Essays WITH Brief advisoes. Accommodated to the Capacity of the Ladies and Gentlemen, sometime Students of the English Academy, lately Erected at London. To whose use and perusal they are recommended, in Exchange of their English Lectures of late published. Semel insanivimus omnes. London, Printed by J. S. for Robert Blaggrave, at Oxon. 1657. A Brief Account of such Discourses as are handled in this following Treatise. 1. Part: of logical Discourses. 1. DIs. of logic. pag. 1. 2. Whether logic be necessary for the acquiring of other Acts and Sciences? Aff. p. 2. 3. Of the ten Categories or predicaments. p. 4. 4. Of a Praedicable or Universal. p. 5. 5. Of the 5th. Predicable or Common Accidents. p. 7. 6. Whether an Accident can migrate or Travel from one Subject to another, Neg. p. 11. 7. Of Syllogisms. p. 13. 8. Of Disputations. p. 14. 9 Of Fall acyes. p. 15. 2. Part: of physical Discourses. 1. OF physic or natural Philosophy. p. 17. 2. Of the first Matter. p. 20. 3. Of the Original of forms. p. 23. 4. Of Monsters. p. 29. 3. Part: Containing essays or Characters. 1. OF a Miser or Covetous man. p. 32. 2. Of Love. p. 34. 3. Of a Melancholy Man. p. 36. 4. Of Choler or Passion. p. 59 5. Of an empiric or Country physician. p. 40. 6. Of a Fool or natural. p. 43. 7. Of an Hypocrite. p. 44. 8. Of Books. p. 46. 4. Part: of Mifcellaneous discourses. 1. OF Ministers and Magistrates. p. 49. 2. Of the Platonic year. p. 52. 3. Of Employments and Variety of Fortunes. p. 54. 4. Whether the Emperor Augustus did wisely in making his Enemies his heirs, Neg. 56. 5. Of Thoughts. p. 61. 6. Of atheism. p. 64. 7. Of Writing libels. p. 66. 5. Part: Of advice, concerning these articulars. 1. REligion. pag. 68 1. Manners. p. 69. 3. Self Knowledge. p. 67. 4. Husbanding of time. p. 70. 5. Meditation. p. 71. 6. Study of Antiquities. p. 72▪ 7. Of overvaluing former Ages. p. 74▪ 8. Reverencing of Old Age. p. 75. 9 Travail. p. 75. 10. Variety of Employments. p. 76. 11. Giving Respect. p. 77. 12. Honouring soldiers. p. 78. 13. Passion. p. 80. 14. Pride. p. 81. 15. Charity. p. 82. 16. Discontent. p. 83. 17. The frailty of Yout●. p. 84. 18. Writing Books. p. 85. 19 Vindication. p. 86. 20. Covetousness. p. 87. 21. Boasting. p. 88 22. Ambition. p. 90. 23. Study of causes. p. 90. 24. Policy. p. 92. 25. Deliberation. p. 93. 26. Learning despised. p. 95. 27. Self Conceit. p. 97. 28. Conclusion. p. 98. An Appendix of Death. p. 100 ERRATA, IF any having some spare minutes lying on their hands, shall think the perusal of these discourses worth the loss of their time, they are desired to Correct the following erratas, and under the mantle of a Candid acceptation shroud what other Lapses they shall discover. Page 9 line 11. for this read the, p. 26▪ l. 18. for it r. its p. 27. l. 14. for being r. beings. p. 29. l. the last, for advantage r. decorum; p. 37. l. ●2. for Muschado r. Mustachio's, p. 46. l. 5. for paper Books r. paper B●●ks l. ●●. for Corporate r. Corporeal, p. 51. l. 19 for the r. her Sphe, &c. p. 56. l. 9 for framer. fame, p. 26. l. 24. for us r. as, p. 67. l. 2. for frame r. fame l. 16. for true r. fair, p. 72. l. 13. for sprawned r. spawned, p. 93. l. 19 blot out I, p. 94. l. 20. for farther r. father, p. 98. l 12. blot out it, p. 100 l. 13. for gain r. game, p. 102. l. 3. for groaneth r. groaned. Humanum est errare. — Ridentem dicere verum Qui vetat— De Logicâ. Logic pretends to furnish lame reason with Crutches, to Vamp Pigmey-Reason, and set it upon Stilts, to accommodate blear-eyed, & dimsightted reason, with Spectacles, and like a skilful translator set reasons shoe upright, wheresoever it treads awry: and therefore is called the Science's handmaid, that pins on the Gorgers of their Definitions, and sets the stiff Ruffs of their peremptory Axioms; And so makes the Muses (the Daughters of Jupiter) look like grave Matrons, or rather aldermen's Wives. The true reason our mercurial and Courtly gallants so much despise them. Where as if this antic dress, severe gravity, and starched face, were laid aside; And they either appeared in the Naked beauty of the Graces, or apparelled by the more skilful tirewoman, rhetoric, in the princely ornaments of Oratory, they might look as beautiful as Madam Poetry, and be as much Courted as Romances, the wits beloved dalilah's. An Logica sit necessaria ad alias artes acquirendas? Aff. DISC. 2. HAd not man's Intellect been lamed and crippled by its Fall in Paradise, it might with ease have waded through the most intricate difficulties of human Sciences, and traveled the roughest paths of knowledge, without supporting its quick and nimble reason with the wooden Crutches of logic. The Roads of Science had been free from all fallacious ambushes, and therefore no danger of Truth's being surprised by a cutthroat band of Sophisms. Nor needed the Intellect doubt its being lost or wildered in the intricate Labyrinth of the most subtle Arts, having the bright & splendid Sun of Reason to direct it; A surer guide than the moonshine Light of logic. But ever since Mother Eve forfeited the Charter of her Reason for an Apple, which her simplicity (in suffering herself to be outwitted by the Serpent) had died with a vermilion blush; I say, ever since the serpent tripped up the heels of Mother Eve's Reason; man's Intellect can scarce with safety launch forth into the Ocean of Science, to traffic for the Orient-Pearls of truth; lest through the Piracy of Fallacyes (with which the Coasts of all Arts are now infested) it be robbed of its fraught, or betrayed into the Barbarous hands of nonsense. De 10. Praedicamentis: of the ten Categories or Predicaments. DISC. 3. THe ten predicaments are the ten Drawers of nature's Cabinet, wherein are laid up all her treasure. They contain an exact Inventory of the world's householdstuff. Or are the 10. Tribes into which Philosophers have distributed the whole offspring of Nature: as Romulus, in Rome's Infancy, did the Romans. Of which, Substance may be called the Elder house, or firstborn of Beings. From whence all the Classes of Accidents like younger families receive the Pensions of their Beings, and live in necessary dependence: As if by Nature produced for no other end, than the Ornament, pomp, and luster of their Elder Brother Substance. De Universali. DISC. 4. THat which our Conjurers the Schoolmen call universal, is nothing but a Meteor or Notion, exhaled from particular Objects, and by the rays of the Intellect carried into the Region of the Brain. Every Universal decking & adorning itself with such jewels of Truth it hath robbed and plundered from many Particulars. Like the Jay in the Fable not having one feather of its own, wherewith to hide its nakedness. And should it be called to an exact account, and be compelled to make a full restitution, it must necessarily be devested of all being, & dwindle into a nonentity; yet what a stir doth this Gull make upon the stage of Learning and knowledge: this strumpet Fallacy having painted it-self with the fucus of truth, being made the very basis and foundation of all Science; which, should any one desire thoroughly to understand, and strictly embrace in the arms of his knowledge, he shall find it nothing but a condensed body of air, that deluded the sight of his understanding. But were the mask (under which it hath so long cheated the world) taken off, we should see it no other than the similitude or resemblance that is between Beings. Or a Picture drawn in the mind, by which the Intellect (as the countryman by the thief's picture shown him in the conjurer's glass) makes discovery of the things it hath in Quest o● Pursuit. De 5. Praedicabili. Of Common Accidents. DISC. 5. THe last and lowest form of the 5. Praedicables; contains the Rout of common Accidents; which, being altogether Aliens and strangers to the essence of their subjects, are said adesse & abesse sine subjecti interitu; as if Accidents like ciphers added nothing to the sum of any Entities essential worth or dignity. But being mixed with essences (like chips in Pottage) no way alter the nature of their Subjects: And therefore saith the Proverb, A man's a man, tho but a hose on's head; and Reynard is but Reynard the Fox, though commenced Priest, or stepped into a friars Cowle. Should any thing, with the Bird in the Fable, deck and adorn itself with the plumes of many & various Accidents; yet shall it no more change its species, than the ass, in the lion's skin, was transformed to a Lion. For, the variation of Accidents is no Metamorphosis of Natures. The crows a crow, whether in a black Coat as here in England or a white as travellers report him in other countries. The fucus therefore, or varnish of accidents adds no more to the intrinsical worth of any Essence than a scarlet Coat to the worship of my Lord's Ape. The ruin of no essence is portended by the retreat of accidents, as the fall of an Old fabric by the departure of its vermin: nor its life suffocated by the