The learned man defended and reform'd a discourse of singular politeness and elocution, seasonably asserting the right of the muses, in opposition to the many enemies which in this age Learning meets with, and more especially those two, Ignorance and Vice : in two parts / written in Italian by the happy pen of P. Daniel Bartolus, S.J. ; Englished by Thomas Salusbury ; with two tables, one general, the other alphabetical.

THE SECOND PART.

IT is not reasonable that the defects of the Learned should prejudice Learning. Nor ought we to believe that to be a natural quality, which is a vicious custome. The Horizon obscures the Sun with the fogs of the Atmosphere, The reflexions of the Earth (if their error be true who hold the same) appear in the Moon as so many spots: The Aërial Va∣pours make the Stars seem unfixed with a perpetual trepidation: Is therefore the Sun contaminated? Is therefore the Moon ma∣culated? Are therefore the Stars incon∣stant?

There is not that thing in the World so innocent, that is not culpable, if the wicked∣nesse of such as abuse it can render it crimi∣nal. Arms, are perverted to be the execu∣tioners of Cruelty; Scepters, the suppor∣ters of Ambition; Beauty, the formenter of

Lust, Riches, ministers of Luxury. Honours, the sustainers of Pride, Nobility is oft Counselour of Disdain. But what doe I examining one by one by one the better things, if to be short Sanctity be subservient to Hy∣pocrisie, and Religion to Policy? Therefore the abuses of Learning by some, doth no more condemn it, than flowers lose their innocency, or beauty, because Spiders feed on them or suck venom from them.

For if it be, as indeed it is, the light of the Intellect, so also it hath this immutable pro∣perty of light, that issuing from the center of the Sun it carrieth with it together with his being, rectitude; so that it neither knows nor can diffuse it self otherwise than by right lines: thus Learning coming from the glorious Father of Lights, whose gift it is; should it have the beams of its under∣standing inflexible from the Rules of Verity, and Reason: how farre happier would it be? how much more happy would the World be with it?

But seeing that onley the desire of it is little, and the pretence to it to great; it seemed reasonable to mee to produce some particulars, wherein Learning is worst used, not onely to the prejudice of others, but also to the deceit of who so

knows not how to use it (for from these two originals I have took them) to imprint them on the minds of such, who together with the knowledge of their errors, require some instigation to amendment.

PLAGIANISME.

Plagiaries that in several manners appropriate the fruits of others Studies.

THe ancient Art of Thievery Na∣tural Daughter of Necessity, al∣though since become the Adoptive of profit, is as well committed upon Learn∣ing as upon Money. Clemens Alexandrinus speakes of the original of those ancient times, when it might be said, that the trea∣sures of the Ingenious, no sooner were made publick to the eye of the World, than they became subject to the purloinings of Plagiaries; and the Hellens of excellent Composures no sooner came to light, than they found a hundred Menelaus's, a hundred Paris's to ravish them.

Some think (I will in a way of mirth wrest to my purpose the sense of that An∣cient saying of the Comick) that onely, Homo trium litterarum makes Fur; name∣ly, that its only the Vice of the Illite∣rate to steal the labours of the Learned, and with them to appeare brave, and be∣come rich. Howbeit the noblest wits, and accutest pens have honoured this Art, im∣ping their own fancies with the wings of others Muses: whereupon it holds true no lesse of the majestick Lion, than of the feeble Ant, that

Convictare juvat praedas, & vivere rapto.

The Writings of the great Aristotle, are fam'd to be a beautiful piece of Marquetry, whereof the design is his own, but the mat∣ter for the most part borrowed from others: And if Speusippus in the purchase of whose Books he disburst three Tallents; if Demo∣critus, if others like them, the labours of whose Wits Alexander collected together for him, every one should challenge his own, he that appeared a Phoenix in others Plumes, would appear but a Ja••k-daw in his own.

Plato was taxed by a railing Fellow for a Thiefe, with an indictment made in the

name of Philolaus, as if he had (I will not say transcribed from him a great part of his Ti∣meus) but replenished it with subline juice sucked out of Writings of that second Pytha∣goras; behold how Timon accuseth him.

Exiguum ridimus grandi aere libellum. Scribere per quem orsus per doctus ab inde fuisti.

And, doubtless, were there but an Archime∣des, that knew how to distinguish of Books, as of mixtures of two metals, between the legitimate and the borowed; Were there but an Aristophanes, a Judg that could under∣stand the language of the dead when they speak by the mouthes of the living; Were there but a Cratinus that could put Books to the torture, and form the processe of their thefts, as he did of the Poems of Menander, of whose thieveries he composed six Books; you should see how true it is that Mercury god of the Learned is also god of Thieves.

But in my judgment, the whole crew of such, who in their Books under their own names publish the labours of others, may be distinguish'd into three orders, one worse than another. The first are those who ga∣thering from one, one thing; and from ano∣ther, another; and altering their titles, and inverting their order, compose Books as

they make Garlands, wherein many litles make a mickle, many flowers make a Coro∣net. They have this discretion to steal from every one a little, that so few should perceive and none complain of the theft; and (as I may say) they do not embase, but only clip the Coyne.

The names of these Authors sumptuously writ in Capital letters in the Frontispice of their Books, stupifie them to behold them∣selves fathers of so prodigious an issue; when as they are conscious that they were devoid of productive virtue, or seed, that might inable them to the generation of so admirable Births.

Miraturque novas frondes, & non sua poma.

He perceiveth himself indow'd with such riches, and yet knows that he had neither stock nor revenues equivalent to so great a purchase.

They hold it amongst them for a Law, never to mention the Authors out of which they had filtch'd, least they should be de∣tected for Plagiaries. Nor care they for Pliny, that said, Obnoxii dnimi, & infelicis in∣genii esse deprehend•• in furto malle, quàm mutud reddere; cumpraesertim sors fiat ex usura. Nor

that ancient custome related by M. Varro, to crown their Conduits once a year with oderiferous Garlands of flowers, in grate∣ful acknowledgement of the clear, and wholesome water, that they drew from them.

But it happens many times (and this is the final end of all the Art of such lik thieve∣ries) that they take upon them to censure as Ignorant, and condemn as shallow and su∣perficial, those very persons from whom they borrowed all that they had of good, insomuch as declaring themselves nice and critical in their opinions, they are unsuspe∣cted of felonious filching. Just like to tor∣rents, which where they break down their banks with a high tide, diradiat, teare up, and beare before them, all that stands in their way, but of that which their impetuosity carries away, they ingorge the most solid, and shew only the stumps, sedg, and mud. This is an act proper to Harpies, to stisfie their hunger at anothers Table, not con∣tenting themselves with devouring that which they carry away, unlesse, moreover, they spoil that which they leave behind. This is to doe with worthy Writers as the Caitiffe Dionysius did to his friends, which saith, Diogenes, as vessels of preciou liquour

he suckt and dreined till he was full, and then broke them as being empty. This is to resemble the two infamous Monsters in the Straights of Sicilia neer to Pharos, Scilla, and Carybdis, of which the first splits the ship, and wrecks the merchandize, the other with his circulations devoureth them, and in a great gulf swallowes them. They under∣value not others with an intent to reject them, but to ingorge them; nec expuunt nau∣fragia, sed devorant.

Wherefore let them hear as spoken to them alone what upon another subject the Moral Plutarch records. Non debemus suffu∣rari gloriam eorum, qui nos in altum extulerunt, necesse ut Regulis Aesopi, qui deseruit Aquilam cùmea lassa ulteriùs non potuit volare.

Worse than these are the second, who finding, I know not how, the imperfect works of Acute Doctors, charitably col∣lecting them as the Ospray the unplum'd Eaglets faln from their Nests, take them home, and as Orphan and destitute adopt them for their own legitimate issue. The shame of appearing Ignorant, overcomes in them the infamy of being thieves, nor re∣gard they Sinesius, that said, Magis impium esse mortuorum lucubrationes, quam vestes furari, quod sepulchra perfodere dicitur. Oh how

many, if they might come forth of their Graves, or but draw their heads out of their Tombs to see their labours inherited by such as had no right to succeed them ab intestato, they would say with that for∣lorn Mantuan Sheapherd.

Insere nunc Melibaee pyros, pone ordine vites.

It was a most modest Law of those no lesse brave than discreet Painters of Greece, observed in all ages, to honour the memo∣ry of the worthy Masters in that Art; by not putting the pensil to the pieces, which they, overtaken by death, should have left either without the finishing touches, or else im∣perfect; whereby they in effect would tell us, that those relicks thus diminished; and unfinished were more excellent, than if they had been by their hands exactly completed. Of this the Historian speaking, Illud per quam raram, (saith he) ac memoria dignum, etiam suprema opera Artisicum, imperfectasque tabulas, sicut Irin Aristidis, Tyndaridas Nicho∣machi, Medeam Timomachi, & Venerem Apel∣lis in majori admiratione esse, quam perfecta.

Now in Letters, amongst so many Laws there is not one of so good determination, or so great fidelity, by reason every one

hath to great an avidity to the applause of a man of ingenuity: therefore they put their hands to another mans works, not to com∣pleat them for the Author, but to ingrosse, against all the rules of equity, anothers Prin∣cipal to their Ʋse.

He that found a treasure in his field had it all to himself, as was enacted by Adrian the Emperour; but if in anothers, he divi∣ded it, and the owner of the field had half: A law, if in monyes just, in the riches of wit most just.

But the third sort are intolerable; name∣ly, those who to anothers work prefix their own names; Men of impudent Fronts, which having in a Book no more than a Frontispice; as the Asse in the Fable that had nothing of a Lion but his skin; appro∣priate all the rest to themselves. Just as if the patrozining of a Book were the dedi∣cating of a Temple to some god, wherein it was sufficient to Grave his Name on the Front. What else did Caligula that Beast shrouded in an Emperour, when he behead∣ed the Satue of Jupiter Olympius, and erected his own in the place to beadored as Jupiter? The Persians beleived that the greatest of all sins was to be Indebted, and next to this, to be a Liar. These are both; for, what they

are indebted for to others, and they have nothing otherwise, than by the patroniza∣tion of shamelesse lies.

One of these being convicted of such a like theft, whilest it was expected, that not being able to cover the fact with lies; he should at least wise have covered his face with shame; he as impudent of fore-head, as dexterous of hand, put himself on his guard; and pleading in his defence the Sympathy, about which some, called Phylosophers, keep such a stir; boldly retorted: None could prove him a violator of the writings of any man, till first he proved that there was a disimi∣litude in their minds; in regard that two Wits, uniform and consentaneous of genius, have by vir∣tue of sympathetick union, and identity in the mo∣tion of their minds, and order of their thoughts.

Now Keplerus, Mersenius, and Galileus go about to investigate the mysterious reason, why two Chords tuned to an Ʋnison, a Diapason, or a Diatessaron, so accord the one with the other in sound, that the one touch'd the other not touch't trembles, and moves. But see here a Problem of more difficult solution, (if haply in uniform wits there be, as they say there is in Musical Chords, those regular vibratious, which in∣countring the Harmonical numbers of per∣fect

consonants, doe occasion the like mo∣tions) how it can be, that two braines by way of sympathetick consent should accord to select one and the same argument, to dis∣play it with the same form of speech; never differing a word, no nor a syllable: Yea, with so exact resemblance of stature, voice, and features, that they are taken for the Menec∣mi of Plautus, howbeit.

Ita forma simili pueri, vel nutrix sua. Non internosse posset, quae mammam dabat; Neque mater adeò ipsa, quae illos pepererat.

From the dexterity, that many use in filching others writings; is occasioned, the Jealousie for the preserving them; and the quarrels when they happen to be felonious∣ly stoln.

Even Nature herself hath taught two ani∣mals, that produce two the preciousest, and sweetest things; so much the more inge∣niously to defend them from Thieves, the more greedily they seek them. Thus the Cockles that gender the Pearles, when the mornings light discovereth them, close themselves; and if any one chance some∣times to surprize them, whilst as yet they are open, though otherwise blind; Cum

manum videt, comprimit sese, operitque opes, gnara propter illas se peti; manumque, si praeve∣niat, acie sua adscindit, nulla justiore poen••. Thus the Bees, with bitterest combs, like a Dedalian Labyrinth, fill their hives, contra alia∣rum bestiolarum aviditates: Id se facturas con∣sciae, quod concupisci possit, But because

Nill est deterius latrone nudo;

and against these Thieves, it is not sufficient for Mercury himself to stand Sentinel, with Argus's hundred eyes: hence it is, that with the accusations of many Authors, so many Books are cramm'd.

And doubtlesse in this case, patience is very difficult; and passion very excusable. Even the Dead Statues of brasse, saith Casio∣dorus, if in the night time they be strucke by Thieves with an intent to break them; though they have not sense to afflict them∣selves; yet they have voice to lament them∣selves, with which; Nec in toto mutaesunt, quan∣do a furibus percussae, custodes videnture tinitibus admonere.

But, behold, in two short receipts, the remedy against the vicious avidity after others labours. The first is, to perswade your selves that the VVorld is not a Judge of so litle judgment, that it cannot from

publick fame, or rather infamy; from in∣dictments, and witnesses; when so thou art; find thee to be guilty of felony: and by this meanes thou wilt never be got to do it, (although occultly,) out of a hope that none can detect thee. You invert the order of things; so that the method of those things seem yours, which you transferre from o∣thers to your own use: yet howsoever though you should be a Cacus; subtile in in∣verting upside down the traces of the feet of the prey, that you filcht into your house; dragging them by the taile: there will not want a Hercules; that by those very trails, will trace out the theft, and fraud; and punish the Author. Yea, you your selves, will let slip from your mouth, or pen, something; that may advert the discreet of the fact: and you shall in this resemble the Raven; which never steals so subtlely, but with the sanguin'd beak; and even with the prey in his mouth; he croaks: whereby, afore he is aware, he charms up the stones, that flye about his ••ares.

Nam tacitus pascit si posset corvus, haberet Plus dapis, & rixae minus, invidiaeque.

Nay, when you your selves are silent▪ your

papers shall speak against you, and your own Books shall form the processe. In this confidence Martial; with whose Epigrams many made themselves passe for Wits, and Poets, divulging them for their own; spent no words in the accusation of Thieves, and the defence of his own,

Indice non opus est nostris, nec vindice libris. Stat contra, dicitque tibi tua pagina, Fur es.

The second is; that you perswade your selves, that its a far lesse evil, not to appeare Learned; than to be proved Ignorant; ha∣ving nothing of your own, and yet fallaci∣ously filching from others. If your head be bald for want of hairs (the Emblem of the thoughts, the riches of the mind;) you will not take those of the dead, and make of them an ill-shapt Perriwig.

Calvo turpius est nihil comato.

Better is it to be poor with my own, than rich in other mens speeches. To be able to say, This is mine, although it be little; is much better: than to say; This is much, but it is not mine.

The preciousest Verses that Manilius could read in his Poems, were those two:

Nostra loquar. Nulli vatum debebimur orsa, Nec furtum, sed opus veniet.

So write, that upon all your labours you may ingrave that Distich, that the Poet A∣risto writ over the Portal of his Gate.

Parva, sed apta mihi, sed nulli obnoxia, sed non Sordida parva, Meo sed tamen aere, domus.

That we ought not to assume an∣others argument, but rather to invent new of our own.

IF the desire to become immortal to posterity by the Presse; did but as much whet the wit unto invention of matter of ones own: as it sharpneth ones tal∣lons to prey upon that of another: many; who, as convicted for Plagiaries, have lost their time, & been confiscated of their repu∣tation; would have eternalized the one and the other. And oh! how much more would Learning flourish? and in how many better imployments might we spend our time, our Studies, and our wits: if leaving this sordid work of changing, Quadrata rotundis; and

putting that in the margent, which others insert in the body of their works: all the bent of our thoughts should be set upon en∣riching the Arts, and Sciences, with some new Discoveries; which being unknown to the Ancients, may be beneficial to succeed∣ings ages. One only such a Leafe, would suf∣fice to merit that honour; to which many times monstrous Volumes but vainly pre∣tend.

Yea, the only inquisition after novel in∣ventions; although we succeed not to inve∣stigate them; is not without its applause, as not being without benefit: Plurimum enim ad inveniendum contulit, qui speravit posse re∣perire. And one that is agitated by generous thoughts, had rather by himself trace ont a way to Heaven, than to tread in others tracks on earth; so that he may say with the Poet.

Libera per vacuum posui vestigia princeps, Non aliena meo pressi pede.

But in short; although its easier for him to fall, who attempteth to sore into Hea∣ven; than for him, that contents himself to pore on the Earth: yet that Magnis tamen excidit ausis; hath so much of glory: as that the honour of having ascended, out weighs

by far the disgrace of being precipitated. And even to these our dayes, the generous andacity of young Icarus, that flying even touch'd the Stars; hath more admirers of his mounting, than scorners of his fall:

—Stivaeque innixus arator Vidit, & obstupuit; quippe aethera carpere possit, Credidit esse Deum.—

And for my part, considering, that with∣out either fall, or trip, its hard going in the high way; (since that in many things our judgment consists more in believing, than knowing; more in not seeing, the errors which we have, than in not having them:) I have the same resentment in Learning; which that freind of Seneca had in another sense: Si cadendum est mihi, coelo cecidisse velim. I would have our wits doe to our thoughts, as the Eagle doth with her Chickens; which before that as yet they have distended their plumes, and fixed their wings for flight; throwes them from their nest, to shift for themselves: as if she should say. Ye are now well feathered Eagles; and sit ye here idle hove∣ring over your nest? Ye have tallons, and beaks, and are ye not ashamed to be still fed like so many young Swallows▪ Go for shame and dig your

livings out of others bowels, for now you are armed, for now you are Eagles.

Every thought, that had not atendency to the invention of new experiments in Learning; Hyppocrates esteemed besides the mark, to which the Learned ought to direct all the lines of their Studies. He alloweth not that we should piece together the re∣liques of dead Authors, quasi bona naufragan∣tium; but, that we should set sail to the ac∣quist of new Merchandises; whereby we may inrich the World, and gain glory to our selves. Mihi verò invenire aliquid eorum, quae nondum inventa sunt, quod ipsum notum quam occultum esse praestat, scientiae votum, & opus esse videtur.

Oh, how many, seeking things not before found; have found things not before sought! The only desire of converting some baser Metal into Gold, how hath it sharpned the conceit, and refined the wit; insomuch, that thereby those rare miracles of Nature are found, w^ch the Art of Chymistry knows how to produce? And what mines of fun∣damental experiments, of a true natural Phylosophy, are there, that discover not themselves in them; till in times to come, there be some, who know, how to work them; discoursing from the experiences of

the effects, to the first originals of their causes? And it falls out in this, (saith a brave Man) as to those recited by Aesop, that seeking Gold; which their Father dying, said he had buried in a field; all fell of dig∣ing it; whereby the field, of sterile that it was before, became fruitful: not yeilding them Gold; but instead thereof, a very plentiful crop, equivalent to much Gold.

Truth is not now barren; although she was so prodigal in teaching our An∣cestors. Etiam quicunque sunt habiti mortalium sapientissimi, multa scisse dicuntur non omnia. They studying have not fish'd all the pearls; speculating have not discovered all the tracts of truth. Worthy and famous they were its true: but not like Hercules, so, as that they have found, or prescribed bounds to nature; beyond which as pillars, it is not lawful for men to passe. Patet omnibus veri∣tas, saith the Moralist, nondum est occupata, multum ex illa etiam futuris, relictum est. And as the Spartans said, that neither Rivers nor Mountains assigned bounds to their King∣dom; but that it extended it self as far as one could throw a dart: in like manner the Arts, and Sciences, distend themselves as far as the acutenesse of our wits can enlarge them. It is not here as in the Ocean▪ In

which Alexander the Sixth drew from Pole, to Pole, a line; crosse one of the Isles of Capo Verde; and assigned bounds to the Na∣vigations of the Castillians, thence to the West; and of the Portugals, thence to the East. Patet omnibus veritas.

Some of the Ancients, would have drawn this line between the Greek and Latine Poesie; whereupon Horace that would pass it, interweaving to himself in a Crown; the Lawrels of Athens with those of Rome: in that he made the Greek Lyrick Poetry to be heard upon the Latine Gittern: was by the more part of the Ancients reprehended, and his compositions rejected, as children of a Bastard Muse; and Hermophroditical Monsters. This necessitated that Poet to commend his own style, in the defence of his Muse; and under the pretence of his own vindication, to publish the crimes of o∣thers envy, and malice, saying▪ That the op∣position of his composures proceeded not so much from the love of others ancient eligancy; as from the envy of his modern grace. That they in his knowledg, condemned their own ignorance: being ashamed to learn from him, a youngman, that; which they, being old, were notable to find out. That this was the original of all his emulators ma∣lice.

Vel quia nil rectum, nisi quod placuit sibi, ducunt. Vel quia turpe putant parere minoribus, & quae Imberbes didicere senes perdenda fateri.

And, doubtlesse, we may say with him in Minutius. Quid invidemus, si veritas nostri temporis aetate maturuit. Is elegance, and in∣ventive ingenuity, so intailed upon th'An∣cients; that it may never be renew'd? Al∣though, that which Arnobius writes of Re∣ligion, concerning the truths which every day with new acquist's discover themselves, is true; Non quod sequimur novum est, sed nos serò didicimus quod nos sequi oportet.

Who then will prescribe bounds, and limits to the free flight of the ingenions; confining them within the straights of the things already found; as if there could not be any new Discoveries? If this Law had been known to Antiquity, we should at this day have known nothing. Nusquam enim in∣venietur, si contenti fuerimus inventis▪ Propterea qui alium sequitur, nihil sequitur, nihil invenit, imò nec quaerit. And of these in my opinion, we may say, as Dante very finely of the fear∣ful Sheep that follow their Leader.

As silly sheep, when two or three more bold And venturous than others leave the fold,

The rest, affraid, dejecting eyes and head, Without inquiry, follow those that led: And if one stay, the rest in heaps, bestride Him, not knowing why, and simply there abide.

Quare (to add to Dante Lactantius) cum sapere, id est, veritatem quaerere, omnibus sit in∣natum, Sapientiam sibi adimunt, qui sine ullo judicio inventa Majorum probant, & ab aliis, Pecudum more, ducuntur. And most apt is that answer, that the Eccho of Erasmus gave to that wretched Ciceronian, who crying, Decem annos consumpsi in legendo Cicerone; Heard this reply (One:) which was as much as to say, that desiring to become an Ape of Cicero, he was become an Asse, by poring on Cicero.

But the courage to undertake, and the felicity to succeed in the discovery of new and necessary things, I do grant is not for every one to expect; for such as undertake this enterprise, do ordinarily find feares in themselves which affright them, and per∣swasions from others that retard them.

The fixed Stars that move not of them∣selves, but are carried by the Heavens, and born away by the Common Course; have not any that accuse them of irregularity, or condemn them of error. On the contrary

the Planets; which so generously make a revolution by themselves; because a sim∣ple and most regular motion; with an ap∣pearance of ascension and declination; of velocity and slownesse; doth variously con∣temperate them: are called by the vulgar, irregular in their motions; confused in their revolutions; and believed not to be errant, but erroneous; not to make Circles, but Labyrinths.

Alexander that had so great a Heart and so capacious, that he could conceive within it, the desire of a World of Worlds; being come to the Eastern Ocean, confessed himself to little for this one little one: and doubting to find the fortune of the Sea, different from that at land; struck sail to his desires, that carried him to seek, on the other side of that Ocean, new places to con∣quer. He shewed himself prudent in his fear; and to authorize his retreat with o∣thers counsel; he made a shew of com∣plyance to the reasons of his Counsellours, who to disswade him, said;

Great Monarch, Little more than Greece suf∣ficed to make Hercules a Demi-god: and will not all the Earth suffice to make you a Hercules? Lose not this World whilst you are in quest of an other. If there were more land on the other side

the Ocean, your enemies would have fled thither: who to hide themselves from your Arms, and you; are gone to bury themselves in Hell. Content your self that the Confines of your Kingdom, are those of Nature herself. This Shore will conserve the print of your victorious Feet, eternally imprest; and in erecting the ultimate limits of Humane Generosity; You shall be a Hercules in the East: as Hercules was an Alexander in the West. With that Alexander

Constitit, & magno se vinci passus ab orbe est.

If that Generous Columbus, that involv'd in an Ocean, as in a Deluge of water, dis∣covered new Lands, and new Worlds; had nor done more than this, when in despight of two Republiques, and one King; (follow∣ing the advice of the Winds, that blew to the West, and Whispered in his Eare; See yonder ample lands, whence the exhalations rise in such great abundance,) he weighed Anchor, and set sail, with a Frigot and two Carvals; and launched into the bosome of that vast Ocean; without ever ceasing his course; or tacking about in this Voyage, in a Sea never before used, or believed un∣navigable; in the lenght of a course of un∣certain bounds: discouraged neither by the

encounter of Monsters; not the mutiny of his men; nor the want of victuals, in a place destitute of all accommodation for stran∣gers; nor the frequent tempests, that drove him upon strange Climates; nor the long and excessive calmes that took him upon the Confines of the Torrid Zone; where the Heavens for the excessive heat seem a Hell: would Europe at this day have had those aro∣matick Spices, and Minerals, or so much as the knowledge of that half World, Ame∣rica? Would Columbus himself have gained, I say not only that priviledge from the Kings of Castile, of quartering the Arms of his House, with the addition of the new World that he discovered; and with the Motto over bead,

Por Castilla, y por Leon Nuevo Mondo hallò Colon;

but those immortal merits whereby all ages come to acknowledg themselves debitors to him; and by him to Genoa, and all Italy; for the intire value of a World? No other∣wise: such who in Learning essay to make the first way to the discovery of new places; (which is nothing inferiour to the sailing of un-navigable Oceans;) is the necessary, that

amongst the annoyances, and toils of the long Voyage, of an un-practised study; amongst the familiar, and frequent conspi∣racies of desperation; he conquer himself a thousand times: attending, as those Glo∣rious Heroes, Conquerours of the Golden Fleece; more to the glory of the end, than to the trouble of the means.

Tu sola animos, mentemque peruris Gloriae, te viridem videt immunemque senectae Phasidos in ripa stantem juvenesqve vocantem.

Thus Homer; the first Poet Heroical and first Hero of Poets; is doubly great: in that he had not any before him that he might imitate; nor after him that hath imi∣tated him.

In the first, greater than his Predecessors, in the second, greater than his Successors; which is the great Panegyrick, that in two words hath been comprehended by Velleius; instead of all that which others have been scarce able to expresse with many: Neque ante illum quem imitaretur; neque post illum, qui eum imitari posset inventus est, These, as long as Learning shall continue in the World, (and that will be as long as the World lasts,) shall splendidly shine in the

praise of the Learned; as that adventurous Argo; that from the tempests of the Seas, which it before all other ships did navigate; came to take port in Heaven: where now its inriched with as many Stars, as before it did carry Heroes:

—Mari quod prima cucurrit Emeritum magnis mundum tenet acta procellis, Servando Dea facta Deos.—

Thus, after a thousand others, in this last age Gallileus, an Academick truly Lincean: both for the eye of his wit, and for that of his Perspective Tube; with which he hath rendered the Commerce of Earth with the Heavens so familiar; that the Stars which were before hid, no longer disdain to ap∣pear, and suffer themselves to be seen; and those which were before seen, discover to us; not only their beauties, but also their defects. At the foot of the Sepulchre of this most acute Linx; might be ingraven in lamentation; that which the Poet in deri∣sion said of Argus;

Arge jaces: quodque in tot lumina lumen ha∣bebas Extinctum est, centum{que} oculos nox occupat una.

Thus Christopher Scheiner, which from the motions of the Faculae, and the Maculae of the Sun hath found by Astronomy and Phylosophy Coelestial Lights of so noble, rare, and authentick verity; as are the dou∣ble motion of the Sun, that in the fashion of a Top, firmly revolves in it self; and on the Poles of his Axis: that moving at the same instant in two Circles, ordinately curve it, whence ariseth the variety of appearan∣ces that the Spots therein make. Moreover, and besides the rational conjectures, which are drawn from the conception, birth, in∣crease, return sometimes, and decrease of the spots; to define what is the substance and nature of the Sun it self. VVherewith he hath so inrich't the VVorld with sublime experiments, that if every age should afford the like; few ages would suffice to make Astronomy as absolutely Mistris of the Heavens: as at this day Geography is of almost all the Earth. Macti ingenio este coeli Interpretes, rerumque naturae capaces: argu∣menti repertores, quo Deos, Hominesque vicistis. VVorthies; to whom, as to that Ancient Meton, that left as a legacy to posterity, graven in a Column, with lines of exact pro∣portion; the various course of the Sun: should be erected as reward, of eternal

honour, Statues with tongues gilded, and underneath this inscription; Ob divinas prae∣dictiones. VVorthies; to whom Heaven, should be given: not as heretofore the Em∣perour Carolus Quintus gave only in picture the Stars of the Crosier (a Constellation so called) to Oviedus the Historian of the Ame∣rican affaires: but it self, for a reward; and her Stars, for a Crown. And well do they deserve them,

Admovere oculis distantia sydera nostris, Aethereaque Ingenio supposuere suo.

I have instanced only in these two, that so I might not overpass all; since I could not speak of all. Only to us that succeed these, ought that of Seneca to be inculcated that; Agamus bonum patrem familiae: Facia∣mus ampliora quae accipimus Major ista haeredi∣tas à me ad Posteros transeat. Multum ad huc restat operis; Multumque restabit, nec ulli nato post mille secula praecluditur occasio aliquid adhuc adjiciendi.

I shall only add thus much, that to become Inventors of new things, we must not make our selves Masters of Novelties, wandring without reason (especially in things that are meerly Natural) from those wayes;

which beaten already so many ages, by the best wits of the VVorld, have upon their Confines for such as passe them, Temerity and Error. Nor do as Diogenes, going con∣trary to the current of all men; as if we alone, were the Sages; we alone dived to the bottom of Heraclitus VVell, to fetch up Truth. Should we esteem of the Sun of the VVits of the VVorld, not by the light of their greater knowledge of the truth; but by our opposition to the course of all the World: and could we say in a vaunt what Apollo spake by way of advice to his Son Phaēton;

Nitor in adversum, neque me, qui caetera, vincit Impetus: & rapido contrarius evehor orbi;

we ought also from him to hear; that without peril of precipitation, we cannot deviate from those direct paths, which, trodden by the Chariot of the Light, are made no lesse obvious than clear:

Hac sit iter: manifesta rotae vestigia cernes.

That the Earth with an annual period revolves under the Ecliptick; and with a daily motion turns from VVest to East.

That the Moon, yea all the Planets, (no o∣ther but voluble Earth) have inhabitants people of different nature: That the World consists of infinite Masses or Chaoses, and in its immense Vasts comprehendes innu∣merable VVorlds: &c. These are Opinions, that some Moderns have fondly raised from their Graves: calling them back, the first; from the Sepulchres of Cleanthes and Phy∣lolaus: the second of Pythagoras and of Hera∣clitus: the third of Democritus and Methro∣dorus: with whose death they had been so many ages buried in Silence, and Obli∣vion.

This is not to inrich the World with new cognitions, but with old errors; nor to make ones self Master of those that follow us; but Disciple of those that precede us; with this remuneration: that those very dreams of theirs, which were not blindly received by the World; shall in like man∣ner sleep with us, in our Sepulchres.

How we may honestly and commen∣dably steal from others Writings.

BUt I find I have enterprized too diffi∣cult a task; whilst I pretend to di∣vert our thoughts from the taking feloniously from others, with proposing to them both the obligation of enriching Learning with new inventions; and the guerdon that in so doing we acquire; Much better it were that I should teach, That we may borrow with a good Conscience, and not only without necessity of Restitution, but also with the Merit of Commendation.

All the thefts of light, made upon the wheels of Apollo's Chariot; which are (if I do not ill augurate) the Books of the most celebrious Wits, upon which Truth shines & triumphs; that condemn not the offender to the Rocks of Caucasus, and the Eagle of Prometheus. There is an impunity of taking, provided we take not as the Moon from the Sun; which when it most approches it, and most replenisheth it self with his light, in perfect Novi-lunii; ingratefully eclipseth it: but as he, that in a Mirrour of pure

Christal receiveth a Sun beam; and with that, doth not only, not diminished it of light; but rather renders it with the refle∣xion, the more splendid, and glorious. Thus the Bee, equally ingenious, and dis∣creet,

Candida circum Lilia funduntur.

But so innocent is their Rapine, that without diminishing the odour; without violating the beauty; without breaking the pods of the Flowers; they abundantly ga∣ther Wax, and Hony, for themselves, and others.

The first way to Borrow with applause; is to Imitate with Judgment. He that is not a Giant of high stature, let him climbe to the top of a great turret; and thence inform himself of the straightest wayes, and securest paths. He, that hath not in his head a Theater of proper Idea's, and Idea's of good designe: let him take according to the ancient Cu∣stome of the first and rude painting; the Circles of the shadows of regular bodies, and compile his work upon those models.

Phrine, whilest she lived, (Phrine, the Athenian Venus, since she was no lesse unchast than fair) was the Samplar of Painters; from whom they took the design and features of

the face; to draw if they could more beau∣tiful, and withal more divine the Venus's that they painted. The only sight of her was instruction: serving, not so much for a pattern to the copies which they drew; as for a form of perfection, to the Idea's, which they comprehended in their minds: of a most absolute proportion of parts, temper of colours, and vivacity of Spirit. Such to the fancy, are the Composures of the brave Masters of Learning: which beheld with intensenesse, imprint in the mind by little, and little, a noble Idea of the like style; and we find by experience in him that is accu∣stomed to read with attention, works of noble sentiments, and lofty style: that, as if drunk with the same spirits; it seems im∣possible for him to expresse himself in any other manner, than nobly. Thus it even'd to the Nightingales, that made their Nests upon the Sepulcher of Orpheus, that as if from the ashes of that great Musician, and Poet, they had also took his Spirit: they were incomparably more ingenious, and skilful Songsters, than the others: so that the others seemed salvage Quirristers, these coelestial Sirenes.

And from this, of reading intensely o∣thers Learned Labours, to imprint an im∣age

in the mind conformable to them: may seem to arise those occult miracles of the imaginative power; which hath made us sometimes see, rustick mothers, of deformed faces, and plebean proportion; to bring forth children of visage and features Ange∣lical; (like lovely Narcissus's growing upon ill-favoured, and sordid Leeks:) thanks to the form, which the mothers frequent beholding of beautiful faces, and exquisite pictures, gave to the tender Babes in their conception.

Nor because the Authors are excellent, and we stupid of wit; doth it follow that the reading them is of no avail, to make us with imitation to resemble them. The Eagle before that she thrusts her little Chicks from the Nest, with great circulations and turn∣ings, soares and wheeles over and about them, striking them sometimes with her wings, and provoking them to flie: where∣by the Eaglets, although they are not a jot incouraged to follow their mother even above the Clouds; whither at one disten∣tion of the wing she is transported: yet ne∣verthelesse, it prompts them to abandon their Nest, put themselves on their flight, and to try also themselves upon the wing. Therefore it naturally comes to passe, that

we follow that which pleaseth: especially, if the Genius of the Nature, accord with the Election of the Will: and the toiles therein undergone, either are not tedious; or else the bitternesse of the trouble, losing it else in the dulcity of the operation; they are not felt toilsome.

Seeing before us therefore, the sublime flights of an happy Wit; let us not only rouse and provoke our desires to imitate them; but lets us add vigour to our thoughts, and courage to our mindes: that so we may find our selves able to do more, than without such a sight we could ever have effected. Whereby, if we come not to touch the Heavens, and soar above the Stars; at least, we may raise our selves from the Earth, and dis-nest. If we attein not to expresse with equal periods, the loftly circulations of the exemplar, which we proposed to our imi∣tation; yet we may do as the Sun-flower, which fixed in its root, and moveable in its Flower, by continual looking on the Sun, learns to design in a little Gire, that ample Circle; which he describes from another Horizon.

