The academie of eloquence containing a compleat English rhetorique, exemplified with common-places and formes digested into an easie and methodical way to speak and write fluently according to the mode of the present times : together with letters both amorous and moral upon emergent occasions / by Tho. Blount, Gent.

Of the K: and his letters intercepted. 1645.

AS a Man, see, but with what sagacity he writes, and with what judgement; see, but what a clean sense he hath of things, which does

so overlook all his most perplexed affairs, that they seem to blush they have no better difficulties. See, but how farre his wisdom looks into mens persons, which doth so weigh them and their actions with the grains and allowance of their unworthy servile ends, that he seems not more to observe then prophesie. See, but what an even spirit of Elegancy runs through every line, vvhich beats and leaps as much in the description of his saddest condition, as of his serenest fortune; Inso∣much that posterity will a little love his misery for her very clothing.

Then, as a Husband, do but observe how kind he is, and withall how chast? how full of warm ex∣pressions of love, and yet how far from wanton? Do but observe how he vveighs his own health by his vvives Standard, every line bears a Venus in it, and yet no Doves; and he drives the trade of thoughts between the Q. and him, with so much eagerness, and yet with so much inno∣cence in all his letters, as if he meant they should be intercepted.

As a Christian, see, but what a conscience he makes of oaths, esteeming them (not according to the popular account) as if their ceremony made them the less sacred, or (as too many use them in the vvorld) as bracelets to their speech, not (as they are indeed) as chains unto their souls; look but how he startles at the name of Sacriledge, though never so commodious a sin, &c.

Last of all, as a King, see, but vvhat a constant and true soul he bears to Justice, vvhich none of his sad infelicities can alter. A soul that vvould come off true, vvere it put to Plato's triall, vvho said, That for a man to approve himselfe a true just man indeed, His vertue must be spoyld of all her orna∣ments. Key K. Cabinet.

So many excellent pens have vvritten upon his brave acts, and made them so well known to all the vvorld, that it vvere to bring light into day, to go about to mention them. H. Court.

He is the Pelops of wisdom, and Minos of all good government.

Who hath not known or read of that prodigy of vvit and fortune, Sir Wa. Ra. a man infortunate in nothing, but in the greatness of his vvit and advancement, vvhose eminent vvorth vvas such, both in domestick policie, forreign expeditions and discoveries, in arts and literature, both pra∣ctick and contemplative, that it might seem at once to conquer both example and imitation. Mr. Nath. Carpenter.

—Man, vvho contracts in himselfe all the draughts and vvorks of the Divine hand, and epi∣tomizeth the vvhole world in his perfections, and bears the most animated Character of the living God. H.C.

He is a noble, generous, and vvell-manur'd youth, bears beauties ensignes in his gracious looks, has that supream Divinity in his eyes, as sparkleth flames able to fire all hearts, and the su∣perlative vertue of his mind transcends his outvvard figure; he is vvise, as most mature age, valiant in resolve, as fames beloved child, reputa∣on, conjoyns the masculine graces of his soul vvith lovely carriage and discreet dicourse, &c. Argalus and Parth.

—I could say much more of his vvorth, vvithout flattery, did I not fear the imputation of presumption, and vvithall suspect, that it might be∣fall these papers of mine, (though the losse vvere little) as it did the pictures of Q. Eliz. made by unskilfull and common Painters, which by her

own commandement vvere knockt to pieces, and cast into the fire. For ill Artists, in setting out the beauty of the externall; and weak Wri∣ters, in describing the vertues of the internal, do often leave to posterity of well-formed faces, a deformed memory; and of the most perfect and Princely minds, a most defective representation. Sir. Wa. Rawl. in Preface.

He was a man whose brave undaunted Spirit dignified his Family many stories high in the esti∣mate of Fame.

The excellent endowments of his soul, acknow∣ledged even by Envy, and admired by Truth, toge∣ther with his known propension to goodness, in∣vited me to—

I have been possessed with extream wonder, when I consider the excellency of those vertues and fa∣culties in him, which the Philosophers call intelle∣ctuall, the capacity of his mind comprehending so many, and so great notions, the faithfulsness of his memory, the swiftness of his apprehension, the penetrati••n of hi•• judgement, the order and fa∣cility of his Eloc••tion. &c. Bacon.

—He derived many streams from Sidney's great River into hi•• own Chanels.

His Countenance (which by nature had no vul∣gar Air in it) grown lean by affliction, ex∣pressed (in a pale disagreement of colours) that the harmony of his individuum began its dissolution from the head.