothing strained ; So the missive of Consolation you desire , by way of an amicable observation upon the Text of yours ; And this is what I can sport away , who must rest 17 Aug. Sir , Your fustianizing friend , G.G. LVI . REPLY . SIR , THis brings you humble thanks both for your news and your Criticismes , and though mine of the 10 of August were but panis speusticus , a doghbak'd piece of fustian , wherein I intended nothing ad amussim , yet you must give me leave to make some defence . For Susception I have Rider for my warrant in that sense ; Rudimented I hold to be good and ( according to the new mode of converting Nounes into Verbs ) I purposely avoided plumbeous cerebrosity ( not plumbious as you write it ) as trite and thread bare ; But for your exception to herbiferous , in that you mistake the sense , for the season hath bin of late very good for Corn and grain , which frugiferous includes , and as bad for grass , the Sun having in some places not only burnt the very rootes of it , but has also made strange clefts and impressions in the Earth , therefore I us'd inusted , a word which though not so usuall , as exusted , or adusted yet in this sense I think no less proper , if not in a genuine , at least in a metaphoricall way , and Cattle , that are fed by grass & hay , are a considerable part of our aliment , &c. Sed me reprimo , not at all persuming to enter the Cirque with you in Logomachy or the pugnacity of such disputes , but with submission in all things to your greater judgment , whence I must confess to have received in these my junior years ; a great increment to my smaller portion of knowledge , both by these and other your documentall redargutions , which I alwaies receive with a reverentiall respect , answerable to your merit and the obligation of 24 Aug. Sir , Your very humble servant , T.B. LVII . Rejoynder . Sir , I Do hugely allaud your endeavour to abonar what I had vitiated in my last ; For t is a signe you are Master of what you do , when you can avow it ab ipsis primis principiis , and thereby shew you are as far from being conscious of errour , as you are from being inscious how far you may use the latitude of ●ustianising , without exceeding the limits of modest avowment , per modum inculpatae tutelae , Macte animo mi Thoma , & perge eo quo cepisti pede , &c. Trust me Sir , I shall ( without a blush ) easily yeeld you the advantage of me in logomachy , as often times deep divines do to Logitians in point of reducing Syllogismes to all their possible variations into severall Moodes and figures ; because the one is actually conversant in that perticular , whereas the other depends only upon the habitual use of such figures , without retaining the rule that leads to the rectitude thereof ; So men speak true Latine , without being able to give rule for it , and by this means some times are peccant against the Rule , which every school-boy can correct them in . And truely in this perticular of Logomachy you may and will be able to read Lectures to the deepest of men , because you laudably make it your profess'd study and consequently will make a world of men obliged to you , as well as 2 Sept. Sir , Your servant , G.G. LVIII . An Answer from one sick . SIR , SUch my persent condition , that I receive your letters as sick men do visits , am gratefull , yet cannot returne the curtesie , but by feeble thanks ; In this nature I have now been 3 weeks a decumbent ; This the cause I have already faild in my wonted entercourse , and the same continuate disability must render these , of my own complexion , infirm and faint , yet I beg you will not interrupt your turnes ; For though I am not responsible , yet your lines are much solace and no small divertisement from the sence of my weaknes : What was before but a friendly corespondence , will ( till it please God I mend ) be an office of endearing charity , extended towards him , who is Entirely yours , D.W. LIX . To his Mris , after a long Journey . My dearest friend , I Have bin a long and sad journey , which seem'd so much the longer and so much the sadder , by how much I was farther distanced from your sweet abode , nor had the sadnes of this forc'd vagary any solace at all , saving that of neer 300 miles , I passed no one , without making a Relique of your memory , which had still the vertue to renew all joyes in me , and expell the mists of melancholy , almost with equall force ( so strong was my imagination ) as if I had bin really in your presence ; If you have but bestowed one thought on me for every hundred I have dedicated to you , I am satisfied , believing that no love can come within so many degrees of mine , nor that there 's any state so happy , as that of being Your devoted servant , T.B. LX. Another to the same . My onely dear , THat you may see I forget you not at any time nor in any place , I present you these , and if I seem importune by my frequent addresses , you must pardon me , since I professe to receive no solace in this absence , but