THE GUIDE OF HONOUR, Or the Balance wherein she may weigh her Actions.  
A Discourse written (by way of humble advice) by the Author then residing in Foreign parts, to a truly Noble Lord of England his most honoured Friend.  
Worthy the perusal of all who are Gently or Nobly borne, whom it instructeth how to carry themselves in both Fortunes with applause and security.  
By ANTONY STAFFORD, Gent.  
Printed at London, by T. C. for S. Cartwright, dwelling at the Bible in Duck-lane. 1634.   

Octob. 1. 1633.  
PErlegi hunc Libellum cui titulus (A discourse written by way of humble advice, etc.) qui continet folia 30. paginas vero 57 in quibus nil reperio sanae Doctrinae aut bonis moribus contrarium, nec 〈◊〉 quiequam quo minus cum publica utilitate ●●●rimatur, modo intra tres Menses proxime sequentes, Typis mandetur.  
Guilielmus Haywood, Arch Cantuar. Capell. domesticus.   

TO THE CONstant lover of Virtue, and Knowledge, the right Honourable, George, Baron of Barkeley, Mowbray, Segrave, and Brufe, and Knight of the Order of the Bath to his Majesty now reigning.  
MY LORD,  
TWelve years are past, since this Handmaid of Honour, made her first address to your Lordship, and will not now part from you. Indeed she can not leave you, and keep her shame, in that she owes her Essence to you, being Composed of your Heroic Virtues. He that Converseth with you need not see her; for you two differ in nothing, save in the lively Grace which all Originals have above their Copies. If in your Lordship's eye she appears not fair enough, look into yourself, and form her anew out of your own bosom, where Perfections dwell, to which I can not penetrate. I could wish too, you would apparel your own Child in your own Phrase, Gentle, and Sweet as your own Disposition. My Noblest Lord, it is impossible for me to flatter you, since I can not outspeak my love, or your Merit. He that thinks I insinuate, let him in my hearing take but one Syllable from this, and I here promise, he shall find me a greater Prodigal of life then of Language. I pay my God only Love, Thanks, and Reverence for my Creation; and a greater return, you can not expect, whom he hath made the Noble mean of my Preservation. Of that due Oblation you may rest Confident; For I can never be so unmanned as to be ungrateful. I can only say, I am truly sorry that (for your sake) I am not Master of many Lives; not that I desire to live long, but to dye often in your service. I am barred further protestation by the haste I make to profess myself  
Your Lordship's most humble, loyal servant Antony Stafford.   

To the Noble Reader.  
FOr to such only this Maiden Guide of Honour, desires access. The detracting brood, whom Malice hath begot on Ignorance, she holds not worthy of her Salutation, much less of her Service. She knows that Hercules after his fifty Labours, grappled with Envy, and expects the like encounter. These Fly wits (that search all over a body for a sore, and where they cannot find they make one) imitate in this their great patron Momus, who (when he could not espy any member, or feature in Venus justly liable to detraction) cried out upon the creaking of her pantofles. They rail at the Ages past, condemn the Present, and already judge the Future. These severe judges will have a man as serious in his first Book as his last Will. Some of them lately have not spared even Apollo's first borne, incomparable, and inimitable Sir Philip Sidney, whose Arcadia they confine only to the reading of Chambermaids; a censure that can proceed from none but the sons of Kitchinmaids. Let me perish, if I think not his very Skull yet retains more: wit then the passive brains of these wretched things, between whose Souls, and Knowledge, there is a Gulf. But how come I to descend to these poor Abjects, whose inflexible dullness, and obstinacy, Reason herself cannot bend. I confess nothing could make me vouchsafe them a word, were I not fired with their under valluing of that truth Worthy who (next her Kings) is the first glory this Island can boast of. A man deserving both the Laurels, and the Crown to boot, 
The polish Crown  designed him by the Votes of many brave Spirits, who discovered in him all the requisits of a King but the Title.  
This is no digression, Noble Reader; for the Guide I have given you, is also the Champion of Honour and of her sacred seed, of which he was the first in worth, though not in time. Are you inflamed with a Desire of Domestical Glory? Imitate the truly great Sidney, whose only Example is far above all my Precepts. Can you with the Arcadians boast yourself ancienter than the Moon? If you live out of virtues Shine, your Antiquity does not illustrate, but obscure you. Hath Fortune starved the rest of humanity to feed you? Without learning you are as blind as your Goddess. Hath Nature bestowed her utmost Art on you? Without Knowledge you are, at the best, but an habited Paradise. Blush then to sit in the Theatre, one stone upon another. Shame forbids that your inward, and outward sight, should have one and the same Horizon. Which ignominy that you may eschew, emulate the ever famous, ever blessed Sidney, who is as far above the Envy, as the Understanding of his Detractors, more capable of a Bastinad● then an Apology.  
Now for this true Servant of Honour▪ I assure you she had never kissed your hands, but that I feared another would send her to you without or Equipage, or my consent. Heaven be praised, she comes not from me with such labour that she needs a Midwife to bring her forth. She is now by my Command come to wait on you: If you follow her close, she will bring you into the embraces of her Mistress, between whose arms Posterity shall find you sleeping. Which supreme humane happiness is unfeignedly wished you, by  
Your most humble servant, Antony Stafford.   

THE GUIDE OF HONOUR, OR A DISCOURSE Written by way of humble advice, by the Author then residing in Foreign parts, to a Noble Lord of England, his most Honoured Friend.  
ALl the present occurrences, both of these, and other parts, my last will present to your Lordship's gracious acceptance. I will lay aside therefore Foreign business, and humbly advise your Lordship concerning your own. I may truly say your own, by reason your Honour, and Happiness in this life, and your Fame with Posterity depend upon it. Could intelligence Anatomize all States, laying their entrailes, and nerves open to you, it would rather augment your subtlety then your virtue, your general Knowledge, than your particular Goodness. It is an error as great as common to Study to know more, not to live better. The wisest, and most judicial observations can be given us of this World's affairs, can neither strengthen our Virtue, Dear Sir, or better our Prudency, unless we apply them to ourselves, by practising in our lives the sounder part of them, the rotten cast away. But I, all this while only fetch the Wind, to come with the fuller gale into the Haven. My counsel is, that you set the whole frame of your life upon these three legs: Religion, Care of your private estate, Discretion in all your actions. Take away any of these and you fall either a ridiculous subject to your enemies, or a sad object to your Friends. For example: Ruin by negligence, or prodigality your private Fortune, and you become a laughing stock to those that hate you: on the other side; abandon your Religion or Reputation to the just censure of others, and you become a corrasive in the hearts of all your Honourers. With your Lordship's leave, I will a little enlarge my Discourse upon these three severally, and demonstrate the comforts with which they fill his Soul, in whom jointly they make their blessed union, and happy mansion.  

