Parables, REFLECTING Upon the TIMES.  
Printed at PARIS, MDCXLIII.   

To the choicest of my Noble Friends, Sir— D. Knight.  
SIR,  
AMongst many other barbarisms which like an impetuous Torrent have lately rushed in upon us, The interception and opening of Letters is none of the least, For it hath quite bereft all ingenious Spirits of that correspondency and sweet communication of fancy, which hath been always esteemed the best fuel of affection, and the very marrow of friendship. And truly, in my judgement, this custom may be termed not only a barbarism, but the basest kind of Burglary that can be, 'tis worse than picking of a lock, or breaking into a room by violence for he who doth so, robs us peradventur of some outward pelf or baggage offortune; but he who breaks open one's private letter or seal, may be said to plunder his very brains, and rob him of his most precious meditations. We are reduced here to that servile condition, or rather to such a height of slavery, that we have nothing left which may entitle us free rational creatures; the thought itself cannot say 'tis free, much less the tongue or pen. Which makes me impart unto You the traverses of these turbulent times, under the following fables. I know you are an exquisite Astronomer. I know the deep inspection you have in all parts of Philosophy, I know you are a good Herald, and I have found in your study sundry books of architecture, and Comments upon Vitruvius. The unfolding of these Apologues will put you to it in all these, and will require your second, if not your third Thoughts, and when you have concocted them well, I believe, (else I am much deceived in your Genius) they will afford you some entertainment, and do the errand upon which they are sent, which is, to communicate unto you the most material passages of this longed for parliament, & of these sad confusions, which have so unhinged, distorted, transversed, tumbled and dislocated all things, that England may be termed now, in comparison of what it was, no other than an Anagram of a Kingdom. One thing I promise you, in the perusal of these Parables, that you shall find no jingles in them, or any thing sordid or scurrilous, the common dialect and disease of these times. So I leave you to the guard and guidance of  

GOD and virtue, who do still advance  
Their Votaries, maugre the frowns of Chance.   
Your constant servant, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}   


The great CONJUNCTION, OR, parliament of STARS.  
Upon a time, the Stars complained to Apollo, that he displayed his beams too much upon some malignant Planets; That the moon had too great a share of his influence, and that he was carried away too much by her motion: They complained also, that the constellation of Libra (which holds the balance of Justice) had but a dim light, and that the Astrean Court was grown altogether destructive, with divers other grievances. Apollo hereupon, commanded Mercury to summon a general Synod, where some out of every asterism throughout the whole Firmament were to meet; Apollo told them, I am placed here by the finger of the Almighty, to be Monarch of the sky, to be the Measurer of Time, and I go upon his errand round about the world every four and twenty hours: I am also the fountain of heat and Light, which, though I use to dispense and diffuse in equal proportions throughout the whole Universe; yet there is difference twixt objects: a Castle hath more of my light then a Cottage, and the Cedar hath more of me than the Shrub: But touching the Moon, (the second great Luminary) I would have you know, that she is dearest unto me, therefore let none repine that I cherish her with my beams, and confer more light on her then any other. Touching the malignant Planets, or any other Star, of what magnitude soever, that moves not in a regular motion, or hath run any excentrique exorbitant course, or that would have made me to move out of the zodiac, I put them over unto you, that upon due examination and proof, they may be unsphered or extinguished. But I would have this done with moderation; I would have you to keep as near as you can between the Tropics and temperate Zones: I would have things reduced to their true Principles, reformed, not ruined; I would have the spirit of malice and lying, the spirit of partiality and injustice, the spirit of tyranny and rigour, the base spirit of fear and jealousy to be far from this glorious Syderean Synod; I would have all private interests reflecting upon revenge or profit, to be utterly banished hence: Moreover, I would not have you to make grievances, where no grievances are, or dangers, where no dangers are; I would have no creation of dangers; I would have you to husband time as parsimoniously as you can, lest by keeping too long together, and amusing the world with such tedious hopes of redress of grievances, you prove yourself the greatest grievance at last, and so from stars, become Comets: Lastly, I would have you be cautious how you tamper with my sovereign power, and chop logic with me in that point; you know what became of Him, who once presumed to meddle with my Chariot. Hereupon the whole Host of Heaven being constellated thus into one great Body, fell into a serious deliberation of things; and Apollo himself continued his presence, and sat amongst them in his full lustre, but in the mean time, whilst they were in the midst of their consultations, many odd Aspects, Oppositions, and Conjunctions happened between them: for some of the Sporades, but specially those mongrel small vulgar stars, which make up the Galaxia (the milky way in Heaven) gather in a tumultuous disorderly manner about the body of Apollo, and commit many strange insolences, which caused Apollo (taking young 
The Prince  Phosphorous the morningstar with him) to retire himself, and in a just indignation to withdraw his Light from the Synod: so all began to be involved in a strange kind of confusion and obscurity; they groaped in the dark, not knowing which way to move, or what course to take, all things went Cancer-like retrograde, because the sun detained his beams and irradiations from them.  