what the comfortable entertainment of thoughts on you affords me , and should I but as often put such thoughts in writing , as my heart presents them to my memory , I should be no day , even no houre without a pen in my hand ; And I may well hope , from the excellency of your nature , that you will not leave such faith , such affection , without a just retribution , nor can I despair of your remembrance of me in some propor●●on answerable to mine of you ; so may happiness in the end crown both , and I live eternally Yours , as at first , unalterable , T.B. LXI . In answer to a friend , ill of a cold . Sir , THe next degree to the happines of not having evils , is to have had them : which imports , though not our immunity , yet riddance : & to have overcome annoiance may be better , then not to have suffered it . This since you say , you have bin almost dead of a Cold , congratulates your almost Resurrection : and hopes to find your short-windednes turn'd into free respiration . 'T is a vulgar Probleme , whether this malady may be called a disease , or Physick . You I believe found it trouble some ; but will not repent , if it prove medicinall . I imagin ( allur'd by Aprils forward Sun ) you slipt too early into your Summer Aparell ; which , though it prov'd too thin to defend you , yet not unable , to make you take a warier choise of your Wardrobe next Spring . Gondamar was of opinion , as there were in England many seasons of the year in one day ; so a man had need of severall suits : My fancy is , if you will not alwaies be shifting , 't is best not to shift till you see nature in her best Green gown : whose fashion you may harmlesly follow . Sir , you see by my spinning out this one Clause of your letter , I want matter ; Yet you may see too , there 's nothing drops so raw from you , but affords subject . Nor must you blame me , if your indisposition busie my Pen , since your 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the Copie of it , and my own best constitution . Hence you have a double care lies upon your preservation ; your love to your self , and indulgence to Sir , Your servant , W.D. LXIII . In answer to a letter of Commends , &c. SIR . I Never look'd awry ( pardon the phraise ) upon any of yours till now , and now ( were not our mutuall loves united with many a dear link ) jealousie ( that Canker of affection ) would corrode my heart , I should , and can yet hardly forbear to ) judge , that you had some more deserving object in your mind , when you fancied mee with such high commends , as hold no proportion with my merit . I know you never wrote , but your heart and pen were coitinerants , yet ( pardon mee , if ) I assure you that in this ( and perhaps in this alone ) love has pourblinded your ( otherwise much discerning ) judgment ; should I believe all your write of mee , I might quickly be wasted into a Fools Paradise and so become a Ludibry ; I 'le rathet characterise my self , then own the least of your attributes , take it thus bluntly , yet with truth and candor , for I have studied that Sentence , which was engraven upon the gate of Apollo's Temple at Delphos ( viz ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . I was born under the dull planet Saturn , so that Mercury had no influence on my production , hence I am so far from being a Lynceus of nature , a Pelops of wisdome or Cicero of Eloquence , that I never pretended to any of those virtues , which beget admiration , nor to have my mind embroidered with any studied ornaments of learning , I onely claime some small title to those qualities , which stir affection , As truth of word , sincerity of heart , &c. Having thus ingenuously premised , I now send you an inhibition from the Court of love , not to treat any more of that subject , but to redargue my Errors and shew me the flats both of my pen and judgement , that what I write hereafter may merit this only Elogium ; As here 's no Elegance , so likewise no incongruity or affectation ; I aim no higher ; for in earnest if it were possible any thing of yours could nauseate me , the way were to send me a Laudatory Epistle , instead of a redargutory letter ; But I have another task therefore t is high time to put Omega to this , by subscribing my self Sir , Your humblest servant , T.B. LXIII . THE REPLY . SIR , MY fancied excesse in your praise , now recoiles upon my self ; you are , I see , your Artes Master : and what you could not divert , by a just disclaim ; you can stop , by an exaggerated retorsion . You may expect , I should now imitate your shame-fac'd modestie ; right this paper , with renouncing the abilities you heap upon me . But , I will not ; should I , We should still dwell in one Theme , & by the Nauseous tautologie , both impaire , what ere we both merit . I dare not vendicate to my self , a perfect self-knowledge ; nay , I avoid the reflex glances , that should tell me what I am ; lest , what I am , might cast me into a dejection ; & so , hinder amendment . Pusill animity , never yet attained an eminence . Do you cease your own undervaluings , & I shall my more adjusted expressions . I can let your worths be their own blazons , would you so let them ; but , if you will wrong you self , justice calls me , to your vindication . Nor , must the Legists Maxime , here sway ; volenti non fit injuria . Neither of us ( pardon the parallel ) are so accomplisht but we ought to thrive in imbellishments . Whether our souls came Aristotles Tabula rasa ; or written with Plato's Idea's into our earth ; in our earth , they have either forgot much , or learnt little . The fault , doubtles , ours . For , by what we know , we know we might , & may , know more . Nature , has made us capable ; that we become not better Proficients , our own truant inertie , the obstacle . I , am not so much a Scotist , as to confesse a substantiall difference , in souls : nor yet , such an Abcedary Philosopher , as to deny the Organs must be fitted , where the operation is to be excellent . You , & I should be ingrate , did we not assert , God has been liberall enough . To asperse his bounty with our wants , were a petty blasphemie in Philosophie it self . Let us both confesse , our respective ignorance , & our ignorance to be onely ours . This done : we are not to center in old dulnesse , but from the remorse of lost time , vigorously imploy the future . It imports the Vulgar rout , more to be good , than sagacious : We , are moulded for higher action : yet must joyn Vertue to knowledge . Reason's brutish , where the will 's incult . The Patterne , we were effigiated to , was infinitely Knowing , infinitely good ; in both , we are bound to imitate : bound to be the Representatives , of both , or , we forfeit our Orginall , and our similitude , too . Man 's a little world ; his minde the Heaven ; the two great Lights those splendid faculties , his Intellect , and Will : the lesser Starres , are the other powers : the intellect the Sun of all : all borrow his brightnesse , all must Cooperate with his raies , by adding their proper vertues . Thus shall our Microcosme be resplendent and fruitful , & gloriously rich : thus , we wise , and good , & thus nor good nor wise , I am . Sir , Yours , D.W. LXIV . The Rejoinder . Sir , I Quarrell'd your last in hope you would have retracted your transcendent elogicall conmends , which whilst you seem to intend in this , you have by a Rhetoricall Artifice , added more fewell to that fire ; So that I perceive whether I write or be silent , complain or acquiesce , I am every way dilemma'd ; I must confess to have nor wit nor language enough , to fadome the depth of your abilities , and by consequence am rendred impossibilited to pay you in your own coine , which is of such allay , that I may well say , you have truely found out the Philosophers stone , since you are able to convert any gross matter into the gold of fine language ; your prosaick lines are ( for excellency ) like those metricall ones of Homer , which as they excell in other points , so they seem to have an easie native slide in them , and to be conducted by a happy Genius . If I had abilitys to expatiate upon this subject , I could not be held a Patelin , but rather a suffragran to truth ; what I want words to express , silent admiration shall speak in the thoughts of Sir , Your obliged servant , T.B. LXV . An Answer . Sir , 'T Is well you are , as you are , the Rendevouz where all perfections meet , otherwise I should in this intercourse have one ( and one onely ) advantage of you ; For whilst you at every return of the Tabellary , have your Theme to seek , and yet no sooner sought but found ( such is the magazin of your invention ) I have a plentifull subject alwaies ready at hand , If I had answerable abilitys to make my election , and to word it accordingly and that is news , news which whilst there are men , will never cease to bee in vogue ; And since this week affords that which is somewhat palaticall , I shall no longer tantalize you with a proletarious Exordium . Then know , &c. — I humbly kiss your hands and remain . Sir , Your faithfull servant , T.B. LXVI . REPLY . SIR , I Am assaulted by your Martiall metaphors , yet with this favour , that where others erect their engines , to ruine , your levell aimes to strengthen the weak fort you direct against ; your continued Elogies at last mean to perswade me ( I see ) into some Ability , and could you infuse what you commend ( in stead of blush ) your Rhetorique would make me doubtless eloquent . I will not say with that keen Satyrist recuso Euge tuum & Belle. No I will with a modest guilt of non-desert embrace them , to profit , and that nec te quaesiveris extra ( of the same Poet ) was a good Monition . But our Muse is not so stoicall . Quis enim virtutem amplectitur ipsam , Praemia si tollas — Sir , honour is the reward of Artes and fame the tongue of honour , nor are either honour or fame more the guerdons , then the incentives of Proficience . Do you see ( my friend ) how