Religion.  
I Place Religion first, in obedience to God's Commandment, who wils us first to seek the Kingdom of Heaven, and the righteousness thereof, promising that all other things shall be added unto us. Again, I give it the leading for order sake, imitating the Builder of an house, who begins with the foundation; which excelling both for matter, and well laying the whole Frame, will unmoved withstand the blasts, and rage of Wind, and Wether. This preceding, all things else readily follow which any way tend to the perfection, and happiness of living. It is so, it is so, most honoured Lord: Religion was never seen to go alone, without always a glorious train of Virtues to attend, and (for the most part) felicity to accompany it. I say for the most part; because though God ever affords his Children the true, ever flourishing, internal felicity, yet, he often suffereth even the dearest in his eyes, to want the fading external. On the contrary, where Religion doth not wait on humane endeavours, there the whole body of their actions is clothed with imperfections. There is nothing which so much distinguisheth Man, and Beast, as Religion; which is discovered in us, long before the use of our reason, it being engrafted in us by Nature; as we read of Saint john Baptist, and diverse other Saints, who have made clear, and miraculous demonstrations of their Zeal, even in the narrow compass of the womb. This is a Heavenly prerogative peculiar to man alone; for that the other living creatures are rational, many have disputed; but that they are religious, no man was ever so stupid to maintain. It is an observation infallible throughout all Story, that the more Noble Nations were ever the more Religious. Valerius said to the Romans, that though they regarded not their City, yet they should stand in fear of their Gods: which by their enemies were taken prisoners. It was with this polished people a custom as commendable as usual, that the Consul, or Praetor, ever offered the richest of his spoils to the same Gods in the Capitol, unto whom there first he pronounced his vows. In imitation, and emulation of these truly brave Heathen, do you offer up likewise the first fruits of your noble heart, as a rent due to him that made it. Love with all your soul the Creator of it. The cause why you love him you must make himself, and the measure of that love must be without measure. Submit your will to his, humbly desiring his direction, and protection in all your ways, and proceedings. Let this assurance fully content you, denying harbour to vain curiosities, which will disquiet, not amend your mind. Weary not yourself with Controversies, and needless niceties in Divinity, but leave them for learneder men, amongst whom I find some who will not be ignorant of God's secrets, as if it were a matter of nothing to be saved, unless we also know what God will have unknown. Think that sufficient which God hath thought enough for you, and seek to know all that to salvation is necessary, not to contestation. When Aquinas, and Scotus have vented, and banded all their subtlety each against other, many wise men will judge it no other than a profound scolding. The jews proceeding this way infinitely taketh me, who as often as they fell upon any difficult place in Scripture, would say, Veniet Elias, & enodabit: we know that Elias will come, and tell us all things. Those stirring wits that itch to propound acute questions are fitly compared to the Sun in March, who then exhales humours, but dissolves them not. And were their positions only frivolous, they were more tolerable, but they commonly end in horrid Blasphemy. Laurentius Valla hearing a Cardinal dispute sublimely of God, and his subordinate Spirits, said to his companion, And I could produce too such keen Arguments against my Christ, but I spare so great a Majesty. In a word; Be not in Divinity an Aculeo, nor a Curio: but in all your doubts have recourse to this sure decider of all differences, Dominus dixit. What folly, nay, madness is it to spend a man's whole age in speculations, neither necessary to this life, nor that to come? We have a wicked custom in England, of gentlemen's studying the Controversies for ornament; not taking them to heart, nor handling them with that reverence they ought. Do not you so, but love goodness in what Religion soever you find it. Put not your sickle into the Divines Harvest, but leave it to those whom God hath marked for his Ministry. Rail at no Sect, for they that delight in wrangling, desire rather the confusion than the reformation of him they oppose. Much disputing, it may be, God loves not, and for certain, most men abhor. To this I may add, that Truth is no way more involved then by that way she is sought. Read you therefore such Books as may inflame your zeal, laying aside those which only satisfy your curiosity. Neither be only conversant in those works, which make against vice in general, but inquire after such also as treat of those vices, to which you find yourself most prone. Physicians, after they have given a general Purgation, use such Medicines as purge Elective, that is, take away only that humour which is predominant in the patient. So you must not run over only those Authors which merely write against sin, without descending unto particulars; but intentively peruse, and dwell upon such as inveigh against your own 2secret sins, only known to God, and yourself. If to any notorious vice you be inclined (next your invocation of God) the only remedy is to shun the cause. Praesentia objecti naturaliter movet Potentiam: The presence of the object stirs up the Desire. To express myself more clearly: Fly that thing or that company, from whence your enticement comes. If in a friend an imperfection appears, Friendship winks at it: but if a vice, the hate of that makes her loath the thing beloved. Be not you such as was Fabius, a Decemvir, of whom Livy saith, that he chose rather to be like Appius then himself. I am not of Bions' opininion, that all friends good, or bad, are to be retained, lest we either confess our weakness in conversing with the vicious, or our baseness in forsaking the virtuous. Another main help is the rectifying of your will. The way to subjugate this, and render it conformable to the laws of Reason, is a secret in the cure of the soul, known but to a few, and by fewer practised. In this untrodden path which leads to the Temple of Virtue, I will with alacrity be your Lordship's humble, and happy Guide. Your understanding must often, and earnestly inform your will. The reason why some who know enough, commit such gross errors, is, that their understandings check not their wills, or, if they do, it is so seldom, & so coldly, that they rather yield then conquer. On my faith, this one rule observed is able to make you Lord of more perfections than now you are of Akers. That you may obtain from the Almighty a blessing of these and all your other endeavours, receive often the Sacrament. Remember him often that never forgets you. Frequency of Communion is a great, though not an infallible sign of continuance, and promotion in righteousness. Saint Augustin counselleth the more perfect to receive every day. I advise not you to do so, but think it enough if quarterly you fail not to execute this your holy duty. Your manifold affairs will hardly permit you oftener to make a serious and devout preparation, which must necessarily precede the approaching to this sanctified Supper. You must expel the old man out of your heart, and give up the sole government of it to the new, who admits no Rival. You must not only strive to clear yourself of the infection of mortal sins, but of the affection also to those which comparatively we call venial. Having once shaken them off, you must beware that they take not hold again▪ In these spiritual fevours, relapses are most dangerous, Great Divines doubt whether or no Saint Peter had done worse, had he committed three several sins, than he did in falling into one, and the same thrice. Final impenitency lightly follows obstinacy in sin; from which that you may be free, maintain in your bosom a perpetual warfare betwixt your Earthly and Heavenly desires. Oppression, Blood, Sodomy, Blasphemy, and the rest of that lowd-mouthed pack, I am confident you will make strong head against; Only my extreme love, not your disposition, begetteth in me a jealousy that you may be captivated by the two English Evils, Drink, and Women.   

