THE Learned Man Defended and Reformed.  
A Discourse of singular Politeness, and Elocution; seasonably asserting the Right of the Muses; in opposition to the many Enemies which in this Age Learning meets with, and more especially those two IGNORANCE and VICE.  
In two Parts.  
Written in Italian by the happy Pen of P. Daniel BARTOLUS, S. J.  
Englished by Thomas Salusbury.  Scientia est de numero bonorum honorabilium. Aristot. l. 1. De Anima. Scio neminem posse bene vivere sine Sapientia study. Seneca Epist. ad Luci. Pulchrum est in omni Artium genere excere. Sabellic. lib. 10. de cultu & fructu Philos. 
With two Tables one General, the other Alphabetical.  
LONDON, Printed by R. and W. Leybourn, and are to be sold by Thomas Dring at the George in Fleetstreet near St. Dunstan's Church, 1660.   

TO HIS EXCELLENCY GEORGE MONK, Captain General of all the Armies of England, Scotland and Ireland; one of the Generals of the Naval Forces of this Nation; Major General of the City of London, and an Honourable Member of the Council of State, etc.  
Great SIR,  
Grandeur of itself is Honourable, and Learning in itself Venerable; but when they both concentre in one person they are highly Admirable. Dignity single, saith the 
a Quantò grandior, tantò vanior. S. Aug. in Psal. 36.  Father, The greater it is, the Vainer: Learning alone, experience proves to be obnoctious, to every Calpestation: But in their happy Conjunction, this receives Protection from that, and that derives 
b Beatam vi●ā sapientia perfectem effecit S●o●●a Epist. ad ●●●ium. N●stus est, cui sapientia magis conveniat, quj principi, cuamus doctrina omni●●● debet pro●esse subjectis. Vegetius praef. l. 1. de re militari.  Perfection from this. And as the Ancients did Honour to the one in Hercules, so to the other in 
c Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 7. c 37.  Hypocrates; whom the Proto-Aristocratia of Athens worshipped as Hercules: 
Ego eos amo (dixit Sig. sm. ●mp.) quos virtutibus & doct●ina caeteros antecell●re video. Baptist. Ignat. In tota re militari nihil utilius, nihil clarius Duce erudito. Guil. Salisburiensis lib. 15.  But never could we find a worthier Subject wherein to Honour both, than your Excellency.  
'tis you (Brave Sir) 'tis you I say that have Moralised the Labours of the Poets Hercules; strangling the Dragons of Tyranny, and Heresy, if not in your, yet their Infancy. For your Glory, My Lord, was reserved the Decollating those Hydra's, whose Heads, were but multiplied by the opposition of others: Cauterizing their Courages by severe and seasonable Proclamations. You it is, that (in this resembling also our other Champion of your Auspicious Name) have removed that Dragon of Armed Villainy which watched our Hesperidean Garden of Parliament, and kept that Golden Branch under Restraint, which promised us the Elysian Joys of Peace. Your Heroic Arm hath un-kenneled those 
d Cacus.  Sons of Vulcan, Men of Iron, whose sly and crafty conveyance rendered their Footsteps inscrutable, till your Excellency traceed them upon their Retrogradatious. In short, your Lordship's Valour hath flayed the Nemean Lion, slain the Erymanthean Boar, dislodged the Men-devouring Diomedes, strangled Antheus; in their Morals of Usurpation, Cruelty, Oppression, and Covetousness, which upon your Herculean Achievements have lost their strength: to conclude, 'tis your invincible Fortitude, hath rescued Theseus and Alcestes, Nobility and Innocence, from Hell, in delivering many Gallant and unjustly-imprisoned Gentlemen from their Chains: And assisted Atlas, in helping our Patriots to support the Globe of Government. But yet, most Generous Hero, give me leave humbly to remember you, that, if my Mythology can count twelve, the number of your Labours are not complete, whilst the 
d Such foreign Protestants call our Churches as now abused. Dr. Bergier en Histoire Presbyt.  Augean Stables are uncleansed, and Hellish Cerberus holds on his yelping. These two taken away, Mercury the 
e Pindar. in 6. Olymp.  Rewarder of Hero's, and Patron of Scholars, shall Crown your Valiant Temples with the Panegyrics of Learned Pens, taken from his Wing: and this being too small a Compensation for your Complicated Conquests, you shall (as 
f In Orat. pro Muraen.  Cicero affirms of Alcides) by your Arms scale Heaven.  
And if Hippocrates had the Honour of an Hercules for clearing his Country of a general Contagion, none will deny you the Honour of an Hippocrates, whilst your Prudence hath retrieved our Religion, and Learning, Liberties and Proprieties from the most apparent Ruin that ever threatened them: Therein showing that your Victorious Hand is as dexterous in Acts of Beneficence, as terrible in Deeds of Justice.  
This glorious One, of Redeeming your Country from the vilest of Slavery, that ever a War undertaken for Freedom cajoled men into, is every way so Stupendious, that, leaving the Story of it to Enrich Volumes, I shall only hint that you Timed it, when we were on the point of Rivetting our Chains to perpetuity, and when we were like those Wretches under the Tyranny of Marganore divinely described by Ariosto.  

h Ariosto l. 37. Stanza 88 del suo Orlando.  Ma il popolo fac●a come è piùfanno, Ch'vbediscon più a quei, che più in odio hanno, etc.  
In English thus. 
The Vulgar Rout, led by example, pay  
Observance blind to such as most they hate;  
And let the Tyrant at his pleasure stay,  
Banish, Degrade of Honour, Sequestrate▪  
Cause none for fear dares to his friend impart  
How much the common Ruin grieves his heart.  
But vengeance though it in its pace be slow,  
Pays home at last with so much heavier blow.   
And for the Manner, it's best represented by Loyal 
i 1 Sam. 15. 32 etc. 17. 5.  Hushai, temporising with Absalon; whereby you have happily frustrated the Councils of Achitophel, who sullenly retired, deserting his Machivilianismes.  
And so victorious hath your Excellency been with a handful of Men (animated by a Righteous Cause) against a Potent Enemy, that, as if their power had been given them for an Accession to your Glory, you have most justly merited with all sober Christians the great Title of Orthodox Athenasius; who was 
f Theodoret.  Malleus Haeraeticorum, and are become Herculem Fannaticorum.  
There rests no more, unless I may crave leave humbly to inculcate against that common 
g Salus populi suprema lex est. of which Doct. Sanderson hath lately writ at large.  Maxim, which mistaken, hath wrought us so much confusion; That, in the great work (you are upon) of settling our Peace, 
h Tolle jura Imperatornm, quis audet dicere, haec villa est mea, meus est iste servus, mea est haec domus? D. August. in S. Joannem.  Prerogative is the best securer of Propriety. And that 
i Principatus, quem metus extorsit, & si actibus, vel moribus non offendat: ipsius tamen i●●tii sui est perni●iosus exemplo. Leo in De●ret.  Pope was herein infallible, who maintains (as also 
k Greg. Magn. in Moral. Tho. Aqvin. in lib. de Regimine Principum. Anton. in Summ. part. 3 Canon. Ecclesiast. Distinct. 8. in cap quo jure.  all that speak thereof) that Authority cannot be Just, if Illicitly acquired. And also humbly to beg, as your Defence of 
l Boni Principi est ac religiosè ecclesias contritas atque concissas restaurare, novasque adificare, & Dei sacerdotes hononorare atque tueri. Marcel. in Decret.  Religion; so your Countenance for 
m Reges cum Phylosophos in honore habent, & see, & illos ornant. Plutarch. ad Principem incrudit.  Learning; than which there cannot be a more Noble and certain way to Agrandize you. And because some are persuaded that the Muses agree not with Mars; let me only name unto you for a confutation of them, such Honourable Princes, and great Captains, as Alexander, Hannibal, and Caesar abroad; Albinus, Beau-Clerk, Edward 3d, Humph. D. of Gloucester, at home, whose Literature is as famous as their Valour; and that as great, as can be paralleled in any who ever.  
But herein to say more, would be to entrench upon the Design of my Author; whose Vindication of Learning, as I have been able to Transcribe, it, I humbly lay at your Lordship's Feet: Promising to my Ambition no other in so high a Dedication, than a welcome reception, with such whose Eyes greedily are drawn by any thing, which is inscribed with your Honourable Name; which haply for any desert of its own in this Age (so uncharitable to Learning) it might not otherwise find.  
Now, My Lord, if I have herein been too Free with your Modesty, or too Saucy with your Merits, I appeal to your Clemency, and plead that my Crime is an Effect of your Lordship's Virtues, of which no man is a more obsequious Admirer, than  
My Lord, Your Excellencies most humble Servant, Thomas Salusbury.   

TO THE WORSHIPFUL WILLIAM PRINNE ESQUIRE, A Bencher of the Honourable Society of Lincolns-Inn.  
HONOURED SIR,  
IF the Roman Fortitude of Laberius who in a Syrian disguise, did in the than Debauched Senate complain of Tyranny (Porto quirites libertatem perdidimus) hath merited such applauds of a worthy Patriot; what Englishman can without unpardonable Ingratitude forget to Honour Mr. PRINNE as Pater Patriae for his Courageous, Public, and Constant asserting of our Religion, Laws, and Liberties; and giving us in the blackest night of Tyranny a Dedalian Clue whereby to extricate ourselves when to most men's thoughts we were irrevocably lost? No, SIR, Your Numerous and Nervous, Large, and Learned Volumes (which who can reckon) have been so successful in their Refutation of Errors, Reformation of Vice, Regulation of Disorders, Restauration of Parliaments, and Laws, that I must in Justice join you with Renowned General MONK, as the two Worthiest Subjects of all Honour: For if his Generosity speaks him Herculem Anglorum, your Erudition proclaims you Alcidem Literarum: If he be our Daring Marcellus, you are our Grave Fabius; if he, our Active Caesar, you are our Eloquent Cicero; and what his Valiant Sword hath effected, your Learned Pen had frequently advised. So that to conclude with the Exordium which one bestowed upon 
a Varro sui seculi, & Cicero Germaniae; quod ad arcana cujusque doctrinae infinita lectione, & inusitataque memoria penetravit. Gifianus.  Erasmus; Where could I have chosen a safer Asylum, or properer Patrociny for my Learned Man, than with a Gentleman of so vast Learning?  
Therefore He is come in an English Dress, to entreat your hospitable Reception of him as a Stranger, desiring you would not charge on Him the Lapses of his Interpreter, and  
Worthy Sir, Your very humble Servant THOMAS SALUSBURY.   

TO THE READER.  
I Must once more detain thy Curiosity from passing on to the Book itself, till I have prepared thee with thus much by way of an Account of the Author, and my design in the Conversion.  
This Treatise came to my hands some years since in the Italian Tongue, under the Name of P. DANIELO BARTOLI a 
a If it be not Tautology, where to onr shame they are all such.  Learned Jesuit, which when I had read, I found so Replenished with Eloquence, and driving so close home to his Argument that I fell upon Englishing it, hoping thereby in some measure to benefit my Countrymen; For if manyare brought to a disesteem of Learning (as is to be shrewdly suspected) even by Learned Jesuits themselves; who are said in strange disguises, (contradicting the old Assertion, That Learning hath no Foe but Ignorance,) 
Scientiam non habet inimicum preter ignorantem.  with a more than Phalerian Cruelty, towound Learning with her own Weapons; and to show their greatest Art, in declaiming against the Arts: Then, I say, see here the true & undesembled Portrait of a Jesuit, pleading for that same Human Learning, which others of the same Order, do (with Designs aimed higher than this Innocent Handmaid) with so much suhtlety in our Climate oppose: thus Retaliating upon them, their Learned Suicide of Learning, with this Jesuitical Refutation of English Jesuitism.  
Thus for the first Part, the second, which tendeth to the Reformation of Scholars, I shall not speak of, lest I seem to question their Apprehension; but only commend it to their Practice as well as Reading.  
I am now too nearly related to the Book, to enter into any particular commendation of it: yet such is its esteem in the Italian Tongue, that several promised it in ours: more especially one, a Gentleman of known Parts, who at his Recreative hours, during his Residence with the Character of a Public Minister in Italy, had taught it English; but that being several years since, and upon exact enquiry not hearing farther of it, I have at last set it before thee: Not so quaintly dressed, perhaps, as it might have been; but with as much conformity to the Origal Sense, as could be given to it, by  
T. S.   


Learned Men defended. PART I.  

The Introduction  
Learned Men not less Happy for being disrespected by the Grandees of the World. pag. 1  
An Essay of Understanding exemplified for a Taste of the other Sciences, in the only Contemplation of the Heavens 15   

Wisdom Happy though in Misery.  
The Wise-Poor-Man 30  
The Wise Exile 42  
The Wise Prisoner. 57  
The Wise Infirm. 66   

Ignorance Miserable though in Prosperity.  
Ignorance and Sanctity. 79  
Ignorance and Dignity. 90  
Ignorance and Profession of Arms. 101.  
Ignorance and Riches. 112.  
The confusion of Ignorance, being silenced in presence of better Speakers. 120    

Learned Men Reformed. PART II.  

The Introduction.   

PLAGIANISME.  
Plagiaries that several ways Appropriate the pains of other Studies. pag. 130  
That we ought not to Steal from others, but Invent new Arguments of our own. 143  
How we may Honesty and Commendably Filch, from others Writings. 160   

LASCIVIOUSNESS.  
The Infamous Profession of Lascivious Poetry. 172  
The weak Apologies of Obscene Poets. 179  
Of the Good use of Bad Books. 190  
A Paranaesis to Writers of Immodest Poems. 202   

DETRACTION.  
The Inclination of the Genius, and abuse of the Wit to the Defaming of others. 211  
He that erred in Writing should not resute his Confutation: And he that is Ignorant himself should not undertake to correct, or condemn others. 219   

SELF-CONCEIT.  
The esteem of a Mans own Knowledge with dispraise of others. 243  
Two great evils of Misbelievers; To search matters of Faith with the curiosity of Philosophy, and to believe matters of Philosophy with the certainty of Faith. 253   

SELF-DECEIT.  
The Folly of such, who pretend to study little, and know much.   

IMPRUDENCE.  
The unprofitable endeavours of him that studies against the Inclination of his Genius. 274  
Little credit to be given to the Signs of Ingenuity taken from the Physiognomy. 284  
The original cause of the Excellency and Diversity of Wits; and the Various Inclinations of the Genius. 292   

AMBITION.  
The Folly of such, who out of a Desire to seem Learned, publish their Ignorance in Print. 305  
The unfortunate pains of such who Study, and Writ matters wholly unprofitable. 316   

AVARICE.  
That he is guilty of the Ignorance of many, who might benefit many by the Press, and neglects it, 325  
The incomparable Felicity of good Authors that appear in Print. 333   

OBSCURITY.  
Ambition and Confusion two Principles of Obscurity, Affected, and Natural. 341  
That the Argument ought to be elected adequate to the Wit of him that discusseth it 349  
Sub-division & Desection of the whole Discourse. 356  
The Methodizing of the matter, called Sylva. 359  
The Discouragement of those that encounter with Difficulties at the beginning. 366  
That we should vary our Style, according to the various Subject of the Discourse. 371  
Of the Style called the Modern-Affected. 379  
When the Indiscretion to use too Elegant, and Polite a Style. 387  
Of the Examination and Correction of our own Composures. 395  
The Conclusion 395     

All works some fault derive from Adam's first offence, And these in this correct, as those that change the sense. ERRATA.  
Pag. 3 l. 24 r. days it is, p: 6 l. 2 r. Lamp, p. 13 l. 18 r. have I, p. 20 l. 11 r. Sun, p. 21 l 17 r. interrogares, p 31 l 19 r. Diapente, p. 34 l 2 r. neque, p. 34 l 8 r. pearls? p. 35 l 5 r. either, id. r. or, p. 37 l 10 r. those p 39 l 9 r. it, l 13 r. and environed, p. 44 l 5 r. run, l 24 r. pen-feathered, p. 46 l 19 r. Sapiens, p. 29 l 3 r. me, p. 52 l 4 r. the rout, p. 53 l 13 r. where, p. 59 l 17 r. revolve, p. 69 l 17 r. lours, p. 70 l 22 r. to an unison, p. 74 l 9 r. li●e, p▪ 76 l 4 r. he beheld, p. 81 l 21 r. lutum, p. 83 l 20 r. Magne, p. 85 l 1 r. favour, l 14 r. give her also, p. 88 l 23 r. hath, p. 89 l 5 r. pu●●itia, p. 59 l ● r. as a ●eren, p. 96 l 16 r. of a great, p. 98 l 17 r. wherewith, p. 99 l 11 r. needed, p. 104 l 10 r. sordid, l 11 r. give, p. 107 l 3 r. it, l 5 r. prizes, p. 107 l. ult. r. n oras, p. 108 l 13 r. parts? l 14 r. lose, p: 110 l 1 r. afford; apt, l 10 r. saria, id. r. decora, p. 112 l 14 r. Asses, p. 112, l 16 r. chaseth, l 21 r. preciosus, p. 119 l 1 r. a suc-p. 124 lult. r. vix, p. 138 l 17 r. an, p. 141 l 12 r. silch. p. 143, l 5 r. Ar●osto, p. 153 l 24 r. wise, for such, p. 156 ult r. rewards, p. 157 l 18 r. accipimus. Major. p. 160 l 18 r. condemn, p. 165 l 17 beauty? p. 169 penult. r. Leocras, p. 170 l 7 r. them, p. 171 l 1 r. of as many, p. 174 l 2 r. persolvit honore, p. 178 l 24 r. woman, p. 180 l 11 r Tragedy. But p. 181 l 8 r. too, p. 183 l 16 r. with true tears, p. 184 l 26 r. endued, p. 186 l 16 r. mysteries, l 17 r. Sileni, p. 190 l 19 r. there, p. 19; l 2 r. circumspect, p. 195 l 1 r. this is, p 198 l 10 r. Maculas, p. 207 l 16 r. it in▪ p. 211 l 19 r its, p. 221 l 26 r. that it is, p. 225 l 6 r. with, p. 227 l 2 r. Emperor, p. 228 l ult. r. and, p 232 l 16 r. ●cussus sum, p 236 l 11 r. redunderet, p. 241 l 19 r. vinceremus, p, 247 l 13 r couched, p. 251 l 21 r. it is, p. 253 l 16 r. lives, p. 260 l 11 r. leader, p, 261 l 3 r. clamantes, p. 279 l 16 r. fora●u, p. 280 l 8 r. to, p. 282 penult. r. capessere, p. 287 l 7 r. Plotinus, p. 288 ult. r. Nemean, p. 311 l 4 r. machaeram, l 6 r. gestitem, p. 314 l 15 r. edideris, p. 316 l 13 r. find, p 318 l 1 r. the, p. 319 l 17 r ineptias, p 324 l. 21, Promotheus, p. 329 l 18 r sortientur, p. 331 l 3 r her, p. 340 l 20 r. praedicatorem, p. 342 l 11 r. most, p. 353 l 16 r tuned, p 354 sub fin. r. ambition, p 359 l 9 r him, p 360 l 2 r and caution, l 13 r murmur, p 377 l 3 r of every, p 383 l 25 r they say, p 385 marg. r. is altro, p 387 r and erect arches, p 390 l 17 r and banished, p 394 l 10 r. un-observed, p 396 l 25 r which are, p 397 l 11 r sterility, p 398 l 5 r superstuous, p 399 l 20 r seeds.   

The Reader will be erelong presented from the same hand with the following pieces ready for the Press.  
1 The Secretary; in four Parts. 1 The History of Letters, their Original, Progress, and Perfection. 2 The Art of Writing all the known Characters of Ancient, and Modern use, reduced to Mathematical Proportions, and Demonstrations. 3 Twenty several Species of Occult Writing, called cipher, touching also on the exposition of the Egyptian Heiroglyphicks. 4 Advertisement Grammatical, Rhetorical, Moral, and Polytical, necessary for an Accomplished Secretary.  
II. Mathematical Collections and Translations of some of the Choicest pieces of Archimedes, Tartaglia, Gallileus, Castelli, and Cavalerius, etc. chiefly intended for a Complete discusion of the Doctrine, De insidentibus humido; necessary in all Aquatic Operations.  
III. Count Gualdo Priorati, his Excellent History of the Regency of the Present Queen Mother of France; giving an accurate Account of all the memorable Actions of France, England, etc. from 1647, to 1656.   

The Introduction.  
THe Calumnies of the Ignorant, and the Vices of the Learned; these are the two Clouds that Eclipse the Glory of Learning, and bereave this bright Sun of the World of its spendor. The Ignorant hate Learning and cannot comprehend it; and because they cannot comprehend it, they therefore hate it: for if Owls had eyes, with which to look steadfastly on the Sun, they would be no longer Owls but Eagles.  
The others, ill using Learning, like as certain Malignant Stars that employ the light as a conveyor of mortal influences, they render odious to the World, the most goodly and innocent thing of the World. Thus the integrity of Learning appears not so amiable, as it might, whilst some men's Judgements, without all Judgement deem her Criminal, and others Faults, to such as have not good Eyes, represent her Culpable.  
Wherefore then may it not be lawful for a man, (I say not endued with Wit, which is not so much required, but only with common Reason) for the vindication of Innocent Learning, to do as that Great   

wise. The Walls, Foundations, and remains of the ruins of that famous Temple of Honour, into which the entrance was only through the Door of Desert, are nowadays so demolished, and interred in rubbish, that there doth not remain to memory so much as the place where it stood; nor the hope of raising it from the contempt of its present ruins, to the glory of its passed grandeur. Therefore though now Virtue striveth to ascend, it doth not increase at all: like certain stars near the Antarctick Pole, which having had sixty ages of continual revolution, yet have reaped so little profit from their tedious travail, as that they have not atteined to so much as a visible Ascension above our Horizon. The Mountains which are gravid with Golden Ore, use not to afford either Groves for delight, or herbs for food: Naught appears upon them but barren cinders, and sterile sands; through which as bones, they discover huge stones, possessing a certain shameful nudity, so that it would reflect as a disgrace upon other Hills embroidered with herbs, and beautified with trees, to be put in competition with them. This is the miserable lot of Virtue in the World. By its Golden veins enclosed in its bowels, it is rendered as poor without, as it is rich within. And yet she proveth this verity, that Virtue and Nakedness are Twins, born together at one birth, in the Terrestrial Paradise, and were never since separated and divided from one another. The Garments of the body are more honoured than the virtuous habits of the mind; it pro●iteth not to have Sapience and Goodness in the breast as orient pearls, for if your poor clothes make you seem a contemptible shell of Mother pearl, there's few will look on you, and fewer esteem you.  
All this holdeth true aswell in Learning as in Virtue; for it also, as born under the same Ascendant, hath it for its fate: To it all favours are Retrograde, all Benefactors absent, all the Aspects full of disrespect; and the course of Fortune every way unfortunate.  
Nowadays is reputed amongst Miracles, 
Aelian Lib. 4.  for a Dionysius to become Driver of his Royal Chariot, 
Var. Histor.  to carry Plato upon the high way into Syracuse, and pride himself in the glory of the fact, as if he had guided the Chariot of the Moon, or carried the Sun in triumph. An Alexander Severus to cover a Ulpian Professor of the Law with his Royal Mantle, and to make his Imperial Purple a Robe to honour, and a shield to defend him. A Justinian, a Sigismond Emperors, and some others like them, to make their Courts Academies, and to frequent Academies as their Courts; holding dear the mortal life of those, from whom they receive in recompense, an immortal life of their Name and Glory to Posterity.  
These once so fruitful trees, are now become barren; affording neither fruit to feed them, nor shadow to comfort them, in the Courts of Princes, more than in the Cave of Aeolus; there are kept under lock and key those Zephirusses fathers of Fecundity, and Winds proper to the Golden age; nor only is the Custom lost, that Penes Sapientis Regnum sit, which Possido●ius said, 
Seneca Epist. 9 0  had been used per illo saeculo, quod aur●um perhibetur; but moreover also, that Penes Reges sint Sapientes. Nor because the Books of learned men chance sometimes to be read of Grandees, and exact from them praise and commendation, must it therefore follow that the civil entertainment and honours they meet withal, should reflect on the Authors; which is just as Lactantius saith in another case: They adore the Images of the Gods, but care not for the Arti●icers that engraved them, they offer gifts to the Statues, and exact tribute of the Statuary's, they honour the Stones as Divinities, and tramle on those that form them, 
De Orig. error c. 2. ex Senec.  as if they were Stones: Simulachra Deorum venerantur, fabros qui illa facere contemnunt. Quid inter se tam contrarium, quam statuarium despicere, statuam adorare? & eum ne in convivium quidem admittere qui tibi Deos faciat?  
Fortunate Princes (saith a great Duke of Milan) have Nets of Gold and Purple, wherewith they sith for men of great wisdom and worth, which are the preciousest pearls that Heaven can bestow on Mortals; they have wealth wherewith to purchase Wits excellent in every Profession of Learning, a Merchandise only worthy of Princes.  
Famous is the foolishness of a poor rich man, who knowing himself to be an Owl, and desiring to become an Eagle, gave a great sum of money for the Lantern by whose divine light Epictetus watching, became a Sun of Moral Prudence. A Lantern its true, might give light to the paper, but not to the unstanding, might give light to the eyes, but with what profit to the Student if the mind be blind? Living Scholars are living Lanterns, by the beams of whose radiant lustre are discovered the features of Pallas, Conservatrix of States, and Patroness of Princes: These are the eyes of which that is verified, which was falsely reported of those of the Gorgon's, that they could lend them to one another; and with these a blind Prince may become a Hundred-eyed- Argos, all eye: Nor ought they to be less, if the Aphorism hold true in peace, which is read in Vigetius, concerning matters of War. Neque quenquam magis decet, 
Proem Lib. 1.  vel meliora scire, vel plura quam principem, cujus doctrina omnibus potest prodesse subjectis.  
Before that King Dionysius would understand this, more for scorn then curiosity, he demanded of Aristippus whence it was that Philosophers went to rich men's houses to beg a livelihood, and the rich went not to the houses of Philosophers to get Wisdom; 
Laert. in Arist.  and had this no less true, then ready answer: Because poor Philosophers know what they stand in need of, and ignorant rich men do not.  
That men of great learning are not born, but only as the Phoenix, one in five hundred years: that there are not some who enrich the World with new inventions in Letters and Arts; is not because the Ages are grown barren, or the places unfruitful in Wits: The fault lieth in great part upon them who open not the Port to them that would launch out, nor show the lure to him that flieth; for there wants not some Minds with great Wings, and Wits with large Sails. He had proved the same who said, 
The Poets and the Studious are few; (lack,  
And when these beasts both food and Covert  
They then their place of feeding do renew.   
That there are not some with the noise of whose great Wisdom, Fame should make the World ring, and strike it into dumb astonishment, it is the fault of great men, which contrive not their theatres with that advice, 
Lib. 5. cap. 3.  which Vitruvius gave, where he counselleth that above all things, they have regard to the building of the Theatre, where Comedies are acted, and Music recited so, that it be not deaf, and by that means the Musicians and Comedians unprofitably spend their voice and pains. O how many like to cold and liveless vapours, ascend not a foot from the earth, which if they should meet with a beneficent Sun that might infuse heat into their labours and advance them, would shine like so many Stars: For the Vines fruitfulness is in great part to be acknowledged to proceed from the support of the elm on wihch it resteth.  
To pass the terms of ordinary in any profession, and to attein to those of excellent, is a task hard enough to require, and long enough to take up our whole lives; Now what wonder is it, if there be none that will spend so much to gain nothing, consuming their lives, and yet to get no more than a sufficiency wherewith to maintain them alive.  
Well-rigged-vessels far excel others in velocity; and being well calked, surpass themselves, so that those which before moved dully, and as it were against their wills, are now so yarre, that they rather seem to fly, then sail. Favours infuse wit even into the ingenious themselves; and where the fraught is a Golden Fleece, the Oars, as it was with Argo, move alone.  
Finally, for Students to be forced to dispute every day with poverty, to contrast every hour with her miseries, to divide their thoughts into a thousand several places, whither their necessities call them; these are thorns, in which Learning makes not her nest. He that will have his bees gather honey, must not expose them to the violence of the winds: for where these have too much power, those have none at all. In their flight from their hive to the flowers, and from one flower to an other, in their return with the prey the winds if impetuous, drive them out of their way, and transport them elsewhere. Such are the thoughts of Scholars, for where other cares distract them, they can perfect no excellent work they undertake.  
And to say the truth, how can these two consist together, to perplex the brain about maintenance, and employ it in study? Therefore well said he who ever he was, and it holds not true of Poets only, but of all the Learned.  
Soft nests, sweet food, and temperate gales of air,  
The Swans desire; And none with pinching care  
Come near Parnassus, and who still do chant  
On nothing but their destiny and want,  
Lose time and speech, and so grow hoarse at last, etc.  
Demosthenes told the Athenians that it was an indecent sight to see the sacred Galley Paralos formerly used only in the interests of Religion, 
Plutar.  and to waft the Priests to the sacrifices of Delphos, now profaned with vile employments, they using it to carry wood and beasts; at which the very winds murmurre, that drive it against their wills; and the Seas sob to see it so changed from what it formerly was, and now aught to be. But are there not things nowadays little less indecent, that a soul of a sublime understanding, and elevated intellectuals, sent into the World for universal benefit, and more reverenced by heaven, then known by the Earth, is forced to employ himself in an unworthy Trade, to purchase a subsistence; spending his nobler thoughts to make provision against nakedness, thirst, cold, and famine.  
The thoughts of such wander so from the course of their begun speculations, breaking off where necessity importunately calleth them; that they either very much lose the thread of their design, or else arrive not half way to their Journeys end; like that nimble footed Atalanta, which by going too much out of the way to take up Hippomanes Golden Balls, was cast so far behind, as that she was far outgone in the end.  Praeterita est virgo duxit suae praemia victor. 
Metam.  
Hence the Satirical Poet was so displeased with the House of Numitor, and under this name with all the Courts of his time, seeing that beasts had place and being where men, and (if it be lawful to say it,) more than men found it not; for there wanted not meat to fill the paunch of a voracious Lion day by day; and yet there was not bread to satisfy the hunger of one meager Poet.  
— Non deficit illi. 
Juven.   
Unde emeret multa pascendum carne Leonem  
Jam domitum. 
Sat. 7.  Constat leviori bellua sumptu  
Nimirum, & capiunt plus intestina Poetae.  
That Courts become Temples where in Fools are adored, and Buffoons honoured, whiles the Learned in the meantime are banished; what is this but only to give to beasts all the Stars from the more bright to the less clear, and to distribute the ample Canopy of Heaven amongst them; thence burying the Elyzians under ground, and make them border on Hell; So that a Scorpion, a Dog, a Hydra, a Goat, a Bull, are advanced over the heads of all with names of Celestial Signs, and an Achilles, an Orpheus, and all the Chorus of Demigods are placed under feet; The Beasts to be gilded with the light of Sols rays, the men to be smeared by the smoke of Pluto's Kingdom. Seeing the head, the Seat of the understanding, and therefore only worthy of a Crown, was placed by Nature above all the other members, that so they all as vassals should support it their King: Now, how is it, that the feet are exalted aloft, and the head laid in the dust? That there should be some who in a brave, as out of a super-humane Virtue, bear like the famous Milo, a great Ox upon their shoulders, whilst in the meantime poor Cleanthes that he might live like a man, was forced to labour like a beast?  
But having designed to begin this Tractate from the peculiar felicity of a Scholar, showing that even then when he wants all things, he is satisfied and happy only in himself, and (as Seneca calls him) a little Jupiter; what I have done hitherto exaggerating in the parsimonious unworthiness of such as do not relieve and respect him, the need he stands in of relief and respect? Howbeit I have thereby more discovered the crime of such who regard him not, than any misery in him through his being disregarded. For (to conclude) Gold, although digged from the dirt and stones, amongst which it lies buried in the mines, would appear more splendid; yet he is infinitely more the loser, who doth not dig and make it his own, than it by being undiscovered and un-appropriated. And again, in the crime of them that esteem not the Learned, their merit is proved, since their advancement is demerited, and the not honouring them is a crime.  
Now let us see how a learned man may find within himself the lively source of that famous Nectar of the Gods, which having only in itself all other tastes, he need not seek, nor enjoy any other. This is the Essay of Understanding, the which how copious it is, although it may be manifested in the subject of all the Sciences, (but you may esteem that too prolix and troublesome;) I have thought good for a taste of the rest, to glance at it in one alone, not of the best, but of the most familiar; and it is the knowledge and contemplation of the Heavens, a part of Nature; if we stand upon the judgement of the Eye, the most ample and amiable; if of the Mind, not the last amongst the best.  

An Essay of Understanding Dissplayed for a taste of the other Sciences, in the only Contemplation of the Heavens.  
THe common Assertion of the two most renowned Schools of Pythagoras and Plato is, 
Plutarc. de Musica.  That the Celestial Spheres increasing one above another with measures of Harmonical proportion; in the revolutions tbat they make, compose the Con●ort of a most perfect Music. Macrobius renderth the reason drawn from the natural principles of Sound; 
Lib. 2. de Sam.  and thence he concludes: Ex his inexpugnabili ratione collectum est Musicos sonos de Sphaerarum Coelestium conversione procedere, 
Scip. ca 1.  quia & Sonum ex motu fieri necesse est, & Ratio quae divinis in est; fit sono causa modulaminis. Nor because that our ears are not Judges of such Music, ought we therefore to doubt, or to deny it; forasmuch as that melodious sound in its arrival at the Elements, is by the noise of their discordant jarring, lost and drowned, and there most, where the noise is loudest. And well was it said elsewhere: 
Th' Heaven's not mute, as is believed by some,  
But we are deaf; and to our ears doth come  
The Earth's harsh croaking, which the same doth stop,  
Amongst whose dissonants in vain we hope  
T' aspire to th' Heavenly Harps sweet harmony,  
Touched by the hand of Delos Deity.   
If it were not as Philo advertiseth, that God reserving for us to a better time, so sweet a gust of Music, had with a particular Providence, in such manner by it deafened, and dislocated our audible faculties, otherwise suspended, extacised, and ravished out of ourselves by the harmony of those most Regular Bodies, we should not only grow careless of cultivating the earth, and remiss in the affairs of civil life, but in the end forget ourselves: 
Philo.  Coelum (saith he) perpetuo con●entu suorum motuum reddit harmoniam suavissimam; quae si posset ad nostras aures pervenire in nobis exitaret in sanos sui amores, & desideria, quibus stimulati rerum ad victum necessariarum oblivisceremur, non pasti cibo potuque, sed velut immortalitatis candidati.  
But to say the truth, to comprehend in the Heavens, the melody of a ravishing harmony, and to enjoy therewith above: a delight able to make one almost Angelical, it is not necessary to desire that the Music of those harmonical Spheres (Spheres they are called by them who will not grant that they be, as notwithstanding they are all one sole and liquid Heaven) do approach the ears. Nevertheless our mind may be thereby blessed, following with the flight of its thoughts, not as some do Poetry, a lying inventor of fables, which leading us through the vasts of Heaven, saith to us, here Phaeto● more bold than cautions.  
Ausus aeternos agitare currus, 
Seneca●.   
Immemor meta ju●e is paternae,  
Quos polo spa●sit furiosus ignos,  
Ipse recepit.  
Here fell Vulcan, and the measuring with one irregular step all the voyage from heaven to earth, by great chance, cost him no more than the wrenching of a foot. This slippery part of Heaven, is the great breach which the Giants of Fl●gra did make in the battery they gave to the stars, when the earth of thunder-stricken became thunder-striker. Here is Hercules, here Prometheus, here Bellerophon, and I know not who: But that part of the more Noble Sciences, (which is the true Interpreter of mysteries, and Secretary of the most hidden things of the heavens;) which doth unveil the eyes, and make them see how they be in a mass so vast, and yet so light in motion; in influences so discordant, and yet in the maintenance of nature so united; in the revolutions they make some so slow, and others so swift, and yet all to the time, and almost in one and the same dance accord, in obedience to the first mover so strict, and in the liberty of their proper motions so free, so splendid, and so profound; so uniform, and so various; so majestic, and so amiable. Violent with so many Laws, busied with so much quietness; in the measure of times, in the succession of days, in the changes of seasons, so consortial, He who hath eyes to see so much, he it is that knows how to make a Ladder to climb to the sight of much more; He who by the long chain of these celestial natures (of which the last link is fastened to the foot of the Throne of Jove) can climb even to the Archetype forms, and to the Ideas of the first mind, from whose invariable design are took the weights, numbers and measures, as instruments of the work of this great order of Nature: He which knows how to understand the high Wisdom of him, who in such variety of mutations, keeps steadfast the course of an immutable Providence, while he knew how to give an occult order to the manifest disorder of so many effects, concatinating them with indissoluble knots to his intended ends: So that those which seem casual events of chance, are executions of a most regular Providence; he that hath a sight for objects of so high a cognition, is he not with it alone more blessed than others in all their sensual enjoyments? That great Platonic Philo Alexandrinus gave credit to it, when he said for proof of it. 
In Cosmopaeia.  Vagata (meus) circa stellarum turn sixarum, tum erraticarum cursus, & choreas juxta Musicae praecepta absolutissimas, trahitur amore sapientiae se deducentis, atque ita emergens super omnem sensibilem essentiam, demum intelligibilis desiderio corripitur. Illic conspicata exemplaria, ideas que rerum, quas vidit, sensibilium, ad eximi●s illas pulchritudines, aebrietate quadam sobria capta, tanquam Corybantes lymphatur, alio plena amore longe meliore, quo ad summum fastigium ad ducta rerum intelligibilium, ad ipsum Magnum Regem tendere videtur.  
To whom these shall seem rather flourishes of art, then real verity, and being un-experienced, should be so much the less credible. I know not how to give a better answer than that which was merited from Nicostratus, by a man little knowing, and less credulous of the beauty of a picture. 
Aelian.  Zeuxis that Son of Painters, which did not give so much light to the picture illustrating it, as shadow to the picturers his emulators, obscuring them, drew in a thin vail the face of an Helen, with so noble workmanship, that the exemplar was outdone by the copy, and true Helen seemed to yield to herself painted; for if the real one drew a Paris from Troy to ravish her, the counterfeit drew all Greece to admire her. Nicostratus meeting with this picture (he himself also being a Painter of no mean rank) at the first look as if he had beheld not the head of Helen, but of Medusa, was metamorphized into a stone, and with mutual deceit, Helen seemed to be as much alive in her picture, as Nicostratus seemed dead in his amazement; insomuch as a simple clown, a blunt dolt, a man wanting eyes looking upon Nicostratus, which engraven in an act of astonishment seemed a Statue looking on a picture, accosted him, and almost shaking him out of his dumps, asked him, Quid tantum in Helena illa stuperet. He asked too many questions in one word. But as he had not good eyes to see Helen, so he had no docile ears to hear Nicostratus: Therefore the Painter turning himself, and between compassionating it, and disdaining him, looking on him; This saith he, Is not a picture for Owls. Pluck out those ignorant eyes you have, and I will lend you mine; and if now you be an Owl without eyes, you will then desire to be an Argus all eyes. Non in terrogares me, si meos oculos haberes.  
Behold, the very same falls out to him who wondereth, how in beholding that goodly face of Nature, the Heavens, in which God, as much as the matter was capable, did design, (copying them from himself,) lineaments of so rare beauties; we can find matter of such delight, as to swallow our wits, extacise our thoughts, and bless our minds. All behold Heaven, but all understand it not; and between him that understandeth it, and him that doth not, there is the same difference that is between two, of which one, in a writing in Arabic, ruled with gold, and written with azure, sees nothing but the workmanship of well-composed characters; the other moreover doth read the periods, and understand the sense, so that the least of the pleasure that he enjoys, is that of the eyes.  
But although the gust of the understanding is as the sweetness of honey, which to persuade, the endeavours of a long discourse are not so efficacious, as the simple proof of tasting one drop; nevertheless, I think good to make you hear most moral Seneca, where he declareth, what was the content which he found in contemplating the Heavens, whilst he conceiveth there above spirits, contemners of the world; spirits more than humane. Hear him:  
Imagine (saith he) that you were ascended to the highest sphere of the Heavens, 
Prae●at. l. 1. nat. quaest.  so that you saw Saturn, Jupiter and Mars, turn themselves in their several Revolutions, and under them each of the other Planets to run their periods. There you behold the immensurable mass of bodies, the unparallelled velocity of their course, the numberless number of the stars, which here scarce seems sparks to you; and there, are worlds of light, and no less than so many Suns. Thence with eyes sated with the greatness of those spaces, and of the mass of those vast bodies, look down to this centre of the World, and seek about it for the earth. If you were able to see it, it would appear so little to one that looks upon it from the stars, that it would be necessary that you sharpen your quickest eye, and you would desire that some Syderial Nuntio would help your sight. What from hence below seemed the smallest of the stars, so that the dubious eye knew not if he saw it, or thought he saw it: such from thence above the earth appeareth to you; so that at such a sight you would say, That then below, which I scarce perceive, which I scarce discern with my eye, is that the earth? Is that that point divided into so many Provinces, subdivided into so many Kingdoms, for which we rob one another, for to get which, are invented in so great abundance, both Arts and Arms to kill one another? sieges, assaults, conflagrations, batteries, pitched fields, subversions of whole Nations made in a little time, which so oft hath made Widowed Nature weep, infecting the air with the stench of the putrified carcases, and sometimes damning up rivers, sometimes vermiliating the Sea with great numbers of dead men, with great abundance of humane blood.  
Hear ye the incredible wonders of humane madness? Our vastest desires are lost in a point. What, said I in a point? in the least particle of a point. What would the Ants do more if they had reason? Would not also they sub-divide a handful of earth into many Provinces? Would they not set their obstinate bounds so, that they would not yield in the least to thundering Jupiter himself? Would they not found in a spot of ground a Kingdom, in a little field a great Monarchy; a little rivulet of water would be to them a Nile, a ditch they would call an Ocean, a stone as big as one's hand, they would style a great rock, a Farm would be no less than a World: They would also raise Bulwarks and Curtains to secure their States, they would levy Armies in hopes of new conquests, and we should see in the space of two foot of ground, squadrons march in order, with colours displayed against the black Ants, as enemies, charging them with boldness, justling them, routing them, and some to return, the day being won, victorious; others either to surrender upon articles, or flying, hide themselves, or dying, bide the fury of their enraged enemies, and become booty. Such a war between twenty or more thousands of Ants, undertaken to dispute the pretensions to a handful of earth, only to think of it would make us laugh; and we, what other do, we do, sub-dividing a point into so many Kingdoms, and destroying one another to enlarge them? Let the Ister be the confines of ●acia, Strimon of Thracia, the Rhine of Germany, the Parthians, let them be bounded by Euphrates, the Sarmatians by Da●ubius, let the Pirrenean Mountains divide France and Spain, the Alps Italy. Formicarum isle discursus est in angusto laborantium.  
You chalk out Kingdoms, and assign them bounds,  
And measures, by the marks of blood and wounds;  
And yet herein you greatest ●olly show,  
In that by griping much, you let all go.  
The whole worlds every man's, and who so cares  
T' appropriate any part, divides and shares  
What all was his. All men one household be:  
All's but one house, from th' Centre to the Sky,  
And in this house w'have all propriety.  
Come and see from hence above your earth, look out for your Kingdoms, and measure how much that is from whence you take the titles of Grandees. See you your small particle of a point, if a point may admit of being seen? And is this that which makes you go so stately? Come up to the stars, not to see only, but to possess, if you will, a Kingdom equal to your desire of reigning: Nor shall you have any to strive with about bounds, possessing all; nor shall you need to fear that any will thrust you out of it, since that being possessed by many, yet it can be taken from none. Thus, Juvat inter sydera vagantem divitum pavimenta ridere, & totum cum auro suo terram. What greater enjoyment, then to gain so generous spirits, and so noble intelligences? Alexander accustomed to the great victories of Asia, when he received advice from Greece of some Martial act, or conquest, (which was at most of a Castle, or of some petty City) he was wont to say, That he thought he heard the news of the military successes between the frogs and the mice of Homer. O how much less do things appear that are beheld from a high place! How do they abate, which here below seem so great, if they be beheld from the stars! And how much do we enjoy, perceiving the thoughts to enlarge, and the mind increase, even to make us contemn that, which others like slaves adore!  
That which the good Seneca teacheth us to do, the great Anaxagoras had done long before, who desiring only to see the heavens, for the contemplation of which he was said to be born, left his country, as a Sepulchre of living men; and because the earth should not take away the sight of the heavens, he lived in the fields poor, and without covert. What said he, Poor and harbourless? He enjoyed more, in seeing over his head the beautiful Canopy of the serene Azures of heaven, in seeing himself crowned with a world of stars, which did revolve about him, and in that the Sun gilded with his light, the raggedness of his poor garments; and in that the heavens sent him advice of all news, than if he had been clad in purple, and his head crowned, and he attended with the vassalage of all the earth. And therefore: 
Seneca. Ibid.  Hic coetus astrorum, quibus immensi corporis, pulchritudo distinguitur, populum non convocat, his Clasomeneans scorned him, as ridiculous, and rejected him, as savage; but he opposed the honours of the heavens to the derisions of the vulgar, he cared not so much to be seen in the earth by men, as he did rejoice to see the stairs in heaven, and to be interchangeably seen by them, with that courteous eye, with which Sinesius said of himself; 
Epis. 100 a l. 101.  Me stellae etiam ipse benign, identidem de spectare videntur, 
Phylemon.  quem in vastissima regione solum cum scientia sui inspectorem intuentur.  
That which I have hitherto spoke of the contemplation of heaven, an object of a part of the Natural Sciences, to prove that Understanding is a certain be atitude of so excellent a taste, that it enchanteth the senses, and takes away what ever desires are of an order inferior to the mind; I would have to be understood of the other so numerous, so noble, and so vast subjects, of most pleasant cognitions, of which the ingenuity of the learned is capable, brought into the world (saith Pythagoras recited by Sinesius) as Spectators in a Theatre of always new, 
Sine 〈…〉 Provi subin.  and wholly noble wonders. Ita Pathagoras Samius, Sapientem nihil aliud esse ait, quam eorum, quae sunt, si●ntque spectatorem. Proinde enim in Mundum, ac in sacrum quoddam certamen introductum esse, ut iis quae ibidem fiunt, spectator intersit.  
But if from the gust of speculation the use of learning be called back to the practice of living, Scholars would be much more severe and grave; and I confess (as all the wise are of opinion) to term that learned man wise, whose mind a long and right understanding hath refined, and whose reason it hath purged from the filth of those sensual basenesses, and terrene vilenesses of those affections which in us savour of brutish, so that prosperous or adverse that occurrences be, he weigheth them in the balance of reason for what they are; it would be no hard matter for me, leading you through some of the more dreaded miseries, to make you see such a man superior to them, then to show the loftiest stars to be as far from eclipses, as they are distant from the shadows of the earth.   

Sapience happy, although in misery. The Wise poor man.  
POverty is a single name, but not a single misery, and one that's understanding in cyphers, in this only word knows how to read a whole Iliad of evils. The Poet with the title of Turpis Egestus, placed it together with other monsters at the gate of hell; nor did he any injury to it, forasmuch as it brings with it sufficient matter for a whole hell of misery, to those houses of which it keepeth the door. Famine within, earts the bowels alive; Nakedness without, ignominiously discovers the flesh; Shame suffers it not to appear in public; Necessity permits it not to keep in secret: if bashfulness makes it silent, it endureth a thousand hardships; if it beg an alms, as vile, it finds no credit. The evils it suffereth are so much the greater, by how much the less others commiserate them. But of as many griefs as this complicated misery is pregnant with, there is not a worse specially to a man of sublime wit, or noble extraction, than the becoming Subjects of scorn and derision.  
Nil habet infoelix paupertas durius in se  
Quam quod ridiculos homines facit.  
This is the blackest shadow that follows it, this is the heaviest chain it drags after it: And how many which appeared as trees without leaves, unbeseemingly naked, have made choice of obscurity, judging death less insufferable than ignominy?  
Now this tormenting and deformed Hangman, (that might there be so many Furies in hell, would make the fourth) who would believe it, when it's joined with Learning and Sapience; 
The 4, which with the 5 makes an 8.  like a dissonant Diatesseron, which united to the Diapence, rendereth the sweetest of all harmonies, becomes lovely and pleasing beyond measure.  
Poverty with Sapience (saith the Stoic Philosophying, is a divine composition, which hath all, and hath nothing, yea, can only give that, without which nothing is possessed, therefore alone is all things, I mean Sapience. And is not this the condition of the gods?  
Respice enim mundum: 
Seneca de tranquil. c. 8.  Nudos videtis Deos,  
Omnia dantes, nihil habentes.  
What can he desire more in the world, who phylosophying, better than possessing, hath made the world his patrimony? The things which are so much ours as Fortune and chance left them us, are more others than our own, more lent than possessed, and make us no more happy than the image of a man makes the Statue. To know the world, saith Manilius, this is to possess it: in such sort, that to every Demetrius which shall ask us, Quid capta Patria superfuerit nobis? We may with the same Megarensis answer, Nullum vidi qui res meas anferret.  
To Pilgrims, not only a little sufficeth, but much is troublesome. To a man whose thoughts are not confined between his own walls, as the centre is included in the circumference, but always with the Wings of the Mind displayed, and addressed thither where the desire of knowing new things calls him, whereby he becomes a stranger, not only to his home, but also to himself, and is rather where he is not, than where he dwells; Can it be a dishonour or prejudice to him to want that, which, as a Pilgrim, would be as well of impediment, as of weight? From whence Seneca formeth the Aphorism: 
Epist. 17  Si vis vacare animo, aut pauper sis oportet, aut pauperi similis.  
But behold an Eloquent Platonic, who, 
Apuleius  whether by way of reproof or derision, I know not, 
Apol. 1● prose.  was opposed with a public accusation, how that Poverty was either dishonourable, or culpable. If thou (answered he to the Accuser) wert as much a Philosopher as thou art a rich man, thou wouldst understand that I being poor am the rich man, and thou being rich art the poor man. Namque is plurimum habet qui minimum desiderat: habet enim q● antum vult qui vult minimum, & idcirco divitiae non melius in su●do, & in ●oenore, quam in ipso hominis aes●imantur animo. In the Sea of this life the tempests and billows contrast not those that are full freight, to keep them from their Port, but them that sail unladen. This simple coat that covers me, or this plain staff I lean on, render they me contemptible? Tell me what more had Hercules, son of Jove, Conqueror of the World, and a Demigod? Ipse Hercules illustrator; Orbis, purgator ●erar●m, gentium domit●r▪ is idquam Deus cum terras peragraret, paulò prius quam in Coelum ob virtutes adscitus est, ne que una pelle vestitior fuit, neque uno baculo comitatior. Yea, even the Supreme Gods themselves, what have they in their Kingdom, with which they are rich? Large veins of metals from which they extract gold and silver? Oceans in which they fish for pearls, Couchyla's, out of which they press purple? Kingdoms, vassals, and liege people, from whom they extract tribute? Or else without having other than themselves, but being in themselves alone blessed, do they not seem poor, because they have nothing, 
Ibid.  and are rich, forasmuch as they have need of nothing? Igitur ex nobis cui quam minimis opus sit, is erit Deo similior.  
Let therefore Socrates the poor, but Socrates the Learned, go through all the Marts and Ports of the World, beholding particularly the immense abundance of those goods, of which riches and honours make vaunt, 
●●ertius in Socre.  blessed with that which he knoweth, not careful for what he hath not; and let him say, and all his Compeers repeat it with him, Quam multo ipse non egeo!  
Alexander lamented with brinish tears, when he heard the Philosopher Anaxagoras assert, that Nature, either as avaricious, would not, or as sterile, could not produce more than one World, it having neither measure to its power, nor 〈…〉 to its will; so that in the spaces of its immensity, it hath not produced the numbers of infinite, and equalled its being to its utmost power, and answered to the ideas of immensurable World's, with the workmanship of each of them. Alexander possessed not one alone of so many 〈…〉 was, and therefore exclaimed 〈…〉 Immanium ferarum modo, quae 〈…〉 git fames, mordent. 
〈…〉  Yet 〈…〉 Grecia, Persia, of the India's (〈…〉 Regnum multa Regna conjecit) but 〈…〉 his poverty by his want, and so much he wanted as he did desire. 
〈…〉  Quid evim interest quot cripuerit Regna, quot dederit? Quantum terrarum tributo premat? Tantum illi de●st quantum cupit. Alexander therefore is poor, and in the riches of half the World hath nothing, because half the World is nothing in comparison of the infinite Worlds which he desired. But in the meantime, Crates, a learned man, which had no more but himself, and a tattered Philosophical mantle, with which he covered himself, more to conceal his nakedness, then to reveal himself to be a Philosopher, lived in the earth like a Jupiter in heaven, more rich with the much he had not, than Alexander with that all which he possessed. 
Plutar. de tranquil. animi.  Flet Alexander propter insinitos mundos ab Anaxagoras auditos, cum Crates, pera, & palliolo instructus vitam ta, quam festivitatem quandam per jocum, & risum ageret.  
Would you know justly how to describe that famous Diogenes, which drew to him (not so much to visit as to admire him) Alexander, by whom he was sought to, and for whom he did not care. 
Sanecae de benef. l. 5. c. q.  Supra enim eminere visus est, infra quem omnia jacebant, You shall take from Claudian a symbolical image, but which more livelily will defigure him, then if Apelles himself had drawn him.  
Lapis est cognomine Magnes,  
Discolor, obscurtis, vilis. Non ille reperam  
Caesariem regum, 
Claudio 〈◊〉 Mag●●te.  non candida virginis ornat  
Colla, nec insigni splendet per ci●gula morsu  
Sed nova si nigri videas miracula Saxi,  
Tunc superat pulchros cultus, & quidquid Eois,  
Indus littoribus rubra scrutatur arena.  
His hispid beard, uncombed hair, his deformed visage, his ragged clothes, his rude and clownish manners, his extreme poverty, did they not make him seem like a naked, black, heavy, ill-shapt piece of stone? More over, a Tub was his house; yea, was to him as if he had all the world, because of all the world he would have no more than that. He turned it at his pleasure, scoffing at the celestial Spheres, and Fortune's wheel, became neither these with their periods, nor this with its praecipices could oppose the revolutions o● his Tub, nor either the heavens give any good to him that covers nothing, or fortune take it from him that being naked can be spoiled of nothing. But in a man so ill accoutred, and so ill lodged, whence such virtue, and one so potent, (I will say) magnetisme, that he, obscure and beggarly, cou●d draw to him the most illustrious and most wealthy Monarch of the World, thanks Philosophy, that in Diogenes, as a Sun covered with a cloud, or a Venus clothed like a Satire, shined ●orth so, as to be able to allure such a King, and wrap him into admiration, and obsequy of a ragged beggar.  
What though 〈◊〉 be a beggar? Let his riches be put in balance to counter poise that of the richest Alexander. Diogenes of all that the Macedon offered him, accepted nothing, because he needed nothing. Alexander, who wanted even that which he had, because he wanted what he would, desired to be transformed into, and to become Diogenes. Therefore Diogenes, Multo potentior multo lucupletior fuit, 
●●●eca ●●b.  omniae tunc possidente Alexandro. Plus enim erat quod hic no●et accipere quam quod hic posset dare.  
Therefore Learning and contented poverty, in whom they do unite, compose that happy temper of the Golden Age, when free from all fear of loss, every one lived pleased with that which was his; namely, content with himself, and so far rich as he needed nothing; namely, desired not riches. Thus Palemon and Crates, two friends, two Philosophers, two beggars, were by Archesilaus' for their honour called Relics of the Golden Age. And between others riches and their own poverty, they lived like that friend of Seneca: Non tanquam contempsissent omnia, sed tanquam aliis habenda, permisissent.  
The rich are not so blinded with the splendour of their gold, that they see not at least in part the worth of these goods. A poor learned man appeareth among rich idiots, as rags among silks, frieze amongst purple, the meagerness of a face consumed by study, and made pale with looks, amongst plump and ruddy faces; Those look on themselves as sheep covered with golden wool, and the other as a great god among the ancients, graven in a homely stone, or imprinted in clay; but therefore no less honourable, than if they were cast in gold, and in-laid with pearl.  
That adventurous Ship, which first of all past the large straits of Megallanes, which steered it, environed all the earth, whence it was called Victory: returning into Europe, and drawn into the Port, was beheld by all as the second Argo of the World. Those ribs which had been of proof against the batteries of storms, of till-then-unseen Oceans, those faithful sails at the encounter of strange winds, that rudder, that mast, those sail-yards, in fine, all its parts were judged worthy of the noblest stars in heaven: since she had overcome the elements, and made conquest not of a fleece, but world of gold. Nor did her being in part defaced with weakened mast, dislocated yards, disarmed sides, tattered sails, fallen poup, render her less valuable and beautiful.  
The other ships well rigged, beheld her with a certain envy, and those impressions which the tempests and the long voyage had made in her, as scars in a Martial Captain, they esteemed more honourable, than that beauty with which they were adorned. To her they struck sail, veiled yards, bowed Ancients, they full of merchandise, and rich with gold, the Victory empty, shattered, disfigured, they adored as their Mistress. Behold, the condition of a poor Scholar in the midst of many rich Ignorants; they have, although many times they know not that they have it, an Envy of the internal riches, of which they are wholly wanting, and do look on that poor man as rich. Ullanè autem tam ingentium opum, tam magnae Potentiae voluptas, quam spectare homines veteres, & senes, & totius orbis gratia subnixos, in summa omnium rerum abundantia confitentes, id quod optimum sit, se non habere? Now if the rich be trees, with a great grove of branches dispersed in every part, comely, and leasie: a poor learned man is a leafless trunk, and half naked; but what then?  
Qualis frugifero quercus sublimis in agro  
Eximias veteres populi, sacratá is gestans  
Dona ducum, nec jam vallidis radicibus haerens  
Pondere fixo suo est, nudósque per aëra ramos  
Effundens, trunco, non frondibus efficit umbram.  
Sed quamvis primo nutet casura sub Euro,  
Tota circum sylvae firmo se robore tollant  
Sola tamen colitur.   