approach of the most malignant as a candle is reported, by the presence of an evil spirit: nay should all thy troops & cohorts of nature's accdents muster all their forces together they were not able to expugn or captivate the least and most inconsiderable Essence: and therefore it is not without cause Philosophers permit not accidents to suffragat in the court of essences, for should they by the popular breath of giddy fancies be voiced into the saddle of authority, they would act no more in the commonwealth of Entities, than Bibulus in his Roman Consulship; or the Log's mild Majesty, Jupiter made Emperor of the Froggian Territories: yea were the Alantick burden of essential differences supported by no greater strength than the pygmy shoulders of common Accidents we might justly expect a ruit Coelum to the whole fabric of Sciences. I confess some Accidents, as those our Philosophers term inseparable, may like old friends hardly be separated from the strict embraces of their essences: or like the shirt Deianeira sent Hercules cleave so fast unto the skin of their subjects, as not to be put off without divesting them of their actual existencies; but its impossible they should ever be incorporated or matriculated into the family of the Essence. An Accidens migrat de subjecto in subjectum? Neg. DISC. 6. ACcidents, like Aristotle's Intelligences, are strictly confined to the Orbs of their peculiar Subjects, from which it is as capital to budge a foot, as heretofore for a Roman slave to run from his Master. We may well grant, they are no stragglers or great travellers, seeing they were never beyond the Island of their Subjects. The snail (like a Pedlar with his pack at his back) travels no farther than he can carry his house: And an accident no farther than his Subject pleaseth to transport it. Most friends, like leaves of trees, desert their Companions in the winter of adversity. But Accidents, like true Trojans, accompany their subjects through thick and thin, through all weathers and fortunes; the Ivy is not truer to the oak, the Vine to the elm, nor the handmaid-shadow to the body it waits upon, than the Accident to its subject, which as it was the Cradle of its infancy, is also the urn of its ashes; as the womb that gave it birth, so the tomb and sepulchre that receives it after death: and indeed should it once start from that subject it hath once espoused, it would necessarily drop into the gulf of Nullity, or like a bough divided from its tree, straight wither into a nonentity; as having thereby forfeited the Charter of its being. De Syllogismis: DISC. 7. Syllogisms are the Fetters and Shackles of Reason, where the Plea of the Argument cannot be heard for the Jangling of Ergoes. I love to see reason (the Queen and Empress of the lesser world) triumph in the starely Chariot of a rich similitude, and not carted, or led Captive in a Rumbling Wheel-barrow by a Rout or band of barbarous▪ terms. As if nothing looked like reverend truth, that is not dressed in Aristotle's ruff, that doth nor dance in mood and Figure, or proceed from the Tripod of a Syllogism. But without doubt the rattling of Ergoes, contributes no more help to labouring, and almost baffled reason, than the Irish Kettles to the Moon under an Eclipse. Of Disputations. DISC. 8. DIsputations are said to examine truth by the touchstone of Reason; or to be the wind, by which truth is winnowed from the chaff of error. But I doubt with as ill success; as when the maid having much dirt and lime fallen into her meal, heaved it against the wind. I have seldom known any that filling the sails of their reason with the wind of disputation, could ever arrive at the terra incognita of any new discovery. And I could as soon believe the dropping of Solane geese from Ashen keys in Scotland, as that the productions of truth, like the horses of the Sun, or Spanish gennets, are begotten by the wind of words; and therefore should think truth rather lost than found in the Cloud and dust of a wrangling Disputation. De Fallaciis. DISC. 9 THe Doctrine of Fallacies, is, the Art of juggling truth out of reason's pocket by playing Hocus Pocus with the Understanding. Its professors are called Sophisters, a generation of Mountebanks, skilful in nothing but in casting mists before the eyes of the Intellect; and by a slight of perverse arguing to trip up the heels of Truth. They have learned of Ops, the cunning wife of old Saturn, to obtrude the pebble of falslhood (Leapt in the swadling-clours of a Syllogism) for the Jupiter or legitimate offspring of divine Reason. Or, imitating our coiners, set the regal stamp of sovereign truth, on the false and counterfeit coin of Error. That which first hatched this imposture was the facility that is found in most men to be deceived, who like Ixion embrace a cloud instead of Juno, or our Countrymen, that if they see a Sophism (which is truth's Ape in a scarlet Coat) are ready to bless his Worship, and take it for the learned Pallas that issued from the brain of Jupipiter. Natural philosophy. De Physicâ DISC. 1. Natural Philosophy brings man acquainted with his Stepmother Nature, and the whole family of her Beings, by the skilful displaying their several Essences, the true badges and cognisances of the worth and eminency of each rank, Order, or Corporation in the republic of the world: and here the Physiologist, like a skilful Herald, blazons the natures of things according to their several dignities either by the various Colours & Metals of Accidents, or the precious stones of virtues and effects, or the celestial Planets of their divine influences. Now of all Philosophy that which is grounded on experience, may justly bear away the palm, as being not the Chimaeraes or offspring of men's fancies, but the real confession of dying nature, tortured on the wrack of some chemical experiment. But whensoever sullen nature's pearl of knowledge, like that of the Toad, may not otherways be obtained; rather let her bowels, like the womb of Caesar's Mother, be ripped up, than that the least truth should miscarry, or not be born into the world, & so perhaps the Anatomists knife may perform what the alchemists limbeck could not accomplish. But as for those that are willing to herd with the common rout of Philosophers, must expect no richer banquet than that of the foxes in the fable, (i. e.) instead of feasting their Intellects with the Viands of Knowledge, to lick the outside of nature's glass. For since human industry hath as yet discovered but two keys (sc.) Chemistry and Anatomy, that can unlock the Cabinet of nature's secrets, he that will neither go to the charge of the one, nor the trouble of the other, is like to enrich his understanding with but few jewels of philosophical truth. De Materia prima. DISC. 2. THe first matter being nature's table-book whensoever the Characters of any form, either through the injury of corroding time, or some malignant Quality, are become so slurred, or blotted as to be no longer legible; Its nature's custom, with the sponge Philosophers term Corruption, to blot it out of her Register, and with the pencil of Generation to place some other figure in its Room. Therefore Corruption is but as it were the whiting of the table, and generation the Drawing a new Picture; or if we may borrow a simile from the stage, I should call it the re-apparelling the first matter, for acting a new part on nature's theatre. Therefore the Metempsychosis; or rather transmigration, that Pythagoras gave to souls, may be granted the Materia prima, without an Allegory; seeing it hath by nature's doom ever since the Creation been running the gauntlet of Forms, and suffering the martyrdom of perpetual corruptions, which through custom being now become a second nature, it hath as natural an inclination to the embracing of new Forms, as heavy things to be received into the bosom of their centre: and therefore not without cause have Philosophers termed it the grand strumpet, or harlot; the fire of whose lust is unquenchable, and streams of whose desires are always tiding towards new objects, ever loathing her old Mates, and thirsting after new embraces, in coveting whereof she is so impetuous, that nature could never knit her in so fast a Gordian knot to any form though of highest perfections, that was not in short time deserted and widowed by the levity and unchastity of her fickle humour. For she is more unconstant than the wind, more fickle than female levity, more slippery than an eel, harder to be fixed than the alchemists Mercury, more difficult to be retained, than the Devil to be exorcised or charmed into a circle. She changeth herself into more shapes, than the Rainbow decks itself with colours, her whole work is to act the fables of Ovid's Metamorphosis, and is of skill in transformations able to baffle Proteus, to whom the Poet hath given this Character, Omnia transformat sese in miracula rerum. De Formis. DISC. 3. IF there be any