Drunkenness dispraised.  
THe former is unworthy of Man, and Beast, it having no ground in Nature, and therefore Seneca properly styles it a voluntary Folly. He that makes another drunk commits the greatest of thefts; in robbing him of a jewel (his Reason) beyond value in its own Nature; but if you consider its great original, God, it is then much more endeared. So that here the common Posy (not the gift, but the giver) holds not, for both the one, and the other are in their own estimation, and value incomprehensible. Neither is this a solitary vice, but is ever accompanied with Incontinency, wherefore wise Antiquity ever pictured the lecherous Satyrs Attendants on Bacchus. Yet are some wits like frankincense, till they have taken heat from Wine they send forth no vapour. But from such nothing solid proceeds, only flashes, and fumes that vanish into nothing. Against this vice there is no stronger Remedy than often, and seriously to consider the loathsome looks, gestures, and speeches of Drunkards.  
Under this I comprehend Gluttony, since Excess is the common mother to both, and in each of them the creature much abused. All hold that there is a great resemblance betwixt the Macrocosm, and Microcosm, the great, and the little World, which is Man In the greater there is an established order; and should, nay would be in the lesser, could the inordinate appetite of man be brought to know the limits of Necessity. The irrational Creatures we see do neither eat, nor drink beyond their hunger, or thirst, therefore in my mind, this Phrase (Drunken Beast) is as improper, as usual; it being withal a great disparagement to the poor creature altogether innocent of this excess. Neither is this vice an enemy to piety, but to wisdom. Sapientia in sicco remanet, non in paludibus, & lacunis: Wisdom delighteth in a dry Habitation, not in bogs, and ditches. For this makes that of Heraclitus, Lux sicca, anima sapientissima: A dry light, a most wise Soul. That you may never err in matter of Diet, look that the quality of that you eat, or drink, be agreeable to your constitution, and the quantity no greater than your stomach can well overcome; which Galen implies when he maintaineth Oportere patientem esse proportionatum Agenti: that the Patient must be proportionable to the Agent. We see for the most, part old men eat not so much as young; and the reason of this is none other than that the Agent, or natural heat is not of force to digest the Patient, or food, if in great quantity it be received. This is the sum of Physic, and I dare be bound that a sound body, keeping this diet, shall dye through a mere resolution of parts, 
Ex resolutione partium.  without ever knowing Disease. This will deliver you from Physicians, who purge men of their humours, and the World of men. I insist the longer upon this, because I would have your life lengthened in this world, and your sobriety crowned in the other.   

Jncontinencie discommended.  
I Now come to the second English Evil, Women. If you sail by these false Compasses, you shall be sure to sink. Over and above the incurring of God's displeasure, you will suck from their lips their effeminate humours, and become uncapable of any charge in the Commonwealth, and of all advice from your friends. No man in the state of Grace can imagine what one of these pretty ones will persuade him to, he being once enchanted. Inquire this truth of Slaves that have long served in these Galleys. Your Lordship hath a great privilege in having a lawful remedy; So that if you can not honestly command your lust, you may honestly obey it. Yet do I earnestly beseech you to moderate this pleasure, remembering that all things lawful are not expedient. It is no slight treasure that these wantoness rob us off. Assay often, and vehemently to subdue these, and all your other affections rebelling against your nobler part; So shall you worthily receive your Lord, having this master Comfort, that you eat, and drink your own Salvation. Mithridates' King of Pontus, having invented Mithridate, did by the often eating of it, so strengthen his nature, that afterwards, when he would have poisoned himself to shun the servitude of the Romans, he could not possibly effect his design. That immaculate Lamb of God our sweet Saviour, hath instituted this Holy Sacrament, that whosoever eateth his body, and drinketh his blood worthily should not die, but have life everlasting. The frequent eating of this Heavenly Manna is so strong an Antidote, that neither the poison of bad affections, nor the contagion of wicked conversation can work upon that soul to hurt it, which is once fortified with it. This is the tree of life, by which we triumph over Death, and with the Lord of life, become fellow heirs of that Kingdom which from before all ages he hath prepared for us. Before you pluck and taste this Divine fruit, knock yourself on the Breast, and say, Lord I am unworthy. Thus doing, I with joy assure myself, dearest Sir, that your days shall be long in the land which the Lord your God hath given you. Thus doing, blessings shall not stay your wishes, but come before and above your expectation. Thus doing, you shall sleep, and wake, rise, and lie down in security, knowing that you are under the protection of a Guard, which neither the policy, nor power of Man, or Devil, can force. Thus doing, you shall give your enemies no cause to rejoice, and your Friends none to grieve. To conclude, thus doing, you shall go out of this World with honour, and enter the other with Glory, leaving behind you the Fame of a life well lead, and so ended.   

