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Pitt Press Series 
 
 COWLEY'S PROSE WORKS 
 
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A^,?AHAN COWLEY 
 
 PROSE WORKS 
 
 EDITED WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES BY 
 
 J. RAWSON LUMBY, D.D. 
 
 CAMBRIDGE 
 AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS 
 
 1909 
 

 'b'A^ 
 
 Firsi Edition 1887. 
 Reprinted 1891, 1902, 1909. 
 
 ^'^ :. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Intioductory Notice of Cowley and his Works . . vii — xx 
 
 A Proposition for the Advancement of Experimental 
 
 Philosophy . . . . . • . . . i — 19 
 
 A Discourse by way of Vision concerning the Go\'ernment 
 
 of Oliver Cromwell ...... 20 — 64 
 
 Essays (I. — XL) ' , . 65—177 
 
 Preface to 'Cutter of Coleman Street ' . , , . 178 — 185 
 
 Notes . c . 187 — 244 
 
 Index . 245—248 
 
 L. C. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
 COWLEY. 
 
 Abraham Cowley, the son of Thomas Cowley ^ a citizen 
 of London, was born in 1618. The father died before his 
 boy's birth, so that he was brought up by a widowed mother. 
 Of her character he speaks most affectionately in his Essays^. 
 He appears to have been tenderly cared for also by his 
 godfather ; to whom in the Sylva, a collection of the poems 
 of his early years, he writes : 
 
 ' I'm glad that city to whom I ow'd before 
 (But ah me! Fate hath crest that willing score:) 
 A father, gave me a godfather too, 
 And I'm more glad because it gave me you, 
 
 Whom I may rightly think and term to be 
 
 Of the whole city an epitome^.' 
 
 Cowley's was no eventful life, and it is possible from his 
 writings to make such a notice of him as it is proposed to 
 give largely autobiographical. 
 
 He describes in the essay already quoted his shy and 
 retiring manner which led him to steal away from his school- 
 fellows into the fields, with a book for his company. The 
 books of his choice however were not dry schoolbooks, for 
 
 ^ Dr Johnson, following Wood, says the father was a grocer 
 and that the omission of his name in the register of St Dunstan's 
 parish gives reason to suspect that he was a sectary. 
 
 ^ See p. 170. 
 
 ^ Sylva, p. 46. For convenience of reference all the quotations 
 are made from the collected edition of Cowley's works 1684. 
 
 b2 
 
viii BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 by no persuasions (he says) or encouragements could he be 
 induced to commit to memory the common rules of grammar. 
 Reading and observation however gave him the power of 
 doing the requisite school-exercises to the satisfaction of his 
 teachers. He ascribes his first attraction to poetry to the 
 study of a copy of Spenser's poems which lay in his mother's 
 parlour, unused by her, but a treasure of interest for her 
 young son, who was charmed with the tales of knights and 
 giants and monsters and brave houses scattered all through 
 the Faby Queen. 
 
 The study of such literature led to early attempts at 
 verse-writing, and Pirarnus and Thisbe^ followed by Con- 
 stantia and Philetiis. attest the mental food on which Cowley 
 had been reared. The latter of these youthful productions 
 was dedicated to the Dean of Westminster, to whom he says 
 ' I hope your nobleness will rather smile at the faults com- 
 mitted by a child than censure them.' The Pirarnus and 
 Thisbe had been inscribed to Mr Lambert Osbolston, then 
 Headmaster of Westminster, where Cowley was being 
 educated, as ' the earliest offering of his grateful pen.' 
 
 Cowley retained much regard and many pleasant memo- 
 ries of his school-life, as we can see from a poem on the 
 death of Mr Jordan, who was second Master at Westminster. 
 Of him he says, 'And though he taught but boys, he made 
 them men.' And again, 
 
 ' So true, so faithful and so just as he 
 Was nought on earth, but his own memorie.' 
 
 During these school-days Cowley produced an English 
 play, with the title 'Love's Riddle, a Pastoral Comedy.' 
 This, on its publication at a later time (1638) he dedicated 
 (for nothing passed in those days without a dedication) ' to 
 the truly worthy and noble. Sir Kenelm Digby, Knight,' and 
 makes allusion in so doing to the learned as well as to the 
 martial fame of Sir Kenelm : 
 
 ' Learning by right of conquest is your own, 
 And every liberal art your captive grown.' 
 
 At a later period these boyish productions were reprinted, 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. ix 
 
 and in his address 'To the reader' Cowley then says 'I 
 'should not be angry to see any one burn my Piramus and 
 'Thisbe, nay I would do it myself, but that I hope a pardon 
 'may easily be gotten for the errors of ten years of age. My 
 'Constantia and Philetus confesseth me two years older 
 'when I writ it/ 
 
 In the 3rd edition there were added to the above-named 
 longer poems a collection of shorter pieces under the title of 
 Sylva. Among these one is addressed to a former school- 
 fellow, named Nichols, who had preceded Cowley to the 
 University, and had sent him an invitation to visit him in 
 Cambridge. Cowley's reply looks forward to a time when he 
 would himself come into residence : 
 
 ' 'Tis my chief wish to live with thee, 
 But not till I deserve thy company : 
 Till then we'll scorn to let that toy, 
 Some forty miles, divide our hearts : 
 Write to me and I shall enjoy 
 Friendship and wit, thy better parts.' 
 
 But in the few notices which we have of Cowley's college 
 life we find no further mention of Nichols. 
 
 It was in 1637 that Cowley entered Trinity College, Cam- 
 bridge, as a Westminster scholar. He took the oath and was 
 admitted on the 14th of June in that year. In due course he 
 became a Fellow of the College, and his admission to a 
 Minor fellowship is dated Oct. 30th, 1640. There is no 
 record of his admission as a major Fellow, and it is probable 
 that in those troublous times he was obliged to leave Cam- 
 bridge without proceeding to a full degree. In the list of 
 major Fellows where his name should have appeared, as it 
 had stood before in the other lists between those of Humphry 
 Babington and William Croyden, it is absent. Cowley 
 alludes to the public troubles as the reason why he left Cam- 
 bridge, in the dedicatory Latin elegy prefixed to his col- 
 lected works. Addressing his Alma Mater, he writes 
 
 ' Scis bene, scis quae me lempestas publica mundi 
 Raptatrix vestro sustulit e gremio.' 
 
X BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 And testifies to the love which he had for Cambridge 
 thus : 
 
 * O mihi jucundum Grantae super omnia nomen ! 
 O penitus toto corde receptus amor ! ' 
 
 We have not to wait long after the commencement of his 
 residence before we come upon signs of the poet's literary 
 activity. 
 
 On the 2nd of February, 1638, there was performed in 
 Trinity College a Latin Comedy written by Cowley, entitled 
 Nanfragiitui Joculare^ the scene of which is laid at Dunkirk. 
 Dr Comber, Dean of Carlisle, was then Master of Trinity, 
 and to him the play was dedicated, and in the closing lines 
 of the Latin verses in which it is presented, the writer allows 
 himself to look forward to a fellowship in the future and 
 promises by that time to produce something better. 
 
 ' Collegii nam qui nostri dedit ista scholaris, 
 Si socius tandem sit, meliora dabit.' 
 
 On another occasion also during his residence at Cam- 
 bridge Cowley's dramatic power was exhibited, but this time 
 in English. In March 164^, Charles Prince of Wales (after- 
 wards Charles IL), being then somewhat less than 12 years of 
 age, visited the University, the king his father also passing 
 through on his way to Huntingdon. For the entertainment 
 of the young prince a play was hastily arranged ^ This was 
 The Guafdian, which Cowley afterwards remodelled and 
 published as Cuttei' of Coleman Street. In the prologue, 
 addressed to the prince, the author alludes to the hurried way 
 in which it had been produced. 
 
 ' Accept our hasty zeal ; a thing that's play'd 
 Ere 'tis a play, and acted ere 'tis made.' 
 
 ^ In the books of Trinity College among dae 'Extraordinaries' 
 for 1642 is the entry 'To M"" Willis for D^ Cooley's Comoedy 
 £()^. i6j.' The spelling 'Cooley' occurs more than once in the 
 College books. Cf. 'Cooper' and 'Cowper.' For the particulars 
 in this sketch which are derived from the Trinity College records I 
 am indebted to the kindness of Mr W. Aldis Wright, Fellow and 
 Senior Bursar of the College. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. xi 
 
 And in the Epilogue, expressing a doubt whether the 
 'Great Sir' (of eleven years) before whom it had been pre- 
 sented would approve, he says : 
 
 ' Though it should fall beneath your mortal scorn, 
 Scarce could it die more quickly than 'twas born.' 
 
 A letter is preserved^ which gives us some notice of this 
 royal entertainment. The writer was Joseph Beaumont, 
 afterwards Master of Peterhouse, and of the play he tells us : 
 'From the Regenthouse his Highness (Prince Charles) 
 'went to Trinity College, where after dinner he saw a 
 'Comedy in English and gave all signs of great acceptance 
 'which he could, and more than the University dared expect.' 
 The later history of this play is given in the preface which is 
 here reprinted^ after the Essays. 
 
 Of the friends whom Cowley made in Cambridge we do 
 not know much, and perhaps the retiring manner of his boy- 
 hood did not leave him when he entered the University. 
 Yet over the death of one Mr William Harvey he has left us 
 a lamentation which, if it be marked by some of those con- 
 ceits which were deemed essential to poetry in his day, is yet 
 very full of feeling. 
 
 ' He was my friend, the truest friend on earth,' 
 
 he wrote ; and again 
 
 ' Ye fields of Cambridge, our dear Cambridge, say, 
 Have ye not seen us walking every day? 
 Was there a tree about which did not know 
 
 The love betwixt us two. 
 Henceforth, ye gentle trees, for ever fade 
 
 Or your sad branches thicker join 
 
 And into darksome shades combine ; 
 Dark as the grave wherein my friend is laid.' 
 
 It was by Mr John Harvey, the brother of this friend, 
 that Cowley was subsequently introduced^ to Henry Jermyn, 
 
 ^ See Cooper's Annals of Cambridge, Vol. ill. ■^i\. 
 ^ See pp. 1 78 seqq. 
 
 ^ Wood {Athen. Oxon.) says it was Dr Stephen Goffe, a brother 
 of the Oratory, who commended Cowley to Jermyn. 
 
xii BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 afterwards Baron Jermyn, and subsequently Earl of St 
 Alban's, an introduction which affected the whole future 
 course of Cowley's life. 
 
 Another friend made in Cowley's university life was 
 Richard Crashaw, the poet. He was a little senior to 
 Cowley, having been elected from Pembroke Hall to a 
 fellowship at Peterhouse in the year in which Cowley came 
 up. Crashaw during the troublous times was, like Cowley, 
 ejected from his fellowship and subsequently joined the 
 Church of Rome. For some time he lived in Italy as 
 secretary to Cardinal Palotta and was eventually made 
 Canon of the church at Loretto, but soon after died of a 
 fever. Cowley wrote a poem on his death which testifies to 
 the warm attachment that existed between the two and 
 deserves to be ranked among the best of Cowley's verses. 
 In one passage he compares himself to Elisha and his friend 
 to Elijah, and continues, 
 
 ' I^o here I beg (I whom thou once didst prove 
 So humble to esteem, so good to love,) 
 Not that thy spirit might on me doubled be, 
 I ask but half thy mighty spirit for me ; 
 And when my muse soars with so strong a wing, 
 'Twill learn of things divine, and first of thee to sing.' 
 
 The allusion to Crashaw's change of religion is extremely 
 tender and full of charity : 
 
 ' Pardon, my mother Church, if I consent 
 That angels led him when from thee he went ; 
 For even in error sure no danger is 
 When joined witli so much piety as his. 
 His faith perhaps in some nice tenents might 
 Be wrong: his life, I'm sure, was in the right. 
 And I myself a Catliolick will be, 
 So far at least, great saint, to pray to thee.' 
 
 Concerning other Cambridge friends of Cowley's we 
 have no record. The books of Trinity College shew that 
 he was admitted and sworn as a minor Fellow on the 30th 
 of October, 1640. But though admitted there cannot have 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. xiii 
 
 been a fellowship vacant for him^, since in 1642 his name 
 appears still among the Scholars, and similarly in 1643, 
 though in that year he stands first in the list. Early in 
 the next year (Feb. 5, 164!) came the commission of the 
 Earl of Manchester 'to take special care that the solemn 
 League and Covenant be tendered and taken in the 
 University of Cambridge,' which resulted in almost universal 
 ejection of Masters and Fellows. Cowley, and with him 
 Humphry Babington, was among the ejected members of 
 Trinity College, and if Dr Sprat's statement be correct^ 
 that he Svas absent from his native country above 12 
 years,' he must have gone from Cambridge to Oxford at 
 once and begun that attendance on Baron Jermyn-^ which 
 lasted till 1656. It was in 1644 that, after the birth of a 
 daughter at Exeter, queen Henrietta Maria was helped 
 by the vessels of the Prince of Orange to cross from 
 Falmouth into France, and Cowley's service appears to 
 have kept him constantly with the queen, on whom Jermyn 
 was perpetually attendant. In 1648 Clarendon (x. 175) 
 describes the position of Jermyn as her Majesty's chief 
 officer, and it was in this period that Cowley was so largely 
 employed in cyphering and decyphering* with his own hand 
 
 ^ It was allowed at that time, as it now is under the new 
 Statutes, to elect to fellowships even when there was no vacancy, the 
 elected persons undertaking to naake no claim till the number of 
 fellows was sufficiently reduced to admit them to a dividend. Thus 
 Babington, Ti-avis, Campian, Culverwell and Burton signed an en- 
 gagement on March 21, 1641 not to 'claim any profitts of our 
 fellowships till places fall that we come into numbers.' 
 
 2 Wood says about 10 years. He also tells us that on going 
 from Cambridge Cowley settled in St John's College, Oxford. 
 During the year 1643, while resident in Oxford, he published under 
 the name of 'an Oxford Scholar' a satire called 'the Puritan and the 
 Papist,' but this he never included among his acknowledged writings. 
 
 ^ Mr Jermyn was made a Baron in 1643. See Clarendon vii. 242. 
 
 * Clarendon (x. 22) speaks of a letter from the king which 
 was decyphered by the Lord Jermyn, a task probably performed 
 by the poet, who then {1646) had been about two years in Paris. 
 
xiv BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 the letters which passed between their Majesties that for 
 some years together the labour of this correspondence took 
 up all his days and two or three nights every week. These 
 duties continued after the execution of Charles I., and were 
 only brought to an end when Charles II. left the queen 
 in France and departed to the Low Countries. Then 
 apparently in 1656 Cowley returned to England and was 
 presently arrested in mistake for some other person, and 
 only released from custody on the security of Dr Scar- 
 borough ^ who was his bail for ;^iooo. 
 
 It was during his residence in France that most of those 
 Poems which he entitles 'The Mistress' must have been 
 written, for they were separately published in 1647 and 
 included in the collected poems which he put forth soon 
 after his return to England. 
 
 The occasion of that collection is best told in his own 
 words, 'At my return lately into England I met by great 
 'accident (for such I account it to be that any copy of it 
 'should be extant anywhere so long, unless at his house 
 'who printed it) a book intituled 'The Iron Age' and published 
 'under my name during the time of my absence. I wondered 
 'very much how one who could be so foolish to write so 
 'ill verses should yet be so wise to set them forth as another 
 'man's rather than his own : though perhaps he might 
 'have made a better choice, and not fathered the bastard 
 'upon such a person whose stock of reputation is, I fear, 
 'little enough for maintenance of his own numerous legiti- 
 'mate offspring of that kind.' 
 
 In the preface from which the above is an extract Cowley 
 complains of 'the publication of some things of his without 
 'his consent or knowledge, and those so mangled and im- 
 * perfect that he could neither with honour acknowledge nor 
 'with honesty quite disavow them.' To such treatment his 
 Comedy The Guardian had been subjected, and the conduct 
 of others towards his writings is pleaded as the reason for the 
 
 ^ To the celebration of Dr Scarborough's skill in medicine 
 Cowley devotes one of his 'Pindarique Odes' (p. 35). 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. xv 
 
 appearance of the volume. In this Preface the poet states 
 that his desire has been for some years past, and does still 
 vehemently continue, to retire himself to some of the American 
 plantations, and to bury himself there in some obscure 
 retreat. 
 
 The contents of the volume, in the preface to which 
 Cowley thus relates a part of his history and intentions, are 
 (i) 'The Miscellanies,' some of which he says were 'made 
 'when I was very young, which it is perhaps superfluous to 
 'tell the reader.' (2) 'The Mistress' or 'Love Verses,' written 
 because 'so it is that poets are scarce thought free-men of 
 'their company, without paying some duties, and obliging 
 'themselves to be true to Love.' Most assuredly, however, it 
 would be difficult to point to any other verses on the same 
 subject, with less fire in them. (3) Next follow the 'Pin- 
 darique Odes,' of whose versification the poet tells us 'the 
 'numbers are various and irregular, and sometimes seem 
 'harsh and uncouth if the just measures and cadencies be 
 'not observed in the pronunciation. So that almost all their 
 'sweetness... lies wholly at the mercy of the reader.' In 
 one of these Odes, Cowley describes the style thus^ : 
 
 ' 'Tis an unruly and a hard-mouth'd horse, 
 
 Fierce and unbroken yet, 
 
 Impatient of the spur or bit. 
 Now praunces stately, and anon flies o'er the place. 
 Disdains the servile law of any settled pace, 
 Conscious and proud of his own natural force, 
 
 'Twill no unskilful touch endure, 
 But flings writer and reader too that sits not sure.' 
 
 of which last remark any one will surely find the truth who 
 tries to read them. The last portion of the volume was 
 (4) 'The Davideis,' or an heroical poem of the troubles of 
 David, of which only 4 books, out of 12 which Cowley 
 designed to write, are completed in English and Latin. The 
 history is carried down only to i Sam. xv. 3. Dr Sprat says 
 
 ^ ' Pindarique Odes,' p. 22. 
 
xvi BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 that Cowley had finished the greatest part of this poem while 
 he was yet a young student at Cambridge. 
 
 Besides the Essays and other Prose pieces here printed, 
 Cowley published (i) a Collection of Verses written on 
 several occasions, which are interesting as throwing light 
 upon his life, and which will be alluded to hereafter, and (2) 
 in Latin, Six Books of Plants. The last-named work was the 
 result of his application to the study of physic, to which he 
 turned his attention when he had come back to England, in 
 order to dissemble the main intention of his coming, which 
 was, as it seems, to be at hand to give notice to the Queen 
 mother and Charles II. of the condition of matters in this 
 country. Accordingly we find Cowley incorporated in the 
 University of Oxford (Dec. 2, 1657) as Doctor of Physic ^ In 
 that year he had acted as best man to George Villiers, duke 
 of Buckingham, when he was married to the daughter of 
 General Fairfax, and the duke proved himself to the end of 
 Cowley's life to be a firm friend. 
 
 After the death of Cromwell^ Cowley went over to France 
 once more and remained there almost till the Restoration. 
 In 1660 he wrote his 'Ode upon His Majesty's Restauration 
 and Return,' in which he proceeds to most astounding lengths 
 in his flattery of the Royal family. This is the fashion of 
 his strain : 
 
 ' He who had seen how by the power divine 
 All the young branches of this royal line 
 Did in their fire without consuming shine: 
 How through a rough Red sea they had been led, 
 By wonders guarded and by wonders fed ; 
 How many years of trouble and distress 
 They'd wander'd in their fatal wilderness, 
 And yet did never murmur or repine, 
 
 * See Wood, Fasti Oxonienses. It is said that this degree was 
 granted him because he complied with some of the men in power, 
 and that this submission was much taken notice of by the royal 
 party. 
 
 2 He is said by Wood to have made a copy of verses on Oliver's 
 death, but these are not among his published works. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH, xvii 
 
 Might (methinks) plainly understand, 
 That after all these conquered trials past 
 The almighty Mercy would at last 
 Conduct them with a strong unerring hand 
 
 To their own promised land.' 
 
 Charles and his brothers he compares to the three youths 
 in the furnace of Nebuchadnezzar, and their two sisters to 
 angels who bear them company, and adds, with what sounds 
 to modern ears like gross profanity : 
 
 ' Less favour to those three of old was shewn, 
 
 To solace with their company 
 The fiery trials of adversity, 
 Two angels join with these, the others had but one.' 
 
 And in like manner addressing the restored king, he says 
 'Come mighty Charles, desire of nations, come.' 
 
 And of the Oueen mother : 
 
 ' Where's now the royal mother, where, 
 
 To take her mighty share 
 
 In this so ravishing sight 
 And with the part she takes to add to the delight? 
 
 Ah! why art thou not here. 
 Thou always best and now the happiest queen, 
 To see our joy and with new joy be seen?' 
 
 In this same year, steps had been taken for restoring 
 Cowley to his fellowship at Trinity.^ In the Admission 
 Book under the date of Febr. ii, 1660, it is entered: 
 "Whereas we received a Letter from his Ma'^ dated the last 
 of January in the behalfe of M"" Abraham Cowley Fellow of 
 Trinity Colledge, for the continuance of his seven years 
 before taking holy Orders, in regard of his being eiected 
 immediately after his taking degree of Master of Ars, in 
 those troublesome Times, we have thought it good to record 
 this in our conclusion book, that it may be considered as a 
 special case, and so his Ma*y makes it expressly in his 
 Lettres, and not to be drawn hereafter into example. 
 
 H. Ferne." 
 
xviii BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 And so Cowley was restored as Dr Cowley, and not required 
 to take orders, though for 1660 he received no dividend. 
 His payments commence in 1661, and for that year and the 
 next he is described as Mr Cowley, afterwards from 1663 to 
 the third quarter of 1667 he is entered as Dr Cowley. Thus 
 he held his fellowship up to the time of his death. 
 
 After his long services to the Royal family Cowley was 
 not unlikely to expect some recognition of a larger kind than 
 the royal letters that he should be restored to his fellowship. 
 The Mastership of the Savoy was said to have been promised 
 to him both by Charles I. and Charles II., but the promise, 
 like so many others from the same lips, was never fulfilled. 
 Cowley felt this neglect, and gave utterance to it in 'The 
 Complaint,' where he pictures himself *the melancholy 
 Cowley^ lying in the shade 'where reverend Cam cuts out 
 his famous way.' Here the muse appears to him and 
 rebukes him for deserting her^: 
 
 'Thou changeling, thou, bewitched with noise and show, 
 Would'st into courts and cities from me go.' 
 
 And after further reproaches she taunts him with the foolish 
 gains which are all he has come to for quitting her : 
 ' The sovereign is tost at sea no more 
 And thou with all the noble company 
 
 Art got at last to shore. 
 But whilst thy fellow-voyagers I see 
 All march'd up to possess the promised land, 
 Thou still alone (alas) dost gaping stand 
 Upon the naked beach, upon the barren sand.' 
 
 And she compares his case to one of Gideon's miracles, 
 where all around 'with pearly dew was crowned, and nothing 
 but the Muses' fleece was dry.' His expectations are Hkened 
 to Rachel, served for with faith and labour for twice seven 
 years and more, but at last given to another. And the 
 Muse concludes her speech with, 
 
 * Thou, to whose share so litde bread did fall, 
 In the miraculous year when manna rained on all.' 
 
 ^ See 'Verses written on several occasions,' p. 28. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. xix 
 
 Cowley in his reply confesses that he has been wrong in 
 acting only as a demi-votary, and not giving himself wholly 
 to poetry. And then with his usual fondness for Biblical 
 language and similes he adds, 
 
 'Thus with Sapphira and her husband's fate, 
 {A fault which I like them am taught too late,) 
 For all that I gave up I nothing gain, 
 And perish for the part that I retain.' 
 
 But clearly at this time he had not lost all hope of recom- 
 pense, for he adds that he ought to be accurst if he were not 
 content to wait on the king's will, when Charles had so 
 cheerfully depended on that of his great Sovereign. And he 
 closes, 
 
 'Kings have long hands (they say), and though I be 
 So distant, they may reach at length to me.' 
 
 A hope doomed to disappointment. For Charles was 
 content to discharge his debt by saying after the poet's 
 death, ' Mr Cowley has not left behind him a better man in 
 England.' 
 
 It is said that the royal displeasure had been incurred by 
 Cowley's poem on ' Brutus^.' An attempt had also been made, 
 as will be seen from the preface to Cutter' of Coletmui Street^ 
 to turn that comedy into a ground of disfavour, though as 
 the author well observes it would have been the height of 
 folly in one who had clung to the Royal house in adversity 
 to write anything to their offence after the Restoration. 
 
 Through the friendship of Lord Jermyn (created by 
 Chas. II. in 1660 Earl of St Alban's) and of the Duke of 
 Buckingham Cowley obtained a favourable lease of some 
 of the queen's lands, and thus was raised above want, and 
 left at liberty to follow his poetic and scientific tastes. To 
 science he gave up much of his time and thought, as will 
 be seen from his Proposal for a College of Natural Philo- 
 
 ^ See ' Pindarique Odes,' p. 33. The poem begins : * Excellent 
 Brutus, of all humane race the best,' and such praise of such a cha- 
 racter was said to be distasteful to Royalty. 
 
XX BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 sophy. In 1663, when the Royal Society, founded a few 
 years before, was by charter constituted a body political 
 and corporate under the title of the 'President, Council 
 and Fellows of the Royal Society of London for improving 
 Natural Knowledge,' Dr Cowley appears among its first 
 list of members. At the close of the fifth year of the 
 Society's existence he sings its praises in verse, and 
 compares its early progress to that of the infant Hercules : 
 
 'None e'er but Hercules and you would be 
 At five years age worthy a historic^.' 
 
 In these years of expectation and disappointment Cowley 
 wrote his Essays, in which he displays a naturalness and 
 purity of style far beyond what is found in his poetry. Had 
 his life been spared it is said that he intended to have 
 added to their number, and to have dedicated his work 
 to the Earl of St Alban's. He died, however, in his forty- 
 ninth year, July 28, 1667. After his retirement from public life 
 he had made his home on the banks of the Thames, first at 
 Barn-Elms and afterwards at Chertsey, where the Porch- 
 house, though enlarged and changed in character, is marked 
 with an inscription as Cowley's former home. 
 
 He was buried 3rd Aug. 1667 in Westminster Abbey, 
 near Chaucer and Spenser, to whom he attributes his first 
 inspiration. His body had been brought to Wallingford 
 House, near Whitehall, the London residence of the Duke of 
 Buckingham, who in 1675 at his own charges erected the 
 monument to Cowley in Westminster Abbey. An entry in 
 the books of Trinity College, two years after his death, 
 among the 'Extraordinaries,' shews that the poet had re- 
 tained to the last his affection for his college, though it is 
 not easy to understand why the payment recorded had to 
 be made : 
 
 'To Mr Alestry for books given by Dr Cowley to the 
 Library, ^51.' 
 
 ^ ' Verses written on several occasions,' p. 43. 
 
A PROPOSITION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT 
 OF EXPERIMENTAL PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 The Preface. 
 
 LL knowledge must either be of God, or of 
 his Creatures, that is, of nature; the first 
 is called from the object, Divinity ; the latter, 
 Natural philosophy, and is divided into the 
 contemplation of the immediate or mediate creatures 5 
 of God, that is, the Creatures of his Creature man. 
 Of this latter kind are all arts for the use of humane 
 life, which are thus again divided : Some are purely 
 humane, or made by man alone, and as it were intirely 
 spun out of himself, without relation to other creatures, 10 
 such are Grammar and Logick to improve his natural 
 qualities of internal and external speech; as likewise 
 Rhetorick and Politicks (or Law) to fulfill and exalt 
 his natural inclination to society. Other are mixt, 
 and are man's creatures no otherwise then by the result 15 
 which he eftects by conjunction and application of 
 the creatures of God. Of these parts of philosophy 
 that which treats of God Almighty (properly called 
 
 L. c. I 
 
2 THE PREFACE. 
 
 Divinity) which is ahiiost only to be sought out of his 
 revealed will, and therefore requires only the diligent 
 and pious study of that, and of the best interpreters 
 upon it; and that part which I call purely humane, 
 
 5 depending solely upon memory and wit, that is, reading 
 and invention, are both excellently well provided for by 
 the constitution of our Universities. But the two other 
 parts, the inquisition into the nature of God's creatures, 
 and the application of them to humane uses (especially 
 
 lo the latter) seem to be very slenderly provided for, or 
 rather almost totally neglected, except onely some small 
 assistances to Physick, and the Mathematicks. And 
 therefore the founders of our Colledges have taken 
 ample care to supply the students with multitude of books, 
 
 15 and to appoint tutors and frequent exercises, the one to 
 interpret, and the other to confirm their reading, as also 
 to afford them sufficient plenty and leisure for the 
 opportunities of their private study, that the beams which 
 they receive by lecture, may be doubled by reflections of 
 
 20 their own wit. But towards the observation and applica- 
 tion, as I said, of the creatures themselves, they have 
 allowed no instruments, materials or conveniences. 
 Partly, because the necessary expence thereof is much 
 greater then of the other ; and partly from that idle and 
 
 25 pernicious opinion which had long possest the world, 
 that all things to be searcht in nature had been already 
 found and discovered by the ancients, and that it were a 
 folly to travel about for that which others had before 
 brought home. And the great importer of all truths they 
 
 30 took to be Aristotle, as if (as Macrobius speaks foolishly 
 of Hippocrates) he could neither deceive nor be deceived, 
 or as if there had been not only no lies in him, but all 
 verities. O true philosophers in one sence! and con- 
 tented with a very little ! Not that I would disparage the 
 
THE PREFACE. 3 
 
 admirable wit and worthy labours of many of the 
 ancients, much . less of Aristotle, the most eminent 
 among them ; but it were madness to imagine that the 
 cisterns of men should afford us as much, and as whole- 
 some waters, as the fountains of nature. As we under- 5 
 stand the manners of men by conversation among them, 
 and not by reading romances, the same is our case in the 
 true apprehension and judgement of things. And no 
 man can hope to make himself as rich by stealing out of 
 others trunks, as he might by opening and digging of 10 
 new mines. If he conceive that all are already exhausted, 
 let him consider that many lazily thought so hundred 
 years ago, and yet nevertheless since that time whole 
 regions of art have been discovered, which the ancients 
 as little dreamt of as they did of America. There is yet 15 
 many a terra incognita behind to exercise our diHgence, 
 and let us exercise it never so much, we shall leave 
 work enough too for our posterity. 
 
 This therefore being laid down as a certain foundation, 
 that we must not content ourselves with that inheritance 20 
 of knowledge which is left us by the labour and bounty 
 of our ancestors, but seek to improve those very grounds 
 and adde to them new and greater purchases ; it remains 
 to be considered by what means we are most likely to 
 attain the ends of this vertuous covetousness. 25 
 
 And certainly the solitary and unactive contemplation 
 of nature, by the most ingenious persons living, in their 
 own private studies, can never effect it. Our reasoning 
 faculty as well as fancy does but dream, when it is not 
 guided by sensible objects. We shall compound where 30 
 nature has divided, and divide where nature has com- 
 pounded, and create nothing but either deformed mon- 
 sters, or at best pretty but impossible mermaids. 'Tis 
 like painting by memory and imagination which can 
 
 I — 2 
 
4 THE PREFACE. 
 
 never produce a picture to the life. Many persons of 
 admirable abilities (if they had been wisely managed and 
 profitably employed) have spent their whole time and 
 diligence in commentating upon Aristotle's philosophy, 
 
 5 who could never go beyond him, because their design 
 was only to follow, not grasp, or lay hold on, or so much 
 as touch nature, because they catcht only at the shadow 
 of her in their own brains. And therefore we see that 
 for above a thousand years together nothing almost of 
 
 lo ornament or advantage was added to the uses of humane 
 society, except only guns and printing, whereas since 
 the industry of men has ventured to go abroad, out of 
 books and out of themselves, and to work among God's 
 creatures, instead of playing among their own, every age 
 
 IS has abounded with excellent inventions, and every year 
 perhaps might do so, if a considerable number of select 
 persons were set apart, and well directed, and plentifully 
 provided for the search of them. But our Universities 
 having been founded in those former times that I com- 
 
 20 plain of, it is no wonder if they be defective in their 
 constitution as to this way of learning, which was not 
 then thought on. 
 
 For the supplying of which defect it is humbly pro- 
 posed to his sacred Majesty, his most honourable par- 
 
 25 liament, and Privy Council, and to all such of his subjects 
 as are wiUing and able to contribute any thing towards 
 the advancement of real and useful learning, that by 
 their authority, encouragement, patronage and bounty, a 
 philosophical Colledge may be erected, after this ensuing, 
 
 30 or some such like model. 
 
THE COLLEDGE. 
 
 The Colledge. 
 
 That the philosophical colledge be situated within one, 
 two or (at farthest) three miles of London \ and, if it 
 be possible to find that convenience, upon the side of 
 the river, or very near it. 
 
 That the revenue of this colledge amount to four thou- 5 
 sand a year. That the company received into it be as 
 follows : 
 
 I. Twenty philosophers or professors. 2. Sixteen 
 young scholars, servants to the professors. 3. A chap- 
 lain. 4. A baily for the revenue. 5. A manciple or 10 
 purveyor for the provisions of the house. 6. Two gar- 
 deners. 7. A master- cook. 8. An under-cook. 9. A 
 butler. 10. An under-butier. 11. A chirurgeon. 12. Two 
 lungs, or chymical servants. 13. A library-keeper, who 
 is likewise to be apothecary, druggest, and keeper of 15 
 instruments, engines, &c. 14. An officer, to feed and 
 take care of all beast, fowl, &c. kept by the colledge. 
 15. A groom of the stable. 16. A messenger, to send 
 up and down for all uses of the colledge. 17. Four old 
 women, to tend the chambers, keep the house clean, and 20 
 such like services. 
 
 That the annual allowance for this company be as 
 follows : 
 
 I. To every professor, and to the chaplain, one 
 hundred and twenty pounds. 2. To the sixteen scholars 25 
 twenty pounds apiece, ten pounds for their diet, and ten 
 pounds for their entertainment. 3. To the baily, thirty 
 pounds, besides allowance for his journeys. 4. To the 
 purveyor, or manciple, thirty pounds. 5. To each of the 
 gardeners, twenty pounds. 6. To the master-cook, twenty 30 
 
6 THE COLLEDGE. 
 
 pounds. 7. To the under-cook, four pounds. 8. To the 
 butler, ten pounds. 9. To the under-butler, four pounds. 
 10. To the chirurgeon, thirty pounds. 11. To the 
 library-keeper, thirty pounds. 12. To each of the lungs, 
 
 5 twelve pounds. 13. To the keeper of the beasts, six 
 pounds. 14. To the groom, five pounds. 15. To the 
 messenger, twelve pounds. 16. To the four necessary 
 women, ten pounds. For the manciples table at which 
 all the servants of the house are to eat, except the 
 
 10 scholars, one hundred sixty pounds. For three horses 
 for the service of the colledge, thirty pounds. 
 
 All which amounts to three thousand two hundred 
 eighty-five pounds. So that there remains for keeping 
 of the house and gardens, and operatories, and instru- 
 
 15 ments and animals, and experiments of all sorts, and all 
 other expences, seven hundred and fifteen pounds. 
 
 Which were a very inconsiderable sum for the great 
 uses to which it is designed, but that I conceive the 
 industry of the colledge will, in a short time, so enrich 
 
 20 itself, as to get a far better stock for the advance and 
 inlargement of the work when it is once begun: neither 
 is the continuance of particular men's liberality to be 
 despaired of, when it shall be encouraged by the sight of 
 that publick benefit which will accrue to all mankind, 
 
 25 and chiefly to our nation, by this foundation. Some- 
 thing likewise will arise from leases and other casualties; 
 that nothing of which may be diverted to the private 
 gain of the professors, or any other use besides that of 
 the search of nature, and by it the general good of the 
 
 30 world, and that care may be taken for the certain per- 
 formance of all things ordained by the institution, as 
 likewise for the protection and encouragement of the 
 company, it is proposed : 
 
 That some person of eminent quality, a lover of solid 
 
THE COLLED GE. 7 
 
 learning, and no stranger in it, be chosen chancellor or 
 president of the colledge; and that eight governors more, 
 men qualified in the like manner, be joyned with him, 
 two of which shall yearly be appointed visitors of the 
 colledge, and receive an exact account of all expences 5 
 even to the smallest, and of the true estate of their 
 publick treasure, under the hands and oaths of the pro- 
 fessors resident. 
 
 That the choice of the professors in any vacancy 
 belong to the chancellor and the governours; but that the 10 
 professors (who are likeUest to know what men of the 
 nation are most proper for the duties of their society) 
 direct their choice by recommending two or three persons 
 to them at every election. And that, if any learned 
 person within his majesties dominions discover, or 15 
 eminently improve, any useful kind of knowledge, he 
 may upon that ground, for his reward and the encourage- 
 ment of others, be preferr'd, if he pretend to the place, 
 before any body else. 
 
 That the governours have power to turn out any pro- 20 
 fessor, who shall be proved to be either scandalous or 
 unprofitable to the society. 
 
 That the colledge be built after this, or some such 
 manner : That it consist of three fair quadrangular 
 courts, and three large grounds, inclosed with good walls 25 
 behind them. That the first court be built with a fair 
 cloyster: and the professors' lodgings, or rather little 
 houses, four on each side, at some distance from one 
 another, and with little gardens behind them, just after 
 the manner of the Chartreux beyond sea. That the in- 30 
 side of the cloyster be Hned with a gravel-walk, and that 
 walk with a row of trees; and that in the middle there 
 be a parterre of flowers, and a fountain. 
 
 That the second quadrangle, just behind the first, be 
 
8 THE COLLEDGE. 
 
 so contrived, as to contain these parts, i. A chappel. 2. 
 A hall with two long tables on each side for the scholars 
 and officers of the house to eat at, and with a pulpit and 
 forms at the end for the publick lectures. 3. A large 
 5 and pleasant dining-room within the hall, for the pro- 
 fessors to eat in, and to hold their assemblies and con- 
 ferences. 4. A publick school-house. 5. A Hbrary. 6. 
 A gallery to walk in, adorned with the pictures or statues 
 of all the inventors of any thing useful to human life; 
 
 10 as, printing, guns, America, &c. and of late in anatomy, 
 the circulation of the blood, the milky veins, and such 
 like discoveries in any art, with short elogies under the 
 portraictures ; as likewise the figures of all sorts of crea- 
 tures, and the stuft skins of as many strange animals as 
 
 15 can be gotten. 7. An anatomy-chamber, adorned with 
 skeletons and anatomical pictures, and prepared with 
 all conveniences for dissection. 8. A chamber for all 
 manner of druggs, and apothecaries' materials. 9. A 
 mathematical chamber, furnisht with all sorts of mathe- 
 
 20 matical instruments, being an appendix to the library. 
 10. Lodgings for the chaplain, chirurgeon, library-keeper, 
 and purveyor, near the chappel, anatomy-chamber, 
 library, and hall. 
 
 That the third court be on one side of these, very 
 
 25 large, but meanly built, being designed only for use 
 and not for beauty too, as the others. That it contain 
 the kitchin, butteries, brew-house, bake-house, dairy, 
 lardry, stables, &c. and especially great laboratories 
 for chymical operations, and lodgings for the under- 
 
 30 servants. 
 
 That behind the second court be placed the garden, 
 containing all sorts of plants that our soil will bear; and 
 at the end a httle house of pleasure, a lodge for the 
 gardiner, and a grove of trees cut into walks. 
 
THE COLLEDGE. 9 
 
 That the second enclosed ground be a garden, des- 
 tined only to the trial of all manner of experiments 
 concerning plants, as their melioration, acceleration, 
 retardation, conservation, composition, transmutation, 
 coloration, or whatsoever else can be produced by art 5 
 either for use or curiosity, with a lodge in it for the 
 gardiner. 
 
 That the third ground be employed in convenient re- 
 ceptacles for all sorts of creatures which the professors 
 shall judge necessary, for their more exact search into 10 
 the nature of animals, and the improvement of their 
 uses to us. 
 
 That there be likewise built, in some place of 
 the colledge where it may serve most for ornament 
 of the whole, a very high tower for observation of 15 
 celestial bodies, adorned with all sorts of dyals and 
 such like curiosities ; and that there be very deep 
 vaults made under ground, for experiments most 
 proper to such places, which will be undoubtedly very 
 many, 20 
 
 Much might be added ; but truly I am afraid this is 
 too much already for the charity or generosity of this 
 age to extend to ; and we do not design this after the 
 model of Solomon's house in my Lord Bacon (which is 
 a project for experiments that can never be experi- 25 
 mented), but propose it within such bounds of expence 
 as have often been exceeded by the buildings of private 
 citizens. 
 
 Of the Professors, Scholars, Chaplain, and 
 OTHER Officers. 
 
 That of the twenty professors, four be always travelling 
 beyond the seas, and sixteen always resident, unless by 30 
 
lo OF THE PROFESSORS, 6-r. 
 
 permission upon extraordinary occasions; and every one 
 so absent, leaving a deputy behind him to supply his 
 duties. 
 
 That the four professors itinerate be assigned to the 
 5 four parts of the world, Europe, Asia, Africa, and 
 America, there to reside three years at least; and to 
 give a constant account of all things that belong to the 
 learning, and especially natural experimental philosophy, 
 of those parts 
 
 lo That the expense of all dispatches, and all books, 
 simples, animals, stones, metals, minerals, &c. and all 
 curiosities whatsoever, natural or artificial, sent by 
 them to the colledge, shall be defrayed out of the 
 treasury, and an additional allowance (above the ;£i2o.) 
 
 15 made to them as soon as the colledges revenue shall be 
 improved. 
 
 That, at their going abroad, they shall take a solemn 
 oath, never to write any thing to the colledge, but what, 
 after very diligent examination, they shall fully believe 
 
 20 to be true, and to confess and recant it as soon as they 
 find themselves in an errour. 
 
 That the sixteen professors resident shall be bound 
 to study and teach all sorts of natural experimental 
 philosophy, to consist of the mathematicks, mechanicks, 
 
 25 medicine, anatomy, chymistry, the history of animals, 
 plants, minerals, elements, &c. ; agriculture, architecture, 
 art military, navigation, gardening; the mysteries of all 
 trades, and improvement of them ; the facture of all 
 merchandises, all natural magick or divination ; and 
 
 30 briefly all things contained in the catalogue of natural 
 histories annexed to my Lord Bacon's Organon. 
 
 That once a day from Easter till Michaelmas, and 
 twice a week from Michaelmas to Easter, in the hours 
 in the afternoon most convenient for auditors from 
 
OF THE PROFESSORS, 6-r. " 
 
 London, according to the time of the year, there shall be 
 a lecture read in the hall, upon, such parts of natural 
 experimental philosophy, as the professors shall agree on 
 among themselves, and as each of them shall be able to 
 perform usefully and honourably. 5 
 
 That two of the professors, by daily, weekly, or 
 monthly turns, shall teach the publick schools according 
 to the rules hereafter prescribed. 
 
 That all the professors shall be equal in all respects 
 (except precedency, choice of lodging, and such like lo 
 priviledges, which shall belong to seniority in the col- 
 ledge); and that all shall be masters and treasurers by 
 annual turns, which two officers for the time being shall 
 take place of all the rest, and shall be arbitri duai'uni 
 I7iensa7'iim . 15 
 
 That the master shall command all the officers of the 
 colledge, appoint assemblies or conferences upon oc- 
 casion, and preside in them with a double voice ; and in 
 his absence, the treasurer, whose business is to receive 
 and disburss all moneys by the master's order in writing 20 
 (if it be an extraordinary), after consent of the other 
 professors. 
 
 That all the professors shall sup together in the 
 parlour within the hall every night, and shall dine there 
 twice a week (to wit, Sundays and Thursdays) at two 25 
 round tables, for the convenience of discourse, which 
 shall be, for the most part, of such matters as may im- 
 prove their studies and professions ; and to keep them 
 from falling into loose or unprofitable talk, shall be the 
 duty of the two arbitri mensarum, who may likewise 30 
 command any of the servant-scholars to read to them 
 what they shall think fit, whilst they are at table : that it 
 shall belong likewise to the said a7-bitri 7tiensarum only to 
 invite strangers ; which they shall rarely do, unless they 
 
12 OF THE PROFESSORS, &^c. 
 
 be men of learning or great parts, and shall not invite 
 above two at a time to one table, nothing being more 
 vain and unfruitful than numerous meetings of acquaint- 
 ance. 
 
 5 That the professors resident shall allow the coUedge 
 twenty pounds a year for their diet, whether they con- 
 tinue there all the time or not. 
 
 That they shall have once a week an assembly, or 
 conference, concerning the affairs of the coUedge and 
 
 lo the progress of their experimental philosophy. 
 
 That if any one find out any thing which he conceives 
 to be of consequence, he shall communicate it to the 
 assembly to be examined, experimented, approved, or 
 rejected. 
 
 15 That, if any one be author of an invention that may 
 bring in profit, the third part of it shall belong to the 
 inventor, and the two other to the society; and besides, 
 if the thing be very considerable, his statue or picture, 
 with an elogy under it, shall be placed in the gallery, 
 
 20 and made a denison of that corporation of famous 
 men. 
 
 That all the professors shall be always assigned to 
 some particular inquisition (besides the ordinary course 
 of their studies), of which they shall give an account to 
 
 25 the assembly ; so that by this means there may be every 
 day some operation or other made in all the arts, 
 as chymistry, anatomy, mechanicks, and the like; and 
 that the coUedge shall furnish for the charge of the 
 operation. 
 
 30 That there shall be kept a register under lock and 
 key, and not to be seen but by the professors, of all the 
 experiments that succeed, signed by the persons who 
 made the tryal. 
 
 That the popular and received errors in experimental 
 
OF THE PROFESSORS, 6-^. 13 
 
 philosophy (with which, hke weeds in a neglected garden, 
 it is now almost all over-grown) shall be evinced by tryal, 
 and taken notice of in the publick lectures, that they 
 may no longer abuse the credulous, and beget new ones 
 by consequence or similitude. 5 
 
 That every third year (after the full settlement of the 
 foundation) the colledge shall give an account in print, in 
 proper and ancient Latine, of the fruits of their triennial 
 industry. 
 
 That every professor resident shall have his scholar 10 
 to wait upon him in his chamber and at table ; whom he 
 shall be obliged to breed up in natural philosophy, and 
 render an account of his progress to the assembly, from 
 whose election he received him, and therefore is re- 
 sponsible to it, both for the care of his education and 15 
 the just and civil usage of him. 
 
 That the scholar shall understand Latine very well, 
 and be moderately initiated in the Greek, before he be 
 capable of being chosen into the service ; and that he 
 shall not remain in it above seven years. 20 
 
 That his lodging shall be with the professor whom he 
 serves. 
 
 That no professor shall be a married man, or a divine, 
 or lawyer in practice; only physick he may be allowed to 
 ;orescribe, because the study of that art is a great part of 25 
 ^■he duty of his place, and the duty of that is so great that 
 it will not suffer him to lose much time in mercenary 
 practice. 
 
 That the professors shall, in the colledge, wear the 
 habit of ordinary masters of art in the universities, or of 30 
 doctors, if any of them be so. 
 
 That they shall all keep an inviolable and exemplary 
 friendship with one another ; and that the assembly shall 
 lay a considerable pecuniary mulct upon any one who 
 
14 OF THE PROFESSORS, &^c 
 
 shall be proved to have entered so far into a quarrel as 
 to give uncivil language to his brother-professor; and 
 that the perseverance in any enmity shall be punish'd by 
 the governors with expulsion. 
 
 5 That the chaplain shall eat at the master's table (pay- 
 ing his twenty pounds a year as the others do); and that 
 he shall read prayers once a day at least, a little before 
 supper-time ; that he shall preach in the chappel every 
 Sunday morning, and catechize in the afternoon the 
 
 lo scholars and the school-boys ; that he shall every month 
 administer the holy sacrament ; that he shall not trouble 
 himself and his auditors with the controversies of divinity, 
 but only teach God in his just commandments, and in 
 his wonderful works. 
 
 The School. 
 
 15 That the school may be built so as to contain about an 
 hundred boys. 
 
 That it be divided into four classes, not as others are 
 ordinarily into six or seven ; because we suppose that 
 the children sent hither, to be initiated in things as well 
 
 20 as words, ought to have past the two or three first, and 
 to have attained the age of about thirteen years, being 
 already well advanced in the Latine grammar, and some 
 authors. 
 
 That none, though never so rich, shall pay any thing 
 
 25 for their teaching; and that, if any professor shall be 
 convicted to have taken any money in consideration of 
 his pains in the school, he shall be expelled with igno- 
 miny by the governours; but if any persons of great 
 estate and quality, finding their sons much better pro- 
 
 30 ficients in learning here, than boys of the same age 
 
THE SCHOOL. 15 
 
 commonly are at other schools, shall not think fit to 
 receive an obligation of so near concernment without 
 returning some marks of acknowledgment, they may, if 
 they please, (for nothing is to be demanded) bestow 
 some little rarity or curiosity upon the society, in recom- 5 
 pense of their trouble. 
 
 And because it is deplorable to consider the loss 
 which children make of their time at most schools, em- 
 ploying, or rather casting away, six or seven years in 
 the learning of words only, and that too very imper- 10 
 fectly : 
 
 That a method be here established, for the infusing 
 knowledge and language at the same time into them ; 
 and that this may be their apprenticeship in natural phi- 
 losophy. This, we conceive, may be done, by breeding 15 
 them in authors, or pieces of authors, who treat of some 
 parts of nature, and who may be understood with as 
 much ease and pleasure, as those which are commonly 
 taught ; such are, in Latine, Varro, Cato, Columella, 
 Pliny, part of Celsus and of Seneca, Cicero de Divina- 20 
 tione, de Natura Deorum, and several scattered pieces, 
 Virgil's Georgicks, Grotius, Nemetianus, Manilius : And 
 because the truth is, we want good poets (I mean we 
 have but few), v/ho have purposely treated of solid and 
 learned, that is, natural matters (the most part indulg- 25 
 ing to the weakness of the world, and feeding it either 
 with the follies of love, or with the fables of gods and 
 heroes), we conceive that one book ought to be compiled 
 of all the scattered little parcels among the antient poets 
 that might serve for the advancement of natural sciences 30 
 and which would make no small and unuseful or un- 
 pleasant volume. To this we would have added the 
 morals and rhetoricks of Cicero, and the institutions of 
 Quintilian ; and for the comedians, from whom almost 
 
i6 THE SCHOOL. 
 
 all that necessary part of common discourse, and all the 
 most intimate proprieties of the language, are drawn, 
 we conceive the boys may be made masters of them, as 
 a part of their recreation, and not of their task, if once a 
 5 month, or at least once in two, they act one of Terence's 
 Comedies, and afterwards (the most advanced) some of 
 Plautus his ; and this is for many reasons one of the best 
 exercises they can be enjoyned, and most innocent plea- 
 sures they can be allowed. As for the Greek authors, 
 
 lo they may study Nicander, Oppianus (whom Scaliger 
 does not doubt to prefer above Homer himself, and 
 place next to his adored Virgil), Aristotle's history of 
 animals and other parts, Theophrastus and Dioscorides 
 of plants, and a collection made out of several both poets 
 
 15 and other Grecian writers. For the morals and rhetorick, 
 Aristotle may suffice, or Hermogenes and Longinus be 
 added for the latter. With the history of animals they 
 should be shewed anatomy as a divertisement, and made 
 to know the figures and natures of those creatures 
 
 20 which are not common among us, disabusing them at 
 the same time of those errors which are universally ad- 
 mitted concerning many. The same method should be 
 used to make them acquainted with all plants ; and to 
 this must be added a little of the antient and modern 
 
 25 geography, the understanding of the globes, and the 
 principles of geometry and astronomy. They should 
 likewise use to declaim in Latine and English, as the 
 Romans did in Greek and Latine ; and in all this travel 
 be rather led on by familiarity, encouragement, and 
 
 30 emulation, than driven by severity, punishment, and 
 terror. Upon festivals and play-times, they should ex- 
 ercise themselves in the fields, by riding, leaping, fencing, 
 mustering and training after the manner of soldiers, &c. 
 And, to prevent all dangers and all disorder, there should 
 
THE SCHOOL. 17 
 
 always be two of the scholars with them, to be as wit- 
 nesses and directors of their actions ; in foul weather, it 
 would not be amiss for them to learn to dance, that is, 
 to learn just so much (for all beyond is superfluous, if 
 not worse) as may give them a graceful comportment of 5 
 their bodies. 
 
 Upon Sundays, and all days of devotion, they are to 
 be a part of the chaplain's province. 
 
 That, for all these ends, the colledge so order it, as 
 that there may be some convenient and pleasant houses 10 
 thereabouts, kept by religious, discreet, and careful per- 
 sons, for the lodging and boarding of young scholars ; 
 that they have a constant eye over them, to see 
 that they be bred up there piously, cleanly, and plen- 
 tifully, according to the proportion of the parents' 15 
 expences. 
 
 And that the colledge, when it shall please God, either 
 by their own industry and success, or by the benevo- 
 lence of patrons, to enrich them so far, as that it may 
 come to their turn and duty to be charitable to others, 20 
 shall, at their own charges, erect and maintain some 
 house or houses for the entertainment of such poor men's 
 sons, whose good natural parts may promise either use 
 or ornament to the commonwealth, during the time of 
 t leir abode at school ; and shall take care that it shall 25 
 be done with the same conveniences as are enjoyed even 
 by rich men's children (though they maintain the fewer 
 for that cause), there being nothing of eminent and 
 illustrious to be expected from a low, sordid, and hos- 
 pital-like education. 30 
 
 L. c. 
 
i8 CONCLUSION. 
 
 Conclusion. 
 
 If I be not much abused by a natural fondness to my 
 own conceptions (that a-Topyrj of the Greeks, which no 
 other language has a proper word for), there was never 
 any project thought upon, which deserves to meet with 
 5 so few adversaries as this ; for who can without impu- 
 dent folly oppose the establishment of twenty well- 
 selected persons in such a condition of life, that their 
 whole business and sole profession may be to study the 
 improvement and advantage of all other professions, 
 
 lo from that of the highest general even to the lowest 
 artisan? Who shall be obhged to employ their whole 
 time, wit, learning, and industry, to these four, the most 
 useful that can be imagined, and to no other ends ; first, 
 to weigh, examine, and prove all things of nature deli- 
 
 15 vered to us by former ages; to detect, explode, and 
 strike a censure through all false moneys with which the 
 world has been paid and cheated so long; and (as I may 
 say) to set the mark of the colledge upon all true coins, 
 that they may pass hereafter without any farther tryal : 
 
 20 secondly, to recover the lost inventions, and, as it were, 
 drown'd lands of the antients : thirdly, to improve all 
 arts which we now have ; and lastly, to discover others 
 which we yet have not. And who shall besides all this 
 (as a benefit by the by), give the best education in the 
 
 25 world (purely gratis) to as many men's children as shall 
 think fit to make use of the obligation ? Neither does 
 it at all check or interfere with any parties in state or 
 religion, but is indifferently to be embraced by all 
 differences in opinion, and can hardly be conceived 
 
 30 capable (as many good institutions have done) even of 
 degeneration into any thing harmful. So that, all things 
 
CONCLUSION. 19 
 
 considered, I will suppose this proposition will encounter 
 with no enemies : the only question is, whether it will 
 find friends enough to carry it on from discourse and 
 design to reality and effect ; the necessary expences of 
 the beginning (for it will maintain itself well enough 5 
 afterwards) being so great (though I have set them as 
 low as is possible in order to so vast a work), that it 
 may seem hopeless to raise such a sum out of those few 
 dead reliques of human charity and publick generosity 
 which are yet remaining in the world. 10 
 
A DISCOURSE BY WAY OF VISION CON- 
 CERNING THE GOVERNMENT 
 OF OLIVER CROMWEL. 
 
 iT was the funeral day of the late man wlio 
 
 made himself to be called protector. And 
 
 though I bore but little affection, either to 
 
 the memory of him, or to the trouble and 
 
 5 folly of all publick pageantry, yet I was forced by the 
 
 importunity of my company, to go along with them, and 
 
 be a spectator of that solemnity, the expectation of 
 
 which had been so great, that it was said to have 
 
 brought some very curious persons (and no doubt singular 
 
 lo virtuosos) as far as from the Mount in Cornwal, and from 
 
 the Orcades. I found there had been much more cost 
 
 bestowed than either the dead man or indeed death 
 
 itself could deserve. There was a mighty train of black 
 
 assistants, among which, too, divers princes in the 
 
 15 persons of their ambassadors (being infinitely afflicted for 
 
 the loss of their brother) were pleased to attend ; the 
 
 herse was magnificent, the idol crowned, and (not to 
 
 mention all other ceremonies which are practised at royal 
 
 interments, and therefore by no means could be omitted 
 
 20 here) the vast multitude of spectators made up, as it uses 
 
A DISCOURSE, &>&. 21 
 
 to do, no small part of the spectacle itself. But yet, I 
 know not how, the whole was so managed, that, me- 
 thoughts, it somewhat represented the life of him for 
 whom it was made ; much noise, much tumult, much 
 expence, much magnificence, much vain-glory; briefly 5 
 a great show; and yet, after all this, but an ill sight. 
 At last (for it seemed long to me, and, like his short 
 reign too, very tedious) the whole scene past by; and 
 I retired back to my chamber, weary, and I think more 
 melancholy than any of the mourners. Where I began 10 
 to reflect on the whole life of this prodigious man : and 
 sometimes I was filled with horrour and detestation of 
 his actions, and sometimes I inclined a little to reverence 
 and admiration of his courage, conduct, and success; till, 
 by these different motions and agitations of mind, rocked, 15 
 as it were, asleep, I fell at last into this vision ; or if you 
 please to call it but a dream, I shall not take it ill, 
 because the father of j^oets tells us, even dreams, too, 
 are from God. 
 
 But sure it was no dream; for I was suddainly trans- 20 
 ported afar off (whether in the body, or out of the body, 
 like St Paul, I know not) and found myself on the top of 
 that famous hill in the island Mona, which has the 
 prospect of three great, and not long since most happy, 
 kingdoms. As soon as ever I look'd on them, the not- 25 
 long-since struck upon my memory, and called forth the 
 sad representation of all the sins, and all the miseries, 
 that had overwhelmed them these twenty years. And I 
 wept bitterly for two or three hours ; and, when my 
 present stock of moisture was all wasted, I fell a sigliing 30 
 for an hour more; and, as soon as I recovered from my 
 passion the use of speech and reason, I broke forth, 
 as I remember (looking upon England), into this com- 
 plaint : 
 
2 2 A DISCOURSE CONCERNING THE 
 
 Ah, happy isle, how art thou chang'd and curst, 
 Since I was born, and knew thee first! 
 