jewel or pearl of knowledge, which nature may seem to have envied man the enjoyment, I should think, it were the right understanding of Forms, which above all other things may justly be said to transcend the Zenith of the most raised Capacity, and to be placed in a terra incognita, to the best travelled of human understandings: the spring or head of the famous river Nile is not couched in a denser cloud of uncertainty and obscurity, than that in which the original of forms is enveloped etc concealed, concerning which there is as great contention amongst Philosophers; as heretofore between the seven Cities, that strove for the honour of Homer's Birth. Some according to the Platonic fiction of the rational soul, do antedate the Existency of all forms, with this only diffierence, that whereas the Platonist assigns celestial mansions, these quarter them with the materia prima, as if the first matter, like the primitive, rude, and confused Chaos, did actually contain all those various and different forms, with which nature hath interwoven & chequered the world's drapery: & therefore that Generation is but the discovery producing or bringing into play, some new form that had hitherto hid & concealed itself, in some obscure cell or remote corner of its matter; and by consequence that corruption is the form's retiring and withdrawing itself from the stage's view, having had its Exit and finished the part of nature's Fable that was assigned unto it. There are others, who though they hold the praeexistency of forms, are more modest than the former, therefore correct the harshness of actual praeexistency with the lean terms of an incomplete and imperfect act; as if the infant-plants of forms were in the first matter as in a common Nursery, radically and seminally contained, that is to say, that nature, on the first matter, as in her table Book, had rudely drawn the first lineaments or outward strokes of all forms, which are in time to be perfected and completed by the more accurate pencil of generation. These fancies, however ingenious they may seem, become a Poet rather than a Philosopher. If we consult the Peripatetic, he will obtrude, as Jupiter did by Ixion, a cloud of enigmatical words, instead of the Juno we desire to embrace; or cast a mist of insignificant terms before the eyes of the intellect, instead of giving us a view of the naked truth, telling us, how that all forms lie dormant in the lap or bosom of the first matter, or are treasured up in the womb of it potentiâ, whence, by the powerful influence and charms of natural generation they are awakened and conjured up, and again buried and entombed by the dissolving power of Corruption. A late writer, that hath dipped his pen in this controversy, finding the Gordian knot of this difficulty indissoluble, resolved rather with Herculean courage to cut it, than suffer it any longer to crucify and baffle the weakness of human Intellects; and therefore expunging and crossing out of nature's Register all material forms, proscribed them the commonwealth of Beings; and substituted in their stead Accidents, as being of less nicery, and greater freedom, in giving an account of their originals. According to which Philosohpy, Generation should be nothing but the reattiring of the first Matter with a new livery, or suit of Accidents, when neither Farriers nor physicians (who are broken-natures Bodgers) can any longer patch up the Rents of the old garment; or otherwise we may term it the new coining, in nature's mint, such rusty pieces, as through the injury of all-devouring time, or some malignant quality, have lost their primitive stamp or impression. I was at the first view so pleased with this my Countryman Pemble's opinion, that I had not only subscribed, but sung an Io triumph thereto, had I not met with Windeline, who in his admirable treatise of physic, with no less modesty than probability of truth hath delivered his opinion, that not only those primitive and firstborn forms (with which nature in the morning of time and world's infancy set up house-keeping) but all o all others of latter date, are indebted to Creation as the Cause of their Existencies. De Monstris. DISC. 4. monster's are the erratas of nature's printing-press, which commonly happen through the misspelling or misplacing the Letters of some external form, but no more obstruct the legibleness of the world's beauty and perfection, than a literal fault the sense of a well-penned sentence. If deep shadows, and dark colours give the greatest grace to a well-limned picture; for certain, nature's landscape had been but rudely drawn, were not the bright and orient colours of more perfect forms, shadowed with the deep lines of monstrous productions. Were Apelles to draw a beautiful Nymph to the best advantage, he would place her bya rough and misshapen satire. And our Ladies, who are best skilled in setting off beauty with the greatest advantage, think black spots rather contribute luster, than Eclipse the Sun of their beauties: and on the same account had rather a Black-moore, or an Ape should grace their pictures by an Antiperistasis, than that their shadow should be out-shined by the splendour of a Brighter Complexion; counting two beauties in one table no less Monstrous, than two Suns in onefirmament. Syncopes, Epenthese's with the rest of our Grammarian's figures, were never counted false Orthography: nor may we, without great blasphemy to reason, think nature the worse scribe, for contracting or abbreviating forms in pygmies, or writing in the capital Letters of Gygantine Statures; since the one as well as the other is of ornament to the worlds Iliads. Essays OR Characters I. Of a Covetous man. A Covetous man, is one that never worshipped Jupiter, except descending in a shower of Gold; the form in which he sometime courted Danae. He thinks no smell so pleasant as that of gain, though like the sordid Emperor's vectigal it arise from urinals; and therefore spreads his Canvas to no wind that brings not in some profit. Had his fingers that chemical virtue, our poet's report of longeared Midas, he would wish a Fathom larger than the zodiac, that he might at once grasp the Universe, and by the alchemy of a touch, convert it to a globe of Gold. The life of his soul is the true Heliotrope to the Sun of his fortunes, springing and withering with the day of his prosperity, the whole source of his desires▪ do as naturally tied after riches, as the needle of the compass turns Northwards. Nor without cause; there being as great a sympathy between his foul and Silver, as Iron and the loadstone. No Philosophy can persuade him that a greeny glass is better for the eye sight, than white and yellow money. And his Divinity informs him that a vision of Jacobus' or yellow Angels, is better than, those on Jacobs' Ladder. Finally, his god is his Gold which he worships in the temple of his heart, and is as careful to secure as the Romans their tutelar deities they chained to their temples; or the Jews, Christ's sepulchre. For, like Rachel he more fears the stealing of his god, than the Pharisees did our Saviour's resurrection. 2. Of Love. LOve is a burning fever of the heart, generated by a surfeit on ease and luxury; or a fire that preys on the soul, as the Eagle is laid to do on Prometheus' liver. The balls of this wildfire are usually thrown in at the Casements of the eyes. By whose treachery the citadel of the heart is betrayed to the most merciless of Tyrants, which is well hinted by our Poets, who make Cupid the feigned god of this frantic passion, to level his shafts at the eyes, when he intends to smite the heart, wherefore they that would not sacrifice all the joys of their lives in the flames of this Ignis fatuus; that would not shipwreck their felicity on the dangerous rock of this Passion, that would not have Cupid's Trophies erected on their martyred hearts; let them place a faithful guard at the gates of their Eyes, that may take security of all objects they admit to traffic with their souls, especially those that are beautiful. For the splendent rays of beauty being collected by an amorous eye, do as naturally kindle the flames of love in the heart, as the beams of the Sun, gathered in a burning-glass, fire paper. They are our eyes, that being captivated with the beauty of objects, as the silly Roman maid with the Gauls Bracelets, that betrays the capitol into the enemy's hands. 