The Wise Exile.  
THose Ancient Sages, Masters of Sapience, which alive, had Greece dead, had all the World for Auditors, left us for an infallible maxim, to the end the mind learn to Phylosophate, and not err; it's needful, the feet go wand'ring through many Lands: We may attein to the riches of Sapience, but no other way but by going to the Sages, in many places, and begging it. Truth (said they) a Native of Heaven, is a Pilgrim on Earth, and is found no way but by Peregrination: He that seeks it, doth as the rivers, which increase the more, the further they go; so that they which at their fountains were scarce little brooks, in dilating themselves, become little less than Seas. The vapours of the earth, would they ever assume the form of stars, if leaving the country where they were all dirt, they should not run after the Sun, and make themselves much more happy in being Pilgrims in heaven, than if they were Citizens on earth? Men are not as Planets, which have the greatest virtue then, when they are in their own houses; yea, it happens many times, that one's own country proveth a stepmother, and a foreign land the mother, in fashion of certain plants, which from their Native Soil, where they were nourished with venomous humours, transported to a strange climate, in the remove they lose their power of hurting, and find together with a harmless relish, the virtue of wholesome aliment. A man's own country ought to be to a wise man, as the Horizon to the stars, for birth, not for Sepulchre; to take thence the first light, and as the Aurora of Sapience, after to climb to other places, even to find the most high and splendid noon-tide which it makes on earth.  
Thus those Sages understood it, and according to their knowledge practising, seemed just of the nature of the Heavens, which have rest in motion: whence with tedious voyages, they ran where in some new Academy of the learned they might discover the gain of Wisdom. Their life was, as Sinesius speaks, a perpetual going a hunting, sometimes in Greece, sometimes in Egypt, sometimes in Persia, sometimes in the Indies, where the hope of the best prey inviting drew them. Thus Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Democritus, Dioge●es, Anaxagoras, and a hundred others came through un-frequented climates, and gathered the quintessence of every one like to certain fortunate fountains, which in the peregrination they make through the bowels of the earth, pass through the middle of precious veins, some of gold, or silver; some of Emeralds or Saphires, & imbibe, and carry away the best of their wholesome qualities.  
And see how the relish of Learning rendereth absence from ones country, not only sufferable, but beyond measure sweet, whence to him who wisheth it, when banishment cometh, Exile hath no other pain then the name. To him who hath not, to him who knows not other goods, than those which the ignorant vulgar call gifts of Fortune, leaving his country, I deny not is to him as to a scarce imfeathered fowl to be thrown from his nest, whose going out is his fall, and his fall his ruin, but he that hath strong feathers, and expert wings, changeth a nest of straw in which he lived buried, for the ample spaces, and open air of all the heavens, which is so much his, as is the liberty of flight which brought him thither.  
Who took thee from thy country? (saith a Shepherd to Tytirus) Who made thee turn Pilgrim, and live a stranger in foreign parts?  Et quae tanta fuit Roman tibi causa videndi? 
Weariness of servitude, replied Tytirus, thrust me out of my native nest; love of liberty brought me to live in strange places.  
Libertas; 
l. 2. ep. 4.  quae sera, tamen respexit inertem,  
Candidior post quam tondenti barba cadebat.  
Ille (Petrarch sagely replieth) in Sermone Pastorio ut libertatem inveniret, Patriam se reliquisse gloriatur, tu Phylosophos defles?  
Let the Moors of Spain weep, 
Boter. in relat.  whilst they are thrust from thence to their Africa, a Land fit for such monsters; let them go not as such as change places, but as such who are thrown down from heaven; and turning their eyes behind them at every step, let them weeping behold Granada, and swear, that Paradise stands perpendicular over that Kingdom. This is the language either of Sibarites, which love their country as a stable, because they lead the lives of animals, or of fools; like to that simple Athenian, which said the Moon of Athens was fuller than that of Corinth: Whereas it was not that the Moon was more full, but his head more empty. Et hoc idem (I shall say with Plutarch) accidit nobis, 
De exilio.  cum extra Patriam constituti mare, aërem, coelum dubii consideramus, quasi aliquid eis desit eorum, quibus, in Patria fruebamur.  
Ruin the country of Stilpone, in common tears he alone is merry, and in a universal loss secure: And going thence alone, and naked, carrieth with him all that's his, because he carrieth himself; but himself wise and learned. Sapie autem, 
Laert. in Antist.  saith Antisthenes, etiam si omnia desint; solus sufficit sibi.  
Let the Clasomeneans, as we said above, banish the great Anaxagoras, and as unworthy of the name of Citizen, forbid him the City. He grieves not, as if his departure were from his country, but his prison, and excluded from a corner of the earth, which was too narrow for his great soul, he pointed at heaven for his country, and the stars for his Fellow-Citizens. Where ever he goeth he is covered with the same roof of heaven, so that he seems not to have lost his house, but to have only changed rooms. Quid enim re●ert quam diversa parte consistat? 
Petrarch ibid.  Valles quidem, & lacus, & flumina, & colles alios videt. Coelum unum est. Illuc aninum exigit, eo cogitationes suas ex omni mundi parte transmittit; nec aliud quam sub tecti unius amplexu ex alio in alium thalamum transivisse cogitat. Let the Athenians mock Antisthenes, because he hath never a house in the World, but all the World is his Inn, and he shall laugh at them: Quia quasi cochleae sine domibus nunquam sunt. He shall live in the champain, as the Semigods in the Elysium fields, in which Nulli certa domus.  
Let Diogenes be thrust out of Sinope, he will be as thankful to his banishers, as Theseus to Hercules his Deliverer, when he fetched him by force from that unhappy stone, on which his punishment was engraven: Sedet, aeternumque Sedebit.  
And from that loathsome idleness, which alone sufficed to him for a great Hell, instating him in his Primitive Liberty: Let the scoffers jeer his Exile, he will answer, My Citizens have condemned me to go out of Sinope, and I have condemned them to stay there. The Wise man knew, that they were more Exiles, because banished from all the rest of the World, they were confined to one City, than he, which excluded from one City, had all the World for his country. Being far from Sinope, he beheld it as he that cast away in a sudden tempest at Sea, and driven by the waves to a rock, sees from those cliffs, others shipwrecks, and caling his misfortunes felicities, desireth not the Ocean which tosseth them, but abhorreth it; nor doth he envy such who perish in it, but pitieth them.  
Would you see a picture, or rather only a rough draught of the hand of the worthiest Seneca, which sets out to the life the state, the employments, the ordinary pastimes of the greatest part of men in their Cities?  
Behold, a world of people, which though they be continually busied, yet doing nothing, and that are less idle while they sleep then while they labour. 
De tranquilit animi c. 12  Horum si aliquem exeuntem domo interrogaveris, Quò tu? Quid cogitas? Respondebit tibi; Non in●ae Herculè, scio. Si aliquos videbo aliquid agum. Sine proposito & agantur quaerentes negotia, nec quae destina verunt agunt, sed in quae incurrerunt. Did you never observe a long rabble of Ants, one after another busily climb up a stump, till they got to the top, as if they would have touched the very heavens, and saluted the stars, and then dismount themselves by the other part, and so return to the earth? 
Ibid.  His plerumque similem vitam agunt, quorum non immeritò quis inquietum inertiam dixerit. Hi deinde d●mum tum supervacua redeuntes Lassitudine, jurant, nescisse se ipsos quare exierint, ubi fuerint: postero dic erraturi per eadem illa vestigia. And can it be matter of grief or sorrow to one who hath eyes of Sapience in his head, just esteemers of truth, to be excluded from such a place● And would not he rather say to those that stay there behind, that which Stratonicus, (lodging in Zerif) said to his Host; who ask, what crimes they punished with banishment, and understanding that false dealers were punished with exile: And why, said he, do not you all turn Cheats, to be delivered from hence?  
But when afterwards in leaving ones a mattock, his rams into blows, horses into oxen, trenches into fences, ditches into furrows, the ranging of squadrons, to martialling of trees, to routing of armies, to rooting up of thorns: in fine, combats into labours, and victory into harvest. Yet he made not the fences about his farm so thick, but that the troubles of Rome might penetrate them. Nor did his rusticity so disguise him, that public cares knew him not, to torment him. The voluntary banishment which he took against his will, from his ingrateful Country, going thence that he might not be thrust from thence, so retained against them, enkindled in his heart ever after a disdain, that it extinguished not with the expiration of his life, but the flame perpetuallized itself in his ashes, buried far from his ingrateful Country.  
Behold, here the advantage of a great mind above a great heart. A man of high knowledge: and of as hardy a wit, as Scipio was of his hands, abandoned and bereft of Rome, would have said as Socrates, when turned out of Athens. Mihi omnis terra eadem mater, omne coelum idem tectum, totus mundus est patria. 
Apud Stob. de exil.  He would have cheerfully left the City of Romulus, and entered (as Musonius said) that of Jove, not environed with a circle of walls, but enclosed with the vast convex of the Heavens; so ample that there all Languages are spoken, because it comprehends all the Nations of every Climate; and so noble that its Senators are the gods of Heaven, and its people are even the Senators of the Earth. He would have got out of Rome, as the little Rivulets which from the narrow banks, between whose confines they ran miserably straightened through the earth: in their falling into the Sea (were they lose not themselves as the Vulgars' believe) of rillets that they were before, scarce having one small stream of water, they themselves become Seas, and distending as far as it enlargeth, may be said to touch the ends of the one and the other World. But virtue will have us possess a great Mind, that should eface the sordidness of loving more the servitude of one corner of the earth, than the liberty of thoughts and affects, which makes it Mistress of though World.  
He that is separated from his Country, let him imitate the Moon, which the farther it is from the Sun, the fuller it is of light: and seeing the increasements and acquists of new knowledge, which he makes in the Domestic use of Men greater than himself; he can do no less than say as Alcibiades, cast out his Country, and received by a foreign King, with the offer of three great Cities at his first reception, Perieramus, nisi periissemus. Oh how much is Wisdom obliged to voluntary and compulsive exilements! Pallas with this hath made other manner of acquists, than when she sailed in the Argonautick ship to the conquest of the Golden Fleece.  
Before the Art of Navigation was in use, the World was half unknown, half un-cultivated, all barbarous.  
Sua quisque piger littora norat, 
Seneca.   
Patrióque Senex factus in arvo  
Parvo dives, nisi quas tulerat  
Natale solum, non norat opes.  
Who then had, or knew what it was to have all the World? The Sea was idle, the Winds unprofitable; Heaven, few were there that did behold it, none that made use of it.  
Nondum quisquam sydera norat,  
Stellísque quibus pingiter aether,  
Non erat usus.—  
Now all the World is made one only Kingdom, whereas before every Kingdom seemed a World. Each place is neither deprived of others, nor covetous of her own; whilst that each transporteth into another, that wherein itself abounds: making all the earth but one body, where one part readily succoureth the necessities of an other. Now the whole heaven is but one Roof, and all Men do know themselves to be but one and the same Family, and may with more verity, than he that they were said by, 
Lib. 4. Astr.  sing, the verses of Manilius  
Jam nusquam Natura latet: pervidimus omnem,  
Et capto potimur mundo: nostrum que parentum  
Pars sua conspicimus.—  
What would the Gymnosophists, the Greeks, the Chaldeans have had, if content with that only, which they were born with, they had not gone out of their Country to seek, as Ulysses in his fortunate wander, that Sapience from others, which they themselves did want? Look how much better a seeing eye is, than a blind, 
Lib. de Abraham.  saith Philo Alexandrinus, so much more excellent is a man whom desire of knowledge had led, a Pilgrim and voluntary exile, 
Epictetus.  through many Nations: then he who is like a tree, that where it first sprouts, there it takes root, there it lives, and there in the end it rots.   

The Wise Prisoner.  
THe Souls of Philosophers (said a Wise Ancient) have their bodies for houses: those of the ignorant, for prisons. Because the first are retired in the body as in Temples of sleep and repose, and go out freely at their pleasure wheresoever their fancies carry them: and the second, shut up in the narrow walls of their body, are tied with as many chains as they have members, without seeing any other light then what comes to them through the little holes of two pupils: and rest there shut up, in as much as they have no thoughts but what their bodily necessities infuse. Thence it is that if the ignorant chance to be prisoners they are double prisoners: The Sages not at all; the better part of whom can no more be confined, than the wind may be imprisoned in a Net; or the light shut up in Crystal. The Tullianum of Rome: the Cave of Syracuse, the Lethe of Persia, the Ceramo of Cyprus, and of as many as there were, or there are now a-dayes famous, or infamous prisons of the World, none are so deep, that they bury, or so obscure that they blind, so narrow as to bind, so strong with double walls, that they confine a mind truly Philosophical. Thanks to Sapience, which Plato calls the wing of the Soul, that carries it not only out of its prison, but bears it up in its flight out of the World. Nam cogitatio ejus (saith the Stoic) circa omne coelum, & in omne praeteritum, futurumque tempus emittitur. Corpusculum hoc custodia, ac vinculum animi, huc, atque illuc jactatur. In hoc supplicia, in hoc latrocinia, in hoc morbi exercentur. Animis quidem ipse sacer, & aeternus est, & cui non possit injici manus. Therefore a prison to a wise man is no prison, but a house, since he is at liberty to go out when he will. Totum autem hominem animus, circumfert (saith Tertullian) & quo velit transfert. 
Ad martyros c. 2.   
It is of little importance to the Soul what becomes of the body, whilst its thoughts are out of the body. 
Plinius lib. 27. cap. 52.  Thus Ermotimus, whose soul left his body at pleasure: and went travaling in divers places, even into the remotest Climes, to see what was done in the World, felt so little, that he knew not in the least if he suffered, so that he used to burn his body alive in one place, and his soul insensible of what was done, enjoyed it in another.  
A light remedy was that of Socrates, against the heavy vexations of the always fastidious Xanthippe, to get up to the top of the house, when she made the bottom ring with her brawling. How much better would it be to avoid the sight of the darkness, the feeling of the narrowness, the annoyance of the solitude of a prison, to climb with the mind to the stars, to make itself splendid with their light, and tracing out their periods, and measuring their magnitudes, to make himself a companion of the intelligences which so expertly reveal them? 
Tertull.  Nihil crus sentit in nervo, 
ibid.  cum animus in Coelo est.  
A pleasant folly was that related by Horace of a Greek fool, who for many hours of the day thought himself in a full Theatre, and to see persons appear in Scenes, and to hear excellent Tragoedies recited by the bravest Actors! There was not a man in all Argos more content than he.  
Qui se credebat miros audire Tragoe do; 
Lib. 2. ep. 2. ad Florum.   
In vacuo laetus sessor, plausorque Theatro.  
His friends, going about, to commiserate him, were, without knowing it cruel to him: for by the power of Helebore resetling the brains in his head, they took the joy from his heart: whereupon he, that would not have exchanged his folly for all the wisdom in the World, being cured, condoled his unfortunate discretion▪ and envied his fortunate folly; and to his friends, because depriving him of an innocent content, they had restored him to the annoyance of his former perplexities, and of a feigned Spectator, had made him a real Actor of Tragoedies, he makes grievous complaint.  
— Me occidistis amici  
Non servastis, ait, cui sic extorta voluptas,  
Et demptus per vim mentis gratissimus error.  
Thus far a foolish imagination of an irregular fancy can cooperate to other men's content, whilst ravishing them out of themselves, it fixeth them upon some pleasing object. And cannot Sapience do that in a head full of noble and sublime notions, which folly can do in one devoid of understanding? Knows she not how to present the mind with spectacles, the pleasure whereof may make a man forget the place where he is; so that being confined in a Prison, he may conceit himself, one while in the bowels of the earth, another, in the watery abyss; sometimes on the Ocean, sometimes in the air, tossed too and fro by the winds; now near the Sun, anon among the Stars; by and by in the utmost regions, and even also in the immense vacuities above the World? These are the speculations that transport our minds out of themselves, and make us happy in their contemplation. True dreams of waking eyes, which at the same instant give both rest, and delight. 
Serm. 6.  Scis enim Philosophi spectaculum (saith that excellent Platonic Maximus Tyrius) cui maximè simile dico? In somnio nimirnm manifesto, & circumquaque volitanti, cujus, integro corpore manente, animus tamen in universam terram excurrit. Ex terra effertur in Coelum universum, mare pertransit, universum pervolat aërem. Terram ambit cum Sole, cum Luna circumfertur, caeteroque astrorum jungitur Choro, minimumque abest, quin unà cum Jove universa gubernet, & ordinet. O operationem beatam! O spectacula pulchra! O insomnia verissima!  
He that can enter a Prison with such contemplation, may well say with Tertullian, Auferamus carceris nomen, secessum vocemus. He changeth place, 
Supra.  but not fortune; he altars the entertainment of his body, but not the employment of his mind: and as the Poet saith of the Demigods, That they do the very same things below in the Elysian fields, which we do living here above.  
— Quae gratia currum,  
Armorumque fuit vivis, 
Aeneid. 8.  quae cura nitentes  
Pascere equos, eadem sequitur tellure repostos.  
Thus the wise prisoner, hath the same noble exercise of mind, and that either sole, or principal care of soaring higher to new degrees of sublimer speculations, which he had when free, eadem sequitur tellure repostum. Wherewith he entered into prison, not to receive from thence obscurity and infamy, but to bring thither light and glory; 
De consolat. ad Helu. cap. 13.  he enters it as the great Socrates, Ignominiam ipsi loco detracturus, saith Seneca; Neque etiam poterat carcer videri, in quo Socrates.  
But this is not the only fruit of Learning in the Wise Prisoner, far greater is that (which very often succeeds) of converting the Prison into a Lyceum, and with feet fettered in shackles, to use the liberty of his hands in managing a pen. So that he who lives in a Cell, known only to himself, like Silk-wormes in their shells, Jam mutatus in alitem, flies with his books through every place, becoming in the school of a prison, one of the World's Sages. Just like the Sun, which when it hath left our Hemisphere, and is sepultured under ground, giveth to the World a World of Stars, so that its loss is with gain, his absenting himself is with honour. And what else do the Pearlfish which imprisoned in the bottom of the Sea, fettered and chained to a Rock, deprived of light, yea, of eyes, work pearls, which released from that dungeon, and brought out of darkness, into the light of the Sun, and inchased with gold, are put for the ornaments of Crowns, upon Royal Temples, to the veneration of the World? Thus Anaxagoras between the four walls of a narrow prison, 
Plut. de exilio.  invested the Quadrature of a Circle. 
Gell. l. 3. c. 2.  Thus Nevius the Poet, found in the bottom of a Tower, the top of Parnassus, there composing a great part of his Poems. 
Id. l. 15. c. 20.  And because nobody would imprison Euripides, he shut up himself in the deep dungeon of a Cave, and there wrote those Tragoedies, which afterwards had the world for their Theatre & applauder. The Prisons wherein these famous men were confined, hindered them not from being famous: But their writings more displayed them to the world, than their faces could have done. And as of the images of Brutus and Cassius which were not seen at a public funeral, Tacitus said. Eo ipso praefulgebant, quod non visebantur. So likewise these emitted more refulgent rays of glory, whilst obtenebrated by the obscurity of a prison, then if they had been publicly manifested.  
How aptly may that be applied to them which Tertullian speaks of the light of the day, which taken hence by the Western Ocean, and as it were interred: Rursus cum sivo cultu, 
De Resur. car. c. 12.  cum dote, cum Sole, eadem & integra, & tota universo orbi reviciscit; intersiciens mortem suam noctem; rescindens sepulturam suam tenebras. These Wise men went into prison, as seed falls among the clods, which buried, but not dead; without coming out, fruitfully shoot out through the fertile mould, and by the Ears it sends forth, makes it appear that where they appeared dead, their they laboured for the lives of many. They were shut up in Towers, & there revolving their thoughts with indefatigable speculations, they became of universal utility: just as the Town-clock imprisoned in some Tower with a finger pointing without, to the hours, gives a rule to all the people's actions. They were hid in Caves of stone, but like that fabulous Echo of the Poets, having lost all their other essence, they became all voice, which re-sounded, and reverberated, by the stones of their prison, they made themselves heard through all the World: so that it may be affirmed of one of them, what the Author of Metamorphosis said of Echo.  
— Latet nullaque in luce videtur, 
Lib. 3.   
Omnibus auditur. Sonus est qui vivit in illo.  
Solitude, and silence the indivisible companions of Study; which to find, others have buried themselves in the most private retirements of their houses, woods, & caves; these have for their companions in prison, & are thereby the less solitary, & with the mind contracted within itself, their wits are as clear sighted in their profounditudes, to deserve the clearer lights of all the Sciences, as from the bottom of that famous well, the eyes were able to discern the Stars at midday.   

The Wise Infirm.  
POetry had a Deucalion that of Stones could make men; Philosophy had a Zeno that of men could make Stones.  
Deucalion, restorer of the World, from the naked top of mount Parnassus, the only Port of all the World submerged in a Deluge, and made one entire Sea; cast over his head-stones, the bones of our Grandmother, and according to the Oracle, 
Sexa (quis hoc credat, nisi sit pro teste vetustas?)  
Ponere duritiem caepere suumque rigorem.  
Mollirique mora, mollitaque ducere formam.   
On the other hand Zeno, transfused a vein of stone into those men that were his Scholars, and made them become obdurate and insensible, by extirpating all affections out of their hearts. So that his school was rather an Ingravers shop where he wrought Statues than an Academy of Philosophy, where he moulded Philosophers. His first and last lesson was to learn to get the mind to the pitch of Royal fortitude; so that neither the surprisals of Love, nor the assaults of Malice, nor the sieges of Hope, nor the batteries of Desperation, nor the scaladoes Audacity: finally, that neither the arms nor arts of any Affection should be able to force the heart to surrender itself, or yield either at discretion, or upon articles. In the tempest of bodily insirmity, of disturbed humours, of sickly constitutions, he would have the heart stand Velut pelagi rupes immota, which assaulted but not moved by the waves, breaks them at his feet, and makes them recoil in a foam. All the tortures of the World, though with a painful wrack our members should be torn off, one by one, have not in them any thing worthy to cause a fainting of paleness in our faces, or feebleness of courage in our breasts: have not power to extort one interjection from our mouths, nor one bare tear from our eyes. Yea, rather the more torments increase, the more of cheerfulness should appear in the forehead; like the Heavens which are then fullest of serenity when Boreas blows with greatest frigidity & impetuosity. But what talk I of Zeno and the Stoics? Epicurus himself, that animal, whose soul only served him for salt, to the end he might not stink alive in pleasures; taught, not how to turn thorns into flowers, to extract honey out of gall, to change his miseries into Jubilees, and to convert misfortunes into felicities. Delight therefore being the fountain of beatitude (saith he) and that man not being able to call himself blessed, who is not always so, it is necessary that he knew as well how to rejoice in torments as in contents. Quare Sapiens (saith Epicurus cited by Seneca) ●i in Phalaridis tauro peruratur, exclamabit: Dulce est, ad me nihil pertinet.  
But they desire too much, who will not infuse Wisdom into men, without depriving them of humanity. Other Schools more prudently taught, that the affections should not be pulled up by the roots as venomous plants, but as wild and un-cultivated trees they should better themselves by transplanting and grafting. Many sound, without a skilful Artist to accord them, make a displeasing discord; but if from Proportion they receive Time and Measure, they compose the melody of a perfect Harmony. But those rigid Schools by the imposition of so strict an injunction, of extirpating the passions from the heart, have taught us thus much; that right Philosophy can give us such an empire over our affections, that if it inchant not the senses at the undergoing of affliction, nor yet render us so stupid as to be insensible of them; yet it permits us not to be transported with desperation, not provoked with impatience; nor in the many tempests arising from the miseries of the body, to lose the tranquillity of the mind.  
Now therefore behold a Wise Sick man: Behold him I say, not extended on a bed, but embarked in a ship; not among the fevers and anguishes of a violent infirmity, but amidst the waves and billows of a long and tedious tempest. See how he lower sail, how the planks fly asunder, how the mast trembles, how each part from poop to prow shivers, and the ship resents all this, as no peril of wrack, but as the nature of the tide. The judgement of the Pilot, and dexterity of the Marmers, steer it, I will not say quietly through so many tumults, but securely through so many dangers. Sapience sits at the stern, to manage the mind, and govern the affections, that in one, (though it may be violent) tempest, wherein another would have sunk, a Wise sick man will sail, if not with the serenity of a calm, yet with the security of a Port.  
Yea, shall see in a body tottering, a mind so firm, in a body disordered a mind so composed, that you would think you saw two persons in one man, one of a Philosopher another of an Infirm. This like the sides of Olympus obnubulated with clouds, bathed with mists, and transfixed with thunder; that, like its lofty top, always enjoys the Heaven's serene, always beholds either the Sun or the Stars; That like a cloud which is melted and dissolved into rain; this like a Rainbow, merry in melancholy, and laughing in the midst of tears.  
Now if you would know how this comes to pass: tell me: Tranquillity of mind, doth it avail to the sanity of body? They are so united together, that the one sympathizeth with the other, and (as it happens in the chords set to unison) that the one being struck the other moves. The affections of the mind are the winds, the humours of the body the sea; whilst the winds roar, the Sea grows rough and tempestuous. On the contrary. Quidquid animum evexit, saith S●neca, etiam corpore prodest. So that if Philosophy did no other but only teach us to esteem death to be that which it is (of which it hath so noble, and so generous expressions) how many and how violent paroxysms of fear, (assailants sometimes more mortal than Fevers themselves) doth it thereby expel from the heart? How many, half-sound, wholly secure, at the least shock of calamity die only out of fear of death, and miserably expire for nothing: 
Epigr.  in like manner as Dyaphantes that hanged himself in a halter made of a Spiders-web? 
Graec.   
Aeneas coming to Hel-gates, had a terrible encounter of Centaurs, Harpies, Chimaeras, Gorgon's, Hydra's, at which sight his blood retired to his heart for fear, and his hand to his sword for defence.  
Et ni dicta omnes tenues sine corpore vitas  
Admoneat volitare cava sub imagine forma, 
Aeneid.   
Irruat, & frustra ferro diverberet umbras.  
Just in the same manner doth the Wise Infirm. The fears of death which in sundry frightful shapes, doth make towards him from the gates of Hell, he knows what they are. 
Ex epist. 24.  Tenues sine corpore vitae, and remembreth that which that Roman Sage writ, that Non hominibus tantum, sed & rebus personae demenda est, & reddenda facies sua. Tolle istam pompam sub qua lates, & stultos territas. Mors es quam nuper servus meus, quam ancilla contempsit, etc. In so much that the fools which seeking medicines for diseases, have no remedy for this of fear, in which they frieze more than they burn in their fevers; will neither see any thing, nor permit themselves to be seen of any thing, which may awaken in their memories the remembrance of death. So that they imitate the simple Fellow, who to hide himself from the fleas that bit him, put out the light; and Non me, 
Epigr.  inquit, 
Graec.  cernent amplius hi pulices.  
The fearful and timorous have but too good eyes, being accustomed to see better in the dark than light.  
If therefore the dispositions of the mind be of such efficacy in the impressions of the body, what great advantage hath the Wise Infirm, that he maintains the soul in serenity, and the mind in tranquillity; that fear is not able to cause the least transportment or palpitation of heart, and the acerbitude itself of the disease, is thereby qualified, and remits of his fury? Levem morbum (saith Seneca) dum putas facies. Omnia ad opinionem suspensa sunt. Non ambitio tantùm ad illam respicit, aut luxuria, aut avaritia. Ad opinionem dolemus. Tam miser est quisque quam credit.  
But the misery is small if we do not augment it, and make it greater by impatience, and so much the less, by how much the mind being otherways occupied, (a thing easy to the studious) is diverted from the sense of the present pain, and takes its flight as the Hearn in time of a storm of Hail or Rain, surmounting the clouds to enjoy the Heavens in their serenity.  
Siracusa being taken by Marcellus, and full of the shouts of the victors, and shrieks of the vanquished, whilst those overran, and these ran through the streets, only Archimedes had his mind so intent upon the lines of certain Mathematical figures which he was describing, that he neither saw, knew, nor heard any thing, of all that past abroad, but had lost himself in his contemplations, so that being slain by an impatient Soldier he perceived himself dead before he was aware of his dying, and was more aggrieved that he could not finish his Demonstration, than at the finishing of his life. And Solon groaning in his last pangs, whilst he lay a dying, overhearing some Philosophers, which accidentally began a Dispute, near his bed, he forgot he was a dying, and recalling his fugitive soul to his head, as if he had awaked, or risen from the dead, opened his eyes, and ears; nor did he end his live, till they had finished their Dispute. Seneca, did not he once (as himself relateth) run from the ague that sought him, flying in the hour of its accession to hide himself in the most secret speculations of Philosophy? Angelical St. Thomas was not moved with the smart of a burn which he had received casually, in that he prudently reflected with profound study, upon his wont lucubrations.  
Your body is confined to a bed, let your mind preserve its liberty, and you shall be the less present to your sufferings, by how much by this you are absent. 
Seneca Ep. 78.  Illud est quod imperitos in vexatione corporis male habet. Non assueverunt animo esse contenti. Multum illis cum corpore fuit. Ideò vir magnus, ac prudens animum deducit à cor poor, & multum cum meliore, ac divina parte versatur: cum hac querula, ac fragili quantum necesse est. He would say (and he speaketh there of the Wise Infirm) that he is as a Compass, which if it hath one of his feet immovably fixed, it with the other moves about, describing greater or lesser Circles, according as it is more or less distant from the Centre.  
But, behold, in one only man the precepts of all these. In the beholding of Possidonius a Wise sick-man, you will find what I have said to be authentic, that Learning and Wisdom, bear up the sickbed in an inundation of infirmities, as the Crocodiles their nests upon that of Nilus.  
This was a Philosopher, a long time un-healthy and laden with more diseases than members, for in every part of the body he had many ails; and had he been subdivided into many men, he could have made a complete Hospital of all Diseases, whereas being all summed up in him alone, they hardly made one sick man. Thanks to the fortitude of his mind which supplied the imbecility of his body; and the anguish of his crazy limbs did no more penetrate his heart, than the dart transfixeth the bowels of an Elephant, which is repulsed by his skin: so that; 
Tot jaculis unam non explent vulnera mortem, 
Lucan. lib. 6.   
Viscera tuta latent penitùs.   
That grand proof of Roman valour which Mutius Scevola gave to King Porsenna, when more resenting the error he had committed than the burning of his hand, beheld it un-dauntedly to burn in the fire, when as he could not endure without impatience to err in his body, to the so great astonishment of the king his enemy, that he was constrained not only to commend his murderer, in the midst of his repentance for not having slain him; but to be also his champion against himself, taking the fire from under that hand which merited light, and was more worthy of a palm for his error than he would have been for his blow; This I say, was one, only act, upon one only hand, for a short time, in a man worthy of death, in a man bitterly offended with himself. Posidonius so many years in his bed, as Anaxarchus in a mortar, tormented in one part after another, and consumed by his dolours, surviveth the continual death, which he endured only to be the longer dying, and beheld himself and his miseries, with not only dry, but cheerful eyes; and took those very pains as subjects to Phylosophate upon, methamorphosing his Chamber into a School, and his Bed into a Chair. In a word, he did as the Moon, which though it be in eclipse & lose his light, yet it loseth not the course of its revolution, but prosecuteth its motion, although she be not so full of light as before.  
Men flocked from all parts about Rhodes, to hear and see a man, which from his own wounds took Balsam for others; and more admirers had he lying upon a bed, than that famous Colossus of brass, erected upon the entrance of the Port, for the glory of Rhodes, and miracle of the World. Pompey the Great passed into Greece, and drawn by the Fame of Posidonius, desired to see him; and he came just at the instant, when he was more than ever, under the anxions pangs of his dolours. He came, he saw, and he was overcome. Pompey seemed the patient, compassionating the torments of Posidonius; Posidonius seemed the healthful man, discoursing amply with Pompey, and proving the verity of this argument. Nihil bonum est, nisi quod honestum sit; and with such cheerfulness of face, and constancy of mind did he do it, that lacerated with torments, instead of groaning, he smiled, and when others would have played the beast, he said. Nihil agis dolour, quamvis sis molestus nunquam te esse confitebor malum.  
Thus Sapience which is the quintessence, of the noblest learning, can better than the Stygian Lake did Achilles, render the mind impenetrable to the wounds of the body, and hold it so far alienated from all sense of its sufferings, by how much it knows how to employ the thoughts about more pleasing objects.  
So that be the Wiseman poor, be he in prison, be he banished, be he sick; behold, in two words, the remedy for each of these diseases. Pauper sian? inter plures ero. Exul fiam? Ibi me natum putabo quò mittar. 
Seneca epist. 24.  Aligabor? Quid enim? Nunc solutus sum? ad hoc me natura grave corporis mei pondus abstrinxit. Moriar? Hoec dicis: Desinam aegrotare posse, desinam alligari posse, desinam mori posse.  
Thus have I glanced at the happiness of a Learned man, by what may be taken from himself, but because this little light which I have been able to give to so illustrious a matter, may appear yet clearer. I will draw its shadow near it: and if I have made you see Wisdom to be happy though in misery; now I will prove Ignorance to be miserable though in felicity.   

Ignorance miserable, although in Felicity.  
Ignorance and Sanctity.  
SAnctity is a pearl of so great a value & of so inestimable a price, that then when it is not set in Gold, when it shines not among the lights of the understanding, among the rays of the Sciences, it diminisheth not at all in worth nor is it less esteemed by that great Merchant, which gave all he had for it.  
In God's balance is weighed, not the goodliness of the understanding, but the goodness of the Will; nor is he taken with acute fancies, but with ardent affections. Wretched Lucifer knows this, who having the flames and splendour of Wit, but wanting the ardour of Love, ambitious to become the Sun of Paradise, became the Prince of infernal darkness; and praecipitating with the other Stars which fell from Heaven, manifested how far deeds excel knowledge, whilst the ignorant men of the earth climb thither from whence the learned Angels from Heaven fell.  
God never desired any man's head, yet he desires every man's heart, nor doth he, dictating to the pen of the great Chronóloger Moses, the Creation of the world, take care to teach how many are the number of the Stars, how great is the mass of the Heavens, what the virtue of their aspects; and whether they derive their light from the Sun, or have the fountain of it in themselves; By what ways the Planets move, whence come the spots of the Moon, and the causes of Eclipses; If the Heavens be solid, if the Sun be hot; how the Rainbow is painted, how the winds run through the air; Who moveth the Sea with fluxes, and re-fluxes; who makes the earth to quake. 
Lib. 6. Henam. cap. 2.  Quae nihil ad nos, saith St. Ambrose, quasi nihil profutura praeteriit. He said only so much as sufficed to infuse into the judgement the fundamentals of Faith; he dictated only so much as was necessary to be known for the accomplishment of his Law: the rest he omitted, as if, Marcescentis sapientiae vanitates. 
Ibidem.   
And the Wisdom of the Father, his living Word, the great exemplar of all the Ideas, came he in the School of a stable, upon the chair of a Manger, in the assembly of Oxen and Asses, to teach in the silence of midnight, with the voice of his groans, the occult verities of humane Philosophy? Lived he in the Licëum, a Professor of Learning, a Maintainer of Disputes, a Writer of Sciences? Or yet did he discover the least letter, that may be pronounced, did he in this (as said St. Augustin very finely) make so much as Jotaunum, which is the least letter; yea or Unus apex, that is, less than the least of all the Letters?  
He came, its true, to convince the Philosophy of the Academi's and Licëums of Ignorance; and to make the Wisdom of the World to appear foolishness: but he used not therefore, sublimness of stile, nor quaintness of pelligrine discourses. With the simple word of his mouth, Fecit latum de sputo, using parables, and a manner of speech not only vulgar, but rude, and with this restored sight to our but dim-sighted eyes.  
And for Apostles, the Legislators of the World, the Oracles of true answers, who did he elect? who did he call? The rude and ignorant, taught with no other voices than of hoist the sails, weigh anchor, make to shore; learned them in the Mariner's school; Yet, saith Theodoret, with the Solecisms of these illitrates he confounded the Syllogisms of the Philosophers. 
Vide S. Bernard. serm. 36. in Cant.   
Thus God honoured Sanctity without Learning, by how much the purer, by so much the fairer: By how much the less exhaled by speculations, so much the more plentiful, and abundant in affections.  
He knows much, yea, knows all that knows no other than only God. He that knows not this, howbeit he knows every thing else, knows nothing: whereupon according to Origen, that bad Politician and worse Priest Caiphas spoke the truth to the Hebrew Senators sworn enemies of Christ. Vos nescitis quidquam: Verè enim nihil noverant, qui Jesum veritatem ignorabant.  
Lord, give me the merits of so great a glory as that wherewith St. Gregory honoureth that good Monk Steven, of whom he saith, Erat hujus lingua rustica, sed docta vita. Lord, teach me, and discover to me thyself, I desire to know no other, and I will leave with the Samaritan the Well of humane Wisdom, that springs from the earth, and also the pitcher of desire of ever any more thirsting for it.  
Hitherto I have spoken in others language, not with my own; and said that, not which is absolutely true, but which some preach as true: some I say, qui ad inscitiae praetextum, 
Orat. 27  faith Nazienzen, in alleding themselves to be the disciples of Fishermen, condemn the Sciences in others, which they desire not, or indeed rather know not how to have in themselves.  
An Ecclesiastic that could read no other Books, understand no other Philosophy then that of his revenue, and defended himself with this shield of the Apostle, which saith, 
1. Corint.  Learning is a venom and p●st; litter a enim occidit (thus he interpreted that text) moved Sir. Thom as Moor, either in derision, or for his correction to write upon him this Epigram: but in him alone to how many doth he speak?  
Magna Pater, clamas. Occidit littera: In ore  
Hoc unum, Occidit littera, semper habes,  
Cavisti benè tu, ne te ulla occidere poss it  
Littera. Non ulla est littera nota tibi.  
That Sanctity without Learning is very precious and excellent, there is none will deny. That its better to be a holy man than a wise man, who doubts? but that it's not better to be a Saint and a Scholar than a Saint alone, I know no man that can with reason question it.  
To be, as Christ said of the great Baptist, Lucerna arden's, & lucens, in whom the light is united with the fire, and the heat with the splendour; which is that very Perfectum of S. Bernard, in whom both parts concur; Lucere, & ardere. To have as the Holy Animals of Ezekiel, Manus sub pennis, namely, the works of the hands, and the desires of the mind. To carry in the mouth as the Spouse, the Honey combs, cultivated by Heaven, and of the Earth, with the Honey of eternal life for himself, and with the Wax tapers of Sciences, Illuminators of others. To unite as in the Ark the Law, and the Manna; as in Paradise the Tree of Life, with that of Wisdom; finally, to Love and to Know: is not this upon earth the type of the Beatitudes of Heaven? is it not worthy to be the Throne of that great Monarch, and God, which sits upon the Cherubims, and rides upon the Wings of the Wind?  
One of the most signal honours God doth bestow upon his favourites is the gift of the Sciences. For if by giving to Abraham one letter of his name, he did him so extraordinary a favours, Ut quemadmodum reges (saith chrysostom) praefectis suis tabellas aureas tr adunt, signum videlicet principatus sic Deus justo illi, in honour is argumentum, unam literam deder it: What shall we say, of him, to whom Gods adds, not only a letter to the name, but great Sciences to the mind, making him the liker to himself the perfecter he is in understanding? The Spouse craved nothing before this beginning the Canticles with demanding a kiss, which was in effect to require, that her Husband would be her Master, and with his Love to give also Learning; that, in the union of the lips: this, in the impressions of the speech; Petit osculum, saith the Interpreter St. Bernard, id est, Spiritum Sanctum invocat, per quem accipiat simul & scientiae gustum, & gratiae condimentum. Et benè scientiae quae in osculo datur, cum amore recipitur; quia amoris indicium osculum est. Those that are thus privileged, are the ●ilii Lucis, called, as Beda interpreteth it, by the illustrious name of Day, 
In Ps. 19  in that place where the Prophet saith, Dies Dei eructat verbum, per diem enim accipimus limpidissimum, & lucidissimum ingenium ad divina contemplanda habentes. And as according to the saying of St. Ambrose, 
Ser. ult.  Ipse est Dies filius, cui pater Dies Divinitates suae eructat arcanum, so to these the said Dies filius principal fountain of all knowledge imparts his splendours, enriching them with wisdom. These, saith Origen, are the Golden Candlesticks, by whose light the Ark is enlightened, and the Sanctuary illuminated. These are Lilies; in the Truths they understand, Candid, and in the Charity with which they love, vermilion, These are the Grandees of the kingdom of God that add the Docere to the Facere. The Stars splendid in perpetuas eternitates; the precious stones, foundation of the Jerusalem of Gold: For this title of honour the great Augustine gave to the most eloquent St. Cyprian; And both these merited it, and with them the Areopagite, Athanasius, Basil, Nazienzen, chrysostom, Jerome, Ambrose, Gregory, and many others no less admirable in understanding than in conversation.  
The Theologer calls one endowed with Sanctity, 
Orat. 20  and devoid of Learning, a man deprived of one eye; for even to know God, whereby to be the more engaged to love him, the Sciences, to him who knows how to use them as Guides, give a great light.  
And here see under the type of a Solecism a secret mystery hinted by S. Ambrose, glanced at by David; 
In Psal. 119.  Defecerunt (saith he oculi mei in eloquium tuum, dicentes, Quando consolaber is me? How will you accord this with the laws of Grammar, OCULI dicentes, in the plural number, with the other singular Consolaber is ME? if Perspective do not teach you, that the Centric lines of both the eyes, called the Axis', do concur to turn to one point, wherein both the eyes serve but for one, for they see not the object doubly represented, but singly, as if there was no more but one eye howbeit it must be confessed, that the sight as double is more strong, more distinct and able to judge of distant objects. If to the knowledge and vision of God the eyes of Faith and Science concur, (which happily is that which the kingly Saint desired,) can any one doubt if such a sight be more distinct and discerning? Therefore the Sciences are not prejudicial to Sanctity, but rather assistant as companions, or at least subservient as handmaids.  
As (again) to the example of Christ, to see how little he favoured the ignorant Saint in comparison of the Wise; it sufficeth to remember, that where he in recounting the list of our miseries, so generously extends his arms, he only debars ignorance, nor would he suffer her darkness to have any place in the Light of the World. In poverty necessitous, in weakness drooping, in solitude abandoned, in contempts neglected, in nakedness abashed, in pains tormented, on the cross murdered: satiated with opprobries, and from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot abounding with dolours: amongst such a multitude of maladies, he would not admit of Ignorance. Under the hairy skin of the savage Esau was retained the voice of Jacob, so that as being the Wisdom of the Father he was not, and Master of the World, he would not be Ignorant. For if that he spoke not more highly of what he did, it was because he would not be a Sun to the eyes of Bats; condescending too much in being a Lamp. But if he than was silent, he hath spoken ever since for these sixteen Golden Ages, which the Church hath hitherto seen; he had spoke I say with tongues and pens of so many and so illustrious Doctors of the World, that from him, as the fountains from the Sea, have took all the splendour and all the profusion of that Doctrine, wherewith, to the profit of Posterity, they have so copiously. filled their voluminous labours.  
Laudate igitur pueri Dominum, 
Psal. 113  hoc est (saith St. Augustine) sit senectus vestra puerilis, & ●it queritia senilis, ut nec Sapientia vestra sit cum superbia, nec humilitas sine Sapientia: ut laudetis Dominum ex hoc nunc & usque in saeculum.   

Ignorance, and Dignity.  
MIserably simple are those Statuaries who know not how to form a Giant of Terrible aspect, if in the posture of a mad man they make him not to distend his arms, and il-favouredly straddle with his legs, as if he would measure the World at a stride. The same, saith Plutarch, befalls to those Princes, who believe themselves to be most majestical, when they make themselves appear most terrible. And therefore they assume an austere life, with an artificial severity contracting their brows, and elevating their looks, so that beholding them, you may properly apply to them what the Poet saith of Pluto; 
— Magna pars Regni trucis  
Est ipse Dominus, 
Seneca Her. fur.  cujus aspectum timet  
Quid quid timetur.—   
How aptly would it evene, if we might whisper into their ears, what a most prudent Emperor told the Senate of Rome, when he understood the design they had to degrade him, because being troubled with the Gout, he could not come abroad in person to manage the public affairs; He caused himself to be brought into the Senate-house, showing with a long Oration, that he had as free a mind, as deficient feet, and left them in a confusion with these words: Nescitis caput imperare, non pedes?  
The repute of being a man of great judgement: and not a frowning countenance, makes the Grandees esteemed; nor is he the most Majestical that's the most stately; He that knows most, and can do most; he who is all Eye and all Sceptre (which was the Hieroglyphic, and Character with which the Egyptians expressed the Idea of a King) he is most a Prince, he hath most of Divine.  
Nor can he be said to know sufficiently, who being an Arbitrator of public and private interests, hath not wit, and consequently a judgement informed by those Sciences, which dictate to him what he ought, and what he may do as a Prince, as a Judge, and as a Father. On the contrary a Prince loseth so much of his Dignity, as he wants of his Knowledge, being thereby necessitated to see with another's eyes, or to put others eyes into his head to see.  
For if you have some, who not to prostitute their most worthy part, their Understanding, and therein become subject to their servants; will by themselves alone resolve that, which requireth another balance, and other weights then those of their defective discretions. Tum vero, saith Xerxes, ignorantia Principis, regninavim agit in syrtes. Therefore he that hath not an understanding of his own sufficient, is constrained either to err to the ruin of himself and others; or else to avoid errors, he is compelled to share his office and become a Demi-Prince, and the Property for to father the misgovernment of a corrupt and mercenary Counsel: whereas those only are complete and absolute, in whom the scales of Power, and Policy, proportionably to the State they govern, are suspended in aequilibrium.  
John the Emperor therefore chose rather to die, than let his hand be cut off, wounded by an envenomed dart, and gives this reason. Because having but one hand we shall be no more than half an Emperor, nor can we by ourselves hold the reigns of Sovereignity, to which both our hands are little enough; and he, who together with prudence wants the half of the draught of a perfect Prince, doth not he seem, in being ignorant, to be but half a Prince?  
What strange Capricio came into a certain man's head, to write and teach to the World: That the most necessary quality of a Prince is Ignorance: that only line sufficing him for an entire Encyclopaedia, which Lewis the XI, desired that Charles the VIII, his son should only learn, Qui nescit dissimilare, nescit regnare.  
He held it for an insallible Maxim, that one man cannot be both Learned and Prudent, opposing the speculation of Sciences to the practice of Government. And thus into the hand of a King he puts the Sceptre, to his side the Sword, and to his Head the ears of King Midas. 
Mctam.  Aures lentè gradientis aselli: Aures aptas grandioribus fabulis.  
Thus Agrippina educated her Son, 
Tertul. de Pallio 2.  Husband, and Parricide Nero, taking him from his graver studies, lest that turning Philosopher, he should lose the beastly life he led. Thus Licinius the Emperor moulded himself, who condemned Learning as guilty of high treason in a high degree, although it never offended him, as having never entered into his head, never come within his comprehension: having begun to be a beast from the instant, he began to be a man.  
Let us set up in opposition to this unworthy error, or folly, amongst an hundred others, an Augustus, a Germanicus, a Titus, a Adrian, an Antoninus Phylosophus, an Alexander, a Constantine, a Theodosius, an crowned with a double Laurel, as Sages, and as Emperors. Let us range Augustus in the front of this Celebrious Troop, who (upon the credit of Suetonius and Dion,) every day though in the height of the importunate affairs of War, and under a pavilion in the field, did set apart some time for his study; that so no day might pass in the which he had not done some act of a man; and yet nevertheless he reigned forty years, so wisely and happily over the whole World. And against him let us rank the most illiterate Domitian, whose employment for some hours of the day was to stick Flies, and for every one that he slew, he boasted, as if he had been an Apollo, against a Python.  
Compare Alexander Severus, reverenced as Terren Jupiter, not so much for the Thunder which he held in his hand as Emperor, as for the Pallas he had in his head as a Philosopher: with the simple Caligula, exposed to public view, attired like Bacchus, crowned with Laurel, and a Tiger's skin for a Mantle, which represented him to be more like a beast than a god, and let us hear him deliver his ebrious Oracles with a ridiculousness conformable to his garb.  
Who taught that Thracian Consinga, 
Polyan. Stratag. 7.  to erect ladders towards Heaven upon the towering top of a mountain, feigning to take on those acclivities from the mouth of Juno, the answers, which he gave in the interests of the public good; but only Prudence; for that the laws and edicts of great men are so much the more willingly accepted, when they are presumed to come from a mind of more sublime Sapience, and more noble understanding? Therefore in my judgement, the most Celebrious Schools of the Philosophers did not assign the Heavens an Intelligible Mover, so much out of the necessity of revolving them, being of themselves movable, or if you will not so, at least, mutable Spheres; as because the World should rest the better satisfied with his Government, whilst they believed these to be most noble spirits; that revolving the Stars, dispose the principles, and temper the influences, upon which to their thinking the felicities and calamities of both public and private fortunes depend.  
Little Alexander whilst he spoke with the tongue of Aristotle, his Tutor, in a solemn audience, which in the place of his Father Philip he gave to the Ambassadors of the Persian King, satisfying to the curious demands, which they put to him to try him; wan to himself the name and title of Great King, whilst he was as yet but a little Prince, Iste puer (said the Ambassadors) Magnus est Rex, noster autem Dives: by which act he begat in the Persian as great desire to have him for their King, 
Plutar. Or. 2. de fort. Alexan.  as an extraordinary opinion of his wisdom. And doubtless, take from this Great Monarch some few errors of youth, and excesses proceeding from his too violent and Martial temper, if that part of his actions be considerably weighed (not with the malice of Seneca (for in this he is rather a Cynic than Stoic) libet with Sage Plutarch, 
Orat. 1. de fort. Alex.  ad singulis ejus actiones exclamare, Phylosophice.  
But seeing that the Prince and his Court are like the Satue and its Niche which mutually take one from the other, value and ornament, now what Niche hath a learned Prince? what Court? Nero was a Musician amongst Fiddlers, like an Apollo amongst the Muses. Elius Verus was Emperor of the Wind, in't he habit of Aeolus amongst his Courtiers, who were clothed white like Auster, another like Zephyrus, another like Boreas; A grave and prudent Prince amongst Sage Courtiers, resembles the Sun amongst the sirens, that with their songs ravish the Planets, called by Cleanthes their fiddlestick, because the Harmony of their Sceptres accord with the rules of his beck.  
For if Manilius of Heaven, as of a Court, fing said; 
Astron. ●  Sunt stellae Procerum similes, etc. And to the Emperor Julian the Sun seemed to be a King, 
Orat. 4.  about which the Planets obsequiously moved; why may not I call the Court a Heaven, a Prince in whom there is the light of understanding, and the heat of power, a Sun in the midst of so many Stars, as he hath about him Learned Men; that from his wise discourses derive light, & that to him with semblable illumination communicate it. Of a higher value, and nobler alloy is this than the samed and Material Heaven of Cosroes the King of Persia, which painted in the arched roof of a spacious Chamber, as in the serenity of a pure azure bespangled with Stars of Gold, and distinguished with certain movable Spheres, orderly revolving one within another; and resembled the whole vast mass of the universe; in the midst of which the Barbarian, more like a Spider in the centre of her self-spun-web, than like a Monarch in the midst of the World, did idly sit.  
Seneca had not a more lively conceit wherewith to express the Beatitude of his Jupiter, than the placing him in the midst of the Gods of his Court, as a Sun in a Circle of Mirrors of splendid Diamonds, therewith the mutual transfusion of rays from him into all, and from all into him, the light of the private knowledge of each became public to all, and that of all, became appropriate to each. But if Jove should from on high cast his eyes down here below to the discreet Court of a Learned Prince, he would say either out of the transports of stupor, or pleasure; as he did when he saw all the World expressed in the little Sphere of the Great Archimedes; where 
In parvo cum cerneret omnia vitr●  
Risit, 
Claud.  & ad superos talia dicta dedit.  
Huccine mortalis progressa potentia curae?  
Jam meus in fragili luditur erbe labour.   
The Syracusan Dionysius had a desire of studing Philosophy, and making himself as prosperously a Tyrant over souls with his tongue, as he had preposterously over bodies by his sword. He invited Plat● therefore and conducted him from Athens to Syracuse. There need no other Master, to polish that stone, on which nevertheless he could not grave a Mercury: for as much as Plato might easily make men Philosophers, but could not make beast men. He came with his mouth full of his Attic honey, but that sponge steeped in humane blood could not im-bibe a drop. Yet, notwithstanding, whilst Dionysius heard him, all the Court changed Scene, as so many enchanted Castles, which at the shake of a magic rod, are changed from one thing to another. The Royal Palace, Shambles of Syracuse, and rather a Caucuses Den than a Prince's Palace, suddenly was transformed into a I yceum, or rather a Temple of Sapience in which not the men only, but even the scenes of the pavement seemed to phylosophate; since there was not so much as a Palm on the wall, which showed not the design of Geometrical Demonstrations, or the computation of Philosophical numbers. Now Dionysius had buried the name of a public Carnifex in that of a Philosopher; and those which till then had abhorred him as a Hellish Fury, began to respect him as a Demi-God amongst Princes. So much can Learning do in a Prince, so much can a Prince professing Learning do in a Court!   