Moral.  
Such as the sun is in the Frmament, a Monarch is in his kingdom: for, as the Wisest of men saith; In the light of the King's Countenance there is life; and I believe that to be the moral of this Astrean Fable.    

{non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} OR, The Great council of BIRDS.  
UPon a time the Birds met in council, for redress of some extravagancies that had flown unto the volatile Empire; Nor was it the first time that Birds met thus; for the Phrygian Fabler tells us of divers meetings of theirs: And after him we read that Apollonius Thyaneus, undertook the interpretation of their language, and to be their Drogoman.  
They thus assembled in one great covey by the call of the Eagle their unquestioned hereditary King, and by virtue of his royal Authority, complaints were brought, that divers Cormorants and Harpies, with other Birds of prey, had got in amongst them, who did much annoy and invade the public liberty: sundry other Birds were questioned, which caused some to take a timely flight 
Finch, etc  into another air.  
As they were thus consulting for advancement of the common 
mechanic Mariners.  good, many Rooks, Horne-Owles and seagulls flocked together, and fluttered about the place they were assembled in, where they kept a hideous noise, and committed many outrages, and nothing could satisfy them, but the Griffons head, which was therefore chopped off, and offered up as a sacrifice to make them 
E. Straff.  leave their chattering, and to appease their fury for the time.  
They fell foul afterwards upon the Pies, who were used to be 
Bishops.  much reverenced, and to sit upon the highest perch in that great Assembly: they called them Idolatrous and inauspitious Birds, they hated their mixed colour, repined at their long train, they tore their white feathers, and were ready to peck out their very eyes: they did what they could to put them in owls feathers (as the poor Sheep was in the wolves skin) to make them the more hated, and to be stared and hooted at wheresoever they passed. The Pies being thus scared, presented a Petition to the royal Eagle, and to this his great counsel, that they might be secured to repair safely thither to sit and consult, according to the ancient laws of the volatile Empire continued so many ages without controlment or question: in which Petition they inserted a Protest or Caveat, that no public act should pass in the interim. This Supplication, both for matter and form, was excepted against, and cried up to be high Treason, specially that indefinite Protest they had made, that no Act whatsoever should be of any validity without them, which was alleged to derogate from the High Law-making power of that great counsel, and rended to retard and disturb the great Affairs which were then in agitation: so the poor Pies, as if by that Petition they had like the blackbird voided Lime to catch themselves, for Turdus cacat sibi malum, were suddenly hurried away into a Cage, and after ten long months canvasing of the point, they were unpearched, and rendered for ever uncapable to be members of that Court, they were struck dumb and voicelesse, and suddenly blown up away thence, though without any force of powder, as once was plotted against them. But this was done when a thin number of the adverse Birds had kept still together, and stuck close against them, and after that the Bill concerning them had been once ejected, which they humbly conceived by the ancient order of that Court could not be readmitted in the same Session. They petitioned from the place they were cooped in, that for heaven's sake, for the honour of that noble counsel, for Truth and Justice sake, they being as freeborn denizens of the airy Region, as any other Volatills whatsoever, their charge might be perfected, that so they might be brought to a legal trial and not forced to languish in such captivity. They pleaded to have done nothing but what they had precedents for: And touching the Caveat they had inserted, it was a thing usual in every inferior Court of Judicature, and had they forborn to have done it, they had 〈◊〉 their own nest, and done wrong to their successors. It was affirmed they had been members of that Body politic, long before those lower parched Birds, who now would cast them out; and that they had been their best friends to introduce them to have any thing to do in that general counsel: they prayed they might not be so cruelly used, as the Solan goose, and redshank had used them, 