I hug your attributions ? My vanity yet ( in it ) may be your lesson ; not to be vain but ingenuous , Be not so squeamish , hence forward : Accept your Baies offered , or merit it confer'd . What praise finds not answerable , let it incite to answer . I know my insufficiencies , but utterly despair not amendment ; If by your encouragement I amend not , I shall confesse my Brutish nature , to be past cure . If I grant you an advantage over me , 't is but what you have asserted : I answer the same Post , and to many besides yours ; But what is this ? ( my both matter , and the couching shewes it ) to be suddainly slight and rude , an odd perfection , and but suitable to both my leisure and me ; you have a ready subject for your pen , and how gratefully and ably you paint it forth , give me leave to be the Judge , that receive the delight : and I must keep it to my self , for you are as coy to receive the titles of your worth , as I am conscious they are due . Be then still higher then words can express you ; so I may still bee Sir , Excessively yours , W.D. LXVII . The first Address to his Mistris . Most honoured Lady , IN a cause whereon the felicity of my whole life depends , and wherein I have most will , I find least power to unbosome the secrets of my heart , such force has love to captivate my faculties ; Hence 't is I rather chose this , then that other way of verball delivery ; For though in either I should discover my own imperfections , yet in these lines my guiltles blushes will pass unseen . Hitherto I have onely appear'd a servant to your affaires , and in that quality had continued , if the excellency of your personall endowments had not ( by some kind of heavenly impulse ) driven mee on to more aspiring thoughts ; Thoughts , which ( with truth I speak it ) were engendred by the onely object of your goodnes , without any adulterate commixture of estate , which ( however valued by others ) is not of weight sufficient to turn the ballance of my scale , if not otherwise well laden with pure and unbiass'd affection , which I profess to owe to none but you ; and to you all things , even the being of Your most faithfull and devoted servant , T.B. LXVIII . Another to the same . My inestimable Jewell , IF the fumes of those corrosives you gave me last night from other hands , had not been qualified with the sweet odors of your own cordialls , I had ( unfeignedly speaking ) wholly sacrifiz'd the ensuing night to the vigils of a disquiet mind ; But as your goodnesse had not the will onely , but the power to raise mee from a hell of tormenting thoughts , to a Paradise of expected comfort , so does it multiply my endeared affections , which no misfortune shall have power to alienate , nor shall any thing but death determine . I am with much sollicitude setting all my imaginations upon the tenter , in order to the removall of those Rocks , which seem ( and but seem ) to threaten Shipwrack to our approaching happiness , whereto your utmost contribution is ( by all the ties of true love ) most earnestly implored , together with the continuance of him in your best thoughts , who is Your own , beyond expresses , T.B. LXIX . ANOTHER . Dear pledge of my soul . AMong all the obloquies , which the unrelenting malice of mine ( and by consequence your ) enimies hath cast upon mee , none appears so gastly in my thoughts , as that pretended want of love towards you , which ( the heavens will witness ) was never imbreasted in any mortall with more purity and plenitude ; For 't is the foundation , whereon I intend ( by divine assistance ) to build a frame of mutuall and interminable happines ; a happines that will be admired by some , but envied by others . Please to remember that you are now filia emancipata ( as divines terme you ) at your own dispose , and that you have of mee a servant , who only breathes by your favour and lives through your love , who will ever owe you fealty for the one , and still do you homage for the other ; a servant , who with unwearied expectation only waits for the happy houre , wherein that ( fiat ) shall be by you pronounc'd , which will in an instant ( Elixar-like ) turn all my drossy cares and anxieties into true contentments , and make me live eternally Yours without change , T.B. LXX . ANOTHER . My happy Choice , IF a more pressing occasion had not detain'd me , I should have thought the foulnesse of the weather but an easie penance , in respect of the solace , which the sweets of your presence would have afforded me ; for the enjoyment whereof I must ( with much regret ) adjourn my expectation till to morrow ; Mean time I send you the promised pictures , if the sight of which do at any time erect your thoughts to heaven-ward , even then remember him , who on earth desires no greater happines , then to live and die loving ( and beloved by ) you , in quality of Your second self , T.B. LXXI . To excuse the not taking leave of a Lady of quality . Madam , THough it be held a readier way to gain pardon , by