A HELP TO MEMORY AND DISCOURSE: WITH TABLETALK, as Music to a Banquet of WINE.  
Being a Compendium of witty, and useful Propositions, Problems, and Sentences, Extracted from the larger Volumes of Physicians, Philosophers, Orators and Poets:  
Distilled in their assiduous and learned Observations:  
And which for Method, Manner, and Referent Handling, may be fitly termed, A Second MISSELANY; Or, Help to Discourse.  
LONDON: Printed by T. B. for Leonard Becket, and are to be sold at his Shop in the Temple, near the Church. 1630.   

Ad Lectorem.  
AS Bastard once the Epigramist said,  
As every skill is nothing when 'tis shown:  
So were his labours slighted when th'were known.  
Four lines (saith he) which tugged me hours twain,  
My Reader swallows up and takes no pain.  
Of Books and Pamphlets I commerce with many,  
Before I drew a good conceit from any.  
A hundred Ballads had not so much wit,  
To yield one platform for to build on it:  
And yet my Printer thinks that he shall lose,  
That buys my Epigrams at pence a piece.  
Yet a wise looker on, that views a ground,  
Set with rich grafts and plants but rarely found,  
From several nurseries brought in and set,  
Must think some pains was taken such to get.  
And if a Gardener much waste woods pass by,  
Before one wholesome fruit makes glad his eye;  
Why should he think that such a plot doth suit  
But he should reap the harvest of his fruit?  
Though Bastard's Printer seemed to be so nice,  
Matter & Lines are good, must bear me price.   

To the Reader.  
OF all th'internal faculties of man,  
None nobler than the memory: for when  
Our youthful industry with labour took,  
Hath sucked Schools dry, and made itself a book,  
This trusty treasurer that turns the key,  
Must locked in memories chest, or 'twill away;  
For man is truly said to know no more,  
Than what he can remember of his store,  
And vouch at need, I'd have a man to be  
A Minshaw, or Gesuers History,  
To know all names, and natures, and to read▪  
A lecture to each question doth proceed.   

In praise of the Work, and the Author.  
HE that doth read, & fain would understand  
Shall find instruction here at the first hand.  
Welcome his willingness: lead him along  
To the choice Arbours, where a fragrant throng  
Of savours delicate seems to invite him,  
And mutually agree, all to delight him.  
This book's the Garden, and since thou art in,  
Walk through each Arbour, whilst alone unseen,  
Then contemplate the beauties that be there  
Planted, to fill thy pleasure every where:  
L●t than thy memory strive to regain,  
These preparatives and cordials for the brain,  
Since by it plausible discourses is cherished,  
Which else by ignorance and fate had perished.  
Glad than the Author, since his willing hand,  
'twixt thee and ignomy, is content to stand:  
And let him praises have; for thankful spirits  
Give solace to the man that truly merits.  
W. Lort.   

DIRECTIONS for DISCOURSE.  
IN your discourse use not many circumstances before you come to the matter, for that begets a weariness in the Auditors: and yet for eschewing of bluntness, use some preamble thereunto; for that persuades attention, and conceit of some methodical consequence. Of all the excellent attributes and faculties of man, in none doth he differ more from a beast, then in his Ratione & Oratione, in his Reason and Discourse: In the excellency and perfection whereof, like the pen of a ready Writer, is the tongue of a perfect speaker, which in the wise management and excellency of that quality, in the prosecution of his relation and story, possesseth with a silent 〈◊〉 derment and admiration, the ears and 〈◊〉 fes of those within the compass of his c●●ning: for as the Poet could say, 
Dic mihi musa virum—  
Qui mores hominum multorum vidit & urbes,   
So I say, Give me the man for Discourse, that hath seen the manners and situations of Cities and men; which hath scene, and is observable in the passages and occurrences of the world, the creatures thereof, and the casualties therein: for that draws up to the ●are of life and fresh view, what hath past, and is buried in the grave of oblivion. For without discourse and the preciousness thereof, how should forepassed actions which to that end are sometimes done, be Precedents, Examples, or forewarnings, both to present and future times, and which though done, and to us known, yet in a dead understanding appear to the sense like Landscape to the Eye, till some perfect musician with the excellency of this instrument present them to the Ear, in more fresher colours and life. Oh the tedious hours that have been posted away with this enchanting Siren! This it is that presents education, Gentility, understanding, memory: this it is like music to a banquet of wine, lulls the sense in the sweetest and highest fullness and melody of content: it hath been a porter to admit many a poor outside for his preicous inside, 
To silken laced and perfumed hinds,  
That had rich bodies, but poor wretched minds.  And though in the cross carriage and misimployment, it hath subdued many a rich chastity of itself, which though it make not for the good, yet it argues for the power: But where Lady Pecunia and she join hand to hand in conspiracy, they make havoc and devastation of all in the way. I● lulls asleep heavy senses after large suppers, and takes captive many a fair Lady, that if the first and second bait take them not, they are not missed with the third. Travellers and Historiographers go a fishing with no other bait: In a word, communication and conference between man and man, is the life of living: but Discourse the life of that life.  
Q. Since Discourse is so excellent, precious and profitable, and yet so few can orderly manage it, wherein consisteth the greatest help thereunto.  
A. In Relation and Memory: for as without knowledge our memory hath no subject to work upon, even so without memory, our knowledge is always in the A●tumne, withering, and decay; the brittle and slippery footing whereof (as testifieth each man's experience) forgets much more than it can contain. For as once one learned in the Laws, told his fellow Advocate at the bar, entering into some wrangling comparisons, that he had forgot more law than ever the other learned; to which I easily assent, because I know all memory to be Infida & labilis, untrusty to keep, and trusty only to deceive; and which was peradventure more than he himself at that time was master of, that being only ours that we remember: for every man may say of the much seed that hath fallen into his ground, little harvest hath been gathered into his barn; not unlike the fruit which the sour in the Gospel received from his seed, of which whilst he cast it forth, some fell into the highway, a ground unfit to receive it in, like the uncapable memory of the old man, by reason of his too much dryness, of the young man; by reason of his too much moisture: And though it fall as some of his s●●d fell into good ground, that of itself had that reasonable fruitfulness, in regard of some proportionable mixture of heat and moisture, that it might have yielded an increase suitable thereunto; yet than the cares and troubles of the world, do either exhaust and drink it dry, or like the seed which fell among thorns, choke it up, that it can take no root or impression.  
Qu. But if the memory be so precious, that the waste of the tongue spends upon the storehouse there▪ so useful, so delightful, that to it we walk as to some Castle or Tower of Antiquity, to view the Records and Registers of forepast ages and accidents, there hung up as monuments to our view; without which, whatsoever hath been done, had been as soon forgotten as done, without further use or consequence, but that there we find it registered by the finger of God's providence and power, and committed to this great Custos Recordorum: where of every man is a keeper, that somethings detains in such capital letters, that many years obscure nor deface not: and yet other things again so slightly and negligently apprehends, that in a short period of time they are wiped out as with a sponge; yea, even such as w● grieve to forgo, and thereupon it growe● that the question is, By what means 〈◊〉 ordering, this precious Virgin (secretary of the soul) may be kept uncorrupted, ever flourishing, in her best and middle youth and ripest apprehension.  
An. Though I am not ignorant of the precious virtue of this most excelē●t handmaid of the soul, that lodgeth in the hindermost closet and chamber of the Brain, the volume & contents whereof she so often overturns with delight: yet am I not so skilful to propose any rules whereunto she may be wedded to become more fruitful, though I know there are that have laid down such: but that any were ever much bettered thereby, hath not come unto my knowledge, more than by doubtful Relation. In Authors I have read of some men of wonderful memories, as of Seneca, that he could recite 2000 names.  
Of others again so weak, that they have forgotten to read, nay, their own names; and all these out of the strength or weakness of their natural memory: For how should it be that a weak memory by nature, should become much bettered by Art, when it must recount or set down by so many Ideas, or Imaginations form in the mind; by certain places, colours, or letters the circumstances whereof require a reasonable strength that way, without which there is no possibility of working. For in this artificial memory distinguished by places as it were paper leaves, the Ideas or Images, letters, the disposition of the Images in their places, the method for the reading, all which are a charge to the memory; yet the Authors in this Art say, this is done more by the understanding then the memory: The helps whereof by this Art memorative, they would prove to be as effectual, by these conceived fictions in the eye of the mind, as those we remember by the visible eye of the body: for example whereof, say they, concerning the latter we read in the holy Scriptures of 12. Stones that were erected in the river jordan in memory of the wonderful transpassage of the Israelites, jos. 24.27. Likewise the Sacraments ordained of God (say they) are as visible Ideas to remember invisible things, to which we easily assent: or as by the tying of the finger with a thread, we are sometimes remembered, what that cannot tell us, but points us to, as an adjunct to ou● memory.  
So in like manner are these places, and medeas, mementoes, and helps for the ey● of the mind, as significant as the other for the body.  
The Art whereof by reason of some difficulty therein, I leave to the practisers, and those that will further wade therein, whilst I only relying upon a natural Memory, and the strength thereof infused by God, am careful, not disparaging any other either Help or Art, both to preserve it in myself, and to commend to others, such preservatives and helps, as are drawn from the works of the learned in this kind.   

Directions for the preservation of the natural Memory, consisting first in avoiding of things hurtful: Secondly, in embracing such things as are helpful.  
THe Memory, whose Eyes are seated in the back part of the Brain, hath no object till something be effected: she looks not forward at things to come, but recordeth events already succeeded; the edge whereof, like the finest razor, is quickly turned or blunted: wherefore among many things that are required to preserve it in a perfect temperature, these especially ensuing, are respected as principal furtherers or decayers thereof. And first of the offensive part.  

Things hurtful for the Memory to be annoyed.  
First, we are to observe, that all corrupt airs, noisome vapours and sent● are offensive thereunto, and therefore o● chiefest respect aught to be, that the Air wherein we breathe, be not thick, foggy, and unwholesome, annoyed with stinking marshes, standing ditches, and lakes, etc.  
Secondly, that we walk not forth in foggy or misty Evenings or Mornings, before or after the Sun be down or up.  
Thirdly, that we abstain from all crude and gross Flesh, unripe fruits, green herbs, and all other things, cold by nature or vaporous, which send up gross humour into the brain.  
Fourthly, that we avoid all fuming drinks, strong Wine, and Ale, or any broths made of unwholesome water.  
Fiftly, from Beans, Pease, Garlic and Onions, which especially cause Headache, hurt the Eyes and the Sinews, and by weakening the senses, cause dreams and fantasies.  
Sixtly, Likewise from such things as are flow of digestion, as Cheese, Nuts, walnuts, and meats of diverse sorts at one meal.  
Also we are to avoid (as dangerous thereinto) immoderate sleep, too much Venery, especially when the stomach is full, or the body dry: at change of the moon, or where sleep may not follow.  
But from it altogether should young men abstain, as likewise old men, and women with child.  
All cold in the hindermost part of the Head, Neck, Stomach, and Belly, is offensive. Likewise immoderate labour, which dries up the strength and dulls the Spirits, especially in moist and windy places.  
Much care, fear, grief, and all violent passions of the mind: too much Reading and Study, Night-watching, long-hair, washing the head in cold water, with the distraction of the mind into diverse studies, all offensive and hurtful.   

Things good to preserve and restore the Memory,  
Are for the most part the use of these precedent contraries, aa all meats that yield good juice or nourishment to 〈◊〉 body: more especially the brain of 〈◊〉 Partridge, the Sparrow, Hare, Conny▪ 〈◊〉 Hen, the last whereof is the first and 〈◊〉 in reckoning.  
For, some Physicians write, that 〈◊〉 brain of the Hen, adds to the very su●●stance of the Brain: of whom it is thus Written: 
The Hen of all fowls is accounted best:  
In two things far excelling all the rest.  
For first, for those that want or Brain or wit:  
The Hen's brain doth augment both that and it.  
And in her body she the egg doth breed,  
The yolk whereof turns to much blood and seed.   
Likewise the vapour and decoction of these Herbs infused into the ear through some tunnel, much comforteth the brain, that is to say, of Nigella Romana, the flowers of Rosemary, and Cardnus Benedictus: and these not only comfort the brain▪ but also sharpen the wit, exhilarate the mind, and procure healthful sleep. The washing of the feet in warm water once a month, and throughly boiled, wherein hath been decocted Camomile, the leaves of Laurel, and the like.  
After meat abstain one hour from all immoderate labour, either of mind or body; as after supper some reasonable time from sleep; for to fleepe upon a full stomach, much dulleth the brain, as it indangereth the body, which some say is thereby exposed to as much as to serve in the face of an enemy.  
When thou goest to thy bed, shut the windows of thy chamber, to exclude the wind, and draw close the curtains to shut out the Moonlight, which is very offensive and hurtful to the brain, especially of those that sleep, much more than of those that wake. Afterwards in thy lying down, first turn thee upon thy right side, when thou awakest again, upon thy left side, that thy blood and digestion may the better replenish thy body; ever practising the memory to record and repeat things received in the Evening, the Morning following: for by want of practice, the retentive faculty becomes dull and forgetful, as the Verse to this purpose seems to insinuate; 
Saepe recordari medicamen fortius omni.  
Solus et artificem qui facit, usus erit.   
Englished.  
'tis use & practice that becomes each 〈◊〉  
For that makes perfect, what neglect 〈◊〉 kill.  
Neither desire superficially to read man● things, but rather well to understand those few that thou dost; for even as it little availeth the stomach to have received much meat, except it be thence digested into nutriment to the body, so doth such reading bring as little profit to the mind.   

Signs to judge of the Debility, and Constitution of every Brain, with some advice for remedy of the ill disposition thereof.  
THe Debility of each weak memory ariseth out of one of these four causes: that is to say, either out of the too much heat of the brain, or too much cold, or too much moisture, or too much dryness; for too much heat dries up the Spirits, too much cold hinders their operation and motion in the caverne of the brain, too much dryness the reception of forms, and too muc● moisture drowns them up; the signs whereof are thus perceived.  
1. If the brain be overhot, you shall perceive an extraordinary heat in the head by the touching of it, and the parts about the head will be hot and red, as likewise the eyes very nimble in turning, the hairs quickly growing and fast increasing.  
2. But if over-cold, the head expresseth it by his coldness, in the face scarce appears any redness, the turning of the eyes are slow and weak, the pulse and breathing very deliberate, the hairs long a growing, the head never offended with any hot cause: such are for the most part sleepy, fearful, slothful, slow to anger, and dull of memory, cold in their desire to women, and weak of sense.  
3. Those of a moist brain, are for the most part hairy, and such as are never troubled with baldness: they smell slowly, but sleep sound, and are seldom troubled with dreams.  
4. But if the brain be over-dry, there the apprehension is but slow to conceive, yet strong to retain what it hath received: those of this disposition have their hairs hard and curled, the eyes hollow, and become quickly bald▪  
The state and disposition of the brain being thus known, it remains then, that 〈◊〉 ry man be observant and temperate 〈◊〉 diet, to take or forbear such things, as 〈◊〉 be either good or hurtful unto it: 〈…〉 the brain be overhot, those things are 〈◊〉 be observed, and accustomed, that dimin●●● and allay the heat thereof, as the other to be forborn that increase it. If over-cold, then are we to abstain from all cold meats, and betake to their contraries such as increase heat, and so moderating the extremity thereof, it may be reduced by this means, to a perfect perfection, and so of the rest.  
And thus much shall suffice to have specken of the four Constitutions or qualit●● of the Brain, the direction whereof is c●●pious, in the works of many learned Authors, which here I pursue not, because purpose brevity, but betake myself to fu●●ther matter of Discourse, History, and 〈◊〉 tie propositions, furniture and talk for 〈◊〉 trial of Wits and Brains.   

Of Memories true use.  
HE that remembers what he should forget,  
Hath taken Memory from her seat, and set  
〈◊〉 three degrees below her.  
●e that forgets what he remember should,  
〈◊〉 equal balance in account doth hold  
●●th him, that doth not know her.  
●e that remembers what he knows is fit,  
And to oblivion doth the rest commit:  
That man hath learned all the rules of it,  
And may proceed to practise—   

Of the excellency of Memory.  
MEmory, it is that keeps alive all the old Ages of the World, and Actions of men, from Adam to him that died yesterday: all which were else raked vp●● the embers of oblivion; but that Mem●●● takes them up, Discourse lays them open ●nd keeps them alive. Were it not for 〈◊〉 excellent Sense; how should the just be rewarded, whose Memory shall be blessed▪ when as the memorial of the wicked shall ●ot? We see Memory to be a Record, let us than put nothing on this file, but what is worthy a lasting durance: for it is a perpetual Register; deface it not then, blot it not, choke it not by any distemper, but cherish and refresh it by these or better advices in this kind, when thou meetest with them; she cannot want food: 〈◊〉 the world is her diet, and in these Di●●●ses thou shalt find Sentences and 〈◊〉 Conclusions, some whereof will be 〈◊〉 worthy to be hung up in this Storehouse and so I leave thee to gather what thou ●●dest worthy, and to lay up what thou ●●therest.   