But of the writings of others to profit our selves with only the imitation, in the judg∣ment of Quintilian, which speaks at large of

this matter, is to too litle a benefit. Let there∣fore the second manner of theft not only lawful but laudable be; To take what we please of others; but so to improve it with our own, that it may not be mended by any. In like manner as a Diamond receiving one single ray of light, that penetrates to its center, is so beautified, that as if it was depainted w^th a thousand va∣rieties of colours; the Sun it self is not so glorious, & the Stars eclips and in envy hide their heads there at. Is it not in the stealing of knowledge, as to take a little light foame of the Sea, to mix it with the coelestial seed of his Wit; so that that which was unpro∣fitable, and vile matter, becomes no lesse than a Venus: forming to himself a compo∣sure of more than ordinary beauty.

That famous Labour of Phydias, Jupiter Olympus; the miracle of Carving, and of the World: was of whitest Ivory. But the E∣lephants could not therefore boast of that divine Master-piece as theirs: nor charge the Graver of stealing that beautiful material, which rendered his Labour so famous. The exact proportion of the members; the ma∣jestick features of the divine visage; aud what else that made that Statue the best in the World for beauty, and value; all was the Art of the Carver, not the merit of the

Elephant. Phydiae manus (saith Tertullian,) Jovem Olympum ex ebore molitur, & adoratur. Nec jam bestiae, & quidem insulsissiam dens est, sed summum saeculi Numen. Non quia Elephan∣tus, sed quia Phydias tantus. He that takes in this manner, rude and informed trunks to work them into Statues; Sordid glasses to change them into Diamonds; drops of simple Dew to make them Pearles; is not a Thief but an Artist. He is not indebted to others for the Matter▪ but the Matter is ob∣lieged to him for the honour of so noble a form.

But this is yet more lively illustrated by the Artifices of the famous Fountains of Rome, of Tivoly, of Frascati: where the wa∣ters sport in their torments, and in their in∣genious obedience change themselves into more shapes then the Poets Proteus.

They are seen from the slime and gravel of vast niches so to distil drop by drop into small rain, that the Clouds never did it more naturally upon the Earth: To imitate as it were the Issuing of the winds out of the caverne of Aeölus; the South with moist Aires; Zephyrus with pleasing Gales; Bo∣reas with blustering and cold Blasts: To diffuse themselves so subtlely, and dilate themselves so equally: that they seeme

transparent vails displayed in the Aire: To sub-divide themselves into little drops, and form themselves as it were into a dewy Cloud; which incountering with the Sun, becomes a Rain-bow, painted with perfect colours: To revive with motion dead Sta∣tues, and variously acting them in diverse shapes: To start thievishly out of the ground, and to mount, and to suspend in the Air with high spirtings: To sob, as if grieved: to roar, as if inraged; to sing, as if delighted; not only to renew to the World that which Tertullian calleth Porten∣tosissimum Archimedis munificentiam, the Hy∣draulick Organs; but in the murmure, Trils, Quavers, artificial Salts, Divisions, & changes of melodious Voices, to imitate to the life the Nightingales; as if by their mouth did not sing Spiritus qui illic de tormento aquae anhelat, but those watry inhabitans, the S••∣rens themselves. By works of so ingenious and admirable contrivance we take the wa∣ters of a common Fountain, which if Art should not advance from their native base∣nesse to nobler Use, transfusing as it were, Soules and Wit into them: they would run vilely wandring on the Earth, through miry bogs: not vouchsafed to be scarce tasted off by Beasts; where as now they are

the Delights of Princes, and the Glory of Gardens. Is not this to superate the Matter with the VVorkmanship oblieging, and making it our own? The same doth he that borrows. He buries the theft of the matter in the Art of working it: so that in the addi∣tion he makes of his own, that is wholy lost which was anothers.

But this kind of mending things, so that they no more appear what before they were, and by that means become ours: well known, but ill practised by people able indeed to change; but not to amend: hath rendered them so much the more culpable, by how much it is a greater fault to deform the beauty, and to deface the comlinesse of an exact composure, than singly to steal it. To ••lie the infamy of Thieves; they become Homicides: bereaving the life of the beauty from those things they take; whilst they dismember the intire, and disorder the dis∣joynted; with so infelicitous a felicity in the doing it; that in a few draughts of the Pen, they transform a Helen into a Hecuba; and an Achilles into a Thirsites. They do by others works, against their wils; as the Athenians did in despight of the three hun∣dred Brazen Statues of the famous Demetri∣us; which by way of disgrace and shame to his

name, they melted; and transfound them into Vessels of the vilest, and most sordid use. The Rod of Circes, and the Pen of these strive in power: this, being able with igno∣rance to transform beautiful composures, into deformed Monsters: as that with Ma∣gick could change Gallant Heroes, into sordid Animals. The like treatment found the Verses of an excellent Poet, with an il∣literate Comoedian: which imitating with tumblings, and with that which Cassiodorus calls the mute, and loquatious speech of the hands; the ancient Mystery of the Mim∣micks: so il-favoredly represented that by Actions, which Poetry had exprest by Words; that in the Fables of Niobe, and of Daphne; that changed into a stone, and this into a tree; in this he seemed a tree, and in that a stone.

Saltavit Nioben, saltavit Daphnida Memphis. Ligneus ut Daphnen, saxeus ut Nioben.

When in stealing from others we use that caution and reverence, with which the Eagle snatcht, and carried the Idan Boy into Heaven, without hurting him with his tal∣lons or tearing his clothes; and which Leor∣cas with no less judgment than Art expressed in Brasse, Sentientem quid capiat in Ganymede,

〈1 page duplicate〉〈1 page duplicate〉

〈1 page duplicate〉〈1 page duplicate〉

& cui ferat; parcentem unguibus etiam pervestem; Yet this sufficeth not: for discretion in rob∣bing mitigateth, but doth not remove the crime of theft. How much worse is it to deform, to confound, to mangle others la∣bours to make them our own? and make it in this manner truly ours, namely, ill made, like that Fidentinus, of whom Martial

Quem recitas meus est, ô Fidentine, libellus. Sed malè cum recitas incipit esse tuus.

To the imbelishment we make, as it were with an alteration of more noble Quality, whence the things are happily changed (which I have said is a manner of robbing innocēt & commendable (I add in the last place the increase of the Quantity; when a great masse is formed of a little seed, and a tree of a shrub.

Many things proceed from the Pens of good writers, spoken some times only in∣cidentally, and as if pointed at by the finger; which by him that hath not a very appre∣hensive eye are easily over-look't: and yet they are Cyphers pregnant, somtimes with lofty, sometimes with large conceits; and he that knows how to unloose that which in them is knit up, of nothing makes much, and all for himself, all his own.

The Heaven of many Stars as it hath; to no more but seven hath assigned proper Spheres, and liberty and room to runne wandering through that liquid and subtle Air, which from here below diffuseth it self even to the Firmament. But if all had been assigned their proper periods and re∣volutions; whereas now the World to make room for seven only is so vast: what would it be, if so many millions of Stars had been consigned their proper Circles, and proportionate Spheres? The self-same do worthy VVriters, in composing Books. Determinate Matter is that to which they give place, and as it were Sphere, and re∣volution, handling and discussing it as they please, at large: But in as much as they permit it not to dilate hither, and thither; I will call them in this respect, fixed Stars of sublime thoughts, and lofty conceits; able to replenish as it were, a great Heaven, a large Volume; when they find Spirits and Intelligences; that know how to manage them as is requisite. He that in this manner robs from others, theives happily, takes little, adds much, makes all his own. He hurts not an Author that takes from him a spark to make it a Sun. It is with profit neverthelesse of him that took it, that of a

little neglected seed he forms a great and mighty Tree. And much to his Honour: since that its the VVork of a grand VVit, upon a few hints, of some naked words; to work double counterpoints of sublime discourses. Upon the simple track of an Her∣cules's foot; to form, as did Pythagoras; all the intire masse of a body, composed to the exact proportion of all its parts.

LASCIVIOUSNESSE.

The unworthy Profession of Lasci∣vious Poetry.

SAint Jerome, that brave Lion; that from the Cave of Bethlehem made the roarings of his voice to be heard through all the World; to the terrour of Heresie, and astonishment of Vice; omitted not to give a shake to the licenti∣ous Lasciviousnesse of Poets; that masking the Stars with unchast Images; envious ca∣lumniators; and a thousand times worse than the Giants of Phlegra: they have as∣saulted Heaven not with stones, but with

the wickedness of the Earth. Non debemus sequi fabulas Poëtarum, ridicula, ac portentosa mendacia, quibus etiam coelum infamare conan∣tur, & mercedem stupori inter sydera collocare.

And to say the truth; those are worthy of the anger of Heaven, and Earth,

Quorum carminibus nihil est, nisi fabula coelum.

Were not the Lascivious thefts of Jupiter sufficiently manifested to the World with other Lights; but that they must shine among the Stars? Did it not suffice that they were published to all the Earth: in Marble, in Brasse, in Pictures, in publick Scenes, unlesse also moreover they had gi∣ven them the Heavens for a Theater, the Stars for Representors, and the World for Auditors: And afterwards to tell you that Jupiter from Heaven sent his Thunder-bolts against the Earth, guilty of those vices, of which Heaven was the Master? An Adul∣terous Calista hath the Stars of the Pole; and makes a double guide, because in directs by Sea, and shipwracks by Land; whilest shi∣ning from thence above; it seemes to teach the Chast to be happily Lascivious; there being a Jupiter sound, that remunerates A∣dultery with Stars.

Sic Ariadnaeus stellis Coelestibus ignis Additur. Hoc pretium noctis persolvit. Honore Liber, ut aethereum meretrix illuminet axem.

From such Constellations of obscenity, what other influences, then Lascivious; can redound to the Earth?

Architas, desiring to speak in publick a word none of the modestest; in calling it to his lips, it appeareth so unworthy to be in∣graven by the tongue of a Man; that not to defile himself with it, he took for tongue a Cole: as more agreeable to the matter, worthy of fire; and with it not so much writing, as blotting, upon the surface of a wall; either exprest, or hinted it. Oh! the golden Tongues of the Stars: whilest the night charms all the World to silence, the better to attend: of what speak they? and what teach they? They publish those mis∣deeds with the language of light in Heaven, which for shame would conceal themselves with darknesse on Earth.

But I wish that only the Ancient Poetry of Gentilisme was guilty of this; and not exceeded by the modern of Christians; that not in depainting the Stars, with imaginary figures, of dishonest memorials; but in ex∣pressing

in paper and which is worse, im∣printing in the mind, the Acts themselves; so happily or rather unhappily busieth it self.

There wants not to the Poetry of these times its Ovids; that subjecting Parnassus to Ida; the Lawrels to the Mirtles, the the Swans to the Doves; and Apollo to Cupid: make the Virgin Muses publick strumpets. So to these Ovids, there should not want Augustus's for Mecaenas's; and for a refri∣geration of their too burning Loves; the Snows of Scythia, and the Ice of Pontus. And herein now a-dayes the evil is so epi∣demical: that from the antecedent of being a Poet, this consequence seemes to follow of being Lascivious: as Antisthenes from the profession of Ismenia, took that conse∣quence; Si bonus Tibicen est, ergo, malus homo est.

Who would not have sworn, that Poe∣try coming from the Gentiles, to Christi∣ans; should have done, as the Spartan Venus; which passing the Eurotas, said to them, that if they would have her company, they must break their Looking-glasses, deface their Bracelets, divest the Whores; and not only clothed herself with modesty; but armed herself with bravery: and seemed rather a Warlick Pallas, than a Lascivious Venus? Yet,

that which is yet worse; to that liberty of Lascivious writing; to which here∣tofore was given banishment for a punish∣ment: honours are now conferr'd for a re∣ward.

We advance as high as Heaven, and amongst the Stars adore those Lyres, of the modern Orpheusses; that have opened Hell; not to draw thence a condemned Euridice; but to couduct thither a world of innocents. Their Books go through all the Earth: spread through every Climate; become Citizens of every place; and are with great diligence translated, that they may speak in all Languages: as if for fear the Virgin VVorld should want Ravishers, they wonld disperse through every Climate, incentives of Lust.

They bear in their Frontispices, the titles of the Grandees, to whose name they were by the Authors dedicated: and by that means passe so much the more freely; by how much the more they are defended. Thus many times, those come to be the Protectors of Impurity, that should be its Judges; prostrating their names, and au∣thorities to unworthy Uses: as the Barba∣rians of Scythia; that whilst they are Lasci∣viously imployed in their Carts, Suspendunt de

jugo pharaetras indices, ne quis intercedat: Ita nec armis erubescunt.

VVere Hyppocrates now living, that com∣plained of the Publick Laws, which assign∣ing no punishment to Ignorant Physicians; permitted them to be Homicides: Discunt enim (said that other) periculis nostris, & ex∣perimenta per mortes agunt. Medicoque tan∣tùm hominum occidisse impunitas summa est. VVhat would he say, where the being a publick compounder of poison; so much the more dangerous by how much the more pleasant; makes him not to forfeit his head, but to merit a Crown?

But if in like manner as Lucian, made the infamous tongue of the Pseudologist, re∣count with anger and regret, the sordid offices, in which he was basely imployed; we might hear the murtherous Pens of so many Lascivious VVriters, to relate one by one, the obscenities, by committing of w^ch they were insentives, in the hearts of such, who with too great an intensenesse read their venemous writings: would there be a man that would inrich them with costly rewards; that would honor them with these applauds; fit only for a super-humane ex∣cellence?

Lesse criminal was that libidinous Hostius

that using his Mirrours in abominable spe∣culations, ea sibi osten••abat, quibus abscon∣dendis nulla satis alta nox est. But to conclude; Sibi osten••abat. The Dragons that being poisonous, keep themselves secluded in their subteranean Dens, are not judged so faulty; that we should therefore go hunt them out, and slay them. VVhen they come abroad, to infest the Air with their breath: there is none that being able to slay them, will suffer them to live. To publish to the eyes of all the VVorld Ea, quibus abscondendis nulla satis alta nox est; and that so much the worse, by how much the more exquisite is the Pen, that delineates it: and the art seems of grea∣ter perfection, whilest according to the An∣cient painting of the Greeks it is wrought, Nihil velando: and to ••ind a reward of that, to which there cannot be found a chastise∣ment grievous enough; is not this a miracle of humane, (I know not which to call the least evil) folly; or with more reason, malignity?

It is still infamous for a man to assume the habit and face of a woman? and to trans∣form a mans self, not into the habit, but into the profession of an over-grown Hagge; Bawde to all the most closely contrived ob∣scenities: is this honorable? is this a life worthy of Statues, and Lawrels?

The weak excuses of obscene Poets.

BUt let us hear, the Apologies that these make, in defence of their impure Books they print; that pre∣tend their Fury from the Torch of Cupid▪ shewing themselves more Fooles, than Poets. Hear their first Apology.

That facetious and merry Poems; (thus apud eos tota impuritas vocatur Urbanitas) how∣beit they only entertain their Readers, with the de∣light of fiction, and the sweetnesse of Verse, in thoughts of Love; yet in the end all is but in thought: whereupon the pleasure they give the Reader, is more speculative, and of the mind; than practical, and of the sense.

I would here have you by way of an∣swer take notice of those two unfort••nate Sisters; that the first time they read a fa∣mous Tragi-comoedy of the like nature, newly published in print; became so good proficients in impurity, that they present∣ly set up School: converting their house into a Stews, and divulging themselves for VVhores. Of so many married peo∣ple, as heard the said pastoral recited,

(and it is the authentick observation of many ages) whereas they came chast; there was none but went thence conta∣minated with dishonesty: and practising that loose liberty of Love in such as please them; (of which they there heard the precepts, and saw the examples) disco∣vered unfaithfulnesse; and with the dead Adulterers, from the feigned insentives of a Tragi-comoedy; bore away the true Exit of a Tragoedy but all Europe,

and all the World; as farre as these Books have been dispersed; how many variations of Scaenes, how many deplorable Catastro∣phies have they seen; while mindes that for the prize of Virgin purity warred in candidnesse with the Angels; having drunk in sorcery and poyson, from the golden Cup of inmodest Poetry; have for ever after, had under humany shapes, brutish manners? In the first perusal they lose the virginity of their eyes; and as one whose name I know not said in Plutarch of the impudent: Verte∣runt pupillas virgines in meretrices: next that of the mind, after which the flesh as having lost the salt that should season it putrefies.

Saint Augustine complains of Homer, the first Patron of fabulous Poets; that having feigned the gods, some Homicides, some

Thieves, some Adulterers; he had made Sin a Divine property, & thereby unawares insinuated it into the approbation of the VVorld: seeing, Quisquis ea fecisset, non ho∣mines perditos, sed coelestes Deos videbatur imi∣tatus. But these, that putting their tongues in the mouthes of Poetick Persons; teach Nature to be two imperfect, which is so in∣clinable to the pleasures of Love; whilst the Law inhibits the procuring of them: or the Law to rigid and unjust, in interfering with Nature. These, that to expugn the constant honesty of Virgins, put them in mind, That beauty fadeth with years; and with the beauty all of amiable is lost for which others court them: That its in vain ingray haires to wish for that, which in youth is refused: That to a life so short one Love is not sufficient: That honesty is no∣thing else but an Art of appearing honest, &c. These pestilent Doctrines; these poy∣sons extracted from the wit, distilled from the hand, let fall from the Pen of a Chri∣stian, Qui soli uxori suae masculus nascitur, saith Tertullian; and cupiditate procreandi aut unam scit, aut nullam, saith Happy Minutius: what other effect have they, but only to ren∣der sin so much the more facile, by how much they perswade the belief, that this is

rather a crime (not to say Law) of nature, than a vice of the will? Age wils it; example teacheth it; occasion perswades it; weak∣nesse excuses it; let it suffice, that circum∣spection act it. And is this only to delight the thoughts, and to incite abstract and Pla∣tonick, not Epicurean Love? VVould (I will not say an Elius Verus, and Idolater of the writings of Ovid de arte amandi; but) a Beast, say any other; if he had the rules of Learning, and Art of Poetry?

Nor is that material which they alledg, that these lessons and examples are given by feigned persons. That which perswades, is not the quality of the Counsellor, but his reason; not the person, but the fact. And besides, what are the persons of Poetry, but only as the Caverns of Mountains; that re∣verberate the Echo? The voice is the Au∣thors, although others pronounce it; as the writing is the hands, although the paper expresse it. Love disguized like Ascanius did no lesse inflame the unhappy Queen; than if he had been in his true shape, and not concealed under a forreign habit.

For, if we will be judged according to experience, great Mistresse of Truth; she by daily practice shews that in reading others Loves, we learn our own; That com∣••assion

to the misadventnres of such as are rejected; becomes a means to facilitate our surrender at the like request. That that, which in feigned persons is condemned as cruelty, and obduratnesse of a mind to averse to such as love; in our selves is found to m••li••ie the heart upon the like occasion. Whereby, the ••inder being applied to the Steel; there is no more wanting, but a blow of an encounter, a salute, a glance; to strike fire.

We soften our own hearts, in others flames: we imprint in our minds the seal of those affections, that others fictiously ex∣presse in themselves: there is only one Au∣gustine, that hath with teares bewail'd the feigned disasters of the forsaken Dido: these are the ordinary effects, that Poetry daily accasioneth, with its Scaenes, and Obcene Books. And though sometimes, when we are involved in Love, we are ignorant of others affections; we love yet, an I know not what of unknown in others: we love as that foolish Boy in the Fable; that from a vain Image taking real love.

Quid videat nescit, sed quod videt uritur illo.

I blush with Clemens Alexandrinus, to re∣member

here the two Venus's of Cyprus, and Gnidos; that of Ivory; this of Marble: Sta∣tues dead in themselves, but for others lust to lively. I only add the Epiphomena of this Author; for that is to be understood of Poetry, which he saith of the graving of such like Statues lasciviously naked: Tan∣tum ars valuit ad decipiendum, quae homines amori deditos illexit in barathrum!

The other defence of Lascivious Compo∣sures is: That such Poems have no more of evi but the appearance: That these are vizards of Al∣legories, that cover the sense of most admirable moral Phylosophy; sauced with the hony of fabu∣lous inventions; that they may for their savory cooking be the more easily swallowed. Thus by an∣cient custome, the Laws in Candia ordained that they should comprise their instructions, to their children, in Musical measures; and a great part of the Divine Law, was put into verse by David, in the Poems of the Psalms; Ut dum suavitate carminis mulcitur auditus (said St. Augu∣stine) divine sermonis pariter utilitas infe∣ratur. Werefore they may write in the frontis∣piece of their Poems that Terzet of Dante,

Ye soules induc'd with souud intelligence, Observe the hidden lessons that do lye Veil'd up in their mysterious Poetry:

and with these the Poets, to such as well regard them, be Phylosophos, nomine Poëtas, qui invidiosam rem ad eam artem perduxerunt, quae maximè populum demulceat.

Now did you ever hear a fiction more Poetical, a lie more solemn than this? The inverters of Morality would be taken for true masters of it.

Et simulant Curios cum Bacchanalia scribant.

Such a lie might well have fitted Pompey; when in his Theater, which he had erected for the representing of the most Lascivious Spectacles; because he would not suppresse it, Quasi morum lanienam, he there dedi∣cated a Chappel to Venus; cui subjicimus, inquit, gradus spectaculorum. Ita damnatum, & damnandum opus Templi titulo praetexuit, ac dis∣ciplinam superstitione delusit. But now a-dayes the World is not so deprived of judgment, but that they know, that certain Allegories, which others, (thanks to her self) apply to this Poetry; (Allegories, which how ever they are wyer-drawn, yet do they not at∣tein to the covering of those immodesties, which are read in them) were not the Mo∣del by which the Poem was composed; nay, never entered into the Authors thought:

Chimaera's are they, not Allegories; and unprofitable endeavours of such, as would convert obscenity into a mystery.

The Table of Cebes is one thing; to trace the intricate avenues of whose Labyrinth, it requires the Clew of an Old Interpreter; that so a stranger not understanding, as he said, the Aenigma'es of that Sphinx, meet not with death where he expected benefit: The modern Poems another, which stand in need more of a Sphinx, to put them into Aenigma; than of an Oedipus, to interpret them.

Yet, all this while I deny not, but that some Ancients, to conceal from the eyes of the vulgar the miseries of their Theology: hid them, (as treasures within the Sileny,) under the Fables, which they received for Verities. Howbeit, as there remains nothing of the mysteries of the Egyptian Sages, but only their Images; Bats, Apes, Owles: heretofore learned Hierogliphicks, now un∣fortunate Reliques; which alone are taken from the ancient Pyramids: so of the an∣cient Theology of the Gentiles, there re∣mains no more to the memory of the World, but the Adulteries, Thefts, Homi∣cides of the gods: Images two unworthy of any subserviency, in the displaying the

mysteries of Divinity. But the Poets now a-dayes have no occasion for, or thought of this. And if they should, they would be no lesse imprudent than impure: taking away directly contrary to the end pretended: namely, reciting, to infuse good manners, obscene Fables; apter far to extirpate virtue where it already hath been implanted: which would be (as saith the Theologist Nazianzen) per scopulos ducere a dlittus. There∣fore it needeth not that they clothe the Wolves like Sphepheards, and the Lasci∣vious Poets, like Moral Phylosophers.

The third defence is that they say, they intend no mans hurt: in their writings, but their own honour. Their Books bear in their frontispieces, written in Capital letters, the saying of Ausonins, Cui hic ludus noster non placet, ne legerit: aut cum legerit obliviscatur: aut non obli∣tus ignoscat. So that he who falleth must blame himself as weak, not the Poet; which composed not the Book, nor published it, to offend the Rea∣der. What harm is their in the stones, if such as are of glasse go to justle with them? He that can∣not fight, let him not Arm himself: he that is not well provided for a storm, let him not ingulfe him∣self in the danger of it. The Reader should be a Bee, that gathereth the hony of ingenious styles of writing, from the imitation of Poetical forms

of speech; not a Spider, that sucketh the poyson of Lasciviousnesse. Even in Holy Scripture we meet with the Incest of Ammon: the Adultery of David: the detestable uncleanesse of Sodome. The finger of God writ them; nor are they cul∣pable, because some may draw thence examples of sinning; relishing the fact, more than they respect the punishment. Therefore, that some decline in their Virtues, by reading a Book, compiled onely with an intent at the advancements of the Wit; this is the crime, not of the innocent Author, but of the incautulous Reader.

Quam sapiens argumentatrix sibi videtur igno∣rantia humana! saith Tertullian, upon such an∣other occasion. Did you ever see So∣phismes, better couch'd in Syllogismes? I thought at first, that I my self should have been perswaded by them:

For, (seeing that that which is not directly intended, cannot render another culpable:) the sin is not a sin; we not intending in the least the incommodity of the crime, but only the pleasure, or commodity of the action.

These are Masters of their profession. But do they not desire that, which they say they desire not: whilst in the mean-time crafti∣ly they attempt all the means, by which it is atteinable: so that if they intend not o∣therwise, why do they attempt otherwise?

Suppose this very thing were the Scope of some Poets: to excite with the delectation of Fable, and Verse, the insentives to lust: could they do it more handsomely, or more efficaicously? And when they indited were they either so stupid, or so blind, as not to perceive the same? And can they be said not to desire that, which in so forceable manner they effectually desire? Nor may that be applied to their purpose, which Ter∣tullian speaks of Women Lasciviously at∣tired: Quid alteri periculo sumus? Quid alteri concupiscentiam importamus? Perit ille tua for∣ma, si concupiscit; tua facta es gladius illi.

Even in the primitive ages of the Church certain Christians, which before their Bap∣tisme were by profession Carvers: desired, it might be lawful for them to make as be∣fore, and to sell Statu's of Jove, of Mars, of Venus; and they defended the fact, saying:

That they intended not others sin, but their own profit: To keep themselves alive, not to make others offend. That their Statues were worshipped: was the sin of the Idolatry, not the fault of the Sculpture. We live according to the Laws of Christians; and labour according to the Rules of Art; in what then do we sin?

Our Poets, to defend themselves in

a common cause; would give sentence in favour of these. But these, and those, are condemned, and that justly by Tertullian; and their hands convicted of being Manus Idolorum matres, and declared to be Manus praecidendas. He makes them guilty of Sa∣crilege; Priests of Idolatry; nay, more than Priests; Cum per te (saith he) Dii habeant Sacer∣dotes.

The good use of bad Books.

TO reclaim the Spartans from Ebriety Lucurgus the Law-giver, (in this particular without Law) killed, and extirpated all the Vines. And the remedy was worse than the malady; just as if we should pull out our eyes, to avoid the sight of our deformity. He ought rather, saith Plutarch, to have carried water, and made fountains their where the Vines grew; and to have corrected Bacchus with the Nymphs; a mad god, with many Sages. The same would they do that to take out of the World the mischief, that ill Books occasion, would take all Books out of the VVorld. These are extream Remedies;

which as the Father of Physicians teacheth, would not be used, but in the cases of extre∣mity, and when there is no other help.

There are many Books, in which as in the head of the Pulp-••ish (that which Plutarch saith of Poetry) there is some-thing good, and some-thing bad. The danger is for those that are as that Ancient Cato Helluo libro∣rum so greedy; that without picking, they swallow the good and the bad: whereupon afterwards they sustein some incommodity. I give you leave, saith Augustine, to make a prey or booty of the Books of evil writers; but in the same manner as the Israelites did upon the Houses of the Aegyptians; where they took the Vessels of Gold, but not the Idols, although they were also of Gold. Sharpen, as the Hebrews did the Sithe of your Wit at the Hones of the Philistines: but mowe not in their Feilds; freeing the Harvest, and the Sithe, from all suspition; for they have more Weeds than Corn.

He that hath good eyes, sees exposed in the Books of the Ingenious things as va∣rious, as heretofore were shewn by the Witty Vlisses, when in the disguize of a Mer∣chant, he Displayed a thousand VVomans trifles before the Virgins of Scyros; with the fortunate invention of a wise Knight, to the

end he might discover, and gain to the VVars Achilles, whom his timerous mother had hid among those Virgins, under a wo∣mans habit. The successe was, that whilst some of them run to the Mirrours, others to the Tablets, to the Bracelets, to the Rings; Achilles, remembering himself, betook him to a Sword, which was put amongst those Femenine trinkets, for the same purpose, and with that discovered, and as overcome by Vlisses, he yeilded himself, and agreed to be his Companion in the Trojan Expedition. In the same manner ought we in reading of Books, to deport our selves with a carriage nobly Masculine, that disdaineth and avoid∣eth what ever savoureth of Femenine; and bend our desire, and put our hands, to only such things as are worthy of us.

Even in this did Alexander shew himself like himself, that is, Great; when being offered the Lute of Paris, to which he had so often sung the beauties of Helen, and his own Loves; he vouchsafed it not so much as a look: but in its stead desired that which Achilles played upon in the Cave of old Chy∣ron, with his hands still reeking in the blood of the new-kild Tygers, and Lions.

But its not alone sufficient in the reading of dangerous Books to have a good end, if

we have not also a good Method; so that, in reading them we be so circumspected, and wary, as if we were to go

Per ignes Suppositos cineri doloso.

St. Basil ingeniously evinceth it where he saith,

That we must never give our minds; as the Helm up into the hand of the Au∣thor we read, for him to turn us at his will, and steer us at his pleasure: Keep a loof from the Cramp-fish that his vene∣mous frigidity seize you not; lest if other∣wise he fasten upon you, and render you stupid and insensible; he make you his prey. Herbs (pursues Basil) as sweet as they be, if they be mixt with Henbane & Hair; Flowers as fair as they seem, if they conceal under them Vipers, and Aspes; would be gathered with a hand more cautelous, than curious. By how much the more the danger is concealed by so much the more is it to be feared. Laugh∣ter in the mouth, and flattery in the face, are the semblances that maske treasons.

It is not only in the Ring of Demosthenes, of Cleopatra, of Annibal; but in Books also, that the poysons are concealed under Jew∣els: nor are they therefore the lesse mor∣tal,

for being the more precious. Those sub∣lime Wits, like the Heavens, enriched with as many Stars, as are the goodly, and lofty conceits which resplend in their writings; should never leave us so secure, but that in our l••ction of them, we should use much su∣spension and caution; since it oft eveneth in Books as in Heaven; that the fairest Stars, compose the most deformed figures: whence in the study of them the advice is necessary, which the Sun gave to Phaëton, still to keep his eye on his way, and his hand strait on his reines, since even in travelling among the Stars,

Per insidias iter est, formasque ferarum.

Here the advertancy of the Dogs of E∣gypt, serveth to our purpose; that drink the waters of Nylus running, nor are they so earnest to quench according to custome their thirst; but that they more fear to sa∣tiate the hunger of the Crocodiles. Here also let me insert the cautelousnesse of the Eagle, which when it chaseth a poysonous Dragon.

Occupat adversum, ne saeva retorqueat ora.

All this, when the Books are such that there may be profit extracted from them, by those that read them; and profit without preju∣dice by those that deliberately read them. Otherwise if they are either of that kind, of which may be averred what Tertullian said of the ancient Spectacles; Quorum summa gratia de spurcitia plurimum concinnata est; or replenished with poysonous Doctrine, and pestilential Opinions: we should not wish (as the Comick sayes) ex arbore pulchra stran∣gulari. What? If this, and the other Lasci∣vious Poet should not have composed and published his Poems, could not I know how to be a Poet? and may not I say as sick Pompey, when the Physician prescribed him for supper by way of restorative a Ma∣vis, adding (since that it was out of season) that Lucullus could help him to one, as pre∣serving them all the year, Quid? said Pompey (with a disdainful look) Nisi Lucullus luxu∣riaret, non viveret Pompeius?

VVith such Books whence nothing may be extracted but poyson, and pestiferous do∣cuments; we should do as Crates the Theban did with the money, arising upon the sail of his goods; casting it into the Sea, and there∣with saying, Ite: perdo vos, ne perdere à vobis. And just so Origen, and after him St. Ambrose

called the mischievous Doctrines of fertile wits in the language of David, Divitias pecca∣torum.

The songs of the Syrens are sweet and me∣lodious: Nor are the Remorra's so power∣ful in staying the Ships when they grapple them with their teeth, as they in enchanting them; so that without casting Anchor, or striking sail, as if they were run a-ground, they remain immoveable.

Delatis licet huc incumberet aura carinis Implessentque sinum ventide puppe ferentes, Figebat vox una ratem.—

But what ensues? after the song comes sleep; and after the sleep death. Thus they only enjoyed so much, as was requisite for sleep, so much they slept as was sufficient to die.

Nec dolor ullus erat, mortem dabat ipsa voluptas.

There is no better escape from these perils, than by the stopping our eares to their chan∣tings, and enchantings; using for that pur∣pose the famous wax of Vlisses. Qui cogita∣vit felicissimam surditatem, ut quam vincere in∣telligendo non poterat, melius non advertendo

superaret. No lesse should we do with these enchanting Syrens of Books; pleasant its true, but for the most part pernitious; the which both because unprofitable, and be∣cause prejudicial, Nescire quàm scire meliùs est.

Who will drink Cyrces poyson, for the Cups being of Gold and of Pearl? Who out of the greatnesse of their curiosity, would behold in the Shield of Pallas, the head of Medusa, if the sight of it cost them a meta∣morphosis into stone; which to become, Satis est vidisse semel? How irrational both in honesty & conscience (not to speak of the shamelesse liberty of the bad) is the too much affiance of the simply good; that with a pretence of polishing the wit, by the mirrour of such kind of Books: to draw the riches of precious conceits, from the trea∣suries of so Learned Authors; do as those that in taking the Jems out of the head of the Dragon, drink the venom and poyson. They run at the songs, and are caught in the snare. They become desirous of certain Spirits that so disorder the mind in taking them in, that they lose their Senses there∣by.

He that travails in dust, or dirt, howbeit he treads lightly, alwayes reteines some

filthinesse on his feet: and even the Stars, saith Pliny, which, (notwithstanding that they are Stars, that is to say, the pure sub∣stance of Heaven, mingled and consolidated with light;) in regard they are nourished with Terrene humours; sordid Aliment, which they exhale from here below: they become spotted, and deformed: Thus (though without any reason for it) doth Pliny hold. Masculas enim non esse aliud quàm terrae raptas cum humore sordes. This indeed is true, that minds, although of Coelestial pro∣fessions, and lives; if they diet themselves with sordid humours, imbibed from Petro∣nius, from Apuleius, from Ovid; and besides many others, from some Poets in our Lan∣guage worse than all the rest; they will con∣tract impurity at their hearts; with a hazard of conceiving desires like to the objects they behold; as the Sheep of Jacob did at the sight of the party-coloured Rods, whose Lambs were gravid again, with the same devise of many-coloured spots.

Is there any want of Books, of lesse dan∣ger, and equal delight and utility to one of a sound Palate•• VVho would sound the Flute, said Alcibiades; should they see the wry mouthes, and the bladder-cheeks that they deformedly make; when they may have the

Lute, and the Gittern, which afford more delight, without causing any deformity? And with that he threw them away: nor was there any in Athens that would from thence-forth use them. Books which make you Monsters; and transform the beauty of Gods Image, imprinted in your Soules; into a Beastly and Brutish deformity: to what end are they read? if there be so many others of equal pleasure, and of greater pro∣fit? Drink not therefore the dregs of im∣purest Authors, as Galato with an ingenious invention, depainted many Poets, the imi∣tators, or thieves of Homer; that with open mouth received that which he vomited: if els-where there is Nectar without Lees; and so much more sweet, by how much the more pleasant, the cleanly Viands of the Mind are, than the sluttish offals of the Sense: at whose Table much more melo∣diously than at that of the Queen of Tyre,

By Jopas that new-Phoebus is exprest In Robes of Lovely yellow bravely drest, (With charming Looks, and Scepter of pure Gold) Heav'ns Miracles, and Motions, which the old World-bearing Atlas to Alcydes told:

He sings the Moons obliquely Reg'lar ways, Which her become, and oft eclips Sols Rays: How men and beasts at first were made, & how Raines, Winds, and Lightnings are produced now: The subject of his song in the next strain. Is of the Bears, Crow, Hyades, and Wain: And why the Vernal-dayes to th' Ocean fly So swifily, and the nights so leasurely.

A paranetical reprehension, of the Writers of obscene Poems.

HEar me, ô ye Lucifers of the Earth: Did God endue you with a wit full of lofty conceits, and an acute fancy; to the end you should turn the point of it ingratefully against himself? Did he instruct you to manage the Pen with ap∣plause, to the end you make thereof a Dart to transfix him in his honour? Did God bestow upon you Angelical minds, to have you prove enemies like the Devils?