Ignorance and Profession of Arms.  
I May possibly find some difficulty in my undertaking to demonstrate, that learning in a Soldier, is not to hang a Chain of pearl about his neck, and to make him liker a Bridegroom than a Warrior. Some are of an opinion, that Learning weakens the courage, exhaling the spirits, from the heart, and consuming them in the head, whereupon as it is profitable to such as use the pen, so it becomes incommodious to such as manage the sword.  
Scilicet ingenuas dedicisse sideliter arts  
Emolit mores, 
Ovid.  nec sinit esse feros.  
The most ingenious animals, say they; are the most timorous: and the most savage, and indomable, are the most strong and courageous. Philosophy, the Laws, and Poetry, are no greater ornaments to a Soldier, than for a Poet to handle his sword, for a Civilian to order a Musket, for a Philosopher to trail a Pike. Hercules perceived this, and stands recorded as an example to others in that act of his, when he broke his Lute upon the head of his master Linus, and ran out of School; the fiddlestick not becoming that hand, which should use the Club, nor the harmonious melody of Music suiting with him that was to wont himself to the bellowing of Bulls, the roaring of Lions, the hissing of Hydra's and cries of Tyrants, for whose punishment he was born.  
It's true, I pretend not to persuade, that a man of war ought to be a Plato, an Archimedes, or a Homer: but that the splendour of some laudable study should have a reflection upon the Genius, like the lustre that darts from arms, or the picture upon the shield, I see not who can with reason doubt.  
An Eagle who hath eyes so acute in the Sun, and talons so strong for the prey; An Hercules, which knows how to tame monsters with his hand, and to bear the Heavens on his head; An Apollo, who hung at his side both his Harp and Quiver; A Pallas, with a Pen in one hand, and a Pike in the other: Lastly, a Soldier with a certain mixture of Learning; what indecorum is there in these? Is the rustiness of the wit a lustre and beauty, when it's so dishonourable, on the sword and arms? Is there such enmity, between the Pike and the Pen; the strength, and the judgement; the combating of a Soldier, and the discourse of a Scholar?  
It is controverced amongst Critics whether is the more preheminent felicity, Facere scribenda, or else, Scribere facienda. Let every one please his fancy in this, but there is none will question, but that they are Felicissimi quibus contingit utrumque. That your hand with the sword know how to attempt works meriting immortal memory, and the selfsame hand to know how to transmit them to eternity, faithfully writing, what it hath courageously achieved, a history of itself, doubly glorious, and like to the Sun, which to the appearing in its true grandeur, needs not the assistance of any other light: is not this the summity of that glory to which humane merit may attein?  
So much the more, in regard that the relations of Historians, are slighted if prolix, and suspected if short: there be some men found in our days, that in writing others Battles, have their eye only upon the victory of their own profit. I say, there are certain men that to keep themselves from starving of famine, expose the immortality of fame to who gives most. Rapacious Ravens that sing Victor Caesar, not to him that conquers, but to him that feeds them; So did Glow-worms, which by their bodies gives light to others, and seek food for themselves; and like the flatterer of the Warrior Pirgopolinices in Plautus, 
Artro. in Milite glor.  they make the stories by the smell of the Table, and bestow applauds in proportion to their hunger. How much better is it to be a man's own Historian, and to employ the pen as best suits with the Honour of Loyalty, that admits of no spurious additions of fiction; and with the Love of Glory, which suffers no injurious detractions from Truth?  
Julius Caesar is more obliged to his pen than to his Sword; for that slew his enemies, this preserves him alive in the World to this day, and preserved in its flourishing verdure, the double glory he had purchased of an Historian and of a Conqueror. 
Collenuc.  And if that brave Rogiero King of Sicily, 
Histor.  as if he would express himself a debtor to his 
Neap.  sword, or manifest his gratitude to it; as having opened him the way to more than one Kingdom, cut thereon this ingenious inscription.  Apulus, & Calaber, Siculus, mihi servit, & Apher. 
Caesar might write upon his stile, rather than on his sword the Victories of so many Battles, the glories of so many Triumphs; since that if his sword made him victorious in the Fields where he did fight, the stile he did write, gave him all the people of all the World for a Theatre, and the applauds of all succeeding ages for Triumphs.  
Who will not laugh at the vanity of that Grecian Statuary, that presented himself in the habit of Hercules before Alexander. 
Plutarc.  My Liege, 
Stasicrat.  saith he, 
Vitruvio Dinocrat.  the virtue of your heart, the valour of your sword have changed the World for you into a Temple of Honour. It only remains that we have a Statue for you, which ought to exceed the vulgar proportion of those erected for others. Your Giantlike Virtue, which warreth with the Gods, ought not to be ranked among Mortals. I being desirous to eternize my labours with your name, and not so much to render you immortal in the sculpture, as to render the sculpture itself honoured in you; here I offer myself to grave you in the highest Mountain of the World, and make you equal to Heaven, since you are already greater than the Earth. Behold, hither as far as Thessaly, Athos King of Mountains, inclines his stately top, and sueth to be transformed into You; I will so contrive to cut it, that you shall set one foot on the Sea and the other on the Land, and these two great Elements shall serve for your basis. I will make it, that in one hand you shall pour out a falling River out of a great Vessel, in the other you shall hold a City. Nor will it be any such great matter for you to hold a City and a River, that have all the World in your hand.  
Alexander with one and the same smile accepted & refused the profuse offer of the Sculptor. He had, its true, as many more may, a passionate desire of being Great in the World, and to eternize himself to the memory of posterity; but he desired to be known by the World for a mighty Warrior, and not for a huge Colossus. Whereupon refusing the tools of Stasicrates, he desired the pen of Homer, and called Achilles fortunate, because from himself he had Valour; and from Homer Encomiums: from himself merit, and from Homer glory. Alas, wherefore was is not better, for one that abounding in innumerable Heroic enterprise needed not the help of speech for his ●ngrandment, rather to have an Historian, than a Poet? And if so, why should I envy ●n others the glory of making me happy with making me immortal, if it be in my own power to obtain it, making myself as famous by my pen, as my hand had made me by my sword?  
I will omit the necessity of eloquence in the profession of Arms, to animate to reprehend, and to reclaim the Soldiers: and of a perfect practice in ancient and modern Stories, and of those parts of Geometry which pertain to the Mechanics and to Fortification, and sometimes of Astornomy; that so he may not lose a march, or cast away an army, as it hath more than once unluckily evened, through the terror of a sudden Eclipse of the Sun; so that he be forced to allege Ignorance for his excuse, and say as one of Romulus, who made the year but of ten Months only.  Scilicet arma magis quam sydera Romule noras. 
Ovid.  
Fast.  
Of all this I speak not, as being a business belonging only to the Commanders of War; It shall suffice me only to remember them for a conclusion:  
That they are not to be always in the Field, and in arms, but that one while times of Peace, and another while the necessity of repose may call them to a Civil life, wherein ought they not to have some of the rudiments of Learning, at least he that is necessitated to the honourable conversation with persons of quality, and of parts: ought he to resemble the Drums which in times of quietness quite lost the sound with which they rattled in times of War? or in imitation of the ancient custom of those good Roman Knights, the War being at an end ought they not to fall to cultivating their Fields, as if a man of War were a beast of rapine, which having gotten his prey in the populated Campagne, returneth to the forest and takes covert?  
Paulus Aemilius having vanquished King Persius and subdued Macedonia, he resolved with the Barons of that Kingdom to celebrate the Feast of Victory with sumptuous Banquets, in which he used so ingenious a method in martialling the Dishes that the Table seemed a pitched Field, in which the ●anks of Dishes marched up against the Guests, who first began the skirmage, and gave the first assault; making in time the empty and discharged to retreat, and giving way to fresh recruits, which marched up to their succour; there were rarities, which still kept their first postures on the Table; and there were some that seemed to give orders who should retreat faster, and who more leisurely. Some came up covertly, and in Ambascado's as if they were treacherous, others openly discovered themselves: to conclude, the matter was no less delightful than the manner of ranking the Nappery: and all the invited bestowing their applauds on Paulus Aemilius, he replied, 
Plutarc.  Ejusdem viri esse & armatam aciem quam maximè terribilem, 
Sympos. 11.  & convivium quam jucundissimum instruere.  
But if the Knowledge of a Soldier extend no farther, so that the conversion of War into Peace, is only a mutation of the annoys of the Camp into the delights of the City, and to becomes as Aiax, to day a great Warrior, to morrow a Flower, this is a very mean Sapience, and even such that perhaps it would be better being without it. How much more honourable and delightful entertainment of the wit doth Learning afford a part; moreover, to dulcorate the ferocity of the nature, and to civilize that I know not what of savage, which is contracted in the sanguinous profession of Arms?  
Arms are, 
Lib. 7. serm. 18.  saith Cassiodorus, In bello necessaria, in pace decora. Of Learning it may with much more Justice be affirmed, if only the times be changed and you say, In pace necessariae, in bello decorae. Achilles who every day learned two Lessons, one in the Desert where he grappled with Lions, another in the Cell of Chiron, where he harmoniously played upon the Harp, and learned the Secrets of Natural Philosophy, instructed himself how to live both in Peace and War: in Peace amiable to his friends, in War terrible to his foes. This also was the glory of that Roman Achilles, Scipio Major, that in War was like Lightning all fire with generous resolutions; and in Peace was all light with splendid wit; nor was there less admiration to see him manage arms, than to hear him discourse. 
Paterc. lib. 1. histor.  Semper enim, aut belli, aut pacis serviit artibus (saith Velleius) semper inter arma, ac studia versatus, aut corpus periculis, aut animum disciplinis, exercuit.  
These are very rare to be seen, & it's almost a miracle to find ears, accustomed to the sound of Trumpet, and noise of Drum, and yet not so deafened, but that Wisdoms voice may by them be distinctly understood, Rare are the Martial Herculeses that having consummated their labours, consecrate to Mercury the Olive-club taken from Pallas; but the merit of those few that there are, be enhanced by their rarity having those two incomparable qualities that questionless render the person divine in whom they are united, Terrorem pariter, & decorem, which aggrees with what Cassiodorus saith of a Squadron of armed Galleys, that whether they sported they could not be more goodly, or whether they fought they could not be more terrible.   

Ignorance and Riches.  
HE that useth Learning for gain, and makes use of Mercury, as the Goldsmiths do of Quicksilver, to separate Gold from others, and atract it to himself; understands not what a malady Ignorance is in a Rich man. For so the hand be full, they never empty their head, nor limbick their brains, since they have already found the quintescense of Fortune, which they say is Money. Doth it suffice to be of Gold? then it matters not if they afterwards be as that beastial Philosopher, Golden Ass.  
Now a-dayes, money is that which purchased Love and Honour: therefore you have not betet letters of recommendation than letters of exchange, nor can you tell how to write with better ink than that of Bankers.  
Ingenium quondam fuerat pretiosius auro, 
Ovid.   
At nunc barbaria est grandis habere Nihil.  
And again; to what end serves such Philosophy & such Sciences in the head, if they are only a means to break it, and let out the brains? Behold, the ancient Philosophers and you will rather desire the hand of Midas to make Gold, than the heads of these fools to make you such. Who shut their eyes to see better in the dark, and to make themselves Eagles become Owls: Who threw their wealth into the Sea, and made themselves Beggars, that they might not become poor: Who chose to live in places shaking with continual totter, and conceited they lived best, when they were every hour in danger of death, and that they lived most secure; whilst their house was continually ready to become their grave: Who lived in Tubs more like to Dogs in their Kennels, than to men in their houses: Who flung themselves into the Sea, & threw themselves into Aetna; the one because he understood not the causes of those fluctuations, the other because he could not trace out the original of those flames. Pythagoras' transformed himself into twenty Beasts; Socrates standing all a whole day in one thought, and resting upon one leg, resembled a Crane; Anaxagoras steadfastly beholding the Sun as an Eagle; Zenocrates was a marble without sense; Zeno a stock without passion; Diogenes a Dog; Epicurus, a bruit; Democritus a fool, that always laughed; Heraclitus a diserted fellow, that always wept. O curas hominum! Is it not better to have no head, than to have one with all these fooleries? Is this to be a Philosopher? with this do the learned acquire credit? The pearls that are round and plump (two properties of Rich Idiots) are the most precious and most esteemed things of the World. Make me of Gold, for then being but a Calf I shall be adored as a God: begun to be Canonised of old by the Israelites in the Desert, and followed even to these our days, as it also shall be to the end of the world.  
This is the Philosophy of many Divise's which they broach in contempt of the Learned, especially if they see them poor; illfurnished to resist hunger, and ragged, or it may be naked.  
But I wish on the other side that I had so good a faculty with my pen, that I knew how to express to the life the deformed features of an Ignorant Miser: and he should appear with the same Horror that Orgogna a famous Limner of his times, occasioned in many friends of his, by discovering unto them a most misshapen Medusa's head; for delineating which, he had sought and collected all of hideous, and monstrous that he could find dispersed in a hundred ugly and dreadful animals, that he had assembled together for that purpose.  
The Spartans' to represent abominable the vices of Idleness and Luxury; the enemies of that severe Republic; called all the people to a general assembly, and made them to see Nauclides, from a high place; a man so fat, that from head to foot, he seemed all paunch. 
Aelian. lib. 4. var. hist.  Other examination, other process they made not against him. His corpulency convinced him of Idleness: whereupon he was banished that City as unprofitable; in whom they punished as prejudicial to all; him that was only profitable to himself. Now set before your eyes a Wealthy Ilitterate, you shall see in him, not a man, but in the resemblance of a man, a living piece of Touchstone, which knows how to distinguish Gold and Silver, and at the only tact knows and discerns them; but yet after all is a stone: you shall see a Sponge, that for what he can suck is all eyes; but for the rest is void of sense; yea, is not to be accounted animal.  
Cloth him with the subtlest webs, with the whitest linens, with the noblest silks; vest him with the purest wool that ever blushed with its double scarlet dye; if he be accosted by a Demonax, you shall hear the blunt Philosopher tell him as he did such another: Sir, this Wool a Sheep wore before you, 
Lucian. in Demon.  therefore doth it sit so well, and so voluntarily fit and become you; because it is not of opinion it hath lost, but only exchanged masters. And as the colour into which it is died, hinders not but that it continues Wool, although more glorious, so the shape of Man that you have, hinders not but that you are a Sheep, howbeit of a fairer skin, and goodlier presence.  
Put him into a house ornified with the best garnishes, with all the noblest furnitures, and what have you done? Who so passeth by, and understands the conditions of its master, that inhabits it, will say as the acquaintance of a certain slothful Vatia, retired unto a country seat, passing by, Vatia hic situs est. 
Seneca epist. 55. ld. ep. 60  Hear Seneca give a reason of the same: Vivit is, qui se utitur; not he who makes his belly a slave to his head, but that consumes the thoughts of that, to find means to cram this: the belly being bound to serve the head, by providing it with spirits; necessary instruments for humane operations: otherwise (pursues he) qui latitent, & torpent, sic in domo sunt tanquam in conditivo. Horum licet in lumine ipso, nomen marmori inscribas, mortem suam antecesserunt.  
These conditions of men ignorant, and rich Themistocles that Sapient Athenian knew very well; that seeking a Husband for his Daughter poor as himself; and one offering to have her; rich its true; but that knew not any thing more than to tell money: whereas others would have run to this Golden hook, and have expressed their gratitude to Fortune, with the Hecatombs of Pythagoras: he retired with that Golden sentence, which was worth more than all the wealth of that Illiterate; Quaero virum qui indigeat Pecunia, non Pecuniam, quae indigeat viro.  
And here, before I conclude this particular, I can do no less than suffer myself to be transported and to bestow my congratulations upon certain happy Families, in which not so much the riches or the patrimony of their Ancestors, as Learning hath been transmitted from Father to Son in continual succession, as to Feoffees; so that like as amongst the Chickens of the Eagle, Degener est qui luminatorsit, he that cannot endure the sight of the Sun, his extraction is suspected amongst them, and he that at his birth produceth not signs of the same vivacity of wit, and love of Learning, is accounted spurious. Oh! Stock of families truly happy; in whom there is always some Golden branch; nor only uno avulso non deficit alter Aureus, but in them there is in every age, such who bud, who flourish, and who germinate, answering with the degrees of age those of wisdom, which are, to Learn, to Possess, and to Teach.  
Excellent was that custom of the Spartans', 
Plutarc.  which divided into three Quires, according to the three ages of Man; Old, Viril, and Youthful; went singing in certain public processive solemnities. The Aged, Nos fuimus fortes; those of Midle-age answered, Et nos modò sumus; to which the Young replied; Et nos erimus aliquando. What Melody like to this? when it falls out that in one house the Grandfather, Son, and Grandchild, the first, deserving well for his Learning, recounting the degrees of his Honours, pronounceth that glorious Fui; The second displaying his Colours, and enjoying his splendours, saith Sum; the last giving hopes, and assuring himself in his promising towardliness, saith Ero; to be able one day himself also to say Sum, and at last Fui? This is to concatinate a precious descent of Children, as Jewels with a Ring of Gold: This is to make an incession of Heirs, like to a rich vein of Diamonds, of which every one by itself is a Patrimony; all together are an Exchequer.   

The confusion of the Ignorant, being silenced in the presence of better Speakers.  
TO the Gust which we have above said to be proved by the Learned in the exercise of ingenuity, and detection of verity, I will now oppose in the last place the Disgust of Ignorance, condemned to silence where any man of Learning is present; for as much as he that knows not, either how to keep silence, or to speak, finds matter of shame in both, as being for his silence accused, and for his speech condemned for a Novice. Thus Alexander, 
Pluta●c. megabi.  which ill instructed in Limning; in the School of Apelles, praising faults for pieces of Art, spots for shadows, and errors for beauty; was by the Scholars themselves derided. O miserable Ignorants put to a non plus at the meeting of the Learned, and either stand like Consonants amongst Vowels mute, and with out any sound, of their own; or the false amongst the strings of a Gittern, which can reverberate none but discordant sounds. Thanks, that they have not their ears on their heads, but as the Tyrant Dionysius in their heels; & capable only of base and sordid things, wear not in their heads fancies proportionate to a matter of noble intelligence.  
And because it naturally evenes, that as vessels, the emptier they be, they are the more sonorous; so he that hath his brain worst furnished hath the greatest verbosity: hence it is, that these more ambitious to seem Learned, than cautelous of discovering themselves Ignorant; whilst they talk freely upon that which they understand not; gain in the opinion of their Auditors the very same reward with that ambitious Neanthes; which persuading himself to be a Son of Urania, thievishly filched from the Temple of Apollo the Harp of Orpheus; and getting into an open place, at the dead time of night, to have the greater attention; there began to finger that luckless Instrument, which had not a chord, which at the touch of so rude a hand sent not forth in answer a dolorous Groan; as if it bewailed in its own dialect, its being rather tormented, than played upon: So that if ever it was true that the Harp of Orpheus merited to move Trees and Stones, it was at this time, when it was so unskilfully fingered by Neanthes. But what was not done by them, was done by beasts; for the discordant jarring rousing some brave mastiffs, and they judging of the Harper more by his Music than by his countenance, Asinumad Lyram, tore him in pieces. Whereby if he resembled not Orpheus in the grace of his harmony; yet at least to his ill fortune, he followed him in his tragical kind of dying.  
More mildly, its true, but withal more publicly, & by more mouths is lacerated the Ignorance of the discrepant divulger of impertinencies; recounting in derision the fooleries he spoke, the security wherewith he defined them, the confidence wherewith he defended them.  
Have you ever heard two of these, more round than the Circle of 
* A famous Painter who being required to do something to manifest his skill; only with his pen made an O so exactly round as gave sufficient testimony of his rare command of hand; and occasion of this proverbial spèech.  Giotto; dispute a Question amongst themselves, or (as sometimes they will) resolve a Problem? 
† Lucian in Daemon.  It will bring to mind the words, and into the mouth the laughter of Demonax; which overhearing two dispute aloud, one propounding, and the other answering things to no purpose. Thou (saith he to one of them) milkest a Goat, (and to the other) thou instead of a Pale holdest a Sieve.  
It is a thing really, that moveth, I know not whether more to compassion or laughter, accidentally sometimes to hear read, or recited by such people, upon subjects, although of noble argument, tedious discourses, and yet not one of so many lines touch the centre, or hit the mark, that the argument prefixed. So that the matter that there is treated off might do to these, 
Laert.  as Diogenes did to an Ignorant Archer; who seeing in a hundred shoots he never so much as once hit the white; ran and placed himself just before the But, assured, that he would hit every thing, but what he aimed at.  
If at least you will not grant, that it was the character of a singular wit to be able to talk away the time, and speaking of every thing else, not so much as once lightly to touch upon what he would have said. Thus judged the Emperor Gallien in a solemn hunting; awarding the victory to one, that flinging against a Bull from a little distance ten Darts, never touch him with any of them: And presently sent him the Crown; saying, to such as wondered at the sentence; This man is expert above you all. For to cast ten Darts so little a way, against so great a mark and not to hit it, is a thing which none knows how to do besides himself. And these are the merits, these the rewards of the sons of Ignorance, when they affect theatres, and beg applauds.  
But if by misfortune they do encounter with deserved scorn, instead of applause, you shall presently hear some of the most pertenatious assume these bitter complaints. Envy is fatal to Virtue. From the splendours of glory arise the shadows of malice. Detraction makes itself partner in the merits of the worthy, like a slave intruding into the Chariot of his Triumphant Conqueror.  
Again, from the more modest are heard those ordinary excuses, applied upon the slightest occasions: That the difficulty of the matter, and the sublimity of the argument (fit only for an Atlas ' es wit) is above their abilities. And sometimes their comes into their heads the excuse of that famous Faustulus which dismounted by an Ant upon which be rode, and seeing the bystanders laugh; remembered them, that he had Phaethon for his companion in that fatal disgrace. Hear the story.  
Faustulus insidens Formicae, 
Probinus inter opera Ausonii.  ut magno Elephanto,  
Decidit, & terrae tergasupina dedit.  
Noxque idem ad mortem est multatus calcibus ejus.  
Perditus, ut posset viae reperare animam.  
Vixtamen est fatus. Quid rides improbe livor.  
Quodcecidis? Cecidit non aliter Phaethon.  
The disgraces of such who not knowing how to speak, yet, as a fruit of their ignorance attract to themselves others laughter ought not to go disjunct from the scorns, which certain mutes also demerit that have the garb of Scholars, but are indeed without any habit of true Literature: with titles sometimes of more than Scholars, but vox praetereaque nihil.  
The skin of the Nemean Lion honoured by the shoulders of the great Hercules, that did wear it, never was more undervalved than when it covered a Woman. Credo & jubas pectinem passas, ne cervicem enervem inureret stiria leonina; Hiatus crinibus infartos, genuinos inter antias adumbratos. Tota oris, contumelia mugiret si posset. Nemea certè (si quis loci Genius) ingemebat: 
Tertul. de Pallio.  tunc enim se circumspexit leonem perdidisse. No otherwise do the dresses and the titles; the ensigns and characters proper to the Learned, born by people without Learning or Civility, bewail their Mishap, seeing themselves condemned to be liars perpetually, in that they proclaim to as many as see them; him to be a Lion who was but an Ass; him to be a Doctor, who is like certain Books (as Lucian told such another) guilded gloriously and painted curiously without, and within void of all Learning, being blank paper.  
How many of these are seen to stalk along so proud and stately, that they resemble that perfect Globe of the Mathematicians, that toucheth not the Earth but only with one foot? Looking on what they seem, they forget what they are; and like Bucephalus in his trappings, they vouchsafe that none shall touch or behold them but the greatest King of the World.  
Such was that Demi-man, 
Adversus Indoctum.  against whom Lucian so bravely whets his wits. He, as many also now a-dayes, measured his knowledge by the Learning, that he had not in his head, but in other men's writings; As if the Wisdom of Philosophers, shut up in their Books, as it were in a glass, were like that of Orlando; and they could with only smelling to it, draw it all into their brain; and thereby make themselves living Libraries of as many Authors, as they have Books in their studies. Sic apud desidiosissimos videbis (saith Seneca) quidquid orationum, 
De tranquil. an. 5. 9  histori arumqne est; & tecto tenus extructa loculamenta. But to multiply Books in this manner, and to wipe the dust off of them every day, not employing them to take the rust from their brains; this is in the judgement of Sydonius, 
Lib. 4.  Membranas potius amare quam literas. This is to make the house more considerable, 
Epist.  than its Master, as succeeded to that Archelaus, 
Aelian. lib. 12. var. hist  to see whose Palace (in regard it was painted by Zeuxis) people slocked from all parts; whilst in the mean space (saith Socrates) there was not any man that stirred a foot to see the owner of it. At quid dulcius libero, 
Quint. in Dialog.  & ingenuo animo, & ad voluptates honestas nato, quam videre plenam semper, & frequentem domum concursu splendidissimo hominum, idque scire non pecuniae, non orbitati, neque officii alicujus administrationi, sed sibi ipsi dari.    

THE SECOND PART.  
IT is not reasonable that the defects of the Learned should prejudice Learning. Nor ought we to believe that to be a natural quality, which is a vicious custom. The Horizon obscures the Sun with the fogs of the Atmosphere, The reflections of the Earth (if their error be true who hold the same) appear in the Moon as so many spots: The Aërial Vapours make the Stars seem unfixed with a perpetual trepidation: Is therefore the Sun contaminated? Is therefore the Moon maculated? Are therefore the Stars inconstant?  
There is not that thing in the World so innocent, that is not culpable, if the wickedness of such as abuse it can render it criminal. Arms, are perverted to be the executioners of Cruelty; Sceptres, the supporters of Ambition; Beauty, the formenter of Lust, Riches, ministers of Luxury. Honours, the sustainers of Pride, Nobility is oft counsellor of Disdain. But what do I examining one by one by one the better things, if to be short Sanctity be subservient to Hypocrisy, and Religion to Policy? Therefore the abuses of Learning by some, doth no more condemn it, than flowers lose their innocency, or beauty, because Spiders feed on them or suck venom from them.  
For if it be, as indeed it is, the light of the Intellect, so also it hath this immutable property of light, that issuing from the centre of the Sun it carrieth with it together with his being, rectitude; so that it neither knows nor can diffuse itself otherwise than by right lines: thus Learning coming from the glorious Father of Lights, whose gift it is; should it have the beams of its understanding inflexible from the Rules of Verity, and Reason: how far happier would it be? how much more happy would the World be with it?  
But seeing that only the desire of it is little, and the pretence to it to great; it seemed reasonable to me to produce some particulars, wherein Learning is worst used, not only to the prejudice of others, but also to the deceit of who so knows not how to use it (for from these two originals I have took them) to imprint them on the minds of such, who together with the knowledge of their errors, require some instigation to amendment.  

PLAGIANISME.  
Plagiaries that in several manners appropriate the fruits of others Studies.  
THe ancient Art of Thievery Natural Daughter of Necessity, although since become the Adoptive of profit, is as well committed upon Learning as upon Money. Clemens Alexandrinus speaks of the original of those ancient times, when it might be said, that the treasures of the Ingenious, no sooner were made public to the eye of the World, than they became subject to the purloinings of Plagiaries; and the Helen's of excellent Composures no sooner came to light, than they found a hundred Menelaus', a hundred Paris' to ravish them.  
Some think (I will in a way of mirth wrest to my purpose the sense of that Ancient saying of the Comic) that only, Homo trium litterarum makes Fur; namely, that its only the Vice of the Illiterate to steal the labours of the Learned, and with them to appear brave, and become rich. Howbeit the noblest wits, and accutest pens have honoured this Art, imping their own fancies with the wings of others Muses: whereupon it holds true no less of the majestic Lion, than of the feeble Ant, that Convictare juvat praedas, & vivere rapto.  
The Writings of the great Aristotle, are famed to be a beautiful piece of Marquetry, whereof the design is his own, but the matter for the most part borrowed from others: And if Speusippus in the purchase of whose Books he disbursed three Talents; if Democritus, if others like them, the labours of whose Wits Alexander collected together for him, every one should challenge his own, he that appeared a Phoenix in others Plumes, would appear but a Ja●k-daw in his own.  
Plato was taxed by a railing Fellow for a Thief, with an indictment made in the name of Philolaus, as if he had (I will not say transcribed from him a great part of his Timeus) but replenished it with subline juice sucked out of Writings of that second Pythagoras; behold how Timon accuseth him.  
Exiguum ridimus grandi aere libellum. 
●●ell. l. 3. 17.   
Scribere per quem orsus per doctus ab inde fuisti.  
And, doubtless, were there but an Archimedes, 
Vltr.  that knew how to distinguish of Books, 
praef fat. lib. 7.  as of mixtures of two metals, between the legitimate and the borrowed; Were there but an Aristophanes, a Judge that could understand the language of the dead when they speak by the mouths of the living; Were there but a Cratinus that could put Books to the torture, and form the process of their thefts, 
Gyrald. histor.  as he did of the Poems of Menander, of whose thieveries he composed six Books; 
Poet.  you should see how true it is that Mercury god of the Learned is also god of Thiefs.  
But in my judgement, the whole crew of such, who in their Books under their own names publish the labours of others, may be distinguished into three orders, one worse than another. The first are those who gathering from one, one thing; and from another, another; and altering their titles, and inverting their order, compose Books as they make Garlands, wherein many litles make a much, many flowers make a Coronet. They have this discretion to steal from every one a little, that so few should perceive and none complain of the theft; and (as I may say) they do not embase, but only clip the Coin.  
The names of these Authors sumptuously writ in Capital letters in the Frontispiece of their Books, stupefy them to behold themselves fathers of so prodigious an issue; when as they are conscious that they were devoid of productive virtue, or seed, that might enable them to the generation of so admirable Births.  Miraturque novas frondes, & non sua poma. 
He perceiveth himself endowed with such riches, and yet knows that he had neither stock nor revenues equivalent to so great a purchase.  
They hold it amongst them for a Law, never to mention the Authors out of which they had filched, lest they should be detected for Plagiaries. Nor care they for Pliny, 
In Pra oper.  that said, Obnoxii dnimi, & infelicis ingenii esse deprehend● in furto malle, quam mutud reddere; cumpraesertim sors fiat ex usura. Nor that ancient custom related by M. Varro, to crown their Conduits once a year with odoriferous Garlands of flowers, in grateful acknowledgement of the clear, and wholesome water, that they drew from them.  
But it happens many times (and this is the final end of all the Art of such like thieveries) that they take upon them to censure as Ignorant, and condemn as shallow and superficial, those very persons from whom they borrowed all that they had of good, insomuch as declaring themselves nice and critical in their opinions, they are unsuspected of felonious filching. Just like to torrents, which where they break down their banks with a high tide, diradiat, tear up, and bear before them, all that stands in their way, but of that which their impetuosity carries away, they ingorge the most solid, and show only the stumps, sedg, and mud. This is an act proper to Harpies, to stisfie their hunger at another's Table, not contenting themselves with devouring that which they carry away, unless, moreover, they spoil that which they leave behind. This is to do with worthy Writers as the Caitiff Dionysius did to his friends, 
Laert. in Diogen.  which saith, Diogenes, as vessels of preciou liquor he sucked and drained till he was full, and then broke them as being empty. This is to resemble the two infamous Monsters in the straits of Sicilia near to Pharos, Scylla, and Carybdis, of which the first splits the ship, and wrecks the merchandise, the other with his circulations devoureth them, and in a great gulf swallows them. 
Te●tul. de Pal. c. 2.  They undervalue not others with an intent to reject them, but to ingorge them; nec expuunt naufragia, sed devorant.  
Wherefore let them hear as spoken to them alone what upon another subject the Moral Plutarch records. 
In praec. ergoreip.  Non debemus suffurari gloriam eorum, qui nos in altum extulerunt, necesse ut Regulis Aesopi, qui deseruit Aquilam cùmea lassa ulteriùs non potuit volare.  
Worse than these are the second, who finding, I know not how, the imperfect works of Acute Doctors, charitably collecting them as the Ospray the unplumed Eaglets fallen from their Nests, take them home, and as Orphan and destitute adopt them for their own legitimate issue. The shame of appearing Ignorant, overcomes in them the infamy of being thiefs, nor regard they Sinesius, 
Epist. 14  that said, Magis impium esse mortuorum lucubrationes, quam vestes furari, quod sepulchra perfodere dicitur. Oh how many, if they might come forth of their Graves, or but draw their heads out of their Tombs to see their labours inherited by such as had no right to succeed them ab intestato, they would say with that forlorn Mantuan Shepherd.  Insere nunc Melibaee pyros, pone ordine vites. 
It was a most modest Law of those no less brave than discreet Painters of Greece, observed in all ages, to honour the memory of the worthy Masters in that Art; by not putting the pencil to the pieces, which they, overtaken by death, should have left either without the finishing touches, or else imperfect; whereby they in effect would tell us, that those relics thus diminished; and unfinished were more excellent, than if they had been by their hands exactly completed. Of this the Historian speaking, 
Plinius l. 23. c. 11.  Illud per quam raram, (saith he) ac memoria dignum, etiam suprema opera Artisicum, imperfectasque tabulas, sicut Irin Aristidis, Tyndaridas Nichomachi, Medeam Timomachi, & Venerem Apellis in majori admiratione esse, quam perfecta.  
Now in Letters, amongst so many Laws there is not one of so good determination, or so great fidelity, by reason every one hath to great an avidity to the applause of a man of ingenuity: therefore they put their hands to another man's works, not to complete them for the Author, but to engross, against all the rules of equity, another's Principal to their Use.  
He that found a treasure in his field had it all to himself, 
Sparta. in Adr.  as was enacted by Adrian the Emperor; but if in another's, he divided it, and the owner of the field had half: A law, if in money's just, in the riches of wit most just.  
But the third sort are intolerable; namely, those who to another's work prefix their own names; Men of impudent Fronts, which having in a Book no more than a Frontispiece; as the Ass in the Fable that had nothing of a Lion but his skin; appropriate all the rest to themselves. Just as if the patrozining of a Book were the dedicating of a Temple to some god, wherein it was sufficient to Grave his Name on the Front. What else did Caligula that Beast shrouded in an Emperor, when he beheaded the Satue of Jupiter Olympius, and erected his own in the place to beadored as Jupiter? 
Plutar. de vitando aere alieno.  The Persians believed that the greatest of all sins was to be Indebted, and next to this, to be a Liar. These are both; for, what they are indebted for to others, and they have nothing otherwise, than by the patronization of shameless lies.  
One of these being convicted of such a like theft, whilst it was expected, that not being able to cover the fact with lies; he should at least wise have covered his face with shame; he as impudent of forehead, as dexterous of hand, put himself on his guard; and pleading in his defence the Sympathy, about which some, called Philosophers, keep such a stir; boldly retorted: None could prove him a violator of the writings of any man, till first he proved that there was a disimilitude in their minds; in regard that two Wits, uniform and consentaneous of genius, have by virtue of sympathetick union, and identity in the motion of their minds, and order of their thoughts.  
Now Keplerus, 
Kepler. lib. 3. har. prop. Mersen. in Gen. Galileus in dial. nov. phillip  Mersenius, and Galileus go about to investigate the mysterious reason, why two Chords tuned to an Unison, a Diapason, or a Diatessaron, so accord the one with the other in sound, that the one touched the other not touched trembles, and moves. But see here a Problem of more difficult solution, (if haply in uniform wits there be, as they say there is in Musical Chords, those regular vibratious, which encountering the Harmonical numbers of perfect consonants, do occasion the like motions) how it can be, that two brains by way of sympathetick consent should accord to select one and the same argument, to display it with the same form of speech; never differing a word, no nor a syllable: Yea, with so exact resemblance of stature, voice, and features, 
In Prol.  that they are taken for the Menecmi of Plautus, howbeit.  
Ita forma simili pueri, vel nutrix sua.  
Non internosse posset, quae mammam dabat;  
Neque mater adeò ipsa, quae illos pepererat.  
From the dexterity, that many use in filching others writings; is occasioned, the Jealousy for the preserving them; and the quarrels when they happen to be feloniously stolen.  
Even Nature herself hath taught two animals, that produce two the preciousest, and sweetest things; so much the more ingeniously to defend them from Thiefs, the more greedily they seek them. Thus the Cockles that gender the Pearls, when the morning's light discovereth them, close themselves; and if any one chance sometimes to surprise them, whilst as yet they are open, though otherwise blind; Cum manum videt, 
Plinius li. 9 c. 35  comprimit sese, operitque opes, gnara propter illas se peti; manumque, si praeveniat, acie sua adscindit, nulla justiore poen●. Thus the Bees, with bitterest combs, like a Dedalian Labyrinth, fill their hives, contra aliarum bestiolarum aviditates: Id se facturas consciae, quod concupisci possit, 
Plinius li. 11. c. 6  But because Nill est deterius latrone nudo;  
and against these Thiefs, 
Mart.  it is not sufficient for Mercury himself to stand Sentinel, with Argus' hundred eyes: hence it is, that with the accusations of many Authors, so many Books are crammed.  
And doubtless in this case, patience is very difficult; and passion very excusable. Even the Dead Statues of brass, saith Casiodorus, if in the night time they be struck by Thiefs with an intent to break them; though they have not sense to afflict themselves; yet they have voice to lament themselves, 
Lib. 7.  with which; Nec in toto mutaesunt, quando a furibus percussae, 
Ser. 22.  custodes videnture tinitibus admonere.  
But, behold, in two short receipts, the remedy against the vicious avidity after others labours. The first is, to persuade yourselves that the World is not a Judge of so little judgement, that it cannot from public fame, or rather infamy; from indictments, and witnesses; when so thou art; find thee to be guilty of felony: and by this means thou wilt never be got to do it, (although occultly,) out of a hope that none can detect thee. You invert the order of things; so that the method of those things seem yours, which you transfer from others to your own use: yet howsoever though you should be a Cacus; subtle in inverting upside down the traces of the feet of the prey, that you filched into your house; dragging them by the tail: there will not want a Hercules; that by those very trails, will trace out the theft, and fraud; and punish the Author. Yea, you yourselves, will let slip from your mouth, or pen, something; that may advert the discreet of the fact: and you shall in this resemble the Raven; which never steals so subtly, but with the sanguined beak; and even with the prey in his mouth; he croaks: whereby, afore he is aware, he charms up the stones, that fly about his ●ares.  
Nam tacitus pascit si posset corvus, 
Horat.  haberet  
Plus dapis, & rixae minus, invidiaeque.  
Nay, when you yourselves are silent▪ your papers shall speak against you, and your own Books shall form the process. In this confidence Martial; with whose Epigrams many made themselves pass for Wits, and Poets, divulging them for their own; spent no words in the accusation of Thiefs, and the defence of his own, 
Indice non opus est nostris, 
Lib. 1. cap. 54.  nec vindice libris.  
Stat contra, dicitque tibi tua pagina, Fures.   
The second is; that you persuade yourselves, that its a far less evil, not to appear Learned; than to be proved Ignorant; having nothing of your own, and yet fallaciously filching from others. If your head be bald for want of hairs (the Emblem of the thoughts, the riches of the mind;) you will not take those of the dead, and make of them an ill-shapt Periwig.  Calvo turpius est nihil comato. 
Mart.  
Better is it to be poor with my own, than rich in other men's speeches. To be able to say, This is mine, although it be little; is much better: than to say; This is much, but it is not mine.  
The preciousest Verses that Manilius could read in his Poems, were those two: 
Nostra loquar. 
Lib. 2.  Nulli vatum debebimur orsa,  
Nec furtum, sed opus veniet.   
So write, that upon all your labours you may engrave that Distich, that the Poet Aristo writ over the Portal of his Gate.  
Parva, sed apta mihi, sed nulli obnoxia, sed non  
Sordida parva, Meo sed tamen aere, domus.  

That we ought not to assume another's argument, but rather to invent new of our own.  
IF the desire to become immortal to posterity by the Press; did but as much whet the wit unto invention of matter of ones own: as it sharpeneth one's talons to prey upon that of another: many; who, as convicted for Plagiaries, have lost their time, & been confiscated of their reputation; would have eternalized the one and the other. And oh! how much more would Learning flourish? and in how many better employments might we spend our time, our Studies, and our wits: if leaving this sordid work of changing, Quadrata rotundis; and putting that in the margin, which others insert in the body of their works: all the bend of our thoughts should be set upon enriching the Arts, and Sciences, with some new Discoveries; which being unknown to the Ancients, may be beneficial to succeedings ages. One only such a Leaf, would suffice to merit that honour; to which many times monstrous Volumes but vainly pretend.  
Yea, the only inquisition after novel inventions; although we succeed not to investigate them; 
Seneca li. 6. nat. q. c. 5.  is not without its applause, as not being without benefit: Plurimum enim ad inveniendum contulit, qui speravit posse reperire. And one that is agitated by generous thoughts, had rather by himself trace on't a way to Heaven, than to tread in others tracks on earth; so that he may say with the Poet.  
Libera per vacuum posui vestigia princeps, 
Epist. 19   
Non aliena meo pressi pede.  
But in short; although its easier for him to fall, who attempteth to sore into Heaven; than for him, that contents himself to poor on the Earth: yet that Magnis tamen excidit ausis; hath so much of glory: as that the honour of having ascended, out weighs by far the disgrace of being precipitated. And even to these our days, the generous andacity of young Icarus, that flying even touched the Stars; hath more admirers of his mounting, than scorners of his fall: 
— Stivaeque innixus arator  
Vidit, 
Met. 8.  & obstupuit; quip aethera carpere possit,  
Credidit esse Deum.—   
And for my part, considering, that without either fall, or trip, its hard going in the high way; (since that in many things our judgement consists more in believing, than knowing; more in not seeing, the errors which we have, than in not having them:) I have the same resentment in Learning; which that friend of Seneca had in another sense: 
Vagel. apud Seneca nat. qu. lib. ●. c. ●.  Si cadendum est mihi, coelo cecidisse velim. I would have our wits do to our thoughts, as the Eagle doth with her Chickens; which before that as yet they have distended their plumes, and fixed their wings for flight; throws them from their nest, to shift for themselves: as if she should say. Ye are now well feathered Eagles; and sit ye here idle hover over your nest? Ye have talons, and beaks, and are ye not ashamed to be still fed like so many young Swallows▪ Go for shame and dig your livings out of others bowels, for now you are armed, for now you are Eagles.  
Every thought, that had not atendency to the invention of new experiments in Learning; Hippocrates esteemed besides the mark, to which the Learned aught to direct all the lines of their Studies. He alloweth not that we should piece together the relics of dead Authors, quasi bona naufragantium; but, that we should set sail to the acquist of new Merchandises; whereby we may enrich the World, and gain glory to ourselves. 
In arte initio.  Mihi verò invenire aliquid eorum, quae nondum inventa sunt, quod ipsum notum quam occultum esse praestat, scientiae votum, & opus esse videtur.  
Oh, how many, seeking things not before found; have found things not before sought! The only desire of converting some base Metal into Gold, how hath it sharpened the conceit, and refined the wit; insomuch, that thereby those rare miracles of Nature are found, which the Art of Chemistry knows how to produce? And what mines of fundamental experiments, of a true natural Philosophy, are there, that discover not themselves in them; till in times to come, there be some, who know, how to work them; discoursing from the experiences of the effects, to the first originals of their causes? And it falls out in this, (saith a brave Man) as to those recited by Aesop, that seeking Gold; which their Father dying, said he had buried in a field; all fell of diging it; whereby the field, of sterile that it was before, became fruitful: not yielding them Gold; but instead thereof, a very plentiful crop, 
Coluni. De re rust. in fine.  equivalent to much Gold.  
Truth is not now barren; although she was so prodigal in teaching our Ancestors. Etiam quicunque sunt habiti mortalium sapientissimi, multa scisse dicuntur non omnia. They studying have not fished all the pearls; speculating have not discovered all the tracts of truth. Worthy and famous they were its true: but not like Hercules, so, as that they have found, or prescribed bounds to nature; beyond which as pillars, it is not lawful for men to pass. 
Epist. 33  Patet omnibus veritas, saith the Moralist, nondum est occupata, multum ex illa etiam futuris, relictum est. And as the Spartans' said, that neither Rivers nor Mountains assigned bounds to their Kingdom; but that it extended itself as far as one could throw a dart: in like manner the Arts, and Sciences, distend themselves as far as the acuteness of our wits can enlarge them. It is not here as in the Ocean▪ In which Alexander the Sixth drew from Pole, to Pole, a line; cross one of the Isles of Capo Verde; and assigned bounds to the Navigations of the castilians, thence to the West; and of the Portugals, thence to the East. Patet omnibus veritas.  
Some of the Ancients, would have drawn this line between the Greek and Latin Poesy; whereupon Horace that would pass it, interweaving to himself in a Crown; the Laurels of Athens with those of Rome: in that he made the Greek Lyric Poetry to be heard upon the Latin Gittern: was by the more part of the Ancients reprehended, and his compositions rejected, as children of a Bastard Muse; and Hermophroditical Monsters. This necessitated that Poet to commend his own style, in the defence of his Muse; and under the pretence of his own vindication, to publish the crimes of others envy, 
Lib. 2. epist. 1.  and malice, saying▪ That the opposition of his composures proceeded not so much from the love of others ancient eligancy; as from the envy of his modern grace. That they in his knowledge, condemned their own ignorance: being ashamed to learn from him, a youngman, that; which they, being old, were notable to find out. That this was the original of all his emulators malice.  
Vel quia nil rectum, nisi quod placuit sibi, ducunt.  
Vel quia turpe putant parere minoribus, & quae  
Imberbes didicere senes perdenda fateri.  
And, doubtless, we may say with him in Minutius. 
Minut.  Quid invidemus, si veritas nostri temporis aetate maturuit. Is elegance, and inventive ingenuity, so entailed upon th'ancients; that it may never be renewed? Although, that which Arnobius writes of Religion, concerning the truths which every day with new acquists discover themselves, is true; 
Arnob▪  Non quod sequimur novum est, sed nos serò didicimus quod nos sequi oportet.  
Who then will prescribe bounds, and limits to the free flight of the ingenious; confining them within the straits of the things already found; as if there could not be any new Discoveries? If this Law had been known to Antiquity, we should at this day have known nothing. 
Seneca epist. 33.  Nusquam enim invenietur, si contenti fuerimus inventis▪ Propterea qui alium sequitur, nihil sequitur, nihil invenit, imò nec quaerit. And of these in my opinion, we may say, as Dante very finely of the fearful Sheep that follow their Leader. 
Cant. 3.   
As silly sheep, 
Purgat.  when two or three more bold  
And venturous than others leave the fold,  
The rest, afraid, dejecting eyes and head,  
Without inquiry, follow those that led:  
And if one stay, the rest in heaps, bestride  
Him, not knowing why, and simply there abide.  
Quare (to add to Dante Lactantius) cum sapere, 
De orig. error c. 8.  id est, veritatem quaerere, omnibus sit innatum, Sapientiam sibi adimunt, qui sine ullo judicio inventa Majorum probant, & ab aliis, Pecudum more, ducuntur. And most apt is that answer, that the Echo of Erasmus gave to that wretched Ciceronian, who crying, Decem annos consumpsi in legendo Cicerone; Herd this reply (One:) which was as much as to say, that desiring to become an Ape of Cicero, he was become an Ass, by poring on Cicero.  
But the courage to undertake, and the felicity to succeed in the discovery of new and necessary things, I do grant is not for every one to expect; for such as undertake this enterprise, do ordinarily find fears in themselves which affright them, and persuasions from others that retard them.  
The fixed Stars that move not of themselves, but are carried by the Heavens, and born away by the Common Course; have not any that accuse them of irregularity, or condemn them of error. On the contrary the Planets; which so generously make a revolution by themselves; because a simple and most regular motion; with an appearance of ascension and declination; of velocity and slowness; doth variously contemperate them: are called by the vulgar, irregular in their motions; confused in their revolutions; and believed not to be errand, but erroneous; not to make Circles, but Labyrinths.  
Alexander that had so great a Heart and so capacious, that he could conceive within it, the desire of a World of Worlds; being come to the Eastern Ocean, confessed himself to little for this one little one: and doubting to find the fortune of the Sea, different from that at land; struck sail to his desires, that carried him to seek, on the other side of that Ocean, new places to conquer. He showed himself prudent in his fear; and to authorise his retreat with others counsel; he made a show of compliance to the reasons of his Counselors, who to dissuade him, said;  
Great Monarch, 
Seneca Suas.  Little more than Greece sufficed to make Hercules a Demigod: and will not all the Earth suffice to make you a Hercules? Lose not this World whilst you are in quest of an other. If there were more land on the other side the Ocean, your enemies would have fled thither: who to hide themselves from your Arms, and you; are gone to bury themselves in Hell. Content yourself that the Confines of your Kingdom, are those of Nature herself. This Shore will conserve the print of your victorious Feet, eternally impressed; and in erecting the ultimate limits of Humane Generosity; You shall be a Hercules in the East: as Hercules was an Alexander in the West. With that Alexander Constitit, 
Lucan.  & magno se vinci passus ab orbe est.  
If that Generous Columbus, that involved in an Ocean, as in a Deluge of water, discovered new Lands, and new Worlds; had nor done more than this, when in despite of two Republics, and one King; (following the advice of the Winds, that blew to the West, and Whispered in his Ear; See yonder ample lands, whence the exhalations rise in such great abundance,) he weighed Anchor, and set sail, with a Frigate and two Carvals; and launched into the bosom of that vast Ocean; without ever ceasing his course; or tacking about in this Voyage, in a Sea never before used, or believed unnavigable; in the length of a course of uncertain bounds: discouraged neither by the encounter of Monsters; not the mutiny of his men; nor the want of victuals, in a place destitute of all accommodation for strangers; nor the frequent tempests, that drove him upon strange Climates; nor the long and excessive calms that took him upon the Confines of the Torrid Zone; where the Heavens for the excessive heat seem a Hell: would Europe at this day have had those aromatic Spices, and Minerals, or so much as the knowledge of that half World, America? Would Columbus himself have gained, I say not only that privilege from the Kings of Castille, of quartering the Arms of his House, with the addition of the new World that he discovered; and with the Motto over bead, 
Por Castilia, y por Leon  
Nuevo Mondo hallò Colon;   
but those immortal merits whereby all ages come to acknowledge themselves debtors to him; and by him to Genoa, and all Italy; for the entire value of a World? No otherwise: such who in Learning essay to make the first way to the discovery of new places; (which is nothing inferior to the sailing of un-navigable Oceans;) is the necessary, that amongst the annoyances, and toils of the long Voyage, of an un-practised study; amongst the familiar, and frequent conspiracies of desperation; he conquer himself a thousand times: attending, as those Glorious Heroes, Conquerors of the Golden Fleece; more to the glory of the end, than to the trouble of the means.  
Tu sola animos, 
Val. Fla. arg. 1.  mentemque peruris  
Gloriae, te viridem videt immunemque senectae  
Phasidos in ripa stantem juvenesqve vocantem.  
Thus Homer; the first Poet Heroical and first Hero of Poets; is doubly great: in that he had not any before him that he might imitate; nor after him that hath imitated him.  
In the first, greater than his Predecessors, in the second, greater than his Successors; which is the great Panegyric, that in two words hath been comprehended by Velleius; instead of all that which others have been scarce able to express with many: 
Velleius li. 1. hist.  Neque ante illum quem imitaretur; neque post illum, qui eum imitari posset inventus est, These, as long as Learning shall continue in the World, (and that will be as long as the World lasts,) shall splendidly shine in the praise of the Learned; as that adventurous Argo; that from the tempests of the Seas, which it before all other ships did navigate; came to take port in Heaven: where now it's enriched with as many Stars, as before it did carry Heroes: 
— Mari quod prima cucurrit  
Emeritum magnis mundum tenet acta procellis, 
Manil. 1.   
Servando Dea facta Deos. 
Astron. —   
Thus, after a thousand others, in this last age Gallileus, an Academic truly Lincean: both for the eye of his wit, and for that of his Perspective Tube; with which he hath rendered the Commerce of Earth with the Heavens so familiar; that the Stars which were before hid, no longer disdain to appear, and suffer themselves to be seen; and those which were before seen, discover to us; not only their beauties, but also their defects. At the foot of the Sepulchre of this most acute Linx; might be engraven in lamentation; that which the Poet in derision said of Argus; 
Arge jaces: 
Ovid.  quodque in tot lumina lumen habebas  
Extinctum est, 
Meta.  centumque oculos nox occupat una.   
Thus Christopher Scheiner, 
In Epist. sub ficto Apellis nomine.  which from the motions of the Faculae, and the Maculae of the Sun hath found by Astronomy and Philosophy Celestial Lights of so noble, rare, and authentic verity; as are the double motion of the Sun, that in the fashion of a Top, firmly revolves in itself; and on the Poles of his Axis: that moving at the same instant in two Circles, ordinately curve it, whence ariseth the variety of appearances that the Spots therein make. Moreover, and besides the rational conjectures, which are drawn from the conception, birth, increase, return sometimes, and decrease of the spots; to define what is the substance and nature of the Sun itself. Wherewith he hath so enriched the World with sublime experiments, that if every age should afford the like; few ages would suffice to make Astronomy as absolutely Mistress of the Heavens: as at this day Geography is of almost all the Earth. 
Plin. li. 2 cap. 12.  Macti ingenio este coeli Interpretes, rerumque naturae capaces: argumenti repertores, quo Deos, Hominesque vicistis. Worthies; to whom, as to that Ancient Meton, that left as a legacy to posterity, graven in a Column, with lines of exact proportion; the various course of the Sun: should be erected as reward, of eternal honour, Statues with tongues gilded, and underneath this inscription; 
Plin. li. 7 cap. 37.  Ob divinas praedictiones. Worthies; to whom Heaven, should be given: not as heretofore the Emperor Carolus Quintus gave only in picture the Stars of the Crosier (a Constellation so called) to Oviedus the Historian of the American affairs: but itself, for a reward; and her Stars, for a Crown. And well do they deserve them, 
Admovere oculis distantia sydera nostris, 
Pastor. 1   
Aethereaque Ingenio supposuere suo.   
I have instanced only in these two, that so I might not overpass all; since I could not speak of all. Only to us that succeed these, aught that of Seneca to be inculcated that; 
Epist. 64  Agamus bonum patrem familiae: Faciamus ampliora quae accipimus Major ista haereditas à me ad Posteros transeat. Multum ad huc restat operis; Multumque restabit, nec ulli nato post mille secula praecluditur occasio aliquid adhuc adjiciendi.  
I shall only add thus much, that to become Inventors of new things, we must not make ourselves Masters of Novelties, wand'ring without reason (especially in things that are merely Natural) from those ways; which beaten already so many ages, by the best wits of the World, have upon their Confines for such as pass them, Temerity and Error. Nor do as Diogenes, going contrary to the current of all men; as if we alone, were the Sages; we alone dived to the bottom of Heraclitus Well, to fetch up Truth. Should we esteem of the Sun of the Wits of the World, not by the light of their greater knowledge of the truth; but by our opposition to the course of all the World: and could we say in a vaunt what Apollo spoke by way of advice to his Son Phaenton; 
Nitor in adversum, 
2 Meta.  neque me, qui caetera, vincit  
Impetus: & rapido contrarius evehor orbi;   
we ought also from him to hear; that without peril of precipitation, we cannot deviate from those direct paths, which, trodden by the Chariot of the Light, are made no less obvious than clear: Hac sit iter: manifesta rotae vestigia cernes.  
That the Earth with an annual period revolves under the Ecliptic; and with a daily motion turns from West to East. That the Moon, yea all the Planets, (no other but voluble Earth) have inhabitants people of different nature: That the World consists of infinite Masses or Chaoses, and in its immense Vasts comprehendes innumerable World's: etc. These are Opinions, that some Moderns have fond raised from their Graves: calling them back, the first; from the Sepulchers of Cleanthes and Phylolaus: the second of Pythagoras and of Heraclitus: the third of Democritus and Methrodorus: with whose death they had been so many ages buried in Silence, and Oblivion.  
This is not to enrich the World with new cognitions, but with old errors; nor to make one's self Master of those that follow us; but Disciple of those that precede us; with this remuneration: that those very dreams of theirs, which were not blindly received by the World; shall in like manner sleep with us, in our Sepulchers.   