 When peace, which had forsook the world around, 
 
 (Frighted with noise, and the shrill trumpet's sound) 
 5 Thee, for a private place of rest. 
 
 And a secure retirement, chose 
 Wherein to build her halcyon nest; 
 
 No wind durst stir abroad the air to discompose. 
 
 2. 
 
 When all the riches of the globe beside 
 lo Flow'd in to thee with every tide : 
 
 When all, that nature did thy soil deny, 
 The growth was of thy fruitful industry; 
 When all the proud and dreadful sea 
 And all his tributary streams, 
 15 A constant tribute paid to thee, 
 
 When all the liquid world was one extended Thames ; 
 
 When plenty in each village did appear, 
 And bounty was it's steward there ; 
 
 When gold walk'd free about in open view, 
 20 E'er it one conquering party's prisoner grew; 
 When the religion of our state 
 Had face and substance with her voice, 
 E'er she, by her foolish loves of late. 
 
 Like echo (once a nymph) turn'd only into noise. 
 
GOVERNMENT OF OLIVER CROMWEL. 23 
 
 4. 
 
 When men to men respect and friendship bore, 
 
 And God with reverence did adore ; 
 When upon earth no kingdom could have shown 
 A happier monarch to us than our own; 
 
 And yet his subjects by him were 
 
 (Which is a truth will hardly be 
 
 Receiv'd by any vulgar ear, 
 A secret known to few) made happier ev'n than he. 
 
 Thou dost a chaos, and confusion now, 
 
 A Babel, and a Bedlam, grow, 10 
 
 And, like a frantick person, thou dost tear 
 The ornaments and cloaths, which thou should'st wear, 
 
 And cut thy limbs ; and, if we see 
 
 (Just as thy barbarous Britons did) 
 
 Thy body with hypocrisie 15 
 
 Painted all o'er, thou think'st thy naked shame is hid. 
 
 6. 
 
 The nations, which envied thee ere while, 
 
 Now laugh (too little 'tis to smile) : 
 They laugh, and would have pitied thee (alas !) 
 But that thy faults all pity do surpass. 20 
 
 Art thou the countrey, which didst hate 
 
 And mock the French inconstancie ? 
 
 And have we, have we seen of late 
 Less change of habits there, than governments in thee? 
 
24 A DISCOURSE CONCERNING THE 
 
 7. 
 Unhappy Isle ! no ship of thine at sea, 
 
 Was ever tost and torn like thee. 
 Thy naked hulk loose on the waves does beat, 
 The rocks and banks around her mine threat; 
 5 What did thy foolish pilots ail, 
 
 To lay the compass quite aside? 
 Without a law or rule to sail, 
 And rather take the winds, than heavens, to be their guide? 
 
 Yet, mighty God, yet, yet, we humbly crave, 
 10 This floating isle from shipwrack save ; 
 
 And though, to wash that bloud which does it stain, 
 It well deserve to sink into the main ; 
 Yet, for the royal martyr's prayer, 
 (The royal martyr prays, we know) 
 15 This guilty, perishing vessel spare; 
 
 Hear but his soul above, and not his bloud below. 
 
 I think, I should have gone [on,] but that I was 
 interrupted by a strange and terrible apparition; for 
 there appeared to me (arising out of the earth, as I 
 
 20 conceived) the figure of a man, taller than a gyant, or 
 indeed the shadow of any gyant in the evening. His 
 body was naked; but that nakedness adorn'd, or rather 
 deform'd all over, with several figures, after the manner 
 of the antient Britons, painted upon it : and I perceived 
 
 25 that most of them were the representation of the battels 
 in our civil wars, and (if I be not much mistaken) it was 
 the battel of Naseby that was drawn upon his breast. 
 His eyes were like burning brass; and there were three 
 crowns of the same metal (as I guest), and that look'd as 
 
 30 red-hot too, upon his head. He held in his right hand 
 
GOVERNMENT OF OLIVER CROMWEL. 25 
 
 a sword, that was yet bloody, and nevertheless the motto 
 of it was, Pax quceritiir bello ; and in his left hand a 
 thick book, upon the back of which was written in letters 
 of gold, Acts, Ordinances, Protestations, Covenants, 
 Engagements, Declarations, Remonstrances, &c. 5 
 
 Though this sudden, unusual, and dreadful object 
 might have quelled a greater courage than mine, yet so 
 it pleased God (for there is nothing bolder than a man 
 in a vision) that I was not at all daunted, but ask'd 
 him resolutely and briefly, "What art thou?" And he 10 
 said, "I am called the north-west principality, his highness 
 the protector of the commonwealth of England, Scotland, 
 and Ireland, and the dominions belonging thereunto; for 
 I am that angel, to whom the Almighty has committed 
 the government of those three kingdoms, which thou 15 
 seest from this place." And I answered and said, "If it 
 be so, Sir, it seems to me that for almost these twenty 
 years past, your highness has been absent from your 
 charge: for not only if any angel, but if any wise and 
 honest man had since that time been our governor, we 20 
 should not have v/andred thus long in these laborious 
 and endless labyrinths of confusion, but either not have 
 entred at all into them, or at least have returned back 
 e'r we had absolutely lost our way ; but, instead of your 
 highness, we have had since such a protector as was his 25 
 predecessor Richard the Third to the king his nephew ; 
 for he presently slew the commonwealth, which he pre- 
 tended to protect, and set up himself in the place of it : 
 a little less guilty, indeed, in one respect, because the 
 other slew an innocent, and this man did but murder a 30 
 murderer. Such a protector we have had, as we would 
 have been glad to have changed for an enemy, and 
 rather receive a constant Turk, than this every month's 
 apostate ; such a protector, as man is to his flocks, which 
 
26 A DISCOURSE CONCERNING THE 
 
 he shears, and sells, or devours himself; and I would 
 fain know, what the wolf, which he protects them from, 
 could do more? Such a protector — " and as I was 
 proceeding, methought his highness began to put on a 
 
 5 displeased and threatning countenance, as men use to do 
 when their dearest friends happen to be traduced in their 
 company; which gave me the first rise of jealousie 
 against him, for I did not believe that Cromwel, among 
 all his forreign correspondences, had ever held any with 
 
 lo angels. However, I was not hardn'd enough to venture 
 a quarrel with him then ; and therefore (as if I had 
 spoken to the protector himself in Whitehal) I desired 
 him *' that his highness would please to pardon me, if I 
 had unwittingly spoken any thing to the disparagement of 
 
 15 a person, whose relations to his highness I had not the 
 honour to know." 
 
 At which he told me, '-'that he had no other con- 
 cernment for his late highness, than as he took him to 
 be the greatest man that ever was of the English nation, 
 
 20 if not (said he) of the whole world ; which gives me a 
 just title to the defence of his reputation, since I now 
 account myself, as it were, a naturalized English angel, 
 by having had so long the management of the affairs of 
 that countrey. And pray, countreyman (said he, very 
 
 25 kindly and very flatteringly) for I would not have you fall 
 into the general error of the world, that detests and 
 decries so extraordinary a virtue, what can be more ex- 
 traordinary, than that a person of mean birth, no fortune, 
 no eminent quaUties of body, which have sometimes, or 
 
 30 of mind, which have often, raised men to the highest 
 dignities, should have the courage to attempt, and the 
 happiness to succeed in, so improbable a design, as the 
 destruction of one of the most antient and most solidly 
 founded monarchies upon the earth? That he should have 
 
GOVERNMENT OF OLIVER CROMWEL. 27 
 
 the power or boldness to put his prince and master to an 
 open and infamous death ; to banish that numerous and 
 strongly-aUied family ; to do all this under the name and 
 wages of a parliament ; to trample upon them too as he 
 pleased, and spurn them out of doors, when he grew 5 
 weary of them; to raise up a new and unheard of monster 
 out of their ashes ; to stifle that in the very infancy, and 
 set up himself above all things that ever were called 
 soveraign in England ; to oppress all his enemies by 
 arms, and all his friends afterwards by artifice ; to serve 10 
 all parties patiently for a while, and to command them 
 victoriously at last ; to over-run each corner of the three 
 nations, and overcome with equal felicity both the riches 
 of the south, and the poverty of the north ; to be feared 
 and courted by all forreign princes, and adopted a brother 15 
 to the gods of the earth; to call together parliaments 
 with a word of his pen, and scatter them again with the 
 breath of his mouth ; to be humbly and daily petitioned 
 that he would please to be hired, at the rate of two 
 millions a year, to be master of those who had hired 20 
 him before to be their servant ; to have the estates and 
 lives of three kingdoms as much at his disposal, as was 
 the little inheritance of his father, and to be as noble and 
 liberal in the spending of them ; and lastly (for there is 
 no end of all the particulars of his glory) to bequeath all 25 
 this with one word to his posterity ; to dye with peace at 
 home, and triumph abroad ; to be buried among kings, 
 and with more than regal solemnity; and to leave a 
 name behind him, not to be extinguished but with the 
 whole world ; which, as it is now too little for his praises, 30 
 so might have been too for his conquests, if the short 
 line of his humane life could have been stretcht out to 
 the extent of his immortal designs ? '' 
 
 By this speech, I began to understand perfectly well 
 
28 A DISCOURSE CONCERNING THE 
 
 what kind of angel his pretended highness was ; and 
 having fortified myself privately with a short mental 
 prayer, and with the sign of the cross (not out of any 
 superstition to the sign, but as a recognition of my 
 
 5 baptism in Christ,) I grew a little bolder, and replyed in 
 this manner; " I should not venture to oppose what you 
 are pleased to say in commendation of the late great, and 
 (I confess) extraordinary person, but that I remember 
 Christ forbids us to give assent to any other doctrine 
 
 lo but what himself has taught us, even though it should be 
 delivered by an angel ; and if such you be, Sir, it may be 
 you have spoken all this rather to try than to tempt my 
 frailty, for sure I am, that we must renounce or forget 
 all the laws of the New and Old Testament, and those 
 
 15 which are the foundation of both, even the laws of moral 
 and natural honesty, if we approve of the actions of that 
 man whom I suppose you commend by irony. 
 
 "There would be no end to instance in the par- 
 ticulars of all his wickedness : but to sum up a part of it 
 
 20 briefly : What can be more extraordinarily wicked, than 
 for a person, such as yourself quahfie him rightly, to 
 endeavour not only to exalt himself above, but to trample 
 upon, all his equals and betters? To pretend freedom for 
 all men, and under the help of that pretence to make all 
 
 25 men his servants ? To take arms against taxes of scarce 
 two hundred thousand pounds a year, and to raise them 
 himself to above two millions? To quarrel for the loss of 
 three or four ears, and strike off three or four hundred 
 heads? To fight against an imaginary suspicion of I know 
 
 30 not what two thousand guards to be fetcht for the king, I 
 know not from whence, and to keep up for himself no 
 less than forty thousand? To pretend the defence of 
 parliaments, and violently to dissolve all even of his own 
 calling, and almost choosing ? To undertake the reform- 
 
GOVERNAIENT OF OLIVER CROMWEL. 29 
 
 ation of religion, to rob it even to the very skin, and then 
 to expose it naked to the rage of all sects and heresies ? 
 To set up councils of rapine, and courts of murder ? To 
 fight against the king under a commission for him ? To 
 take him forcibly out of the hands of those for whom 5 
 he had conquer'd him ? To draw him into his net, with 
 protestations and vows of fidelity, and when he had 
 caught him in it, to butcher him, with as little shame as 
 conscience or humanity, in the open face of the whole 
 world? To receive a commission for king and parhament, 10 
 to murder (as I said) the one, and destroy no less im- 
 pudently the other ? To fight against monarchy when he 
 declared for it, and declare against it when he contrived 
 for it in his own person ? To abuse perfidiously and sup- 
 plant ingratefully his own general first, and afterwards 15 
 most of those officers, who, with the loss of their honour, 
 and hazard of their souls, had lifted him up to the top of 
 his unreasonable ambitions ? To break his faith with all 
 enemies and with all friends equally, and to make no 
 less frequent use of the most solemn perjuries, than the 20 
 looser sort of people do of customary oaths ? To usurp 
 three kingdoms without any shadow of the least pre- 
 tensions, and to govern them as unjustly as he got them? 
 To set himself up as an idol (which we know, as St Paul 
 says, in itself is nothing), and make the very streets of 25 
 London like the valley of Hinnom, by burning the 
 bowels of men as a sacrifice to his Molochship ? To seek 
 to entail this usurpation upon his posterity, and with it 
 an endless war upon the nation? And lastly, by the 
 severest judgment of Almighty God, to die hardned, and 30 
 mad, and unrepentant, with the curses of the present 
 age, and the detestation of all to succeed?" 
 
 Though I had much more to say (for the life of man 
 is so short, that it allows not time enough to speak 
 against a tyrant) yet because I had a mind to hear how 35 
 
30 A DISCOURSE CONCERNING THE 
 
 my strange adversary would behave himself upon this 
 subject, and to give even the devil (as they say) his right, 
 and fair play in disputation, I stopt here, and expected 
 (not without the frailty of a little fear) that he should 
 
 5 have broke into a violent passion in behalf of his 
 favourite : but he on the contrary very calmly, and with 
 the dove-like innocency of a serpent that was not yet 
 warm'd enough to sting, thus reply'd to me : 
 
 "It is not so much out of my affection to that person 
 
 lo whom we discourse of (whose greatness is too solid to 
 be shaken by the breath of any oratory), as for your own 
 sake (honest countryman,) whom I conceive to err rather 
 by mistake than out of malice, that I shall endeavour to 
 reform your uncharitable and unjust opinion. And, in 
 
 15 the first place, I must needs put you in mind of a sentence 
 of the most antient of the heathen divines, that you men 
 are acquainted withal, 
 
 Ov;^ ocTLOv KTaixivoi<JLv €77 avSpdcTLv €VX€Tda(r6ai. 
 
 'Tis wicked with insulting feet to tread 
 20 Upon the monuments of the dead. 
 
 And the intention of the reproof there is no less proper 
 for this subject ; for it is spoken to a person who was 
 proud and insolent against those dead men, to whom he 
 had been humble and obedient whilst they lived." 
 25 "Your highness may please (said I) to add the verse 
 that follows, as no less proper for this subject : 
 
 Whom God's just doom and their own sins have sent 
 Already to their punishment. 
 
 "But 1 take this to be the rule in the case, that, when 
 30 we fix any infamy upon deceased persons, it should not 
 be done out of hatred to the dead, but out of love and 
 charity to the living : that the curses, which only remain 
 in men's thoughts, and dare not come forth against 
 tyrants (because they are tyrants) whilst they are so, may 
 
GOVERNMENT OF OLIVER CROMWEL. 31 
 
 at least be for ever setled and engraven upon their 
 memories, to deter all others from the like wickedness ; 
 which else, in the time of their foolish prosperity, the 
 flattery of their own hearts and of other men's tongues 
 would not suffer them to perceive. Ambition is so subtil 5 
 a tempter, and the corruption of humane nature so 
 susceptible of the temptation, that a man can hardly 
 resist it, be he never so much forewarn'd of the evil 
 consequences ; much less if he find not only the con- 
 currence of the present, but the approbation too of 10 
 following ages, which have the liberty to judge more 
 freely. The mischief of tyranny is too great, even in 
 the shortest time that it can continue ; it is endless and 
 insupportable, if the example be to reign too, and if a 
 Lambert must be invited to follow the steps of a Cromwel, 15 
 as well by the voice of honour, as by the sight of power 
 and riches. Though it may seem to some fantastically, 
 yet was it wisely done of the Syracusians, to implead 
 with the forms of their ordinary justice, to condemn and 
 destroy even the statutes of all their tyrants : if it were 20 
 possible to cut them out of all history, and to extinguish 
 their very names, I am of opinion that it ought to be 
 done; but, since they have left behind them too deep 
 wounds to be ever closed up without a scar, at least let 
 us set such a mark upon their memory, that men of the 25 
 same wicked inclinations may be no less affrighted with 
 their lasting ignominy, than enticed by their momentany 
 glories. And that your highness may perceive, that I 
 speak not all this out of any private animosity against 
 the person of that late protector, I assure you upon my 30 
 faith, that I bear no more hatred to his name, than I do 
 to that of Marius or Sylla, who never did me, or any 
 friend of mine, the least injury ; and with that, transported 
 by a holy fury, I fell into this sudden rapture : 
 
32 A DISCOURSE CONCERNING THE 
 
 I. 
 
 Curst be the man (what do I wish? as though 
 
 The wretch already were not so ; 
 But curst on let him be) who thinks it brave 
 And great, his country to enslave, 
 5 Who seeks to overpoise alone 
 
 The balance of a nation, 
 Against the whole but naked state, 
 Who in his own light scale makes up with arms the 
 weight. 
 
 2. 
 
 Who of his nation loves to be the first, 
 lo Though at the rate of being worst. 
 
 Who would be rather a great monster, than 
 A well-proportion'd man. 
 The son of earth with hundred hands 
 Upon his three-pil'd mountain stands, 
 15 Till thunder strikes him from the skie ; 
 
 The son of earth again in his earth's womb does lie. 
 
 What blood, confusion, ruine, to obtain 
 A short and miserable reign ! 
 
 In what oblique and humble creeping wise 
 20 Does the mischievous serpent rise ! 
 
 But ev'n his forked tongue strikes dead : 
 When he's rear'd up his wicked head, 
 He murders with his mortal frown ; 
 
 A basilisk he grows, if once he gets a crown. 
 
GOVERNMENT OE OLIVER CROMWEL, 33 
 
 But no guards can oppose assaulting fears, 
 
 Or undermining tears, 
 No more than doors or close-drawn curtains keep 
 
 The swarming dreams out, when we sleep. 
 
 That bloody conscience, too, of his 
 
 (For, oh, a rebel red-coat 'tis) 
 
 Does here his early hell begin, 
 He sees his slaves without, his tyrant feels within. 
 
 5- 
 
 Let, gracious God, let never more thine hand 
 
 Lift up this rod against our land. 10 
 
 A tyrant is a rod and serpent too, 
 
 And brings worse plagues than Egypt knew. 
 
 What rivers stain'd with blood have been ! 
 
 What storm and hail-shot have we seen ! 
 
 What sores deform'd the ulcerous state ! 15 
 
 What darkness to be felt has buried us of late! 
 
 How has it snatcht our flocks and herds away ! 
 And made ev'n of our sons a prey ! 
 
 What croaking sects and vermin has it sent, 
 
 The restles nation to torment ! 20 
 
 What greedy troops, what armed power 
 
 Of flies and locusts, to devour 
 
 The land, which every where they fill ! 
 
 Nor fly they. Lord, away; no, they devour it still. 
 
 L. c. 3 
 
34 A DISCOURSE CONCERNING THE 
 
 7- 
 
 Come the eleventh plague, rather than this should be; 
 
 Come sink us rather in the sea. 
 Come rather pestilence and reap us down ; 
 
 Come God's sword rather than our own, 
 5 Let rather Roman come again, 
 
 Or Saxon, Norman, or the Dane : 
 
 In all the bonds we ever bore, 
 We griev'd, we sigh'd, we wept ; we never blusht before. 
 
 8. 
 
 If by our sins the divine justice be 
 lo Call'd to this last extremitie, 
 
 Let some denouncing Jonas first be sent, 
 To try if England can repent. 
 Methinks, at least, some prodigy, 
 Some dreadful comet from on high, 
 15 Should terribly forewarn the earth, 
 
 As of good princes' deaths, so of a tyrant's birth." 
 
 Here, the spirit of verse beginning a little to fail, I 
 stopt : and his highness, smiling, said, " I was glad to 
 see you engaged in the enclosures of metre ; for, if 
 
 20 you had staid in the open plain of declaiming against 
 the word Tyrant, I must have had patience for half a 
 dozen hours, till you had tired yourself as well as me. 
 But pray, countryman, to avoid this sciomachy, or 
 imaginary combat with words, let me know. Sir, what 
 
 25 you mean by the name tyrant, for I remember that, 
 among your antient authors, not only all kings, but even 
 Jupiter himself (your jiivans pater) is so termed ; and 
 perhaps, as it was uced fornierly in a good sense, so we 
 shall find it, upon better consideration, to be still a good 
 
GOVERNMENT OF OLIVER CROMWEL. 35 
 
 thing for the benefit and peace of mankind ; at least, it 
 will appear whether your interpretation of it may be 
 justly applyed to the person who is now the subject of 
 our discourse." 
 
 '*I call him (said I) a tyrant, who either intrudes 5 
 himself forcibly into the government of his fellow citizens 
 without any legal authority over them ; or who, having 
 a just title to the government of a people, abuses it to 
 the destruction, or tormenting, of them. So that all 
 tyrants are at the same time usurpers, either of the whole, 10 
 or at least of a part, of that power which they assume 
 to themselves : and no less are they to be accounted 
 rebels, since no man can usurp authority over others, 
 but by rebelling against them who had it before, or at 
 least against those laws which were his superiors: and 15 
 in all these senses, no history can afford us a more 
 evident example of tyranny, or more out of all possi- 
 bility of excuse, or palliation, than that of the person 
 whom you are pleased to defend; whether we consider 
 his reiterated rebellions against all his superiors, or his 20 
 usurpation of the supreme power to himself, or his 
 tyranny in the exercise of it : and, if lawful princes 
 have been esteemed tyrants, by not containing them- 
 selves within the bounds of those laws which have been 
 left them as the sphere of their authority by their 25 
 forefathers, what shall we say of that man, who, having 
 by right no power at all in this nation, could not content 
 liimself with that which had satisfied the most ambitious 
 of our princes? nay, not with those vastly extended 
 limits of soveraignty, which he (disdaining all that had 30 
 been prescribed and observed before) was pleased (out 
 of great modesty) to set to himself ; not abstaining from 
 rebellion and usurpation even against his own laws, as 
 well as those of the nation ? " 
 
 3-2 
 
36 A DISCOURSE CONCERNING THE 
 
 " Hold, friend, said his highness, pulling me by my 
 arm, for I see your zeal is transporting you again ; 
 whether the protector were a tyrant in the exorbitant 
 exercise of his power, we shall see anon ; it is requisite 
 
 5 to examine, first, whether he were so in the usurpation 
 of it. And I say, that not only he, but no man else, 
 ever was, or can be so ; and that for these reasons. 
 First, because all power belongs only to God, who is 
 the source and fountain of it, as kings are of all honours 
 
 lo in their dominions. Princes are but his viceroys in the 
 little provinces of this world; and to some he gives 
 their places for a few years, to some for their lives, and 
 to others (upon ends or deserts best known to himself, or 
 meerly for his indisputable good pleasure) he bestows, 
 
 15 as it were, leases upon them and their posterity, for such a 
 date of time as is prefixt in that patent of their destiny, 
 which is not legible to you men below. Neither is it 
 more unlawful for Oliver to succeed Charles in the 
 kingdom of England, when God so disposes of it, than 
 
 20 it had been for him to have succeeded the Lord Strafford 
 in his lieutenancy of Ireland, if he had been appointed 
 to it by the king then reigning. Men are in both the 
 cases obliged to obey him, whom they see actually in- 
 vested with the authority by that sovereign from whom 
 
 25 he ought to derive it, without disputing or examining 
 the causes, either of the removal of the one, or the 
 preferment of the other. Secondly, because all power 
 is attained, either by the election and consent of the 
 people, and that takes away your objection of forcible 
 
 30 intrusion ; or else, by a conquest of them, and that 
 gives such a legal authority as you mention to be want- 
 ing in the usurpation of a tyrant; so that either this 
 title is right, and then there are no usurpers, or else it is 
 a wrong one, and then there are none else but usurpers, 
 
GOVERNMENT OF OLIVER CROMWEL. 37 
 
 if you examine the original pretences of the princes of 
 the world. Thirdly, (which, quitting the dispute in 
 general, is a particular justification of his highness) the 
 government of England was totally broken and dis- 
 solved, and extinguisht by the confusions of a civil 5 
 war; so that his highness could not be accused to have 
 possest himself violently of the antient building of the 
 commonwealth, but to have prudently and peaceably 
 built up a new one out of the mines and ashes of the 
 former; and he who^ after a deplorable shipwrack, can 10 
 with extraordinary industry gather together the disperst 
 and broken planks and pieces of it, and with no less 
 wonderful art and felicity so rejoyn them as to make a 
 new vessel more tight and beautiful than the old one, 
 deserves, no doubt, to have the command of her (even 15 
 as his highness had by the desire of the seamen and 
 passengers themselves). And do but consider, lastly, (for 
 I omit a multitude of weighty things, that might be 
 spoken upon this noble argument) do but consider 
 seriously and impartially with yourself, what admirable 20 
 parts of wit and prudence, what indefatigable diligence 
 and invincible courage, must of necessity have con- 
 curred in the person of that man, who from so con- 
 temptible beginnings (as I observed before) and through 
 so many thousand difficulties, was able not only to make 25 
 himself the greatest and most absolute monarch of this 
 nation ; but to add to it the entire conquest of Ireland 
 and Scotland (which the whole force of the world, joyned 
 with the Roman virtue, could never attain to), and to 
 crown all this with illustrious and heroical undertakings 30 
 and success upon all our forreign enemies : do but (I 
 say again) consider this, and you will confess, that his 
 prodigious merits were a better title to imperial dignity, 
 than the blood of an hundred royal progenitors ; and 
 
38 A DISCOURSE CONCERNING THE 
 
 will rather lament that he had lived not to overcome 
 more nations, than envy him the conquest and dominion 
 of these." 
 
 " Whoever you are (said I, my indignation making 
 
 5 me somewhat bolder), your discourse (methinks) be- 
 comes as little the person of a tutelar angel, as Crom- 
 wel's actions did that of a protector. It is upon these 
 principles, that all the great crimes of the world have 
 been committed, and most particularly those which I 
 
 lo have had the misfortune to see in my own time, and in 
 my own country. If these be to be allowed, we must 
 break up human society, retire into the woods, and 
 equally there stand upon our guards against our brethren 
 mankind, and our rebels the wild beasts. For if there 
 
 15 can be no usurpation upon the rights of a whole nation, 
 there can be none most certainly upon those of a 
 private person ; and, if the robbers of countries be 
 God's vicegerents, there is no doubt but the thieves and 
 banditos, and murderers, are his under officers. It is 
 
 20 true which you say, that God is the source and fountain 
 of all power ; and it is no less true, that he is the creator 
 of serpents as well as angels ; nor does his goodness 
 fail of its ends, even in the malice of his own creatures. 
 What power he suffers the devil to exercise in this 
 
 25 world is too apparent by our daily experience ; and by 
 nothing more than the late monstrous iniquities which 
 you dispute for, and patronize in England : but would 
 you inferr from thence, that the power of the devil is a 
 just and lawful one; and that all men ought, as well as 
 
 30 most men do, obey him ? God is the fountain of all 
 powers ; but some flow from the right hand (as it were) 
 of his goodness, and others from the left hand of his 
 justice ; and the world, like an island between these 
 two rivers, is sometimes refresht and nourisht by the 
 
GOVERNMENT OF OLIVER CROMWEL. 39 
 
 one, and sometimes over-run and ruin'd by the other; 
 and (to continue a Uttle farther the allegory) we are never 
 overwhelm'd with the latter, till, either by our malice 
 or negligence, we have stopt and damm'd up the former. 
 
 But to come up a little closer to your argument, or 5 
 rather the image of an argument, your similitude. If 
 Cromwel had come to command in Ireland in the place 
 of the late Lord Strafford, I should have yielded 
 obedience, not for the equipage, and the strength, and 
 the guards which he brought with him, but for the com- 10 
 mission which he should first have shewed me from our 
 common sovereign which sent him; and, if he could have 
 done that from God Almighty, I would have obeyed 
 him too in England; but that he was so far from being 
 able to do, that, on the contrary, I read nothing but 15 
 commands, and even public proclamations, from God 
 Almighty, not to admit him. 
 
 Your second argument is, that he had the same right 
 for his authority, that is the foundation of all others, 
 even the right of conquest. Are we then so unhappy 20 
 as to be conquer'd by the person, whom we hired at a 
 daily rate, like a labourer, to conquer others for us? 
 Did we furnish him with arms, only to draw and try upon 
 our enemies (as we, it seems, falsly thought them), and 
 keep them for ever sheath'd in the bowels of his friends? 25 
 Did we fight for liberty against our prince, that we might 
 become slaves to our servant? This is such an impudent 
 pretence, as neither he nor any of his flatterers for him 
 had ever the face to mention. Though it can hardly be 
 spoken or thought of without passion, yet I shall, if you 30 
 please, argue it more calmly than the case deserves. 
 
 The right, certainly, of conquest can only be exercised 
 upon those, against whom the war is declared, and the 
 victory obtained. So that no whole nation can be said 
 
40 A DISCOURSE CONCERNING THE 
 
 to be conquered, but by foreign force. In all civil 
 wars, men are so far from stating the quarrel against 
 their country, that they do it only against a person, or 
 party, which they really believe, or at least pretend, to 
 
 5 be pernicious to it ; neither can there be any just cause 
 for the destruction of a part of the body, but when it is 
 done for the preservation and safety of the whole. 'Tis 
 our country that raises men in the quarrel, our country 
 that arms, our country that pays them, our country that 
 
 lo authorises the undertaking, and, by that, distinguishes it 
 from rapine and murder; lastly, 'tis our country that 
 directs and commands the army, and is indeed their 
 general. So that to say, in civil wars, that the prevailing 
 party conquers their country, is to say, the country 
 
 15 conquers itself And if the general only of that party be 
 conqueror, the army by which he is made so is no less 
 conquered than the army which is beaten, and have as 
 little reason to triumph in that victory, by which they 
 lose both their honour and liberty. So that if Cromwel 
 
 20 conquer'd any party, it was only that against which he 
 was sent ; and what that was must appear by his com- 
 mission. It was (says that) against a company of evil 
 counsellors and disaftected persons, who kept the king 
 from a good intelligence and conjunction with his people. 
 
 25 It was not then against the people. It is so far from 
 being so, that even of that party which was beaten, the 
 conquest did not belong to Cromwel, but to the parliament 
 which employed him in their service, or rather, indeed, 
 to the king and parliament, for whose service (if there 
 
 30 had been any faith in men's vows and protestations) the 
 wars were undertaken. Merciful God ! did the right of 
 this miserable conquest remain then in his majesty ; and 
 didst thou suffer him to be destroyed with more barbarity 
 than if he had been conquered even by savages and 
 
GOVERNMENT OF OLIVER CROMWEL. 41 
 
 cannibals ? Was it for king and parliament that we 
 fought ; and has it fared with them just as with the army 
 which we fought against, the one part being slain, and 
 the other fled ? It appears therefore plainly, that 
 Cromvvel was not a conqueror, but a thief and a robber 5 
 of the rights of the king and parliament, and an usurper 
 upon those of the people. I do not here deny conquest 
 to be sometimes (though it be very rarely) a true title; 
 but I deny this to be a true conquest. Sure I am, that 
 the race of our princes came not in by such a one. One 10 
 nation may conquer another, sometimes, justly ; and if it 
 be unjustly, yet still it is a true conquest, and they are to 
 answer for the injustice only to God Almighty (having 
 nothing else in authority above them,) and not as 
 particular rebels to their country, which is, and ought 15 
 always to be, their superior and their lord. If, perhaps, 
 we find usurpation instead of conquest in the original 
 titles of some royal families abroad (as, no doubt, there 
 have been many usurpers before ours, though none in so 
 impudent and execrable a manner ;) all I can say for 20 
 them is, that their title was very weak, till, by length of 
 time, and the death of all juster pretenders, it became to 
 be the true, because it was the only one. 
 
 Your third defence of his highness (as your highness 
 pleases to call him) enters in most seasonably after his 25 
 pretence of conquest ; for then a man may say any thing. 
 The government was broken ; who broke it ? It was 
 dissolved ; who dissolved it ? It was extinguisht ; who 
 was it, but Cromwel, who not only put out the light, 
 but cast away even the very snuff of it ? As if a man 30 
 should murder a whole family, and then possess himself 
 of the house, because 'tis better that he, than that only 
 rats should live there. Jesus God ! (said I, and at that 
 word I perceived my pretended angel to give a start and 
 
42 A DISCOURSE CONCERNING THE 
 
 trembled, but I took no notice of it, and went on) this 
 were a wicked pretension, even though the whole family 
 were destroyed ; but the heirs (blessed be God) are yet 
 surviving, and likely to outlive all heirs of their dispos- 
 
 5 sessors, besides their infamy. "Rode caper vitem," &c. 
 There will be yet wine enough left for the sacrifice of 
 those wild beasts, that have made so much spoil in the 
 vineyard. But did Cromwel think, like Nero, to set 
 the city on fire, only that he might have the honour of 
 
 lo being founder of a new and more beautiful one ? He 
 could not have such a shadow of virtue in his wickedness; 
 he meant only to rob more securely and more richly in 
 midst of the combustion ; he little thought then that he 
 should ever have been able to make himself *lnaster of 
 
 15 the palace, as well as plunder the goods of the common- 
 wealth. He was glad to see the publick vessel (the 
 sovereign of the seas) in as desperate a condition as his 
 own little canow, and thought only, with some scattered 
 planks of that great shipwrack, to make a better fisher- 
 
 20 boat for himself. But when he saw that, by the drowning 
 of the master (whom he himself treacherously knockt on 
 the head, as he was swimming for his life), by the flight 
 and dispersion of others, and cowardly patience of the 
 remaining company, that all was abandoned to his 
 
 25 pleasure ; with the old hulk and new misshapen and 
 disagreeing pieces of his own, he made up, with much 
 ado, that piratical vessel which we have seen him com- 
 mand, and which, how tight indeed it was, may best be 
 judged by its perpetual leaking. 
 
 30 First then (much more wicked than those ioolish 
 daughters in the fable, who cut their old father into 
 pieces, in hope, by charms and witchcraft, to make him 
 young and lusty again), this man endeavoured to destroy 
 the building, before he could imagine in what manner, 
 
GOVERNMENT OF OLIVER CROMIVEL. 43 
 
 with what materials, by what workmen, or what architect, 
 it was to be rebuilt. Secondly, if he had dreamt himself 
 to be able to revive that body which he had killed, yet it 
 had been but the insupportable insolence of an ignorant 
 mountebank; and, thirdly, (which concerns us nearest,) 5 
 that very new thing which he made out of the ruines of 
 the old, is no more like the original, either for beauty, 
 use, or duration, than an artificial plant, raised by the 
 fire of a chymist, is comparable to the true and natural 
 one which he first burnt, that out of the ashes of it he 10 
 might produce an imperfect similitude of his own making. 
 Your last argument is such (when reduced to syllo- 
 gism), that the major proposition of it would make 
 strange work in the world, if it were received for truth ; 
 to wit, that he who has the best parts in a; nation, has 15 
 the right of being king over it. We had enough to do 
 here of old with the contention between two branches 
 of the same family : what would become of us, when 
 every man in England should lay his claim to the govern- 
 ment ? And truly, if Cromwel should have commenced 20 
 his plea, when he seems to have begun his ambition, 
 there were few persons besides, that might not at the 
 same time have put in theirs too. But his deserts, I 
 suppose, you will date from the same term that I do his 
 great demerits, that is, from the beginning of our late 25 
 calamities (for, as for his private faults before, I can 
 only wish, and that with as much charity to him as to 
 the publick, that he had continued in them till his death, 
 rather than changed them for those of his later days) ; 
 and, therefore, we must begin the consideration of his 30 
 greatness from the unlucky aera of our own misfortunes, 
 which puts me in mind of what was said less truly of 
 Pompey the Great, " Nostra miseria magnus es." But, 
 because the general ground of your argumentation con- 
 
44 A DISCOURSE CONCERNING THE 
 
 sists in this, that all men who are the effectors of extra- 
 ordinary mutations in the world, must needs have 
 extraordinary forces of nature by which they are enabled 
 to turn about, as they please, so great a wheel ; I shall 
 5 speak first a few words upon this universal proposition, 
 which seems so reasonable, and is so popular, before I 
 descend to the particular examination of the eminencies 
 of that person which is in question. 
 
 I have often observed (with all submission and resig- 
 
 lo nation of spirit to the inscrutable mysteries of Eternal 
 Providence), that, when the fulness and maturity of time 
 is come, that produces the great confusions and changes 
 in the world, it usually pleases God to make it appear 
 by the manner of them, that they are not the effects of 
 
 15 humane force or policy, but of the divine justice and 
 predestination ; and, though we see a man, like that 
 which we call Jack of the clock-house, striking, as it 
 were, the hour of that fulness of time, yet our reason 
 must needs be convinced, that his hand is moved by 
 
 20 some secret, and, to us that stand without, invisible 
 direction. And the stream of the current is then so 
 violent, that the strongest men in the world cannot draw 
 up against it ; and none are so weak, but they may sail 
 down with it. These are the spring-tides of publick 
 
 25 affairs, which we see often happen, but seek in vain to 
 discover any certain causes : 
 
 — Omnia fluminis 
 Ritu feruntur, nunc medio alveo 
 Cum pace delabentis Etruscum 
 20 In mare, nunc lapides adesos, 
 
 Stirpesque raptas, & pecus, & domos 
 Volventis una, non sine montium 
 Clamore, vicinoeque sylvoe ; 
 Cum fera diluvies quietos 
 35 Irritat amnes. 
 
GOVERNMENT OF OLIVER CROMWEL, 45 
 
 And one man then, by maliciously opening all the 
 sluyces that he can come at, can never be the sole author 
 of all this (though he may be as guilty as if really he 
 were, by intending and imagining to be so) ; but it is 
 God that breaks up the flood-gates of so general a deluge, 5 
 and all the art then, and industry of mankind, is not 
 sufficient to raise up dikes and ramparts against it. In 
 such a time it was as this, that not all the wisdom and 
 power of the Roman senate, nor the wit and eloquence 
 of Cicero, nor the courage and virtue of Brutus, was 10 
 able to defend their country or themselves, against the 
 unexperienced rashness of a beardless boy, and the loose 
 rage of a voluptuous madman. The valour, and prudent 
 counsels, on the one side, are made fruitless, and the 
 errors, and cowardise, on the other, harmless, by unex- 15 
 pected accidents. The one general saves his life, and 
 gains the whole world, by a very dream ; and the other 
 loses both at once, by a little mistake of the shortness 
 of his sight. And though this be not always so, for we 
 see that, in the translation of the great monarchies from 20 
 one to another, it pleased God to make choice of the 
 most eminent men in nature, as Cyrus, Alexander, 
 Scipio and his contemporaries, for his chief instruments, 
 and actors, in so admirable a work (the end of this 
 being, not only to destroy or punish one nation, which 25 
 may be done by the worst of mankind, but to exalt and 
 bless another, which is only to be effected by great and 
 virtuous persons) ; yet, when God only intends the tem- 
 porary chastisement of a people, he does not raise up 
 his servant Cyrus (as he himself pleased to call him), 30 
 or an Alexander (who had as many virtues to do good, 
 as vices to do harm) ; but he makes the Massenellos, 
 and the Johns of Leyden, the instruments of his ven- 
 geance, that the power of the Almighty might be more 
 
46 A DISCOURSE CONCERNING THE 
 
 evident by the weakness of the means which he chooses 
 to demonstrate it. He did not assemble the serpents, 
 and the monsters of Africk, to correct the pride of the 
 Egyptians; but called for his army of locusts out of 
 5 i^thiopia, and formed new ones of vermin out of the 
 very dust ; and, because you see a whole country de- 
 stroyed by these, will you argue from thence they must 
 needs have had both the craft of foxes, and the courage 
 of lions ? 
 
 lo It is easie to apply this general observation to the 
 particular case of our troubles in England : and that 
 they seem only to be meant for a temporary chastise- 
 ment of our sins, and not for a total abolishment of the 
 old, and introduction of a new government, appears 
 
 15 probable to me from these considerations, as far as we 
 may be bold to make a judgment of the will of God in 
 future events. First, because he has suffered nothing 
 to settle, or take root, in the place of that which hath 
 been so unwisely and unjustly removed, that none of 
 
 20 these untempered mortars can hold out against the next 
 blast of wind, nor any stone stick to a stone, till that 
 which these loolish builders have refused be made again 
 the head of the corner. For, when the indisposed and 
 long-tormented commonwealth hath wearied and spent 
 
 25 itself almost to nothing, with the chargeable, various, 
 and dangerous experiments of several mountebanks, it 
 is to be supposed, it will have the wit at last to send for 
 a true physician, especially when it sees (which is the 
 second consideration) most evidently (as it now begins 
 
 30 to do, and will do every day more and more, and might 
 have done perfectly long since) that no usurpation 
 (under what name or pretext soever) can be kept up 
 without open force, nor force without the continuance 
 of those oppressions upon the people, which will at last 
 
GOVERNMENT OF OLIVER CROMWEL. 47 
 
 tire out their patience, though it be great even to 
 stupidity. They cannot be so dull (when poverty and 
 hunger begin to whet their understanding) as not to 
 find out this no extraordinary mystery, that it is mad- 
 ness in a nation to pay three milhons a year for the 5 
 maintaining of their servitude under tyrants, when they 
 might Uve free for nothing under their princes. This, 
 I say, will not always lye hid, even to the slowest 
 capacities ; and the next truth they will discover after- 
 wards is, that a whole people can never have the will, 10 
 without having, at the same time, the power to redeem 
 themselves. Thirdly, it does not look (methinks) as if 
 God had forsaken the family of that man, from whom he 
 hath raised up five children, of as eminent virtue, and all 
 other commendable qualities, as ever lived perhaps (for 15 
 so many together, and so young) in any other family in 
 the whole world. Especially, if we add hereto this con- 
 sideration, that, by protecting and preserving some of 
 them already through as great dangers as ever were 
 past with safety, either by prince or private person, he 20 
 hath given them already (as we may reasonably hope 
 to be meant) a promise and earnest of his future favours. 
 And, lastly, (to return -closely to the discourse from 
 which I have a little digress'd) because I see nothing of 
 those excellent parts of nature, and mixture of merit 25 
 with their vices, in the late disturbers of our peace and 
 happiness, that uses to be found in the persons of those 
 who are born for the erection of new empires. 
 
 And, I confess, I find nothing of that kind, no nor 
 any shadow (taking away the false light of some pros- 30 
 perity) in the man whom you extol for the first example 
 of it. And, certainly, all virtues being rightly divided 
 into moral and intellectual, I know not how we can 
 better judge of the former, than by men's actions; or of 
 
48 A DISCOURSE CONCERNING THE 
 
 the latter, than by their writings, or speeches. As for 
 these latter (which are least in merit, or, rather, which 
 are only the instruments of mischief, where the other 
 are wanting,) I think you can hardly pick out the name 
 
 5 of a man who ever was called great, besides him we are 
 now speaking of, who never left the memory behind him 
 of one wise or witty apothegm even amongst his 
 domestic servants or greatest flatterers. That little in 
 print, which remains upon a sad record for him, is 
 
 lo such, as a satyre against him would not have made him 
 say, for fear of transgressing too much the rules of pro- 
 babihty. I know not what you can produce for the 
 justification of his parts in this kind, but his having been 
 able to deceive so many particular persons, and so many 
 
 15 whole parties ; which, if you please to take notice of for 
 the advantage of his intellectuals, I desire you to allow 
 me the liberty to do so too when I am to speak of his 
 morals. The truth of the thing is this, that if craft be 
 wisdom, and dissimulation wit (assisted both and im- 
 
 20 proved with hypocrisies and perjuries), I must not deny 
 him to have been singular in both ; but so gross was the 
 manner in which he made use of them, that, as wise men 
 ought not to have believed hin; at first, so no man was 
 fool enough to believe him at last : neither did any man 
 
 25 seem to do it, but those who thought they gained as much 
 by that dissembling, as he did by his. His very actings 
 of godUness grew at last as ridiculous, as if a player, by 
 putting on a gown, should think he represented excel- 
 lently a woman, though his beard, at the same time, 
 
 30 were seen by all the spectators. If you ask me, why 
 they did not hiss, and explode him off the stage ; I can 
 only answer, that they durst not do so, because the 
 actors and the door-keepers were too strong for the 
 company. I must confess that by these arts (how 
 
GOVERNMENT OF OLIVER CROMIVEL. 49 
 
 grossly soever managed, as by hypocritical praying and 
 silly preaching, by unmanly tears and vvhinings, by false- 
 hoods and perjuries even diabolical) he had at first the 
 good-fortune (as men call it that is the ill-fortune) to 
 attain his ends ; but it was because his ends were so un- 5 
 reasonable, that no human reason could foresee them ; 
 which made them who had to do with him believe, that 
 he was rather a well-meaning and deluded bigot, than a 
 crafty and malicious impostor: that these arts were 
 helpt by an indefatigable industry (as you term it), I 10 
 am so far from doubting, that I intended to object that 
 diligence as the worst of his crimes. It makes me 
 almost mad, when I hear a man commended for his 
 diligence in wickedness. If I were his son, I should 
 wish to God he had been a more lazy person, and that 15 
 we might have found him sleeping at the hours when 
 other men are ordinarily waking, rather than waking 
 for those ends of his when other men were ordinarily 
 asleep. How diligent the wicked are, the Scripture 
 often tells us ; Their feet run to evil, a7id they make haste 20 
 to shed innocent blood, Isai. lix. 7. He travails with 
 iniquity, Psal. vii. 14. He deviseth mischief upon his bed, 
 Psal. xxxiv. 4. They search out iniquity, they accomplish 
 a diligent search, Psal. Ixiv. 6; and in a multitude of 
 other places. And would it not seem ridiculous to 25 
 praise a wolf for his watchfulness, and for his inde- 
 fatigable industry in ranging all night about the countrey, 
 whilst the sheep, and perhaps the shepherd, and perhaps 
 the very dogs too, are asleep ? 
 
 The Chartreux wants the warning of a bell 30 
 
 To call him to the duties of his cell; 
 
 There needs no noise at all t'awaken sin, 
 
 Th' adulterer and the thief his 'larum has within. 
 
 And if the diligence of wicked persons be so much 
 
 L. C. A 
 
50 A DISCOURSE CONCERNING THE 
 
 to be blamed, as that it is only an emphasis and ex- 
 aggeration of their wickedness, I see not how their 
 courage can avoid the same censure. If the under- 
 taking bold and vast and unreasonable designs can de- 
 
 5 serve that honourable name, I am sure, Faux, and his 
 fellow gun-powder fiends, will have cause to pretend, 
 though not an equal, yet at least the next place of 
 honour ; neither can I doubt but, if they too had suc- 
 ceeded, they would have found their applauders and 
 
 lo admirers. It was bold, unquestionably, for a man, in 
 defiance of all humane and divine laws, (and widi so little 
 probability of a long impunity,) so publickly and so out- 
 ragiously to murder his master ; it was bold, with so 
 much insolence and affront, to expel and disperse all 
 
 15 the chief partners of his guilt, and creators of his 
 power ; it was bold, to violate, so openly and so scorn- 
 fully, all acts and constitutions of a nation, and after- 
 wards even of his own making ; it was bold, to assume 
 the authority of calling, and bolder yet of breaking, so 
 
 20 many parliaments ; it was bold, to trample upon the 
 patience of his own, and provoke that of all neighbour- 
 ing countries \ it was bold, I say, above all boldnesses, 
 to usurp the tyranny to himself; and impudent above 
 all impudences, to endeavour to transmit it to his pos- 
 
 25 terity. But all this boldness is so far from being a design 
 of manly courage, which dares not transgress the rules 
 of any other virtue, that it is only a demonstration of 
 brutish madness or diabolical passion. In both which 
 last cases there use frequent examples to appear, of such 
 
 30 extraordinary force as may justly seem more wonderful 
 and astonishing than the actions of Cromwel ; neither is 
 it stranger to believe that a whole nation should not be 
 able to govern him and a mad army, than that five or 
 six men should not be strong enough to bind a distracted 
 
GOVERNMENT OF OLIVER CROMWEL. 51 
 
 girl. There is no man ever succeeds in one wickedness, 
 but it gives him the boldness to attempt a greater. 'Twas 
 boldly done of Nero to kill his mother, and all the 
 chief nobility of the empire; 'twas boldly done, to 
 set the metropolis of the whole world on fire, and un- 5 
 dauntedly play upon his harp, whilst he saw it burning ; 
 I could reckon up five hundred boldnesses of that great 
 person, (for why should not he too be called so?) who 
 wanted, when he was to dye, that courage which could 
 hardly have failed any woman in the like necessity. 10 
 
 It would look (I must confess,) like envy, or too 
 much partiality, if I should say that personal kind of 
 courage had been deficient in the man we speak of; I 
 am confident it was not : and yet I may venture, I 
 think, to affirm, that no man ever bore the honour of so 15 
 many victories, at the rate of fewer wounds or dangers 
 of his own body ; and though his valour might perhaps 
 have given him a just pretension to one of the first 
 charges in an army, it could not certainly be a sufficient 
 ground for a title to the command of three nations. 20 
 
 What then shall we say, that he did all this by 
 witchcraft? He did so, indeed, in a great measure, by 
 a sin that is called like it in the Scriptures. But, truly 
 and unpassionately reflecting upon the advantages of 
 his person, which might be thought to have produced 25 
 those of his fortune, I can espy no other but extra- 
 ordinary diligence, and infinite dissimulation ; and be- 
 lieve he was exalted above his nation, partly by his own 
 faults, but chiefly for ours. 
 
 We have brought him thus briefly (not through all 30 
 his labyrinths) to the supream usurpt authority; and, 
 because you say it was great pity he did not live to 
 command more kingdoms, be pleased to let me represent 
 to you, in a few words, how well I conceive he governed 
 
 4—2 
 
52 A DISCOURSE CONCERNING THE 
 
 these. And we will divide the consideration into that 
 of his foreign and domestique actions. The first of his 
 foreign was a peace with our brethren of Holland (who 
 were the first of our neighbours that God chastised for 
 5 having had so great a hand in the encouraging and 
 abetting our troubles at home) : who would not imagine, 
 at first glympse, that this had been the most virtuous 
 and laudable deed, that his whole life could have made 
 any parade of? But no man can look upon all the cir- 
 
 lo cumstances, without perceiving, that it was purely the 
 sale and sacrificing of the greatest advantages that this 
 countrey could ever hope, and was ready to reap, from 
 a foreign war, to the private interests of his covetous- 
 ness and ambition, and the security of his new and un- 
 
 15 setled usurpation. No sooner is that danger past, but 
 this Beatus Pacificus is kindling a fire in the northern 
 world, and carrying a war two thousand miles off, west- 
 wards. Two millions a year (besides all the vails of 
 his protectorship) is as little capable to suffice now 
 
 20 either his avarice or prodigality, as the two hundred 
 pounds were, that he was born to. He must have his 
 prey of the whole Indies, both by sea and land, this 
 great aligator. To satisfy our Anti-Solomon (who has 
 made silver almost as rare as gold, and gold as precious 
 
 25 stones in his new Jerusalem) we must go, ten thousand 
 of his slaves, to fetch him riches from his fantastical 
 Ophir. And, because his flatterers brag of him as the 
 most fortunate prince (the Faustus as well as Sylla of 
 our nation, whom God never forsook in any of his un- 
 
 30 dertakings), I desire them to consider, how, since the 
 English name was ever heard of, it never received so 
 great and so infamous a blow as under the imprudent 
 conduct of this unlucky Faustus ; and herein let me 
 admire the justice of God, in this circumstance, that 
 
GOVERNMENT OF OLIVER CROMWEL. 53 
 
 they who had enslaved their country, though a great 
 army, (which I wish, may be observed by ours with 
 trembhng), should be so shamefully defeated, by the 
 hands of forty slaves. It was very ridiculous to see 
 how prettily they endeavoured to hide this ignominy, 5 
 under the great name of the conquest of Jamaica ; as if 
 a defeated army should have the impudence to brag 
 afterwards of the victory, because, though they had fled 
 out of the field of battel, yet they quartered that night 
 in a village of the enemies. The war with Spain was 10 
 a necessary consequence of this folly; and how much 
 we have gotten by it, let the custom-house and exchange 
 inform you ; and, if he please to boast of the taking a 
 part of the silver fleet, (which indeed nobody else but 
 he who was the sole gainer, has cause to do), at least, 15 
 let him give leave to the rest of the nation (which is the 
 only loser), to complain of the loss of twelve hundred 
 of her ships. 
 
 But, because it may here, perhaps, be answered, that 
 his successes nearer home have extinguisht the dis- 20 
 grace of so remote miscarriages, and that Dunkirk ought 
 more to be remembered for his glory, than S. Domingo 
 for his disadvantage ; I must confess, as to the honour 
 of the English courage, that they were not wanting upon 
 that occasion (excepting only the fault of serving at 25 
 least indirectly against their master), to the upholding 
 of the renown of their war-like ancestors. But, for his 
 particular share of it, who sate still at home, and 
 exposed them so frankly abroad, I can only say, that 
 for less money than he in the short time of his reign 30 
 exacted from his fellow-subjects, some of our former 
 princes (with the daily hazard of their own persons) 
 have added to the dominion of England, not only one 
 town, but even a greater kingdom than itself. And, 
 
54 A DISCOURSE CONCERNING THE 
 
 this being all considerable as concerning his enterprises 
 abroad, let us examine, in the next place, how much 
 we owe him for his justice and good government at 
 home. 
 
 5 And, first, he found the commonwealth (as then they 
 called it) in ready stock of about 800,000 pounds ; he left 
 the commonwealth (as he had the impudent raillery still 
 to call it) some two millions and a half in debt. He 
 found our trade very much decayed indeed, in com- 
 
 10 parison of the golden times of our late princes ; he left 
 it, as much again more decayed than he found it : and 
 yet, not only no prince in England, but no tyrant in the 
 world, ever sought out more base or infamous means to 
 raise moneys. I shall only instance in one that he put 
 
 15 in practice, and another that he attempted, but was 
 frighted from the execution (even he) by the infamy 
 of it. That which he put in practice, was decimation ; 
 which was the most impudent breach of a public faith 
 that the whole nation had given, and all private capitu- 
 
 20 lations which himself had made, as the nation's general 
 and servant, that can be found out (I believe) in all 
 history, from any of the most barbarous generals of the 
 most barbarous people. Which, because it has been 
 most excellently, and most largely, laid open by a whole 
 
 25 book written upon that subject, I shall only desire you 
 here to remember the thing in general, and to be pleased 
 to look upon that author, when you would recollect all 
 the particulars and circumstances of the iniquity. The 
 other design, of raising a present sum of money, which 
 
 30 he violently pursued, but durst not put in execution, was 
 by the calling in and establishment of the Jews at 
 London ; from which he was rebuked by the universal 
 outcry of the divines, and even of the citizens too, who 
 took it ill, that a considerable number, at least amongst 
 
GOVERNMENT OF OLIVER CROMWEL. 55 
 
 themselves, were not thought Jews enough by their own 
 Herod. And for this design, they say, he invented (O 
 Antichrist ! IlovT/poV and Iloi/rypos) to sell S. Paul's to 
 them for a synagogue, if their purses and devotions 
 could have reacht to the purchase. And this, indeed, 5 
 if he had done only to reward that nation, which had 
 given the first noble example of crucifying their king, it 
 might have had some appearance of gratitude : but he 
 did it only for love of their mammon ; and would have 
 sold afterwards, for as much more, S. Peter's (even at his 10 
 own Westminster) to the Turks for a mosquito. Such 
 was his extraordinary piety to God, that he desired he 
 might be worshiped in all manners, excepting only that 
 heathenish way of the Common-prayer-book. But what 
 do T speak of his wicked inventions for getting money; 15 
 when every peny, that for almost five years he took 
 every day from every man living in England, Scotland, 
 and Ireland, was as much robbery, as if it had been 
 taken by a thief upon the highways? Was it not so? or 
 can any man think that Cromwel, with the assistance of 20 
 his forces and moss-troopers, had more right to the 
 command of all men's purses, than he might have had 
 to any one's, whom he had met, and been too strong for, 
 upon a road ? And yet, when this came, in the case of 
 Mr Coney, to be disputed by a legal tryal, he (which was 25 
 the highest act of tyranny that ever was seen in England) 
 not only discouraged and threatned, but violently im- 
 prisoned the council of the plaintiff; that is, he shut up 
 the law itself close prisoner, that no man might have 
 relief from, or access to it. And it ought to be re- 30 
 membred, that this was done by those men, who, a few 
 years before, had so bitterly decried, and openly opposed, 
 the king's regular and formal way of proceeding in the 
 trial of a little ship-money. 
 
56 A DISCOURSE CONCERNING THE 
 
 But, though we lost the benefit of our old courts of 
 justice, it cannot be denyed that he set up new ones ; 
 and such they were that, as no virtuous prince before 
 would, so no ill one durst erect. What, have we lived 
 
 5 so many hundred years under such a form of justice as 
 has been able regularly to punish all men that offend 
 against it ; and is it so deficient just now, that we must 
 seek out new ways how to proceed against offenders? 
 The reason which can only be given in nature for a 
 
 lo necessity of this is, because those things are now made 
 crimes, which were never esteemed so in former ages ; 
 and there must needs be a new court set up to punish 
 that, which all the old ones were bound to protect and 
 reward. But I am so far from declaiming (as you call 
 
 15 it) against these wickednesses, (which, if I should under- 
 take to do, I should never get to the peroration), that 
 you see I only give a hint of some few, and pass over 
 the rest, as things that are too many to be numbred, and 
 must only be weighed in gross. Let any man shew me, 
 
 20 (for, though I pretend not to much reading, I will defie 
 him in all history), let any man shew me (I say) an 
 example of any nation in the world, (though much 
 greater than ours), where there have, in the space of four 
 years, been so many prisoners, only out of the endless 
 
 25 jealousies of one tyrant's guilty imagination. I grant 
 you that Marius and Sylla, and the cursed triumvirate 
 after them, put more people to death ; but the reason, I 
 think, partly was, because in those times, that had a 
 mixture of some honour with their madness, they thought 
 
 30 it a more civil revenge against a Roman, to take away 
 his life, than to take away his liberty. But truly in the 
 point of murder too we have little reason to think that 
 our late tyranny has been deficient to the examples that 
 have evei* been set it, in other countries. Our judges 
 
GOVERNMENT OF OLIVER CROMWEL. 57 
 
 and our courts of justice have not been idle : and, to 
 omit the whole reign of our late king (till the beginning 
 of the war), in which no drop of blood was ever drawn 
 but from two or three ears, I think the longest time of 
 our worst princes scarce saw many more executions, 5 
 than the short one of our blest reformer. And we saw, 
 and smelt in our open streets, (as I markt to you at 
 first), the broyling of human bowels as a burnt-offering 
 of a sweet savour to our idol ; but all murdering, and all 
 torturing (though after the subtilest invention of his 10 
 predecessors of Sicilie), is more humane and more sup- 
 portable, than his selling of Christians, Englishmen, 
 gentlemen ; his selHng of them (oh monstrous ! oh in- 
 credible !) to be slaves in America. If his whole life 
 could be reproacht with no other action, yet this alone 15 
 would weigh down all the multiplicity of crimes in any 
 one of our tyrants; and I dare only touch, without 
 stopping or insisting upon so insolent and so execrable 
 a cruelty, for fear of falling into so violent (though a 
 just) passion, as would make me exceed that temper and 20 
 moderation, which I resolve to observe in this discourse 
 with you. 
 