Tell me not, The vain of our genius is good o••ly at these Theams. I will say to you that which Tertullion said of the Israelites, Malu∣••stis alium, & saepe, quàm coelum fragrare.

The clarity of your wits, which might shine as benevolent Stars: you have made lights of rotten wood: compounded of putrefaction and corruption. Grant it to be true, that you are good for nothing but Poetry. Yet, to write Lascivious Poetry, was it the necessity of the Wit, or the vice of the Will? It sufficeth (as Pythagoras did with a Lascivious Lutanist) that you alter the tune of your Muses Lyre, and change a Lascivious Lydian, into a Grave Dorick, in∣stead of exciting in others, affections and motions of Lascivious passions; to represse them.

But, if still you are enamoured upon a Strumpet Muse; and tainted with that which you call a Genius, or humour of un∣chast versifying; I shall say of you, and that with more reason, what Lactantius said of Leucyppus the Phylosopher the first inventor of Atomes, and defender of Chance, Quanto melius fuerat tacere, quàm in usus tàm miserabi∣les, tàm inanes, habere linguam! Is it not better to have no vain of Poetry; than to have a vain of vomiting venom and poyson? A prudent Emperour would never consent, that his Wife should drink wine; although the Physicians swore to him, that there was no other way to make her of barren that she

was to become fruitfull. That discreet Prince esteemed the remedy, worse than the disease: and said, Malo Uxorem sterilem quàm Vinosam. O how much better would this other saying sound in your mouth, Malo Musam, Sterilem quàm Lascivam. Did I not know any other Language, than that of an irrational Creature; I would rather choose to be a dumbe Man, than a speaking Beast.

And what gain you, when you spend your Wits, & consume your age and life to pub∣lish a work to the World; (which suppose it should be granted Immortal) if for the same you shall be applauded on Earth; and tor∣mented under the Earth; praised where you are not, and tormented where you shall eternally be? The Horace's, the Catulluss's, the Ovids, the Gallio's, the Martiall's; (to omit those of our own, of a holier Religion, but of a prophaner Poetry;) what availes it thē that they remain yet to the light of pu∣blick Fame; if in the mean-time they remain buried in the darknesse of Hell: & for every particle of that obscenity w^ch they writ, they are tormented there below; whilest here, without there knowledge, they are for the same unprofitably applauded?

Suppose that after many years study, your Pen should send forth a VVork of im∣mortal

merit; (in which notwithstanding Pauci quos aequus amavit Jupiter) of that glory, which is the proper and legitimate reward of the labours of Heroick VVits, you must promise to your selves no other share, than the least; I mean that of the vulgar, or of the vicious: in as much as men of wisdome and judegment (to whose eares Soloecismus mag∣nus, & vitium est turpe quid narrare,) will rather abominate you, as cankers of civil conversation, and wholsom customes: nor will the misimployed virtue of your VVits, appear otherwise to them, than the immea∣surable, but impious strength of Giants: who are not commended as mighty, be∣cause they can dig up Mountains, and heap thē a top of one another; but are condemned as irreligious, because they therewith pre∣tended to assault Heaven, and pull Jupiter out of his Throne.

But if nothing else will perswade you: be∣hold God descending to the uncleanness of a Sta∣ble; to the miseries of poverty; to the inconve∣niences of obscurity; to the scorns of mockers; to the calumny of detractors; to the sale of a slave; to the condemnation of a Criminal; to the death of a Thief! All blisters under the scourges; all blood, amidst the thorns; all confusion, in his nakednesse; all anguish, on the Crosse! Now

set him before you; and ask him, for whom he took so long a voyage, and at so long stages, as from Heaven to Calvary? For whom he dispended so many teares, so much sweat, and blood? Had this noble Merchant in all this a design of other gain than of Soules? Pretendeth he any other from us; requested he any other of his Father; than to have us for his imitators in life, and companions in glory; Now put your selves in competition with God; and behold the dis∣proportionate unworthinesse of this comparison. He to save Soules, did what he could; you what you know, to damn them. What prognostica∣tions make you of your selves? What faces will you have to appear before your Judg as guilty; whilest that as many as have been lost by your means; and in the Volumes of ages to come, shall be shewn, after these, to have perished through your occasion; shall exalt their horrid yellings, from the deepest pit of Hell, against you? What defence will you have for your selves, being to answer for the crimes of others? howbeit they are not so much others as your own; since you laid the stumbling-blocks to those fals, you sowed the seed to those fruits of Death.

There is not that man living on the earth, that Lucifer beholds with a better eye, and observes, and preserves, with greater care; than he that busieth himself in infusing from

his brain, into the golden Cup of an Inge∣nious Book, the pest of error, or poyson of impure Poetry. One of these alone suffi∣ceth to ease half the Devils of the trouble of tempting: for a mischievous Book, con∣tervailes a hundred Devils. Here Behemoth sleepeth in secreto calami, in locis humentibus, neither is there any necessity of his contri∣buting to the fall of men; where the way is so glib, and slippery, the feet easily slide, and the supports deceive them.

Tymon the Athenian hated all men, he loved one onely Alcibiades; but to love him was to hate all: because he fore-saw by his incli∣nations, that he would be the ruin of many, and should become a disturber of all Greece. And those true Misanthropii, there below; if there be any men that they hug as friends, and imbrace as dear unto them; they are those, that with Books of immortal dura∣tion, and mortal operation, are to fight for many ages against I leaven; to expugne ho∣nesty in many brests, and to enrich their kingdom with many Souls.

These Truths discerned with the lights of reason, and faith by a famous Poet; (as I hear from a person of his familiar acquain∣tance) they made him often-times startle for horrour, and almost swound for grief;

and so far transported him, that he took up the Book which he himself had composed to behold it Tanquam Orbis Terrarum Pha••∣tontem (as Tyberius called Caligula) whence as having merited a flash of lightning, he sentenced it to the flames. But no sooner did he reach out his hand to cast it into the fire; but he pulled it in with occult violence of compassion; Love, then bring∣ing to his mind, the cold and tedlous nights, of those seven years watching, which he spent in writing it; the great labours of the wit, which there had ex∣prest the quintescence of its Art; the harms of his impaired health, enfeebled and worn away by the file of continual study: so that there was not therein a syllable, or verse, that did not cost him some part of his life: The publick desire of the World, longing to see it: The glory, which the merit of a Work of that singular Nature, did promise him: Alas! These were Spels which shook his hand, stupified his arm, and perplexed his heart: whereupon he repented, altering his purpose, and con∣demned himself of cruelty, and credulity; and in a posture, as if he would implore mercy and pardon of his Book, he kissed it, hugged it to his breast; and to comfort

it after the fright of the fire, he promised it, as before, that it should be published to the light.

God keep you, that you may never be the Father of such a like Book. Albeit you discern its malevolent inclination, and in∣famous dispositions; yet to strangle it with your own hand, to tear it in pieces, to con∣sume it in the flames; will be an enterprize of that difficulty, as if you were with your own hand to slay a Son, and to rip his Soul out of his heart with your own knife: and the same said Origens Master in Stromati: Libri sunt filii animorum.

The knowledg, and fore-sight, that the publishing it it print, would be to the preju∣dice of many, and perdition of your selves; as a Man, as a Christian will sometimes in∣fuse horrour into the mind, and chilnesse into the heart; and you will repent to have done that, which cost you so many sighs, so many toils. But in Conclusion, this shall convert to that Remorse of Caesars con∣science upon the Banks of Rubicon. You will strive to overcome God, and your selves; and slightly over-passing the inconveniences of others, or your selves; you will proceed with a resolute Jacta est alea.

For my part, if two spectacles should

offer themselves to my view; on the one hand aged Abraham, binding his only Isaack as a victime upon the Altar, with a hand as sted∣fast, as his heart was intrepidable; and the fire put to the wood of the Sacrifice, and the hand up to fetch the blow upō the throat of the innocent Son; without either by the shivering of the arm, or altering of his coun∣tenance, or bedewing of his eyes, giving the least symptomes of a discomposed mind; applying himself with such intensenesse to his Priestly Office, as if he had forgot his paternal relation; or else if he had the affe∣ctionate resentments of a Father; it was with more emulation, than compassion of his Son that he slue; although in him he was both Victime and Priest; (for he slue himself no lesse than him, in whom more than himself he lived:) And on the other hand an excellent Authour of a pestilent Book, over-comming the contrasts of his thoughts, of his friends, and of all the Devils in Hell; sacrificing it generously to the flames, with that self-same hand that had syllable by syllable written, and weighed it: cutting off at one blow, the labours of the years past, & the glory of the ages to come; and slaying himself in his issue: losing with a voluntary refusal, that life, which only

makes us survive death; I mean, the Fame of succeeding Generations. Of these two spectacles I know not which I should more willingly behold, and perhaps it would appear unto me a lighter matter, at the express command of God; Father of the unborn, and life of the Dead, to slay a Son that was begotten with delight, and may be raised again by miracle: then at the voice, of the un-audable Speech, in which God speaks to the heart; to burn a Book, that in con∣ceiving it, in bringing it forth, in bringing it up; cost more pains, than it hath syllables.

What though the love of Glory; and the hopes of obteining a Name of an invincible Soul, moved Brutus to condemn his own Sons to death; being rebels to their Coun∣try, and enemies to the publick good? He condemned them as a Consul, not to deli∣ver them as a Father, Et exuit Patrem ut Con∣sulem ageret. His heart suffered him to see tied to the stake, Young-men, of amiable aspect, and in a word, Sons. Et qui spectator erat amovendus, eum ipsum Fortuna exactorem supplicii dedit. But he could do no lesse. Who then so obdurated his heart; or who bereaved him of it, for the time; whilest he both commanded, and undauntedly be∣held the death of his Sons?

Vicit amor Patriae laudumque immensa Cupido.

Is the avidity of glory, able to make Fa∣thers Executioners? Where then in one is lost both the Son, & the Glory which from him was expected; how much more he∣roical an act is it to kill him: since the power of doing it, was taken from nothing, but from the love of Virtue?

But the hope of ever seeing so happy a Spectacle, is a vanity. Yet I would perswade these, that the excrements, (such especially as favour wholly of brutal) may be pared off, that the Book may remain, if not good, yet at least, not exceeding bad. But also for this they are perfect at that answer, heretofore given to the Senate of Rome, when they were consulting of lesning the Tyber, by branching it, and diverting the Rivers that emptied themselves into it, thereby to se∣cure the City from the frequent In-unda∣tions, that submerged it, Ipsum Tyberim nolle prorsus accolis fluvius orbatum, minore gloria fluere. They will not permit their works to be a drop diminished, a tittle impaired. They say they would seem monstrous being maimed, when as indeed they are Monsters being entire.

DETRACTION.

The inclination of the Genius, and abusive imployment of the Wit to the defaming of others.

WHo would ever imagine that De∣traction should be so sweet, that he that had once tasted it should ever after desire it; & as the Lions, which if they have once licked the blood from their pawes, are alwayes after that greedy for it; so likewise he that tasteth the first rellish of slander, hath ordinarily so longing a desire after it, that they become like those that had rather be without a tongue, than without their Jests; and cease to live sooner than to leave jeering. Old age, (when they arrive at it) though it oft∣times bereaves the head of wisdom, yet it deprives not the bitter tongue of it stings▪ like as the old thorns, which Winter makes to lose their leaves not their pricks; their ornament, but not their sharpnesse.

These, for the most part, acute of wit, but only to sting; never speak better than

when they spake worst; never shine more than when most they burn. All the proofs of their Wits are jeers, and pungent jests: & to become the smarter in biting, they tēter their wits, more than that famous Oratour strove in despight of his lisping tongue to pronounce and expresse the canicular and snarling letter R.

To hear them, how a Menippus, a Zoilus, a Momns will play upon one another, (so inge∣niously they do it) it is as if you heard a Mu∣sick, but such Musick as that, which Pytha∣goras observed to be made, by the blows, and percussions of great Hammers. Their Pens, taken from a Vulture, not from a Swan, like that of the famous Demosthenes, have the ink at one end, and poison at the other: yea, the ink it self is a venom, that impoisons the names which it writeth; whereupon as those that die of poison, they appear wan and black. The sparklings of the wit, which in others are wont to be innocent Lamps of light, not of fire; for delight, not for offence; in them are lightnings, that carry flames on their wings, and death on their points.

There is transfused into their heads the Genius of Lucilius, qui primus condidit styli nasum. They have in their mouthes the

proper tongue of the Ancient Epigramma∣tists; namely, (as Martial defineth it) Ma∣lam linguam: nor though their speech be sweet, and copious, can it ever be said, of them, as of the Sweetest Plato, that the Bees put hony in their mouthes; but instead of it a Scorpions egge, or a Spiders venom. In sum; they accustom their hands to the cauterizing instruments like an Anatomist; rather than to the Pen like a Writer; and the more sub∣tilly they cut, the more excellent they seem; wounding the living, and tearing in pieces the death.

These detracting Buffoons, unworthy of living amongst Men, as partaking of Beasts; (as was said of Cicero) to gain the applause of a jest, care not to lose the favour of a friend.

Dummodo risum— Excutiat sibi, non hic cuiquam parcet amico.

Whereupon they may well be called with the Comick Vulturii; since that Hostesne an Cives comedant parvipendunt. To expresse one of their conceits, they care not though they torment that innocent party upon which it lights. They onely use their eyes to strike their blows home; nor do they care, when it sometimes falls out that they speed as the Eagle; that let a Tortoise fall

upon the bald head of a Poet, to break the shell. Thus they take pleasure, in others sufferings; and honour, from others dis∣grace: imitating (if he did such a thing) Buonaroti, that crucified a man, thereby to depaint to the life a Crucified Christ. Or rather Nero, that set fire on Rome, to chaunt upon the Tower of Mecaenas, to the sound of his Gittern, in the real wrack of his Coun∣try, the feigned conflagration of Troy.

Ah las! too barbarous is that desire of theirs, to appear at others cost, quick-wits; of an acute and nimble brain. Its the cruel custom of the people of Jappoan, to prove the temper of their Scymitars, & the strength of their armes, upon the Carcasses of the condemned. How much worse is it under pretence of a sportive skirmish, to thrust in ones breast a Daggar, no lesse mortal to the reputation of him that receives it, than the wound of a Sword would be to his life; which, as saith Vegetius, Duas uncias adactae mortales sunt. Yet you must know, that the Satyres, Fathers and Masters of Satyre, are more ugly for being Semi-beasts, than beautiful for being Demi-gods: and in your mordant taunts, that which is ingenious, doth not so much please; but that which is malicious, doth more displease.

Be these the sublime uses, the divine im∣ployments, for which Wit was given you? To make it of a King that it is a Tyrant; and of a Conservator of Civil life, a Homi∣cide, and Hangman? You appropriate that to your selves, which an Ancient writ a∣gainst the cruel Perillus; justly complaining, that he had debased the innocent Art of forming in brasse the Images of gods, and Hero••s; unto the making of a Murthering Bull, to be the Executor, or Instrument of the mercilesse sentences of Phalaris. In hoc a simulachris Deorum, hominumque de••ocaverat, humanissimam artem. Ideo tot conditores ejus elaboraverant ut ex ea tormenta sierent? Itaque una de causa servantur opera ejus, ut quisquis illa videat, oderit manus.

The ordinary punishment of these is to be beloved by none, shunned by many, hated by all: To bring upon themselves the in∣famous title of a Satyrist, a Detractor, a Buffoon; who might bear in their fore-heads that ancient Distich, extracted from a Greek Epigram,

Si meus ad Solem statuatur Nasus, hianti Ores, ben•• ostendet dentibns hora quota est.

Diogenes, the Band-dog of Cynick Phylo∣sophers;

had his palace, rather kennel, in a Tub. This was the Heaven, which he re∣volved: An Intelligence really worthy of such a Sphere: This the Cave from which he delivered his Oracles, that smelt more of Wine than Truth: This the Chair, where teaching, he undertook to correct others uncomely customes, with a miracle (if he had succeeded so,) that a Butt should re∣duce others to themselves, that is wont to make them run besides themselves. What∣soever was the doctrine that he taught (which yet was such, that Plato called him, alterum Socratem sed insanam) nevertheless, because in that nasty and filthy Butt, he mingled the Wine of syncere Phylosophy with the sharp Vineger of a continual male∣diction, he had more Scoffers than Scho∣lars; and all Athens, lookt upon him as a Dog, and shunn'd him as a mad Man.

And who is there that will hug a Porcupine, since he cannot touch it so warily, but that it will prick him? who would keep com∣pany with one, to whom as to the Scorpion, Semper cauda inictu est? VVo would make a friend of a Lion; which then when it neither useth paws nor teeth; hath so sharp a tongue, that even when it licketh it fetcheth blood? Better is it to honour them, that they may

not become enemies; sacrificing to them, as the Romans did to the Goddesse Febris; for then they obliege you when they come not neer you; and when they only so far re∣member you, as never to think of you.

But it would be so slight a punishment for Detractors, to be onely shunned and avoided; if also they were not persecuted. For although sometimes they are subtle in the interests of their lives, as to know how much it behoves them not to irritate those, that can answer to the Pen with the Sword; and to words, with deeds: but that in the affairs of such they ought to be dumbe, if not blind; taking thereof an example, from certain Northern Cranes, that being to passe Mount Taurus take a stone in their mouthes, to the end they may not with their chatte∣ring wake the Eagles there nested: yet its seldom seen, that they are so cunning; but that one time or other, they do that un∣awares; which they continually do, either out of a habit, or nature: whereby either they make to themselves••, as the Silk-worms, a prison with their own mouthes; or pro∣voke them in whose power it is to crush the Scorpion, upon the sore it made: bring∣ing to mind by their example the truth of that, which Pollio said of Augustus▪ That

we ought not Scribere in eum, qui potest pro∣scriber••.

They will not alwayes meet with such as will give them money to hold their peace; nor such as (following the advice of Alphonsus King of Aragon) will throw to the Cur medicatis frugibus offam, to keep him from barking, or at least from biting.

It was the singular fortune of that Advo∣cate in Martial:

Quòd clamas semper, quòd agentibus obstrepis Hel••. Non facis hoc gratis, accipis ut taceas.

Many times accipiunt, ut taceant: but they receive something, but what I know not, upon which they cease to snarle, so that they are never heard to speake more: which was the reward of that notorious Zoilus; who whether he were burnt alive, or stoned; or crucified, in one of these sorts of coyn, he was paid the wages, of his aspersions against the Prince of Poets.

He that hath erred in Writing, should not refute his confutation: And he that is ignorant himself, should not undertake to correct, or condemn others.

THere is not a man upon Earth of so clear and Chrystaline a Wit, that in receiving the light of Sapience, doth not cast some shadow; some more, some lesse opacious, and muddy with Igno∣rance. Our souls, said a VVise Ancient, (fires of themselves all light, and clarity,) being that they are conjoyned to this grosse matter of our bodies, which they enliven; besides the sloth that attends them, are also obfuscated with foggy vapours; where∣upon, like flame confused and intermingled with smoak, they lose in great measure the vivacity of their motion, and the clarity of their light. And from hence is the difficulty in seeking, and incertainty of discerning the Truth. Therefore hanc veniam petimusque damusque vicissim, of sometimes not hitting the Center, without being therefore expul∣sed

the Circle of the Learned; like as the Moon, although that it be sometimes Ecli∣psed, and darkened, yet she is not for this banished from Heaven.

And to say the truth, they are not to be tolerated, that either vend their own wri∣tings, or defend others as Oracles of infalli∣ble Truth; as Gold of the twenty-fourth Caract without mixture of errour, without alloy of falcity. As for their own, let them hear St. Ambrose, that very aptly resembles them to Children, to which the love that is born, blinds the judgment; whereupon the better Fathers they are to them, the worse Judges they use to be of them; Vnum∣quemque fallunt sua scripta, & Authorem praete∣reunt. Atque ut fil••i etiam deformes delectant pa∣rentes, sic etiam Scriptores, indecoros quoque ser∣mones palpant. For those of others, let them, besides many other places of Augustine, read his 111 Epistle where he saith, His cu∣stome was not to adore the Authours but the Truth; not their Sayings, but Reason; forsaking them where they forsook her. Talis sum ego in scriptis aliorum (concludes he the Epistle) tales volo intellectores meorum.

On this ground, the more Wise are per∣swaded before the publishing their writings, to bring them to the rest, and censure of a

friend, equally judicious, and faithful; that where they find them defective, they may say to them, as the Ancient Fencers to their scholars, Repete, but if only after their coming to publick light, they be seen deficient; they themselves may correct them; retacting them as Painters, which boast not their la∣bours for works exactly perfect according to the rigour of Art, but write underneath the Faciebat of Polycletus and Apelles. Tanquam inchoata Arte, & perfecta, ut contra judiciorum varietates superesset artisici regressus ad veniam, velut emendaturo quidquid desideretur, si non esset interceptus. And of this the Great Hyp∣pocrates gave an example, who reputed it no shame to retract any thing, which he had writ of the Sutures of the brain.

But for as much as either the Writer (un∣lesse too late) perceives not his errours, of which unwittingly he makes himself Ma∣ster, printing them; or is prevented by o∣thers in opportunely prescribing them an Antidote, and giving them a reproof; when that evenes, he that is a prudent Judg, and ra∣tional friend, should not write to disgrace, injure, or irritate him: for that is not his desire, that as the Ancient Romans whilst they were wholly ignorant of the Mathe∣mathicks, regulated their publick actions by

an irregular and lying Dial; Non enim con∣gruebant ad horas ejus liniae; so, his errours should be the rule of others understandings; Nimis enim pervers•• seipsum amat, said the Great Augustine, qui & alios vult errare, ut error suus lateat.

Yea, to be assisted in un-deceiving him∣self, and which is more, the World; ought to be so much the dearer to every one, by how much all are oblieged to love the Truth. And hear in a few of his own words, the sense that the same Augustine had of this; A man, I know not whether of greater inge∣nuity, or modesty: Non pigebit mesic ubi hae∣sito quaerere, sic ubi erro discere. Proinde quisquis hac legit ubi pariter certus est pergat mecum, ubi pariter haesitat, quaerat mecu••••. Ubi errorem suum cognoscit redeat ad me▪ ubi meum revocet me.

And this, of which I have hitherto writ, is the part of the modesty of him that writes: Nor should it be lesse that, of him that read∣eth. Not betaking themselves to a profes∣sion of running only to errors of Writers to condemn them; as Vultures to putrid Car∣casses, or Ravens to Carrion to devour them; doing it moreover with as much li∣berty, as if there were no possibility of their erring, in noting the errors of others: and

yet the Aphorisme of Ambrose is most true, Saepe in judicando majus est peccatum judicit, qu••m peccati illius, de quo fuerat judicatum.

This is the discourteous manner of many, Qui obtrectatione alienae Scientiae famam sibi aucupantur;

Ferulasque tristes sceptra Paedagogorum.

they hold a Censorious brow still advanced over the Authours they read, to lash them; they delighting no lesse thus to use the rod, than others to graspe the Scepter. Thence are born the so many Contests, Apologies, not to say the Duels, and Tragoedies of a thousand Authours, though of no ordinary judgment; which in this kind of imperti∣nency, have thrown away much time, and much sweat, but to what purpose?

Bella geri placuit nullos habitura triumphos.

This seems to me a matter, not to be wholly past over with a coniving eye: Take therefore about it some few advertisements.

First; That a man that hath no more but a belly and a tongue, (as Antipater said of Demades) should undertake to make him∣self the Tri••r of the Golden Writings of

worthy Men; finding how much of purity, and how much of dross they contein; con∣demning what they understand not, reje∣cting what they like not, gnawing what they cannot bite: That a sordid Woman instead of her Spindle, should take a Pen, and write against the Divine Theophrastus, taxing him of ignorance and simplicity; re∣newing the Ancient Monsters of Fable: That a proud Omphale, should condemn Great Hercules from a Club to a Distaffe; from killing of Monsters, to spinning: That a Demosthenes, (Cook to Valens the Empe∣rour,) as if the Kitchin had been a School of Wisedom, and the Dishes Books; should villifie the Theology of Great Basil; and re∣ject it as viands without salt, and Sapience without savour: That one Mr. Johan. Ludo∣vicus, should pretend to draw the most Learned Augustine out of ignorance: and presume (Sus Minervam) to teach the true form of Logick to that Great Augustine all Soul; to that Ingenious Archimedes, which against the enemies of Truth and Faith, knew how to make as many thunder-bolts, as he made arguments: deducing his pro∣positions from most manifest principles, as rayes from the Sun: and directing them in a Logical form, to the mark of infallible

consequences: Is not this the same as to see Mures de cavernis exeuntes; tilt with a straw at the brest of a Lion? To see water-Frogs not only to muddy the water for Diana, but to desire to ingrosse it solely and wholly to themselves? To see Beasts with the horrid yelling of their discordant throats, to affright and put to flight the Giants?

In beholding these, and others of the like stamp expound, blot out and correct the writings of Learned Men; it brings to mind, and sets before my eyes that indiscreet Asse, which with teeth accustomed to Roots▪ Shrubs, and pungent tops of Thistles; durst attempt to tear and devour all the Illiades of the Poet Homer: to the greater disgrace and disaster of Troy (as a Poet speaks) in as much as heretofore a Horse more honourably, now an Asse more sordidly destroyed it.

The Grecian Aristides died, a man of Martial valour, proved at more than one encounter; & died of poison taken from the wound of a certain little Animal, that had stung him. Death grieved not the Valiant Man, but dying so dishonourably: namely, not torn by a Lion▪ not bruised by an Ele∣phant; not dismembered by a Tyger; but stung by an unlucky Fly. The like, in my

judgment, may be the resentment of those great Masters of the World, seeing them∣selves stung, reprehend••d, condemned; not by man excellent for Wit and Learning, but by a Cook, by a Woman, by a Pedant. For i•• the Stars (saith Cassiodorus) seeing upon a Dial, the immense periods of their light imitated, and as it were mocked, by the little motion of a shadow; would be offended, and in disdain confound Heaven, and the World: and would commence other mo∣tions, other revolutions, Meatus suos fortasse deflecterent ne tali ludibrio subjacerent; What do you think so many in every profession of Learning, Oracles of Wisdom, would now do, if in the silence of their Sepulchers they might ••ear themselves taxed, some for blind, some for simple, some for inexcusa∣bly ignorant; and this by men, not only no Sages, but (if they may be measured by their judgment) no men; who to acquire in the vogue of the Vulgar, the name and credit of Hercules, and Samson; strip the skins from the minds of the already-dead-Lions.

Secondly, it happens many times, that that is our Ignorance, which we may think anothers errour: and we may peradven∣ture say to our selves, that, which many

grave and holy Bishop said to the Apostate Emperour ••ulian; who read, and contemned a most learned Apology of S^t. Apollonarie: Legisti▪ sed non intellexisti; si enim intellexisses, non improbasses.

The Ancient Romans, in the exercise of Arms, wherein they held the Souldiery con∣tinually trained; gave for the first rule of well bestowing their blows, Not to lay themselves open to their Enemies weapons: so that he warding the blow, in the same act, wound them in deficient part of their arms, before they could recover their Swords from the thrust and return (without losse of much time) to their gu••rd. In qua medita∣tione, (saith Vigetius) serv••••••atur illa camela ut ita Tyro ad inferendum vul••••us insurgeret, ne qua ex parte pateret ipse ad plagam. And the first rule of those that take up the Pen against a Writer, ought to be, that in condemning an others ignorance, they shew not their own. Otherwise, if entring into a Labyrinth, to fetch out one that wanders in the same, you have not a clue with which to wind out your selves; you shall be the subject of Democritus laughter, that derided the wretched Gram∣marians, wholly intent to trace out the errors of Vlysses, whilst in the mean-time they saw not their own.

We need not betake our selves to bite others, till our Wise-teeth be grown: which (as Aristotle adviseth) shoot late. It is requisite to be doubly furnished, with Learning, and with Wit, being to correct him that erreth; that so both the errour be certain, and the correction inculpable. And how many times doth it happen, that through the insufficiently understanding the true sense of the Writer, we commit the crime of Mutius Scaevola, that thinking to kill the King, slue the Servant? We arraign that as said by another, which he neither said, nor dreamt; and desperately engage in a Com∣bate with phantasmes: when as, if not ha∣ving eyes of our own sufficiently able to dis∣cern, we had used those of a perceptive friend; we should have put up our weapons, (as the Sybil made Aeneas,) that we might not fruitlesly grapple with shadows with great pains to our selves, and no hurt to them.

Thirdly, Its not the custome of these de∣praving Calumniators to irritate any, whilst hey be living; measuring his knowledge by the writings which he published; in re∣gard that in a person incensed, anger many times converts to VVit: rousing all his Spirits before dormant, and running

where necessity calleth them, like as In lu∣cernis oleum fluit illò ubi exuritur. How many, that kept the golden veins of sublime Wit and precious Discretion conceal'd and se∣pulchred in their breasts, once being stung by such as unadvisedly dared (esteeming theō devoid of Learning) to provoke them: have manifested their parts to the World: gi∣ving their emulators cause to repent the misfortune of angring them: in like man∣ner as some times the Rocks being gravid with rich, but occult minerals; rent by a thunder-bolt, and sending forth by the o∣pening of the wound an essay of that wealth which was within concealed: make it ap∣pear, that those are Mountains of Gold and Silver, that were reputed to be no other but incultivated heaps of Stones? How many whose brains appeared frozen, and as impe∣netrable as slint: being provoked to the proof of their Pens•••• just as slint stricken, have sent out not sparks, to light: but flames and, lightning to wound? What can be a more incensate, and stupid animal, than an Asse? Yet observe that of avaricious Balaam; that being smitten with more pas∣sion, than reason, became in its own de∣fence a Demosthenes. Balaae (saith Chrysostome) erat Asinus, ani••al omnium haebetissimum; ••ec∣minùs

benè se desendit apud eum, qui ipsum pul∣s••ba••, quàm homo praeditus rations. But farther, Do not even Mutes themselves (as is said of that Son of Cr••••sus) in defence of the things to which nature hath related them, know how to untie the tongue; and, with a mira∣cle of that natural Love, to which nothing is a miracle, to speak that which they never learnt to speak?

How many, be it envy, be it desire of con∣tradiction, be it ambition of crecting to them¦selves upon others ruines a repute of gallant Men; (imitating, (saith Theodoret,) that Shimei, which made himself famous to the VVorld with stoning a King: a King so holy, so inno∣cent as David:) have with the stings of their over-pungent Pens, infuriated those, which (being supposed Lambs, but found Lions,) have made them wish themselves out of the lists? but in vain, and too late, for

Galea••tum se••ò duelli poenitet:

have sown, with Cadmus, biting Speeches as it were teeth of poisonous Serpents; and have afterwards been affrighted seeing an Host of Armed Men so suddenly spring up?

Messis cum proprio mox b••llatura col••no.

have took (as Archilochus told one who would without cause quarrel with him) the Waspe by the wings; and afterwards hearing the humming have wisher tha•• either they had had no hands to take it, on had had no eares to hear it? I ••ave strived as M••rs••••s with Apollo, ••believing him to be a Shepheard, who was a God•• and when afterwards they have seen themselves s••ea'd like Calves, have begged pitty, have offered promises, but in vain; for he that resolv'd to have his skin, would not give him a word: nor would he suffer him∣self to be overcome with intreaties, that had overcome in Singing? In short, how many be there that have ••ound themselves in the middest among Vipers, and Asps; nor have they known of whom to complain besides themselves alone; that rashly rusht among them, too late taking heed, and have com∣plain'd to no purpose•• as that unfortunate Roman Army, that finding in 〈◊〉〈◊〉 more Monsters, than humane enemies, with whom to sight: said,

—Nihil A••••rica de te, Nec de te Natura queror. 〈…〉〈…〉 st••a serentem Gentibus ablatum deàerasser emibus o••••••m. In loca serp••ntum ••os vcnimus.

Such a one was Ruffinus, who sorely to his cost stung, and provoked, S^t. Jerome; and chose rather to be his emulator than friend: But afterwards proving how dexterous a hand he had to strike, and heavy to wound, he would have withdrawn himself from the fray, crying;

That he had sufficient punish∣ment in himself without his blows: That Love of Truth, not passion had guided his hand whilest he writ: That it was not handsom betwixt Christians, between Monks; to take up the Pen, and to use it as a Sword to hurt one another.

To whom S^t. Jerome, Esto, said he, me nescius vulneraris: quid ad me qui percussus sum? Num idcirco cu∣rari non debeo quia tu me bono animo vulnera∣sti? Confossus ••acco: stridet vulnus in pectore, candida prius sanguine membra turpantur; & tu mihi dicas, Noli manum adhibere vulneri, ne ego in te videar vulnerasse?

Cautions about the nice mystery of opposing others, and defending our selves.

IT sufficeth not by way of advice to such as know little and presume much to have hitherto said, that a SHOOMAKER who is in his Craft raiseth not himself ultra crepidam; ought not to climbe to the face & censure a countenance designed and painted by Apelles; whose Art, as he hath not EYES Learned enough to understand it, so ought he not much lesse have a tongue so bold as to condemn it: But it rests also to speak of that which is required in contrasts between the Intelligent; that so they may attein to the level of reason, and agree with the Stan∣dard of Equity; And they are either arreign∣ments of others writings; or defences of our own.

And to the writing against others: As the Love of Truth, ought to be that alone, which puts the Pen into the hand, and in a certain sense dubs the VVriter her Knight; so Modesty ought to be the Mistresse that teacheth the Art of managing it: using it

not as the Lance of a Souldier; but of a Chy∣rurgion; against Errour to amend; not a∣gainst the Author, to offend him: Therein evincing himself a good Scholar of Divine VVisdom the VVord, whose Mouth in the Canticles is compared not to Roses, which yet are of a colour, that more than all other Flower resembleth the Lips; but likened to the Lillies: and this, not only because the candure of the proper and native Ve∣rity of the mouth of Christ, without painting or borrowed imbellishment, by it self alone sufficiently resplends; which is the inge∣nious surmise of Theodoret: but also, because the Lilly is a Flower, no lesse innocent than lovely: without pricks, or roughnesse, to render it sharp and pungent. Flos sublimis (saith S^t. Ambrose of Christ pourtrayed in the Lilly) immaculatus, innoxius, in quo non spina∣rum offendat asperitas, sed gratia circumsusa cla∣rescat.

The Stars whilst they fought against Sisera, broke not their order, forsook not their posts, nor discomposed themselves in doing it. Mane••••es in ordine, & cursu suo, ad∣versus Siseram pugnaverunt. And thus ought they to do that undertake to write against others; which yet is a combate not with∣out Victory, though without bloud. It is

good to beware, that in running the Lance of his reason, he lose not his stirrup; and thereby the merit of VVit be overcome by the defect of Passion: A••d that he censure not the pride of Plato; with the pride of Dio∣genes; rendring himself criminal in the very act of recriminating.

The convincing one of errour, is to put the finger into the wound, and to search it even to the bottom; and Action to be done with exquisite delicatenesse, that the cure cause not more anguish, than the wound. Discreet Hyppocrates, commanded that the eyes of the sick, as parts extream delicate, should be wiped with the purest Linnen, and the wounds cleansed with the softest Spunges; and both done with all possible dexterity and lightnesse of hand. And be∣fore him the Protomedicus Holy Raphael or∣dered young Tobias, that in the cure of the eyes of his blind Father, before he applyed the Gall for medicine, he should give him a kisse for Love. Osculare eum, statimque lini super oculos ejus ex felle isto: VVe would pre∣scribe the like advice to such as pretend to illuminate the Eyes of the Mind of the erro∣neous; still to have regard that the Gall of reprehending another for his errour (which although it were only to publish it, yet is a

collirium of great sharpnesse) be not dis∣united from the kisse; and the Kisse disjunct from Love.