Care of your private Estate.  
I Have seen one of the Athenian Sages, pictured with one eye cast up to Heaven, the other fixed on the Earth. The conceit, no doubt, implies that the view of these two remote objects do beget in a wise breast two different cares; the first whereof hath an eye to the end of his journey, the latter to the means. The one seeks for the fairest, and the nearest way, the other looks to the Viaticum, or provision for the voyage. Thus must you do, excellent Sir, you must not with too much thinking whither you are going, forget where you are. As you mind the joys and glory of the other life, so must you also the necessities of this. Thales the Philosopher was derided by the old Governess of his house, in that through the earnest fixing of his mind, and sight upon the stars he fell into a ditch; the Contemplation of things a far off taking from him the remembrance of those near hand. So are they worthily censured, and scoffed at, whom an ignorant zeal maketh give over this World, while they are yet in it, neglecting their estates and posterity, nay utterly forgetting those humane offices, wherein being defective, we can not deservedly be styled men. These should consider, that if Nature would have exempted them from the condition of men, she would by a third sex have distinguished them from the rest. The misunderstanding of our Saviour's words; in the 6. of S. Matthew, verse 25. hath abused many; they thinking that Christ in this place forbids all thought for this life, whereas, indeed, he only prohibiteth such a care as any way tends to a distrust of God's Providence. My humble advice is, that you walk doubly provided, at once relying upon God's supernatural help, and yet using the ordinary means he hath given you. Do so, be an understanding Lord, and let your wisdom warrant you worthy your Title. Think twice how to maintain your Greatness, for once how to set it forth, and (your Honour admitting it) oblige more your Posterity, than your Ancestors have done you. To be plainer, increase your Estate, if you can do it without the decrease of your Reputation. Be not like those who think it the prime and essential part of a Lord to be ignorant of what he hath. Inquire into the particularities of your fortunes. Know how, and where your Manors, and Rents lie. Let not your least revenue pass unexamined, but inform yourself of the former, and present value of it. Learn what successively it hath yielded your predecessors, and (the Lease being expired) let it according to the current rate of these times; else in showing yourself a Merciful Landlord, you may prove a cruel Father. Consider who have been true to your Parents, and yourself, and let your reward over weigh their deserts. Omit not to take a role of all them who hold any thing of you, and mark such Names as have been faithful to your Family. These cherish both with your purse, and countenance, taking the better deserving of them into your service. To the offspring of those whom you shall found branded with disloyalty to your House be neither uncharitable, nor uncourteous: yet let them neither have so great a share of grace, or benefit as the former, except you see apparent, and extraordinary signs of Truth, and merit in them. Believe me, or (if not me) Story, that there is a Fatality in these things, and that perfidiousness often runs in a Blood. I may add, the despair will possess the most honest heart ever to please you, who shall come to your service clogged with the memory of his forefather's demerits; and the comfortable advantage he shall come with who can assure himself that his errors shall be buried in the merits of his Ancestors. With the former take this general caution; that you set your Leases at such rates, as no man can have just cause to call you oppressor. Wisely consider that though a poor wronged man can not take from you your Titles, Riches or Friends; yet he may foretake you from them. Despair as she hopes no good, so she fears no ill. Vitae tuae Dominus est quisquis suam contempsit; He is Master of your life who will forsake his own. Of this we have a fresh example in one of your Lordships own Rank. This is one of the crying sins, and the voice of it reacheth a note higher than any of the rest.  
Thus far of your comings in, 
Of your Expenses.  now of your layings out. Keep a good set table that may not fear the approach of half a score good fellows. To this (in case Strangers of extraordinary quality come) you may add according to your pleasure. An orderly, yet liberal table continued, is by much more commendable, than these intemperate Feasts, which commonly are followed by as penurious fasts; So that vainegloriously to entertain our guests, we basely starve our Servants. Men of great rank I would seldom invite, for it draws money from you, and censure from them; such ever making 2the prodigality, or defects of your table the discourse of theirs. I may add the dangerous engagements they will invite you to, which you must either with the loss of your Wisdom grant, or with the purchase of their envy deny. But if any eminent Person without any invitation of mine should vouchsafe me a visit, I would like himself, and myself receive him. Some, and those wise, know every night the expenses of the passed day. I am not of opinion that your Lordship should be so strict, or put yourself to that trouble, but I would persuade you to take an account of every week's charges, and that at an appointed day, and hour, which I would not break without a cause of great importance. Entertain not many followers, lest you leave behind you many beggars, and few admirers. Those you take once into your service, maintain so as the World may witness for you, they want nothing due to back, or belly: And when your last day comes, (which jesus grant I may never see) leave them legacies, suitable to their several qualities, and deserts. So shall their children's children magnify your goodness, and one Generation bequeath your praises to another. Choose your Officers sober, discreet, and honest men; for if a man's nature lead him to waste and shark, all your vigilancy will be in vain. Dispositions quickly put on Habits. Banish riot, and roaring your house, but always beware of punishing a fault too severely in an old, and faithful Servant: Yet if you can not reform him, give him means to live from you; so shall you do him good, and keep your family from infection. We read of Cato Vticensis, that he with great study kindled, and nourished dissension amongst his servants, by which means he came to know all their actions, and conspiracies. Do you shun this course as you would do infamy, to which it leads. Let all your endeavours serve to settle a firm concord amongst them, otherwise your house will become a common Pleas, and amongst other inconveniences, this ensuing will be one. You cannot so indifferently carry yourself, but that your affection will appear more to some, then to others. Now, if your people be at variance, one will repine at the grace you show the other, judging himself wronged, and undervallued by you. From hence will proceed a mixed report, one exalting, and the other debasing you. And though your praisers surpass in number your revilers, it will nothing at all avail you; men in these days being more prone to hearken after a man's vices then his virtues. Withal build on this, that those with whom you live are they must judge you. Who will desire your Character from any other then from such as are Ear, and Eye-witnesses of your Words, Deeds, and Carriage? Take heed therefore that Malice reign not in your house, still remembering that Heaven is the true pattern of a perfect society, and there Envy hath no place.  
Wear good clothes but make it not your study to excel others in bravery. Follow the received Fashion, but do not adore it. Totus nitidus, saith Seneca, Totus stultus: All neat, all Foole. Your Lordship shall observe in the course of your life, that such as give themselves wholly over bodies, and souls into the hands of a Tailor, are likely little wiser than he that fits them. They may have a superficial, but not an essential worth. It may be objected that they often attain to high degrees of honour; to which I answer that no man is properly styled wise from the event. It hath been long my observation that they who strove to have the leading in Fashion, came behind in all the main requisites of a Gentleman. We see Women to be their chief admirers, and I dare be bound that none of them was ever yet found who could see thorough a Millstone. On my credit the clothes oftentimes, judge the wearer. We see the wisest of our Western Nations, the Spanish, and the Italian, to be this way the most moderate; They finding this thrift, and modesty in habit to be infinitely beneficial to the Commonwealth. There is no Country under the Sun, that hath such an Apocryphal Gentry as the English, where the sons of Brokers blend with it, and outbrave, and precede the most Ancient of it, as if clothes had the gift to ennoble blood. All are permitted to wear what they can get, and their own value depends on that of their raiment. Amongst the ancient Romans, all sorts of men were distinguished by their habit, so that at the first sight you might know a man's calling by his clothing.   

Of Liberality.  
OF all the virtues in Man, Liberality is the King, it being often called Humanitas as derived ab Homine. The holy Fathers of the Church commonly usurp Pium pro Liberali: Pious for Liberal. Let your house be like that of a Tribune, never shut to the distressed: make your life nothing else but a giving to the poor. They followed Simo by troops, and he releived them with handfuls. These voices are worthy the purchasing at a dear rate, because upon them, places in Heaven depend. The only way to be truly great, is to give to these little ones. Make not your gifts common. In the giving see that your judgement, and affection concur. To the deserving be like a tree overcharged with fruit, which boweth, and offereth itself to be plucked. Confer your benefits on such as have honesty, and merit conjoined. In my opinion he is not truly said to be a man of good parts, whose chief part, the heart, is rotten. On my life where that is false, nothing of value can harbour. Be not your own Chronicle too 2much in boasting of the favours you do. Set not down your benefits in the Almanac. The Noble Giver, saith Seneca, should instantly forget the gift, but the grateful Receiver never. This virtue is not placed just in the middle, but is nearer to Prodigality then Avarice. Not without cause therefore I add this caution, that you be not too profuse in the distribution of your Money. Call to mind that it is as well the nerve of Peace as war. By the help of it all things are acquired, save those of the mind, which are to be had elsewhere, and by other means; yet to the obtaining of these too doth Diva Moneta afford no small aid. I may also truly aver that Magnanimity can not truly show herself without it. Aristotle's two extremes I would have you shun. Some men, saith he, are so sparing in their expenses as if they were to live for ever, some so profuse, as if they were instantly to die. I have heard of some who have quaited away their money, and played at Duck, and Drake with pieces; but my comfort is, I have yet read no Sentences of their composing. Charles the fifth, as wise a man as the best of them, would tie a knot in a broken point, and reweare it; yet was the most liberal Prince of those, or these times. One of my Ancestors was so beyond measure free of his purse, that the Painters drew him with a Silver hand; if they had added an empty purse, the Device had been most perfect.   