How we may honestly and commendably steal from others Writings.  
BUt I find I have enterprised too difficult a task; whilst I pretend to divert our thoughts from the taking feloniously from others, with proposing to them both the obligation of enriching Learning with new inventions; and the guerdon that in so doing we acquire; Much better it were that I should teach, That we may borrow with a good Conscience, and not only without necessity of Restitution, but also with the Merit of Commendation.  
All the thefts of light, made upon the wheels of Apollo's Chariot; which are (if I do not ill augurate) the Books of the most celebrious Wits, upon which Truth shines & triumphs; that condemn not the offender to the Rocks of Caucasus, and the Eagle of Prometheus. There is an impunity of taking, provided we take not as the Moon from the Sun; which when it most approaches it, and most replenisheth itself with his light, in perfect Novilunii; ingratefully eclipseth it: but as he, that in a Mirror of pure Crystal receiveth a Sun beam; and with that, doth not only, not diminished it of light; but rather renders it with the reflection, the more splendid, and glorious. Thus the Bee, equally ingenious, and discreet, Candida circum Lilia funduntur.  
But so innocent is their Rapine, that without diminishing the odour; without violating the beauty; without breaking the pods of the Flowers; they abundantly gather Wax, and Honey, for themselves, and others.  
The first way to Borrow with applause; is to Imitate with Judgement. He that is not a Giant of high stature, let him climb to the top of a great turret; and thence inform himself of the straightest ways, and securest paths. He, that hath not in his head a Theatre of proper Ideas, and Ideas of good design: let him take according to the ancient Custom of the first and rude painting; the Circles of the shadows of regular bodies, and compile his work upon those models.  
Phrine, 
Clem.  whilst she lived, (Phrine, the Athenian Venus, 
Alex. in Pr●tr●p.  since she was no less unchaste than fair) was the Sampler of Painters; from whom they took the design and features of the face; to draw if they could more beautiful, and withal more divine the Venus' that they painted. The only sight of her was instruction: serving, not so much for a pattern to the copies which they drew; as for a form of perfection, to the Ideas, which they comprehended in their minds: of a most absolute proportion of parts, temper of colours, and vivacity of Spirit. Such to the fancy, are the Composures of the brave Masters of Learning: which beheld with intenseness, imprint in the mind by little, and little, a noble Idea of the like style; and we find by experience in him that is accustomed to read with attention, works of noble sentiments, and lofty style: that, as if drunk with the same spirits; it seems impossible for him to express himself in any other manner, than nobly. Thus it evened to the Nightingales, that made their Nests upon the Sepulchre of Orpheus, that as if from the ashes of that great Musician, and Poet, they had also took his Spirit: they were incomparably more ingenious, and skilful Songsters, than the others: so that the others seemed savage Quirristers, these celestial sirens.  
And from this, of reading intensely others Learned Labours, to imprint an image in the mind conformable to them: may seem to arise those occult miracles of the imaginative power; which hath made us sometimes see, rustic mothers, of deformed faces, and plebeian proportion; to bring forth children of visage and features Angelical; (like lovely Narcissus' growing upon ill-favoured, and sordid Leeks:) thanks to the form, which the mother's frequent beholding of beautiful faces, and exquisite pictures, gave to the tender Babes in their conception.  
Nor because the Authors are excellent, and we stupid of wit; doth it follow that the reading them is of no avail, to make us with imitation to resemble them. The Eagle before that she thrusts her little Chicks from the Nest, with great circulations and turnings, sores and wheels over and about them, striking them sometimes with her wings, and provoking them to fly: whereby the Eaglets, although they are not a jot encouraged to follow their mother even above the Clouds; whither at one distension of the wing she is transported: yet nevertheless, it prompts them to abandon their Nest, put themselves on their flight, and to try also themselves upon the wing. Therefore it naturally comes to pass, that we follow that which pleaseth: especially, if the Genius of the Nature, accord with the Election of the Will: and the toils therein undergone, either are not tedious; or else the bitterness of the trouble, losing it else in the dulcity of the operation; they are not felt toilsome.  
Seeing before us therefore, the sublime flights of an happy Wit; let us not only rouse and provoke our desires to imitate them; but le's us add vigour to our thoughts, and courage to our minds: that so we may find ourselves able to do more, than without such a sight we could ever have effected. Whereby, if we come not to touch the Heavens, and soar above the Stars; at least, we may raise ourselves from the Earth, and dis-nest. If we attein not to express with equal periods, the loftly circulations of the exemplar, which we proposed to our imitation; yet we may do as the Sun-flower, which fixed in its root, and movable in its Flower, by continual looking on the Sun, learns to design in a little Gyre, that ample Circle; which he describes from another Horizon.  
But of the writings of others to profit ourselves with only the imitation, 
Quintil.  in the judgement of Quintilian, 
Lib. 10. cap. 2.  which speaks at large of this matter, is to too little a benefit. Let therefore the second manner of theft not only lawful but laudable be; To take what we please of others; but so to improve it with our own, that it may not be mended by any. In like manner as a Diamond receiving one single ray of light, that penetrates to its centre, is so beautified, that as if it was depainted with a thousand varieties of colours; the Sun itself is not so glorious, & the Stars eclipse and in envy hide their heads there at. Is it not in the stealing of knowledge, as to take a little light foam of the Sea, to mix it with the celestial seed of his Wit; so that that which was unprofitable, and vile matter, becomes no less than a Venus: forming to himself a composure of more than ordinary beauty.  
That famous Labour of Phydias, Jupiter Olympus; the miracle of Carving, and of the World: was of whitest Ivory. But the Elephants could not therefore boast of that divine Masterpiece as theirs: nor charge the Graver of stealing that beautiful material, which rendered his Labour so famous. The exact proportion of the members; the majestic features of the divine visage; and what else that made that Statue the best in the World for beauty, and value; all was the Art of the Carver, not the merit of the Elephant. 
De Resur. carn. cap. 6.  Phydiae manus (saith Tertullian,) Jovem Olympum ex ebore molitur, & adoratur. Nec jam bestiae, & quidem insulsissiam dens est, sed summum saeculi Numen. Non quia Elephantus, sed quia Phydias tantus. He that takes in this manner, rude and informed trunks to work them into Statues; Sordid glasses to change them into Diamonds; drops of simple Dew to make them Pearls; is not a Thief but an Artist. He is not indebted to others for the Matter▪ but the Matter is obliged to him for the honour of so noble a form.  
But this is yet more lively illustrated by the Artifices of the famous Fountains of Rome, of Tivoly, of Frascati: where the waters sport in their torments, and in their ingenious obedience change themselves into more shapes than the Poets Proteus.  
They are seen from the slime and gravel of vast niches so to distil drop by drop into small rain, that the Clouds never did it more naturally upon the Earth: To imitate as it were the Issuing of the winds out of the caverne of Aeölus; the South with moist Airs; Zephyrus with pleasing Gales; Boreas with blustering and cold Blasts: To diffuse themselves so subtly, and dilate themselves so equally: that they seem transparent vails displayed in the Air: To sub-divide themselves into little drops, and form themselves as it were into a dewy Cloud; which incountering with the Sun, becomes a Rainbow, painted with perfect colours: To revive with motion dead Statues, and variously acting them in divers shapes: To start thievishly out of the ground, and to mount, and to suspend in the Air with high spirting: To sob, as if grieved: to roar, as if enraged; to sing, as if delighted; not only to renew to the World that which Tertullian calleth Portentosissimum Archimedis munificentiam, 
De Resur. carnis.  the Hydraulick Organs; but in the murmur, Trils, Quavers, artificial Salts, Divisions, & changes of melodious Voices, to imitate to the life the Nightingales; as if by their mouth did not sing Spiritus qui illic de tormento aquae anhelat, 
Ibid.  but those watery inhabitans, the S●rens themselves. By works of so ingenious and admirable contrivance we take the waters of a common Fountain, which if Art should not advance from their native baseness to nobler Use, transfusing as it were, Souls and Wit into them: they would run vilely wand'ring on the Earth, through miry bogs: not vouchsafed to be scarce tasted off by Beasts; where as now they are the Delights of Princes, and the Glory of Gardens. Is not this to superate the Matter with the Workmanship obliging, and making it our own? The same doth he that borrows. He buries the theft of the matter in the Art of working it: so that in the addition he makes of his own, that is wholly lost which was another's.  
But this kind of mending things, so that they no more appear what before they were, and by that means become ours: well known, but ill practised by people able indeed to change; but not to amend: hath rendered them so much the more culpable, by how much it is a greater fault to deform the beauty, and to deface the comeliness of an exact composure, than singly to steal it. To ●lie the infamy of Thiefs; they become Homicides: bereaving the life of the beauty from those things they take; whilst they dismember the entire, and disorder the disjointed; with so infelicitous a felicity in the doing it; that in a few draughts of the Pen, they transform a Helen into a Hecuba; and an Achilles into a Thirsites. They do by others works, against their wills; as the Athenians did in despite of the three hundred Brazen Statues of the famous Demetrius; which by way of disgrace and shame to his name, they melted; and transfound them into Vessels of the vilest, and most sordid use. The Rod of Circe's, and the Pen of these strive in power: this, being able with ignorance to transform beautiful composures, into deformed Monsters: as that with Magic could change Gallant Heroes, into sordid Animals. The like treatment found the Verses of an excellent Poet, with an illiterate Comedian: which imitating with tumblings, and with that which Cassiodorus calls the mute, and loquatious speech of the hands; the ancient Mystery of the Mimmicks: so ilfavoredly represented that by Actions, which Poetry had expressed by Words; that in the Fables of Niobe, and of Daphne; that changed into a stone, and this into a tree; in this he seemed a tree, and in that a stone.  
Saltavit Nioben, 
Epigr.  saltavit Daphnida Memphis.  
Ligneus ut Daphnen, 
Graec.  saxeus ut Nioben.  
When in stealing from others we use that caution and reverence, with which the Eagle snatched, and carried the Idan Boy into Heaven, without hurting him with his talons or tearing his clothes; and which Leorcas with no less judgement than Art expressed in Brass, 
Plinius li. 34. c. 8  Sentientem quid capiat in Ganymede, & cui ferat; parcentem unguibus etiam pervestem; Yet this sufficeth not: for discretion in robbing mitigateth, but doth not remove the crime of theft. How much worse is it to deform, to confound, to mangle others labours to make them our own? and make it in this manner truly ours, namely, ill made, like that Fidentinus, of whom Martial 
Quem recitas meus est, 
Lib. 1.  o Fidentine, libellus.  
Sed malè cum recitas incipit esse tuus. 
Epig. 39    
To the imbelishment we make, as it were with an alteration of more noble Quality, whence the things are happily changed (which I have said is a manner of robbing innocent & commendable (I add in the last place the increase of the Quantity; when a great mass is form of a little seed, and a tree of a shrub.  
Many things proceed from the Pens of good writers, spoken some times only incidentally, and as if pointed at by the finger; which by him that hath not a very apprehensive eye are easily overlook: and yet they are Ciphers pregnant, sometimes with lofty, sometimes with large conceits; and he that knows how to unloose that which in them is knit up, of nothing makes much, and all for himself, all his own.  
The Heaven of many Stars as it hath; to no more but seven hath assigned proper Spheres, and liberty and room to run wandering through that liquid and subtle Air, which from here below diffuseth itself even to the Firmament. But if all had been assigned their proper periods and revolutions; whereas now the World to make room for seven only is so vast: what would it be, if so many millions of Stars had been consigned their proper Circles, and proportionate Spheres? The selfsame do worthy Writers, in composing Books. Determinate Matter is that to which they give place, and as it were Sphere, and revolution, handling and discussing it as they please, at large: But in as much as they permit it not to dilate hither, and thither; I will call them in this respect, fixed Stars of sublime thoughts, and lofty conceits; able to replenish as it were, a great Heaven, a large Volume; when they find Spirits and Intelligences; that know how to manage them as is requisite. He that in this manner robs from others, theives happily, takes little, adds much, makes all his own. He hurts not an Author that takes from him a spark to make it a Sun. It is with profit nevertheless of him that took it, that of a little neglected seed he forms a great and mighty Tree. And much to his Honour: since that its the Work of a grand Wit, upon a few hints, of some naked words; to work double counterpoints of sublime discourses. Upon the simple tract of an Herculeses foot; to form, as did Pythagoras; all the entire mass of a body, composed to the exact proportion of all its parts.    

LASCIVIOUSNESS.  
The unworthy Profession of Lascivious Poetry.  
SAint Jerome, that brave Lion; that from the Cave of Bethlehem made the roar of his voice to be heard through all the World; to the terror of Heresy, and astonishment of Vice; omitted not to give a shake to the licentious Lasciviousness of Poets; that masking the Stars with unchaste Images; envious calumniators; and a thousand times worse than the Giants of Phlegra: they have assaulted Heaven not with stones, but with the wickedness of the Earth. 
In cap. 5 Amos.  Non debemus sequi fabulas Poëtarum, ridicula, ac portentosa mendacia, quibus etiam coelum infamare conantur, & mercedem stupori inter sydera collocare.  
And to say the truth; those are worthy of the anger of Heaven, and Earth, Quorum carminibus nihil est, 
Man.  nisi fabula coelum.  
Were not the Lascivious thefts of Jupiter sufficiently manifested to the World with other Lights; but that they must shine among the Stars? Did it not suffice that they were published to all the Earth: in Marble, in Brass, in Pictures, in public Scenes, unless also moreover they had given them the Heavens for a Theatre, the Stars for Representors, and the World for Auditors: And afterwards to tell you that Jupiter from Heaven sent his Thunderbolts against the Earth, guilty of those vices, of which Heaven was the Master? An Adulterous Calista hath the Stars of the Pole; and makes a double guide, because in directs by Sea, and shipwrecks by Land; whilst shining from thence above; it seems to teach the chaste to be happily Lascivious; there being a Jupiter sound, that remunerates Adultery with Stars.  
Sic Ariadnaeus stellis Coelestibus ignis  
Additur. 
Pruden. contra Cym l. 1  Hoc pretium noctis persolvit. Honore  
Liber, ut aethereum meretrix illuminet axem.  
From such Constellations of obscenity, what other influences, then Lascivious; can redound to the Earth?  
Architas, desiring to speak in public a word none of the modestest; in calling it to his lips, it appeareth so unworthy to be engraven by the tongue of a Man; that not to defile himself with it, he took for tongue a Coal: as more agreeable to the matter, worthy of fire; and with it not so much writing, as blotting, upon the surface of a wall; either expressed, or hinted it. Oh! the golden Tongues of the Stars: whilst the night charms all the World to silence, the better to attend: of what speak they? and what teach they? They publish those misdeeds with the language of light in Heaven, which for shame would conceal themselves with darkness on Earth.  
But I wish that only the Ancient Poetry of Gentilism was guilty of this; and not exceeded by the modern of Christians; that not in depainting the Stars, with imaginary figures, of dishonest memorial; but in expressing in paper and which is worse, imprinting in the mind, the Acts themselves; so happily or rather unhappily busieth itself.  
There wants not to the Poetry of these times its Ovid's; that subjecting Parnassus to Ida; the Laurels to the Myrtles, the the Swans to the Doves; and Apollo to Cupid: make the Virgin Muse's public strumpets. So to these Ovid's, there should not want Augustus' for Mecaenas'; and for a refrigeration of their too burning Loves; the Snows of Scythia, and the Ice of Pontus. And herein now a-dayes the evil is so epidemical: that from the antecedent of being a Poet, this consequence seems to follow of being Lascivious: as Antisthenes from the profession of Ismenia, took that consequence; Si bonus Tibicen est, ergo, malus homo est.  
Who would not have sworn, that Poetry coming from the Gentiles, to Christians; should have done, as the Spartan Venus; which passing the Eurotas, said to them, that if they would have her company, they must break their Looking-glasses, deface their Bracelets, divest the Whores; and not only clothed herself with modesty; but armed herself with bravery: and seemed rather a Warlike Pallas, than a Lascivious Venus? Yet, that which is yet worse; to that liberty of Lascivious writing; to which heretofore was given banishment for a punishment: honours are now conferred for a reward.  
We advance as high as Heaven, and amongst the Stars adore those Lyres, of the modern Orpheusses; that have opened Hell; not to draw thence a condemned Eurydice; but to couduct thither a world of innocents'. Their Books go through all the Earth: spread through every Climate; become Citizens of every place; and are with great diligence translated, that they may speak in all Languages: as if for fear the Virgin World should want Ravishers, they would disperse through every Climate, incentives of Lust.  
They bear in their Frontispieces, the titles of the Grandees, to whose name they were by the Authors dedicated: and by that means pass so much the more freely; by how much the more they are defended. Thus many times, those come to be the Protectors of Impurity, that should be its Judges; 
Ter. contra Marc. li. 1. c. 2.  prostrating their names, and authorities to unworthy Uses: as the Barbarians of Scythia; that whilst they are Lasciviously employed in their Carts, Suspendunt de jugo pharaetras indices, ne quis intercedat: Ita nec armis erubescunt.  
Were Hippocrates now living, that complained of the Public Laws, which assigning no punishment to Ignorant Physicians; 
In lege.  permitted them to be Homicides: Discunt enim (said that other) periculis nostris, & experimenta per mortes agunt. 
Pinius li. 19 c. 2  Medicoque tantùm hominum occidisse impunitas summa est. What would he say, where the being a public compounder of poison; so much the more dangerous by how much the more pleasant; makes him not to forfeit his head, but to merit a Crown?  
But if in like manner as Lucian, made the infamous tongue of the Pseudologist, recount with anger and regret, the sordid offices, in which he was basely employed; we might hear the murderous Pens of so many Lascivious Writers, to relate one by one, the obscenities, by committing of which they were insentives, in the hearts of such, who with too great an intenseness read their venomous writings: would there be a man that would enrich them with costly rewards; that would honour them with these applauds; fit only for a super-humane excellence? 
Sen. qu. nat.   
Less criminal was that libidinous Hostius that using his Mirrors in abominable speculations, ea sibi osten●abat, quibus abscondendis nulla satis alta nox est. But to conclude; Sibi osten●abat. The Dragons that being poisonous, keep themselves secluded in their subteranean Dens, are not judged so faulty; that we should therefore go hunt them out, and slay them. When they come abroad, to infest the Air with their breath: there is none that being able to slay them, will suffer them to live. To publish to the eyes of all the World Ea, quibus abscondendis nulla satis alta nox est; and that so much the worse, by how much the more exquisite is the Pen, that delineates it: and the art seems of greater perfection, 
Plinius li. 34. c. 5  whilst according to the Ancient painting of the Greeks it is wrought, Nihil velando: and to ●ind a reward of that, to which there cannot be found a chastisement grievous enough; is not this a miracle of humane, (I know not which to call the least evil) folly; or with more reason, malignity?  
It is still infamous for a man to assume the habit and face of a woman? and to transform a man's self, not into the habit, but into the profession of an overgrown Hag; Bawd to all the most closely contrived obscenities: is this honourable? is this a life worthy of Statues, and Laurels?  

The weak excuses of obscene Poets.  
BUt let us hear, the Apologies that these make, in defence of their impure Books they print; that pretend their Fury from the Torch of Cupid▪ showing themselves more Fools, than Poets. Hear their first Apology.  
That facetious and merry Poems; 
Minut. in Octau.  (thus apud eos tota impuritas vocatur Urbanitas) howbeit they only entertain their Readers, with the delight of fiction, and the sweetness of Verse, in thoughts of Love; yet in the end all is but in thought: whereupon the pleasure they give the Reader, is more speculative, and of the mind; than practical, and of the sense.  
I would here have you by way of answer take notice of those two unfortunate Sisters; that the first time they read a famous Tragicomedy of the like nature, newly published in print; became so good proficients in impurity, that they presently set up School: converting their house into a Stews, and divulging themselves for Whores. Of so many married people, as heard the said pastoral recited, (and it is the authentic observation of many ages) whereas they came chaste; there was none but went thence contaminated with dishonesty: and practising that loose liberty of Love in such as please them; (of which they there heard the precepts, and saw the examples) discovered unfaithfulness; and with the dead Adulterers, from the feigned insentives of a Tragicomedy; bore away the true Exit of a Tragedy but all Europe, and all the World; as far as these Books have been dispersed; how many variations of Scenes, how many deplorable Catastrophies have they seen; while minds that for the prize of Virgin purity warred in candidness with the Angels; having drunk in sorcery and poison, from the golden Cup of inmodest Poetry; have for ever after, had under humany shapes, brutish manners? In the first perusal they lose the virginity of their eyes; 
De vitio epudos.  and as one whose name I know not said in Plutarch of the impudent: Verterunt pupillas virgines in meretrices: next that of the mind, after which the flesh as having lost the salt that should season it putrefies.  
Saint Augustine complains of Homer, the first Patron of fabulous Poets; that having feigned the gods, some Homicides, some Thiefs, some Adulterers; he had made Sin a Divine property, & thereby unawares insinuated it into the approbation of the World: 
Lib. I.  seeing, Quisquis ea fecisset, non homines perditos, 
Confess. cap. 16.  sed coelestes Deos videbatur imitatus. But these, that putting their tongues in the mouths of Poetic Persons; teach Nature to be two imperfect, which is so inclinable to the pleasures of Love; whilst the Law inhibits the procuring of them: or the Law to rigid and unjust, in interfering with Nature. These, that to expugn the constant honesty of Virgins, put them in mind, That beauty fadeth with years; and with the beauty all of amiable is lost for which others court them: That its in vain ingray hairs to wish for that, which in youth is refused: That to a life so short one Love is not sufficient: That honesty is nothing else but an Art of appearing honest, etc. These pestilent Doctrines; these poisons extracted from the wit, distilled from the hand, let fall from the Pen of a Christian, Qui soli uxori suae masculus nascitur, saith Tertullian; and cupiditate procreandi aut unam scit, aut nullam, saith Happy Minutius: what other effect have they, but only to render sin so much the more facile, by how much they persuade the belief, that this is rather a crime (not to say Law) of nature, than a vice of the will? Age wils it; example teacheth it; occasion persuades it; weakness excuses it; let it suffice, that circumspection act it. And is this only to delight the thoughts, and to incite abstract and Platonic, not Epicurean Love? Would (I will not say an Elius Verus, and Idolater of the writings of Ovid de arte amandi; but) a Beast, say any other; if he had the rules of Learning, and Art of Poetry?  
Nor is that material which they allege, that these lessons and examples are given by feigned persons. That which persuades, is not the quality of the Counsellor, but his reason; not the person, but the fact. And besides, what are the persons of Poetry, but only as the Caverns of Mountains; that reverberate the Echo? The voice is the Authors, although others pronounce it; as the writing is the hands, although the paper express it. Love disguized like Ascanius did no less inflame the unhappy Queen; than if he had been in his true shape, and not concealed under a foreign habit.  
For, if we will be judged according to experience, great Mistress of Truth; she by daily practice shows that in reading others Loves, we learn our own; That compassion to the misadventnres of such as are rejected; becomes a means to facilitate our surrender at the like request. That that, which in feigned persons is condemned as cruelty, and obdurateness of a mind to averse to such as love; in ourselves is found to m●li●ie the heart upon the like occasion. Whereby, the ●inder being applied to the Steel; there is no more wanting, but a blow of an encounter, a salute, a glance; to strike fire.  
We soften our own hearts, in others flames: we imprint in our minds the seal of those affections, that others fictiously express in themselves: 
Lib. I.  there is only one Augustine, that hath with tears bewailed the feigned disasters of the forsaken Dido: 
Confess. cap. 13.  these are the ordinary effects, that Poetry daily accasioneth, with its Scenes, and Obcene Books. And though sometimes, when we are involved in Love, we are ignorant of others affections; we love yet, an I know not what of unknown in others: we love as that foolish Boy in the Fable; that from a vain Image taking real love.  Quid videat nescit, 
Metam.  sed quod videt uritur illo. 
I blush with Clemens Alexandrinus, to remember here the two Venus' of Cyprus, 
In protreptico Ad Gentes.  and Gnidos; that of Ivory; this of Marble: Statues dead in themselves, but for others lust to lively. I only add the Epiphomena of this Author; for that is to be understood of Poetry, which he saith of the graving of such like Statues lasciviously naked: Tantum ars valuit ad decipiendum, quae homines amori deditos illexit in barathrum!  
The other defence of Lascivious Composures is: That such Poems have no more of evi but the appearance: That these are vizards of Allegories, that cover the sense of most admirable moral Philosophy; sauced with the honey of fabulous inventions; that they may for their savoury cooking be the more easily swallowed. Thus by ancient custom, the Laws in Candia ordained that they should comprise their instructions, to their children, in Musical measures; and a great part of the Divine Law, was put into verse by David, in the Poems of the Psalms; 
〈◊〉 Ps. 1.  Ut dum suavitate carminis mulcitur auditus (said St. Augustine) divine sermonis pariter utilitas inferatur. Werefore they may write in the frontispiece of their Poems that Terzet of Dante, 
Ye souls induced with sowed intelligence,  
Observe the hidden lessons that do lie  
Veiled up in their mysterious Poetry:  and with these the Poets, 
Max. Tyr. ser. 29.  to such as well regard them, be Phylosophos, nomine Poëtas, qui invidiosam rem ad eam artem perduxerunt, quae maximè populum demulceat.  
Now did you ever hear a fiction more Poetical, a lie more solemn than this? The inverters of Morality would be taken for true masters of it.  Et simulant Curios cum Bacchanalia scribant. 
Such a lie might well have fitted Pompey; when in his Theatre, which he had erected for the representing of the most Lascivious Spectacles; because he would not suppress it, 
Ter. d● spect. cap. 10.  Quasi morum lanienam, he there dedicated a Chapel to Venus; cui subjicimus, inquit, gradus spectaculorum. Ita damnatum, & damnandum opus Templi titulo praetexuit, ac disciplinam superstitione delusit. But now a-dayes the World is not so deprived of judgement, but that they know, that certain Allegories, which others, (thanks to herself) apply to this Poetry; (Allegories, which how ever they are wyer-drawn, yet do they not attein to the covering of those immodesties, which are read in them) were not the Model by which the Poem was composed; nay, never entered into the Author's thought: Chimaeras are they, not Allegories; and unprofitable endeavours of such, as would convert obscenity into a mystery.  
The Table of Cebes is one thing; to trace the intricate avenues of whose Labyrinth, it requires the Clew of an Old Interpreter; that so a stranger not understanding, as he said, the Aenigma'es of that Sphinx, meet not with death where he expected benefit: The modern Poems another, which stand in need more of a Sphinx, to put them into Aenigma; than of an Oedipus, to interpret them.  
Yet, all this while I deny not, but that some Ancients, to conceal from the eyes of the vulgar the miseries of their Theology: hid them, (as treasures within the Sileny,) under the Fables, which they received for Verities. Howbeit, as there remains nothing of the mysteries of the Egyptian Sages, but only their Images; Bats, Apes, Owls: heretofore learned Hierogliphics, now unfortunate Relics; which alone are taken from the ancient Pyramids: so of the ancient Theology of the Gentiles, there remains no more to the memory of the World, but the Adulteries, Thefts, Homicides of the gods: Images two unworthy of any subserviency, in the displaying the mysteries of Divinity. But the Poets now a-dayes have no occasion for, or thought of this. And if they should, they would be no less imprudent than impure: taking away directly contrary to the end pretended: namely, reciting, to infuse good manners, obscene Fables; apt far to extirpate virtue where it already hath been implanted: which would be (as saith the Theologist Nazianzen) per scopulos ducere a dlittus. 
Orat. 3. contra Julian.  Therefore it needeth not that they cloth the Wolves like Sphepheards, and the Lascivious Poets, like Moral Philosophers.  
The third defence is that they say, they intent no man's hurt: in their writings, but their own honour. Their Books bear in their frontispieces, written in Capital letters, 
Praefat. Cent.  the saying of Ausonins, Cui hic ludus noster non placet, ne legerit: aut cum legerit obliviscatur: aut non oblitus ignoscat. So that he who falleth must blame himself as weak, not the Poet; which composed not the Book, nor published it, to offend the Reader. What harm is their in the stones, if such as are of glass go to justle with them? He that cannot fight, let him not Arm himself: he that is not well provided for a storm, let him not ingulfe himself in the danger of it. The Reader should be a Bee, that gathereth the honey of ingenious styles of writing, from the imitation of Poetical forms of speech; not a Spider, that sucketh the poison of Lasciviousness. Even in Holy Scripture we meet with the Incest of Ammon: the Adultery of David: the detestable uncleanness of Sodom. The finger of God writ them; nor are they culpable, because some may draw thence examples of sinning; relishing the fact, more than they respect the punishment. Therefore, that some decline in their Virtues, by reading a Book, compiled only with an intent at the advancements of the Wit; this is the crime, not of the innocent Author, but of the incautulous Reader.  
Quam sapiens argumentatrix sibi videtur ignorantia humana! saith Tertullian, upon such another occasion. Did you ever see Sophisms, better couched in Syllogisms? I thought at first, that I myself should have been persuaded by them: For, (seeing that that which is not directly intended, cannot render another culpable:) the sin is not a sin; we not intending in the least the incommodity of the crime, but only the pleasure, or commodity of the action. These are Masters of their profession. But do they not desire that, which they say they desire not: whilst in the meantime craftily they attempt all the means, by which it is atteinable: so that if they intent not otherwise, why do they attempt otherwise? Suppose this very thing were the Scope of some Poets: to excite with the delectation of Fable, and Verse, the insentives to lust: could they do it more handsomely, or more efficaicously? And when they indicted were they either so stupid, or so blind, as not to perceive the same? And can they be said not to desire that, which in so forceable manner they effectually desire? Nor may that be applied to their purpose, which Tertullian speaks of Women Lasciviously attired: Quid alteri periculo sumus? Quid alteri concupiscentiam importamus? 
De cultu foem. c. 2.  Perit ille tua forma, si concupiscit; tua facta es gladius illi.  
Even in the primitive ages of the Church certain Christians, which before their Baptism were by profession Carvers: desired, it might be lawful for them to make as before, and to sell Statues of Jove, of Mars, of Venus; and they defended the fact, saying: That they intended not others sin, but their own profit: To keep themselves alive, not to make others offend. That their Statues were worshipped: was the sin of the Idolatry, not the fault of the Sculpture. We live according to the Laws of Christians; and labour according to the Rules of Art; in what then do we sin? Our Poets, to defend themselves in a common cause; would give sentence in favour of these. But these, and those, are condemned, and that justly by Tertullian; and their hands convicted of being Manus Idolorum matres, and declared to be Manus praecidendas. He makes them guilty of Sacrilege; Priests of Idolatry; nay, more than Priests; 
De Idol. cap. 2.  Cum per te (saith he) Dii habeant Sacerdotes.   

The good use of bad Books.  
TO reclaim the Spartans' from Ebriety Lucurgus the Lawgiver, (in this particular without Law) killed, and extirpated all the Vines. And the remedy was worse than the malady; just as if we should pull out our eyes, to avoid the sight of our deformity. He ought rather, saith Plutarch, to have carried water, and made fountains their where the Vines grew; and to have corrected Bacchus with the Nymphs; a mad god, with many Sages. The same would they do that to take out of the World the mischief, that ill Books occasion, would take all Books out of the World. These are extreme Remedies; which as the Father of Physicians teacheth, would not be used, but in the cases of extremity, and when there is no other help.  
There are many Books, in which as in the head of the Pulp-●ish (that which Plutarch saith of Poetry) there is something good, 
De and. Poetis.  and something bad. The danger is for those that are as that Ancient Cato Helluo librorum so greedy; that without picking, they swallow the good and the bad: whereupon afterwards they sustain some incommodity. I give you leave, saith Augustine, to make a prey or booty of the Books of evil writers; 
De Doctrine. Christ.  but in the same manner as the Israelites did upon the Houses of the Egyptians; where they took the Vessels of Gold, but not the Idols, although they were also of Gold. Sharpen, as the Hebrews did the scythe of your Wit at the Hones of the Philistines: 
1 Sam. 13. v. 19▪ 20.  but mow not in their Fields; freeing the Harvest, and the scythe, from all suspicion; for they have more Weeds than Corn.  
He that hath good eyes, sees exposed in the Books of the Ingenious things as various, as heretofore were shown by the Witty Ulysses, when in the disguise of a Merchant, he Displayed a thousand Woman's trifles before the Virgins of Scyros; with the fortunate invention of a wise Knight, to the end he might discover, and gain to the Wars Achilles, whom his timorous mother had hid among those Virgins, under a woman's habit. The success was, that whilst some of them run to the Mirrors, others to the Tablets, to the Bracelets, to the Rings; Achilles, remembering himself, betook him to a Sword, which was put amongst those Feminine trinkets, for the same purpose, and with that discovered, and as overcome by Ulysses, he yielded himself, and agreed to be his Companion in the Trojan Expedition. In the same manner ought we in reading of Books, to deport ourselves with a carriage nobly Masculine, that disdaineth and avoideth what ever savoureth of Feminine; and bend our desire, and put our hands, to only such things as are worthy of us.  
Even in this did Alexander show himself like himself, that is, Great; when being offered the Lute of Paris, to which he had so often sung the beauties of Helen, and his own Loves; he vouchsafed it not so much as a look: but in its stead desired that which Achilles played upon in the Cave of old Chiron, with his hands still reeking in the blood of the new-killed Tigers, and Lions.  
But it's not alone sufficient in the reading of dangerous Books to have a good end, if we have not also a good Method; so that, in reading them we be so circumspected, and wary, as if we were to go Per ignes Suppositos cineri doloso.  
St. Basil ingeniously evinceth it where he saith, 
Homil. de util. ex lib. Gent. cap. 1.  That we must never give our minds; as the Helm up into the hand of the Author we read, for him to turn us at his will, and steer us at his pleasure: Keep a loof from the Cramp-fish that his venomous frigidity seize you not; lest if otherwise he fasten upon you, and render you stupid and insensible; he make you his prey. Herbs (pursues Basil) as sweet as they be, if they be mixed with Henbane & Hair; Flowers as fair as they seem, if they conceal under them Vipers, and Asps; would be gathered with a hand more cautelous, than curious. By how much the more the danger is concealed by so much the more is it to be feared. Laughter in the mouth, and flattery in the face, are the semblances that mask treasons.  
It is not only in the Ring of Demosthenes, of Cleopatra, 
Plini●● li. 33. c. ●  of Annibal; but in Books also, that the poisons are concealed under Jewels: nor are they therefore the less mortal, for being the more precious. Those sublime Wits, like the Heavens, enriched with as many Stars, as are the goodly, and lofty conceits which resplend in their writings; should never leave us so secure, but that in our lection of them, we should use much suspension and caution; since it oft eveneth in Books as in Heaven; that the fairest Stars, compose the most deformed figures: whence in the study of them the advice is necessary, which the Sun gave to Phaethon, still to keep his eye on his way, and his hand straight on his reins, since even in travelling among the Stars, Per insidias iter est, 
2 Met.  formasque ferarum.  
Here the advertancy of the Dogs of Egypt, serveth to our purpose; that drink the waters of Nilus running, nor are they so earnest to quench according to custom their thirst; but that they more fear to satiate the hunger of the Crocodiles. Here also let me insert the cautelousness of the Eagle, which when it chaseth a poisonous Dragon.  Occupat adversum, ne saeva retorqueat ora. 
All this, when the Books are such that there may be profit extracted from them, by those that read them; and profit without prejudice by those that deliberately read them. Otherwise if they are either of that kind, of which may be averred what Tertullian said of the ancient Spectacles; 
De spect. cap. 7.  Quorum summa gratia de spurcitia plurimum concinnata est; or replenished with poisonous Doctrine, and pestilential Opinions: we should not wish (as the Comic says) ex arbore pulchra strangulari. 
Aristoph  What? If this, and the other Lascivious Poet should not have composed and published his Poems, could not I know how to be a Poet? and may not I say as sick Pompey, when the Physician prescribed him for supper by way of restorative a Mavis, adding (since that it was out of season) that Lucullus could help him to one, as preserving them all the year, Quid? said Pompey (with a disdainful look) Nisi Lucullus luxuriaret, non viveret Pompeius?  
With such Books whence nothing may be extracted but poison, and pestiferous documents; we should do as Crates the Theban did with the money, arising upon the sail of his goods; casting it into the Sea, and therewith saying, Ite: perdo vos, ne perdere à vobis. And just so Origen, and after him St. Ambrose called the mischievous Doctrines of fertile wits in the language of David, Divitias peccatorum.  
The songs of the Sirens are sweet and melodious: Nor are the Remorras so powerful in staying the Ships when they grapple them with their teeth, as they in enchanting them; so that without casting Anchor, or striking sail, as if they were run aground, they remain immovable.  
Delatis licet huc incumberet aura carinis  
Implessentque sinum ventide puppe ferentes, 
Claud.   
Figebat vox una ratem.—  
But what ensues? after the song comes sleep; and after the sleep death. Thus they only enjoyed so much, as was requisite for sleep, so much they slept as was sufficient to die.  Nec dolor ullus erat, mortem dabat ipsa voluptas. 
There is no better escape from these perils, than by the stopping our ears to their chantings, and enchanting; using for that purpose the famous wax of Ulysses. 
Cassiod. lib. 2. epist. 40.  Qui cogitavit felicissimam surditatem, ut quam vincere intelligendo non poterat, melius non advertendo superaret. No less should we do with these enchanting Sirens of Books; pleasant its true, but for the most part pernicious; the which both because unprofitable, and because prejudicial, 
August.  Nescire quam scire meliùs est.  
Who will drink Cyrces' poison, for the Cups being of Gold and of Pearl? Who out of the greatness of their curiosity, would behold in the Shield of Pallas, the head of Medusa, if the sight of it cost them a metamorphosis into stone; which to become, Satis est vidisse semel? 
Claud.  How irrational both in honesty & conscience (not to speak of the shameless liberty of the bad) is the too much affiance of the simply good; 
Gigant.  that with a pretence of polishing the wit, by the mirror of such kind of Books: to draw the riches of precious conceits, from the treasuries of so Learned Authors; do as those that in taking the Gems out of the head of the Dragon, drink the venom and poison. They run at the songs, and are caught in the snare. They become desirous of certain Spirits that so disorder the mind in taking them in, that they lose their Senses thereby.  
He that travels in dust, or dirt, howbeit he treads lightly, always retains some filthiness on his feet: and even the Stars, saith Pliny, which, (notwithstanding that they are Stars, that is to say, the pure substance of Heaven, mingled and consolidated with light;) in regard they are nourished with Terrene humours; sordid Aliment, which they exhale from here below: they become spotted, and deformed: Thus (though without any reason for it) doth Pliny hold. 
Lib. 2. cap. 9  Masculas enim non esse aliud quam terrae raptas cum humore sordes. This indeed is true, that minds, although of Celestial professions, and lives; if they diet themselves with sordid humours, imbibed from Petronius, from Apuleius, from Ovid; and besides many others, from some Poets in our Language worse than all the rest; they will contract impurity at their hearts; with a hazard of conceiving desires like to the objects they behold; as the Sheep of Jacob did at the sight of the particoloured Rods, whose Lambs were gravid again, with the same devise of many-coloured spots.  
Is there any want of Books, of less danger, and equal delight and utility to one of a sound Palate● Who would sound the Flute, said Alcibiades; should they see the wry mouths, and the bladder-cheeks that they deformedly make; when they may have the Lute, and the Gittern, which afford more delight, without causing any deformity? And with that he threw them away: nor was there any in Athens that would from thenceforth use them. Books which make you Monsters; and transform the beauty of God's Image, imprinted in your Souls; into a Beastly and Brutish deformity: to what end are they read? if there be so many others of equal pleasure, and of greater profit? Drink not therefore the dregs of impurest Authors, as Galato with an ingenious invention, depainted many Poets, the imitators, or thiefs of Homer; that with open mouth received that which he vomited: if elsewhere there is Nectar without Lees; and so much more sweet, 
Aelian. lib. 13. cap. 22. var. hist.  by how much the more pleasant, the cleanly Viands of the Mind are, than the sluttish offals of the Sense: at whose Table much more melodiously than at that of the Queen of Tyre, 
By Jopas that new- Phoebus' is expressed  
In Robes of Lovely yellow bravely dressed, 
Virgil.   
(With charming Looks, 
Aen. 1. sub sine.  and Sceptre of pure Gold)  
heavens Miracles, and Motions, which the old  
World-bearing Atlas to Alcides told:  
He sings the Moons obliquely Reg'lar ways,  
Which her become, and oft eclipse Sols Rays:  
How men and beasts at first were made, & how  
Raines, Winds, and Lightnings are produced now:  
The subject of his song in the next strain.  
Is of the Bears, Crow, Hyades, and Wain:  
And why the Vernal-dayes to th' Ocean fly  
So swifily, and the nights so leisurely.    

A paranetical reprehension, of the Writers of obscene Poems.  
HEar me, o ye Lucifers of the Earth: Did God endue you with a wit full of lofty conceits, and an acute fancy; to the end you should turn the point of it ingratefully against himself? Did he instruct you to manage the Pen with applause, to the end you make thereof a Dart to transfix him in his honour? Did God bestow upon you Angelical minds, to have you prove enemies like the Devils?  
Tell me not, The vain of our genius is good o●ly at these Themes. I will say to you that which Tertullion said of the Israelites, Malu●stis alium, & saepe, quam coelum fragrare. The clarity of your wits, which might shine as benevolent Stars: you have made lights of rotten wood: compounded of putrefaction and corruption. Grant it to be true, that you are good for nothing but Poetry. Yet, to write Lascivious Poetry, was it the necessity of the Wit, or the vice of the Will? 
S. Basil hom. 12. de lib. Ethn.  It sufficeth (as Pythagoras did with a Lascivious Lutanist) that you alter the tune of your Muse's Lyre, and change a Lascivious Lydian, into a Grave Doric, instead of exciting in others, affections and motions of Lascivious passions; to repress them.  
But, if still you are enamoured upon a Strumpet Muse; and tainted with that which you call a Genius, or humour of unchaste versifying; I shall say of you, and that with more reason, what Lactantius said of Leucyppus the Philosopher the first inventor of Atoms, and defender of Chance, 
De ira Dei c. 10.  Quanto melius fuerat tacere, quam in usus tàm miserabiles, tàm inanes, habere linguam! Is it not better to have no vain of Poetry; than to have a vain of vomiting venom and poison? A prudent Emperor would never consent, that his Wife should drink wine; although the Physicians swore to him, that there was no other way to make her of barren that she was to become fruitful. That discreet Prince esteemed the remedy, worse than the disease: and said, Malo Uxorem sterilem quam Vinosam. O how much better would this other saying sound in your mouth, 
Ped. apud Aeneam.  Malo Musam, 
Syl. li. de reb. Al. ph.  Sterilem quam Lascivam. Did I not know any other Language, than that of an irrational Creature; I would rather choose to be a dumb Man, than a speaking Beast.  
And what gain you, when you spend your Wits, & consume your age and life to publish a work to the World; (which suppose it should be granted Immortal) if for the same you shall be applauded on Earth; and tormented under the Earth; praised where you are not, and tormented where you shall eternally be? The Horace's, the Catulluss', the Ovid's, the Gallio's, the marshal's; (to omit those of our own, of a holier Religion, but of a prophaner Poetry;) what avails it them that they remain yet to the light of public Fame; if in the meantime they remain buried in the darkness of Hell: & for every particle of that obscenity which they writ, they are tormented there below; whilst here, without there knowledge, they are for the same unprofitably applauded?  
Suppose that after many years study, your Pen should send forth a Work of immortal merit; (in which notwithstanding Pauci quos aequus amavit Jupiter) of that glory, which is the proper and legitimate reward of the labours of Heroic Wits, you must promise to yourselves no other share, than the least; I mean that of the vulgar, or of the vicious: in as much as men of wisdom and judgement (to whose ears Soloecismus magnus, 
S. Hier.  & vitium est turpe quid narrare,) will rather abominate you, as cankers of civil conversation, and wholesome customs: nor will the misemployed virtue of your Wits, appear otherwise to them, than the immeasurable, but impious strength of Giants: who are not commended as mighty, because they can dig up Mountains, and heap them a top of one another; but are condemned as irreligious, because they therewith pretended to assault Heaven, and pull Jupiter out of his Throne.  But if nothing else will persuade you: behold God descending to the uncleanness of a Stable; to the miseries of poverty; to the inconveniences of obscurity; to the scorns of mockers; to the calumny of detractors; to the sale of a slave; to the condemnation of a Criminal; to the death of a Thief! All blisters under the scourges; all blood, amidst the thorns; all confusion, in his nakedness; all anguish, on the Cross! Now set him before you; and ask him, for whom he took so long a voyage, and at so long stages, as from Heaven to Calvary? For whom he dispended so many tears, so much sweat, and blood? Had this noble Merchant in all this a design of other gain than of Souls? Pretendeth he any other from us; requested he any other of his Father; than to have us for his imitators in life, and companions in glory; Now put yourselves in competition with God; and behold the disproportionate unworthiness of this comparison. He to save Souls, did what he could; you what you know, to damn them. What prognostications make you of yourselves? What faces will you have to appear before your Judge as guilty; whilst that as many as have been lost by your means; and in the Volumes of ages to come, shall be shown, after these, to have perished through your occasion; shall exalt their horrid yell, from the deepest pit of Hell, against you? What defence will you have for yourselves, being to answer for the crimes of others? howbeit they are not so much others as your own; since you laid the stumbling-blocks to those falls, you sowed the seed to those fruits of Death. 
There is not that man living on the earth, that Lucifer beholds with a better eye, and observes, and preserves, with greater care; than he that busieth himself in infusing from his brain, into the golden Cup of an Ingenious Book, the pest of error, or poison of impure Poetry. One of these alone sufficeth to ease half the Devils of the trouble of tempting: for a mischievous Book, contervailes a hundred Devils. 
Job.  Here Behemoth sleepeth in secreto calami, in locis humentibus, neither is there any necessity of his contributing to the fall of men; where the way is so glib, and slippery, the feet easily slide, and the supports deceive them.  
Timon the Athenian hated all men, he loved one only Alcibiades; but to love him was to hate all: because he foresaw by his inclinations, that he would be the ruin of many, and should become a disturber of all Greece. And those true Misanthropii, there below; if there be any men that they hug as friends, and embrace as dear unto them; they are those, that with Books of immortal duration, and mortal operation, are to fight for many ages against I leaven; to expugn honesty in many breasts, and to enrich their kingdom with many Souls.  These Truths discerned with the lights of reason, and faith by a famous Poet; (as I hear from a person of his familiar acquaintance) they made him oftentimes startle for horror, and almost swoon for grief; and so far transported him, that he took up the Book which he himself had composed to behold it Tanquam Orbis Terrarum Pha●tontem (as Tiberius called Caligula) whence as having merited a flash of lightning, 
Suet. in Cal. 6. 11  he sentenced it to the flames. But no sooner did he reach out his hand to cast it into the fire; but he pulled it in with occult violence of compassion; Love, then bringing to his mind, the cold and tedlous nights, of those seven years watching, which he spent in writing it; the great labours of the wit, which there had expressed the quintessence of its Art; the harms of his impaired health, enfeebled and worn away by the file of continual study: so that there was not therein a syllable, or verse, that did not cost him some part of his life: The public desire of the World, longing to see it: The glory, which the merit of a Work of that singular Nature, did promise him: Alas! These were Spells which shook his hand, stupefied his arm, and perplexed his heart: whereupon he repented, altering his purpose, and condemned himself of cruelty, and credulity; and in a posture, as if he would implore mercy and pardon of his Book, he kissed it, hugged it to his breast; and to comfort it after the fright of the fire, he promised it, as before, that it should be published to the light. 
God keep you, that you may never be the Father of such a like Book. Albeit you discern its malevolent inclination, and infamous dispositions; yet to strangle it with your own hand, to tear it in pieces, to consume it in the flames; will be an enterprise of that difficulty, as if you were with your own hand to slay a Son, and to rip his Soul out of his heart with your own knife: and the same said origen's Master in Stromati: Libri sunt filii animorum.  
The knowledge, and foresight, that the publishing it it print, would be to the prejudice of many, and perdition of yourselves; as a Man, as a Christian will sometimes infuse horror into the mind, and chillness into the heart; and you will repent to have done that, which cost you so many sighs, so many toils. But in Conclusion, this shall convert to that Remorse of Caesar's conscience upon the Banks of Rubicon. You will strive to overcome God, and yourselves; and slightly overpassing the inconveniences of others, or yourselves; you will proceed with a resolute Jacta est alea. 
Suet. in Casi●c. 23   
For my part, if two spectacles should offer themselves to my view; on the one hand aged Abraham, binding his only Isaac as a victim upon the Altar, with a hand as steadfast, as his heart was intrepidable; and the fire put to the wood of the Sacrifice, and the hand up to fetch the blow upon the throat of the innocent Son; without either by the shivering of the arm, or altering of his countenance, or bedewing of his eyes, giving the least symptoms of a discomposed mind; applying himself with such intenseness to his Priestly Office, as if he had forgot his paternal relation; or else if he had the affectionate resentments of a Father; it was with more emulation, than compassion of his Son that he slew; although in him he was both Victim and Priest; (for he slew himself no less than him, in whom more than himself he lived:) And on the other hand an excellent Author of a pestilent Book, overcoming the contrasts of his thoughts, of his friends, and of all the Devils in Hell; sacrificing it generously to the flames, with that selfsame hand that had syllable by syllable written, and weighed it: cutting off at one blow, the labours of the years past, & the glory of the ages to come; and slaying himself in his issue: losing with a voluntary refusal, that life, which only makes us survive death; I mean, the Fame of succeeding Generations. Of these two spectacles I know not which I should more willingly behold, and perhaps it would appear unto me a lighter matter, at the express command of God; Father of the unborn, and life of the Dead, to slay a Son that was begotten with delight, and may be raised again by miracle: then at the voice, of the un-audable Speech, in which God speaks to the heart; to burn a Book, that in conceiving it, in bringing it forth, in bringing it up; cost more pains, than it hath syllables.  
What though the love of Glory; and the hopes of obtaining a Name of an invincible Soul, moved Brutus to condemn his own Sons to death; being rebels to their Country, and enemies to the public good? He condemned them as a Consul, not to deliver them as a Father, Et exuit Patrem ut Consulem ageret. 
Valerius Max. li. 5. c. 8.  His heart suffered him to see tied to the stake, Youngmen, of amiable aspect, 
Ti●. Liv. lib. 2.  and in a word, Sons. Et qui spectator erat amovendus, eum ipsum Fortuna exactorem supplicii dedit. But he could do no less. Who then so obdurated his heart; or who bereft him of it, for the time; whilst he both commanded, and undauntedly beheld the death of his Sons?  Vicit amor Patriae laudumque immensa Cupido. 
Aencid. 6  
Is the avidity of glory, able to make Father's Executioners? Where then in one is lost both the Son, & the Glory which from him was expected; how much more heroical an act is it to kill him: since the power of doing it, was taken from nothing, but from the love of Virtue?  
But the hope of ever seeing so happy a Spectacle, is a vanity. Yet I would persuade these, that the excrements, (such especially as favour wholly of brutal) may be pared off, that the Book may remain, if not good, yet at least, not exceeding bad. But also for this they are perfect at that answer, heretofore given to the Senate of Rome, when they were consulting of lesning the Tiber, by branching it, and diverting the Rivers that emptied themselves into it, thereby to secure the City from the frequent In-undations, that submerged it, 
Tacit.  Ipsum Tyberim nolle prorsus accolis fluvius orbatum, minore gloria fluere. They will not permit their works to be a drop diminished, a tittle impaired. They say they would seem monstrous being maimed, when as indeed they are Monsters being entire.    