Propositions follow.  
Qu. What is the chief virtue and benefit of the Memory?  
A. Recordare 

Beneficia.  
judicia,  
Exempla.  
Novissima,    
Englished,  
To remember 

1. Benefits long, to require them.  
2. judgements, to auo●● them.  
3. Examples, to be forewarned by them.  
4. The 4 last things, that we never dough amiss by thinking on them.    
And withal as we must remember benefits long, so we must forget injuries quickly, so that Memory, and this forgetfulness will be equivalent in goodness.  
Q. What do we account the best staeyes and helps to Memory?  
A. Writing; for that hath conveyed and carried along, one Ages actions to another; hath enriched one age with another's knowledge; by that we do confer with the deceased, and call the dead to living conferences: From Saint Austen and other those Fathers and Lights of the Church, how are our studies divinely enlightened, whose continual vigilancy and labour hath discovered unto us the bottom of those deeps, where the Elephant might be drowned, at the end of whose labours we set to our meditations, and go forward to our much ease and comfort, as is most decent; as one writes, 
That she that's nearest to the King of Kings,  
Should be most searched of any thing of things.   
By these and such like helps have our modern Divines the veil of miseries drawn from before the face of Divinity, and she herself set more resplendent before them.  
From Esculapius, Hypocrates, and Galen, Fathers of Physic, (which though Heathens) did acknowledge a Deity in the wonderful composure of man's body; but fro● them have not our modern Physicians le●● into the quicker and more certain knowledge: and as other ages to come shall b● bettered by ours, so have these been bettered by others, as the latter age hath ever been the Scholar of the former; heretofore a wry neck, or the stone, went to the grave with him that had it: now Art hath found out common repairs for either, so that although Memory be Infida & labilis, having but slippery footing in the mind; yet, by this means we find where she hath and may rest her foot.  
Q. Who have the best natural Memories?  
A. They that exercise them most, and abuse them least: and therefore I have known diverse unlettered persons trusting only to strength of Memory, could record and retain much more than the Scholar or Penman that committeth all to Record. And now of late years was there a woman, one Mistress jostlin of Cambridgeshire, who for excellency of memory deserves here to be remembered, who by use and moderate preservation thereof, was so strong and quick, that upon the first rehearsal he was able to repeat 40. lines Latin or English, and to carry a whole Sermon from Church, and after set it down almost verbatim in her chamber. She wrote a Legacy to her child before it was borne, and prophesied of her own death, and died accordingly at the time.  
Q. Whence comes it that some Memories are as dull as lead, or as a deep Gulf that swallows all, and retains nothing? or like some quick Prodigal, that lays up nothing for time to come?  
A. Late Suppers, the too much use of Tobacco, meats that engender gross humours, too much woman, too much surfeiting and costly fullness; all bad for Memory, ill for the purse, and worse for the health: for the rich Prodigal or wealthy unthrift is like a powder-master, that hath provision against an enemy, but is in danger of being blown up himself.  
And therefore here let us a little stay and ballase ourselves with these or such like considerations.  
With little, Nature is content▪  
whilst hers we do abide:  
And at our death, a little grave  
doth cover all our pride.  
Imperious Caesar dead and turned to clay.  
Is now but night, that once had so much day▪  
Why sell we then ourselves so cheap,  
To buy repentance dear?  
To hang proud robes upon our back,  
To out Dives in good cheer?  
Why should the Worm exceed the Sheep,  
Whose fleece doth cheaper warm,  
And better than the Silkworms twist  
'Gainst wind and weather arm?  
In which the rich man finds less ease,  
With Gout and pains oppressed,  
Within his softest downy bed,  
Or in his wealthiest chest,  
Then doth the poor man in his wants  
Whose health doth far exceed,  
Although his sinews first must stretch,  
Before his belly feed:  
Whose leg a cushion must attend  
For that's the rich man's dance:  
His wealth but buys the Doctor's skill,  
And hyres the Surgeon's tance.  
To which purpose it is as one writes,  
That Fortune never comes with both hands full; either she sends a stomach, and no food; such are the poor in health; or else plenty of food, and no stomach: such are the rich.  
And therefore saith the Wiseman, 
Spare diet is my food,  
My clothes more fit than fine,  
I know I feed and clothe a foe,  
That pampered would repine.  
Enough I reckon wealth,  
Content my meanest lot,  
That lies too low for base contempt  
Too high for Envy's shot.   
Q. What is the most precious thing in the World, yet the most brittle and uncertain?  
A. The life of man, which although it hath but one coming into the world, hath a thousand ways to go out, the frailty whereof considered, should be like a Preacher, ever to admonish us of our end, crying unto us sinful creatures, as the Sailors cried to jonas in the storm▪ 
Arise, O sleeper, O arise and see,  
There's not a twiny thread 'twixt death and thee.   
To which purpose is here annexed a story of one, who travelling by the way side (which is the wilderness of this world) fell into a well, in the fall he catcht hold of certain twigs that grew on the side thereof, by which he stayed himself; at the bottom thereof, looking down, were crawling Serpents, Toads, and other noisome creatures, which came in upon the lapse or fall of man, rather than in the first creation; for then God pronounced of all things that they were good, and the most savage creatures rebelled not against man: but now hereupon so changed in this change, as observes du Bartas.  
There's not the smallest Fly, but she dares bring  
Her little wrath against her quondam King.  
Now whilst he stayed himself by this weak support, came two little beasts, a black and a white, and did gnaw the twigs upon which he hung, to his greater terror. Now the moral hereof is; The man that fell into the well, is every man, which so soon as he comes from the womb, is travelling towards his tomb, through the dangers of this world: the well that he fell into, is the Grave, that lies open for all men; the two twigs that he catcht hold of, the brittle thread of humane life; the black and white beasts, Day and Night, which in some small continuance wear in sunder this thread.  
Q. Wherein consists the natural life of man?  
A. Of Heat and Moisture, which as the one is daily decayed, and the other dried up by the operation of that Limbeck of man's body, are again replenished by meats and drinks, and so upheld by this parget and plastering.  
Q. But may not then this life of man thus continually supplied, be continually maintained in health, sickness and old age kept by, and kept back for ever?  
A. No, in despite of all prevention, Age shall waste the one, and sickness dry up the other, and so resolve them into their first matter.  
For when our sand is runn●, and hours are spent,  
Death comes; no Herb nor Doctor can prevent.  
For further illustration hereof, Friar Bacon, a man of infinite Learning, Study, and Capacity in his time, amongst many his strange and impossible endeavours, published a book De Retardanda s●nectute, or the keeping back of old age, the which whilst he himself was overcurious in observing, and studying this Art of health, grew old in the Act, and himself was overtaken with age. Let then the Air, the chief preserver thereof, blow from his healthiest corner, and from thence brush over Rocks, and Hills, and Fields, and Fountains, and breathe into the nostrils of the healthiest man living; nay, 
Though he have sucked the Indian minds,  
That have k●st ten thousand leaves  
Of Cinnamon tr●es, their barks, their Rinds:  
All which of sweetness them bereaves.  
Yet all this Air, so sweet, so fair,  
For ever cannot health repair.   
So by this we find, it cannot be prevented of his purpose, though it may be something tardied in his speed: so that he may hang up his Motto, as that daring Artist did: 
Cedo nulli, nec domi, nec foras:   
I yield to none neither at home nor abroad.  
Q. Whether is man, that is said to be made after the Image of God, according to his corporal substance, like unto him, or doth in any wise represent the Divine Majesty?  
A. The Image of God is in the soul of man, and the admirable faculties thereof, and in nothing doth the body resemble it more, then that it is the representation or glass of the Soul, that immediate stamp of the Image of God, erectus ad coelum, of an elevated stature, that his thoughts might ascend where their object is, and not ●robble below on the earth.  
Q. Whether is the woman made to the Image of God, or not?  
A. There be some that aver, the woman is made only to the image & glory of man, but these doth the Text confute: for when it was said, Let us make man after our own Image, he made them both male and female; and man is said to resemble the Image of God, as he is an intellectual and reasonable creature. So likewise the woman, being both endued with an immortal soul, and supernatural gifts of grace and glory, man being made little lower than the Angels.  
Q. How many, according to some Writers, are the degrees or Hierarchy of Angels?  
A. Nine, which say there is a mystical resemblance of the holy Trinity, there being in 9 thrice 3. and in every 3. thrice one, so that there are 3 superiors, 3 inferiors, and three middle degrees. The superiors, are Seraphins, Cherubins, and Thrones: The middle, are Dominions, Principalities, and Powers: and the inferior, Virtue's Archangels and Angels.   

The most usual Names and Appellations of the Son of God through the Scriptures.  
SP●s, via, vita, salus, ratio, sapientia, Lumen,  
judex, Porta, Gigas, Rex, Gemma, Propheta, Socerdes,  
Messiah, Zebaoth, Rabbi, Sponsus, Mediator,  
Virga, Columna, Manus, Petra, Filius, Emanuélque,  
Vinea, Pastor, O●is, Pax, Radix, Vitis, Oliva,  
●ons, Paries, Agnus, Vitulus, Leo, propitiator,  
Verb●m, Homo, Rete, Lapis, Domu●, & sic omnia Christus.  
Englished, 
THe Hope, the Way, the Life,  
Health, Reason, Wisdom, Light,  
The judge, the Gate, that's past with strife,  
A Giant, King of might,  
A Gem, a Priest, a Prophet high,  
Messias; Zeboath, named  
Rabbi, from her whose eyes ne'er dry,  
Whose Heart all these inflamed.  
The Mediator, Bridegroom decked,  
The Rod, the Dove, the Hand,  
The Rock, the Sun, who●e beams reflect,  
O'erspreading Sea and Land.  
The Vine, the Shepherd, Sheep,  
The Olive, Peace, the Root,  
The Lamb, the wall, that o●t doth keep  
The Darts that Sa●an shoot.  
The Fount that doth refresh all dry,  
The Truth, the Lion strong,  
The Calf that fatted was to die  
For him that had gone wrong.  
Emanuel, the Man, the Word,  
A Net, a House, a Stone,  
A merciful and loving Lord,  
And Christ that's all in one.   
Q. Whether are men of short and little statures, or those of the more ample and spacious, commonly the wisest or the longest lived?  
A. Those of the lesser volume, by reason that in them the soul and faculties thereof are more near & nimbly compact, and with greater vigour and dexterity impart their functions over all the body; and therefore Homer Prince of Poets, for whom seven Cities stro●e for his birthright, (whose proper name was Melesegenes, but called Homer for his blindness) doth describe Ulysses to be short and wise, and Aiax long and a fool.  
In Aiax and Ulysses what Art  
Of Physiognomy might one behold?  
The face of either cipher either's heart,  
Their face, their manners, most expressly to●d:  
In Aiax eyes blunt rage and rigour rolled,  
But the mi●d●glance that sly Ulysses lent,  
Showed deep regard, in smiling merriment.  
Q. Of all moral virtues, which is reputed the most beautiful?  
A. Humility, for she both shuns honour and yet is the way to it, prevailing often with meekness, when the haughty and proud are put by: for example, two Goats met upon a narrow bridge, under which glided a deep and violent stream, get back they could not, the plank was so narrow for the turning, and forward they could not, without hazarding their lives, stand still they might, but that was but a prolonging of their misery: that they might therefore both pass by in safety, the one lies down, whilst the other goes over him, and so by this quiet passage they both secure their lives, and prevent their further danger. The want of this yielding, is for the most part, the beginning of all controversy and trouble; for when Iron meets Iron, they meet with violence, but let wool meet Iron, there is a gentle yielding and end: according to this, the Poet wittily observes: 
The meek and gentle Lamb with small ado,  
Sucks his own Dam, we see, and others too.  
In Courts men longest live and ke●pe t●e●r ranks  
By taking injuries, and giving thanks.   
Seneca faith, The meek and the Wiseman, in good turns lou●s not to owe more than he must, in evil to owe and not to pay.  
Q. Which is thought to be that Wilderness through which the Children of Israel wandered 40. years, where their food was so miraculously sent down from heaven, and their clothes preserved from not wearing out?  
A. The Desert of Arabia, from whom is brought the excellentest Mummia.  
Q. Where of is it made, and whereto doth it serve?  
A. It is a thing like pitch, some say it is made of man's flesh boiled in pitch, others, that it is taken out of old tombs, being a corrupted humour, that droppeth from embalmed bodies: or those there buried in the hotter sands, it is the principal of poisons, which Physic in some kinds maketh use of.  
Q. Since we have a little entered to speak of the Hebrews, whose derivation Haebraei quasi Abrahaei I purpose to relate a little further, for the better understanding of their names in Scriptures, the quantities of some of their measures, and first of the Gomer, what may that signify?  
A. The Gomer was the name of a measure containing more than a Gallon, the Israelites in the Wilderness received every day this measure full for a day's allowance.  
Q. What the Cab?  
A. A measure of 3. wine quarts.  
For the rest of the Hebrew measures they are further related in the first part of the Help to Discourse.  
Q. The Manna that they received, what was it in the similitude and likeness?  
A. It was like a dew that fell every Evening, and white like the Coriander seed.  
Q. Who was the chief deliverer of the Children of Israel from the oppression of Pharaoh?  
A. Moses, by the hand of God miraculously preserved by Pharaohs daughter, by her there found in the Bulrushes cast forth to be drowned; where note, that all the Kings of Egypt were called Pharaohs, as all the Emperors of Rome, Caesar's: For it is said, there arose another Pharaoh that knew not Ios●ph; Of which great Prophet thus further illustrated by the Poet: 
Lo here an object utterly forlorn,  
Left to destruction as a violent prey,  
Whom man might judge accursed to be borne:  
To dark oblivion moulded up in clay,  
That man of might in aftertimes should be  
The bounds of frail mortality that broke,  
Which that Almighty gloriously should see,  
When he in thunder on Mount Sinai spoke.   
There was one that came upon a time to a great Counsellor of this Kingdom to crave his direction, what good moral or political book he would commend to his reading, seeing the world was full of books, and there was no end of making many books that were made to no end, and that much reading was a weariness to the flesh, and bad for the eyesight, and too little ●●ading a friend to ignorance, worse for the insight: and what was his answer?  
Quoth he, Read the World, read men, record remarkable events, set them as a pattern before thee for thy own instruction, read over thy own actions, see where thou hast trained worthily, where thou hast digressed wickedly, and thou shalt observe, as one writes: 
That by bad courses may be understood  
That their events have n●uer fall'n out good.  
With which opinion this Author seems to accord.  
For many books I care not, and my store  
Might now suffice me, though I had no more  
Than God's two Testaments & therewithal,  
That mighty volume which the world men call:  
For these well looked on, well in mind preserved  
The presentages passages observed  
My private actions seriously over viewed,  
My thoughts recalled, and what of them ensued,  
Are books that better far instruct me can▪  
Then all the other paper-workes of man.  If thou wilt read History, lay thine eye to the French Story, go thorough that volume of Kings from Pharamont the first, to the last: there see how the good and virtuous have flourished; how the evil and tyrannous have ruined and decayed. Likewise to the Dutch, to the Spanish, and there see the various occurrences and changes of times and men; the wheel of fortune sometime dejecting one, and as suddenly exalting another. Read the Turkish History, and there thou shalt find observable matter; amongst many other things thou shalt there find Bajazet the scourge of Princes, himself captived in Tamberlaynes Iron cage. The Scottish, from Donaldus the first, to the last of that line, to this present. Then survey the English Speed, Hollinshead and others, and in these and all the rest, thou shalt find rewards and punishments of virtuous and vicious Princes, as inherent to them as their Blood and Crowns, and many their wicked Actions repaid by way of retribution and retaliation: to example in two or three precedents of our own 〈◊〉 home:  
Henry the First, by cruelty disinherited his elder brother, Robert Duke of Normandy, and put forth his eyes; and this, to make hiw own children the more secure heirs of the Kingdom: But see what happened hereupon; His own being at that time in France, and to come over to keep their Christmas here in England with their Father, put forth to Sea, and were all drowned in their coming over. The manner▪ thus, the Sailors and Ship-men through excess of wine, which was plenteous at their parting, were a●l drunk, so that the Master could not well guide the Stern, nor the Mariners the Ship, but it road at random; which the Ladies (being lanced out into the main) perceiving, fell a weeping, praying, and lamenting: in this state the Ship for a long time continuing in a doubtful perplexity, betwixt hope and despair, when at last in some hope of safeguard and in view of land, the Ship upon a sudden split in two pieces against a rock; upon this was a grievous skrieke, till the water had quickly silenced it. Now whilst every one sought to get upon something to defraud the gaping billows of their prey, if it were possible, the Prince had taken the Cockboat, where being in some likelihood of safety himself, adventuring to save his Sister, who had hitherto maintained her life by grappling to a plank, recovered her into his boat; into which, the rest so violently thronged after one another, every one willing to reprieve a life, so overloaded the little Vessel, that with the weight and number, the boat sunk, and all perished, except one Butcher, that swom to shore to tell the heavy tidings.  
So likewise the Conqueror, his Father, who, to erect New Forest in Hampshire, pulled down ●6. Churches, all the Towns, Villages, and houses far and near, and brought all within 36 miles' compass, to a Wilderness for wild beasts; in which afterwards his 3. sons were slain, as you may read more at large in the first part of the Help to Discourse.  
By Hastings advice, the Earl Rivers and Grace, with others, were without trial of Law, or offence given, executed at Pomfret, and in the same day, near about the same hour▪ in the same lawless manner, Hastings himselve was beheaded in the Tower of London: a greater judgement than this of Hastings you shall not find in any story. And thus much for a taste of some few. Examples are copious in this kind, and for mutability, Chronicle this in thy breast, that there is no stability under the Sun, Kingdoms alter and change; The Eastern, the Grecian, the Roman, the Turkish Empire succeeding one another into a continual succession of change, and so of all things under the Sun. He that had ●eene I●lius Caesar go into the Senate 〈◊〉 his royal state, and his poniarded body and ●loody robe, Sejanus in the Morning▪ and his complexion at Evening, of which one thus writes of him magnifying himself: 
Swell, swell, my joys, and faint not to declare  
Yourselves as ample, as your causes are▪  
I did not live till now, this my first hour,  
Wherein I see, my thoughts matched by my power,  
But this, and touch my wishes great and hie,  
The World knows only two, that's Rome and I.  
My Roof receives me not, 'tis Air I tread,  
And at each step, I feel m'aduanced head.  
Knock out a Star in Heaven—   
It were infinite to instance in this kind these downfalls of greatness, Philotas, Bellizarius and others.  
Richard the Second, a man of misery, as Richard the Third, a man of cruelty, the first whereof, of a King became a captive, delivering up his Royalty with his own hands into his enemies; whose ominous Reign was pointed at from Heaven, at his landing with his young Queen Anne of Beme from France, where at his first setting foot upon his own shore, arose such a Tempest, that it dashed in pieces and drove the Ships all out of the harbour, and withal two Shipwrights hewing of a Mast, at every stroke dropped blood out of the tree: an ominous portent, and after fearfully succeeding: First, losing his Crown, and after, his life at Pom●r●t Castle, slain by Sir Pierce of Exon and 8. men more that he brought with him, whereof King Richard slew four of them. Richard the Third, first affrighted by dreams, and after slain in Bosworth Field, where by force and number beaten from his hor●● he bit the ground with his teeth, and to● it with his hands; and in contempt of death and man, died as if he would have carried his kingdom with him; and so much for example in this kind.  
Q. Which are the most dangerous years reputed in a man's whole life?  
A. Every seventh year of a man's life is noted to be dangerous: some hold the ninth year very dangerous, and by this account the 18.27, etc. but the most dangerous year of all is 63, for that both accounts do meet in this number; namely, 9 times 7. and 7. times 9 either of which numbers make 63. the most dangerous year of all.   