acknowledging then excusing a fault , yet the Eminency of your Ladyships person doth so aggravate it in me , that I must beg leave to lessen , though , I cannot hope to have it wholly remitted , in saying the justness of your Ladyships cause of stay , made me presume none had so little compassion as to deny it ; and that I might expect the being freed from my ague , without danger of losing the opportunity of presenting my humble thanks for so many singall favours , undeservedly conferred on me ; but since that happiness with many others is lost by your Ladyships absence , honour this paper so far I beseech you , as to suffer it to supply my defects herein , and testify how ambitious I shall be , by my future observance , to merit the title of Madam , Your most humble servant , A.B. LXXII . Vpon the death of a fair Lady . Sir , AMong other impartments , your last tells mee , you were to usher a fair Lady to her grave ; A Corporall work of Mercy , it is to bury the Dead , I grant ; but to interr so great a Beauty ●e●ms to entrench on Pity and blast the Spring . Had she lived till Autumne or even Midsommer , the funeralls of many flowers , had lamented her Urne : yea if but till they had been blown , they would have lost their lives to adorn her Hearse ; and have been ambitious ( like those Savages ) to have been buried quick with their Ladie Paragon , for her attendance in the other World. But she has inverted Nature , and the Season too ; the flower of beauty died , when the beauty of flowers should spring ; and so has not onely left a withered World , but dismayed the Blowth of what should garnish it . Flowers are disheartened to open their fragrant Colors , since their Pattern is so early Cropt : and seem to intend ( being she 's entomb'd under the Earths surface ) to keep themselves under Earth to accompany her dust ; yet I will free you of cruelty in this fate ; you had no hand ( I am sure ) in her death , though you helpt her to her Grave . And who should be a fitter Mourner at the exequies of a fair Lady , than so compleat a servant of Ladies ? Sir , I see what grace you are entertained with by them : they not only love you living , but are loath to part with you , dead : will carry you as for as they can towards the other life , when they goe . That if they may not have your company quite through ( which were a wrong to Survivors ) they may your funerall tears , sighes , or prayers for their Vltime Vale : you preface a happy imprimis , to this sad discourse , and say having ( first ) done all that might tend to her future happiness . Happy News ! and it ownes you , I believe , an instrument of good effects and offices . Had all fair Ladies such faithfull servants , More Idols of beauty would receive impression of the divine Image , and become the servants of God. And she had much reason to desire your care of her bodies enterrment , that had first aided her soul , with a saving Viaticum for heaven . Long may you live the Author or helper of such good deeds . In the interim , as here was a double work of mercy ( Corporall and Spirituall ) exploited ; so you , I am confident , have made your usefull application of the Accident ; beheld in the blasting of this flower , the fate of Fairness , the frailties of the fairest Clay , that feature , and white and red could embelish . If she were not Superlative in Beauty , in beauty she had many inferiours ; if in fortunes , not the favourite of fortune ; yet , she has had her smiles . Many Beauties have faln sooner , many may sooner fade ; yet in her all beauties , all fortunes , have exprest , what fortunes and beauties are ; what is the Exit of the Fable of this temporary life : to wit , ugly death , eternall deprivation , the cold Tomb , and deformed dust . Fortunate life ! that so contemplates mortal condition , as to be indifferent and ready to change ; that fraile incertainties , and vain glitter may be motives to assure and fix on lasting good , that by others death learnes to live , and lives the life that feares not death : that so accompanies others funeralls , as in that sable equipage , to behold the mournfull Pomp of the Worlds farewell , and their own destiny : that reads in that earthy bed of death ( the Grave of others ) their own Motto , we are dust , and all mortall things Momentary . Sir , pardon this long slip of my pen : you see how a fair Ladies death and your living pietie , entrances me , to the forgetfulness of other subjects , I confess I am also now in a dull Mood , not apt as to expression . Thanks for your News on which , the only present comment shall be ; that I am for ever Sir , Your thankfull servant , D.W. LXXIII . The Reply , relating the particulers of that Ladies death . Sir , SInce you have been pleas'd to sing so sweet a dirge , and to make so excellent a comment upon our late funerous text , I cannot think the particulers of that sad subject ( how confusedly soever I deliver them ) will be unacceptable to you ; This Lady was 3 moneths