DETRACTION.  
The inclination of the Genius, and abusive employment of the Wit to the defaming of others.  
WHo would ever imagine that Detraction should be so sweet, that he that had once tasted it should ever after desire it; & as the Lions, which if they have once licked the blood from their paws, are always after that greedy for it; so likewise he that tasteth the first relish of slander, hath ordinarily so longing a desire after it, that they become like those that had rather be without a tongue, than without their Jests; and cease to live sooner than to leave jeering. Old age, (when they arrive at it) though it ofttimes bereaves the head of wisdom, yet it deprives not the bitter tongue of it stings▪ like as the old thorns, which Winter makes to lose their leaves not their pricks; their ornament, but not their sharpness.  
These, for the most part, acute of wit, but only to sting; never speak better than when they spoke worst; never shine more than when most they burn. All the proofs of their Wits are jeers, and pungent jests: & to become the smarter in biting, they tenter their wits, more than that famous Orator strove in despite of his lisping tongue to pronounce and express the canicular and snarling letter R.  
To hear them, how a Menippus, a Zoilus, a Momns will play upon one another, (so ingeniously they do it) it is as if you heard a Music, but such Music as that, which Pythagoras observed to be made, by the blows, and percussions of great Hammers. Their Pens, 
Plutarc.  taken from a Vulture, not from a Swan, like that of the famous Demosthenes, have the ink at one end, and poison at the other: yea, the ink itself is a venom, that impoisons the names which it writeth; whereupon as those that die of poison, they appear wan and black. The sparklings of the wit, which in others are wont to be innocent Lamps of light, not of fire; for delight, not for offence; in them are lightnings, that carry flames on their wings, and death on their points.  
There is transfused into their heads the Genius of Lucilius, 
Plinius  qui primus condidit styli nasum. 
〈…〉  They have in their mouths the proper tongue of the Ancient Epigrammatists; namely, 
Praefat. l. 2. epig.  (as Martial defineth it) Malam linguam: nor though their speech be sweet, and copious, can it ever be said, of them, as of the Sweetest Plato, that the Bees put honey in their mouths; but instead of it a Scorpion's egg, or a Spider's venom. In sum; they accustom their hands to the cauterizing instruments like an Anatomist; rather than to the Pen like a Writer; and the more subtly they cut, the more excellent they seem; wounding the living, and tearing in pieces the death.  
These detracting Buffoons, unworthy of living amongst Men, as partaking of Beasts; (as was said of Cicero) to gain the applause of a jest, care not to lose the favour of a friend.  
Dummodo risum—  
Excutiat sibi, 
Horat. lib. 1. Sat. 4.  non hic cuiquam parcet amico.  
Whereupon they may well be called with the Comic Vulturii; since that Hostesne an Cives comedant parvipendunt. To express one of their conceits, they care not though they torment that innocent party upon which it lights. They only use their eyes to strike their blows home; nor do they care, when it sometimes falls out that they speed as the Eagle; that let a Tortoise fall upon the bald head of a Poet, to break the shell. Thus they take pleasure, in others sufferings; and honour, from others disgrace: imitating (if he did such a thing) Buonaroti, that crucified a man, thereby to depaint to the life a Crucified Christ. Or rather Nero, that set fire on Rome, to chant upon the Tower of Maecenas, to the sound of his Gittern, in the real wrack of his Country, the feigned conflagration of Troy.  
Ah 'las! too barbarous is that desire of theirs, to appear at others cost, quick-wits; of an acute and nimble brain. It's the cruel custom of the people of Jappoan, to prove the temper of their Scymitars, & the strength of their arms, upon the Carcases of the condemned. How much worse is it under pretence of a sportive skirmish, to thrust in ones breast a Dagger, no less mortal to the reputation of him that receives it, than the wound of a Sword would be to his life; which, as saith Vegetius, Duas uncias adactae mortales sunt. Yet you must know, that the Satyrs, 
Lib. 1. cap. 12.  Fathers and Masters of Satire, are more ugly for being Semi-beasts, than beautiful for being Demigods: and in your mordant taunts, that which is ingenious, doth not so much please; but that which is malicious, doth more displease.  
Be these the sublime uses, the divine employments, for which Wit was given you? To make it of a King that it is a Tyrant; and of a Conservator of Civil life, a Homicide, and Hangman? You appropriate that to yourselves, which an Ancient writ against the cruel Perillus; justly complaining, that he had debased the innocent Art of forming in brass the Images of gods, and Hero●s; unto the making of a Murdering Bull, to be the Executor, or Instrument of the merciless sentences of Phalaris. In hoc a simulachris Deorum, 
Plinius li. 34. c. 8  hominumque de●ocaverat, humanissimam artem. Ideo tot conditores ejus elaboraverant ut ex ea tormenta sierent? Itaque una de causa servantur opera ejus, ut quisquis illa videat, oderit manus.  
The ordinary punishment of these is to be beloved by none, shunned by many, hated by all: To bring upon themselves the infamous title of a Satirist, a Detractor, a Buffoon; who might bear in their foreheads that ancient Distich, extracted from a Greek Epigram, 
Si meus ad Solem statuatur Nasus, hianti  
Oars, ben● ostendet dentibns hora quota est.   
Diogenes, the Band-dog of Cynic Philosophers; had his palace, rather kennel, in a Tub. This was the Heaven, which he revolved: An Intelligence really worthy of such a Sphere: This the Cave from which he delivered his Oracles, that smelled more of Wine than Truth: This the Chair, where teaching, he undertook to correct others uncomely customs, with a miracle (if he had succeeded so,) that a Butt should reduce others to themselves, that is wont to make them run besides themselves. Whatsoever was the doctrine that he taught (which yet was such, that Plato called him, 
Aelian. lib. 14. cap. 33. var. hist.  alterum Socratem sed insanam) nevertheless, because in that nasty and filthy Butt, he mingled the Wine of sincere Philosophy with the sharp Vinegar of a continual malediction, he had more Scoffers than Scholars; and all Athens, looked upon him as a Dog, and shunned him as a mad Man.  
And who is there that will hug a Porcupine, since he cannot touch it so warily, but that it will prick him? who would keep company with one, to whom as to the Scorpion, Semper cauda inictu est? 
Plin. l. 11 cap. 25.  Woe would make a friend of a Lion; which then when it neither useth paws nor teeth; hath so sharp a tongue, that even when it licketh it fetcheth blood? Better is it to honour them, that they may not become enemies; sacrificing to them, as the Romans did to the Goddess Febris; for than they oblige you when they come not near you; and when they only so far remember you, as never to think of you.  
But it would be so slight a punishment for Detractors, to be only shunned and avoided; if also they were not persecuted. For although sometimes they are subtle in the interests of their lives, as to know how much it behoves them not to irritate those, that can answer to the Pen with the Sword; and to words, with deeds: but that in the affairs of such they ought to be dumb, if not blind; taking thereof an example, from certain Northern Cranes, that being to pass Mount Taurus take a stone in their mouths, to the end they may not with their chattering wake the Eagles there nested: yet it's seldom seen, that they are so cunning; but that one time or other, they do that unawares; which they continually do, either out of a habit, or nature: whereby either they make to themselves, as the Silkworms, a prison with their own mouths; or provoke them in whose power it is to crush the Scorpion, upon the sore it made: bringing to mind by their example the truth of that, which Pollio said of Augustus▪ That we ought not Scribere in eum, 
Macr. li. 2. Sat. cap. 4.  qui potest proscriber●.  
They will not always meet with such as will give them money to hold their peace; nor such as (following the advice of Alphonsus King of Arragon) will throw to the Cur medicatis frugibus offam, to keep him from barking, or at least from biting.  
It was the singular fortune of that Advocate in Martial: 
Quòd clamas semper, 
Lib. 1.  quòd agentibus obstrepis Hel●. 
Epist.   
Non facis hoc gratis, accipis ut taceas.   
Many times accipiunt, ut taceant: but they receive something, but what I know not, upon which they cease to snarl, so that they are never heard to speak more: which was the reward of that notorious Zoilus; who whether he were burnt alive, or stoned; or crucified, 
Vitru.  in one of these sorts of coin, he was paid the wages, 
praef. li. 7  of his aspersions against the Prince of Poets.  

He that hath erred in Writing, should not refute his confutation: And he that is ignorant himself, should not undertake to correct, or condemn others.  
THere is not a man upon Earth of so clear and Chrystaline a Wit, that in receiving the light of Sapience, doth not cast some shadow; some more, some less opacious, and muddy with Ignorance. Our souls, said a Wise Ancient, (fires of themselves all light, and clarity,) being that they are conjoined to this gross matter of our bodies, which they enliven; besides the sloth that attends them, are also obfuscated with foggy vapours; whereupon, like flame confused and intermingled with smoke, they lose in great measure the vivacity of their motion, and the clarity of their light. And from hence is the difficulty in seeking, and incertainty of discerning the Truth. Therefore hanc veniam petimusque damusque vicissim, of sometimes not hitting the Centre, without being therefore expulsed the Circle of the Learned; like as the Moon, although that it be sometimes Eclipsed, and darkened, yet she is not for this banished from Heaven.  
And to say the truth, they are not to be tolerated, that either vend their own writings, or defend others as Oracles of infallible Truth; as Gold of the twenty-fourth Carat without mixture of error, without alloy of falcity. As for their own, let them hear St. Ambrose, that very aptly resembles them to Children, to which the love that is born, blinds the judgement; whereupon the better Fathers they are to them, the worse Judges they use to be of them; 
S. Ambr.  Vnumquemque fallunt sua scripta, & Authorem praetereunt. Atque ut fil●i etiam deformes delectant parents, sic etiam Scriptores, indecoros quoque sermones palpant. For those of others, let them, besides many other places of Augustine, 
St. Aug. epist. 111  read his 111 Epistle where he saith, His custom was not to adore the Authors but the Truth; not their Sayings, but Reason; forsaking them where they forsook her. Talis sum ego in scriptis aliorum (concludes he the Epistle) tales volo intellectores meorum.  
On this ground, the more Wise are persuaded before the publishing their writings, to bring them to the rest, and censure of a friend, equally judicious, and faithful; that where they find them defective, they may say to them, as the Ancient Fencers to their scholars, Repete, but if only after their coming to public light, they be seen deficient; they themselves may correct them; retacting them as Painters, which boast not their labours for works exactly perfect according to the rigour of Art, but write underneath the Faciebat of Polycletus and Apelles. 
Plin. praefat. hist.  Tanquam inchoata Arte, & perfecta, ut contra judiciorum varietates superesset artisici regressus ad veniam, velut emendaturo quidquid desideretur, si non esset interceptus. 
Plutarc. quomodo profectus in virt. etc.  And of this the Great Hippocrates gave an example, who reputed it no shame to retract any thing, which he had writ of the Sutures of the brain.  
But for as much as either the Writer (unless too late) perceives not his errors, of which unwittingly he makes himself Master, printing them; or is prevented by others in opportunely prescribing them an Antidote, and giving them a reproof; when that evenes, he that is a prudent Judge, and rational friend, should not write to disgrace, injure, or irritate him: for that is not his desire, that as the Ancient Romans whilst they were wholly ignorant of the Mathemathicks, regulated their public actions by an irregular and lying Dial; 
Plivius li. 7. c. 60  Non enim congruebant ad horas ejus liniae; so, his errors should be the rule of others understandings; Nimis enim pervers● seipsum amat, said the Great Augustine, 
Epist. 7. ad Marcellinum.  qui & alios vult errare, ut error suus lateat.  
Yea, to be assisted in un-deceiving himself, and which is more, the World; aught to be so much the dearer to every one, by how much all are obliged to love the Truth. And hear in a few of his own words, the sense that the same Augustine had of this; A man, I know not whether of greater ingenuity, or modesty: Non pigebit mesic ubi haesito quaerere, 
Lib. 1. de Trim. c. 2  sic ubi erro discere. Proinde quisquis hac legit ubi pariter certus est pergat mecum, ubi pariter haesitat, quaerat mecu●●. Ubi errorem suum cognoscit redeat ad me▪ ubi meum revocet me.  
And this, of which I have hitherto writ, is the part of the modesty of him that writes: Nor should it be less that, of him that readeth. Not betaking themselves to a profession of running only to errors of Writers to condemn them; as Vultures to putrid Carcases, or Ravens to Carrion to devour them; doing it moreover with as much liberty, as if there were no possibility of their erring, in noting the errors of others: and yet the Aphorism of Ambrose is most true, 
●. Apol.  Saepe in judicando majus est peccatum judicit, 
David. cap. 2.  qu●m peccati illius, de quo fuerat judicatum.  
This is the discourteous manner of many, 
Plinius praef.  Qui obtrectatione alienae Scientiae famam sibi aucupantur; Ferulasque tristes sceptra Paedagogorum. 
Mart.  they hold a Censorious brow still advanced over the Authors they read, to lash them; they delighting no less thus to use the rod, than others to grasp the Sceptre. Thence are born the so many Contests, Apologies, not to say the Duels, and Tragoedies of a thousand Authors, though of no ordinary judgement; which in this kind of impertinency, have thrown away much time, and much sweat, but to what purpose?  Bella geri placuit nullos habitura triumphos. 
This seems to me a matter, not to be wholly passed over with a coniving eye: Take therefore about it some few advertisements.  
First; That a man that hath no more but a belly and a tongue, 
Plu. Apoph.  (as Antipater said of Demades) should undertake to make himself the Tri●r of the Golden Writings of worthy Men; finding how much of purity, and how much of dross they contain; condemning what they understand not, rejecting what they like not, gnawing what they cannot bite: 
Pl. Apoph.  That a sordid Woman instead of her Spindle, should take a Pen, and write against the Divine Theophrastus, taxing him of ignorance and simplicity; renewing the Ancient Monsters of Fable: That a proud Omphale, should condemn Great Hercules from a Club to a Distaff; from killing of Monsters, to spinning: That a Demosthenes, (Cook to Valens the Emperor,) as if the Kitchen had been a School of Wisdom, and the Dishes Books; should vilify the Theology of Great Basil; and reject it as viands without salt, and Sapience without savour: That one Mr. Johan. Ludovicus, should pretend to draw the most Learned Augustine out of ignorance: and presume (Sus Minervam) to teach the true form of Logic to that Great Augustine all Soul; to that Ingenious Archimedes, which against the enemies of Truth and Faith, knew how to make as many thunderbolts, as he made arguments: deducing his propositions from most manifest principles, as rays from the Sun: and directing them in a Logical form, to the mark of infallible consequences: Is not this the same as to see Mures de cavernis exeuntes; tilt with a straw at the breast of a Lion? To see water-Frogs not only to muddy the water for Diana, but to desire to engross it solely and wholly to themselves? To see Beasts with the horrid yelling of their discordant throats, to affright and put to flight the Giants?  
In beholding these, and others of the like stamp expound, blot out and correct the writings of Learned Men; it brings to mind, and sets before my eyes that indiscreet Ass, which with teeth accustomed to Roots▪ Shrubs, and pungent tops of Thistles; durst attempt to tear and devour all the Iliads of the Poet Homer: to the greater disgrace and disaster of Troy (as a Poet speaks) in as much as heretofore a Horse more honourably, now an Ass more sordidly destroyed it.  
The Grecian Aristides died, a man of Martial valour, proved at more than one encounter; & died of poison taken from the wound of a certain little Animal, that had stung him. Death grieved not the Valiant Man, but dying so dishonourably: namely, not torn by a Lion▪ not bruised by an Elephant; not dismembered by a Tiger; but stung by an unlucky Fly. The like, in my judgement, may be the resentment of those great Masters of the World, seeing themselves stung, reprehended, condemned; not by man excellent for Wit and Learning, but by a Cook, by a Woman, by a Pedant. For i● the Stars (saith Cassiodorus) seeing upon a Dial, the immense periods of their light imitated, and as it were mocked, by the little motion of a shadow; would be offended, and in disdain confound Heaven, and the World: and would commence other motions, other revolutions, 
Lib. 1. epist. 15  Meatus suos fortasse deflecterent ne tali ludibrio subjacerent; What do you think so many in every profession of Learning, Oracles of Wisdom, would now do, if in the silence of their Sepulchers they might ●ear themselves taxed, some for blind, some for simple, some for inexcusably ignorant; and this by men, not only no Sages, but (if they may be measured by their judgement) no men; who to acquire in the vogue of the Vulgar, the name and credit of Hercules, and Samson; strip the skins from the minds of the already-dead-Lions.  
Secondly, it happens many times, that that is our Ignorance, which we may think another's error: and we may peradventure say to ourselves, that, which many grave and holy Bishop said to the Apostate Emperor ●ulian; who read, and contemned a most learned Apology of St. 
Sozom▪ Histor.  Apollonarie: Legisti▪ sed non intellexisti; si enim intellexisses, non improbasses.  
The Ancient Romans, in the exercise of Arms, wherein they held the Soldiery continually trained; gave for the first rule of well bestowing their blows, Not to lay themselves open to their Enemy's weapons: so that he warding the blow, in the same act, wound them in deficient part of their arms, before they could recover their Swords from the thrust and return (without loss of much time) to their gu●rd. 
Lib. 1. cap. 12  In qua meditatione, (saith Vigetius) serv●●●atur illa camela ut ita Tyro ad inferendum vul●●us insurgeret, ne qua ex parte pateret ipse ad plagam. And the first rule of those that take up the Pen against a Writer, aught to be, that in condemning an others ignorance, they show not their own. Otherwise, if entering into a Labyrinth, to fetch out one that wanders in the same, you have not a clue with which to wind out yourselves; you shall be the subject of Democritus laughter, that derided the wretched Grammarians, wholly intent to trace out the errors of Ulysses, whilst in the meantime they saw not their own.  
We need not betake ourselves to bite others, till our Wise-teeths be grown: which (as Aristotle adviseth) shoot late. It is requisite to be doubly furnished, with Learning, and with Wit, being to correct him that erreth; that so both the error be certain, and the correction inculpable. And how many times doth it happen, that through the insufficiently understanding the true sense of the Writer, we commit the crime of Mutius Scaevola, that thinking to kill the King, slew the Servant? We arraign that as said by another, which he neither said, nor dreamt; and desperately engage in a Combat with phantasms: when as, if not having eyes of our own sufficiently able to discern, we had used those of a perceptive friend; we should have put up our weapons, (as the Sibyl made Aeneas,) that we might not fruitlessly grapple with shadows with great pains to ourselves, and no hurt to them.  
Thirdly, It's not the custom of these depraving Calumniators to irritate any, whilst hey be living; measuring his knowledge by the writings which he published; in regard that in a person incensed, anger many times converts to Wit: rousing all his Spirits before dormant, and running where necessity calleth them, 
Sen. l. 4.  like as In lucernis oleum fluit illò ubi exuritur. 
quaest.  How many, that kept the golden veins of sublime Wit and precious Discretion concealed and sepulchred in their breasts, 
nat.  once being stung by such as unadvisedly dared (esteeming theon devoid of Learning) to provoke them: have manifested their parts to the World: giving their emulators cause to repent the misfortune of angering them: in like manner as some times the Rocks being gravid with rich, but occult minerals; rend by a thunderbolt, and sending forth by the opening of the wound an essay of that wealth which was within concealed: make it appear, that those are Mountains of Gold and Silver, that were reputed to be no other but incultivated heaps of Stones? How many whose brains appeared frozen, and as impenetrable as slint: being provoked to the proof of their Pens●● just as slint stricken, have sent out not sparks, to light: but flames and, lightning to wound? What can be a more incensate, and stupid animal, than an Ass? Yet observe that of avaricious Balaam; that being smitten with more passion, than reason, became in its own defence a Demosthenes. 
In Ps. 4  Balaae (saith chrysostom) erat Asinus, ani●al omnium haebetissimum; ●ecminùs benè se desendit apud eum, qui ipsum puls●ba●, quam homo praeditus rations. But farther, Do not even Mutes themselves (as is said of that Son of Cr●●sus) in defence of the things to which nature hath related them, know how to untie the tongue; and, with a miracle of that natural Love, to which nothing is a miracle, to speak that which they never learned to speak?  
How many, be it envy, be it desire of contradiction, be it ambition of erecting to themselves upon others ruins a repute of gallant Men; 
In praef.  (imitating, 
●d d●al.  (saith Theodoret,) that Shimei, which made himself famous to the World with stoning a King: a King so holy, so innocent as David:) have with the stings of their over-pungent Pens, infuriated those, which (being supposed Lambs, but found Lions,) have made them wish themselves out of the lists? but in vain, and too late, for Galea●tum se●ò duelli poenitet: 
Juven.  have sown, with Cadmus, biting Speeches as it were teeth of poisonous Serpents; and have afterwards been affrighted seeing an Host of Armed Men so suddenly spring up? Messis cum proprio mox b●llatura col●no. 
Ovid.  have took (as Archilochus told one who would without cause quarrel with him) the Wasp by the wings; 
Met.  and afterwards hearing the humming have wisher tha● either they had had no hands to take it, on had had no ears to hear it? I ●ave strove as M●rs●●s with Apollo, 
Lucia●●  ●believing him to be a Shepherd, 
Pseud.  who was a God● and when afterwards they have seen themselves s●ea'd like Calves, have begged pity, have offered promises, but in vain; for he that resolved to have his skin, would not give him a word: nor would he suffer himself to be overcome with entreaties, that had overcome in Singing? In short, how many be there that have ●ound themselves in the midst among Vipers, and Asps; nor have they known of whom to complain besides themselves alone; that rashly rushed among them, too late taking heed, and have complained to no purpose● as that unfortunate Roman Army, that finding in 〈◊〉 more Monsters, than humane enemies, with whom to sight: said, 
— Nihil A●●rica de te, 
●aican.   
Nec de te Natura queror. 〈…〉 st●a serentem  
Gentibus ablatum deàerasser emibus o●●●m.  
In loca serp●ntum ●os ucnimus.   
Such a one was Ruffinus, who sorely to his cost stung, and provoked, St. Jerome; and chose rather to be his emulator than friend: But afterwards proving how dexterous a hand he had to strike, and heavy to wound, he would have withdrawn himself from the fray, crying; That he had sufficient punishment in himself without his blows: That Love of Truth, not passion had guided his hand whilst he writ: That it was not handsome betwixt Christians, between Monks; to take up the Pen, and to use it as a Sword to hurt one another. To whom St. Jerome, Esto, said he, me nescius vulneraris: quid ad me qui percussus sum? Num idcirco curari non debeo quia tu me bono animo vulnerasti? 
Lib. 1. contra Ru●●.  Confossus ●acco: stridet vulnus in pectore, candida prius sanguine membra turpantur; & tu mihi dicas, Noli manum adhibere vulneri, ne ego in te videar vulnerasse?   

Cautions about the nice mystery of opposing others, and defending ourselves.  
IT sufficeth not by way of advice to such as know little and presume much to have hitherto said, that a SHOEMAKER who is in his Craft raiseth not himself ultra crepidam; ought not to climb to the face & censure a countenance designed and painted by Apelles; whose Art, as he hath not EYES Learned enough to understand it, so ought he not much less have a tongue so bold as to condemn it: But it rests also to speak of that which is required in contrasts between the Intelligent; that so they may attein to the level of reason, and agree with the Standard of Equity; And they are either arreignments of others writings; or defences of our own.  
And to the writing against others: As the Love of Truth, aught to be that alone, which puts the Pen into the hand, and in a certain sense dubs the Writer her Knight; so Modesty ought to be the Mistress that teacheth the Art of managing it: using it not as the Lance of a Soldier; but of a Chirurgeon; against Error to amend; not against the Author, to offend him: Therein evincing himself a good Scholar of Divine Wisdom the Word, whose Mouth in the Canticles is compared not to Roses, 
Cant. 5.  which yet are of a colour, that more than all other Flower resembleth the Lips; but likened to the Lilies: and this, not only because the candure of the proper and native Verity of the mouth of Christ, without painting or borrowed embellishment, by itself alone sufficiently resplends; which is the ingenious surmise of Theodoret: but also, because the Lily is a Flower, no less innocent than lovely: 
In c. 5.  without pricks, 
Cant.  or roughness, to render it sharp and pungent. Flos sublimis (saith St. Ambrose of Christ portrayed in the Lily) immaculatus, innoxius, 
Lib. 7. in Luc.  in quo non spinarum offendat asperitas, sed gratia circumsusa clarescat.  
The Stars whilst they fought against Sisera, 
Jud. c. 5  broke not their order, forsook not their posts, nor discomposed themselves in doing it. Mane●●es in ordine, & cursu suo, adversus Siseram pugnaverunt. And thus ought they to do that undertake to write against others; which yet is a combat not without Victory, though without blood. It is good to beware, that in running the Lance of his reason, he lose not his stirrup; and thereby the merit of Wit be overcome by the defect of Passion: A●d that he censure not the pride of Plato; with the pride of Diogenes; rendering himself criminal in the very act of recriminating.  
The convincing one of error, is to put the finger into the wound, and to search it even to the bottom; and Action to be done with exquisite delicateness, that the cure cause not more anguish, than the wound. Discreet Hippocrates, commanded that the eyes of the sick, 
Lib. de medico.  as parts extreme delicate, should be wiped with the purest Linen, and the wounds cleansed with the softest Sponges; and both done with all possible dexterity and lightness of hand. And before him the Protomedicus Holy Raphael ordered young Tobias, that in the cure of the eyes of his blind Father, before he applied the Gall for medicine, he should give him a kiss for Love. 
Tob. 11  Osculare eum, statimque lini super oculos ejus ex felle isto: We would prescribe the like advice to such as pretend to illuminate the Eyes of the Mind of the erroneous; still to have regard that the Gall of reprehending another for his error (which although it were only to publish it, yet is a collirium of great sharpness) be not disunited from the kiss; and the Kiss disjunct from Love.  
Carneades the Academian, being resolved to write against Zeno Patron of the rigid Sect of the Stoics; with a small pill of Hellibore purged his stomach from peccant humours, especially from Choler, to the end their fumes should not obfuscate his Wit in that important action. 
Gell. li. 170. 55.  Ne quid è corruptis in stomacho humeribus ad domicilium usque animi redunderet. He that hath purged his brain, and knows what is sufficient for that which perteins to the enterprise of confuting; let him not omit also to purge the tartness of choler; so that his doctrine and the manner of delivering it be equally inculpable. Let him accord the Affections of his mind to the Music of Reason, that so the style in which he expresseth himself, 
Laert. in Xenocr.  do not participate of difficulty, or dissonancy. Let him not enter the lists till he hath made that sacrifice to the Graces; that the complacential Plato advised the churlish Xenocrates. Then let him go as those Prudent and Puissant Spartans' that fell not to the Battle at the sound of the rattling Drum, but of the Bagpipe and Flute, Ut modestiores modulatioresque fierent, 
Lib. 2. cap. 11.  said Thucydides in Gellius. Otherwise he that is not as appassionate as you seeing your discomposed method; will scorn and disdain you. It will be also said to you, as the Poet Menander said to Phylemon his Antagonist, & through the ignorance of the Judges also his Conqueror, Quaeso te bona venia dic mihi, cum me vincit non erubescis? You acquire, (though you know your 
* Award in the noble Science of Defence.  Veni to be good) if you be not as modest as efficacious, the Title of that cruel Chirurgeon of Rome, which for the roughness with which he indiscreetly made inscitions, lost the name of Chirurgeon, 
Plinius 1. 29. c. 1.  gaining that of Carnifex. 
Archagathus.   
But far more difficult is it for one, provoked to stop at the mark of Reason; when he thinks his resentments may be freer, for that his provocation is just and reasonable. This is one of those not ordinary tempests in which it is necessary to be provided of the Rudder of Respect, and an extraordinary Mastery over the Affections; so that one while with slight, another while with force we ward off, and break, the forceable and impetuous assaults of the Bellows. That Moderamen inculpata tutelae, there where it is lawful to conjoin in defence of ones self, is a line so difficult to be touched, without running beyond it; that it resembles the case of him that runs down the steep of a Hill, and can very hardly (in that rather prae●cipice than race) so command his feet, and th● bulk of his body, that at the place where h● is to stop, he run not some steps farther tha● the mark.  
If I hold my tongue, men will think I plead guilty by a tacit confession. If I respond not boldly, that will appear a remorsed of a guilty Conscience, which would be the dictate of an innocent modesty. Thus I shall become the Owl of Writers, and scorn of the World; for even the Spiders make their Webs upon the Statues about the face and beard of Jupiter; nor fear they● his thunderbolts, because they are in the hands of a Wooden god insensible, and insensate. To answer one, so, that he come off with torn Clothes, and a broken face; would be in one, to warn all others, that they take heed of two bold sharpening their Pens against such who know how to turn them into Darts, and report Gall for Ink, and wounds for stings. Thus the thunderbolts from the Clouds Paucorum periculo, multorum metu. 
Sen. de Clem. l. 1. c. 8.  One burns with the pain of it, all freeze for fear of it; and the death of one alone, teacheth many to fear Heaven though serene; remembering how it thundereth when incensed.  
Withal, there be many, that abandoning themselves to Passion, to assert their Right, relinquish all Reason. And the blind Fools perceive not, that Choler in a Disputant is commonly an argument of weakness, and a sign of being overcome; as calmness and mirth, is a testimony of Victory. Thus that Prince, the friend of Sydonius Apollinarius, presently adjudged him conqueror in the Disputation●, as soon as the passion of the adversary did confess it. Oblectatur commotione superati; 
Sid. li. 1. epist. 2.  & tunc demum credit sibi cessisse Collegam, cum fidem fecerit victoriae suae, bilis aliena.  
Moreover, as to every opposition of every emulator, we need not respond: (whence therefore excellent was that saying of Xenocrates in my judgement; 
Laert. in Xenocr.  Tragedy vouchsafeth not to answer the injuries, that Comedy offers) so also every opposition to which we ought to reply, requireth not the same temper in the Reply. When a Dart hath only peireed the skin, to what purpose should a man rave, and take on, as if it had transfixed his bowels? Let it suffice to imitate the Elephant, that disburdeneth himself of an hundred Darts by one shake, and Mota cute discutit hastas. 
Lucan.   
Yea sometimes, the cause is so obvious, that there is an advantage in showing what could be said, without so much as deigning to speak it. There is not a creature better provided for its own defence, nor more apt to another's offence than the Porcupine.  
Externam non quaerit opem. Fert omnia secum.  
Se pharaetra, 
Claud. in hist.  sese jaculo, sese utitur arcu.  
Vtrum animal tuuctas bellorum possidet arts.  
But against him that provoketh it, though it have all the pricks of its body, as Darts in the nock, yet he useth not his utmost power, and that which he can do with one, he doth not with two; and if threats suffice, he forbears to wound 
— Iraque nunquam  
Prodiga telorum, 
Ibid.  Cantè Contenta Minari.   
He only erects his bristles, and as it were putting them in the bow, he seems to say to such as offend him, Look to yourselves there. This manner of Apology Tertullinn useth, 
Cap. 6.  writing against the Valentinians, Ostendam (saith he) sed non imprimam vulnera. Si ridebitur alicubi, materiis ipsis satisfiet. Multa sunt sic digna revinci, ne gravitate adorentur.  
But when either the importance of the Matter, or the insufferable tartness of the Provoker, admits not of silence, or dissimulation, assume a serious Defence, and set on work all that is within the power or capacity of Wit, Art, Reason, and Eloquence. In this case you may Thunder and Lighten: but let not the lightnings be composed of stinking sulphur to infect the World, but of pure light to clear the Truth. Fly not out irregularly through Passion; but free yourselves justly by reason. Let there be, as in Janus the God of War, the face of a youth, and of an old man; Spirit; and Judgement; Fortitude and Maturity; Resolution and Moderation. 
Hom. 34 in Matt.  chrysostom lamented not; Quod tanquam lupi in adversarios ruamus, saepe sine victoria, qui tamen vincerimus, si oves essemus à pastoris auxilio non recedentes, qui non luporum; sed ovium pastor est.  
Learning would be happy, if its Professors should use betwixt themselves the emulations, and contrasts, wherein erst Protogenes and Apelles lovingly contented, in drawing in the midst of a very small line, another line more small than that, without the least crookedness: If the pungent, and resplendid Arms of Wit, were as Cassidorus said of certain others anma juris, 
Lib. 7. for. 1.  non furoris; rays of verity, not Darts of Detraction. But to conclude, experience shows, that the controversies of wit, of Civil that they should be, for the most part become criminal; whereupon it would be better in my judgement, when the interest of public good persuades not otherwise, to convert the Sword, and Spear, into Ploughshares, and Mattocks; and to cultivate their own wits rather than to contrast with others. But if the itch of contradiction, permits them to live quietly no way, but by disquieting others; do the want (as said St. Jerome to Augustine, refusing to come with him to a trial of wit, and to dispute,) do they want public Masters of Errors; Heretics, Atheists, & Politicians to cope with? Let them spare men, and kill beasts. Let them say with Entellus when instead of Daretes his enemy he slew an Ox.  
Erice, I here to you this soul present,  
As being more worthy of this punishment  
Than that of Daretes. And VIGTOR, now  
As useless, I lay by my art, and bow.    

SELF-CONCEIT.  
The esteem of a man's own knowledge with dispraise of others.  
THe head of a man is not so incapacious, but that, better than the fabulous Budget of Ulysses, it can contain as many Winds as Pride and Loftiness inspire; nothing less forceable to turn upside-down the Sea, and Land, than are the Whirlwinds to raise Tempests; and the exhalations, imprisoned in subterrenean Caverns, to shake it with Earthquakes. Those unfortunate Scholars know this to their cost; which (I know not if I should say, in, or rather besides their Wits,) go so stately, that they think they are riding in their Triumphant Chariot. They are the saul's, that are above others Ab humcro & sursum, not by the head so much, as by the brain, and opinion of themselves. These are the Olympus'es', of whom, the loftiest summities of Mountains, the most elevated ingenuities, and wisest Souls, scarce attein to the basis, and to kiss their feet. They are the Suns, that alone have light to illuminate all obscurity, and to obscure all clarity.  
These, I know not whether they should more move tears in Heraclitus, for compassion; or laughter in Democritus, for derision. And howbeit you esteem that Alexarchus the Grammarian, is worthy of the pity of a Philosopher rather than the scorn of the Vulgar; to whom his School seeming an Heaven; 
Clement. Alex. in Pro.  the ranks of Forms that stood about him, circulations of Spheres; the Boys he read to, Stars; his Documents, Light; the Nouns, Pronowns, Verbs, Articles, &c, Signs of the Zodiac; himself made a Sun; nor would he be any other way depainted, or called: and it was a crime to behold him without a certain suffering of the eyes, as when they are fixed on the Sun: Yet that Title would better have fitted him, which Tiberius used to give to Appion, 
Plinius praef. operis.  a Grammarian as himself, and no less a Bragadocchio than he, being empty of understanding, and full of Wind, and therefore aptly called Cymbalum mundi.  
What think you of that other Remnius, (rather Pallon than Pollemon;) that went up and down bewailing the misfortune of the World, that should remain after him, as it had done before him ignorant: in regard learning, that was born with him, with him also should die? And upon the matter it seemed true; for he being dead, there was not one letter left to make his Epitaph.  
But the proud conceit that the tenth Alphonsus King of Castille, had of his Wit and Knowledge, surpassed the bounds of common, yea, rather of humane opinionativenesse; a man by profession an Astronomer, (of whom now a days those Tables of his called Alphonsine take their denomination) not yet of so sublime intelligence, nor of such knowledge in this Art, that Atlas might have trusted Heaven to his shoulders, without endangering a ruin; but of so high esteem of his own brain, 
Roderir. Sanctius histor. Hisp. li. 4 cap. 5.  that he used to say, That had he been permitted God's ear when he composed the Heavens, and assigned the periods to the Stars: he would have contrived this work with more order, and with rules of more exact proportion. 
Chap. 38  Now God interrogated Job as of a thing transcending the capacity of our wits; Numquid nosti ordinem Coeli? & pones rationem ejus in terra? If God would go to School to Alphonsus, he offereth himself to be his Master in Astronomy; And if he would bring him the Volume of his eternal Ideas, he would blot out, he would adjust the Model of the Heavens, and the Pattern of the World to a more methodical contrivance.  
Only madness could defend this blasphemy from the fulminations of the Heavens, where posuit ossuum: and indeed God imputed it to his folly, using him with more compassion than anger, and by letting him blood as a frantic person in the vein in the middle of his forehead, took away his Crown. He would give him to understand, that he would not have known how to adjust the Revolutions of Heaven to a better form; and therefore sent him a Revolution in his Kingdom: which he, with all the Canons and Rules of his Calculations, never knew how to adjust; whereupon he came to be deposed by his Son and died an exile in a foreign Country.  
Men distracted as Alexarchus, as Remnius, although perhaps less known, I doubt not but (as in all times,) so also such there are now a-dayes in the World. He that would portray them to the life, may depaint a great Smoke, (that advanceth itself even to the Clouds, and the more it exalts, the more do those its great Volumes swell and dilate; 
In Ps. 36 ) thereto affixing the Motto of Augustine Quantò grandior, tantò vanior.  
Hearing them some times speak in their own praise, and in under-valuing of others, we may know how justly they merit the salute that Philip of Macedon returned to his proud Physician that writ to him, Menecrates Jupiter Philippo salutem: The answer was, Philippus Menecrati sanitatem: which was to make himself the Doctor of his Doctor; and to send him for the health of his brain, a dose of Helibor in a salute. You may hear them brag, That under their Caps and Gowns the most lofty, & most profound Sciences are touched as the Pearls are confined to the shells of the 
* Cachilaes.  Pearl Cockle. That their Dictions are the Charts of secure Navigation, without which in the Sciences, we incur, naufrage or peril. That their Documents are at the ultimate extent of Truth, as the Stars at their extremity of the World's confines: so that Altiùs his nihil est, 
Manil. 1  haec confinia mundi.  Others are the Cisterns, they the Ocean; others Moles, they Lynxes; others Farfalla's, they Eagles; others Flies they Hearns. O Medici, mediam contundite venam! 
And if not so, at least let them attempt to open the door to let out the wind, with which the wretches have their heads so puffed up; and this may be done by bringing their eyes into the light of some perspicuous verities; Such as these;  
1 Every one fancies his own things, being little, to be great. Self-love is a concaveglasse that represents an Hair to be a Tree, and a Gnat to be a Pegasus. He that takes Love for a Judge, esteems his matters as that Clitus esteemed a Naval fight, in which battering and sinking only three Grecian Galleys, 
Plut. Or. 2. de fort. Alex.  as if he had either routed Xerxes, or imposed fetters upon the Ocean, from thenceforward he always made himself to be called by the majestic title of Neptune.  
Whence is it that the Moon being forty times less than the Earth, seemeth to the judgement of the eye equal to the Sun, which yet is greater than the Earth almost an hundred and forty times? But only because the vicinity of the Moon to the Earth, representeth it so much greater; as the Sun appears lesser, by being more remote. But there is nothing so near to any one, as is his own composures; thence it is that they seem to them immensurably great, and more vast than those of other men, which by being besides us, and therefore remote from us, are much diminished in their appearance.  
2 Compare a Grass-hopper to an Ant, and who doubt but that it would seem a Giant? He that measures what he knoweth, though very little, with what he knoweth who knoweth nothing; believes himself to be absolutely, when as he is only comparatively, most Learned. Those that went to study at Athens, said Menedemus, went thither Doctors, continued there Scholars, and came away Ignorants. 
Plutare quomodo prof. &c  Not only because, the more they understood that which they knew, the more they came to know what they did not understand; but also because, they met, in that most Celebrious Concourse of the Noblest Wits of the World, with such to confront their understandings, that compared to them, they believed they knew nothing. This was the Art by which most prudent Socrates corrected the presumption of his Alcibiades, who being rich by paternal inheritance, and by his acquist of much wealth, became so stately, as if he had been a Monarch of the World not a private Citizen of Athens. He brought him to the knowledge of himself, self, by a Map of the World, in which he found Europe, and in it Greece, and in Greece with much ado Athens; Now (saith he) show me here thy House, and thy Fields; which having, as thou seest, no place in the World: how comes it, that thy head is filled with such contemptible thoughts of the World? He that believeth himself to be in Ingenuity and Wit a Star of the first magnitude, let him compare himself not with the lesser, but with the Suns of the World; and in one and the same instant, he shall see his ambition to wane, and his light to vanish.  
3 That one, where as he is great among others, should desire to be greater than others; where as he is one of the first, he should desire to be alone; is that which may not be suffered in any one, more than heretofore it was tolerated in that proud Pompey; 
Velleius Tom. 2. hist.  Qui, ut primùm Rempublicam aggressus est, quemquam animo parem non tulit, & in quibus rebus primus esse debebat, solus esse cupiebat. For though you be excellent in every profession of literature, yet are you not a Phoenix, alone, and singular in the World: nor a Primum Mobile, that without receiving impression or motion from a Superior Heaven, giveth the motion, and revolution to the lesser Spheres. Who is there, that knows so much, that others before him knew nothing; so that 〈◊〉 may assume the insolent words of Prince ●alphas, Vos nescitis quidquam? Nature was ●ot so sterile, that you being made, she had not the like Moulds again to make others: Nor so poor, that to make you rich in knowledge, she should leave others Beggars. Wherefore then look you round about you, and thinking you see none in the World that may stand in competition with you for knowledge, say you foolishly to yourselves, as Deucalion said to his Companion, Nos duo turba sumus? Wherefore make you your wit a Procrustes, and desire that every one equalise the stature of your Judgement as the Standard of Truth; and therefore cut off the feet of those that surpass you, and wrack the feet of those that did not reach to your length?  
But admit you were for ingenuity the first amongst the foremost, is it a very inferior and unworthy thing to be our own Panegyrist, and a despiser of others? Hear how the Brooks roar and accosting with stones how they rumble, that they seem to carry not a Rivulet of water, but a Sea; & yet many times though their channel be a mile, their depth is not a palm. On the other side the real Rivers, no less deep than vast, with how much, I will say, modesty, do they go to the Sea? There is not heard from them the least murmuration that might intimate the profoundity of their bottoms, the amplitude of their shores, the clarity of their streams, or the impetuosity of their currents; they move silently and quietly. They that carry but a small depth (in wit many times it is true, but in the judgement always) are most intolerably clamorous; & with their own applauds, and the villifying of others, deafen the world: whereby, before they are aware, they make themselves the more contemptible, by how much the more they extol themselves: for according to the Aphorisin of Symoniacus, In magnos animos non cadit affectaia jactatio. 
Lib. 10. epist. 22.   
But because it is the property of Opinionative Wits, to use not only Pride on Earth, but to exercise Curiosity in respect of Heaven; in the first, unjust to men, to whom they would be undeservedly superior; in the second, impious to God, whose being, whose actions they weigh by the weight, and measure by the pole of their short understanding: take therefore upon this occasion the subsequent consideration.  