Carneades the Academian, being resolved to write against Zeno Patron of the rigid Sect of the Stoicks; with a small pill of Hellibore purged his stomack from peccant humours, especially from Choler, to the end their fumes should not obfuscate his VVit in that important action. Ne quid è corruptis in sto∣macho humeribus ad domicilium usque animi re∣dunderet. He that hath purged his brain, and knows what is sufficient for that which per∣teins to the enterprise of confuting; let him not omit also to purge the tartnesse of Cholor; so that his doctrine and the man∣ner of delivering it be equally inculpable. Let him accord the Affections of his mind to the Musick of Reason, that so the style in which he expresseth himself, do not partici∣pate of difficulty, or dissonancy. Let him not enter the lists till he hath made that sacri∣fice to the Graces; that the complacential Plato advised the churlish Xenocrates. Then let him go as those Prudent and Puissant Spartans that fell not to the Battail at the sound of the ratling Drum, but of the Bag∣pipe and Flute, Ut modestiores modulatioresque fierent, said Thucydides in Gellius. Otherwise

he that is not as appassionate as you seeing your discomposed method; will scorn and disdain you. It will be also said to you, as the Poet Menander said to Phylemon his Antago∣nist, & through the ignorance of the Judges also his Conquerour, Quaeso te bona venia dic mihi, cum me vincit non erubescis? You acquire, (though you know your Veni to be good) if you be not as modest as efficacious, the Title of that cruel Chyrurgeon of Rome, which for the roughnesse with which he in∣discreetly made inscitions, lost the name of Chyrurgion, gaining that of Carnifex.

But far more difficult is it for one, pro∣voked to stop at the mark of Reason; when he thinks his resentments may be freer, for that his provocation is just and rea∣sonable. This is one of those not ordinary tempests in which it is necessary to be pro∣vided of the Rudder of Respect, and an ex∣traordinary Mastery over the Affections; so that one while with slight, another while with force we ward off, and break, the force∣able and impetuons assaults of the Bellows. That Moderamen inculpata tutelae, there where it is lawful to conjoyn in defence of ones self, is a line so difficult to be touched, with∣out running beyond it; that it resembles the case of him that runs down the steep of a

Hill, and can very hardly (in that rather prae••cipice than race) so comand his feet, and th•• bulk of his body, that at the place where h•• is to stop, he run not some steps farther tha•• the mark.

If I hold my tongue, men will think I plead guilty by a tacit confession. If I re∣spond not boldly, that will appear a remorse•• of a guilty Conscience, which would be the dictate of an innocent modesty. Thus I shall become the Owle of Writers, and scorn of the World; for even the Spiders make their Webs upon the Statues about the face and beard of Jupiter; nor fear they•• his thunder-bolts, because they are in the hands of a Wooden god insensible, and insensate. To answer one, so, that he come off with torn Clothes, and a broken face; would be in one, to warn all others, that they take heed of two bold sharpning their Pens against such who know how to turn them into Darts, and report Gall for Ink, and wounds for stings. Thus the thunder-bolts from the Clouds Paucorum periculo, mul∣torum metu. One burns with the pain of it, all freeze for fear of it; and the death of one alone, teacheth many to fear Heaven though serene; remembring how it thundereth when incensed.

Withal, there be many, that abandoning themselves to Passion, to assert their Right, relinquish all Reason. And the blind Fools perceive not, that Choler in a Disputant is commonly an argument of weakenesse, and a sign of being overcome; as calmnesse and mirth, is a testimony of Victory. Thus that Prince, the friend of Sydonius Apollinarius, presently adjudged him conquerour in the Disputation••, as soon as the passion of the adversary did confesse it. Oblectatur commo∣tione superati; & tunc demum credit sibi cessisse Collegam, cum fidem fecerit victoriae suae, bilis aliena.

Moreover, as to every opposition of every emulator, we need not respond: (whence therefore excellent was that saying of Xenocrates in my judgment; Tragoedy vouchsafeth not to answer the injuries, that Comoedy offers) so also every opposition to which we ought to reply, requireth not the same temper in the Reply. When a Dart hath only peire'd the skin, to what purpose should a man rave, and take on, as if it had transfixed his bowels? Let it suffice to imi∣tate the Elephant, that disburdeneth himself of an hundred Darts by one shake, and

Mota cute discutit hastas.

Yea sometimes, the cause is so obvious, that there is an advantage in shewing what could be said, without so much as deigning to speak it. There is not a creature better pro∣vided for its own defence, nor more apt to anothers offence than the Porcupine.

Externam non quaerit opem. Fert omnia secum. Se pharaetra, sese jaculo, sese utitur arcu. Vtrum animal tuuctas bellorum possidet artes.

But against him that provoketh it, though it have all the pricks of its body, as Darts in the nock, yet he useth not his utmost power, and that which he can do with one, he doth not with two; and if threats suffice, he for∣bears to wound

—Iraque nunquam Prodiga telorum, Cantè Contenta Minari.

He only erects his bristles, and as it were putting them in the bow, he seems to say to such as offend him, Look to your selves there. This manner of Apology Tertullinn useth, writing against the Valentinians, Ostendam (saith he) sed non imprimam vulnera. Si ridebitur alicubi, materiis ipsis satisfiet. Multa sunt sic dig∣na revinci, ne gravitate adorentur.

But when either the importance of the Matter, or the insufferable tartnesse of the Provoker, admits not of silence, or dissi∣mulation, assume a serious Defence, and set on work all that is within the power or capacity of VVit, Art, Reason, and Elo∣quence. In this case you may Thunder and Lighten: but let not the lightenings be composed of stinking sulpher to infect the World, but of pure light to clear the Truth. Flie not out irregularly through Passion; but free your selves justly by reason. Let there be, as in Janus the God of War, the face of a youth, and of an old man; Spirit; and Judgment; Fortitude and Maturity; Resolution and Moderation. Chrysostome la∣mented not; Quod tanquam lupi in adversa∣rios ruamus, saepe sine victoria, qui tamen vince∣rimus, si oves essemus à pastoris auxilio non re∣cedentes, qui non luporum; sed ovium pastor est.

Learning would be happy, if its Profes∣sors should use betwixt themselves the emu∣lations, and contrasts, wherein erst Protogenes and Apelles lovingly contented, in drawing in the midst of a very small line, another line more small than that, without the least crookednesse: If the pungent, and resplen∣did Arms of VVit, were as Cassidorus said of

certain others anma juris, non furoris; rayes of verity, not Darts of Detraction. But to conclude, experience shews, that the con∣troversies of wit, of Civil that they should be, for the most part become criminal; whereupon it would be better in my judge∣ment, when the interest of publick good perswades not otherwise, to convert the Sword, and Speare, into Plow-shares, and Mattocks; and to cultivate their own wits rather than to contrast with others. But if the itch of contradiction, permits them to live quietly no way, but by disquieting o∣thers; do the want (as said St. Jerome to Augustine, refusing to come with him to a trial of wit, and to dispute,) do they want publick Masters of Errours; Hereticks, Atheists, & Politicians to cope with? Let them spare men, and kill beasts. Let them say with Entellus when instead of Daretes his enemy he slew an Oxe.

Erice, I here to you this soul present, As being more worthy of this punishment Than that of Daretes. And VIGTOR, now As uselesse, I lay by my art, and bow.

SELF-CONCEIT.

The esteem of a mans own knowledg with dispraise of others.

THe head of a man is not so incapa∣cious, but that, better than the fa∣bulous Budget of Ulysses, it can contein as many Winds as Pride and Lofti∣nesse inspire; nothing lesse forceable to turn upside-down the Sea, and Land, than are the Whirle-winds to raise Tempests; and the exalations, imprisoned in subterre∣nean Cavernes, to shake it with Earthquakes. Those unfortunate Scholars know this to their cost; which (I know not if I should say, in, or rather besides their Wits,) go so stately, that they think they are riding in their Triumphant Chariot. They are the Saules, that are above others Ab humcro & sursum, not by the head so much, as by the brain, and opinion of themselves. These are the Olympus'es, of whom, the loftiest summities of Mountains, the most elevated ingenuities, and wisest Soules, scarce attein to the basis, and to kisse their feet. They

are the Suns, that alone have light to illu∣minate all obscurity, and to obscure all clarity.

These, I know not whether they should more move tears in Heraclitus, for compas∣sion; or laughter in Democritus, for derision. And howbeit you esteem that Alexarchus the Grammarian, is worthy of the pity of a Phylosopher rather than the scorn of the Vulgar; to whom his School seeming an Heaven; the ranks of Forms that stood about him, circulations of Spheres; the Boyes he read to, Stars; his Documents, Light; the Nowns, Pronowns, Verbs, Articles, &c, Signes of the Zodiack; him∣self made a Sun; nor would he be any other way depainted, or called: and it was a crime to behold him without a certain suf∣fering of the eyes, as when they are fixed on the Sun: Yet that Title would better have fitted him, which Tyberius used to give to Appion, a Grammarian as himself, and no lesse a Bragadocchio then he, being empty of understanding, and full of Wind, and therefore aptly called Cymbalum mundi.

What think you of that other Remnius, (rather Pallon than Pollemon;) that went up and down bewailing the misfortune of the VVorld, that should remain after him, as it

had done before him ignorant: in regard learning, that was born with him, with him also should die? And upon the matter it seemed true; for he being dead, there was not one letter left to make his Epitaph.

But the proud conceit that the tenth Al∣phonsus King of Castile, had of his Wit and Knowledg, surpast the bounds of common, yea, rather of humane opinionativenesse; a man by profession an Astronomer, (of whom now a dayes those Tables of his called Alphonsine take their denomination) not yet of so sublime intelligence, nor of such knowledg in this Art, that Atlas might have trusted Heaven to his shoulders, with∣out endangering a ruine; but of so high esteem of his own brain, that he used to say, That had he been permitted Gods ear when he composed the Heavens, and assigned the periods to the Stars: he would have contrived this work with more order, and with rules of more exact proportion. Now God interrogated Job as of a thing transcending the capacity of our wits; Numquid nosti ordinem Coeli? & pones rationem ejus in terra? If God would go to School to Alphonsus, he offereth himself to be his Master in Astronomy; And if he would bring him the Volumne of his eter∣nal Idea's, he would blot out, he would

adjust the Model of the Heavens, and the Pattern of the World to a more methodical contrivance.

Only madnesse could defend this blas∣phemy from the fulminations of the Hea∣vens, where posuit ossuum: and indeed God imputed it to his folly, using him with more compassion than anger, and by letting him blood as a frantick person in the vein in the middle of his fore-head, took away his Crown. He would give him to understand, that he would not have known how to ad∣just the Revolutions of Heaven to a better form; and therefore sent him a Revolution in his Kingdom: which he, with all the Ca∣nons and Rules of his Calculations, never knew how to adjust; whereupon he came to be deposed by his Son and died an exile in a forreign Countrey.

Men distracted as Alexarchus, as Remnius, although perhaps lesse known, I doubt not but (as in all times,) so also such there are now a-dayes in the World. He that would pourtray them to the life, may depaint a great Smoak, (that advanceth it self even to the Clouds, and the more it exalts, the more do those its great Volumnes swell and di∣late;) thereto affixing the Motto of Augustine Quantò grandior, tantò vanior.

Hearing them some times speak in their own praise, and in under-valuing of others, we may know how justly they merit the salute that Philip of Macedon returned to his proud Physician that writ to him, Menecra∣tes Jupiter Philippo salutem: The answer was, Philippus Menecrati sanitatem: which was to make himself the Doctor of his Doctor; and to send him for the health of his brain, a dose of Helibor in a salute. You may hear them brag,

That under their Caps and Gowns the most lofty, & most profound Sciences are touched as the Pearls are confined to the shels of the Pearl Cockle. That their Dictions are the Charts of se∣cure Navigation, without which in the Sciences, we incurre, naufrage or peril. That their Documents are at the ultimate extent of Truth, as the Stars at their ex∣tremity of the Worlds confines:

so that

Altiùs his nihil est, haec confinia mundi.

Others are the Cisterns, they the O∣cean; others Moles, they Linxes; others Farfalla's, they Eagles; others Flies they Hearns.

O Medici, mediam contundite venam!

And if not so, at least let them attempt to open the door to let out the wind, with which the wretches have their heads so puft up; and this may be done by bringing their eyes into the light of some perspicuous ve∣rities; Such as these;

1 Every one fancies his own things, being little, to be great. Self-love is a concave∣glasse that represents an Hair to be a Tree, and a Gnat to be a Pegasus. He that takes Love for a Judg, esteemes his matters as that Clitus esteemed a Naval fight, in which bat∣tering and sinking onely three Grecian Gal∣lies, as if he had either routed Xerxes, or imposed fetters upon the Ocean, from thence-forward he alwayes made himself to be called by the majestick title of Nep∣tune.

Whence is it that the Moon being forty times lesse than the Earth, seemeth to the judgment of the eye equal to the Sun, which yet is greater than the Earth almost an hun∣dred and forty times? But only because the vicinity of the Moon to the Earth, re∣presenteth it so much greater; as the Sun appears lesser, by being more remote. But there is nothing so neer to any one, as is his own composures; thence it is that they seem to them immensurably great, and

more vast than those of other men, which by being besides us, and therefore remote from us, are much diminished in their ap∣pearance.

2 Compare a Grass-hopper to an Ant, and who doubt but that it would seem a Giant? He that measures what he knoweth, though very little, with what he knoweth who knoweth nothing; believes himself to be absolutely, when as he is only compara∣tively, most Learned. Those that went to study at Athens, said Menedemus, went thither Doctors, continued there Scholars, and came away Ignorants. Not only because, the more they understood that which they knew, the more they came to know what they did not understand; but also because, they met, in that most Celebrious Con∣course of the Noblest Wits of the World, with such to confront their understandings, that compared to them, they believed they knew nothing.

This was the Art by which most prudent Socrates corrected the presumption of his Alcibiades, who being rich by paternal inheritance, and by his acquist of much wealth, became so state∣ly, as if he had been a Monarch of the World not a private Citizen of Athens. He brought him to the knowledg of him∣self,

self, by a Map of the World, in which he found Europe, and in it Greece, and in Greece with much a-do Athens; Now (saith he) shew me here thy House, and thy Fields; which having, as thou seest, no place in the World: how comes it, that thy head is filled with such contemptible thoughts of the World?

He that believeth himself to be in Ingenuity and Wit a Star of the first magnitude, let him compare himself not with the lesser, but with the Suns of the World; and in one and the same instant, he shall see his ambi∣tion to wane, and his light to vanish.

3 That one, where as he is great among others, should desire to be greater than others; where as he is one of the first, he should desire to be alone; is that which may not be suffered in any one, more then heretofore it was tolerated in that proud Pompey; Qui, ut primùm Rempublicam aggressus est, quemquam animo parem non tulit, & in quibus rebus primus esse debebat, solus esse cupiebat. For though you be excellent in every profession of literature, yet are you not a Phoenix, alone, and singular in the World: nor a Primum Mobile, that without receiving impression or motion from a Superiour Heaven, giveth the mo∣tion, and revolution to the lesser Spheres. Who is there, that knows so much, that

••thers before him knew nothing; so that 〈◊〉〈◊〉 may assume the insolent words of Prince ••alphas, Vos nescitis quidquam? Nature was ••ot so sterile, that you being made, she had not the like Molds again to make others: Nor so poor, that to make you rich in knowledg, she should leave others Beggars. Wherefore then look you round about you, and thinking you see none in the World that may stand in competition with you for knowledge, say you foolishly to your selves, as Deucalion said to his Companion, Nos duo turba sumus? Wherefore make you your wit a Procrustes, and desire that every one equallize the stature of your Judgment as the Standard of Truth; and therefore cut off the feet of those that surpasse you, and wrack the feet of those that did not reach to your length?

But admit you were for ingenuity the first amongst the foremost, is it a very infe∣riour and unworthy thing to be our own Panegyrist, and a despiser of others? Hear how the Brooks roare and accosting with stones how they rumble, that they seem to carry not a Rivolet of water, but a Sea; & yet many times though their channel be a mile, their depth is not a palm. On the other side the real Rivers, no lesse deep than vast, with

how much, I will say, modesty, do they go to the Sea? There is not heard from them the least murmuration that might in∣timate the profoundity of their bottoms, the amplitude of their shores, the clarity of their streams, or the impetuosity of their currents; they move silently and quietly. They that carry but a small depth (in wit many times it is true, but in the judgment alwayes) are most intolerably clamorous; & with their own applauds, and the villifyings of others, deafen the world: whereby, be∣fore they are aware, they make themselves the more contemptible, by how much the more they extol themselves: for according to the Aphorisin of Symoniacus,

In magnos animos non cadit affectaia jactatio.

But because it is the property of Opiniona∣tive Wits, to use not only Pride on Earth, but to exercise Curiosity in respect of Hea∣ven; in the first, unjust to men, to whom they would be undeservedly superiour; in the second, impious to God, whose being, whose actions they weigh by the weight, and measure by the pole of their short un∣derstanding: take therefore upon this occa∣sion the subsequent consideration.

Two great evils of Misbelievers; To serch matters of Faith with the curiosity of Phylosophy, and to believe matters of Phylosophy with the certainty of Faith.

GEographers in their Protractions upon Maps, or Globes of the Earth, when they come to the confines of Countries hitherto discovered, having no knowledg of the others that remain, are accustomed to draw certain obscure lines at random, and in the space that is left to write Terra Incognita. Of this custome of Geogra∣phers Plutarch makes a very apt use, in ex∣cuse of his Pen, if undertaking to write the lines of certain ancient Hero's, he could not one by one particularize the enterpri∣zes, with which they acquired the grandure of their names, and the glory of Immortals: because Antiquity and Oblivion its follow∣er, rendered many places unknown, many parts of their lives, hid and obscure. That which Plutarch saith of the actions of those ancient Worthies, is equally true of all the

great masse of matters, which may be com∣prehended by our capacities. Much there is known much rests incognito: rather not unknown only, but unknowable, till such time as we enter into that School where the Word being Master in the Lecture of a bare look, teacheth with indeleble and most perspicuous proofs, how vainly the Wits now a-dayes stretch and wrack their brains in tracing out new inventions. I say the most abstruse Arcani•••• of Faith, which are certain, if not obvious, require an implicit subjection to believe them, not an impertinent curiosity to examine them.

For a man that is of high ingenuity, and of vast intellectuals, measured with what he presumes to understand it is no more than a shallow ditch, for to contein the Ocean. For though the speculations, and sublime thoughts, with which the mind is elevated to the knowledge of the occult truths of Faith, be very lofty, yet they can bring us no nearer to them, than the Giants of Phlegra were to Heaven, when they climbed to the tops of Pelion, Ossa, and Olympus.

The eye of an Owl is not made to view the Sun, on which the Eagle with her ada∣mantine pupil can scarce immoveably fix her sight. Fisher-boats with a piece of a

sail, and half a rudder, are not able to furrow the Ocean, and discover new Worlds.

What other are our Intellectuals tied to the clog of the senses, but Ostriches, of greater bodies than wings, whereupon they cannot raise themselves a foot from the ground, nor can they otherwise slie, then by distending their wings in the Air, resting their feet all the while on the Earth. But were we better feathered we should reach the Clouds if not the Stars. VVhat mind is there, what Genius, of that lofty know∣ledge, that maketh not to God a Sacrifice of his thoughts, upon that famous Altar of Athens dedicated, Ignoto Deo; and con∣fessing himself unable to understand what God keeps hid, of himself, and his affairs, as it were clipping the wings of his thoughts conformable to the laws of Sacrifice of Birds; saith not with Augustine, Melior est fidelis ignorantia, quàm temeraria scientia.

The water of a Fountain riseth no higher than the head and spring from whence it flowes; whereupon we use to say: That water ascends no more than it descends. Now our judgment doth it not begin from the Senses? and these of what other are they capable, than of matter within the bounds of sensible Nature? And how do

we expect hence Fontem aquae saltentis in vitam aeternam, which we interpret of the know∣ledg of things supernatural, and Divine?

But amongst those, which we may call wickedly curious, others there are, who presume to make themselves Masters of that of which the World hitherto hath had none that have been Scholars; and whetting the edg of their Wits, ma••gre the impossibility, would penetrate to the very Center of Veri∣ty, & see her in her self, unveiled, and naked. They have scarce a mouth to suck the milk of Faith, and yet they will gnaw the bones, and take thence the marrow; As if they already understood that, which Nature hath of intelli∣gible; so that nothing rests for them to pene∣trate, but only the obscure mysteries of Faith. They would be Hercules's, that having seen and conquered, the Sea, Land and Hell it self they might say,

Per domita tellus, tumida cesserunt freta, Inferna nostros regna sensere impetus, Immune coelum est. Dignus Alcidae labor. In alta mundi spatia sublimis ferar. Petatur aether.—

But whilst they raise themselves on tip-toe and stretch out their wings to flie; how

seasonable would it be for one to hint to them, the much that they attempt, and the little that they atchieve: For one to whisper in their ears, what the Womā of Samaria said to Christ. Domine, neque in quo haurias habes, & puteus altus est. Before you aspire to grea∣ter matters, answer to the question made you by St. Jerome: Why the Elephants, that are as it were so many Mountains of flesh, have onely four feet, on which they rest the immeasura∣ble masses of their huge bodies: and the Louse, which is but a living Point, hath six? You will confesse you know not this, (which if you did, you knew just nothing;) and will you pretend to understand that, which even that man is not able to understand who under∣stands all things? At the first step you take in the pursuit of intelligible things, you stumble with Thales into a ditch, and would you attein to the sight of that which so far surmounts the Stars?

How opposite to you, would the correction be, which Zeno the Stoick, gave to a conceited young Fellow, that had as little wit in his head, as hair on his face; and demanded his an∣swer to things, of which he was not able to understand the demand: The Phylo∣sopher made him set a Looking-glasse be∣fore him, and then whispered in his ear;

The demand you make, and the question you ask, are worthy of this beard.

Your Wit in comparison of that of the Great Augustine, is but as a Grashopper confronted to a Horse; and do you pretend to couch the lance, and hit the mark, when he withdraws, and presumes not to essay it? Yea, (as it were slinging himself with that Phylosopher into the Sea, and saying, O abysse tu me cape, quia te ipse non capio:) he an hundred times protesteth in his writings to know nothing; and that he knew not how to know; and goes on saying, Nescio, & non erubesco consiteri me nescire quod nescio. And how dare you open your mouth, or exalt your voice to contradict, and question that, to which for this sixteen Ages, the Pens of a world of Doctors; the Blood of a world of Martyrs; the consent of so many Nations; the Testimony of so many Mi∣racles have subscribed and ratified? With the Rush-candle of your Dim understand∣ing, will you pretend to examine the light of the Sun? Cannot the Wisedom of God, your Master, do as much with you; as that of Pythagoras with his Scholars? Nobis curio∣sitate opus non est post Christum Jesum, nec in∣quisitione post Evangelium.

Others there are as vile as obstinate, that

swearing in verba magistri; they take the Texts of some Ancient Phylosophers for Sacraments; and his Sentences for Ora∣cles: and so far confesse Christ, as he doth not contradict Aristotle, or Plato. Thus they hold the Gospel, and Phylosophy, in equi∣librium, in an equal poise of belief.

Quid Athenis, & Hierosolymis? Quid Aca∣demiae, & Ecclesie? Nostra institutio de porticu Solomonis: Viderint qui Stoicum & Platonicum, & Dialecticum Christianum pr••tulerunt. Even at this day the Church bewails, and shall to the end of the World complain of the de∣triments done her, by the prophane and idle Wit of the Age; and by the Ancient Writers of the World; (Fathers of tene∣brosity, and Masters of millions of errours;) to whom she may confirm the Title con∣ferred on them by Tertullian of Patriarchas Haereticorum.

How much mischief did Plato in the first Ages of the Church; too much read, too much believed, and so made, as the same Tertullian speaks, Haeresum Condimentarium: He instanceth, (passing by all the rest, since that he alone serves for all,) in unfortunate Origen; that of an Eagle which he had been, accustomed to fix his eyes on the Sun of Christian Prudence, and to draw thence

lights of sublimest Truths; was transform∣ed into a Batt: admiring a few glimmering rayes of light mixed with many umbrages of ignorance and errour: and became so great a Platonick, that he in the end ceased to be a Catholick; losing the Truth in Fables, and the Faith in Phylosophy: and that same man whose breast had been kissed tamquam Spiritus Sancti, & coelestis sapientiae templum; became Master of a School of Er∣rours, and Reader of the blind; and so madly did he talk, that as before, Ubi benè nemo melius: so after, Ubi male nemo pejus. What infinite mischief even at this day doth that Struendi, & destruendi artifex versi∣pellis Aristotle, believed the Authom of the mortality of the Soul; which in one word, is as much as to say, Destroyer of the Faith, and Father of those, that live without the Souls of Men, the life of Beasts? How many of those whom he hath inchanted, Qui ni••il aliud quàm Aristotelem ructant, hold only those points of Faith for certain, that accord with the Oracles of Peripatus? as if Religion were a Grain, to be gathered out of the Chaff of humane Phylosophy: and not a Bread of life descended from Heaven, to the end that upon the tasting of its sweetnesse, we might spit out the husks, qu••e medullam non habent,

nec possunt nutrire discentium populos, sed de ina∣nibus sti pulis conteruntur.

Those are Frogs, saith Augustine, Ranae da∣mantes paludibus lim••sis (quae) strepitum habere possient, doctrinam verae sapientiae insinuare non possunt. Now, whilst the Heavens are open, and you hear the Father, (from thence pointing with his finger to the Word his Son,) to say Ipsum audite: will you lend one eye to Christ, and the other to Aristotle, or Plato? Coelum tonat: ta••eant Ran••. where Christ teacheth, and in him Truth, or rather he as Truth it self revealed; Wisdome is dumbe, and the Phylosophy of the World speech∣lesse, & phylosophia nostra Christus est.

SELF-DECEIT.

The folly of such as pretend to study little and know much.

IT is not the opinion of Hyppocrates only, nor of Aristotle, and Theophrastus; but it is the common vogue and concor∣dant complaint of all the World, That hea∣ven hath been sparing to us of that time, whereof it hath been so prodigal to Stags, Crows and

Cypresses. We have alotted us too short a life for so long a Lesson; too short a Viati∣cum for so tedious a Voyage. There is no such virtue now to be found in steel, to strengthen those Elixir vitae, that inbalmed Men alive; so that seeing themselves to ap∣roach their thousanth year, they resolved to leave the World more out of satiety with so long a life, than out of any necessity of death. We, like Flowers that yesterday sprung up, to day are old, and to morrow dead, have so short life, as if we were born only to die. That which in the Ancients was but their Child-hood, is in us old Age; their tythes are our excessive riches, their overpluss's, our treasures: so that of horinesse and gray∣hairs, the Alexandrian Tertullian saith, with as much Truth, as Learning, hec est aeternitas nostra.

If our knowing in this manner, the short∣nesse of our life, could but perswade us to spend it according to its brevity; that would be a favour, which we think a punish∣ment. Is an unreasonable thing to accuse Heaven as niggardly of time to us, and we like prodigals profusely to wast it; using our life, as if we were to measure it with the long pace of many Ages; not with the short palm of a few years. Who is there

that with the Prince of Physicians c••yes not out, Ars longa, vita brevis? but in the mean∣time, who is there, that is solicitous to get quickly, to the mark which the most di∣ligent reach to, but too late? Ad sapient••am quis accedit? Quis dignam judicat, nisi quam in transitu noverit? Quis phylosophiam, aut ullum liberale respicit studium, nisi cum ludi interca∣lantur, cum aliquis pluvius intervenit dies, quem perdere licet.

Nature with good advice hath placed Man in the middle of the World, as in the Center of an immense Theater, Procerum ••uimal (saith Cassiodorus) & in essigiem pul∣cherrimae speculationis erectum, to be there not as an otious Inhabitor, but a curious Specta∣tor of this her incomparable work: in so much union, so various; in so much variety sounited; with more miracles, that adorn it, than parts, which compose it. Howbeit, to those that rightly behold it, it is not the design of nature, to put us in the VVorld, so much in a Theater, that we should ad∣mire; as in a School that we should learn. Therefore she hath enkindled in our hearts an inextinguishable desire of knowledge; and setting open before our eyes, as many Volumnes, as the Heavens and Elements contein natures; with shewing us in them

manifest effects, inviteth us to trace out their hidden causes. What strengh what force of intelligence of the assistant, or ra∣ther intrinsick form is that, which revolves the great masse of the Elements with inde∣fatigable motion? Are the Spheres of the Planets many Heavens, that contracted in the concave of each others lap interchange∣ably surround one another: or serves only Heaven to all that great family of Stars for Mansion? Of what substance composed? Corruptible or incorruptible? Liquid as Air; or consollidate, and firm, as a Dia∣mond? Whence proceed the Maculae, and whence the Faculae about the Sun? VVhence the obscurity in the face of the Moon? Of what matter are the new Stars and Comets composed, and with what fire enkindled, that appear unexpectedly? Are they For∣reigners, or Citizens of Heaven? Natives of that Countrey, or Aspirers from here below? The irregular errours of the Pla∣nets, how may they be reduced to regula∣rity without errour? How may we know, how may we fore-see Eclipses? How great is the profoundity of the Heavens? How great the number of the Stars? How great the velocity of their motions? How great the moles of their bodies? The Winds, whence

take they their wings to slie; the spaces of their course, the force of their blasts, the qualities of their operation, and the set measure of time for their rising, duration, departure? Who holdeth so many ponde∣rous Clouds suspended in the Air? How drop by drop do they squeeze out Rain? How from their pregnant watery wombs, are Thunders begotten, which be fire? Who congeals them into Snow? Who harden∣eth them into Hail? With what Ultama∣rine is the Rain-bow depainted with al∣wayes one order of Colours, and one pro∣portionate measure of Diameter? Whence again, comes the source of Springs on the highest tops of Mountains? Whence comes it, that there should be in Hils of one & the same Earth, Marbles of so various mixtures, Mettals of so different tempers. Who as∣signs the Sea its periods, of flux and reflux. Who replenisheth the Rivers with waters, so that their Channels are alwayes full, though they be alwayes emptying? The imbroidery of Flowers and Herbs; the working of so various bodies in Beasts, in Birds, in Fishes; the temper of the mixt, the harmony of the common and occult quali∣ties: In fine, what ever is, what ever is made: what being hath it, and how is it produced?

To know all this in comparison of what might be known, is to know nothing: And yet who is there that knoweth this No∣thing? Is there then so much to be known, and have we so little time of life to learn it, and do we think that the onely surplussages, and shreds of time sufficeth us for study? Hear now what I have told you, expressed in the conclusion of that precious little Trea∣tise of Seneca, De otio Sapientis. Curiosum no∣bis Natura ingenium dedit, & artis sibi, ac pul∣chritudinis suae conscia, spectatores nos tantis re∣rum spectaculis genuit; perditura fructum sui, si tam magna, tam clara, tam subtiliter ducta, tam nitida, & non uno genere formosa, solitu∣dini ostenderet. Vt scias illam spectari voluisse, non tantum aspici: vide quem nobis locum dedit. Ad haec quaerenda natus, aestima quam non mul∣tum acceperis temporis, etiam si illud totum tibi vindices. Licet nihil facilitate eripi, nihil ne∣gligentia patiatur excidere, Tamen homo ad im∣mortalium cognitionem, nimis mortalis est.

Those Sages, Masters of the World: some whereof have left their Memories, and others the productions of their Wit eter∣nized to us; knowing this, as we esteem little Diamonds, so they held precious the least minute of that time, of which alone it is commendable to be covetous. It was a

miracle to see them in Publick: and they resembled, as in the love of VVisdom, so also in this, the Planet Mercury, which is placed very neer the Sun, and which, by that means very hardly is discerned: as if he cared not for terrene eyes, who alwayes was in the eye of the Sun: and beheld by him, not with an unprofitable look, but with a large communication of light. In perpetuity of study, they were like those Falcons neer the North-Pole; which when the dayes are shorrest, when the Sun ap∣proacheth Capricorn, are so much more soli∣citous in seeking, so much the more rapid in following, so much the more couragious in assaulting, and over-comming their prey. Men, as white in their thoughts, as hair, were not ashamed to sit in the open streets, where they found matter of new cogni∣tions: and as Diogenes to him that repre∣hended him for eating in the Market-place, Cum in foro esuriam, said he, quare in foro non edam? thus to them, the not knowing of some object, was a sufficient excuse to take it where it offered it self to them. Farther more that which by the Law of Nature they were bound to allow the body to preserve life, they allowed themselves for necessity not for delight, and many times it fell out,

that, either with a voluntary abstinence, they in part deprived themselves of it, or immer∣ged in the profound thoughts of their stu∣dies, for some time forgot it. Thus Carnea∣des, (unmindful of his being a Man, while he was all mind, and all thought, and fated with the sweetest Nectar of those noble cognitions, with which he banqueted his VVit,) had let his body die of famine, if others by force had not revived him with food. Thus Archimedes seemed alwayes out of himself, whilst he was more than ever wholly in himself: whence, abstractus à tabula, à familis, (said Plutarch) spoliatus, unctus, super ipsa pelle sua Mathematica Sche∣mata exarabat. Thus, to omit a hundred others, Demosthenes, knowing himself in∣debted to his noble VVit for a more than ordinary successe, took his house for a pri∣son: and, shaving his head, oblieged him∣self from going abroad, till he saw his hair grown on his head, and his mind improved in VVisdom, which he wanted. VVe, that ought to be so much the more studious than these, by how much the more ignorant, do we conceit, we do not only enough, but more than we need, if reserving one, or at most two hours in a day frō the dulcities of sleep, from the urgency of negotiation, from

the invitation of profit, we dedicate them to study? To so little study a Noahs age would be requisite: Parvis nutrimentis quan∣quam à morte defendimus, nihil tamen ad robu∣stam valetudinem promovemur. Drops of wa∣ter, continually falling become chizels, and wear away marble its true, but because this is marble and they drops of water, they re∣quire a hundred years time before they can cut a fingers depth. Did you never hear a certain Parasite in an Ancient Comoedy (be it of Aquilius, or be it of Plautus) intitled Boeotia, complain of him, that being witty to the detriment of others stomacks, had invented the Art of making Sun-dials: which becomming the measure of hours, and time, do govern publick and private actions, so that now we must no more eat when we are a hungry, but when it pleaseth the Dial? Hear some of the Verses recited by Gellius.

Ut illum Di malè perdant, primus qui horas reperit. Quique adeò primus statuit hic Solarium, Qui mihi comminuit misero articulatim diem. Nam, me puero, uterus hic erat Solarium Multò omnium istorum optimum & verissi∣mum.

Ubi iste monebat esse nisi cum nihilerat. Nunc etiam non est quod est, nisi Soli lubet. Itaque jam oppletum est oppidum Solariis, Major pars populi aridi reptant fame.

So great a desire should ye have also, to feed your mind with the sweet honey of VVisdom: that your sleeping hours should seem ages, and the most necessary actions for the maintenance of life torments. That same Demosthenes, of whom a little above I told you, had so great an appetite thereto that to feed the mind he made his eyes abstein from sleep, and his belly from food: where∣upon, Plus olei, quàm vini expendisse dicitur, & omnes Artifices nocturnis semper vigiliis praevenisse.

And this ought also to be a Law to you, not to give to that most avaritious Publican (as Clement Alexandrinus calleth Somnus) the half of your life for Custome. It was permitted the Sybarites, humane Animals, that by publick edict they should expulse all Cocks from their City; that they might not with their crowing break the thread of sleep, in the sweeter hours: you, that are to use your beds, not to bury your selves in them, but to repose your selves upon them: keep as Pythagoras did a Faithful Chanticleere, that in

the morning may wake you, and call you from feathers to the Pen; from the dreams of the Fancy, to the contemplations of the Mind.

It will not succeed to you, as to that ad∣venturous VVarriour Timotheus, to whom Fortune with a great net drew Cities, Ca∣stles, Provinces and cast them into his lap, whilst he in the mean-time lay savourily sleeping. In Learning, he that sleeps arriveth not to his end, because Wisdom is not the gift of Fortune, but the fruit of Industry. Imagine that Cassiodorus saith to you, that with which he advertiseth others, of the duty of their office: Vigila impiger cum no∣cturnis avibus, nox tibi pandat aspectus, & sicut illae reperiunt in obscuris cibum, ita tu possis in∣venire praeconium. These are the most pre∣cious hours of the day; whether it be, as Ficinus teacheth, the priviledge of particular influences of Heaven; or for that the thoughts, impressed on the purest of the Spirits, whose drossy and gross parts either dispersed, or digested with sleep, present themselves to the glass of the mind without interception, & in it most apparently discern the reflexies of those first Idea's, that are forms of the Truth. Howsoever it be, the experi∣ence of those that practice it, teacheth, that

Aurora is the mother of honey; and that in the early Morning Pearls do fall upon the paper of such as write, as the dew distils it self into the Conchylia, to engender Pearls.