Scot.  who were not content to braile and clip their wings only, but to sear them so, that they should never grow again; to handle them so unmercifully, was not the way to make their adversaries Birds of paradise: In fine, they advised them to remember what the sick Kite's mother answered him, when he desired her to pray to the gods for him, How canst thou, said she, expect any good from the gods, whose Temples thou hast so violated? At last, upon the importunity and pitifulness of their Petitions, the accusation of Treason, which kept such a noise at first, being declined against them, they were released in the morning, but cooped up again before night: and after the revolution of four full moons, they were restored again to a conditional liberty, under which they remain till this day.  
There wants not some, who affirm, that in that great counsel of Birds, there were some decoys (and 'tis well known where decoys 
Holland.  were first bred) who called in, not only these mongrel obstreperous Birds from abroad to commit such outrages as were spoken of before, but drew after them also many of the greatest Birds, who sat in that Assembly, to follow them whither they listed: Others, who were of a more generous extraction, disdained to be such Buzzards, as to be carried away hood-wincked in that manner, to be Birds of their feather. Thus a visible faction was hatched in this great counsel, as if the said decoys had disgorged and let fall some grains of Hemlock seeds amongst them to distemper their brains. Or, as if some Spinturnix, that fatal incendiary Bird, or some ill-boding screech-owl, which as stories tell us appeared once at Rome, in a famous, though unfortunate great council (when there was a schism in the popedom) had appeared likewise here. There wanted not also amongst them some Amphibious Birds, as the Barnacle, which is neither Fish nor fowl; and the cunning bat, who sometimes professeth himself a Bird, sometimes a Mouse. I will not say there were any Paphlagonian Birds amongst them, who are known to have double hearts: But 'tis certain, that in this confusion there were some malevolent Birds, and many of them so young, that they were scarce fledged, who like the wasp in the Fable, conspired to fire the eagle's nest, (and a wasp may sometimes do mischief to an Eagle, as a Mouse to an Elephant.) Moreover, some of these light brained Birds flew so high, that they seemed to arrogate to themselves, and exercise royal power, but foolishly; for we know what became of the Crow upon the Ram's back, when she thought to imitate the Eagle: And it was observed that they were most eager to attempt those high insolences against Jove's Bird, who had been stark naked, and as bare as Cootes, unless he had feathered them; so that the little Ant was more grateful to Esop's Bird, than those Birds were to the Eagle, their liege Lord. But the high-born Bird with the two golden wings, the noble falcons, the Martlets, 
M. Hert.  the Ravens, the Swan, the Chough, and all the ancient Birds of the 
E. South.  
E. Westm.  mountains remained faithful and firm to the Eagle, and scorned 
E. Worce.  to be carried away by such decoys; As also the generous Ostriches, 
E. Dover.  
Wales.  who unless they had had an extraordinary stomach, could 
Digby's.  not have digested such iron pills as were offered them. Amongst other great Birds which banded against the Eagle, the flying Dragons, 
E. Pemb.  green and white, were busy, specially the white; And for the 
E. Warw.  Green, considering he was an ancient bird of the Mountains, and that his Progenitors had been so renowned for their rare loyalty to the Crown, every one wondered that he should be drawn so far by the foresaid decoys, as to be the first of his race that should clap his wings against his sovereign Liege Lord.  
The foresaid distractions continued still, and increased more and more in that general convolation of Birds; therefore the Turtle would stay there no longer, there was so much gall amongst them: the Pelican flew away, he saw Piety so vilified; the Dove was weary of their company, she found no simplicity and plain dealing amongst them: And the Kings-Fisher, the Halcyon, (the emblem of Peace) quite forsook them, he found so much 
Arondelle.  jarring, dissensions, and bandings on all sides; the Swallow also, who had so ancient and honourable a rank amongst them, got into another air, he foresaw the weather was like to be so foul: 
Her Majesty  And lastly, Philomela, the Queen of Volatills, who was partner of the eagles' nest, abandoned them quite, and put a Sea twixt her and them; nay, the Eagle himself withdrew his royal presence from them; so the decoys aforesaid carried all before them, and comported themselves by their Orders in that height, as if like the Lapwing, every one had a crown on his head; they so enchanted in a manner, all the common sort of Oppidan, rural, and Sea-birds, and infused such a credulity into them, that they believed them to have an inerring spirit, and what came from them, was as true as the Pentateuch: Moreover, it was shrewdly suspected, that there was a pernicious plot amongst them to let in the Stork, who is never seen to stay long in any monarchy.  