Discretion in all your Actions.  
IT now remains that I treat of the discretion, whereof all your Actions must savour. This hath a large sense, but I will reduce it to as few heads as possibly I can. Guiccardin gives Ferdinand of Arragon, King of Naples, this testimony, That he was a Prince for his counsels Deliberate, in his actions Rèsolute, and touching his affections very moderate. My God what can man speak more of man? We will examine the first part of the Testimony.   

For his Counsels Deliberate.  
A Wise Man considereth, and weigheth all the circumstances of an action before he subscribes to it. Make a long pause betwixt the invention, and execution of a fact. Interpose a thousand doubts with their solutions annexed before you embark yourself in a business of importance. It is an overworn but a true Proverb, Two eyes see more than one. There is nothing more laudable in a Noble nature, than a desire to be informed. He that neither hath the skill to advise another, saith Livy, nor the grace to be advised by another, is simply of the worst disposition, and good for nothing. Consult with many concerning your Affair in hand. You shall never find a jesuit fooled alone, but with him the whole corporation of his Society is deluded. We see often the hand, foot, or some other particular member to receive hurt, but rarely the whole body. Here Guiccardin puts in a Caveat. Though nothing, saith he, in great deliberations be more necessary than counsel, yet nothing withal is more dangerous. His meaning is that Faith is a thing so hard to be found, that a man can not without great hazard communicate his intentions. It is not now as in the Romans time, when between the many Conspirators against Caesar, there passed not one oath, they having no other mutual engagement of Secrecy than the word of a Roman Gentleman. Since therefore you can not, like a jesuit, find friends obliged by Sacramental Oath, to keep your counsel, take advise of the dead; I mean of your Books. These will present to your view Truth naked, without any disguising Coverture. These will not flatter you, being senseless of your love, or displeasure: They neither hope for advancement, nor fear oppression. Have recourse to History, wherein you shall find your present affair in a hundred several shapes. Amongst all the examples which have any resemblance to your present Case, ponder well which carry with them reason, and which only success. Direct your course after the former, not the later; for if you judge of things by their event, you will miserably abuse yourself. It follows,   

In his Actions Resolute.  
WHat else? A brave Spirit (having once showed himself in an enterprise, and called it his) will go through stitch with it, and maintain it against the World. Having well deliberated, and chosen an even course, let no man stop you in it, but run over your opposers. Being in the right, weigh no more the aspersions of the base sort, than you would the dashing of an Ass, or the barking of a Dog. Spreta exolescunt, saith Tacitus, si irascare agnita videntur: If you despise them they of themselves fade, and are gripped by oblivion; but if they vex you, it will seem that you acknowledge yourself guilty. It is hard to do a thing that appeareth fair in the eyes of all men; for that a good action, what dignity soever it hath (if it bring not with it the favour of the Times wherein it is done, and the opinion of those into whose hearts it seeks to insinuate) it is but as a Candle that burneth dim, whose shadow seemeth greater than the light. To this the Italian Proverb is not dissonant; Assaiben salta, a chi-Fortuna canta: He cannot dance amiss, to whom Fortune sings. Having the assurance of your own conscience, that your proceedings are fair, and honest, slight the Censure of the muddy vulgar. Let Resolution and Constancy wait on all your intentions, and enterprises. Cockles, and Weeds we see are with one wave carried to the shore, and by another brought back into the Sea, but the Rocks stand firm. Seek to approve yourself to the good, resting careless what the bad think of you; for we owe neither the Devil nor his limbs any satisfaction. But if any man of your own Rank do you an affront, show that you are sensible of you Honour. Your Reputation, according to Aristotle, is your Stocks; 
This is not so consonant to the Doctrine of Christ, as I would it were. Wherefore prudently and Christianly shun all occasions of quarrel. What a wretched age do we live in that maketh effusion of blood, the only means for reparation of honour, & teacheth us to make Gods dishonour the foundation of our Fame?  not yours, to which you should be a bad Guardiant should you let it fall, and catch a crack. I have read a Fable, how that Reputation Love, and Death made a covenant to travail over the world, but each was to take a several way. When they were ready to depart, a mutual enquiry was made how they might find each other again. Death said, they should be sure to hear of him in Battles, in Hospitals, and in all parts where either Fammine, or Diseases were rise. Love bade them hearken after him amongst the Children of Cottagers, whose Parents had left them nothing, at Marriages, at Feasts, and amongst the professed servants of Virtue, the only bond to tie him fast. They long expected a direction from Reputation, who stood mute. Being urged to assign them places where they might find him, he sullenly answered his nature was such, that if once he departed from any man, he never came to him more. The Moral is excellent, implying that Honour once lost never returns again. Lose then your fortunes, and life, rather than suffer this radiant Diamond to lose his lustre. Else your posterity will wish you had never been, and your friends blush at the sound of your Name. Permit not this World's most terrible, and horrid Accident to daunt you. Standing environed on all sides with Wealth, meditate on poverty. The greatest amongst the Romans, on certain set days of the year used course diet, and worse lodging, that so their Evil Genius might not find them unprepared. Avoid all miseries as much as in you lies. Plus miserest saith Seneca, quam necesse est, qui miser est antequàm necesse est: He is miserable more than needs who is miserable before he needs. But if afflictions come never so thick, and deprivation of the Sun's light be one of them, embrace them with a smooth forehead, and a manly heart, it being a thing most vain to repine at what Necessity commands. A Palmy mind the heaviest weight of Fortune can never suppress. Experience hath taught me that to be irresolute is not to temper evil Fortune, but to tempt it. Seneca tells you, Sine morsa animi velle transire vitam, ignorare est rerum naturae alteram partem; To seek to end this life without tasting any grief, is to be willingly ignorant of the one half of Nature. We will now descend to the Conclusion of the testimony.   