Certain Divine Precepts or Advertisements that a Wiseman first observed himself, and after left them to his Son and Friends.  
1. If a weaker man than thyself doth wrong thee, spare him; if a stronger, then spare thyself.  
2. God's hand is heaviest on the Conscience, when it is lightest on the carcase, if lie suffer it to surfeit on pleasure till death.  
3. The Usurer and the Broker may be compared to two millstones that grind the ●oore to powder: come not therefore under ●heir Sails.  
4. Observe how Pharaohs dream is verified amongst us in these days, that the ●eane Kine eat up the fat; for God's lean blessings, which are riches and pleasures, blessings of his left hand, eat up the fat, which are Grace and Religion, blessings of his right.  
5. Good Laws without execution, stand like the picture of St. George, with his hand always up, but never striking.  
6. Pleasures do not always follow a man living, but ever leave him dying.  
7. A virtuous man is famous on the earth, glorious in the grave, immortal in heaven.  
8. Christ calleth the godly, Kinsmen, be they never so poor, but the rich scorn them be they never so honest: so proud is the servant above his Master.  
9 It is miserable for a bold sinner to meet with a cold Preacher.  
10. Two things out of every Sermon are to be noted: first, that which thou didst not know: Secondly, that which speaketh to thy conscience: for by the one thou shal● increase knowledge, by the other lessen thy vices.  
11. The Usurer's money to a man in time of necessity, is like cold water to a hot Ague in time of extremity.  
12. He that drinks on folly's cup, shall have small cause to lick his lips after it.  
13. Fear doth not more multiply evils, than Faith diminish them.  
14. It is good so to diet the body, that the soul may be fattened.  
15. One sin openeth the door for many virtues to fly out.  
16. A man would have Teachers do as they teach: so God would have hearers do as they hear; for else the hearers shall be no more saved by hearing, than the Preachers by preaching.  
17. Lending was ordained to be a staff or support to the borrower; now Usury hath turned this staff into a Serpent.  
18. The man that hath a quiet conscience, is like to him that hath a good wife, he is always sure of peace at home.  
19 In Prayer be not like the Pharise in popular ostentation, but pray in secret: for he prays with a witness, that so prays with out a Witness.   

Precepts or Advices concerning Marriage.  
1 Woe not by Ambassadors.  
2 Make not thy friend too familiar with thy wife.  
3 Conceive not an idle jealousy, being a Fire once kindled not easily put out.  
4 Affect him not that would ill possess thee.  
5 Blaze not her beauty with thy own tongue.  
6 If thy estate be weak and poor, marry far off and quickly, if otherwise firm and rich, at home, and with deliberation.  
7 Be advised before thou conclude, for though thy error may teach thee wit, 'tis uncertain whether ever thou shalt again have occasion to practise it; for marriage is like a stratagem in war, wherein a man can err but once.  
8 Mary not for Gentility without her support, because it can buy nothing in the market without money.  
9 Make thy choice rather of a ver●●●●s than a learned wife.  
Esteem rather what she is, of her●selfe, than what she should be by inheritance.  
11 In tactam quaeris Intactam esto:  
Be that example to thy wife, that thou wouldst have her to imitate; for he that strikes with the point, may be content to be beaten with the pommel.  
12 She whose youth hath pleased thee, despise not her age.  
13 That thou mayst be beloved, be amiable.  
14 Sail not in this Sea without a compass, for a wicked woman brings a man sooner to repentance then suretyship.  
15 'tis the greater dispraise to children, to be like to wicked Parents.  
16 'tis more torment to be jealous of a man's wife, then resolved of her dishonesty; and more misery, that a man may be assured of her vice that way, but cannot be of her virtue.  
17 True Chastity doth not only consist in keeping the body from uncleanness, but in keeping the mind from sin; and she may be more a maid, that hath been muisht against her will, than she that hath but only wished amiss.  
A Wiseman was wont to say, that by marriage four joys most undoubtedly accrue unto the husband. 1 A wife. 2 Alliance and friends. 3 Patrimony. 4 Children, all strong walls and Bulwarks to fence a man. But now see (saith another) which of these are firm, and which fleeting: 1. for the wife no man will deny, but that she sticks firmly till death. 2. For friends they depend upon fortune; for who never lacks, shall never want a friend. 
And who in want a hollow friend doth try,  
Directly seasons him his enemy.  Lastly, by death many times friends are cut off for portion, without wary government, charge increasing, that quickly decreaseth.  
Then see the Anchor, that remains alone,  
The Wife and Children, Friends and Portion none.   

The Lover's complaint written by a Gentleman of quality.  
He is stark mad whoever says  
That he hath been in love an hour,  
Not for that love so soon decays,  
But that it can ten in less space devource.  
Who will believe, if I swear  
That I have had the Plague a year?  
Who would not laugh at me, if I should say  
I saw a flash of Powder burn a day?  
O what a trifle is a Heart,  
If once into love's hands it come,  
All other griefs allow a part to other griefs,  
And ask themselves but some.  
They come to us, but us love draws,  
He swallows us, and never chaws.  
By him, as by chain shot whole ranks do die,  
He is the Tyrant-Pike, our hearts the Fry.   

His Abjuration.  
Hence all the fond delights,  
As short as are the nights  
Wherein love spends his folly:  
there's naught in this world sweet,  
If men were wise to see't,  
But melancholy: Hence  
Welcome folded arms and fixed eyes,  
A sight that piercing mortifies,  
A look that fastened to the ground  
A tongue chained up, without a sound.  
Fountain heads, and pathless groves,  
Places which pale passion loves,  
Moonlight walks when all the fowls  
Are warmly housed save Bats and Owls.  
A Panting Bell, a midnight groan,  
These are the sounds to feed upon:  
Then stretch our bones in some close gloomy valley,  
There's nothing dainty sweet, save melancholy.   

The Husband's complaint.  
I took a wife, I loved her dear,  
Her love to me was due,  
Yet she was false, O who would think  
A wife should prove untrue?  
Thus you poor birds that honey make  
From many a several flower,  
Not make it for yourselves, but them  
That you and it devour.   

The unbounded lover.  
My choice of women I enjoy  
Of them what I desire,  
My children eat not yet my bread,  
Nor warm them by my fire.  
So you poor birds, that make your nests,  
In right they are your due,  
For others, yet you hatch your young,  
They're not enjoyed by you.  
Q. Which was the most deadly meeting that ever was?  
A. 
Eve and the Serpents meeting wrought our sin,  
Would th'one had deaf, or th'other dumb had been:   
Or as another, 
Eve and the Serpents meeting wrought our woe,  
Would they had never met, or parleyed so.  
So great a loss upon mankind did fall,  
One woman at one blow then killed us all;  
And singly one by one they kill us still,  
Partly against, and partly with our will.  
Our eyes thus dimmed, our understanding blind,  
We kill ourselves, to propagate our kind.   
Q. Of how many genders do women consist of?  
A. Of three Genders: all of the Feminine, many of the Doubtful, for as the saying is, 
Long absence from a wife, though chaste, if fair,  
Doth fill a jealous husband's head with care. — And some there are of the Common: and those are the common subjects of misery to themselves, and ruin to other, and join with sickness, to out-shuffle health.  
Q. Which is the fittest season for marriage?  
A. Marry in thy youth; for it is in marriage, as it is in gathering of flowers, where for the most part we delight in the bud, and leave the full blown to seed: Yet a learned man in this kingdom was wont to say, Wives are young men's Mistresses, Companions for middle age, and old men's Nurses: so that a man may have a quarrel to marry when he will. Old Haywood was wont to say, He that marries a widow, is like to him that buys a Suit in Long-lane, where he shall hardly find any, but they are turned, or dressed, or old, or rotten, or bad linings; like to a cunning widows dissembling chests: he further thus describes a woman, Aut amat, aut odit mulier, nil tertium.  
Q. What is the greatest comfort or addition of happiness in this world?  
A. A sure friend, and yet in that this is the misery, that he cannot know him to be his friend without being in misery; and as it is vulgarly said, He is happy that finds a true friend in adversity, but he is happier that finds not adversity wherein to try a true friend: As saith another, It is good to have friends, but naught to need them: which is agreeable to that which the Physician wrote at the end of his Rules.  
Now you our Physic lines, that friendly read,  
God grant that Physic you may never need▪  
To which another added: 
Who takes his diet by the Doctor's skill,  
Shall eat no meat that's good, drink drink b●●'s ill.   
Q. Whether it is better to dream upon dreams that are good or bad?  
A. Whilst we breathe waking, we live all in one common world, but at night in our dreams, we go every one into a several Region, and in these my visitations I desire rather my dreams should be bad then good; for if my dreams be good, I grieve when I wake that they were dreams, but if evil, I rejoice that they were not truths but dreams. To this purpose, a poor man that had dreamt the night before, that he was as rich as Croesu●, and that he had abundance of gold and treasure, met a great Lord the next day following and besought him for something, saying, If his dream that he dreamt last night had been true, he had not needed to ask a reward; for I dreamt that I was a King. This Lord replied unto him, It had been good for thee if thou hadst never waked, for it is better to be a King in a dream, than a beggar awake.  
A great Lord of great stomach, sharply in the fury thereof that sought to give satisfaction to his belly and lose no time, so eagerly slashed in the cutting up of a Capon, that he cut off a pi 〈…〉 f his finger; whereupon it was repo 〈…〉 hat this gluttonous Lord had at one b 〈…〉 ft his finger and his stomach. No worse ●ewes, quoth the hearers, but if a poor man find it, and so cherish it, it will undo him.  
Q. Whether is it of a certain or not, that is vulgarly reported, that when we are talked of abroad by friends or others, our ears tingle and glow, and whether may this be thought the reason thereof?  
A. Nothing less, there is in man or woman a certain flushing of blood and heat, which naturally runs thorough the body, and is sometimes more inward, and sometimes more outward, as the body doth need; which falling into the Cheeks or Ears of a sudden by the motion of the body, and her natural heat, doth extraordinarily warm those parts, which some, though unwisely do attribute to this first cause.  
Q. What is that only which hath an audible voice, but not a visible body, and what the contrary, which presents the shape of a body, but without any sound of voice?  
A. Echo, and the Looking-glass.   