Moral.  
Moderation is that Golden Rule whereby all great counsels should square their deliberations, and nothing can tend more to their Honour or dishonour, in point of wisdom: Moreover, in a Successive hereditary Monarchy, when subjects assume regal Power, and bar the Holy Church of her Rights, and that Reverence which is due to her chief Professors, It is the most compendious way to bring all things to confusion, and consequently to an inevitable ruin; or some fatal Change.  
And this I hold to be the chiefest moral of this Apologue of Birds.    

{non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, The gathering together, or parliament of FLOWERS.  
UPon a time, The Flowers assembled, and met in one general counsel, by the authority and summons of the sovereign Rose, their undoubted natural King, who had taken the lily for his royal spouse. The dew of Heaven fell plentifully upon this happy conjunction, which made them to Bourgeon, to propagate and prosper exceedingly, in so much, that the sweet fragrant odour which they did cast, diffused itself over all the earth. To this meeting came the Violet, the gillyflower, Rosemary, the Tulyp, Lavender and Thyme, the Cinquefoyle (though of 
M. Ham.  a foreign growth) had an honourable rank amongst them, and as some observed got too much credit with the royal Rose. The Flowers of the field were admitted also to this great counsel; the cowslip, the honeysuckle and daisy had their Delegates there present, to consult of a Reformation of certain abuses which had taken rooting in the Common wealth of Flowers, and being all under the Rose, they had privilege to speak all things with freedom; Complaints were made that much Cockle and Darnell, with other noxious Herbs and Tares were crept in amongst them, that the poppy did pullulat too much, with divers other grievances. The success of this senate, this great Bed or posy of living Flowers, was like to prove very prosperous, but that the herb Briony, Wormwood, Wolfebane, Rue, and Melampod (the emblems of Sedition, Malice, fear, Ambition and jealousy) thrust in amongst them, and much distempered their proceedings: These brought in with them the Burr, which exceedingly retarded and entangled all businesses; and it was thought, that the Thistle was 
cot.  too meddling amongst them, which made matters grow to that acrimony and confusion, as if the herb Morsus diaboli had got in amongst them. Amongst many other good-morrows, they propounded to the Rose, that he should part with his prickles, and transmit his strength that way to be disposed of by them; the Rose liked not this bold request of theirs, though couched in very smooth language, but answered, I have hitherto condescended to every thing you have propounded, much more than any of my Predecessors ever did; but touching these prickles, which God and nature hath given me, and are inherent in me and my stock from the beginning, though they be but excrescencies, yet you know they fortify and arm me, Armat Spina Rosam, And by them I protect you and your rights from violence, and what protection I pray can there be without strength? therefore I will by no means part with them to enfeeble my regal Power, but will retain them still, and bequeathe them to my Posterity, which I would be loath to betray in this point; nor do I much value what that silly insected Animal, the King of Bees tells me sometimes, when humming up and down my leaves, he would buzz this fond belief into me, how it added much to his majesty, that nature gives him no sting, as all other Bees have because he should rely altogether upon the love and loyalty of his subjects. No; I will take warning by the Eagle, the King of Volatills, and by the lion, King of Quadrupedals, who (as the Prince of Moralists reports) when by fair 
Plut.  insinuations the one had parted with his talons, the other with his teeth and ongles, wherein their might, and consequently their Majesty consisted, grew afterwards contemptible to all creatures, and quite lost that natural alleaigeance and awe which was due unto the one from all birds, and to the other, from all beasts of field and forest.  