 These are great calamities ; but even these are not 
 the most insupportable that we have indured ; for so it 
 is, that the scorn, and mockery, and insultings of an 25 
 enemy are more painful than the deepest wounds of his 
 serious fury. This man was wanton and merry (un wittily 
 and ungracefully merry) with our sufferings : he loved to 
 say and do senseless and fantastical things, only to shew 
 his power of doing or saying anything. It would ill 30 
 befit mine, or any civil mouth, to repeat those words 
 which he spoke concerning the most sacred of our 
 English laws, the Petition of Right, and Magna Charta. 
 To-day you should see him ranting so wildly, that no- 
 
58 A DISCOURSE CONCERNING THE 
 
 body durst come near him ; the morrow flinging of 
 cushions, and playing at snow-balls with his servants. 
 
 This month he assembles a parliament, and professes 
 himself, with humble tears, to be only their servant and 
 
 5 their minister ; the next month he swears by the living 
 God, that he will turn them out of doors, and he does 
 so, in his princely way of threatning, bidding them, turn 
 the buckles of their girdles behind them. The re- 
 presentative of a whole, nay of three whole nations, 
 
 lo was, in his esteem, so contemptible a meeting, that he 
 thought the affronting and expeUing of them to be a 
 thing of so little consequence, as not to deserve that he 
 should advise with any mortal man about it. What shall 
 we call this? boldness, or brutishness? rashness, or 
 
 15 phrensie? There is no name can come up to it; and 
 therefore we must leave it without one. Now a par- 
 liament must be chosen in the new manner, next time in 
 the old form, but all cashiered still after the newest 
 mode. Now he will govern by major-generals, now by 
 
 20 one house, now by another house, now by no house; 
 now the freak takes him, and he makes seventy peers of 
 the land at one clap [ex tei?ipore^ and stans pede in uno); 
 and to manifest the absolute power of the potter, he 
 chooses not only the worst clay he could find, but picks 
 
 25 up even the dirt and mire, to form out of it his vessels 
 of honour. It was antiently said of Fortune, that, when 
 she had a mind to be merry, and to divert herself, she 
 was wont to raise up such kind of people to the highest 
 dignities. This son of Fortune, Cromwel (who was 
 
 30 himself one of the primest of her jests), found out the 
 true haut-goiist of this pleasure, and rejoyced in the ex- 
 travagance of his ways, as the fullest demonstration of 
 his uncontroulable soveraignty. Good God ! What have 
 we seen } and what have we suffered ? what do all these 
 
GOVERNMENT OE OLIVER CROMWEL, 59 
 
 actions signifie ? what do they say aloud to the whole 
 nation, but this, (even as plainly as if it were proclaimed 
 by heralds through the streets of London), "You are 
 slaves and fools, and so I'll use you!" 
 
 These are briefly a part of those merits which you 5 
 lament to have wanted the reward of more kingdoms, 
 and suppose that, if he had lived longer, he might have 
 had them : which I am so far from concurring to, that I 
 believe his seasonable dying to have been a greater good 
 fortune to him, than all the victories and prosperities of 10 
 his life. For he seemed evidently (methinks) to be near 
 the end of his deceitful glories ; his own army grew at 
 last as weary of him, as the rest of the people ; and I 
 never pass'd of late before his palace (his, do I call it ? 
 I ask God and the king pardon), but I never passt of 15 
 late before Whitehal, without reading upon the gate of 
 it, Mejie Mene, Tekel, Upharsiii. But it pleased God to 
 take him from the ordinary courts of men, and juries of 
 his peers, to his own high court of justice ; which being 
 more merciful than ours below, there is a little room yet 20 
 left for the hope of his friends, if he have any ; though 
 the outward unrepentance of his death afford but small 
 materials for the work of charity, especially if he designed 
 even then to entail his own injustice upon his children, 
 and, by it, inextricable confusions and civil wars upon 25 
 the nation. But here's at least an end of him. And 
 where's now the fruit of all that blood and calamity, 
 which his ambition has cost the world ? Where is it ? 
 Why, his son (you'l say) has the whole crop ; I doubt he 
 will find it quickly blasted ; I have nothing to say 30 
 against the gentleman, or any living of his family; on 
 the contrary, I wish him better fortune, than to have a 
 long and unquiet possession of his master's inheritance. 
 Whatsoever I have spoken against his father, is that 
 
6o A DISCOURSE CONCERNING THE 
 
 which I should have thought (though decency, perhaps, 
 might have hindered me from saying it) even against 
 mine own, if I had been so unhappy, as that mine, by 
 the same ways should have left me three kingdoms. 
 
 5 Here I stopt ; and my pretended protector, who, I 
 expected, should have been very angry, fell a laughing; 
 it seems at the simplicity of my discourse, for thus he 
 replyed : "You seem to pretend extreamly to the old 
 obsolete rules of virtue and conscience, which makes me 
 
 lo doubt very much, whether, from the vast prospect of 
 three kingdoms, you can shew me any acres of your 
 own. But these are so far from making you a prince, 
 that I am afraid your friends will never have the con- 
 tentment to see you so much as a justice of peace in 
 
 15 your own country. For this I perceive which you call 
 virtue, is nothing else but either the frowardness of a 
 Cynick, or the laziness of an Epicurean. I am glad you 
 allow me at least artful dissimulation, and unwearied 
 diligence in my heroe ; and I assure you, that he, whose 
 
 20 life is constantly drawn by those two, shall never be 
 misled out of the way of greatness. But I see you are 
 a pedant, and Platonical statesman, a theoretical com- 
 monwealth's-man, an Utopian dreamer. Was ever riches 
 gotten by your golden mediocrities? or the supream 
 
 25 place attained to by virtues that must not stir out of the 
 middle ? Do you study Aristotle's politicks, and write, if 
 you please, comments upon them ; and let another but 
 practise Machiaval : and let us see, then, which of you 
 two will come to the greatest preferments. If the desire 
 
 30 of rule and superiority be a virtue, (as sure I am it is 
 more imprinted in human nature than any of your 
 lethargical morals;) and what is the virtue of any 
 creature, but the exercise of those powers and inclina- 
 tions which God hath infused into it ? If that (I say) be 
 
GOVERNMENT OF OLIVER CROMWEL. 6i 
 
 virtue, we ought not to esteem any thing vice, which is 
 the most proper, if not the only, means of attaining of it. 
 
 It is a truth so certain, and so clear, 
 
 That to the firstborn man it did appear; 
 
 Did not the mighty heir, the noble Cain, 5 
 
 By the fresh laws of nature taught, disdain 
 
 That (though a brother) any one should be 
 
 A greater favourite to God than he? 
 
 He struck him down ; and, so (said he) so fell 
 
 The sheep, which thou didst sacrifice so well. 10 
 
 Since all the fullest sheaves which I could bring, 
 
 Since all were blasted in the offering. 
 
 Lest God should my next victim too despise, 
 
 The acceptable priest I'll sacrifice. 
 
 Hence, coward fears ; for the first blood so spilt, 15 
 
 As a reward, he the first city built. 
 
 'Twas a beginning generous and high, 
 
 Fit for a grand-child of the Deity. 
 
 So well advanc'd, 'twas pity there he staid; 
 
 One step of glory more he should have made, 20 
 
 And to the utmost bounds of greatness gone ; 
 
 Had Adam too been kill'd, he might have reign'd alone. 
 
 One brother's death, what do I mean to name, 
 
 A small oblation to revenge and fame? 
 
 The mighty-soul'd Abimelech, to shew 25 
 
 What for a high place a higher spirit can do, 
 
 A hecatomb almost of brethren slew, 
 
 And seventy times in nearest blood he dy'd 
 
 (To make it hold) his royal purple pride. 
 
 Why do I name the lordly creature man? 30 
 
 The weak, the mild, the coward woman, can, 
 
 When to a crown she cuts her sacred way, 
 
 All that oppose, with manlike courage, slay. 
 
62 A DISCOURSE CONCERNING THE 
 
 So Athaliah, when she saw her son, 
 
 And with his life her dearer greatness gone, 
 
 With a majestick fury slaughter'd all 
 
 Whom high birth might to high pretences call : 
 5 Since he was dead who all her power sustain'd, 
 
 Resolv'd to reign alone ; resolv'd and reign'd. 
 
 In vain her sex, in vain the laws withstood, 
 
 In vain the sacred plea of David's blood ; 
 
 A noble, and a bold contention, she 
 lo (One woman) undertook with destinie. 
 
 She to pluck down, destiny to uphold 
 
 (Oblig'd by holy oracles of old) 
 
 The great Jesscean race on Judah's throne ; 
 
 Till 'twas at last an equal wager grown, 
 15 Scarce fate, with much ado, the better got by one. 
 
 Tell me not, she herself at last was slain ; 
 
 Did she not, first, seven years (a life-time) reign? 
 
 Seven royal years to a public spirit will seem 
 
 More than the private life of a Mathusalem. 
 20 'Tis godlike to be great ; and, as they say, 
 
 A thousand years to God are but a day; 
 
 So to a man, when once a crown he wears. 
 
 The coronation day's more than a thousand years." 
 
 He would have gone on, I perceive, in his blasphe- 
 25 mies, but that, by God's grace, 1 became so bold as 
 thus to interrupt him : ''I understand now perfectly 
 (which I guest at long before) what kind of angel and 
 protector you are ; and, though your style in verse be 
 very much mended since you were wont to deliver 
 30 oracles, yet your doctrine is much worse than ever you 
 had formerly (that I heard of) the face to publish ; 
 whether your long practice with mankind has increas'd 
 and improv'd your malice, or whether you think us in 
 
GOVERNMENT OF OLIVER CROMWEE 6^ 
 
 this age to be grown so impudently wicked, that there 
 needs no more art or disguises to draw us to your 
 party." 
 
 "My dominion (said he hastily, and with a dreadful 
 furious look) is so great in this world, and I am so 5 
 powerful a monarch of it, that I need not be ashamed 
 that you should know me ; and that you may see I know 
 you too, I know you to be an obstinate and inveterate 
 malignant ; and for that reason I shall take you along 
 with me to the next garrison of ours; from whence you 10 
 shall go to the Tower, and from thence to the court of 
 justice, and from thence you know whither." I was 
 almost in the very pounces of the great bird of prey : 
 
 When, lo, ere the last words were fully spoke. 
 
 From a fair cloud, which rather ope'd than broke, 15 
 
 A flash of light, rather than lightning, came. 
 
 So swift and yet so gentle was the flame. 
 
 Upon it rode, and, in his full career, 
 
 Seem'd to my eyes no sooner there, than here. 
 
 The comehest youth of all th'angelick race; 20 
 
 Lovely his shape, ineffable his face. 
 
 The frowns, with which he struck the trembling fiend, 
 
 All smiles of human beauty did transcend ; 
 
 His beams of locks fell part dishevel'd down, 
 
 Part upwards curl'd, and form'd a nat'ral crown, 25 
 
 Such as the British monarchs us'd to wear ; 
 
 If gold may be compar'd with angel's hair. 
 
 His coat and flowing mantle were so bright, 
 
 They seem'd both made of woven silver light : 
 
 Across his breast an azure ribon went, 30 
 
 At which a medal hung, that did present 
 
 In wondrous living figures to the sight, 
 
 The mystic champion's, and old dragon's fight ; 
 
64 A DISCOURSE, ^c. 
 
 And from his mantle's side there shone afar, 
 A fix't, and, I believe, a real star. 
 In his fair hand (what need was there of more ?) 
 No arms, but th'English bloody cross, he bore, 
 
 5 Which when he towards th'afifrighted tyrant bent. 
 And some few words pronounc'd (but what they meant, 
 Or were, could not, alas, by me be known. 
 Only, I well perceiv'd, Jesus was one) 
 He trembled, and he roar'd, and fled away ; 
 
 lo Mad to quit thus his more than hop'd-for prey. 
 
 Such rage inflames the wolf's wild heart and eyes 
 (Robb'd, as he thinks, unjustly of his prize) 
 Whom unawares the shepheard spies, and draws 
 The bleating lamb from out his ravenous jaws: 
 
 15 The shepheard fain himself would he assail, 
 But fear above his hunger does prevail. 
 He knows his foe too strong, and must be gone : 
 He grins as he looks back, and howls as he goes on. 
 
SEVERAL DISCOURSES BY WAY- OF ESSAYS 
 IN VERSE AND PROSE. 
 
 OF LIBERTY. 
 
 jHE liberty of a people consists in being 
 governed by laws which they have made 
 themselves, under whatsoever form it be of 
 government : the liberty of a private man, in 
 being master of his own time and actions, as far as may 5 
 consist with the laws of God, and of his country. Of 
 this latter only we are here to discourse, and to enquire 
 what estate of life does best seat us in the possession of 
 it. This liberty of our own actions is such a fundamental 
 priviledge of humane nature, that God himself, not- 10 
 withstanding all his infinite power and right over us, 
 permits us to enjoy it, and that too after a forfeiture 
 made by the rebellion of Adam. He takes so much 
 care for the entire preservation of it to us, that he suffers 
 neither his providence nor eternal decree to break or 15 
 infringe it. Now for our time, the same God, to whom 
 we are but tenants-at-will for the whole, requires but 
 the seventh part to be paid to him as a small quit-rent 
 
 L. c. 5 
 
66 DISCOURSES BY WAY OF ESSAYS, 
 
 in acknowledgment of his title. It is man only that 
 has the impudence to demand our whole time, though 
 he neither gave it, nor can restore it, nor is able to pay 
 any considerable value for the least part of it. This 
 
 5 birth-right of mankind above all other creatures some 
 are forced by hunger to sell, like Esau, for bread and 
 broth : but the greatest part of men make such a 
 bargain for the delivery-up of themselves, as Thamer 
 did with Judah ; instead of a kid, the necessary provisions 
 
 lo of human life, they are contented to do it for rings and 
 bracelets. The great dealers in this world may be divided 
 into the ambitious, the covetous, and the voluptuous; 
 and that all these men sell themselves to be slaves, 
 though to the vulgar it may seem a Stoical paradox, will 
 
 15 appear to the wise so plain and obvious, that they will 
 scarce think it deserves the labour of argumentation. 
 
 Let us first consider the ambitious ; and those, both 
 in their progress to greatness, and after the attaining 
 of it. There is nothing truer than what Salust says, 
 
 20 '* Dominationis in alios servitium suum mercedem dant:" 
 they are content to pay so great a price as their own 
 servitude, to purchase the domination over others. The 
 first thing they must resolve to sacrifice is their v/hole 
 time; they must never stop, nor ever turn aside whilst 
 
 25 they are in the race of glory, no not like Atalanta for 
 golden apples. Neither, indeed, can a man stop himself 
 if he would, when he's in this career : 
 
 Fertur equis auriga, neque audit currus habenas. 
 
 Pray, let us but consider a little, what mean .servile 
 
 30 things men do for this imaginary food. We cannot 
 
 fetch a greater example of it, than from the chief men 
 
 of that nation which boasted most of liberty. To what 
 
 pitiful baseness did the noblest Romans submit them- 
 
IN VERSE AND PROSE. 67 
 
 selves, for the obtaining of a praetors4iip, or the consular 
 dignity ! They put on the habit of suppliants, and ran 
 about on foot, and in dirt, through all the tribes, to beg 
 voices ; they flattered the poorest artisons ; and carried 
 a nomenclator with them, to whisper in their ear every 5 
 man's name, lest they should mistake it in their salu- 
 tations; they shook the hand, and kiss'd the cheek, 
 of every popular tradesman ; they stood all day at every 
 market in the publick places, to shew and ingratiate them- 
 selves to the rout; they imploy'd all their friends to 10 
 solicite for them ; they kept open tables in every street ; 
 they distributed wine, and bread, and money, even to 
 the vilest of the people. " En Romanos rerum dominos !" 
 Behold the masters of the world begging from door to 
 door. This particular humble way to greatness is now 15 
 cut of fashion ; but yet every ambitious person is still, in 
 some sort, a Roman candidate. He must feast and 
 bribe, and attend and flatter, and adore many beasts, 
 though not the beast with many heads. Catiline, who 
 was so proud that he could not content himself with a 20 
 less power than Sylla's, was yet so humble for the 
 attaining of it, as to make himself the most contemptible 
 of all servants. And, since I happen here to propose 
 Catiline for my instance (though there be thousands of 
 examples for the same thing,) give me leave to transcribe 25 
 the character which Cicero gives of this noble slave, 
 because it is a general description of all ambitious men, 
 and which Machiavel, perhaps, would say ought to be 
 the rule of their life and actions : 
 
 "This man (says he, as most of you may well re- 30 
 member) had many artificial touches and strokes, that 
 look'd like the beauty of great virtues ; his intimate 
 conversation was with the worst of men, and yet he 
 seemed to be an admirer and lover of the best ; he was 
 
 5—2 
 
68 DISCOURSES BY WAY OF ESSAYS, 
 
 furnished with all the nets of lust and luxury, and yet 
 wanted not the arms of labour and industry : neither 
 do I believe that there was ever any monster in nature, 
 composed out of so many different and disagreeing parts. 
 
 5 Who more acceptable, sometimes, to the most honourable 
 persons ? Who more a favourite to the most infamous ? 
 Who, sometimes, appeared a braver champion ; who, 
 at other times, a bolder enemy to his country? Who 
 more dissolute in his pleasures? Who more patient in 
 
 lo his toils ? Who more rapacious in robbing ? Who more 
 profuse in giving ? Above all things, this was remarkabU. 
 and admirable in him, the arts he had to acquire the 
 good opinion and kindness of all sorts of men, to retain 
 it with great complaisance, to communicate all things to 
 
 15 them, watch and serve all the occasions of their fortune, 
 both with his money and his interest and his industry ; 
 and, if need were, not by sticking at any wickedness 
 whatsoever that might be useful to them, to bend and 
 turn about his own nature and laveer with every wind ; 
 
 20 to live severely with the melancholy, merrily with the 
 pleasant, gravely with the aged, wantonly with the young, 
 desperately with the bold, and debauchedly with the 
 luxurious : with this variety and multiplicity of his 
 nature — as he had made a collection of friendships with 
 
 25 all the most wicked and restless of all nations ; so, by 
 the artificial simulation of some virtues, he made a shift 
 to ensnare some honest and eminent persons into his 
 familiarity. Neither could so vast a design as the 
 destruction of this empire have been undertaken by him, 
 
 30 if the immanity of so many vices had not been covered 
 and disguised by the appearances of some excellent 
 qualities." 
 
 I see, methinks, the character of an Anti-Paul, "who 
 became all things to all men," that he might destroy 
 
IN VERSE AND PROSE. 69 
 
 all ; who only wanted the assistance of fortune, to have 
 been as great as his friend Caesar was a little after him. 
 And the ways of Caesar to compass the same ends 
 (I mean to the civil war, which was but another man- 
 ner of setting his country on fire) were not unlike 5 
 these, though he used, afterward, his unjust dominion 
 with more moderation, than I think the other would have 
 done. Salust, therefore, who was well acquainted with 
 them both, and with many such like gentlemen of his 
 time, says, " that it is the nature of ambition, to make 10 
 men lyars and cheaters, to hide the truth in their 
 breasts, and shew, like juglers, another thing m their 
 mouths, to cut all friendships and enmities to the mea- 
 sure of their own interests, and to make a good coun- 
 tenance without the help of good will." And can 15 
 there be freedom with this perpetual constraint? what 
 is it but a kind of rack, that forces men to say what 
 they have no mind to ? 
 
 I have wondred at the extravagant and barbarous 
 stratagem of Zopyrus, and more at the praises which 20 
 I find of so deformed an action ; who, though he was 
 one of the seven grandees of Persia, and the son of 
 Megabisus, who had freed, before, his country from an 
 ignoble servitude, slit his own nose and lips, cut off his 
 own ears, scourged and wounded his whole body, that 25 
 he might, under pretence of having been mangled so 
 inhumanely by Darius, be received into Babylon (then 
 besieged by the Persians,) and get into the command 
 of it by the recommendation of so cruel a sufferance, 
 and their hopes of his endeavouring to revenge it. It 30 
 is great pity, the Babylonians suspected not his fals- 
 hood, that they might have cut off his hands too, and 
 whipt him back again. But the design succeeded; he 
 betrayed the city, and was made governor of it. What 
 
70 DISCOURSES BY WAY OF ESSAYS, 
 
 brutish master ever punished his offending slave with 
 so Uttle mercy, as ambition did this Zopyrus? and yet 
 how many are there, in all nations, who imitate him in 
 some degree for a less reward ; who, though they endure 
 
 5 not so much corporal pain for a small preferment or 
 some honour (as they call it,) yet stick not to commit 
 actions, by which they are more shamefully and more 
 lastingly stigmatized ! But you may say, though these 
 be the most ordinary and open ways to greatness, yet 
 
 lo there are narrow, thorny, and little-trodden paths too, 
 through which some men tind a passage by virtuous 
 industry. I grant, sometimes they may ; but then, that 
 industry must be such, as cannot consist with liberty, 
 though it may with honesty. 
 
 15 Thou'rt careful, frugal, painful; we commend a 
 servant so, but not a friend. 
 
 Well then, we must acknowledge the toil and 
 drudgery which we are forced to endure in this ascent ; 
 but we are epicures and lords when once we are gotten 
 
 20 up into the high places. This is but a short appren- 
 tiship, after which we are made free of royal com- 
 pany. If we fall in love with any beauteous women, 
 we must be content that they would be our mistresses 
 whilst we woo them ; as soon as we are wedded and 
 
 25 enjoy, 'tis we shall be the masters. 
 
 I am wilhng to stick to this similitude in the case 
 of greatness : we enter into the bonds of it, like those 
 of matrimony ; we are bewitch'd with the outward 
 and printed beauty, and take it for better or worse, 
 
 30 before we know its true nature and interior incon- 
 veniences. A great fortune (says Seneca) is a great 
 servitude ; but many are of that opinion which Brutus 
 imputes (I hope untruly) even to that patron of liberty, 
 his friend Cicero : " We fear (says he to Atticas) death, 
 
IN VERSE AND FROSE. 71 
 
 and banishment, and poverty, a great deal too much. 
 Cicero, I am afraid, thinks these to be the worst of 
 evils ; and if he have but some persons, from whom he 
 can obtain what he has a mind to, and others who will 
 flatter and worship him, seems to be well enough con- 5 
 tented with an honourable servitude, if any thing, indeed, 
 ought to be called honourable in so base and contume- 
 lious a condition." This was spoken as became the 
 bravest man who was ever born in the bravest common- 
 wealth. But with us generally no condition passes 10 
 for servitude, that is accompanied with great riches, 
 and honors, and with the service of many inferiors. 
 This is but a deception of the sight through a false 
 medium ; for if a groom serve a gentleman in his 
 chamber, that gentleman a lord, and that lord a prince ; 15 
 the groom, the gentleman, and the lord, are as much 
 servants one as the other : the circumstantial difference 
 of the one getting only his bread and wages, the second 
 a plentiful, and the third a superfluous estate, is no 
 more intrinsical to this matter, than the difference be- 20 
 tween a plain, a rich, and gaudy livery. I do not say, 
 that he who sells his whole time and his own will for 
 one hundred thousand, is not a wiser merchant than he 
 who does it for one hundred pounds ; but I will swear 
 they are both merchants, and that he is happier than 25 
 both, who can live contentedly without seUing that 
 estate to which he was born. But this dependance 
 upon superiours is but one chain of the lovers of power : 
 
 Amatorem trecento 
 Piiithoum coliibent catenae. 30 
 
 Let's begin with him by break of day : for by that 
 time he's besieged by two or three hundred suitors ; 
 and the hall and anticharnbers (all the outworks) pos- 
 sest by the enemy : as soon as his chamber opens. 
 
72 DISCO UliSES BY WAY OF ESSAYS, 
 
 they are ready to break into that, or to corrupt the 
 guards, for entrance. This is so essential a part of 
 greatness, that wliosoever is without it, looks like a 
 fallen favourite, like a person disgraced, and condemned 
 
 5 to do what he pleases all the morning. There are some 
 wlio, rather than want this, are contented to have their 
 rooms filled up every day with murmuring and cursing 
 creditors, and to charge bravely through a body of 
 them to get to their coach. Now, I would fain know 
 
 lo which is the worst duty, that of any one particular 
 person who waits to speak with the great man, or the 
 great man's, who waits every day to speak with all the 
 company. 
 
 Aliena negotia cenUim 
 
 15 Per caput, et circa saliunt latus — 
 
 a hundred businesses of other men (many unjust, and 
 most impertinent) fly continually about his head and 
 ears, and strike him in the face like dors. Let's con- 
 template him a little at another special scene of glory, 
 
 20 and that is, his table. Here he seems to be the lord 
 of all nature : the earth affords him her best metals 
 for his dishes, her best vegetables and animals for his 
 food; the air and sea supply him with their choicest 
 birds and fishes ; and a great many men, who look like 
 
 25 masters, attend upon him ; and yet, when all this is 
 done, even all this is but table d'host ; 'tis crowded with 
 people for whom he cares not, with many parasites and 
 some spies, with the most burdensome sort of guests, the 
 endeavourers to be Avitty. 
 
 30 But every body pays him great respect ; every body 
 commends his meat, that is, his money; every body 
 admires the exquisite dressing and ordering of it, that 
 is, his dark of the kitchen, or liis cook ; every body 
 loves his hospitality, that is, his vanity. But I desire 
 
IN VERSE AND PROSE. 73 
 
 to know why the honest inn-keeper, who provides a 
 public table for hie profit, should be but of a mean 
 profession ; and he, who does it for his honour, a 
 munificent prince? You'll say, because one sells, 
 and the other gives : nay, both sell, though for different 5 
 things ; the one for plain money, the other for I know 
 not what jewels, whose value is in custom and in fancy. 
 If then his table be made a snare (as the Scripture 
 speaks) to his liberty, where can he hope for freedom ? 
 There is always, and every where, some restraint upon 10 
 him. He's guarded with crowds, and shackled with 
 formalities. The half hat, the whole hat, the half smile, 
 the whole smile, the nod, the embrace, the positive 
 parting with a little bow, the comparative at the middle 
 of the room, the superlative at the door; and, if the 15 
 person be pan huper sebastos^ there's a huper-superla- 
 tive ceremony then of conducting him to the bottom 
 of the stairs, or to the very gate : as if there were 
 such rules set to these Leviathans as are to the sea. 
 Hitherto shalt thou go, and no further. 20 
 
 Perditur hrec inter misero lux, 
 
 Thus wretchedly the precious day is lost. 
 
 How many impertinent letters and visits must he re- 
 ceive, and sometimes answer both too as impertinently ! 
 He never sets his foot beyond his threshold, unless, like 25 
 a funeral, he have a train to follow him; as if, like the 
 dead corps, he would not stir, till the bearers were all 
 ready. " My life (says Horace, speaking to one of these 
 magnificos) is a great deal more easie and commodious 
 than thine, in that I can go into the market, and cheapen 30 
 what I please, without being wondered at ; and take 
 my horse and ride as far as Tarentum, without being 
 mist." 'Tis an unpleasant constraint to be always under 
 
74 DISCOURSES BY WAV OF ESSAYS, 
 
 the sight and observation, and censure of others ; as 
 there may be vanity in it. so, methinks, there should 
 be vexation, too, of spirit : and I wonder how princes 
 can endure to have two or three hundred men stand 
 5 gazing upon them whilst they are at dinner, and take 
 notice of every bit they eat. Nothing seems greater 
 and more lordly than the multitude of domestique ser- 
 vants ; but even this too, if weighed seriously, is a piece 
 of servitude ; unless you will be a servant to them (as 
 
 lo many men are,) the trouble and care of yours in the 
 government of them all is much more than that of every 
 one of them in their observance of you. I take the pro- 
 fession of a school-master to be one of the most useful, 
 and which ought to be of the most honourable in a 
 
 15 commonwealth ; yet certainly all his fasces and tyran- 
 nical authority over so many boys take away his own 
 liberty more than theirs. 
 
 1 do but slightly touch upon all these particulars of 
 the slavery of greatness : 1 shake but a few of their 
 
 20 outward chains ; their anger, hatred, jealousie, fear, 
 envy, grief, and all the et ccetera of their passions, which 
 are the secret, but constant, tyrants and tortures of 
 their life, I omit here, because, though they be symp- 
 tomes most frequent and violent in this disease, yet they 
 
 25 are common too, in some degree, to the epidemical 
 disease of life itself 
 
 But the ambitious man, though he be so many ways a 
 slave {O toties servus !) yet he bears it bravely and he- 
 roically : he struts and looks big upon the stage ; he 
 
 30 thinks himself a real prince in his masking-habit, and 
 deceives, too, all the foolish part of his spectators : he's 
 a slave m Sahirnalibiis. The covetous man is a down- 
 right servant, a draught-horse with bells or feathers ; 
 ad meialla damnatus, a man condemned to work in mines, 
 
IN VERSE AND PROSE. 75 
 
 which is the lowest and hardest condition of servitude ; 
 and, to increase his misery, a worker there for he knows 
 not whom : He heapeth up riches^ and knows not who 
 shall enjoy them; 'Tis only sure, that he himself neither 
 shall nor can enjoy them. He's an indigent needy 5 
 slave ; he will hardly allow himself cloaths and board- 
 wages : 
 
 Uncialim vix de demenso suo, 
 Suum defraudans genium, comparsit miser. 
 
 He defrauds not only other men, but his own genius ; 10 
 he cheats himself for money. But the servile and 
 miserable condition of this wretch is so apparent, that 
 I leave it, as evident to every man's sight, as well as 
 judgment. 
 
 It seems a more difficult work to prove that the 15 
 voluptuous man, too, is but a servant : what can be 
 more the life of a freeman, or, as we say ordinarily, of 
 a gentleman, than to follow nothing but his own plea- 
 sures ? Why, I'll tell you who is that true freeman, and 
 that true gentleman ; not he who blindly follows all 20 
 his pleasures (the very name of followers is servile) ; but 
 he who rationally guides them, and is not hindred by 
 outward impediments in the conduct and enjoyment of 
 them. If I want skill or force to restrain the beast that 
 I ride upon, though I bought it, and call it my own ; 25 
 yet, in the truth of the matter, I am at that time rather 
 his man, than he my horse. The voluptuous men 
 (whom we are fallen upon) may be divided, I think, 
 into the lustful and luxurious, who are both servants of 
 the belly ; and other, whom we spoke of before, the am- 30 
 bitious and the covetous, were KaKo. O-qpia, evil wild 
 beasts; these are yao-rcpcs dpyal, sloiv bellies, as our 
 translation renders it, but the word apyai (which is a 
 fantastical word, with two directly opposite significations) 
 
76 DISCOURSES BY WAY OF ESSAYS, 
 
 will bear as well the translation of ^ukk or diligent 
 bellies ; and both interpretations may be applied to these 
 men. Metrodorus said that he had learnt irXiov d\r]0(j)<; 
 yaa-Tpl xapt'Cccr^at, to give his belly just thanks for all 
 5 his pleasures. This, by the calumniators of Epicurus his 
 philosophy, was objected as one of the most scandalous 
 of all their sayings ; which, according to my charitable 
 understanding, may admit a very virtuous sense, which 
 is, that he thanked his own belly for that moderation, 
 
 lo in the customary appetites of it, which can only give a 
 man liberty and happiness in this world. Let this suffice 
 at present to be spoken of those great triumviri of the 
 world ; the covetous man, who is a mean villain, like 
 Lepidus ; the ambitious, who is a brave one, like Octa- 
 
 15 vius ; and the voluptuous, who is a loose and debauched 
 one, like Mark Antony : 
 
 Quisnam igitur liber? Sapiens, sibique imperiosus. 
 
 Not Oenomaus, who commits himself wholly to a cha- 
 rioteer, that may break his neck : but the man, 
 
 20 Who governs his own course with steady hand, 
 
 Who does himself with soveraign power command ; 
 Whom neither death nor poverty does fright, 
 Who stands not aukwardly in his own light 
 Against the truth : who can, Avhen pleasures knock 
 
 25 Loud at his door, keep from the bolt and lock. 
 
 Who can, though honour at his gate should stay 
 In all her masking cloaths, send her away, 
 And cry, Be gone, I have no mind to play. 
 
 This, I confess, is a freeman : but it may be said, that 
 30 many persons are so shackled by their fortune, that they 
 are hindred from enjoyment of that manumission, which 
 they have obtained from virtue. I do both understand, 
 and in part feel, the weight of this objection : all I can 
 answer to it is, that we must get as much liberty as we 
 35 can, we must use our utmost endeavours, and, when all 
 
IN VERSE AND PROSE. 77 
 
 that is done, be contented with the length of that line 
 which is allow'd us. If you ask me, what condition 
 of life I think the most allow'd; I should pitch upon 
 that sort of people, whom King James was wont to call 
 the happiest of our nation, the men placed in the country 5 
 by their fortune above an high-constable, and yet be- 
 neath the trouble of a justice of peace ; in a moderate 
 plenty, without any just argument for the desire of in- 
 creasing it by the care of many relations ; and with so 
 much knowledge and love of piety and philosophy (that 10 
 is, of the study of God's laws, and of his creatures) as 
 may afford him matter enough never to be idle, though 
 without business; and never to be melancholy, though 
 without sin or vanity. 
 
 I shall conclude this tedious discourse with a prayer 15 
 of mine in a copy of Latine verses, of which I remember 
 no other part ; and {pour /aire bonne bouche) with some 
 other verses upon the same subject : 
 
 " Magne Deus, quod ad has vitse brevis attinet horas, 
 Da mihi, da panem libertatemque, nee ultra 20 
 
 Sollicitas effundo preces: si quid datur ultra, 
 Accipiam gratus; sin non, contentus abibo." 
 
 For the few hours of life allotted me, 
 
 Give me (great God) but bread and libertie. 
 
 I'll beg no more : if more thou'rt pleas'd to give, 25 
 
 I'll thankfully that overplus receive : 
 
 If beyond this no more be freely sent, 
 
 I'll thank for this, and go away content. 
 
 MARTIAL, LIB. I. EP. 56. 
 
 " Vota tui breviter," &c. 
 
 Well then, Sir, you shall know how far extend 
 
 The prayers and hopes of your poetic friend. 30 
 
78 DISCOURSES BY WAY OF ESSAYS, 
 
 He does not palaces nor mannors crave, 
 Would be no lord, but less a lord would have ; 
 The ground he holds, if he his own can call, 
 He quarrels not with heaven, because 'tis small 
 
 5 Let gay and toilsome greatness others please, 
 He loves of homely Httleness the ease. 
 Can any man in guilded rooms attend, 
 And his dear hours in humble visits spend ; 
 When in the fresh and beauteous fields he may 
 
 lo With various healthful pleasures fill the day? 
 If there be man (ye gods !) I ought to hate, 
 Dependance and attendance be his fate. 
 Still let him busie be, and in a crowd, 
 And very much a slave, and very proud : 
 
 15 Thus he perhaps pow'rful and rich may grow ; 
 No matter, O ye gods ! that I'll allow : 
 But let him peace and freedom never see; 
 Let him not love this life, who loves not me. 
 
 MARTIAL, LIB. 11. EP. 53. 
 
 "Vis fieri lil>er?" &c. 
 Would you be free? 'Tis your chief wish, you say 
 
 20 Come on ; I'll shew thee, friend, the certain way. 
 If to no feasts abroad thou lov'st to go, 
 Whilst bount'ous God does bread at home bestow ; 
 If thou the goodness of thy cloaths dost prize 
 By thine own use, and not by others' eyes ; 
 
 25 If (only safe from weathers) thou can'st dwell 
 In a small house,, but a convenient shell; 
 If thou, without a sigh, or golden wish, 
 Canst look upon thy beech en bowl, and dish ; 
 If in thy mind such power and greatness be, 
 
 30 The Persian king's a slave compar'd with thee. 
 
IN VERSE AND PROSE. 79 
 
 MARTIAL, LIB. II. EP. 68. 
 
 "Quod te nomine," &c. 
 
 That I do you, with humble bowes no more, 
 
 And danger of my naked head, adore ; 
 
 That I, who, Lord and master, cry'd erewhile. 
 
 Salute you, in a new and diff'rent stile, 
 
 By your own name, a scandal to you now, 5 
 
 Think not that I forget myself and you : 
 
 By loss of all things, by all others sought, 
 
 This freedom, and the freeman's hat is bought. 
 
 A lord and master no man wants, but he 
 
 Who o'er himself has no authority, 10 
 
 Who does for honours and for riches strive. 
 
 And follies, without which lords cannot live. 
 
 If thou from fortune dost no servant crave, 
 
 Believe it, thou no master need'st to have. 
 
 ODE. 
 
 UPON LIBERTY. 
 I. 
 
 Freedom with Virtue takes her seat; 15 
 
 Her proper place, her only scene, 
 
 Is in the golden mean, 
 She lives not with the poor, nor with the great. 
 The wings of those Necessity has dipt, 
 
 And they're in Fortune's Bridewel whipt 20 
 
 To the laborious task of bread ; 
 • These are by various tyrants captive led. 
 Now wild Ambition with imperious force 
 Rides, reins, and spurs them, like th' unruly horse. 
 
 And servile Avarice yokes them now, 25 
 
8o DISCOUJRSES BY WAY OF ESSAYS, 
 
 Like toilsom oxen, to the plow. 
 And sometimes Lust, like the misguided light, 
 Draws them through all the labyrinths of night. 
 If any few among the great there be 
 5 From these insulting passions free, 
 
 Yet we ev'n those, too, fetter'd see 
 By custom, business, crowds, and formal decencie. 
 
 And wheresoe'er they stay, and wheresoe'er they go, 
 
 Impertinencies round them flow : 
 lo These are the small uneasie things 
 
 Which about greatness still are found. 
 
 And rather it molest, than wound : 
 Like gnats, which too much heat of summer brings; 
 But cares do swarm there, too, and those have stings: 
 15 As, when the honey does too open lie, 
 
 A thousand wasps about it flie : 
 Nor will the master ev'n to share admit ; 
 The master stands aloof, and dares not taste of it. 
 
 2. 
 
 'Tis morning: well; I fain would yet sleep on; 
 20 You cannot now; you must be gone 
 
 To court, or to the noisie hall: 
 Besides, the rooms without are crowded all; 
 
 The stream of business does begin, 
 And a spring-tide of clients is come in. 
 25 Ah, cruel guards, which this poor prisoner keep! 
 Will they not suffer him to sleep? 
 Make an escape ; out at the postern flee. 
 And get some blessed hours of liberty: 
 With a few friends, and a few dishes dine, 
 30 And much of mirth and moderate wine. 
 
 To thy bent mind some relaxation give. 
 And steal one day out of thy life, to live. 
 
IN VERSE AND PROSE. 8i 
 
 Oh, happy man (he cries) to whom kind heaven 
 
 Has such a freedom always given ! 
 Why, mighty madman, what should hinder thee 
 
 From being every day as free? 
 
 3- 
 In all the freeborn nations of the air, 5 
 
 Never did bird a spirit so mean and sordid bear, 
 As to exchange a native liberty 
 Of soaring boldly up into the sky. 
 His liberty to sing, to perch, or fly, 
 
 When, and wherever he thought good, 10 
 
 And all his innocent pleasures of the wood. 
 For a more plentiful or constant food. 
 
 Nor ever did ambitious rage 
 
 Make him into a painted cage, 
 Or the false forest of a well-hung room, 15 
 
 For honour and preferment, come. 
 Now, blessings on you all, ye heroick race, 
 Who keep their primitive powers and rights so well, 
 
 Though men and angels fell. 
 Of all material lives the highest place 20 
 
 To you is justly given; 
 
 And ways and walks the nearest heaven. 
 W^hilst wretched we, yet vain and proud, think fit 
 
 To boast, that we look up to it. 
 Ev'n to the universal tyrant, Love, 25 
 
 You homage pay but once a year : 
 None so degenerous and unbirdly prove. 
 
 As his perpetual yoke to bear. 
 None, but a few unhappy household fowl, 
 
 Whom human lordship does controulj 30 
 
 Who from the birth corrupted were 
 By bondage, and by man's example here. 
 
 L. c. 6 
 
82 niSCOURSES BY WAY OF ESSAYS, 
 
 4. 
 
 He's no small prince, who every day 
 
 Thus to himself can say ; 
 Now will I sleep, now eat, now sit, now walk, 
 Now meditate alone, now with acquaintance talk. 
 5 This I will do, here I will stay. 
 Or, if my fancy calleth me away, 
 My man and I will presently go ride ; 
 (For we, before, have nothing to provide, 
 Nor, after, are to render an account) 
 10 To Dover, Berwick, or the Cornish mount. 
 
 If thou but a short journey take. 
 
 As if thy last thou wert to make. 
 Business must be despatch'd, ere thou canst part, 
 
 Nor canst thou stir, unless there be 
 15 A hundred horse and men to wait on thee, 
 
 And many a mule, and many a cart; 
 
 What an unwieldy man thou art! 
 
 The Rhodian Colossus so 
 
 A journey, too, might go. 
 
 5- 
 
 20 Where honour, or where conscience, does not bind, 
 No other law shall shackle me; 
 Slave to myself I will not be. 
 Nor shall my future actions be confin'd 
 By my own present mind. 
 
 25 Who by resolves and vows engag'd does stand 
 For days, that yet belong to fate. 
 Does, like an unthrift, mortgage his estate, 
 Before it falls into his hand : 
 The bondman of the cloister so 
 
 30 All that he does receive, does always owe ; 
 
IN VERSE AND PROSE. 83 
 
 And still, as time comes in, it goes away 
 
 Not to enjoy, but debts to pay. 
 Unhappy slave, and pupil to a bell, 
 Which his hour's work, as well as hours, does tell ! 
 Unhappy, till the last, the kind releasing knell. 5 
 
 6. 
 
 If life should a well-order'd poem be 
 
 (In which he only hits the white 
 Who joyns true profit with the best delight) 
 The more heroick strain let others take, 
 
 Mine the Pindaric way I'll make ; 10 
 
 The matter shall be grave, the numbers loose and free. 
 It shall not keep one settled pace of time. 
 In the same tune it shall not always chime. 
 Nor shall each day just to his neighbour rhime; 
 A thousand liberties it shall dispense, 15 
 
 And yet shall manage all without offence 
 Or to the sweetness of the sound, or greatness of the sense; 
 Nor shall it never from one subject start, 
 
 Nor seek transitions to depart, 
 Nor its set way o'er stiles and bridges make, 20 
 
 Nor thorough lanes a compass take. 
 As if it fear'd some trespass to commit, 
 
 When the wide air's a road for it. 
 So the imperial eagle does not stay 
 
 Till the whole carkass he devour, 25 
 
 That's fallen into its power: 
 As if his generous hunger understood 
 That he can never want plenty of food. 
 
 He only sucks the tastful blood; 
 And to fresh game flies cheerfully away ; 30 
 
 To kites and meaner birds, he leaves the mangled prey. 
 
 • 6 — 2 
 
84 DISCOURSES BY WAY OF ESSAYS, 
 
 II. 
 
 OF SOLITUDE. 
 
 [QNQUAM minus solus, quam cum solus/' 
 is now become a very vulgar saying. Every 
 man, and almost every boy, for these seven- 
 teen hundred years, has had it in his mouth. 
 
 5 But it was at first spoken by the excellent Scipio, who 
 was without question a most eloquent and witty person, 
 as well as the most wise, most worthy, most happy, and 
 the greatest of all mankind. His meaning, no doubt, 
 was this, that he found more satisfaction to his mind, 
 
 lo and more improvement of it, by solitude than by com- 
 pany; and, to shew that he spoke not this loosly, or 
 out of vanity, after he had made Rome mistress of 
 almost the whole world, he retired himself from it by a 
 voluntary exile, and at a private house in the middle of 
 
 15 a wood near Linternum, passed the remainder of his 
 glorious life no less gloriously. This house Seneca 
 went to see so long after with great veneration; and, 
 among other thmgs, describes his baths to have been 
 of so mean a structure, that now, says he, the basest 
 
 20 of the people would despise them, and cry out, " Poor 
 Scipio understood not how to live." What an authority 
 is here for the credit of retreat ! and happy had it been 
 for Hannibal, if adversity could have taught him as 
 
TN VERSE AND PROSE. 85 
 
 much wisdom as was learnt by Scipio from the highest 
 prosperities. This would be no wonder, if it were as 
 truly as it is colourably and wittily said by Monsieur 
 de Montaigne, "that ambition itself might teach us to 
 love solitude ; there's nothing does so much hate to 5 
 have companions." 'Tis true, it loves to have its 
 elbows free, it detests to have company on either side ; 
 but it delights above all things in a train behind, aye, 
 and ushers too before it. But the greatest part of men 
 are so far from the opinion of that noble Roman, that, 10 
 if they chance at any time to be without company, they're 
 like a becalmed ship ; they never move but by the 
 wind of other men's breath, and have no oars of their 
 own to steer withal. It is very fantastical and contra- 
 dictory in humane nature, that men should love them- 15 
 selves above all the rest of the world, and yet never 
 endure to be with themselves. When they are in love with 
 a mistress, all other persons are importunate and burden- 
 some to them. " Tecum vivere amem, tecum obeam 
 lubens," they would live and die with her alone. 20 
 
 " Sic ego secretis possum bene vivere silvis, 
 
 Qua nulla humano sit via trita pede. 
 Tu mihi curarum requies, tu nocte vel atra 
 
 Lumen, et in solis tu mihi turba locis." 
 
 With thee for ever I in woods could rest, 25 
 
 Where never human foot the ground has prest. 
 Thou from all shades the darkness canst exclude, 
 And from a desart banish solitude. 
 
 And yet our dear self is so wearisome to us, that we 
 can scarcely support its conversation for an hour to- 30 
 gether. This is such an odd temper of mind, as Catullus 
 expresses towards one of his mistresses, whom we may 
 suppose to have been of a very unsociable humour, 
 " Odi, et amo : quare id faciam fortasse requiris. 
 Nescio ; sed fieri sentio, et excrucior." oc 
 
86 DISCOURSES BY WAY OF ESSAYS, 
 
 I hate, and yet I love thee too ; 
 How can that be? I know not how; 
 Only that so it is I know, 
 And feel with torment that 'tis so. 
 
 5 It is a deplorable condition, this, and drives a man 
 sometimes to pitiful shifts in seeking how to avoid 
 himself. 
 
 The truth of the matter is, that neither he who is a 
 fop in the world, is a fit man to be alone ; nor he who 
 
 lo has set his heart much upon the world, though he have 
 never so much understanding ; so that solitude can be 
 well fitted and sit right, but upon a very few persons. 
 They must have enough knowledge of the world to see 
 the vanity of it, and enough virtue to despise all vanity ; 
 
 15 if the mind be possessed with any lust or passions, a man 
 had better be in a fair, than in a wood alone. They 
 may, like petty thieves, cheat us perhaps, and pick our 
 pockets, in the midst of company; but, like robbers, 
 they use to strip and bind, or murder us, when they 
 
 20 catcli us alone. This is but to retreat from men, and to 
 fall into the hands of devils. 'Tis like the punishment 
 of parricides among the Romans, to be sewed into a bag, 
 with an ape, a dog, and a serpent. 
 
 The first work, therefore, that a man must do, to 
 
 25 make himself capable of the good of solitude, is, the 
 very eradication of all lusts ; for how is it possible for 
 a man to enjoy himself, while his affections are tyed to 
 things without himself.^ In the second place, he must 
 learn the art, and get the habit of thinking ; for this, too, 
 
 30 no less than well speaking, depends upon much practice; 
 and cogitation is the thing which distinguishes the soli- 
 tude of a God from a wild beast. Now, because the 
 soul of man is not, by its own nature or observation, 
 furnisht with sufficient materials to work upon, it is 
 
IN VERSE AND PROSE. 87 
 
 necessary for it to have continual recourse to learning 
 and books for fresh supplies, so that the solitary life will 
 grow indigent, and be ready to starve, without them; 
 but if once we be thoroughly engaged in the love of 
 letters, instead of being wearied with the length of any 5 
 day, we shall only complain of the shortness of our whole 
 life. 
 
 "O vita, stulto longa, sapienti brevis !" 
 O life, long to the fool, short to the wise! 
 
 The first minister of state has not so much business 10 
 in publick, as a wise man has in private : if the one have 
 little leasure to be alone, the other has less leasure to be 
 in company; the one has but part of the affairs of one 
 nation, the other all the works of God and nature, under 
 his consideration. There is no saying shocks me so 15 
 much as that which I hear very often, that a man does 
 not know how to pass his time. 'Twould have been but 
 ill spoken by Methusalem in the nine hundred sixty- 
 ninth year of his life ; so far it is from us, who have not 
 time enough to attain to the utmost perfection of any 20 
 part of any science, to have cause to complain that we 
 are forced to be idle for want of work. But this, you'll 
 say, is work only for the learned ; others are not capable 
 either • of the employments or divertisements that arrive 
 from letters. I know they are not ; and, therefore, can- 25 
 not much recommend solitude to a man totally iUiterate. 
 But, if any man be so unlearned, as to want entertain- 
 ment of the little intervals of accidental soHtude, which 
 frequently occur in almost all conditions (except the 
 very meanest of the people, who have business enough 30 
 in the necessary provisions for life), it is truly a great 
 shame both to his parents and himself; for a very small 
 portion of any ingenious art will stop up all those gaps 
 of our time : either musick, or painting, or designing. 
 
88 DISCOURSES BY WAY OF ESSAYS, 
 
 or chymistry, or history, or gardening, or twenty other 
 things, will do it usefully and pleasantly; and, if he 
 happen to set his affections upon poetry (which I do not 
 advise him to immoderately), that will over-do it ; no 
 5 wood will be thick enough to hide him from the impor- 
 tunities of company or business, which would abstract 
 him from his beloved. 
 
 '' O qui me gelidis in vallibus Hcemi 
 
 Sistat, et ingenti ramorum protegat umbra ? " 
 
 I. 
 
 lo Hail, old patrician trees, so great and good ! 
 Hail, ye plebeian under-wood ! 
 Where the poetick birds rejoyce, 
 And for their quiet nests and plenteous food 
 Pay with their grateful voice. 
 
 2. 
 
 15 Hail, the poor Muses' richest mannor-seat ! 
 Ye country houses and retreat, 
 Which all the happy gods so love, 
 That for you oft they quit their bright and great 
 Metropolis above. 
 
 3- 
 20 Here Nature does a house for me erect, 
 Nature, the wisest architect, 
 Who those fond artists does despise 
 That can the fair and Hving trees neglect ; 
 Yet the dead timber prize. 
 
 4- 
 25 Here let me, careless and unthoughtful lying. 
 Hear the soft winds, above me flying, 
 With all their wanton boughs dispute. 
 And the more taneful birds to both replying, 
 Nor be myself too mute. 
 
IN VERSE AND PROSE. 89 
 
 5- 
 A silver stream shall roul his waters near, 
 
 Gilt Avith sun-beams here and there, 
 
 On whose enamel'd bank I'll walk, 
 And see how prettily they smile, and hear 
 
 How prettily they talk. 5 
 
 6. 
 
 Ah wretched, and too solitary he, 
 
 Who loves not his own companie ! 
 
 He'll feel the weight oft many a day, 
 Unless he call in sin or vanitie 
 
 To help to bear't away. 10 
 
 7. 
 O Solitude, first state of human-kind ! 
 
 Which blest remain'd, till man did find 
 
 Ev'n his own helper's companie. 
 As soon as two (alas !) together joyn'd, 
 
 The serpent made up three. 15 
 
 8. 
 
 Though God himself, through countless ages, thee 
 
 His sole companion chose to be, 
 
 Thee, sacred Solitude, alone. 
 Before the branchy head of number's tree 
 
 Sprang from the trunk of one. 20 
 
 9- 
 
 Thou (though men think thine an unactive part) 
 Dost break and tame th' unruly heart, 
 Which else would know no setled pace, 
 
 Making it move, well manag'd by thy art, 
 
 With swiftness and with grace. 25 
 
90 DISCOURSES BY WAY OF ESSAYS, 
 
 lO. 
 
 Thou the faint beams of reason's scatter'd light 
 Dost, like a burning glass, unite, 
 Dost multiply the feeble heat, 
 
 And fortify the strength, till thou dost bright 
 5 And noble fires beget. 
 
 II. 
 
 Whilst this hard truth T teach, methinks I see 
 The monster London laugh at me; 
 I should at thee too, foolish city, 
 If it were fit to laugh at misery ; 
 lo But thy estate I pity. 
 
 12. 
 
 Let but thy wicked men fi'om out thee go, 
 And all the fools that crowd thee so, 
 Even thou, who dost thy millions boast, 
 
 A village less than IsHngton wilt grow. 
 15 A solitude almost. 
 
IN VERSE AND FROSE. 91 
 
 III. 
 
 OF OBSCURITY. 
 
 "Nam neque divitibus contingunt gaudia solis ; 
 "Nee vixit male, qui natus moriensque fefellit." 
 
 God made not pleasures only for the rich ; 
 
 Nor have those men without their share too liv'd, 
 
 Who both in life and death the world deceiv'd. 
 
 [HIS seems a strange sentence, thus litterally 
 translated, and looks as if it were in vindi- 
 cation of the men of business (for who else 
 I can deceive the world?) whereas it is in 
 commendation of those who live and die so obscurely, 10 
 that the world takes no notice of them. This Horace 
 calls deceiving the world ; and in another place uses the 
 same phrase, 
 
 " Secretum iter et fallentis semita vitoe." 
 
 The secret tracks of the deceiving life. 15 
 
 It is very elegant in Latine, but our English word will 
 hardly bear up to that sense ; and therefore Mr Broom 
 translates it very well — 
 
 Or from a life, led, as it were, by stealth. 
 
 Yet we say, in our language, a thing deceives our sight, 20 
 
 when it passes before us unperceived : and we may say 
 
 well enough, out of the same author, 
 
 Sometimes with sleep, sometimes with wine, we strive 
 The cares of life and troubles to deceive. 
 
92 DISCOURSES BY WAY OF ESSAYS, 
 
 But that is not to deceive the world, but to deceive our- 
 selves, as Quintiliaii says, "vitam fallere," to draw on 
 still, and amuse, and deceive our life, till it be advanced 
 insensibly to the fatal period, and fall into that pit which 
 5 nature hath prepared for it. The meaning of all this is 
 no more than that most vulgar saying, "Bene qui latuit, 
 bene vixit," he has lived well, who has lain well hidden. 
 Which, if it be a truth, the world (I will swear) is 
 sufficiently deceived : for my part, I think it is, and that 
 
 lo the pleasantest condition of life is in mcognito. What a 
 brave priviledge is it, to be free from all contentions, 
 from all envying or being envied, from receiving or 
 paying all kind of ceremonies ! It is, in my mind, a very 
 delightful pastime, for two good and agreable friends to 
 
 15 travel up and down together, in places where they are 
 by nobody known, nor know anybody. It was the case 
 of ^neas and his Achates, when they walked invisibly 
 about the fields and streets of Carthage ; Venus herself 
 
 A vail of thicken'd air around them cast, 
 20 That none might know, or see them, as they past. 
 
 The common story of Demosthenes' confession, that he 
 had taken great pleasure in hearing of a tanker-woman 
 say, as he past, "This is that Demosthenes," is wonderful 
 ridiculous from so solid an orator. I myself have often 
 
 25 met with that temptation to vanity (if it were any); but 
 am so far from finding it any pleasure, that it only makes 
 me run faster from the place, till I get, as it were, out of 
 sight-shot. Democritus relates, and in such a manner 
 as if he gloried in the good fortune and commodity of 
 
 30 it, that, when he came to Athens, nobody there did so 
 much as take notice of him ; and Epicurus lived there 
 very well, that is, lay hid many years in his gardens, so 
 famous since that time, with his friend Metrodorus : 
 after whose death, making in one of his letters a kind 
 
IN VERSE AND PROSE. 93 
 
 commemoration of the happiness which they two had 
 enjoyed together, he adds at last, that he thought it no 
 disparagement to those great feHcities of their Hfe, that, 
 in the midst of the most talk'd-of and talking country in 
 the world, they had lived so long, not only without fame, 5 
 but almost without being heard of. And yet, within a 
 very few years afterward, there w^ere no two names of 
 men more known, or more generally celebrated. If we 
 engage into a large acquaintance and various familiarities, 
 we set open our gates to the invaders of most of our 10 
 time : we expose our life to a quotidian ague of frigid 
 impertinences, which would make a wise man tremble to 
 think of. Now, as for being known much by sight, and 
 pointed at, I cannot comprehend the honour that lies 
 in that : whatsoever it be, every mountebank has it more 15 
 than the best doctor, and the hangman more than the 
 lord chief justice of a city. Every creature has it, both 
 of nature and art, if it be any ways extraordinary. It 
 was as often said, "This is that Bucephalus," or, "This 
 is that Incitatus," when they were led prancing through 20 
 the streets, as "This is that Alexander," or, "This is that 
 Domitian ;" and truly, for the latter, I take Incitatus to 
 have been a much more honourable beast than his 
 master, and more deserving the consulship, than he the 
 empire. 25 
 
 I love and commend a true good fame, because it is 
 the shadow of virtue ; not that it doth any good to the 
 body which it accompanies, but 'tis an efficacious shadow, 
 and, like that of S. Peter, cures the diseases of others. 
 The best kind of glory, no doubt, is that which is re- 30 
 fleeted from honesty, such as was the glory of Cato and 
 Aristides ; but it was harmful to them both, and is seldom 
 beneficial to any man, whilest he lives : what it is to 
 him after his death, I cannot say, because I love not 
 
94 DISCOURSES BY WAY OF ESSAYS, 
 
 philosophy meerly notional and conjectural, and no man 
 who has made the experiment has been so kind as to 
 come back to inform us. Upon the whole matter, I 
 account a person who has a moderate mind and fortune, 
 
 5 and lives in the conversation of two or three agreeable 
 friends, with little commerce in the world besides, who 
 is esteemed well enough by his few neighbours that know 
 him, and is truly irreproachable by any body; and so, 
 after a healthful quiet life, before the great inconveniences 
 
 lo of old age, goes more silently out of it than he came in 
 (for I would not have him so much as cry in the exit) : 
 this innocent deceiver of the world, as Horace calls him, 
 this "muta persona," I take to have been more happy in 
 his part, than the greatest actors that fill the stage with 
 
 15 show and noise, nay, even than Augustus himself, who 
 askt with his last breath, whether he had not played his 
 farce very well. 
 
 Seneca, ex Thyeste, Act. II. Chor. 
 
 " Stet, quicunque volet potens 
 Aulae culmine lubrico," &c. 
 
