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MADAM,
IN your last Letter you were pleased to tell me for news, that C. V. was newly made a Lord; truly he deserves it, and if his Title were to be measur'd, it would be far short of his Merit, but it is a greater honour to have more Merit than Title, than to have more Title than
Merit. Indeed Title ought to be but as a Sign; as the King's Arms or Picture to a Shop of a rich Merchandise; so Title should be but to have it known there is a worthy Person, who is full of Noble Qualities, Moral Virtues, Sweet Graces, Divine Influences, Learned Sciences, Wise Counsels, and the like, which ought to be com∣merced and traffick'd within the world, for their own and others good, benefit and pleasure; for the riches of the Mind must do as other riches, which is to disperse about, not to lie unprofitably hid, and horded up from all use; but they ought to be as Staple Commodities, and not as Trifles of Vanity, which wear out, or are laid by, as mens humours change, and are more for fashi∣on than benefit. But some men seem to be rich∣er than they are, and some to be poorer than they are; they that seem richer than they are, lay all in their outward Shops, and those that seem poorer than they are, lay all in their inward Ware-houses: Those that lay all in their out∣ward Shops are vain-glorious Persons, those that lay all in their inward Ware-houses are magnanimous Persons; But womens Minds or Souls are like Shops of small-wares, wherein some have pretty toyes, but nothing of any great value. I imagine you will chide me for this opinion, and I should deserve to be chidden, if all Women were like to you; but you are but one, and I speak of Women, not of One woman; and thus I am neither injurious to You, nor par∣tial to our Sex; but I wish with all my heart, our