continually dying , without any hope of recovery , and this occasioned by an ulcer in her throat , it was my good fortune ( though others had assai'd it ) to gain her first assent to bring a spirituall Phisitian to her . Dr. G. was next at hand , and did act his part exceedingly well ; after 2 or 3 effective visits , the Patient ( through the comfort and ease of the spirituall Cataplasmes and emplaisters , which the Doctor applied ) was so rapt and piously enamor'd of him , as she even embrac'd him at every appearance . When shee drew neer the confines of deaths kingdom , she did usually ejaculate not only most pious but even eloquent or rather diviniloquent expressions , as this ( amongst many others ) which heaven grant I may never forget . I have ( said she ) lived long in the vanity of this World , for which God hath placed mee in this bed of sorrow ; Were it his holy pleasure , I should act over one of them again , and the choice left to mee , I would ( by the Grace of Jesus ) rather chose the torments of this bed , and malady , then have any thing to do with the Worlds vanities , &c Besides nothing did so much trouble her , as that she had lived ( as she said ) for fear of Worldly endamagement ) some yeares in an outward profession that contradicted her inward perswasion ; The Doctor was no less taken with his Patient , then she with him , for I heard him say hee was never more satisfied with the manner of any persons death ; And I confess her exit did more tristitiate mee , then did that of my own Sister , the manner of it , not a little both mortifying and edifying mee ; For to see her picture in the Anti-chamber , and then go in and look upon the originall , was subject enough for mortification , the one being so incomparable beautifull , the other so ghastly ; In a word , the last breath she drew was Je-and in pronouncing - sus she expir'd . So that we may conclude , as she was a great beauty living , she was a greater dead ; For whereas corporall beauty in others dies with the body , hers did not so , but by a secret transition pass'd into the soul . Thus have you heard the brief ( but sad ) story of this good Ladies end , and that from Sir , Your humble servant , T.B. LXXIV . LETTER . Sir , THe punishment that Apollo inflicts of reading Guicciardine is a light one , compar'd to this that you impose ●pon your self , and yet you will only here play the Stoick in not acknowledging you are in pain ; Nothing can justify mee , but obedience , for persuming to offer this tedious Romance to those eyes that should onely look upon Iliads ; I give verses as Galenists do Phisick , which clogs the stomack more then the disease ; I must confess we may view Cities taken , kingdomes ruin'd , and new worlds discovered in lesse roome ; It is a Poem that hath neither height nor profundity , yet it has length ; it overflowes but swells not ; it wearies without ascents , as Promenades do upon a flat ; In a word , I shall think , if you do not find fault with it and reprehend me , it is because you are angry and will do nothing in Passion ; however it is a trust I recommend to your secrecy , for follies are not things of the least consequence to trust a friend with . And having now performed my promise with you , I expect you should do the like with Sir , Your affectionate servant , J.C. LXXV . Vpon the New year . Sir , AS all things sublunary owe their being to the revolution of the upper Spheres , so their change ; And 't is just , they should submit to their essentiall Guides . Amongst other novelties , the first mover had brought about the point of Circular motion , that has began us a New year : and promises many unwonted effects . Whilst these appeare , let us be the same we were , constant old friends to God , heaven and our selves . Change , though to the better , argues imperfection , yet not to change to the better , were the worst of imperfections . As restles rivers hast to their Ocean , so ought we to ours , which is God , that Ocean of bliss , repose , and Center of aeternity ; Till here arrived , we are in flux and variety : Let us be so , but hold the right way . As Grace is elder then Nature , so she first begins her year ; Astronomers commence theirs with the springs vigour , when the Sun 's in Aries , the Church is content with Capricorn ; When her Sun 's in the Cradle , that Orient of Justice and mercy , the Son of God , The signes melancholy ; yet the forerunner of more propitious . So let our sorrows shorten with the nights , our joyes with the dayes lengthen . This solstice ( if we follow the conduct of the right Star ) will fairly move to a brighter height , a nearer approach ; dispell our mists , warme our hearts , ravish our eyes . This rambling prologue , is but to bring in the prayer that wishes you a happy New year , and that regard of times winged Cariers , which in running moments may take hold of the stedfast point of eternity . This is the Center of circumference ; In which who truly fix , may be moved but