 20 Upon the slippery tops of humane state. 
 
 The guilded pinnacles of fate, 
 Let others proudly stand, and, for a while 
 
 The giddy danger to beguile, 
 With joy, and with disdain, look down on all, 
 25 Till their heads turn, and down they fall. 
 
 Me, O ye gods, on earth, or else so near 
 
 That I no fall to earth may fear, 
 And, O ye gods, at a good distance seat 
 From the long ruins of the great. 
 30 Here wrapt in th' arms of quiet let me lye; 
 
 Quiet, companion of obscurity. 
 
IN VERSE AND PROSE. 95 
 
 Here let my life with as much silence slide, 
 
 As time, that measures it, does glide. 
 Nor let the breath of infamy or fame. 
 From town to town echo about my name. 
 Nor let my homely death embroidered be 5 
 
 With scutcheon or with elogie. 
 
 An old plebeian let me die, 
 Alas, all then are such as well as I. 
 
 To him, alas, to him, I fear. 
 The face of death will terrible appear, 10 
 
 Who, in his life flattering his senseless pride. 
 By being known to all the world beside. 
 Does not himself, when he is dying, know, 
 Nor what he is, nor whither he's to go. 
 
96 DISCO UJ^SES BY WAY OF ESSAYS. 
 
 IV. 
 
 OF AGRICULTURE. 
 
 |HE first wish of Virgil (as you will find anon 
 by his verses) was to be a good philosopher ; 
 the second, a good husbandman : and God 
 3^ (whom he seem'd to understand better than 
 5 most of the most learned heathens) dealt with him, just 
 as he did with Solomon ; because he prayed for wisdom 
 in the first place, he added all things else, which were 
 subordinately to be desir'd. He made him one of the 
 best philosophers and the best husbandmen; and, to 
 lo adorn and communicate both those faculties, the best 
 poet. He made him, besides all this, a rich man, and a 
 man who desired to be no richer — 
 
 "O fortunatus nimium, et bona qui sua novit!" 
 
 To be a husbandman, is but a retreat from the city ; to 
 15 be a philosopher, from the world ; or rather, a retreat 
 
 from the world, as it is man's, into the world, as it is 
 
 God's. 
 
 But, since nature denies to most men the capacity or 
 
 appetite, and fortune allows but to a very few the 
 20 opportunites or possibility of applying themselves wholly 
 
 to philosophy, the best mixture of humane affairs that we 
 
 can make, are the employments of a country life. It is. 
 
IN VERSE AND PROSE. 97 
 
 as Columella calls it, " Res sine dubitatione proxima, et 
 quasi consanguinea sapientise," the nearest neighbour, 
 or rather next in kindred, to philosophy. Varro says, 
 the principles of it are the same which Ennius made to 
 be the principles of all nature, Earth, Water, Air, and 5 
 the Sun. It does certainly comprehend more parts of 
 philosophy, than any one profession, art, or science, in 
 the world besides : and therefore Cicero says, the 
 pleasures of a husbandman, "mihi ad sapientis vitam ^ 
 proxime videntur accedere," come very nigh to those 10 
 of a philosopher. There is no other sort of Hfe that 
 affords so many branches of praise to a panegyrist : the 
 utility of it, to a man's self; the usefulness, or rather 
 necessity, of it to all the rest of mankind \ the innocence, 
 the pleasure, the antiquity, the dignity. 15 
 
 The utihty (I mean plainly the lucre of it) is not so 
 great, now in our nation, as arises from merchandise and 
 the trading of the city, from whence many of the best 
 estates and chief honours of the kingdom are derived : 
 we have no men now fetcht from the plow to be 20 
 made lords, as they were in Rome to be made consuls 
 and dictators; the reason of which I conceive to be 
 from an evil custom, now grown as strong among us as 
 if it were a law, which is, that no men put their children 
 to be bred up apprentices in agriculture, as in other 25 
 trades, but such who are so poor, that, when they come 
 to be men, they have not where-withal to set up in it, 
 and so can only farm some small parcel of ground, the 
 rent of which devours all but the bare subsistence of 
 the tenant : whilst they who are proprietors of the land 30 
 are either too proud, or, for want of that kind of educa- 
 tion, too ignorant, to improve their estates, though the 
 means of doing it be as easie and certain in this, as in 
 any other track of commerce. If there were always two 
 L. c. 7 
 
98 DISCOURSES BY WAY OF ESSAYS, 
 
 or three thousand youths, for seven or eight years, 
 bound to this profession, that they might learn the 
 whole art of it, and afterwards be enabled to be masters 
 in it, by a moderate stock, I cannot doubt but that we 
 
 5 should see as many aldermen's estates made in the 
 country, as now we do out of all kind of merchandizing 
 in the city. There are as many ways to be rich, and, 
 which is better, there is no possibility to be poor, with- 
 out such negligence as can neither have excuse nor 
 
 lo pity ; for a little ground will, without question, feed a 
 little family, and the superfluities of life (which are now 
 in some cases by custom made almost necessary) must 
 be supplyed out of the superabundance of art and 
 industry, or contemned by as great a degree of phi- 
 
 15 losophy. 
 
 As for the necessity of this art, it is evident enough, 
 since this can live without all others, and no one other 
 without this. This is Hke speech, without which the 
 society of men cannot be preserved ; the others, like 
 
 20 figures and tropes of speech, which serve only to adorn 
 it. Many nations have lived, and some do still, without 
 any art but this : not so elegantly, I confess, but still 
 they Hve ; and almost all the other arts, which are here 
 practised, are beholding to this for most of their materials. 
 
 25 The innocence of this hfe is the next thing for which 
 I commend it ; and if husbandmen preserve not that, 
 they are much to blame, for no men are so free from 
 the temptations of iniquity. They live by what they can 
 get by industry from the earth ; and others, by what 
 
 30 they can catch by craft from men. They live upon an 
 estate given them by their mother ; and others, upon an 
 estate cheated from their brethren. They live, like 
 sheep and kine, by the allowances of nature ; and others, 
 like wolves and foxes, by the acquisitions of rapine. 
 
IN VERSE AND PROSE. 99 
 
 And, 1 hope, I may affirm (without any offence to the 
 great) that sheep and kine are very useful, and that 
 vrolves and foxes are pernicious creatures. They are, 
 without dispute, of all men, the most quiet and least apt 
 to be inflamed to the disturbance of the commonwealth : 5 
 their manner of life inclines them, and interest binds 
 them, to love peace : in our late mad and miserable 
 civil wars, all other trades, even to the meanest, set 
 forth whole troops, and raised up some great com- 
 manders, who became famous and mighty for the mis- 10 
 chiefs they had done : but I do not remember the name 
 of any one husbandman, who had so considerable a share 
 in the twenty years' ruine of his country, as to deserve 
 the curses of his countrymen. 
 
 And if great delights be joyn'd with so much inno- 15 
 cence, I think it is ill done of men, not to take them 
 here, where tliey are so tame, and ready at hand, rather 
 than hunt for them in courts and cities, where they are 
 so wild, and the chase so troublesome and dangerous. 
 
 We are here among the vast and noble scenes of 20 
 nature; we are there among the pitiful shifts of policy : 
 we walk here in the light and open ways of the divine 
 bounty; we grope there in the dark and confused 
 labyrinths of humane malice : our senses are here feasted 
 with the clear and genuine taste of their objects, which 25 
 are all sophisticated there, and for the most part over- 
 whelmed with their contraries. Here, pleasure looks 
 (methinks) like a beautiful, constant, and modest wife; 
 it is there an impudent, fickle, and paintQd harlot. 
 Here, is harmless and cheap plenty ; there, guilty and 30 
 expenceful luxury. 
 
 I shall only instance in one delight more, the most 
 natural and best-natured of all others, a perpetual 
 companion of the husbandman ; and tliat is, the satisfac- 
 
loo DISCOURSES BY WAY OF ESSAYS, 
 
 tion of looking round about him, and seeing nothing but 
 
 the effects and improvements of his own art and 
 
 diHgence ; to be always gathering of some fruits of it, 
 
 and at the same time to behold others ripening, and 
 
 5 others budding : to see all his fields and gardens covered 
 
 with the beauteous creatures of his own industry ; and 
 
 to see, like God, tliat all his works are good : — 
 
 Hinc atque hinc glomerantur Orcades; ipsi 
 
 Agricolse taciturn pertentant gaudia pectus. 
 
 lo On his heart-string a secret joy does strike. 
 
 The antiquity of his art is certainly not to be con- 
 tested by any other. The three first men in the world, 
 were a gardener, a plowman, and a grazier; and if 
 any man object, that the second of these was a murtherer, 
 
 15 I desire he would consider, that as soon as he was so, he 
 quitted our profession, and turn'd builder. It is for 
 this reason, I suppose, that Ecclesiasticus forbids us to 
 hate husbandry ; ' because (says he) the Most High has 
 created it.' We were all born to this art, and taught by 
 
 20 nature to nourish our bodies by the same earth out of 
 which they were made, and to which they must return, 
 and pay at last for their sustenance. 
 
 Behold the original and primitive nobility of all those 
 great persons, who are too proud now, not only to till 
 
 25 the ground, but almost to tread upon it. We may talk 
 what we please of liUies, and lions rampant, and spread- 
 eagles, in fields {i'or or d'argent; but, if heraldry were 
 guided by reason, a plough in a field arable would be 
 the most noble and antient arms. 
 
 30 All these considerations make me fall into the wonder 
 and complaint of Columella, how it should come to 
 pass that all arts or sciences (for the dispute, which is 
 an art, and which a science, does not belong to the curi- 
 osity of us husbandmen,) metaphysick, physick, morality, 
 
JN VERSE AND PROSE. loi 
 
 mathematicks, logick, rhetorick &c. which are all, I grant, 
 good and useful faculties, (except only metaphysick 
 which 1 do not know whether it be anything or no ;) 
 but even vaulting, fencing, dancing, attiring, cookery, 
 carving, and such like vanities, should all have publick 5 
 schools and masters, and yet that we should never see 
 or hear of any man, who took upon him the profession of 
 teaching this so pleasant, so virtuous, so profitable, so 
 honourable, so necessary art. 
 
 A man would think, when he's in serious humour, 10 
 that it were but a vain, irrational, and ridiculous thing, 
 for a great company of men and women to run up and 
 down in a room together, in a hundred several postures 
 and figures, to no purpose, and with no design ; and 
 therefore dancing was invented first, and only practised 15 
 antiently, in the ceremonies of the heathen religion, 
 which consisted all in mummery and madness; the latter 
 being the chief glory of the worship, and accounted 
 divine inspiration : this, I say, a severe man would 
 think ; though I dare not determine so far against so 20 
 customary a part, now, of good-breeding. And yet, who 
 is there among our gentry, that does not entertain a 
 dancing-master for his children, as soon as they are able 
 to walk ? But did ever any father provide a tutor for his 
 son, to instruct him betimes in the nature and improve- 25 
 ments of that land which he intended to leave him ? 
 That is at least a superfluity, and this a defect, in our 
 manner of education ; and therefore I could wish (but 
 cannot in these times much hope to see it) that one col- 
 ledge in each university were erected, and appropriated 30 
 to this study, as well as there are to medicine and the 
 civil law : there would be no need of making a body of 
 scholars and fellows, with certain endowments, as in 
 other coUedges ; it would suffice, if, after the manner of 
 
102 DISCOUJ^SES BY WAY OF ESSAYS, 
 
 halls in Oxford, there were only four professors consti- 
 tuted (for it would be too much work for only one 
 master, or principal, as they call him there) to teach 
 these four parts of it : First, Aration, and all things re- 
 
 5 lating to it. Secondly, Pasturage. Thirdly, Gardens, 
 Orchards, Vineyards, and Woods. Fourthly, all parts 
 of Rural Oeconomy, which would contain the government 
 of Bees, Swine, Poultry, Decoys, Ponds, &c. and all that 
 which Varro calls villaticas pasfioncs, together with the 
 
 lo sports of the field (which ought to be looked upon not 
 only as pleasures, but as parts of house-keeping), and 
 the domestical conservation and uses of all that is 
 brought in by industry abroad. The business of these 
 professors should not be, as is commonly practised in 
 
 15 other arts, only to read pompous and superficial lectures, 
 out of Virgil's Georgicks, Pliny, Varro, or Columella ; 
 but to instruct their pupils in the whole method and 
 course of this study, which might be run through per- 
 haps, with diligence, in a year or two : and the con- 
 
 20 tinual succession of scholars, upon a moderate taxation 
 for their diet, lodging, and learning, would be a suffi- 
 cient constant revenue for maintenance of the house and 
 the professors, who should be men not chosen for the 
 ostentation of critical literature, but for solid and expe- 
 
 25 rimental knowledge of the things they teach ; such men, 
 so industrious and publick-spirited, as I conceive Mr. 
 Hartlib to be, if the gentleman be yet alive : but it is 
 needless to speak further of my thoughts of this design, 
 unless the present disposition of the age allowed more 
 
 30 probability of bringing it into execution. What I have 
 further to say of the country life, shall be borrowed 
 from the poets, who were always the most faithful and 
 affectionate friends to it. Poetry was born among the 
 shepherds. 
 
TN VERSE AND PROSE. 103 
 
 Ncscio qua natale solum dulcedinc Mubas 
 Ducit, et immemores non sinit esse sui. 
 
 The Muses still love their own native place ; 
 'T has secret charms, which nothing can deface. 
 
 The truth is, no other place is proper for their work ; 5 
 one might as well undertake to dance in a crowd, as to 
 make good verses in the midst of noise and tumult. 
 
 As well might corn, as verse, in cities grow ; 
 
 In vain the thankless glebe we plow and sovr ; 
 
 Against th' unnatural soil in vain we strive ; 10 
 
 'Tis not a ground, in which these plants will thrive. 
 
 It will bear nothing but the nettles or thorns of satyre, 
 which grow most naturally in the worst earth ; and 
 therefore almost all poets, except those who were not 
 able to eat bread without the bounty of great men, that 15 
 is, without what they could get by flattering of them, 
 have not only withdrawn themselves from the vices and 
 vanities of the grand world, 
 
 pariter vitiisque jocisque 
 
 Altius humanis exeruere caput, 20 
 
 into the innocent happiness of a retired life ; but have 
 commended and adorned nothing so much by their ever- 
 living poems. Hesiod was the first or second poet in 
 the world that remains yet extant (if Homer, as some 
 think, preceded him, but I rather believe they were 25 
 contemporaries) ; and he is the first writer too of the 
 art of husbandry : " he has contributed (says Columella) 
 not a little to our profession ; " I suppose, he means not 
 a little honour, for the matter of his instructions is not 
 very important : his great antiquity is visible through 30 
 the gravity and simplicity of his stile. The most acute 
 of all his sayings concerns our purpose very much, and 
 is couched in the reverend obscurity of an oracle. nXeW 
 ly/xio-u 7rai/To9, The half is more than the whole. The 
 
I04 DISCOURSES BY WAY OF ESSAYS, 
 
 occasion of the speech is this ; his brother Perses had, 
 by corrupting some great men (l3a(rLX^a<s Swpocjxiyovs, 
 great bribe-eaters he calls them), gotten from him the 
 half of his estate. It is no matter (says he) ; they have 
 5 not done me so much prejudice, as they imagine. 
 
 NT^TTtoi, ovS^ iaaaLV oao: irXeop rnjnav iravros, 
 
 Oi}5' oTov ev /xaXaxv "^^ '<^<^' acr^oSeXo^ fxey' o^eiap, 
 
 Kpv\f/auTes yap exovac deol ^iov avOpcoiroLai. 
 
 Unhappy they, to whom God ha'n't reveal'd, 
 lO By a strong light which must their sense controul, 
 
 That half a great estate's more than the whole. 
 Unhappy, from whom still conceal'd does lye. 
 Of roots and herbs, the wholesom luxury. 
 
 This I conceive to be honest Hesiod's meaning. From 
 
 15 Homer, we must not expect much concerning our affairs. 
 He was blind, and could neither work in the country, 
 nor enjoy the pleasures of it ; his helpless poverty was 
 likeliest to be sustained in the richest places; he was to 
 delight the Grecians with fine tales of the wars and ad- 
 
 20 ventures of their ancestors ; his subject removed him 
 from all commerce with us, and yet, methinks, he made 
 a shift to shew his good-will a little. For, though he 
 could do us no honour in the person of his hero Ulysses 
 (much less of Achilles), because his whole time was con- 
 
 25 sumed in wars and voyages ; yet he makes his father 
 Laertes a gardener all that while, and seeking his con- 
 solation for the absence of his son in the pleasure of 
 planting, and even dunging his own grounds. Ye see, 
 he did not contemn us peasants ; nay, so far was he 
 
 30 from that insolence, that he always stiles Eumaeus, who 
 kept the hogs, with wonderful respect, Slov vcjiopfSov, the 
 divine swine herd ; he could ha' done no more for 
 Menelaus or Agamemnon. And Theocritus (a very 
 antient poet, but he was one of our own tribe, for he 
 
IN VERSE AND PROSE. 105 
 
 wrote nothing but pastorals) gave the same epithete to 
 an husbandman, 
 
 — y]lxei^€To 8io<s ayp(ii(TTrj<;. 
 The divine husbandman replyed to Hercules, who was 
 but Stos himself. These were civil Greeks, and who 5 
 understood the dignity of our calling ! Among the 
 Romans we have, in the first place, our truly divine 
 Virgil, who, though, by the favour of Mciecenas and 
 Augustus, he might have been one of the chief men of 
 Rome, yet chose rather to employ much of his time in 10 
 the exercise, and much of his immortal wit in the praise 
 and instructions, of a rustique life ; who, though he had 
 written, before, whole books of pastorals and georgics, 
 could not abstain, in his great and imperial poem, from 
 describing Evander, one of his best princes, as living 15 
 just after the homely manner of an ordinary country- 
 man. He seats him in a throne of maple, and lays him 
 but upon a bear's skin ; the kine and oxen are lowing 
 in his court-yard ; the birds under the eves of his 
 window call him up in the morning ; and when he goes 20 
 abroad, only two dogs go along with him for his guard: 
 at last, when he brings ^neas into his royal cottage, he 
 makes him say this memorable complement, greater than 
 ever yet was spoken at the Escarial, the Louvre, or our 
 Whitehal : 25 
 
 — Usee (inquit) limina victor 
 Alcides subiit, haec ilium regia cepit : 
 Aude, hospes, contemnere opes : et te quoque dignum 
 Finge Deo, rebusque veni non asper egenis. 
 
 This humble roof, this rustick court, (said lie) 30 
 
 Receiv'd Alcides, ciown'd with victorie : 
 
 Scorn not, great guest, the steps where he has trod ; 
 
 But contemn wealth, and imitate a God. 
 
 The next man, whom we are much obliged to, both 
 
io6 DISCOURSES BY WAY OF ESSAYS, 
 
 for his doctrine and example, is the next best poet in 
 the world to Virgil, his dear friend Horace ; who, when 
 Augustus had desired Maecenas to perswade him to come 
 and live domestically and at the same table with him, 
 
 5 and to be secretary of state of the whole world under 
 him, or rather jointly with him, for he says, "ut nos in 
 epistolis scribendis adjuvet," could not be tempted to 
 forsake his Sabin, or Tiburtin mannor, for so rich and 
 so glorious a trouble. There was never, I think, such 
 
 lo an example as this in the world, that he should have so 
 much moderation and courage as to refuse an offer of 
 such greatness, and the emperor so much generosity and 
 good-nature as not to be at all offended with his refusal, 
 but to retain still the same kindness, and express it often 
 
 15 to him in most friendly and familiar letters, part of which 
 are still extant. If I should produce all the passages of 
 this excellent author upon the several subjects which I 
 treat of in this book, I must be obliged to translate half 
 his works ; of which I may say more truly than, in my 
 
 20 opinion, he did of Homer, 
 
 Qui, quid sit pulcbrum, quid turpe, quid utile, quid non, 
 Planius et melius Chrysippo et Crantore dicit. 
 
 I shall content myself upon this particular theme 
 with three only, one out of his Odes, the other out of 
 
 25 his Satires, the third out of his Epistles ; and shall for- 
 bear to collect the suffrages of all other poets, which 
 may be found scattered up and down through all their 
 writings, and especially in Martial's. But I must not 
 omit to make some excuse for the bold undertaking of 
 
 30 my own unskilful pencil upon the beauties of a face 
 that has been drawn before by so many great masters ; 
 especially, that I should dare to do it in Latine verses 
 (though of another kind), and have the confidence to 
 
IN VERSE AND PROSE. 107 
 
 translate them. 1 can only say that I love the matter, 
 and that ought to cover many faults ; and that I run not 
 to contend with those before me, but follow to applaud 
 them. 
 
 A TRANSLATION OUT OF VIRGIL. 
 
 Georg. Lib. II. 458. 
 
 O forhinatos nimium tSr'tr. 
 
 Oh happy (if his happiness he knows) 5 
 
 The country swain, on whom kind heaven bestows 
 
 At home all riches, that wise nature needs ; 
 
 Whom the just earth with easie plenty feeds. 
 
 'Tis true, no morning tide of clients comes, 
 
 A.nd fills the painted channels of his rooms, 10 
 
 Adoring the rich figures, as they pass, 
 
 In tap'stry wrought, or cut in living brass; 
 
 Nor is his wooll superfluously dy'd 
 
 With the dear poison of Assyrian pride : 
 
 Nor do Arabian perfumes vainly spoil 15 
 
 The native use and sweetness of his oil. 
 
 Instead of these, his calm and harmless life, 
 
 Free from th' allarms of fear, and storms of strife, 
 
 Does with substantial blessedness abound, 
 
 And the soft wings of peace cover him round : 20 
 
 Through artless grots the murm'ring waters glide; 
 
 Thick trees both against heat and cold provide. 
 
 From whence the birds salute him ; and his ground 
 
 With lowing herds, and bleating sheep, does sound; 
 
 And all the rivers, and the forests nigh, 25 
 
 Both food, and game, and exercise, supply. 
 
 Here, a well-hard'ned active youth we see, 
 
 Taught the great art of chearful povertie. 
 
io8 DISCOURSES BY WAY OF ESSAYS, 
 
 Here, in this place alone, there still do shine 
 Some streaks of love, both humane and divine; 
 From hence Astraea took her flight, and here 
 Still her last foot-steps upon earth appear. 
 
 5 'Tis true, the first desire, which does controul 
 All the inferior wheels that move my soul, 
 Is, that the Muse me her high priest would make. 
 Into her holiest scenes of myst'ry take, 
 And open there to my mind's purged eye 
 
 lo Those wonders, which to sense the gods deny. 
 How in the moon such change of shapes is found; 
 The moon, the changing world's eternal bound. 
 What shakes the solid earth, what strong disease 
 Dares trouble the firm centre's antient ease ; 
 
 15 What makes the sea retreat, and what advance : 
 "Varieties too regular for chance." 
 What drives the chariot on of winter's light. 
 And stops the lazy wagon of the night. 
 But, if my dull and frozen blood deny 
 
 20 To send forth th' sp'rits, that raise a soul so high ! 
 In the next place, let woods and rivers be 
 My quiet, though inglorious, destinie. 
 In life's cool vale let my low scene be laid : 
 Cover me, gods, with Tempe's thickest shade. 
 
 25 Happy the man, I grant, thrice happy he, 
 
 Who can through gross effects their causes see : 
 Whose courage from the deeps of knowledge springs. 
 Nor vainly fears inevitable things ; 
 But does his walk of virtue calmly go 
 
 30 Through all th' alarms of death and hell below. 
 Happy ! but, next such conqu'rors, happy they. 
 Whose humble life lies not in fortune's way. 
 They, unconcern'd, from their safe distant seat 
 Behold the rods and scepters of the great. 
 
IN VERSE AND PROSE. 109 
 
 The quarrels of the mighty without fear, 
 
 And the descent of foreign troops they hear. 
 
 Nor can ev'n Rome their steady course misguide, 
 
 With all the lustre of her per'shing pride. 
 
 Them never yet did strife or av'rice draw 5 
 
 Into the noisie markets of the law. 
 
 The camps of gowned war; nor do they live 
 
 By rules or forms, that many madmen give. 
 
 Duty for nature's bounty they repay, 
 
 And her sole laws religiously obey. 10 
 
 Some with bold labour plough the faithless main, 
 Some rougher storms in princes' courts sustain. 
 Some swell up their slight sails with pop'lar fame, 
 Charm'd with the foolish whistlings of a name. 
 Some their vain wealth to earth again commit; 15 
 
 With endless cares some brooding o'er it sit. 
 Country and friends are by some wretches sold, 
 To lie on Tyrian beds, and drink in gold; 
 No price too high for profit can be shown; 
 Not brother's blood, nor hazards of their own. 20 
 
 Around the world in search of it they roam ; 
 It makes ev'n their antipodes their home ; 
 Meanwhile, the prudent husbandman is found, 
 In mutual duties, striving with his ground. 
 And half the year the care of that does take, 25 
 
 That half the year grateful returns does make. 
 Each fertile month does some new gifts present. 
 And with new work his industry content. 
 This, the young lamb, that the soft fleece doth yield; 
 This, loads with hay, and that, with corn, the field; 30 
 All sorts of fruit crown the rich autumn's pride; 
 And on a swelHng hill's warm stony side, 
 The pow'rful princely purple of the vine, 
 Twice dy'd with the redoubled sun, does shine. 
 
no -DISCOURSES BY WAY OF ESSAYS, 
 
 In th' evening to a fair ensuing day, 
 With joy he sees his flocks and kids to play; 
 And loaded kyne about his cottage stand, 
 Inviting with known sound the milker's hand; 
 
 5 And, when from wholsome labour he doth come, 
 With wishes to be there, and wish'd for home, 
 He meets at door the softest humane blisses, 
 His chaste wife's welcome, and dear children's kisses. 
 When any rural holidays invite 
 
 lo His genius forth to innocent delight, 
 
 On earth's fair bed, beneath some sacred shade. 
 Amidst his equal friends carelessly laid, 
 He sings thee, Bacchus, patron of the vine. 
 The beechen bowl foams with a flood of wine, 
 
 15 Not to the loss of reason, or of strength : 
 To active games and manly sport, at length. 
 Their mirth ascends, and with flll'd veins they see, 
 Who can the best at better tryals be. 
 From such the old Hetrurian virtue rose; 
 
 20 Such was the life the prudent Sabins chose ; 
 Such, Remus and the god, his brother, led ; 
 From such firm footing Rome grew the world's head. 
 Such was the life that, ev'n till now, does raise 
 The honour of poor Saturn's golden days. 
 
 25 Before men, born of earth and buried there, 
 Let in the sea their mortal fate to share : 
 Before new ways of perishing were sought, 
 Before unskilful death on anvils wrought : 
 Before those beasts, which humane life sustain, 
 
 30 By men, unless to the gods' use, were slain. 
 
IN VERSE AND PROSE. iii 
 
 HOR. EPOD. ODE 11. 
 
 Beatiis ille qui prociil «^--v. 
 
 Happy the man, whom bount'ous gods allow 
 
 With his own hands paternal grounds to plough ! 
 
 Like the first golden mortals happy, he, 
 
 From business and the cares of money free ! 
 
 No human storms break oft', at land, his sleep ; 5 
 
 No loud alarms of nature on the deep : 
 
 From all the cheats of law he lives secure, 
 
 Nor does th'affront of palaces endure ; 
 
 Sometimes, the beaut'ous marriageable vine 
 
 He to the lusty bridegroom elm does joyn ; 10 
 
 Sometimes, he lops the barren trees around, 
 
 And grafts new life into tlie fruitful wound; 
 
 Sometimes, he shears his flock, and, sometimes, he 
 
 Stores up the golden treasures of the bee. 
 
 He sees his lowing herds walk o'er the plain, 15 
 
 Whilst neighb'ring hills low back to them agin 
 
 And when the season, rich as well as gay, 
 
 All her autumnal bounty does display, 
 
 How is he pleas'd th' increasing use to see, 
 
 Of his well-trusted labours, bend the tree 1 20 
 
 Of which large shares, on the glad sacred days, 
 
 He gives to friends, and to the gods repays. 
 
 With how much joy does he, beneath some shade 
 
 By aged trees' rev'rend embraces made, 
 
 His careless head on the fresh green recline, 25 
 
 His head uncharged with fear or with design. 
 
 By him a river constantly complains. 
 
 The birds above rejoyce with various strains. 
 
 And in the solemn scene their orgies keep, 
 
 Like dreams, mixt with the gravity of sleep ; 30 
 
112 DISCOURSES BY WAY OF ESSAYS, 
 
 Sleep, which does always there for entrance wait, 
 And nought within against it shuts the gate. 
 Nor does the roughest season of the sky. 
 Or sullen Jove, all sports to him deny. 
 
 5 He runs the mazes of the nimble hare, 
 His well-mouth'd dogs' glad concert rends the air ; 
 Or with game bolder, and rewarded more, 
 He drives into a toil the foaming bore; 
 Here flies the hawk t'assault, and there the net, 
 
 lo To intercept the traveling fowl, is set ; 
 And all his malice, all his craft, is shown 
 In innocent wars, on beasts and birds alone; 
 This is the life from all misfortunes free, 
 From thee, the great one, tyrant love, from thee; 
 
 15 And, if a chaste and clean, though homely, wife 
 Be added to the blessings of this life. 
 Such as the antient sun-burnt Sabins were, 
 Such as Apulia, frugal still, does bear, 
 Who makes her children and the house her care, 
 
 20 And joyfully the work of life does share, 
 Nor thinks herself too noble or too fine 
 To pin the sheepfold or to milk the kine. 
 Who waits at door against her husband come 
 From rural duties, late, and wearied home, 
 
 25 Where she receives him with a kind embrace, 
 A chearful fire, and a more chearful face ; 
 And fills the bowl up to her homely lord, 
 And with domestick plenty loads the board, 
 Not all the lustful shell-fish of the sea, 
 
 30 Drest by the wanton hand of luxury. 
 Nor ortolans nor godwits, nor the rest 
 Of costly names that glorifie a feast. 
 Are at the princely tables better cheer, 
 Than lamb and kid, lettice and olives, here. 
 
IN VERSE AND PROSE. 113 
 
 THE COUNTRY MOUSE. 
 
 A Paraphrase upon Horace, Book II. Sat. VI. 
 
 At the large foot of a fair hollow tree, 
 
 Close to plovv'd ground, seated commodiously, 
 
 His antient and hereditary house, 
 
 There dwelt a good substantial country mouse; 
 
 Frugal, and grave, and careful of the main, 5 
 
 Yet one who once did nobly entertain 
 
 A city mouse, well coated, sleek, and gay, 
 
 A mouse of high degree, which lost his way, 
 
 Wantonly walking forth to tal;e the air. 
 
 And arriv'd early, and belighted there, 10 
 
 For a day's lodging : the good hearty host, 
 
 (The antient plenty of his hall to boast) 
 
 Did all the store produce, that might excite, 
 
 With various tastes, the courtier's appetite. 
 
 Fitches and beans, peason, oats, and wheat, 15 
 
 And a large chesnut, the delicious meat 
 
 Which Jove himself, were he a mouse, would eat. 
 
 And, for a haut gonst, "there was mixt with these 
 
 The swerd of bacon, and the coat of cheese : 
 
 The precious reliques, which, at harvest, he 20 
 
 Had gathered from the reapers' luxurie. 
 
 Freely (said he) fall on, and never spare, 
 
 The bounteous gods will for to-morrow care. 
 
 And thus at ease, on beds of straw, they lay, 
 
 And to their genius sacrific'd the day : 25 
 
 Yet the nice guest's epicurean mind, 
 
 (Though breeding made him civil seem, and kind) 
 
 Despis'd this country feast; and still his thought 
 
 Upon the cakes and pies of London wrought. 
 
 L. c. 8 
 
114 niSCOURSES BY WAY OF ESSAYS, 
 
 Your bounty and civility, (said he) 
 Which I'm surpris'd in these rude parts to see, 
 Shews that the gods have given you a mind 
 Too noble for the fate, which here you find. 
 
 5 Why should a soul, so virt'ous, and so great, 
 Lose itself thus in an obscure retreat ? 
 Let savage beasts lodge in a country den ; 
 You should see towns, and manners know, and men; 
 And taste the gen'rous luxury of the court, 
 
 lo Where all the mice of quality resort ; 
 
 Where thousand beaut' ous shes about you move, 
 And, by high fare, are plyant made to love. 
 We all, ere long, must render up our breath ] 
 No cave or hole can shelter us from death. 
 
 IS Since life is so uncertain, and so short, 
 
 Let's spend it all in feasting and in sport. 
 Come, worthy sir, come with me, and partake 
 All the great things, that mortals happy make. 
 Alas ! what virtue hath sufficient arms, 
 
 20 T' oppose bright honour, and soft pleasure's charms ? 
 What wisdom can their magick force repel ? 
 It draws this rev' rend hermit from his cell. 
 It was the time, when witty poets tell, 
 "That Phoebus into Thetis' bosome fell: 
 
 25 She blush'd at first, and then put out the light, 
 And drew the modest curtains of the night." 
 Plainly the troth to tell, the sun was set. 
 When to the town our wearied trav'llers get, 
 To a lord's house, as lordly as can be, 
 
 30 Made for the use of pride and luxurie, 
 
 Tliey come; the gentle courtier at the door 
 Stops, and will hardly enter in before. 
 But 'tis, sir, your command, and being so, 
 I'm sworn t' obedience; and so in they go. 
 
IN VERSE AND PROSE. 115 
 
 Behind a hanging in a spacious room, 
 
 (The richest work of Mortlacke's noble loom) 
 
 They wait a while their wearied limbs to rest, 
 
 Till silence should invite them to their feast. 
 
 "About the hour that Cynthia's silver light 5 
 
 Had touch'd the pale meridies of the night," 
 
 At last, the various supper being done, 
 
 It happen'd that the company was gone 
 
 Into a room remote, servants and all. 
 
 To please their noble fancies with a ball. 10 
 
 Our host leads forth his stranger, and does find 
 
 All fitted to the bounties of his mind. 
 
 Still on the table half-fill'd dishes stood, 
 
 And with delicious bits the floor was strow'd. 
 
 The court'ous mouse presents him with the best, 15 
 
 And both with fat varieties are blest. 
 
 Th' industrious peasant every where does range, 
 
 And thanks the gods for his life's happy change. 
 
 Lo! in the midst of a well-fraighted pie, 
 
 They both at last glutted and wanton lie. 20 
 
 When see the sad reverse of prosp'rous fate. 
 
 And what fierce storms on mortal glories wait ! 
 
 With hid'ous noise, down the rude servants come, 
 
 Six dogs before run barking into th' room ; 
 
 The wretched gluttons fly with wild affright, 25 
 
 And hate the fulness which retards their flight. 
 
 Our trembling peasant wishes now in vain. 
 
 That rocks and mountains cover'd him again. 
 
 Oh how the change of his poor Hfe he curst ! 
 
 This, of all lives (said he) is sure the worst. 30 
 
 Give me again, ye gods, my cave and wood ; 
 
 With peace, let tares and acorns be my food. 
 
 8-2 
 
ii6 DISCOURSES BY WAY OF ESSAYS, 
 
 A PARAPHRASE UPON THE ioth EPISTLE 
 OF THE FIRST BOOK OF HORACE. 
 
 HORACE TO FUSCUS ARISTIUS. 
 
 Health, from the lover of the country, me, 
 Health to the lover of the city, thee; 
 A difference in our souls, this only proves ; 
 In all things else, we agree like married doves. 
 5 But the warm nest and crowded dove-house thou 
 Dost like ; I loosely fly from bough to bough, 
 And rivers drink, and all the shining day, 
 Upon fair trees or mossy rocks, I play; 
 In fine, I live and reign, when I retire 
 lo From all that you equal with heav'n admire. 
 Like one at last from the priest's service fled, 
 Loathing the honied cakes, I long for bread. 
 Would I a house for happiness erect, 
 Nature alone should be the architect, 
 15 She'd build it more convenient, than great, 
 
 And, doubtles, in the country chuse her seat. 
 
 Is there a place, doth better helps supply, 
 
 Against the wounds of winter's cruelty? 
 
 Is there an air, that gentlier does asswage 
 20 The mad celestial dog's, or lyon's rage? 
 
 Is it not there that sleep (and only there) 
 
 Nor noise without, nor cares within, does fear? 
 
 Does art through pipes a purer water bring, 
 
 Than that, which nature strains into a spring? 
 25 Can all your tap'stries, or your pictures, show 
 
 More beauties, than in herbs and flow'rs do grow ? 
 
 Fountains and trees our wearied pride do please, 
 
 Ev'n in the midst of gilded palaces. 
 
TN VERSE AND PROSE. irj 
 
 And in your towns, that prospect gives delight, 
 
 Which opens round the country to our sight. 
 
 Men to the good, from which they rashly fly, 
 
 Return at last; and their wild luxury 
 
 Does but in vain with those true joys contend, 5 
 
 Which nature did to mankind recommend. 
 
 The man, who changes gold for burnisht brass, 
 
 Or small right gems for larger ones of glass, 
 
 Is not, at length, more certain to be made 
 
 Ridiculous, and wretched by the trade, ic 
 
 Than he, who sells a solid good to buy 
 
 The painted goods of pride and vanity. 
 
 If thou be wise, no glorious fortune choose, 
 
 Which 'tis but pain to keep, yet grief to lose. 
 
 For, when we place ev'n trifles in the heart, 15 
 
 With trifles too, unwillingly we part. 
 
 An humble roof, plain bed, and homely board, 
 
 More clear, untainted pleasures do aftbrd. 
 
 Than all the tumult of vain greatness brino-s 
 
 To kings, or to the favorites of kings. 20 
 
 The horned deer, by nature arm'd so well. 
 
 Did with the horse in common pasture dwell; 
 
 And, when they fought, the field it always wan. 
 
 Till the ambitious horse begg'd help of man. 
 
 And took the bridle, and thenceforth did reign 25 
 
 Bravely alone, as lord of all the plain ; 
 
 But never after could the rider get 
 
 From off his back, or from his mouth the bit. 
 
 So they, who poverty too much do fear, 
 
 T' avoid that weight, a greater burden bear; 
 
 That they might pow'r above their equals have, 
 
 To cruel masters they themselves enslave. 
 
 For gold, their liberty exchang'd we see, 
 
 That fairest flower, which crowns humanitie. 
 
 30 
 
ii8 DISCOURSES BY WAY OF ESSAYS, 
 
 And all this mischief does upon them light, 
 Only because they know not how, aright. 
 That great, but secret, happiness to prize, 
 That 's laid up in a little, for the wise : 
 
 5 That is the best and easiest estate, 
 
 Which to a man sits close, but not too strait ; 
 'Tis like a shoe; it pinches, and it burns, 
 Too narrow ; and too large, it overturns. 
 My dearest friend, stop thy desires at last, 
 
 lo And chearfully enjoy the wealth thou hast. 
 And, if me still seeking for more you see, 
 Chide, and reproach, despise and laugh at me. 
 Money was made, not to command our will, 
 But all our lawful pleasures to fulfill. 
 
 15 Shame and woe to us, if we our wealth obey; 
 The horse doth with the horseman run away. 
 
 THE COUNTRY LIFE. 
 Lib. IV. Plantarum. 
 
 Blest be the man (and blest he is) whom e*er 
 (Plac'd far out of the roads of hope or fear) 
 A little field, and little garden, feeds : 
 20 The field gives all that frugal nature needs; 
 The wealthy garden liberally bestows 
 All she can ask, when she luxurious grows. 
 The specious inconveniences, that wait 
 Upon a life of business, and of state, 
 25 He sees (nor does the sight disturb his rest) 
 By fools desir'd, by wicked men possest. 
 Thus, thus (and this deserv'd great Virgil's praise) 
 The old Corycian yeoman past his days; 
 
IN VERSE AND PROSE. 119 
 
 Thus his wise Hfe Abdolonymus spent : 
 
 Th' ambassadors, which the great emperour sent 
 
 To offer him a crown, with wonder found 
 
 The rev'rend gard'ner howing of his ground ; 
 
 Unwilhngly and slow and discontent, 5 
 
 From his lov'd cottage, to a throne he went. 
 
 And oft he stopt in his triumphant way. 
 
 And oft look'd back, and oft was heard to say, 
 
 Not without sighs, Alas, I there forsake 
 
 A happier kingdom than I go to take ! 10 
 
 Thus Aglaus (a man unknown to men, 
 
 But the gods knew, and therefore lov'd him then,) 
 
 Thus liv'd obscurely then without a name, 
 
 Aglaus, now consign'd t' eternal fame. 
 
 For Gyges, the rich king, wicked and great, 15 
 
 Presum'd, at wise Apollo's Delphick seat 
 
 Presum'd, to ask. Oh thou, the whole world's eye, 
 
 See'st thou a man, that happier is than I ? 
 
 The god, who scorn'd to flatter men, reply'd, 
 
 Aglaus happier is. But Gyges cry'd, 20 
 
 In a proud rage, who can that Aglaus be? 
 
 W have heard, as yet, of no such king as he. 
 
 And true it was, through the whole earth around 
 
 No king of such a name was to be found. 
 
 Is some old hero of that name alive, 25 
 
 Who his high race does from the gods derive? 
 
 Is it some mighty gen'ral, that has done 
 
 Wonders in fight, and god-Hke honours won? 
 
 Is it some man of endless wealth, said he? 
 
 None, none of these. Who can this Aglaus be? 30 
 
 After long search, and vain inquiries past. 
 
 In an obscure Arcadian vale at last, 
 
 (Th' Arcadian life has always shady been) 
 
 Near Sopho's town (which he but once had seen) 
 
I20 DISCOURSES BY WAY OF ESSAYS, 
 
 This Aglaus, who monarchs' envy drew, 
 Whose happiness the gods stood witness to, 
 This mighty Aglaus was labouring found. 
 With his own hands, in his own little ground. 
 5 So, gracious God, (if it may lawful be, 
 
 Among those foolish gods to mention thee) 
 So let me act, on such a private stage, 
 The last dull scenes of my declining age; 
 After long toils and voyages in vain, 
 lo This quiet port, let my tost vessel gain ; 
 Of heavenly rest, this earnest to me lend, 
 Let my life sleep, and learn to love her end. 
 
flV VERSE AND PROSE. 121 
 
 V. 
 
 THE GARDEN". 
 
 TO J. EVELYN, Esquire. 
 
 NEVER had any other desire so strong, and 
 so hke to covetousness, as that one which I 
 have had always, that I might be master at 
 last of a small house and large garden, with 
 very moderate conveniences joyned to them, and there 5 
 dedicate the remainder of my Hfe only to the culture of 
 them, and study of nature ; 
 
 And there (with no design beyond my wall) whole and entire 
 
 to lye, 
 In no unactive ease, and no unglorious poverty. 10 
 
 Or, as Virgil has said, shorter and better for me, that 
 I might there 
 
 "Studiis florere ignol)ilis otii;" 
 
 (though I could wish that he had rather said, "Nobilis 
 oti," when he spoke of his own.) But several accidents 15 
 of my ill fortune have disappointed me hitherto, and do 
 still, of that felicity; for though I have made the first and 
 hardest step to it, by abandoning all ambitions and hopes 
 in this world, and by retiring from the noise of all business 
 and almost company, yet I stick still in the inn of a hired 20 
 
122 DISCOURSES BY WAY OF ESSAYS, 
 
 house and garden, among weeds and rubbish : and without 
 that pleasantest work of human industry, the improvement 
 of something which we call (not very properly, but yet 
 we call) our own. I am gone out from Sodom, but I am 
 
 5 not yet arrived at my little Zoar. O let vie escape thither 
 {is it not a little one?) a7id my soul shall live. I do not 
 look back yet; but I have been forced to stop, and make 
 too many halts. You may wonder, Sir, (for this seems a 
 little too extravagant and Pindarical for prose) what I 
 
 lo mean by all this preface; it is to let you know, that 
 though I have mist, like a chymist, my great end, yet I 
 account my affections and endeavours well rewarded by 
 something that I have met with by the by; which is, that 
 they have procured to me some part in your kindness 
 
 15 and esteem; and thereby the honour of having my name 
 so advantagiously recommended to posterity, by the 
 epistle you are pleased to prefix to the most useful book 
 that has been written in that kind, and which is to last as 
 long as months and years. 
 
 20 Among many other arts and excellencies, which you 
 enjoy, I am glad to find this favourite of mine the most 
 predominant; that you choose this for your wife, though 
 you have hundreds of other arts for your concubines; 
 though you know them, and beget sons upon them all (to 
 
 25 which, you are rich enough to allow great legacies), yet, 
 the issue of this seems to be designed by you to the main 
 of the estate; you have taken most pleasure in it, and 
 bestowed most charges upon its education: and I doubt 
 not to see that book, which you are pleased to promise to 
 
 30 the world, and of which you have given us a large earnest 
 in your calendar, as accomplish'd, as any thing can be 
 expected from an extraordinary wit, and no ordinary ex- 
 pences, and a long experience. I know nobody tliat 
 possesses more private happiness than you do in your 
 
IN VERSE And prose. 123 
 
 garden; and, yet no man, who makes his happiness more 
 publick by a free communication of the art and know- 
 ledge of it to others. All that I myself am able yet to 
 do, is only to recommend to mankind the search of that 
 fehcity, which you 'instruct them how to find and to 5 
 enjoy. 
 
 I. 
 
 Happy art thou, whom God does bless 
 With the full choice of thine own happiness; 
 
 And happier yet, because thou'rt blest 
 
 With prudence, how to choose the best; 10 
 
 In books and gardens, thou hast plac'd aright 
 
 (Things well which thou dost understand; 
 And both dost make with thy laborious hand) 
 
 Thy noble, innocent delight: 
 And in thy virtuous wife, where thou again dost meet 15 
 
 Both pleasures more refin'd and sweet; 
 
 The fairest garden in her looks. 
 
 And in her mind the wisest books. 
 Oh, who would change these soft, yet solid joys, 
 
 For empty shows, and sensless noise ; 20 
 
 And all which rank ambition breeds, 
 Which seem such beauteous flowers, and are such poi- 
 sonous weeds? 
 
 2. 
 
 When God did man to his own likeness make, 
 
 As much as clay, though of the purest kind, 25 
 
 By the great potter's art refin'd, 
 
 Could the divine impression take, 
 
 He thought it fit to place him, where 
 
 A kind of heav'n too did appear. 
 As far as earth could such a likeness bear: 30 
 
 That man no happiness might want, 
 
124 DISCOURSES BY WAY OF ESSAYS, 
 
 Which earth to her first master could afford, 
 
 He did a garden for him plant 
 By the quick hand of his omnipotent ^vord. 
 As the chief help and joy of human life, 
 5 He gave him the first gift; first, even before a wife. 
 
 3- 
 For God, the universal architect, 
 
 'T had been as easy to erect 
 A Louvre or Escurial, or a tower, 
 That might with heaven communication hold, 
 lo As Babel vainly thought to do of old — 
 He wanted not the skill or power; 
 In the world's fabrick those were shown, 
 And, the materials were all his own. 
 But well he knew, what place would best agree, 
 15 With innocence, and with felicity : 
 
 And we elsewhere still seek for them in vain 
 If any part of either yet remain. 
 If any part of either we expect, 
 This may our judgment in the search direct; 
 20 God the first garden made, and the first city Cain. 
 
 4. 
 O blessed shades! O gentle cool retreat 
 
 From all th' immoderate heat, 
 In which the frantick world doth burn and sweat! 
 This does the lion-star, ambition's rage; 
 25 This avarice, the dog-star's thirst asswage; 
 Every where else their fatal power we see, 
 They make and rule man's wretched destinie : 
 They neither set, nor disappear, 
 But tyrannize o'er all the year; 
 30 Whilst we ne'er feel their flame or influence here. 
 
IN VERSE AND PROSE, 125 
 
 The birds, that dance from bough to bough, 
 
 And sing above in every tree, 
 
 Are not from fears and cares more free, 
 Than we, who he, or walk below, 
 
 And should by right be singers too. 5 
 
 What prince's choir of musick can excel 
 
 That which within this shade does dwell? 
 
 To which we nothing pay or give; 
 
 They, like all other poets, live 
 Without reward, or thanks for their obliging pains: 10 
 
 'Tis well, if they become not prey: 
 The whistling winds add their less artful strains. 
 And a grave base the murmuring fountains play; 
 Nature does all this harmony bestow, — 
 
 But to our plants, art's musick too, 15 
 
 The pipe, theorbo, and guitar we owe; 
 The lute itself, which once was green and mute. 
 
 When Orpheus struck th' inspired lute. 
 
 The trees danc'd round, and understood 
 
 By sympathy the voice of wood. 20 
 
 These are the spells, that to kind sleep invite, 
 And nothing does within resistance make, 
 
 Which yet we moderately take; 
 
 Who would not choose to be awake, 
 While he's incompas'd round with such delight, 25 
 
 To th' ear, the nose, the touch, the taste, and sight? 
 When Venus would her dear Ascanius keep 
 A pris'ner in the downy bands of sleep. 
 She od'rous herbs and flowers beneath him spread. 
 
 As the most soft and sweetest bed ; 30 
 
 Not her own lap would more have charm'd his head. 
 
126 DISCOURSES BY WAY OF ESSAYS, 
 
 Who, that has reason, and his smell. 
 Would not among roses and jasmin dwell, 
 
 Rather than all his spirits choak 
 With exhalations of dirt and smoak? 
 
 And all th' uncleanness, which does drown 
 In pestilential clouds a populous town? 
 The earth itself breathes better perfumes here, 
 Than all the female men, or women, there, 
 Not without cause, about them bear. 
 
 6. 
 
 lo When Epicurus to the world had taught, 
 That pleasure was the chiefest good, 
 
 (And was, perhaps, i' th' right, if rightly understood) 
 His life he to his doctrine brought. 
 
 And in a garden's shade that soveraign pleasure sought. 
 15 Whoever a true epicure would be. 
 
 May there find cheap and virtuous luxurie. 
 
 Vitellius his table, which did hold 
 
 As many creatures as the ark of old ; 
 
 That fiscal table, to which every day 
 20 All countries did a constant tribute pay, 
 
 Could nothing more delicious afford 
 Than nature's liberality, 
 
 Helpt with a little art and industry. 
 
 Allows the meanest gard'ner's board. 
 25 The wanton taste no fish or fowl can choose. 
 
 For which the grape or melon she would lose ; 
 
 Though all th' inhabitants of sea and air 
 
 Be listed in the glutton's bill of fare ; 
 Yet still the fruits of earth we see 
 30 Plac'd the third story high in all her luxurie. 
 
IN VERSE AND PROSE, 127 
 
 7- 
 
 But with no sense the garden does comply, 
 
 None courts, or flatters, as it does the eye. 
 
 When the great Hebrew king did ahiiost strain 
 
 The wond'rous treasures of his wealth and brain, 
 
 His royal southern guest to entertain ; 5 
 
 Though she on silver floors did tread, 
 With bright Assyrian carpets on them spread, 
 
 To hide the metaFs poverty ; 
 Though she look'd up to roofs of gold, 
 And nought around her could behold, 10 
 
 But silk and rich embroidery. 
 And Babylonian tapestry, 
 
 And wealthy Hiram's princely dy; 
 Though Ophir's starry stones met every where her eye ; 
 Though she herself and her gay host were drest 15 
 
 With all the shining glories of the East ; 
 When lavish art her costly work had done, 
 
 The honour and the prize of bravery 
 Was by the garden from the palace won ; 
 And every rose and lilly there did stand 20 
 
 Better attir'd by nature's hand : 
 The case thus judg'd against the king we see, 
 By one, that would n^t be so rich, though wiser far than he. 
 
 8. 
 
 Nor does this happy place only dispense 
 
 Such various pleasures to the sense; 25 
 
 Here health itself does live. 
 That salt of life, which does to all a relish give, 
 It's standing pleasure, and intrinsick wealth, 
 The body's virtue, and the soul's good fortune, health. 
 
128 DISCOURSES BY WAY OF ESSAYS, 
 
 The tree of life, when it in Eden stood, 
 Did its immortal head to heaven rear; 
 It lasted a tall cedar, till the flood; 
 Now a small thorny shrub it does appear; 
 5 Nor will it thrive too every where : 
 
 It always here is freshest seen ; 
 
 'Tis only here an evergreen. 
 
 If, through the strong and beauteous fence 
 
 Of temperance and innocence, 
 lo And wholsome labours, and a quiet mind, 
 
 Any diseases passage find, 
 
 They must not think here to assail 
 A land unarmed, or without a guard ; 
 They must fight for it, and dispute it hard, 
 15 Before they can prevail : 
 
 Scarce any plant is growing here, 
 Which against death some weapon does not bear. 
 
 Let cities boast, that they provide 
 
 For life the ornaments of pride ; 
 20 But 'tis the country and the field. 
 
 That furnish it with staff and shield. 
 
 9- 
 Where does the wisdom and the power divine 
 In a more bright and sweet reflection shine? 
 Where do we finer strokes and colours see 
 25 Of the Creator's real poetrie. 
 
 Than when we with attention look 
 Upon the third day's volume of the book? 
 If we could open and intend our eye, 
 We all, like Moses, should espy 
 30 Ev'n in a bush the radiant Deity. 
 But we despise these his inferior ways 
 (Though no less full of miracle and praise) : 
 
IN VERSE AND PROSE. 129 
 
 Upon the flowers of heaven we gaze ; 
 The stars of earth no wonder in us raise, 
 
 Though these perhaps do more than they 
 The hfe of mankind sway, 
 Although no part of mighty nature be 
 More stor'd with beauty, power, and mysterie; 
 Yet, to encourage humane industrie, 
 God has so order'd, that no other part 
 Such space and such dominion leaves for art 
 
 10. 
 
 We nowhere art do so triumphant see, 10 
 
 As when it grafts or buds the tree : 
 In other things we count it to excel. 
 If it a docile scholar can appear 
 To Nature, and but imitate her well ; 
 It over-rules, and is her master here. 15 
 
 It imitates her Maker's power divine, 
 And changes her sometimes, and sometimes does refine: 
 It does, like grace, the fallen tree restore 
 To its blest state of Paradice before : 
 Who would not joy to see his conquering hand 20 
 
 O'er all the vegetable world command? 
 And the wild giants of the wood receive 
 
 What law he's pleas'd to give ? 
 He bids th' ill-natur'd crab produce 
 The gentle apple's winy juice, 25 
 
 The golden fruit, that worthy is 
 
 Of Galatea's purple kiss : 
 
 He does the savage hawthorn teach 
 
 To bear the medlar and the pear; 
 
 He bids the rustic plum to rear 30 
 
 A noble trunk, and be a peach. 
 
 L. C. 
 
I30 DISCOURSES BY WAY OF ESSAYS, 
 
 Even Daphne's coyness he does mock, 
 And weds the cherry to her stock, 
 Though she refus'd Apollo's suit; 
 Even she, that chaste and virgin tree, 
 Now wonders at herself, to see 
 That she's a mother made, and blushes in her fruit. 
 
 II. 
 
 Methinks, I see great Dioclesian walk 
 
 In the Salonian garden's noble shade, 
 
 Which by his own imperial hands was made ; 
 lo I see him smile (methinks) as he does talk 
 
 With the ambassadors, who come in vain, 
 T' entice him to a throne again. 
 
 If I, my friends (said he), should to you show 
 
 All the delights, which in these gardens grow, 
 15 'Tis likelier much, that you should with me stay, 
 
 Than 'tis, that you should carry me away : 
 
 And trust me not, my friends, if, every day, 
 I walk not here with more delight 
 
 Than ever, after the most happy fight, 
 20 In triumph to the capitol I rod, 
 
 To thank the gods, and to be thought myself almost 
 a god. 
 
IN VERSE AND PROSE. lu 
 
 VL 
 
 OF GREATNESS. 
 
 [INCE we cannot attain to greatness (says the 
 Sieiir de Montagne,) let us have our revenge 
 by railing at it : " this he spoke but in jest. 
 I believe he desired it no more than I do, 
 and had less reason ; for he enjoyed so plentiful and 5 
 honourable a fortune in a most excellent country, as 
 allowed him all the real conveniencies of it, separated 
 and purged from the incommodities. If I were but in 
 his condition, I should think it hard measure, without 
 being convinced of any crime, to be sequestred from 10 
 it, and made one of the principal officers of state. But 
 the reader may think that what I now say is of small 
 authority, because I never was, nor ever shall be, put 
 to the trial : I can therefore only make my protestation, 
 
 If ever I more riches did desire 15 
 
 Than cleanliness and quiet do require : 
 
 If e'er ambition did my fancy cheat, 
 
 With any wish, so mean as to be great, 
 
 Continue, heaven, still from me to remove 
 
 The humble blessing of that life I love. 20 
 
 I know very many men will despise, and some pity me, 
 
 9-2 
 
132 DISCOURSES BY WAY OF ESSAYS, 
 
 for this humour, as a poor-spirited fellow ; but I am 
 content, and, like Horace, thank God for being so. 
 
 Di bene fecerunt, inopis me quodque pusilli 
 Finxerunt animi. 
 
 5 I confess, I love littleness almost in all things. A 
 little convenient estate, a little chearful house, a little 
 company, and a very little feast ; and, if I were ever to 
 fall in love again (which is a great passion, and therefore, 
 I hope, I have done with it) it would be, I think, with 
 
 lo prettiness, rather than with majestick beauty. I would 
 neither wish that my mistress, nor my fortune, should 
 be a dona roba, nor, as Homer uses to describe his beau- 
 ties, like a daughter of great Jupiter, for the stateliness. 
 and largeness of her person ; but, as Lucretius says, 
 
 15 Parvula, pumilio, Xapiruu fxia, tota merum sal. 
 
 Where there is one man of this, 1 believe there are a 
 thousand of Senecio's mind, whose ridiculous affectation 
 of grandeur, Seneca the elder describes to this effect : 
 Senecio was a man of a turbid and confused wit, who 
 
 20 could not endure to speak any but mighty words and 
 sentences, till this humour grew at last into so notorious 
 a habit, or rather a disease, as became the sport of the 
 whole town : he would have no servants, but huge, 
 massy fellows; no plate or household stuff, but thrice 
 
 25 as big as the fashion : you may believe me, for I speak 
 it without railery, his extravigancy came at last into 
 such a madness, that he would not put on a pair of 
 shoes, each of which was not big enough for both his 
 feet : he would eat nothing but what was great, nor 
 
 30 touch any fruit but horse-plums and pound-pears : he 
 kept a concubine, that was a very gyantess, and made 
 her walk too always in chiopins, till, at last, he got the 
 surname of Senecio Grandio, which, Messala said, was 
 
IN VERSE AND PROSE. 133 
 
 not his cognomen, but his cognomentinn : when he de- 
 claimed for the three hundred Lacedcemonians, who 
 alone opposed Xerxes's army of above three hundred 
 thousand, he stretch'd out his arms, and stood on tip- 
 toes, that he might appear the taller, and cryed out, in a 5 
 very loud voice : " I rejoyce, I rejoyce " — We wondred, 
 I remember, what new great fortune had befaln his 
 eminence. "Xerxes (says he) is all mine own. He, 
 who took away the sight of the sea, with canvas veils 
 of so many ships" — and then he goes on so, as I 10 
 know not what to make of the rest, whether it be the 
 fault of the edition, or the orator's own burly way of 
 nonsence. 
 