3. Of a Melancholy Man. A Melancholy man is like Death in the pot, to all amongst whom he converses, carrying a Countenance more solemn, than an Anatomy lecture, or sermon of mortality. He may almost without a Metaphor be termed, A walking hearse, a death's head, or a Skeleton of bones; he hath even anticipated Death, and prevented. destiny, by making his body the Coffin of his Soul. He is one, that by beholding every thing, through the false glass of his magnifying Fancy, is coged into as ridiculous a belief, as that of Don Quixot, who supposed windmills, giants; Papermils, Enchanted Castles; and the bearded Goats of Wales, formidable Spaniards with great muschadoes. At the sound of a sowgelders horn, he prepares for an encounter, supposing himself challenged to a duel by the great giant Aldeberoni Fusco Foni. If fortune befriend him in a dark night with vulcan in a lantern, he relates wonders, how he hath been led about pools by Will-a-Wisp, or Robin goodfellow. Every night presents him either in a dream or vision, with a new scene of blue spiders, Bugbears, Ghosts, Hobgoblings, rattling chains, raw heads and bloody bones, sprights, Devils, hags, Nightmares, and Witches, by which he is so terrified, that his hair standing an end, and pushing off his nightcap, he swears the next morning, it was pulled away by a deadman's hand, and therefore the room's haunted, without all peradventure: by these apparitions his countenance grows so pale and ghastly, that if he chance to see his image in the water, he runs away, thinking the Devil would have pulled him into the River, or that his Genius like that of Brutus gave him a summons to make his appearance at Pluto's Court. The surfeit of which conceits, with the help of an hempen string, gives his frighted soul an Exit from off the stage of his Body. 4. Of Passion. PAssion, having put out the eyes of reason, as the Philistines did Samson's, exposes the wisest of men to the scorn & ludibrium of the world. This is that rash Phaeton, which if it ascend the Chariot of the understanding, and have the reins of the soul's government committed unto it, nothing can be expected, but the ruin of the microcosm: Never did any poor, benighted understanding rejoice in the false light, or commit itself to the guidance of this ignis fatuus, that was not bemired in the bogs of error and indiscretion. Moderate anger may be of some use for whetting the blunted edge of the souls motions, and oiling the Wheels of action? But he that screws up the pegs of his passion, beyond the E●a of reason, will sing to as sorry a tune as that of the jangling Chimes of Carflax. 5. Of a physician. A physician is commonly said to be the Son of Apollo, but I should rather think of Prometheus: in whose art though he be not so good a proficient, as to make; yet he can vamp, and as it were new translate, the bodies of men: and therefore may without injury be called the bodger or patcher up of old, decayed, and broken nature. For which end he consults much the pispot-Almanacks, or urinals; by which, as in a learned calendar, he discovers the good, or ill weather, that shall happen in the microcosm, or I'll of Man: And if providence once crown his endeavours with success; so that, like a skilful Midwife, he give his patients a safe delivery of the disease, wherewith they were brought to bed: he straight thinks, he hath canceled the decrees of fate, and renewed the leases of his patient's life, in spite of the three Sisters. And will thenceforth undertake to make good the soul's title to the ruined cottage of her body, against the plea of death, and irrevocable doom of destiny. Thinking his art able not only to reprieve poor mortals from the arrest of death, but to give check to Jupiter himself; and is therefore accounted of the countrypeople, a little God-Almighty here upon earth; to whom they supplicate for galenical auxiliaries whensoever the economy of their bodies is disturbed, for reducing all rebellious, and seditious humours, to their pristine harmonies, and due allegiance. And this entitles him to as great credit amongst women, as ghostly fathers; and opens a door of as free access to Lady's beds, as to the Priest or confessor. To conclude, he is of that kind of animals that thrive best in the worst air and like vermin lives on the sores and putrefactions of corrupted nature. 6. Of a fool or natural. A fool is an animal, the Organs and Pipes of whose body, like a sorry instrument, being miserably out of tune, his soul cannot play those sweet notes, and lofty strains of reason, that in better tuned bodies she useth to do and therefore he is said to have reason only in the seed or root, which shoots not forth, till death hath broken up the tough clods of his body; and his soul be tranplanted to a soil governed by better influences, than any earth receives. Or in brief, he is one whom nature never suffered to take his discretion into his own hands, and therefore the law trusts not with the management of his own estate. 7. Of an Hypocrite. AN Hypocrite walks in a bright could of seeming sanctity, like the Devil in a body of condensed air; or is one that brightens and irradiates the whole course of his life, with the splendent beams of a glorious profession; but such as dart not from the Sun of righteousness, arisen in his heart: but rather like the Meteor, Philosophers call ignis lambens, that usually adheres to horses manes, being no other than an extrinsical and borrowed lustre. He wears Religion, as a cloak for the palliating of bad actions, and therefore no wonder he cuts and shapes it according to the mode and fashion of the age and times he lives in: which if p●r●han●e they wax hot with the scorching flames of a fiery persecution he will judge the heavy robe of Religion, not only a cumbersome, but a needless and uncongruous garment for so hot a season. And therefore thinks them in the highest class of folly, that suffer their religion to prove their winding sheets; or like the shirt Deianira sent Hercules, cleave so close unto them as not to be put off without sacrificing their lives to the merciless flames of devouring fire. He esteems it an admirable decorum to sprinkle bad actions with holy-water, to say a long grace before a breakfast of widow's houses: but, so to espouse any religion, as not to admit of a divorce when the Magistrates authority legitmates the act, he reckons not only the height of folly, but also peevish perverseness. 8. Of Books. BOoks (though but paper-books) are often fraught with the richest treasure of wisdom, and knowledge: for they are daughters of the intellect, or the true offspring of the spiritual soul, as it were, embodied and made corporate; And therefore may justly challenge as great a share, and interest in the stock of our affections, as the natural offspring of our bodies. As being, not only the productions of our more Noble part, the soul: But also stamped with the more Noble Characters of our perfections, and bearing a greater resemblance of our true selves than any Child of the outward lineaments of his parents. Now the most masculine intellectual births are usually produced neither in the morning or infancy of our days, the Sun of Reason having not then broke through the mists and fogs of ignorance, that commonly attends the souls first arising in the horizon of flesh. Nor also in the evening of old age, seeing the day of man's life, most commonly sets in a cloud of Dotage. But rather at the full Noon of manhood, when the Rational Soul, that is the Sun of the microcosm, hath climbed the Zenith, or meridian, and with the fruitful rays of Reason hath compressed the Intellect. Then if ever is the time for Pallas to issue from the brain of Jupiter. The Books of the deceased are as it were the Shrines or Temples of their Souls, where they vouchsafe a kind of residence, and give forth their oracles, after they have quitted the mansion-houses of their bodies. Here we may ask counsel of the dead without going to the Witch of Endor, or being enshrined within the Circle of a Conjurer; by the help of Books, we may set our Pigmy-Reasons on the Gygantine shoulders of the ancients, and so see farther than Antiquity, and shoot nigher the Goal of Truth than all praecedent ages. But to the study of Books, is not amiss to join the Reading of men. It being of greater concernment for the prudent steering the course of our lives, to understand the Genius of the age we live in, than to be acquainted with the mind of Aristotle or Plato. Miscellaneous Discourses. Of Ministers and Magistrates. THe Ministry and Magistracy, like Castor and Pollux, portend great tranquillity and happiness to that Common wealth, where they shine together in equal and mutual splendour: But, if divided, the unluckily omen of an approaching storm, or unwelcome harbinger of inevitable ruin. The Romans were as careful in maintaining their vestal fire, as preserving the Palladium, Counting that, no less than this, a pledge of their empire's durance and felicity. For certain, it is not the Palladium or shield of the wisest statesman's wisdom, or Policy, that is able to protect, or give a long life to Empire, or Government, where the holy fire of Religion is extinguished, which will quickly ensue where the Ministry is discouraged, who like the order of Vesta's Priestshood, should blow up the coals of Devotion, and maintain the sacred fire of zeal on the Altars of the people's hearts. Magistrates and Ministers are the Planets by whose influences, and superintendency, God hath appointed the elementary and inferior Bodies of republics to be governed and directed; and that commonwealth is blind to her own interest, that doth not tender them as the Apples of her eyes. For to speak truth they are in the body politic, what the great luminaries in the universe; the very light and eyes of the world, of which could the one without the other be put out (as some have fondly imagined) it must needs render the body politic as monstrous and prodigious, as that of our Poets one-eyed Polyphemus; But since these twins of light kindl at each others flames, and can neither be extinguished without the other, nothing can be expected from Eclisping the Sun of either's authority, but a sad night of ignorance and confusion. To conclude, that commonwealth cannot expect to hear the sweet melody, or be ravished with the music of the sphaers' motions, where the Orbs of civil governments are not moved by these Intelligences. The Ministers, therefore, and statesmen are under God the two pillars that bear up the ark of Government; and they that endeavour the subversion of either (whatever may be pretended) would open a door to Anarchy and confusion. 