Playes written by the thrice noble, illustrious and excellent princess, the Lady Marchioness of Newcastle.

Scene 13.

Enter Madamoiselle Grand Esprit, and her Audience.

GRand Esprit.

Venus thou Goddess fair, for thy Sons sake, Cupid the God of Love, O let me make A Banquet of sweet Wit to entertain This Noble Company, and feast each brain; And let each several Ear feed with delight, Not be disturb'd with foul malicious spight.

Noble and Right Honourable,

I shall take my discourse at this time out of Beauty, the ground of which discourse is Eyes; Eyes are the Beauty of Beauty; for if the Eyes be not good, the face though ne'r so fair, or otherwise well featur'd, cannot be pleasing; the truth is, Eyes are the most Curious, Ingenious, Delightfull; and Profita∣ble work in Nature; Curious in the Aspect and Splendor; Ingenious in the form and fashion, Delightfull in the Society, and Profitable in their Com∣merce, Trade, and Traffick, that they have with all the rest of Natures works: for had not Nature made Eyes, all her works had been lost, as be∣ing buryed in everlasting darkness; for it is not only Light that shews her works, but Eyes that see her works: wherefore if Nature had not made Eyes she had lost the glory of Admiration and Adoration, which all her Animal Creatures give her, begot, raised, or proceeding from what they see; besides, not only Light the presenter of objects would have been lost, but Life would have been but only a dull Melancholy Motion for want of sight, and for want of sight life would have wanted knowledge, and so would have been ignorant both of its self and Nature; but now life takes delight by the fight, through the Eyes, and is inamor'd with the Beauties it

views; and the Eyes do not only delight themselves and life with what they receive, but with what they send forth; for Eyes are not only passages to let Light, Coulours, Forms, and Figures in, but to let Passions, Affections, Opini∣ons out; besides, the Eyes are not only as Navigable Seas, for the Animal Spirits to Traffick on, and Ports to Anchor in; but they are the Gardens of the Soul, wherein the Soul sits and refreshes it self, and Love the Sun of the Soul, sends forth more glorious Rayes than that Sun in the Sky, and on those objects they do shine, they both comfort and give a nourishing delight; but yet when the light of love doth reflect, the heat doth increase by double lines, and quickness of motion, which causes many times a Distemper of the Thoughts, which turns to a Feavor in the Mind; but to conclude most Noble and Right Honourable, Eyes are the Starrs which appear only in the Animal Globe, to direct the life in its Voyage, not only to places that life knows, but to new discoveryes; and these Animal Starrs do not only guide the Animal life, but have an influence and various effects on the Soul, and are not only to view the Beauties of all the other works of Nature, but are the chiefest Beauties themselves; and if that Reason that is the Educator of the Life, and chief Ruler and Commander of the Soul, did not cross and hinder the influence of these Animal Starrs, they would prove very fatal to many a one: Wherefore Right Honourable, my Application is, that you obey Reason, and pray unto it as to a Deity, that it may divert the Malig∣nant influences, and cause them to point to a Happy Effect.

For which my good wishes shall attend you, That the Gods of these Starrs may defend you.

Exeunt.