With wholsom Herbs of Judgment for the Tast Healthfull and Nourishing This Dish will last To Feast your Nephews all if you can fit The Marriage Act to get your Children Wit For stronger Stomachs Ven'son if that fail And you grow Queasy then the Lady Quail Or the plump Partridge tast the Phesant do Thus feast your Souls the Bodies look you too An Olio of Confections not refrain For here 's a Sumptuous Banquet for your Brain And this Imaginary Feast pray try Censure your worst so you the Book will buy What the desire of Fame proceedes from THE desire of Fame proceedes from a doubt of an after being And Fame is a report that travells far and many times lives long and the older it groweth the more it florishes and is the more particularly a mans own then the Child of his loines for Fame is a child of his merit which hath no compartner in it and many times the child of his loines deceives the parent and instead of keeping his fathers fame brings him an infamy as being a coward a traitor a lier a fool or the like which the world will judge being apt to cast aspersions that they were qualities which he had by inheritance from his father but actions that his merits beget will never deceive him when it is rightly and honorably gotten but there be bastard fames as well as bastard Issues which men of honour will never own But all those that are born are not so fruitfull as to have issues of their brain or so fortunate as to overcome their enemies or so rich to build Towers and Castles or monuments of fame or so happy to have such advantages to shew their own worth and abilities And those that cannot leave a child of fame must content themselves to live a life of quiet for fame is seldome gotten with ease but with paines and labour danger and trouble and oftentimes with life it self The Reward of Fame IT is a Justice to a mans self and no vain ostentation or braging to write or speak truly of his own good service to his king and country since none knowes it better then they that the world may know them so as to be remembred with love and honour For though fame is not alwaies a true Recorder yet it is a loud reporter which is a more certain reward to his merits then from Kings and States For Kings and States most comonly receive the service and forget ths reward and many times gives them disgrace instead of honour and death for life Where fame is so prodigall to those she entertaines as she will Cozen the rest of the world to contribute to her particulars But time the reviver of all removes this sound farther off and many times extinguisheth it quite yet Fame the older she is although she be lame and goeth upon Crouches the more lovers and admirers she gains neither is envy so sharp toothed as to hurt her and many are proud not onely to be acquainted with her but in being able to mention her so honourable is ancient Fame Of Fame and Infamy SOme love the life of their memory so well as they would rather chuse to be remembred by the World as a fool rather then to be forgotten as a beast Which is rather to live in Infamie then to die in obscurity For Infamie is a loud reproach where Fame is a loud Applause yet neither of them are got by ordinary means but by extreams either by Nature Fortune or Fate As to make them ring aloud for the sound to be heard through many Nations and to live in many Ages But infamie hath this advantage if it be one that it lives longer and strikes harder upon the ears of the World then Fame doth Fame makes a difference between man and Beast NExt the being born to the glory of God Man is born to produce a Fame by some particular acts to prove himself a man unlesse we shall say there is no difference in Nature between man and beast For beasts when they are dead the rest of the beasts retain not their memory from one posterity to another as we can perceive and we study the natures of Beasts and their way so subtilly as surely we should discover some-what but the difference betwixt man and beast to speak naturally and onely according to her works without any Divine influence is that dead men live in living men where beasts die without Record of beasts So that those men that die in oblivion are beasts by nature for the rational Soul in man is a work of nature as well as the body and therefore ought to be taught by nature to be as industrious to get a Fame to live to after Ages as the body to get food for present life for as natures principles are created to produced some effects so the Soul to produce Fame What makes Fame speak loudest THose Fames that is gotten in the Wars sound louder then those that are gotten in Peace by reason War is a disturber and causeth a violent motion like a tempest at Sea sea or a storm at land it raiseth up discord fear and furie it swallows up industry it pulls up the root of plenty it murthers natural affection and makes such a noise where it is as all the world besides is inquiring and listening after it for fear of being surprised so as the world follows the noise as much as the noise follows them The Fame of valour and wisdom IT is a better and more certain Reputation to have the Fame of being a wise man