1. De Anno Platonico. PLato tells us, that after the revolution of a certain motion, by Philosophers termed, motus trepipationis, Nature will again spin o'er the thread of her old productions, and put forth a new impression of the Worlds Iliads; as if her whole business were but the setting forth of one Comedy, though consisting of many Acts and Parts, of which every Age presents a new scene, and every Generation produces new Actors, until the Catastrophe of the whole, and that the Fable be again begun: which though a Chimaera, may yet teach us, how it matters not whom we represent in the Fable of this life, whether a King or Peasant; so we do it with a grace; there being as much art required for the skilful personating a Clown, Corydon, or Fool; as an Emperor, Courtier, or Philosopher. What ever person therefore nature hath allotted us in the scene of our generation, we ought so to act our parts, that at our souls Exit, we may have the Plaudit of a good conscience; and then we shall retire from off the stage of this World with comfort, and be received into eternal mansions. Of employment and variety of Fortunes. VAriety and fullness of employment, as it is the best Antidote against the poison of Melancholy: so no less improving than delightful to any, whom nature hath made Masters of any talents of reason. Wherefore, so long at it shall please providence to continue me on the world's theatre, I should rather desire to act diverse parts, and run the gauntlet of various fortunes, having the course of my life chequered with black and white, than to be the Darling of that blind goddess, that is usually most propitious to those of least understanding. He that expects a plenitude of content, whilst on this side mortality, reckons without his Host, and feeds his fancy with fond and ridiculous hopes; for nature hath set such an high excise of care and trouble, on her apparent Commodities, that they often become Bankrupts of reason, (the richest jewel of the lesser world) that much traffic with her. There is no eating the sour Grapes of the world's seeming pleasures, without setting the teeth on edge; Much therefore is the voluptuarist mistaken, that thinks to exact a large tribute of pleasure from all the objects, his soul converseth with in this lower Region of nature, since all things are stamped not only with vanity but also vexation of spirit, the true reason providence could never stuff the Cushion of any man's fortune with so soft a down, but that he thought it harder than Jacobs' pillow. An rectè fecit Augustus, inimicos constituendo haeredes? Neg. DOth the Light of reason's lamp (by time sunk into the socket of old age) burn so dim? or do the clouds of dotage in the evening of man's life no less obscure prudence than the mists of ignorance that usually attend the first dawnings of reason in the soul's Infancy? Or did the Sun of Caesar's prudence set, before the day of his life went down? that his understanding was so benighted, as to make those heirs of his substance, that were the mortal enemies of his felicity; That he should gratify those with the spoils of his Fortune, who had more reason to expect a gibbet than a legacy. What greater blasphemy against reason could Caesar have been guilty of? what more contrary to the rules of true policy, could the most infatuated understanding have committed? was not this madness beyond parallel, both of former ages moulded by time, or the latter, more pregnant in acts of folly? How much better had it been that Caesar had died intestate, than that he should thus in the last act, and Catastrophe of his life, Register himself a fool to prosperity? Certainly had Caesar divulged his will before he concluded the fable of his life, he had never extorted a Plaudit from his friends at his soul's Exit from off the stage of his body. Shall thine enemy's (Oh Caesar) reap the fruits of all thy Victories? shall their brows be crowned with thy successes? shall those that hate thee, be adorned with thy spoils? shall they wear the laurels and garlands of thy triumphs? shall the ashes of thy urn (like the Phoenix's) give birth to their felicities? wilt thou now pay tribute to thy enemies who erewhile taxedst the whole Earth? This is to invite future injuries, by rewarding past. It is an argument of a low spirit to be obliged by discourtesies. The love of no Creature, except the ignoble spaniel is confirmed by a cudgel: shall the affections of divine Caesar (like base Meteors in the lower Region of the air) be kindled by an Antipestasis? shall the rays of his favour dart cheiefly on his enemies? shall the streams of his munificency tied most towards them that hate him? if so, it's better to be Caesar's enemy than his friend. And were he again (according to the Platonic fiction) to act over the fable of his life, he should have enemies enough. For who would not be Caesar's enemy to be his Heir? But why doth Augustus choose to erect the monuments of his frame in his enemy's hearts? Are they like to prove most grateful to his memory, most civil to this ashes? or are they the most deserving of all the Romans? if so, why Caesar's enemies? why did not his prudence rather (while the oil of life lasted) register them in the catalogue of his friends? were not the eyes of his understanding open, till death closed the casements of his body? was Caesar a hater of virtue during life, but desiring her good word fawns on her when he is ready to turn his back upon the world? This is to salve his prudence with impiety. Perhaps thinking the malignant breath of his enemy's malice, might either disturb or scatter his ashes, or blast the flour of his memory, or puff out the blaze of his renowned name, that same had kindled in all parts of the known world, thought it wisdom by a legacy to bribe their Tongues into a compliance, that they might rather rebound and echo than damp the sound of his good report. But for certain, had Caesar so well acted his part as to deserve an Euge at his going off the world's theatre, he needed not to have bribed or courted officious fame to egister and 'em balm his memory to all future ages. Or what needed deified Augustus, that is placed among the God's care more for the railing of his enemies, than the Moon though place in a lower orb, doth Dogs barking at her shadow. Of Thoughts. ADmirable was that saying of a wise Heathen. Nunquam minus solus quàm cùm solus, and will hold true not only in Contemplative men, and great Scholars, who by their Genius and employments, are given much to meditation; but also in all others: For as the goodman's heart is a rich treasury of good thoughts, or as a living fountain, always flowing with crystal streams to the refreshing of his soul; so on the contrary, the wicked man's mind is a cage of unclean birds, a den of foul beasts, a very jakes or sink of all manner of pollutions and uncleanness. For the rational soul, that beam (as I may so say) of Divinity, or ray of divine majesty, (like the sprightly element of fire) can no more be confined than the wind, nor deprived of action than the Sea of its tides, or the Stars of their course, nay we may with as much ease, bottle up the winds, and pull the stars from Heaven, as impose a confinement on the soul, or for the least moment, deprive it of all action and operation: and therefore whensoever it is vacant, from all external objects, and disengaged from all other employments; it retires into the closet of its own breast, and converses with the family of its own thoughts: which if trained up in the school of virtue and religion, may administer us much pleasure, as to traffic with the best of external objects, or to be employed in the most splendid of human affairs. The good man (saith our saviour) out of the