Moderate in his Affections.  
I Have in the former part of this discourse given some general rules for the moderating of passions, and I will now cursorily touch some of them in particular.  
To lay before you the ugliness of wrath I need not, 
Anger.  you having the strongest habit of Patience, that I think any man of your years ever yet acquired. The surest help against that furious passion, is slowly to apprehend all occasions that may incite it, &, being once apprehended, to endeavour the removing them out of the imagination: for it is the Choleric humour that having first vitiated the Fancy, stirs up this passion, which being once kindled, by a kind of sympathy inflames more the material humour, and that being once throughly fired, strengtheneth, and increaseth the passion. Let not your Anger precede your judgement, nor afford it leisure; for it quickly becomes master of the Place. In the beginning it is soon pacified, as green wounds are easily cured. But if unfortunately you fall into an act of choler, repair it again with one of sweetness towards the party offended.  
Your Lordship's nature is so little addicted to Mirth, that it were a sin to prescribe limits to your joy. Notwithstanding, if you have a desire to be merry within compass, it is but going into Spain, where you may buy Rules to laugh by.  
I rather fear your erring in the sad extreme, to which I can not devise what should move you. You have as loving a mother as ever man had, in whom are all the virtues required in a Woman, and with these the rational abilities of a man. To double this blessing you have a sister, in whom who should have the greatest interest a man would think Nature, and Virtue should be at strife, both of them having equally and infinitely obliged her, in whose due praises even they agree who in all things else are opposite. But you will say; Fortune may take all these from me. It is most true, she may; but the memory of their virtues she can not deprive you of. It were more than folly in you to envy Death his due Triumph over Creatures, of whose life 70. is the ordinary period, and 120. the utmost, who know the World's fairest body, the lovely Frame of Heaven in itself incorruptible, and in his course observed so many thousand years immutable, to be subject to destruction, and that all his glorious tapours shall lose that light with which they now glad the Movers in this inferior Globe. This Fatal Law is not new, being almost as ancient as the World; the penalty whereof only two have escaped of all that ever yet breathed this air. You will yet object, that God may deny you Children, the rejoicing fruits of Matrimony. Suppose it to be so; Will you therefore be displeased with his good pleasure? It may be he does this for your good, foreseeing that they would prove so many corroding Cankers in your heart. For aught you know, he may detain from you, not the comforts of your life, but so many hasteners of your Death. Perhaps he withholds from you a Traitor, a Murderer, a Whore, a Blasphemer. All this is but to arm you against the want of these reputed blessings (they being such, indeed, to the greater part of men) for I trust in God he will bestow on you many children, and such as shall be so many Cordials to your heart, so many honours to their Nation, and so many ornaments to the Age they live in. I should in vain arm your generous mind, against the deprivation of the senseless things you possess, as jewels, Gold, Silver, and the rest. The Aristotelians (disdaining that one, and the same word should express their love to Men, and Riches) styled their affection to the former, Amor, to the latter, Amatio. The reason urging them thereunto was, that they were possessed with an opinion, a Man did basely, and foolishly to dote on that which could not reaffect him. An Italian Author therefore very properly gives Gold the Epithet of Amato non riamando; Beloved not reaffecting.   

Your course of Life.  
I Have much, and long importuned your Lordship with the opinions of a weak judgement; I will therefore only touch three points which are very material. The first is your Course of Life; The second, your Discourse; The third, your Studies. The first is of great consequence if you well consider it. Your Lordship knows I have heretofore over-vehemently persuaded you to affect the life of a statist, by which course you might advance your Estate, and attain to a higher degree of Honour. I now most submissively, and earnestly beseech you to commit this proposition to your riper consideration, and except you find yourself impregnable against the hazards that attend it, resolve not on it, but fetter even your very thoughts from the Court, so many inconveniences being incident to that Calling. If you be not advanced to places of Eminency, and that you see men in all things short of you preferred before you, from hence will spring a repining and a disturbance of your soul's peace. Grave est a deterioribus honore anteiri! It is odious to a free spirit to be outstripped in Honour by one less deserving then himself. Are you not satisfied with your present possessions? Beware in seeking for more, you consume not what you have, or that you lose it not by falling under the Plot of some Potent Enemy. Inimicitiae potentum graves sunt, saith Seneca, The Enmities of great men are vehement, he maketh no mention of their love. You can not there live without entering into some Faction or other, which is an adventure for a younger brother, not for a man of your certainty, and Possibilities. But admit you raise yourself to the degree of Honour, and proportion of Fortune you aim at. Think you the Maw of Ravenous ambition will be filled with that? He that is led by her, nothing can stay his adventures. Heaven itself could not give her contentment, from whence she was thrown down. Excellently singular, Seneca, Cum omnia quae excesserunt modum noceant, periculosissima foelicitatis intemperantia. Since all things exceeding measure hurt, the intemperancy of Felicity, must needs be most dangerous. Hannibal argued Marius Attillius of weakness, in that he was not able to set a gage to his prosperity. But make a supposition you have your hearts desire, (it being a thing possible though difficult) and that you have hold of the highest round save one in Fortune's Escalade, You are never sure of holding fast, and ever in danger of a shameful fall. Now imagine you were secured from falling, yet would Pride, and Disdain, two stirring humours, so puff you up, that you would forget from whence you came, and whither you are going. Seeing all things waiting your will, the thought of what to enjoy first would afflict you, as what first to wear, what first to taste, what Music first to hear, what conversation first to make choice of, which Mistress first to dally with, and other delights, which prosperity envites to. You would not be much unlike to those souls Bellarmine maketh mention of in his tract of Purgatory, which wander up, and down in a fair, spacious, sweet scented Meadow, and are with a dilation of Beatitude, & an overfilling joy tormented. Are you ambitious of your Prince's favour? Do him acceptable service in your country, and you shall surely obtain it. But you will answer, I would have from him a superlative Grace above all other men, & be made the cabinet of his most secret thoughts. This were, indeed, the most ready way to procure the envy of your fellow Peers, and to incur the suspicion of your Prince. For the love of Heaven banish all such thoughts out of your bosom. Let it be your Meditation, how to attain to the perfection of a devout life; So shall you become the favourite of a Deity. Being once in God's favour, you can not (except you will) fall from it, he being yesterday, today, and the same for ever. You know how to please him, he having revealed his will in his Word. The dispositions of Princes (as it is fit) remain undiscovered, and their intentions incommunicable. Of all Kingdoms I esteem this Island wherein we live, most happy, which since she endured the file, never bade above two or three Princes justly liable to the detested brand of Tyranny. But if you needs will follow the Court, square yourself by this Rule. What ever you do well, and laudably, ascribe some way to the wisdom of your Sovereign; for they are gods on Earth, and (in Emulation of the Heavenly God) will have us acknowledge the best of our actions to have their ground from them, leaving the worse to our own Patronage. Our imperfections are bastards, which they will force us to father, but what ever is in us legitimate, and good, they themselves own, as derived from their transcendent Virtue. Tacitus saith of Antony, that he was, Nimius commemorandis quae meruisset; Vain in repeating his own Deeds. Germanicus did not so, who being Lord of a great Victory in Germany, erected in the fortunate place of his so good success, a Mountain composed of Arms, in manner of a Tropheie, which he Dedicated to Mars, jove, and Augustus, in the inscription attributing the Conquest to the Care, and Army of Tiberius, not making the least mention of himself. Metu invidiae, an ratus conscientiam facti satis esse. Whether he did this as fearingenvy, or that he esteemed the testimony of his own conscience glory enough I know not, saith the same Author. On the contrary Silius, having for seven years together governed a mighty Army in Germany, vaunted that he alone had so many years maintained, and kept his Army in obedience, and order; whereas if Tiberius had himself come to his Legions, he would by seeking to introduce innovation of Discipline, have destroyed, and disbanded the whole Army: Destrui Fortunam suam Caesar, imparemque tanto merito rebatur: By this Caesar thought, saith Tacitus, his Fortune to receive an Eclipse, and that his value was not deemed answerable to so great a merit. Forthwith therefore he suborned false witnesses against Silius, and welcomed all such as would accuse him, which Silius perceiving laid violent hands on himself, choosing rather to fall under his own Cruelty, then stand to the Mercy of a Tyrant. Out of these examples you may gather this instruction. That it is as safe to transfer your own deserts upon your Prince, as it is hazardous to detract from him, or vaingloriously to assume the praise of things well done to yourself.  
This I warn you, in case your Destiny, not your Reason hurries you to the Court. But (according to my former humble solicitation) I would wish you to settle yourself to a country life. Being there look aswell to the husbanding of your Time, as your Living. Recreate, but weary not yourself with Games, and Sports, making of Pastime a Labour. Above all beware Hunting bewitch you not. The Medes, the Persians, the Macedonians, the Parthians, and other Barbarous Nations were besotted with it, but we never read the renowned Romans (of all Civil virtues the true patterns) ever had it in esteem. Sallust debaseth it so far as to number it amongst the servile occupations, and Tiberius noted with infamy the commander of a Legion, for that he had sent forth a few Soldiers to the chase. Pompey I can not deny when he was in Africa, followed this sport for some few days, and therefore Plutarch pleasantly saith, that the very beasts of Africa, felt the felicity, and power of the Romans. But I will make it good, that neither any of the Nobility before that people became subject to one head, nor (after the loss of the Roman Liberty) any of the Emperors delighted in it. Only we find that the wisest of them, Augustus, used now and then to fish with an Angle, a sport which no way hindereth the operations of man's Nobler part. And (like a Fool quickly to shoot my own bolt) I do not conceive how Wisdom can descend so low as to prate all day to a Dog. Yet we will allow you this pleasure, if you will follow it as Pliny the second did, who in one of his Epistles affirms that he never went to the Chase, Sine pugillaribus, without his Table-books. But my scope is not utterly to avert your mind from Hunting, I only persuading a moderation, not a relinquishment. Your double Study of Men, and Books will take up some time.   