then a man of courage because every man that is wise hath courage for he that is a coward cannot be wise because fear puts him out of the right way but there be many men that have courage which be not wise for courage is only a resolution of the minde either to Act or suffer and to destroy or be destroyed so that courage doth not direct and guide as wisdom doth but dares and executes besides wisdom is more to be admired because it is rarer as scarce one wise man is found in an Age but men of Courage whole Armies full in every Age neither is wisdoms Fame subject to fortune as courage is for Wisdom makes fortune her servant and uses all times and accidents to her advantage and the worse her fortune is the greater she appears when the Fame of courage is a slave to fortune and onely flourishes in her smiles but is buried in her frowns It is true Courage is a vertue that defends and protects its Countrey and keeps an enemy in awe yet it is a vertue that is onely exercised in destructior in the patient suffering of his own or the acting to anothers Where wisdom is alwayes exercised in uniting and composing searching and leading into the wayes of peace when courage chuseth and searches for the wayes of danger and courts her as his loveliest and beautifullest Mistris and is many times so couragious as he forceth
all the rest are begot or derived Also there are but two Parent-Dispositions in the Body the one good the other bad from whence Dispositions are begot or derived A good Disposition is caused by an equal Temper of the Constitution of the Body and an orderly Habit belonging thereunto also when the Humours therein be fresh sweet clear and thin A bad Disposition is caused from an unequal Temper of the Body and a disorderly Habit belonging thereunto also when the Humour is gross muddy corrupt and full of malignity But Love and Hate are created in the Mind increased and abated by Imaginations Conceptions Opinions Reason Understanding and Will But those two Parent-Passions and Dispositions do so resemble one another as they are often times mistaken being taken one for another When the inbred Humours of the Body produce one kind and the Nature of the Mind another Of a Hating Disposition or a Passionate Hate THere is a difference betwixt a Hating Disposition and a Passionate Hate A Hating Disposition is produced from a Weak Constitution of Body and an overflowing of Malignant Humours which rise like a High Tide which cause an Aversion Loathing or Nauseousness to their Object or Subject From this Disposition proceeds Frights and Fears Soundings and Faintings as at the sight of what they hate but when it is against their own kind it produceth Malicious Thoughts Slandering Words and Mischievous Actions But Passionate Hate makes open War and onely pursueth that which it thinks is Evil and is the Champion of Virtue the Sword of Justice the Guard and Protector of Innocents and the Pillar of Commonwealths Of Loving Dispositions and Passionate Love THere is a Loving Disposition and the Passion of Love This Loving Disposition proceeds from Moyst Humours and a Sanguine Constitution which makes the Disposition facile or pitiful tender-hearted as we say and Amorously kind From this Disposition Tears flow often through the Eyes large Professions and Protestations fond Embracements kind Words and dear Friendships as long as it lasts but dissolved upon every small Occasion and never fails to break all to pieces and those pieces to rise up as Enemies if any Misfortune comes But Passionate Love professeth but a Little and promiseth Nothing but will endure all Torments and dye Millions of several waies if it had so many Lives to give for what is loves Of Amorous Love AMorous Dispositions are a Mullet and an Extravagancy of Nature got betwixt the Humours of the Body and the Passions of the Mind for the Passions of the Mind and the Dispositions of the Body although they be taken by the Ignorant for one and the same having some resemblance as a Horse and an Ass yet they are of two several kinds and different Natures the one being Industrious Couragious Generous Noble and Free the other Slothfull Fearfull and fit for Slavery But the Passions of the Mind are Rational the Humours of the Body Bestial for Lust is the Natural Breed of a Sluggish Body Pure Love the Natural Breed of a Rational Soul But Amorosity is begot betwixt both being not so foul as Lust nor so pure as Love but is of a mixt nature and like Mules that produce no Creature so Amorosity neither produceth a Noble Of-spring from the Mind nor seldome any Issue from the Body for it is rather a whining Contemplation than a real Act. Of a Cholerick Disposition and a Cholerick Passion THere is a difference betwixt a Cholerick Disposition and a Cholerick Passion A Cholerick Disposition proceeds from a dry hot Constitution and a bitter or salt Humour that is bred in the Body either by an evil habit of the Liver and Stomack or an unwholsome Diet This produceth a froward Disposition being alwaies a Disquiet to it self which causes the Words to be cross the Voyce to be loud the Countenance to be stern and the Behaviour ruff