Truth tried: or, animadversions on a treatise published by the Right Honorable Robert Lord Brook, entituled, The Nature of Truth, its vnion and vnity with the soule. Which (saith he) is one in its essence, faculties, acts; one with truth. By I. W.

To the Right Honourable ROBERT Lord BROOK.

My Noble Lord,

YOur Lordship being pleased to doe the World that honour, to impart to it somewhat of Yours (and therefore Honourable,) it was My Hap∣pinesse, amongst the rest, to be an Object of that Favour; And yet my Vnhappinesse so farre, as not in all things to fall in with your Lordship: Like a Mariner at Sea, descrying within kenne a faire Vessell under Sa••le, promising a rich Lading, makes up to her; and under∣standing whence she is, and whether she is bound, desires to view her Fraught; but comming so neere as to goe aboard, falls foule of her (as they speak) and is entangled, and per∣haps may both have work enough to get cleare. The ••••ire Vessell I had in view, was your Lordships Treatise, now under Saile, (when made publique;) which however directed▪

to a Private Port or Sinus (a Friends Bosome) yet passes the Ocean to arrive at it: your Lordships Name enforms me Whence it is, and withall promises a Rich Fraught; which the Bill of Lading tells me What it is, The Nature of Truth; and blame me not if I were ambitious to see it, that I might a∣dore it: If, by mischance, I be entangled, I hope your Lordships hand will help me to get cleare. Our first fathers, which had never seene Fire before, while every one was catching at that which shone so Bright, no marvell if he that first med∣dled with it, Burnt his Fingers: The Beauty of Truth is likewise Bright and Glorious; so Glorious, that some have found her Dazle their Eyes, (he might have said, Others have Burnt their Fingers, And I, perhaps, am one of them.) Truth is a Glorious Object, a fit Object only for a Noble Hand: Yet Sutor sometimes, though he presume not to Bet∣ter Apelles Picture, may yet find fault with the Shooe; and that without blame, while he goe not ultra crepidam.

Your Lordship, sometimes, in this Divine Treatise, for fear of Dazling our Eyes, hath left us in a Want of Light. Na∣ked Truth, which your Lordship had the happinesse to Be∣hold, is proposed to us Cloathed, and Guilded (rather then Painted) in a most curious Dresse indeed, yet such as hides the Body; the Beauty whereof being so well worth behold∣ing, we had rather have seene her (as your Lordship did)

without her gowne, without her crowne, the better to have discerned her true Proportion. Rhetoricall Embelish∣ments being the same sometimes in a Philosophicall Dis∣course, that varnish on a faire Picture, which helps to set it off, but withall hides it, and presents it more Glossy but lesse Distinct. For what the Orator useth to Illustrate, that the Philosopher finds to Obscure.

And thus much perhaps, if no more, may be gained by the ensuing discourse, that your Lordship taking occasion from thence, may afford more Light to that which divers desire better to understand, and Vnmask so Faire a Face. (At least those who have once seene her Naked, may take the paines to Vndresse her.) And perhaps having taken a second view, through this a more thick Perspective of not so high raised a Fancy, may give us a more Distinct Delineation of what its owne Dazling Brightnesse presented at first more confused.

I hope I shall need no large Apology to obtaine Acceptance, at least a Pardon from so Noble a Lord, (to whom, I am told, nothing can be more gratefull, and who promiseth the fairest answer,) if I Accept the Challenge: which it's like your Lordship would Performe, (if at least Encounters of another nature would give way to those of the Penne.) If I be demanded therefore of what I doe, Why at all? I reply, Because, in your Lordships name, invited: If why so late?

I have nothing to reply but this, Qui serò dat, diu noluit. What was at first, in a few dayes, written to a private Friend, having lien so long in your Lordships hands, is a sufficient testimony that I made no haste to publish it.

I have but one request to make, and kisse your Lordships hand, that you would vouchsafe, if I have done well, to Ac∣cept, if otherwise, to Pardon

Your Lordships
most humble
Servant,
IOHN WALLIS.