 This is the character that Seneca gives of this hyper- 
 bolical fop, whom we stand amazed at, and yet there 15 
 are very few men who are not in some things, and to 
 some degrees, Grandios. Is any thing more common, 
 than to see our ladies of quality wear such high shoes 
 as they cannot walk in, without one to lead them ; and 
 a gown as long again as their body, so that they cannot 20 
 stir to the next room, without a page or two to hold it 
 up? I may safely say, that all the ostentation of our 
 grandees is, just like a train, of no use in the world, but 
 horribly cumbersom and incommodius. What is all 
 this, but a spice of Grandio ? how tedious would this be, 25 
 if we were always bound to it ! I do believe there is no 
 king, who would not rather be deposed, than endure, 
 every day of his reign, all the ceremonies of his corona- 
 tion. 
 
 The mightiest princes are glad to fly often from these 30 
 majestick pleasures (which is, methinks, no small dis- 
 paragement to them) as it were for refuge, to the most 
 contemptible divertisements, and meanest recreations of 
 the vulgar, nay, even of children. One of the most 
 
134 DISCOURSES BY IVAY OF ESSAYS, 
 
 powerful and fortunate princes of the world, of late, 
 could find out no delight so satisfactory, as the keeping 
 of little singing birds, and hearing of them, and whistling 
 to them. What did the emperors of the whole world ? 
 5 If ever any men had the free and full enjoyment of all 
 humane greatness (nay that would not suffice, for they 
 would be gods too), they certainly possest it : and yet 
 one of them, who stiled himself lord and god of the 
 earth, could not tell how to pass his whole day pleasant- 
 
 lo ly, without spending constantly two or three hours in 
 catching of flies, and killing them with a bodkin, as if his 
 godship had been Beelzebub. One of his predecessors, 
 Nero (who never put any bounds, nor met with any stop 
 to his appetite), could divert himself with no pastime 
 
 15 more agreeable, than to run about the streets all night in 
 a disguise, and abuse the women, and affront the men 
 whom he met, and sometimes to beat them, and some- 
 times to be beaten by them : this was one of his imperial 
 nocturnal pleasures. His chiefest in the day was, to sing, 
 
 2c and play upon a fiddle, in the habit of a minstrel, upon 
 the publick stage : he was prouder of the garlands that 
 were given to his divine voice (as they called it then) in 
 those kind of prizes, than all his forefathers were, of 
 their triumphs over nations : he did not at his death 
 
 25 complain that so mighty an emperor, and the last of all 
 the Caesarian race of deities, should be brought to so 
 shameful and miserable an end ; but only cried out, 
 "Alas, what pity 'tis that so excellent a musician should 
 perish in this manner!" His uncle Claudius spent half 
 
 30 his time at playing at dice ; that was the main fruit of his 
 soveraignty. I omit the madnesses of Caligula's delight, 
 and the execrable sordidness of those of Tiberius. Would 
 one think that Augustus himself, the highest and most 
 fortunate of mankind, a person endowed too with many 
 
IN VERSE AND PROSE. 135 
 
 excellent parts of nature, should be so hard put to it 
 sometimes for want of recreations, as to be found playing 
 at nuts and bounding-stones, with little Syrian and 
 Moorish boys, whose company he took delight in, for 
 their prating and their wantonness ? 5 
 
 Was it for this, that Rome's best blood he spilt 
 With so much falsehood, so much guilt? 
 
 Was it for this, that his ambition strove 
 
 To equal Qesar, first ; and after, Jove? 
 
 Greatness is barren, sure, of solid joys; 10 
 
 Her merchandize (I fear) is all in toys : 
 
 She could not else, sure, so uncivil be, 
 
 To treat his universal majesty. 
 His new -created Deity, 
 \Vith nuts and bounding-stones and boys. 15 
 
 But we must excuse her for this meager entertain- 
 ment ; she has not really wherewithal to make such 
 feasts as we imagine. Her guests must be contented 
 sometimes with but slender cates, and with the same 
 cold meats served over and over again, even till they 20 
 become nauseous. When you have pared away all the 
 vanity, what solid and natural contentment does there 
 remain, which may not be had with five hundred pounds 
 a year ? Not so many servants or horses ; but a few 
 good ones, which will do all the business as well : not so 25 
 many choice dishes at every meal ; but at several meals 
 all of them, which makes them both the more healthy, 
 and the more pleasant : not so rich garments, nor so 
 frequent changes ; but as warm and as comely, and so 
 frequent change too, as is every jot as good for the 30 
 master, though not for the tailor or va/ef de chambre: not 
 such a stately palace, nor gilt rooms, or the costliest sorts 
 of tapestry ; but a convenient brick house, with decent 
 wanscot, and j^retty forest-work hangings. Lastly, (for I 
 omit all other particulars, and will end with that which I 35 
 
136 DISCOURSES BY WAY OF ESSAYS, 
 
 love most in both conditions) not whole woods cut in 
 walks, nor vast parks, nor fountain or cascade gardens ; 
 but herb, and flower, and fruit gardens, which are more 
 useful, and the water every whit as clear and wholsom as 
 5 if it darted from the breasts of a marble nymph, or the 
 urn of a river-god. 
 
 If, for all this, you like better the substance of that 
 former estate of life, do but consider the inseparable 
 accidents of both : servitude, disquiet, danger, and 
 
 10 most commonly guilt, inherent in the one ; in the other, 
 liberty, tranquility, security, and innocence. And when 
 you have thought upon this, you will confess that to be 
 a truth which appeared to you before but a ridiculous 
 paradox, that a low fortune is better guarded and 
 
 15 attended than a high one. If, indeed, we look only 
 upon the flourishing head of the tree, it appears a most 
 beautiful object, 
 
 " — sed quantum vertice ad auras 
 "i^therias, tantum radice in Tartara tendit." 
 
 20 As far as up towards heaven the branches grow, 
 
 So far the roots sink down to hell below. 
 
 Another horrible disgrace to greatness is, that it is 
 for the most part in pitiful want and distress. What a 
 wonderful thing is this ! Unless it degenerate into a- 
 25 varice, and so cease to be greatness, it falls perpetually 
 into such necessities, as drive it into all the meanest 
 and most sordid ways of borrowing, cousenage, and 
 robbery : 
 
 Mancipiis locuples, eget seris Cappadocum rex. 
 
 30 This is the case of almost all great men, as well as of 
 the poor king of Cappadocia : they abound with slaves, 
 but are indigent of money. The ancient Roman em- 
 perors, who had the riches of the whole world lor their 
 
lA^ VERSE AND PROSE. 137 
 
 revenue, had wherewithal! to live (one would have 
 thought) pretty well at ease, and to have been exempt 
 from the pressures of extream poverty. But, yet with 
 most of them it was much otherwise ; they fell per- 
 petually into such miserable penury, that they were 5 
 forced to devour or squeeze most of their friends and 
 servants, to cheat with infamous projects, to ransack and 
 pillage all their provinces. This fashion of imperial 
 grandeur is imitated by all inferior and subordinate sorts 
 of it, as if it were a point of honour. They must be 10 
 cheated of a third part of their estates ; two other thirds 
 they must expend in vanity ; so that they remain debtors 
 for all the necessary provisions of life, and have no way 
 to satisfie those debts, but out of the succours and 
 supplies of rapine. As riches encrease (says Solomon), 15 
 so do the mouths that devour them. The master mouth 
 has no more than before. The owner, methinks, is like 
 Ocnus in the fable, who is perpetually winding a rope of 
 hay, and an ass at the end perpetually eating it. 
 
 Out of these inconveniences arises naturally one more, 20 
 which is, that no greatness can be satisfied or contented 
 with itself : still, if it could mount up a little higher, it 
 would be happy ; if it could gain but that point, it would 
 obtain all its desires ; but yet at last, when it is got up 
 to the very top of the Pic of Tenariff, it is in very great 25 
 danger of breaking its neck downwards, but in no pos- 
 sibility of ascending upwards into the seat of tranquillity 
 above the moon. The first ambitious men in the world, 
 the old giants, are said to have made an heroical attempt 
 of scaling heaven in despight of the gods ; and they 30 
 cast Ossa upon Olympus, and Pelion upon Ossa: two or 
 three mountains more, tliey thought, would have done 
 their business ; but the thunder spoil'd all their work, 
 when they were come up to the third story : 
 
138 DISCOUJiSES BY WAY OF ESSAYS, 
 
 And what a noble plot was crost ! 
 And what a brave design was lost ! 
 
 A famous person of their off-spring, the late gyant of 
 our nation, when, from the condition of a very incon- 
 5 siderable captain, he had made himself lieutenant general 
 of an army of little Titans, which was his first mountain, 
 and afterwards general, which was the second, and after 
 that, absolute tyrant of three kingdoms, which was the 
 third, and almost touch' d the heaven which he affected, 
 
 10 is believed to have died with grief and discontent, be- 
 cause he could not attain to the honest name of a king, 
 and the old formality of a crown, though he had before 
 exceeded the power by a wicked usurpation. If he could 
 have compass'd that, he would perhaps have wanted 
 
 15 something else that is necessary to felicity, and pined 
 away for the want of the title of an emperor or a god. 
 The reason of this is, that greatness has not reality in 
 nature, but is a creature of the fancy, a notion that 
 consists only in relation and comparison : it is indeed an 
 
 20 idol ; but St Paul teaches us, that an idol is nothing in 
 the world. There is, in truth, no rising or meridian of 
 the sun, but only in respect to several places : there is no 
 right nor left, no upper-hand, in nature ; every thing is 
 little, and every thing is great, according as it is diversly 
 
 25 compared. There may be perhaps some village in 
 Scotland or Ireland, where I might be a great man ; 
 and in that case I should be like Caesar (you would 
 wonder how C?esar and I should be like one another in 
 any thing) ; and choose rather to be the first man of the 
 
 30 village, than second at Rome. Our country is called 
 Great Britany, in regard only of a lesser of the same 
 name ; it would be but a ridiculous epithele for it, when 
 we consider it together with the kingdom of China. 
 That, too, is but a pitiful rood of ground, in comparison 
 
 I 
 
IN VERSE AND PROSE. 139 
 
 of the whole earth besides : and this whole globe of 
 earth, which we account so immense a body, is but one 
 point or atome in relation to those numberless worlds 
 that are scattered up and down in the infinite space of 
 the sky which we behold. 5 
 
 The other many inconveniences of grandeur I have 
 spoken of disperstly in several chapters ; and shall end 
 this with an ode of Horace, not exactly copied, but 
 rudely imitated. 
 
 HORACE, LIB. HI. ODE I. 
 
 "Odi profanum vulgus et arceo." 
 
 I. 
 
 Hence, ye prophane ; I hate ye all 10 
 
 Both the great vulgar, and the small. 
 To virgin minds, which yet their native whitness hold, 
 Not yet discolour'd with the love of gold, 
 
 (That jaundice of the soul, 
 Which makes it look so gilded and so foul,) 15 
 
 To you, ye very few, these truths I tell ; 
 The muse inspires my song ; hark, and observe it well. 
 
 2. 
 
 We look on men, and wonder at such odds 
 'Twixt things that were the same by birth. 
 
 We look on kings as giants of the earth, 20 
 
 These giants are but pigmeys to the gods. 
 The humblest bush and proudest oak 
 
 Are but of equal proof against the thunder-stroke. 
 
 Beauty, and strength, and wit, and wealth, and power, 
 Have their short flourishing hour; 25 
 
I40 DISCOURSES BY WAY OF ESSAYS, 
 
 And love to see themselves, and smile, 
 And joy in their pre-eminence a while; 
 
 Even so in the same land, 
 Poor weeds, rich corn, gay flowers, together stand; 
 5 Alas, death mows down all with an impartial hand. 
 
 3 
 
 And all you men, whom greatness does so please, 
 Ye feast, I fear, like Damocles: 
 If ye your eyes could upwards move, 
 
 (But ye, I fear, think nothing is above) 
 lo Ye would perceive by what a little thread 
 The sword still hangs over your head. 
 
 No tide of wine w^ould drown your cares ; 
 
 No mirth or musick over-noise your fears. 
 
 The fear of death would you so watchful keep, 
 15 As not t'admit the image of it, sleep. 
 
 4. 
 
 Sleep is a god too proud to wait in palaces, 
 And yet so humble too, as not to scorn 
 
 The meanest country cottages ; 
 
 "His poppey grows among the corn." 
 20 The halycon sleep v/ill never build his nest 
 
 In any stormy breast. 
 
 'Tis not enough that he does fmd 
 
 Clouds and darkness in their mind ; 
 
 Darkness but half his work will do ; 
 25 'Tis not enough ; he must find quiet too. 
 
 5. 
 The man, who, in all wishes he does make, 
 
 Does only nature's counsel take, 
 That wise and hapj^y man will never fear 
 The evil as})ects of tlie year; 
 30 Nor tremble, though two comets should appear. 
 
IN VERSE AND PROSE. 141 
 
 He does not look in almanacks, to see 
 
 Whether he fortunate shall be ; 
 Let Mars and Saturn in the heavens conjoyn, 
 And what they please against the world design, 
 
 So Jupiter within him shine. 5 
 
 6. 
 
 If of your pleasures and desires no end be found, 
 God to your cares and fears will set no bound. 
 
 What would content you? who can tell? 
 Ye fear so much to lose what ye have got, 
 
 As if you lik'd it well : 10 
 
 Ye strive for more, as if you lik'd it not. 
 
 Go, level hills, and fill up seas, 
 Spare nought that may your wanton fancy please ; 
 
 But, trust me, when you have done all this. 
 Much will be missing still, and much will be amiss. 15 
 
142 DISCOURSES BY WAY OF ESSAYS, 
 
 VII. 
 OF AVARICE. 
 
 [HERE are two sorts of avarice : the one is 
 but of a bastard kind, and that is, the rapa- 
 cious appetite of gain ; not for its own sake, 
 but for the pleasure of refunding it immedi- 
 5 ately through all the channels of pride and luxury. The 
 other is the true kind, and properly so called ; which is 
 a restless and unsatiable desire of riches, not for any 
 farther end or use, but only to hoard, and preserve, and 
 perpetually encrease them. The covetous man, of the first 
 lo kind, is like a greedy ostrich, which devours any metal ; 
 but 'tis with an intent to feed upon it, and in effect it 
 makes a shift to digest and excern it. The second is 
 like the foolish chough, which loves to steal money only 
 to hide it. The first does much harm to mankind; and 
 15 a Httle good too, to some few : the second does good to 
 none ; no, not to himself The first can make no excuse 
 to God, or angels, or rational men, for his actions : the 
 second can give no reason or colour, not to the devil 
 himself, for what he does ; he is a slave to Mammon, 
 20 without wages. The first makes a shift to be beloved ; 
 ay, and envyed, too, by some people : the second is the 
 universal object of hatred and contempt. There is no 
 
IN VERSE AND PROSE. 143 
 
 vice has been so pelted with good sentences, and especially 
 by the poets, who have pursued it with stories and fables, 
 and allegories, and allusions ; and moved, as we say, 
 every stone to fling at it : among all which, I do not 
 remember a more fine and gentleman-like correction than 5 
 that which was given it by one line of Ovid. 
 
 " Desunt luxurice multa, avaritiae omnia." 
 Much_is wanting to luxury, all to avarice. 
 
 To which saying, I have a mind to add one member, 
 and tender it thus ; 10 
 
 Poverty wants some, luxuiy many, avarice all things. 
 
 Somebody says of a virtuous and wise man, "that 
 having nothing, he has all:" this is just his antipode, 
 who, having all things, yet has nothing. 
 
 And, oh, what man's condition can be worse 15 
 
 Than his, whom plenty starves, and blessings curse ; 
 The beggars but a common fate deplore, 
 The rich poor man's emphatically poor. 
 
 I wonder how it comes to pass, that there has never 
 been any law made against him : against him, do I say ? 20 
 I mean, for him : as there are public provisions made for 
 all other mad-men : it is very reasonable that the king 
 should appoint some persons (and I think the courtiers 
 would not be against this proposition) to manage his 
 estate during his life (for his heirs commonly need not 25 
 that care) ; and out of it to make it their business to see, 
 that he should not want alimony befitting his condition, 
 which he could never get out of his own cruel fingers. 
 We relieve idle vagrants, and counterfeit beggars; but 
 have no care at all of these really poor men, who are 30 
 (methinks) to be respectfully treated, in regard of their 
 quality. I might be endless against them, but I am 
 almost choakt with the super-abundance of the matter; 
 
144 DISCOURSES BY WAY OF ESSAYS, 
 
 too much plenty impoverishes me, as it does them. I 
 will conclude this odious subject with part of Horace's 
 first satire, which take in his own familiar stile : 
 
 I ADMIRE, Maecenas, how it comes to pass, 
 
 5 That no man ever yet contented was, 
 Nor is, nor perhaps will be, with that state 
 In which his own choice plants him, or his fate. 
 Happy the merchant ! the old souldier cries. 
 The merchant, beaten with tempestuous skies, 
 
 10 Happy the souldier ! one half-hour to thee 
 Gives speedy death, or glorious victory. 
 The lawyer, knockt up early from his rest 
 By restless clyents, calls the peasant blest ; 
 The peasant, when his labours ill succeed, 
 
 15 Envies the mouth, which only talk does feed. 
 'Tis not (I think you'll say) that I want store 
 Of instances, if here I add no more; 
 They are enough to reach at least a mile 
 Beyond long orator Fabius his stile. 
 
 20 But hold, you whom no fortune e'er endears, 
 Gentlemen, malecontents, and mutineers, 
 Who bounteous Jove so often cruel call. 
 Behold, Jove's now resolv'd to please you all. 
 Thou, souldier, be a merchant ; merchant, thou 
 
 25 A souldier be ; and, lawyer, to the plow. 
 
 Change all your stations strait : why do they stay? 
 The devil a man will change, now, when he may. 
 Were I in gen'ral Jove's abused case. 
 By Jove I'de cudgel this rebellious race : 
 
 30 But he's too good ; be all then, as you were : 
 However, make the best of what you are. 
 And in that state be chearful and rejoyce. 
 Which either was your fate, or was your choice : 
 
IN VERSE AND PROSE. 145 
 
 No, they must labour yet, and sweat and toil, 
 
 And very miserable be a while. 
 
 But 'tis with a design only to gain 
 
 What may their age with plenteous ease maintain. 
 
 The prudent pismire does this lesson teach, 5 
 
 And industry to lazy mankind preach. 
 
 The little drudge does trot about and sweat. 
 
 Nor does he strait devour all he can get ; 
 
 But in his temperate mouth carries it home 
 
 A stock for winter, which he knows must come. 10 
 
 And, when the rowling world to creatures here 
 
 Turns up the deform'd wrong side of jthe year, 
 
 And shuts him in, with storms, and cold, and wet, 
 
 He chearfully does his past labours eat : 
 
 O, does he so? your wise example, th' ant, 15 
 
 Does not, at all times, rest and plenty want. 
 
 But, weighing justly a mortal ant's condition, 
 
 Divides his life 'twixt labour and fruition. 
 
 Thee, neither heat, nor storms, nor wet, nor cold, 
 
 From thy unnatural diligence can withhold : 20 
 
 To th' Indies thou would'st run, rather than see 
 
 Another, though a friend, richer than thee. 
 
 Fond man ! what good or beauty can be found 
 
 In heaps of treasure, buried under ground? 
 
 Which rather than diminisht e'er to see, 25 
 
 Thou would'st thyself, too, buried with them be : 
 
 And what's the diff'rence? is't not quite as bad 
 
 Never to use, as never to have had ? 
 
 In thy vast barns millions of quarters store ; 
 
 Thy belly, for all that, will hold no more 30 
 
 Than mine does. Every baker makes much bread: 
 
 What then? He's with no more, than others, fed. 
 
 Do you within the bounds of nature live, 
 
 And to augment your own you need not strive; 
 
 L. C. 10 
 
146 DISCOURSES BY WAY OF ESSAYS, 
 
 One hundred acres will no less for you 
 Your life's whole business, than ten thousand, do. 
 But pleasant 'tis to take from a great store. 
 What, man? though you're resolv'd to take no more 
 5 Than I can from a small one.^ If your will 
 Be but a pitcher or a pot to fill, 
 To some great river for it must you go, 
 When a clear spring just at your feet does flow? 
 Give me the spring, which does to humane use 
 
 lo Safe, easie, and untroubled stores produce ; 
 
 He who scorns these, and needs will drink at Nile, 
 Must run the .danger of the crocodile, 
 And of the rapid stream itself, which may. 
 At unawares, bear him perhaps away, 
 
 15 In a full flood Tantalus stands, his skin 
 Washt o'er in vain, for ever dry within; 
 He catches at the stream with greedy lips, 
 From his toucht mouth the wanton torrent slips : 
 You laugh now, and expand your careful brow ; 
 
 20 'Tis finely said, but what's all this to you ? 
 Change but the name, this fable is thy story, 
 Thou in a flood of useless wealth dost glory. 
 Which thou canst only touch, but never taste; 
 Th' abundance still, and still the want, does last. 
 
 25 The treasures of the gods thou would'st not spare : 
 But, when they're made thine own, they sacred are, 
 And must be kept with reverence ; as if thou 
 No other use of precious gold didst know. 
 But that of curious pictures, to delight 
 
 30 With the fair stamp thy virtuoso sight. 
 The only true and genuine use is this, 
 To buy the things, which nature cannot miss 
 Without discomfort; oyl, and vital bread, 
 And wine, by which the life of life is fed. 
 
IN VERSE AND PROSE. 147 
 
 And all those few things else by which we live. 
 All that remains, is given for thee to give; 
 If cares and troubles, envy, grief, and fear, 
 The bitter fruits be, which fair riches bear; 
 If a new poverty grow out of store; 
 The old plain way, ye gods ! let me be poor. 
 
 PARAPHRASE ON HORACE, B. III. OD. XVI. 
 
 Beginning thus Indusam Danaen ticrris ahenea. 
 
 I. 
 
 A TOWER of brass, one would have said, 
 
 And locks, and bolts, and iron bars, 
 
 And guards, as strict as in the heat of wars. 
 
 Might have at least preserv'd one innocent maid. 10 
 
 The jealous father thought, he well might spare 
 
 All further jealous care ; 
 And, as he walkt, t' himself alone he smil'd, 
 
 To think how Venus' arts he had beguil'd; 
 
 And, when he slept, his rest was deep, 15 
 
 But Venus laught to see and hear him sleep. 
 
 She taught the amorous Jove 
 
 A magical receipt in love. 
 Which arm'd him stronger, and which help'd him more, 
 Than all his thunder did, and his almighty-ship before. 20 
 
 2. 
 
 She taught him love's elixir, by which art 
 
 His godhead into gold he did convert : 
 
 No guards did then his passage stay, 
 He pass'd with ease ; gold was the word ; 
 
 io — 2 
 
148 DISCOURSES BY WAY OF ESSAYS, 
 
 Subtle as lightning, bright and quick and fierce, 
 Gold through doors and walls did pierce. 
 The prudent Macedonian king, 
 
 To blow up towns, a golden mine did spring. 
 5 He broke through gates with this petar, 
 
 'Tis the great art of peace, the engine 'tis of war ; 
 And fleets and armies follow it afar : 
 
 The ensign 'tis at land, and 'tis the seamen's 'star. 
 
 Let all the world slave to this tyrant be, 
 lo Creature to this disguised deitie, 
 
 Yet it shall never conquer me. 
 
 A guard of virtues will not let it pass, 
 
 And wisdom is a tower of stronger brass. 
 
 The Muse's lawrel, round my temples spred, 
 15 Does from this lightning's force secure my head. 
 Nor will I lift it up so high. 
 
 As in the violent meteor's way to lye. 
 
 Wealth for its power do we honour and adore ? 
 
 The things we hate, ill fate, and death, have more. 
 
 20 From towns and courts, camps of the rich and great, 
 The vast Xerxean army, I retreat. 
 And to the small Laconick forces fly. 
 
 Which hold the streights of poverty. 
 Sellers and granaries in vain we fill, 
 25 With all the summer's store. 
 
 If the mind thirst and hunger still : 
 
 The poor rich man's emphatically poor. 
 
 Slave to things we too much prize, 
 We masters grow of all that we despise. 
 
IN VERSE AND PROSE. 149 
 
 5- 
 A field of corn, a fountain, and a wood, 
 
 Is all the wealth by nature understood. 
 The monarch, on whom fertile Nile bestows 
 
 All which that grateful earth can bear, 
 
 Deceives himself, if he suppose 5 
 
 That more than this falls to his share. 
 Whatever an estate does beyond this afford, 
 
 Is not a rent paid to the lord ; 
 But is a tax illegal and unjust, 
 Exacted from it by the tyrant lust. 10 
 
 Much will always wanting be 
 
 To him who much desires. Thrice happy he 
 To whom the wise indulgency of heaven, 
 
 With sparing hand, but just enough has given. 
 
I50 DISCOURSES BY WAY OF ESSAYS, 
 
 VIII. 
 
 THE DANGERS OF AN HONEST MAN IN 
 MUCH COMPANY. 
 
 F twenty thousand naked Americans were 
 not able to resist the assaults of but twenty 
 well-armed Spaniards, I see little possibility 
 for one honest man to defend himself against 
 5 twenty thousand knaves, who are all furnisht cap a pe, 
 with the defensive arms of worldly prudence, and the 
 offensive too of craft and malice. He will find no less 
 odds than this against him, if he have much to do in 
 human affairs. The only advice therefore that I can 
 lo give him is, to be sure not to venture his person any 
 longer in the open campagne, to retreat and entrench 
 himself, to stop up all avenues, and draw up all bridges 
 against so numerous an enemy. 
 
 The truth of it is, that a man in much business must 
 15 either make himself a knave, or else the world will make 
 him a fool : and, if the injury went no farther than the 
 being laught at, a wise man would content himself with 
 the revenge of retaliation ; but the case is much worse, 
 for these civil cannibals too, as well as the wild ones, not 
 20 only dance about such a taken stranger, but at last 
 devour him. A sober man cannot get too soon out of 
 drunken company, though they be never so kind and 
 
IN VERSE AND PROSE. 151 
 
 merry among themselves ; 'tis not unpleasant only, but 
 dangerous to him. 
 
 Do ye wonder that a virtuous man should love to be 
 alone ? It is hard for him to be otherwise ; he is so, 
 when he is among ten thousand : neither is the solitude 5 
 so uncomfortable to be alone without any other creature, 
 as it is to be alone in the midst of wild beasts. Man is 
 to man all kind of beasts; a fawning dog, a roaring lion, 
 a thieving fox, a robbing wolf, a dissembUng crocodile, a 
 treacherous decoy, and a rapacious vultur. The civilest, 10 
 methinks, of all nations, are those, whom we account the 
 most barbarous ; there is some moderation and good- 
 nature in the Toupinambaltians, who eat no men but 
 their enemies, whilst we learned and polite and Chris- 
 tian Europeans, like so many pikes and sharks, prey upon 15 
 everything that we can swallow. It is the greatest boast 
 of eloquence and philosophy, that they first congregated 
 men disperst, united them into societies, and built up 
 the houses and the walls of cities. I wish they could un- 
 ravel all they had woven ; that we might have our woods 20 
 and our innocence again, instead of our castles and our 
 policies. They have assembled many thousands of scat- 
 tered people into one body: 'tis true, they have done so; 
 they have brought them together into cities to cozen, and 
 into armies to murder one another : they found them 25 
 hunters and fishers of wild creatures ; they have made 
 them hunters and fishers of their brethren ; they boast 
 to have reduced them to a state of peace, when the truth 
 is, they have only taught them an art of war; they have 
 framed, I must confess, wholesome laws for the restraint 30 
 of vice, but they rais'd first that devil, which now they 
 conjure and cannot bind ; though there were before no 
 punishments for wickedness, yet there was less com- 
 mitted because there were no rewards for it. 
 
152 DISCOURSES BY WAY OF ESSAYS, 
 
 But the men, who praise philosophy from this topick 
 are much deceived ; let oratory answer for itself, the 
 tinkling perhaps of that may unite a swarm : it never 
 was the work of philosophy to assemble multitudes, but 
 5 to regulate only, and govern them, when they were as- 
 sembled ; to make the best of an evil, and bring them, 
 as much as is possible, to unity again. Avarice and am- 
 bition only were the first builders of towns, and founders 
 of empire ; they said. Go to, let us build us a city and a tower 
 
 lo whose top may reach unto heaven, and let us make us a 
 name, lest we he scattered abroad upon the face of the earth. 
 What was the beginning of Rome, the metropolis of all 
 the world ? what was it, but a concourse of thieves, and 
 a sanctuary of criminals? It was justly named by the 
 
 15 augury of no less than twelve vulturs, and the founder 
 cemented his walls with the blood of his brother. Not 
 unlike to this was the beginning even of the first town 
 too in the world, and such is the original sin of most 
 cities : their actual encrease daily with their age and 
 
 20 growth : the more people, the more wicked all of them ; 
 every one brings in his part to enflame the contagion, 
 which at last becomes so universal and so strong, that 
 no precepts can be sufficient preservatives, nor any thing 
 secure our safety, but flight from among the infected. 
 
 25 We ought, in the choice of a situation, to regard, 
 above all things, the healthfulness of the place, and 
 the healthfulness of it for the mind, rather than for 
 the body. But suppose (which is hardly to be sup- 
 posed) we had antidote enough against this poison ; 
 
 30 nay, suppose further, we were always and at all pieces 
 armed and provided, both against the assaults of hos- 
 tility, and the mines of treachery, 'twill yet be but an 
 uncomfortable life to be ever in alarms ; though we 
 were compass'd round with fire, to defend ourselves 
 
IN VERSE AND PROSE. \sz 
 
 from wild beasts, the lodgings would be unpleasant, be- 
 cause we must always be obliged to watch that fire, and 
 to fear no less the defects of our guard, than the dili- 
 gences of our enemy. The sum of this is, that a virtuous 
 man is in danger to be trod upon and destroyed in the 5 
 crowd of his contraries, nay, which is worse, to be 
 changed and corrupted by them ; and that 'tis impos- 
 sible to escape both these inconveniencies without so much 
 caution, as will take away the whole quiet, that is, the 
 happiness, of his life. 10 
 
 Ye see, then, what he may lose; but, I pray, what 
 can he get there ? 
 
 Quid Romae faciani ? jNIentiii nescio. 
 
 What should a man of truth and honesty do at Rome? 
 He can neither understand nor speak the language of 15 
 the place ; a naked man may swim in the sea, but 'tis 
 not the way to catch fish there ; they are likelier to 
 devour him, than he them, if he bring no nets, and use 
 no deceits. I think, therefore, it was wise and friendly 
 advice, which Martial gave to Fabian, when he met him 20 
 newly arrived at Rome : 
 
 Honest and poor, faithful in word and thought ; 
 
 What has thee, Fabian, to the city brought? 
 
 Thou neither the buffoon nor bawd canst play. 
 
 Nor with false whispers th' innocent betray ; «5 
 
 Nor corrupt wives, nor from rich beldams get 
 
 A living by thy industry and sweat; 
 
 Nor with vain promises and projects cheat, 
 
 Nor bribe or flatter any of the great. 
 
 But you're a man of learning, prudent, just; 30 
 
 A man of courage, firm, and fit for trust. 
 
 Why you may stay, and live unenvied here; 
 
 But (faith) go back, and keep you where you were. 
 
 Nay, if nothing of all this were in the case, yet the 
 very sight of uncleanness is loathsome to the cleanly; the 35 
 
154 niSCOUJ^SES BY WAY OF ESSAYS, 
 
 sight of folly and impiety, vexatious to the wise and 
 pious. 
 
 Lucretius, by his favour, though a good poet, was 
 but an ill-natur'd man, when he said, it was delightful 
 5 to see other men in a great storm. And no less iil- 
 natur'd should I think Democritus, who laughs at all 
 the world, but that he retired himself so much out of it, 
 that we may perceive he took no great pleasure in that 
 kind of mirth. I have been drawn twice or thrice by 
 
 lo company to go to Bedlam, and have seen others very 
 much delighted with the fantastical extravagancy of so 
 many various madnesses, which upon me wrought so 
 contrary an effect, that I always returned, not only 
 melancholy, but even sick with the sight. My compas- 
 
 15 sion there was perhaps too tender, for I meet a thousand 
 madmen abroad, without any perturbation ; though, to 
 weigh the matter justly, the total loss of reason is less 
 deplorable than the total depravation of it. An exact 
 judge of human blessings, of riches, honours, beauty, 
 
 20 even of wit itself, should pity the abuse of them more 
 than the want. 
 
 Briefly; though a wise man could pass never so securely 
 through the great roads of human life, yet he will meet 
 perpetually with so many objects and occasions of com- 
 
 25 passion, grief, shame, anger, hatred, indignation, and all 
 passions but envy (for he will find nothing to deserve 
 that), that he had better strike into some private path ; 
 nay, go so far, if he could, out of the common way, "ut 
 nee facta audiat Pelopidarum ; " that he might not so 
 
 30 much as hear of the actions of the sons of Adam. But, 
 whither shall we fly then ? into the deserts like the 
 antient hermites? 
 
 — Qua terra patet, fera regnat Erimiys, 
 [n facinus jurasse putes. 
 
IN VERSE AND PROSE. 155 
 
 One would think that all mankind had bound them- 
 selves by an oath to do all the wickedness they can; that 
 they had all (as the Scripture speaks) sold themselves to 
 sin : the difference only is, that some are a little more 
 crafty (and but a little, God knows), in making of the 5 
 bargain. I thought, when I went first to dwell in the 
 country, that, without doubt, I should have met there 
 with the simplicity of the old poetical golden age ; I 
 thought to have found no inhabitants there, but such as 
 the shepherds of Sir Philip Sydney in Arcadia, or of 10 
 Monsieur d'Urfe upon the banks of Lignon ; and began 
 to consider with myself, which way I might recommend 
 no less to posterity the happiness and innocence of the 
 men of Chertsea : but, to confess the truth, I perceived 
 quickly, by infallible demonstrations, that I was still in 15 
 Old England, and not in Arcadia, or La Forrest ; that, 
 i^ I could not content myself with any thing less than 
 exact fidelity in humane conversation, I had almost as 
 good go back and seek for it in the Court, or the Ex- 
 change, or Westminster-hall. I ask again then, whither 20 
 shall we fly, or what shall we do? The world may so 
 come in a man's way, that he cannot choose but salute 
 it. If, by any lawful vocation, or just necessity, men 
 happen to be married to it, I can only give them St. Paul's 
 advice : Brethren, the time is short ; it remains, that 25 
 they, that have wives, be as though they had none. — 
 But I would that all men were even as I myself. 
 
 In all cases, they must be sure, that they do munduin 
 dticere, and not mundo imhere. They must retain the 
 superiority and headship over it; happy are they, who 30 
 can get out of the sight of this deceitful beauty, that 
 they may not be led so much as into temptation ; who 
 have not only quitted the metropolis, but can abstain 
 from ever seeing the next market town of their country. 
 
156 DISCOURSES BY WAY OF ESSAYS, 
 
 CLAUDIAN'S OLD MAN OF VERONA. 
 
 "Felix, qui patriis revuni," &c. 
 
 Happy the man, who his whole time doth bound 
 
 Within th' inclosure of his Httle ground. 
 
 Happy the man, whom the same humble place 
 
 (Th' hereditary cottage of his race) 
 5 From his first rising infancy has known, 
 
 And by degrees sees gently bending down, 
 
 With natural propension, to that earth 
 
 Which both preserv'd his Hfe, and gave him birth. 
 
 Him no false distant lights, by fortune set, 
 10 Could ever into foolish wand'rings get. 
 
 He never dangers either saw, or fear'd : 
 
 The dreadful storms at sea he never heard. 
 
 He never heard the shril alarms of war, 
 
 Or the worse noises of the lawyers' bar. 
 15 No change of consuls marks to him the year. 
 
 The change of seasons is his calendar. 
 
 The cold and heat, winter and summer shows ; 
 
 Autumn by fruits, and spring by flow'rs he knows, 
 
 He measures time by land-marks, and has found 
 20 For the whole day the dial of his ground. 
 
 A neighbouring wood, born with himself, he sees, 
 
 And loves his old contemporary trees. 
 
 He's only heard of near Verona's name, 
 
 And knows it, like the Indies, but by fame. 
 25 Does with a like concernment notice take 
 
 Of the Red sea, and of Benacus' lake. 
 
 Thus health and strength he to a third age enjoys, 
 
 And sees a long posterity of boys. 
 
 About the spacious world let others roam, 
 30 The voyage, life, is longest made at home. 
 
IN VERSE AND PROSE, 157 
 
 IX. 
 
 THE SHORTNESS OF LIFE, AND 
 UNCERTAINTY OF RICHES. 
 
 jF you should see a man, that were to cross 
 from Dover to Calais, run about very busie 
 and solicitous, and trouble himself many 
 weeks before in making provisions for his 
 voyage, would you commend him for a cautious and 5 
 discreet person, or laugh at him for a timerous and im- 
 pertinent coxcomb? A man, who is excessive in his 
 pains and diligence, and who consumes the greatest part 
 of his time in furnishing the remainder with all conve- 
 niencies and even superfluities, is to angels and wise men 10 
 no less ridiculous; he does as little consider the short- 
 ness of his passage, that he might proportion his cares 
 accordingly. It is, alas, so narrow a straight betwixt 
 the womb and the grave, that it might be called the Pas . 
 de Vie, as well as that the Pas de Calais. 15 
 
 We are all icfiyjix^poi, (as Pindar calls us,) creatures of 
 a day, and therefore our Saviour bounds our desires to 
 that little space ; as if it were very probable that every 
 day should be our last, we are taught to demand even 
 bread for no longer a time. The sun ought not to set 20 
 upon our covetousness, no more than upon our anger; 
 but, as to God Almighty a thousand years are as one 
 
158 DISCOUJiSES BY WAY OF ESSAYS, 
 
 day, so, in direct opposition, one day to the covetous 
 man is as a thousand years; "tarn brevi fortis jaculatur 
 3evo multa," so far he shoots beyond his butt : one would 
 think, he were of the opinion of the Millenaries, and 
 5 hoped for so long a reign upon earth. The patriarchs 
 before the flood, who enjoy'd almost such a life, made, 
 we are sure, less stores for the maintaining of it ; they, 
 who Hved nine hundred years, scarcely provided for a 
 few days ; we, who live but a few days, provide at least 
 
 10 for nine hundred years. What a strange alteration is 
 this of human life and manners ! and yet we see an imi- 
 tation of it in every man's particular experience ; for we 
 begin not the cares of life, till it be half spent, and still 
 encrease them, as that decreases. 
 
 15 What is there among the actions of beasts so illogical 
 and repugnant to reason? When they do any thing 
 which seems to proceed from that which we call reason, 
 we disdain to allow them that perfection, and attribute 
 it only to a natural instinct : and are not we fools, too, 
 
 20 by the same kind of instinct ? If we could but learn to 
 number our days (as we are taught to pray that we 
 might), we should adjust much better our other ac- 
 counts; but, whilst we never consider an end of them, 
 it is no wonder if our cares for them be without end, 
 
 25 too. Horace advises very wisely, and in excellent good 
 words, 
 
 — Spatio brevi 
 Spem longam reseces — 
 
 from a short life cut off all hopes that grow too long. 
 30 They must be pruned away, like suckers, that choak the 
 mother-plant, and hinder it from bearing fruit. And in 
 another place, to the same sence, 
 
 Vitae summa brevis spem nos vetat inchoare longam ; 
 which Seneca does not mend when he says, "O ! quanta 
 
IN VERSE AND PROSE. 159 
 
 dementia est spes longas inchoantium !" but he gives an 
 example there of an acquaintance of his, named Senecio, 
 who, from a very mean beginning, by great industry in 
 turning about of money through all ways of gain, had 
 attained to extraordinary riches, but died on a sudden 5 
 after having supped merrily, "In ipso actu bene ceden- 
 tium rerum, in ipso procurrentis fortunae impetu," in 
 the full course of his good fortune, when she had a high 
 tide, and a stiff gale, and all her sails on ; upon which 
 occasion he cries, out of Virgil, 10 
 
 "Insere nunc, Meliboee, pyros; pone ordine vites!" 
 
 Go, Melibceus, now, 
 
 Go graft" thy orchards, and thy vhieyards plant; 
 Behold the fruit! 
 
 For this Senecio I have no compassion, because he 15 
 was taken, as we say, i/i ipso facto, still labouring in the 
 work of avarice ; but the poor rich man in St. Luke 
 (whose case was not like this) I could pity, methinks, if 
 the Scripture would permit me; for he seems to have 
 been satisfied at last, he confesses he had enough for 20 
 many years, he bids his soul take its ease; and yet, for all 
 that, God says to him. Thou fool, this night thy soul 
 shall be required of thee ; and the things thou hast laid 
 up, who shall they belong to? Where shall we find the 
 causes of this bitter reproach and terrible judgment? We 25 
 may find, I think, two ; and God, perhaps, saw more. 
 First, that he did not intend true rest to his soul, but 
 only to change the employments of it from avarice to 
 luxury; his design is, to eat and to drink, and to be 
 merry. Secondly, that he went on too long before he 30 
 thought of resting; the fulness of his old barns had not 
 sufficed him, he would stay till he was forced to build 
 new ones ; and God meted out to him in the same 
 
i6o DISCOURSES BY IVAY OF ESSAYS, 
 
 measure ; since he would have more riches than his life ■ j 
 could contain, God destroy'd his life, and gave the fruits 1 1 
 of it to another. f 
 
 Thus God takes away sometimes the man from his 
 5 riches, and no less frequently riches from the man : what 
 hope can there be of such a marriage, where both parties 
 are so fickle and uncertain ? by what bonds can such a 
 couple be kept long together ? 
 
 I. 
 
 Why dost thou heap up wealth, which thou must quit, 
 lo Or, what is worse, be left by it? 
 
 Why dost thou load thyself, when thou'rt to flie, 
 Oh man, ordain'd to die? 
 
 2. 
 
 Why dost thou build up stately rooms on high. 
 Thou who art under ground lo lie? 
 15 Thou sow'sl and plantest, but no fruit must see. 
 For death, alas ! is sowing thee. 
 
 Suppose, thou fortune could'st to tameness bring 
 And clip or pinion her wing; 
 
 Suppose, thou could'st on fate so far prevail, 
 As not to cut off thy entail; 
 
 Yet death at all that subtilty will laugh, 
 
 Death will that foolish gard'ner mock, 
 
 Who does a slight and annual plant engraff, 
 Upon a lasting stock. 
 
IN VERSE AND PROSE. i6i 
 
 5- 
 Thou dost thyself wise and industrious deem ; 
 
 A mighty husband thou would'st seem; 
 Fond man ! Hke a bought slave, thou all the while 
 
 Dost but for others sweat and toil. 
 
 6. 
 
 Officious fool ! that needs must meddling be 5 
 
 In bus'ness, that concerns not thee! 
 
 For when to future years thou extend'st thy cares, 
 Thou deal'st in other men's affairs. 
 
 7. 
 Even aged men, as if they truly were 
 
 Children again, for age prepare; 10 
 
 Provisions for long travail they design, 
 
 In the last point of their short line. 
 
 8. 
 
 Wisely the ant against poor winter hoards 
 
 The stock, which summer's wealth affords; 
 
 In grasshoppers, that must at autumn die, 15 
 
 How vain were such an industry ! 
 
 9- 
 Of power and honour the deceitful light 
 
 Might half excuse our cheated sight. 
 If it of life the whole small time would stay, 
 
 And be our sun-shine all the day; 20 
 
 10. 
 
 Like lightning, that, begot but in a cloud, 
 
 (Though shining bright, and speaking loud) 
 
 Whilst it begins, concludes its violent race. 
 
 And where it gilds, it wounds the place. 
 
 L. C. II 
 
i02 DISCOURSES BY WAY OF ESSAYS, 
 
 IT, 
 
 Oh, scene of fortune, which dost fair appear, 
 Only to men that stand not near ! 
 
 Proud poverty, that tinsel brav'ry wears ! 
 Aud, like a rainbow, painted tears ! 
 
 12. 
 
 5 Be prudent, and the shore in prospect keep. 
 In a weak boat trust not the deep. 
 Plac'd beneath envy, above envying rise ; 
 
 Pity great men, great things despise. 
 
 13- 
 
 The wise example of the heavenly lark, 
 lo Thy fellow-poet, Cowley, mark ; 
 
 Above the clouds, let thy proud musick sound 
 Thy humble nest build on the ground. 
 
IN VERSE AND I'ROSE. 163 
 
 X. 
 
 THE DANGER OF PROCRASTINATION. 
 A Letter to Mr S. L. 
 
 AM glad that you approve and applaud my 
 design, of withdrawing myself from all tumult 
 and business of the world ; and consecrating 
 the little rest of my time to those studies, to 
 which nature had so motherly inclined me, and from 5 
 which fortune, like a step-mother, has so long detained 
 me. But nevertheless (you say), which, but, is "aerugo 
 mera," a rust which spoils the good metal it grows upon. 
 But (you say) you would advise me not to precipitate 
 that resolution, but to stay a while longer with patience 10 
 and complaisance, till I had gotten such an estate as - 
 might afford me (according to the saying of that person, 
 whom you and I love very much, and would believe as 
 soon as another man) " cum dignitate otium." This 
 were excellent advice to Joshua, who could bid the sun 15 
 stay too. But there is no fooling with life, when it is 
 once turn'd beyond forty. The seeking for a fortune 
 then is but a desperate after-game: 'tis a hundred to one, 
 if a man fling two sixes, and recover all ; especially, if 
 his hand be no luckier than mine. 20 
 
 II —2 
 
1 64 DISCOURSES BY WAY OF ESSAYS, 
 
 There is some help for all the defects of fortune ; for 
 if a man cannot attain to the length of his wishes, he 
 may have his remedy by cutting of them shorter. Epi- 
 curus writes a letter to Idomeneus who was then a very 
 5 powerful, wealthy, and (it seems), a bountiful person to 
 recommend to him, who had made so many rich, one Py- 
 thocles, a friend of his, whom he desired might be made a 
 rich man too ; " but I intreat you that you would not do 
 it just the same way as you have done to many less 
 lo deserving persons, but in the most gentlemanly manner 
 of obliging him, which is, not to add any thing to his 
 estate, but to take something from his desires." 
 
 The sum of this is, that, for the uncertain hopes of 
 
 some conveniences, we ought not to defer the execution 
 
 15 of a work that is necessary ; especially, when the use of 
 
 those things, which we would stay for, may otherwise be 
 
 supplyed ; but the loss of time, never recovered : nay, 
 
 fardier yet, though we were sure to obtain all that we 
 
 had a mind to, though we were sure of getting never so 
 
 20 much by continuing the game, yet, when the light of life 
 
 is so near going out, and ought to be so precious, " le 
 
 jeu ne vaut pas la chandelle," the play is not worth the 
 
 expence of the candle : after having been long tost in a 
 
 tempest, if our masts be standing, and we have still sail 
 
 25 and tackling enough to carry us to our port, it is no 
 
 matter for the want of streamers and top-gallants ; 
 
 utere velis, 
 
 Totos pande sinus — 
 
 A gentleman in our late civil wars, when his quarters 
 
 30 were beaten up by the enemy, was taken prisoner, and 
 
 lost his life afterwards, only by staying to put on a band, 
 
 and adjust his perriwig ; he would escape like a person 
 
 of quality, or not at all, and dyed the noble martyr of 
 
IN VERSE AND PROSE. 165 
 
 ceremony and gentility. I think, your counsel of " Fes- 
 tina lente" is as ill to a man who is flying from the world, 
 as it would have been to that unfortunate well-bred 
 gentleman, who was so cautious as not to fly undecently 
 from his enemies ; and therefore I prefer Horace's advice 5 
 
 before yours, 
 
 sapere aude, 
 
 Incipe — 
 
 Begin ; the getting out of doors is the greatest part of 
 the journey. Varro teaches us that Latin proverb, 10 
 "portam itineri longissimam esse:" but to return to 
 
 Horace, 
 
 *' — Sapere aude : 
 Incipe; vivendi recte qui prorogat horam, 
 
 Rusticus exspectat, dum labitur amnis, at ille 15 
 
 Labitui-, et labetur in omne volubilis sevum." 
 
 Begin, be bold, and venture to be wise ; 
 
 He who defers this work from day to day, 
 
 Does on a river's bank expecting stay. 
 
 Till the whole stream, which stopt him, should be gone, 10 
 
 That runs, and as it runs, for ever will run on. 
 
 Caesar (the man of expedition above all others) was 
 so far from this folly, that whensoever, in a journey, he 
 was to cross any river, he never went one foot out of his 
 way for a bridge, or a ford, or a ferry ; but flung himself 25 
 into it immediately, and swam over : and this is the 
 course we ought to imitate, if we meet with any stops in 
 our way to happiness. Stay till the waters are low ; stay 
 till some boats come by to transport you ; stay till a 
 bridge be built for you : you had even as good stay, till 30 
 the river be quite past. Persius (who, you use to say, 
 you do not know whether he be a good poet or no, 
 because you cannot understand him, and whom, therefore, 
 T say, I know to be not a good poet) has an odd expres- 
 
i66 DISCOURSES BY WAY OF ESSAYS, 
 
 sion of these procrastinators, which, methinks, is full of 
 
 fancy : 
 
 "Jam eras hesternum consumpsimus ; ecce aliud eras 
 Egerit hos annos." 
 
 5 Our yesterday's to-morrow now is gone, 
 And still a new to-morrow does come on ; 
 We by to-morrows draw up all our store, 
 Till the exhausted well can yield no more. 
 
 And now, I think, I am even with you, for your 
 lo " Otium cuin dignitate," and " Festina lente," and three 
 or four other more of your new Latine sentences : if I 
 should draw upon you all my forces out of Seneca and 
 Plutarch upon this subject, I should overwhelm you; 
 but I leave those, as Triarii^ for your next charge. I 
 15 shall only give you now a light skirmish out of an epi- 
 grammatist, your special good friend ; and so, vale. 
 
 MARTIALIS, LIB. V. EPIGR. LVIII. 
 
 "Cras te victurum," &c. 
 
 To-morrow you will live, you always cry ! 
 In what far country does this morrow lye, 
 That 'tis so mighty long ere it arrive? 
 20 Beyond the Indies does this morrow live ? 
 'Tis so far fetch't this morrow, that I fear 
 'Twill be both very old and very dear. 
 To-morrow I will live, the fool does say: 
 To-day itself's too late ; the wise lived yesterday. 
 
 MARTIAL, LIB. II. EPIGR. XC. 
 
 " Quintiliane, vaga.' moderator," &c. 
 
 25 Wonder not, Sir, (you who instruct the town 
 In the true wisdom of the sacred gown) 
 
IN VERSE AND PROSE. 167 
 
 That I make haste to Hve, and cannot hold 
 
 Patiently out, till I grow rich and old. 
 
 Life for delays and doubts no time does give, 
 
 None ever yet made haste enough to live. 
 
 Let him defer it, whose preposterous care 5 
 
 Omits himself, and reaches to his heir. 
 
 Who does his father's bounded stores despise, 
 
 And whom his own too never can suffice : 
 
 My humble thoughts no glittering roofs require, 
 
 Or rooms, that shine with aught but constant fire. 10 
 
 I well content the avarice of my sight 
 
 With the fair gildings of reflected light : 
 
 Pleasures abroad, the sport of nature yields 
 
 Her living fountains, and her smiling fields ; 
 
 And then at home, what pleasure is't to see 15 
 
 A little cleanly chearful familie ! 
 
 Which if a chaste wife crown, no less in her 
 
 Than fortune, I the golden mean prefer. 
 
 Too noble, nor too wise, she should not be, 
 
 No, nor too rich, too fair, too fond of me. 20 
 
 Thus let my life slide silently away. 
 
 With sleep all night, and quiet all the day. 
 
1 68 DISCO UliSES BY WAY OF ESSAYS, 
 
 XI. 
 
 OF MYSELF. 
 
 jT is a hard and nice subject for a man to write 
 of himself; it grates his own heart to say any 
 thing of disparagement, and the reader's ears 
 to hear any thing of praise from him. There 
 5 is no danger from me of offending him in this kind; 
 neither my mind, nor my body, nor my fortune, allow 
 me any materials for that vanity. It is sufficient for my 
 own contentment, that they have preserved me from 
 being scandalous, or remarkable on the defective side. 
 lo But, besides that, I shall here speak of myself, only in 
 relation to the subject of these precedent discourses, and 
 shall be likelier thereby to fall into the contempt, than 
 rise up to the estimation, of most people. 
 
 As far as my memory can return back into my past 
 15 life, before I knew, or was capable of guessing, what the 
 world, or the glories or business of it, were, the natural 
 affections of my soul gave me a secret bent of aversion 
 from them, as some plants are said to turn away from 
 others, by an antipathy imperceptible to themselves, and 
 20 inscrutable to man's understanding. Even when I was a 
 very young boy at school, instead of running about on 
 holydays and playing with my fellows, I was wont to 
 steal from them, and walk into the fields, either alone 
 
IN VERSE AND PROSE. 169 
 
 Avith a book, or with some one companion, if I could 
 find any of the same temper. I was then, too, so much 
 an enemy to all constraint, that my masters could never 
 prevail on me, by any perswasions or encouragements, 
 to learn without book the common rules of grammar ; in 5 
 which they dispenced with me alone, because they found 
 I made a shift to do the usual exercise out of my own 
 reading and observation. That I was then of the same 
 mind as I am now (which, I confess, I wonder at, myself) 
 may appear by the latter end of an ode, which I made 10 
 when I was but thirteen years old, and which was then 
 printed with many other verses. The beginning of it is 
 boyish; but of this part, which I here set down (if a 
 very little were corrected), I should hardly now be much 
 ashamed. 15 
 
 This only grant me, that my means may lye 
 Too low for envy, for contempt too high. 
 
 Some honour I would have. 
 Not from great deeds, but good alone ; 
 The unknown are better, than ill known : 20 
 
 Rumour can ope the grave. 
 Acquaintance I would have, but when 't depends 
 Not on the number, but the choice of friends. 
 
 10. 
 
 Books shoidd, not business, entertain the light. 
 
 And sleep, as undisturb'd as death, the night. 25 
 
 My house a cottage more 
 Than palace; and should fitting be 
 For all my use, no luxurie. 
 
 My garden painted o'er 
 
I70 DISCOURSES BY WAY OF ESSAYS, 
 
 With nature's hand, nor art's ; and pleasures yield, 
 Horace might envy in his Sabine field. 
 
 II. 
 
 Thus would I double my life's fading space; 
 For he, that runs it well, twice runs his race. 
 5 And in this true delight, 
 
 These unbought sports, that happy state, 
 I would not fear, nor wish, my fate; 
 
 But boldly say each night, 
 To-morrow let my sun his beams display, 
 lo Or, in clouds hide .them ; I have liv'd, to-day. 
 
 You may see by it, I was even then acquainted with 
 the poets (for the conclusion is taken out of Horace) ; 
 and perhaps it was the immature and immoderate love 
 of them, which stampt first, or rather engraved, the 
 
 15 characters in me : they were like letters cut into the bark 
 of a young tree, which with the tree still grow propor- 
 tionably. But, how this love came to be produced in me 
 so early, is a hard question : I beheve, I can tell the 
 particular little chance that filled my head first with such 
 
 20 chimes of verse, as have never since left ringing there : 
 for I remember, when I began to read, and take some 
 pleasure in it, there was wont to lye in my mother's 
 parlour (I know not by what accident, for she herself 
 never in her life read any book but of devotion) but there 
 
 25 was wont to lye Spenser's works: this I happened to fall 
 upon, and was infinitely delighted with the stories of the 
 knights, and gyants, and monsters, and brave houses, 
 which I found every where there (though my understand- 
 ing had little to do with all this); and, by degrees, with 
 
 30 the tinkhng of the rhyme and dance of the numbers ; so 
 
IN VERSE AND PROSE. 171 
 
 that, I think, I had read him all over before I was twelve 
 years old. 
 
 With these affections of mind, and my heart wholly 
 set upon letters, I went to the university ; but was soon 
 torn from thence by that violent public storm, which 5 
 would suffer nothing to stand where it did, but rooted 
 up every plant, even from the princely cedars to me 
 the hyssop. Yet, I had as good fortune as could have 
 befallen me in such a tempest ; for I was cast by it into 
 the family of one of the best persons, and into the court 10 
 of one of the best princesses, of the world. Now, though 
 I was here engaged in ways most contrary to the original 
 design of my life, that is, into much company, and no 
 small business, and into a daily sight of greatness, both 
 militant and triumphant (for that was the state then of 15 
 the English and French courts) ; yet all this was so far 
 from altering my opinion, that it only added the confir- 
 mation of reason to that which was before but natural 
 inclination. I saw plainly all the paint of that kind of 
 life, the nearer I came to it; and that beauty, which I 20 
 did not fall in love with, when, for aught I knew, it 
 was real, was not like to bewitch or intice me, when I 
 saw that it was adulterate. I met with several great 
 persons, whom I Hked very well ; but could not perceive 
 that any part of their greatness was to be liked or de- 25 
 sired, no more than I would be glad or content to be in 
 a storm, though I saw many ships which rid safely and 
 bravely in it : a storm would not agree with my stomach, 
 if it did with my courage. Though I was in a crowd of 
 as good company as could be found any where, though I 30 
 was in business of great and honourable trust, though I 
 eat at the best table, and enjoyed the best conveniences 
 for present subsistence that ought to be desired by a 
 man of my condition in banishment and pubHck distresses; 
 
172 DISCOURSES BY WAY OF ESSAYS, 
 
 yet I could not abstain from renewing my old school-boy's 
 wish, in a copy of verses to the same effect : 
 
 I. 
 
 Well then ; I now do plainly see 
 This busie world and I shall ne'er agree. 
 5 The very Honey of all earthly joy 
 
 Does of all meats the soonest cloy, 
 And they (methinks) deserve my pity, 
 Who for it can endui-e the stings, 
 The crowd, and buzz, and murmurings 
 to Of this great hive, the city. 
 
 Ah, yet, ere I descend to th' grave, 
 May I a small house and large garden have ! 
 And a few friends, and many books, both true, 
 
 Both wise, and both delightful too ! 
 15 And since love ne'er will from me flee, 
 
 A Mistress moderately fair, 
 And good as guardian-angels are, 
 
 Only beloved, and loving me ! 
 