Two great evils of Misbelievers; To search matters of Faith with the curiosity of Philosophy, and to believe matters of Philosophy with the certainty of Faith.  
GEographers in their Protractions upon Maps, or Globes of the Earth, when they come to the confines of Countries hitherto discovered, having no knowledge of the others that remain, are accustomed to draw certain obscure lines at random, and in the space that is left to write Terra Incognita. Of this custom of Geographers Plutarch makes a very apt use, 
In vita Thesei.  in excuse of his Pen, if undertaking to write the lines of certain ancient Hero's, he could not one by one particularise the erterprises, with which they acquired the grandeur of their names, and the glory of Immortals: because Antiquity and Oblivion its follower, rendered many places unknown, many parts of their lives, hid and obscure. That which Plutarch saith of the actions of those ancient Worthies, is equally true of all the great mass of matters, which may be comprehended by our capacities. Much there is known much rests incognito: rather not unknown only, but unknowable, till such time as we enter into that School where the Word being Master in the Lecture of a bare look, teacheth with indelible and most perspicuous proofs, how vainly the Wits now a-dayes stretch and wrack their brains in tracing out new inventions. I say the most abstruse Arcani●● of Faith, which are certain, if not obvious, require an implicit subjection to believe them, not an impertinent curiosity to examine them.  
For a man that is of high ingenuity, and of vast intellectuals, measured with what he presumes to understand it is no more than a shallow ditch, for to contain the Ocean. For though the speculations, and sublime thoughts, with which the mind is elevated to the knowledge of the occult truths of Faith, be very lofty, yet they can bring us no nearer to them, than the Giants of Phlegra were to Heaven, when they climbed to the tops of Pelion, Ossa, and Olympus.  
The eye of an Owl is not made to view the Sun, on which the Eagle with her adamantine pupil can scarce immovably fix her sight. Fisher-boats with a piece of a sail, and half a rudder, are not able to furrow the Ocean, and discover new Worlds.  
What other are our Intellectuals tied to the clog of the senses, 
Plinius li. 10. c. 1 Natur. hist.  but Ostriches, of greater bodies than wings, whereupon they cannot raise themselves a foot from the ground, nor can they otherwise sly, then by distending their wings in the Air, resting their feet all the while on the Earth. But were we better feathered we should reach the Clouds if not the Stars. What mind is there, what Genius, of that lofty knowledge, that maketh not to God a Sacrifice of his thoughts, upon that famous Altar of Athens dedicated, Ignoto Deo; and confessing himself unable to understand what God keeps hid, of himself, and his affairs, as it were clipping the wings of his thoughts conformable to the laws of Sacrifice of Birds; 
Act. Ap.  saith not with Augustine, Melior est fidelis ignorantia, quam temeraria scientia.  
The water of a Fountain riseth no higher than the head and spring from whence it flows; whereupon we use to say: That water ascends no more than it descends. Now our judgement doth it not begin from the Senses? and these of what other are they capable, than of matter within the bounds of sensible Nature? And how do we expect hence Fontem aquae saltentis in vitam aeternam, which we interpret of the knowledge of things supernatural, and Divine?  
But amongst those, which we may call wickedly curious, others there are, who presume to make themselves Masters of that of which the World hitherto hath had none that have been Scholars; and whetting the edge of their Wits, ma●gre the impossibility, would penetrate to the very Centre of Verity, & see her in herself, unveiled, and naked. They have scarce a mouth to suck the milk of Faith, and yet they will gnaw the bones, and take thence the marrow; As if they already understood that, which Nature hath of intelligible; so that nothing rests for them to penetrate, but only the obscure mysteries of Faith. They would be Herculeses, that having seen and conquered, the Sea, Land and Hell itself they might say, 
Per domita tellus, 
Herc.  tumida cesserunt freta,  
Inferna nostros regna sensere impetus, 
Furent.   
Immune coelum est. Dignus Alcidae labour.  
In alta mundi spatia sublimis ferar.  
Petatur aether.—   
But whilst they raise themselves on tiptoe and stretch out their wings to fly; how seasonable would it be for one to hint to them, the much that they attempt, and the little that they achieve: For one to whisper in their ears, what the Woman of Samaria said to Christ. Domine, neque in quo haurias habes, & puteus altus est. Before you aspire to greater matters, answer to the question made you by St. Jerome: Why the Elephants, that are as it were so many Mountains of flesh, have only four feet, on which they rest the immeasurable masses of their huge bodies: and the Louse, which is but a living Point, hath six? You will confess you know not this, (which if you did, you knew just nothing;) and will you pretend to understand that, which even that man is not able to understand who understands all things? At the first step you take in the pursuit of intelligible things, you stumble with Thales into a ditch, and would you attein to the sight of that which so far surmounts the Stars? How opposite to you, would the correction be, which Zeno the Stoic, gave to a conceited young Fellow, that had as little wit in his head, as hair on his face; and demanded his answer to things, of which he was not able to understand the demand: The Philosopher made him set a Looking-glass before him, and then whispered in his ear; The demand you make, and the question you ask, are worthy of this beard.  
Your Wit in comparison of that of the Great Augustine, is but as a Grasshopper confronted to a Horse; and do you pretend to couch the lance, and hit the mark, when he withdraws, and presumes not to essay it? Yea, (as it were slinging himself with that Philosopher into the Sea, and saying, O abyss tu me cape, quia te ipse non capio:) he an hundred times protesteth in his writings to know nothing; and that he knew not how to know; and goes on saying, Nescio, & non erubesco consiteri me nescire quod nescio. And how dare you open your mouth, or exalt your voice to contradict, and question that, to which for this sixteen Ages, the Pens of a world of Doctors; the Blood of a world of Martyrs; the consent of so many Nations; the Testimony of so many Miracles have subscribed and ratified? With the Rush-candle of your Dim understanding, will you pretend to examine the light of the Sun? Cannot the Wisdom of God, your Master, do as much with you; as that of Pythagoras with his Scholars? 
S. Aug. de praes. cap. 7.  Nobis curiositate opus non est post Christum Jesum, nec inquisitione post Evangelium.  
Others there are as vile as obstinate, that swearing in verba magistri; they take the Texts of some Ancient Philosophers for Sacraments; and his Sentences for Oracles: and so far confess Christ, as he doth not contradict Aristotle, or Plato. Thus they hold the Gospel, and Philosophy, in equilibrium, in an equal poise of belief.  
Quid Athenis, 
Ibid.  & Hierosolymis? Quid Academiae, & Ecclesie? Nostra institutio de porticu Solomonis: Viderint qui Stoicum & Platonicum, & Dialecticum Christianum pr●tulerunt. Even at this day the Church bewails, and shall to the end of the World complain of the detriments done her, by the profane and idle Wit of the Age; and by the Ancient Writers of the World; (Fathers of tenebrosity, and Masters of millions of errors;) to whom she may confirm the Title conferred on them by Tertullian of Patriarchas Haereticorum. 
Adversus Her.   
How much mischief did Plato in the first Ages of the Church; too much read, too much believed, and so made, as the same Tertullian speaks, Haeresum Condimentarium: He instanceth, (passing by all the rest, since that he alone serves for all,) in unfortunate Origen; that of an Eagle which he had been, accustomed to fix his eyes on the Sun of Christian Prudence, and to draw thence lights of sublimest Truths; was transformed into a Bat: admiring a few glimmering rays of light mixed with many umbrages of ignorance and error: and became so great a Platonic, that he in the end ceased to be a Catholic; losing the Truth in Fables, and the Faith in Philosophy: and that same man whose breast had been kissed tamquam Spiritus Sancti, & coelestis sapientiae templum; became Master of a School of Errors, and Reader of the blind; and so madly did he talk, that as before, Ubi benè nemo melius: so after, Ubi male nemo pejus. What infinite mischief even at this day doth that Struendi, 
Cass. div. lect. c. 2.  & destruendi artifex versipellis Aristotle, believed the Authom of the mortality of the Soul; which in one word, is as much as to say, Destroyer of the Faith, and Father of those, that live without the Souls of Men, the life of Beasts? How many of those whom he hath enchanted, 
Cyr. Alex. li. 11 Jh.  Qui ni●il aliud quam Aristotelem ructant, hold only those points of Faith for certain, that accord with the Oracles of Peripatus? as if Religion were a Grain, to be gathered out of the Chaff of humane Philosophy: and not a Bread of life descended from Heaven, to the end that upon the tasting of its sweetness, 
S. Hier. lib. 4. in Jer.  we might spit out the husks, qu●e medullam non habent, nec possunt nutrire discentium populos, sed de inanibus sti pulis conteruntur.  
Those are Frogs, 
Serm. 95  saith Augustine, Ranae damantes paludibus lim●sis (quae) strepitum habere possient, doctrinam verae sapientiae insinuare non possunt. Now, whilst the Heavens are open, and you hear the Father, (from thence pointing with his finger to the Word his Son,) to say Ipsum audite: will you lend one eye to Christ, and the other to Aristotle, or Plato? 
Aug. ser. 109. de temp.  Coelum tonat: ta●eant Ran●. where Christ teacheth, and in him Truth, or rather he as Truth itself revealed; Wisdom is dumb, and the Philosophy of the World speechless, 
S. Petrus Dam.  & phylosophia nostra Christus est. 
serm. 57     

SELF-DECEIT.  
The folly of such as pretend to study little and know much.  
IT is not the opinion of Hippocrates only, nor of Aristotle, 
Sen. de br. vit. cap. 1.  and Theophrastus; but it is the common vogue and concordant complaint of all the World, That heaven hath been sparing to us of that time, 
Laert. in Theoph.  whereof it hath been so prodigal to Stags, Crows and Cypresses. We have allotted us too short a life for so long a Lesson; too short a Viaticum for so tedious a Voyage. There is no such virtue now to be found in steel, to strengthen those Elixir vitae, that inbalmed Men alive; so that seeing themselves to approach their thousanth year, they resolved to leave the World more out of satiety with so long a life, than out of any necessity of death. We, like Flowers that yesterday sprung up, to day are old, and to morrow dead, have so short life, as if we were born only to die. That which in the Ancients was but their Childhood, is in us old Age; their tithes are our excessive riches, their overplusses, our treasures: so that of hoariness and gray-hairs, the Alexandrian Tertullian saith, with as much Truth, as Learning, hec est aeternitas nostra.  
If our knowing in this manner, the shortness of our life, could but persuade us to spend it according to its brevity; that would be a favour, which we think a punishment. Is an unreasonable thing to accuse Heaven as niggardly of time to us, and we like prodigals profusely to waste it; using our life, as if we were to measure it with the long pace of many Ages; not with the short palm of a few years. Who is there that with the Prince of Physicians c●yes not out, Ars longa, vita brevis? but in the meantime, who is there, that is solicitous to get quickly, to the mark which the most diligent reach to, but too late? Ad sapient●am quis accedit? 
Sen. nat. quest. lib. 7. cap. ult.  Quis dignam judicat, nisi quam in transitu noverit? Quis phylosophiam, aut ullum liberale respicit studium, nisi cum ludi intercalantur, cum aliquis pluvius intervenit dies, quem perdere licet.  
Nature with good advice hath placed Man in the middle of the World, as in the Centre of an immense Theatre, 
De anim cap. 16.  Procerum ●uimal (saith Cassiodorus) & in essigiem pulcherrimae speculationis erectum, to be there not as an otious Inhabitor, but a curious Spectator of this her incomparable work: in so much union, so various; in so much variety sounited; with more miracles, that adorn it, than parts, which compose it. Howbeit, to those that rightly behold it, it is not the design of nature, to put us in the World, so much in a Theatre, that we should admire; as in a School that we should learn. Therefore she hath enkindled in our hearts an inextinguishable desire of knowledge; and setting open before our eyes, as many Volumes, as the Heavens and Elements contain natures; with showing us in them manifest effects, inviteth us to trace out their hidden causes. What strength what force of intelligence of the assistant, or rather intrinsic form is that, which revolves the great mass of the Elements with indefatigable motion? Are the Spheres of the Planets many Heavens, that contracted in the concave of each others lap interchangeably surround one another: or serves only Heaven to all that great family of Stars for Mansion? Of what substance composed? Corruptible or incorruptible? Liquid as Air; or consollidate, and firm, as a Diamond? Whence proceed the Maculae, and whence the Faculae about the Sun? Whence the obscurity in the face of the Moon? Of what matter are the new Stars and Comets composed, and with what fire enkindled, that appear unexpectedly? Are they Foreigners, or Citizens of Heaven? Natives of that Country, or Aspirers from here below? The irregular errors of the Planets, how may they be reduced to regularity without error? How may we know, how may we foresee Eclipses? How great is the profoundity of the Heavens? How great the number of the Stars? How great the velocity of their motions? How great the moles of their bodies? The Winds, whence take they their wings to sly; the spaces of their course, the force of their blasts, the qualities of their operation, and the set measure of time for their rising, duration, departure? Who holdeth so many ponderous Clouds suspended in the Air? How drop by drop do they squeeze out Rain? How from their pregnant watery wombs, are Thunders begotten, which be fire? Who congeals them into Snow? Who hardeneth them into Hail? With what Ultamarine is the Rainbow depainted with always one order of Colours, and one proportionate measure of Diameter? Whence again, comes the source of Springs on the highest tops of Mountains? Whence comes it, that there should be in Hills of one & the same Earth, Marbles of so various mixtures, Metals of so different tempers. Who assigns the Sea its periods, of flux and reflux. Who replenisheth the Rivers with waters, so that their Channels are always full, though they be always emptying? The embroidery of Flowers and Herbs; the working of so various bodies in Beasts, in Birds, in Fishes; the temper of the mixed, the harmony of the common and occult qualities: In fine, what ever is, what ever is made: what being hath it, and how is it produced?  
To know all this in comparison of what might be known, is to know nothing: And yet who is there that knoweth this Nothing? Is there then so much to be known, and have we so little time of life to learn it, and do we think that the only surplussages, and shreds of time sufficeth us for study? Hear now what I have told you, expressed in the conclusion of that precious little Treatise of Seneca, 
Sen. lib. de Otio Sapientis  De otio Sapientis. Curiosum nobis Natura ingenium dedit, & artis sibi, ac pulchritudinis suae conscia, spectatores nos tantis rerum spectaculis genuit; perditura fructum sui, si tam magna, tam clara, tam subtiliter ducta, tam nitida, & non uno genere formosa, solitudini ostenderet. Vt scias illam spectari voluisse, non tantum aspici: vide quem nobis locum dedit. Ad haec quaerenda natus, aestima quam non multum acceperis temporis, etiam si illud totum tibi vindices. Licet nihil facilitate eripi, nihil negligentia patiatur excidere, Tamen homo ad immortalium cognitionem, nimis mortalis est.  
Those Sages, Masters of the World: some whereof have left their Memories, and others the productions of their Wit eternised to us; knowing this, as we esteem little Diamonds, so they held precious the least minute of that time, of which alone it is commendable to be covetous. It was a miracle to see them in Public: and they resembled, as in the love of Wisdom, so also in this, the Planet Mercury, which is placed very near the Sun, and which, by that means very hardly is discerned: as if he cared not for terrene eyes, who always was in the eye of the Sun: and beheld by him, not with an unprofitable look, but with a large communication of light. In perpetuity of study, they were like those Falcons near the North-Pole; which when the days are shorrest, when the Sun approacheth Capricorn, are so much more solicitous in seeking, so much the more rapid in following, so much the more courageous in assaulting, and overcoming their prey. Men, as white in their thoughts, as hair, were not ashamed to sit in the open streets, where they found matter of new cognitions: and as Diogenes to him that reprehended him for eating in the Marketplace, Come in foro esuriam, 
Laert.  said he, quare in foro non edam? thus to them, the not knowing of some object, was a sufficient excuse to take it where it offered itself to them. Farther more that which by the Law of Nature they were bound to allow the body to preserve life, they allowed themselves for necessity not for delight, and many times it fell out, that, either with a voluntary abstinence, they in part deprived themselves of it, or immerged in the profound thoughts of their studies, for some time forgot it. Thus Carneades, (unmindful of his being a Man, while he was all mind, and all thought, and fated with the sweetest Nectar of those noble cognitions, with which he banqueted his Wit,) had let his body die of famine, if others by force had not revived him with food. Thus Archimedes seemed always out of himself, whilst he was more than ever wholly in himself: 
An seni gerenda resp.  whence, abstractus à tabula, à familis, (said Plutarch) spoliatus, unctus, super ipsa pelle sua Mathematica Schemata exarabat. Thus, to omit a hundred others, Demosthenes, knowing himself indebted to his noble Wit for a more than ordinary success, took his house for a prison: and, shaving his head, obliged himself from going abroad, till he saw his hair grown on his head, and his mind improved in Wisdom, which he wanted. We, that aught to be so much the more studious than these, by how much the more ignorant, do we conceit, we do not only enough, but more than we need, if reserving one, or at most two hours in a day from the dulcities of sleep, from the urgency of negotiation, from the invitation of profit, we dedicate them to study? To so little study a Noah's age would be requisite: 
Sym. ep. 11. Aus.  Parvis nutrimentis quanquam à morte defendimus, nihil tamen ad robustam valetudinem promovemur. Drops of water, continually falling become chisels, and wear away marble its true, but because this is marble and they drops of water, they require a hundred years' time before they can cut a finger's depth. Did you never hear a certain Parasite in an Ancient Comedy (be it of Aquilius, or be it of Plautus) entitled Boeotia, complain of him, that being witty to the detriment of others stomaches, had invented the Art of making Sun-dials: which becoming the measure of hours, and time, do govern public and private actions, so that now we must no more eat when we are a hungry, but when it pleaseth the Dial? Hear some of the Verses recited by Gellius.  
Ut illum Di malè perdant, 
Lib. 3. cap. 5.  primus qui horas reperit.  
Quique adeò primus statuit hic Solarium,  
Qui mihi comminuit misero articulatim diem.  
Name, me puero, uterus hic erat Solarium  
Multò omnium istorum optimum & verissimum.  
Ubi iste monebat esse nisi cum nihilerat.  
Nunc etiam non est quod est, nisi Soli lubet.  
Itaque jam oppletum est oppidum Solariis,  
Major pars populi aridi reptant fame.  
So great a desire should ye have also, to feed your mind with the sweet honey of Wisdom: that your sleeping hours should seem ages, and the most necessary actions for the maintenance of life torments. That same Demosthenes, of whom a little above I told you, had so great an appetite thereto that to feed the mind he made his eyes abstain from sleep, and his belly from food: whereupon, Plus olei, 
S. Hier. Ap. 1. contra Ruff.  quam vini expendisse dicitur, & omnes Artifices nocturnis semper vigiliis praevenisse.  
And this aught also to be a Law to you, not to give to that most avaricious Publican (as Clement Alexandrinus calleth Somnus) the half of your life for Custom. 
2 paedag. cap. 93. Athon.  It was permitted the Sybarites, humane Animals, that by public edict they should expulse all Cocks from their City; that they might not with their crowing break the thread of sleep, in the sweeter hours: you, that are to use your beds, not to bury yourselves in them, but to repose yourselves upon them: keep as Pythagoras did a Faithful Chanticleer, that in the morning may wake you, and call you from feathers to the Pen; from the dreams of the Fancy, to the contemplations of the Mind.  
It will not succeed to you, 
Ael. li. 2 c. 10. var. hist.  as to that adventurous Warrior Timotheus, to whom Fortune with a great net drew Cities, Castles, Provinces and cast them into his lap, whilst he in the meantime lay savourily sleeping. In Learning, he that sleeps arriveth not to his end, because Wisdom is not the gift of Fortune, but the fruit of Industry. Imagine that Cassiodorus saith to you, 
Lib. 7. form.  that with which he advertiseth others, of the duty of their office: Vigila impiger cum nocturnis avibus, nox tibi pandat aspectus, & sicut illae reperiunt in obscuris cibum, ita tu possis invenire praeconium. These are the most precious hours of the day; whether it be, as Ficinus teacheth, the privilege of particular influences of Heaven; or for that the thoughts, impressed on the purest of the Spirits, whose drossy and gross parts either dispersed, or digested with sleep, present themselves to the glass of the mind without interception, & in it most apparently discern the reflexies of those first Ideas, that are forms of the Truth. Howsoever it be, the experience of those that practice it, teacheth, that Aurora is the mother of honey; and that in the early Morning Pearls do fall upon the paper of such as write, as the dew distils itself into the Conchylia, to engender Pearls.  
To him that sleeps in this manner, sleep becomes not only what Tertullian calls it, Recreatorem corporum, 
Cap. 43. de anim.  redentigratorem virium, probatorem valetudinum, peccatorem operum, medicum laborum, cui legitimè fovendo dies cedit, nox legem facit, auserens rerum etiam colorem; but as he in an other case addeth, Master of the Resurrection for the more blessed use of Life.  
A speech of an Angel in the mouth of a Beast, esteem I that excellent saying of Apollonius, Qui aiebat (relates Phylostratus) opportere rectè Phylosophantes, 
Li. 1. c. 12 vit. Apol.  adveniente aurora cum Deo versari; procedente die, de Deo loqui, reliquum tempus humanis rebus, & sermonibus dare. For the employments of the Mind, in whatsoever matter it is exercised, there is not a better time, than the first Dawn of day; in which it seems, that by certain or occult consent, the light dawns to the Wit, as the day breaks to the World. 
Clem. Alex. ib.  Therefore Beati qui seipsos assimilant Angelis ita vigilando.  
And this ought not to hold in force for a few days only, but to be the ordinary Law of our lives, That in the division of the hours of the day, we dedicate the first, and commonly the most to study. 
Plinius l. 35. c. 10 in Apple.  At least we should be able to say as that Great Master of Ancient Painting, that there had not passed us one day, in which we have not, if not fully depainted a Face, yet at least drawn some line. Light and flame where it is kindled, is kept with a little fuel; but if it be suffered to extinguish and die, it will require much to re-kindle it. Let us not be like the Nile, the Nigris, and other Rivers; which before they fall into the Sea bury themselves several times under ground, and as many times rise again. They lose themselves in abstruse ways, rather whirl-pols, and thence disgorging, they are found a new. They have a hundred heads, they spring a hundred times, and are always, and yet never the same. To interrupt the studies with certain long pauses, made more by inconstancy of Genius, than necessity of great affairs; this is to undertake much, to prosecute little, and to complete nothing.   

IMPRUDENCE.  
The unprofitable endeavours of him that studieth against the inclination of his Genius.  
TO set out with success upon our journey, in Arts, Sciences, and every profession of Learning, it is necessary to consult the Genius, and from its inclinations to take directions; as for him that goes to Sea, to observe the wind that blows, to fit the sails, & turn the rudder accordingly. Nature is like the Planets; that where they go retrograde, make but small progress. They get not most from her, that most press and force her; but they that most please and observe her: whereupon, she, which freely working in every, though difficult enterprise, succeeds with no less facility than felicity; (as the Celestial Sirens revolve their great Spheres with their melody,) if violence be offered her, she not only not increaseth the virtue by the force, but rather loseth her former vigour and strength: as water, that by cold freezeth; and if before it had motion, now all strength is extinct, and it becomes immovable, and as it were dead.  
He, that in the labours of the brain, is to contrast, not so much with the difficulty, that is incident in the acquist of the Sciences: as with his own Genius; and with that which the Masters of Arts calleth Invita Minerva: is like to him that swims against the stream in a place where some torrent precipitates; that toils much, but advanceth little; till such time as overcome by weariness, and losing together with his little power the remainder of his will, he prove by experience the truth of that natural Axiom, That things violent are not permanent.  
By this is evinced the error of such as apply themselves to studies, and amongst them, to the speculative, or practical, or mixed: when the Inclination, when the Genius, when the Nature admits it not: which is just as if you would strive to make Rivers leave their currents, to go climb and ascend the tops of hills.  
The Wise Athenians esteemed it a foundation of never knowing any thing, not to know from the beginning to apply ourselves to that, for which Nature designed us. Thence it was that before they applied their children to any profession, they curiously inquired into their Inclinations; of which the Desires commonly are Truth-telling-Interpreters: and that they did, by laying before them the implements of all Arts: Ut qua quisque delectabatur (saith Nazianzen) & ad quam sponte currebant, 
Ep. 227. apud Basil. Eudoxio.  eam doceretur.  
They believed that Heaven called them whether their Inclinations carried them. And in that, they accord with the opinion of the mysterious Cebes, who at the first turn of her Table showed you Genius, who calling, directs men the course they should steer through the whole series of this life; Mandabat quideis, ubi in vitam venerint, faciendum sit, & cui vitae se committere debeant, si salvi esse in vita velint, ostendebant.  
God, 
Dial. de just. 3. de Rep. sub sinem.  said Plato (concerning the honey of a very excellent Truth under the comb of a Fable) hath cemented the minds of men together with Metals. Into the Peasant's Iron, into those of Prince's Gold, and into every one else comprehended between these, he hath infused their Metals proportionately to their States. From this ariseth the difference of Inclinations, and variety of Genuis'. I would counsel every man therefore, by the test of a good Touchstone to learn what sort his Metal is of; and accordingly to extract therefrom what he may. Let him observe (say the Platonists) in the descent of his Genius from the Stars, whilst it was passing through the lesser Spheres, from the Seal of what Planet it took Impression: whether from a speculative Saturn; or from a Lordly Jupiter; or a Warlike Mars; and accordingly let him confidently betake himself to the Pen, to the Sceptre, or to the Sword.  
It is doubtless a most unhandsome thing to see some times in the Schools certain heads, better able to crack Lobsters, than to study. Heads that have a Mind so stupid, and so ill adapted to the mysteries of Learning, that they seem like a reverted Jove, to carry Bacchus in his brain, and Pallas in his belly. Their Intellectuals, fat, and gross, (as the water of the Lake Asphaltites, in which nothing sinks to the bottom) creep with a slower pace than the Pygritia, a notable creature of India, that when it is at the speediest moves half a pace at a hundred steps, and in a hundred days travails a mile. No file can be found of temper hard enough to fetch the rust off their Skulls. Let us make use (as the Bears do to their unformed Cubs) of all the expert Tongues in the World, they will never be able to engrave upon them the least feature of a Learned Man. Ammonius would sooner make his Ass a Philosopher, than one of them a Grammarian.  
To what purpose do you send such people to School, as if it were to a Carvers shop, if after all their hewing and carving, they retain more of a Block than of a Mercury? To what end would you break that man's brain with Learning, out of which, if Vulcan should open it, you should see an Owl issue, rather than a Pallas? To what purpose do you seek out a Master that is an Eagle, if it be to teach a Tortoise to sly? That is an Oracle of Wisdom, if it be to enterprise the imprinting Learning in a head of one which lets ●lie all he knows out of his brain, and never indent so many letters, as a Crane, or a Stork accent in their flying?  
It's not enough to Wish, that Pumices become Sponges; that Mastiffs become Hariers; and that Oaks bear Honey instead of Acorns: which can never be done with all the Art that you can use about its plants. 
Aelian. var. hist. l. 14. c. 20  Foolish was that practice of the Sybarites to teach Horses to dance, and to deprave the warlike disposition of that generous Beast, by that effeminate exercise. The same error do they commit, who would have him apply himself to his Book, who was born for War; and make him an Archimedes who would be a Marcellus.  
What then? We may contrast with, we cannot conquer Nature. Sooner, or later, when she is left to her liberty, she returns thither from whence with violence she was taken. Achilles may be for sometime concealed under a woman's apparel. 
Tertul. de pall 〈◊〉 cap. 4.  Ille apud rupicem, & sylvicosam, & monstrorum ●ruditorem scrupea schola eruditus, patience jam ustriculas, sustinens stolam fundere, comam struere, cutum singere, speculum cousulere, colum demulcere, aurem quoque fora tu effaeminatus: But all this was the less likely to be permanent in Achilles by how much the employments of a Warrior were more consortial with the spirit of Achilles than those of a woman. Therefore Necessitas, not of the Trojan war, but of his Genius manifested at the sight of a Sword, reddidit sexum: De praelio sonuerat, necarma longè. Ipsum, inquit, ferrum virrum attra●it.  
But behold in matter of Learning only four of a thousand that applied diversely ●●om that to which the weight of natural Inclination bore them, after they had contended in vain, yielded for overcome.  
Socrates, applied to Sculpture, having graven the three Graces, (but, I suppose, so ungracefully, that Hell would have received them for Furies,) perceiving, that at working Marbles he himself was a stone; he broke the edge of his Chizel, and sharpened that of his Wit; giving himself the Moral Philosophy, to which his Genius led him: and he, which working, knew not how to make of stones, Statues of men; phylosophating, made through admiration, of men Statues.  
Plato gave himself to Painting, and seeing himself turn a painted Painter, and his pictures only meriting the name of shadows; transferred himself from the unsuccesful, designing of 
* Corni, which I read Corpi.  Bodies, to the noble picturing of Souls: he left the lies of the Pencils, and gave himself to the truth of Ideas, of which he first depainted the Features, and discovered to the World the Image.  
Augustus, ambitious to in-occulate the Laurel of a Poet, upon that of Emperor; and of being aswel an Apollo with the Harp, as he was a Jupiter with thunderbolts, composed his Ajax; a Tragedy, which for the laughter that it merited, became rather a Comedy, so ill was it composed. However he would have it a Tragedy in despite o● Art, and so it proved; for he gave it a mournful Exit by tearing it in pieces. Capricorn, which he had in his Ascendent, called him to Ruling, not to Rhyming, not to the Pen, but to the Sceptre; not to private Scenes, but to the public Theatre of the World.  
On the contrary, Ovid applied by his Father to the Law, litigated more with himself than others; for as much as his Po●tick Genius, and the tranquil influence of Gemini, called him from the bawl of the Forum, to the repose of the Muses; and from the Sword of Astrea, to the Phletrum of Apollo: whereupon in the end, commencing from himself, the Work of his Metamorphosis; one day transformed him from an Advocate to a Poet.  
See how the Genius is a faithful Loadstone, which may possibly by force be turned to any other point, besides its North; but never rests, so, as to stand without constraint, till such time as it hath also gently done that in us, which the Poet speaks of Fate.  Ducunt volentem Fata, nolentem tra●unt. 
Seneca.  
But if it happen, that the interests of honour, and profit permit not men to surcease that which they badly began; you shall see as many Monsters in a Learned Academy, as in an African Lybia: A Poetical Physician, A Philosophical Historian, a Mathematical Civilian; in which, those in-nate Seeds which are derived from the Womb, into the Instinct of the Mind, confounding and in-termingling themselves with those, that are acquired by Study; whilst neither those nor these wholly prevail; by being the one and the other; they are neither the one nor the other.  
There is therefore a necessity, if we will speed, to apply ourselves not only to Learning, but to this more than that other Profession of Learning; and consult our own Genius, which is wont, to make itself understood to such as have good Ears by the language of frequent Desires, when they have not that which they would; and by the pleasure they have when they obtain it. Also it behoveth them to say to their Will, as Aeöolus to Juno: 
— Tuus, 
Aen. 1.  o Regina, quid optes  
Explorare labour, mihi jussa capescere fas est.   
Otherwise, to pretend in despite of ones Genius to prove excellent in any profession, is just as if one would to open the way to the Elyzian fields, lop that golden branch from its stock, which Nature herself denied him.  
— Non viribus ullis  
Vincere, 
Aen. 6.  nec duro poteris convellere ferro.  
But hitherto I have more evinced the necessity of observing the Genius, than the manner of knowing it: because it's my opinion, that it hath so knowable a voice, that it needs no interpreters to declare it, but cares to hear it. It only rests that we speak something for others information in this discovery; and it shall be of the countersigns from whence Wit is conjectured: and the knowledge thereof will be useful to the end that in employing such as depend upon us, we err not, as others use to do, who, not knowing their Genius's, through mistake force them to contrast with their own Inclinations.  

Little credit to be given to the signs of Ingenuity taken from the Physiognomy.  
THe Ancient Architects, more by the Laws of Judgement than Art, in building a Temple to any god, of three Grecian Orders, Doric, Jonick, and Corinthian, 
Vitruu.  elected that which best agreed to the nature of the Deity to whom they erected the Temple. Therefore they used the Doric order, being grave, and severe for their Martial Deities, as Mars, Hercules, and Pallas: The Corinthian, soft and lascivious, for Venus, Flora, Proserpina, and the Water-Nymphs: The Jonick, moderate, for Juno, Diana, Bacchus and the like.  
The very same Law (as some Platonists, and all Physiognomers are of opinion) hath Nature rigorously observed in building Bodies, which are the Temples of the Soul: so that there being some Souls Warlike, others Cowardly; some vivatious and ingenious, others stupid and insensate; some servile, others imperious, born to command: she hath in conformity also to their internal Genius's, and tempers delineated the external features of the Face; and used such Architecture in the Body, as corresponded with the inclination of the Mind: From thence hath the Art of Conjectural Physiognomy took its beginnings; by which, from that which is seen in any one, that which is concealed is collected, and inferred. And, look as they gather from the quantity of the Manners, whether good, or bad: many, and different, and not seldom repugnant Indices of the Wit in such as they find either stupid, or apprehensive, and acute; so likewise do they multiply Signs for the knowing it, as if they were to find out a Proteus by the natural features of his face, and not a Wit by its Qualities.  
But because many of these Masters of Divining, more looking to the Features, and tempers of some few ingenious persons, than to the universal occult causes of the Wit, have made the faces of a few, the common Index of all; 
In Magi  in so much that Porta (as if he were the Alcibiades from whom we must take the features of a true Mercury) coppying himself, framed from his particular Indices, the universal, and almost only conjecture of an excellent Wit; whence it is, that it proves so fallacious to divine from the visage, constitution, and lineaments of the Body, of the immensity, subtlety, vivacity and profundity of a Wit: I will here recite, but without much troubling myself with their confutation, the more common symptoms given of this matter, by the Professors of Physiognomy. And first,  
The Platonists deny that Beauty of Mind, and deformity of Body can subsist together in one and the same man. 
Plot. contra Gnos. & alii.  That Trine of Venus with the Moon, which is the seal, wherewith the Stars mark the most lovely faces, that it may have consonance with numbers, they contemper the Mind, and accord it to the motion of the first Mind. Pythagoras that Soul of Light, was so fair in his features, that his Scholars some called him, others believed him Apollo in the disguise of Pythagoras, or Pythagoras copied from Apollo: Nor doth there want a reason for the same. For as much as beauty is no other, than a certain Flower, that is produced by the Soul, as a buried seed, upon this ground of the Body. Likewise the Sun, if a Cloud cover it, it shineth through it, with its more subtle Rays, and renders it so glorious, that it no longer resembleth a vapour extracted from the Earth, sordid and obscure, but flaming Gold and as it were another Sun. No otherwise a Soul, that is a Sun of light within the Cloud of the Body, that covers and conceals it, shineth through it with the rays of its beauty; so that it renders that also beyond measure beautiful: and this is that which Plotonus calls the Dominion, that Form hath over Matter.  
Which if it should be granted, that Souls come only into Bodies resembling them; and only tie this knot of strict amity, there where there is exact similitude; who but sees that a beautiful Soul cannot then unite itself to a deformed Body?  
Nor availeth it to tell them of Aesop, (born, if ever any was, with the Moon in the Nodes) that he was a Thersytes; Crates, no Citizen of Thebes but a Monster of Africa; of Socrates, so ill-furnisht with beauty, yea, of so gross a stamp, that Sophyrus the Physiognomer gave him for the very Idea of one stupid and blockish; whom Alcibiades called a Sylenus; thereby declaring him without, half Beast; within, more than Man: and Theodorus describing in Theectetus a Youth of most fortunate Wit, speaking with the same Socrates, could tell him, Non est pulcher: similis tui est: simo naso, & prominentibus oculis, quamvis minus ille quam tu in his modum excedat.  
They deny that such deformity in them was the intention of Nature, but the mistake of Chance; not the defect of Form, but the fault of disobedient Matter.  
But if that be so, the Women have therein great advantage, to whom Beauty was given for a Dowry; and we see, that it is Nature's continual care, to work that soft and morbid Earth, so, that she may therein plant this flower the more successfully. And yet through the subjection to which they were condemned, they have as little Judgement in their heads, as they have much of handsomeness in their faces. Whence Aesop's Fox may say of the most of them, as he said of the Marble head of a very lovely faced Statue; O beautiful, but brainless head!  
And really, if we observe experience, it will be obvious, that Nature is not obliged to these Laws, of setting Pearls only in Gold, and of putting Wits of excellent Sapience only in Bodies of exquisite Beauty. Potest ingenium fortissimum, 
Seneca epist. 66.  ac beatissimum sub qualibet cute latere. Potest ex casa vir maguns exire; Potest ex deformi vilique corpusculo, formosus animus, ac magnus. Rural Limbs ofttimes cover most polite Wits. Most amiable Minds lie under rugged skins, as He, u●der the dreadful skin of the Menean Lion▪ Galba the Orator, appeared an informed lump of stone, but within had a Golden vein of precious and shining Wit.. Whereupon M. Lullius scoffing of him was wont to say, Ingenium Galbum malè habitat. 
Mar. li. 2. c. 6. Satur.  Thus many others, of whom it would be too tedious to speak particularly, have been so deformed, but so ingenious, that it seemed, that in them, as in the Adamant, or Magnet, beauty of Mind, and uncomeliness of Body went hand in hand.  
Others again there are, that measure the grandeur of the Wit by the bulk of the Head; and believe, that that cannot be a great Intelligence, that hath not a great Sphere. They comprehend not how a small head becometh a womb able to conceive a Great Pallas: how a Giantlike Ingenuity can comprise itself within the narrow neich of a little Scul.  
They know not how that the Mind is the Centre of the Head, and the Centre doth not increase by the bigness of the Circle. The eye, is it any more than a drop of Crystal? and hath it not in such smallness, a concave so capacious; that by the gate of a pupil, it receiveth, without confusion of it, half a Would.  
Parvula sic totum pervisit pupula caelum. 
Manil. 1   
Quoque vident oculi minimum est, 
Astron.  cum maxima cernant.  
It often happens, that as a little Heart naturally includes a great Courage; so in a Head of a small bulk, a Mind of great understanding is comprised.  
Others argue from the palure of the face, as from ashes; the fire of a Spiritely Wit; and thus Nazianzen calleth Palidness, Pulchrum sublimium virorum slorem. 
Orat. 14  And reason seemeth to persuade as much; for that the very best of the blood is exhausted in the operations of the Mind, and the face thereby left ex-sanguate and discoloured. Therefore the Star of Saturn, the Father of profound thoughts, beareth in a half-extinguished light, his face as it were meager, and palid.  
Many say that by the eyes sparkling in the day, and glittering in the night, they can tell which are the true Palladian Bats. Others there are, who in confused Characters seem to read the Velocity of Wits, whose fancies, whilst the hand with the slight of the Pen cannot follow, it comes to pass, that it ill makes the letters, cuts off the words, and confounds the sense. Thus the speedest beasts, imprint the most informed tracks; whilst on the contrary the slow-moving Ox makes his steps with patience, and leisurely formeth his tracks one by one.  
But I undertook not to relate, much less to refute all the symptoms from which Wit is argued by these subtle Diviners: the shoulders, and neck dry, and lean; the temper of the ●lesh morbidly moulded; the forehead ample, the skin thin and delicate; the voice in a mean between loud, and low; the hair neither litherly dangling, nor, (as dry,) curled and crisped; the hands lean; the legs small; the corporature indifferent; the colour amiable; and I know not what.  
These are for the most part dubious conjectures, and fallacious prospectives, yea, they equally agree to contrary, not to say different principles. At least it is certain, that either there must concur to their establishment, experience, with the observation of Ingenious Men; or Reason, drawn from the temper, and disposition of Organs, that are of use to the Imaginative Faculty, and the Mind: and experience evinceth it, to him that is inquisitive, that of any three of them two proves false; and that the temper of the Internal Instruments hath not such conexion with these external Signs, that one may collect, thence ordinary, much less infallible arguments.   

The Original cause of the excellency and Diversity of Wits; and the various Inclinations of the Genius.  
BY a clean contrary way to the former, go they, who placing all the energy of the Wit in the force of the Soul; and supposing its use wholly independent from the instruments of the Body; do deny, that we may argue from any sensible appearance, the quality, or quantity of others Wit. There is, say they, difference amongst Souls, not only in their proper Essence, but also in the degrees of accidental Excellence; which makes them one more or less perfect than another. This is no less an honour to the great Artist that made them, and an ornament to the World, than that variety of features which is in the face of Man (though it be composed of few members;) wherein to find two alike is wonderful; two stamped with the same impression, almost impossible, The diversity of Wits arising in this manner from the divers degrees of perfection of Souls, to what end seek they Indices thereof from the Body; as if (according to the error of that great Proto-Physician) the Soul were no other, than a Consonance of qualities, and a Harmony of humours? To argue from the voice, from the Complexion, from the features, acuteness of Wit; is, as from the pencils, to divine the excellency of the Art of a great Apelles; or from the Sword the valour of the arm of a magnanimous Scanderbag. 
Plinius l. 35. 〈◊〉 in Apple.  An Ox with one only claw divided in the midst; and Alexander so painted, that his arm advancing with a thunderbolt, seemed to come out of the 
* The cloth on which a Picture i● dr●wn.  Tele: These are true arguments of Art & Ability. The Ingenuity likewise is known by no other means than by the actions; other tracks it leaves not by which to guess of its form; other shadow it hath not by which to collect, its proportion.  
And if that be not so. Observe the diversity of Wits, which as if they were Stars of different Genius and Nature, variously incline; and then, if there be any, you may find in the temper of the body, the principle whence such difference is derived.  
Some are so nimble witted, that they seem to have fancies composed of light; to whom the setting out, the running, and arriving are all but one moment. Rapid Eagles, to whom their Masters no sooner show a Lure, than they reach unto it, so that as Plato said of his Aristotle, they have an Art to accellerate their wings, that they may sly not by force, but by choice.  
Others on the contrary, as Zenocrates, a Mercury without wings both in head and feet, are so slow, and dull, that they must have spurs to make them run, nay, go. They are Stars, but of that Constellation called the Bear, to whom the vicinity of the Pole makes the motion very slow, and the revolution tedious, as if they also were subject to the Septentrion frosts.  
Some have an Understanding, like impressions made upon the water, that soon receive the stamp and as soon also lose it: That are as swift in forgetting, as they were in getting. Wits resembling either Doves, Quarum omnis inclinatio in colores novos transit; 
Sen. li. 1. not q. c. 5  but colours of which as fast as they take one, they lose another; 
Ibid. c. 6.  or Glasses, in which Aequè citò omnis imago aboletur, ac componitur.  
chose, in others the Understanding is a graving in Porphyre and Marble. An image is not formed in them without the force of Chisels, & with great patience; but than it is of such duration, that neither Oblivion, nor Time can eface it. Cleanthes was one of these, called in derision the Hercules of the Schools, because his becoming a Philosopher was as laborious to his mind as it was to the body of the other to make himself a Demigod. 
Plutarc.  Oris angustissimi vas (so saith Plutarch) dissicilimè admittens, sed semperretinens quod admisit.  
There are them, that when Children, are all Spirit, when Men all Dregs. In their first years, the Nightingales seem to sing on their mouth, as on that of the Child Stesichorus; grown bigger they roar like Oxen. Like to that Ancient Hermogenes, that was, Senex inter pueros, inter senes puer.  
In others, on the contrary, the Wit gradually meliorateth with years: whereupon those that before appeared sterile trunks, their buds opening by little and little, they send forth branches of large extent, and unfold some leaves, & in the end are laden with more fruit, than others have leaves. Observe Baldo a Jurist, that stood (to speak so) as the Palm, a hundred years before he bore any fruit, whereupon arose the scoff which he had so o●t laid in his dish, being a Scholar; Doctor eris Balde, sed praeterito saeculo.  
What shall we say of those, that for every Science have a Wit equally perfect; that as the light to all Colours, so their mind are adapted to all matters; servile, or sublime; of ample, or profound dimension? Few such there be, yet some there are; and on them we may bestow for a perfect Panegyric, that great applause, 
— Sparguntur in omnes, 
Claud.   
In te mysta sluunt, & quae divisa beatos E●●iciunt, collectatenes.—   
Blessed Wits, 
Plinius nat. hist. lib. 16.  in whom, that which Pliny saw in a Tree, that alone was an entire Orchard, it having engrafted upon it the fruits of all Trees; that which Ausonius had in a Statue of Bacchus, that had a kind of resemblance to every of the gods, whereupon he calls it not a god alone, but a Pantheon, is much more happily, and with greater admiration, and envy, expressly seen. They are few, but are worth many; nor only many, but many of excellency and merit; so that it may be said of them, as of the great Colossus of Rhodes; 
●●in. lib. 〈◊〉. c. 7.  Majores sunt digiti ejus, quam pleraeque statuae. They are few, but transform themselves into as many, as Learning hath Professions; nor know you in which they most excel; being that in all they are like unto themselves, and not inferior to any others: and you may sooner find such as envy, than such as equal them.  
Finally, in whatsoever kind of Learning you will, they are able to say as Vertumnus amongst the Poets, 
Opportuna mea est cuncta natura figuris, 
Prop. l. 4.   
In quacunque voles verte. Decorus ero.   
Again, others there are so determinately intent upon one only kind of study, and that not by election of the Will, but by instinct of Genius, that to take them from, that is to take their Wits quite from them. He that will see their excellency, must behold them from one point, namely that, where all the lines of their knowledge Concentre; otherwise they have nothing considerable, and indeed seem Monstrous.  
These, and many more are the Characters and different forms, whence Wits come to be so various in Genius, and Talent among themselves. Now what temper of brain, what harmony of qualities, what disposition of humours, doth so oblige the Soul; that it should be in some in the things of the Mind blockish; and in the more simple and material most active; in others, in the abstracts excellent, in the practics unprofitable: That it should be disposed, here to one, there to another, here to all, there to no act of Reason, or labour of Wit? If the actions of the intelligent Soul are done by herself, and rest in her; what can the Body do, howsoever tempered; or the Brain, in what manner soever disposed? and if they can do nothing; it remains, that the diversity of Wits, ariseth from different perfections of the Soul, not various dispositions of the Body.  
But if this be so, if the mind depend not on the Organs for operation, nor on the Humours for well operating; whence is it, that some, either by an accidental blow on the head, or by a strange disease, have suddenly or gradually lost their Memory, and impaired their Wit; so that their brain, like the opened Box of Pandora, or the vented Box of Ulysses, is for ever after without Spirit, and Judgement? How cometh from the heat of the Brain, the distemper of the Discursive Faculty; the rebolliment of the Species, the disorder of the Reason, Frenzy, and Madness? Why doth he, (that when a Child was ingenious, and apt growing with years), become gross of mind, and so much the more stupid, by how much the more before he was sprightly? Yet the Soul is itself. Who then implumes the Wit, who obtuseth the Fancy, who altars the Soul from what once she was?  
But Countries, some abound with accurate Wits, as in Attica, that famous Athens, the Nest, and Nurse of the Sciences; and in regard of the walls that environ it, all appeared a Temple of Pallas, an Academy of Learned Men: On the contrary Beaetia is inhabited, I will not say by living Men, but by dead Statues; in whom Reason, amongst others showeth no greater discourse, than the Zophiti motion amongst other Animals.  
Do we not see so great difference of Wits between City and City, 
Plut. in Alex.  even in adjacent Conntries, that some, as the Egyptian Alexandria, seem to have designed their first foundation with Meals; others, placed upon the summity of Olympus; have their feet higher, than others carry their heads? And whence is this, if neither Heaven, nor Air, nor Climate, nor Spirits, nor Humours, tempered by them, have the least influence in those Actions: which being proper to the Soul, as the principle of discourse; by her only are produced, and in her alone are received?  
It is then a more approved, and I am sure a more received opinion, that the Temperament of the Complexion, whence the state of the Body proceeds, serveth as well to the Wit, and to the diversity of its Genius; as the tuning of the strings to the melody of a Lute; and divers Consorts of Voices, Intervals, Notes, measures of Tunes, Orders, and dispositions of Unisons, & Semitones, proper, and mixed, to the divers Harmonies Frigian, Doric, Lydian; whence proceeds the various Music, Grave, Lascivious, Martial, Melancholy, and Merry. Consider the various (we will say) Tones, 
Lect 9 in Hypp. de acre & aquis.  and Moods, of Wit, which Cardan would describe by the various consorts of the primary qualities in nine kinds of humane Bodies: Observe the proportion of eight parts of Blood, two of Choler, and two of Melancholy, which Ficinus would prescribe to the harmony of a great Wit, and let every one believe thereof as he pleaseth.  
This seemeth universally true, that the works of the Wit, participating an I know not what of fiery, as the velocious motion of the thoughts, and the nature of the ignean spirits that serve it demonstrate; those humours that partake most of fiery, are most capable of serving it: even as on the contrary, Phlegm rendereth it stupid, and brings it as it were into a somniferous Lethargy. Therefore Choler which is hot in excess, & withal dry, is wholly proper to the Wit. But Melancholy (although it doth not so seem) is more apposite than that; not that gross and loathsome humour, which more symbolizeth with Phlegm in frigidity, than with Choler in siccity; but a certain (as it were) adust part of the yellow Choler, cold and dry by nature, as the earth, but, if it be rarified and enkindled, so capable to conceive fire (as the exhalations raised by the Sun, which yet are a cold and dry earth) and a fire so vehement, and forceable, that it partaketh of lightning in strength, though it be more durable and constant. And hence proceedeth Madness, and that Grave Frenzy of the mind that wholly transports it besides itself, and wholly concenters it in itself; that gives it velocious motions, and holds it steadfast, and fixed; wholly dispersing, and wholly contracting the thoughts. Nor may therebe wanting Blood and Phlegm, the one for aliment to the spirits, the other for temperament; that so the too great dryness make not barren, or the too great heat distemper not the organ and cause more smoke than light. The predominant aught therefore to be fiery, the rest, of a mixture in proportion to the degrees of this.  
And this, if I guess not a miss, is the so famous Dry Light of Heraclitus; That Igneus vigour, & caelestis origo; that where it hath the flame more bright, and in more refined humours less thick and muddy, there it's a thing more like a Heavenly Intelligence than a terrene Wit..  
This is that so difficult Electrum of Wit and Judgement together. The Wit the Mercury, all instability & motion; the Judgement, the Chemical Medicine that fixeth it: The Wit the Lion, and the Dolphin all fury, all speed; the Judgement, the Bridle, and Anchor, that restrains the fury, that retards its motion: The Wit the Sail, the Judgement the Ballast: That the Wing, this the Clog: That the young face of Janus, this the old, and grey.  
But because the temper of the humours for the service of the mind, is not one indivisible one, from their varieties take rice the abilities, Genuis', and humours, which incline them to various kinds of studies. Because that in some studies there is required more patience, and, as we are wont to say, more Phlegm; in others, greater promptness of mind; in others, imaginations more firm; elsewhere discourse more abstract: here great memory, their capacity of comprehending as it were in one sole act the cognition of many objects; and discerning their dependency without confounding them; according as the humours and their qualities, are variously tuned and harmonized together: whence more or less according to the predominancy of hot, and cold, dry and moist, we have abilities more apt to one than to another Science; according to the temper of the qualities, that the instruments require, for the better disposing them to operation. And this ability of power, well disposed towards such sorts of objects, is the foundation of that, which they call Genius. Because that there being in every one by natural instinct an in-nate desire of knowing; and Nature not erring, but being conscious of that, which she is to apply us to the desire of, as our Good: (a thing, which to obtain we have not power sufficient:) thence it is, that she carrieth us to the desire of that, to attein which we are sufficently disposed. The proportion therefore of the power to the object, and the desire which we have to know; of which one applieth, the other determineth; causeth that sympathy, which we may call the Form of the Genius.  
So, that it is not the disposition, figure, colour, nor mass of the members of the body that we should observe as immediate, or true testimonies of the Wit, in applying any to Learning. But from the Acts, the most natural testimonies of the Powers, we may argue their internal Temper, thereby to find to which of the Arts it hath most agreeable proportion. Thus, since the honey cannot be fetch from its Source, which is the Stars (as Pliny speaks) at least let them strive to make it as pure as they can; by working it out of those flowers, which most resemble them in nature; 
Plin. lib. 11. c. 12. nat. hist.  Ibi enim optimus semper (ros mellis) ubi optimorum doliolis florum conditur. Since Science can be enjoyed no otherwise than as fallen from Heaven into these terene Bodies; at leastwise, let them apply themselves to gather it of those, which with tempers like to Heaven, fiery, and subtle, but withal stable, and regular, most symbolise and agree with it.    

AMBITION.  
The folly of many who desirous to seem Learned, do publish themselves in Print to be Ignorant.  
THat insatiate, I will not say desire, but madness, which we have of publishing ourselves to the World for men of Learning, I could wish, that it would whet the Wit, as well as it sharpens the Pen; that so the Sciences might increase in weight, as Books increase in number.  
Scarce have we got in the nest of a School the down of the first feathers upon the brain, but we already think ourselves, not only Eagles, but Mercuries with Wings on our heads. Scarce is there enkindled in us a spark of Wit, but presently we desire in Print to shine as Suns, and make ourselves, with a strange Ambition, Masters before we be completely Scholars. Every thought that the mind conceives, we think worthy of the light; and although many times it is no more than Ridiculus Must, we by all means will call the Press, to be Lucina; and collect it, and keep it not only alive but immortal. The Gnats, Moths and Flies of our own brains, seem to us worthy to be embalmed, as that Bee, in Electer, and exposed to the sight, and admiration of the World. Thus 
— Tenet insanibile multos  
Scribendi cacoethes, 
Juven.  & agro in cord senescit. 
Sat. 7.    
Happy would Learning be, if Books also should have their Winter, and the leaves of the greatest part of them should fall, as the leaves of trees fall every year after Autumn. The World would be thereby so much the more wise by how much fewer the number would be of the Masters of Errors, and Oracles of Lies.  
How many Books come to hand which bear in their frontispieces Inscriptiones propter quas vadimonium deseri possit? 
Plin. in praef. oper.  In perusing the proud promises of their Titles, you will ccall to mind either that Verse of Horace, Quid dignum tanto feret hic promissor hiatu? or that scoff with which Diogenes mocked at the great Gate of a little City, saying: Shut this gate or else the Town will run out at it, and leave you without house or home.  
The eye, 
Plin. ibi.  and the hand run with impatience, this to turn over, and that to read the leaves, at cum intraveris (Dii Deaeque) quam nihil in medio invenies! Africa, which is encompassed with such delightful shores, is within most of it barren sands, and naked deserts of gravel. The first leaf, like that famous Sheet of Parrhasius, seems so painted, as if it covered a Picture, whereupon Zeuxis deceived, 
Plinius lib. 55. cap. 10.  flagitavit, tandem remoto linteo ostendi picturam; but in reality there was no other picture than the sheet, deluder of the eyes, with the lies of the pencil. Thus, in this, is that saying of Seneca verified, 
Epist. 66.  Speciosa & magna contra visentibus, cum ad pondus revocata sunt fallunt. Books many times deceive as the Apples of Sodom, that being fair to look upon, have nothing but the hypocrisy of appearance; for within they are ashes and smoke; and in opening they vanish into nothing: 
Apolog:  Si qua illic poma conantur (saith Tertullian) oculis tenus caeterum conacta cinerescunt.  
A Learned Man doth indeed deserve great compassion, that setting himself earnestly to one of these Books, which hath nothing but Perspective, and appearance, findeth that to be a painted Cloud, which he believed to be a rich Juno; and instead of extracting thence the treasures which he expected, he sees, that the Book costs him more in regard of the time he unprofitably spends in reading it, than it stood him in, by reason of the money he gave for it. He sisheth therein day, and night, till that with a Nihil coepimus he casts it away. He soars with a curious Wit, to the appearance of some singular conceit, of some Masterpiece of Art; but as the Birds that slew to the painted Grapes of Zeuxis; 
Plinius lib. 35. cap. 10.  if he came with appetite, he departs hungry.  
O! to how many Writers, which more than once have made the Press to groan, may we repeat that Verse of Ausonius, Utiliùs dormire ●uit, quam perdere somnum Atque oleum.—  
The wretches have watched many a night to compass a Book, which shall lay a sleep all that read it, if their resentments of Choler against the Author keep them not awake. To how many Books, under the Title they bear in their Frontispiece, may we write the name with which Zuazo, 
Ovi●do in S●or.  a Spanish Doctor called a little Desert Isle, to which approaching in his Indian Navigation, he found neither herb nor any other sustenance; therefore he gave it this name, Nolite cogitare quid edatis. 
Proem. lib. 4.  And yet (as Saint Ambrose ingeniously calls them) Books are the Ports wherein the Soul not only recovereth rest from storms; in Lucam. but plenty from poverty. 
Three reasons of the great number o● 〈◊〉 Books.  But take three Reasons only amongst many, whence it comes, that so many unprofitable Books, and devoid of all goodness are printed.  
1 Some think they do nothing if they make only one Book. They alone would make a Library.  
Hinc, 
Juven.  oblita modi, millesima pagina surgit  
Omnibus, 
Sat. 7.  & crescit multa damnosa papyro.  
A hundred Volumes, of a thousand pages a piece, Children of one sole Wit, Births of one only Mind; work of one only Pen; this makes one go high and stately: And yet the Glory and Fame is not to be given to the number but to the worth of Books. For how many times in a River of words, there is not a drop of Wit; in a Sea of Ink, there is not one Pearl; in a Forest of Paper there is not one branch of Gold? All the Work, be it a hundred Volumes, may say as the Echo of Ausonius: 
Aëris, & linguae sum silia, mater inanis  
Judicii, linguam quae sine ment gero.   
So that its a rare miracle of patience in the Reader, if slinging away the Book, he say not to the Author of it, that of Martial; 
— Vis garrule, 
Lib. 9 epist.  quantum  
Accipis ut claims, accipere ut taceas?   
Books, 
In praef. oper.  as saith Domi●ius Piso, cited by Pliny, Thesaurus oportet esse, non libros. Every word should be a Pearl, every leaf a Jewel: so that he which reads them, should in one hour enrich himself, with that, which we have been ten years in gathering.  
Aelas! what is become of that precious custom, and fortunate age, when the Honey of the Sciences was put into the Wax, on which it was then the custom to write with a Style? with how much the slower hand the words were indented by the style, the tenacity of the wax retarding it; the more were they fixed on the thoughts, and came to be better examined. Now a-dayes the Pen carries the words in a slight from the hand, and the conceits from the head; and those and these the lighter by how much the less weighed. That ostentatious Soldier in the Comic, which said 
Ego hanc manchaeram mihi consolari volo, 
Plat. in mil. glor.   
Ne lamentetur, neve animum despondeat.  
Quia jam pridem feriatam gestem:   
Lively expresseth the itch many have to Write, and write much, as it were to comfort their Pens, that complain they stand Idle in their Ink-horns; without wearing blunt with writing at the least one Book.  
It is not the muchness, but the goodness that is valued. Books are the Souls, whose grandeur is not measured by the bulk of the body, but by the nobility of the Spirit. And most true is the Aphorism of great Augustine In iis quae non mole magna a sunt, 
6 de Tri.  idem est esse majus quà melius. The stones of mountains are 〈◊〉 bigness, yet a Diamond, which is only (saith Manilius) Punctum lapidis, 
Lib. 4. after.  as far surpasseth them in worth, as they exceed it in magnitude.  
If you were to speak to an assembly of a hundred of the most ingenious, and Learned Men of the World, would you say what came next to the tongues end, without deliberation, without refining, and many times without substance, and order? Or rather would you not study to speak not only Roses, as they said of old, but Pearls and Gold? and do not you know that by the Press you speak not to a hundred or a thousand, but to all the Wisemen in the World that will read, and hear you? Therefore, why do you not as Photion, that being asked why he stood upon a time so profoundly pensive, answered; That being to speak in public to the Athenians, he was picking his words one by one, and examining them, if there was any that he should omit? Laudato ingentia rura, saith the Poet, Exiguum colito. Honour the Gygantical Volumes of others; but strive not so much to imitate them in bulk, as to surpass them in worth. Write one only good one, but one that may be more worth than many. One, but one of which you may say as Ceres of her only Daughter, Numeri damnum Proserpi●a pensat. 
Claud.   
2 The other reason of the unfortunate success of Books, is, the undertaking to handle a matter, and wanting a Wit proportionable. I chanced to write an Octave, or Epigram, and presently I conceited that they called them Heroic Poems, or Tragoedies.  
Non ideo debet pelago se credere, 
2 Trist.  si qua  
Audet in exiguo ludere cymbalacu.  
That Hercules doth enterprise the conquest of the Heavens, and desire to do it by his strength never wonder: 
Hercul.  Since he hath already tried them, 
Furt.  and knows their weight.  
Et posse caelum viribus vinci suis  
Didicit ferendo.—  
Do ye likewise measure the strength of your shoulders, by the weight of the burden, and where you can say, 
Jerom. cont. Vig.  Par onery cervix, take up the same, and go on. Prudentia hominis est, saith St. Jerome, nosse mensuram suam, nec imperitiae suae ●orbem testem facere. Ye should unite Argus and Briareus, so that ye should not have a hundred hands ready to write, if ye have not also in the Intellect, an hundred eyes open to understand. Let not a spacious field of noble Argument so transport and hurry your Spirits, that the desire of running through it, make you forget that you have neither wings nor ability to do it.  
Vale your too venturous plumes, that would sooner make you fall than fly, and do.  
Like to the un-slegged Stork, 
Dante.  that strives to fly,  
And being untimely hasty, fluttering leaves  
Its loathed Nest, and so a fall receives.  
But of this I am to speak upon another occasion by and by.  
3 The third cause why there is more abortives than births, is from the impatient desire to bring them forth, before they be perfectly form. They hear not the precept of Horace 
Nonnunque prematur in annum, 
In Arte.   
Membranus intus positis delere licebit  
Quod non edi deris. Nescit vox missa reverti.   
It is no wonder if Mushrums that grow up in one hour, rot in the next; and our works prove, saith Plato, like those famous Gardens of Adonis, Qui subito, & die uno nati celerrimè pereunt.  
Agatharchus was a Painter, for whom all the Cloth of Greece, all the Colours of the East sufficed not. He compiled the draughts of his Tables with more expedition, than the Sun draws the Rainbow in the Clouds. But what then? They were pictures that hung in every sordid place, and, exposed without regard, lived no longer than the men sown by Cadmus.  
On the contrary Zeuxis, who in bringing forth his works was more tedious than the Elephant, and gave not a touch with his Pencil, which he recalled not to a critical examination merited that eternity of glory, for which alone he painted. The wisest men are ever the most severe with the works of their own Wits: knowing that they ought to be not only read but examined by men of great judgement which made them say with young Plinius, Nil est curae meae satis. 
Lib. 7. epist. Celeri.  Cogito quam sit magnum dare aliquid in manus hominum: nec persuadere mihi possum, non & cum multis, & saepè tractandum, quod placere, & semper, & omnibus cupias.  
And so much sufficeth to have said of those, that being but ill furnished with Wit, undertake to write of things above their capacities. Now I ought not to omit certain others, which misusing the Wit wherein they are rich, consume themselves, & spend their studies about certain unprofitable matters, Quas neque scire compendium (saith Arnobius) neque ignorare detrimentum est ullum.  