Instruction for Bel●efe and Action.  
Twice 6 believe, but 〈…〉 ein do not rest:  
Ten things perform ●●oue all things the best.  
Thy wants and duties howe'er they rise,  
In 7. petitions thou mayst all comprise.  
To these add love, and so thou mayst ascend  
Higher than Faith, or Hope, that here do end.  
Q. There are four things do what they list, and are vnreprou●d: and what are they?  
A. The wind bloweth where it lists, a woman talks and does what she list, a traveller lies what wonders he lists, and a Wiseman, of all believes what he lists.  
Q. Whether is it of a truth or not that is v●●gularly, or are they Popish Fables, that m●n● Spirits walk after their deaths, for treasure 〈◊〉, for murders committed, or the like?  
A. They are not truths: for after death (as Divinity will tell us) the soul goes either to joy or pain, from whence there is no recession; as Abraham told Di●es, and as that Divine Poet wrote to that purpose, and if any such appearance there be, the Devil doth assume the shape.  
For doubtless such a Soul as up doth mourn,  
And doth appear before her Maker's face,  
Holds this vild world in such a base account,  
That she looks down, and scorns this, wretched place.  
But such as are detruded down to Hell,  
Either for shame, they still themselves retire,  
Or tied in Chains, they in close prison dwell,  
And cannot come, although they much desire.  
To this purpose is here annexed a sto●● of a Divine and a Lawyer, that meeting at dinner, the Lawyer, to help Discourse, proposed this question to the Divine: When Lazarus had lain four days in the gra●e, and after was raised up again, where was his soul in the mean time? The Divine not answering his question, proposed unto him another; which was, If Lazarus and his heirs should have fallen at strife about his Lands, the Quaere was, Whose ought they to have been? This was according to the question in Virgil's Eglogues, Di● quibus in terris. One difficulty choked by proposing another, and yet,  
For further confirmation thereof, saith Lemnius, A Scholar travelling with his family, came into a Town to ask lodging, and finding none, It was told him there was a fair house that stood empty, that he might either lodge, or dwell in gratis; but the inconvenience was, it was haunted with Spirits, and every night in it was heard a great jumbling, and rattling of chains: he nothing affrighted hereat, desired to have it: which was accordingly granted. At bedtime having disposed his family to rest, he himself sat up in a chamber reading: about midnight (the time that Churchyards yawn, and Spirits take their progress) he heard a noise at bottom of the stairs, and presently it came up: he nothing daunted, ●ate still reading, till at last it appeared on the top of the stairs in the similitude of Askeliton, or Anatomy, wrapped about with chains of Iron: which coming up, beckoned with his finger, and so went down the stairs to have him follow him: which he did; and first he led him thorough an outward room, then thorough a yard, and thence into a garden where he left him; in which place he pulled up some grass and left it for a mark; and in the next day digged up that place, where was found a man buried, that had been there strangled, which man being taken up and buried with due Rites, the house was ever quiet after. But this do I take rather to be an ancient fiction than a certain truth.  
A certain Mountebank having long cheated with his drugs and plasters, and having profited little, left his old profession and turned Priest; and patching together diverse remnants of old Sermons and Homilies, so unfitly applied, that his want of Scholarship was soon discovered, and he of his Ministry as soon discarded: 〈◊〉 dismission from thence he made this protestation; Now shall this business you 〈◊〉 done, cost many a good man's life: The Parishioners thus threatened, accuse him before a justice; The justice demanded what he meant to do: (Why quoth he) I mean to fall to my old trade of Paracelsus, and that I am sure will cost some dear.  
Q. Whether doth a dead body in a Ship cause the Ship to sail slower, and if it do, what is thought to be the reason thereof?  
A. The Ship is as unsensible of the living, as of the dead, and as the living makes it to go the faster, so the dead makes it not go the slower, for the dead are no Rhemorahs' to alter the course of her passage, though some there be that think so, and that by a kind of mournful sympathy.  
A Philosopher seeing a young man proudly decked out like a Ship under sail, said; I could wish I were such a one as that fond man thinks himself, but my enemies such as he is. Seeing likewise the world full of contention, wished he might live to see men strive for love, and not love to strive.  
Q. What is the Epitome or sum, the square, and measure of a Christian man's duty, ●hich even Nature teacheth, and God approves.  
A. To do to others, as we would be ●one unto ourselves, a most upright justice, ●nd the fulfilling of the Law and the Prophets.  
Q. What is the Epitome or sum of all Philosophy?  
A. It is collected out of the infinite volumes of Philosophers, that those precepts that pertain to humane felicity, are comprised only in these two words, sustinendo, & abstinendo, or in ferendo, & sperando, In sustaining, and abstaining, in enduring, and hoping, in bearing adversities patiently, and abstaining from pleasures warily; hope still supporting us to the Haven of happiness, that we be not too much cast down by the one, nor corrupted by the other.  
Q. What is that, which they that have nothing else for the most part are not without?  
A. Hope.  
Q. What is the most beautiful thing of all others?  
A. Thal. Mil. answered, The World, the admirable work of God, and nothing more beautiful, himself only excepted, wherein we have the green Carpet of the earth under our feet, the goodly Canop●●● heaven over our heads fretted with gold●● Stars, the wa●y Curtains of the Air beside us, all the creatures to serve and delight us, and all to set forth the praise of the Creator; of which both from the greeks and Latins it receives the name. Clemen● Alexandrinus saith, The Creation of the World, is the Scripture of God, whose 3. leaves are the Heavens, the Earth, and the Sea, being as many letters therein, as there are creatures in heaven and earth: For the heavens declare the glory of God, and the earth showeth his handiwork.  
Q. By what Element most hath it pleased God to express to the world his justice and his mercy?  
A. By Water, when for the sins of his people he therewith drowned the World: But his mercy thereby in the institution of Baptism by water, and in that he would have the holy Spirit by which we are Regenerate, called by the name of Water.  
Q. What ship of all other was the most ancient, the most spacious, the most holy, and the most rich that ever was or will be?  
A. The Ark of No, in which all the ●en, wealth and creatures that escaped the ●ood, were preserved; and this is noted to ●●a type of the Church, for as without the ●●rke was no safety, so without the Church 〈◊〉 no salvation.  
Q. Who was he that of a dumb Father, came 〈◊〉 the most excellent Orator in the world?  
A. S. john Baptist, of whom Christ himself affirms no greater to have risen among the sons of women; upon whom ●nd the disparity between Christ and him, ●●is thus observed, That at his Nativity the days begin to shorten, as at Christ's Nativity to increase and lengthen: so likewise in their deaths, when the body of Christ was exalted, and stretched out upon the Cross, the body of S. john was shortened by the head, according to his own testimony, It behoves Christ to increase, and me to be diminished.  
Q. Of the children of job and their number, is a question I wil● now propound: When job had all his goods restored him double, yet had he by generation but seven sons, and three daughters, as many as he had before: how then did he receive all things doubled?  
A. Concerning his goods▪ and cattle: first I will instance for his 7000. sheep, he had 14000. for his 3000. Camels 6000● and so of the rest. And concerning his children; true it is, he received but his former number: yet it is conceived that the number of them was likewise doubled, because these his 10. former remained yet with God; therefore it may be said he had 20. For as Saint Hierome says, Quicquid revertitur ad domin●m, in familiae numero computatur. Whosoever they are that are returned to the Lord, are reckoned in the number of the family: wherefore if he had received them doubled upon earth, he should have had them trebled: And in this lies a mystery of the Resurrection.  
Q. Who, and how many were those, that had their names foretold before they were borne?  
A. Six, Ishmael, Isaac, josias, Cyrus, Saint john Baptist, and Christ our Saviour for ever blessed.  
Q. What number is it that our Romanists so much dignify above any other?  
A. The fifth, which they affirm to be a number of great efficacy and power, and much honoured by God: for by five words say they he would be incarnate, a Virgin should become a Mother, and he himself God and man; Fiat mihi secundum verbu● ●uum, Be it unto me according to thy word: by five words he would have his body consecrate in the Eucharist, Hoc enim est Corpus meum, This is my Body. Lastly, by five words he absolved the Publican, Deus propitius esto mihi peccatori, God be merciful unto me a sinner: and so with other numbers they fable and trifle, which we pass over with many other of their errors.  
Q. Much disputation and controversy hath risen amongst the Philosophers, about Theseus' ship; but what may we resolve thereon, and wherein doth it resemble the n●w present Romish religion?  
A. This was the ship in which Theseus sailed into Crect, when he passed the Labyrinth, and slew the Minotaur; which ship being long time after kept for a monument, was so supplied and preserved by pieces, that the question grew, whether it were any part of Theseus' ship, or not; and it was afterwards resolved that it was rather a new ship all of pieces, than any part of the old: much like unto the modern Religion of Rome, that hath been so pieced from time to time by tradition and novelty, that it now scarce retains any thing of the ancient verity.  
Q. Luther committed two great sins, say some, and what were they?  
A. He took from the Pope his treble Crown, and from the Monks their fat belly-cheer.  
Q. What was he the most wretched and poorest of all creatures, that offered to the most rich and mighty in the world, what he neither had to give, nor was able to perform?  
A. Satan, when he offered Christ the kingdoms of the world, and to fall down and worship him.  
Q. What riches are those that cannot be wasted?  
A. Good turns, for those in bestowing are not wasted, but increase: if thou bestow them, thou art the richer, if thou keep them, thou art the poorer, if thou scatter them, thou dost not lose, if thou keep them, they lose thee.  
Q. Wherefore did not God make all alike rich?  
A. Because in his secret Counsel and wisdom he saw it not fit, in which we must rest ourselves content in this wise distribution of his own: For as one saith, the poor and the rich are two contraries, but either necessary unto the othsr: for if all ●ere rich, who would labour? if all were ●ore, where were relief or help? Therefore God made the poor for the rich, and ●e rich for the poor, and either for each ●ther: and it had been a controversy a●ong some, whether of the estates is the more happy: most are of opinion that in poverty is the less evil, the more freedom: for compare the rich man and the poor together: the poor man laughs oftener and more heartily, without any deep care: if it appear, it doth no more, but so passeth over like a cloud; but the rich man's mirth is feigned, but his griefs are not, but indeed deep rooted, and of long continuance: and what doth it profit a fool to have riches, when they cannot buy wisdom? the sick man, when they cannot buy wealth?  
Q. Whether is Art or Wealth more precious?  
A. 
Res valet, ars praestat,  
si res perie, ars mihi restat.  
Ars manet, ars durat,  
fortuna recedere curate.   
English.  
Riches are good,  
but Art commands that dross:  
And sticks to life,  
not subject to that loss.  
Q. Whether hath Law, or Physic the high●est place, or precedency?  
A. This in times past was a question disputed in Greece, touching the professors in those parts, where the Physicians thus argued for superiority, that since there are three chief goods pertaining to man his welfare and support, over which, every one hath a Regent and Guardian assigned; which are the goods of the mind, the goods of the body, and the goods of fortune: The first whereof, was the care of the Divine the, highest officer, for the worthiest Mistress.  
The second of the Physician, because the body is more worth than raiment, or goods; and the last of the Lawyer: Hereupon Physic challenged the second place and precedency before Law: The Lawyer I know not what arguments he used; but after a long controversy it was concluded, that law notwithstanding, should walk in equal balance, and in some places take the upper hand of Physic, for as the one intends to preserve health, which is the jewel of the body, so the other, to preserve peace and wealth, which is the hand that wears it, being the thread by which we ●ut between all estates and rights, being ●o less needful to the Commonwealth, ●hen the Sun is to the world: but for such ● degenerate from the truth of their pro●ession, and only like Vulture's prey upon ●he carcases of spoil, it were not amiss if such were cast out of the society of men, as most hurtful infections to the Commonwealth.  
Q. From whence had Physic his beginning and perfection?  
A. Out of Diseases, Sores, and distemperatures of the body, which consisting of 4. contrary Elements, are ever at opposition and odds among themselves, still menacing and offending each other: and so upon this regard, to maintain unity and preservation, this great Lord Sickness admitted Physic 〈◊〉 wear his Livery, which now since is grown greater than his master. For it hath the way to increase.  
For, what in health men grapple and retains,  
If sickness comes, it flies to ease their pain.  
And it is the Physicians rule, well apprehending the advantage of extremity, to cry Give, Give: whilst the sick hand replies, Take, Take.  
The truth whereof was well approved by Philip king of Macedon, when being dangerously sick, and having a most skilful, yet most covetous Physician, that every day asked him a reward: (Quoth he) Take what thou wilt out of my Treasury: for thou hast the key that will open the lock of it. Whereupon it is guessed that sometimes Physicians use their Patients, as Lawyers do their rich Clients, who keep them long in hand, not for difficulty of the Cause so much, as for the prolonging o● their gain: and if it be always true, that as the market goes, the market-folke will talk, some say, and which is a worse fault too, that their conclusions are as dear as men's lives, and that no Physician can be expert, before he have made 〈◊〉 dangerous experiment: but they are happy say some in this regard, because their successes the Sun shall behold, but their errors the Earth shall bury: and as one once spoke to a Paracelsian Quacksalver: I commend thy Art, because thou sufferest not poor men to languish long in misery, but helpest them quickly to their graves.  
Q. What Art or faculty hath the most Professors?  
A. One answered, Physic, but another replied, that could not be, because there was not above two Physicians in a whole Town: when the other to maintain his argument, thus proceeded to the confirmation. Upon a market day he sets one in the principal place thereof very ruthfully aspected, his gums trust up with a Handkerchief, making lamentation, and to every one that demanded his grief, he answered, his pain was toothache: unto which every one that demanded, taught a medicine; so that he had as many medicines as market folks, with which pretty conclusion, the verdict was given upon his side: To which purpose one thus writes,  
In mundo omnes volunt esse medici, omnes volunt aliorum infirmitates curare, nemo suas: Every one would be a Physician to cure other men's infirmities, but no man his own.  
Q. What is that we first wish for, and are never after weary of?  
A. Health, which makes the most excellent harmony of content, especially where there is a sound mind, in a sound body.  
Q. From whence had Law his original and commencement?  
A. It had his Original from the corruption of cunning and corrupt brains, and since by the infection thereof hath spread and infected far and near, that if it be demanded what is the reason that men, houses, and volumes increase so fast: It is answered in these two verses: 
Queritur ut crescunt tot magna volumina legis  
In prompts causa est, Crescit in orbedolus.   
Q. What effect of all other is the most just, and the most unjust?  
A. Envy, unjust, because for the most part it pursues good men.  
But secondly just, because it most hurts those that most cherish it, for the envious man is grieved, not so much for his own evil, as for others good: and so saith David, concerning the felicity of the godly, Impius videbit & irascitur, the wicked shall behold it, and be sorrowful, and as the Poet says: 
Inuidiâ Siculi non invenêre tyranni,  
Tormentum maius.  
No Tyrant ere did greater torment find,  
Then envy, that corrupts & frets the mind.   
And as Seneca likewise saith, The envious man drinks the greatest part of his own poison himself, and therefore let us avoid that evil, if not for others, yet for our own sakes.  
Q. In how many days consists the whole span of man's life?  
A. Ah, the many days that we can remember, when as yet our whole life is but one day; for what see we in our whole life, that we see not every day, the same Sun, the same Moon, the same Winter, the same Summer, the same business? and what is that, that hath been, but the same that shall be? & there is no new thing under the Sun: yet for this little inch of time, and the lesser variety therein, how many sell themselves to perdition? for computate the whole extent of time, I do not say from this day to the end of the world, but from Adam: and what is it but a drop of water to the whole Ocean? not a minute to eternity. And yet saith one, We live here as if eternity were upon earth, and time only in heaven.  
Q. What two things are those that make equal the happy and the wretched?  
A. Sleep and death, that makes one the oppressor and the oppressed, the servant, and the master, Codrus and Crassus, and so like the Publican gives away the one half from our use, out of the little that we have.  
Q. What is the Nature of sleep?  
A. Aristotle affirms it to be the porch between Life and Death, for he that sleeps, is neither alive nor dead, neither mortal nor immortal, but having a kind of temperature of either.  
It is mentioned in the Roman Histories, of a certain man, that being in much debt and danger, the perturbations of humane minds, and deprivers of this nurse of Nature sleep, notwithstanding as one insensible thereof, he securely took his rest: After dying, the Emperor would needs have his bed, as though persuaded some hidden virtue had been in the same, that nothing could breed his distemper thereupon.  
Q. There are three messengers of death, and which are they?  
A. Casualty, infirmity, and old age: The first shows it lying hid, second appraring, third at hand.   