and rude But a Cholerick Passion is the Fire of the Mind giving Heat to the Thoughts which raiseth Ambition and gives Courage to the Active Vigour to the Strong Quickness to the Words Confidence to the Countenance with a Resolved Behaviour c. The Sympathy of the Spirits THere are Sympathies of Sensitive Spirits and Rational Spirits the one proceeds from the Body the other from the Mind or Soul the one is Fondness the other is Love this makes Fondness last no longer than the Senses are filled which every Sense is not onely capable of a Satisfaction of every particular Object but an overflowing even to a Surfet and Dislike but an Affection that is made by the Sympathy of the Rational Spirits which is Love dwels in the Soul and is never satisfied but the more it receives the more it desires so that this Sympathy is the Infinite of Loves Eternity Of the offering up of Life THere are few that will freely offer up their Lives to take a certain Death yet there be three sorts that are the likeliest to do it as the Ambitious the Consciencious and Lovers the Ambitious Fame perswades them the Consciencious Fear and Hope perswades them Lovers Love perswades them Ambition seeks Fame Fame seeks Applause Applause seeks Action Action seeks Honour Honour seeks Danger Danger seeks Death Fear and Hope seek Religion Religion seeks Faith Faith seeks Martyrdome Martyrdome seeks Death Love seeks Ease Ease seeks Peace Peace seeks Rest Rest seeks Death Those that dye for unlawfull Desires or in desperate Fury or the like these deserve Pity and Tears of Sorrow because their Death was their Dishonour but to dye for their Country their Religion Friends or Chastity there Tears should be wiped from all Eyes and Acclamations of Joy should ring for the Renown of such Constant Virtue as to seal it with Voluntary Death where Life was onely a Cover to hide it besides the Spirits they beget by example they give but this kind of Valour hath few Companions The yielding up Life A Valiant Man will not wilfully part with his Life nor yet unjustly keep it but if his God his Country or his Friend require it he willingly offers it up as a Sacrifice upon the Altar of Honour when Desperateness throws his Life into the Jaws of Death for a Vainglorious Fame The Difference of killing themselves and yielding up of Life THere are more kill themselves than willingly offer up their Lives because those that offer up their Lives are as a Sacrifice or Atonement for the good of one another more than themselves and would rather live than dye could they keep their Life with Honour but their Death being a Rescue to something as they think which is more worthy than their Life they willingly yield it up where those that kill themselves do it out of Fear of a Miserable Life for those do deliver up their Lives Freely and Nobly that give it not to avoyd worse Inconveniencies to themselves as out of Poverty Pain Fear or Disgrace or the like but those that leave Health Wealth Strength Honours Friends and all
whisperings or private Conference that her Actions might have sufficient Witnesse and her Discourses a generall Audience Item That none shall marry against their own liking or free choice lest they make their Marriage an excuse for Adultery Item It shall be allowed for Maids to entertain all Honorable as Matrimonial Suters untill such time as she hath made choice of one of them to settle her Affections upon for it is good reason one should take time and observe Humors before they bind themselves in Wedlock Bonds for when once bound nothing but Death can part them but when they are once married their Ears to be sealed from all Loves pleadings protestings Vows making high praises and Complementall phrases Item That none shall keep a Mistris above halfe a year but change lest she grow more imporious than a Wife made of a Widow Item All Lovers shall be licensed to bragg or speak well of themselves to their Mistris when they have done no meritorious Actions to speak for them Item All those that have Beauty enough to make a Lover if they have not wit to keep a Lover shall be accounted no better than a senseless Statue Item It shall not be as it is in these Daies accounted a prise or purchase amongst Ladies to get either by their Wit or Beauty admiring Servants especially if they be of amorous natures for then Nature drives them to her Beauty or Wit more than her Wit or Beauty draws them to it Item All those that are proud without a cause it shall be a sufficient cause to be scorned Item Eloquence shall not be imployed nor pleaded in Amorous Discourses nor to make Falshood to appear like Truth but to dress and adorn Vertue that she may be accepted and entertained by those that will refuse and shun her acquaintance if she be clad in plain Garments Item There shall none condemn another Language nor account another to be better if it be Significant Copious and Eloquent such as the English Tongue is Item All passionate Speeches or Speeches to move passion shall be expressed in Number Item That all Natural Poets shall be honored with Title esteemed with Respect or enriched for the Civilizing of a Nation more than