 O Fountains, when in you shall I 
 20 Myself, eas'd of unpeaceful thoughts espy ? 
 
 Oh fields ! Oh woods ! when, when shall I be made, 
 The happy tenant of your shade ? 
 Here's the spring-head of pleasure's flood ; 
 Where all the riches lye, that she 
 25 Has coyn'd and stampt for good. 
 
 Pride and Ambition here 
 Only in far fetcht metaphors appear; 
 Here nought but winds can hurtful murmurs scatter. 
 
 And nought but Echo flatter, 
 
IN VERSE AND PROSE. 173 
 
 The gods when they descended hither 
 From heaven, did always chuse their way ; 
 And therefore we may boldly say, 
 
 That 'tis the way to thither. 
 
 5- 
 
 How happy here should I 5 
 
 And one dear she live, and embracing dye ! 
 She who is all the world, and can exclude 
 
 In desarts solitude 
 
 I should have then this only fear, 
 Lest men, when they my pleasures see, 10 
 
 Should hither throng to live like me. 
 
 And so make a city here. 
 
 And I never then proposed to myself any other advan- 
 tage from his majesty's happy restauration, but the 
 getting into some moderately convenient retreat in the 15 
 country ; which I thought, in that case, I might easily 
 have compassed, as well as some others, who with no 
 greater probabilities or pretences, have arrived to extra- 
 ordinary fortunes: but I had before written a shrewd 
 prophesie against myself; and I think Apollo inspired me 20 
 in the truth, though not in the elegance, of it : 
 
 Thou neither great at court, nor in the war, 
 
 Nor at th' exchange shalt be, nor at the wrangling bar. 
 
 Content thyself with the small barren praise. 
 
 That neglected verse does raise. 25 
 
 She spake ; and all my years to come 
 Took their unlucky doom. 
 Their several ways of life let others chuse, 
 Their several pleasures let them use; 
 But I was born for Love, and for a Muse. 30 
 
 4. 
 
 With Fate what boots it to contend? 
 Such I began, such am, and so must end. 
 
174 DISCOURSES BY IVAY OF ESSAYS, 
 
 The Star, that did my being frame, 
 Was but a lambent flame, 
 And some small light it did dispence, 
 But neither heat nor influence. 
 5 No matter, Cowley; let proud Fortune see, 
 That thou canst her despise no less than she does thee. 
 Let all her gifts the portion be 
 Of folly, lust, and flatterie. 
 Fraud, extortion, calunmie, 
 lo Murder, infidelitie. 
 
 Rebellion and hypocrisie. 
 Do thou not grieve nor blush to be. 
 As all th' inspired tuneful men. 
 And all thy great forefathers were, from Homer down 
 15 to Ben. 
 
 However, by the failing of the forces which I had 
 expected, I did not acquit the design which I had resolved 
 on; I cast myself into it a corps perdu, without making 
 capitulations, or taking counsel of fortune. But God 
 
 20 laughs at a man, who says to his soul, Take thy ease : 
 I met presently not only with many little incumbrances 
 and impediments, but with so much sickness (a new 
 misfortune to me) as would have spoiled the happiness 
 of an emperor as well as mine : yet I do neither repent, 
 
 25 nor alter my course. "Non ego perfidum dixi sacra- 
 mentum;" nothing shall separate me from a mistress, 
 which I have loved so long, and have now at last 
 married; though she neither has brought me a rich 
 portion, nor lived yet so quietly with me as I hoped 
 
 30 from her: 
 
 "Nee vos, dulcisshna muncli 
 
 Nomina, vos Musae, libertas, otia, libri, 
 
 Ilortique syh'ceque, anima remanente, relinquam." 
 
IN VERSE AND PROSE. 175 
 
 Nor by me e'er shall you, 
 You, of all names the sweetest, and the best, 
 Vou, Muses, books, and liberty, and rest ; 
 You, gardens, fields, and woods, forsaken be, 
 As long as life itself forsakes not me. 
 
 But this is a very pretty ejaculation ; because I have 
 concluded all the other chapters with a copy of verses, 
 1 will maintain the humour to the last. 
 
 MARTIAL, LIB. X. EPIGR. XLVIL 
 
 " Vitam quai faciunt beatiorem," etc. 
 
 Since, dearest friend, 'tis your desire to see 
 
 A true receipt of happiness from me; 10 
 
 These are the chief ingredients, if not all : 
 
 Take an estate neither too great nor small, 
 
 Which quantum sufficit the doctors call. 
 
 Let this estate from parents' care descend ; 
 
 The getting it too much of life does spend. 15 
 
 Take such a ground, whose gratitude may be 
 
 A fair encouragement for industry. 
 
 Let constant fires the winter's fury tame; 
 
 And let thy kitchen's be a vestal flame. 
 
 Thee to the town let never suit at law, 20 
 
 And rarely, very rarely, business draw. 
 
 Thy active mind in equal temper keep, 
 
 In undisturbed peace, yet not in sleep. 
 
 Let exercise a vigorous health maintain. 
 
 Without which all the composition's vain. 25 
 
 In the same weight prudence and innocence take. 
 
 Ana of each does the just mixture make. 
 
 But a few friendships wear, and let them be 
 
 By nature and by fortune fit for thee. 
 
176 DISCOURSES BY WAY OF ESSAYS, 
 
 Instead of art and luxury in food, 
 
 Let mirth and freedom make thy table good. 
 
 If any cares into thy day-time creep, 
 
 At night, without wine's opium, let them sleep. 
 
 5 Let rest, which nature does to darkness wed, 
 
 And not lust, recommend to thee thy bed. 
 Be satisfied, and pleas'd with what thou art. 
 Act chearfully and well th' allotted part; 
 Enjoy the present hour, be thankful for the past, 
 
 lo And neither fear, nor wish, th' approaches of the last. 
 
 MARTIAL, LIB. X. EPIGR. XCVI. 
 
 " Saepe loquar nimium gentes," &c. 
 
 Me, who have liv'd so long among the great, 
 You wonder to hear talk of a retreat : 
 And a retreat so distant, as may show 
 No thoughts of a return, when once I go. 
 
 15 Give me a country, how remote so e'er, 
 
 Where happiness a moderate rate does bear, 
 
 Where poverty itself in plenty flows, 
 
 And all the solid use of riches knows. 
 
 The ground about the house maintains it there, 
 
 20 The house maintains the ground about it here. 
 Here even hunger's dear ; and a full board 
 Devours the vital substance of the lord. 
 The land itself does there the feast bestow, 
 The land itself must here to market go. 
 
 25 Three or four suits one winter here does wast. 
 One suit does there three or four winters last. 
 Here every frugal man must oft be cold, 
 And little luke-warm fires are to you sold. 
 There fire's an element, as cheap and free, 
 
 30 Almost as any of the other three. 
 
IN VERSE AND PROSE. 177 
 
 Stay you then here, and Hve among the great, 
 Attend their sports, and at their tables eat. 
 When all the bounties here of men you score, 
 The place's bounty there shall give me more. 
 
 EPITAPHIUM VIVI AUCTORIS. 
 
 *'PIic, o viator, sub lare parvulo 
 Couleius hie est conditus, hie jacet; 
 Defunctus humani laboris 
 Sorte, supervacuaque vita. 
 
 Non indecora pauperie nitens, 
 Et non inerti nobilis otio, 
 Vanoque dilectis popello 
 Divitiis animosus hostis. 
 
 Possis ut ilium dicere mortuum ; 
 En terra jam nunc quantula sufficit ! 
 Exempta sit curis, viator, 
 Terra sit ilia levis, precare. 
 
 Hie sparge flores, sparge breves rosas, 
 Nam vita gaudet mortua floribus, 
 Herbisque odoratis corona 
 
 Vatis adhuc cinerem calentem." 
 
 10 
 
 15 
 
 20 
 
 L. c. 
 
PREFACE TO "CUTTER OF COLEMAN 
 STREET." 
 
 COMEDY, call'd the Guardian, and made by 
 me when I was very young, was acted formerly 
 at Cambridge ; and several times after, pri- 
 vately during the troubles, as I am told, with 
 5 good approbation, as it has been lately too at Dublin. 
 There being many things in it which I dislik'd, and 
 finding myself for some days idle, and alone in the 
 country, I fell upon the changing of it almost wholly, as 
 now it is, and it was play'd since at his Royal Highness's 
 lo theatre, under this new name. It met at the first repre- 
 sentation with no favourable reception, and I think there 
 was something of faction against it, by the early appear- 
 ance of some men's disapprobation before they had seen 
 enough of it to build their dislike upon their judgment. 
 15 Afterwards it got some ground, and found friends, as 
 well as adversaries. In which condition I should wil- 
 lingly let it die, if the main imputation under which it 
 suffer'd had been shot only against my wit or art in these 
 matters, and not directed against the tenderest parts of 
 20 human reputation, good nature, good manners, and piety 
 itself. 
 
CUTTER OF COLEMAN STREET. 179 
 
 The first clamour, which some malicious persons 
 rais'd, and made a great noise with, was, that it was a 
 piece intended for abuse and satyre against the King's 
 party. Good God ! against the King's party ? After 
 having served it twenty years during all the time of their 5 
 misfortunes and afflictions, I must be a very rash and 
 imprudent person, if I chose out that of their restitution 
 to begin a quarrel with them. I must be too much a 
 madman to be trusted with such an edg'd tool as comedy. 
 But first, why should either the whole party (as it was 10 
 once distinguish'd by that name, which I hope is abolish'd 
 now by universal loyalty), or any man of virtue or honour 
 in it, believe themselves injur'd, or at all concern'd, by 
 the representation of the faults and follies of a few, who, 
 in the general division of the nation, had crowded in 15 
 among them? In all mix'd numbers (which is the case 
 of parties), nay, in the most entire and continu'd bodies, 
 there are often some degenerated and corrupted parts, 
 which may be cast away from that, and even cut off from 
 this unity, without any infection of scandal to the re- 20 
 maining body. The church of Rome, with all her 
 arrogance, and her wide pretences of certainty in all 
 truths, and exemption from all errors, does not clap on 
 this enchanted armour of infallibility upon all her par- 
 ticular subjects, nor is offended at the reproof of her 25 
 greatest doctors. We are not, I hope, become such 
 Puritans ourselves, as to assume the name of the congre- 
 gation of the spotless. It is hard for any party to be so 
 ill as that no good, impossible to be so good as that no 
 ill, should be found among them. And it has been the 30 
 perpetual privilege of satyre and comedy, to pluck their 
 vices and folhes, tho' not their persons, out of the 
 sanctuary of any title. A cowardly ranting soldier, an 
 ignorant charlatanical doctor, a foolish cheating lawyer, a 
 
 12 — 2 
 
ISO 
 
 PREFACE TO 
 
 silly pedantical scholar, have always been, and still are, 
 the principal subjects of all comedies, without any scandal 
 given to those honourable professions, or even taken by 
 their severest professors. And, if any good physician or 
 
 5 divine should be offended with me here, for inveighing 
 against a quack, or for finding Deacon Soaker too often 
 in the butteries, my respect and reverence to their callings 
 would make me troubled at their displeasure, but I could 
 not abstain from taking them for very cholerick and 
 
 lo quarrelsome persons. What does this therefore amount 
 to, if it were true which is objected ? But it is far from 
 being so ; for the representation of two sharks about the 
 town (fellows merry and ingenious enough, and therefore 
 admitted into better companies than they deserve, yet 
 
 15 withal two very scoundrels, which is no unfrequent 
 character at London), the representation, I say, of these 
 as pretended officers of the royal army, was made for no 
 other purpose but to show the world, that the vices and 
 extravagances imputed vulgarly to the cavaliers, were 
 
 20 really committed by aliens who only usurp'd that name, 
 and endeavour'd to cover the reproach of their indigency, or 
 infamy of their actions, with so honourable a title. So that 
 the business was not here to correct or cut off any natural 
 branches, though never so corrupted or luxuriant, but to 
 
 25 separate and cast away that vermin, which, by sticking 
 so close to them, had done great and considerable pre- 
 judice both to the beauty and fertility of the tree ; and 
 this is as plainly said, and as often inculcated, as if one 
 should write round about a sign, This is a dog^ This is a 
 
 30 dog^ out of over-much caution lest some might happen to 
 mistake it for a lion. 
 
 Therefore, when this calumny could not hold (for the 
 case is clear, and will take no colour,) some others sought 
 out a subtler hint, to traduce me upon the same score, 
 
CUTTER OF COLEMAN STREET i8i 
 
 and were angry, that the person whom I made a true 
 gentleman, and one both of considerable quality and 
 sufferings in the royal party, should not have a fair and 
 noble character throughout, but should submit, in his 
 great extremities, to wrong his niece for his own relief. 5 
 This is a refin'd exception, such as I little foresaw, nor 
 should, with the dulness of my usual charity, have found 
 out against another man in twenty years. The truth is, 
 I did not intend the character of a hero, one of exemplary 
 virtue, and, as Homer often terms such men, unblameable, 10 
 but an ordinary jovial gentleman, commonly called a 
 good-fellow, one not so conscientious as to starve rather 
 than do the least injury, and yet endow'd with so much 
 sense of honour, as to refuse, when that necessity was 
 removed, the gain of five thousand pounds, which he might 15 
 have taken from his niece by the rigour of a forfeiture : 
 and let the frankness of this latter generosity so expiate 
 for the former frailty, as may make us not ashamed of his 
 company ; for, if his true metal is but equal to his allay, 
 it will not indeed render him one of the finest sorts of 20 
 men, but it will make him current, for aught I know, in 
 any party that ever yet was in the world. If you be to 
 chuse parts for a comedy out of any noble or elevated 
 rank of persons, the most proper for that work are the 
 worst of that kind. Comedy is humble of her nature, 25 
 and has always been bred low, so that she knows not 
 how to behave herself with the great and accomplish'd. 
 She does not pretend to the brisk and bold qualities of 
 wine, but to the stomachal acidity of vinegar ; and there- 
 fore is best plac'd among that sort of people which the 30 
 Romans call The lees of Romulus. If I had design'd 
 here the celebration of the virtues of our friends, I would 
 have made the scene nobler where I intended to erect 
 their statues. They should have stood in odes and 
 
1 82 PREFACE TO 
 
 tragedies, and epick poems (neither have I totally omit- 
 ted those great testimonies of my esteem of them) — "Sed 
 nunc non erat his locus," &c. 
 
 And so much for this little spiny objection, which a 
 5 man cannot see without a magnifying-glass. The next 
 is enough to knock a man down, and accuses me of no 
 less than prophaneness. Prophane, to deride the hypo- 
 crisie of those men whose skulls are not yet bare upon 
 the gates since the publick and just punishment of it? 
 
 lo But there is some imitation of Scripture-phrases : God 
 forbid ! there is no representation of the true face of 
 Scripture, but only of that vizard which these hypocrites 
 (that is, by interpretation, actors with a vizard) draw 
 upon it. Is it prophane to speak of Harrison's return to 
 
 15 life again, when some of his friends really profest their 
 belief of it, and he himself had been said to promise it ? 
 A man may be so imprudently scrupulous as to find 
 prophaneness in any thing, either said or written, by 
 applying it under some similitude or other to some 
 
 20 expressions in scripture. This nicety is both vain and 
 endless. But I call God to witness, that, rather than one 
 tittle should remain among all my writings, which, ac- 
 cording to my severest judgment, should be found 
 guilty of the crime objected, I would myself burn and 
 
 25 extinguish them all together. Nothing is so detestably 
 leud and wretchless as the derision of things sacred; 
 and would be in me more unpardonable than any man 
 else, who have endeavour'd to root out the ordinary 
 weeds of poetry, and to plant it almost wholly with 
 
 30 divinity. I am so far from allowing any loose or 
 irreverent expressions in matters of that religion which I 
 believe, that I am very tender in this point, even for the 
 grossest errors of conscientious persons; they are the 
 properest object (methinks) both of our pity and charity 
 
CUTTER OF COLEMAN STREET 183 
 
 too : they are the innocent and white sectaries, in com- 
 parison of another kind, who engraft pride upon ignorance, 
 tyranny upon liberty, and upon tall their heresies, treason 
 and rebellion. These are principles so destructive to the 
 peace and society of mankind, that they deserve to be 5 
 pursu'd by our serious hatred ; and the putting a mask 
 of sanctity upon such devils, is so ridiculous, that it ought 
 to be exposed to contempt and laughter. They are indeed 
 prophane, who counterfeit the softness of the voice of 
 holiness, to disguise the roughness of the hands of 10 
 impiety ; and not they, who, with reverence to the thing 
 which others dissemble, deride nothing but their dissimula- 
 tion. If some piece of an admirable artist should be ill 
 copy'd, even to ridiculousness, by an ignorant hand ; and 
 another painter should undertake to draw that copy, and 15 
 make it yet more ridiculous, to shew apparently the 
 .difference of the two works, and deformity of the latter ; 
 will not every man see plainly, that the abuse is intended 
 to the foolish imitation, and not to the excellent original ? 
 I might say much more, to confute and confound this 20 
 very false and malicious accusation ; but this is enough, I 
 hope, to clear the matter, and is, I am afraid, too much 
 for a preface to a work of so little consideration. 
 
 As for all other objections, which have been or may 
 be made against the invention or elocution, or any thing 25 
 else which comes under the critical jurisdiction, let it 
 stand or fall as it can answer for itself, for I do not lay 
 the great stress of my reputation upon a structure of this 
 nature, much less upon the slight reparations only of an 
 old and unfashionable building. There is no writer but 30 
 may fail sometimes in point of wit ; and it is no less 
 frequent for the auditors to fail in point of judgment. I 
 perceive plainly, by daily experience, that Fortune is 
 mistress of the theatre, as Tully says it is of all popular 
 
1 84 PREFACE TO 
 
 assemblies. No man can tell sometimes from whence 
 the invisible winds rise that move them. There are a 
 multitude of people, who are truly and only spectators 
 at a play, without any use of their understanding ; and 
 
 5 these carry it sometimes by the strength of their num- 
 bers. There are others, who use their understandings 
 too much ; who think it a sign of weakness and stupidity, 
 to let any thing pass by them unattack'd, and that the 
 honour of their judgments (as some brutals imagine of 
 
 lo their courage) consists in quarrelling with every thing. 
 We are therefore wonderful wise men, and have a fine 
 business of it, we, who spend our time in poetry. I do 
 sometimes laugh, and am often angry with myself, when 
 I think on it ; and if I had a son inclined by nature to 
 
 15 the same folly, I believe I should bind him from it by 
 the strictest conjurations of a paternal blessing. For 
 what can be more ridiculous, than to labour to give men 
 delight, whilst they labour, on their part, more earnestly 
 to take offence? To expose one's self voluntarily and 
 
 20 frankly to all the dangers of that narrow passage to 
 unprofitable fame, which is defended by rude multitudes 
 of the ignorant, and by armed troops of the malicious? 
 If we do ill, many discover it, and all despise us ; if we 
 do well, but few men find it out, and fewer entertain it 
 
 25 kindly. If we commit errors, there is no pardon ; if we 
 could do wonders, there would be but little thanks, and 
 that, too, extorted from unwilling givers. 
 
 But some perhaps may say. Was it not always thus ? 
 do you expect a particular privilege, that was never yet 
 
 30 enjoyed by any poet? Were the ancient Grecian or noble 
 Roman authors, was Virgil himself, exempt from this 
 possibility : 
 
 Qui niultis, melior quam tu, fuit, iniprobe, rebus; 
 who was, in many things, thy better far, thou impudent 
 
CUTTER OF COLEMAN STREET 185 
 
 pretender? As was said by Lucretius to a person, who 
 took it ill that he was to die, though he had seen so 
 many do it before him, who better deserv'd immortality ; 
 and this is to repine at the natural condition of a living 
 poet^ as he did at that of a living mortal. I do not 5 
 only acknowledge the pre-eminence of Virgil (whose 
 footsteps I adore), but submit to many of his Roman 
 brethren ; and I confess, that even they, in their own 
 times, were not so secure from the assaults of detraction 
 (though Horace brags at last, 10 
 
 Jam dente minus mordeor invido;) 
 
 but then the barkings of a few were drown'd in the 
 applause of all the rest of the world, and the poison of 
 their bitings extinguish'd by the antidote of great 
 rewards and great encouragements, which is a way of 15 
 curing now out of use ; and I really profess, that I 
 neither expect, nor think I deserve it. Indolency would 
 serve my turn instead of pleasure : but the case is not so 
 well; for, though I comfort myself with some assurance 
 of the favour and affection of very many candid and good- 20 
 natur'd (and yet too, judicious and even critical) persons ; 
 yet this I do affirm, that from all which I have written I 
 never receiv'd the least benefit, or the least advantage, 
 but, on the contrary, have felt sometimes the effects of 
 malice and misfortune. 25 
 
A PROPOSITION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT 
 OF EXPERIMENTAL PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 Page i. 
 
 The title-page to the first Edition of this 'Proposition' sets forth 
 that it was published in London : * Printed by J. M. for Henry 
 Heningman, and are to be sold at his shop at the sign of the Blew 
 Anchor in the Lower Walk of the New Exchange, 1661.' The 
 publisher who signs himself P.P. says that he puts forth the book 
 during the author's absence in France, and in his address he presents 
 it to the ' Honourable Society for the Advancement of Experimental 
 Philosophy.' 
 
 5. mediate creattires. Defined in the next line as ' the creatures 
 of God's creature man. ' We have to bear in mind that the sense 
 of the 'L.2i\S.n creatura is 'anything created.' In English 'creature' 
 has now become in a great measure restricted to living creatures. 
 God's mediate creatures are all things fashioned or wrought out by 
 the medium or means of man. 
 
 7. humane. This is Cowley's constant orthography. We now 
 distinguish two senses from the same Latin root hujjianus. ' Human' 
 is that which concerns or belongs to man, as 'human life' 'human 
 race' &c. 'humane' is confined to those tender and kindly feelings 
 which ought to characterise the family of man. 
 
 The orthography of this edition is that of the earliest published 
 copies and it was thought at first that some principles of spelling 
 might have been traced throughout, but there will be found a great 
 degree of inconsistency. This however, as it in no case interferes 
 with the comprehension of Cowley's sense, it has been decided to 
 preserve, especially as some of the peculiarities are among the spel- 
 ling reforms at present widely advocated, e.g. mixt for mixed, in line 
 14, mist for missed p. 122, 1. 11, and many others. 
 
 15. then. The distinction between 'then' as an adverb of time 
 and 'than' as the adverbial form to follow the comparative degree 
 was not strictly observed in Cowley's day, though 'then' after the 
 comparative as here is not of frequent occurrence in his works. We 
 find it however on page 2, line 24. Cf. also Sir Thomas Brown, 
 Vulgar Errors iii. 25 : ' There was no sarcophagie before the 
 
1 88 NOTES. 
 
 flood, and Mathout the eating of flesh, our fathers from vegetable 
 aliments preserved themselves unto longer lives, then their posterity 
 by any other.' 
 
 Page i. 
 
 30. Aristotle. The famous Greek philosopher, founder of the 
 Peripatetic school. He was born at Stagira in Thrace about 384 B.C. 
 and died in 322 B.C. 
 
 Macrobius. Macrobius was a Latin writer who lived at the 
 close of the 4th century a. D. His chief works were a commentary 
 on Cicero's Dream of Scipio, in two books, and seven books of 
 Saturnalia. In the former (Sonui. Sci/>. lib. i. Pontani ed. 1697) 
 p. 28, he speaks of Hipjiocrates (the famous physician of Cos) as 
 one 'qui tam fallere quam falii nescit.' 
 
 Page 3. 
 
 12. hundred years ago. We should now say 'hundreds of 
 years ago.' 
 
 14. liave been discovered. How much more would Cowley have 
 used language like this had he lived in our day ! But in the many 
 applications of steam, electricity, photography, &c. we are reaping 
 fruits such as he saw, though but to a small extent, would result 
 from the pursuit of science in the systematic manner which he 
 advocated. Many 'terrae incognitae' have been discovered, and 
 there is the certainty that many are still 'behind to exercise our 
 diligence.' 
 
 23. purchases. The original sense of 'purchase' was 'to 
 procure,' 'to acquire,' by diligent effort, hence the noun here = 
 acquisitions. The French pourchasser from which it comes to us 
 has nothing of the meaning of 'buying for a price,' which is the 
 usual sense of the word at present. So Wycliffe translates in i 
 Pet. ii. 9, the l^^iiin populits acquisitionis , 'a people o{ ptcrchasying,'' 
 of. Dryden, Palamon and Arcite bk. I, line 382, where speaking of 
 the liberty granted to Arcite on the promise of Pirithous, 
 'And who but Arcite mourns his bitter fate, 
 Finds his Ao.zx purchase and repents too late.' 
 
 30. sensible objects. The need for observation by the senses in 
 addition to and in distinction from the contemplationby reason only, 
 without experiment, is the great argument for Cowley's scheme. Cf. 
 what he says in his ode on Harvey, the discoverer of the circulation: 
 
 *Thus Harvey sought for truth in truth's own book, 
 The creatures which by God himself was writ, 
 And wisely thought 'twas fit 
 Not to read comments only upon it. 
 But on the original itself to look.' 
 
 Page 4. 
 
 4. commentating. We now say 'commenting' but still pre- 
 serve the longer form in the noun 'commentators.' 
 
NOTES. 189 
 
 9. abo7>e a thousand years. He intends to embrace the period 
 anterior to Bacon, going back from 1600 A.D. to 600 a.d. 
 
 J I. guns. Gunpowder seems to have been known in the 13th 
 century and Roger Bacon, who died in 1-292 appears to have been 
 acquainted with it. It was used in war at the battle of Crecy (1346) 
 and it appears to have been employed at the siege of Algeziras by 
 the Spaniards in 1343. 
 
 print i Jig. Introduced into England by Caxton in 1471 but dis- 
 covered in Germany and practised at Mainz by Gutenberg as early 
 as 1457. 
 
 15. abounded With excellent inventions. Cowley died in 1667. 
 He is alluding here specially to the discoveries which had been 
 made between Bacon's time and his own. Among these wei^e such 
 discoveries as he mentions p. 8, line 11. 
 
 24. his sacred Majesty. As the first edition was printed in i66r, 
 the Monarch alluded to here is Charles II. The publisher of the 
 'Proposition' says that Cowley had allowed him to make it public 
 since his going into France. Cowley went to France immediately 
 after Cromwell's death. 
 
 Page 5. 
 
 I. the. . .colledge be situated. The reason for this choice of position 
 is seen pp. 10 — 1 1, where an arrangement for lectures once or twice 
 a week is proposed to be given ' in the hours in the afternoon most 
 convenient for auditors from London.' Cowley designed his College 
 to be under the constant influence of the public eye and public 
 opinion. The proximity to the river is also specified because in his 
 day the journey could be best and soonest made by water. 
 
 9. scholars., servants to the professors. The relation between 
 student and tutor in former times much resembled that between 
 servant and master. So too apprentices when bound to a trade, 
 undertook while learning it, many household duties and services in 
 no way appertaining to the craft which they were to be taught. Cf. 
 on p. 92, 1. 22. 
 
 10. a baily. We have now returned more nearly to the 
 derivation of the word (which is from the low Latin ballivus), in 
 spelling it bailiff. The sense is seen in the French 'bailler'= *to 
 deliver,' 'put into the charge of any one.' So, Holland's Plutarch, 
 fol. 812, sleep is called 'a false baily' because she takes half of life 
 for herself. 
 
 a manciple. From the Latin 'manceps' used specially of the 
 officer who takes in hand the provisioning of a college or inn. Cf. 
 Chaucer's Prologue, 569 : 
 
 'A gentil manciple was there of a temple 
 Of which achatours myghten take ensample 
 For to ben wise in bying of vilaille.' 
 
 13. a chirurgeon. From the Greek x^^po^Pyos, but through the 
 French the hard consonant was softened and the word became 
 cirurgion, and from that was contracted into surgeon. 
 
 14. lungs, or chymical servants. In the Glossary to Ben Jonson 
 
ipo NOTES. 
 
 we find 'Lnngs, a name given to an alchemist's servant... from his 
 blowing the bellows of the furnace.' ' 
 
 See The Alchemist ii. i. 28, where Sir Epicure Mammon 
 speaking of Face, the alchemist's servant, says 
 
 •That is his fire-drake, 
 His Lungs, his Zephyrus, he that puffs his coals.' 
 
 And later on in the same scene, line 141, 
 
 ^ Lungs, I will manumit thee from the furnace, 
 I will restore thee thy complexion, Pufife, 
 Lost in the embers, and repair this brain 
 Hurt with the fumes o' the metals.' 
 Bacon, in the same fanciful way, in his 'New Atlantis' had 
 made 'the father of Solomon's house' say 'We have three that 
 take care to direct new experiments. These we call lamps.'' 
 
 17. beast. This word is often used in the singular form with a 
 co'lective sense = cattle. Thus Judges xx. 48: 'They smote. ..as 
 well the men of every city, as the beast and all that came to hand.' 
 
 26. dlet^ i.e. food, as distinguished from the cost of lodging 
 and other service. 
 
 27. enter taintnent, the rest of their expenses. These two 
 words represent what the Germans call 'kost und logis.' 
 
 Page 6. 
 
 14. operatories, i.e. rooms for the various operations which 
 are to be carried on ; work or operating-rooms. We have the form 
 in 'laboratories.' 
 
 26. from leases. It was the custom to let trust-property on long 
 leases, for the renewal of which a fine, sometimes of considerable 
 amount was payable. It is to this occasional source of additional 
 income that the allusion is made. 
 
 Page 7. 
 
 18. if he pretend, i.e. lay a claim, or make an application, for 
 the place. The word often conveys a notion of the groundlessness 
 of the claim. Hence unsuccessful claimants of thrones have been 
 often styled pretenders. 
 
 30. the Chartreux, i.e. the Carthusian monks. This order 
 was founded in 1084 by St Bruno, who built an oratory and a cell 
 on a mountain near Grenoble which subsequently was extended into 
 the magnificent Benedictine convent known as La Grande Chartreuse. 
 See also p. 49, 1. 30. 
 
 31. lined. The sense is that all round this inner court or 
 cloister shall run a gravel walk to form the outermost inclosure, 
 then all along the inner side of the walk shall be the row of trees. 
 
 Page 8. 
 
 1 1 . the circulation of the blood. Discovered by William Harvey 
 between 1619 and 1628. That the blood circulated through ihe 
 lungs was known to Michael Servetus, a Spanish physician in 1553. 
 
NOTES. 191 
 
 the milky veins, otherwise called the lacteals, were first noticed 
 in 1622, by Caspar Asellius, professor of anatomy at Pavia. Further 
 advance was made in the researches on this subject, in 1634 by 
 Wesling, professor of anatomy at Venice, and the discovery was 
 completed by Pecquet, a French physician and anatomist in 1647. 
 These discoveries were very recent in i66r, when Cowley's 'Propo- 
 sition' was published. 
 
 12. elogies. (See also p. 12, 1. 19.) An ^/(^^'j properly signifies 
 *a title or description' without any necessary connexion with praise 
 Of compliment, but it is sometimes used as if equivalent to eulogy, 
 i.e. a complimentary description. Cf. p. 95, 1. 6. 
 
 13. portraidures. The latter part of the word is derived from 
 the Latin traho, whose participle is tracius, and in the earlier English 
 writers there is a tendency to preserve the 'c' of the original in this 
 derivative. Thus North, Plutarch, ii. 49 has 'Artemisia, whose 
 pom-traidure I do herewith present you.' 
 
 28. lardry. The store-room for meat &c. So Holinshed, 
 Hejiry III. (anno 1235), 'The citizens of Winchester had oversight 
 of the kitchen and larderiei' 
 
 Page 9. 
 
 24. Solomon's house in my Lord Bacon. Solomon's house, or 
 as it is otherwise named, 'The college of the six days' works,' is an 
 order or society described in Bacon's ' New Atlantis.' The Utopian 
 nature of the scheme, 'experiments that can never be experimented,' 
 to which Cowley alludes, is seen in such matters as the provision of 
 houses for imitating and demonstrating meteors, snow, hail and 
 rain ; the growing of plants without seeds, and making one tree or 
 plant turn into another, &c. all which things are set forth by 'the 
 father of Solomon's house,' who among other matters says ' We 
 imitate also flights of birds ; we have some degrees of flying in the 
 air ; we have ships and boats for going under water.' 
 
 Page 10. 
 
 4. professors itinerate. We now use itinerajit in the sense of 
 travelling. 
 
 II. sitnples, i.e. herbs used for medicines. Cf. Browne, 
 Britannia's Pastorals bk. 2, song 4: 
 
 *0n every hillside and each vale he looks, 
 If 'mongst their store of simples may be found 
 An herb to draw and heal his smarting wound.' 
 
 28. the factnre. Superseded now by 7na)tufacture. The word 
 is not common, but is found in Bacon's Essay 'on Learning.' 
 'There is no doubt but ihefadureox framing of the inward parts is 
 as full of difference as the outward?' 
 
 29. natural magick. 'A magician (according to the Persian 
 word) is no other than divinoriim cnltor et i?iterpres, a studious 
 
192 NOTES. 
 
 observer and expounder of divine things ; and the art itself (I mean 
 the art of natural magick) no other than naturalis philosophicc 
 absoluta consicnunatio, the absolute perfection of natural philosophy.' 
 Ralegh, History of the Woi'ld, I. xi. 3. 
 
 31. Loi'd Bacon s Organon. Bacon's work is entitled 'Novum 
 Organum sive indicia vera de interpretatione naturoe.' The cata- 
 logue of natural histories to which Cowley here alludes is a list of 
 130 subjects into which natural science may be subdivided, and the 
 history of which might form subjects of investigation. The first 40 
 of these divisions relate to natural phenomena, the elements, and the 
 vegetable and animal world, the rest to man and the circumstances 
 in which he lives and the operations in which he is engaged. 
 
 Page ri. 
 
 14. take place, i.e. 'take precedence,' 'be at the head of.' 
 arbitri diiariun mejisarmn, i.e. presidents of the two tables, at 
 
 which it is appointed below (line 25) that the professors shall dine 
 twice a week. 
 
 18. double voice, i.e. he shall have two votes, or as is now com- 
 monly arranged, he shall have a casting vote in the case of equality. 
 
 21. if it be an extraordina)-}', i.e. an extraordinary order. 
 The ordinary orders might be given by word of mouth, but this must 
 be in writing. 
 
 Page 12. 
 
 15. that 7nay b^'ing in profit. Cowley's scheme was in time to 
 be self-supporting from the profits of inventions. We see too from 
 p. 10, 1. 15, that from time to time as the revenues improved the 
 itinerant professors were to be better paid. 
 
 20. deiiison. We now write denizen. The word is said to be 
 Welsh. 
 
 28. furnish, i.e. provide the money. Cf. Shaks. Timon, ill. i. 
 20: 'My lord, having great and instant occasion to use fifty talents, 
 hath sent to your lordship io furnish him.' 
 
 Page 13. 
 
 2. evinced. Demonstrated and proved to be errors, and so con- 
 quered (Lat. vinco) and driven away, cf. Burton, Anatomy, p. 368 : 
 'Arion made fishes follow him, which as common experience ^z//;/^^///, 
 are much affected with music' 
 
 8. triennial. Here used to signify ' during the course of three 
 years.' The usual sense of the word now is * at the end of every 
 three years.' 
 
 34. fnnlct, a fine. The word is from the Italian fuultare, to 
 fine. The verb is still in use but the noun is more rare. 
 
 ' A vnilct thy poverty could never pay. 
 Had not eternal wisdom found the way.' 
 
 Dryden, Rel. Paid, 104. 
 
NOTES. 193 
 
 Page 14. 
 
 10. every nion/h. Probably once a month was the usual rule 
 for the administration of the Holy Communion in Cowley's day. 
 Such incidental notices of the habits of the time are valuable, 
 cf. p. 17, 1. 7. 
 
 18. into six. Thus we see the 6 forms of a public school to 
 have been the rule then. 
 
 Page 15. 
 
 1. so near concernment, i.e. of such great importance and 
 value. Cf Jer. Taylor, Rule of Conscience, bk. I. ch. i. 'In things 
 of great concernment we pray God to conduct and direct our 
 choice. ' 
 
 19. Varro. Marcus Terentius Varro, a Latin author, contem- 
 porary with Cicero. His work here alluded to is entitled De re 
 riistica. He was born R.c. 116 and died B.C. 28. 
 
 Cato. M. Porcius Cato wrote a work also entitled De re rus- 
 tica. He lived before Varro, dying B.C. 149. 
 
 Cohimella. He was born at Cadiz, and flourished in the early 
 part of the first century of the Christian era. He was one of the 
 most voluminous Latin writers on rural matters. 
 
 20. Pliny. C. Plinius Secundus, the famous author of the 
 Historia Natnralis. Pie was born A. D. 22 and died A. D. 79. 
 
 Celsus. A. Corn. Celsus lived in the reigns of Augustus and 
 Tiberius. The work of his which i-emains is a treatise 'de 
 medicina.' He is often alluded to by Columella. 
 
 Seneca. Best known as the tutor of the Emperor Nero. But 
 among his other works he produced 'Quaestionum naturalium libri 
 septem,' which is the reason why he is included here in Cowley's 
 list. He was put to death by order of Nero A. D. 65. 
 
 22. Grotius. Hugo Grotius, a Dutch Statesman and Jurist, 
 born in Delft a.d. 1583, died 1645. Among his works, which are 
 numerous, the larger part however dealing with religious subjects, 
 the only one which Cowley can have intended his philosophical 
 students to read must have been the De jure belli et pads. 
 
 Nemetiamis. M. Aurelius Nemetianus was a native of Africa, 
 who lived in Italy about A. D. 243. He wrote on fishing, hunting 
 and kindred subjects. Only portions of his works have been 
 preserved to us. 
 
 Manilins. The date of this writer is altogether uncertain. A 
 work by him de Astrologia is all that remains, and its date has 
 given rise to much discussion. 
 
 25. indulging to. Where we now should say 'indulgent to.' 
 
 29. parcels. The word was used in Cowley's day for a small 
 portion of anything. Cf Shakespeare, Merry Wives, i. i. 237: 
 'Divers philosophers hold that the lips \% parcel oi\\\Q mouth.' 
 
 31. nniiseful. A rather uncommon form. 
 
 L. C. \l 
 
194 NOTES. 
 
 Page i5. 
 
 7. Platitiis his. This mode of representing the possessive 
 case in English was common in the r6th and 17th century writings. 
 The idea was that the 's' of the possessive was a contraction lor 
 the personal pronoun. This notion is however at once dispelled 
 when we remember that 'Mary's' could not be a contraction for 
 'Mary his.' We have instance of this form in the Prayer-book 
 where the prayer 'For all sorts and conditions of men' concludes 
 with the words 'for Jesus Christ his sake.' Cf. also 'Epicurus his 
 philosophy,' p. 76, 1. 5, also ' Vitellius his table,' p. 126, 1. 17. 
 
 10. Nicander. A Greek poet and physician who was born at 
 Claros and flourished B.C. 135. He wrote a poem called 'Theriaca' 
 on venomous animals, and the treatment of their wounds. 
 
 Oppianus. A Greek writer at the close of the ^nd century cf 
 the Christian era. He has left two poems, one on tishing, the other 
 on hunting, and a prose work on hawking. 
 
 Scaliger. Joseph Julius Scaliger, born 1540, died in Leyden 
 (where he was Piofessor in the University) in 1609. He was a 
 learned scholar, and devoted himself largely to criticism and correc- 
 tion of classical texts. 
 
 11. doubt, i.e. 'hesitate.' Cf. Spenser, F. Q. iv. i. 48: 
 
 'Fond knight, said she, the thing that with this eye 
 I saw, why should I doubt to tell the same?' 
 
 13. Theophrastus. A Greek philosopher, born in Lesbos. 
 He was a contemporary of Plato. The books of his to which 
 Cowley here refers are two works on botany, and some fragments 
 on fire, the winds and matters of meteorology. 
 
 Dioscorides. The name of several Greek physicians, one of 
 whom was at the court of Cleopatra, B.C. 41 — 30. Under his 
 name we have a treatise which deals with the plants growing in 
 Greece, which was most likely the work in Cowley's thoughts. 
 
 16. Hermogenes. A Greek rhetorician A.D. 161 — i8o. His 
 book on the 'Art of Rhetoric' teaches how to speak in courts of 
 justice. It has been frequently edited and commented on. 
 
 Longinus. Dionysius Cassius Longinus, a Greek philosopher 
 who lived in the 3rd century of the Christian era. He has left 
 among many other works a treatise on Rhetoric, and had such 
 wide general knowledge that he was styled 'a living library.' 
 
 i\. errors. An attempt had been made to disabuse the minds 
 of men of such errors as are here alluded to by Sir Thomas Brown 
 in his famous treatise on 'Vulgar Errors,' known also by the more 
 learned-sounding title 'Pseudodoxia Epidemica.' As specimens 
 of the errors with which he deals we may mention : ' That crystal 
 is nothing else but ice strongly congealed : ' ' That a diamond is 
 made soft or broke by the blood of a goat:' 'That a pot full of 
 ashes will contain as much water as it would without them:' 'That 
 an elephant has no joints:' 'That a wolf first seeing a man begets 
 a dumbness in him:' 'That a salamander lives in the fire:' 'That 
 
NOTES. 195 
 
 the flesh of peacocks corrupteth not:' 'That men weigh heavier 
 dead than aUve, and before meat than after.' 
 
 26. they should likewise tise^ i.e. 'practise.' Cf. Shakes. 
 Troiliis, II. I. 52: 'If thou use to beat me, I will... tell what thou 
 art.' 
 
 28. travel. For which we now write ' travail ' = trouble, labour. 
 The two forms are from the same root, P'rench ii'availler, cf. Beau- 
 mont and Fletcher, Pilgrivi, Act I. 
 
 'The saints ye kneel to hear and ease your travels' 
 
 Page 17. 
 
 I. scholars^ i.e. of the sixteen young scholars, servants to the 
 professors (p. 5, 1. 8). Cowley uses scholars both for them and for 
 the other pupils who are to have teaching in the College. 
 
 3. learn to dance. Cowley is not the first poet who has 
 commended dancing. Perhaps the best known laudation of it is 
 the 'Orchestra' of Sir John Davies, which is in the form of a 
 dialogue between Penelope and one of her wooers. 
 
 7. days of devotion, i.e. fast and festival days appointed of 
 the Church. See above on p. 14, 1. 10. 
 
 16. expences. Apparently in the sense of 'means,' 'ability,' 
 'what they were able to expend.' 
 
 29. hospital-like. The word 'hospital,' at first applied to a 
 place for the reception and entertainment of strangers, later on 
 became restricted to houses for the poor or sick. So 'hospital- 
 like' = meagre, poverty-stricken, pinched. 
 
 Page 18. 
 
 I. abused, led astray, misled. Cf. Shak. Cyjub. I. 4. 124: 'You 
 are a great deal abused in too bold a persuasion.' 
 
 15. explode. The original idea is 'to hiss a bad actor off the 
 stage,' and hence, 'to drive away anything that is bad and false.' 
 Cf. Milton, /^.Z. XI. 669; 
 
 'Him old and young 
 Exploded: 
 See also below p. 48, 1. 31. 
 
 16. false moneys. Cowley thus names any wrong opinions 
 which have come to pass current for truth. We keep to the same 
 metaphor in the expression 'pass current.' 
 
 24. by the by, i. e. superadded, in addition to all other good 
 effects. 
 
 28. indifferently, 'impartially.' 'Judge of my life or death 
 indifferently \ Spenser, F. Q. I. i. 51. 
 
 Page 19. 
 
 r. encounter zvith. In more modern English the preposition 
 is omitted. But the full phrase is common in Shakespeare, cf. 
 All's Well, 1. 3. 214: 'Let not your hate e?icounter zvith my love.' 
 
 13--2 
 
196 NOTES. 
 
 9. reliques. Cowley has a liking for this orthography, which 
 connects it with the Latin 'rcliquiai' from which it conies. Cf. 
 also p. 113, 1. 20. 
 
 A DISCOURSE BY WAY OF VISION CONCER- 
 NING THE GOVERNMENT OF OLIVER 
 CROMWELL. 
 
 Page 20. 
 
 I. It was the funeral day. Cromwell was buried in West- 
 minster Abbey on Monday, 22nd Nov. 1658. He had died on his 
 lucky day, 3rd Sept., the anniversary of the victories of Dunbar 
 and Worcester. Evelyn notices the funeral in his diary: 'Saw the 
 superb funerall of the Protector. He was carried from Somerset 
 House in a velvet bed of state drawn by six horses, houssed with 
 the same : the pall held by his new Lords : Oliver lying in efhgie in 
 royal robes, and crowned with a crown, sceptre and globe like a 
 king. The pendants and guidons were carried by the officers of the 
 army; the imperial banners, atchievements &c. by the herauldes in 
 their coates; a rich caparisoned horse, embroidered all over with 
 gold ; a knight of honour armed cap a pie, and after all, his guards, 
 souldiers, and innumerable mourners. In this equipage they pro- 
 ceeded to Westminster; but it was the joyfullest funeral I ever saw, 
 for there were none that cried but dogs, which the souldiers hooted 
 away with a barbarous noise, drinking and taking tobacco in the 
 streets as they went.' 
 
 3. little affection. In his 'verses upon His Majesty's Restaura- 
 tion' Cowley speaks thus of Cromwell : 
 
 'Where's now that ignis fatinis that ere while 
 Misled our wandering isle? 
 Where's the impostor Cromwell gone ? ' 
 
 9. singular virtuosos. 'Virtuoso' is generally used of those 
 persons who have skill in some special art. Here it would seem to 
 mean those who had come to see the pageant out of curiosity. For 
 the word cf. Glanvill, Essay 3, 'Another excellent virtuoso^ Mr 
 John Evelyn, hath very considerably advanced the history of fruit 
 and forest- trees.' 
 
 10. the mount in Cornzuall, i.e. St Michael's Mount, the southern 
 extremity of the land, and a little beyond it; just as the Oirades, 
 the Orkneys, in the next line are a little past the northern limit of 
 our islands. All were assembled, as it were from Dan to Beer- 
 sheba. 
 
 ! 6. their brother'. Such being the style in which royal person- 
 ages were spoken of by each other. Cf. i Kings xx. 32, 33. See 
 also below p. 27, 1. 3, 'a brother to the gods of the earth.' 
 
 17. the herse. The ornamented carriage to bear the coffin at a 
 
NOTES. 197 
 
 funeral. Of the magnificence of the hearse on this occasion Evelyn's 
 description bears witness. The word is now commonly spelt 
 'hearse.' 
 
 the idol. At royal funerals there was often borne in the proces- 
 sion a figure or effigy of the dead on a bier, and some of these are 
 still preserved in the Abbey at Westminster, though not often shewn 
 to the public. This image (Gk. elboAov) is what Cowley refers to, 
 which on this occasion wore a crown, though he whom it repre- 
 sented had not done so. 
 
 Page 21. 
 
 3. metJioiights. A strange form, the 's' being due to the same 
 letter at the end of 'methinks', but entirely without warrant in lan- 
 guage. Cowley uses it in The Mistress, p. 1 1 : 
 
 * But then, metJwitghts, there something shined within.' 
 
 16. vision. In visions a higher degree of revelation was sup- 
 posed to be imparted than in dreams., mentioned in the next line. 
 Cf. Select Discoicrses of Johti Smith., p. 184: ' The Jews are wont to 
 make a vision superior to a dream, as representing things more to 
 the life.' 
 
 18. father of poets, i.e. Homer. The allusion is to Iliad, I. 63: 
 KoX yap r' ovap e'/c Aios eariv. 'For indeed a vision comes from 
 Zeus.' 
 
 22. like St Paid. The allusion, which perhaps a very reverent 
 taste would have dispensed with, is to 2 Cor. xii. 2, 3. That 
 Cowley meant to be very reverent in all his employment of Scrip- 
 tural language we see from p. 132, 1. 30. 
 
 23' fatuous hill in the island of Mona, i.e. Snowfield in the 
 Isle of Man, which island is called Mona by Caesar {Bell. Gall. v. 
 
 13). 
 
 28. these tiventy years. Meaning the time of Cromwell's power, 
 and the troublous years by which it was preceded, going back to the 
 days of the 'Solemn League and Covenant.' Cf. p. 25, 1. 4. The 
 civil war dates from 1641. 
 
 30. a sighing. The a thus used before the gerundive is a 
 corruption of the preposition on. Cf. Shakes. Romeo, ill. i. 194: 
 'My blood for your rude brawls doth lie a bleeding * 
 
 Page 22. 
 
 3. forsook. For forsaken.^ Cf. Shakes. Othello, iv. 2. 125: 
 'Hath i\\e. forsook so many noble matches.' 
 
 24. turned only into noise. The 'face and substance' to which 
 Cowley alludes in these lines was the regular appointed order of 
 prayer; whereas, during the Conuiionwealth, the Prayer-book was 
 superseded by the 'Directory for Publique Worship,' which left 
 much to the discretion of the minister. This our author compares 
 to a real personality being turned into mere noise. 
 
 Page 23. 
 6. will hardly be, i.e. that will hardly be. 
 
198 NOTES. 
 
 lo. BeiUam. A corrupted form of Bethlehem, the name of the 
 hospital in London devoted to the treatment of the insane. See p. 
 154, 1. 10. 
 
 14. barbarous Britons. Alluding to the custom of the early 
 inhabitants of this island to paint their bodies with woad. There is 
 another allusion to the practice on p. 14. 1. 24. 
 
 22. French inconstancie. The ticldeness of the Gallic race has 
 long been proverbial. Csesar, B, G. 11. i, speaks of their mobilitas 
 et lev it as anivii. 
 
 Page 24. 
 
 4. threat. For 'threaten.' Used only in verse and as a present 
 tense. Cf. Shakespeare, Macbeth, I J. i. 60: 
 
 'Whiles I threat, he lives.' 
 
 13. the royal martyr'' s prayer. There is a prayer at the close 
 of each section of the ' Eikon Basilike,^ a work long supposed to be 
 the composition of King Charles I., and by some still thought to be 
 so. There are also, appended to the book, four private prayers 
 used by his Majesty in the time of his sufferings. 
 
 16. his blond beloiv. This would cry for vengeance, and for 
 this the soul of the king is supposed not to pray, but only for bless- 
 ings on the land. 
 
 21. in the cvcnin^^, i.e. when shadows would be longest. 
 
 27. the battel 0/ Naseby. This, which was the most fatal battle 
 to the cause of the Royalists, might be expected to be prominently 
 depicted on the body of such a being as this 'strange and terrible 
 apparition' turns out to be. Naseby was fought on 15 June, 1645, 
 and from that time the death of Charles seems to have begun to form 
 a part of the plans of Cromwell. 
 
 29. gnest, i.e. guessed. Cowley uses largely, but with much 
 inconsistency, these forms of the preterite in 't' for 'ed.' Here the 
 form appears the stranger by reason of the omission of one 's' from 
 the root. 
 
 Page 25. 
 
 2. i.e. * Peace is sought by war. ' 
 
 4. Acts, Ordinances. Enactments of the nature here described 
 under various titles were multiplied during the period of the Com- 
 monwealth. 
 
 7. qnelled, i.e. 'quailed,' 'terrified.' The original sense of 
 the word is 'to kill.' So by Shakespeare (2 Hen. IV. 11. i. 58) 
 murderers are called 'manquellers.' For the sense in the text, cf. 
 Dryden, Annus Mirabilis, Ixxvi. i, 
 
 •If number English courages could quell.* 
 
 II. nortli-ioest principality. That being the quarter in which 
 Great P)ritain lies in respect of the other countries of Europe. 
 
 26. Richard III., brother to Edward IV., and therefore uncle to 
 Edward V. and his brother the Duke of York, whom he caused to 
 be murdered in the Tower. 
 
 27. he presently sleiu the commojnvealth. This has reference to 
 
NOTES. 199 
 
 the way in which Cromwell, finding the Long Parliament not so 
 obedient to him as he expected, dissolved it in conjunction with his 
 council of officers (April 20, 1653). Cf. p. 26, 1. 25, 'to trample 
 upon them too &c. ' 
 
 30. did but f?iu}-der a inurderer. For the Parliament had 
 already put to death the King. 
 
 33. Turk. This word was used as the impersonation of the 
 worst of enemies. Even such a one however, if his purpose had 
 been understood and constant, would have been better than Cromwell 
 with his perpetual changes. 
 
 Page 26. 
 
 5. use, i.e. are wont. See below, p. 50, I. 29, and p. 86, 1. 19, 
 and cf. Shakes. 2 Henry IV. v. 2. 114, 
 
 'The unstained sword which you have used to bear.' 
 7. jealotisie, i.e. suspicion that he was not the angel he 
 professed to be. 
 
 9. forreign correspondences. Cromwell's influence abroad was 
 veiy great. He was in the closest correspondence with France, 
 Christina queen of Sweden esteemed him highly, he exercised 
 great influence over the Dutch, and his friendship was sought after 
 by the Spaniards. Bp. Warburton compares him to Julius Csesar. 
 See below on p. 27, 1. 14. 
 
 Page 27. 
 
 6. a new arid unheard-of monster. This was the Parliament 
 which assembled on July 4th, 1653. ^^ was nominated by Cromwell, 
 as Lord General, and his council of war, and was intended to consist 
 exclusively of men distinguished by holiness of life and piety of con- 
 versation. The Ministers of the Congregational Churches sent in 
 lists of men 'faithful, fearing God, and hating covetousness, ' and 
 from these lists Cromwell made choice of about 150 members. As 
 there was no pretence of any election Cowley calls this gathering *a 
 new and unheard-of monster.' 
 
 7. stifle that in the very infancy. The innovations proposed 
 by the Bareljones' parliament, as the new and unheard-of monster 
 was called, were so startling, including the abolition of the court of 
 Chancery, the repeal of all the old laws, and the formation of a new 
 and simple code, &c. that Cromwell soon found he had mistaken his 
 instruments, and the military council resolved that these troublesome 
 legislators should be sent l)ack to their parishes. Thus the govern- 
 ment came entirely into the hands of the Lord General and his 
 officers. This was on 12th Dec. 1653, and four days afterwards 
 Cromwell was installed as 'Lord Protector.' The large powers 
 given to the Protector by the 'Instrument of Government' are 
 alluded to in the next line. 
 
 12. each corner of the three nations. That England was com- 
 pletely sul)servieut to him is manifest from what has been just said 
 in the previous notes. In Ireland he had taken Drogheda, Wexford 
 had been betrayed to him, as also Cork, and his command had been 
 
206 NOTES. 
 
 so suceessful that when he was sent for by the parliament, he could 
 leave Ireton as his deputy. Scotland was entirely broken after the 
 battle of Dunbar, and there Monk was left as Cromwell's representa- 
 tive. 
 
 14. feared and courted by all for reign princes. On this cf. 
 Clarendon, XV. 152. who says among other things : " His greatness 
 at home Avas but a shadow of the glory he had aljroad. It was hard 
 to discover which feared him most, P'rance, Spain or the Low 
 Countries, where his friendship was current at the value he put upon 
 it. And as they did all sacrifice their honour and their interest to 
 his pleasure, so there is nothing he could have demanded, that 
 either of them would have denied him." 
 
 19. hoo 7>iillions a year. This alludes to the 'Humble petition 
 and advice' by which there was assigned to the Protector a million a 
 year as a perpetual revenue for the pay of the army and the fleet and 
 ;/^300.ooo for the support of the civil government. Other funds had 
 previously been assigned to him by the 'Instrument of Oovernment.' 
 
 25. to bequeath all this with one tvord to his posterity. Cf. 
 Clarendon XV. 146: "He did not think he should die till even the 
 time that his spirits failed him, and then he declared that he did 
 appoint his son to succeed him, his eldest son Richard." 
 
 Page 28. 
 
 I. what kind of angel. Cf. p. 30, 1. 2, *to give even the devil 
 (as they say) his right.' 
 
 II. by an angel. The allusion is probably to Gal. i. 8. So 
 the words ' Christ forbids' must be taken as signifying 'Christ in the 
 person of His apostle St Paul.' 
 
 12. rather to try than to tempt, i.e. to test rather than to lead 
 astray. 
 
 25. taxes of scarce ttvo hundred thousand pounds a year. The 
 whole revenue of Charles I. was ;^<Soo,ooo, of these little more 
 than a quarter appear to have been of the nature of taxation. 
 
 27. the loss of three or four ears. Alluding to the mutilation 
 suffered under Charles I. by Prynne, Bastwick, Leighton and Burton. 
 Another allusion to this matter is on p. 57, 1. \. 
 
 29. I knorv not zuhat two thousand guards. ' I know not what' 
 is the Latin 'nescio quid,' and is used to indicate some vague 
 imaginary idea. On the King's determination to have a guard 
 about his person, see Clarendon v. 140. 
 
 Page 29. 
 
 I. even to the very skin. On the way in which the Church and 
 the clergy were dealt with by the puritanical party, see Clarendoii, 
 V. 135, 136. x\lso Evelyn is constant in his lamentations on this 
 subject during the M'hole time of the Commonwealth. Cf. his 
 entry for March 18, 164^: 'Mr Owen a sequestered and learned 
 minister preached in my parlour and gave us the blessed Sacrament, 
 now wholly out of use in the parish Churches, on which the 
 Presbyterians and fanatics had usurped.' 
 
NOTES. 20I 
 
 3. councils of rapine^ and courts of murder. Alluding to such 
 courts as 'the high court of justice' of 1654; of which Clarendon 
 (xiv. 35) says, 'A high court of justice was erected to try criminals, 
 which rarely absolved any man who was brought before them.' A 
 little later on he speaks of it as a tribunal which was 'continued to 
 root out all who had adhered to the King.' 
 
 15. his ozvn general. General Lambert was second in command, 
 but first in the affections of the army. He aided Cromwell in 
 becoming Protector, but Cromwell afterwards became jealous of him, 
 and turned him out of the army. 
 
 24. as St Paul says, i Cor. viii. 4. 
 
 26. the valley of llinnoni. A valley on the southern side of 
 Mount Zion, which opens out into the valley of the Kidron. It was 
 the place where sacrifices were offered to Moloch. Hence Cromwell 
 is called in the next line 'his Molochship.' The place is mentioned 
 in Josh. XV. 8, and its Hebrew name 'Ge-Hinnom' has been modified 
 into the Greek '^e^vva, which became the type of hell (Matth. v. ■22). 
 
 27. bozvels of vicji. Clarendon, xv. 102, says, 'Colonel Ashton, 
 Stacy and Betteley...were treated wnth more severity, and were 
 hanged, drawn and quartered, with the utmost rigour, in several 
 great streets in the city, to make the deeper impression upon the 
 people, the two last being citizens. But all men appeared so nauseated 
 with blood, and so tired with those abominable spectacles that Crom- 
 vrell thought it best to pardon the rest who were condemned, or 
 rather to reprieve them.' These are the circumstances to which 
 Cowley alludes under the figure of the ' valley of Hinnom. ' 
 
 Page 30. 
 