To him that sleeps in this manner, sleep becomes not only what Tertullian calls it, Recreatorem corporum, redentigratorem virium, probatorem valetudinum, peccatorem operum, medicum laborum, cui legitimè fovendo dies cedit, nox legem facit, auserens rerum etiam co∣lorem; but as he in an other case addeth, Master of the Resurrection for the more blessed use of Life.

A speech of an Angel in the mouth of a Beast, esteem I that excellent saying of Apol∣lonius, Qui aiebat (relates Phylostratus) oppor∣tere rectè Phylosophantes, adveniente aurora cum Deo versari; procedente die, de Deo loqui, reli∣quum tempus humanis rebus, & sermonibus dare. For the imployments of the Mind, in what∣soever matter it is exercised, there is not a better time, than the first Dawn of day; in which it seems, that by certain or occult consent, the light dawns to the VVit, as the day breaks to the World. Therefore Beati qui seipsos assimilant Angelis it a vigilando.

And this ought not to hold in force for a few dayes only, but to be the ordinary Law of our lives, That in the division of the hours of

the day, we dedicate the first, and commonly the most to study. At least we should be able to say as that Great Master of Ancient Paint∣ing, that there had not past us one day, in which we have not, if not fully depainted a Face, yet at least drawn some line. Light and flame where it is kindled, is kept with a little fuel; but if it be suffered to extinguish and die, it will require much to re-kindle it. Let us not be like the Nyle, the Nigris, and other Rivers; which before they fall into the Sea bury themselves several times under ground, and as many times rise again. They lose themselves in abstruse wayes, rather whirl-pols, and thence disgorging, they are found a new. They have a hundred heads, they spring a hundred times, and are alwayes, and yet never the same. To inter∣rupt the studies with certain long pauses, made more by inconstancy of Genius, then necessity of great affairs; this is to undertake much, to prosecute little, and to complete nothing.

IMPRUDENCE.

The unprofitable endeavours of him that studieth against the inclina∣tion of his Genius.

TO set out with successe upon our journey, in Arts, Sciences, and every profession of Learning, it is neces∣sary to consult the Genius, and from its in∣clinations to take directions; as for him that goes to Sea, to observe the wind that blows, to fit the sails, & turn the rudder ac∣cordingly. Nature is like the Planets; that where they go retrograde, make but small progresse. They get not most from her, that most presse and force her; but they that most please and observe her: whereupon, she, which freely working in every, though difficult enterprize, succeeds with no lesse facility than felicity; (as the Coelestial Syrens revolve their great Spheres with their melody,) if violence be offered her, she not only not increaseth the virtue by the force, but rather loseth her former vigour and strength: as water, that by cold freezeth;

and if before it had motion, now all strength is extinct, and it becomes immoveable, and as it were dead.

He, that in the labours of the brain, is to contrast, not so much with the difficulty, that is incident in the acquist of the Scien∣ces: as with his own Genius; and with that which the Masters of Arts calleth Invita Minerva: is like to him that swims against the stream in a place where some torrent precipitates; that toils much, but advan∣ceth little; till such time as over-come by wearinesse, and losing together with his little power the remainder of his will, he prove by experience the truth of that natu∣ral Axiome, That things violent are not perma∣nent.

By this is evinced the errour of such as apply themselves to studies, and amongst them, to the speculative, or practical, or mixt: when the Inclination, when the Ge∣nius, when the Nature admits it not: which is just as if you would strive to make Rivers leave their currents, to go climb and ascend the tops of hils.

The Wise Athenians esteemed it a foun∣dation of never knowing any thing, not to know from the beginning to apply our selves to that, for which Nature design'd

us. Thence it was that before they applyed their children to any profession, they cu∣riously inquired into their Inclinations; of which the Desires commonly are Truth-telling-Interpreters: and that they did, by laying before them the implements of all Arts: Ut qua quisque delectabatur (saith Na∣zianzen) & ad quam sponte currebant, eam do∣ceretur.

They believed that Heaven called them whether their Inclinations carried them. And in that, they accord with the opinion of the mysterious Cebes, who at the first turn of her Table shewed you Genius, who calling, directs men the course they should steer through the whole series of this life; Mandabat quideis, ubi in vitam venerint, faci∣endum sit, & cui vitae se committere debeant, si salvi esse in vita velint, ostendebant.

God, said Plato (concerning the honey of a very excellent Truth under the comb of a Fable) hath cemented the minds of men together with Mettals. Into the Peasants Iron, into those of Princes Gold, and into every one else comprehended between these, he hath infused their Mettals propor∣tionately to their States. From this ariseth the difference of Inclinations, and variety of Genuis's. I would counsel every man

therefore, by the test of a good Touch-stone to learn what sort his Mettal is of; and ac∣cordingly to extract there-from what he may. Let him observe (say the Platonists) in the descent of his Genius from the Stars, whilst it was passing through the lesser Spheres, from the Seal of what Planet it took Im∣pression: whether from a speculative Sa∣turn; or from a Lordly Jupiter; or a Warlike Mars; and accordingly let him confidently betake himself to the Pen, to the Scepter, or to the Sword.

It is doubtlesse a most unhandsome thing to see some times in the Schools certain heads, better able to crack Lobsters, than to study. Heads that have a Mind so stupid, and so ill adapted to the mysteries of Learn∣ing, that they seem like a reverted Jove, to carry Bacchus in his brain, and Pallas in his belly. Their Intellectuals, fat, and grosse, (as the water of the Lake Asphaltites, in which nothing sinks to the bottom) creep with a slower pace than the Pygritia, a notable creature of India, that when it is at the speediest moves half a pace at a hundred steps, and in a hundred dayes travails a mile. No file can be found of temper hard enough to fetch the rust off their Sculs. Let us make use (as the Bears do to their unform'd Cubs)

of all the expert Tongues in the World, they will never be able to ingrave upon them the least feature of a Learned Man. Ammonius would sooner make his Asse a Phylosopher, than one of them a Gramma∣rian.

To what purpose do you send such peo∣ple to School, as if it were to a Carvers shop, if after all their hewing and carving, they retein more of a Block than of a Mer∣cury? To what end would you break that mans brain with Learning, out of which, if Vulcan should open it, you should see an Owl issue, rather than a Pallas? To what purpose doe you seek out a Master that is an Eagle, if it be to teach a Tortoise to slie? That is an Oracle of Wisdom, if it be to en∣terprize the imprinting Learning in a head of one which lets ••lie all he knows out of his brain, and never indent so many letters, as a Crane, or a Stork accent in their flying?

Its not enough to Wish, that Pumices be∣come Sponges; that Mastiffs become Ha∣riers; and that Oaks bear Honey instead of Acorns: which can never be done with all the Art that you can use about its plants. Foolish was that practice of the Sybarites to teach Horses to dance, and to deprave the warlike disposition of that generous Beast,

by that effeminate exercise. The same er∣rour do they commit, who would have him apply himself to his Book, who was born for War; and make him an Archimedes who would be a Marcellus.

What then? We may contrast with, we cannot conquer Nature. Sooner, or later, when she is left to her liberty, she returns thither from whence with violence she was taken. Achilles may be for sometime concealed under a womans apparel. Ille apud rupicem, & sylvicosam, & monstrorum ••ru∣ditorem scrupea schola eruditus, patiens jam ustri∣culas, sustinens stolam fundere, comam struere, cutum singere, speculum cousulere, colum demul∣cere, aurem quoque fora tu effaeminatus: But all this was the lesse likely to be permanent in Achilles by how much the employments of a Warriour were more con••ortial with the spirit of Achilles than those of a woman. Therefore Necessitas, not of the Trojan war, but of his Genius manifested at the sight of a Sword, reddidit sexum: De praelio sonuerat, necarma longè. Ipsum, inquit, ferrum virrum at∣tra••it.

But behold in matter of Learning onely four of a thousand that applyed diversly ••••om that to which the weight of natural I••clination bore them, after they had

contended in vain, yeilded for overcome.

Socrates, applyed to Sculpture, having graven the three Graces, (but, I suppose, so ungracefully, that Hell would have received them for Furies,) perceiving, that at working Marbles he himself was a stone; he broke the edge of his Chizel, and sharpned that of his Wit; giving himself the Moral Phyloso∣phy, to which his Genius led him: and he, which working, knew not how to make of stones, Statues of men; phylosophating, made through admiration, of men Statues.

Plato gave himself to Painting, and seeing himself turn a painted Painter, and his pi∣ctures only meriting the name of shadows; transferr'd himself from the unsuccesful, designing of Bodies, to the noble pictu∣ring of Souls: he left the lies of the Pencils, and gave himself to the truth of Idea's, of which he first depainted the Features, and discovered to the World the Image.

Augustus, ambitious to in-occulate the Lawrel of a Poet, upon that of Emperour; and of being aswel an Apollo with the Harp, as he was a Jupiter with thunderbolts, com∣posed his Ajax; a Tragaedy, which for the laughter that it merited, became rather a Comaedy, so ill was it composed. However he would have it a Tragoedy in despight o••

Art, and so it proved; for he gave it a mourn∣ful Exit by tearing it in pieces. Capricorn, which he had in his Ascendent, called him to Ruling, not to Rhiming, not to the Pen, but to the Scepter; not to private Scaenes, but to the publick Theater of the VVorld.

On the contrary, Ovid applyed by his Fa∣ther to the Law, litigated more with him∣self than others; for as much as his Po••tick Genius, and the tranquil influence of Gemini, called him from the bawlings of the Forum, to the repose of the Muses; and from the Sword of Astrea, to the Phletrum of Apollo: whereupon in the end, commencing from himself, the Work of his Metamorphosis; one day transform'd him from an Advocate to a Poet.

See how the Genius is a faithful Loadstone, which may possibly by force be turn'd to any other point, besides its North; but never rests, so, as to stand without con∣straint, till such time as it hath also gently done that in us, which the Poet speaks of Fate.

Ducunt volentem Fata, nolentem tra••unt.

But if it happen, that the interests of ho∣nour, and profit permit not men to surcease

that which they badly began; you shall see as many Monsters in a Learned Accademy, as in an Affrican Lybia: A Poetical Physi∣cian, A Phylosophical Historian, a Mathe∣matical Civilian; in which, those in-nate Seeds which are derived from the Womb, into the Instinct of the Mind, confounding and in-termingling themselves with those, that are acquired by Study; whilst neither those nor these wholly prevail; by being the one and the other; they are neither the one nor the other.

There is therefore a necessity, if we will speed, to apply our selves not only to Learn∣ing, but to this more than that other Pro∣fession of Learning; and consult our own Genius, which is wont, to make it self un∣derstood to such as have good Eares by the language of frequent Desires, when they have not that which they would; and by the pleasure they have when they obtein it. Also it behoveth them to say to their Will, as Aeöolus to Juno:

—Tuus, ô Regina, quid optes Explorare labor, mihi jussa capescere fas est.

Otherwise, to pretend in despight of ones Genius to prove excellent in any profession,

is just as if one would to open the way to the Elyzian fields, lop that golden branch from its stock, which Nature her self denied him.

—Non viribus ullis Vincere, nec duro poteris convellere ferro.

But hitherto I have more evinced the ne∣cessity of observing the Genius, then the manner of knowing it: because its my opi∣nion, that it hath so knowable a voice, that it needs no interpreters to declare it, but cares to hear it. It only rests that we speak something for others information in this discovery; and it shall be of the counter∣signs from whence VVit is conjectured: and the knowledge thereof will be useful to the end that in employing such as depend upon us, we erre not, as others use to do, who, not knowing their Genius's, through mistake force them to contrast with their own Inclinations.

Little credit to be given to the signs of Ingenuity taken from the Phy∣siognomy.

THe Ancient Architects, more by the Laws of Judgment than Art, in building a Temple to any god, of three Grecian Orders, Dorick, Jonick, and Corinthian, elected that which best agreed to the nature of the Deity to whō they erected the Temple. Therefore they used the Dorick order, being grave, and severe for their Martial Deities, as Mars, Hercules, and Pal∣las: The Corinthian, soft and lascivious, for Venus, Flora, Proserpina, and the Water-Nymphs: The Jonick, moderate, for Juno, Diana, Bacchus and the like.

The very same Law (as some Platonists, and all Physiognomers are of opinion) hath Nature rigorously observed in building Bo∣dies, which are the Temples of the Soul: so that there being some Souls Warlike, others Cowardly; some vivatious and in∣genious, others stupid and insensate; some servile, others imperious, born to comand: she hath in conformity also to their inter∣nal

Genius's, and tempers delineated the ex∣ternal features of the Face; and used such Architecture in the Body, as corresponded with the inclination of the Mind: From thence hath the Art of Conjectural Phy∣siognomy took its beginnings; by which, from that which is seen in any one, that which is concealed is collected, and infer∣red. And, look as they gather from the quantity of the Manners, whether good, or bad: many, and different, and not seldom repugnant Indices of the Wit in such as they find either stupid, or apprehensive, and acute; so likewise do they multiply Signes for the knowing it, as if they were to find out a Proteus by the natural features of his face, and not a Wit by its Qualities.

But because many of these Masters of Divining, more looking to the Features, and tempers of some few ingenious per∣sons, than to the universal occult causes of the Wit, have made the faces of a few, the common Index of all; in so much that Porta (as if he were the Alcibiades from whom we must take the features of a true Mercury) coppying himself, framed from his particu∣lar Indices, the universal, and almost only conjecture of an excellent VVit; whence it is, that it proves so fallacious to divine

from the visage, constitution, and lineaments of the Body, of the immensity, subtilty, vivacity and profundity of a VVit: I will here recite, but without much troubling my self with their confutation, the more common symptomes given of this matter, by the Professors of Physiognomy. And first,

The Platonists deny that Beauty of Mind, and deformity of Body can subsist together in one and the same man. That Trine of Ve∣nus with the Moon, which is the seal, where∣with the Stars mark the most lovely faces, that it may have consonance with numbers, they contemper the Mind, and accord it to the motion of the first Mind. Pythagoras that Soul of Light, was so fair in his fea∣tures, that his Scholars some called him, others believed him Apollo in the disguise of Pythagoras, or Pythagoras coppied from A∣pollo: Nor doth there want a reason for the same. For as much as beauty is no other, than a certain Flower, that is produced by the Soul, as a buried seed, upon this ground of the Body. Likewise the Sun, if a Cloud cover it, it shineth through it, with its more subtle Rayes, and renders it so glorious, that it no longer resembleth a vapour extra∣cted from the Earth, sordid and obscure, but

flaming Gold and as it were another Sun. No otherwise a Soul, that is a Sun of light within the Cloud of the Body, that covers and conceals it, shineth through it with the rayes of its beauty; so that it renders that also beyond measure beautiful: and this is that which Plotonus calls the Dominion, that Form hath over Matter.

VVhich if it should be granted, that Souls come only into Bodies resembling them; and onely tye this knot of strict amity, there where there is exact similitude; who but sees that a beautiful Soul cannot then unite it self to a deformed Body?

Nor availeth it to tell them of Aesop, (born, if ever any was, with the Moon in the Nodes) that he was a Thersytes; Crates, no Citizen of Thebes but a Monster of Affrick; of Socrates, so ill-furnisht with beauty, yea, of so grosse a stamp, that Sophyrus the Physiog∣nomer gave him for the very Idea of one stupid and blockish; whom Alcibiades called a Sylenus; thereby declaring him without, half Beast; within, more than Man: and Theodorus describing in Theectetus a Youth of most fortunate VVit, speaking with the same Socrates, could tell him, Non est pulcher: similis tui est: simo naso, & prominentibus oculis, quam∣vis minus ille quam tu in his modum excedat.

They deny that such deformity in them was the intention of Nature, but the mistake of Chance; not the defect of Form, but the fault of disobedient Matter.

But if that be so, the Women have there∣in great advantage, to whom Beauty was given for a Dowry; and we see, that it is Natures continual care, to work that soft and morbid Earth, so, that she may therein plant this flower the more succesfully. And yet through the subjection to which they were condemned, they have as little Judgment in their heads, as they have much of hand∣somnesse in their faces. VVhence Aesops Fox may say of the most of them, as he said of the Marble head of a very lovely fac'd Statue; O beautiful, but brainless head!

And really, if we observe experience, it will be obvious, that Nature is not oblieged to these Laws, of setting Pearls only in Gold, and of putting VVits of excellent Sapience only in Bodies of exquisite Beauty. Potest ingenium fortissimum, ac beatissimum sub qualibet cute latere. Potest ex casa vir maguns exire; Potest ex deformi vilique corpusculo, for∣mosus animus, ac magnus. Rural Limbs oft∣times cover most polite VVits. Most amia∣ble Minds lie under rugged skins, as He, u••der the dreadful skin of the Menean Lion▪

Galba the Orator, appeared an inform'd lump of stone, but within had a Golden vein of precious and shining VVit. Where∣upon M. Lullius scoffing of him was wont to say, Ingenium Galbum malè habitat. Thus many others, of whom it would be too te∣dious to speak particularly, have been so deform'd, but so ingenious, that it seem'd, that in them, as in the Adamant, or Magnet, beauty of Mind, and uncomelinesse of Body went hand in hand.

Others again there are, that measure the grandure of the VVit by the bulk of the Head; and believe, that that cannot be a great Intelligence, that hath not a great Sphere. They comprehend not how a small head becometh a womb able to conceive a Great Pallas: how a Giant-like Ingenuity can comprise it self within the narrow neich of a little Scul.

They know not how that the Mind is the Center of the Head, and the Center doth not increase by the bignesse of the Circle. The eye, is it any more than a drop of Chrystal? and hath it not in such smalnesse, a concave so capacious; that by the gate of a pupil, it receiveth, without confusion of it, half a VVold.

Parvula sic totum pervisit pupula caelum. Quoque vident oculi minimum est, cum ma∣xima cernant.

It often happens, that as a little Heart natu∣rally includes a great Courage; so in a Head of a small bulk, a Mind of great understand∣ing is comprised.

Others argue from the palure of the face, as from ashes; the fire of a Spiritely VVit; and thus Nazianzen calleth Palidness, Pulchrum sublimium virorum slorem. And rea∣son seemeth to perswade as much; for that the very best of the blood is exhausted in the operations of the Mind, and the face thereby left ex-sanguate and discoloured. Therefore the Star of Saturn, the Father of profound thoughts, beareth in a half-extin∣guish'd light, his face as it were meagre, and palid.

Many say that by the eyes sparkling in the day, and glittering in the night, they can tell which are the true Palladian Bats. Others there are, who in confused Characters seem to read the Velocity of VVits, whose fan∣cies, whilst the hand with the slight of the Pen cannot follow, it comes to passe, that it ill makes the letters, cuts off the words,

and confounds the sense. Thus the speedest beasts, imprint the most informed tracks; whilst on the contrary the slow-moving Oxe makes his steps with patience, and lea∣surely formeth his tracks one by one.

But I undertook not to relate, much lesse to refute all the symptoms from which VVit is argued by these subtle Diviners: the shol∣ders, and neck dry, and lean; the temper of the ••lesh morbidly moulded; the fore-head ample, the skin thin and delicate; the voice in a mean between loud, and low; the hair neither litherly dangling, nor, (as dry,) curled and crisped; the hands lean; the legs small; the corporature indifferent; the colour amiable; and I know not what.

These are for the most part dubious con∣jectures, and fallacious prospectives, yea, they equally agree to contrary, not to say different principles. At least it is certain, that either there must concurre to their establishment, experience, with the obser∣vation of Ingenious Men; or Reason, drawn from the temper, and disposition of Organs, that are of use to the Imaginative Faculty, and the Mind: and experience evinceth it, to him that is inquisitive, that of any three of them two proves false; and that the temper of the Internal Instruments hath not

such conexion with these external Signes, that one may collect, thence ordinary, much lesse infallible arguments.

The Original cause of the excellency and Diversity of Wits; and the various Inclinations of the Ge∣nius.

BY a clean contrary way to the for∣mer, go they, who placing all the energy of the Wit in the force of the Soul; and supposing its use wholly inde∣pendent from the instruments of the Body; do deny, that we may argue from any sen∣sible appearance, the quality, or quantity of others Wit. There is, say they, difference amongst Souls, not only in their proper Essence, but also in the degrees of acciden∣tal Excellence; which makes them one more or lesse perfect than another. This is no lesse an honour to the great Artist that made them, and an ornament to the World, than that variety of features which is in the face of Man (though it be composed of few members;) wherein to find two a-like is wonderful; two stamped with the same

impression, almost impossible, The diver∣sity of Wits arising in this manner from the diverse degrees of perfection of Souls, to what end seek they Indices thereof from the Body; as if (according to the errour of that great Proto-Physician) the Soul were no other, than a Consonance of qualities, and a Harmony of humours? To argue from the voice, from the Complexion, from the features, accutenesse of Wit; is, as from the pencils, to divine the excellency of the Art of a great Apelles; or from the Sword the valour of the arm of a magnanimous Scan∣derbeg. An Oxe with one only claw divi∣ded in the midst; and Alexander so painted, that his arm advancing with a thunderbolt, seemed to come out of the Tele: These are true arguments of Art & Ability. The Inge∣nuity likewise is known by no other means than by the actions; other tracks it leaves not by which to guesse of its form; other shadow it hath not by which to collect, its propor∣tion.

And if that be not so. Observe the diver∣sity of Wits, which as if they were Stars of different Genius and Nature, variously in∣cline; and then, if there be any, you may find in the temper of the body, the principle whence such difference is derived.

Some are so nimble witted, that they seem to have fancies composed of light; to whom the setting out, the running, and arriving are all but one moment. Rapid Eagles, to whom their Masters no sooner show a Lure, then they reach unto it, so that as Plato said of his Aristotle, they have an Art to accellerate their wings, that they may slye not by force, but by choice.

Others on the contrary, as Zenocrates, a Mercury without wings both in head and feet, are so slow, and dull, that they must have spurs to make them run, nay, go. They are Stars, but of that Constellation called the Beare, to whom the vicinity of the Pole makes the motion very slow, and the revo∣lution tedious, as if they also were subject to the Septentrion frosts.

Some have an Understanding, like im∣pressions made upon the water, that soon receive the stamp and as soon also lose it: That are as swift in forgetting, as they were in getting. Wits resembling either Doves, Quarum omnis inclinatio in colores novos transit; but colours of which as fast as they take one, they lose another; or Glasses, in which Aequè citò omnis imago aboletur, ac componitur.

Contrariwise, in others the Understand∣ing is a graving in Porphyre and Marble. An

image is not form'd in them without the force of Chizels, & with great patience; but then it is of such duration, that neither Ob∣livion, nor Time can e-face it. Cleanthes was one of these, call'd in derision the Hercules of the Schools, because his becomming a Phylosopher was as laborious to his mind as it was to the body of the other to make himself a Demi-god. Oris angustissimi vas (so saith Plutarch) dissicilimè admittens, sed sem∣perretinens quod admisit.

There are them, that when Children, are all Spirit, when Men all Dregs. In their first years, the Nightingales seem to sing on their mouth, as on that of the Child Stesicho∣rus; grown bigger they roare like Oxen. Like to that Ancient Hermogenes, that was, Senex inter pueros, inter senes puer.

In others, on the contrary, the Wit gra∣dually meliorateth with years: whereupon those that before appeared steril truncks, their buds opening by little and little, they send forth branches of large extent, and un∣fold some leaves, & in the end are ladē with more fruit, than others have leaves. Observe Baldo a Jurist, that stood (to speak so) as the Palm, a hundred years before he bore any fruit, whereupon arose the scoffe which he had so o••t laid in his dish, being a

Scholar; Doctor eris Balde, sed praeterito sae∣culo.

What shall we say of those, that for every Science have a VVit equally perfect; that as the light to all Colours, so their mind are adapted to all matters; servile, or sublime; of ample, or profound dimension? Few such there be, yet some there are; and on them we may bestow for a perfect Panegy∣rick, that great applause,

—Sparguntur in omnes, In te mysta sluunt, & quae divisa beatos E••••iciunt, collectatenes.—

Blessed VVits, in whom, that which Pliny saw in a Tree, that alone was an entire Or∣chard, it having ingrafted upon it the fruits of all Trees; that which Ausonius had in a Statue of Bacchus, that had a kind of re∣semblance to every of the gods, whereupon he calls it not a god alone, but a Pantheon, is much more happily, and with greater ad∣miration, and envy, expresly seen. They are few, but are worth many; nor only many, but many of excellency and merit; so that it may be said of them, as of the great Colossus of Rhodes; Majores sunt digiti ejus, quam pleraeque statuae. They are few, but

transform themselves into as many, as Learning hath Professions; nor know you in which they most excel; being that in all they are like unto themselves, and not in∣feriour to any others: and you may sooner find such as envy, than such as equal them.

Finally, in whatsoever kind of Learning you will, they are able to say as Vertumnus amongst the Poets,

Opportuna mea est cuncta natura figuris, In quacunque voles verte. Decorus ero.

Again, others there are so determinately intent upon one only kind of study, and that not by election of the Will, but by instinct of Genius, that to take them from, that is to take their VVits quite from them. He that will see their excellency, must behold them from one point, namely that, where all the lines of their knowledge Concenter; otherwise they have nothing considerable, and indeed seem Monstrous.

These, and many more are the Chara∣cters and different forms, whence VVits come to be so various in Genius, and Tallent among themselves. Now what temper of brain, what harmony of qualities, what dis∣position of humours, doth so obliege the

Soul; that it should be in some in the things of the Mind blockish; and in the more sim∣ple and material most active; in others, in the abstracts excellent, in the practicks un∣profitable: That it should be disposed, here to one, there to another, here to all, there to no act of Reason, or labour of VVit? If the actions of the intelligent Soul are done by her-self, and rest in her; what can the Body do, howsoever tempered; or the Brain, in what manner soever disposed? and if they can do nothing; it remains, that the diversity of Wits, ariseth from different per∣fections of the Soul, not various dispositions of the Body.

But if this be so, if the mind depend not on the Organs for operation, nor on the Humours for well operating; whence is it, that some, either by an accidental blow on the head, or by a strange disease, have sud∣denly or gradually lost their Memory, and impair'd their Wit; so that their brain, like the opened Box of Pandora, or the vented Box of Ulysses, is for ever after without Spi∣rit, and Judgment? How cometh from the heat of the Brain, the distemper of the Dis∣coursive Faculty; the rebolliment of the Spe∣cies, the disorder of the Reason, Frenzy, and Madnesse? Why doth he, (that when a

Child was ingenious, and apt growing with yeares), become grosse of mind, and so much the more stupid, by how much the more before he was spritely? Yet the Soul is it self. VVho then implumes the VVit, who obtuseth the Fancy, who alters the Soul from what once she was?

But Countries, some abound with ac∣curate Wits, as in Attica, that famous Athens, the Nest, and Nurse of the Sciences; and in regard of the walls that environ it, all ap∣peared a Temple of Pallas, an Academy of Learned Men: On the contrary Beaetia is inhabited, I will not say by living Men, but by dead Statues; in whom Reason, amongst others sheweth no greater discourse, than the Zophiti motion amongst other Ani∣mals.

Do we not see so great difference of Wits between City and City, even in adja∣cent Conntries, that some, as the Egyptian Alexandria, seem to have designed their first foundation with Meals; others, placed upon the summity of Olympus; have their feet higher, than others carry their heads? And whence is this, if neither Heaven, nor Air, nor Climate, nor Spirits, nor Humours, tempered by them, have the least influence in those Actions: which being proper to

the Soul, as the principle of discourse; by her only are produced, and in her alone are received?

It is then a more approved, and I am sure a more received opinion, that the Tempera∣ment of the Complexion, whence the state of the Body proceeds, serveth as well to the Wit, and to the diversity of its Genius; as the tuning of the strings to the melody of a Lute; and diverse Consorts of Voices, Intervals, Notes, measures of Tunes, Or∣ders, and dispositions of Unisons, & Semi∣tones, proper, and mixt, to the diverse Har∣monies Frigian, Dorick, Lydian; whence proceeds the various Musick, Grave, Lasci∣vious, Martial, Melancholy, and Merry. Consider the various (we will say) Tones, and Moods, of VVit, which Cardan would describe by the various consorts of the pri∣mary qualities in nine kinds of humane Bo∣dies: Observe the proportion of eight parts of Blood, two of Choler, and two of Me∣lancholy, which Ficinus would prescribe to the harmony of a great VVit, and let every one believe thereof as he pleaseth.

This seemeth universally true, that the works of the VVit, participating an I know not what of fiery, as the velocious motion of the thoughts, and the nature of the ignean

spirits that serve it demonstrate; those hu∣mours that partake most of fiery, are most capable of serving it: even as on the con∣trary, Flegme rendereth it stupid, and brings it as it were into a somniferous Lethargy. Therefore Choler which is hot in excesse, & withall dry, is wholly proper to the Wit. But Melancholy (although it doth not so seem) is more apposit thā that; not that gross and loathsome humour, which more sym∣bolizeth with Flegme in frigidity, than with Choler in siccity; but a certain (as it were) adust part of the yellow Choler, cold and dry by nature, as the earth, but, if it be rari∣fied and enkindled, so capable to conceive fire (as the exhalations raised by the Sun, which yet are a cold and dry earth) and a fire so vehement, and forceable, that it par∣taketh of lightning in strength, though it be more durable and constant. And hence proceedeth Madness, and that Grave Frensy of the mind that wholly transports it besides it self, and wholly concenters it in it self; that gives it velocious motions, and holds it stedfast, and fixed; wholly dispersing, and wholly contracting the thoughts. Nor may therebe wanting Bloud and Flegme, the one for aliment to the spirits, the other for tem∣perament; that so the too great drinesse

make not barren, or the too great heat di∣stemper not the organ and cause more smoak than light. The predominant ought therefore to be fiery, the rest, of a mixture in proportion to the degrees of this.

And this, if I guesse not a misse, is the so famous Dry Light of Heraclitus; That Igne∣us vigor, & caelestis origo; that where it hath the flame more bright, and in more re∣fined humours lesse thick and muddy, there its a thing more like a Heavenly Intelligence than a terrene Wit.

This is that so difficult Electrum of VVit and Judgment together. The VVit the Mer∣cury, all instability & motion; the Judgment, the Chymical Medicine that fixeth it: The VVit the Lion, and the Dolphin all fury, all speed; the Judgment, the Bridle, and Anchor, that restrains the fury, that retards its mo∣tion: The Wit the Sail, the Judgment the Ballast: That the Wing, this the Clog: That the young face of Janus, this the old, and gray.

But because the temper of the humours for the service of the mind, is not one indi∣visible one, from their varieties take rice the abilities, Genuis's, and humours, which incline them to various kinds of studies. Because that in some studies there is re∣quired

more patience, and, as we are wont to say, more Flegm; in others, greater promptnesse of mind; in others, imagina∣tions more firm; els-where discourse more abstract: here great memory, their capa∣city of comprehending as it were in one sole act the cognition of many objects; and discerning their dependency without con∣founding them; according as the humours and their qualities, are variously tuned and harmoniz'd together: whence more or lesse according to the predominancy of hot, and cold, dry and moist, we have abilities more apt to one than to another Science; according to the temper of the qualities, that the instruments require, for the better disposing them to operation. And this abi∣lity of power, well disposed towards such sorts of objects, is the foundation of that, which they call Genius. Because that there being in every one by natural instinct an in-nate desire of knowing; and Nature not erring, but being conscious of that, which she is to apply us to the desire of, as our Good: (a thing, which to obtein we have not power sufficient:) thence it is, that she carrieth us to the desire of that, to attein which we are sufficently disposed. The proportion there∣fore of the power to the object, and the

desire which we have to know; of which one applyeth, the other determineth; cau∣seth that sympathy, which we may call the Form of the Genius.

So, that it is not the disposition, figure, colour, nor masse of the members of the body that we should observe as immediate, or true testimonies of the Wit, in applying any to Learning. But from the Acts, the most natural testimonies of the Powers, we may argue their internal Temper, thereby to find to which of the Arts it hath most agreeable proportion. Thus, since the honey cannot be fetch from its Sourse, which is the Stars (as Pliny speaks) at least let them strive to make it as pure as they can; by working it out of those slowers, which most resemble them in nature; Ibi enim optimus semper (ros mellis) ubi optimorum doliolis florum conditur. Since Science can be enjoyed no otherwise than as faln from Heaven into these terene Bodies; at least-wise, let them apply themselves to gather it of those, which with tempers like to Heaven, fiery, and subtle, but withal stable, and regular, most symbolize and agree with it.

AMBITION.

The folly of many who desirous to seem Learned, doe publish them∣selves in Print to be Ignorant.

THat insatiate, I will not say desire, but madnesse, which we have of publishing our selves to the World for men of Learning, I could wish, that it would whet the Wit, as well as it sharpens the Pen; that so the Sciences might in∣crease in weight, as Books increase in num∣ber.

Scarce have we got in the nest of a School the down of the first feathers upon the brain, but we already think our selves, not only Eagles, but Mercuries with Wings on our heads. Scarce is there enkindled in us a spark of Wit, but presently we desire in Print to shine as Suns, and make our selves, with a strange Ambition, Masters before we be compleatly Scholars. Every thought that the mind conceives, we think worthy of the light; and although many times it is no more than Ridiculus Mus, we by all means

will call the Press, to be Lucina; and collect it, and keep it not only alive but immortal. The Gnats, Moths and Flyes of our own brains, seem to us worthy to be embalmed, as that Bee, in Electer, and exposed to the sight, and admiration of the World. Thus

—Tenet insanibile multos Scribendi cacoethes, & agro in corde senescit.

Happy would Learning be, if Books also should have their Winter, and the leaves of the greatest part of them should fall, as the leaves of trees fall every year after Au∣tumn. The World would be thereby so much the more wise by how much fewer the number would be of the Masters of Errours, and Oracles of Lies.

How many Books come to hand which bear in their frontispices Inscriptiones propter quas vadimonium deseri possit? In perusing the proud promises of their Titles, you will ccall to mind either that Verse of Horace,

Quid dignum tanto feret hic promissor hiatu?

or that scoffe with which Diogenes mocked at the great Gate of a little City, saying: Shut this gate or else the Town will run out at it, and leave you without house or home.

The eye, and the hand run with impa∣tience, this to turn over, and that to read the leaves, at cum intraveris (Dii Deaeque) quàm nihil in medio invenies! Affrick, which is in∣compassed with such delightful shoares, is within most of it barren sands, and naked deserts of gravel. The first leaf, like that fa∣mous Sheet of Parrhasius, seems so painted, as if it covered a Picture, whereupon Zeuxis deceived, flagitavit, tandem remoto linteo osten∣di picturam; but in reality there was no o∣ther picture than the sheet, deluder of the eyes, with the lies of the pencil. Thus, in this, is that saying of Seneca verified, Speciosa & magna contra visentibus, cum ad pondus re∣vocata sunt fallunt. Books many times de∣ceive as the Apples of Sodom, that being fair to look upon, have nothing but the hypo∣crisie of appearance; for within they are ashes and smoak; and in opening they va∣nish into nothing: Si qua illic poma conantur (saith Tertullian) oculis tenus caeterum conacta cinerescunt.

A Learned Man doth indeed deserve great compassiō, that setting himself earnest∣ly to one of these Books, which hath no∣thing but Perspective, and appearance, findeth that to be a painted Cloud, which he believed to be a rich Juno; and instead

of extracting thence the treasures which he expected, he sees, that the Book costs him more in regard of the time he unprofitably spends in reading it, than it stood him in, by reason of the money he gave for it. He sisheth therein day, and night, till that with a Nihil coepimus he casts it away. He soares with a curious Wit, to the apparance of some singular conceit, of some Master-piece of Art; but as the Birds that slew to the painted Grapes of Zeuxis; if he came with appetite, he departs hungry.

O! to how many Writers, which more than once have made the Presse to groan, may we repeat that Verse of Ausonius,

Utiliùs dormire ••uit, quàm perdere somnum Atque oleum.—

The wretches have watched many a night to compasse a Book, which shall lay a sleep all that read it, if their resentments of Choler against the Author keep them not awake. To how many Books, under the Title they bear in their Frontispiece, may we write the name with which Zuazo, a Spanish Doctor called a little Desert Isle, to which approaching in his Indian Navi∣gation, he found neither herb nor any other

sustenance; therefore he gave it this name, Nolite cogitare quid edatis. And yet (as Saint Ambrose ingeniously calls them) Books are the Ports wherein the Soul not only reco∣vereth rest from storms; in Lucam. but plenty from poverty. But take three Reasons only a∣mongst many, whence it comes, that so many unprofitable Books, and devoid of all goodnesse are printed.