An Explication of the word Mors, and the letters thereof.  
Mordens Omnia Rostro Suo.  
Mutans Omnes Res sepultas.  
English.  
Death controls all mortal things,  
Wasting subjects, changing Kings.  
Q. There are three things especially, that are enemies to sleep (deaths Image) and what are they?  
A. An unquiet bed, unrestlesse cares, a troubled mind.  
And therefore as the Poet saith: 
When all things else to rest themselves betake,  
Then thieves, and cares▪ and troubled minds they wake.   
And so the contrary.  
Where unbrused youth with unstuft brain  
Doth couch his golden limbs, there sleepe● reign.  
Her sovereignty being for the 〈…〉 sooner found in a thatched Cotta 〈…〉 a Lordly Palace.  
Question.  
BEfore I proceed any further, I know though 〈◊〉 not ignorant, that it hath been a questio 〈◊〉 old, and discussed by wise men of either part, 〈◊〉 as yet I think sub iudice lis est, whether it 〈◊〉 necessary for a wise man to marry, and enter th● society by which generations are produced, and death is exercised, notwithstanding his wasteful sickle, with still plentiful Harvests and increase?  
A. Though some hold it a weakness in a wise man to marry, to deliver up his freedom, and enthral himself and his liberty into the hands of a woman: yet wise men that better have weighed the condition thereof, find many profits that accrue unto man thereby, without which, a wiseman can hardly live a contented life: as first, the benefit of society. For, It is not good for man to be alone. Secondly, of the Marriage bed: For avoiding of Fornication, let every man have his wife. And thirdly for the fruit thereof, which are I'll 〈…〉: Thy Wife shall be as the fruitful 〈…〉 d lastly, hereby thou hast found out 〈…〉 vardian for thy house and goods; 〈…〉 o of thy Servants, a comforter in 〈…〉 and misery, and the full accom 〈…〉 of thy joy and felicity. Away there 〈◊〉 ye haters of women; for it is verified 〈◊〉 by the Oracle of God, that they are 〈◊〉 dfull, necessary, behooveful. The Author●●●y whereof, without further question, here ●eales up the controversy. And as another saith, He that hath no wife; is as a man unbuilt, wanteth one of his ribs: is like jonas in the midst of the Sea, ready to be overwhelmed with every surge and billow; but then comes a wife like a ship, and wafts him ashore, and so saves him from perishing. Of whom the Poet thus further adds, 
Prima fuit mulier, patuit cui ianua lethi:  
Per quam vitaredit, prima fuit Mulier.   
English: 
As by a Woman entered Death by sin:  
So, by a Woman, Life and Grace came in.   
Q. What was the Wiseman's counsel for the choice of a Wife?  
A. Non solùm est oculis ducenda, sed auribus Vxor: Not to choose a wife by the eye, that is, for beauty, a brittle and fading dowry; but by the care, that is, from the good report and commendation of others.  
Q. What comparison have the Ancients made betwixt the Woman and the Rib, and what reasons have they thereupon framed, for their much Loquacity and babbling?  
A▪ These: That first as the Rib is a bone, hard, crooked, and inflexible: so is a Woman in her will, like the form thereof, crooked and perverse, and hardly inclining to the desire of her husband: and for their much loquacity, hereupon they ground their reason: That, as if you put a company of bones or ribs into a bag, they will rattle and clatter together, but if you put certain lumps of earth therein, the metal of man's creation, they meet without noise or jarring violence. But we pursue this argument no further, because we have formerly touched upon the same in another kind, and place.  
Q. Who was he that had that one woman, that was to him both mother, sister, and wife?  
A. Euphorbus, of whom the verse follows, 
Me Pater è nata genuit, mihi iungitur illa:  
Sic soror & coniux, sic fuit illa Parens.   
Q. What is the true law of friendship?  
A. To love our friend as ourself, and neither more nor less, but so: to which purpose is here inserted a story of a certain wise woman, that had but one only son, whose society in the way of friendship many desired: to him she gave three Apples, willing him to give them to his three friends, when they were hungry in the way to be cut & divided among them. In the doing whereof, the first cuts his Apple in two, in equal parts, giving this less to the woman's son, and reserving the greater part unto himself. The second likewise unequally divided his, but yet gave the bigger to this woman's son, and kept the lesser for himself: but the third divided his equally, reserving just the one half that he gave; which being told to his mother, she bade him choose the last for his associate; because the first was unjust to another, the second to himself, and he only upright in his division.  
Q. Who was he that first forbade Priests marriage, and whereupon did he afterwards alter that constitution?  
A. P. Greg. 1. was the first that proceeded in that restraint: But when afterwards he heard to be found the heads of 6000. infants, that had been drowned in the river Tiber: he then sighing, repelled his decree, and said, It is better to marry then burn.  
Q. Whence proceeds it, that those creatures that are most useful and beneficial to man, are so fruitful and plenteous, whereas those other wild, ravenous, and cruel, are more rare and retired?  
A. This proceeds merely from the providence of God, and his goodness to mankind; for otherwise how would it be▪ it there should be as many wolves as sheep, which though killed and eaten daily, are notwithstanding plentiful, as diverse others of his good creatures, whom he multiplieth above measure? As for example likewise; The Hare whom all do hunt and pursue, yet her kind is not diminished in regard of her fruitfulness, which is such, that when she is with young, she again coupleth, having within her some of a former maturity already hairy, others naked without their fur others not yet form, and yet others conceiving: whereas the Lion, a cruel creature, brings forth but one in her whole life time.  
Q. What little creature is that, that hath the softest body but the hardest teeth of all other?  
A. The white worm, the body whereof is more soft than wool, yet with her teeth doth she pierce the hardest Oak.  
Q. What Artificers are those that have most Thiefs come under their hands?  
A. Not Tailors nor millers, as the old saying is, but Barbers: for every thief and Knave, to disguise themselves, falls under their hands.  
Q. What was S. Chrysostom's opinion concerning Dancing?  
A, That where dancing was, there was the Devil: neither (saith he) to that end did God give us our feet, so want only to abuse them. For, if we shall answer for every idle word, shall we not likewise for every lascivious and idle motion of the body, which tend only to folly and lust?  
Hereupon was annexed a story of a certain dancer, whose ambitious activity was such, that forsaking the ground, he would needs show his tricks in the Air; to the which purpose having there fastened a Rope, he beginning after his accustomed manner, to caper and dance, his footing failed him, and down he fell, whereat some laughed: when among the rest a Fool not standing far off, fell a weeping; of whom a reason being required, he thus answered:  
I weep, because Jam counted a fool, yet have more wit than this Dancer, because I know that it is written in the Psalm, that not the Air, but the Earth is given unto the sons of men: upon which I content myself to tread, not atttempting further, as Icarus, and Dedalus, and some others as well as this fellow, that hath paid for his presumption.  
Q. What two things are those that many desire before they have them, and when once possessed, with a greater desire would be deprived thereof again?  
A. Old age and Marriage, the latter whereof, hath oft been compared to a Feast, where those that are within and full, would fain come out, and those that are without empty, would fain come in.  
Q. In what things doth laudable Old age most solace, and make glad itself?  
A. In the remembrance of an honest forepassed life, and in the hope of a better n●●re succeeding.  
Q. Whence was it that of old, Bacchus or the God of Wine, was pictured like a Child?  
A. Thence it was, because the drinking of wine puts care and troubles out of the mind, and in stead thereof, fills it with mirth and lightness, making men free from sorrow, loviall, lightsome, and pleasant as children: And secondly, Like children it makes them speak all they know.  
Q. In what part of the Earth doth no Snow fall?  
A. In the Sea, which by reason of the hot vapours it sends up, dissolveth it before it falls therein.  
Q. In what part of the Earth doht it never rain?  
A. In Egypt, which is watered by the overflowing of Nilus.  
Q. A certain Scholar told Aesop, he had heard there was nothing more strong than Iron, by which all things are wrought and overcome: but yet for all that (quoth he) I think the Smith to be more strong than it, which works and enforceth it as he pleaseth: But what was Esop's answer?  
A. The mother of the Smith which he held to be more strong then either, which bore the tamer of Iron.  
Q. Dionysius the Tyrant demanded the reason why Philosophers visited the gates of rich men, and not rich men the gates of Philosophers?  
A. It was answered by Diogenes, Because Philosophers know what they want, but these know not, and therefore seek it not; for if rich men understood they wanted knowledge, they would much more visit the doors of Philosophers: for the poverty of the mind, is much more than the poverty of the body, for he is a man that wants money, but a beast that wants knowledge.  
Dionysius King of Sicilia sent for an excellent Musician, to sing and play before him, promising him a reward therefore. The Musician, after three days employment, demanded his reward, which this King refused to pay, telling him, the pleasure of the hope of his reward, was as much to him as the pleasure of his singing, and so he should take one pleasure for another.  
Q. Who of all other were the best Orators?  
A. Tully and Demosthenes.  
Q. Wh●t did the Ancients think of Homer?  
A. That he was the Father of all wits: and hereupon it was that Palaton the painter drew Homer vomiting, with a flock of Poets standing about him, ready to sup it up; one of which, it was objected to Virgil, that he had been, in that he had stolen some of Homer's verses, and framed them into his own work: who thereunto answered, Am not I then a strong man, that can wring Hercules' Club out of his hand?  
Q. Whether is that Commonwealth more happily governed, in which the Prince is evil, and the Counsellors good, or where the Counsellors are evil and the Prince good?  
A. Most true it is, that Lampridius reports, that that Commonwealth is more safe and better governed, where the Prince is evil and the Counsellors good, then where the Counsellors are evil, and the Prince good: and the reason is, for that one evil man or disposition, is more easily amended by the example or persuasion of many good, than many evil by the example of one good may become bettered: for instance whereof, Saul was a wicked King; yet by the Counsel of Samuel did he those things, which otherwise he would not have done: on the other side, there is no Prince so good, that may not be seduced by wicked Counsellors.  
Q. S. Austen wished he● had lived to have seen Rome in her flourishing estate, to have heard S. Paul preach, to have seen Christ in the flesh. But what saith Lactantius and Bede?  
A. Thereupon, Peradventure (saith he) the first we shall never see, that is, Rome, neither is it any matter to see that harlot as she now is, but for the other two, I trust both to see & behold in a greater perfection. But saith Bede, my soul desires only to see Christ my Redeemer, in his exaltation and glory.  
Q. Wherein doth principally consist the worship of God?  
A. In one word, God is to be worshipped. AMORE.  
Amore summo  
More vero  
o'er fideli  
Re omni  
With all our love,  
With the right ma●●●●  
With faithful mouth,  
With all affection.  
Q. How is his Kingdom to be purchased?  
A. Harken, and S. Austen will tell thee, where in the person of God he thus saith, Venale habeo: Quid, domine: I have to be sold, What, Lord? The Kingdom of Heaven. How is it to be purchased? My Kingdom is to be purchased by poverty; my joy, by grief; my rest, by labour; my glory, by ignominy; my life, by death, etc.  
Q. What heirs are they that first die, before they enter into their possession?  
A. The Faithful.  
Q. Wherein consists the faith of most ignorant Romanists?  
A. To believe as the Church believes: for instance whereof, saith one, A Collier being tempted of the Devil about his faith, the Devil thus asked him how he believed? (quoth he) I believe as the Church believes. And how believes the Church, quoth the Devil: As I believe, saith the Collier; and further the devil could not drive him▪ Even such is the faith of the Church of Rome, and her ignorant followers, understanding nothing, but following others opinions, in believing as they believe.  
Q. A certain godly man being invited to a banquet on the morrow following, what was his answer?  
A. If you will any thing with me, now I am ready; but I will not promise you to be so to morrow: for of all the days that I have lived, I have not been assured of one morrow.  
Q. Wherein consisteth true wisdom?  
A. Not in gravity of look, in face or hair, but in the wisdom of the mind, which is to remember time past, to embrace the present, and wisely provide for the time to come; to which purpose is here inserted the error of King Frederick, to whom the Venetians sometimes sent Ambassadors two Gentlemen very seeming young, but of ripe wisdom & understanding: the King distasting their toomuch seeming youth, would not admit them into his presence: who thereupon answered him, that if the Senate of Venice had imagined wisdom to consist in hoariness or beard, they would have sent him two long bearded Goats: to which purpose the Poet thus supplieth: 
Si prolixa facit sapientem barba, quid obstat  
Barbatus possit quin caper esse Plato.   
English, 
If wisdom did consist in hair or beard,  
A Goat might then, to Plato be preferred.   
Q. What part of what creature is that which mingles all the four Elements in one?  
A. The belly of man, which receives into it the fruits of the Earth, of Trees, the fishes of the Sea, the fowls of the air, and in stead of the Element of fire, strong wines, spices, and the like, that it is no wonder if they ruin the whole, where such diversities of mixtures are— 
Frigida cum calidis pugnant humentis siccis,  
Mollia cum duris, sine pondere habentia pondus.  
Where cold, and hot, and moist, and dry,  
And soft, & hard, things light & heavy lie.   
Q. What was the Greek Monks answer to him that demanded the reason: wherefore he would not eat his meat sitting, but walking?  
A. Because (quoth he) I will not make of it as a work, but as an accessary thereunto: but our seasons yield more Philoxines, than such greeks that will not only sit with ease to prolong time, but with him could wish there crane necks might more long retain their pleasure.  
Q. Three things are moderately to be used, and what are they?  
A. Baths, wine, and women: the mean or excess whereof, either much help, or hurt the body.  
Q. How doth the wise man interpret the drunkards cups?  
A. The first (saith he) is for health, second for pleasure, third for excess, the fourth for madness, the fifth for quarrel, and the sixth for sleep?  
Q. What four good mothers are those, that bring ●orth four bad daughters?  
A. Truth, hatred; security, danger; prosperity, pride; familiarity, contempt.  
Q. Whence was it that Architas that famous Architect became so admired for his Art and skill?  
A. By his wooden Dove that he so quaintly made for the trial of his workmanship, which as many Authors do deliver, being filled with air and breath, and hung with wings and appurtenances necessary, slew in the air like another live Dove.  
Q. Whether are there Antipodes or not?  
A. The ancient Philosophers and Geographers have gathered by strong conjectures and reasons, on the other side of this habitable world, to be another earth beyond the Ocean, and covered therewith, in which are men that with their feet walk opposite to ours: Saint Austin and Lactantius deride the conceit hereof, without showing any reason to the contrary: But Pliny is not of their opinion, who saith, that there are such, even reason itself persuades, and experience shows.  
Q. An old Courtier being asked by what means ●e continued so long to live, and grow old in Court, being a thing so rarely happening?  
A. Answered, By taking of injuries, receiving wrongs, and returning of thanks: And thereupon grew his happiness, to be one of those few, according to the saying, for Paucos ●eauit Aula, pl●res perdidit, & quos beavit, perdidit: The Court hath made few happy, it hath undone many; and those that it hath most favoured, it hath undone; dealing with her favourites as Dalilah with Samson, or as Time with her Minions, that still promiseth better and longer days, when in a moment she withdraweth the one, and performeth not the other, but falsifieth in both; as one lately to this purpose hath both experienced, and uttered as followeth.  
Even such is time, that takes in trust  
Our youth, our joys, and all we have,  
And pays us but with age and dust,  
Within the dark and silent grave.  
When we have wandered all our ways,  
Shut up the story of our days.  
— But this general rule is not without exception.  
Q. What Western Island is that, that hath lost more people and blood, than all the Eastern can repair to her former station again?  
A. The Island of Hyspaniola, oner-runne by the Spaniard, where the poor Indian Savages have been slaughtered in greatest number, in greatest cruelty, yea even upon wagers laid upon their lives, for sport and merriment; upon the simplicity of one of which, this ensuing story hath dependence.  
A certain Spaniard sent his poor Indian servant of a message with Birds and other gratuities to another of his countrymen, with a Letter therein mentioning the particulars sent, which this vassal something pinched by hunger, not trustily carrying▪ had made bold by the way, now and then to eat one of the Birds, thinking his master could never come to knowledge thereof. But after, delivering the residue and the Letter: He to whom they were sent, finding his number short, wrote back he had not received his due: whereupon the Master questioning his servant, with threats and blows, compelled him to reveal it: whereupon he wondering, gave notice to his country men, that they should take heed of those white papers with black notes in them, for they could tell tales.  
Q. The Roman Indiction is a Phrase much met withal in Almanacs, and there likewise are the Dog-days noted in july and August; now I would know the signification and meaning of both these, and what they import?  
A. The Roman Indiction is the space of 15. years, by which account Charters and public writings are dated at Rome, every year still increasing one till it come to 15, and then returning to one again.  
The Dog-days or Canicular days, which are in july and August, are so called of the Star Canis, which then riseth with the Sun, and maketh his progress in an equal conjunction therewith, and much addeth to the heat of the Sun, and faintness of that season, much enfeebling thereby man's body.   

Of Thought and Opinion, that travel the world without a passport.  
Saith a merry conceited wanton, Every Bird thinks his own the fairest, the Crow thinks his own Bird the whitest.  
Not always so, saith another, for many there be that think their neighbour's wives fairer than their own, and of such their speech will somewhat point them out: for no man can so change himself, but his heart will be seen upon his tongue's end.  
Hereafter follow certain collections or choices of things most material and civil, out of Albertus Magnus, Lemnius, and others.   

Of the Longing of women.  
ALbertus saith, that the longings of women most commonly have their beginnings at the end of three months, especially conceived of a female child, which is the time that the hair beginneth to grow; and the effect thereof proceedeth of the abundance of cold, and raw humours concreted in the womb. The reason oftentimes that they are endangered, disappointed of their longings, grows through the vehement pursuit, and desire of the object presented to the mind, which is so extreme, that it altars and stops the course of nature, and office of the members within, whereupon many times death ensueth, but most commonly to the child. For proof whereof, A woman there was, that longed for a bit of the buttock of a man, and having obtained it, was not satisfied, but likewise desired another, which failing of, she afterwards was delivered of two children, whereof the one was living, preserved thereby, and the other perished.   

Of the strength and power of Imagination.  
IMagination according 〈◊〉 Lemnius, etc. of that strength and force, that it makes the things to be, that many times it ima●●neth are: as for example, It hath infe●●●● a body by mere imagination that it hath taken infection; and strong it is, that it makes a beggar a King, and a King a beggar, deceives poor fathers, blessing their children for their own, by appearance of similitude. In forming whereof; the imagination of the mother is of no little force, as is witnessed by the story of an Ethiopian Queen: Which by her husband of the same kind, conceived and brought forth a child, of a delicate hue & complexion, by fixing her eyes and intention upon a beautiful picture that hung before her. To which effect Sir Tho. Moor likewise in an Epigram and other writings of his, wittily jesteth at one, who exceedingly doted on his child, because it so truly resembled him, when his wife, and some other, knew (as he addeth) it was begot when he was not at home: for which similitude he thus giveth like reason: The strong imagination of the mother dwelling upon her husband, in thought of his wrong, and fear of his return, had power to create in this act, his similitude of body, by his presence in mind. And this likewise is the reason, saith another, that children are sometimes like their uncles, grandfathers, or others (one more of thought most commonly seated upon them then strangers.) And therefore we conclude it of more certainty to judge our children our own, by their inclination & disposition drawing near unto ours, than by the Physiognomy or feature.   

Whether monstrous births, or abortives of reasonable souls, shall be partakers of the Resurrection?  
IT is answered, that whatsoever endued with humane form, and takes from our first parents, the due order of their natural procreation and birth, although monstrous in shape, and deformed in habit, endued with the gifts of reasonable souls, shall be partakers of the resurrection: yet those things which present nothing but the shape of man, and commixed with other creatures, exercising their actions otherwise then men, they have no part of this promise, nor shall have the honour of renovation at the latter day: such are Fawns, and Satyrs, Centaurs and Sirens, and such like: but for the other borne and begot of reasonable souls, they shall be raised up, and their deformities done away. But for such untimely births, whose bodies uncompact and destitute of reasonable souls, deserving not the name of humane creatures, shall not be raised up again. And therefore we conclude, that whatsoever is brought forth of humane seed, and not engendered of the concourse of vicious and superfluous humours, although never so deformed, having once received the breath and Spirit of life, shall be raised up at the latter day, and made beautiful and perfect.   

What it is that pricks the conscience, guilty of any notorious crime?  
THe Conscience is the true witness of God's divine power and justice, seated in the bosom of every living man, by that finger that made all men and creatures, as the faithful Teste or witness, to approve or condemn, to our joy or grief the whole actions of our lives, either good or evil, performed or intended: the force whereof is so great, that in its own purity it acquits amidst a thousand condemnations, but tainted, condemneth itself where no man accuseth: It is like the upright judge that will not be corrupted, but ●ay open the sown bosom, ever presenting the most carlet sins, and such as we would labour to put from us, and wash away in wine and strong drinks, or forget with merriment, setting them before the face and forehead of him that committeth them, with the deserts and punishments due unto them, from which continual apprehension and terror, as our naturalists do observe, is strucken a chilling and coldness into the blood, and a retiring of itself into the more interior parts: which fear and apprehension of justice, an instinct of that divine impression, suddenly strikes & startles, thereby causing as it were a sensible compunction or pricking in the breast; and by which terror of the mind, and inordinate retirement and shrinking of the blood and spirits, the countenance becometh pale and meager, the body and all the parts thereof deficient. For as (saith Solomon) the body will bear his infirmity, but a wounded and broken spirit who can sustain? etc.   