 16. the most ant lent of the heathen divines. He thus styles 
 Homer. The quotation which follows is from Odyss. xxii. 412. 
 
 22. a person %vho 7vas proud. Here his highness, the angel, 
 makes a slip. The words are really addressed to Euryclea, the 
 aged attendant on Penelope, when she was about to indulge in 
 exultation over the slaughter of the suitors. 
 
 Page 31. 
 
 15. a Lambert. After Cromwell's death. General Lambert was 
 regarded as likely to make a party in the army which should 
 depend upon him rather than the parliament. It was known that 
 he had aided the late Protector in his advance to power, on the 
 understanding that he should succeed him. It is to the probability 
 of such a future that Cowley here alludes. On the whole of 
 Lambert's actions and aims see Clarendon, xvi. 78, seqq. 
 
 18. Syratusians, i.e. ' Syracusans.' The allusion is to those 
 proceedings which followed the success of Timoleon. When all 
 the tyrants were expelled from Sicily and the free towns had 
 submitted to the Syracusan alliance, the citadel and town of Ortygia 
 were demolished, and every fortress destroyed in which a tyrant 
 
202 NOTES. 
 
 could be likely to defend himself. Commissioners were sent for 
 from Corinth to revise the ancient laws of the Syracusan consti- 
 tution, and the new constitution appears to have been reduced to a 
 very simple form. 
 
 'To implead' is 'to bring an action at law', and the Syracusans 
 thus legally did their best to efface the records of the preceding 
 tyrannies. 
 
 ■27. moiiientaiiy. We now only use 'momentary' but the form 
 in the text is in accord with the Latin, which has both 'momen- 
 tarius' and 'momentaneus.' 
 
 32. Marins or Sylla. Caius Marius, the celebrated Roman 
 leader in the war against Jugurtha. His acts of despotic violence 
 we"e committed after he with Cinna had blockaded Rome and be- 
 come masters of it. There was then carried out a general massacre 
 of the patrician party who had opposed Cinna and Marius. Marius 
 died in the following year B.C. 86. 
 
 Sylla, i.e. Lucius Coi^nelius Sulla, who for some time was 
 legate to Marius. The latter was disgusted at the popularity oi 
 Sulla, and when that commander was entrusted with the leadership 
 in the Mithridatic war, Marius used every effort to wrest it from him, 
 and it was in Sulla's absence that the blockade of Rome just men- 
 tioned was carried on, after which Marius and Cinna made them 
 selves consuls. On Sulla's return, after having made peace with 
 Mithridates, his great aim was to annihilate the popular party, which 
 had supported his adversaries. This he did by wholesale banish- 
 ment, and heavy fines, and in B.C. Sa he caused himself to be made 
 dictator. These are the acts for which Cowley mentions him as a 
 parallel to Cromwell. 
 
 Page 32. 
 
 3. curst on. Here 011 denotes continuity. Let him be cursed 
 without ceasing. Cf. Shakespeare, Tzuo Gent. ii. 3. 29, 'He 
 weeps on.'' Much Ado, 'Benedick, love on.'' 
 
 13. the son of earth, i.e. the giant Biiareus, who in the fable of 
 the war of the Titans against the Gods is said to have helped the Gods. 
 The Titans piled the three mountains Pelion, Ossa and Olympus 
 one upon another, that they might be able to scale heaven, but their 
 rebellion was defeated by Jove's thunderbolts. The poet's mythology 
 has ranged Briareus on the wrong side. 
 
 24. a basilisk he grows, if once he gets a crown. Cf. Shakespeare, 
 yul. Cics. 11. I. 12 : 
 
 ' He would be crown'd : — 
 How that might change his nature, there's the question, 
 It is the bright day that brings forth the adder, 
 And that craves Avary walking.' 
 
 Page 7^1. 
 
 r. no guards can oppose assaulting fears. Cf. Gray, TJu 
 Bard, 1.5: 
 
NOTES. 203 
 
 'Helm nor hauberk's twisted mail, 
 Nor e'en thy virtues, Tyrant, will avail 
 To save thy secret soul from nightly fears.' 
 
 16. darkness to be felt. Alluding to the Egyptian plague, 
 Exod. X. ■21. 
 
 19. croaking sects. The nasal tones in which the sectaries of the 
 period gave utterance to their teaching form the subject of much 
 ridicule in the writings of this period, cf. Butler, Hudibras, pt, I. 
 canto I : 
 
 'This light inspires and plays upon 
 The nose of saint like bagpipe drone.' 
 
 Page 34. 
 
 I. the eleventh plague. Egypt felt the terrors of ten, but the 
 poet invites another, whatever it may be, to clear the land of this 
 infection. Nothing could be worse than what they now suffer. 
 
 4. God^s sword, i.e. pestilence. This was sent to Israel when 
 David chose rather to fall into the hand of God, than into the hand 
 of man. 2 Sam. xxiv. 14. 
 
 II. some denouncing Jonas . On Jonah's message to Nineveh 
 and its effect, see Jonah iii. 4 — 10. 
 
 ig. in the enclosures of metre. Where by reason of the labour 
 of versifying, you must the sooner be forced to stop. The verse is 
 enclosed each line by its proper rhyme. 
 
 ■23. sciomachy. From the Greek (r/ctci, a shadow, and frnxofxai, 
 to fight = a fighting with shadows. The speaker hints that all this 
 wordy battle has been fought groundlessly, that there was no reason 
 or warrant for it. 
 
 27. fievans pater ='d.\^ir\g father.' Supposed, as it seems, in 
 Cowley's day, to be the origin and sense of the name Jupiter. 
 
 Page 35. 
 
 23. containing themselves = xe?,\.x^.\m\\g themselves. Cf. Shake- 
 speare, Troilus V. 2. 180: ' (? contain yourself your passion draws 
 ears hither.' 
 
 Page 36. 
 
 16. that patent of their destiny. The book of fate, in which is 
 written down what shall befall each man, but which is mercifully 
 hidden from view. 
 
 20. Lord Strafford. Made Eord Deputy of Ireland in 163 1 and 
 Lord Lieutenant in 1639. This title had not been used since the time 
 of Essex. Strafford was beheaded on Tower-Hill 12 May, 1641. 
 
 Page 37. 
 
 5. the confusions of a civil 7var. Which beginning in 1641 had 
 continued till the execution of Charles I. 
 
204 NOTES. 
 
 ■29. Rovian virtue. Used in the original sense of the Latin 
 * virtus'' = ' prowess,' ' valour.' 
 
 Page 38. 
 
 19. banditos. The Italian form of this word, or something near 
 it, prevailed for a time in English, as it does in the plural banditti, 
 still. The word means 'declared {dictus) or placed under a ^c;/.' 
 Cf. Shakespeare, 2 Hen. VI. iv. i, 
 
 *A Roman sworder and bandetto slave 
 Murdered sweet Tully.' 
 
 Page 39. 
 
 23. Did 7i'e furnish him etc. This sentence is not very clear, 
 but to judge by the context the contrast is between 'our enemies' 
 and 'his friends.' The latter is equivalent to 'ourselves.' The 
 previous sentence says 'Are we conquered by him whom we 
 employed to conquer our foes?' 'J'his seems to mean 'Did we arm 
 him against our enemies, and has he on the contrary plunged the 
 weapons we gave him into our own bowels?' So that 'and keep 
 them' = 'and did he keep them?' 
 
 Page 42. 
 
 r. ^ and tre}nhled\ i.e. 'and that he trembled.' The sentence 
 is not strictly grammatical, but the sense is clear. 
 
 5. Rode caper vitein. The quotation is from Ovid, Fasti i. 357, 
 and the passage, an address to a goat nibbling at the vines, tells how, 
 for all that, there will be wine enough left to pour over the victim 
 when the goat is sacrificed. 
 
 18. canow. The spelling of this word varies. We find canoa, 
 canow, and cannozve. The derivation is said to be from canna, a 
 reed. Cf. Browne, Britannia^ s Pastorals, bk. i. st. 2 : 
 
 'Unto the rougher stream, the cruel swain 
 Hurries the shepherdess, where having lain 
 Her in a boat like the cannozves of Inde, 
 Some seely trough of wood, or some tree's rind, 
 Puts from the shore.' 
 
 30. foolish daughters in the fable. The legend in the Greek 
 mythology is that Medea desiring to be avenged on Pelias for the 
 murder of ^son, the father of her husband Jason, persuaded his 
 daughters to cut Pelias their father in pieces, and boil the parts, 
 asserting that thereby they would restore him to youth and vigour, as 
 she had before changed a ram into a lamb by boiling the dissected 
 parts of its body in a cauldron. 
 
 Page 43. 
 
 12. syllogism. A syllogism is an argument stated at full length. 
 Thus stated it contains three propositions, the major, the minor, and 
 the conclusion. In the syllogism of the text tliese would be : 
 
NOTES. 205 
 
 He who has the l^est parts in a nation ought to be king. 
 O.C. has the Vjest ]iarts in the nation, 
 Therefore O.C. ought to be king. 
 
 17. t7V0 branches of the same family. As in the wars of the 
 Roses between the houses of York and Lancaster. 
 
 23. i.e. ' By our misery thou art Great. ' The words are found 
 in Cicero, Ad Alt. II. 19. 3, with the whole story of their repetition 
 by the actor in whose part they came. 
 
 Page 44. 
 
 17. Jack of the clock-house. A Httle figure of a man, which is 
 placed outside some pubHc clocks to strike the quarters. One was 
 formerly to be seen on the church of St Dunstan's, Fleet Street. 
 Cf. Cotgrave's Dictionary s.v. Jaquelet. See also Shakespeare, 
 Kichd. II. V. 5. 60 : 
 
 'My tim.e 
 Runs posting on in Bolingbroke's proud joy 
 While I stand fooling here, his Jack o' the clock.'' 
 Cf. Jiichd. III. IV. 2. 
 
 27. The quotation is from Hor, Odes, III. 29. In the original 
 Cetera is the reading, not o//inia in the first line. Francis renders 
 the lines : 
 
 'The rest is all beyond our power. 
 
 And like the changeful Tiber flows, 
 Who now beneath his banks subsides. 
 And peaceful to his native ocean glides.. 
 But when descends a sudden shower, 
 And wild provokes his silent flood, 
 The mountains hear the torrent roar, 
 
 And echoes shake the neighbouring wood : 
 Then swoln with rage he sweeps away 
 Uprooted trees, herds, dwellings to the sea.' 
 
 Page 45. 
 
 12. a beardless boy. Caius Octavius, afterwards the emperor 
 Augustus. The allusion in Cowley's text is to the events which 
 immediately followed the murder of Julius Caesar, by whom Octavius 
 had been adopted. On hearmg what had occurred at Rome, he 
 went thither from Illyricum and demanded the property which 
 Caesar had left him. Antony had in his possession the money and 
 papers of Caesar and refused to give them up. This was one 
 dithculty, and Dec. Brutus (one of Caesar's assassins), who was in 
 possession of Cisalpine Gaul, was also an adversary to Octavius and 
 wished to prevent his succeeding to Caesar's property and influence. 
 Octavius however had the favour of the army, and when Cicero saw 
 the troops largely siding with him he changed from opponent to 
 supporter, believing that Octavius alone could save the reput)lic. 
 By a series of bold strokes Octavius first defeated Antony at Mutina, 
 
2o6 NOTES. 
 
 then obtained for himself the Consulship, secured Caesar's property, 
 and made himself popular by distril)uting the money he had left to 
 the people. Then reconciled to Antony and uniting with Lepidus 
 (Dec. Brutus had already been murdered at Aquileia by order of 
 Antony) the three agreed that Octavius shcjuld lay down the Consul- 
 ship, and that the empire should be divided among them under the 
 title of trill })ivii-i. At Philippi, B.C. 42, Octavius and Antony 
 defeated M. Junius Brutus and C. Cassius, by whose death two 
 powerful opponents were removed. Subsequently Octavius gained 
 for himself the power assigned to Lepidus, while Antony, through 
 his infatuation for Cleopatra, became regarded by the Romans as an 
 enemy of the republic. War was declared against him and he was 
 defeated at Actium B.C. 31. After this Octavius (named Augustus 
 by the senate and people) was appointed imperator for ever. 
 
 13. a voluptuous juadnian. Mark Antony. Octavius because 
 of a dream of his physician quitted his tent where he was sick and 
 so saved his life, and took part in the battle of Philippi, which as 
 is said in the text gained him the empire of the world. The defeat 
 at Philippi, which was followed by the death of Cassius, was owing 
 to a mistake which that general fell into by reason of his shortness 
 of sight. To these matters the allusions in the lines immediately 
 following relate. 
 
 22. Cj'nis. That Persian king, by whom, after his conquest 
 of Babylon, the Jews were sent back to their own land at the end of 
 the 70 years captivity. Babylon was taken by him B.C. 538. 
 
 Alexander. Known as ' the Great.' Son of Philip of Macedon, 
 born B.C. 356, died b.c 323. 
 
 23. Scipio and his cotitemporaries. This is Publius Cornelius 
 Scipio Africanus, who was so distinguished in the third Punic war, 
 and by whom Carthage was taken B.C. 146. Among his contempo- 
 raries were the aged Cato, Lrelius and Polybius. 
 
 30. pleased to call him. The reference is to Isaiah xliv. 28, 
 'That saith of Cyrus, Pie is my shepherd,' and in Isaiah xlv. i, 
 'Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I 
 have holden.' Cf. also 2 Chron. xxxvi. 22 and the identical passage 
 Ezra i. I. 
 
 32. Massenellos Masaniello (a name corruptly formed from 
 Tommaso Aniello) was a young fisherman at Naples towards the 
 middle of the 17th century, by whose efforts the taxes on fruit and 
 vegetables imposed at Naples by the duke d'Arcos were abolished. 
 After the success of his insurrection Masaniello went mad, and was 
 afterwards shot while confined in one of the convents where he had 
 been brought in consequence of the excitement caused by his 
 incoherent harangues. 
 
 33. Johns of Leylen. John Bockold, known as John of 
 Leyden, was a chief man in the Anabaptist revolution in Westphalia 
 in the earlier half of the sixteenth century. Pie, with others, was 
 executed and their bodies exposed in iron cages at the summit of 
 one of the church towers in Mimster. 
 
NOTES. 207 
 
 Page 46. 
 
 CO. tintcmpcyed mortars. I'ho allusion is to Ezck. xiii. 10. 
 Tlie whole passage is full of scriptural allusion, and the zeal of the 
 Koyalist borders somewhat on profanity in the words which he 
 applies to the Restoration of the Royal family. 
 
 25. chargeable^ 'costly, expensive,' of. Hooker, Ecd. Pol. v, 15: 
 'Suppose we that God himself delighteth to dwell sumptuously or 
 taketh pleasure in chargeable pomp? ' 
 
 Page 47. 
 
 5. thi-ee millions a year. Cowley has dwelt before on the 
 greater burden to the nation during the Commonwealth period than 
 at any time during the reign of Charles I. See p. 28. 
 
 1 4. Jive children. The children of Charles I. were ( i ) Charles II. 
 afterwards king, {2) Mary, who married Prince William of Nassau, 
 and was mother of William III., (3) James II., who also reigned, 
 (4) Henry Duke of Gloucester who died in 1660, (5) Elizabeth, 
 who died in 1649, (^) Henrietta, who married Philip Duke of 
 Orleans. There were therefore yfz'^ living when Cowley wrote. 
 
 19. as great dangeis. The queen of Charles I. and her children 
 also were reduced to great straits during the time of the civil war. 
 On one occasion the queen was compelled to sell her plate to supply 
 her wants, and was obliged to leave the kingdom and take refuge 
 in France. 
 
 Page 48. 
 
 8. That little in print. At this time all that could be in print of 
 Cromwell s must have been only the speeches which he had made 
 on various occasions, which had the reputation of being exceedingly 
 prolix. 
 
 16. intellectuals, i.e. his intellectual powers. The use of the 
 adjective in a plural form instead of a noun remains in ' morals ' (see 
 line 17), Imt 'intellectuals' has become obsolete. Wood {Ath. Ox.) 
 says ot Philemon Holland, ' His intellectnals and his senses remained 
 perfect until the 84th year of his age.' Cf. also Naunton's A'egalia, 
 pp. 15, 60. 
 
 31. explode. See above on p. 18, 1. 15. 
 
 Page 49. 
 
 31. Chaj-treux. See on p. 7, 1. 30. 
 
 34. Uarnni. For 'alarum.' A similar aphneresis is seen in 
 'prentice' for 'apprentice' and in the old form of 'potticary' for 
 'apothecary.' 
 
 Page 50. 
 
 5. Faux, i.e. Guy Fawkes, the well-known conspirator in 
 the reign of James I. 
 
2o8 NOTES. 
 
 •29. use, i.e. 'are wont.' Cf. for this sense of the word, 
 Ps. cxix. 132, *As thou tisest to do unto those that love thy name.' 
 See also above, p. 26, 1. 5, and p. 47, 1. 27. 
 
 Page 51. 
 
 3. Nero to kill his mother. Agrippina, Nero's mother, through 
 whose instrumentality he had become emperor, was murdered by 
 lier son, partly because she made an effort to obtain the management 
 of public affairs, and partly at the instigation of Poppaea, who hoped 
 after Agrippina was removed to become the wife of the emperor. 
 
 9. wanted... that courage. Nero attempted to commit suicide, 
 and at last was put to death at his own request by one of his atten- 
 dants. 
 
 23. a sin that is called like it in the Scriptures, i Sam. xv. 23, 
 ' Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft.' 
 
 Page 52. 
 
 3. a peace unth onr brethren of Holland. It has generally been 
 asserted that Cromwell, in his negotiations with the Dutch, instead 
 of securing for England the commercial advantages, which he was 
 entitled, after Blake's victories, to demand, sacrificed the glories of 
 the navy to an impatience for peace, or to the furtherance of his own 
 views against the Stuarts and the House of Orange. 
 
 4. first... that God chastised. The Dutch were the first people 
 affected by the legislation of the Parliament in the Act of Navigation 
 (1652), an ordinance which totally suppressed their trade. At that 
 time they were (as the English are now) the carriers for all nations. 
 
 6. abetting our troubles, i.e. augmenting and making worse. 
 
 16. Beat lis pacifictis, i.e. Blessed peace-maker. The words 
 are from the Vulgate, Matth. v. 9. 
 
 17. carrying a tvar two thousand miles off, zvestivards. That is, 
 the expedition to the West Indies under Penn and Venables. 
 
 18. vails. Money given in consideration of service, presents to 
 servants. Cf. Shakespeare, Pericles, li. i. 157, 'There are certain 
 condolements, certain vails.' On the tzvo millions a year mentioned 
 in this line see above on p. 28, 1. 27, and p. 47, 1. 5, where Cowley 
 says three millions. In this latter sum he must include the vails. 
 
 23. Anti-Solomon. So styled because he did the opposite of 
 Solomon, who made gold as abundant as silver had been in the 
 times before him. See i Kings x. 21, 27. 
 
 26. his fantastical Ophir, i.e. the West Indies, which he 
 fancied would be to him what Ophir was to Solomon. On ' fantas- 
 tical,' cf. Shak. Macbeth, I. 3. 139, ' Whose murder yet is h\x\. fantas- 
 tical^' i.e. a matter of imagination and no reality. 
 
 28. the Faiistus. Sylla had a son named Faustus. The name 
 signifies 'prosperous,' 'blessed.' Hence the words of the text. 
 
 Sylla. See above on p. 31, 1. 32. 
 
NOTES. 209 
 
 Page 53. 
 
 5. this ignominy. At St Domingo the English soldiers and 
 sailors were destroyed by the climate and by the fury of the natives, 
 who concealed themselves in the woods where the European troops 
 could not follow them. See below, line 22. 
 
 6. yamaica. Foiled in their attempt on Hispaniola, the com- 
 manders directed their course to Jamaica, which surrendered to 
 them without a blow. It is the boasting about such a capture that 
 Cowley here ridicules. In Cowley's time nobody foresaw the im- 
 portance of Jamaica. 
 
 10. the war with Spain. The Spaniards declared war because 
 a positive treaty had been broken by the proceedings in the West 
 Indies. 
 
 14. the silver fleet. These were the treasure ships of Spain that 
 were on their way to Europe. These Blake attacked and captured, 
 and the silver was displayed publicly that the English people might 
 be satisfied with some results of the war, though Penn and Venables 
 had been so little fortunate in the West Indies. 
 
 17. twelve hundred of her ships. It is said that 1500 merchant 
 vessels of England were captured by the Spaniards, and thus the 
 impolicy of the Protector's conduct made itself severely felt in all the 
 trading towns on the English coast. 
 
 21. Dunkirk. This town, valuable to the English as a seaport 
 on the French coast, a point for easy communication in peace, and 
 still more convenient if war should break out, was the price for which 
 Cromwell stipulated in helping France against Spain. 
 
 34. a greater kingdom than itself. Alluding to the conquests 
 made in France in the times of Edward III. and Henry V. 
 
 Page 54. 
 
 17. decimation. This was an ordinance published by the Pro- 
 tector in 1665 that all who had ever borne arms for the king should 
 pay a tenth part of all the estates they had left to support the 
 charges of the Commonwealth. On the way in which it was carried 
 out by the Major-generals, see Thurloe, vol. iv. passion. 
 
 24. a zvhole book. This book is probably that which was 
 written at Cologne, perhaps by Sir Edw. Hyde, at the king's com- 
 mand. Clarendon, Hist, of Rebellion, xi v. 1 5 1 says : ' This declaration 
 [the decimating ordinance] v/as quickly sent to Cologne, where the 
 king caused such an answer to be made to it... that it obliged all the 
 nation to look upon him [Cromwell] as a detestable enemy, who was 
 to be removed by any way that offered itself: many of which argu- 
 ments were made use of against him in the next parliament that he 
 called.' 
 
 31. the calling in and establishment of the Jezvs. After having 
 been banished from England nearly 4 centuries the Jews were re-ad- 
 mitted by Cromwell in 1652, in virtue of a treaty with INIanasseh 
 ben- Israel. 
 
 L. C. I A 
 
2IO NOTES. 
 
 Page 55. 
 
 2. he invented, i.e. had a design. Almost equivalent to in- 
 tended. 
 
 3. Trovr]p6v and Trovrjpos, i.e. wicked scheme and wicked per- 
 son. 
 
 10. S. Peter's. To this Saint the abbey of Westminster is 
 dedicated. 
 
 11. a viosqiiito. We have now only the form 'mosque,' for the 
 Turkish place of worship. The form in the text is nearly like the 
 Spanish viosqnita, which has remained in their language from the 
 Moorish occupation. Donne, Satire 4, writes : 
 
 'Would not Heraclitus laugh to see jNIacrine, 
 From hat to shoe himself at dore refine, 
 As if the presence were a vioschite'i 
 
 where the pronunciation must be trisyllabic as in our text. 
 
 14. heathenish way of the Conwion-prayer-book. Cf. Twell's 
 Life of Poeock. Pocock was Hebrew professor at Oxford, and in the 
 proceedings taken against him it was charged, among other things, 
 ' that he had frequently made use of the idolatrous Common Prayer 
 Book as he performed divine Service.' The ' Directory for Publique 
 Worship' was the book sanctioned by the Assembly of Divines. vSee 
 on p. 22, 1. 25. 
 
 21. moss-troopers. A name originally given to those banditti 
 who inhabited the marshy country of Liddesdale, and subsisted 
 chiefly by rapine. Fuller says of them, 'they are called fnoss- 
 troopcrs because dwelling in the mosses and riding in troops together. 
 They dwell in the bounds or meeting of two kingdoms, but obey the 
 laws of neither.' 
 
 25. Mr Coney. Of the proceedings here alluded to Clarendon 
 (xv. 150) says: 'When Cromwell had laid some very extraordinary 
 tax upon the city, one Cony, an eminent fanatic... positively refused 
 to pay his part. Cromwell sent for him and cajoled him with the 
 memory of the old kindness and friendship that had been between 
 them. But... this man remembered him how great an enemy he had 
 expressed himself to such grievances, and declared that all who sub- 
 mitted to them were more to blame and greater enemies to their 
 country, than they who imposed them, and that the tyranny of 
 princes could never be grievous but by the tameness and stupidity of 
 the people.' The narrative goes on to say that Cromwell at last 
 committed Mr Coney to prison, and when Maynard, his counsel, 
 demanded his liberty, the Protector's attorney delayed the proceed- 
 ings and in the meantime Maynard was put in the Tower, and the 
 judges censured for suffering him to question or make doubt of the 
 Protector's authority. It was on this occasion that Cromwell is said 
 to have spoken those words about Magna Charta, alluded to below, 
 
 p. 57.1- 31- 
 
 34. ship-money. The tax for providing shipping, levied at first 
 
 on seaboard counties and afterwards extended to the whole kingdom 
 
NOTES. 211 
 
 by Charles I. Mr Hampden's refusal to pay was one of the first 
 stages of the Rebellion. 
 
 Page 56. 
 
 16. t/je peroration, i.e. the concluding portion of an address. 
 26. On Marius and Sylla, see p. 31, 1. 32. 
 
 the cursed triumvirate. This alludes to the first triumvirate 
 B.C. 60, composed of Julius Caesar, Crassus and Pompey. 
 
 30. against a Roman. The declaration 'Civis Romanus sum' 
 availed to save one who could make it from many indignities, such 
 as imprisonment or scourging. We can see this from S. Paul's 
 history. There might be reasons why a Roman citizen should be 
 put to death, but he was deemed exempt from degrading penalties. 
 
 33. deficient to, i.e. inferior to. We now should say 'deficient 
 from,' though that is not a very common form of expression. 
 
 Page 57. 
 
 4. two or three ears. See note above on p. 28, 1. 28. 
 8. the broyling. Noticed above on p. 29, 1. 26. 
 II. Sicilie. The tyrants of Sicily are celebrated for the cruel- 
 ties they exercised. 
 
 14. slaves in America. This refers to the action taken by 
 Cromwell after Penruddock's rebellion in 1655. Penruddock and 
 Grove (the leaders) were beheaded at Exeter, several others were 
 hanged, and the rest of the prisoners were sent to Barbadoes to be 
 sold for slaves. See also 'The humble petition of Marcellis Rivers 
 and Oxenbridge Foyle as well on behalf of themselves as of three 
 score and ten freeborn people of this nation now in slavery. ' 
 
 31. words which he spoke. Of Cromwell's language about the 
 Magna Charta Clarendon gives a specimen in connexion with Mr 
 Coney's case (see on p. 55,1. 25). 
 
 Page 58. 
 
 8. The representative, i.e. the representative assembly, the 
 parliament. 
 
 15. phrensie. This use of ' ph ' where we now write ' f ' is frequent 
 in Cowley. It has some warrant in the present word on account of 
 its derivation from the Greek ^/ut^V, but he even writes prophane (p. 
 139, 1. 10 &c.) which cannot be so defended. 
 
 19. major-generals. This was the name Cromwell gave to 
 those officers whom he appointed, after the act of decimation, to be 
 over those military governments into which he portioned out the 
 whole kingdom. They were to raise a militia, collect taxes, suppress 
 all tumults, disarm all Catholics and Cavaliers, and to arrest, bind 
 over and imprison all suspected or dangerous persons. 
 
 21. seventy peers of the land at one clap. In allusion to Crom- 
 well's attempt to form a House of Lords. He induced a few of the 
 
 14 — 2 
 
212 NOTES. 
 
 ancient nobility to accept a place therein, but he included in it also 
 many of the most active friends of the reigning Government. Thus 
 he produced a contemptible medley, and weakened his party in 
 the Commons. 
 
 26. // 7vas anticntly said of Fortune. The allusion is to Juvenal, 
 Sat. III. 39, 40. 
 
 31. liaut-goiist. The 's' retained in this form points to the 
 derivation of the latter portion from Latin '^-wj/^j' — taste. In 
 modern French orthography the letter is dropped, but was not so in 
 Cowley's time. 
 
 Page 59. 
 
 8. concurring to, i.e. assenting to. The more common expres- 
 sion is 'to concur with any thing.' 
 
 17. The words written on the wall of Belshazzar's palace 
 (Dan. V. 25). 
 
 29. his son. Richard Cromwell, whom the Protector appointed 
 to succeed him. This is what Cowley calls 'to entail his own 
 injustice upon his children.' On Richard Cromwell's resignation of 
 his position, see Clarendon, Hist. Reb. xvi. 14, 15. See above on 
 p. 27, 1. 25. 
 
 Page 60. 
 
 6. fell a laughing. The *a' in forms like this is the preposition 
 'on'. Thus 'fell on sleep' became 'fell asleep.' See above on 
 p. 21, 1. 30. 
 
 17. Cynick. The Cynic philosophers, whose typical representa- 
 tive is Diogenes, were always represented as morose and ill-tempered. 
 Hence the ' fro ward n ess ' spoken of in the text. 
 
 Epicurean. The Epicureans, holding that the end of existence 
 was to secure the greatest possible amount of enjoyment, were 
 supposed to avoid every exertion which could be escaped. Hence 
 their name is equivalent to 'lazy,' 'self-indulgent.' Theirs were the 
 'lethargical morals' alluded to below, 1. 32. See on the word p. 113, 
 1. 26. 
 
 22. Platonical statesman. One who indulges in fanciful plans 
 of government, incapable of realization, like those of Plato in his 
 ' Republic,' which was such a commonwealth as sounded very well 
 in theory, but could never be worked in practice. 
 
 23. Utopian dreamer. Sir Thos. More in his ' Utopia' describes 
 a fancied state with government and laws approaching very nearly 
 to perfection. Hence 'Utopian' is applied to things 'fanciful,' 
 ' incapable of being carried out.' 
 
 26. Aristotle's politicks. Which were of a practical character. 
 Taking human nature as it is, the philosopher of Stagira endeavoured 
 to teach how a state can be best organized so as to answer to the 
 requirements of men. The education of the citizens to live a life in 
 harmony with virtue is the great principle on which he makes his 
 system depend. 
 
 28. JMachiaval, i.e. the famous Florentine statesman and 
 
NOTES. 213 
 
 diplomatist, Niccolo Machiavelii. His principles are laid down in 
 two works, The Pritue and The Practue of Politics. He is said to 
 countenance, in these works, the doing of any act whereby ambitious 
 sovereigns and their ministers may accomplish whatever their 
 extravagant desires prompt them to, at the expense either of the 
 peace of their country or the safety of their subjects. Clarendon 
 {Hist. Reh. XV. 156) speaks of Machiavelli's method as prescribing 
 ' upon any alteration of a government, as a thing absolutely necessary, 
 to cut off the heads of all those, and extirpate their families, who 
 are friends to the old one.' 
 
 Page 61. 
 
 8. favourite to. We now say ' favourite with.' 
 
 16. the first city. See Genesis iv. 17. Cain's city was called 
 Enoch. 
 
 1 8. grand-child of the Deity. Regarding Adam as 'the son of 
 God' (see Luke iii. 38), Cain would thus be 'grand-child.' 
 
 25. Abiinelech. For the history, see Judges ix. 5. 
 
 27. a hecatomb. This was an offering of 100 victims. Abime- 
 lech's brethren were 70 in number. 
 
 29. to make it hold, i.e. to make it retain its colour. We have 
 the same figure in the expression ''fast colours.' 
 
 Page 62. 
 
 I. Athaliah. On Athaliah's fury, see 2 Kings xi. i — 3. 
 15. better got by one. Joash being the only one of the seed 
 royal that was saved. 
 
 19. MatlLusalem. For 'Methuselah,' whose life extended to 
 969 years (Gen. v. 27). The orthography, which seems due to a 
 popular acceptance of the termination for the same as that of 
 Jerusalem, was common in Cowley's time (cf. p. 87, 1. 18). He 
 also says in The Mistress, p. 26, 
 
 'So though my life be short yet may I prove 
 The great Alethitsalem of love.' 
 
 29. yoii were wont to deliver oracles. Some of the ancient 
 oracles, which Cowley by implication attributes to the 'kind of angel' 
 seen in his vision, \vere written in very ambiguous and sometimes 
 limping verse. 
 
 Page 63. 
 
 9. malignant. This was a name given by the'leaders of faction 
 in these times to all whom they desired to render odious to the 
 people. 
 
 12. you know whither. Euphemistically alluding to the place 
 of execution. 
 
 13. pounces, i.e. talons, claws, wherewith the bird pounces, that 
 is, pierces his prey. Cf. Spenser F. Q. I. 11, 
 
214 NOTES. 
 
 'As haggard hauke, presuming to contend 
 
 With hardy fowle above his hable might, 
 His wearie pounces all in vain doth spend 
 To trusse the pray too heavie for his flight.' 
 
 So a * pou)tcet-hox^ is a box pierced vi'ith holes out of which 
 any powder which it contains may be shaken. 
 
 25. a nafral crown. Cowley makes his rescuing angel to 
 come in the likeness of an English king. 
 
 33. the mystic champion^ s, i.e. Michael the archangel, who 
 fought with the dragon, i.e. Satan. (Rev. xii. 7). 
 
 Page 64. 
 
 4. th^ English bloody cross. The significance of the Red Cross 
 is explained by Spenser {F. Q. i. 2), in his description of the Red 
 Cross Knight : 
 
 'And on his brest a bloodie cross he bore, 
 The dear remembrance of his dying Lord, 
 For whose sweet sake that glorious badge he wore 
 And dead, as living ever, him adored. 
 Upon his shield the like was also scored 
 For soveraine hope, which in his helpe he had.' 
 
 ESSAYS. 
 I. Of Liberty. 
 
 Page 66. 
 
 6. Esait. Yqx the history, see Genesis xxv. 29 — 34. 
 
 8. Thamer, i.e. Tamar, see Genesis xxxviii. 18. 
 
 14. Stoical paradox. The Stoics were fond of maintaining 
 such positions as that ' a wise man is inferior to Jove alone,' and 
 that true philosophy, i.e. Stoicism, made him who followed it 
 superior to all the world beside, alone free, rich, a sovereign in 
 short. 
 
 19. Salust. The quotation is from the fragments of Sallust, 
 Mattaire's edition, p. 116. 
 
 25. Atalanta. She was the daughter of Jasus and Clymene. 
 When her father wished her to marry she made it a condition that 
 her suitors should contend with her in a footrace, and she would 
 accept him who conquered her. Meilanion who had obtained from 
 Aphrodite three golden apples, dropped them on the course and 
 Atalanta, captivated with their beauty, tarried to pick them up and 
 so was beaten. 
 
 28. Fertur &c. i.e. ' the charioteer is borne on by his steed, 
 
NOTES. 2 15 
 
 nor does the team lieed the reins.' The line is from Verg. Georg. i. 
 
 514- 
 
 33. When the Romans were candidates for any olfice they were 
 
 wilHng to submit to anything to gain their end. TertulHan {de 
 
 pcenit. II) describes them thus: 'Those who go about canvassing 
 
 for office are neither ashamed nor tired out by any sufferings of 
 
 mind or body, and not only do they bear sufferings but also every 
 
 kind of insult for the compassing of their wish. What unseemliness 
 
 of dress do they assume ! ' 
 
 Page 67. 
 
 5. nomenclator, i.e. a person to announce the names of all 
 whom the candidate met. Cowley in The Mistress says : 
 
 'Meanvvhile I will not dare to make a name 
 
 To represent thee by. 
 Adam (God's nomenclator) could not frame 
 One that enough should signifie.' 
 
 13. ' Lo, Romans the lords of the world.' The allusion is to 
 Verg. Aejj. i. 282. 
 
 19. t/ie beast unth many heads, i.e. the populace. 
 
 Catiline. Lucius Sergius Catilina, notorious for several times 
 stirring up insurrections in Rome. Some of Cicero's most powerful 
 speeches were made against him, and Sallust has left us a history of 
 the man and his doings. 
 
 21. Sylla's. See on p. 31, 1. 32. 
 
 28. Machiavel. On Niccolo Machiavelli, born 1469, died 1527, 
 see above on p. 60, 1. 28. 
 
 30. this man dr. The passage is translated from Cicero's 
 oration/;-^ Cieliox. 12. 
 
 Page 68. 
 
 19. laveer. This is a Dutch nautical word, and signifies 'to 
 sail in an oblique direction so as to catch the wind,' and so fitly 
 describes the action of a seeker after popular favour. It is used by 
 Lovelace, Luaistra ii. 18, 
 
 ' Did on the shore himself laveer.^ 
 
 And by Dryden, Astrcea Redux. 65, 
 
 ' But those that 'gainst stiff" gales laveering go 
 Must be at once resolved and skilful too.' 
 
 33. an Anti-Paitl. The vei-y contrary of Paul. The Apostle 
 'became all things to all men' that he might save some. 
 
 Page 69. 
 
 8. Salust. The passage is from the Catiline, chap. X. 
 
 20. Zopyrus. The history of Zopyrus is narrated in the text. 
 His father Megabyzus was one of the seven chiefs who killed the 
 
2i6 NOTES. 
 
 false Smerdis. It is said that Daiius after Babylon was won used to 
 say he would rather have Zopyrus without his scars than twenty 
 Babylons. 
 
 Page 70. 
 
 15. paijiful, i.e. painstaking. Cf. Gascoigne, Steele Glass 
 (Arber's Reprints), p. 43, 'Plato was in his age painful to write 
 good precepts of moral phylosophy.' Also Burton's Anatomy, p. 
 208, 'Let there be bountiful patrons, and there will be painftd 
 scholars in all sciences.' 
 
 31. Seneca. The words are from the Liber de Consolatione, ad 
 Polybium, chap. xxvi. 'Magna servitus est magna fortuna.' 
 
 34. to Attiais. The passage is in a letter included with the 
 epistles of Cicero to Brutus, i. 16, 4, 'Nimium timemus mortem et 
 exsilium et paupertatem. Hcec mihi videntur Ciceroni ultima esse 
 in malis, et dum habeat a quibus impetret quoe velit, et a quibus 
 colatur et laudetur, servitutem honorificam modo non aspernatur ; 
 si quidquam in extrema ac miserrima contumelia potest honorificum 
 esse ? ' 
 
 PAGE_7r. 
 
 14. a groom. From A. S. gu?)ia = a man, homo. In general 
 usage however it came to signify 'a serving man.' Cf. Spenser, 
 Sheph. Cal. (March) 62, 
 
 ' It was upon a holiday, 
 When shepheard groomes han leave to play.' 
 
 29. ajnatorem &c. 'Three hundred chains bind the lover 
 Pirithous.' The words are from Horace, Od. 111. 4. 79. 
 
 Page 72. 
 
 14. aliena dr. The words, sufficiently translated in the text, 
 are from Horace, Satires, 11. 6. 34. 
 
 18. dors. Cockchafers. Cf. Burton's Anatomy, p. 67, 'They 
 shew their wit in censuring others, a company of foolish note- 
 makers, humble-bees, dors or beetles.' 
 
 26. table d'Jwst, i.e. table d'hote. Cf. above on haut goust p. 
 58, 1. 31. 
 
 Page 73. 
 
 8. as the Scripture speaks. The allusion is to Ps. Ixix. 22. 
 16. pan hnper sebastos, i.e. irav virkp cre^aarbs, 'one altogether 
 superlatively august.' 
 
 19. Leviathans. The grand people are so styled as being the 
 great fishes of society. Similar is the expression 'This Triton of 
 the minnows,' Shakes. Cor. HI. i. 89. 
 
 20. LLitherto dw Job xxviii. 1 1. 
 
NOTES. 217 
 
 21. Perditur d'c. From Horace, Sat. ir. 6, 59. The words are 
 translated in the next Hne. 
 
 23. impertinent. Ahiiless, objectless, serving no purpose. See 
 p. 72, 1. 17. Cf. Shakespeare, Tempest, i. 2. 138, 
 
 'Without the which this story were most impertinent.^ 
 
 So Burton, Afiato??iy, p. 22, *Rut the story is set down at large 
 by Hippocrates, — which because it is not impertinent to this dis- 
 course, I will insert verbatim.' 
 
 28. Horace. The passage translated is from Sat. i. 6. 
 
 30. cheapen. The original sense of the word is 'to buy' or 'to 
 try to buy.' It is connected with chaffer, and couper in ' horse-couper.' 
 Cf. Shakespeare, Pericles, iv. 6. 10, ' She would make a puritan of 
 the devil, if he should cheapen a kiss of her.' 
 
 Also Earle's Microcosmographie (Arber's Reprints), p. 73, 'It is 
 the market of young lecturers whom you may cheapen here at all 
 rates and sizes.' 
 
 33. mist, i.e. missed. See above on 'guest' p. 24, 1. 29, and 
 p. 62, 1. 27. 
 
 Page 74. 
 
 I. censure. The word has not always, as in modern English, 
 the sense of 'blame,' 'rebuke.' Sometimes it means, as here, only 
 'opinion,' 'judgement.' Cf. Shakespeare, As You like It IV. i. 7, 
 'How blest am I in my just censure, in my true opinion.' So 
 Hamlet, I. 3. 69, 
 
 'Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgement.' 
 
 3. vexatioji of spirit. In allusion to Ecclesiastes i. 14. 
 
 ro. care of yours, i.e. the care for those who are in your 
 service. 
 
 15. fasces, i.e. his rods, the instruments whereby he asserts his 
 authority. The word is most frequently used in Latin for the rods 
 borne by a Roman lictor, indicating the power of summary punish- 
 ment. Cowley in his Sylva, p. 42 (ed. 1684), uses fasces of a 
 schoolmaster's rods, but with a reference to the original meaning, 
 ' I would not be a schoolmaster, though he 
 His rods no less 'Ca^Xi fasces deems to be.' 
 
 25. epidemical, i.e. of general occurrence. Life is called a 
 disease by reason of the discomforts above enumerated, and as all 
 men share in it, it is called epidemical. 
 
 30. mas king- habit. Masks were worn by players to make 
 them look their part. Hence maski7ig=\A?iy'mg a part in a 
 masquerade, and the masking-hahit = the dress suited for a mas- 
 querade. Cf Shakes. Taming of the Shrezv, IV. 3. 87, 'What 
 masking stuff is here ? ' 
 
 32. a slave in Saturnalibus. The Saturnalia was a feast in 
 honour of Saturn, beginning on the 17th of December and lasting 
 several days. During this time slaves were allowed abundant 
 license and freedom of speech, so that they could abuse with 
 impunity any whom they disliked, even their masters.. 
 
2i8 NOTES. 
 
 Page 75. 
 
 3. He heapeth dr. From Ps. xxxix. 6. 
 
 8. Unciatim &c. The quotation, substantially represented in 
 the text, is from Terence, Phormio, i. i. 33. 
 
 30. other. We should now say ' others.' But the form in the 
 text as a plural was not uncommon. Cf. Ps. Ixxiii. 8 (P. Bk. 
 version), ' They corrupt other, and speak of wicked blasphemy.' 
 
 So Bp. Pilkington (Parker Society), p. 7, ' Phinees turned away 
 God's anger from his people, because he punished that wickedness 
 which other winked at.' 
 
 31. KaKo. drjpta. The words are quoted from St Paul's Epistle 
 to Titus i. 12. 
 
 34. t7ao directly opposite significations, dpybs, written exactly 
 in the same form, but no doubt derived from two distinct roots, is 
 applied (i) as in irodas apyol, said of dogs, that are sivift footed, and 
 (2) to things which do no work, as in the text, =j/frt:'. 
 
 Page 76. 
 
 3. Metrodoriis. A Greek philosopher, born according to one 
 authority at Lampsacus, according to others at Athens. His 
 philosophy appears to have been of a more sensual kind than that 
 of Epicurus. The sentiment in the text is alluded to more than 
 once by Cicero, De nat. dcor. I. 40 ; Tiisc. disptit. v. 9; De fin. ii. 28. 
 
 5. Epicurus. The famous Greek philosopher of Gargettus in 
 Attica. He was the founder of the Epicurean philosophy, which 
 taught that pleasure (rightly understood) was the highest good. 
 
 14. Lepidiis. M. yl^Imilius Lepidus, one of the second trium- 
 virate with Antony and Octavius. See note on p. 45, 1. 12. 
 
 16. Mark Antony, defeated by Augustus at the battle of 
 Actium. 
 
 17. Quisnani &c. From Horace, Sat. II. 7. 83. ' Who then is 
 free? The wise man, and he who is able to control himself.' 
 
 18. Oenonians. King of Pisa, and father of Hippodameia. 
 Not wishing his daughter to marry he always demanded that her 
 suitor should contend with him in a chariot-race. Having a famous 
 charioteer and using other arts he contrived to conquer many, but at 
 last was overcome by Pelops. 
 
 27. washing. See al)ove on p. 74, 1. 30. 
 
 Page 77. 
 
 4. A''ing "James. In the edition of King James's works (1616) I 
 have not found this saying, though there are words of a somewhat 
 similar import, e.g. {Trne La^o of Free Monarchies, p. 209), 'The 
 highest bench is the sliddriest to sit upon.' From the way in which 
 Cowley speaks here it may be that the expression was only a saying 
 of the king's and not included in any published work. 
 
NOTES. 219 
 
 17. pour f aire bonne bonche, i.e. the verses from Martial &c. are 
 * to serve as a tit-bit ' after his own verses, and what he chooses to 
 call a tedious discourse. 
 
 Page 78. 
 
 7. giiilded. The spelling of this word is very interesting. The 
 word guilds a fraternity formed for mutual aid, and the members of 
 which paid a contribution at set periods, is connected with gold 
 (geld A.S. = money), and Cowley's orthography shews how the feeling 
 was preserved in his day that the two words were akin. 
 
 25. tveathers. The plural form is not very common. But cf. 
 Shakes. Winter's Tale, v. i. 195, 
 
 ' Whose honesty endured all zveathers.^ 
 
 There however the word is used metaphorically. 
 
 30. the Persian king. The line in Martial says ' the Parthian 
 king.' But in classic literature the luxurious living of the Persians 
 is much more dwelt on than that of the Parthians (cf Hor. Od, I. 
 38. i). Hence Cowley has substituted the one name for the other. 
 
 Page 79. 
 
 8, the freeman^ s hat. Among the Romans it was the custom to 
 give a slave, oh his enfranchisement, a tight-fitting felt cap, called 
 pileus, to be worn as a sign of his liberty. By giving up all those 
 things, which others seek so zealously, the freedom of which this is 
 the sign (says the poet) may be procured. 
 
 19. those, i.e. the poor. They have the laborious task to win 
 their bread. These (in line 22) refers, of course, to the rich. 
 
 20. Brideivel. A house of correction for culprits. The name 
 comes from St Bride's well in London, near which was a building 
 used for this purpose. 
 
 Page 81. 
 
 1 7. heroick 7-ace. So Cowley calls the birds because they keep 
 their freedom. Hence are their 'ways and walks the nearest heaven.' 
 
 27. degeneroiis. Ignoble, base. The word is uncommon in 
 English. It represents the Latin dcgener. 
 
 nnbirdly. This is also an unusual word, formed after the 
 analogy of unmanly. 
 
 Page 82. 
 
 10. Cornish mount. St Michael's Mount. See above p. 20, 1. 10. 
 
 1 8. Rhodian Colossus. This was a celebrated statue at Rhodes, 
 which stood 70 cubits high and was dedicated to the sun. 
 
 29. The bondman of the cloister, i.e. the monk, who has 
 bound himself by a vow of poverty. All that he receives is not his 
 own, nor at his own disposal. He goes to his work at the sound of 
 a bell, and only the last sound thereof, which announces his release 
 by death, can be a happy one. 
 
2 20 NOTES. 
 
 Page 83. 
 
 7. hits Ike white. The white was the centre of the target, and 
 to hit it was the best shot possible. 
 
 Cf. Liisfs Dominion, ill. 5, 9 (Dodsley xiv. 144), 
 
 ' Which of the two shall be thy white ? ' 
 
 i.e. which of the two will you aim at specially? 
 
 Also The True Trojans, I. 2, 20 (Dodsley xii. 454), 
 
 ' I'll hit the white: 
 
 10. Pindaric zuay. The odes of Pindar are written in very 
 irregular metre. Cowley in some of his poems has imitated this, and 
 called this portion ' the Pindaric Odes.' The allusion is explained 
 by the next line. 
 
 19. transitions, i. e. right and orderly methods of passing from 
 one subject to another. It shall be fitful and erratic, not a slave to 
 rules. 
 
 31. thorough. For through. Cf. Shakes. Pericles, I v. 3. 35, 
 * It pierced me thorough: Also 1 lien. IV. i. 3. 59, ' Who half 
 thorough gives o'er.' 
 
 a compass take, i.e. 'go a roundabout road.' 'To fetch a 
 compass' is found 2 Sam. v. 23 ; Acts xxviii. 13, for 'to go by a 
 roundabout tack ' in marching an army or sailing a vessel. 
 
 II. Of Solitude. 
 
 Page 84. 
 
 r. Nunqtiam &c., ' I am never less alone than when alone.' The 
 passage is in Cicero, Republ. i. 17. 27. Cf. also Cato apud Prise, 
 p. 694. 
 
 13. retired himself. This verb is not now often used as a 
 reflexive. But cf. Shakes. IVinter's Tale, IV. 4. 663, ' You must 
 retire yourself '\n\.o some covert.' 
 
 15. Lintermun. Also written Liternum. It was a city of 
 Campania near to which Scipio Africanus had an estate. Livy 
 XXXVIII. 53. 
 
 16. Seneca. See Seneca, Ep. 86. 
 
 23. Hannibal. The celebrated son of Plamilcar, who led the 
 Carthaginians in the second Punic war. 
 
 Page 85. 
 
 I. Scipio, i.e. Scipio Africanus, alluded to on the previous page. 
 
 3. colourably, i.e. speciously, plausibly. Cf. Bp. Coverdale 
 p. 92, ' He can give but a counterfeit medicine, as the surgeon doth 
 which colourably healeth.' 
 
 4. Montaigne. Essays, lib. I. 38. The words are 'Respondons 
 
NOTES. 221 
 
 a rambition, que c'est elle mesme qui donne guust de la solitude. 
 Car que ne fuit-elle tant que la societe ? ' On Montaigne, see below 
 p. 131, I. 2. 
 
 19. Tecum iCr. 'With thee I should love to live, with thee I 
 would gladly die,' Horace, Od. ill. 9. 24. 
 
 21. S/c ego dr. Tibullus iv. 13. 9. 
 
 31. Catullus, The quotation below is from ' de Aniore suo ' 
 
 83- 
 Page 86. 
 
 11. parricides. At first the lavv'' prescribed that such a criminal 
 should be sewn up in a sack and thrown into a river. But in the 
 time of Pompey, the punishment was appointed, that he should first 
 be whipped till he bled, then sewn up in a sack with a dog, a cock, 
 a viper and an ape and be cast into the sea. 
 
 Page 87. 
 
 8. vita. The sentence is from Publius Syrus. Scntentiir, 202. 
 -24. arrive. Seems here equivalent to arise. I have not found 
 another example of such use. 
 
 Page 88. 
 
 8. (jui me tOc. Vergil, Gcorg. 11. 489. *0 that some one 
 would set me down in the cool valleys of Hamus and shield with a 
 mighty shade of boughs.' 
 
 Page 89. 
 
 19. numbcr''s tree. The whole series of numbers is regarded as 
 
 having its starting point in the first number, viz. one. Hence that 
 
 is the stem and all the rest are called its branches. Cowley has 
 
 another form of the same concert in the first book of the Davideis : 
 
 ' Numbers which still increase more high and wide, 
 
 From one, the root of their turned pyramide.' 
 
 Page 90. 
 
 7. monster London. The city of London was considered of 
 great extent in Cowley's time. What would he say of it were he 
 writing now, when Islington is no longer a village, but absorbed, 
 and many another village like it, into the huge compass of the 
 metropolis ? 
 
 14. village less than Islington. In Cowley's day London had 
 not absorbed all the villages around it as it has now done, and 
 between London and Islington there was a stretch of open country. 
 A report published about 17 14 (nearly half a century after Cowley's 
 death) describes the roads and highways in Islington as 'very 
 ruinous and almost impassable for the space of 5 months in the 
 year.' In 1 793 the population of Islington was 6,600. 
 
222 NOTES. 
 
 III. Of Obscurity. 
 
 Page 91. 
 
 1. N'afii neqite d'c. The passage is from Horace, £j>. I. 17. 9. 
 14. Secretwn dr. Horace, Ej>. I. 18. 103. 
 
 17. Mr Broom. This was Alexander Broom (or Brome) born 
 1620, died 1666. In connexion with Ben Jonson, Cowley, Hawkins, 
 Fanshaw and Holliday, he translated Horace, his portion being the 
 Odes and Epodes. He is said to have by his songs largely aided the 
 Restoration of Charles H. 
 
 22. same author. The words are in Horace, Sat. ii. 7. 114. 
 
 Page 92. 
 
 2. Quintilian. Dalain. xiii. Apes Pauperis. 
 6. Bene qui (tc. Ovid, 7)7.?/. ill. 4. 25. 
 
 16. the case of Apneas d'c. The passage is from Verg. Aett. i. 
 
 415- 
 
 21. Demosthenes^ confession. The story is told in Cicero, Tusc. 
 V. 103. 
 
 22. tanker-woman^ i.e. tankard-woman, a water-carrier. 
 
 Cf. Sir T. Harington, On Flaye, i. 227. 'God send me quickly 
 a fatherless sonne, if I had not rather one of my sonnes were a 
 tanker- bearer, that wears sometimes his silk sleeves at the church on 
 Sunday, than a cozener that weares his satten hose at an ordinary on 
 Fridaie. ' 
 
 The allusion in this passage is to apprentices, who in old times 
 had to carry the water for their masters' houses. 
 
 28. sight-shot. A word modelled after the fashion of 'ear-shot,' 
 which we still keep in use. 
 
 Democritus. The famous philosopher of Abdera, the originator 
 of the atomic theory. 
 
 29. commodity. Advantage, gain, profit. Cf. Shakes. Kitig 
 John, IL I, 573- 
 
 * That smooth-faced gentleman, tickling commodity, 
 Commodity, the bias of the world.' 
 
 and compare the whole speech, which concludes, 
 
 'Gain, be my lord, for I will worship thee.' 
 
 31. Epicurus. See above p. 76, 1. 5. 
 33. Mctrodorus. See above p. 76, 1. 3. 
 
 Page 93. 
 
 4. most talk'd-of and talkifig country. One cannot but recall 
 St Paul's account of the Athenians (Acts xvii. 21), 'They spent 
 
NOTES. 223 
 
 their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new 
 thing.' 
 
 9, engage inio. We now say 'engage in.' 
 
 II. quotidian aguc^ i.e. a daily shivering fit. Because the 
 intrusions and encroachments on our time will make us shudder. 
 
 19. Bucephahcs. The name of the horse of Alexander the Great. 
 
 Incitatus. The horse of Domitian the Roman emperor was so 
 called. Domitian is said to have had it elected to the consulship. 
 This is the allusion in line 24 below. 
 
 ■29. S. Peter. The reference is to Acts v. 15, 'They brought 
 forth the sick into the streets... that at least the shadow of Peter 
 passing by might overshadow some of them. ' 
 
 31. Cato, i.e. Marcus Porcius Cato, known as Cato the Censor. 
 He died about 150 B.C. He was so distinguished that Cicero tells 
 us {de Amic. 2) that the word 'Sapiens,' wise, became a quasi- 
 cognomen of his. 
 
 32. Aristides. An Athenian statesman and general, who 
 flourished about 490 B.C. He was celebrated as the best and justest 
 of his countrymen. He was banished from Athens through the 
 influence of Themistocles. 
 
 33. ivhilest. The v/ord 'while' (A. S. hzuil) was originally a 
 noun, meaning time. The genitive 'whiles' became used in an 
 adverbial sense = 'at a time,' and the form was afterwards enlarged 
 to 'whilest,' which now is usually written 'whilst'. We can trace 
 the tendency to make such an addition in some dialects of English 
 where once is pronounced as * wunst.' 
 
 Page 94. 
 
 6. coDintercc, i.e. intercourse, without any idea of trade or 
 barter, which now alone is the sense of the word. Cf. Shakes. 
 Hanilety ill. i. 10 : 
 
 'Could beauty have better commerce than with honesty?' 
 13. muta persona. A character on the stage, who appears, but 
 has no speech to make. 
 
 15. Angustns. The emperor of Rome. See above on p. 45, 
 1. 12. 
 
 16. askt zuit/i his last breath. Suet. Aug. 99, ' Ecquid iis 
 videretur mimum vitoe commode transegisse.' 
 
 21. guilded. Cf. on p. 78, 1. 7. 
 
 29. long ruins. So styled, because being high when they were 
 standing, they stretch far when they fall; hence the prayer to be 
 'at a good distance' from them. 
 
 Page 95. 
 
 6. scutcheon. A shield ornamented with armorial bearings. 
 Cf. Shakes. Antony and Cleopatra-, v. 2. 135, 
 
 ' And we 
 Your scutcheons and your signs of conquest shall 
 Hang in what place you please.' 
 
224 NOTES. 
 
 6. elogie. See above p. 8, 1. ii. 
 
 8. theti. When death has laid them low. Cf. Shirley, Conten- 
 tion of Ajax and Ulysses, Sc. ill. 
 
 ' Sceptre and crown must tumble down, 
 And in the dust be equal made 
 With the poor crooked scythe and spade.' 
 
 IV. Of Agriculture. 
 
 Page 96. 
 
 6. as he did zvith Solomon. See the history, in i Kings iii. 
 II — 14. 
 
 13. O fortimatus &c. O too fortunate man and who knew his 
 blessings. An adaptation of Verg. Georg. ii. 458. 
 
 Page 97. 
 
 I. Columella. The quotation is from De re rustica, I. i. 
 
 3. Varro says. De re rustica, 1.4,' Ejus principia sunt eadem 
 qui-ie mundi esse Ennius scribit aqua terra anima et sol.' 
 
 8. Cicero says. De Sencctiite, XV. 51. 
 
 21. as they were in Rome. Alluding to the well-known stories 
 of Cincinnatus and M. Curius. See Cicero de Senect. xvi. 56. 
 
 28. parcel, i.e. portion, of ground. Cf. St John iv. 5, ' the 
 parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.' 
 
 Page 98. 
 
 20. tropes, i.e. metaphorical forms of expression. The word 
 is from the Gk. Tpotros — a turn, and is used of language in which 
 the words are turned in their application to something to which 
 they did not originally refer. 
 
 21. Many nations have lived dr. Cf. the account of the 
 Israelites when they went down into Egypt. Gen. xlvii. 3, 'Thy 
 servants are shepherds, both we and also our fathers.' The nomad 
 races of the East are still instances of what is stated in the text. 
 