1 Some think they do nothing if they make only one Book. They alone would make a Library.

Hinc, oblita modi, millesima pagina surgit Omnibus, & crescit multa damnosa papyro.

A hundred Volumnes, of a thousand pa∣ges a piece, Children of one sole VVit, Births of one only Mind; VVorks of one only Pen; this makes one go high and stately: And yet the Glory and Fame is not to be given to the number but to the worth of Books. For how many times in a River of words, there is not a drop of VVit; in a Sea of Ink, there is not one Pearl; in a Forest of Paper there is not one branch of Gold? All the VVork, be it a hundred Volumns, may say as the Echo of Ausonius:

Aëris, & linguae sum silia, mater inanis Judicii, linguam quae sine mente gero.

So that its a rare miracle of patience in the Reader, if slinging away the Book, he say not to the Author of it, that of Mar∣tial;

—Vis garrule, quantum Accipis ut clames, accipere ut taceas?

Books, as saith Domi••ius Piso, cited by Pliny, Thesaurus oportet esse, non libros. Every word should be a Pearl, every leaf a Jewel: so that he which reads them, should in one hour enrich himself, with that, which we have been ten years in gathering.

Aelas! what is become of that precious custome, and fortunate age, when the Honey of the Sciences was put into the Wax, on which it was then the custome to write with a Style? with how much the slower hand the words were indented by the style, the tenacity of the wax retarding it; the more were they fixed on the thoughts, and came to be better examined. Now a-dayes the Pen carries the words in a slight from the hand, and the conceits from the head;

and those and these the lighter by how much the lesse weighed. That ostentatious Soul∣dier in the Comick, which said

Ego hanc manchaeram mihi consolari volo, Ne lamentetur, neve animum despondeat. Quia jam pridem feriatam gestem:

Lively expresseth the itch many have to Write, and write much, as it were to com∣fort their Pens, that complain they stand Idle in their Ink-horns; without wearing blunt with writing at the least one Book.

It is not the muchnesse, but the goodness that is valued. Books are the Souls, whose grandure is not measured by the bulk of the body, but by the nobility of the Spirit. And most true is the Aphorism of great Au∣gustine In iis quae non mole magna a sunt, idem est esse majus quà melius. The stones of moun∣tains are 〈◊〉〈◊〉 bignesse, yet a Diamond, which is only (saith Manilius) Punctum la∣pidis, as far surpasseth them in worth, as they exceed it in magnitude.

If you were to speak to an assembly of a hundred of the most ingenious, and Learned Men of the World, would you say what came next to the tongues end, without de∣liberation, without refining, and many times

without substance, and order? Or rather would you not study to speak not onely Roses, as they said of old, but Pearls and Gold? and do not you know that by the Presse you speak not to a hundred or a thousand, but to all the Wisemen in the World that will read, and hear you? Therefore, why do you not as Phocion, that being asked why he stood upon a time so pro∣foundly pensive, answered; That being to speak in publick to the Athenians, he was picking his words one by one, and exami∣ning them, if there was any that he should omit? Laudato ingentia rura, saith the Poet, Exiguum colito. Honour the Gygantical Vo∣lumnes of others; but strive not so much to imitate them in bulk, as to surpasse them in worth. Write one only good one, but one that may be more worth than many. One, but one of which you may say as Ceres of her onely Daughter,

Numeri damnum Proserpi••a pensat.

2 The other reason of the unfortunate success of Books, is, the undertaking to handle a matter, and wanting a Wit proportionable. I chanced to write an Octave, or Epigram, and pre∣sently

I conceited that they called them He∣roick Poems, or Tragoedies.

Non ideo debet pelago se credere, si qua Audet in exiguo ludere cymbalacu.

That Hercules doth enterprize the con∣quest of the Heavens, and desire to do it by his strength never wonder: Since he hath already tride them, and knows their weight.

Et posse caelum viribus vinci suis Didicit ferendo.—

Do ye likewise measure the strength of your shoulders, by the weight of the bur∣den, and where you can say, Par oner•• cervix, take up the same, and go on. Prudentia ho∣minis est, saith St. Jerome, nosse mensuram suam, nec imperitiae suae ••orbem testem facere. Yee should unite Argus and Briareus, so that ye should not have a hundred hands ready to write, if ye have not also in the Intellect, an hundred eyes open to understand. Let not a spacious field of noble Argument so tran∣sport and hurry your Spirits, that the desire of running through it, make you forget that you have neither wings nor ability to doe it.

Vale your too venturous plumes, that would sooner make you fall than flie, and do.

Like to the un-slegg'd Stork, that strives to fly, And being untimely hasty, fluttering leaves Its lothed Nest, and so a fall receives.

But of this I am to speak upon another accasion by and by.

3 The third cause why there is more abortives than births, is from the impatient desire to bring them forth, before they be perfectly formed. They hear not the precept of Horace

Nonnunque prematur in annum, Membranus intus positis delere licebit Quod non edi deris. Nescit vox missa reverti.

It is no wonder if Mushrums that grow up in one hour, rot in the next; and our works prove, saith Plato, like those famous Gardens of Adonis, Qui subito, & die uno nati celerrimè pereunt.

Agatharchus was a Painter, for whom all the Cloth of Greece, all the Colours of the East sufficed not. He compiled the draughts of his Tables with more expedition, than the Sun draws the Rain-bow in the Clouds.

But what then? They were pictures that hung in every sordid place, and, exposed without regard, lived no longer than the men sown by Cadmus.

On the contrary Zeuxis, who in bringing forth his works was more tedious than the Elephant, and gave not a touch with his Pencil, which he recall'd not to a critical examination merited that eternity of glory, for which alone he painted. The wisest men are ever the most severe with the works of their own Wits: knowing that they ought to be not only read but examined by men of great judgment w^ch made them say with young Plinius, Nil est curae meae satis. Cogito quam sit magnum dare aliquid in manus homi∣num: nec persuadere mihi possum, non & cum multis, & saepè tractandum, quod placere, & sem∣per, & omnibus cupias.

And so much sufficeth to have said of those, that being but ill furnished with Wit, undertake to write of things above their ca∣pacities. Now I ought not to omit certain others, which misusing the Wit wherein they are rich, consume themselves, & spend their studies about certain unprofitable mat∣ters, Quas neque scire compendium (saith Arno∣bius) neque ignorare detrimentum est ullum.

The unfortunate pains of such who study and write matters wholly unprofitable.

ALchymists are men of more hardinesse than judgment. Judgment indeed they have none, albeit of the great tree of folly, there's in appearance perhaps is the goodliest branch, namely, that branch of Gold that sends one to Hell sooner than to the Elyzian Fields. But they are never∣thelesse fortunate, for seeking, as they say, the Phylosophers Stone, with the favour of Art they finally end it, and it is that Ancient Golden Poverty the true Lapis Phylosophorum, which leaving them nothing in the World, freeth them from the care of keeping, and danger of losing: both priviledges of the true Golden age. They un-avisedly pretend to fix Mercury in Silver, and perceive not that the God of Thieves knows better how to take away from others, then to impart of his own. They would change the Moon into a Sun. That Moon which never loseth it self more than when it most approacheth to the Sun. But above all things the efficacy

of that most pleasing enchantment of hope is worthy of admiration, which bereauing the heads of these wretched fools of Wise∣dom, their hands of money, their eyes of sleep, and their hearts of the love of all the World, so blindeth them that they see not what they suffer; and tormenting their lives, no lesse than the minerals on which they work, renders them stupid to pain, and in∣sensible of torment. Thus you see them like gnats wind themselves every moment about a little candle, which gives heat to an Her∣metical Furnace, and in one instant to laugh at that sire, and weep at that smoak: Till such time, as the mystery compleated, they at the gathering of the fruit of all find a goodly Ex nihilo nihil sit. All their hope is evapo••ated and only the dregs remain: Fortune, that stood upon a Ball of Glasse, that being broken, is faln. And from all it is at last concluded,

That Gold grows not, but only in Negotiation; and makes no Veines and Mines but in Banks.

I have with two touches of the Pen rudely pourfoil'd the equally foolish, and unfortunate pains of miserable Alchymists, which with no other gain, than of a smoak that makes them weep, spend all that they have, or are; to the end that in theirs you

may the better observe their folly of as many as being endow'd with a certain tallent of Wit, spend both that, and their time and pains, (whereby they shorten their lives, and limbick their brains), about the unpro∣fitable composure of certain Books, whose contents serve only to consume the time of him that reads them, as they impare the health of him that writes them.

I know that Phavorinus adviseth, that for sharpning of the VVit, when it seems blunted and dulled by long idlenesse, the best means is to undertake matters of lesse utility, and more jollity. Thus did he that praised Thyrsites, and the Quartan Feaver, as Dyon did the Fore-top, Sinesius Baldnesse, Lucian a Fly, and an hundred others about the like subjects have busied themselves. But its one thing to awaken, and stirre up the VVit with matters although not profi∣table, at least facetious; and another to weary it, & dull it with over much intence∣nesse, and tedious expecting from them all the glory of his prolix studies, as that other that said,

Ille ego suum nulli nugarum laude secundus.

VVhat think you of Aristomachus, that

with exactest observations of every day, (I had like to have said of every hour) for sixty two years continually pryed into the nature of Bees? So many years, such dili∣gence, would seem to me to have acquired no lesse, than a discovery of all the secrets of Heaven, and an establishment of all the periods of the Planets.

Seneca was offended with certain Phylo∣sophers of his time, that consumed the te∣dious watches of the night, and the impla∣cable disputes of the day, about certain foo∣leries, meriting, I know not whether more of laughter, than lashes: Mus syllaba est, syllaba caseum non rodit, Mus ergo causeum non rodit.

O pueriles ineptas! In hoc supercilia subduxi∣mus? In hoc barbam demisimus? Hoc est quod tristes docemus, & pallidi? Men are wont to say that we are twice Children, once when we come out of our Swathing-clouts, and again when in extream old age we re∣assume childishnesse: but he that imployes (not to say consumeth) his life in these con∣ceited vanities, Non bispuer est, ut vulgo dici∣tur, sedsemper: verùm hoc interest, quod majora ludit.

To what end shall we studying unbowel our selves, to weave but fly-intangling

webs? To what purpose should we with Nero imploy ••ets of Purple and Gold, (thoughts and discourses of a precious Wit) to fish for Shad and Bream? Quis non mire∣tur (said Pliny, speaking of Platans, trees that produce nothing but leaves for shade) arbo∣rem umbrae gratia tantùm, ex alieno petitam orbe? Are perhaps shades so rare in Europe? or these of Plantans, because, barbarous are they therefore the more beauteous, that we should run through nausrages to the far∣thest parts of the VVorld to get the plant that produceth them? Is there so great a scarcity of unprofitable bablings, or are they sold so dear, that to stu••••e of thousand un∣happy leaves, it must cost you study, waking, toiling, and no small part of your life? If I can have fancies of sublime Ingenuity, that sore a lost as the Eagle, or Falcon to make new acquist of prey: wherefore should I wish that they be like the Lark, which seeks no other benefit from a troublesome aspi∣ring, and painful slight than that unprofi∣table chattering which they make; after which they descend from their altitude, directly to the earth; ravished and content, as if they had taught a Lecture of Musick to the Coelestial Syrenes.

There is (writes Oviedus) in the Western India's great abundance of Cotton, Alumn, Salt, and such like ordinary Merchandizes, with which that place is most plentiful, but there is no man vouchsafeth to carry them away; nor do they frequent those Ports, but only to fraight themselves with Gold, Silver, Pearls, and Aromatick Perfumes. A Voyage so long, so difficult, so dangerous, (such it was in those primitive times) none would undertake for lesse. Alas! most simple Merchants: The Voyage of your life, (a great part whereof you spend in stu∣dy, the felicity of the fancy, the toil of com∣posing, which might fill your Books with Gold and Pearls,) you only employ to en∣rich your selves; with what? Fables, empty Questions, (it had like to have scap't my Pen, Romances) Poems of Love, reforma∣tions of Ancient Heads, more often de∣form'd than reform'd, corrections fantasti∣cal, conjectures, imaginations, and I know not what. Quare appenditis argentum, & non in panibus? saith Esay, and St. Jerome under∣stands it of the unprofitable Sciences of the age, how much more may it be understood of your wholly unprofitable fooleries? Is that Tyberius still alive, that enjoyns you to tell him, Whose daughter was Hecuba.

What name Achilles took when he lay con∣cealed among the Virgins of Licomedes▪ What the Syrenes are wont to sing of whe•• they enchant passengers; on which hand Venus was wounded by Diomedes; on which foot Philip halted? Is Domitian yet living, that teacheth you to spend many hours every day in the unprofitable hunting of these flyes?

Heliogabulus, to give an argument to the World of the greatnesse of Rome, like a fool, made all the Cob-webs that hung in the houses thereof to be gathered together upon one heap; and that he esteemed a suf∣ficient foundation for a conceit equal to the grandure of a City that was Queen of the World. There is no Wise man but smiles at this Fool. But is not this the same with the fooly of those, which for to give a pub∣lick proof of their wit, rake together a masse rather of Cob-webs than of Papers in a Book, writing vain and unprofitable mat∣ters? Utinam taceretis, & videremini sapi∣entis. Let the applauses of foolish friends make you never so great, these are never more, than what Diogenes called the won∣ders done at the Spectacles of Bacchus, Mag∣na miracula stultorum.

But amongst the unprofitable labours of

the Wit, (however the interessed resent things) I shall only hint, that the first place ought to be given to that, which St. Basil aptly calleth Negotiosissimam prorsus vanita∣tem, Astrologie, (I know not whether I should say) Indiciary, or extrajudicial; worthy, rather of the disrespect, than of the Aspects of the Stars; from whence Shee taketh lies to vend them the dearer, in re∣gard they be coelestial Merchandize. Her Art is to erect twelve Houses in Heaven by the help of men, that many times have not a cottage on Earth; and by their hands to dispence to some riches and dignities, to others misfortunes and praecipices; who themselves beg bread to keep them alive. You must not ask her (as Diogenes demanded of him that talked so freely, of Heaven) Quando nam de Coelo venisti: For she pre∣tends to know how to read every ones for∣tune, written with characters of Stars, and Cyphers of Aspects: To know how to trace out in the periods of those Spheres the courses of every ones life: To be able to confine the Stars and Planets in Trines, Quadrates, and Sextiles, as in so many Ma∣gical figures; and to force them to tell fu∣ture eveniencies, both publick and private: To conclude, to be a prophetesse of truth:

And all this by virtue of similary observa∣tions, which as yet never had similary fi∣gures in Heaven; By dependance on one le∣gitimate point of the Nativity, the weight of which it examineth in the Ballance of Her∣mes; By virtue of Coelestial Figures, ima∣gined by the Capriccio of others, observed by them as mysteries; By help of things, which have nothing of subsistance or reality, such as are the Dragons-head, and Tail, and the Part of Fortune; in sine, in despight of the Truth not found out, but stumbled upon; not by meanes of Art, but only by chance in one prediction of a thousand, they are emboldened to maske a falshood, as if it were a thing credible; and to per∣swade a thing credible as it were true.

What doth this Profession merit, whose office it is to deceive men on Earth, and to defame the Stars in Heaven? You may give it the Caucasus, and Vulture of Promotheus; if you think, it be a far greater crime, to make Heaven a lyar, the Planets deceivers, and the Stars malevolent; than to take from the Wheel of the Suns Chariot, a spark of fire, a beam of light; therewith to infuse light into the dead Statues of Epimetheus, and to transfuse Soul and Sense into their breasts. But for my part, because I will not passe

judgment to others prejudice;

I would remit them to the Tribunal of that brave Emperor Alexander Severus, who punished Turinus his Favorite, for selling the Favors of his Master with Falacious Promises: Condemning him to be stifled to death with Smoak, the Trumpets all the while proclaining aloud; Fumo puniter, qui ven∣didit fumum.

AVARICE.

That he is guilty of the Ignorance of many, who might benefit many by the Presse, and neglects it.

THere are not any men for whose maintenance the World more un∣willingly Labours, and Nature takes pains, than those, who regardlesse of others, would live only to themselves. These are Pilgrims even in their own Coun∣try, and Solitary in the midst of Society; These have the countenance of men, but are Beasts amongst Men; that deserve no more to have been born by others, then they care to live for any but themselves.

Amongst these, none will scruple to enu∣merate certain Avaritious Wits, which would bury the Golden Talents of Scien∣ces and Arts, (with which they are endow∣ed) in their Sepulchers, rather than become beneficial to posterity by the Presss.

When, if there was no other inducement moving him thereto then the great reward of that honoured Memory, with which after death he lives immortally,

—An erit qui velle recuset Os opuli meruisse, & cedro digna locutus Inquere nec scombros metuentia carmina nec thus?

But, there is not only this allurement which can, there is stronger reason which should perswade him to do it; and it is the publick interest, which may not be neglect∣ed under pretence that he is carelesse of his own. So much the more in regard that Wisedom is not received from Heaven as a Gift, which may be lost with our selves, but as a Lone, to be transmitted to our suc∣cessors; so that the doing it is not, in some sense, so much Liberality, a•• Justice: It is to be received, as the Air receives the Light from the Sun, to transmit it to the Earth;

and not to retein it concealed from others, and with little profit to our selves.

Therefore our solitary, pale, shriveled Ancestors have in the course of so many ages spent the Vigils of slow-pac't Nights, and consumed not so much the hours of the Day, as the dayes of their Lives, to fetch with the blows of hard Studie, from the rich Mines of their Wits, golden Ve••••s of truth, and new discoveries in knowledge; and expounding them freely, have made their private patrimony a publick inheri∣tance: wherefore then do we, (ingrateful to our Predecessors, and envious to our Successors,) avariciously bury both theirs and our own?

He that puts himself between our Ance∣stors, and those that are to come after us; and beholds the Example of the one, and the Necessity of the other: I see not how he can have a heart to deny, either imitation to those, or assistance to these. For if the only beholding the dead Images of those, who in publick managements of Peace, and War, have acquired the name of Grandees, can do no lesse than move the heart, and involve the desires in the like enterprises; in seeing in Books the lively and breathing Images of the Wit of those Great Souls exprest to the

life, that therein still survive, still speak, still teach, to the benefit of the VVorld; can the rudest man choose but desire to understand, and can the intelligible choose but blush to keep that covetously concealed which others have collected onely for Common Benefit? Sume in manus indicem Philosophorum. Haec ipsa res expergiscite coget: Si videris quàm mul∣ti tibi laboraverint, concupisces, & ipse ex illis unus esse.

Yet saith Phylo, Sapience is a Sun, from which we cannot take the Splendor without destroying it. And many Platonicks make Souls of loftiest intelligence to be of the na∣ture of fire, Cujus unius ratio faecunda; seque ipse paret, & minimis crescit scintillis.

So that if the Examples of our Ancestors is not sufficient to perswade us, let us behold the Necessity of Posterity, to whom it is double cruelty to deny that, which we ought to bequeath them with Interest, and they would receive with profit. Abolish this inviolable Law, which is not written in Marble, but imprinted on the heart of Man, of bequeathing our Goods aswell as our Love to our Posterity, and what other do you do but destroy the VVorld, and make it barbarous, and brutish? But if those seem fortunate, who transmit to their

Legitimate Issue, ample yearly Revenues, and entail with the riches that they have, a happy Fortune to their Family; what more precious and durable Inheritance can we leave them than the Endowments of the mind, and the golden Tallents of our own Wit? These are Revenues that diminish not with use, that consume not with time; that survive both publick & private Ruines: Are alwayes living, alwayes entire, alwayes in the same esteem, and equally beneficial. And hence drew the second Pliny that forceable motive, wherewith he perswades a Friend to leave for publick benefit some fruit of his long and tedious studies. Effinge aliquid, & excude, quod sit perpetuò tuum. Nam reliqua rerum tuarum, post te alium atque alium dominum fortientur. Hoc nunquam tuum desinet esse, si semel coeperit.

But hear what those sordid Misers have to say for themselves. I am debtor to no man for whats my own. Let others take pains as I have done; let them find of themselves, that, which its unhandsome to beg of others. This is pitty not rigor; love to Learning, not hatred of the Learn∣ed; for it breeds up Wits in slothfulnesse when they find that in others, which they should draw from themselves. Necessity renders Ingenious; and makes him that would be alwayes a Scholar,

studying the labours of others, to become Master, inventing new of his own. Thus we make A∣chillis's, giving them whole, the bones of Lions, that they may break them, and pick out the Marow: thus brave Swimmers give way to the Course of the Stream where it is most impetuous: because it is not so much Art as Necessity in such a case that teachetb them to come out.

And do not these consider, that if this should be, Learning would alwayes continue in its infancy? If he that spends many years in study, teacheth no man what he hath dis∣covered; he that comes after him, when he also hath been equally solicitous in seek∣ing, and equally fortunate in finding, shall know nothing more than the former: and when will they this way advance Learning? Yea the knowledge of that which others have found, helps one to find that which others did not know. Those will serve us for Prin∣ciples, which were to others but Conse∣quences, and there we begin our search where others left seeking. Wisedom is gi∣ven, said Augustine, not for a Slave but for a Spouse, and requires from us Successors and Sons: hoc est ingenii fructus, & quosdam mentis partus, quos non tam libros, quam liberos dicimus; and when she obteineth not that, she laments, I will not say like her that said,

saltem mihi parvulus aula luderet Aeneas, but like the innocent Daughter of Jeptah, that more bewailed the Virginity, than her Death; It being the true and only death to die without leaving an Issue wherein to live. But if a wilful abortive makes the Mother a Ho∣micide, Et que originem futuri hominis extin∣guunt (saith Minuti••s) parricidium faciunt antequam pariant; to stifle in Wisedoms Womb that which she (as it were preg∣nant with our Conceits) conceives, to kill it that it should not be brought forth, is not this Parricide? Is it not homicidii festinatio prohibere nasci?

Others their are that defend themselves with years, and excuse themselves with old age, That being scarce able to live them∣selves, how can they toil for others? To him that hath done his part in activity, it is cru∣elty to deny him to gather his wings into his Nest, and to strike sail in the Port. Other times, other cares. The eyes inclined to the sleep of death, more than to the wakings of study, can go no far∣ther without danger of errors, and mistakes.

But if I misunderstand not, these are not the words of one that would live out the few years that he wants of his full time, but of them that would anticipate their death some years before they die: and to die I

call the doing nothing but live. The studies of his extream old age were the sweeter to M. Varro, the nearer he was to his death, because not knowing any other life more like a man, than to understand, he lengthned his life, as he did his study, and said to him∣self, Dum haec musinamur pluribus horis vivi∣mus. Yea Seneca that noble Wit, taking mo∣tives to Labour from his Age; whence o∣thers seek pretences to rest, in the ultimate years of his not-compleated-life, applied himself to investigate the occult secrets of Natural Phylosophy, and therewith, as if he was more than himself, he said with his Poet;

Tollimus ingentes animos, & grandia parvo Tempore molimur.—

Thereupon, as it were pricking and spur∣ring on the slothfulnesse of his Old age, Festinemus, said he, & opus, nescio an supera∣bile, magnum cer••e, sine aetatis excusatione tra∣ctemus.

VVho ever seeth (saith Plutarch) Bees for age to grow lazie, slothful and idle in their Hives, and not flye to the flowers and ga∣ther Honey, as they did when they were young?

Take from me the power of

writing, said Gellius, and you take away my life. So much onely of life I ask for my self, as may be serviceable to others. Neque longiora mihi dari spatia vivendi volo, quam dum ero ad hanc facultatem scribendi, commentandique idoneus.

Let the division of the life of him that professeth Learning be such as that of the Ancient Vestals of Rome, which was divided into three equal parts,

In the first they learnt the Rites, and Ceremonies, as Scholars to the Eldest; In the second they practised them, as Companions of the midle sort; In the last they taught them, as Mistresses of the Younger. Thus the leaves usher in the blossomes, and the blossomes falling, with a happy end, do knit in fruit.

The incomparable felicity of Good Authors, that appear in Print.

THe desire of living hath been the In∣venteress of a hundred ways of not dying. And because Physick hath neither the hearbs of Medea against Old-age, nor the Ambrosia of Jupiter against Death, but

that its too true, as Sydonius saith, that many Doctors assistentes, & dissidentes, parùm docti, & satis seduli, languidos mulios officiosissime oc∣cidunt, we betake our selves to the Arts of Colouring Linnens, Ingraving Marbles, Founding Brasse, erecting Arches, Mauso∣leums, and Theaters, that so if we cannot long be men, yet at least we may be the Superficies of men on Pedestals, the ima∣ges of men in the Inscriptions of Arches, and Epitaphs of Sepulchers. But there is nothing of our invention, as I have above adverted, so able to conserve us alive after death, as the procreation of Children whereby Nature provideth for the mainte∣nance of the common Species, and private desire of every one. Mortuus est pater (saith Ecclesiasticus) & quasi non est mortuus, simileni enim reliquit sibi post se. But howbeit it be true that the Father transfuses himself into his Child that he begets, whereby dying he doth not die, whilst he liveth still in him; yet neverthelesse, the Child oft-times so degenerates, not only from the looks, but from the Genius, & Customes, of the Fa∣ther, that very often it comes to passe (As in the Egyptian god Apis) that the Father is a Lightning, and the Son an Ox. Caused, in that the temper of the Issue, follows not the

will of the agent, but the nature of the mat∣ter; nor doe we make our Children such as we would, but such as we may. But Books are the Children of the mind, Heirs of the better part, lively Images of our selves; these only are they, in whom we have as much of life as we can enjoy after death. Contingit (saith Cassiodore) dissimilem filium plerumque generari, oratio dispar moribus vix unquam potest inveniri. Est ergo ista valdè certior arbitrii proles. They are immortal Sons, that make our dying only a cessation from misery, to commence in them a life of glory; like even as Hercules, leaving the earth, was received from his Labours into Heaven; and in the midst of it he began to shine with the Stars, whose body consumed in the flames of the funeral pile, seemed re∣duced to a handful of ashes.

What so strong support, what so stable Basis, hath the memory of the names, and the glory of the merits of Great Souls, comparable to the eternal duration of Books? Observe the ruines that time makes in every thing, precipitating some, and gently gnawing others. The Rocks, do they not, as it were, decrepit, and bending under the heavy burden of age, incline to∣wards the grave, and mouldring bit by bit,

and scattering their divided members ra∣ther bones here and there, do they not seem to beg a Tomb from their own Val∣lies? Doth not even Iron it self, worn away by the rust, consume to dust by the Deaf∣file of Time. Once-stately-Edifices, now old Carkasses, and naked Anatomies, not of Fabricks but of ruines, if with some frag∣ments of broken walls, more falling than standing, they keep upon their feet, do they not more manifest, a Trophee of Time than a testimony of their former greatnesse? Where once were the Temples of the Gods, Courts of Kings, Assemblies of Senators, Accademies of Students, there can now hardly an Owl nest her self, but revenous Wolves have there their Coverts. In the mean-time, in the midst of the ruines of all the resisting & durable things of the World, how do the Trophees of great Wits abide? In the death of all things, even of the life∣lesse, how live Books, or rather how live in Books their Fathers and Writers? Let the most Sapient Roman Stoick say it. Caetera, quae per constructionem lapidum, & marmoreas moles, aut terrenos tumulos in magnam eductos aeltitudinem, constant; non propagabunt longam diem, quippe & ipsa intereunt. Immortalis est inge∣nii memoria. Let the Poet Martial speak it.

Marmora Messalae findit caprificus, & audax Dimidios Crispi mulio ridet equos. At chartis nec furta nocent, nec secula praesunt, Solaque non norunt haec monumenta mori.

Well may we call Metellus happy, who was borne to his Sepulcher upon the shoul∣ders of his four Sons, of which two had been, one was, and the other was a while after to be Consul of Rome. This was so su∣perbose a funeral pomp, that the Historian admiring it, said Hoc est nimirum magis feli∣citer de vita migrare, quàm mori, but in fine, it was De vita migrare, and his Sons, though with great pomp, yet carried him to the Grave. Books alone, not four Children, but as many as we multiply with the Presse, their Father retiring to death, and the Sepulcher, bear him alive into every place where they come, and put him, not so much into the hand, as into the eye, of as many as read him, into the mind of as many as understand him.

And oh! how many times he, who living in his native Country, either un-known, or un-regarded, so that with much ado he drew to himself the eyes of some few, that ook't upon him as a Man of VVit, in his

Books draws to himself the hearts of a VVorld: Like as heretofore the famous Lyre of Orpheus, that on Earth, saith Manilius, ravished the Trees, Stones, savag•• Beasts, in Heaven whether he was translated, drew the Stars after him.

Tunc sylvas, & saxa trahens nunc sydera ducit.

VVitnesse that most pleasing desire that any one hath to know of what semblance were the faces, and what the features of those, who in paper have stamped so goodly portraitures of their VVits; hence pro∣ceeds the care of delineating them, yea, of counterfeiting them, when thorow the ob∣livion of many ages, their faces are un∣knowable: Non enim solum ex auro, argentove, aut etiam ex aere, in bibliothecis dicantur illi, quo••um immortales animae in iisdem locis lo∣quuntur: quin imò etiam quae non sunt, singun∣tur pariuntque desideria non tra liti vultus, sicut in Homero evenit. Quo majus, ut quidem ar∣bitror, nullum est felicitatis specimen, quàm sem∣per omnes scire cupere, qualis ••uerit aliquis.

And not on••y so, but as oft as the dubi∣ous mind knows not how to unknit the kno••s of intricate difficulties, that wilder the thoughts; so oft with desire it runs to covet

to behold those alive, which only are able to be Oedipus's to their Aenigma's. Yea, as once the Generous Macedon to a Forreign Messenger that brought him good News, and before he exprest it in words, intimated it by the joy in his face; What now? (said he) What News bringst thou? Is Homer risen from the Dead? This alone was the most wel∣come Intelligence, that that great Emperor could receive; which yet had a Soul, and a desire adequate to the Monarchy of In∣finite Worlds.

At this day also if we did ask a great part of the Wisest Men, what thing they desired above the terms of ordinary, we should hear them wish; some, that Plato might return to life, and Aristotle; some, Hyppocrates and Gallen; some Archimedes and Ptolomy; some, Homer and Virgil; some Demosthenes and Ci∣cero; some, Livius and Zenophon; some, Ulpian and Paulus; some, Chrysostome, and Augustine.

Their lives, were not (in respect of the shortnesse of ours) so long, but that they were to short for the need the World hath of them. Therefore the death of those is ever displeasing who cannot die without publick prejudice, as also they would not have lived but for publick benefit. Mihi

autem (saith the Consul Pliny very finely) videtur acerba semper, & immatura mors eorum, qui immortale aliquid parant. Nam qui volu∣ptatibns dediti quasi in diem vivunt, vivendi causas quotidie siniunt: qui verò posteros cogi∣lant, & memoriam sui operibus extendunt, his nulla mors non repentina est, ut quae semper in∣choatum aliquid abrumpat.

These Suns of the World the rayes of whose sublime Sapience, enliven the Scien∣ces, illuminate the Ages, beautifie all the Earth, merit they not in honour that place, that the Light had in the first formation of things? The Light was made by God wor∣thy of the chief praise, that he gave with his mouth to any work of his hands. And that not so much because it is beautiful in it self, as because every thing that it seeth, it makes beautiful; therefore, Tantum sibi praejudicatorem potuit invenire, a quo jure prima laudetur quoniam ipsa facit, ut etiam caetera mundi membra digna sint laudibus. This is the nature, and these the merits of those, that Seneca (adoring the minute in which they were born, kissing the earth on which they lived, bewailing the hour in which they died,) calleth Praeceptores generis humani, and if this be too little, Deorum ritu colendos. And why not? would Vitruvius

say: Cum enim tanta munera ab Scriptorum pru∣dentia fuerint hominibus praeparata, non solum arbitror palmas, & coronas his tribui oportere, sed etiam decerni triumphos, & inter Deorum sedes eos dedicandos.

OBSCURITY.

Ambition and Confusion, two prin∣ciples of Obscurity, Affected, and Natural.

WEre it not for the Opinion, wholly against truth, which an∣ciently has so general credit with the vulgar: That the fixed Stars were mothers, and keepers of Souls; and that every one whilst he lived had above in Heaven his, of the first, middle, or greatest magnitude, and splendor, adjusted to the degrees of Fortune which rendered him more or lesse considerable on earth. Certain Obscure Souls, certain Chymme¦rian Minds, whence would they be able to derive themselves, but only from the nu∣bilous, and duske Stars, that have so much light mixed with so much darknesse, that they seem amongst their fellows, rather Spots than Stars.

These are those unfortunate Aethiopian Soules, that extract Obscurity from the Sun, the Father of Clarity; that learn con∣fusion from Wisdom, the Mother of Or∣der. From the fire of the Sacred Palace, whereby the Wits become so much the more luminous, by how much the more in∣flamed, they take only the darknesse, and blacknesse of Coals; and rejecting the pu∣pils of the Eagle, for the eyes of a Bat, esteem themselves more the Birds of Pallas, when they be most Nocturnals.

In vain would Prudent Socrates experi∣ment his wonted conjecture upon them, that knowing, the speech to be a lively Image of the Mind, to come to the knowledg of what was in any one, would say to him, Loquere ut te videam. Their speech, their writing, is as if one should design in plano certain Monstrous figures of Faces, but so miscoloured; and of features, but so coun∣terfeited; that no eye can discern in them the lineaments of humane resemblances, but only looking through a Cylinder of po∣lished steel, and seeing them by reflexion. O, Ingenuities, unfortunately ingenious! Dedalus's, contrivers only of Labyrinths so crooked, so confused, that they themselves can scarce find Clues, to dis-ingage them.

But all Obscurity is not of the self-same nature; not hath all one only beginning and fountain. For there is one made by Art, and another had by Nature: This, being the defect of the Wit, that the effect of Ambi∣tion: the one, worthy of compassion, the other of reprehension.

Its a received opinion among the vul∣gar, That all Obscurity, is an Argument of Wit, and the mark of the loftinesse of a great understanding to measure it self by it, even as well as heretofore by the nine hundred Stadium's of shadow the Anci∣ents found the height of the Summitie of Mount Atho••. That Nature hath given the Stars to the obscurity of the night, and Wisedom to the obscurity of VVits. That God himself in his Oracles is all Clouds; and that the excessive Light in which he dwels, in which he is seen hath the name of darknesse; because it in such manner shews him, that it in the same instant hides him. That the style of the VVisest Ancients was no other, whose sublime minds, whose high conceited VVits, as it were mountains with steep tops, have their heads still amidst the Mysts and Clouds. That their writings were so much securer from the Fisher,

the more they were obscured: that they were so much the abler to discover Carbuncles, and Diamonds, the more palpable was the darknesse.

Thus the vulgar deluded by a false appa∣rance of truth, always most admire what they least understand. The splendid, the clear, though profound stream of VVit, because they reach it with their eye they esteem not; one foot of muddy water, be∣cause they cannot dive into the depth of it with their sight, they judg to be an abysse of VVisdom. So likewise in Learning.

Alba ligustra cadunt, Vaccinia nigra leguntur.

Thereupon some take through their am∣bition of Wit, an affectation of Obscurity, and with the Art of not making themselves understood, they seek to make themselves adored. They transform themselves into more shapes than Proteus, to get out of the hands of such as hold them, that so they may not know what they are. They invent more Hieroglyphicks than Egupt knew, be∣cause therein they fancy a kernel of solid truth, under a shell of feigned mystery. Every one of their Periods is a Gordian knot, that promiseth an Empire to him that

unknits it. They confound their words, more then the leaves of Sybilla were disor∣dered by the wind; and leave credulous wretches to pore into their Oracles, and to wrest them to senses, which never came into the Authors thought.

Other times, they expose their conceits, as the Deities in a Theater, wrapt in a knot of Clouds. They shew a small Sentence of some well composed Discourse, thereby to win credit to the rest, which is lost in a croud of confused thoughts. The Reader of their Books, one would think was fishing for the Cuttle a most crafty Fish, which mali∣ciously frees it self from the eye, and hand of others, muddying the clearnesse of the water, by disgorging up a Cloud of certain black humours, of which it is full. Thus they with their Pens like that Fish

Naturam juvat ipsa dolis, & conscia sortis, Utitur ingenio.