treasure of his heart, bringeth forth good things, that is, good thoughts; for thoughts are the pictures of the mind drawn by its own pencil. In thoughts the soul uncyphers and as it were copies out itself; and limns its own effigies to the life; they are the pulses, by whose beating is discovered the health or indisposition of the heart, they are the lookingglass, in which the soul may take a view of its own features; nay they are the offspring of the Intellect, which bears its resemblance as Children do their Parents. Now the wicked man's mind, being tainted with sin polluted with corruption, and grown rank with iniquity, the whole stream and source of his thoughts (like water flowing from a filthy fountain) must needs run muddy; or as liquour drawn from a tainted and polluted vessel must needs carry a taste of the Cask: even so are the wicked man's thoughts, tainted and tinctured with the sin and vanity of his wicked heart, the loathsome womb that gave them birth. On Atheism, or, not acknowledging a Deity. ATheism is the most ridiculous piece of nonsense that ever was hatched, by the unnatural heat of a feverish and distempered brain, certainly that soul never looked out at the casements of its eyes, nor reflected on the fabric of its own body, that cannot discern the footsteps of a deity. To date the world's existency from all eternity, or father its original on the fortuitous conflux of Atoms, are alike ridiculous. For certain the most fabulous of religions carries not so many absurdities in its womb, as the fool's bolt, There is no God. I could sooner, with the Turk expect Mahomet's return in the form of a Ram, to receive the butterflies of the Koran, into his curled fleece; or with the leaden pated Papists, believe all the miracles of the golden legend; or with the Jews give credit to the fables of the Talmud: then suppose with the Atheist that this beautiful and wellorderd system of Nature, could spring from the womb of nothing without the midwifery of an infinite and eternal power. Of writing libels. HE is to be accounted more rash than wise, and a greater lover of his wit than safety, that will venture to libel any man, before he can fling the ashes of his urn, instead of sand upon his papers. But to speak ill of those that have turned their backs upon the world, is as unhuman, as to backbite the living is unsafe. Therefore to detract from any man's worth whether living or dead, friend or foe, should be accounted a theme too unworthy and base for an ingenuous man either to dip his quill, or foul his mouth withal. For it is more than probable, that he is Master but of few deserts, wherewith to set up the credit of his name, that must lay the foundation of his own in the ruin of another's frame; for a noble and generous spirit will rather with the Sun, endeavour to outshine; than with the malignant planet of the Moon to eclipse a greater lustre. We count that but a wan and faint beauty that stands in need of a foil; nor are those, but low and pigmy-statured merits that cannot appear, unless by dismounting all others perfections. To conclude, foul surely is the complexion that hath no other means of appearing true or rendering itself comely, than by casting dirt upon all other men's faces, this is like the Athenian that not knowing how to erect a more worthy trophy to eternise his fame would needs sow the memory of his name in the Embers of Diana's Temple. An Appendix of Brief advice to Students. Of Religion. 1. HE that sails by the Compass of a Conscience, not touched by God's spirit, will undoubtedly err in steering his course towards heaven: and split his soul on the Rocks of Schism and error. Therefore since God hath given us his law to be a light to our feet, and a lantern to our paths: I should think it safer, to follow the conduct thereof, than the false light of a deluded conscience, that is tossed and driven about by every wind of Doctrine. (2) A wiseman lives more by precepts, Manners. than example. And therefore will rather frame and fashion his life according to an exact and perfect Idea of virtue, than (like the Ape) dress himself by the false glass of others examples; or transcribe those corrupt and imperfect copies that the best of mortals can prescribe unto him. (3) 3. To be intimately acquainted with a man's self, Nosce teipsum. and according to the Sages advice, arrive to {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, is a lesson hard enough for the highest form and best Scholar in wisdom's school. But seeing it's no less necessary than difficult, we should be always cunning thereof; The Poet, in his Ne te quaesiveris extra, gives no bad advice, for attaining thereto. For he that resides much at home, and is chiefly conversant with the family of his own thoughts, will better understand his own value, than they that rate themselves according to the estimate that the favour or malice of men may put upon them. 4 Above all things prize the Golden minutes and Silver sands of time, Time as knowing the loss irreparable, and therefore the profuse spenders thereof, the worst of prodigals. He that loseth his Morning studies, gives an ill precedent to the Afternoon, and makes such an hole in the beginning of the day, that all the winged hours will be in danger of flying out thereat. I believe Scholars of all others, are the greatest murderers of time, unless Masters of some trade or art, wherein to spend their after-mealhoures. The custom therefore of the Turk is commendable, that gives every man, a trade, as an Antidote against idleness, the root and seed of all evil. 5. He that reads much and never meditates, Meditation. shall reap as little fruit of his labours, as the Daughters of Danaus in Hell, who are said in sieves to carry water to a Tub, of as many holes, as Argus' head had eyes, there is no Eel more slippery, nor Mercury more volatile than the winged motions of the mind, unless charmed and fixed by serious and frequent meditation: for by meditation the mind doth ripen, hatch, and bring to maturity, such notions or seeds of knowledge, as much reading and ingenuous company hath as it were sown and sprawned in the Intellect. 6 If one whom nature hath framed a Cyclops rather than a Janus, Antiquityes. and in stead of granting two faces, furnished with but one eye, should notwithstanding wear it behind him he would be accounted no less monstrous, for the placing that one, than for the want of another light. Such a production would be the true hieroglyphic of a young man studying antiquities: The eye of whose Intellect, by looking backwards hath brought him better acquainted with age's time hath rusted, than those of his own wherein he lives; and therefore all his learning and skill (like that of the Parthians) may without injury be said, to consist in shooting backwards. I cannot think it prudence for an Englishman to go visit Rome, before he hath been at London; nor for any that intend to be well traveled in the knowledge of things, to advance their first steps in the obscure and dusty paths of Antiquityes. 7 I can easily believe that the younger days of time, Overvaluing former ages. and childhood of the world, might not be guilty of so much fraud and guile, as the experience of above 5000 years may now have taught: but I could never screw up my belief (a fault incident to our antiquaries) to so high an opinion of the sanctity and felicity of Elder times, as not to take the Golden age our poet's report under the Reign of Saturn, for a poetical fiction. 8 No man ought to despise old age, by reason that years teach wisdom, Old age. and time is the mother of experience; The true reason we so seldom find the seeds of prudence sown, but where time hath ploughed up furrows, and in whom old age is crowned with silver hairs. As if we were not to expect any fruit from the tree of knowledge till the flower of Juvenile beauty be withered. 9 If it be true which Philosophers tells us, that nothing is in the Intellect, Travail. which passes not through the Door of some sense, then certainly their intellects must be most improved, and possess the largest stock of knowledge whose senses have trafficked and been entertained with greatest variety of objects, which recommends travail as the means of no small improvement; and may by one of a Mercurial Genius, or that's somewhat insighted in the way of traffic, be accomplished without detriment of estate, and no small advantage to the Intellect. 10 But he that would pass through all the forms of education, Variety of employment. and commence in the highest degree of accomplishment; that would be as much a gentleman as a scholar, and understand the world as well as books, the Genius of men, as Authors; must not satisfy himself with what the School's ferula, U●niversity) discipline, or travail hath taught him: but should run the gauntlet of divers fortunes, and become pupil to the Experience of various employments. A Prince's Court is no bad School of policy, and the experience of our late wars have proved the camp a place of little less improvement; and, to speak truth, he is hardly a legitimate son of Pallas, in whose education Arts and arms have not espoused each other. 