 24. beholding. We now use ' beholden.' But the form in the 
 text was common. Cf Naunton's Fragmenta Regalia (Arber's 
 Reprints), p. 56, 'He held the staffe of the Treasury fast in his hand, 
 which once in the year made them all beholding to him.' And again 
 p. 59, ' For his person he was not much beholding to nature.' 
 
 Page 99. 
 
 8. all other trades... set foi'th whole troops. The City companies 
 have always been forward, when need was, to furnish volunteer 
 companies. The draper John Gilpin was a train-band captain. 
 
NOTES. 225 
 
 13. hventy years' riiine. Speaking in round numbers the years 
 between 1640 and r66o. 
 
 3r. cxpenceful. Now obsolete or nearly so. But cf. Beaumont 
 and Fletcher, Pilgrim, I. i : 
 
 ' Who will have me ? 
 Who will be troubled with a pettish girl ? 
 It may be proud, and to that vice expenceful.^ 
 
 32. instance in. In modern English the preposition is omitted, 
 and we should say ' I shall instance one delight more.' But cf. 
 Sir W. Temple, Letter to Lord Arlington, July 1669 : 
 
 ' The Dutch desired the particular instances of what they had 
 felt or thought they had occasion to fear : our merchants instanced 
 in Cochin and Cananor.' 
 
 Page 100. 
 
 8. Hinc atqne June d'c. Verg. yEn. i. 502. 
 
 14. inurtherer. Cain, after Abel's murder, built the city 
 Enoch (Gen. iv. 17). The interchange of th and d was not 
 uncommon, as in the forms btcrthen and burden. 
 
 17. Ecclesiasticus. Chap. vii. 15. 
 
 ■27. fields d'' or or d'' argent. The heraldic language common in 
 describing coats of arms. The field is the tincture, or combination 
 of tinctures, forming the ground on which the device is delineated. 
 These are of three descriptions, metals, colours, furs. The metals 
 are cr=gold, and argent— %A\tx. 
 
 31. complaint of Columella. Columella's words are in the 
 prologue to the De re rustica. ' Adhuc enim scholas rhetorum et (ut 
 dixi) geometrarum musicorumque, vel quod magis mirandum est 
 contemptissimorum vitiorum officinas guliosius condiendi cibos, et 
 luxuriosius fercula struendi, capitumque et capillorum concinnatores 
 non solum esse audivi sed et ipse vidi: agricolationis neque doctores 
 qui se profiterentur neque discipulos cognovi.' 
 
 Page ioi. 
 
 15. dancing. Lucian says dancing was invented by the goddess 
 Rhea, and by her communicated to her priests in Phrygia and Crete. 
 Of its use in worship we have an instance in Exod. xv. 20. 
 
 Page 102. 
 
 3. as they call him there. In Oxford the name given to the 
 head of a Hall is 'Principal.' 
 
 9. villaticas pastiones. Varro, R. R. 3. 2. 13. The expression 
 is also used by Columella, De re rustica, vii. 13. 3. 
 
 27. Mr Hartlib. Samuel Plartlib was a friend of Mede and 
 Milton. He was of Polish extraction, but settled in England and 
 interested himself in education and agriculture. He edited a treatise 
 on Flemish Agri^cullure. He received from Cromwell a pension of 
 
 L. C. 15 
 
226 NOTES. 
 
 ^300 a year, which ceased at the Restoration. Milton dedicated to 
 him his Tractate on Education. 
 
 33. Poetry was born among the shepherds. See below on p. 
 103, 1. 23, seqq. 
 
 Page 103. 
 
 I. Nescio qua <Lr. Ovid. Pont. I. 3. 35. 
 
 19. pariter d'c. Ovid. Fasti I. 300. The sense is sufficiently 
 expressed in the previous line. 
 
 27. he has cojitribiited [says Columella). De re rusiiea, I. r, 
 ' Celeberrinius vates non minimum professioni nostrje contulit Hesio- 
 dus Boeotius.' Hesiod's contribution is the Works and Days, 
 i.e. the works to be done in agriculture and the most favourable 
 days for undertaking them. 
 
 33. ir\eov, K.T.X. Hesiod, JVorks and Days, j^o. 
 
 Page 104. 
 
 25. his father Laertes. See Horn. Odyss. xxiv. 226 — 231. 
 
 30. EumcBus. Cf. Hom. Odyss. xv. 301, and often. 
 
 32. ha^ for have. A frequent dialectic abbreviation, but not 
 found often in good prose. See above, line 9, //«'«'/ = have not. 
 
 33. Menelaus or Agamemnon. The two Greek commanders 
 in the Trojan war, and so the greatest personages in Homer's 
 poem. 
 
 Theocrittts. The passage alluded to is in Theocr. Id. xxv. 51. 
 
 Page 105. 
 
 5. civil, i.e. courteous, polished. 
 
 8. Virgil. The poet Vergil enjoyed much favour at court, 
 but took no advantage of it. His poems on agricultural and 
 pastoral subjects are the Eclogues and the Georgics. 
 
 15. describing Evander. The description is in Verg. A^n. viii. 
 
 365- 
 
 19. eves, i.e. eaves. 
 
 24. Escurial. A village six leagues from Madrid, made famous 
 by a palace of the King of Spain. 
 
 Louvre. The palace of the kings of France in Paris. 
 
 25. IVhitehal. One of the palaces of the English king in the 
 days of Cowley. It is now transformed into a Royal chapel. 
 
 31. Alcides. Hercules, who was the grandson of Alceus. 
 
 Page 106. 
 
 6. lit nos etc. * that he may help us in writing letters.' 
 
 8. Sabin, or Tiburtin mannor. Horace was presented by 
 Mtecenas with a small Sabine farm (2 Sat. vi. i) situate at the 
 village of Mandela, not far from the river Digentia. He afterwards 
 bought or hired a house at Tibur (the modern Tivoli). 
 
NOTES. 227 
 
 21. Qui, quid c&c. 'Who tells us more plainly and better 
 than Chrysippus and Grantor (professors of philosophy) what is 
 beauteous, what is base, what useful and what not so.' The words 
 are from Horace, Epist. i. 2. 4. 
 
 28. in Martiars, Such are the Epigrams, bk. ill. 58, ^ Ad 
 Basstim,'' bk. IV. 89, ' De Rusticatione'' and many others. 
 
 Page 107. 
 
 14. poison of Assyrian pride. Assyrian is probably intended 
 for Syria)i here. The dyes meant would be those of Sidon and 
 Tyre in Phoenicia. On the frequency of the confusion between the 
 two names cf. Drackenb. ad Sil. It. ii. 40. 
 
 Page 108. 
 
 3. Astnra. A fabled daughter of Jupiter and Themis. She 
 came to dwell among men in the golden age as the goddess of 
 Justice, but their crimes drove her back again to heaven. Cowley 
 in his poem on the king's return out of Scotland {Sylva^ p. 40) says 
 with the somewhat gross flattery of the times : 
 
 'Yet while our Charles with equal balance reigns 
 'Twixt Mercy and Asima, and maintains 
 A noble peace, 'tis he, 'tis only he 
 Who is most near, most like the deity.' 
 
 24. Tempe. A valley of Thessaly, lying between Mt. Ossa and 
 Mt. Olympus. The river Peneus flowed through it, and its exquisite 
 beauty and the peaceful character of the whole vale are much cele- 
 brated by the classic poets. 
 
 Page 109. 
 
 7. gowned war. The law-courts are spoken of as scenes of 
 'gowned war', because the gown is a part of the barrister's dress 
 when pleading. 
 
 18. Tyrian beds. The luxury of Tyre, and especially the 
 splendour of the robes and furniture of Tyrians, are well known. 
 Cf. Tyrii amictiis , Ov. A. A. ii. 297. Tyrio inurice saturata palla, 
 Ov. Met. II. 166. Tyria purpura, Cic. Contra Verre?n, v. 56. 
 Also Tertullian De hahitjt vuilieb. chap. I. 
 
 drink in gold. We much more frequently now say ' drink 
 outof go\di\ from golden cups. But cf. Shakes. 2 Hen. VI. Act 4. 
 10, where speaking of a 'sallet' or helmet Cade says, 'Many a time 
 when I have been dry and bravely marching, it has served me 
 instead of a quart pot to drink in.' 
 
 Page no. 
 
 12. Amidst his equal friends, i.e. friends of the same age. A 
 common sense of the Latin aqualis. Cf. Gal. i. 14, 'And I profited 
 in the Jews' religion above many my equals in mine own nation.' 
 
 19. old Hetrurian virtue. Etruria (called also Tuscia) was 
 celebrated in early times for its forwardness in culture. Actors 
 
 15 — 2 
 
228 NOTES. 
 
 were brought from Etruria to Rome (Livy vii. 2), also the Romans 
 were taught Tuscan literature (Livy ix. 36). 
 
 20. Sabins. The Sabines are a type of hardiness and simplicity 
 in all the Roman authors, Livy i. 18, talks of 'disciplina tetrica ac 
 tristis veterum Sabinorum.' 
 
 21. Kemiis, and the god, his brother. Romulvis the founder of 
 Rome and the brother of Remus is said to have been carried away 
 from the earth in a storm of thunder and lightning, and was worship- 
 ped afterwards under the name of Quirinus. 
 
 22. grew the world's head, i.e. 'grew to be the head of the 
 world ' Cf. Shakes. Cor. iv. 4, 21, 
 
 'So fellest foes... shall gi'otv dear friends.' 
 
 24. poor Saturn^ s golden days. So called because in (he golden 
 age when Saturn reigned poverty was the rule among men and 
 virtue with it. 
 
 Page m. 
 
 9. marriageable vine. So styled because it must he attached 
 to some other tree as its prop. 
 
 16. agin. Agin and Agen are not infrequent forms in earlier 
 English for again. So {Sylva, p. 41) 'Great Charles is come agen.' 
 It is also found in the earlier editions of Dryden, but the printers 
 have in later times changed the spelling. 
 
 19. tise, i.e. the interest, return, produce on his labours. Cf. 
 Selden, Table Talk, tisury, 'The Jews were forbidden to take iise 
 one of another.' See also Cowley, Miscellanies, p. 7 : 
 
 'Thus he in arts so vast a treasure gain'd 
 Whilest still the use came in, and stock remained.' 
 
 Page 112. 
 
 17. sunburnt Sabins. See above p. no, 1. 20. 
 
 18. Apulia. Horace could speak with authority of the frugal 
 life of Apulia, his birthplace being Venusia, a border town between 
 Lucania and Apulia. 
 
 22. to pin the shcepfold. We use now the form 'pen.' 
 
 23. against, i.e. in expectation of the time when (he will 
 come). Cf. Shakes. Mids. Nt.''s Dream, ill. 2, 99, 
 
 ' I'll charm his eyes against she do appear.' 
 29. htstful shell-fish. 'Lustful' seems here to be used in the 
 sense of 'ministering to appetite.' There is no adjective in the 
 Latin. Juvenal tells (iv. 140) how the epicure of his day could 
 distinguish at the first mouthful where an oyster had been reared. 
 
 31. ortolans nor godwits. Ortolan. Said to be derived from 
 L. hortulajiHSf and to signify a bird which frequents garden hedges. 
 The godwit, another bird, is said to derive its name from its good 
 flavour. 
 
 Page 113. 
 I. The Version begins from line 79 of the Satire of Horace. 
 
NOTES. 229 
 
 5. careful of the main. Lat. attenhis gtKrsifis, i.e. careful of 
 what he had stored ; looking after the main chance. 
 
 10. belighted, i.e. 'alighted.' 
 
 15. fitches, i.e. vetches. So in the Bible we find 'fats' for 
 'vats.' 
 
 peason, i.e. peas. The *on' is the old plural termination and 
 is still heard in some English counties. Cf. also, Puttenham's Arte 
 of Poesie (Arber), p. 125: 
 
 'All is but a jest, all dust, all not worth two peasoii, 
 For why, in man's matters is neither rime nor reason.' 
 
 18. hatit goust. For 'haut gout.' See above p. 58, 1. 31. 
 
 19. the swerd of bacon. 'Swerd' with the variants 'sword' and 
 'swarth' is applied to the outer skin of swine, and to the grass- 
 covered surface of the ground. It is the A. S. sweard. For its 
 use cf. Brewer, Lingua., Act ii. Sc. i. 
 
 ' They would use no other bucklers in war, but shields of brawn, 
 brandish no swords but swords of bacon.' 
 
 Page 114. 
 
 24. Phoebus into Thetis'' bosonie fell. A poetic figure for sunset. 
 Phoebus is the sun-god, Thetis a sea-nymph, here named to represent 
 the ocean. 
 
 27. troth. Another orthography of 'truth,' which by its form 
 keeps in mind the derivation from the verb ' to trow. ' 
 
 Page 115. 
 
 7. Mortlackc's noble loom. In the reign of King James I. the 
 manufacture of tapestry was set up at Mortlake in Surrey, and the 
 king is said to have given two thousand pounds towards the 
 undertaking. (Cf. Rymer's Fcedera, XVIII. p. (dd) The works 
 at Mortlake, which at first followed the old patterns of the Nether- 
 lands, were afterwards supplied by Francis Cleyn with fresh designs, 
 both historical and grotesque, and the manufacture was brought to 
 great perfection. 
 
 5. pale meridies of the night. 'Meridies,' properly 'mid-day', 
 is here used for the middle time of night. Cynthia, i.e. the moon, 
 had passed through half her nightly course. 
 
 17. //z' industrious peasant. The country mouse has brought 
 with him the diligence of his previous life, and employs it well. 
 
 19. %vell-fraighted. We write now 'freighted.' 
 
 Page 116. 
 
 Ii. priesfs service. In which, as the priest had for his share 
 much of the honied cakes of the offerings, the diet of the servant 
 would be largely made up of such food. 
 
 16. cliuse, i.e. choose. Written in the usual form p. 117, 1. jj. 
 
230 NOTES. 
 
 ■20. 'The mad celestial dog' is Sirius the dog-star, which is in 
 the ascendant when the hot weather called the dog-days prevails. 
 •The lyon ' in the same way refers to the constellation 'Leo.' 
 
 Page 117. 
 
 8. right gems. Of a perfect quality and purity. Cf. Shakes. 
 As You like /t, in. 2. 127, 'That's the ng/it virtue of the medlar.' 
 
 Page 118. 
 
 7. // burns, i.e. causes inflammation. It is a literal translation 
 of the Latin 'urit.' 
 
 17. Blest be the tnaii dr. These lines are a translation from 
 Cowley's own Latin at the beginning of Bk. iv. of his Sex Libri 
 Plantaru/n. As a specimen of his Latinity, the text is given : 
 
 Felix, quern misera procul ambitione remotum, 
 
 Parvus ager placide parvus et liortus alit. 
 Prscbet ager quicquid frugi Natura requirit. 
 
 Hortus habet quicquid luxurii-sa petit. 
 Cajtera sollicilse speciosa incommoda vitse 
 
 Permittit stultis quserere, habere malis. 
 Talis erat magni niemoratu digna Maronis 
 
 Corycii quondam vita beata senis. 
 Talis (crediderim) tarn laitus et impiger hortis 
 
 Dives in exiguis Abdalonimus erat. 
 Illutn damnosas runcantem gnaviter herl;as 
 
 Ecce alj Alexandre rcge satelles adit. 
 Accipe Sidonii, vir magne, insignia regni 
 
 Sceptrum, ait, et niiiram, Sidoniamque togani. 
 Missus in imperiuni lantum (quis credat ?) amabam 
 
 Dicitiu" invitus deseruishe casam. 
 Respicit ille geniens hortum : Meliora relinquo, 
 
 Heu, ait, infelix deteriora sequor. 
 Talis erat generi huniano vix nomine notus 
 
 Aglaus in parvo Dis bene notus agro. 
 Namque Gyges Lydas, regum ditissimus oliin, 
 
 Impius et scelerum prosperitate tumens. 
 Ecquis, ait, toto me fortunatior orbe est? 
 
 Hie Clariiun est ausus voce rogare deum. 
 Numen adulari nescit; feiicior, iuquit 
 
 Aglaus. Ille furens, Aglaus iste quis est? 
 An sit eo quisquam rex nomine quserit? At illo 
 
 Rex certe dictus nomine nullus erat. 
 An sit eo quisquam dux belli nomine clarus, 
 
 Aut superis tracta nobilitate potens? 
 Anne aliquis pra;dives opum nulloque periclo 
 
 Inter inexhaustas luxuriosus opes? 
 Nullus erat talis generis .splendore, vel armis, 
 
 Divitiisve potens ; Aglaus iste quis est? 
 At tandem Arcadiie vix nota in valle repertus, 
 
 (Arcadas alta quies umbraque densa tegit.) 
 Strenuus exigui cultor prope Psophida fundi 
 
 (Psophida .sed tantum viderat ille semel.) 
 Invidia regum dignissinuis ille rejjertus, 
 
 Teste deo felix, Aglaus ille fuit. 
 Talis, niagne dcus, (si te mihi dicere fas sit 
 
 Ridicidorum inter iiomina vana deum) 
 Talis, vere dcus, nunc inclinautibus annis 
 
 Sit, precor, setatis scena suprema meie, 
 
NOTES. 231 
 
 Finis inutiliuni mihi sit, precor, ilia laborum 
 
 Jactatae statio firma sit ilia rati. 
 Sic mea caelestem praegustet vita quietem, 
 
 Dormiat et montem discat amare suum. 
 
 28. the old Corycian yeoman. The allusion is to Vergil Gcorg. 
 IV. 127 and following lines. Corycus was a town in Cilicia. 
 
 Page 119. 
 
 I. Abdolonymus. A gardener (mentioned by Quintus Curtius 
 IV. I. 19 and by Justin XI. 10. 8) who was of royal descent, though 
 he lived in retirement. The ' great emperour ' was Alexander the 
 Great, who made him king of Sidon. 
 
 II. Aglaus, a poor man of Psophis in Arcadia. Gyges was 
 king of Lydia. The story, which is found in Pliny H. N. vii. 47 
 and in Valerius Maximus vii. i. 2, is told in the text. 
 
 14. consigned. The verb 'consign' is now most commonly 
 used in a bad sense, e.g. 'consigned to perdition.' But cf. Jer. 
 Taylor, Great Exemplai', pt. i. 6, 'By baptism we are consigned to 
 the mercies of God.' 
 
 34. Sopho, i.e. Psophis. 
 
 Page 120. 
 
 6. foolish gods. The heathen divinities, of which mention is 
 made in the stories just narrated. 
 
 1 1 . earnest. A pledge in the present of something to happen 
 in the future. Thus a quiet life here is to be the pledge of heavenly 
 rest hereafter. See also p. 122, 1. 30, and cf. Shakes. Macb. i. 3. 104, 
 
 'And for an earnest of a greater honour 
 He bade me call thee thane of Cawdor.' 
 
 V. The Garden. 
 
 Page 121. 
 
 13. siudiis <bc. 'To Hourish in pursuits of inglorious case.' 
 From Verg. Georg. iv. 564. 
 
 This essay is addressed to Mr John Evelyn, the author of the 
 famous diary, to which reference has been already made, p. 20, 1. i. 
 He had published in 1664 his Kalendarium Hortense, to which he 
 prefixed a letter to Cowley, alluded to p. 122, 1. 17 — 19. The 
 present essay is Cowley's acknowledgement. 
 
 20. inn. A hired house is so called by Cowley, because he 
 cannot treat it and its surroundings as if they were his own. 
 
 Page 122. 
 
 5. The quotation is from Genesis xix. 10, and the allusions are 
 to the history of Lot's flight from Sodom. 
 
232 AZOTES. 
 
 9. Pindaj'ical. In the style of Pindar. HighfloAvn and fanci- 
 ful. 
 
 II. like a chymist. In the infancy of chemistry many of the 
 experiments were probably failures, and the alchemist never found 
 his great end, the philosopher's stone. 
 
 19. as long as months and years. Being a calendar, and 
 guiding the works of the garden, which were unchanging. 
 
 26. to the main. To have the chief part of the estate, i.e. to 
 be specially distinguished above the rest of your literary progeny. 
 
 29. that book, which you are pleased to promise. The allusion 
 is to the ' Compleat Gardener,' which, however, Evelyn did not give 
 to the world fur nearly 30 years, viz. in 1695. 
 
 Page 124. 
 
 8. a Louvre or Escurial. See above p. 105, 1. 24. 
 
 10. Babel. ' Whose top may reach unto heaven,' Gen. xi. 4. 
 
 20. the first city Cain. Gen. iv. 17. Cowley is never weary of 
 repeating this. See above p. 61, 1. 16. 
 
 24. lion-star. The constellation Leo. See p. 116, 1. 20, and 
 also on the dog- star, mentioned in the next line. 
 
 Page 125. 
 
 9. poets live unthout reward or thanks. Cowley's own case was 
 an instance in point, and the words are no doubt written with that 
 feeling. 
 
 13. base. We now write ' bass, ' but thereby obscure the meaning 
 and connexion of the word, as the foundation part of the entire 
 harmony. 
 
 16. theorbo. A kind of musical shell fitted with strings, from 
 the Fr. theorbe. Cf. Drayton, Polyolbion 4 : 
 
 ' Some that delight to touch the sterner wiry chord 
 The cythern, the pandore, and the theorbo strike.' 
 
 See also Evelyn's Diary, 11 July, 1654, 'At All Souls where we 
 had music, voices and theorbos performed by some ingenious scholars.' 
 
 27. See Verg. yEn. I. 691—694. 
 
 Page 126. 
 
 8. female men. Alluding to effeminate, scented dandies. 
 
 10. Epicurus. See above p. 76, 1. 5. Cowley hints in the 
 words which follow that Epicurus' meaning, when he called 
 pleasure the chief good, ought to be interpreted by his definition of 
 what pleasure is. 
 
 1 7. Vitellius his table. On this manner of forming a possessive 
 case, see above p. 16, 1. 7. 
 
 Aulus Vitellius, a Roman officer duruig the reigns of Tiberius, 
 Caligula, Claudius and Nero. His great talent was eating and 
 drinking, and he spent enormous sums of money on the pleasures of 
 
NOTES. 233 
 
 the table. Hence his table is called ' fiscal ' partly because of its 
 costliness, and partly because it taxed largely the resources of the 
 whole empire for its supply. 
 
 28. listed^ enlisted, included in a list. 
 
 30. the third story high. Because the dessert, consisting of 
 fruits, formed the third course at dinner in Cowley's day. 
 
 Page la;. 
 
 3. the great Hebrew king, i.e. Solomon. The allusions which 
 follow are to his entertainment of the Queen of Sheba. Sheba was 
 probably part of Arabia, hence it lay south of Judaea. On the 
 history, see i Kings x. Assyria and Babylonia were wealthy nations 
 in Solomon's day, and he drew much of his gold and precious stones 
 from Ophir. 
 
 13. Hirani's princely dy. Hiram, king of Tyre, was a great 
 friend of Solomon, and helped him both in building the Temple 
 and his own dwelling, as well as in fitting out a fleet to go to Ophir. 
 The Tyrians were famous for their skill in dyeing, Tyrian purple 
 being celebrated in all lands. 
 
 23. one, that would not be so rich. The allusion is to Christ's 
 words in the Sermon on the Mount (S. Matth. vi. 29), 'Even 
 Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these (lilies of 
 the field);' 
 
 Page 128. 
 
 I. The arbor vitic, which Cowley assumes to have been the 
 tree which was in Paradise. 
 
 21. staff and shield. The corn from which bread, the staff of 
 life, is made, and the simples, herbs, which cure, as Cowley says, 
 nearly every kind of disease. 
 
 27. the third dafs volume of the book. The book of creation 
 (Gen. i.) tells how on the third day, grass, herbs and fruit-trees 
 were created. 
 
 28. intend, 'to stretch,' 'strain,' ' exert to the full.' Hence a 
 person earnestly gazing is said to be ' intent ' upon something. 
 
 Page 129. 
 
 I. the flowers of heaven. The stars. It was held that the stars 
 influenced the destiny oi men, and that according to the ascendency 
 of certain planets at their birth, such would men's fortune in life be. 
 Hence arose what was known as judicial astrology, and the fortune- 
 telling after this sort has not entirely died out. Cowley with his 
 love for plants, and a knowledge of their medicinal properties, 
 suggests that these 'stars of earth' have more to do with the welfare 
 of mankind than the stars in heaven. 
 
 27. The allusion is to the sportive nymph, Galatea, described 
 in Verg. Georg. ill. 64 — 72. 
 
234 NOTES. 
 
 Page 130. 
 
 1. Daphne's coyness. In the mythological story, Daphne, the 
 daughter of the river-god Peneus, was changed into a laurel-tree to 
 escape from Apollo (Ovid, Met. i. 452). Cowley uses her name to 
 designate the laurel. 
 
 7. Diodesian. The Emperor of Rome, a.d. 284. The early 
 part of his reign was signalized by much severity. He resigned the 
 imperial power in A.D. 305, and lived in retirement at Salona in 
 Dalmatia, near which place he had been born. Aurelius Victor 
 {de C(BS. 39 Epit. 39) has preserved the story of his being urged to 
 resume his throne once more. To this request he answered, 'If you 
 could see the vegetables planted by my own hands at Salona, you 
 would never think of urging such a petition.' 
 
 20. rod, i.e. rode. 
 
 VI. Of Greatness. 
 
 Page 131. 
 
 2. Sieiir de Montagne. Michael Eyquem de Montaigne, born 
 1533, was a famous French moral philosopher. His most famous 
 work is his 'P'.ssays'. He died in 1592. His Essays are greatly 
 characterised by the tone of jesting manifest in the sentence which 
 Cowley quotes. Montaigne's words are (Bk. iii. chap. 7), 
 ' puisque nous ne la pouvons atteindre, vengeons nous a en mesdire.' 
 
 10. convinced, i.e. convicted, proved guilty. Cf. St John viii. 
 46, ' Which of you convinccth vie of sinV Also St James ii. 9, ' Ye 
 commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors. ' 
 
 Page 132. 
 
 3. Di bene fccenint dr. Horace SaL I. 4. 17, 'The gods have 
 acted kindly in making me of a poor and lowly mind.' 
 
 12. dona roba. A term in the mouths of swaggerers to signify 
 a grandly handsome woman. Cf. Shakes. 2 Hen. IV. ill. 2. 26, 
 
 'We knew where the bona robas were.' 
 Florio's Dictionary. Buona robba, as we say ' good stuff,' i.e. a 
 good wholesome plump-cheeked wench. 
 15. Parvnla d'c. Lucr. iv. 1158, 
 
 • A tiny, a fairy, one of the Graces, all pure sparkling wit.' 
 
 18. Seneca the elder, i.e. Marcus Annteus Seneca, father of the 
 more famous Seneca, the tutor of Nero. Seneca the elder was born 
 at Corduba in Spain, and was famous as a rhetorician in the times 
 of Augustus and Tiberius. The writings of Seneca have come down 
 
NOTES. 235 
 
 to us only in fragments. The account of Senecio which Cowley 
 repeats is found in the Stiasoriariaii Liber Suas. 11. 
 
 30. horse- plums. The prefix 'horse' is added to various terms 
 to indicate unusxial size, as 'horse-radish,' 'horse-chestnut,' 'horse- 
 laugh.' Similar use was made of ^ovs,=ox, in Greek. Cf. ^ovXifxia, 
 ^ovirats, ^ov(pdyos. So 'pound-pears' are named because of their 
 unusual weight of a pound each. 
 
 32. chiopins. From the Italian cioppini. A kind of high shoe 
 worn by ladies. Spelt also 'chopine' and 'chippine.' Cf. Shakes. 
 Ham. II. 1. 447, 'Your ladyship is nearer to heaven than when I 
 saw you last, by the altitude of a c/wpine.' 
 
 So Ben Jonson, Cynthia s Revels, ii. 2, 'I do wish myself one 
 of my mistresse's cioppini. ' 
 
 And Fuller's Worthies, Wales generally, 'After she has put off 
 her lofty attire, and high chippines, she almost pares away herself to 
 nothing.' 
 
 Page 133. 
 
 I. cognomentum. Using a longer word, instead of a short one, 
 after the fashion of Senecio's mania. 
 
 Page 134. 
 
 1. the keeping of little singing birds. The allusion is to one of 
 the amusements of Louis xiii. of France. 
 
 7. gods too. Because they were each at death styled divus. 
 See also below on 1. 31 and p. 135, 1. 9, 14. 
 
 10. in catching of flics. This is said (Sueton. Doniitian 3) to 
 have been the frequent occupation of the Emperor Domitian. So 
 that it was wittily remarked by Vibius Crispus, when the inquiry 
 was made whether any one was in the emperor's room, 'Not even 
 a fly.' 
 
 12. Beelzebub. The name signifies ' lord of flies.' 
 
 22. divine voice. Vox eeriest is was the language which the 
 imperial flatterers applied to Nero's singing. See Tac. Ann. xvi. 
 22 ; XIV. 15 ; Suet. Nero, 21. 
 
 26. the Cccsarian race of deities. Nero was the last of the 
 emperors sprung from the family of Csesar. Their names were 
 Julius, Augustus, Tiberius, Caius (Caligula), Claudius, Nero. 
 
 28. Alas dfc. ' Qualis artifex pereo ! ' (Suet. Nero, 49). 
 
 31. madnesses of Caligula's delight. The disorder of Caligula's 
 brain was shewn by his appearance in public in the garb of a god, 
 as Bacchus, Apollo, Jupiler, or even Venus and Diana. He placed 
 himself between the statues of Castor and Pollux and commanded 
 people to worship him. His madness also manifested itself in his 
 extravagant expenditure. 
 
 32. sordidness of Tiberius. Cowley here alludes to the life of 
 Tiberius in his retirement at Capreiie. He was surrounded by a 
 troop of Chaldaean soothsayers in whom he put great confidence, 
 and gave himself up to unnatural excesses. Cf. Suet. 71b. 431 — 45. 
 
236 NOTES. 
 
 Page 135. 
 
 3. iwunding-stones, i.e. stones M'hich could be tossed about 
 and made to rebound. Suetonius in his life of Augustus, (98), says 
 that apples, cakes, and other things were thrown about in this 
 imperial hilarity. 
 
 19. cafes, dainties, delicious food. Cf. Shakes. Coin, of Errors, 
 III. 1. 28, 'Though my cates be mean, take them in good part.' 
 
 34. ivanscot. We now write wainscot. 
 
 Page 136. 
 
 18. sed quantum dtc. Verg. Georg. 11. 291. 
 27. cousenage. We write now cozenage. 
 
 29. Mancipiis <&c. Horace Epist. T. 6. 39. The line is sub- 
 stantially translated below. 
 
 Page 137. 
 
 15. Says Solomon. Eccl. V. ir, 'When goods increase, they 
 are increased that eat them.' 
 
 17. like Ocnus in the fable. The reference is to an allegorical 
 picture by Polygnotus, mentioned by Pausanias X. 29. 2, and by 
 Pliny, Hist. Nat. xxxv. 31 (11). 
 
 25. Pic of TeJiariff. The P'rench form of the word Pic had 
 not in Cowley's time given place to the English Peak. 
 
 31. Ossa upon Olympus. See above on p. 32, 1. 14. 
 
 Page 138. 
 
 3. the late gyant of our nation. The allusion is to Oliver 
 Cromwell, on whose career, and Cowley's opinion thereon, see 
 above, 'Discourse by way of vision' with the notes. 
 
 20. an idol is nothing in the world, i Cor. viii. 4. 
 
 Page 140. 
 
 7. Damocles. A flatterer of the elder Dionysius the tyrant of 
 Syracuse. On one occasion Damocles had been praising the 
 felicity of Dionysius, whereupon the latter invited him to a magnifi- 
 cent banquet, but in the midst of the entertainment Damocles 
 discovered a naked sword suspended above his head by a single hair. 
 Thus did the tyrant forcibly demonstrate the real character of the 
 happiness which had been so much lauded. 
 
 13, over-noise. Ue noisy enough to drive away your fears. The 
 word is an unusual one. 
 
NOTES. 237 
 
 Page 141. 
 
 3. Lef Mars and Satuni.. .conjoyn- An allusion to the suppc'sed 
 influence of the stars on the fortunes of mankind. The Martial and 
 Saturnine conjunction in the sky might portend war and trouble, 
 but the Jovial influence within the man's heart is superior to all 
 external powers and nothing can disturb him. 
 
 VII. Of Avarice. 
 
 Page 142. 
 
 4. refunding. In the literal sense of the Lat. refiindere^ ' to 
 pour back again.' 
 
 12. excern. To separate, to draw away. So Bacon, On 
 Learnings bk. IV. c. 3, ' The body of a living creature assimilates 
 that which is good, for it excerneth what is unprofitable.' Also Ray, 
 On the Creatioit, pt. 2, speaks of ' humours excerncd by sweat.' 
 Here Cowley means that the covetous man derives from his wealth 
 something which he thinks satisfactory. 
 
 Page 143. 
 
 7. Desiint d'c. Cowley is mistaken in assigning these words to 
 Ovid. They are found in the Controversice of the elder Seneca, VII. 
 3. (Basil, 1557, p. 609). 
 
 12. Somebody says, St Paul, 2 Cor. vi. 10. 
 
 13. antipode. In the sense of 'opposite,' 'contrary.' I have 
 not met with the singular anywhere else. 
 
 18. The rich poor man &c. \Yith the exception of a transposi- 
 tion of the two adjectives, we have the line (in the same sense) p. 
 146, 1. 27. 
 
 Page 144. 
 
 2. Horace's first satire. The passage translated is I. i. 1 — 79. 
 
 Page 145. 
 
 5. pismire. The ant or emmet. So called in line 15 below. 
 
 8. strait. Straightway, at once. 
 
 Page 147. 
 
 20. almighty-ship. A word apparently coined by Cowley, in 
 the sense of 'omnipotence.' 
 
 Page 148. 
 
 3. The prudent Macedonian king. Philip of Macedon, father 
 of Alexander the Great. His boast was that no town was impreg- 
 
238 NOTES. 
 
 liable into which an ass laden with ^old could be introduced. Cicero 
 gives the story, ad Attic lun I. 16. 12. 
 
 5. petal'. We now write 'petard.' The Italian is peiardo. 
 It was an engine, charged with explosives, and used for bursting 
 open strong gates. So Drayton, Battle of Agincotirt, 
 'The engineer providing the petard 
 To break the strong portcuUice.' 
 Also Shakes. Hamlet, in. 4. 207, 
 
 'To have the engineer hoist with his own pctar.'' 
 
 10. creattire, i.e. subject, owning it for a master. Cf. Shakes. 
 Tim. I. I. 116, 'This fellow here, lord Timon, this \\vj creattireh'^ 
 night frequents my house.' 
 
 ■21. The vast Xerxcaii army. Cowley compares towns and 
 courts, with their crowds, to the army which Xerxes led to Ther- 
 mopylse, and which is said to have numbered 5,283,220. These 
 were resisted and defeated in the pass of Thermopylae by Leonidas, 
 king of Sparta, and the Laconian troops, numbering about 5,000, 
 of whom 300 were from Sparta. These the poet compares to the 
 poor who 'hold the streights of poverty.' 
 
 24. Sellers, i.e. cellars. 
 
 27. See above on p. 143, 1. 18. 
 
 VIII. The Dangers of an Honest Man in much 
 
 Company. 
 
 Page 150. 
 
 5. cap a pe, i.e. cap a pie, from head to foot. 
 II. campagne. The level plain country, li. campagna. Other 
 forms of the word are ' champain,' ' champaign.' 
 
 Page 151. 
 
 13. Toupinaiiibaltians. A people formei-ly dwelling in Central 
 America, near Brazil. Their name is variously written, Tupini)nhie^ 
 TupinambcP, Tovopinambantii, Toropinambuti^ and Toiipinamboiis. 
 See Moreri's Lexicon, under the last form. 
 
 Page 152. 
 
 I. topick. A general idea. The word comes from the Gk. 
 TOTToi, which Cicero (7^/. ii. 8) translates by 'loci' and defines 
 thus, ' loci, e quibus argumenta promuntur,' also as ' argumenti 
 sedes.' 
 
 9. Go to dbc. Gen. xi. 4. 
 
 13. a concourse of thieves. Romulus offered an asylum to all 
 those who from other places chose to take refuge with him. The 
 other allusions in the sentence are to the birds seen by Romulus and 
 
NOTES. 239 
 
 Remus when they were looking for omens at the foundation of the 
 city, and to the slaying of Remus by his brother. 
 
 17. first toxvn. See on p. 61, 1. 16. 
 
 30. at all pieces. We now more usually say 'at all points.' 
 
 Page 153. 
 
 13. Quid Romcc d;c. 'What can I do at Rome? I don't know 
 how to lie.' From Juv. Sat. ill. 41. 
 
 22. Honest and poor d'c. Martial, £pi^. iv. 5, 'Vir bonus et 
 pauper &c.' 
 
 Page 154. 
 
 3. Lucretius. The allusion is to Lucr. ii. i. 
 
 'Suave mari magno turbantibus sequora ventis 
 E terra magnum alterius spectare laborem.' 
 
 6. Democritiis. The philosopher of Abdera. He flourished 
 about 430 B.C. He was famed among other things for looking 
 ever at the cheerful or comical side of affairs. 
 
 10. Bedlam, i.e. Bethlehem hospital, for the insane. See 
 above p. 23, 1. 10. 
 
 28. ut nee facta d'c. A quotation from Cicero ad Afficum^ 
 XV. II. 3. 
 
 33. qua terra pafet (&c. Ovid, Met. I. 241. 
 
 Page 155. 
 
 3. As the Scripture speaks. See r Kings xxi. 20; 2 Kings 
 xvii. 17; Rom. vii. 14. 
 
 10. Sir Philip Sydney. The famous Elizabethan soldier and 
 writer, a friend and contemporary of Spenser, who dedicated more 
 than one of his works to him. The Countess' of Feinbroke's Arcadia 
 is the pastoral romance alluded to by Cowley, in which rural life 
 is painted as of unbroken felicity. 
 
 11. Monsieur d' Urfe. Honore d'Urfe, count of Chateauneuf, 
 born 1572, wrote a romance called Astrcea^ something in the same 
 style as Sydney's Arcadia. The scene is laid on the river Lignon, 
 a tributary of the Loire in La Forrest 
 
 14. Chertsea. Now written Chertsey. It is a small town in 
 Surrey, on the Thames, where Cowley retired towards the close of 
 his life. 
 
 19. in the Court (&c. i.e. among courtiers or merchants, or the 
 legal crowd that throng Westminster-hall. 
 
 24. St PauVs advice, i Cor. vii. 29. 
 
 28. mundum ducere. Here Cowley alludes to a Latin mode of 
 expression. When a man marries he is said uxorem dticere, i.e. 'to 
 lead ' (as if he were the head) his wife ; whereas the woman was 
 said marito tiubere, ' to veil or cover herself ' for her husband, and thus 
 admit his superiority. Thus Cowley says men must bear themselves 
 to the world. They must lead not follow. 
 
240 NOTES. 
 
 Page 156. 
 
 r. The passage is from Claudii Claudiani Epigraminata ir. 
 
 26. Benaciis. A lake in Gallia Transpadana, not far from 
 Verona. But near though it be the old man has not seen it, any 
 more than the Red Sea. 
 
 27. a third age. That is, he lives to be known among his 
 grandchildren. 
 
 IX. The Shortness of Life and Uncertainty of 
 
 Riches. 
 
 Page 157. 
 
 14. Pas de Vie. The strait (narrow term) of life, as the narrow 
 strip of water at the Straits of Dover is named the Pas de Calais. 
 More force still is given to the remark when it is remembered that 
 pas = Q. step. 
 
 16. Pindar. Pythian Viii. 135. 
 
 17. Ou7' Saviour botcnds our desires. By teaching us to pray 
 only for daily bread. Also (Matth. vi. 34) 'Take no (undue) thought 
 for the morrow.' 
 
 Page 158. 
 
 2. tarn hrevi &c. Adapted from Horace, Odes II. 16. 17. 
 
 4. Millenaries. The Millenarians, or Chiliasts, believed that 
 Christ would come to reign with His saints a thousand years upon 
 earth. This was to take place before the general resurrection, 
 though there must be a resurrection of the saints preceding it. 
 Their notion was founded upon the 20th chapter of the Apocalypse. 
 
 5. the patriarchs. Their lives were very long. The longest is 
 that of Methuselah (Gen. v. 27), which was 969 years. 
 
 21. As we are taught. Psalm xc. 12. 
 
 27. Spatio brevi dJc. The passage, which is translated in the 
 next line, is from Horace Odes i. 11. 6. 
 
 33. Vitce summa d'c. From Horace, Odes i. 4. 16. 
 
 34. 0! quanta (&c. 'Oh, how great is the madness of those 
 who lay the foundation of long hopes.' 
 
 Page 159. 
 
 2. Settecio, see above p. r32, 1. 19. 
 
 ir. Insere (&c. Verg. Ed. i. 73. 
 
 13. graff. We now write 'graft.' For the older foim cf. 
 Rom. xi. 23, 'God is able to ^/v?^ them in.' Cf. also 'engraft' below 
 p. 160, 1. 23. 
 
 17. poor rich man in St Luke. Luke xii. 16 — 20. 
 
NOTES. 241 
 
 Page 161. 
 
 I. husband. A thrifty person, an economist. Cf. Shakes. 
 Taming of the Shretu v. i. 71, ' While I play the good husband at 
 home, my son and my servant spend all.' 
 
 II. /raz/a//, i.e. travel. 
 
 X. The Danger of PROCRAS'ftNATioN. 
 
 Page 163. 
 
 7. ierugo mem, i.e. 'nought but rust.' 
 
 14. cuvi dignitate othun. 'Ease with dignity.' 
 
 15. Joshua. Alluding to Josh. X. 12. 
 
 19. two sixes. The highest throw of the dice, and so making a 
 man a winner. 
 
 Page 164. 
 
 4. Idomeneus. He was of Lampsacus, and was a disciple and 
 friend of Epicurus. (See Diog. Laert. X. 23. 25.) 
 
 27. iitere veils. Juvenal I. 149. 
 
 30. beaten up, \. e. attacked, broken into. 
 
 31. ba7td, A neckcloth and collar. 
 
 Page 165. 
 
 I. Festina lente, i.e. hasten slowly. 
 
 7. sapere aude. Horace, Epist. i. 2. 40. The whole passage 
 is translated 1. 17 etc. 
 
 II. portajn dc. From Varro, De re rustic a, i. 2. 2. 
 
 Page i66. 
 
 3. Jam eras dr. Persius Sat. v. 68. , , 1.. j 
 
 14. Triarii. Soldiers in a Roman army, who formed the third 
 rank from the front, and so did not come into the conflict so soon as 
 those of the two foremost ranks. Hence the remark in the text. 
 
 Page 167. 
 
 5. preposterous. According to the literal meaning of the Lat. 
 prcEpostertis : reversing the order of things, putting the last first. 
 
 XI. Of Myself. 
 
 Page 169. 
 10. An ode. The quotation below is from Cowley's Sylvcty and 
 is entitled 'A Vote' by which the author means *a wish' or 'a 
 prayer. ' 
 
 16 
 
 L. C. 
 
242 NOTES. 
 
 Page 170. 
 
 2. Sabine. See above p. no, 1. 20. 
 
 12. out of Horace. Hor. 6*^. ill. 29. 41 — 48. 
 
 Page 171. 
 
 5. violent piihlic storm. It was in 1643, or perhaps the year 
 before, in the midst of the civil war, that Cowley was obliged to leave 
 Cambridge. ^ 
 
 10. one of the best persons. Lord Jermyn, afterwards earl of 
 St Albans. (See Introduction.) 
 
 1 1 . one of the best princesses. Queen Henrietta Maria. 
 
 27. rid, i.e. rode. In a previous passage, p. 130, 1. 20, Cowley 
 wrote rod. 
 
 Page 172. 
 
 3. Well then. This poem is from Cowley's Mistress, and is 
 entitled 'The Wish.' 
 
 Page 173. 
 
 20 Apollo was the god of poetry and music, as well as of 
 prophecy. 
 
 22. Thou neither great. The extract is from the poem on 
 *Destinie' in the Pindarick Odes of Cowley. 
 
 Page 174. 
 
 15. Be7i. That is, Ben Jonson, a later contemporary of Shake- 
 speare, and author of many dramas, the best known of which is 
 'Every Man in his humour.' Jonson died in 1637. 
 
 17. acquit, i.e. accomplish, effect. The verb in this sense is 
 not often found. 
 
 25. No7i ego d'c. Hor. Od. ii. 17. 10. 
 
 Page 175. 
 
 13. qttantum sufficit, i.e. just sufficient. 
 
 19. a vestal flatne. A repetition of the idea 'Let constant fires ' 
 in the previous line. The fire on the altar of Vesta was kept ever- 
 burning. 
 
 27. ana. A term in use in medical prescriptions to signify 
 * equal quantities' of any ingredients. 
 
 Page 176. 
 30. the other three, i. e. the elements of air, earth and water. 
 
 Page 177. 
 
 3. score. Count up and make into a total. The word in 
 modern days is largely confined to the game of cricket. Cf. Shakes. 
 Othello IV. I. 130. Have you jw/v^/me? (i.e. made up my reckon- 
 ing.) 
 
NOTES. 243 
 
 Preface to 'Cutter of Coleman Street.' 
 
 Page 178. 
 
 I. a comedy calVd the Guardian. This was acted in Trinity 
 College before Prince Charles, in March 164^, the prince being then 
 rather less than twelve years old. 
 
 4. the troubles. Euphemistic for 'the civil war and the Common- 
 wealth times.' 
 
 10. this nezu name. Cutter of Coleman Street. Cutter is one 
 of the characters in the play, described in the list of dramatis 
 persona as "a merry, sharking fellow about the town, pretending to 
 have been a Colonel in the King's army." He has a comrade of the 
 same kidney, called Worm. 
 
 Page 179. 
 
 5. twenty years. On Cowley's service to the Royal cause during 
 all the troubles, see ' Introduction.' 
 
 17. ri7;;//««'</, i. e. unbroken, uniform. 
 
 Page 180. 
 
 6. Deacon Soaker. He is one of the characters in the play, and 
 described as 'a little fuddling deacon.' 
 
 12. t7uo sharks. These are Cutter and Worm. 
 
 16. at London. The preposition sounds strange in our ears. 
 We should say 'in London.' 
 
 19. cavaliers. The name given to the adherents of the Royal 
 party in the civil wars. 
 
 33. will take no colour, i.e. cannot be made to wear any 
 semblance of truth. Cf. above p. 142, 1, 18. 
 
 Page 181. 
 
 1. a true gentleman. This character in the play is Colonel 
 Jolly, a gentleman whose estate was confiscated in the late troubles. 
 Mrs Lucia is his niece, left under his guardianship, and the circum- 
 stances alluded to in the preface are those in which the Colonel is 
 tempted to take advantage of his authority as guardian to help him- 
 self out of difficulties by means of her fortune. 
 
 19. allay. We now write 'alloy,' but this is not the older 
 spelling; cf. Ben Jonson, On Vulcan: 
 
 'But thou'lt say, 
 There were some pieces of as base allay 
 And as false stamp there, parcels of a play 
 Fitter to see the firelight than the day ; 
 Adulterate moneys, such as would not go.' 
 
 31. the lees of Romulus, 'faex Romuli'is found in Cicero ad 
 Att. II. I. 8. 
 
 Page 182. 
 
 2. Sed d'c. 'But now was no place for these things.' From 
 Wox^ice Ars Poetica ig. 
 
244 NOTES. 
 
 8. ivhose skulls are not yet bare. In allusion to the custom of 
 placing the heads of great offenders on London Bridge, Temple Bar, 
 or elsewhere, and leaving them to be worn bare by the ravages of 
 birds and the action of the weather. 
 
 14. HarrisorCs return. The reference is to one of Cutter's 
 speeches, in which he is professing to be one of the strictest of the 
 Puritans, and uttering prophecies after the fashion of some of them. 
 
 * I say again, I am to return, and to return upon a purple drome- 
 dary, which signifies Magistracy, with an axe in my hand that is 
 call'd Reformation, and I am to strike with that axe upon the gate 
 of Westminster Hall, and cry, Down Babylon, and the building 
 call'd "Westminster Hall is to run away, and cast itself into the river, 
 and then Major General Harrison is to come in green sleeves from 
 the North upon a sky-coloured Mule, which signifies heavenly 
 instruction. ' 
 
 16. wretchless, i.e. reckless. Cf. Hooker, Sermon (ii. -23) on 
 Jude: *It is want of faith in ourselves, which makes us wretchless in 
 building others.' 
 
 Also Article xvii. in the Book of Common Prayer, '■ wretchlessness 
 of most unclean living.' 
 
 29. plant it almost xvholly with divinity. He alludes no doubt 
 to the largest of his poems, the Davideis, a sacred poem of the 
 troubles of David. No one can read these essays without being 
 struck with the amount of Scriptural allusion and reference which 
 they contain. We need go no farther for an illustration than lines 
 9 and 10 of the next page. 
 
 Page 183. 
 
 13. piece. Not unfrequently used for some work of^art, a 
 picture or a statue. Cf. Shakes. Winter's Tale, v. 2. 104, 'Her 
 mother's statue... a piece many years in doing and now newly 
 performed by that rare Italian master Julio Romano.' 
 
 So Timon of Athens, I. i. 255 (of a picture) 'When dinner's 
 done, shew me this piece. ' 
 
 29. reparations. 'Cutter of Coleman Street' was the result 
 of a remodelling of the former play 'The Guardian.' 
 
 34. Tully says. Cicero's words are [Pis. 2.) 'fors domina 
 campi.' 
 
 Page 184. 
 
 9. hrutals, i.e. brutish persons. An instance of an adjective 
 used as a noun, which has fallen out of the language. Cf. p. 48, 
 1. 16 above on ''intellectuals.^ 
 
 16. the strictest conjurations of a paternal blessing. Meaning 
 
 * I would conjure him, if he desired my blessing, to have done with 
 this folly of poetry.' 
 
 33. Qjii multis &c. The line, which is at once translated, is 
 from Lucretius, de Rer. Nat. iii. 1038. 
 
 Page 185. 
 
 II. Jam dente d'c. 'Now am I less bitten by the tooth 01 
 envy.' Horace, Odes lY. 3. 16. 
 
INDEX TO THE NOTES. 
 
 a, ig7, 212 
 
 Abdolonymus, ■231 
 
 abused, 195 
 
 acquit, 242 
 
 against, 228 
 
 agin, 228 
 
 Aglaus, 231 
 
 Alcides, 226 
 
 Alexander the Great, 206 
 
 allay, 243 
 
 almighty-ship, 237 
 
 ana, 242 
 
 Anti-Paul, 215 
 
 antipode, 237 
 
 Anti Solomon, 208 
 
 Antony, 206 
 
 Apulia, 228 
 
 Aristides, 223 
 
 Aristotle, 188, 212 
 
 arrive, 221 
 
 Assyrian = Syrian, 227 
 
 Astraea, 227 
 
 Atalanta, 214 
 
 Athaliah, 213 
 
 Augustus, 223 
 
 baily, 189 
 
 banditos, 204 
 
 Barebones' Parliament, 199 
 
 base, 232 
 
 ^^aj/= beasts, 190 
 
 Bedlam, 198, 239 
 
 Beel-zebub, 235 
 
 beholding, 224 
 
 belight, to, 229 
 
 Benacus, 240 
 
 blood, circulation of, 190 
 
 bloody cross, 214 
 
 ^ona-roba, 234 
 
 bou7iding-s tones, 236 
 Briareus, 202 
 Bridewell, 219 
 Broom, Alex., 222 
 brother, use of, 196 
 brutals, 244 
 Bucephalus, 223 
 by the by, 195 
 
 Caligula, 235 
 campagne, 238 
 canozv, 204 
 cates, 236 
 Catiline, 215 
 Cato, 193, 223 
 Celsus, 193 
 censure, 217 
 chargeable, 207 
 Charles I., 207 
 Chartreux, 190, 207 
 cheapen, 217 
 Chertsea, 239 
 chiopins, 235 
 chirurgeon, 189 
 civil, 226 
 colour, 243 
 colourably, 220 
 Columella, 193 
 commentating, \ 88 
 commerce, 223 
 commodity, 222 
 compass, to take a, 2 20 
 concernment, 193 
 concur to, 212 
 Coney, Mr, 210 
 consign, 231 
 contain, 203 
 convittce, 234 
 creature, 238 
 
246 
 
 INDEX TO THE NOTES. 
 
 Cromwell, 199, 200 
 cynic, 212 
 Cyrus, 206 
 
 Damocles, 236 
 dancing, 195, 225 
 Daphne, 234 
 decimation, 209 
 deficient to, 211 
 degenerous, 219 
 Democritus, 222, 239 
 denison, igz 
 devotion, days of, 195 
 diet, 190 
 Dioclesian, 234 
 Dioscorides, 194 
 Directory, the, 197, 210 
 Domitian, 235 
 dof's, 216 
 doubt, 194 
 drink in, to, 227 
 Dunkirk, 209 
 D'Urfe, M., 239 
 
 earnest, 231 
 eikon basihke, 198 
 elegies, 191, 224 
 encounter with, 195 
 engage into, 223 
 entertainment, 1 90 
 Epicurean, 212 
 Epicurus, 218, 232 
 epidemical, 217 
 equal, 227 
 Escurial, 226, 232 
 Etruria, 228 
 Eumaeus, 226 
 Evelyn, John, 231 
 eves, 226 
 evince, 192 
 excern, 237 
 expenceful, 225 
 expcnces, 195 
 explode, 195, 207 
 
 fantastical, 208 
 fasces, 217 
 favourite to, 213 
 Faustus, 208 
 Fawkes, Guy, 207 
 field (in heraldry), 225 - 
 
 fitches, 239 
 forsook, 197 
 fracture, 191 
 French inconstancy, 198 
 furnish, 192 
 
 godwit, 228 
 gowned war, 227 
 graff, 240 
 groom, 216 
 Grotius, 193 
 Guardian, the, 243 
 gziest- guessed, 19S 
 guilded, 219, 223 
 guns, 189 
 
 Hannibal, 220 
 
 Harrison, General, 244 
 
 Hartlib, Mr, 225 
 
 Harvey, Wm., 188 
 
 haut-goust, 212, 229 
 
 hecatomb, 213 
 
 Henrietta Maria Queen, 242 
 
 Hermogenes, 194 
 
 herse, 196 
 
 Hiram, 233 
 
 horse-plu7ns, 235 
 
 hospital-like, 195 
 
 humane, 187 
 
 husband, 241 
 
 idol, 197 
 impertinent, 217 
 hnplead, 202 
 Incitatus, 223 
 indifferently, 195 
 indulging to, 193 
 instance in, 225 
 intellectuals, 207 
 intend, to, 233 
 Islington, 221 
 iti)ierate, 191 
 
 Jack o' the clock, 205 
 Jamaica, 209 
 Jermyn, Lord, 242 
 Jews, 209 
 Jonson, Ben, 242 
 
 Laertes, 226 
 Lambert, General, ^01 
 
INDEX TO THE NOTES. 
 
 247 
 
 iardry, 191 
 Uaru/n, 207 
 laveer^ 215 
 lectures, 189 
 Lepidus, 218 
 Leviathans, 216 
 Leyden, John of, 206 
 Linternum, 220 
 list, to. Ill 
 London, 221 
 Longinus, 194 
 Louis XilL, 235 
 Louvre, 226, 232 
 lungs, 189 
 
 Machiavelli, 212, 215 
 Macrobius, 188 
 main, 229 
 major-generals, 211 
 malignant, 213 
 manciple., 189 
 Manilius, 193 
 Marius, 202 
 masking, 217, 218 
 Massaniello, 206 
 Mathusalem, 213 
 mediate, 187 
 methonghts, 197 
 Metrodorus, 218 
 Millenaries, 240 
 mot7ientany, 202 
 Mona, 197 
 Montaigne, 220, 234 
 Mortlake, 229 
 mosquito, 210 
 moss troopers, 2 1 o 
 mulct, 192 
 murtherer, 225 
 
 Naseby, 198 
 natural magic, 191 
 Nemetianus, 193 
 Nero, 208, 235 
 Nicander, 194 
 nomenclator, 215 
 numbei-'s tree, 221 
 
 Ocnus, 236 
 Octavius, 205 
 Oenomaus, 218 
 on, 202 
 
 operatories, 190 
 Oppianus, 194 
 Organon, Bacon's, 192 
 ortolans, 228 
 £i/i^(?r= others, 218 
 over-noise, 236 
 
 painful, 216 
 parcel, 193, 224 
 parricides, 221 
 peas on, 229 
 Pelias, 204 
 petar, 238 
 phrensie, 211 
 piece, 244 
 pileus, 219 
 pin, to, 228 
 Pindarick, 220, 232 
 pismire, 237 
 place, to take, 192 
 Platonical, 212 
 Pliny, 193 
 portraicture, 191 
 possessive case, 194 
 pounces, 213 
 preposterous, 241 
 pretend, 190 
 Printing, 189 
 purchase, 188 
 
 quell, 198 
 quotidian ague, 223 
 
 refund, 237 
 
 reliques, 196 
 
 Remus, 228 
 
 retire, 220 
 
 Rhodian Colossus, ■Jig 
 
 right, 230 
 
 Sabine, 226, 228 
 Saturnalia, 217 
 Scaliger, 194 
 scholars, 189, 195 
 sciomachy, 203 
 Scipio, 206, 220 
 score, 242 
 scutcheon, 223 
 Seneca, 193, 234 
 shipmoney, 210 
 Sydney, Sir Philip, 239 
 
248 
 
 INDEX TO THE NOTES. 
 
 sight-shot^ 212 
 simples, 191 
 Solomon, 233 
 Solomon's house, 191 
 Stoical paradox, 214 
 Strafford, Lord, 203 
 strait, 237 
 Sulla, 202, 208 
 stvard, 229 
 syllogism, 204 
 
 table cThost, 216 
 tanker-woma?i, 222 
 Tempe, 227 
 ///<?« = than, 187 
 Theophrastus, 194 
 theorbo, 232 
 thorough, 220 
 thj-eat {v), 198 
 Tiberius, 235 
 Tibur, 226 
 topic k, 238 
 
 Toupinambaltians, 238 
 travail, 241 
 travel, 195 
 Triarii, 241 
 triennial, 192 
 tropes, 224 
 
 troth, 229 
 Turk, 199 
 Tyrian luxury, 227 
 
 unbirdly, 219 
 
 iimiseful, 193 
 
 use (n), 228 
 
 7/se (v), 195, 199, 208 
 
 Utopian, 212 
 
 vails, 208 
 Varro, 193 
 veins, milky, 191 
 Vergil, 226 
 virtue, 204 
 virtuoso, 196 
 visions, 197 
 Vitellius, 232 
 Vulgar errors, 194 
 
 weathers, 219 
 whiles t, 223 
 white, to hit the, 220 
 Whitehall, 226 
 woad, 198 
 wretchless, 244 
 
 Zopyrus, 215 
 
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