Of the strange nature of the Cock.  
THe Cock, as Pliny writeth, and as our own experience witnesseth, is a bird not great, yet of that height and courage, that it rather dyeth in fight, then yieldeth to his adversary: of that piercing voice, that it daunteth the Lion's courage▪ of that observance and intelligence, that he distinguisheth hours, and seasons: and whereas all other creatures after the act of venery, are dull and melancholic, only the Cock, the country horologe, as one termeth him, is otherwise; as appeareth, by the after-clapping of his wings, sprightly rousing of himself, and sending forth of his note, yet in his age, it is observed, as at 5.8.12.14. years, sooner or later in some than in others; he layeth an egg, which is round and small, in some hole, or hedge, which by sitting upon, he bringeth forth to some venomous serpent, or other thing, but most commonly to the Basilisk, a serpent that poisoneth by his breath or sight: As Africa and some parts of Germany do witnesse● as our Poet writeth to that effect.  
To lurk far off, yet lodge destruction by,  
The Basilisk doth poison with the eye.   

Of the strange nature of the Wolf.  
PLiny likewise noteth of the Wolf, a creature outwardly resembling a dog, yet for her sense in some degree drawing near unto man, that, minded to make prey upon any thing, as by extremity of hunger oftentimes enforced thereunto, She first surveys the likelihood of advantage to be made against her, which if she find too able for her single encounter, she presently by howling draws together more of her cumrades; which so assembled, devour either man or beast. And it was credibly informed by a Gentleman long resident in Ireland, of one that travelling in an Evening betwixt two towns in that country, some three miles distant, was three several times set upon by a Wolf, from whose jaws by his sword he so oft delivered himself; approaching near the town whereto he was bend, he encountered a friend of his travelling unarmed towards the town from whence he came, unto whom (advising him of his peril, and assault, accounting himself secure so near the town) he lent his sword: now having parted and divided themselves some little distance, this old Wolf sets upon his new guest, who finding him armed with the others weapon, presently leaves him, making after the other with all speed he might; overtook him before he came to the town, assaulted and slew him. Pliny likewise addeth, that the breath of a Wolf, whoever it breathe upon, maketh hoarse.   

Of the Tiger and the Elephant.  
THe Tiger, as Gesner and Pliny make mention▪ is of stature not great, yet o● foot the swiftest of many swift ones, which i● noted of her in the pursuit of her young, fetched off when she traveleth for prey, which when she returneth and findeth not, she presently coasting the country about, in a moment overtaketh her felon, that many miles was before her, which he warily observing, as behoveth his safety and cunning, perceiving, setteth down one of her young ones, which she taking up in her mouth, seeketh no more till she have brought that home to her fur again, how far soever in distance, which there delivered, out she maketh again, and unless more speed prevent, or cunning prevail, she recovereth another, which sometimes by looking-glasses and such like, laid in her way; wherein viewing herself, or the like of young, she amazedly stayeth: so hindered and disappointed, loseth the substance for shadows; which when she perceives, returning with rage, she furiously assaulteth what ●re she meets in her way.   

Of the excellency, virtue, and nature of Stones.  
THe Turcoyse stone, if the wearer of it be not well, changeth his colour, and looketh pale and dim, but increaseth to his perfectness, as he recovereth to his health, with which our Poet thus acordeth in his comparison: 
As a compassionate Turcoyse that doth tell,  
By looking pale, the wearer is not well,   
Many other precious gems there are, that lose their virtue and splendour, worn upon the finger of any polluted person; and therefore lewd and unclean livers, such as defile their bodies with women, never adorn themselves with these dissenting jewels, which would blush at their shame, and betray their guiltiness. A rich investure, saith one, they are, but of small use in our days, hardly meeting with a finger that spoils them not.  
In the end of August, the Moon increasing, there is found in the Swallows belly a stone of excellent virtue, for the cure of the falling sickness, and which dries up the thin and glutinous humours whereupon it is chiefly engendered.  
There is likewise found in the head of an old Toad a stone very precious against all inflammations and swellings; as bitings of venomous beasts, poison, and such like▪ Likewise there is sometimes found in the head of a carp, a stone that stauncheth all bleeding at the nose.   

Hereafter follow certain Epigrams, Riddles, and witty Positions.  

Epitaph 1.  
Upon Matilda, Augusta daughter to Henry the first of England, wife to Henry the fourth Emperor, & mother to Henry the second of England.  
Magna Ortis, maiorque viro, sed maxima prole,  
Hic iacet Henrici, filia, sponsa, parens.  
English.  
Great by thy birth, but greater by thy bed,  
Yet by the issue greater than both th'other,  
To dignify all which, it may be said,  
Here lies a Henry's daughter, wife and mother.   

2.  
A thing there is hath neither fl●sh nor bone,  
Yet of the living once depending on:  
So dry it is, no creature can it eate,  
Yet may stened by some. Art, it words can speak.  
It works not treason first, like traitors many,  
But i● beheaded ere it can do any;  
And than it falls to action without rest,  
Whispers with secrets of a Lady's breast:  
Conveys a message, be it far or near,  
Five hundred miles from hand unto the ear.  
It faster binds by dashes and by blots,  
T●en doth a Cable with a hundred knots.  
Thus and much more it works by slight of hand.  
Now what this is I fain would under stand.  
Resol. A quill, of which is made a pen.   

3.  
h. b.f.  
Musca. a ●lie.  
h. b.f.  
Musica, music.  
1. With head I run, with foot & head I fly:  
2: With these entire, I music's sweet notes try.   

4. In Tibiam.  
Non ego continueè morior, si spiritus exit,  
Nam re dit assiduè, quamuis & sape recedat.  
Englished.  
All creatures that subsist and live by breath,  
When it departs, is life for ever fled,  
But mine is contrary, that brings no death,  
But as it wastes, is new breathed in & bred.   

5. A Harp. Thus the Harp sounds out itself.  
A Silent tree I was, and mute did stand,  
That now doth speak sweet tunes to every hand.  
My life was death, my death to me was life,  
For here with nature, art begins her strife,  
That since in life by her I might not live,  
Art after death a life to me did give.   

6.  
Q. What is the ground and use of Music, and wherein doth it consist?  
A. It consists in these five keys or words, turned into these two Verses.  
We relevet mi-serum fatum solitosque Labores▪  
Eva sic dulcis Musica noster amor.  
Englished.  
Sweet Music doth refresh and ease those cares,  
To which, by Eve's offence we all are heirs.   

7.  
Si caput est, currit; ventrem coniunge, volabit;  
Add pedem, comedes, & sine ventre bibes.  
ca ven. pes.  
Resol. mus. musca, muscetum mustum.  
A mouse, a Fly, Muscadel.  
Englished.  
With head I run, with head and belly fly,  
With foot thereto am food, and for the dry  
Without my belly drink, all this am I.   

8. Sir Tho. Moores Epig. upon a poor Physician.  
TV te sers medicum, nos te plus esse fatemur:  
una tibi plus est litera quam medico.  
Englished.  
Thou term'st thyself Physician, and wouldst be,  
And yet thy Art and Skill both keep thee poor,  
That I can hardly yield thee that to be,  
And yet I will allow thee something more.  
Not Medicus a Physician, but Mendicus, a Beggar,  
A word of a letter more.   

9 In somnum.  
Sponte mea veniens, varias ostendo figuras,  
Engo metus varios, nullo discrimine veri.  
Sed me nemo videt, nisi sua lamina claudit.   

Upon Sleep.  
Of self accord I come and fill the mind,  
With thousand toys and fancies I devose;  
But few thereof for truth I noted find,  
And none sees them, or me, but winking eyes.   

10. Aliud.  
Dum nihil ipse vides, facio te multa videre,  
Lumina ni claudat, me quoque nemo videt.  
Thou seeing nothing, many things I show,  
Which but with closed eyes thou canst not know.   

II.  
Ter tria dant septem, septem sex, sex quoque, 〈◊〉 sunt,  
Octo dant quatuor, quatuor faciunt tibi septem,  
Haec numeres rectò, faciunt tibi milli● quinque.  
It is understood of the letters in the words, for the 2 first words, ter tria, yield seven letters, the word septem six, the word sex 3. Octo 4. quatuor 7. millia 5. though it signify 1000   

12. Upon a Hammer or Mallet.  
THe strength of all my body's in my head,  
With what I fight, am never vanquished,  
My head is great, my body is but small,  
A Hammer, or a Mallet most me call.   

13.  
Mulae Asinaeque duos imponit seruulus utres  
Impletos vino, signémque ut vidit Ase●●am  
Pondere defessam, vestigia figere tarda  
Mula rogat, etc.  
Englished.  
A Mule & Ass did each a vessel bear,  
replete with wine, the Ass slow creeping on  
The Mule did thus regret, My parent deer,  
Why dost so heavy  
pass and make such moan?  
If thou one measure unto me do lend,  
Then twice thy Burden's,  
borne upon my back:  
But out of mine, if I to thee one send,  
Then both of us do bear one equal pack.  
Now learned Arithmetician, I would know  
Under what burden each of these did go.  
Resol. The Mule bore 7. and the Ass 5.   

14. In clavem.  
Virtutes magnas de viribus affero paruis,  
Pando domos clausàs, iterum concludo, petentes  
Seruo domum domino, sed rursum seruor ab illo.   

Upon a Key.  
Great virtue I afford in substance small,  
To shut and open when mine Owner will,  
Whom faithful I attend at beck, at call,  
When many times  
the Thief doth curse my skill.   

15.  
Sunt duo quae duo sunt, & sunt duo quae duo non sunt:  
Quae duo si non sunt, sunt duo nulla duo.  
Englished.  
There's two that are not two,  
yet are not one,  
Which two another saith, are two, none.  
The wedded pair.   

16.  
Dictio lassat equum, mell comedit,  
abstrahe primam,  
Tolle sed inde duas, remanebit amica luto su●.  
Cursus, versus, sus.  
The Horse for Race,  
the Bear for honey sweet,  
The dirty Sow makes these three names to meet  
For of Cursus for a Course, take away c. it is Vrsus for a Bear, and the latter part o● the word is sus for a Sow.   

17. How is this verse construed?  
Sunt oculus clari qui cernis ●ydera tanquam.  
Dico Grammaticum versum qui construit istum.  
c. o. q. s. e. t. s. Cernis oculos qui sunt clari  
tanquam sydera.  
Thou beholdest eyes,  
As clear as the skies.   

18. In iuris Consultum.  
A Lawyer sitting plodding at his book,  
Expecting Clients in a long vacation,  
Sometimes Fitzarbert,  
turning sometimes Brooke;  
In comes his man & brings him this relation;  
That one had late discharged to his cost,  
A Piece for pleasure,  
that might breed his pain,  
For by the Statute there was 5. pound lost.  
To whom his Master thus replied again,  
Who was the man so fond him behaved?  
Quoth he, I know;  
then there is five pound saved.   

19 Upon disparity of dispositions in two sons.  
TWo Sons there were that issued from one Mother,  
In disposition far unlike each other:  
The one delighted only in his pride,  
His care was for neat clothing, naught beside,  
And rather if his coin did fall but scant,  
Three days he'd fast, before one button want.  
The other made his belly all his care,  
To cloth his carcase, that had little share:  
As the other all he got, hung on his back,  
So this would eat his shoes rather than lack;  
The mother 'twixt them twain, this difrence puts,  
Her silken son, and son with silken guts.    

Upon a bragging Angler.  
ONe that to Angle often did resort:  
For well it seemed,  
he liked the patient sport:  
Meeting another, would relate and show  
What store of fish he caught,  
as braggarts do:  
When passing by a Maypole, he did say,  
He caught a Trout as thick as that lait day:  
This thought incredible by his gaping friend,  
His man must thereto confirmation lend▪  
Quoth he, Because I would  
not speak a wrong,  
I think 'twas scarce so thick,  
but 'twas as long.   

Of money and the quality thereof, that well known metal, first made by man, as afterwards man seeks to be made by it.  
THat which employs the world,  
toils Sea and Land,  
Is but t'achieve this creature of man's hand,  
Which since the world began,  
what sundry shapes,  
It hath transformed it in,  
what murders, rapes,  
It might have blushed for,  
but that guiltless pale,  
It is being so pursued being each man's tale:  
It cannot colour, can in no place lie,  
Made after with such ceaseless hue and cry,  
It sets the world a sweeting by the ears,  
Entering the rich with cares,  
the poor with fears,  
To either sometimes both a foe and friend,  
Sometimes prolongs a life, hastens an end,  
So sly a shifter, that it finds an hour,  
To break each prison, to escape the Tower▪  
Though all the warders round about it stand,  
Yet out it gets and flies about the Land,  
As by experience many a one to his sorrow,  
Hath been today his keeper, not to morrow.  
Worse for to fit a garment, & more strange,  
Then for the Moon,  
which every month doth change.  
Because no Workman  
hath the skill or power,  
To fit the thing that's changed every hour,  
Within that leathern Channel that it goes,  
It like the Sea continual ebbs and flows,  
And is of such strong power,  
such secret might,  
It makes the Lady, as it bought the Knight▪  
It sends the Merchant over shelves & sands,  
To foreign Regions and far distant lands;  
Who in his watery pilgrimage is said,  
To be with neither living nor yet dead:  
To deal with doubtful foes,  
for firmest friends,  
Leaving his wife at home to doubtful ends.  
This draws the Lawyer, dwell he ne'er so far,  
With gainful terms, to wrangle at the bar,  
Whose breath like to  
a whirlwind this to boot,  
Towseth a State, and turns it up by th'root  
For this the Doctor dealeth out his skill,  
Which sometimes ●aues,  
and oftentimes doth kill.  
For this the Broker to the devil drawn,  
Writes bought, and half worth  
seizeth on your pawn.  
Who cozening Statutes  
strangely to be wondered,  
Makes forty of his fourscore or his hundred▪  
The gain of this each Tradesman's living ca●●  
Opens every shop, and uttoreth every ware.  
This makes the usurer, & no wonder then,  
That would be boundless, be confined to te●  
Defraud his brother, ventersoule and nam●  
Though Scripture say,  
thou shalt not do the same.  
This from that fatal Newgate,  
old gate jail,  
Hath sent forth many, a short life to bewail:  
Her helpless fortune, and her fatal hap,  
On Doctor Stories first three cornered cap;  
Many a rich chastity strongly pursued  
By just, effectless, yet by this subdued  
Hath here been captived to this ruin won,  
That else in former times had been a Nun.  
More Orator than Tully to prevail,  
By force of Tongue, than Samson, to assail  
By might of strength.  
For this men swear and sin,  
Seek both by good & bad to gain & win.  
And in a word, this is that good and evil,  
Brings some to God,  
but more unto the Devil.   

A Supplication to Lady Pecunia.  
GReat Lady, how unlike  
some solid maid,  
That long in vain hath for a suitor stayed,  
Art thou, which not for worth,  
but beauty too,  
Makes all in love, and all the world to woe!  
Grant me, though neither favourite nor friend,  
Nor none that thy great troops  
nor trains attend;  
Not of so mean a favour to be bard,  
That crave, though not redress,  
yet be heard:  
That since thou oft  
haste progressed by my door,  
That makes all rich, & yet I still am poor  
That thou wouldst one day call,  
and lodge, and rest  
With one had ne'er more need  
of such a guest.  
Which if thou deign,  
this favour thou shalt find,  
I'll not uplocke thee with a Miser's mind  
But use thee as a Lady of Respect,  
Which dost from care and misery protect  
All that embrace thee with a plenteous hand  
Most constant, that most aydfully dost stand  
Where friends forsake us,  
and where kindred fall,  
A Bulwark to us, thou that all in all  
Commandest; art sought unto, to thee I cry  
To fall some drops into a ground that's dry  
Unlike to Usury that ever yet  
Applied her needless moisture wet to we●  
O● Monarches hands, that let not bounty fa●  
Where want cries some, but where excess gets all.   

Her reply.  
OF all the Ladies ere were wooed or wed,  
Or ever forced unto a loathed bed,  
Am I most wretched,  
that the least may choose  
Where I affect, or where I loath, refuse,  
But like some miser's Daughter  
made a Bride,  
To Riches only, and naught else beside:  
Am I thrust off to every worthless clown,  
When men of virtue, goodness & renown,  
Are barred my presence, whilst I am enforced,  
Ravished, offended, strive to be devorst,  
Abused with Usurers, and forced to br●ed,  
Quite against Nature,  
without womb or seed;  
Yea, held in darkness under bars & bolts,  
Where none but earthworms  
court me, fools, and dolts,  
Deprived of light, of liberty, and view,  
And whatsoever else a Ladies due.  
Could I deceive those Argosies me keep,  
With many thousand eyes that never sleep:  
I would take my progress  
to each prison door,  
Shake off their Shackles, & let out the poor  
That long have looked with poverty & pain  
Expecting my return, but all in vain.  
I would build Churches, be in godly motion,  
But that such Nabals hinder my devotion.  
From a captiving hand I broke of late,  
And out I got, and strait raised up a gate.  
Fron thence I took my progress into Paul's,  
And glazed some windows  
that did want no holes;  
And if it were not for such stays and lets,  
I'd give security for all men's debts.  
For without me, wherever I am stayed,  
is no bond cancelled, nor no reckoning paid.  
For me are all brains laboured, hands employed,  
And without me the world is not enjoyed.  
And therefore at my latest close of breath,  
Great King of Mortal things  
(I clipped death)  
To thee I humbly my petition make,  
That thou thy harvest of such jailors take;  
That till their death  
will grapple what they have,  
And naught shall part them  
but thy scythe and grave:  
That thou wouldst mow them  
down, even unto dust,  
From others wants, that bar me till I rust.   