Moral.  
Every natural born Monarch, hath an inherent inalienable strength in himself, which is the common Militia of his kingdom; for, though the people's love (which oftentimes is got by an Apple, and lost by a pear) be a good citadel, yet there must be a concurrence of some visible settled force besides, which no earthly power may dispose of without his royal commands: and for him to transmit this strength to any other, is the only way to render him inglorious and despicable, both at home and abroad▪ And thus you have the spirit of these Flowers, and moral of the Fabl.    

The Assembly of Architects  
THere was an ancient goodly Palace, composed of divers pieces, and partitioned into sundry Chambers, Halls and Courts which were supported by mixed Pillars, partly Corinthian, partly Jonique, but principally by the Doric, the King of columns, having the firmest pedestal: Some took exceptions, and alleged, that some of the said Courts were too high, and some of the Chambers in this Structure were too wide. The Lord of this Palace called together the best Masons and Architects, to advise with him (not without him) for mending of those faults, the better contrivance of the rooms, and to reduce the Building to a just proportion. They solemnly met, and falling to consultation hereof, they found that the Chamber which was spangled with Stars, and where his private council of State did use to sit, were too wide; they thought that the Court erected on the North side, and that learned Court where ecclesiastical matters were scanned, was too high; These, with that peculiar Court which was erected for the support of Honour, they went about in lieu of rectifying, to ruinate and raze to the very ground; and some of these Masons (for indeed they were rather Masons then true Architects) were so precise and over critical, that they seemed to find fault with the position of the chapel that belonged to this Palace, because, forsooth it stood East and West, which situation, only in regard it was ancient, they held to be a superstitious posture; They seemed to repine at the decency, riches and ornaments of it▪ with divers other frivolous exceptions. The Lord of the Palace said little to that, but touching the errors and disproportions in the foresaid Courts and Chambers, he was very willing they should be amended, and reduced to a true dimension and symmetry; and that all other rooms should be searched, and swept clean: but he would be loath to see those ancient pieces quite demolished, for that would hazard the fall of the main fabric, his princely hereditary patrimony (descended upon him from so many wise Oeconomists and royal Progenitors) in regard of the juncture and contignation those parts had with the whole frame. To mend a thing by demolishing it, is as curing a sick body by knocking him in the head: he told them it was easier far to pull down, then build up; one may batter to pieces in one hour, that which cannot be built in age: That everlasting villain, who burned the Ephesian Temple, destroyed, as it were in a trice, what was a rearing up ten long Olympiads: He wished them further to be very cautious how they meddled with the Angulars and Basis of that royal Structure; for so they might prove as wise as those Architects, who took out some of the foundation stones, to repair the roof. Lastly, he told them, that if they intended to pull down any part of his now standing Palace, they should be well advised before hand of the fashion whereof those new pieces should be, which they purposed to rear up in the room of the old.  

Moral.  
Innovations are of dangerous consequence in all things, specially in a settled well tempered State; therefore there should be great heed taken, before any ancient Court of Judicature, erected as a Pillar to support Justice by the wisdom of our Progenitors, be quite put down; for it may shake the whole Frame of Government, and introduce a change; and changes in Government are commonly fatal, for seldom comes a better. And this I hold to be the aim of this Apologue.    