not from it . Then , as time whirles away the measure of our mortall being , it will ha●ten that , which shall know no alteration , but to be invariable . Sir , my complex●on suits the dead season at present , and yeilds me but a languishing health : Hence my pen's as dull . You know when the bodies out of order , the spirits cannot but flag . I must suffer the one , you will pardon the other . And so to affaires that require no politure , but what your patience shall give them , &c. 2 January . W.D. LXXVI . ANSWER . SIR YOurs I have received , read , and read again , and the more I read it , the more I have a a mind to read it , such are the incentives of your heaven-inspired lines , which as they clearly demonstrate the truth of that Maxime of a modern Author , that Eternity is the Port and Sabbath of all humane Contemplations : So , since my more earthy Soul and lesse heavenly cogitations are not able in due manner to comprehend them ; I wrap my self in this your learned sheet and say to it ( with equall wonder ) As Aristotle once did to Euripus , Q●uia ego non capio te , tu capias me T B. LXXVII . A letter to a friend upon his marriage . SIR . I Have of late with held from you the Characters of my hand , though not the welwishes of my heart , conceiving you as close in the pursuit of your fair Daphne , as Phabus was of his , when the breath of his mouth disorder'd her dissheiveld hair : For I perceive you have now ran so , as happily to take the Virgin-prize ; may you be ever mutually happy . There now onely remains the metamorphosis ( not into the Beast with two backs , which the knavish Shakespear speaks of ) but of that more ingenious , two into one , unus , una , into unum , which you have hinted so modestly in yours . Your Daphne I hope ( before the arrivall of this paper ) will be converted not onely into Bayes , but Rosemary , which is one fragrancy , due to her perfections ( if you have ( as I doubt not ) given her a true Character ) more then the Poet gave Apollo's Mistress ; Let this therefore suffice to give you both the parabien of Hymen's honours and felicities , and to let you know I shall both expect and be ambitious to wear a sprig in honour of her , nor will I faile heartily to commend you both to the great President of the wedding of Cana in Galilee , that he may turn the bitter Waters of your long expectation into the Wine of a happy and contented life , made up with the blessing of a good and pious posterity . In which devotion I affectionately rest Sir , Your humble servant , H.T. Superscriptions FOR LETTERS , to be addressed to all sorts of persons , according to the usage of the present times . If to a Duke , TO the most Noble ( and some times ) Excellent or illustrious Prince . And in discourse we stile him Grace If to a Marquess , To the right Noble or right honourable . And in discourse his attribute is , Lordship or Honour . If to an Earle , Viscount or Baron To the right honourable . And to begin a Letter , we , either say May it please your Honor or Lordship Right honorable My Lord. Which last is used only by Lords to Lords , or by Gentlemen of some quality , otherwise it is held too familiar . If to a Baronet , or Knight of the Bath , we say To the honourable or much honoured . And his attribute ( in the beginning of a letter may be Much honored Sir. The like may be given to a Collonel . The usuall attribute of a Knight was of old Right Worshipfull . And of an Esquire Worshipful . But these are much disus'd , unles it be by persons of inferiour rank . We say ( writing to a Knight ) To my noble or to my much honored friend , Sir A.B. Knight , these present . To an Esquire we say To my much honored or most worthy friend T.G. Esquire . Observe that ( when you write to an Esq ) you be sure not to say Master T.G. Esq for the ( Master ) is ridiculous , the Esq including it . So if you write to a Doctor of Divinity , a Doctor of the Civil Law , or Doctor of Phisick , you must not say Mr. Doctor T.G. nor Doctor T.G. Esq ; for Doctor both comprehends Master and Esquire , and of these the Divine hath first place , the Civilian next , and the Phisitian last . To an ordinary Gentleman thus , To my approved friend To my most esteemed friend To my much valued friend To my very much respected friend To my worthy good friend , or the like . Note that all the younger Sons of Dukes and Marquesses are Lords for their lives only , and are called Lord John , or Lord William , &c. by their Christian names . The eldest Son of an Earle is a Lord by birth , so is not a Viscounts Son , till his Father be dead . The youngest Sons of Viscounts and Barons are but Esquires , yet are honorable , and take place of all Baronets and Knights . The eldest Son of a Baron is but an Esq during his Fathers life . Esquire ( comes from the French Escuier , in latin Armiger or Scutifer i. a bearer of Armes , or of a Sheild , and ) is that Degree of Gentry , which is next to a Knight ; It is conceived that at the first these Esquires