Your Application, and Discourse.  
THe Former is most requisite, and yet most difficult, as being not every man's study. Spare no travail to search throughly the Dispositions of those to whom your business Commands your often repair; else you will be a year in effecting that which two days this way bestowed might have finished. What will not the Application of a man, and the participation of his purse bring to pass? The most Politic, and reserved of all your Nightcaps, hath commonly some one humour remarqueable above the rest, by which you may take him at your pleasure. One is deaf to all motions that his wife makes not. Another maketh a Factor of his Secretary, a third of his Doorkeeper, etc. I have known a great, and competently wiseman, who would much respect any man that was good to his Foole. The most curious pates of us all have imperfections which lay us open to be practised on by far weaker wits. Insinuate yourself with a winning carriage into the good affections of all men. Humility in your gesture, and speech will gain you friends, which confirm yours with such courtesies as occasion permitteth you to perform. In the choice of your friends be not only curious but painful; for deserving Spirits are not obvious, but retired, and therefore require your diligent search, of which they are most worthy. There are some Conversations good for nothing but Recreation, others are decent, as to visit our acquaintance, others profitable, as that of Merchants; others truly happy and delightful, as to frequent the company of Scholars, and virtuous men. This is the Vine planted amongst the Olives. Abhor Pride, other wise all men will loathe you. Out upon those Imperia Manliana, odious alike to God and M●n. That of Zeno, to his proud Disciple, is most true, and appositive. Not, saith he, if you be great, therefore you shall be good, but if you be good, great. If your neglect, or indiscretion procure you an Enemy, and that he be in himself worthy, seek by all honourable means to reconcile him: but (if he be without Lure) having one foe, foresee diligently that you have not two.   

Your Discourse.  
YOur Discourse, saith one, should rather delight to judge itself, then show itself. In matters of Dispute, apparel your Arguments in modesty; for so, finding yourself in an error, you may make an honourable retreat. Bold, and peremptory positions, being true, offend the opposer, and being false, shame the propunder. Wrangle not; Sic prob● is a troublesome, importunate fellow, spewed out of all societies that understand the World. When you cite an Author, be not too precise in quoting the Chapter, or Page, neither importunately urge another to it; for in so doing, you shall rob others of their own, it being Proprium quarto modo, to the Canvasers in Schools, who will take it very heinously that you should usurp their Profession. There was not long since a disputation between a mere Scholar, and a knowing Gentleman, who strengthened his Argument with the authority of Plato▪ The Scholar demanded in what Book of Plato he had read it, and in what page; to which the other replied, that he could not well call to mind either the one, or the other, alleging the length of time for an excuse. Whereupon the Scholar with a gaping laugh, and a great Oath, concluded, it was not at all in the Philosopher, daring the other to produce Plato, and to show him the passage. To this the Gentleman thus answered; Verily I have left both that, and all my other Books at home for want of such an Ass as you to carry them after me. In jesting, and witty talk bear a part but remember that the latins call them Sales quasi Condimenta, implying that we should use them as Salt, and Spices to season our discourse, not to make them the subject of it. The Moralists affirm we may be Facetosi, non acetosi, witty, but not biting, or injurious to the Company. However, if you mix not your mirth with theirs, yet mar not the Harmony with your severe censuring of it in word, or look. Bethink yourself that the latter days are come upon us, which, should they not be shortened, would damn all flesh. In the Prophet's time, the most righteous sinned seven times a day; and it is well if many of us can escape with fourteen. Man, as saith Scaliger, was created Animal sociale, A sociable creature, and therefore aught to conform himself to the Perfections of his Neighbour, and yield to his infirmities. Fools, and Flat-witted fellows you have reason to bear with, because their Company is profitable, and will save you the entertainment of a jester. Be not too Austere, there being a Christian liberty which you may safely share in. Marry as all rules suffer an exception, so doth this. If any man's speech shall at the remotest distance point at Blasphemy, let your face presently put on a dislike, and if a second time he burns your ears with that unholy fire, avoid his Company. Now a days our wits think themselves straightened, and cooped up, if their Talk be barred Blasphemy, and Bawdry. A Gentleman of this Land (in all other things not only deserserving applause, but admiration) escaped not altogether this Pestilent contagion. Being earnestly rebuked by an intimate friend for his slighting, and vain exposition of the Scriptures, he acknowledged the fault, promising to leave it by degrees, and therefore vowed he would henceforth only make bold with the Apocrypha, and the singing Psalms. Laertius says that Pythagoras descended to Hell, and saw there the soul of Homer hanging on a tree, Vipers, and Snakes twinning about it, as a due chastisement for his blasphemy against the Gods. How careful therefore should we Christians be, lest we trespass this way, who have to do with a Serpent that stings the Conscience, and spits a fire everlasting? Next to this crime in detestation is obscene language, so hot, and fowl, that I wonder it furs or fires not the mouths that utter it. And the Audience trebles the offence, when it is spoken before younglings; for of all Creatures, Man is most prone to imitation, and amongst all man's Ages, Childhood. Never so good a wit unhallowed, hath a double sting; it offends God, and scandalizeth Man. At your meat never so much as name Death, Coffins, or other such mortifying stuff; for you may chance to have such mortal Guests, that the fear you strike into their souls may quite take away their stomaches. In truth sad Stories are neither for the bed, nor the board. Of all things be wary that publicly you busy not yourself with Mysteries of State, for though Guicciardine justly maintaineth that the actions of Princes are subject to the opinions of men, their state, and majesty not impaired; yet it is a dangerous Theme for such men to handle, whose Fortunes are examined more than their faults.   