Death's supplication to Time.  
WIthin a Dungeon  
all in darkness grounded,  
Sat a grim Ghost, of sinews all compounded:  
Where more to increase  
his melancholy moans,  
He grapples to himself, the skulls & bones  
Of men departed, & with these he plays,  
As sorrows were his joys  
and shortening days.  
Which though his workmen,  
sickness, ache, and pain,  
Were all in labour, yet he thought his gain  
Was small or nothing,  
without plague, or war;  
Which Time still favouring,  
did prolong too far.  
'Gainst whom, was deadly enmity and hate,  
For safe protecting all things to their date:  
Before which expiration Death may stand▪  
In expectation, but with empty hand:  
And therefore to this Lady did reply,  
The fault was times, though hers the injury▪  
For if that I were master of my will,  
With blood I'd surfeit,  
and the whole world kill.  
There should not such a miser live so long,  
To injure many, by one Ladies wrong.  
And therefore unto Time I humbly pray,  
To stir his wings more swift and fly away,  
That I with grief and stay, no longer pine,  
But so many have my wish,  
and thou have mine.   

Time's reply.  
OF all the Ages that are past and fled  
By me outworn,  
decayed, deceased, and dead:  
Was never any spoke with so small heed,  
To say that Time was slow & had no speed.  
Although I might fly faster far away,  
With Snail I ever creep,  
when swift things stay.  
And that our Parallels a sudden haste,  
Which swiftly doth begin, but slowly last.  
Indeed 'tis true, all living things depend  
On my supplied minutes, which shall end,  
And every sublunary thing below,  
But when that time shall be,  
Time doth not know.  
Yet now I must confess, that I grow old,  
Having five thousand years  
six hundred told.  
In which long Summer I am so well read,  
That I do teach all Arts that skill are bred.  
I know all History how ere it run,  
And the truth thereof,  
being witness when 'twas done.  
The death of Kings,  
of Princes, change of State,  
What is't I know not, to discourse, relate?  
With many secrets I do counsel keep,  
Done at dark midnight,  
in contempt of sleep.  
Which some Petitioners to me  
would know:  
To all which sifting thoughts, I answer, no  
I must not tell, the Linnins then are tossed,  
Those dainties touched,  
and those nice things lost.  
This minute's guiltiness of loss of strength,  
Decay of stomach, and eclipse of length.  
Of which, another time I more may say,  
But now must answer death,  
which craves with stay,  
Licence to hurry forth, to mow and kill,  
Which yet I cannot give, but shortly will.  
For I am but a servant, and this sore  
Must be endured with grief,  
or patience bore.  
For till this world's consumption there must be  
Rich Dives, and poor Lazar, wants to see.  
And yet I cannot hasten to amend,  
What here thou dost  
complain until the end.  
And then this Lady  
that thou wouldst set free,  
Shall want her Courtiers  
and a vain thing be.    

Tabletalk, AS MUSIC TO A BANQUET of WINE: Served in, in witty propositions, Seasoning and Questions: Together with their Resolutions and Answers: To exhilarate and recreate the bodies and minds both of ourselves and our friends at our Tables and Meetings.  
Singula cum valeant, sunt meliora simul.  
LONDON, Printed by Tho. Brudenell, for Leonard Becket, and are to be sold at his shop in the Temple near the Church. 1630.   

PREFACE.  
AT Bed and Board, where pleasures are exact,  
At both we compliment as well a● act:  
And at them both should every one desire  
Something to bring, to crown delight the higher.  
Who brings himself as an invited guest,  
Only to fill a room and taste the best,  
And nothing more retains, nor can impart,  
Doth recompense but ill by his des●rt  
The favour he hath found, to taste g●●● far,  
And come in company where betters are,  
That can discourse, that know what doth befit,  
Whose every word, out-values every bit,  
So wisely strowed befitting time and place,  
Such shine like lamps, whilst the unlettered base  
Smother t'th socket, whilst these lights excel,  
To th' ear as welcome, as theirs harsh to th' smell.  
Therefore to further such as would partake  
Of the best things, but cannot, for their sake  
Is here a Dictionary, where phrases walke●  
And subjects of Discourse and Tabletalk,  
Are various intermixed, some grave, some light,  
Like to our courses method, noon and night:  
Her's Questions, Answers, Riddles, Tales and jests,  
To crown with laughter both our friends and feasts.  
Here is a Garden, wherewith weeds are flowers,  
To stick in Princes Halls, and Ladies Bowers,  
To give their pretty persons some delight,  
In tedious day-times, that are made for night,  
The which to all I wish of either gender,  
In lieu whereof the sequel here I tender,  
Wishing it music to th' enchanted ear,  
Unto the taste a feast of Christmas cheer.  
And this is all the trumpet shall be blown  
To th' troop so small, that will so soon be shown.   

The Introduction.  
HE that knows not what he ought to know, is a beast among men.  
He that knoweth no more than he hath need of, is a man among beasts.  
But he that knows all that may be known, is a God amongst men.  
He that knoweth only but to know. hath a silent, but a fruitless knowledge.  
He that knoweth only to make others know that he knoweth, hath an ambitious▪ but a vain glorious knowledge.  
He that knoweth only to instruct others, and make use himself, hath the true and blessed knowledge.   

Tabletalk.  
Question. IN what part of the year (according to the conjectures of the learned) was the world created?  
Answer. Concerning the resolution of this question, much controversy hath arisen, as well betwixt several Nations, as men: As among the Hebrews, the Chaldeans, the Arabians, the Egyptians, the greeks and Latins: some conceiving it to be created in the Summer, others in the Spring, others in Autumn; to which (as say some) Moses seems to assent, where it is said in Genesis, Let the earth bring forth the green herb, and trees bring forth fruit according to their kind. The Egyptians think it was created in Summer; most in the Spring. Likewise they vary about the Planets, and what houses they were created in: some think when the Sun was in Leo, the Moon in Cancer, and so of the rest. Which may be somewhat more confirmed by this necessary rule following, for the falling of Easter day, which is, As upon the 10 day of the first month from the creation, which is March, at the conjunction of the Sun and the Moon, next the Equinoctial; the Paschall Lamb was chosen out of the flock, and kept till the 14. day, or full Moon: so the tenth day of the first month, being Palm sunday, our Saviour entered into jerusalem, and the 14 day suffered his passion; so as the next Sunday after the 14. day of the Moon or full Moon in the month of March is always Easter day, and probable to confirm the former supposition.  
Q. But of this what shall I determine?  
A. That by the wisdom, mercy, and goodness of God it was created, in the fullness of time, in what part his wisdom thought most meet: the admirable composition and frame whereof, that we daily contemplate and behold with the eyes of our understanding, with the diversity and distinction of all the creatures therein; they and all these for the several uses and service of man, and man only for the service of God.  
Q. Wherefore then, since the world was only made for man, (for man only knows the vs● thereof) are the days of his pilgrimage v●●on earth, contracted from the length of many cubits to a span-long, in comparison of the trebled date and extension of bruit beasts, senseless and irrational creatures; as the Hart, the Daw, the Oak, Ravens, Rocks, and such like, most of which have trebled dates beyond the short period of man's life? For concerning the Hart, one of the most doubtful, of whons notwithstanding Histories make mention: How Alexander desirous to aepprove to posterity the long life of this creature, to that end caused to be put certain golden collars about diverse of their necks, with the time of their dates, some of which were found 100 years after his death in full vigour and livelihood, not perceived to decline, or grown into age, but continuing and lasting: when the life of man doth vanish like a shadow, like a flower; when neither Absalon's beauty, Samsons strength, Salomon's wisdom, Asaels' swiftness, Croesus' wealth, Alexander's liberality, Hector's strength, Homer's eloquence, Augustus' fortune, Traianes' justice, Cicero's zeal, one, nor all of these can protect it, but that he falls from the grave of the womb, to the womb of the grave, cut down like a flower, as these verses seem to import: 
Est hominum status per florem significatus:  
Vt flos cito perit, sic homo puluis erit.  
Man's life is fitly semblanced by the flowers,  
Which flourish now, and fade ere many ho●res▪   
Therefore this inequality considered, may it not be thought injustice and wrong to man in this disposure? and if not, by what consequent or reason may he settle his appeasement? For as the Poet: 
If death destroy us quite; we have great wrong,  
Since for our service all things else were wrought,  
That Daws, and Trees, and Rocks, should last so long,  
When we must at an instant turn to naught.   
A. By this, Because the wise Creator foresaw that these in their dislolution, though never so long protracted, should altogether perish, but man at his end should but renew a better, nay an immortal life: and therefore what he is abridged of here, he hath amends for hereafter.  
Q. Wherein consists the natural life of man, that it so soon doth cease, and so quickly wheel off from the thing of so unstable continuance?  
A. In heat and moisture, which daily wasting themselves to keep life afoot, are again daily replenished in us by our meat and drink; for by our meat is our natural heat maintained, and by our drink the radical moisture daily replenished.  
Q. Why should the Epicure then say, Let us eat and drink, for to morrow we shall dye, when by eating and drinking, our life is strengthened and renewed? and why may not the life of man by this moderate and seasonable supply, be preserved continually, at leastwise the life of our forefathers?  
A. Because as the Sea hath bounds which it cannot pass, so is there to every life a period set, Hitherto shalt thou come, and no further: which though it may be shortened, as it is in the Psalm, The bloodthirsty and deceitful man shall not live forth half his days, yet can it in no wise be prolonged further, at leastwise prorogued ever: for set all other adversaries aside, Time itself shall at last bring in age, whose antipathy shallbe such, that it shall quench thy heat, and dry up thy moisture; for be thou never so well fenced▪ comes death at last, and with a little pin boreas thorough thy Castle wall, and farewell man: But of this formerly more at large.  
Q. What were the opinions of the Egyptian Sages and Philosophers concerning the longitude or brevity of man's life? and whereupon did they ground their reasons?  
A. They were conceited that men did live according to the increasing or diminishing of the heart, some thinking the heart to grow and increase till 50. years, and that it did▪ augment every year 2. drachmas weight; & grown to the full bigness, did again diminish every year as much, until it came to nothing, whereupon ensued death.  
Q. What are the opinions of some more modern Physicians for the natural length or shortness thereof, upon the dependency of Complexion either good or evil?  
A. Some think that the more better complexion, as those of the Sanguine, be long in growing old, because they have much heat and humidity.  
That the melancholy waxeth soon old, because they be cold and dry; and as touching the feminine sex, they become sooner old than the masculine. Hipocrates reporteth that female children, in their mother's wombs are form in seven months, and then after grow slowlier than men; but borne, grow faster, and become sooner wise, and sooner old, for the feebleness of their body and manner of life, being for the most part idle, is an inducement to old age.  
Q. Whether are the tall or low of stature, according to the conjectures of some learned, of longest health or life?  
A. Some think the shortest statures, because their vital spirits are more strong and nimble, imparting their livelihood with more vigour in their shorter circuit, then in the more spacious compass: others again that they are more durable, because the Cedar many times is sooner blasted with a tempest then the shrubs; others are of a contrary opinion, that the taller limbs have the more temperate humours and complexions, that fumes not so much do offend the brain, because the stomach and it are more separate: but howsoever we conclude these arguments of small validity, because Death looks not so high, that he passeth by the low, nor so low, that he passeth by the high, but levels equally at both alike, as that more high Providence guides the hand from which there is no evasion.  
Q. Whether were the years of th●●●ncient patriarchs, when they lived eight or nine hundred years, of the length of our years with us; or so short as some have imagined, that ten of theirs made but one of ours, or an hundred of theirs but ten of ours?  
A. Of equal length and parity with ours, finished by the course of the Sun: and for further proof hereof, the Scriptures affirm, that in the 600. year of Noah's life, in the second month, a●d 27. day of the month, the flood came: now if the year were but 36. days, so little a year must either have no months, or it must have but three days in a month, to make twelve months in a year after that computation. And as in this, so likewise it may be inferred in diverse other places, to prove that their years had their equal longitudes and continuance with ours.  
Q. What accidents or other remarkable consequence of time and place, have followed the day and hour of the week, since the creation of Adam, as I have seen it recorded in an ancient manuscript, but of what probability I aver not?  
A. That as upon the 25. day of the month of March, the first month from the creation, the 6. day of the week, & 6. hour of the day, Adam was created, broke the Commandments, the seed of the woman was promised, & he for disobedience banished out of Paradise: So the same day of the month, the same hour of the day, Cain slew his brother Abel, the promise was renewed unto Abraham, Isaac was to be offered up in sacrifice, the message by the Angel to the virgin Mary, our Saviour Christ was conceived, delivered, suffered his passion on Mount Caluary, the same place where Adam was buried, that the second Adam might there by his obedience, make good to man, what the first Adam lost by disobedience and sin, & that the Cross whereupon he died, was a part of the same tree from which Adam plucked the forbidden fruit. But of the certainty hereof, I can avouch no warrant.  
Q. We read in the Scripture, after Cai● had slain his brother Abel, that he was our●● to be a vagabond and runagate upon the face of the earth, and that he had a mark set upon him, that no man might slay him? yet after it is said that he built a City, and dwelled at the East side of Eden: now I would know what was the end of Cain: How if he were a householder & a Citizen, he was a runagate? And if he built a City, who were his workmen? what Masons and Carpenters had; for it is thought by some, there were not as that time above five or six persons in the whole world, neither are there more nominated in the Scripture?  
A. In that primitive age of the world men lived long, for Adam his father lived 930. years; and some are of opinion, that he lived the longer, by reason that he knew the virtue, nature, and operation of every beast, and herb, & plant, as well as to name them, and could apply them, wherein they were most serviceable to his use. Now it is not improbable that Cain in his longinquity of life might wander four or five hundred years, and in his latter age build a City, which might be caused out of his fear, for before that guiltiness of conscience that he had, no man entrenched himself within walls or bulwarks, neither feared the violence of man or beast. And for his workmen, they might be many; for in the latter end of his age, it may not be thought but his children, and his children's children might be many generations, and enough to build and inhabit a City, though Moses only names but some principal parties. And for his death, we leave it as doubtful, though the Hebrews do report, that Lamech being led a hunting (being blind) by his son Tubalcaine, shooting at wild beasts, killed Cain in the thicket unawares; and after hearing thereof by his son, struck him over the head with his bow, that he died likewise: grounding their opinion upon the words of Lamech, Gen. 4. where he saith to his two wives, I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt: both which we leave as uncertainties.  
Q. By what signs do we judge men to be the more long or shorter lived?  
A. The life of man is compared unto an Apple, which being ripe drops down of itself, and sometimes in the immaturity is cast down by winds and tempests.  
The signs of a short life are anciently noted to be these three: 

1. Thinnenesse of Teeth.  
2. longness of Fingers.  
3. Leaden or heaviness of Colour▪   The contrary, or of a long life. 

1. Strait Shoulders.  
2. Wide Nostrils, and the opposite adverse signs, that is, 

1. Many Teeth.  
2. Short Fingers, and  
3. A good Color.      

Hereafter followeth a Triplicity of somemore divine, witty, short and compendious Precepts and Conclusions to several natures and purposes.  
Q. THere are three invisible virtues of God, and which are they?  
A. Power, Goodness, Wisdom, which are thus explicated: 
Of Power, all things proceed.  
Of Wisdom, all things consist.  
Of Goodness all things are governed.   
Q. What was the wise man's Memento to prevent sin?  
A. Recordare novissima, & non peccabis in ●ternum.  
First, to remember these four last things, before we accomplish any evil, and then we shall seldom do amiss: which are Death, judgement, the pains of Hell, and the joys of Heaven.  
And they are so called for these four reasons: 

1. Because Death is the end of life, and the last thing which is to happen to us in this world.  
2. Because this judgement is the last of all judgements that are to be given, and therefore there is no appealing from it.  
3. Because Hell is the last evil that Malefactors are to have, and they are to remain therein for ever.  
4. Because Heaven is the last good which the good are to have, and they are never to lose it.    
Q. What four things are those that most plainly prove the books of the Apocrypha not to be Canonical?  
A. 

1. Because they are not written by any Prophet, neither contain they any Prophecies in them.  
2. Because they were written in Greek, and all the rest in Hebrew.  
3. Because Malachy the last of the Prophets, saith, that after him they should not look for any other Prophet, till the coming of Eliah, that was, S. john Baptist.  
4. Because the Author of the Machabeas in one place craveth pardon for his work and saith, If it be not so well as it should be, yet it was as well as he could, which is no fitting phrase for a Penman of the holy Scripture.    
Q. There are three sayings found in Saint Paul's Epistles, which are taken from the Heathen, and which are they?  
A. The first out of Menander, Evil words corrupt good manners, 1 Cor. 15.32.  
The second out of Aeratus, Covetousness is the root all evils, 1 Tim. 10.  
The third out of Epimenides, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, flow bellies, Tit. 1.12.  
Q. What are the three parts of Repentance?  
A. Contrition in Heart, Confession in Mouth, Satisfaction in Works.  
Q. What four things are those that overcome one another?  
A. 