were bearers of Arms to Lords and Knights , and thereby had their name and dignity : Now to be true Esquires according to the Law of Armes , they must either be Lords younger Sons , Baronets or Knights eldest Sons , members of Parlement , Sheriffs , Justices of the Peace , Serjeants at Law , Barristers at Law ( yet the late Earle Marshall would not allow Barristers to be Esquires , but in the Act for Polemoney they were ranked by the then Parliament as Esquires and paid as Esq ) or of some ancient family that has it by being heir to a Knight in the right line ; Though now a dayes ( I know not by what warrant ) all Gentlemen that have but some considerable Estate in Lands , take that title upon them , when as the Estate ( though never so great ) adds no title . And that the title of Esq should descend from Father to Son ( as the Estate of Gentry doth ) is meer fabulous , saies Mr. Herne in his Glory of Generosity , p. 100. Ladies have ( for the most part ) the same attributes as their husbands . Both in Letter and discourse , we give a Dutches the title Grace . But to a Marchioness , Countess , Viscountess or Baroness , right honourable and in discourse your honour , and among their equals , or in more familiar discourse , Madam . If you write to any of these , the title Madam , is very moding , both at the beginning and end of your Letter , But if the person writing be of much lower Rank , then the Lady written unto , it will be decent to say . May it please your honour , or Right honourable ! All the daughters of Dukes , Marquesses and Earles are Ladies by birth , and are called Lady Anne , Lady Mary , &c. But the daughters of a Viscount or Baron are but Mistris , yet are honorable ; And their Addition ( being named in instruments of Law or Conveyances ) is no more then a Yeomans daughter hath , and that is Spinster , wherein there seems to be some title wanting . And for the better understanding the point of precedency , I have thought fit to transcribe an abstract of two Decrees made by King James touching the same , in the 10 and 14 years of his raigne , which you may read more at large in Mr. Seldens , Titles of honour , Page 906. That the younger Sons of Viscounts and Barons shall take place and precedence before all Baronets . That such Bannerets ( as shall be made by the Kings Majesty , his heirs and Successors , or by Henry now Prince of Wales , under his or their Standard displayed in an Army Royall in open war , and the King or Prince personally present ) for their lives onely , and no longer , shall for ever in all places take place and precedence , as well before all other Bannerets whatsoever , as likewise before the younger Sonnes of Viscounts and Barons , and before all Baronets . The younger Sons of Viscounts and Barons , and all Baronets , shall take place before all Bannerets whatsoever , other then such as shall be made by the King as aforesaid . That the Knights of the Garter , Privy Councellors to the King , the Master of the Court of Wards and Liveries , the Chancellor and under Treasurer of the Exchequer , Chanceller of the Dutchy , the chief Justice of the Kings Bench , the Master of the Rolls , The chief Justice of the Common-pleas , the chief Baron of the Exchequer , and all other the Judges and Barons of the degree of the Coif of the said Courts , shall have place before the younger sons of Viscounts and Barons , and before all Baronets . That Baronets and their heires Males shall alwayes have place next unto the younger Sonnes of Viscounts and Barons , and their wives shall take place accordingly . And in another Decree , 14 Jacobi . That the eldest sonnes of Baronets and their wives as well during their husbands lives , as after ; And the daughters of the same Baronets following next after the said wives of the eldest sonnes of Baronets , shall have place and precedence before the eldest son and the wife of the eldest sonne of any Knight of what Order soever , And likewise the younger sonnes of such Baronets and their wives shall take place accordingly before the younger Sons of any Knights , &c. ERRATA PAge 3. l. 19. r Matter . p. 11. l. 10. r Proleptoton . p. 38. l. 15. r Jocus . p. 43. l. 16. r Periphrasis . p. 44. l. 35. r continuance . p. 49. l. 19. r my Soul. and l. 20 , refresh . p. 61. l. 10. r astonish . p. 63. l. 18. r in Bac. p. 70. l. 15. dele the same . p. 71. l. 3. dele in . p. 72. l. 18. r hardest . p. 69. l. 27. r enclines . p. 79. l. 8. r forth teares . p. 107. l. 34. r a sleep . p. 112. l. 9. r her own . p. 124. l. 3. r preterhard p. 128. l. 11. r there . p. 134. l. 22. r over . p. 138. l. 15. dele — p. 142. l 2. r form . p. 153. l. 16. r best self . p. 170. l. 11.12 . r intime . p. 197. l. 17. r guift . and l. 31. r united . FINIS . Notes, typically marginal, from the original text Notes for div A28452-e270 Prov. 16.21 , 24. Notes for div A28452-e9280 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . H ▪ C. Max. 296. Notes for div A28452-e25440 | It was a time of great rain .