11 Deny do man that tribute of Respect, that is due to his merits, Respect. though his original were clouded with never so mean a fortune. For honour is the Crown and reward of virtue, the air on which heroic spirits (like the chameleon) are fed and nourished: therefore there can be no greater injury offered a man of spirit, than to rob him of that respect and honour, his place and merits seem to entitle him unto. 12 Of all men the soldier is thought most tender of his reputation: soldiers. nor altogether without cause; having purchased his honour with the price of his blood, a higher rate than most are willing to adventure, and to speak truth, of all honour, that's truest, which hath been won by the sword in a purple field of blood; and he is the best Gentleman, that is the Son of his own deserts, and not the degenerated heir of another's virtue; that sets up with the stock of his own, and not his ancestors merits; that is himself the Artificer of his fortunes, hewing them out of his enemy's bowels: therefore of all the Sons of virtue, who by their merits have been crowned with glory and arrayed with the purple robe of honour, the Soldiers scarlet which hath been died in blood may be justly thought the bravest tincture. 13 Be not like the Salamander delighted in the fire of contention, Passion. but beware of Passion, as the most Capital enemy to the Crown and Empire of Reason: for those Sons of Thunder (whom by the lightning and fire of their blustering natures, one would suppose begotten in a storm) if we mark the Catastrophe of their turbulent lives we shall find them coucluded in a tempest. and not unoften like the Phoenix expire in a funeral pile themselves had kindled. For like the Silly fly they so long sport in the flames of contention, till at length singeing the wings of their understanding, and sacrificing their Reason to their Passion, they become a prey to the malice of their enemies. A little pot is soon hot, sayeth our English proverb, and they are usually observed to be men of least understanding, whose Choler can soon be set on boiling. 14 Beware of Pride, Pride. as the leven that sours men's best Actions and renders them ungrateful to the gust both of God and Man: whensoever therefore a puff or tumour of self-conceit begins to arise, whether from an overvaluing apprehension of thy worth, or blown by the venomous breath of parafiticall praise, be sure timely to prick it with a serious reflection on some infirmity of thy nature, lest otherwise like the toad in the fable, by ridiculous swelling beyond your natural proportion you discover the narrowness of your spirit. 15 Let nothing obstruct, or hedge up your way from doing good, Charity. or performing the acts of Charity; nor be like those narrow-spirited men, that are so wedded to their own Interest, and so unconcerned in the public good of human nature, that they could be willing to reap an harvest of private profit, sown in the ashes, and springing from the detriment of all mankind, that could with dry eyes celebrate the obsequies of universal Nature; and picking up the broken pieces of the heaven's axletree, warm themselves at the ruins of the world; that would rather, with the impious giants, throw Rocks and mountains to destroy, than one of Deucalion's stones to repair their species. These are the base born Sons of Earth, the offspring of the dragon's teeth, sown by Cadmus, the common enemies of Mankind, and traitors to the Common wealth of Nature. 16 What ever fortunes providence may allot, give not entertainment to discontent, Discontent. and you cannot be unhappy: for that is the fly that corrupts the ointment of life's sweetest pleasures. The Breeze that stinging man's mind in the very summer of his fortunes, suffers it no more to rest in the paradise of pleasures, than on a bed of thorns. Or like the harpies that infested Peneus' table, spoils and devours all the pleasures and delights the most splendid of fortunes can furnish forth; yea it lines the nightcap with such pricking cares, as will make the strongest head to ache, whose hard fortune it is to wear it. 17 Be not too confident of a young man's virtue, Youth. nor think one that hath made a good beginning and advanced sarrein the paths of goodness, may not like the planets be found retrograde, giving a baff'le to that expectation, and strangling those hopes the fair blossoms of their younger years had given birth unto. This error hath too often been confuted by sad experience, the consideration whereof should awaken the care and jealousy of those that are entrusted with youth's education. 18 He had need of a good Stock of Learning and knowledge, Writing Books. that by printing books gives the world an Inventory of his brains furniture. I know some expose their labours to public censure for the same reason Apelles is said to have done his pictures: to wit, that they might come acquainted with the errors of their pens or style, as he of his pencil: But such usually conceal their names under a veil of modesty, as that famous painter did himself, behind the cloth of his picture. 19 If any have cast dirt on the face of thy Actions, Vindication. or with a fowl Tongue any way sullied the innocency of thy conversation give not the world occasion by thy wincing, to think that truth hath galled thee. Nor so much endeavour, by a smooth apology, as the integrity of thy future life, to put malice to the blush, and silense an ill report: Knowing that however envy may for a time cloud, it can never totally eclipse the light and splendour of a virtuous conversation. 20 Raise thy estate rather by some profitable employment, covetousness. than a penurious brooding over those fortunes the hand of providence hath reached forth unto thee: lest imitating the miser's folly, thou also inherit his opprobrious Character, of whom thou mayest justly imagine men thus to discourse. He lives long, because he pays no Interest for the years nature lends him, and hath the thread of his life spun Gratis: But should old time turn usurer, and charge his weeks with a Rent, and his Minuets with Excise: or the three Sisters become Mercenary, and require wages for their spinning: he would rather die, so the ferryman of Hell would give him his passage, than be at charges of farming hours, or defray the spinning of his vital thread. 21 Let him on whom the Sun of a good fortune is risen, Boasting. be content to warm himself in the beams thereof, without suffering his Tongue become the herald of his prosperity, or his folly sound a trumpet to proclaim his felicity: or, to speak more plain, the Language of our English proverb, let the Minions of the blind goddess that by fortune's bounty fare better than their neighbours, beware of crying roast-meat: seeing that the tongue's travailing with such discourse, is of little less danger, in this greedy and rapacious world, than riding amongst thieves with a charge of money; for the breath of such discourses have usually blown small profit to those that broach them, and commonly kindle a desire in the hearers breast of sharing in those fortunes, with whose report their ears have too imprudently been Tantalized. Had not the found boasting of Collatine's intemperate Tongue set an edge on young Tarquine's lust, he might have long enjoyed the sweet embraces of his beautiful and chaste Lucretia, and never seen her soul forced by imperious destiny, to wade to the Stygian shades in a purple Stream of blood. A just punishment of Collatine's folly, and not Lucretia's guilt. (22) A wise man will not suffer his ambition to soar above the sphere of his ability, Ambition. or like the silly tailor (that languished for love of Queen Elizabeth) court any thing in his desire, of which he may not rationally expect the fruition; but rather, with the prudent fox in the fable, will call those grapes sour, with fortune hath placed above his reach. (23) If admiration be the daughter of Ignorance (as most acknowledge), Search of causes. it is the duty of every intelligent person to be diligent in the search of causes, that he be not susprised with amazement (the grandest Indecorum, and most unbeseeming garb of a wise man) at any revolutions or alterations, that may happen in the body politic, since that no less than things natural, is subject to change and motion; there being nothing permanent under the Sun: the greatest change, is but a nine days' wonder, and that only to the shorter sighted sort of people, that are not able to discern of causes. The convulsions and distempers of States, spring from as infallible Grounds and Reasons, as any disease of the body natural, though perhaps in the one they may be more latent & difficult to unridle than in the other. For nothing