1 Death overcomes Man.  
2 Fame overcomes Death.  
3 Time overcomes Fame.  
4 Eternity overcomes Time.    
Q. There is held to be a scarcity of two sorts of men in our age, and who over they?  
A. 

1 Of Noblemen, because Citizens do daily aspire to honour and buy Nobility.  
2 Of jews, because Christians make an occupation of usury.    
Q. We cannot know the Authors of three mischiefs which happen oftentimes, and what are they?  
A. 

1. He that is drunk, cannot justly say, This cup of wine, or that, made me drunk.  
2. He that walketh among thorns, knows not which woundeth him.  
3. A common whore being with child, knows not who is the father of it.     

The Husbandman's lesson to his son.  
Be holy in Lent.  
Be painful in Harvest.  
Be merry at Christmas.   

A further counsel or lesson.  
Touch nothing in a Smith's forge.  
Taste nothing in an Apothecary's shop.  
Be not curious in reading other men's let.   

Bragge not of three things, if thou wouldst 〈◊〉 joy plenty, and preserve a good name.  
That thou hast good wine in thy house.  
A fair wife for thy bed.  
Plenty of money in thy chest.  
Q. Whether is a good name sooner lost, or found?  
A. As soon lost as sound, and therefore be diligent to achieve it before thou hast it, in embracing wise counsel; and can●full to keep it when thou hast it: For 
Actum est de homine,  
Quum actum est de nomine.   

There be three manner of Sages.  
The Sage herb,  
The Sage wise, and  
The Sage fool.   
Of which one writes, 
Whost for wise himself doth accept,  
May match any Sage, the Sage wise except.   
He that comes to a Lawyer, must bring with him three pockets, which must be thus employed:  
In the first must be his Declarations and his Evidences.  
In the second his silver and his gold.  
In the third his patience for expense and delay.  
Likewise three things are said to be necessary for him that is a Student in the law.  

1 An Iron head.  
2 A purse full of gold.  
3 A leaden tail.   
Q. What and how many are the properties of a good servant?  
A. 
To have the back of an Ass,  
The tongue of a sheep,  
The snout of a swine:  
To bear all patiently,  
To keep all silently,  
To digest all things heartily.   
Likewise: 
To be long of ear,  
Light of foot,  
Trusty of hand:  
To hear quickly,  
To run swiftly,  
To execute honestly.   
And not to have, 
Mell in ore, verba lactis,  
Fel in cord, fraus in factis.   
Q. Three things should be always at 〈◊〉 and what are they?  
A. 
The Hen-roost, the Cat, and the good Wife.  
Three occasions many times move deate, and these are they:  
To talk with him that is angry.  
To send him of an errand that is weary.  
To wake a man out of his sleep.   
Q. How stand the English, the French, the Italian and the Spaniard affected to their w●●men for stature or complexion?  
A. 
The English is indifferent for stature,  
so she be amiable and beautiful.  
The French affects the pale & the slender.  
The Spaniard, the round and the tender.  
The Italian, the ruddy, and the tall, as  
their own Proverb seems to confirm it▪  
Grande & alia me fare Dîo  
Bella & bianco me far î●.   
Englished: 
If God will make me tall and hie,  
What wants in beauty, I'll supply.   
And therefore it is said, As he affects dearly, so he suspecteth deeply: yet cannot his most narrow suspicion so turn the key to his own safety, thereby solely to engross and secure the portion of his own right, without a most hateful rival; to which purpose upon the general inconstancy of women, after trial of so many beauties abroad▪ in so many several Countries, by two such worthy personages so unworthily wronged by their own wives, and none found constant or of better condition, than their own at home, but many worse; returned homewards, refuging their sorrows with the generality of others fortune▪ a in my Hosts tale in the story of Orlando, is more largely dilated to the comfort of his▪ country men, where this was acted.  
To which purpose and effect, one ill opinioned generally of women, thus further adjoineth.  
Go and catch a falling Star,  
Get with child a mandrake's root:  
Tell me where all past years are,  
And who cloven the devil's foot.  
If thou beest borne to strange sights,  
Things invisible to see:  
Ride ten thousand days and nights,  
Till age snow while hairs on thee.  
Then a hen thou returned wilt tell me,  
All strange wonders that befell thee.  
And swear, no where▪  
lives a woman true and fair.  
Or as another woman-hater thus w●●teth causelessly, if he meant all.  
Go and dive the Ocean under,  
Where unfathomed deepness be:  
Then go scale the clouds of thunder,  
Where the fiery Regions be.  
Through the wilderness go creep,  
Thorough the brakes where ne'er shone day,  
Where the venom wonders keep,  
And the Dragons have their way,  
And thou as soon shalt know the skill,  
All these wonders to impart,  
As to know the winding will  
Of a woman's Protean heart.  
Upon the evil and inconstancy of which wicked women, one began thus to make an Alphabet.  
Auidissimum animal, Bestiale barathrum, Concupiscentiam carnis, Duellum damnosum, etc.  
Englished.  
Avaritious, Beastly, Concupiscentious of the flesh, Dangerous duelists, etc.  
Which afterwards, another as their friend, thus inverted it upon the good, Alphabetical wise.  
Amabiles, Beneficae, Castae, Devotae, Elegantae, Fideles, Gratae, Humiles, jucundae, Lenes, Misericordes, Negotiosae, Obedientes, Prudentes, Qu●stuosae, Reverentes, Sapientes, Tacitae, Verae, Xenophilae, & Zenobiae.  
Englished.  
Amiable, Bountiful, Chaste, Devout, Eegant, Faithful, Grateful, Humble, Ingenuous, Lightsome, Merciful, Needful, Obedient, Prudent, Quiet, Reverend, Silent, Trusty, Virtuous, Expert, etc.  
Q. For the precedence betwixt England, France and Spain, which kingdom may the most justly challenge the priority?  
A. Some writers affirm that the King of France may justly claim the first place, and that for these reasons, as they allege.  
1. For that it pleased God to send from Heaven, unto Clodoneu●, the first Christian King of that Nation, three Lilies as a divine favour to be from thencesorth borne in the arms of that Kingdom, before which time, the King's arms was three Toads, as some write.  
Secondly, for that, as they affirm, France is the most ancient Kingdom in Europe, and that Swardus was King of that 〈◊〉 in the time of Alexander.  
Thirdly, because the King of France is anointed, which seems a note of antiquity.  
Fourthly, for his Title, the most Christian.  
Others hold that it belongeth to Spain, and that for these reasons.  

1 Because he is entitled the most Catholic.  
2 Because he is King of many Kingdoms, and so of much honour.   
But we conclude, the chief place and precedence belongeth to the Kingdom of England.  
First, in respect of antiquity, for Brute was King of England, when Alexander, the first King of the Grecians called, himself King of the whole world.  
Secondly, the King of England is anointed, and so is no other king but the French King, the King of Cicill, and jerusalem.  
Thirdly, the King of England is a Prince most absolute in all respects. But the reason is, for that England received the Christian faith before either France or Spain, notwithstanding the title of most Christian.  
There are 6. happy men among many others, and these are they.  

1 Foelix qui Deum timet, qui mundum odit, qui nemini fert iniuriam.  
2 Foelix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas.  
3 Foelix qui didicit contentus vivere paruo.  
4 Foelix qui nihil debet.  
5 Foelix qui possidendo nihil, omnia possidet.  
6 Foelix qui omnia quae vult habet, & 〈◊〉 mali vult.   
Englished.  

1 Happy is he which fears God, hates the world, doth no man injury.  
2 Which hath learned to be content with a little.  
3 That owes nothing but love.  
4 Which knows the causes of things.  
5 Which possessing nothing, yet enjoys all things in not desiring.  
9 That hath all that he desires, and desires nothing that is hurtful.   
Q. What three things are those to be avoided▪  
A. 

1 Medicus inctoctus.  
2 Cibus non coctus.  
3 Prava mulier.    
An unlearned Physician,  
Meat ill dressed,  
A wicked woman.  
Q. Three things to be bewailed, and the● 〈◊〉 are they. 
Tempus amissum,  
Peccatum commissum,  
Bonum omissum.  
Time lost,  
Sin committed,  
Good omitted.   
Q. Who are the famous fools?  
A. 

A faithful lover of an unfaithful friend.  
An honest gamester.  
A merciful soldier.    
Q. Three things are to be taken heed of an● these are they; 

A dog's tooth,  
A horse heel, and  
A woman's tongue.    
Q. There are three things, for which a wiseman should not give counsel, and which are they?  
A. For another man to take a wife, 

To make a voyage by sea,  
To follow the wars.    
Q. Three things concur to make a man quickly rich, and what are they?  
A. The fall of wives, and the standing of sheep and Bees.  
Q. What four things kill a man before his time?  
A. 

A fair wife,  
A troubled household,  
Immoderate meat and drink, and  
A corrupt air.    
Q. There be three shooing-hornes to pluck on a Cuckold's cap, and what are they?  
A. 

A fair wife.  
A jealous husband.  
A wanton lover.    

Four works of a Tyrant.  
1 To destroy the good.  
2 To hate the poor.  
3 To extol the evil.  
4 To root out the virtuous.   
Q. What one thing is that, that is bo●h the hardest and easiest thing of all other?  
A. 'tis the hardest for a man to know himself, and the easiest to deceive himself.  
Four unlikelihoods, which yet sometimes come otherwise to pass.  
He that is not 

Fair by 20.  
Strong by 30.  
Wise by 40.  
Rich by 50.   'tis unlikely he will ever be any of them.  
Q. When is the best time to undertake a journey?  
A. To answer as one merrily answere●. It is then, when a man hath a good horse money in his purse, and good companions.  
Q. Two things thou mayst show, but not lend, and what are they?  
A. Thy sword, and thy wife which is thy scabbard.  
Q. What in times past was the controu●● between the Coffin-maker and the Chest-ma● for superiority?  
A. The Chest-maker vaunted, that the commodity that he made, was of greatest worth, for that it locked up money that commanded all things.  
But (quoth the Coffin-maker) The chest that I make, locks up him that commands money, even the money-master himself; and as the worthiest thing, he takes that with him when he leaves all other behind.  
Q. What creatures are those that sleep with their eyes open?  
A. The Lion, and the Hare, that bold, and fearful creature.  
Q. What binds faster than Obedience, Wedlock, suspicion, or necessity?  
A. Fate and Death.  
Q. It is an approved Maxim, that in nature is no vacuity, nothing produced in vain: and hath this general rule ever passed without exception?  
A. Not so, for the wisest and most precious good, but hath found some Momus to carp at it, and like the Wolf, turn their throat against the Moon, to quarrel the highest and best things, as to this purpose is here annexed a story of some trial.  
Certain ordinary Gentlemen meeting at an Ordinary, amongst many propositions and discourses one to another, according to the too much liberty of such places, one at last began to fall into this admiration, that since God and Nature, the common parent● of all creatures, produced nothing in vain, why man, a creature of their principal workmanship▪ in himself was altoget●● vanity? For confirmation whereof, sai●● he of some, I knew a Country Church wel-furnished with a Clock, whose 〈◊〉 was stricken with an image like a man, upon the wheel stood a ca●● which when the image struck, made such haste away, as 〈◊〉 parishioners, when they should have 〈◊〉 for their sins, fell a laughing at the 〈◊〉 nimbleness: And to furnish the Ch●●● with better merriment, their Parson 〈◊〉 conceited as their Clock, amongst 〈…〉 of his digressions, falling to sp●●ke 〈…〉 providence of God, and such like, 〈…〉 sometimes in the first it might seem weak to humane capacity, when notwithstanding it was wise in the ends propounded: As for example, (said he) Walking one evening in my garden under mine Apple tree, I looked up, and saw the little Apples advanced on the top of the high tree, eminent to the sight, whilst at my foot grew grubling the huge Million, and the Pompion (as me thought) unseemly, because obscurely on the ground: Whereupon I began to think, it had been more seemly and fit, that this worthier and fairer fruit should have grown on the more high and perspicuous place, and the apples nearer to the ground, or in the place thereof: when suddenly thus gazing up to behold the unfitness of their growing, one blows me down from the top of the high tree, and hits me on the top of my bald head. Being so amazed, I began to think on mine own folly; for thought I then, If this Pompion had grown and fallen in this apples place, it had knocked out my foolish brains.  
To this seconded another, to falsify the general proposition, that Nature had erred in many t●●ngs, and might (as in others) have been better advised in these: for a man to repent in; and he 〈◊〉 Repent a day before thy death. Quo 〈…〉 that is ignotum per ignotius, one unknown thing answered by another more unknown For (quoth he) I know not when the day 〈◊〉 my death will be. Why then (quoth 〈◊〉 repent to day, for (for aught thou 〈◊〉 thy death may be to morrow.  
Q. There are three powers of the soul 〈◊〉 signed unto three parts of the body 〈…〉 are they?  
A. Reason to the Head, A 〈…〉 Heart, Lust to the Livor: like 〈…〉 yieldeth sense, the Heart Life, 〈…〉 nourishment.  
Q. Why doth the bayre and nail 〈…〉 man, as also Onions, and Garlic, 〈…〉 grow and increase after they are 〈…〉 thered?  
A. Those have their issue 〈…〉 out of the abundance of more 〈…〉 in men, though dead, or these 〈…〉 not in a long time diminish 〈…〉  
Q. Why are Bastards 〈…〉 strong, forward, witty, and 〈…〉 those which are legitimate an 〈…〉 lock?  
A. Some think, 〈…〉 〈…〉 vehement and perpetual, and 〈…〉 whatsoever outward heat is pre●●reunto, is weakened by the great 〈◊〉 ●●ued within, which allayeth the 〈…〉 eof, as the heat of the fire is aba 〈◊〉 beams of the Sun.  
〈…〉 omes it, that by looking upon one 〈…〉 sore, our own many times be 〈…〉?  
〈…〉 done partly by the mutual 〈◊〉 ween the eye and the eye, but 〈…〉 lly because the eye doth attract 〈…〉 it beholds, certain rays 〈…〉 unto it, by which it sees, and so 〈…〉 from thence what is infectious, it 〈…〉 the likewise infected itself.  
〈…〉 doth the Tyranny of age most ap 〈…〉 itself thy changing the hair from 〈…〉 into white, and dying the locks 〈…〉 what means doth it most usu 〈…〉?  
〈…〉 that Summer is decayed, 〈…〉 approaching on, the frosts and 〈…〉 of she effecteth by drying 〈…〉 ch should digest superflu 〈…〉 ours, through the defect 〈…〉 lly proceed.  
〈…〉 through the overmuch much care and fear, by which di 〈…〉 ned men affirm that some men 〈…〉 prehension of death, have grow 〈…〉 their youth, even at 25 years o 〈…〉  
Q. How doth the Basilisk poy 〈…〉 eye; and the sight of the wolf 〈…〉 voice of him that beholdeth it, 〈…〉 Poet?  
To lurk far off, yet lodge de 〈…〉  
The Basilisk doth poison with 〈…〉  
The Wolf that howls for han 〈…〉 noise  
Doth by her near approach 〈…〉 voice.  
A. By infection of the ay●e 〈…〉 gre●s approacheth the ray 〈…〉 so likewise is the hoar●nesse 〈…〉 effected, by drawing in ●y deg 〈…〉 after another, till that app〈…〉 infected by the first. Wolue 〈…〉 red and destroyed in Eng 〈…〉 manned of King Edgar, and 〈…〉 Prince's had been devour 〈…〉  
Q, What substance or 〈…〉 commonly oppresseth hea〈…〉 and is commonly called th' 〈…〉  
A. The Night-ma 〈…〉 mour or blood, why 〈…〉 〈…〉 the vital spirits of those that 〈…〉 pecially on their back, in such 〈…〉 if some heavy weight or lump 〈…〉 heir stomach, which they would 〈…〉 ff, but cannot, and is not, as many 〈…〉 living thing or spirit.  
〈…〉 four things are those, that being 〈…〉 be recovered?  
〈…〉 Time, Virginity, a Word 〈…〉 erefore for many causes we 〈…〉 them present, and to a 〈…〉 in words, especially for 〈…〉 easons▪  
〈…〉 cause in multiloquy the wisest 〈…〉 fend.  
〈…〉 because it is a sign of folly. 〈…〉 ecause many words are the 〈…〉 d●●tents & displeasings, 〈…〉 more manifest by these exam 〈…〉  
〈…〉 the gates that are always 〈…〉 time admit an enemy as 〈…〉 is ever uncovered, is un 〈…〉 infectious: to which pur 〈…〉 Philosopher, amongst 〈…〉ing his peace, and be 〈…〉 so, answered, Because 〈…〉 times for speaking, but never