Contracts Laws or Punishments by Soft Numbers and pleasing Phansics and also guard a Kingdom more than Walls or Bulworks by creating Heroick Spirits with Illustrious Praises inflaming the Mind with Noble Ambition Noble Souls and Strong Bodies THough Noble Souls and great Wits dwell not constantly nor are allwaies created in Strong Bodies yet if Nature did choose her Materials match her Works and order her Creatures rightly and Sympathetically Strong Bodies should have noble Souls large Capacities and great Wits for Weak Bodies many times are a defect in Nature as much as shallow Wits or irrational Souls But surely if the chief and first Nature would work methodically and not seem as if she wrought at randome and to produce by Chance as she doth if Education and Custome which is a second Nature had not such a prevalent power to disturb and obstruct her and though Education and Custome may and doth somtimes rectify some Defects and help Life yet it doth more often puzzle Life and incumber Natures Works putting Nature out of the right ways with False Principles Foolish Customes and ill Education this is the reason natural Wits are many times lost not having time or leasure to exercise them or use them as I may say or for want of variety of Subjects or Objects to better them or dull'd by tedious and unprofitable Studies or quenched out by base Servitude or Subjection Also clear Understandings are darkened sound and strong Judgments weakened and false Judgments given and vain Conceptions and erroneous Opinions Maintaind or Believed for want of the True and the Right Waies Likewise the streught of the Body oftimes is weakened and effeminated by Luxurie Curiosity and Idleness which causeth Noble Souls Large Capacities Clear Understandings Fine Fancies and Quick Wits to dwell many times nay most commonly in weak Bodies for the better sort have most commonly more Plenty than Health the one devouring the other when the Meaner sort have meager Souls and barren Brains Rude Dispositions and Rough Natures have strong Limbs strengthned by Exercise and maintained by Labour healthfull bodies kept in repair by Temperance caused by scarcity and Poverty contented minds bred by Low Fortunes and Humble Desires when Wealth and Dignity create Vain Glory and Pride yet many times small Fortunes and great Wits agree best together but Noble Minds and Great Estates do the most good But in this Age although it be the Iron Age yet those men that have Effeminate Bodies as tender Youth loose Limbs smooth Skins fair Complexions fantastical Garbs affected Phrases strained Complements factious Natures detracting Tongues mischievous Actions and the like are admired and commended more or thought wiser than those that have Cenerous Souls Heroick Spirits Ingenuous Wits prudent Fore-cast Experienced Years Manly Forms Gracefull Garbes Edifying Discourses Temperate Lives Sober Actions Noble Natures and Honest Hearts but in former years it was otherwaies for Heroick Spirits in Masculine Forms had double praise as is expressed in the Grecian and Trojan Warrs and Princes were bred to labour as much as Pesants for though their Labour might be different the one being Servile the other Free yet the Burthen and pains-taking might be Equal though they carried not Pedlars Packs nor Porters Burthens yet they carried thick and heavy Arms and if they handled not the Sithe Pitch-Fork and Flail yet they handled the Sword the Spear the Dart the Bow the Sling and the like and if they knew not how to Mow to Reap and to Thrash yet they knew how to Assault to Defend and to Fight and though they digged not the Gold out of the Mines yet they digged Fortisications out of the Earth and if they set not Flowers on Banks or sowed Seeds in Furrows or ingrafted Slips or planted Trees to grow yet they set Armies in battail Array and sowed Lives in Adventures ingrafted Honor to the Stock of their Predeceslors and planted Fame to grow high in after Ages and though they drive not the Asses yet they mannage the Horses and if they want the Art to Yoak Oxen they want not the wisdome to Yoak the Vulgar with strickt Laws and if they will not drive a Flock of Sheep to the Fold they can lead a Number of Men to the Warrs and if they cannot build a House yet they can storm a City Thus galiant labours may strengthen the Bodies of Honorable Breed and Noble Minds freely and industriously without a Bondage or Slavery nay they may Row in Gallies yet not be subject to the Whip or Chains But as Masculine Bodies and Heroick Souls had a double esteem so Effeminate Bodies and timorous Spirits or rather Natures had a double despising as witness Paris of Troy but most Nations in those Ages spent their time in usefull Arts not