Your Studies.  
TOuching your Studies; allot them three or four hours in a day; and not more, and content yourself to read multum, non multa. A few excelling Authors well digested, are able to compose an able judgement, and a virtuous mind. Regard not the number of Books but their estimation. Give yourself chiefly to History, in which you shall find Morality here, and there inserted and interlaced like a curious work of enamel in Gold. In the commendations of this Study, I will only cite the words of incomparable Livy, to whom Rome owes more for her Fame, then to Aeneas, or Romulus for her Original. For this is that so good, and profitable in History, saith he, when a man may see, and behold as in a Conspicuous Monument, and light some memorial, the lively examples of all sorts set up in open view for his instruction, whereout he may choose for himself, and his Country what to follow, as also learn how to eschew a fowl enterprise, and avoid a shameful end. Begin with the Story of your own Country before you go to foreign, that in case you travail, you may make a happy exchange of Historical observations. But dwell not there, that being too confined a knowledge. The Roman will deservedly claim your next view, wherein you shall meet with deeds fathered upon men, which the Gods they worshipped, might without disparagement have owned. The order you must observe in reading it I will as briefly as I can set down.   

The Order to be observed in reading the Roman Story.  
Titus' Livius, the greatest of all Roman Historians, begins at the foundation of Rome, and continues it to Augustus Caesar; but half Livy is lost, and therefore where he is wanting, others may be read. Where he is full he is enough; unless you would see Dyonisius Halycarnassaeus, in the first times of Rome to compare him with Livy. His History ends about the dissension between the Senate, and the People in Appius Claudius his time. There are also the five Books of Polybius from the first Punic war to the descent of Hannibal into Italy. But that also is in Livy, and a great part of it transcribed out of the excellent Polybius. But there where Livy is wanting (as namely in those times which are most necessary to know) as the actions of Silla, Lucullus & Pompey in the Mithridaticke war, thogether with the Civil war of Marius, and Sylla, read Appianus who is in Greek, and Latin in a thin folio. He excepted, I could never read any History that did fully relate the bloody passages of Sylla; his Dictatorshippe, his Resignation; his Death and Funeral. Plutarch I confess lightly toucheth them in the life of Sylla. This brings you to the time of Catiline's Conspiracy, for which you need no other than Sallust. After that Caesar's Commentaries will clearly show you the Growth of Caesar, in the North, and the whole dissension between him, and Pompey the great. Then Dion Cassius doth at large relate the rest of Caesar's Honours, his Death, and what followed in that troublesome time of the Triumvirs. This is the most complete, and largest History of those times. Then (besides Tacitus, and Suetonius) you may read Xiphilinus a little book, an abreviation of Dion of Nice, which is lost. He speaks of two and twenty Emperors as low as to the reign of Alexander Severus, under whom he lived. Then Herodian, a short, but pithy Historian goes to the time of Gordianus Caesar, speaking of twelve Emperors, and he begins at the death of Marcus Aurelius. Then Ammianus Marcellinus speaketh at large of five Emperors, of which julian the Apostate is one, though his History doth not immediately follow. So that for the Series of the Story, I advise you (omitting Dionysius Halicarnassaeus, Polybius, Suetonius, Plutarch, and Tacitus) to read Livy, Appianus, Sallust, Caesar's Commentaries, Dion Cassius, Xiphilinus, Herodian, and Ammianus Marcellinus. To these you may add the perusal of the two famous modern Histories Guicciardine, and Commines, equal even to the best of the Ancients. The deeds of Scanderbag, of the Turks, and Barbarians I hold fitter to be sung then Storied. here I would also give you my judgement of the Greek Story, but that it would be fruitless for me to insist longer upon this subject, by reason that I shall shortly write you a peculiar. Tract of History, and Dedicate that to your Lordship's Name, as I have already myself to your service. I am once more returned to my first Mistress, my Book, to whom my future Constancy shall make satisfaction for my passed disloyalty. The Night, which I formerly consumed in Riot, I now divide betwixt Sleep, and Cogitation; nor do I shut my Books out of Bed, my most inward Friends. I make fast my Door upon the Vulgar, and encompassed with so many Learned, and Blessed Souls, it seems to me I sit in the lap of Eternity. I exclude Lust, Ambition, and others like, of whom Sloth is the Parent, and unexperience the Nurse. Images and Grandees I behold in their proper places, a far off, and pity those Great ones that know not this great Happiness.  
It now only resteth that in all submission and reverence I beg your Lordships Pardon for withholding you from better employing your time with these feeble, but affectionate Lines, to the writing whereof, two Motives have won me. The first is my Zeal to your Good, I having a strong Desire that you should be of your truly Great House (though not in Fortune, or Fame) in Virtue the greatest, and in the Celestial Kingdom, have a Seat above them. And give me leave to tell you, Dearest Sir, that this is no hard thing for you to Compass, it being only the adding of Endeavour to your Disposition, which of itself leadeth to goodness. In this you have no small advantage of other great ones, it being (if the Authority of Seneca will serve) a main requisite of Nobility. Quis nobilis? a Natura ad virtutem bene compositus: Who is Noble? He whose Nature invites him to Virtue. My second, & less principal Motive is a fear, not of Death, but that paradventure I might unfortunatly die, without leaving you a Testimony of my Gratitude for all those Graces, and Favours which it hath been your Lordship's good pleasure to deign me your unworthy servant. My own indisposition of body, and the daily sight of these Turve fires, minister occasion to me of Contemplating the hourly consuming of the Earth, whereof I am made. Quaelibet res dum in sua resolvitur Principia, tunc apparet qualis revera sit, & quidnam sub illa specie latebat: Every thing being resolved into his first Principles, doth then appear what, indeed, it is, and discovereth what lurked under that shape. It is no otherwise: I every day burn as good earth as mine own, and, if here I die, it is likely that this, or the next Generation will make fires of me. But Civility calls upon me to make an end. I therefore once more humbly implore your Lordship's forgiveness for detaining you from your more serious affairs, with this long Discourse, which hath passed the bounds I first set it down. If I have inserted any thing pleasing, or good, imagine I have done like an ugly Painter, who hath by chance made a Beautiful Piece. What ere it be, you are the Master of it, to whom it stands, or falls, as doth  
Your Lordship's most humble, loyal Servant Antony Stafford.    

Errata.  
PAge 30. line 5. read only but. p. 48. l. 9 foretake r. take. p. 59 l. 19 r. blend with it. p. 97. l. 1. read Marcus. p. 125. l. 3. r▪ Twining.