The unfortunate pains of such who study and write matters wholly unprofitable.  
Alchemists are men of more hardiness than judgement. Judgement indeed they have none, albeit of the great tree of folly, there's in appearance perhaps is the goodliest branch, namely, that branch of Gold that sends one to Hell sooner than to the Elyzian Fields. But they are nevertheless fortunate, for seeking, as they say, the Philosophers Stone, with the favour of Art they finally end it, and it is that Ancient Golden Poverty the true Lapis Phylosophorum, which leaving them nothing in the World, freeth them from the care of keeping, and danger of losing: both privileges of the true Golden age. They un-avisedly pretend to fix Mercury in Silver, and perceive not that the God of Thiefs knows better how to take away from others, then to impart of his own. 
In New-Moons.  They would change the Moon into a Sun. That Moon which never loseth itself more than when it most approacheth to the Sun. But above all things the efficacy of that most pleasing enchantment of hope is worthy of admiration, which bereaving the heads of these wretched fools of Wisdom, their hands of money, their eyes of sleep, and their hearts of the love of all the World, so blindeth them that they see not what they suffer; and tormenting their lives, no less than the minerals on which they work, renders them stupid to pain, and insensible of torment. Thus you see them like gnats wind themselves every moment about a little candle, which gives heat to an Hermetical Furnace, and in one instant to laugh at that sire, and weep at that smoke: Till such time, as the mystery completed, they at the gathering of the fruit of all find a goodly Ex nihilo nihil sit. All their hope is evaporated and only the dregs remain: Fortune, that stood upon a Ball of Glass, that being broken, is fallen. And from all it is at last concluded, That Gold grows not, but only in Negotiation; and makes no Veins and Mines but in Banks.  
I have with two touches of the Pen rudely pourfoiled the equally foolish, and unfortunate pains of miserable Alchemists, which with no other gain, than of a smoke that makes them weep, spend all that they have, or are; to the end that in theirs you may the better observe their folly of as many as being endowed with a certain talent of Wit, spend both that, and their time and pains, (whereby they shorten their lives, and limbick their brains), about the unprofitable composure of certain Books, whose contents serve only to consume the time of him that reads them, as they impair the health of him that writes them.  
I know that Phavorinus adviseth, 
Gell. lib. 17. c. 12.  that for sharpening of the Wit, when it seems blunted and dulled by long idleness, the best means is to undertake matters of less utility, and more jollity. Thus did he that praised Thyrsites, and the Quartan Fever, as Dyon did the Foretop, Sinesius Baldness, Lucian a Fly, and an hundred others about the like subjects have busied themselves. But it's one thing to awaken, and stir up the Wit with matters although not profitable, at least facetious; and another to weary it, & dull it with over much intencenesse, and tedious expecting from them all the glory of his prolix studies, as that other that said, Ille ego suum nulli nugarum laude secundus. 
Martial   
What think you of Aristomachus, 
Plin. lib. 11. cap. 9  that with exactest observations of every day, (I had like to have said of every hour) for sixty two years continually pried into the nature of Bees? So many years, such diligence, would seem to me to have acquired no less, than a discovery of all the secrets of Heaven, and an establishment of all the periods of the Planets.  
Seneca was offended with certain Philosophers of his time, that consumed the tedious watches of the night, and the implacable disputes of the day, about certain fooleries, meriting, I know not whether more of laughter, than lashes: Must syllaba est, syllaba caseum non rodit, 
Epist. 48  Must ergo causeum non rodit.  
O pueriles ineptas! In hoc supercilia subduximus? In hoc barbam demisimus? Hoc est quod tristes docemus, & pallidi? Men are wont to say that we are twice Children, once when we come out of our Swathing-clouts, and again when in extreme old age we reassume childishness: but he that employs (not to say consumeth) his life in these conceited vanities, Non bispuer est, ut vulgo dicitur, sedsemper: verùm hoc interest, quod majora ludit. 
Lactant. li. 2. c. 4.   
To what end shall we studying unbowel ourselves, to wove but fly-intangling webs? To what purpose should we with Nero employ ●ets of Purple and Gold, (thoughts and discourses of a precious Wit) to fish for Shad and Bream? Quis non miretur (said Pliny, 
Plin. lib. 12. c. 1.  speaking of Platans', trees that produce nothing but leaves for shade) arborem umbrae gratia tantùm, ex alieno petitam orbe? Are perhaps shades so rare in Europe? or these of Plantans, because, barbarous are they therefore the more beauteous, that we should run through nausrages to the farthest parts of the World to get the plant that produceth them? Is there so great a scarcity of unprofitable babble, or are they sold so dear, that to stu●●e of thousand unhappy leaves, it must cost you study, waking, toiling, and no small part of your life? If I can have fancies of sublime Ingenuity, that sore a lost as the Eagle, or Falcon to make new acquist of prey: wherefore should I wish that they be like the Lark, which seeks no other benefit from a troublesome aspiring, and painful slight than that unprofitable chattering which they make; after which they descend from their altitude, directly to the earth; ravished and content, as if they had taught a Lecture of Music to the Celestial sirens.  
There is (writes Oviedus) in the Western India's great abundance of Cotton, 
Oviedus in hist.  Alumn, Salt, and such like ordinary Merchandizes, with which that place is most plentiful, but there is no man vouchsafeth to carry them away; nor do they frequent those Ports, but only to freight themselves with Gold, Silver, Pearls, and Aromatic Perfumes. A Voyage so long, so difficult, so dangerous, (such it was in those primitive times) none would undertake for less. Alas! most simple Merchants: The Voyage of your life, (a great part whereof you spend in study, the felicity of the fancy, the toil of composing, which might fill your Books with Gold and Pearls,) you only employ to enrich yourselves; with what? Fables, empty Questions, (it had like to have 'scaped my Pen, Romances) Poems of Love, reformations of Ancient Heads, more often deformed than reformed, corrections fantastical, conjectures, imaginations, and I know not what. 
Isai. c. 55  Quare appenditis argentum, & none in panibus? saith Esay, and St. Jerome understands it of the unprofitable Sciences of the age, how much more may it be understood of your wholly unprofitable fooleries? Is that Tiberius still alive, that enjoins you to tell him, Whose daughter was Hecuba. What name Achilles took when he lay concealed among the Virgins of Licomedes▪ What the sirens are wont to sing of whe● they enchant passengers; 
Plut. qu. sonviv.  on which hand Venus was wounded by Diomedes; on which foot Philip halted? Is Domitian yet living, that teacheth you to spend many hours every day in the unprofitable hunting of these flies?  
Heliogabulus, to give an argument to the World of the greatness of Rome, like a fool, made all the Cobwebs that hung in the houses thereof to be gathered together upon one heap; and that he esteemed a sufficient foundation for a conceit equal to the grandeur of a City that was Queen of the World. There is no Wise man but smiles at this Fool. But is not this the same with the fooly of those, which for to give a public proof of their wit, rake together a mass rather of Cobwebs than of Papers in a Book, writing vain and unprofitable matters? 
Job.  Utinam taceretis, & videremini sapientis. Let the applauses of foolish friends make you never so great, these are never more, than what Diogenes called the wonders done at the Spectacles of Bacchus, 
Laert.  Magna miracula stultorum.  
But amongst the unprofitable labours of the Wit, 
Astrology opposed.  (however the interessed resent things) I shall only hint, that the first place ought to be given to that, which St. Basil aptly calleth Negotiosissimam prorsus vanitatem, 
St. Basil.  Astrology, (I know not whether I should say) Indiciary, or extrajudicial; worthy, rather of the disrespect, than of the Aspects of the Stars; from whence She taketh lies to vend them the dearer, in regard they be celestial Merchandise. Her Art is to erect twelve Houses in Heaven by the help of men, that many times have not a cottage on Earth; and by their hands to dispense to some riches and dignities, to others misfortunes and praecipices; who themselves beg bread to keep them alive. You must not ask her (as Diogenes demanded of him that talked so freely, 
Laert. in Diogen.  of Heaven) Quando nam de Coelo venisti: For she pretends to know how to read every one's fortune, written with characters of Stars, and Ciphers of Aspects: To know how to trace out in the periods of those Spheres the courses of every one's life: To be able to confine the Stars and Planets in Trines, Quadrates, and Sextiles, as in so many Magical figures; and to force them to tell future eveniencies, both public and private: To conclude, to be a prophetess of truth: And all this by virtue of similary observations, which as yet never had similary figures in Heaven; By dependence on one legitimate point of the Nativity, the weight of which it examineth in the Balance of Hermes; By virtue of Celestial Figures, imagined by the Capriccio of others, observed by them as mysteries; By help of things, which have nothing of subsistence or reality, such as are the Dragons-head, and Tail, and the 
* An Astrological term.  Part of Fortune; in sine, in despite of the Truth not found out, but stumbled upon; not by means of Art, but only by chance in one prediction of a thousand, they are emboldened to mask a falsehood, as if it were a thing credible; and to persuade a thing credible as it were true.  
What doth this Profession merit, whose office it is to deceive men on Earth, and to defame the Stars in Heaven? You may give it the Caucasus, and Vulture of Promotheus; if you think, it be a far greater crime, to make Heaven a liar, the Planets deceivers, and the Stars malevolent; than to take from the Wheel of the Sun's Chariot, a spark of fire, a beam of light; therewith to infuse light into the dead Statues of Epimetheus, and to transfuse Soul and Sense into their breasts. But for my part, because I will not pass judgement to others prejudice; I would remit them to the Tribunal of that brave Emperor Alexander Severus, who punished Turinus his Favourite, for selling the Favours of his Master with Fallacious Promises: Condemning him to be stifled to death with Smoak, the Trumpets all the while proclaining aloud; Fumo puniter, qui vendidit fumum.    

AVARICE.  
That he is guilty of the Ignorance of many, who might benefit many by the Press, and neglects it.  
THere are not any men for whose maintenance the World more unwillingly Labours, and Nature takes pains, than those, who regardless of others, would live only to themselves. These are Pilgrims even in their own Country, and Solitary in the midst of Society; These have the countenance of men, but are Beasts amongst Men; that deserve no more to have been born by others, than they care to live for any but themselves.  
Amongst these, none will scruple to enumerate certain Avaricious Wits, which would bury the Golden Talents of Sciences and Arts, (with which they are endowed) in their Sepulchers, rather than become beneficial to posterity by the Presss.  
When, if there was no other inducement moving him thereto then the great reward of that honoured Memory, with which after death he lives immortally, 
— An erit qui velle recuset  
Os opuli meruisse, & cedro digna locutus  
Inquere nec scombros metuentia carmina nec thus?   
But, there is not only this allurement which can, there is stronger reason which should persuade him to do it; and it is the public interest, which may not be neglected under pretence that he is careless of his own. So much the more in regard that Wisdom is not received from Heaven as a Gift, which may be lost with ourselves, but as a Loan, to be transmitted to our successors; so that the doing it is not, in some sense, so much Liberality, a● Justice: It is to be received, as the Air receives the Light from the Sun, to transmit it to the Earth; and not to retain it concealed from others, and with little profit to ourselves.  
Therefore our solitary, pale, shrivelled Ancestors have in the course of so many ages spent the Vigils of slow-paced Nights, and consumed not so much the hours of the Day, as the days of their Lives, to fetch with the blows of hard Study, from the rich Mines of their Wits, golden Ve●●s of truth, and new discoveries in knowledge; and expounding them freely, have made their private patrimony a public inheritance: wherefore then do we, (ingrateful to our Predecessors, and envious to our Successors,) avariciously bury both theirs and our own?  
He that puts himself between our Ancestors, and those that are to come after us; and beholds the Example of the one, and the Necessity of the other: I see not how he can have a heart to deny, either imitation to those, or assistance to these. For if the only beholding the dead Images of those, who in public managements of Peace, and War, have acquired the name of Grandees, can do no less than move the heart, and involve the desires in the like enterprises; in seeing in Books the lively and breathing Images of the Wit of those Great Souls expressed to the life, that therein still survive, still speak, still teach, to the benefit of the World; can the rudest man choose but desire to understand, and can the intelligible choose but blush to keep that covetously concealed which others have collected only for Common Benefit? Sume in manus indicem Philosophorum. 
Sen●●● epist. 39  Haec ipsa res expergiscite coget: Si videris quam multi tibi laboraverint, concupisces, & ipse ex illis unus esse.  
Yet saith Phylo, 
De insomniis.  Sapience is a Sun, from which we cannot take the Splendour without destroying it. And many Platonics make Souls of loftiest intelligence to be of the nature of fire, 
Plin. li. 2. cap. 107.  Cujus unius ratio faecunda; seque ipse paret, & minimis crescit scintillis.  
So that if the Examples of our Ancestors is not sufficient to persuade us, let us behold the Necessity of Posterity, to whom it is double cruelty to deny that, which we ought to bequeath them with Interest, and they would receive with profit. Abolish this inviolable Law, which is not written in Marble, but imprinted on the heart of Man, of bequeathing our Goods aswell as our Love to our Posterity, and what other do you do but destroy the World, and make it barbarous, and brutish? But if those seem fortunate, who transmit to their Legitimate Issue, ample yearly Revenues, and entail with the riches that they have, a happy Fortune to their Family; what more precious and durable Inheritance can we leave them than the Endowments of the mind, and the golden Talents of our own Wit? These are Revenues that diminish not with use, that consume not with time; that survive both public & private Ruins: Are always living, always entire, always in the same esteem, and equally beneficial. And hence drew the second Pliny that forceable motive, wherewith he persuades a Friend to leave for public benefit some fruit of his long and tedious studies. 
Lib. 1.  Effinge aliquid, 
Epist 3.  & excude, quod sit perpetuò tuum. Nam reliqua rerum tuarum, 
Ruffin.  post te alium atque alium dominum fortientur. Hoc nunquam tuum desinet esse, si semel coeperit.  
But hear what those sordid Misers have to say for themselves. I am debtor to no man for what's my own. Let others take pains as I have done; let them find of themselves, that, which its unhandsome to beg of others. This is pity not rigour; love to Learning, not hatred of the Learned; for it breeds up Wits in slothfulness when they find that in others, which they should draw from themselves. Necessity renders Ingenious; and makes him that would be always a Scholar, studying the labours of others, to become Master, inventing new of his own. Thus we make Achillis', giving them whole, the bones of Lions, that they may break them, and pick out the Marrow: thus brave Swimmers give way to the Course of the Stream where it is most impetuous: because it is not so much Art as Necessity in such a case that teachetb them to come out.  
And do not these consider, that if this should be, Learning would always continue in its infancy? If he that spends many years in study, teacheth no man what he hath discovered; he that comes after him, when he also hath been equally solicitous in seeking, and equally fortunate in finding, shall know nothing more than the former: and when will they this way advance Learning? Yea the knowledge of that which others have found, helps one to find that which others did not know. Those will serve us for Principles, which were to others but Consequences, and there we begin our search where others left seeking. Wisdom is given, 
S. Aug.  said Augustine, not for a Slave but for a Spouse, and requires from us Successors and Sons: hoc est ingenii fructus, & quosdam mentis partus, quos non tam libros, quam liberos dicimus; and when she obtaineth not that, she laments, I will not say like her that said, saltem mihi parvulus aula luderet Aeneas, but like the innocent Daughter of Jeptah, that more bewailed the Virginity, than her Death; It being the true and only death to die without leaving an Issue wherein to live. But if a wilful abortive makes the Mother a Homicide, 
In Octavio.  Et que originem futuri hominis extinguunt (saith Minuti●s) parricidium faciunt antequam pariant; to stifle in Wisdoms Womb that which she (as it were pregnant with our Conceits) conceives, to kill it that it should not be brought forth, is not this Parricide? Is it not homicidii festinatio prohibere nasci?  
Others their are that defend themselves with years, 
Tertul. Apolog. cap. 19  and excuse themselves with old age, That being scarce able to live themselves, how can they toil for others? To him that hath done his part in activity, it is cruelty to deny him to gather his wings into his Nest, and to strike sail in the Port. Other times, other cares. The eyes inclined to the sleep of death, more than to the wake of study, can go no farther without danger of errors, and mistakes.  
But if I misunderstand not, these are not the words of one that would live out the few years that he wants of his full time, but of them that would anticipate their death some years before they die: and to die I call the doing nothing but live. 
Pli. praef. operis.  The studies of his extreme old age were the sweeter to M. Varro, the nearer he was to his death, because not knowing any other life more like a man, than to understand, he lengthened his life, as he did his study, and said to himself, Dum haec musinamur pluribus horis vivimus. Yea Seneca that noble Wit, taking motives to Labour from his Age; whence others seek pretences to rest, in the ultimate years of his not-compleated-life, applied himself to investigate the occult secrets of Natural Philosophy, and therewith, as if he was more than himself, he said with his Poet; 
Tollimus ingentes animos, & grandia parvo  
Tempore molimur.—   
Thereupon, 
Praefat. lib. 2. quaest. nat.  as it were pricking and spurring on the slothfulness of his Old age, Festinemus, said he, & opus, nescio an superabile, magnum cer●e, sine aetatis excusatione tractemus.  
Who ever seeth (saith Plutarch) Bees for age to grow lazy, 
An seni gerenda Respub.  slothful and idle in their Hives, and not fly to the flowers and gather Honey, as they did when they were young? Take from me the power of writing, 
In fine noctium Attic.  said Gellius, and you take away my life. So much only of life I ask for myself, as may be serviceable to others. Neque longiora mihi dari spatia vivendi volo, quam dum ero ad hanc facultatem scribendi, commentandique idoneus.  
Let the division of the life of him that professeth Learning be such as that of the Ancient Vestals of Rome, 
Plut. ib.  which was divided into three equal parts, In the first they learned the Rites, and Ceremonies, as Scholars to the Eldest; In the second they practised them, as Companions of the middle sort; In the last they taught them, as Mistresses of the Younger. Thus the leaves usher in the blossoms, and the blossoms falling, with a happy end, do knit in fruit.  

The incomparable felicity of Good Authors, that appear in Print.  
THe desire of living hath been the Inventeress of a hundred ways of not dying. And because Physic hath neither the herbs of Medea against Old-age, nor the Ambrosia of Jupiter against Death, but that it's too true, 
Lib. 2. epist. 12. Agr.  as Sydonius saith, that many Doctors assistentes, & dissidentes, parùm docti, & satis seduli, languidos mulios officiosissime occidunt, we betake ourselves to the Arts of Colouring Linens, Engraving Marbles, Founding Brass, erecting Arches, Mausoleums, and theatres, that so if we cannot long be men, yet at least we may be the Superficies of men on Pedestals, the images of men in the Inscriptions of Arches, and Epitaphs of Sepulchers. But there is nothing of our invention, as I have above adverted, so able to conserve us alive after death, as the procreation of Children whereby Nature provideth for the maintenance of the common Species, and private desire of every one. Mortuus est pater (saith Ecclesiasticus) & quasi non est mortuus, 
Chap. 30  simileni enim reliquit sibi post se. But howbeit it be true that the Father transfuses himself into his Child that he begets, whereby dying he doth not die, whilst he liveth still in him; yet nevertheless, the Child ofttimes so degenerates, not only from the looks, but from the Genius, & Customs, of the Father, that very often it comes to pass (As in the Egyptian god Apis) that the Father is a Lightning, and the Son an Ox. Caused, in that the temper of the Issue, follows not the will of the agent, but the nature of the matter; nor do we make our Children such as we would, but such as we may. But Books are the Children of the mind, Heirs of the better part, lively Images of ourselves; these only are they, in whom we have as much of life as we can enjoy after death. 
Proem. var.  Contingit (saith Cassiodore) dissimilem filium plerumque generari, oratio dispar moribus vix unquam potest inveniri. Est ergo ista valdè certior arbitrii proles. They are immortal Sons, that make our dying only a cessation from misery, to commence in them a life of glory; like even as Hercules, leaving the earth, was received from his Labours into Heaven; and in the midst of it he began to shine with the Stars, whose body consumed in the flames of the funeral pile, seemed reduced to a handful of ashes.  
What so strong support, what so stable Basis, hath the memory of the names, and the glory of the merits of Great Souls, comparable to the eternal duration of Books? Observe the ruins that time makes in every thing, precipitating some, and gently gnawing others. The Rocks, do they not, as it were, decrepit, and bending under the heavy burden of age, incline towards the grave, and mouldering bit by bit, and scattering their divided members rather bones here and there, do they not seem to beg a Tomb from their own Valleys? Doth not even Iron itself, worn away by the rust, consume to dust by the Deaffile of Time. Once-stately-Edifices, now old Carcases, and naked Anatomies, not of Fabrics but of ruins, if with some fragments of broken walls, more falling than standing, they keep upon their feet, do they not more manifest, a Trophy of Time than a testimony of their former greatness? Where once were the Temples of the Gods, Courts of Kings, Assemblies of Senators, Academies of Students, there can now hardly an Owl nest herself, but revenous Wolves have there their Coverts. In the meantime, in the midst of the ruins of all the resisting & durable things of the World, how do the Trophies of great Wits abide? In the death of all things, even of the lifeless, how live Books, or rather how live in Books their Fathers and Writers? Let the most Sapient Roman Stoic say it. 
Consol. ad Polybium cap. ult.  Caetera, quae per constructionem lapidum, & marmoreas moles, aut terrenos tumulos in magnam eductos aeltitudinem, constant; non propagabunt longam diem, quip & ipsa intereunt. Immortalis est ingenii memoria. Let the Poet Martial speak it.  
Marmora Messalae findit caprificus, 
Lib. 10. Or. 1.  & audax  
Dimidios Crispi mulio ridet equos.  
At chartis nec furta nocent, nec secula praesunt,  
Solaque non norunt haec monumenta mori.  
Well may we call Metellus happy, who was borne to his Sepulchre upon the shoulders of his four Sons, 
Plin. lib. 7. c. 44.  of which two had been, one was, and the other was a while after to be Consul of Rome. This was so superbose a funeral pomp, that the Historian admiring it, said Hoc est nimirum magis feliciter de vita migrare, 
Vitellius lib. 1. hist.  quam mori, but in fine, it was De vita migrare, and his Sons, though with great pomp, yet carried him to the Grave. Books alone, not four Children, but as many as we multiply with the Press, their Father retiring to death, and the Sepulchre, bear him alive into every place where they come, and put him, not so much into the hand, as into the eye, of as many as read him, into the mind of as many as understand him.  
And oh! how many times he, who living in his native Country, either un-known, or un-regarded, so that with much ado he drew to himself the eyes of some few, that ooked upon him as a Man of Wit, in his Books draws to himself the hearts of a World: Like as heretofore the famous Lyre of Orpheus, that on Earth, saith Manilius, ravished the Trees, Stones, savage Beasts, in Heaven whether he was translated, drew the Stars after him.  Tunc sylvas, 
1. Astr.  & saxa trahens nunc sydera ducit. 
Witness that most pleasing desire that any one hath to know of what semblance were the faces, and what the features of those, who in paper have stamped so goodly portraitures of their Wits; hence proceeds the care of delineating them, yea, of counterfeiting them, when thorough the oblivion of many ages, their faces are unknowable: Non enim solum ex auro, argentove, aut etiam ex aere, 
Plin. lib. 35. c. 2.  in bibliothecis dicantur illi, quo●um immortales animae in iisdem locis loquuntur: quin imò etiam quae non sunt, singuntur pariuntque desideria non tra liti vultus, sicut in Homero evenit. Quo majus, ut quidem arbitror, nullum est felicitatis specimen, quam semper omnes scire cupere, qualis ●uerit aliquis.  
And not on●y so, but as oft as the dubious mind knows not how to unknit the kno●s of intricate difficulties, that wilder the thoughts; so oft with desire it runs to covet to behold those alive, which only are able to be Oedipus' to their Aenigmas. 
Plutarc. qumodo quis pro faci us, etc.  Yea, as once the Generous Macedon to a Foreign Messenger that brought him good News, and before he expressed it in words, intimated it by the joy in his face; What now? (said he) What News bringst thou? Is Homer risen from the Dead? This alone was the most welcome Intelligence, that that great Emperor could receive; which yet had a Soul, and a desire adequate to the Monarchy of Infinite Worlds.  
At this day also if we did ask a great part of the Wisest Men, what thing they desired above the terms of ordinary, we should hear them wish; some, that Plato might return to life, and Aristotle; some, Hippocrates and Galen; some Archimedes and Ptolemy; some, Homer and Virgil; some Demosthenes and Cicero; some, Livius and Zenophon; some, Ulpian and Paulus; some, chrysostom, and Augustine.  
Their lives, were not (in respect of the shortness of ours) so long, but that they were to short for the need the World hath of them. Therefore the death of those is ever displeasing who cannot die without public prejudice, as also they would not have lived but for public benefit. Mihi autem (saith the Consul Pliny very finely) videtur acerba semper, 
Lab. 4. epistol. maxim.  & immatura mors eorum, qui immortale aliquid parant. Nam qui voluptatibns dediti quasi in diem vivunt, vivendi causas quotidie siniunt: qui verò posteros cogilant, & memoriam sui operibus extendunt, his nulla mors non repentina est, ut quae semper inchoatum aliquid abrumpat.  
These Suns of the World the rays of whose sublime Sapience, enliven the Sciences, illuminate the Ages, beautify all the Earth, merit they not in honour that place, that the Light had in the first formation of things? The Light was made by God worthy of the chief praise, that he gave with his mouth to any work of his hands. And that not so much because it is beautiful in itself, as because every thing that it seeth, it makes beautiful; therefore, Tantum sibi praejudicatorem potuit invenire, 
S. Amcros. li. 1. hex. c. 9  a quo jure prima laudetur quoniam ipsa facit, ut etiam caetera mundi membra digna sint laudibus. This is the nature, and these the merits of those, that Seneca (adoring the minute in which they were born, kissing the earth on which they lived, bewailing the hour in which they died, 
Epist. 64. ) calleth Praeceptores generis humani, and if this be too little, Deorum ritu colendos. And why not? would Vitruvius say: 
Vitru. in Architect.  Cum enim tanta munera ab Scriptorum prudentia fuerint hominibus praeparata, non solum arbitror palmas, & coronas his tribui oportere, sed etiam decerni triumphos, & inter Deorum sedes eos dedicandos.    

OBSCURITY.  
Ambition and Confusion, two principles of Obscurity, Affected, and Natural.  
WEre it not for the Opinion, wholly against truth, which anciently has so general credit with the vulgar: That the fixed Stars were mothers, and keepers of Souls; and that every one whilst he lived had above in Heaven his, of the first, middle, or greatest magnitude, and splendour, adjusted to the degrees of Fortune which rendered him more or less considerable on earth. Certain Obscure Souls, certain Chymmerian Minds, whence would they be able to derive themselves, but only from the nubilous, and dusk Stars, that have so much light mixed with so much darkness, that they seem amongst their fellows, rather Spots than Stars.  
These are those unfortunate Aethiopian Souls, that extract Obscurity from the Sun, the Father of Clarity; that learn confusion from Wisdom, the Mother of Order. From the fire of the Sacred Palace, whereby the Wits become so much the more luminous, by how much the more inflamed, they take only the darkness, and blackness of Coals; and rejecting the pupils of the Eagle, for the eyes of a Bat, esteem themselves more the Birds of Pallas, when they be most Nocturnals.  
In vain would Prudent Socrates' experiment his wont conjecture upon them, that knowing, the speech to be a lively Image of the Mind, to come to the knowledge of what was in any one, would say to him, Loquere ut te videam. Their speech, their writing, is as if one should design in plano certain Monstrous figures of Faces, but so miscoloured; and of features, but so counterfeited; that no eye can discern in them the lineaments of humane resemblances, but only looking through a Cylinder of polished steel, and seeing them by reflection. O, Ingenuities, unfortunately ingenious! Dedalus', contrivers only of Labyrinths so crooked, so confused, that they themselves can scarce find Clues, to disengage them.  
But all Obscurity is not of the selfsame nature; not hath all one only beginning and fountain. For there is one made by Art, and another had by Nature: This, being the defect of the Wit, that the effect of Ambition: the one, worthy of compassion, the other of reprehension.  It's a received opinion among the vulgar, That all Obscurity, is an Argument of Wit, and the mark of the loftiness of a great understanding to measure itself by it, even as well as heretofore by the nine hundred Stadium's of shadow the Ancients found the height of the Summitie of Mount Atho●. That Nature hath given the Stars to the obscurity of the night, and Wisdom to the obscurity of Wits. That God himself in his Oracles is all Clouds; and that the excessive Light in which he dwells, in which he is seen hath the name of darkness; because it in such manner shows him, that it in the same instant hides him. That the style of the Wisest Ancients was no other, whose sublime minds, whose high conceited Wits, as it were mountains with steep tops, have their heads still amidst the Mists and Clouds. That their writings were so much securer from the Fisher, the more they were obscured: that they were so much the abler to discover Carbuncles, and Diamonds, the more palpable was the darkness. 
Thus the vulgar deluded by a false appearance of truth, always most admire what they least understand. The splendid, the clear, though profound stream of Wit, because they reach it with their eye they esteem not; one foot of muddy water, because they cannot dive into the depth of it with their sight, they judge to be an abyss of Wisdom. So likewise in Learning.  Alba ligustra cadunt, Vaccinia nigra leguntur. 
Thereupon some take through their ambition of Wit, an affectation of Obscurity, and with the Art of not making themselves understood, they seek to make themselves adored. They transform themselves into more shapes than Proteus, to get out of the hands of such as hold them, that so they may not know what they are. They invent more Hieroglyphics than Egupt knew, because therein they fancy a kernel of solid truth, under a shell of feigned mystery. Every one of their Periods is a Gordian knot, that promiseth an Empire to him that unknits it. They confound their words, more than the leaves of Sibylla were disordered by the wind; and leave credulous wretches to poor into their Oracles, and to wrest them to senses, which never came into the Author's thought.  
Other times, they expose their conceits, as the Deities in a Theatre, wrapped in a knot of Clouds. They show a small Sentence of some well composed Discourse, thereby to win credit to the rest, which is lost in a crowd of confused thoughts. The Reader of their Books, one would think was fishing for the Cuttle a most crafty Fish, which maliciously frees itself from the eye, and hand of others, muddying the clearness of the water, by disgorging up a Cloud of certain black humours, of which it is full. Thus they with their Pens like that Fish  
Naturam juvat ipsa dolis, 
Claud. de saepis.  & conscia sortis,  
Utitur ingenio.  
Oh! how oft is there just nothing found there where some believe great mysteries to lie hid? Since it is an ordinary custom with these to cover that with a veil, 
Plin. lib. 35. c. 10.  as Tymanthes, which they have neither Wit, nor Art sufficient to express.  
By which means they seem to be new Heraclitus' (cui cognomen Scoti non fecit orationis obscuritas) if of them also we may say, 
Sencea epist. 12.  what Pythagoras saith of the writings of the other; 
Laert. in Pyth.  Opus ibi esse Delio natatore. They contest with the Delphian Apollo in authority, & credit, if like him, Neque dicant, neque abscondant, 
Heracl, apud Sto. 5.  sed indicent solùm.  
But the other Obscurity more unfortunate than faulty, is a defect of nature not a vice of the will: And this in some is an effect of paucity and poverty of Wit, in whom the formative virtue, as in too narrow a womb, cannot unite without confounding, cannot place the parts without misplacing the whole. In others it is occasioned by too fervid a mind, in whose fiery thoughts, as in sudden constagrations, there is much more smoke than flame.  
These are those Wits truly fiery, active and prompt of understanding; so that in one only cast of the eye, (sparkling with most velocious thoughts, according to the nature of lightning,) they reflect upon a thousand things, they make a thousand new discoveries. It would be happy for them if they could infuse gravity into their flame, and put a bridle of restraint upon their fire: but as the ●leetest Beasts make the obscurest footsteps, so they being wholly bend on the things they see, see nothing, of the manner how to express that, which the mind sometimes▪ with most abstracted Species, as it were in a moment, understands: And moreover, (being so much less able to methodise, the more fruitful they are of invention;) they expose, whether speaking, or writing, not a Birth, but many seeds; and they themselves being afterwards cooled again, and quiet, (when the judgement is more adapted to discern) are not able to reform that, for which the Wit is defective of both heat and light.  
And these are, in my judgement the two Vicious Obscurities, the one the crime of the ambitious Genius, the other the defect of the poor, or muddy Wit. There is a third sort which they call Obscurity, and is truly so, but it is an Obscurity of the Wit of him that doth not understand, not of the Author; who doth not write or speak so but that he may be easily understood by men of mean understandings.  
If we discourse with certain principal universal Maxims, from whence as from their true Principles we draw other corollaries, till that we descend to some particular matter: which is the noblest and sublimest of all other kinds of grave discourse:) imitating the Falcons, which with great windings & circulations mount on hang, from whence to stoop to the quarry: If we trace out Wisdom, with feigned, but apt inventions, which like a garment we so dispose and put on, as neither to discover what we ought to conceal, not to hid what we would reveal; a custom which Sinesius calleth, 
Lib. de insomniis  Per antiquum atque Platonicum: if we sometimes exempt the Pen from a particular touch upon each circumstance by itself, and abreviate some, so that all is seen, in a small room: If we write as Tymanthes painted. 
Lib. 35. cap. 10.  In cujus omnibus operibus, saith Pliny, intelegitur semper plus quam pingitur & cum ars summa sit ingenium tamen ultra artem est: These Pseudo Vitilitigators condemn us of Obscurity, and say that to understand, & penetrate such things, Non lucernae spiculo lumine, sed totius Solis lancea opus est; Never considering, that our Writings want not light, but their eyes need Eye-bright; in as much as they are like that Dunce Arpastes in Seneca, who being insensibly become blind, not doubting but that he saw aswel as ever, ajebat domum tenebrosum esse.  
But because, for the remedy of that Obscurity, which is capable of cure there cannot be better advice prescribed then to observe Distinction and Order, that are the Father and Mother of Perspicuity, I have laid it down in the subsequent Sections; howbeit perhaps with too frequent trips of the Pen, in regard of what this matter requireth: yet is it not besides the purpose, or without profit; I being to lay down some advertisements, which from the Choice of the argument even unto the last Correction, seemed to me conducible to the more orderly, easily, and successfully Composing.  

That the Argument ought to be elected adequate to the Wit of him that handleth it.  
THe first, and most of all others important trouble; is the invention of the Argument; about which observe the first Law of Horace, where he adviseth: That if you be a Pigmy, you should not go to charge your shoulders with a World, as if you were an Atlas.  
Versate diu quid ferre recusent,  
Quid valeant humeri.  
If your Wit have a weak and ill tempered edge, you must not attempt to work in Porphyre, Flint, or Marble that may be much too hard for your tools. Proportion your Sails to the Wind and your Rudder to the Waves▪ a●d if you be but a small Pinnace, strive not to imitate the great Ships. A Lake, should be your Ocean, and an Island your India's, distant some half a day's sail: Altum alii teneant.  
What would you do, is fishing for small fish you should see a great Whale come into your Net, and make himself your prisoner? Would it so inchant you with the greedinssse of the prey, that it should make you forget the weakness of the Net? Rather would you not fear to take that which otherwise you would be willing to have; knowing, that Nets knit with so small thread are no more able to catch a Fish so big, than a Cobweb is to take a Hornet?  
Oh! how many do like the Icarus in the Poets, which neither was a good Bird in the Air, nor good Fish in the Water; in regard that flying he precipitated, and swimming drowned. His unfortunate Father, seeing him surpass the bounds, he prescribed him as he fastened his wings to his shoulders, followed him a-far-off, and cried, 
Ah simple, venturous Boy Farfaila fond  
Why dost thou rashly sore so far beyond  
The flight I set thee? why goest thou so near  
The scorching beams of Sols consuming sphere?  
Art thou so foolish as to make account  
Thy wings of wax can near the fire mount?  
Why Icarus I say! soft! not so high!  
So ho! stay Icarus, and lower fly!   
But to what purpose? if he would prefer his pleasure to his peril, and his eye to his ear, 
Coelique cupidine tactus,  
Altius egit iter. 
Met 8.    
Till that the wax beginning by little and little to melt, and his wings to moult, he fell from Heaven into the Sea, and there d●ed. Just so do they who take their flight at pleasure, and measure not the height of the course they take, by the strength of the wings that bear them.  
There be some Arguments that seem to have the ambition of the Great Alexander, that would have no Picture, Statue, or Image of his face but what should come from the Pencil of Apelles, from the Gravers of Phydias, and from the Moulds of Lysippus: So they disdain the workmanship of any that is not a golden style: amongst all the Wits, they admit only the most sublime, as Jove of all the earth only reserves to himself the tops of Hills; and it's with reason, That to the highest Deity the highest part of the earth should be dedicated. 
Max. Tyr.   
That then may be aptly said of Arguments or Themes, which the Ancient Sages said of Fortunes; that, as in garments, he hath not the best that hath the biggest, but he that hath the fittest, and best becoming his back. 
Apuleus Apolog. priore.  Pereichus the Painter depainted nothing else for the most part but Stables and Horses: Seraphion nothing but Heavens and Gods. But the Heavens of Seraphion partaked of Stables, and his gods of Horses, as also on the contrary the Stables of Pereichus were a Celestial sight, and his Horses for the excellency of Art had something in them of Divine. It's not the matter, but the work that gives name to the Workman and value to his workmanship. If you have a Pen like the Pencil of Pereichus that can employ itself about ordinary matters with more than ordinary praise; desire not to be a Seraphion, that being ambitious of more lofty subjects, makes the fair deformed, whereas he might save made the deformed mose amiable.  
The World hath never seen a more admirable piece of Arr than the Sphere of the divine workman Archimedes, who making as it were a Compendium of the World, by Contracting the large, by Epitomizing the great, by Retarding the swift, by Abasing the sublime, within the narrowness of a Globe, knew how to comprehend it, and not confound it: and giving liberty to the Planets, order to the Stars, variety to the Motions, proportion to the Spaces, so exactly disposed all, that if the Periods of the great Heaven had been never so disordered, one might have turned them again by the little one of Archimedes. But so noble a work, for which Saphires and Diamonds would have been matters to sordid, did he not make it of Glass? With the fragility of a defective Glass, he imitated the eternity of the incorruptible substance of Heaven: nor did he lessen the worth of the Work by the inferior value of the Matter. 
In vita Mercat.  That great Rock-Chrystal, of which Mercator made a Celestial Globe for Charles the Fifth, enchasing therein Circles of Gold, purest Diamonds of Stars, and making it in this manner, (as that other his Helena) if not fair, at least rich; hath scarce purchased a remembrance, much less an applause in the World. The Diamonds of Mercator were so much more base than the Glass of Archimedes, by how much the Art was in it the more Ingenious, and the workmanship more Artificial.  
I do not hereby pretend to teach, that one should assume Vulgar Themes: howbeit these are better handled, than the more select. I only advise him that is no Delius that he should not put himself to swim in Gulfs, but content himself with fordable streams: him that hath no Wit, or knowledge, Ubi consistat, that he go not about, as Archimedes would have done, Caelum, terramque movere, assuming matters of great moment, and subjects of lofty intelligence, to which neither the slight of the Wit or Pen can attein.  
Yea the best part of the discourse, is the excellency of an Argument: and he that is acquainted with Brain-work knows by experience, that the Ingenious subject admirably sharpens the Wit; and it seems, as if a Noble Theme infuseth from itself, thoughts worth of itself, out of an ambitious of being Nobly discussed; Crescit enim (saith Maternus in the Dialogue of Tacitus, or rather of Quintilian) cum amplitudine rerum vis ingenii, nec quisq●am claram, & illustrem ●●rationem efficere potest, nisi qui causam parem ●nvenit. And, to say true, upon a rugged and course Tele of harsh Canvasse, it would ●hew ill-favoured to paint rich embroideries of Silk; and the Pearls and Gold would disdain to be seen upon so base a Ground. On the contrary, how proudly, and with what state (saith a Poet,) do the waters of Pactolus and Tagus move, because they run upon Golden sands. Waters they seem not, but Diamonds, liquor less precious, not befitting so noble a Bottom.  
Let them therefore that can worthily discuss them, choose Matters of sublime Argument, if they desire the Births of Noble Composures should follow: otherwise it will succeed to them as it did to that Archydamus King of Sparta, who having taken to wise a Woman of excessive small stature, was deposed by the Ephori tanquam non Reges, sed Regunculos procreaturus.   

The sub-division and Desection of the whole Discourse.  
HAving found an Argument proper to him that is to treat upon it, and worthy of him that is to hear it, he is to give it some Method, Desecting, and Sub-dividing it into members; that so with ingenious distinction they may comprehend all that they desire to say of that subject. And this is one of the most important tasks of one that writeth. For such as is the proportion of the members in the body, such is the Division of the parts in Books; whereby they enjoy that beauty which comes from symmetry, and that persp cuity which proceeds from Order. Therefore it concerns the Judgement to Ideate and figure in the Imagination the design of all the mass together, from thence, as Love in the Chaos, to distinguish, organize, methodise one by one, and afterwards unitedly to conjoin all the parts.  
It is indeed a great commendation of a Noble Work, that it variously revolves itself through many and divers matters, but with so much union of all the parts, that looking one while on the foot, another on the hand, now beholding the breast, than the face, still they are one & the same body, still the whold is understood in every of its parts.  Ne primo medium, 
Horat. in Arte.  medio nec discrepet imum. 
And this, of all the excellencies of Heaven, is that, which more than all others, renders it wonderful, that in it the discord of so many motions so harmonise, & the wander of so many Stars are so reform, that there is not only no disorder occasioned from their variety, nor confusion from their multiplicity; but moreover the Planets show, and as it were teach one another viewing themselves with Sextiles, Quadrats, Trines, Aspects, and opposite Diameters: looks all, wherewith they do not so much glance at one another, as semblably show themselves to those which behold them, Thus it is, saith Manilius: 
Haud quicquam in tanta magis est mirabile mole, 
Manil. 1 Astron.   
Quam ratio, & certis quòd legibus omnia parent.  
Nusquam turba nocet, nihil his in partibus erat.   
For if there be wanting in Composures the right Division of the parts, and with it a good Method, (as he that hath made the first Rough-chyzelling of a Statue of Marble lame and deficient, though he afterwards polish it, and exactly work it, takes not away its being a Monster so) it shall be more or less monstrous. Nor boots it, that a disorderly discourse be replenished with high speculations, and sublime fancies, with solid reasons, and with Ancient and Modern crudition, to the end they may seem, illustrated with so many lights, and embellished with so many ornaments; the Aphorism holding in such like Composures, which Hippocrates writes of ill-affected bodies, Quò plus nutries eò magis laedes.  
It's necessary therefore wisely to imitate the Bees, 
Plin. lib. 11. c. 6.  which first work their Wax into Combs, and sub-divide the ranks, and this is their first business, in which they employ greater time and industry; and after they go abroad in search of Honey, with which in few days they fill their empty Cels.   

The prepartion of the Matter, called Sylva.  
TO the Argument found, to the parts disposed, follows the composing: which is at it were to cover the bones with flesh, and to make a body of a Sheleton.  
And here take, to begin with it, an ordinary error of such, who bringing to such labours only clean Paper, a Pen and his own brain, would in one and the same instant Invent, Dispose, and Compose; attending at one and the same time to the Matter, Method, and Manner; as if he were the Sun, that to paint a Rainbow in a Cloud, without difference in the Circle, without disorder in the Colours, hath no more to do but to behold it, and there withal to stretch forth the Pencil of a beam, wherewith in a moment he designs and colours it.  
These, whilst they gnaw their Pen, gaze on the roof, and buzzing like Beetles, hum to themselves; putting down beginnings without conclusions, and find themselves at the end of the work in the beginning; how seasonably might one whisper in their ear for a jeer, and the caution that common Axiom which saith, Ex nihilo nihil: Ye pretend to rain down Gold from the head, where you have it not in Mine; and farther, that you will mint it into weighty money, and with the impression of lawful Coin; thus in one and the same time you play the Alchemist, Assayer, Coiner, Treasurer, Prince, every thing: Which is the direct way to do just nothing, 
Quintil. lib. 10.  Ne igitur resupini, respectantesque tectum, & cogitationem murmurare agitantes expectemus quid obveniat. Imagine, that the compiling a Book is the building of a House. It's not enough to have Platform, and Model, if one want Stones, Morter, Beams, and Ironwork. Therefore Sylva rerum, 
Cic. 3. de Orat.  & sententiarum paranda est: ex rerum enim cognition, e●●lorescere debet, & redundarum oratio.  
He that hath not in his head a living Library, collected with long study from Stories Sacred, Profane, Natural, and Civil; from Politic Instructions; from Ancient Laws and Rites; from grave and sententious Sayings of Wise men; from Fables, from Hierogly phicks, from Proverbs; and that which is more than all, from Philosophy Natural, and Moral; from the Mathematics; from Civil Law; from Medicine; and as much as is requisite from Theology: it is requisite, that from dead Books he borrow and collect that, which shall suffice his occasions.  
It little imports to have conceived a good Argument, if when ye be to bring it forth, you have not breasts full of milk to nourish it, so that it is forced to die in your hands, of pure famine. Stasicrates, that would engrave Alexander, with making him a more than a Gigantical Statue of the Mountain Athos, was not aware, that the City which he designed to put in one of his hands, in regard it had not about it fields to cultivate, would become unhabitable. To this Alexander had an eye more than to any thing else. Delectus enim (saith Vitruvius') ratione formae, 
Praefat. lib. 2.  staim quaesivit, si essent agri circa, qui possent frumentaria ratione eam civitatem tueri: And understanding in the negative, he refused with a courteous smile the offer of the inconsiderate Statuary, Ut enim natus infans sine nutricis lacte non potest all, neque ad vitae crescentis gradus perduci, sic Civitas, etc. Just so, what ever Theme one assumes, if he hath not wherewith to nourish it, it cannot grow, nor maintain itself; but like a sprout springing up in the dry sands, of Arabia deserta, no sooner doth it shoot up, but it is deprived in one instant both of moisture and life.  
Therefore they do prudently, who before they resolve upon an Argument, look if there is, or if they have whence to extract matter sufficient to complete it. Thus experienced Architects, saith St. Ambrose, in designing of all Fabrics, employ their first thoughts, in contriving how they may bring in the Lights with best convenience into every Room. Antequam fundamentum ponat, unde lucem ei infundat explorat; 
Hexam. 5. c. 9  & ea prima est gratia, quae si desit, tota domus deformi horret incultu.  
Therefore its needful to have knowledge of, and acquaintance with many Books; and a Judgement of competent ability to pick out, but of greater maturity to apply the things that one finds, that so where cause requires they may in an ingenious, and singular manner, express that which they have to say. And in this, it's an infallible observation, that every one gathers that for himself, that to his Genius (to which always concurs the manner of Speaking) is most apt, 
Quintil. in Dial. elo.  and agreeable. And as Neminem delectant, & sordida; magnarum enim rerum species ad se vocat, & extollit; so some there are, that leave Diamonds with the Cock of Aesop: and, as if their brains were of yellow Amber, they attract nothing but Chaff. Thus there are some that from flowers take only the sight, some only the odour, others the images, painting them, others the waters, distilling them; but the Bees take thence the honey, and the honey all of one sweetness, and of one Savour; though from flowers of divers natures and tastes they gather it. The same happens in Books, Meadows of odoriferous flowers and herbs for the maintenance of the Wit. There be those who only take from them the sight, in the delight of reading them; others some spirit of good odour, to waken the Brain, and comfort the Wit. There are some that bundle up herbs, carelessly gathering what comes first to hand; and some that with greater curiosity pick only flowers to wove thereof Crowns and Garlands. Some squeeze out the juice, others extract the waters; Few from a great multitude of Subjects, different from one another, know how to gather honey of the same taste, so applying things, that all speak to the same purpose; and so that there may be the Delight of Variety, without wanting the Union of Sense.  
These divers manners of election, and application, submit to the Judgement, and the Judgement follows the Genius which every one hath of speaking some in one style, and some in another, suitable to the Idea of his mind. Therefore matters extracted from Books, may be said to be like the dew, which if it fall into the shell of a Conchylia (according as 
* Plin. li. 9 c. 35  some believe) is changed into Pearls, if upon a rotten Tree it becomes Toadstools.  
But in uniting matter to form thereof a Book, I hint in the last place, that it may be of no less prejudice to have too much, than to have nothing. My SCHOLAR ought not to be so sparing in the gathering, as if be would that the Work he is to publish were more me●ger than an Aristarchus, than a Phyletas, than a living Skeleton; so that one may count the bones, and see all the courses of the veins, the ligatures of the nerves, the dispositions of the muscles, the motions of the arteries, and almost the Soul itself. Nor ought he to be prodigal, as if he were about to form a man so corpulent, that he should seem rather a Bottle than a Man. He that amasseth together superfluous stuff, unless he be Magnus Deus, as the Ancients called Love, as being the methodizer of Chaos, is not able to dispose it, but that in such a crowd there will be a confusion.  
Further more, upon a superfluous Collection, it comes to pass that we exceedingly grudge after having culled out the most excellent and opposite things to cast away the rest as unprofitable; which yet will be far more than those that are pertinent; thinking it not the property of a good Judgement, but a propension to prodigality, to lose together with so many things, the toil and time spent in gathering them. By this means whilst all pleaseth, and the Author seeks a place for every thing, he stuffs his Books, as the Glutton doth his belly more for greediness of swallowing, than out of any heat he hath to digest: and so from the abundance of corrupt humours, ariseth the indisposure of the body, the consumption of the strength, paleness, 
Seneca epist. 84.  and a hundred diseases. Idem igitur in his quibus aluntur ingenia, pestemus, ut quecunque hausimus non patiamur integra esse, ne aliena sint, sed coquamus illa. Thus let us be advertised, that as to Bodies, so to Books, we give not so much as they can receive, but so much as they can concoct, and digest.  
Now the Argument found, the Parts methodised, the Matter collected, and ranged in order, let him proceed to Composing.   