or Subjects that is to flatter or threaten us to allure or force us to obey and will not let us divide the World equally with them as to Govern and Command to direct and Dispose as they do which Slavery hath so dejected our spirits as we are become so stupid that Beasts are but a Degree below us and Men use us but a Degree above Beasts whereas in Nature we have as clear an understanding as Men if we were bredin Schools to mature our Brains and to manure our Understandings that we might bring forth the Fruits of Knowledge But to speak truth Men have great Reason not to let us in to their Governments for there is great difference betwixt the Masculine Brain and the Feminine the Masculine Strength and the Feminine For could we choose out of the World two of the ablest Brain and strongest Body of each Sex there would be great difference in the Understanding and Strength for Nature hath made Mans Body more able to endure Labour and Mans Brain more clear to understand and contrive than Womans and as great a difference there is between them as there is between the longest and strongest Willow compared to the strongest an largest Oak though they are both Trees yet the Willow is but a yielding Vegetable not fit nor proper to build Houses and Ships as the Oak whose strength can grapple with the greatest Winds and plough the Furrows in the Deep it is true the Willows may make fine Arbours and Bowers winding and twisting its wreathy stalks about to make a Shadow to eclips the Light or as a light Shield to keep off the sharp Arrows of the Sun which cannot wound deep because they fly far before they touch the Earth or Men and Women may be compared to the Black-Birds where the Hen can never sing with so strong and loud a Voice nor so clear and perfect Notes as the Cock her Breast is not made with that strength to strain so high even so Women can never have so strong Judgment nor clear Understanding nor so perfect Rhetorick to speak Orations with that Eloquence as to Perswade so Forcibly to Command so Powerfully to Entice so Subtilly and to Insinuate so Gently and Softly into the Souls of men Or they may be compared to the Sun and Moon according to the discription in the Holy Writ which saith God made two great Lights the one to Rule the Day the other the Night So Man is made to Govern Common Wealths and Women their privat Families And we find by experience that the Sun is more Dry Hot Active and Powerfull every way than the Moon besides the Sun is of a more strong and ruddier Complexion than the Moon for we find she is Pale and Wan Cold Moist and Slow in all her operations and if it be as philosophers hold that the Moon hath no Light but what it borrows from the Sun so Women have no strength nor light of Understanding but what is given them from Men this is the Reason why we are not Mathematicians Arithmeticians Logicians Geometricians Cosmographers and the like This is the Reason we are not Witty Poets Eloquent Orators Subtill Schoolmen Substracting Chimists Rare Musicians Curious Limners This is the reason we are not Navigators Architectures Exact Surveyers Inventive Artizans This is the reason why we are not Skilfull Souldiers Politick Statists Dispatchfull Secretaries or Conquering Caeasars but our Governments would be weak had we not Masculine spirits and Counsellors to advise us and for our Strength we should make but feeble Mariners to tugg and pull up great Ropes and weighty Sayls in blustring Storms if there were no other Pilots that the Effeminate Sex neither would there be such Commerce of Nations as there is nor would there be so much Gold and Silver and other Mineralls fetcht out of the Bowells of the Earth if there were none but Effeminate hands to use the Pick-axe and Spade nor so many Cities built if there were none but Women Labourers to cut out great Quarrs of Stone to hew down great timber Trees and to draw up such Materials and Engins thereunto belonging neither would there be such Barrs of Iron if none but Women were to Melt and Hammer them out whose weak spirits would suffocate and so faint with the heat and their small Arms would sooner break than lift up such a weight and beat out a Life in striving to beat out a Wedge neither would there be such Steeples and Pyramids as there have been in this World if there were no other than our tender Feet to climb nor could our Brains endure the height we should soon grow Dissy and fall down drunk with too much thin Air neither have Women such hard Chests and strong Lungs to keep in so much Breath to dive to the bottome of the Sea to fetch up the Treasures that lie in the watery Womb neither can Women bring the furious and wild Horse to the Bit quenching his fiery Courage and bridling his strong swift Speed This is the reason we are not so active in Exercise nor able to endure Hard Labour nor far Travells nor to bear Weighty Burthens to run long Jornies and many the like Actions which we by Nature are not made fit for It is true Education and Custom may adde somthing to harden us yet never make us so strong as the strongest of Men whose Sinnews are tuffer and Bones stronger and Joints closer and Flesh firmer than ours are as all Ages have shewn and Times have produced What Woman was ever so strong as Sampson or so swift as Hazael neither have Women such tempered Brains as men such high Imaginations such subtill Conceptions such fine Inventions such solid Reasons and such sound Judgement such prudent Forecast such constant Resolutions such quick sharp and ready flowing Wits what Women ever made such Laws as Moses