Epistolæ Ho-elianæ familiar letters domestic and forren divided into sundry sections, partly historicall, politicall, philosophicall, vpon emergent occasions / by James Howell.

XI. To Rich. Altham Esqr.

SIR,

THe Eccho wants but a face, and the Looking-Glass a voice, to make them both living creatures, and to becom the same body they represent; the one by repercussion of sound, the other by re∣flection of sight: Your most ingenious Letters to me from time to time, do far more lively represent you, than either Eccho or Cry∣stall can do; I mean, they represent the better and nobler part of you, to wit, the inward man; they clearly set forth the notions of your mind, and the motions of your soul, with the strength of your imagination; for as I know your exterior person by your linea∣ments, so I know you as well inwardly by your lines, and by those lively expressions you give of your self, insomuch, that I beleeve, if the interior man within you were so visible as the outward (as once Plate wish'd, that vertue might be seen with the corporeal eyes) you would draw all the world after you; or if your well-born thoughts, and the words of your Letters were eccho'd in any place, wher they might rebound and be made audible,, they are compos'd of such sweet and charming strains of ingenuity and eloquence, that all the Nymphs of the Woods and the Valleys, the Dryades, yea,

the Graces and Muses', would pitch their Pavillions there; nay, Apollo himself would dwell longer in that place with his Rays, and make them reverberat more strongly, than either, upon Pindus, or Parnassus, or Rhodes it self▪ whence he never removes his Eye, as long as he is above this Hemispher. I confess my Letters to you, which I send by way of correspondence, com far short of such vertue, yet are they the true Idaeas of my mind, and of that reall and inbred affection I bear you; one should never teach his Letter or his Laquay to lie, I observe that rule: but besides my Letters, I could wish ther were a Crystall Casement in my Brest, thorow which you might be∣hold the motions of my heart,

—Utinam{que} oculos in pectore pesses Inserere, then should you clearly see without any deception of sight, how truely I am, and how intirely

27 of Febr. 1625.

Yours

J. H.

And to answer you in the same strain of Vers you sent me.

First, Shall the Heavens bright Lamp forget to shine, The Stars shall from the Azurd skie decline; First, Shall the Orient with the West shake hand, The Center of the world shall cease to stand: First, Wolves shall ligue with Lambs, the Dolphins flie, The Lawyer and Physitian Fees deny, The Thames with Tagus shall exchange her Bed, My Mistris locks with mine, shall first turn red; First, Heaven shall lie below, and Hell above, Ere I inconstant to my Altham prove.