The Discouragement of those that meet with difficulties in the beginning.  
IN every Art, and Enterprise, the beginning is more difficult than all the remainder. The first steps require the greatest strength and constancy; after which as having mounted the acclivity of a high Rock, the way still proves more smooth and easy. All Arts may say of their beginnings, what Apollo, instructing Phaethon, said of his journey: 
Ardua prima via est, 
2. Met.  per quam vix mane recentes  
Enituntur equi.—   
So in the gains of Merchandise, the hardest is to get out of poverty; Pecunia (saith the Stoic) circa paupertatem plurimam moram habet, 
Plut. an seni resp. gerenda.  dum ex illa ereptat. Whence Lampis, a very rich Man, being asked how of a Beggar that he was, he was become ●o wealthy; My small riches I got (said he) by watching a nights, my great I get now sleeping a days. I moiled more in the beginning for a Farthing, than I did afterwards for a Talon; nor did my being now so rich cost me any more, than the first pains I took, to cease to be poor.  
This not being understood by the unexperienced in the mystery of Composing, is the cause, that encountering in the first onset with sterile fancies, dry veins, and an incomprehensive Wit, they grow impatient, and either condemn themselves as unable to proceed, or abandon the Art as too difficult to apprehend. They consider not that one cannot immediately pass from Nocturnal Obscurity to Meridian Clarity. There precede it, the first glimmerings, that are a small light mixed with much obfuscation; after that the Dawn, less dusky; which also grows white upon the edge of the Horizon; next Aurora, more rich with light, more adorned with colours; and lastly, the Sun; and this, in its first peeping above our Hemisphere is thick, vaporous, oblique, weak, and twinkling; but getting at length above the Horizon (as he that with great trouble climbs a pendent Cliff) by little and little it recovers the Zenith point of Heaven. They remember not that a man must first be a child, and must creep before he can run; carrying his reeling, & at everystep-stumbling body, upon his feeble feet, and tender arms: Nor that he is not furnished with speech, till first he hath been long silent, and then he attains a puling cry, than a stuttering and stammering tongue, and halved and broken words, crying with much ado Dad, and Mam: and at last learning the syllables and words one by one from others mouths, he repeats them as the Echo piece-meal, more imitating others speech, than speaking.  
Great Men are not made by Founding, as the Statues of Brass, (which in one moment are form whole and entry) but are wrought like Marbles, with the point of the Chisel by a little, and a little. The Apelles', the Zeuxis', the Parrhasius', those great Masters of Painting, of whose Pictures it could not be said, that they wanted Souls to seem living, for that they knew how to appear a live even without Souls; when they begun to handle their Pencils, and to Pourfoil, do not you think that they gave one false touch in two; and that it needed to be written under their Work what the Pictures were, that a Lion might not be taken for a Dog? It is the opinion of Pliny, that Nature herself, (notwithstanding she is so great an Artist, and Mistress of the most excellent Works) before she set herself to make the Lily, a work of great Art, did prepare herself by making as it were the rough draught, and model in the Convolvus a white and simple flower; 
Lib. 21. cap. 5.  therefore called by him veluti naturae rudimentum, Lilia facere condiscentis. If you have seen the Campidoglio of Rome, and in it the Temple of Jupiter, enriched with the spoils of all the World, would you know it for that which once it was, when 
Jupiter angusta vix totus stabat in aede, 
Ovid. 1. Fast.   
Inque Jovis dextra fictile fulmen erat?   
From this neglected seed sprang that great Tree of as many Palms, as the Compidoglio saw Triumph; according to the common Law of all things, That they be first Springs of poor Originals & mean beginnings, than Rivulets, next Rivers, and at last Sea's.  
For though it be true that some times, according to the Ancient Proverb, Royal Rivers have Navigable Fountains; and he that is to proceed in some profession of Learning beyond the terms of ordinary, to any excellency, giveth extraordinary Symptoms in the very beginning, like as Hercules' Monstra superavit prius, Quam nosse posset. in his Cradle ●strangling Dragons, thereby preluding to the Hydra, and giving the first testimony of his strength: this, notwithstanding that it be true in some few, holds not as a Law to all; not so much proves the facility, as the felicity of the first operations, and rather the ability of the Wit, than the use of Art.  
Let us not therefore abandon the enterprise for the difficulty of the beginning; nor let us leave Proteus if he breaks the first snares we tie him in. Desire not to be Masters before you be Scholars: And bear in mind, that beginners do enough if they begin. Take for encouragement some Verses of the King of Poets, with their application to the purpose; 
Qualis spelunca subito commota Columba,  
Cui domus, & dulces latebroso in pumice nidi  
Fertur in arva volans, plausumque exurita pennis  
Dat lecto ingentem: Mox aïre lapsa quieto  
Radit iter liquidum, celeris neque commovet alas.   
Just such shall be your Wit. Now it behoves you to beat the wings strongly, and raise yourselves to fly with great pains; he shall not need to go much, that without clapping the wings, or beating the feathers, can take most fortunate flights; and that shall be, when (having acquired the skill of composing,) or the doing what you will, the bare desiring it shall suffice to effect it.   

That we ought to use various Styles, according to the variety of Subjects discoursed of.  
IT is requisite now to show what Style, what From, or, as Hermogenes called it, Idea of speech, aught to be used by him that composeth. About which you must know, that in the Method of discussing any thing whatsoever, what is most worthy to be observed, is reduceable to Quantity and Quality. The first is measured by the Prolixity and Brevity: the second by the Efficacy and Debility of the discourse. And because in both the one and the other of these two Species, you have the two Extremes, and the Mean between them, it thence follows, that under the Quantity is comprehended the Longest, Mean, Shortest: Under the Quality, the Sublime, Mean, and Vulgar. The three first have had people that have made use of them. Of the Longest the Asians, of the Shortest the Spartans', of the Mean the Atticans. The three second have had Orators, which upon the word of M. Tully, have been excellent in each of those Forms of Speech.  
The pure Asiatick is most Diffused; and likes of what it pleaseth, and is accustomed to speak; as that Albutius recited by Seneca, Non quidquid debet, sed quidquid potest. A Style cruciating the ears, which in an Ocean of words, hath not a jot of Salt; Nullo enim certo pondere innixus, verbis humidis, & lapsantibus diffluit. Cujus orationem benè existimatum est in ore nasci, non in pectore. Whence it's a miracle (that which Aristotle said to an importunate Babbler) that he should find any that have feet, ablt to walk with him, or ears willing to hear him. Have you observed the first Letters of Indentures written in Parchment? How many strokes of the Pen how many dashes, how many flourishes in Text go to the forming them? and in the end they are no more than an A, a B, a Letter, as the rest that are simply writ. This is the true Symbol of the Asian Style. In a World of Words it tells you no more than others would say in a Sentence.  
The pure Laconic, useth rather Hieroglyphics than words; and in it as is said of the Pictures of Parrhasius. 
Plin. 35. cap. 10.  Plus intelligitur quam pingatar. Studet enim ut paucissimus verbis plurimas res comprehendat, 
De jud. Thuc.  as Helicarnassus saith of Thucydides. It's three great Periods are touched in one Line. Three Lines are little less than a complete Oration. 
Plut. prae Reipub.  Every world of it, nay, almost every syllable, is what Demosthenes termed the sayings of Photion, A blow with an Axe.  
The Mean between these two, that as Elixor is tempered & compounded of both, is the Attic; which without the Insipidnesse of the Asian, without the Obscurity of the Laconic, hath the Perspicuity of that and the Efficacy of this: and as in a well-formed Body all is not Nerves, not is all Flesh, but it hath part of the one for Strength, and part of the other for Beauty. 
Gel. li. 2. cap. 20.  He that takes a word from it, bereaves it not, as Lysias, De sententia, but as Plato, De elegantia. It hath that, 
Proem. lib. 2. Contr.  which Seneca the Controvertist calleth Pugnatorum (of which the Asiatic is wanting) but useth it with other more secure and proper ways of skirmishing than the Laconic, which at every blow makes a Pass, and comes to the Close, and not offering (as Regulus said of himself) any thing but Foins, and all at the throat of the cause, still runneth the danger; 
Plin. l. epist. 2  Negenu sit, aut talus, ubi jugulum putat.  
The different Styles under the Species of Quality, have not as the a-foresaid, the extremes vicious, and the mean best; but they proceed in goodness one above the other; as they be one more perfect than another.  
To display their nature more clearly, 
Rhos. l. 1.  we will call to mind, 
Orat. ad Bru●.  what is taught by Aristotle and Marcus Tully. That the Art of Persuasion hath three most potent Means, with which it is wont to obtain its end: these they are, to Teach, to Delight, to Persuade. And because every one of them hath a different office from the other, they have also different characters, and forms, of which they make use, the Vulgar or Popular to Teach, the Mean to Delight, the Sublime to Persuade.  
As for the kind called Popular, see the terms between which the Father of Latin Eloquence hath confined it. 
Vbi supra.  Acutum omnia docens, & dilucidiora non ampliora faciens; subtili quad●m, & pressa oratione limatum. In it the principal things are distinction, perspicuity, order, politeness, and propriety of words, without Metaphors, Phrases, or Metanymies. It hath not the flashes, thunders, lightnings, nor those lofty and magnific forms of Speech, with which the Oration Majestically flourished.  
The Mean, 
Ibidem.  Insigne, & florins est; pictum, & expolitum: in quo omnes verborum, omnes sententiarum illigantur lepores: neque enim illi propositum est perturbare animos, sed placare potius, nec tam persuadere, quam delectare. Concinnas igitur sententias exquirit magis quam probabiles; à re saep● discedit, intexit fabulas, verba apertius transport, eaque ita disponit ut pictores varietatem colorum. Paria paribus refert, adversa contrariis saepissimeque similiter extrema de●init, etc.  
But the Sublime all Majesty, all Empire, in that most grateful violence that it offereth to the minds of its Auditors, transforming them in all their affects, and ravishing them with their consent, recollects as much of sublimity in the senses, of strength in the reasons, of Art in the order, of weight in the sentences, of ennergy in the words, as can be possible. It is Ample, Eloquent, Magnificent. A Torrent but most clear, a Lightning but regular. With excellent variety of Figures, with mutations of affections, mixed without disorder. And as it were a Cloud, which in the same day gives out Fire and Water, Lightning and Rain. Of this Form of Speech I will take in Picture from the design of Quintilian: 
Lib 12 cap. 2.  Quae saxa devoluit, & pontem indignatur, & ripas sibi facit. Multa, ac torrens. Judicem vel obnitentem contra ferens, cogensque ire quà rapit. E● defunctos exitat. Apud eam Patria clamat, & alloquitur aliquem. Amplificat, atque extollit orationem, & vi superlationum quoque erigit, Deos ipsos in congressum quoque suum, sermonesque deducit, etc.  
These are the Characters of the Forms of Speech in their pure being, only hinted, not described. The Masters of this Art which according to their profession do treat thereof, will completely satisfy them that desire a more full information. It sufficeth me to have said so much concerning it as was requisite to be known by way of Introduction to the ensuing advice: And it is, That the Style should be varied conformably to the variety of the Subjects treated of; accommodating it to each as the Light to the Colours, which into so various Forms, so constantly transforms itself. The same Scoene serves not to Tragoedies, Comedies, and Pastorals. This requires Fields, and Woods, that City-houses of resort, The Tragic Princely Palaces, and Temples. The place ought to correspond to the Action. Likewise Oration should adapt itself to the subject; not treating of sublime matters with a Plebeian Style, nor of base Arguments with sublime Eloquence.  
In fine, we should have that subtlety in the use of Styles, which some Ancient founders of Statues had, that form not every god every Metal; but according to their various natures, in various tempers mixing them, they expressed them to be either, gentle, or cruel; horrid or handsome; bright or duskish: and in that most commendable was the judgement of Alcon, that made a Hercules all of Iron; Laborum Dei patientia inductus, said Pliny.  
Yea, we ought not only universally to use Styles fitted to the nature of the entire subjects, of which we speak; but in every composition it behoves so many times to vary it: as the things are divers which compose it. And like as in Tragical Actions the Scoene changeth, and altars itself to Rural, to express some particularity either of the Ancient Satire, or of the Modern Pastoral; thus where there occurs in one discourse matters proper to other Kind's, than that, which the set subject comprehends, to express it decently, it is requisite to change the Form of Speech; using appositely & opportunely, as Seneca adviseth. 
Lib. 43. cap. 14  ●●liquid Tragicè grandè, aliquid Comicè exile.  
Moreover; the parts of one and the self same Discourse, require various manners of Oration; and so various, as the Narration is different from Proof, and Proof from persuasion. Omnibus igitur dicendi formis utatur orator, nec pr●● causa tantùm, sed etiam pro partibus causae. Thus he that well peruseth a Treatise of some bulk, shall find no less variety, than there is in the acting of a Scoene; in which appears many Persons of different State, and Office: and as in that 
Intererit multum Davus loquatur, 
Quintil. lib. 12. cap. 10.  an Heros.  
Maturus ne senex, an adhuc florente inventa  
Fervidus. An Matrona potens, an sedula Nutrix,  
Mercatorve vagus; Cultorve virentis agelli,  
Colchus, an Assyrius, Thebis nutritus, an Argis:  and in the variety of these persons, the variety of their affects should also be observed, therefore; 
— Tristia moestum  
Vultum verba decent. 
Horat. in Arte.  Iratum plena minarum,  
Ludentem lascivia, Severum seria dictu:  so proportionably in Prose, should we according to the variety of things, variously accommodate the Sty●● And he alone is the perfect, 
In Orat. ad Brut.  and only Orator (saith Tully, after the long quest he made of him) Qui & humilia subtiliter, & magna graviter, & mediocria temperatè potest dicere.   

Of the Style called Modern Affected.  
BUt I do predict, that there will be some who will think, that speaking of the better Ideas of Speech, I have been unmindful of the best, having hitherto said nothing of that which they call the Conceited, or Witty Style, used now a-dayes of many with no small applause of Wit..  
This is (say they) that Style, given only to Wits enriched with high fancies; for all is dissolved Pearls, and beaten Gold, the office of sublime Souls; since that as the Indian Bird called the Bird of Paradise, it never sets foot on Earth, never abaseth itself, but still towers aloft in the purest Air, and the serenest and sublimest Heaven. It composeth the draughts of the things it representeth with a precious Mosaic of a thousand Ingenious Conceits; emulating that great Pompey, that Triumphantly (albeit, Verior luxuria, 
Plin. l▪ 37. c. ●  quam triumpho) carried his Picture composed only of Diamonds, Rubies, Saphires, Carbuncles, and Pearls, with so goodly a contrast between the design, and the colours, that one knew not which to admire most, the matter or workmanship. 
Plin. lib. 35. c. 10.  That Venus (Quam Graeci Charita vocant) that Apelles said was injured by every Pencil but his own, is wronged by every Pen but that of the Sprightly Style, which will expressly and lively delineate her features, according as vivacity is proper to her. The World is not now what it was when men, brought forth by trees, did eat Acorns for Confects. In the taste of Learning it hath now a-dayes so delicate a palate, that it will have not only the liquours which it imbibeth by the ears (which are the mouths of the Soul) to be precious, but will have the cup to be no less precious in which it's put; so that both the matter, and the manner of pouring it out, be worthy of it. And this Ingenious Style is that only, 
Plinius proem. lib. 37.  in which Turba gemmarum potamus, & Smaragdis teximus calices.  
That Ancient Idle kind of Speech, which in a discourse of many hours spreads a great Table; seems to feed you, thereby to hold you in suspense; but leaves you in the end, as hungry as in the beginning: 
Sen. her.  just as Tantalus, 
In amne medio facibus, siccis senex  
Sectatur undas. Abluit mentum latex,  
Fidemque cum in saepè decepto dedit,  
Fugit unda; in ore poma destituunt famem.   
It promiseth you Fruit, but gives you the Leaves of bare words; and leaves your mind as hungry as your ears glutted. But the Modern Speech sets before you as much variety as plenty of sweet Viands; and taking them away upon your first tasting them, and setting on other new ones, keeps you still sated, and still hungering: according to the Ancient Laws of the Noblest Suppers, 
A. Gell. li. 14. c. 8.  in which, Dum libentissimè edis, tunc aufertur, & alia esca melior, atque amplior succenturiatur: Isque flos Caenae habetur. Nor because the Style is pleasing and delightful, it is therefore either softly effeminate, or feebly weak for the enterprise of Persuasion. The Grace takes not away the Force. It can make the same vaunt with the Soldiers of Julius Caesar that knew, 
Sueton. in Caes. cap. 6.  Etiam unguentati benè pugnare. Aiax wore his shield of Hides, without ornament, horridly negligent; Achilles that had his covered with Gold, and studded with Diamonds, was not therefore less strong, because more beautiful. 
M. Tir. serm. 29.  Imagine an Alcibiades, equally generous in the heart, and fair in the face; which delights to appear in the field with Garlands of Flowers on his Helm, and with Embroideries upon his Curasses, and to be as bravely adorned when he fights, as others are when they Triumph.  
Thus speak these of their Style, besides which none doth please them. If a Treatise want those, which they call Conceits, as if it were a face, Cui gelasinus abest, they vouchsafe not so much as to look upon it. To there palate that only which stings hath a good savour, all the rest, Melimela fatuaeque mariscae, is meat for Children. In sine, they so idolise the substance, that many times they adore the only name of a Conceit, where they think it is: and, I had almost said, they do with it, as he described by Martial, did with his Pearls, 
Non per mystica sacra Dindymenes, 
Lib. 7. epist. 81.   
Nec per Niliacae bovem juvencae,  
Nullos denique per Deos Deasque,  
Jurat Gellia, sed per Uniones.   
Others on the contrary say this is not the Modern Style. The true and lively Image of it is portrayed in that Ancient Picture that Quintilian left of it (lib. 
Quint. li. 12. c. 10.  12. cap. 10) which yet was not the first that drew it. But be it as it will, Ancient or Modern; whosoever its applauders be, yet if either we weigh its Nature, or Use in the Balance of good Judgement, it weighs nothing 〈◊〉 it's all lightness, it hath no solidity, 〈◊〉 all Vanity. It doth as the Western Indians, that more esteem a Glass, that a Pearl, a sorry Brass Bell, than a Wedg of Gold, with this its rich and pompous, 
Seneca epist. 115.  & omne Ludicrum ille in pretio est. Its Authors, fantasticating day and night, consume, and unbowel their brains, as Spiders, to wove with ingenious subtleties the Webs of their discourse.  
They turmoil themselves in hammering out Conceits, which most commonly prove Abortives, or Cripples; works of Glass, neiled by a Candle, which touched, I will not say seen, break in pieces: and yet by how much the frailer by so much the fairer, 
Plutarc. proem. lib. 35.  Imò quibus pretium faciat ipsa fragilitas.  
It's a matter of most pleasant divertisement to see their Writing●, as it were sick-men's Dreams, to pass at every period de genere in genus, verifying in their Actions that which they; That their Conceits are lightnings, & flashes of Wit; since, besides that their appearing and disappearing is the same thing, they in the same instant fly from East to West, and ofttimes sine medio. All their Leaves resemble a Peacock's tail displayed before the Sun: as various in colours, as ●●onstant in motion. 
Tertul. libro de Pall. c. 13  Nunquam ipsa, semper alia, etsi semper ipsa quando alia. Toties mutanda, quoties movenda. And because they hold it for a Maxim that this kind of Composing is a woven Garland of Flowers, quae varietate sola placent, 
Plin. lib. 21. c. 9  they thrust in all they can, and that sometimes that would not have come in; whence in viewing the particulars thereof, they incur not so much the censure, 
Plin. lib. 25. c. 2.  as anger of Pliny, who curseth the superstitious care of the Inventor of a certain Counter-poison, that was compounded of above fifty several ingredients, and some of them of insensible quantities. Methridaticum antidotum, ex rebus quinquaginta quatuor componitur, interim nullo pondere equali; & quarundam rerum sexagesima denarii unius imperata. Quo Deorum perfidiam istam monstrante? Hominum enim subtilitas tanta esse non potuit. O●●ntatio artis, & portentosa scientiae venditatio manifesta est, ac ne ipsi quidem illam moverunt.  
From hence cometh the uniting of periods, divided, and as it were Apostrophied into small concise particles; an effect of the multitude of minute-points, each of which finish the sentence, and changeth the sense, & tàm subitò desinunt, 
Sen. pro. l. 2. contr.  ut non brevia sint, sed abrupta: Or rather, as 
* the word is atro, but it being the same Seneca, I read it altrove.  elsewhere Seneca saith, Non desinunt sed cadunt, ubi maximè expectes relictura.  
Finally, from their not speaking what they speak, it comes that they speak it a hundred times; so that, like them that beginning always new designs how to live, they know not living how to live, 
Ep. 100  saith Manilius, Victuros agimus, semper neque vivimus unquam.  
so these which have this method of speech, that they can as well conclude in the beginning, as begin in the conclusion, may aptly enough be able to say of themselves, Dicturos agimus semper, neque dicimus unquam.  
Therefore their discourse resembleth the unhappy sport which Seneca assigned to the Emperor Claudius, for an Infernal pain, and it was that he should always stand in a posture of casting the Dice, and never have his Throw; 
Nam quoties missurus erat, 
In Apoc.  resonante fritillo.  
Utraque subducto fugiebat tessera fundo.  
Cumque recollectos auderet mittere talos,  
Lusuro similis semper, semperque petenti;  
Decepere fidem.—   
That then, in which these Wit's triumph, is in their Descriptions, which when they obtain, they say to themselves, Hic Rhodus, hic salta. And yet it commonly succeeds with such constraint of Art and Wit, and in so Hyperbolical, and Gigantical a manner, that the more they desire to speak the less they say; equally roving from that which is natural and that which is profitable. 
Ath. lib. 8.  Whereupon we may say as much of their childish Descriptions, as Dorio said of a violent tempest at Sea described by Timothy, Majorem se in ferventi olla vidisse.  
What would that Ingenious Phavorinus say now a-dayes, that reading in Virgil, where he described Euceladus thunderstruck under Mongibello, and saith 
Liquefactaque saxa sub auras  
Cum gemitu glomerat:  judged this saying, 
A. Gell. l. 17. c. 10.  in a Poet, and that speak of a Giant, and of an Aetna, Omnium quae monstra dicuntur, monstro si ssimum: what would he say, say I, if he should hear: That Roses in the Cheeks to remove, and arches of admiration in the brows to the triumph of others virtues, in running through the fields of Eternity with the steps of Desert, etc. expressions usual in subjects of familiar but Plebeian Argument, and about things that they engreaten not in the least.   

When its indiscretion to use too Elegant and Polite a Style.  
BUt of Conceits and the manner of using them, let every one judge according to his reason and fancy. For my part, if I be to borrow any of them, for the necessity of the Argument, I esteem them as Jewels, and take their value from their Nature, and Use: so that they be not counterfeit but real; and not disordered at all adventures, but put in their proper places. The one is the Office of the Wit, which is to Invent them; and the other of the Judgement, which ought to Dispose them.  
The Wit is not to take Chystals for Diamonds; the Judgement must not crowd them in where they should not be: imitating the Western Barbarians, which cut the skins of their faces, to enchase therein Jewels; never perceiving that they more deform themselves with the Gashes they make, than adorn themselves with the Ornaments they wear. The face requireth no other ornament, than its natural beauty; and its more wronged and deformed by a Pearl although very excellent, enchased in a Cheek, than by the blemish of a Mole, growing there naturally. In like manner in the Art of Speaking, some things appear the fairer for their plainness; and resemble Pictures, in which saith Pliny Junior very excellently, that the Painter; Ne errare quidem debet in melius.  
Lysippus cast a Statue of Alexander so to the life, that it seemed, he had infused into the melted Brass the veey Soul of that great King. Nero, (that was Cruel even in his Favours, and did hurt even there where he pretended to help,) having it in his power amongst other spoils of Greece, would gild it; judging that a Statue of so excellent workmanship was not worthily composed of any worse Metal than Gold. The Fool considered not, that Martial faces were better expressed by the fierceness of Brass, than by the spruceness of that Womanish and lascivious Metal. Therefore the Gilded Statue of Nero, lost all the Nobility of Alexander: all the Workmanship of Lysippus: and that, being gilded, became a dead Statue which seemed before a living Image: So that he was constrained to correct his error, and for Nero's fault to flea Alexander: taking off with the File that Golden Skin, which had been laid on with fire: and yet so gashed, so ill dealt with, it remained more beautiful than it did before when it was gilded; 
Plin. lib. 34. c. 8.  Cum pretio periisset gratia artis (said the Stoic) detractum est aurum; pretiosiorque talis aestimatur, etiam cicatricibus operis, atque consciscuris, in quibus aurum haeserat, remanentibus. Therefore Embellishments are not always Ornaments; but sometimes transform one into deformity, and where Ornari res ipsa negat, 
Man.  contenta doceri, to be superfluously, and sometimes affectedly conceited, declares a great plenty of Wit, but a small portion of judgement.  
In Affections then, either let us betake ourselves to imitate, or suppress them; which is the hardest point in the Profession of Rhetoric; because an exquisite Art of a refined Judgement, must lie hid under such naturalness that what is said, may not seem a Dictate of Wit, but a venting of the heart; not studied, but born of itself; not got by pausing, but found in the very act of speaking; what use can be made of a Style, that's distilled drop by drop by the dim light of a Candle; with words wrecked in their Metaphors, double in their allusions, with spiritous and lively senses: more able to puzzle the brain, than to move the heart? 
Chrysol.  Mortuum non artifex fistula (saith Chrysologus) sed simplex plangit affectio.  
For myself, when I chance to hear the affections managed in so improper a manner I feel a greater naucity, than one who is Sea-sick; and my tongue itcheth to be using that saying of a Wise Emperor, that said to one of his Servants, all perfumed with Musk as he trust him out of his Chamber, banished him the Court, Mallem allium oleres.  
How would that great Master of the Stage Polus, in expressing the affections, suffer the affectation of a childish Style, who to represent more lively the person of Hecuba, lamenting the loss of her Valorous Son dead Hector, whose ashes she carried in an Urn, dis-interred the Bones of his own Son a little before buried, and filled the Urn therewith, and with that in his arms appeared on the Stage; leaving the Art of Mourning to Nature, and expressing the imitation with reality, whilst under the mask of Hecuba, he represented himself a childless Father, and under the name of Hector bewailed the loss of his Son? Thus the Style of the affections is the truer, the more natural it is, nor is it possible that whilst the Thoughts run to the motions of the Soul, the Wit should be so idle as not to be studiously Ingenious; nor that whilst it is conveyed from the heart to the tongue of a person impetuous and violent, replenished with a thousand different meanings, it should have time to select the words, to disguise them, turning them from the natural to the metaphorical sense, and to imbelish them with flourishes, and conceits. But he that hath a solid judgement, if in treating of any matter humorous, he see his importunely-fertile Wit, to offer and present before him, subtleties, and nice quirks, he will thrust them away, with his hand, and say unto them, Non est hic locus. He doth with the eye of his mind, as the bodily eyes do, when they see too much light; they contract the pupils, and thereby exclude part of it. And is wise in so doing, 
Plin. lib. 34. c. 14.  like that famous Ariston, that being to express in a Statue of Bronzo the Fury, Shame, & Grief of Athamas, mixed Iron and Brass together, and darkened the brightness of this, with the rustiness of that. A wonderful work it was, and how much the less rich for the matter, so much the more precious for the Art; by which the rust, which is a fault in the Iron, became a virtue to the Brass, and made it worth its weight in Gold.  
In fine, where he is to speak seriously to convince, to reprehend, to condemn, an act vice, or person, in using a Style that sings when it should roar, that instead of thundering, lightens; (the Periods leaping by salts like the spouts of a Fountain, when they should run like a stream) every one sees how far he is from obtaining what he aims at. Non enim amputata oratio & abscissa, sed lata, 
Plin. lib. 1 ep. 20. Tac.  & magnifica, & excelsa tonat, fulgurat, omnia denique perturbat, ac miscet. It would be nervous and masculine, not womanish, effeminatly dressed, & all escheated for Levity. The looks of the Orator should not be game-some, and laughing, but majestic and severe; 
Sen. Her. fur.  of whom it may be said, as the Poet said of Pluto: Vultus est illi Jovis; sed fulminanti.  
What vanity is it, 
Lib. de Medico.  said Hyppocrites, to busy ones self more in embroydring the swaths than in healing the wounds? as if the handsomeness of the bindings were a Balsam to the sore. Certain overworn, toothless Files, serve to polish and give brightness and lustre to Iron: But where it is rusty, than it needs others, That scrape, fret, and rub: The near it goes to the quick the better. Quid aures meas scalpis? quid oblectas? aliud igitur. Urendus, secandus, abstinendus sum. Ad haec adhibitus es. Tantum negotii habes quantum in pestilentia Medicus; circa verba occupatus es?  
The Style with which we combat with Vice, is as Warlike as the Sword, whose goodness, and bravery consists not in the Gold of the Hilt, nor in the Diamonds of the Pommel; but in the temper of the Steel. But the more it's beset with Jewels and enriched with Insculptures, and Ornaments, the worse it cuts, and the less expeditiously is managed. 
Syn. de Regno.  And well said that brave Theban Captain Epimanondas, to a young muskified Athenian, that laughed at the plain wooden Hilt of his Sword: When we fight thou shalt not prove the Hilt but the Blade: and the Blade shall make thee weep then, if the Hilt make thee laugh now. Auri enim fulgor, atque argenti (saith Tacitus) neque tegit, neque vulnerat.  
Let the Style therefore, wherewith we are to fight be no Bridegroom, but a Warrior. Where the words are to be Darts, fill not the mouth with Flowers of Elocution, to send out at every stop, a puff; as if Vice was a Hornet, to which the smell of Flowers is a deadly poison; or as if you would kill your adversaries as Heliogabalus did his friends, suffocating them in Roses. It is an-hitherto-observed folly, to fight a Duel dancing, and to mix Salts, and Assaults, and Flourishes, with Passes. There's no jesting with edg-tools. Blows made to wound the heart, are not to be fetched meeting the breast of the enemy in a jesting way; as if one would embrace rather than wound.  
And yet there's none that believe that the serious and severe Style wants its elegancy, by wanting the ornaments of subtle, and superfluous conceits. The Lion requires not a combed crest, gilded paws, pendents at his ears, nor ropes of Pearl about his neck lasciviously fitted, to make him brave. The horrider he is, the more beautiful; the more ruff and shagged, the handsomer. Hic spiritu acer (saith Seneca) qualem illum, 
Epist. 41.  esse natura voluit, speciosus ex horrido, cujus hic decor est, non sini temorè aspici, praefertur illi languido, & bracteato.   

Of the Examination and Correction of our own Composures.  
THe work of a Book being completed (about which, the end which in the beginning I proposed to myself, was, to advert that only, which concerns the invention and disposing of matters, and the manners of expressing them) that which only remains is, to go over it with the finishing touch, and repolish it, examining to particularly, and making a severe judgement of each of its parts, to see if there be as Sydonius found in those of his Rimigius, 
Sydonius l. 9 ep. 7.  Oportunitas in exemplis, fides in testimoniis, proprietas in epithetis, urbanitas in figuris, virtus in argumentis: pondus in sensibus, flumen in verbis, fulmen in clausulis, etc. And experience will prove the observation of Seneca to be most true, that the things, that whilst they were in composing seemed most lovely, revised appear no longer the same, nor resemble the Author, Nec se agnoscit in illis. The reason is, because the boiling of the Spirits whilst the Wit is warmed in indicting, leaves not that tranquillity nor clear serenity in the judgement, as is requisite for to work as evenly as deliberately. Therefore Fere quae impetu placent minus praestant ad manum relata. 
Ep. 100 Seneca.  And Quintilian condemneth the precipitate method of those, that abandoning themselves to a certain rather fury than fervour of Wit, inconsiderately write what comes first in their heads; repetunt deinde, & componunt quae effuderunt, 
Quintil. li. 10. c. 3.  sed verba emendantur, & numeri, manet in rebus temere congestis, quae fult levitas. Therefore (subjoins he) let them write (especially in their beginnings) considerately, and slowly: and put every thing in its place, and not confound matters; and select their words with judgement, and not take them at adventure; not esteeming that good which comes easily, Non enim citò scribendo fit, 
Quintil. ibid.  ut bene scribatur, sed bene scribendo sit ut citò. Virgil a man of so excellent Judgement, and that in writing Gradarius fuit, 
Phavor. apud Gel. l. 17 c. 10.  was wont to say, that he brought forth his Verses, More, atque ritu Ursino, because not content to have brought them forth, he repolisht them one by one as the Bear, which with her tongue shapes out the members of her Cubs, which were brought forth not only deformed, but unformed.  
We should not therefore seek only to form the work, but to reform it also; and remember, that others will not stick to use with them that severity in condemning them, which we, foolishly pitiful, spared in correcting them. Let us in this take example from GOD himself, that hath been ever since the beginning of the World with a great Lesson our Tutor herein, in that he made the World in one day, and was five in beautefying it; taking one while darkness from Heaven, another while sterily from the Earth; adorning that with Stars, this with Flowers: till that having completed, his Work he commended it as worthy of his hand, & requievit ab universo opere quod patrarat. He might, its true, have made the World as in a Mould, and perfected it in a moment. 
Lib. 1. cap. 7. hexam.  But as St. Ambrose well adviseth, Prius conduit, & molitur res corporeas, deinde perficit, illuminat, absolvit. Imitatores enim suos nos esse voluit, ut prius faciamus aliqua, postea venustemus, ne, dum simul utrumque adorimur, neutrum possimus implere.  
Nevertheless, I will not say that we should be so strangely cruel with our writings, as to wreck every word if not every syllable, that so it become like the Chords of the Lute; 
Sidon. ep.  Quo plus torta, plus Musica scripta enim sua torquent, 
Sen. lib. 2. contr. prop1  (saith that Ancient Controvertist) qui de singulis verbis in consilium veniunt  
And we must know, that in this particular the superficious diligence of such who like Prothogenes, Nescit manum de tabula, is no less unblamable, than the negligence of such who wholly omit to correct. For Negligence, its true, leaveth the superfluous matters in a Treatise; but the superstitious Curiosity (which is worse) takes away the necessary. That, by not corecting omits to change the bad into good, this, by overmuch correcting, changeth very often the good into bad. 
Plin. lib. 5. epist. 1. l. 7. ep. 35.  Perfectum enim opus, absolutumque, non tam splendescit lima quam deteritur, & Nimia cura deterit magis quam emendat.  
From the desire of contenting their insatiable Genius, proceeds, in some, their beginning a thousand times the same labour, weaving and re-weaving with Penelope still the same piece, and cancelling to day what they writ yesterday. Resembling the punishment of Sysippus in Hell; who never ceaseth to roll to the top of the Hill that inconstant and deceitful Stone, which trundling back to the bottom whence he took it, frustrates his pains, and wearies his arms. Imitating the folly of that famous Apollodorus, who not pleased with the Statues, which with great expense of pains he had made, for anger broke them to pieces with his tools, and was almost ready to grind them in his teeth; called therefore the Saturn of Gravers, because he dismembered his Children, and eat them though of Stone.  
Nunquid in meliùs dicere vis quam potes? 
Petr. l. 7. epist. 7.  Said an old Master to a melancholy young man, that being unable to speak as he would, would not speak as he might; and therefore had unprofitably travailed three days together about the beginning of an Oration. This is the way to learn not to speak well, but to say nothing; of which, the more Ingenious Young men are most of all in danger, that having by Nature sees of high thoughts, and impolite rudiments of a Noble Form of Speech; neither know how to content themselves with the ordinary, nor yet have so much of extraordinary, as therewith to satisfy themselves: Therefore Accidit ingeniosis adolescentibus frequenter, 
Quintil. 1 apud Petr.  ut labore consumantur, & in silentium usque descendant, nimia bene dicendi cupiditate.  
What man is there though of never so excellent a Judgement, to whom his works are so pleasing, that as Gold of the twenty fourth Karact, there is nothing to be added of good or taken away of base Alloy? Perfection is a privilege denied to all the things in the World. The Sun hath its Mists, the Moon her Spots; of the Stars, some are turbulent, some melancholy; and yet these are the most considerable Bodies in Heaven; nor ought they therefore to be dissolved, because they are not altogether so beautiful as they might be. Examine the Books that have the esteem of great Learning and the fame of great knowledge, they will be fair faces but not without some blemish, or defect; for not only good Homer, Quandoque dormitat, but in a word, the Argus' also, though they have a hundred eyes. For if they had resolved fully to satisfy themselves, and not to publish their labours to the World, till that they should have been completely perfect, Adieu-Books: the World would not have had one good one; But if they patiently suffered their defects counterfeited by so many excellencies, we need not despair but that so much as is of good in our writings, may find more praise than the culpable dispraise.  
Let us apply unto ourselves that counsel which that ginger gave to the Cripples, to comfort them concerning their maimed, shriv'led, and dislocated limbs: Observe, saith he, the Heaven, and in it the Constellations, one by one; all are not so beautiful, but that there are some that are deformed, lame, and one way or other, maimed. The Scorpion wants his claws: Pegasus, & Taurus have no more than half of them seen.  
Quod si solerti circumspicis omnia cura. 
Manil. lib, 2.   
Fraudata juvenies amisses sydera membris.  
Scorpius in Libra consumit brachia, 
Astro. 6  Taurus  
Succidit incurvo claudus pede: Lumina Cancro  
Desunt, Centauro superest & quaeritur unum.  
Sic nostros casus solatur Mundus in astris,  
Omnis cum coelo fortunae pendeat ordo,  
Ipsaque debilibus formentur sydera membris.  
That finally, which consumates all diligence, requisite about our Compositions, is to submit them to the judgement, to the censure, to the correction of a faithful and understanding Friend. One eye of a by-stander sees more into another's matters than two of his own: 
Seneca libro de tranquil. anim. c. 1.  because love of his own productions, is a certain necessary blindness, which deceives the more, the less it's suspected. Others eyes see our matters as they are in themselves, ours give judgement according to the disposition of the optic powers, not according to the essence of the object. Familiariter domestica aspicimus, saith the Stoic, & semper judicio favor efficit, nee est, quòd nos magis aliena judices adulatione perire quam nostra. A good friend should stand us in the same stead as that Mirror did Demosthenes, of which he made use, as of a Corrector to mend the faults which he committed in his manner of delivery; using to say nothing in public which he had not tried at his glass, 
Apuleius apol. 1.  Quasi ante Magistrum.  
But take notice that the submission of our Writings to the censure or others, is not to be done out of compliment, but ●o have th●m corrected; not to be commended but ●mended 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it happens, that Modesty or Respect restrain our friend from using liberty and rigour with us, we must show our resentments at it, & bespeak him as Cel●●● the Orator in a like case did his confident, 
Seneca lib. 3. de ira c. 8.  Dic aliquid contra, ut duo simus, and be with him, Quòd non irascatur, irati  
But this is become now a-days so difficult, that, whereas there is but few that know how, there is none almost that will, 
Plutar. 2. de Fort.  like a friend undertake the charge to be T●i●●s of others works. They know that Phyloxenus the Poet, because he used his Pen freely in expunging a great part of a Tragedy of Dionysius (a man that knew better how to make Tragoedies as a Tyrant, 
Alex.  than to write them as a Poet) was for a reward of his fidelity, buried alive in a marble Cave. We must not be offended to know that which we desire to know: otherwise we shall find in our friends the Style of that Ancient Quintilian, of whom: Si defendere delictum, quam vertere malles: 
Nullum ultra verbum, 
Horat.  aut operam sum●bat inanem,  
Quin sine rivali teque, & tua solus amares.   
But I have hitherto personated that old Tiresias, that being blind himself opened the eyes of others, & stumbling at every step, showed the doubtful the safest ways. Nor do I yet think that I ought to be therefore reprehended; nor because my Style is a rusty File am I culpable, if with it I have endeavoured to brighten others. Who expects that the Hone which sets an edge on Blades, should itself cut? Or looks that those Mercuries of stone, which pointed the way to Travellers should travail themselves? The Brain hath no sense, affirms Cassiodorus, and its true: and yet, for that the nerves are fixed in it, and from it receive the spirits for the noblest operations of the Soul, Sensum membris reliquis tradit.  
If I have not the applause of a Pencil, that Painting is able to teach others to Paint; I may assume that of a Coal, that draws those dead lines which first Pour●oil the Design: Which though they be expunged by the Colours, and lost in the Picture, yet they lose not their virtue, of prescribing order to the Colours, and giving a rule to the Design.  
FINIS.     

The Table of the most material Contents.  

A  
Abrahams' generous sacrificing Isaak 2●8  
Achilles his Character, etc. 78, 106, 110, 129, 279, 381.  
Affections not moved with to affected a style 389  
Age excuseth not from studying ●o profit others 331  
Alcibiades his Character, &c, 56, 198, 205, 249, 381.  
Alexander Magnus his Character; etc. 26, 34, 35, 96, 105, 120, 131, 151, 192, 351, 361, 388.  
Alexander Severus his Character, etc. 4, ●4, ●2  
Alexarehus Grammat. concet of his own Learning 244  
Allegories excuse not lascivious Poet's 18●  
Ambition of seeming witty makes some affect Obscurity 344  
Amendment of errors is the most used by best Wits 222  
Anaxagoras his Doctrine and Character 27, 35, 46, 63, 76, 113  
Alphonsus Rex preferred himself in Astronomy to God 245  
Apologies with what caution to be writ 220  
Apuleius Philosopher his Apophthegms, etc. 33, 198  
Architas his character, &c 174, 183  
Architecture 164, 185, 284  
Archimedes Syracus. Character & commendation 73, 98, 132, 165 268, 353, 354,  
Argument to be discussed should be adequate to the capacity 349  
Aristo's inscription over his Gate 143  
Aristides killed by a Fly 225  
Ariscomachus slu●dred the nature of Bees 67 years 319  
Aristophanes Phylosophus 132  
Aristotle his character and doctrine 96, 131, 260  
Ariscippus answer to Dionysius●y●cus ●y●cus. 6  
Arms and Arts make a complete Captain 101  
Astronomy its delight etc. 15, 128, 150, 155, 156, 159, 171, 172, 173 200  
Astrology censured 323  
Athenians observed their children's Genius's 275  
Augustus' Sanct 180, 224, 258  
Auguseus Emp. his Character, etc. 94, 280  
Austerity adds not to Majesty 98  
Authors good Books incomparably happy 328   

B  
Beauty of Body no true sign of beauty of Mind 288  
Bees their subtlety 140  
Beginning of all things difficult 366  
Bodies held by some to answer the Souls of their owners 284  
Books abide when all things decay 329. Not to be rejected for a few 〈◊〉 but corrected 190. Not to be valued as Great but Good 309. If bad they some ways hurt the Reader 197. If wholly ●ad not to be read 195. If partly good partly bad, with circumspection 191. Sometimes have nothing good but their Titles 306  
Brutus his justice upon his Son 209  
Buonarotti●●●cified ●●●cified a man to paint the Passion by him 214  
Business of the Idle in Cities 48   

C  
Caesar Dictat. his praises 104, 207  
Caligula Emp. his Character 95, 137, 206  
Captains glorious if Conquering they can w●te their Conquests 104  
Carneades moderation in writing against ●eno 236, 268  
Cato his love of Books 191  
Cautions to those that borrow from other Authors 160  
Cebes Tables 186, 276  
Censures not to be commonly practised 222  
Chemists and their discoveries 146, 316, 337  
Cicero his love of jesting 213  
Cleanthes his char●●●. and doctrine ●3, 159  
Columbas discoverer of W. India ●52.  
Composures should he submitted to others judgement 403  
Composures of brave Authors Coppy's for others imitation 161  
Conceys, as Jewels, must be True, and Proper 587  
Condemning others is oft the fault of the Ignorant 226  
Courts full of Scholars, a Prince's Glory 97  
Court of Dionysius of a Shambles turned Academy 100  
Constellations obscene, unworthy of Heaven 172  
Crates his Character, etc. 37,38, 195, 287  
Cruelty, of Buonarotti 214. Of the Japponois ibid. of Patillus 215  
Cyrces' Rod 169. Cup 197   

D  
Death feared, is Deadly 72  
Delight to be taken in Astorn●m. contemplate. 16  
Demosthenes his Character, etc. 10, 193, 268, 170, 403  
Democ●●us his Character, etc. 114, 159  
Demenax his Cynical Apophtheg. 116, 122  
Detraction how pleasing to some 211  
Defined 212  
Dialling 156, ●69  
Domitian Caesar his Character 94  
Diogenes his Character & Apophtheg 36, 38, 39, 47, 99, 123, 134, 158, 215, 235, 267, 306, 322  
Difficulty of making new discoveries in Learning 151  
Dionysius Tyrant 3, 6, 99, 121, 134, 404  
Discourse of man cannot 〈◊〉, the truths of Faith 253   

E  
Earth, beh●ld from the Stars, seem contemptible to the Mind as little to the Eye 23  
Elius Verus Emp. his Charact. 97, 182  
Epicurus his Doctrine 67  
Erasmus his witty Echo 150  
Euripides composed his Tragaedies in solitude 63  
Exile to a wiseman, not loss but gain 44   

F  
Families happy in a succession of Learned Men 117  
Fear of Death a deadly evil 72  
Fortitude of mind required by Stoics in bodily Torments 68  
Fountains of Artificial contrivance 166   

G  
Galaton a famous Painter 199  
Giotto another 122  
Galil●us praised for inventor of Optic Telescopes 138, 155  
Galen Emp. his strange sentence in ●avour of an ill Marksman 123  
Genius what and whence it is 302. It may be misled never wholly suprest 274  
Geography 156, 253, 343  
Glory of a Captain that can manage both Pike and Pen victoriously 104   

H  
Heads of great bulk, held capable of great wit 289  
Helena painted by Zeuxis, admired by Nicost●atus 20  
Heliogabalus his Charact. 322, 394  
Heraclitus his Character and Doctrine 114, 158, 159  
Hercules his Character and Labours 33, 102, 111, 125, 141, 172, 123, 256 313, 335  
Hermotimus soul could leave its body at pleasure 58  
Hieroglyphics 91, 186  
History commended 103  
Horace Apology for his Poems 148  
Homer Princeps Poetar. 106, 154, 180, 199  
Humours that serve the wit of what ●●mper they should be 275  
Hippocrates his Doctrine, etc. 177 235, 261   

I  
Ignorance Epidemical, and none are exempt from it 219. Shameful in a Soldier, especially in time of peace 108  
Ignorant men: intolerably insolent in writing against the Learned 223. They censure for obscure what they do not understand 247  
Imitation distorting a good Author, is worse than stealing 168  
Impatience in revising our writings, cause of their imperfections 365  
Inclination of the Genius may be misled but not totally suppressed: 274  
Igenuity known by paleness 290  
Intentions, pretendedly good, of Lascivious Poets, (were they so) excuse them not 187  
John the Emperor's constancy 92, 93  
Jerome Saint 172, 242, 257   

L  
Lampis his method in growing rich 366  
Learned men's paucity the crime of great men that regard them not. 2  
Honours done them by several Princes 3  
Learning its two great enemies, Ignorance and Vice, Praesat. By some  
held needless in Rich-men 112. Not evil because some make ill use of it 128. Hard to make new discoveries in it 151. Not to be obteived by every Genius 275. Honoured by our Saviour 80. his Apostles 81. and by God himself 84, 87. Hated by Licinius 93 and Lewis XI. ibid.  
Leucippus the Inventor of Atoms & Chance 201  
Leocras an excellent Imager 169  
Life too short for great undertake 261  
Love of life ●nventeresse of many things 333  
Love of our Books makes us partial judges of them 248  
Love of Posterity should move us to publish our studies 325   

M  
Man is placed in the midst of the world to contemplate it 163  
Martial the Poet 141, 202  
Metellus the happiest man of his time 337  
Method the principal part of a Book 356  
Methrodorus first affirmer of Multiplicity of world's 159  
Mercury God of Scholars is also God of Thiefs 132  
Moor Sir Thomas his witty Epigram 83  
Modern Br●achers of novilties censured 157  
Modesty in defending 202. In opposing 233  
Morning best for study 271  
Muse better Dumb than Obscene 202  
Music 15, 31, 202   

N  
Navigation 9, 10, 39, 54, 148, 152, 155  
Nero his Character, etc. 93, 97, 320, 388  
Novel-discoveries are most profitable studies 143  
Novelties not to be rashly divulged 155   

O  
Obscurity of the wit two fold, Affected 343, and Natural 345  
Opinionatenss of some men, 124, 244,  
Origen a great Platonist 259  
Ovid Poeta 198, 401, 281  
Oviedo the Historian honoured by Carolus V. 157   

P  
Painting, Imagery, Carving, etc. 114, 136, 162, 163, 169, 178, 184, 189, 199, 214, 233, 241, 307, 314, 315, 352, 361, 368, 388, 391, 398, 399  
Paleness believed a sign of Ingenuity 290  
Paulus AEmilius, as ingenuous is Feasting as Fight 108  
Persons feigned are incentives to Lust 184  
Plagiaries of three kinds 132  
Plato his Character, etc. 3, 15, 58, 99, 131, 213, 259, 276, 280, 286  
Pleasant dream of a Fool of Argus 59  
Phylolaus a 2d Pythagoras, 135, 159  
Philosophers that confront their authority to the Gospel 259  
Physiognomy a Liar in the symptoms of wit 284  
Physicians ignorance dangerous to a Nation 177  
Poetry lascivious doubly culpable is  
Christians 179. Poets more culpable for obscenity, than commendable for wit 203  
Polus unburied his son to weep more perfectly 390  
Pompey his Character, etc. 77, 185  
Possidonius sick in body, was strong in mind 75  
Poverty is a complicated Misery. 30  
Honourable in a wise Man 31. Defended by Apuleius 33  
Prisons are not prisons to Philosophers 57, are a school to the Learned 62  
Princes unlearned are not perfect Princes 5, 90, 91  
Pythago●as Character, etc. 15, 113, 159, 172, 201, 212, 270, 186   

R  
Repentance too late for him that conjures up a witty pen against him 230  
Revising our writings necessary 397  
Rich men's Herangue against Phylosophick Poverty 107   

S  
Sacred things should not be alienated to profane uses 10  
Sanctity is of great worth in Learned men 83, Seemeth better without learning 79  
Scipio African 50, 110  
Selecting and appropriating others studies requires judgement 362  
Seneca the Phylosoph. 22, 74, 66, 98, 116, 157, 332  
Ship Paralos 10, Argo 9, 155, Of Magellanes 39, 111, Of India 50  
Sickness most tolerable to Wisemen, and why 71  
Silua, or Collection, necessary preparative to writing Books 360  
Skeinerus commendation for discovering the Theory of the Solar spots 156  
Socrares his commendation, etc. 34, 52, 49, 80, 113, 249, 280, 287  
Solitude praised 64, 65, & infra.  
Sordid to praise our own Writings 251  
Souls of wise have the body for a House, those of the Ignorant for a Prison 57 Souls have individual perfections whereby they excel each other 292  
Soldiers in opinion of some should be Rude, not Learned 101  
Spheres Celestial are harmonious 15  
Sphere of King Cosroes 98, Of Archimedes 353, Of Mercator 354  
Spartans their Customs, etc. 115, 118, 175  
Stasicrates offered to Grave Alexander in mount Athos 106  
Statue of Alexander, disgraced by Gild 388  
Stephen Monachus praised 82  
Study of things unprofitable is foolish 318  
Style contracted praised by some 379  
Dispraised by others 382, If over concise satisfieth neither Affections 388, nor Reason 382  
Sybarites a Brutish People 46, 270 278   

T  
Temerity of those who not comprehending Natural Causes would yet by them evince supernatural 256  
Temples formerly confirmed in order of Architecture to the nature of their Deity 284  
Themistocles chose not a Son in Law for Riches 117  
Tybe●ius Caesar's Character 321, 322  
Time short therefore precious to the Ancients 261, 266  
Truth never barren of new Nations 147  
Turinus his reward for Bribery 325   

V  
Varro his avidity of study 322  
Virtue little valued in the world 1  
Ulysses his Character 55, 161, 243  
Vestals of three Orders 333   

W  
wise answer of an Emperor 91  
wise sick-man, is strong in Mind 66  
wise ancients covetous of time 266  
Obliged to banishment 42  
Wit and Judgement rarely united 302  
Sharped by provocations 229  
Wits, whence their variety 300  
have their equals, so that they need not despise others 250, Som● wits apt for every thing 296, Obscure through excess of wit 346, How different 293, Proud of themselves 243, Prone to detraction 211   

X  
Xeno●●ates Phylosophe his Character 113, 235, 236   

Z  
Zeno Stoic▪ his Character 66, 257  
Zeuxis Pict●● 20, 127, 307, 315   
FINIS.