Oh! how oft is there just nothing found there where some beleive great mysteries to lye hid? Since it is an ordinary custom with these to cover that with a veil, as Ty∣manthes, which they have neither Wit, nor Art sufficient to expresse.

By which means they seem to be new Heraclitus's (cui cognomen Scoti non fecit ora∣tionis obscuritas) if of them also we may say, what Pythagoras saith of the writings of the other; Opus ibi esse Delio natatore. They con∣test with the Delphian Apollo in authority, & credit, if like him, Neque dicant, neque ab∣scondant, sed indicent solùm.

But the other Obscurity more unfortunate than faulty, is a defect of nature not a vice of the will: And this in some is an effect of paucity and poverty of Wit, in whom the formative virtue, as in too narrow a womb, cannot unite without confounding, cannot place the parts without misplacing the whole. In others it is occasioned by too fervid a mind, in whose fiery thoughts, as in sudden constagrations, there is much more smoak than flame.

These are those VVits truly fiery, active and prompt of understanding; so that in one only cast of the eye, (sparkling with most velocious thoughts, according to the nature of lightning,) they reflect upon a thousand things, they make a thousand new discoveries. It would be happy for them if they could infuse gravity into their flame, and put a bridle of restraint upon their fire: but as the ••leetest Beasts make the obscurest

foot-steps, so they being wholly bent on the things they see, see nothing, of the manner how to expresse that, which the mind some∣times▪ with most abstracted Species, as it were in a moment, understands: And more∣over, (being so much lesse able to metho∣dize, the more fruitful they are of inventi∣on;) they expose, whether speaking, or writing, not a Birth, but many seeds; and they themselves being afterwards cooled again, and quiet, (when the jugdment is more adapted to discern) are not able to re∣form that, for which the Wit is defective of both heat and light.

And these are, in my judgment the two Vicious Obscurities, the one the crime of the ambitious Genius, the other the defect of the poor, or muddy Wit. There is a third sort which they call Obscurity, and is truly so, but it is an Obscurity of the Wit of him that doth not understand, not of the Author; who doth not write or speak so but that he may be easily understood by men of mean understandings.

If we discourse with certain principal universal Maxims, from whence as from their true Principles we draw other Coro∣laries, till that we descend to some parti∣cular matter: which is the noblest and

sublimest of all other kindes of grave dis∣course:) imitating the Falcons, which with great windings & circulations mount on hing, frō whence to stoop to the quarry: If we trace out Wisdom, with feigned, but apt inventions, which like a garment we so dispose and put on, as neither to discover what we ought to conceal, not to hid what we would reveal; a custome which Sinesius calleth, Per antiquum atque Platonicum: if we sometimes exempt the Pen from a particu∣lar touch upon each circumstance by it self, and abreviate some, so that all is seen, in a small room: If we write as Tymanthes paint∣ed. In cujus omnibus operibus, saith Pliny, in∣telegitur semper plus quàm pingitur & cum ars summa sit ingenium tamen ultra artem est: These Pseudo Vitilitigators condemn us of Obscurity, and say that to understand, & pe∣netrate such things, Non lucernae spiculo lu∣mine, sed totius Solis lancea opus est; Never considering, that our Writings want not light, but their eyes need Eye-bright; in as much as they are like that Dunce Arpastes in Seneca, who being insensibly become blind, not doubting but that he saw aswel as ever, ajebat domum tenebrosum esse.

But because, for the remedy of that Obscu∣rity, which is capable of cure there cannot be

better advice prescribed then to observe Distinction and Order, that are the Father and Mother of Perspicuity, I have laid it down in the subsequent Sections; howbeit per∣haps with too frequent trips of the Pen, in regard of what this matter requireth: yet is it not besides the purpose, or without profit; I being to lay down some adver∣tisements, which from the Choice of the argument even unto the last Correction, seemed to me conducible to the more or∣derly, easily, and succesfully Composing.

That the Argument ought to be ele∣cted adequate to the Wit of him that handleth it.

THe first, and most of all others im∣portant trouble; is the invention of the Argument; about which observe the first Law of Horace, where he adviseth: That if you be a Pigmy, you should not go to charge your shoulders with a World, as if you were an Atlas.

Versate diu quid ferre recusent, Quid valeant humeri.

If your VVit have a weak and ill tem∣pered edge, you must not attempt to work in Porphyre, Flint, or Marble that may be much too hard for your tools. Proportion your Sails to the VVind and your Rudder to the VVaves▪ a••d if you be but a small Pin∣nace, strive not to imitate the great Ships. A Lake, should be your Ocean, and an Island your India's, distant some half a dayes sail: Altum alii teneant.

VVhat would you doe, is fishing for small fish you should see a great VVhale come into your Net, and make himself your prisoner? VVould it so inchant you with the greedinssse of the prey, that it should make you forget the weaknesse of the Net? Rather would you not fear to take that which otherwise you would be willing to have; knowing, that Nets knit with so small threed are no more able to catch a Fish so big, than a Cob-web is to take a Hornet?

Oh! how many do like the Icarus in the Poets, which neither was a good Bird in the Air, nor good Fish in the VVater; in regard that flying he praecipitated, and swimming d••owned. His unfortunate Father, seeing him surpasse the bounds, he prescribed him as he fastened his wings to his shoul∣ders,

followed him a-far-off, and cried,

Ah simple, venturous Boy Farfaila fond Why dost thou rashly sore so far beyond The flight I set thee? why goest thou so neer The scorching be••ms of Sols consuming sphere? Art thou so foolish as to make account Thy wings of wax can neer the fire mount? Why Icarus I say! soft! not so high! So ho! stay Icarus, and lower fly!

But to what purpose? if he would preferre his pleasure to his perril, and his eye to his ear,

Coelique cupidine tactus, Altius egit iter.

Till that the wax beginning by little and little to melt, and his wings to moult, he fell from Heaven into the Sea, and there d••ed. Just so do they who take their flight at plea∣sure, and measure not the height of the course they take, by the strength of the wings that bear them.

There be some Arguments that seem to have the ambition of the Great Alexander, that would have no Picture, Statue, or Im∣age of his face but what should come from

the Pencil of Apelles, from the Gravers of Phydias, and from the Moulds of Lysippus: So they disdain the workmanship of any that is not a golden style: amongst all the VVits, they admit only the most sublime, as Jove of all the earth only reserves to him∣self the tops of Hills; and its with reason, That to the highest Deity the highest part of the earth should be dedicated.

That then may be aptly said of Arguments or Theames, which the Ancient Sages said of Fortunes; that, as in garments, he hath not the best that hath the biggest, but he that hath the fittest, and best becomming his back. Pereichus the Painter depainted no∣thing else for the most part but Stables and Horses: Seraphion nothing but Heavens and Gods. But the Heavens of Seraphion par∣taked of Stables, and his gods of Horses, as also on the contrary the Stables of Pereichus were a Coelestial sight, and his Horses for the excellency of Art had something in them of Divine. Its not the matter, but the work that gives name to the VVorkman and value to his workmanship. If you have a Pen like the Pencil of Pereichus that can imploy it self about ordinary matters with more than or∣dinary praise; desire not to be a Seraphion, that being ambitious of more lo••ty subjects,

makes the fair deformed, whereas he might save made the deformed mose amiable.

The World hath never seen a more ad∣mirable piece of Arr than the Sphere of the ••ivine workman Archimedes, who making as it were a Compendium of the World, by Contracting the large, by Epitomizing the great, by Retarding the swift, by Abasing the sublime, within the narrownesse of a Globe, knew how to comprehend it, and not confound it: and giving liberty to the Planets, order to the Stars, variety to the Motions, proportion to the Spaces, so ex∣actly disposed all, that if the Periods of the great Heaven had been never so disordered, one might have turned them again by the little one of Archimedes. But so noble a work, for which Saphires and Diamonds would have been matters to sordid, did he not make it of Glasse? With the fragility of a defective Glasse, he imitated the eter∣nity of the incorruptible substance of Hea∣ven: nor did he lessen the worth of the Work by the inferiour value of the Mat∣ter. That great Rock-Chrystal, of which Mercator made a Coelestial Globe for Charles the Fifth, enchasing therein Circles of Gold, purest Diamonds of Stars, and making it in this manner, (as that other his Hellena)

if not fair, at least rich; hath scarce pur∣chased a remembrance, much lesse an ap∣plause in the World. The Diamonds of Mercator were so much more base than the Glasse of Archimedes, by how much the Art was in it the more Ingenious, and the workmanship more Artificial.

I do not hereby pretend to teach, that one should assume Vulgar Theames: how∣beit these are better handled, than the more select. I only advise him that is no Delius that he should not put himself to swim in Gulphs, but content himself with ford∣able streams: him that hath no Wit, or knowledg, Ubi consistat, that he goe not about, as Archimedes would have done, Cae∣lum, terramque movere, assuming matters of great moment, and subjects of lofty intelli∣gence, to which neither the slight of the Wit or Pen can attein.

Yea the best part of the discourse, is the excellency of an Argument: and he that is acquainted with Brain-work knows by expe∣rience, that the Ingenious subject admirably sharpens the Wit; and it seems, as if a Noble Theam infuseth from it self, thoughts worth of it self, out of an ambitious of being Nobly discussed; Crescit enim (saith Maternus in the Dialogue of Tacitus, or

rather of Quintillian) cum amplitudine rerum vis ingenii, nec quisq••am claram, & illustrem ••••rationem efficere potest, nisi qui causam parem ••nvenit. And, to say true, upon a rugged and course Tele of harsh Canvasse, it would ••hew il-favoured to paint rich embroderies of Silk; and the Pearls and Gold would disdain to be seen upon so base a Ground. On the contrary, how proudly, and with what state (saith a Poet,) do the waters of Pactolus and Tagus move, because they run upon Golden sands. VVaters they seem not, but Diamonds, liquor lesse precious, not befitting so noble a Bottom.

Let them therefore that can worthily dis∣cusse them, choose Matters of sublime Ar∣gument, if they desire the Births of Noble Composures should follow: otherwise it will succeed to them as it did to that Archyda∣mus King of Sparta, who having taken to wise a VVoman of excessive small stature, was deposed by the Ephori tanquam non Reges, sed Regunculos procreaturus.

The sub-division and Desection of the whole Discourse.

HAving found an Argument proper to him that is to treat upon it, and worthy of him that is to hear it, he is to give it some Method, Desecting, and Sub-dividing it into members; that so with ingenious distinction they may compre∣hend all that they desire to say of that sub∣ject. And this is one of the most important tasks of one that writeth. For such as is the proportion of the members in the body, such is the Division of the parts in Books; whereby they enjoy that beauty which comes from symetry, and that per∣sp cuity which proceeds from Order. Therefore it concerns the Judgment to Ideate and figure in the Imagination the de∣sign of all the masse together, from thence, as Love in the Chaos, to distinguish, orga∣nize, methodize one by one, and afterwards unitedly to conjoyn all the parts.

It is indeed a great commendation of a Noble VVork, that it variously revolves it self through many and diverse matters, but

with so much union of all the parts, that looking one while on the foot, another on the hand, now beholding the breast, then the face, still they are one & the same body, still the whold is understood in every of its parts.

Ne primo medium, medio nec discrepet imum.

And this, of all the excellencies of Hea∣ven, is that, which more than all others, renders it wonderful, that in it the discord of so many motions so harmonize, & the wan∣drings of so many Stars are so reformed, that there is not only no disorder occasion∣ed from their variety, nor confusion from their multiplicity; but moreover the Pla∣nets shew, and as it were teach one another viewing themselves with Sextiles, Qua∣drats, Trines, Aspects, and opposite Dia∣meters: looks all, wherewith they do not so much glance at one another, as semblably shew themselves to those which behold them, Thus it is, saith Manilius:

Haud quicquam in tanta magis est mirabile mole, Quam ratio, & certis quòd legibus omnia parent. Nusquam turba nocet, nihil his in partibus erat.

For if there be wanting in Composures the right Division of the parts, and with it a good Method, (as he that hath made the first Rough-chyzelling of a Statue of Mar∣ble lame and deficient, though he after∣wards pollish it, and exactly work it, takes not away its being a Monster so) it shall be more or lesse monstrous. Nor boots it, that a disorderly discourse be replenished with high speculations, and sublime fancies, with solid reasons, and with Ancient and Modern crudition, to the end they may seem, illustrated with so many lights, and embellished with so many ornaments; the Aphorisme holding in such like Compo∣sures, which Hyppocrates writes of ill-affe∣cted bodies, Quò plus nutries eò magis laedes.

It's necessary therefore wisely to imitate the Bees, which first work their Wax into Combes, and sub-divide the rancks, and this is their first businesse, in which they employ greater time and industry; and after they go abroad in search of Honey, with which in few dayes they fill their empty Cels.

The prepartion of the Matter, called Sylva.

TO the Argument found, to the parts disposed, follows the composing: which is at it were to cover the bones with flesh, and to make a body of a Sheleton.

And here take, to begin with it, an ordi∣nary errour of such, who bringing to such labours onely clean Paper, a Pen and his own brain, would in one and the same in∣stant Invent, Dispose, and Compose; attending at one and the same time to the Matter, Me∣thod, and Manner; as if he were the Sun, that to paint a Rain-bow in a Cloud, with∣out difference in the Circle, without dis∣order in the Colours, hath no more to do but to behold it, and there withal to stretch forth the Pencil of a beam, wherewith in a moment he designs and colours it.

These, whilst they gnaw their Pen, gaze on the roof, and buzzing like Beetles, hum to themselves; putting down beginnings without conclusions, and find themselves at the end of the work in the beginning;

how seasonably might one whisper in their ear for a jeer, and the caution that common Axiom which saith, Ex nihilo nihil: Ye pre∣tend to rain down Gold from the head, where you have it not in Mine; and farther, that you will mint it into weighty money, and with the impression of lawful Coin; thus in one and the same time you play the Alchymist, Assayer, Coiner, Treasurer, Prince, every thing: Which is the direct way to do just nothing, Ne igitur resupini, respectantesque tectum, & cogitationem mur∣murare agitantes expectemus quid obveniat. Imagine, that the compiling a Book is the building of a House. Its not enough to have Platform, and Model, if one want Stones, Morter, Beams, and Iron-work. There∣fore Sylva rerum, & sententiarum paranda est: ex rerum enim cognitione, e••••lorescere debet, & redundarum oratio.

He that hath not in his head a living Li∣brary, collected with long study from Sto∣ries Sacred, Prophane, Natural, and Civil; from Politick Instructions; from Ancient Laws and Rites; from grave and sententious Sayings of Wise men; from Fables, from Hierogly phicks, from Proverbs; and that which is more than all, from Phylosophy Natural, and Moral; from the Mathematicks;

from Civil Law; from Medicine; and as much as is requisite from Theology: it is requisite, that from dead Books he borrow and collect that, which shall suffice his occa∣sions.

It little imports to have conceived a good Argument, if when ye be to bring it forth, you have not breasts full of milk to nourish it, so that it is forced to die in your hands, of pure famine. Stasicrates, that would en∣grave Alexander, with making him a more than a Gigantical Statue of the Mountain Athos, was not aware, that the City which he designed to put in one of his hands, in regard it had not about it fields to cultivate, would become unhabitable. To this Alex∣ander had an eye more than to any thing else. Delectus enim (saith Vitruvius) ratione formae, staim quaesivit, si essent agri circa, qui possent frumentaria ratione eam civitatem tueri: And understanding in the negative, he refused with a courteous smile the offer of the incō∣siderate Statuary, Ut enim natus infans sine nutricis lacte non potest ali, neque ad vitae cre∣scentis gradus perduci, sic Civitas, &c. Just so, what ever Theame one assumes, if he hath not wherewith to nourish it, it cannot grow, nor maintein it self; but like a sprout springing up in the dry sands, of Arabia

deserta, no sooner doth it shoot up, but it is deprived in one instant both of moisture and life.

Therefore they do prudently, who be∣fore they resolve upon an Argument, look if there is, or if they have whence to extract matter sufficient to compleat it. Thus ex∣perienced Architects, saith St. Ambrose, in designing of all Fabricks, employ their first thoughts, in contriving how they may bring in the Lights with best convenience into every Room. Antequam fundamentum ponat, unde lucem ei infundat explorat; & ea prima est gratia, quae si desit, tota domus deformi horret incultu.

Therefore its needful to have knowledg of, and acquaintance with many Books; and a Judgment of competent ability to pick out, but of greater maturity to apply the things that one finds, that so where cause requires they may in an ingenious, and singular manner, expresse that which they have to say. And in this, its an infallible ob∣servation, that every one gathers that for himself, that to his Genius (to which alwayes concurs the manner of Speaking) is most apt, and agreeable. And as Neminem dele∣ctant, & sordida; magnarum enim rerum spe∣cies ad se vocat, & extollit; so some there

are, that leave Diamonds with the Cock of Aesop: and, as if their brains were of yellow Amber, they attract nothing but Chaffe. Thus there are some that from flowers take only the sight, some onely the odour, others the images, painting them, others the wa∣ters, distilling them; but the Bees take thence the honey, and the honey all of one sweetnesse, and of one Savour; though from flowers of diverse natures and tasts they gather it. The same happens in Books, Meadows of odoriferous flowers and hearbs for the maintenance of the Wit. There be those who only take from them the sight, in the delight of reading them; others some spirit of good odour, to waken the Brain, and comfort the Wit. There are some that bundle up herbs, carelesly gathering what comes first to hand; and some that with greater curiosity pick only flowers to weave thereof Crownes and Garlands. Some squeeze out the juice, others extract the waters; Few from a great multitude of Subjects, different from one another, know how to gather honey of the same tast, so applying things, that all speak to the same purpose; and so that there may be the De∣light of Variety, without wanting the Union of Sense.

These diverse manners of election, and application, submit to the Judgment, and the Judgment follows the Genius which every one hath of speaking some in one style, and some in another, suitable to the Idea of his mind. Therefore matters extra∣cted from Books, may be said to be like the dew, which if it fall into the shell of a Con∣chylia (according as some believe) is chan∣ged into Pearls, if upon a rotten Tree it be∣comes Toad-stools.

But in uniting matter to form thereof a Book, I hint in the last place, that it may be of no lesse prejudice to have too much, than to have nothing. My SCHOLAR ought not to be so sparing in the gathering, as if be would that the Work he is to publish were more me••ger than an Aristarchus, than a Phyletas, than a living Skeleton; so that one may count the bones, and see all the cour∣ses of the veins, the ligatures of the nerves, the dispositions of the muscles, the motions of the arteries, and almost the Soul it self. Nor ought he to be prodigal, as if he were about to form a man so corpulent, that he should seem rather a Botle than a Man. He that amasseth together superfluous stuffe, unlesse he be Magnus Deus, as the Ancients called Love, as being the methodizer of

Chaos, is not able to dispose it, but that in such a crowd there will be a confusion.

Further more, upon a superfluous Col∣lection, it comes to passe that we exceedingly grutch after having cull'd out the most ex∣cellent and opposite things to cast away the rest as unprofitable; which yet will be far more than those that are pertinent; thinking it not the property of a good Judgment, but a propension to prodigality, to lose toge∣ther with so many things, the toil and time spent in gathering them. By this meanes whilst all pleaseth, and the Author seeks a place for every thing, he stuffs his Books, as the Gluttō doth his belly more for greediness of swallowing, than out of any heat he hath to digest: and so from the abundance of corrupt humours, ariseth the indisposure of the body, the consumption of the strength, palenesse, and a hundred diseases. Idem igi∣tur in his quibus aluntur ingenia, pestemus, ut quecunque hausimus non patiamur integra esse, ne aliena sint, sed coquamus illa. Thus let us be advertised, that as to Bodies, so to Books, we give not so much as they can receive, but so much as they can concoct, and digest.

Now the Argument found, the Parts me∣thodized, the Matter collected, and ranged in order, let him proceed to Composing.

The Discouragement of those that meet with difficulties in the be∣ginning.

IN every Art, and Enterprize, the begin∣ning is more difficult than all the re∣mainder. The first steps require the greatest strength and constancy; after which as having mounted the acclivity of a high Rock, the way still proves more smooth and easie. All Arts may say of their beginnings, what Apollo, instructing Phaëton, said of his journey:

Ardua prima via est, per quam vix mane recentes Enituntur equi.—

So in the gains of Merchandize, the har∣dest is to get out of poverty; Pecunia (saith the Stoick) circa paupertatem plurimam mo∣ram habet, dum ex illa ereptat. Whence Lam∣pis, a very rich Man, being asked how of a Beggar that he was, he was become ••o weal∣thy;

My small riches I got (said he) by watching a nights, my great I get now sleeping a dayes. I moyled more in the

beginning for a Farthing, than I did after∣wards for a Talent; nor did my being now so rich cost me any more, than the first pains I took, to cease to be poor.

This not being understood by the unex∣perienced in the mystery of Composing, is the cause, that encountring in the first on∣set with sterile fancies, dry veins, and an in∣comprehensive Wit, they grow impatient, and either condemn themselves as unable to proceed, or abandon the Art as too difficult to apprehend. They consider not that one cannot immediately passe from Noctur∣nal Obscurity to Meridian Clarity. There precede it, the first glimmerings, that are a small light mixt with much obfuscation; after that the Dawn, lesse dusky; which also grows white upon the edge of the Ho∣rizon; next Aurora, more rich with light, more adorn'd with colours; and lastly, the Sun; and this, in its first peeping above our Hemisphere is thick, vaporous, oblique, weak, and twinkling; but getting at length above the Horizon (as he that with great trouble climes a pendent Cliffe) by little and little it recovers the Zenith point of Heaven. They remember not that a man must first be a child, and must creep before he can run; carrying his reeling, & at every∣step-stumbling

body, upon his feeble feet, and tender arms: Nor that he is not fur∣nished with speech, till first he hath been long silent, and then he attains a puling cry, than a stuttering and stammering tongue, and halved and broken words, cry∣ing with much a-do Dad, and Mam: and at last learning the syllables and words one by one from others mouthes, he repeats them as the Eccho piece-meal, more imitating others speech, than speaking.

Great Men are not made by Founding, as the Statues of Brasse, (which in one mo∣ment are formed whole and entrie) but are wrought like Marbles, with the point of the Chizzel by a little, and a little. The Apelles's, the Zeuxis's, the Parrhasius's, those great Ma∣sters of Painting, of whose Pictures it could not be said, that they wanted Souls to seem living, for that they knew how to appear a live even without Souls; when they begun to handle their Pencils, and to Pourfoil, do not you think that they gave one false touch in two; and that it needed to be written under their Work what the Pictures were, that a Lion might not be taken for a Dog? It is the opinion of Pliny, that Nature her self, (notwithstanding she is so great an Artist, and Mistresse of the most excellent Works)

before she set her self to make the Lilly, a work of great Art, did prepare her self by making as it were the rough draught, and model in the Convolvus a white and simple flower; therefore called by him ve∣luti naturae rudimentum, Lilia facere condiscentis. If you have seen the Campidoglio of Rome, and in it the Temple of Jupiter, enriched with the spoils of all the World, would you know it for that which once it was, when

Jupiter angusta vix totus stabat in aede, Inque Jovis dextra fictile fulmen erat?

From this neglected seed sprang that great Tree of as many Palms, as the Compidoglio saw Triumph; according to the common Law of all things, That they be first Springs of poor Originals & mean beginnings, then Rivolets, next Rivers, and at last Sea's.

For though it be true that some times, according to the Ancient Proverb, Royal Rivers have Navigable Fountains; and he that is to proceed in some profession of Learning beyond the terms of ordinary, to any excellency, giveth extraordinary Symp∣tomes in the very beginning, like as Hercules

Monstra superavit prius, Quam nosse posset.

in his Cradle ••strangling Dragons, thereby preluding to the Hydra, and giving the first testimony of his strength: this, notwith∣standing that it be true in some few, holds not as a Law to all; not so much proves the facility, as the felicity of the first operations, and rather the ability of the Wit, than the use of Art.

Let us not therefore abandon the enter∣prize for the difficulty of the beginning; nor let us leave Proteus if he breaks the first snares we tie him in. Desire not to be Masters be∣fore you be Scholars: And bear in mind, that beginners do enough if they begin. Take for encouragement some Verses of the King of Poets, with their application to the purpose;

Qualis spelunca subito commota Columba, Cui domus, & dulces latebroso in pumice nidi Fertur in arva volans, plausum{que} exurita pennis Dat lecto ingentem: Mox aïre lapsa quieto Radit iter liquidum, celeris ne{que} commovet alas.

Just such shall be your Wit. Now it behoves you to beat the wings strongly, and raise your selves to fly with great pains; he shall not need to go much, that without clap∣ping the wings, or beating the feathers, can take most fortunate flights; and that

shall be, when (having acquired the skill of composing,) or the doing what you will, the bare desiring it shall suffice to effect it.

That we ought to use various Styles, according to the variety of Sub∣jects discoursed of.

IT is requisite now to shew what Style, what From, or, as Hermogenes called it, Idea of speech, ought to be used by him that composeth. About which you must know, that in the Method of discussing any thing whatsoever, what is most worthy to be observed, is reduceable to Quantity and Quality. The first is measured by the Prolixity and Brevity: the second by the Efficacy and Debility of the discourse. And because in both the one and the other of these two Species, you have the two Extreams, and the Mean between them, it thence follows, that under the Quantity is comprehended the Longest, Mean, Shortest: Under the Qua∣lity, the Sublime, Mean, and Vulgar. The three first have had people that have made use of them. Of the Longest the Asians, of the Shortest the Spartans, of the Mean the Atticans.

The three second have had Orators, which upon the word of M. Tully, have been ex∣cellent in each of those Forms of Speech.

The pure Asiatick is most Diffused; and likes of what it pleaseth, and is accustomed to speak; as that Albutius recited by Seneca, Non quidquid debet, sed quidquid potest. A Style cruciating the ears, which in an Ocean of words, hath not a jot of Salt; Nullo enim certo pondere innixus, verbis humidis, & lapsan∣tibus diffluit. Cujus orationem benè existimatum est in ore nasci, non in pectore. Whence its a mi∣racle (that which Aristotle said to an impor∣tunate Babbler) that he should find any that have feet, ablt to walk with him, or ears willing to hear him. Have you observed the first Letters of Indentures written in Parchment? How many strokes of the Pen how many dashes, how many flourishes in Text go to the forming them? and in the end they are no more than an A, a B, a Let∣ter, as the rest that are simply writ. This is the true Symbol of the Asian Style. In a World of Words it tells you no more than others would say in a Sentence.

The pure Laconick, useth rather Hiero∣glyphicks than words; and in it as is said of the Pictures of Parrhasius. Plus intelligitur quàm pingatar. Studet enim ut paucissimus verbis

plurimas res comprehendat, as Helicarnassus saith of Thucidides. Its three great Periods are touched in one Line. Three Lines are little lesse than a compleat Oration. Every world of it, nay, almost every syllable, is what Demosthenes termed the sayings of Pho∣cion, A blow with an Axe.

The Mean between these two, that as E∣lixor is tempered & compounded of both, is the Attick; which without the Insipidnesse of the Asian, without the Obscurity of the Laconick, hath the Perspicuity of that and the Efficacy of this: and as in a well-form'd Body all is not Nerves, not is all Flesh, but it hath part of the one for Strength, and part of the other for Beauty. He that takes a word from it, bereaves it not, as Lysias, De senten∣tia, but as Plato, De elegantia. It hath that, which Seneca the Controvertist calleth Pug∣natorum (of which the Asiatick is wanting) but useth it with other more secure and pro∣per wayes of skirmishing than the Laconick, which at every blow makes a Passe, and comes to the Close, and not offering (as Re∣gulus said of himself) any thing but Foynes, and all at the throat of the cause, still run∣neth the danger; Negenu sit, aut talus, ubi jugu∣lum putat.

The different Styles under the Species of

Quality, have not as the a-foresaid, the ex∣treams vicious, and the mean best; but they proceed in goodnesse one above the other; as they be one more perfect than another.

To display their nature more clearly, we will call to mind, what is taught by Aristotle and Marcus Tully. That the Art of Perswa∣sion hath three most potent Means, with which it is wont to obtein its end: these they are, to Teach, to Delight, to Perswade. And because every one of them hath a diffe∣rent office from the other, they have also different characters, and forms, of which they make use, the Vulgar or Popular to Teach, the Mean to Delight, the Sublime to Perswade.

As for the kind called Popular, see the terms between which the Father of Latine Eloquence hath confined it. Acutum omnia docens, & dilucidiora non ampliora faciens; subtili quad••m, & pressa oratione limatum. In it the principal things are distinction, per∣spicuity, order, politenesse, and propriety of words, without Metaphors, Phrases, or Metanymies. It hath not the flashes, thun∣ders, lightnings, nor those lofty and magni∣fick forms of Speech, with which the Ora∣tion Majestically flourished.

The Mean, Insigne, & florens est; pictum, &

expolitum: in quo omnes verborum, omnes senten∣tiarum illigantur lepores: neque enim illi pro∣positum est perturbare animos, sed placare potius, nec tam persuadere, quam delectare. Concinnas igitur sententias exquirit magis quàm probabi∣les; à re saep•• discedit, intexit fabulas, verba apertius transp••••t, eaque ita disponit ut pictores varietatem colorum. Paria paribus refert, ad∣versa contrariis saepissimeque similiter extrema de••init, &c.

But the Sublime all Majesty, all Empire, in that most grateful violence that it offereth to the minds of its Auditors, transforming them in all their affects, and ravishing them with their consent, recollects as much of sublimity in the senses, of strength in the reasons, of Art in the order, of weight in the sentences, of ennergy in the words, as can be possible. It is Ample, Eloquent, Magnificent. A Torrent but most clear, a Lightning but regular. With excellent va∣riety of Figures, with mutations of affe∣ctions, mixt without disorder. And as it were a Cloud, which in the same day gives out Fire and Water, Lightning and Rain. Of this Form of Speech I will take in Pi∣cture from the design of Quintilian: Quae saxa devoluit, & pontem indignatur, & ripas sibi facit. Multa, ac torrens. Judicem vel obni∣tentem

contra ferens, cogensque ire quà rapit. E•• defunctos exitat. Apud eam Patria clamat, & alloquitur aliquem. Amplificat, atque extollit orationem, & vi superlationum quoque erigit, Deos ipsos in congressum quoque suum, sermones∣que deducit, &c.

These are the Characters of the Forms of Speech in their pure being, onely hint∣ed, not described. The Masters of this Art which according to their profession do treat thereof, will compleatly satisfie them that desire a more full information. It sufficeth me to have said so much concerning it as was requisite to be known by way of Intro∣duction to the ensuing advice: And it is, That the Style should be varied conformably to the va∣riety of the Subjects treated of; accommodating it to each as the Light to the Colours, which into so various Forms, so constantly transforms itself. The same Scoene serves not to Tragoe∣dies, Comoedies, and Pastorals. This requires Fields, and Woods, that City-houses of re∣sort, The Tragick Princely Palaces, and Temples. The place ought to correspond to the Action. Likewise Oration should adapt it self to the subject; not treating of sublime matters with a Plebean Style, nor of base Ar∣guments with sublime Eloquence.

In fine, we should have that subtlety in

the use of Styles, which some Ancient foun∣ders of Statues had, that formed not every god every Mettal; but according to their various natures, in various tempers mixing them, they expressed them to be either, gentle, or cruel; horrid or handsome; bright or duskish: and in that most commendable was the judgment of Alcon, that made a Hercules all of Iron; Laborum Dei patientia in∣ductus, said Pliny.

Yea, we ought not only universally to use Styles fitted to the nature of the entire sub∣jects, of which we speak; but in every com∣position it behoves so many times to vary it: as the things are divers which compose it. And like as in Tragical Actions the Scoene changeth, and alters it self to Rural, to ex∣presse some particularity either of the Anci∣ent Satyre, or of the Modern Pastoral; thus where there occurs in one discourse mat∣ters proper to other Kinds, than that, which the set subject comprehends, to expresse it decently, it is requisite to change the Form of Speech; using appositely & opportunely, as Seneca adviseth. ••••liquid Tragicè grandè, aliquid Comicè exile.

Moreover; the parts of one and the self same Discourse, require various manners of Oration; and so various, as the Narration

is different from Proof, and Proof from perswasion. Omnibus igitur dicendi formis uta∣tur orator, nec pr•••• causa tantùm, sed etiam pro partibus causae. Thus he that well peruseth a Treatise of some bulk, shall find no lesse variety, than there is in the acting of a Scoene; in which appeares many Persons of different State, and Office: and as in that

Intererit multum Davus loquatur, an Heros. Maturus ne senex, an adhuc florente inventa Fervidus. An Matrona potens, an sedula Nutrix, Mercatorve vagus; Cultorve virentis agelli, Colchus, an Assyrius, Thebis nutritus, an Argis:

and in the variety of these persons, the va∣riety of their affects should also be obser∣ved, therefore;

—Tristia moestum Vultum verba decent. Iratum plena minarum, Ludentem lascivia, Severum seria dictu:

so proportionably in Prose, should we ac∣cording to the variety of things, variously accommodate the Sty•••• And he alone is the perfect, and onely Orator (saith Tully, after the long quest he made of him) Qui & hu∣milia subtiliter, & magna graviter, & medio∣cria temperatè potest dicere.

Of the Style called Modern Affe∣cted.

BUt I do predict, that there will be some who will think, that speaking of the better Idea's of Speech, I have been unmindful of the best, having hitherto said nothing of that which they call the Conceited, or Witty Style, used now a-dayes of many with no small applause of Wit.

This is (say they) that Style, given onely to Wits enriched with high fancies; for all is dissolved Pearls, and beaten Gold, the office of sublime Souls; since that as the Indian Bird called the Bird of Paradise, it never sets foot on Earth, never abaseth it self, but still towers a-loft in the purest Air, and the serenest and sublimest Heaven. It composeth the draughts of the things it re∣presenteth with a precious Mosaick of a thousand Ingenious Conceits; emulating that great Pompey, that Triumphantly (albeit, Verior luxuria, quàm triumpho) carried his Picture composed only of Diamonds, Ru∣bies, Saphyres, Carbuncles, and Pearls, with so goodly a contrast between the design,

and the colours, that one knew not which to admire most, the matter or workman∣ship. That Venus (Quam Graeci Charita vo∣cant) that Apelles said was injured by every Pencil but his own, is wronged by every Pen but that of the Sprightly Style, which will expresly and lively delineate her features, according as vivacity is proper to her. The World is not now what it was when men, brought forth by trees, did eat Acorns for Confects. In the taste of Learning it hath now a-dayes so delicate a Palat, that it will have not onely the liquours which it imbi∣beth by the ears (which are the mouthes of the Soul) to be precious, but will have the cup to be no lesse precious in which its put; so that both the matter, and the manner of pouring it out, be worthy of it. And this Ingenious Style is that only, in which Turba gemmarum potamus, & Smaragdis teximus ca∣lices.

That Ancient Idle kind of Speech, which in a discourse of many hours spreads a great Table; seems to feed you, thereby to hold you in suspence; but leaves you in the end, as hungry as in the beginning: just as Tantalus,

In amne medio facibus, siccis senex Sectatur undas. Abluit mentum latex,

Fidemque cum in saepè decepto dedit, Fugit unda; in ore poma destituunt famem.

It promiseth you Fruit, but gives you the Leaves of bare words; and leaves your mind as hungry as your ears glutted. But the Modern Speech sets before you as much variety as plenty of sweet Viands; and taking them away upon your first tasting them, and setting on other new ones, keeps you still sated, and still hungring: according to the Ancient Laws of the No∣blest Suppers, in which, Dum libentissimè edis, tunc aufertur, & alia esca melior, atque am∣plior succenturiatur: Isque flos Caenae habetur. Nor because the Style is pleasing and de∣lightful, it is therefore either softly effemi∣nate, or feebly weak for the enterprize of Perswasion. The Grace takes not away the Force. It can make the same vaunt with the Souldiers of Julius Caesar that knew, Etiam unguentati benè pugnare. Aiax wore his shield of Hides, without ornament, horridly neg∣ligent; Achilles that had his covered with Gold, and studded with Diamonds, was not therefore lesse strong, because more beautiful. Imagine an Alcibiades, equally generous in the heart, and fair in the face; which delights to appeare in the field with

Garlands of Flowers on his Helm, and with Imbroyderies upon his Curasses, and to be as bravely adorn'd when he fights, as others are when they Triumph.