happens either in Nature or republics that that may be called the Daughter of chance, or said to owe its existency to the will of the blind goddess fortune; but the whole empire of the world is governed by the sceptre of God's providence, who since the ceasing of miracles hath decreed all things to be produced by the midwifery of second causes. (24) But beware, a too great inquisitiveness into stare affairs purchase not the odious epithet of a Politician; Policy. for it is better to be wise than so accounted, since according to the opinion of most, the time is not yet come, wherein we may expect the prudence of the Serpent and innocency of the dove should couch together: and therefore, as some are thought to inherit too small a stock of wit, to set up for Knaves; so in others are found too many grains of Serpentine cunning, to admit much of the doves simplicity: whereby it comes to pass that policy is of most use to those that can best dissemble it, as if, like the art of juggling, or slight of hand, it were nothing worth when once discovered. I remember Solomon hath said, It is not good to be over wise: and there are many that want not wit, that had rather be accounted fools than politicians. (25) It I hath been always accounted prudence, Deliberation, or before a man imbarks himself in any design or enterprise, to consider well of the event or issue, Festina lenté. that it is like to arrive unto; for the want of this hath often proved the ruin of many a glorious undertaking: for where one design hath been gravelled in the sands of delay, thousands have been split on the rock of praecipitancy and rashness. Charybdis doth not triumph in morewracks of ships than this in ruins of great undertakings. The Spaniard who is reputed none of the worst politicians, accounts his designs ripened and not rotted by time. And therefore it's usual for the farther to sow the seed, of what the grandchild is to expect the fruit. Raw and extemporary plots, that discover themselves so soon as ever they are hatched, that like young birds come into the world with the shell on their crowns; or like forward Plants bud before the Sun of a good opportunity hath shined upon them, are usually nipped before they come to maturity, and have their fruit blasted in their first blossoms. (26) Learning like dancing or playing on a Fiddle is counted by the proud world, Learning despised. a better accomplishment than profession: and therefore poor scholars that have nothing to live on but the Stock of their parts, and wits journeywork are commonly entertained with as little respect as Dancing-Masters, or common fiddlers, which brings to my mind that of Solomon, that wisdom is good with an Inheritance. It's reported of Cleanthes, a poor Philosopher, that he drew water by night to maintain himself by day in the muse's service. The unworthiness of this age threatens scholars with as bad employment, unless furnished with two Strings to their bows: There are some trades too ingenious for any but the Sons of Minerva, as Merchandise, Making Watches, Limning, and engraving, with some others that depend on mathematics, in some of which, a scholar might profitably employ some of his afternoon hours, not as if I thought not learning a full employment, but because the most industrious are often indisposed to study. (27) Let not a fond conceit of thy name being born on the wings of fame Conceit. sing lull-aby, and rock asleep thy industry: for many had arrived to a great height in Learning had they not too soon thought their knowledge at the Zenith; and with Hercules setting up their pillars wrote their Ne plus Ultra. This, I am persuaded, hath robbed the world of many a splendent Star, of Light; but to balance this, consider, that by reason of that veil of obscurity that covers the face of nature, together with that night of Ignorance, that dwells on man's understanding, the highest pitch that the best winged industry, can soar unto, is but a discovery that it knows little or nothing, more than the various opinions and fancies of men. To conclude, set him that hath dedicated himself to the muse's service study such things as are of use, Conclusion. rather than ostentation; and, as one hath well observed, rather with the Bee endeavour to gather Honey, than like the silly Butterfly paint it his wings. Let the consideration of the shortness of the day of man's life Ars longae v●ta brevis. wherein he is to traverse the long and intricate paths of Learning, quicken up our diligence to an indefatigable Industry; lest the night of death overtake us, and cause the Sun of our life to set, before any light of knowledge hath dawned on ous souls, and so we go down to the Earth with the same veil of Ignorance on our understandings, and our Reason● as much hood winked as when we came first into the world. S●● Verbum Sapienti. Of Death. WHat kind of bugbear soever Death may be represented, through the Sophisticated glass of Melancholy apprehensions, as that he is the King of terrors, the wormes Caterer, and nature's sergeant, that arrests poor mortals, for the debt due to corruption, and gives checkmate not only to life's pleasure, but also the pleasant gaire of man's life; and may therefore be termed life's devourer, the grand Anthropophagus, or man-eater, that as it were cracks the shell of the flesh for worms, himself preying on the sweet kernel of the soul. These and such like are the black colours with which ignorance and guilt paints a vizard and masks the face of death. Whereas could we acknowledge the truth, we should confess it as natural to die as to be borne; Death being but the souls breaking up of house, or dismantling itself of the no less cumbersome than dusty Garments of flesh, or rather that it is the goal of the soul's race, the palm of victory, the very crown and reward of life. Death is not the jailor that captivates, but the herald that proclaims liberty and reprieus the soul from the confinement and prison of its body: that knocks off the Fetters and Shackles of flesh, and gives it the desired Exit from off the stage of this trouble some world, the traveller in the fable wished for death but quailing at his approach, desired his hand to help him up with his burden; whereas death intended him a greater courtesy, to wit, the unloading his soul of those heavy clods or earth, and bundle of corruption it groaneth under. Thus many stand in their own light, and will not suffer themselves to be befriended, like the little Poet that durst not put off his heavy shoes left the wind, committing a rape on his light Body should carry him away as the Eagle is said to have done Ganymed: thus loath are the most of men that death should take off the leaden shoes of their bodies, notwithstanding they hinder their soul's flight into Elysium. Death is so far from being the murderer of life, that it rather hatches it by breaking up the Shell of the body, in which it was imprisoned or rather seminally contained: for as the chicken or young fowl, is excluded from the egg; or material form educed from the womb of its first matter, in which nature had treasured it up; so springs the Phoenix 〈◊〉 our lives from the ruins and ashes of our bodies: Yea it's impossible the Sun of our true life should shine forth in it's full glory till the cloud of our flesh be dissipated, which occasioned the wisest of Kings to say. The day of a man's death is better than the day of his birth. Which according to Plato's Philosophy may be digested without a comment: for if the glorious lamp of the soul were thrust into the dark lantern of its body, by way of punishment for crimes committed in her Virgin estate, when she had her mansion among the Stars; then certainly, when by death she shall be returned to her heavenly socket, she is no way injured but restored to her primitive lustre and glory. Such a notion as this (though I confess erroneous enough as antedating the soul's existency) yet is of greater Analogy to the immunities and privileges death puts the soul in possession of, than those cloudy and dastard apprehensions that most Christians entertain thereof; who in this, seem shorter sighted than the Barbarous Scythians who use to celebrate the obsequies of their nighest Relations, more after the manner of a triumph than a funeral, more rightly accounting, that we falsely term the expiring of of lives lease, the haven of rest, the period of misery and souls reprieve from the Captivity of flesh; whereas their children's births they solemnised with all expressions of grief and sorrow, as foreseeing the miseries that usually accompany the soul's entrance on earth's theatre. Nor did the Scythians alone engross this notion, for other Heathens were also Masters of it; witness the facetious end of Augustus Caesar who is reported to have concluded the fable of his life with a consort of music and begged a Plaudit of his friends at his going off the Stage of the World. Mors ultima linea rerum.