The Insurrection of the Winds.  
IT fortuned, that the Winds banded against Aeolus: And Boreas (the northwind) began to bluster first, and would blow where he listed, he grew so boisterous, that as he is called Scopa viarum, the highway besom, he seemed to sweep all before him Southward, insomuch, that uniting all his strength into one body, he made towards Aeolus in a hostile armed manner, and so obtained of him what he desired. After his example (and an odd example it was) the West-wind, his fellow subject rose up, alleging, that though he blew from the left-side of Heaven, yet he deserved to be as much favoured as Boreas. In regard he drove a far richer trade, and blew upon a more fertile country, which brought in much more benefit to the rest of Aeolus his Dominions; therefore he would have his liberties also assured him, which he pretended were as ancient as the others: And he puffed with such an impetuous violence, that his blasts brought with them (God wot) divers showers of blood, and whole Cataracts of calamities▪ And as it is observed in the course of natural things, that one mischief seldom marcheth alone, but ushers in another, and hath always its concomitants, so these North and Western gusts, as one wave useth to drive on another, made all the winds in the compass, both colaterall and Cardinal, to rise up and rebel against Aeolus, even under that very Clime, and in those orisons, where he kept his principal residence and royal Court. And this popular wind (for 'twas no other, take it all jointly in one puff) did rage with that vehemency, that it turned everywhere into fearful flames of fire, (issuing out of a kind of Ignis fatuus, which by its repercussions, and furious arietations, did a world of mischief, as if it had been that incendiary Prester wind, or rather an Haraucana, that Indian gust, which always brings the devil along with it (as those Savages believe) had blown here, For, surely God was not in this wind. Yet some were so simple, to think that this wind proceeded from divine inspirations; nay, they came to that height of profaneness, as to father it upon the Holy Ghost, though nothing could be more different to his sweet motions, nothing so directly opposite to his soft gentle breeses and eventilations; for no holy consecrated thing could stand before this diabolical wind, down went all Crosses it met withal; it battered down Church and chapel windows (and I fear the walls and steeples will next to wrack) It was so violent, that it overturned all stone Tables that stood Eastward; it blew away all the decent Vests and Ornaments of the Church; the Bishop's Mitre▪ (an order contemporary with Christianity itself) did quake like an Aspen leaf before it; nay, it shrewdly shook the very imperial sceptre, and crown which stood on Aeolus his head, so that he was like to become Ludibrium Ventorum. But the highest Deity of heaven, He who walketh upon the wings of the wind, and makes weight for them, and gathereth them in his fist when he pleaseth, hating such an odious rebellion, rebuked these tumultuous winds, he caused a contagious air, to rush in and mingle with them, and infect them with new diseases; besides whispers of jealousies, doubts and diffidence blue and buzzed more and more amongst them, so that they could not trust one another, insomuch, that it made them to fall into confusion amongst themselves, which is the common fate of all rebellions. So Aeolus recovered his Monarchy, and as they say, there is no wind but blows some body good; so this turned much to the advantage of Aeolus, for he grew ever after more firm and better established in his regal power, because he put a competent guard in those Climes whence all these boisterous winds burst forth, and so secured himself ever after, that they could not blow where they listed.  
Rebellion suppressed, makes the Prince the stronger: And so you have the principal moral all of this Parable in brief.   

Postscript.  
SIr, I long to receive your opinion of these rambling pieces of fancy, you may, peradventure, have more, when the times are open: surely the wind will not hold still in this unlucky hole, for it is too violent to last: It begins (thanks be to God) to sift already, and amongst those multitudes, who expect the change, I am one that lieth at the Cape of good Hope, though a long time under hatches. Howsoever, though all the winds in the compass blow upon me, I am armed and resolved to bear the brunt, and to welcome the Will of God. If you desire a further intimation of things, I refer you to a Discourse, called The True Informer, who will give you no vulgar satisfaction, So I am  
Yours as at first inalterable.   
FINIS.