Thus speak these of their Style, besides which none doth please them. If a Treatise want those, which they call Conceits, as if it were a face, Cui gelasinus abest, they vouchsafe not so much as to look upon it. To there Palat that only which stings hath a good sa∣vour, all the rest, Melimela fatuaeque mariscae, is meat for Children. In sine, they so idolize the substance, that many times they adore the only name of a Conceit, where they think it is: and, I had almost said, they do with it, as he described by Martial, did with his Pearls,

Non per mystica sacra Dindymenes, Nec per Niliacae bovem juvencae, Nullos denique per Deos Deasque, Jurat Gellia, sed per Uniones.

Others on the contrary say this is not the Modern Style. The true and lively Image of it is pourtray'd in that Ancient Picture that Quintilian left of it (lib. 12. cap. 10) which yet was not the first that drew it. But be it as it will, Ancient or Modern; whosoever

its applauders be, yet if either we weigh its Nature, or Use in the Balance of good Judgment, it weighs nothing 〈◊〉〈◊〉 its all lightnesse, it hath no solidity, 〈◊〉〈◊〉 all Va∣nity. It doth as the Western Indians, that more esteem a Glasse, that a Pearl, a sorry Brasse Bell, than a Wedg of Gold, with this its rich and pompous, & omne Ludicrum ille in pretio est. Its Authors, fantasticating day and night, consume, and unbowel their brains, as Spiders, to weave with ingenious subtleties the Webs of their discourse.

They turmoil themselves in hammering out Conceits, which most commonly prove Abortives, or Cripples; works of Glasse, neiled by a Candle, which toucht, I will not say seen, break in pieces: and yet by how much the frailer by so much the fairer, Imò quibus pretium faciat ipsa fragi∣litas.

Its a matter of most pleasant divertise¦ment to see their Writing••, as it were sick∣mens Dreams, to passe at every period de genere in genus, verifying in their Actions that which they; That their Conceits are lightnings, & flashes of Wit; since, besides that their appearing and disappearing is the same thing, they in the same instant fly from East to West, and oft-times sine medio. All

their Leaves resemble a Peacocks tail dis∣played before the Sun: as various in co∣lours, as ••••onstant in motion. Nunquam ipsa, semper alia, etsi semper ipsa quando alia. Toties mutanda, quoties movenda. And be∣cause they hold it for a Maxim that this kind of Composing is a woven Garland of Flowers, quae varietate sola placent, they thrust in all they can, and that sometimes that would not have come in; whence in viewing the particulars thereof, they incurre not so much the censure, as anger of Pliny, who curseth the superstitious care of the Inventor of a certain Counter-poison, that was com∣pounded of above fifty several ingredients, and some of them of insensible quantities. Methridaticum antidotum, ex rebus quinquaginta quatuor componitur, interim nullo pondere equa∣li; & quarundam rerum sexagesima denarii unius imperata. Quo Deorum perfidiam istam monstrante? Hominum enim subtilitas tanta esse non potuit. O••••ntatio artis, & portentosa scientiae venditatio manifesta est, ac ne ipsi qui∣dem illam moverunt.

From hence cometh the uniting of pe∣riods, divided, and as it were Apostrophi'd into small concise particles; an effect of the multitude of minute-points, each of which finish the sentence, and changeth the sense,

& tàm subitò desinunt, ut non brevia sint, sed abrupta: Or rather, as els-where Seneca saith, Non desinunt sed cadunt, ubi maximè ex∣pectes relictura.

Finally, from their not speaking what they speak, it comes that they speak it a hundred times; so that, like them that be∣ginning alwayes new designs how to live, they know not living how to live, saith Manilius,

Victuros agimus, semper neque vivimus unquam.

so these which have this method of speech, that they can as well conclude in the begin∣ning, as begin in the conclusion, may aptly enough be able to say of themselves,

Dicturos agimus semper, neque dicimus unquam.

Therefore their discourse resembleth the unhappy sport which Seneca assigned to the Emperor Claudius, for an Infernal pain, and it was that he should alwayes stand in a po∣sture of casting the Dice, and never have his Throw;

Nam quoties missurus erat, resonante fritillo. Utraque subducto fugiebat tessera fundo.

Cumque recollectos auderet mittere talos, Lusuro similis semper, semperque petenti; Decepere fidem.—

That then, in which these Wits triumph, is in their Descriptions, which when they ob∣tein, they say to themselves, Hic Rhodus, hic salta. And yet it commonly succeeds with such constraint of Art and Wit, and in so Hy∣perbolical, and Gigantical a manner, that the more they desire to speak the lesse they say; equally roving from that which is na∣tural and that which is profitable. Where∣upon we may say as much of their childish Descriptions, as Dorio said of a violent tempest at Sea described by Timothy, Majorem se in ferventi olla vidisse.

What would that Ingenious Phavorinus say now a-dayes, that reading in Virgil, where he described Euceladus thunder-struck under Mongibello, and saith

Liquefactaque saxa sub auras Cum gemitu glomerat:

judged this saying, in a Poet, and that speak of a Giant, and of an Aetna, Omnium quae monstra dicuntur, monstro si ssimum: what would he say, say I, if he should hear: That Roses

in the Cheeks to remove, and arches of admira∣tion in the brows to the triumph of others vir∣tues, in running through the fields of Eternity with the steps of Desert, &c. expressions usual in subjects of familiar but Plebeian Argu∣ment, and about things that they engreaten not in the least.

When its indiscretion to use too Elegant and Polite a Style.

BUt of Conceits and the manner of using them, let every one judg according to his reason and fancy. For my part, if I be to borrow any of them, for the necessity of the Argument, I esteem them as Jewels, and take their value from their Nature, and Use: so that they be not coun∣terfeit but real; and not disordered at all ad∣ventures, but put in their proper places. The one is the Office of the Wit, which is to Invent them; and the other of the Judg∣ment, which ought to Dispose them.

The Wit is not to take Chystals for Dia∣monds; the Judgment must not crowd them in where they should not be: imitating the Western Barbarians, which cut the skins of

their faces, to enchase therein Jewels; never perceiving that they more deform them∣selves with the Gashes they make, than adorn themselves with the Ornaments they wear. The face requireth no other orna∣ment, than its natural beauty; and its more wronged and deform'd by a Pearl although very excellent, enchased in a Cheek, than by the blemish of a Mole, growing there naturally. In like manner in the Art of Speak∣ing, some things appear the fairer for their plainnesse; and resemble Pictures, in which saith Pliny Junior very excellently, that the Painter; Ne errare quidem debet in melius.

Lysippus cast a Statue of Alexander so to the life, that it seemed, he had infused into the melted Brasse the veey Soul of that great King. Nero, (that was Cruel even in his Favours, and did hurt even there where he pretended to help,) having it in his power amongst other spoils of Greece, would gild it; judging that a Statue of so excellent workmanship was not worthily composed of any worse Metal than Gold. The Fool considered not, that Martial faces were better expressed by the fiercenesse of Brasse, than by the sprucenesse of that Womanish and lascivious Metal. Therefore the Gilded Statue of Nero, lost all the Nobility of

Alexander: all the Workmanship of Lysippus: and that, being gilt, became a dead Statue which seem'd before a living Image: So that he was constrain'd to correct his error, and for Nero's fault to flea Alexander: taking off with the Fyle that Golden Skin, which had been lay'd on with fire: and yet so gasht, so ill dealt with, it remain'd more beautiful than it did before when it was gil∣ded; Cum pretio periisset gratia artis (said the Stoick) detractum est aurum; pretiosiorque talis aestimatur, etiam cicatricibus operis, atque consciscuris, in quibus aurum haeserat, rema∣nentibus. Therefore Imbelishments are not alwayes Ornaments; but sometimes transform one into deformity, and where

Ornari res ipsa negat, contenta doceri,

to be superfluously, and sometimes affectedly conceited, declares a great plenty of Wit, but a small portion of judgment.

In Affections then, either let us betake our selves to imitate, or suppresse them; which is the hardest point in the Profession of Rhetorick; because an exquisite Art of a refined Judgment, must lie hid under such Naturalnesse that what is said, may not seem a Dictate of Wit, but a venting of the heart;

not studied, but born of it self; not got by pausing, but found in the very act of speak∣ing; what use can be made of a Style, that's distilled drop by drop by the dim light of a Candle; with words wract in their Me∣taphors, double in their allusions, with spi∣ritous and lively senses: more able to puzle the brain, than to move the heart? Mor∣tuum non artifex fistula (saith Chrysologus) sed simplex plangit affectio.

For my self, when I chance to hear the affections managed in so improper a manner I feel a greater naucity, than one who is Sea-sick; and my tongue itcheth to be using that saying of a Wise Emperour, that said to one of his Servants, all perfum'd with Musk as he trust him out of his Chamber, banish∣ed him the Court, Mallem allium oleres.

How would that great Master of the Stage Polus, in expressing the affections, suffer the affectatiō of a childish Style, who to represent more lively the person of Hecuba, lamenting the losse of her Valorous Son dead Hector, whose ashes she carried in an Urn, dis-interred the Bones of his own Son a little before buried, and filled the Urn therewith, and with that in his arms appear∣ed on the Stage; leaving the Art of Mourn∣ing to Nature, and expressing the imitation

with reality, whilst under the mask of He∣cuba, he represented himself a child-lesse Father, and under the name of Hector be∣wail'd the losse of his Son? Thus the Style of the affections is the truer, the more na∣tural it is, nor is it possible that whilst the Thoughts run to the motions of the Soul, the Wit should be so idle as not to be stu∣diously Ingenious; nor that whilst it is conveighed from the heart to the tongue of a person impetuous and violent, reple∣nished with a thousand different meanings, it should have time to select the words, to disguise them, turning them from the natu∣ral to the metaphorical sense, and to imbe∣lish them with flourishes, and conceits. But he that hath a solid judgment, if in treating of any matter humerous, he see his impor∣tunely-fertile Wit, to offer and present be∣fore him, subtleties, and nice quirks, he will thrust them away, with his hand, and say unto them, Non est hic locus. He doth with the eye of his mind, as the bodily eyes do, when they see too much light; they contract the pupils, and thereby exclude part of it. And is wise in so doing, like that famous Ariston, that being to expresse in a Statue of Bronzo the Fury, Shame, & Grief of Atha∣mas, mixed Iron and Brasse together, and

darkned the brightnesse of this, with the rustinesse of that. A wonderful work it was, and how much the lesse rich for the matter, so much the more precious for the Art; by which the rust, which is a fault in the Iron, became a virtue to the Brasse, and made it worth its weight in Gold.

In fine, where he is to speak seriously to convince, to reprehend, to condemn, an act vice, or person, in using a Style that sings when it should roar, that instead of thundring, lightens; (the Periods leaping by salts like the spouts of a Fountain, when they should run like a stream) every one sees how far he is from obteining what he aimes at. Non enim amputata oratio & ab∣scissa, sed lata, & magnifica, & excelsa tonat, fulgurat, omnia denique perturbat, ac miscet. It would be nervous and masculine, not wo∣manish, effeminatly drest, & all escheated for Levity. The looks of the Oratour should not be game-some, and laughing, but maje∣stick and severe; of whom it may be said, as the Poet said of Pluto:

Vultus est illi Jovis; sed fulminanti.

What vanity is it, said Hyppocrites, to busie ones self more in embroydring the swathes

than in healing the wounds? as if the hand∣somnesse of the bindings were a Balsome to the sore. Certain over-worn, toothlesse Files, serve to polish and give brightnesse and lustre to Iron: But where it is rusty, than it needs others, That scrape, fret, and rub: The neere it goes to the quick the better. Quid aures meas scalpis? quid oblectas? aliud igitur. Urendus, secandus, abstinendus sum. Ad haec adhibitus es. Tantum negotii ha∣bes quantum in pestilentia Medicus; circa verba occupatus es?

The Style with which we combate with Vice, is as Warlike as the Sword, whose goodnesse, and bravery consists not in the Gold of the Hilt, nor in the Diamonds of the Pommel; but in the temper of the Steel. But the more its beset with Jewels and en∣riched with Insculptures, and Ornaments, the worse it cuts, and the lesse expeditiously is managed. And well said that brave Theban Captain Epimanondas, to a young muskified Athenian, that laughed at the plain wooden Hilt of his Sword: When we fight thou shalt not prove the Hilt but the Blade: and the Blade shall make thee weep then, if the Hilt make thee laugh now. Auri enim fulgor, atque argenti (saith Tacitus) neque tegit, neque vul∣nerat.

Let the Style therefore, wherewith we are to fight be no Bridegroom, but a War∣riour. Where the words are to be Darts, fill not the mouth with Flowers of Elocu∣tion, to send out at every stop, a puff; as if Vice was a Hornet, to which the smell of Flowers is a deadly poyson; or as if you would kill your adversaries as Heliogabalus did his friends, suffocating them in Roses. It is an-hitherto-observed folly, to fight a Duel dancing, and to mix Salts, and Assaults, and Flourishes, with Passes. There's no jesting with edg-tools. Blows made to wound the heart, are not to be fetcht meeting the brest of the enemy in a jesting way; as if one would imbrace rather than wound.

And yet there's none that believe that the serious and severe Style wants its elegancy, by wanting the ornaments of subtle, and super∣fluous conceits. The Lion requires not a combed crest, gilded paws, pendents at his ears, nor ropes of Pearl about his neck lasciviously fitted, to make him brave. The horrider he is, the more beautiful; the more ruff and shagg'd, the handsomer. Hic spiritu acer (saith Seneca) qualem illum, esse natura voluit, speciosus ex horrido, cujus hic decor est, non sini temorè aspici, praefertur illi languido, & bracteato.

Of the Examination and Correction of our own Composures.

THe work of a Book being complea∣ted (about which, the end which in the beginning I proposed to my self, was, to advert that only, which con∣cerns the invention and disposing of mat∣ters, and the manners of expressing them) that which onely remains is, to go over it with the finishing touch, and repolish it, examining to particularly, and making a severe judgment of each of its parts, to see if there be as Sydonius found in those of his Rimigius, Oportunitas in exemplis, fides in testi∣moniis, proprietas in epithetis, urbanitas in fi∣guris, virtus in argumentis: pondus in sensibus, flumen in verbis, fulmen in clausulis, &c. And ex∣perience will prove the observatiō of Seneca to be most true, that the things, that whilst they were in composing seemed most love∣ly, revised appear no longer the same, nor resemble the Authour, Nec se agnoscit in illis. The reason is, because the boyling of the Spirits whilst the Wit is warm'd in indict∣ing, leaves not that tranquility nor clear

serenity in the judgment, as is requisite for to work as evenly as deliberately. Therefore Fere quae impetu placent minus praestant ad ma∣num relata. And Quintilian condemneth the precipitate method of those, that abando∣ning themselves to a certain rather fury than fervour of Wit, inconsiderately write what comes first in their heads; repetunt deinde, & componunt quae effuderunt, sed verba emen∣dantur, & numeri, manet in rebus temere con∣gestis, quae fult levitas. Therefore (subjoyns he) let them write (especially in their begin∣nings) considerately, and slowly: and put every thing in its place, and not confound matters; and select their words with judg∣ment, and not take them at adventure; not esteeming that good which comes easily, Non enim citò scribendo fit, ut bene scribatur, sed bene scribendo sit ut citò. Virgil a man of so excellent Judgment, and that in writing Gradarius fuit, was wont to say, that he brought forth his Verses, More, atque ritu Ursino, because not content to have brought them forth, he repolisht them one by one as the Bear, which with her tongue shapes out the members of her Cubs, which were brought forth not only deform'd, but un∣form'd.

We should not therefore seek only to

form the work, but to reform it also; and remember, that others will not stick to use with them that severity in condemning them, which we, foolishly pitiful, spared in correcting them. Let us in this take exam∣ple from GOD himself, that hath been ever since the beginning of the World with a great Lesson our Tutor herein, in that he made the World in one day, and was five in beautefying it; taking one while darknesse from Heaven, another while sterily from the Earth; adorning that with Stars, this with Flowers: till that having compleated, his Work he commended it as worthy of his hand, & requievit ab universo opere quod patrarat. He might, its true, have made the World as in a Mould, and perfected it in a moment. But as St. Ambrose well adviseth, Prius condit, & molitur res corporeas, deinde perficit, illuminat, absolvit. Imitatores enim suos nos esse voluit, ut prius faciamus aliqua, postea venustemus, ne, dum simul utrumque ado∣rimur, neutrum possimus implere.

Neverthelesse, I will not say that we should be so strangely cruel with our wri∣tings, as to wreck every word if not every syllable, that so it become like the Chords of the Lute; Quo plus torta, plus Musica scripta

enim sua torquent, (saith that Ancient Con∣trovertist) qui de singulis verbis in consilium ve∣niunt

And we must know, that in this particu∣lar the superficious diligence of such who like Prothogenes, Nescit manum de tabula, is no lesse blameable, than the negligence of such who wholly omit to correct. For Neg∣ligence, its true, leaveth the superfluous matters in a Treatise; but the superstitious Curiosity (which is worse) takes away the necessary. That, by not corecting omits to chang the bad into good, this, by over-much correcting, changeth very often the good into bad. Perfectum enim opus, absolutum∣que, non tam splendescit lima quam deteritur, & Nimia cura deterit magis quàm emendat.

From the desire of contenting their insa∣tiable Genius, proceeds, in some, their be∣ginning a thousand times the same labour, weaving and re-weaving with Penelope still the same piece, and cancelling to day what they writ yesterday. Resembling the pu∣nishment of Sysippus in Hell; who never ceaseth to rowl to the top of the Hill that inconstant and deceitful Stone, which trundling back to the bottom whence he took it, frustrates his pains, and wearies

his arms. Imitating the folly of that famous Apollodorus, who not pleased with the Statues, which with great expence of pains he had made, for anger broke them to pie∣ces with his tools, and was almost ready to grind them in his teeth; called therefore the Saturn of Gravers, because he dismem∣bred his Children, and eat them though of Stone.

Nunquid in meliùs dicere vis quam potes? Said an old Master to a melancholy young man, that being unable to speak as he would, would not speak as he might; and therefore had unprofitably travailed three dayes together about the beginning of an Oration. This is the way to learn not to speak well, but to say nothing; of which, the more Ingenious Young men are most of all in danger, that having by Nature sees of high thoughts, and impo∣lite rudiments of a Noble Form of Speech; neither know how to content themselves with the ordinary, nor yet have so much of extraordinary, as therewith to satisfie themselves: Therefore Accidit ingeniosis ado∣lescentibus frequenter, ut labore consumantur, & in silentium usque descendant, nimia bene dicendi cupiditate.

What man is there though of never so excellent a Judgment, to whom his works are so pleasing, that as Gold of the twenty fourth Karact, there is nothing to be added of good or taken away of base Alloy? Per∣fection is a priviledge denied to all the things in the World. The Sun hath its Mysts, the Moon her Spots; of the Stars, some are turbulent, some melancholy; and yet these are the most considerable Bodies in Hea∣ven; nor ought they therefore to be disol∣ved, because they are not altogether so beautiful as they might be. Examine the Books that have the esteem of great Learn∣ing and the fame of great knowledg, they will be fair faces but not without some ble∣mish, or defect; for not only good Homer, Quandoque dormitat, but in a word, the Argus's also, though they have a hundred eyes. For if they had resolved fully to satisfie themselves, and not to publish their labours to the VVorld, till that they should have been compleatly perfect, Adieu-Books: the VVorld would not have had one good one; But if they patiently suffered their defects counterfeited by so many excellencies, we need not despair but that so much as is of good in our writings, may find more praise than the culpable dispraise.

Let us apply unto our selves that counsel which that Astrologer gave to the Cripples, to comfort them concerning their maimed, shriv'led, and dislocated limbes: Observe, saith he, the Heaven, and in it the Constellations, one by one; all are not so beautiful, but that there are some that are deformed, lame, and one way or other, maimed. The Scorpion wants his claws: Pegasus, & Taurus have no more than half of them seen.

Quod si solerti circumspicis omnia cura. Fraudata juvenies amisses sydera membris. Scorpius in Libra consumit brachia, Taurus Succidit incurvo claudus pede: Lumina Cancro Desunt, Centauro superest & quaeritur unum. Sic nostros casus solatur Mundus in astris, Omnis cum coelo fortunae pendeat ordo, Ipsaque debilibus formentur sydera membris.

That finally, which consumates all diligence, requi∣site about our Compositions, is to submit them to the judgment, to the censure, to the correction of a faithful and understanding Friend. One eye of a by-stander sees more into anothers matters than two of his own: because love of his own productions, is a certain ne∣cessary blindness, which deceives the more, the less its suspected. Others eyes see our matters as they are in themselves, ours give judgment according to the di∣sposition of the optick powers, not according to the essence of the object. Familiariter domestica aspici∣mus, saith the Stoick, & semper judicio favor efficit, nee est, quòd nos magis aliena judices adulatione pe∣rire quàm nostra. A good friend should stand us in the same stead as that Mirrour did Demosthenes, of which he made use, as of a Corrector to mend the faults which he committed in his manner of delivery; using to say nothing in publick which he had not tried at his glass, Quasi ante Magistrum.

But take notice that the submission of our Writings to the censur•• or others, is not to be done out of com∣plement, but ••o have th••m corrected; not to be com∣mended but ••mended 〈◊◊〉〈◊◊〉 it happens, that Modesty or Respect restrain our friend from using liberty and rigour with us, we must shew our resentments at it, & bespeak him as Cel•••••• the Orator in a like case did his confident, Dic aliquid contra, ut duo simus, and be with him, Quòd non irascatur, irati

But this is become now a-days so difficult, that, whereas there is but few that know how, there is none almost that will, like a friend undertake the charge to be T••i••••s of others works. They know that Phyloxenus the Poet, because he used his Pen freely in expunging a great part of a Tragoedy of Dionysius (a man that knew better how to make Tragoedies as a Tyrant, than to write them as a Poet) was for a reward of his fidelity, buried alive in a marble Cave. We must not be offended to know that which we desire to know: otherwise we shall find in our friends the Style of that Ancient Quintilian, of whom: Si defendere delictum, quam vertere malles:

Nullum ultra verbum, aut operam sum••bat inanem, Quin sine rivali teque, & tua solus amares.

BƲt I have hitherto personated that old Tiresias, that being blind himself opened the eyes of others, & stumbling at every step, shewed the doubtful the safest ways. Nor do I yet think that I ought to be therefore reprehended; nor be∣cause my Style is a rusty File am I culpable, if with it I have endevoured to brighten others. Who expects that the Hone which sets an edg on Blades, should it self cut? Or looks that those Mercuries of stone, which pointed the way to Travellers should travail themselves? The Brain hath no sense, affirms Cassi∣odorus, and its true: and yet, for that the nerves are fixed in it, and from it re∣ceive the spirits for the noblest operations of the Soule, Sensum membris re∣liquis tradit.

If I have not the applause of a Pencil, that Painting is able to teach others to Paint; I may assume that of a Cole, that draws those dead lines which first Pour••oil the Design: Which though they be expung'd by the Colours, and lost in the Picture, yet they lose not their vertue, of prescribing order to the Co∣lours, and giving a rule to the Design.

FINIS.

Notes

• ••••ell. l. 3. 17.
• Ʋltr.
• praef fat. lib. 7.
• Gyrald. histor.
• Poet.
• In Pra oper.
• Laert. in Diogen.
• Te••tul. de Pal. c. 2.
• In praec. ergoreip.
• Epist. 14
• Plinius l. 23. c. 11.
• Spart. in Adr.
• Plutar. de vitan∣do aere a∣lieno.
• Kepler. lib. 3. har. prop. Mersen. in Gen. Galileus in dial. nov. phil.
• In Prol.
• Plinius li. 9. c. 35
• Plinius li. 11. c. 6
• Mart.
• Lib. 7.
• Ser. 22.
• Horat.
• Lib. 1. cap. 54.
• Mart.
• Lib. 2.
• Seneca li. 6. nat. q. c. 5.
• Epist. 19
• Met. 8.
• Vagel. a∣pud Se∣neca nat. qu. lib. ••. c. ••.
• In arte initio.
• Coluni. De re rust. in fine.
• Epist. 33
• Lib. 2. epist. 1.
• Minut.
• Arnob▪
• Seneca epist. 33.
• Cant. 3.
• Purgat.
• De orig. error c. 8.
• Seneca Suas.
• Lucan.
• Val. Fla. arg. 1.
• Velleius li. 1. hist.
• Manil. 1.
• Astron.
• Ovid.
• Meta.
• In Epist. sub ficto Apellis nomine.
• Plin. li. 2 cap. 12.
• Plin. li. 7 cap. 37.
• Pastor. 1
• Epist. 64
• 2 Meta.
• Clem.
• Alex. in Pr••∣tr••p.
• Quintil.
• Lib. 10. cap. 2.
• De Re∣sur. carn. cap. 6.
• De Re∣sur. car∣nis.
• Ibid.
• Epigr.
• Graec.
• Plinius li. 34. c. 8
• Lib. 1.
• Epig. 39.
• In cap. 5 Amos.
• Man.
• Pruden. contra Cym l. 1
• Ter. con∣tra Marc. li. 1. c. 2.
• In lege.
• Pinius li. 19. c. 2
• Sen. qu. nat.
• Plinius li. 34. c. 5
• Minut. in Octav.
• De vitio epudos.
• Lib. I.
• Confess. cap. 16.
• Lib. I.
• Confess. cap. 13.
• Metam.
• In pro∣treptico Ad Gen∣tes.
• 〈◊〉〈◊〉 Ps. 1.
• Max. Tyr. ser. 29.
• Ter. d•• spect. cap. 10.
• Orat. 3. contra Julian.
• Praefat. Cent.
• De cultu foem. c. 2.
• De Idol. cap. 2.
• De aud. Poetis.
• De Do∣ctrin. Christ.
• 1 Sam. 13. v. 19▪ 20.
• Homil. de util. ex lib. Gent. cap. 1.
• Plini•••• li. 33. c. ••
• 2 Met.
• De spect. cap. 7.
• Aristoph
• Claud.
• Cassiod. lib. 2. epist. 40.
• August.
• Claud.
• Gigant.
• Lib. 2. cap. 9.
• Aelian. lib. 13. cap. 22. var. hist.
• Virgil.
• Aen. 1. sub sine.
• S. Basil hom. 12. de lib. Ethn.
• De ira Dei c. 10.
• Ped. apud Aeneam.
• Syl. li. de reb. Al. ph.
• S. Hier.
• Job.
• Suet. in Cal. 6. 11
• Suet. in Casi••c. 23
• Valerius Max. li. 5. c. 8.
• Ti••. Liv. lib. 2.
• Aencid. 6
• Tacit.
• Plutarc.
• Plinius
• 〈…〉〈…〉
• Praefat. l. 2. epig.
• Horat. lib. 1. Sat. 4.
• Lib. 1. cap. 12.
• Plinius li. 34. c. 8
• Aelian. lib. 14. cap. 33. var. hist.
• Plin. l. 11 cap. 25.
• Macr. li. 2. Sat. cap. 4.
• Lib. 1.
• Epist.
• Vitru.
• praef. li. 7
• S. Ambr.
• St. Aug. epist. 111
• Plin. prae∣fat. hist.
• Plutarc. quomodo profectus in virt. &c.
• Pliuius li. 7. c. 60
• Epist. 7. ad Mar∣cellinum.
• Lib. 1. de Trim. c. 2
• ••. Apol.
• David. cap. 2.
• Plinius praef.
• Mart.
• Plu. A∣poph.
• Pl. A∣poph.
• Lib. 1. epist. 15
• Sozom▪ Histor.
• Lib. 1. cap. 12
• Sen. l. 4.
• quaest.
• nat.
• In Ps. 4
• In praef.
• ••d d••al.
• Juven.
• Ovid.
• Met.
• Lucia¦••••
• Pseud.
• ••aican.
• Lib. 1. contra Ru••••.
• Cant. 5.
• In c. 5.
• Cant.
• Lib. 7. in Luc.
• Jud. c. 5
• Lib. de medico.
• Tob. 11
• Gell. li. 170. 55.
• Laert. in Xenocr.
• Lib. 2. cap. 11.
• Award in the noble Science of Defence.
• Plinius 1. 29. c. 1.
• Archa∣gathus.
• Sen. de Clem. l. 1. c. 8.
• Sid. li. 1. epist. 2.
• Laert. in Xenocr.
• Lucan.
• Claud. in hist.
• Ibid.
• Cap. 6.
• Hom. 34 in Matt.
• Lib. 7. for. 1.
• Clement. Alex. in Pro.
• Plinius praef. ope∣ris.
• Roderir. Sanctius histor. Hisp. li. 4 cap. 5.
• Chap. 38
• In Ps. 36
• Cachilae.
• Manil. 1
• Plut. Or. 2. de fort. Alex.
• Plutare quomodo prof. &c
• Velleius Tom. 2. hist.
• Lib. 10. epist. 22.
• In vita Thesei.
• Plinius li. 10. c. 1 Natur. hist.
• Act. Ap.
• Herc.
• Furent.
• S. Aug. de praes. cap. 7.
• Ibid.
• Adver∣sus Her.
• Cass. div. lect. c. 2.
• Cyr. A∣lex. li. 11 Jh.
• S. Hier. lib. 4. in Jer.
• Serm. 95
• Aug. ser. 109. de temp.
• S. Petrus Dam.
• serm. 57.
• Sen. de br. vit. cap. 1.
• Laert. in Theoph.
• Sen. nat. quest. lib. 7. cap. ult.
• De anim cap. 16.
• Sen. lib. de Otio Sapientis
• Laert.
• An seni gerenda resp.
• Sym. ep. 11. Aus.
• Lib. 3. cap. 5.
• S. Hier. Ap. 1. contra Ruff.
• 2 paedag. cap. 93. Athon.
• Ael. li. 2 c. 10. var. hist.
• Lib. 7. form.
• Cap. 43. de anim.
• Li. 1. c. 12 vit. A∣pol.
• Clem. Alex. ib.
• Plinius l. 35. c. 10 in Apell.
• Ep. 227. apud Ba∣sil. Eu∣doxio.
• Dial. de just. 3. de Rep. sub sinem.
• Aelian. var. hist. l. 14. c. 20
• Tertul. de pall 〈◊〉〈◊〉 cap. 4.
• Corni, which I read Cor∣pi.
• Seneca.
• Aen. 1.
• Aen. 6.
• Vitruv.
• In Magi
• Plot. con∣tra Gnos. & alii.
• Seneca epist. 66.
• Mar. li. 2. c. 6. Satur.
• Manil. 1
• Astron.
• Orat. 14
• Plinius l. 35. 〈◊〉〈◊〉 in Apell.
• The cloth on which a Picture i•• dr••wn.
• Sen. li. 1. nat q. c. 5
• Ibid. c. 6.
• Plutarc.
• Claud.
• Plinius nat. hist. lib. 16.
• ••••in. lib. 〈◊〉〈◊〉. c. 7.
• Prop. l. 4.
• Plut. in Alex.
• Lect 9. in Hypp. de acre & aquis.
• Plin. lib. 11. c. 12. nat. hist.
• Juven.
• Sat. 7.
• Plin. in praef. o∣per.
• Plin. ibi.
• Plinius lib. 55. cap. 10.
• Epist. 66.
• Apolog:
• Plinius lib. 35. cap. 10.
• Ovi••do in S••or.
• Proem. lib. 4.
• Three rea∣sons of the great num∣ber o•• 〈◊〉〈◊〉 Books.
• Juven.
• Sat. 7.
• Lib. 9. epist.
• In praef. oper.
• Plat. in mil. glor.
• 6 de Tri.
• Lib. 4. after.
• Claud.
• 2 Trist.
• Hercul.
• Furt.
• Jerom. cont. Vig.
• Dante.
• In Arte.
• Lib. 7. epist. Ce∣leri.
• In New-Moons.
• Gell. lib. 17. c. 12.
• Martial
• Plin. lib. 11. cap. 9
• Epist. 48
• Lactant. li. 2. c. 4.
• Plin. lib. 12. c. 1.
• Oviedus in hist.
• Isai. c. 55
• Plut. qu. sonviv.
• Job.
• Laert.
• Astrology opposed.
• St. Basil.
• Laert. in Diogen.
• An Astro∣logical term.
• Sen•••••• epist. 39.
• De in∣somniis.
• Plin. li. 2. cap. 107.
• Lib. 1.
• Epist 3.
• Ruffin.
• S. Aug.
• In Octa∣vio.
• Tertul. Apolog. cap. 19.
• Pli. praef. operis.
• Praefat. lib. 2. quaest. nat.
• An seni gerenda Respub.
• In fine noctium Attic.
• Plut. ib.
• Lib. 2. epist. 12. Agr.
• Chap. 30
• Proem. var.
• Consol. ad Poly∣bium cap. ult.
• Lib. 10. Or. 1.
• Plin. lib. 7. c. 44.
• Vitellius lib. 1. hist.
• 1. Astr.
• Plin. lib. 35. c. 2.
• Plutarc. qumodo quis pro faci us, &c.
• Lab. 4. epistol. maxime.
• S. Am∣cros. li. 1. hex. c. 9.
• Epist. 64.
• Vitru. in Archi∣tect.
• Claud. de saepis.
• Plin. lib. 35. c. 10.
• Sencea epist. 12.
• Laert. in Pyth.
• Heracl, apud Sto. 5.
• Lib. de insomniis
• Lib. 35. cap. 10.
• Met 8.
• Max. Tyr.
• Apuleus Apolog. priore.
• In vita Mercat.
• Horat. in Arte.
• Manil. 1 Astron.
• Plin. lib. 11. c. 6.
• Quintil. lib. 10.
• Cic. 3. de Orat.
• Praefat. lib. 2.
• Hexam. 5. c. 9.
• Quintil. in Dial. elo.
• Plin. li. 9. c. 35
• Seneca epist. 84.
• 2. Met.
• Plut. an seni resp. gerenda.
• Lib. 21. cap. 5.
• Ovid. 1. Fast.
• Plin. 35. cap. 10.
• De jud. Thuc.
• Plut. prae Reipub.
• Gel. li. 2. cap. 20.
• Proem. lib. 2. Contr.
• Plin. l. epist. 2
• Rhos. l. 1.
• Orat. ad Bru••.
• Ʋbi su∣pra.
• Ibidem.
• Lib 12 cap. 2.
• Lib. 43. cap. 14
• Quintil. lib. 12. cap. 10.
• Horat. in Arte.
• In Orat. ad Brut.
• Plin. l▪ 37. c. ••
• Plin. lib. 35. c. 10.
• Plinius proem. lib. 37.
• Sen. her.
• A. Gell. li. 14. c. 8.
• Sueton. in Caes. cap. 6.
• M. Tir. serm. 29.
• Lib. 7. epist. 81.
• Quint. li. 12. c. 10.
• Seneca epist. 115.
• Plutarc. pro∣em. lib. 35.
• Tertul. libro de Pall. c. 13
• Plin. lib. 21. c. 9.
• Plin. lib. 25. c. 2.
• Sen. pro. l. 2. contr.
• the word is atro, but it being the same Seneca, I read it al∣trove.
• Ep. 100.
• In Apoc.
• Ath. lib. 8.
• A. Gell. l. 17. c. 10.
• Plin. lib. 34. c. 8.
• Man.
• Chrysol.
• Plin. lib. 34. c. 14.
• Plin. lib. 1 ep. 20. Tac.
• Sen. Her. fur.
• Lib. de Medico.
• Syn. de Regno.
• Epist. 41.
• Sydonius l. 9. ep. 7.
• Ep. 100. Seneca.
• Quintil. li. 10. c. 3.
• Quintil. ibid.
• Phavor. apud Gel. l. 17 c. 10.
• Lib. 1. cap. 7. hexam.
• Sidon. ep.
• Sen. lib. 2. contr. prop1
• Plin. lib. 5. epist. 1. l. 7. ep. 35.
• Petr. l. 7. epist. 7.
• Quintil. 1 apud Pe∣tr.
• Manil. lib, 2.
• Astro. 6
• Seneca libro de tranquil. anim. c. 1.
• Apuleius apol. 1.
• Seneca lib. 3. de ira c. 8.
• Plutar. 2. de Fort.
• Alex.
• Horat.