Lycurgus or Solon did what Woman was ever so wise as Salomon or Aristotle so politick as Achitophel so Eloquent as Tully so demonstrative as Euclid so inventive as Seth or Archimedes It was not a Woman that found out the Card and Needle and the use of the Loadstone it was not a Woman that invented Perspective-Glasses to peirce into the Moon it was not a Woman that found out the invention of writing Letters and the Art of Printing it was not a Woman that found out the invention of Gunpowder and the art of Gunns What Women were such Soldiers as Hannibal Caesar Tamberlain Alexander and Scanderbeg what woman was such a Chymist as Paracelsus such a Physician as Hipocrates or Galen suth a Poet as Homer such a Painter as Apelles such a carver as Pigmalion such an Architect as Vitruviuss such a Musician as Orpheus What Women ever found out the Antipodes in imagination before they were found out by Navigation as a Bishop did or what ever did we do but like Apes by Imitation wherefore Women can have no excuse or complaints of being subjects as a hinderance from
thinking for Thoughts are free those can never be inslaved for we are not hindred from studying since we are allowed so much idle time that we know not how to pass it away but may as well read in our Closets as Men in their Colleges and Contemplation is as free to us as to Men to beget clear Speculation Besides most Scholars marry and their heads are so full of their School Lectures that they preach them over to their Wives when they come home so that they know as well what was spoke as if they had been there and though most of our Sex are bred up to the Needle and Spindle yet some are bred in the publike Theatres of the World wherefore if Nature had made our Brains of the same temper as Mens we should have had as clear Speculation and had been as Ingenious and Inventive as Men but we find She hath not by the effects And thus we may see by the weakness of our Actions the Constitution of our Bodies and by our Knowledge the temper of our Brains by our unsettled Resolutions incoustant to our Promises the Perverseness of our Wills by our facil Natures violent in our Passions superstitious in our Devotions you may know our Humours we have more Wit than Judgment more Active than Industrious we have more Courage than Conduct more Will than Strength more Curiosity than Secrecy more Vanity than good Houswifery more Complaints than Pains more Jealousie than Love more Tears than Sorrow more Stupidity than Patience more Pride than Affability more Beauty than Constancy more Ill Nature than Good Besides the Education and libertie of Conversation which Men have is both unfit and dangerous to our Sex knowing that we may bear and bring forth Branches from a wrong Stock by which every man would come to lose the property of their own Children but Nature out of love to the Generation of Men hath made Women to be governed by Men giving them Strength to rule and Power to use their Authority And though it seem to be natural that generally all Women are weaker than Men both in Body and Under standing and that the wisest Woman is not so wise as the wisest of Men wherefore not so fit to Rule yet some are far wiser than some men like Earth for some Ground though it be Barren by Nature yet being well mucked and well manured may bear plentifull Crops and sprout forth divers sorts of Flowers when the fertiller and richer Ground shall grow rank and corrupt bringing nothing but gross and stinking Weeds for want of Tillage So Women by Education may come to be far more knowing and learned than some Rustick and Rudebredmen Besides it is to be observed that Nature hath Degrees in all her Mixtures and Temperaments not only to her servile works but in one and the same Matter and Form of Creatures throughout all her Creations Again it is to be observed that although Nature hath not made Women so strong of Body and so clear of understanding as the ablest of Men yet she hath made them fairer softer slenderer and more delicate than they separating as it were the finer parts from the grosser which seems as if Nature had made Women as purer white Manchet for her own Table and Palat where Men are like coarse houshold Bread which the servants feed on and if she hath not tempered Womens Brains to that height of understanding nor hath put in such strong Species of Imaginations yet she hath mixed them with Sugar of sweet conceits and if she hath not planted in their Dispositions such firm Resolutions yet she hath sowed gentle and willing Obedience and though she hath not filled the mind with such Heroick Gallantry yet she hath laid in tender Affections as Love Piety Charity Clemency Patience Humility and the like which makes them neerest to resemble Angells which are the perfectest of all her Works where men by their Ambitions Extortion Fury and Cruelty resemble the Devill But some women are like Devills too when they are possest with those Evills and the best of men by their Heroick Magnanimous Minds by their Ingenious and Inventive Wits by their strong Judgments by their prudent forecast and wise Mannagements are like to Gods To the Reader I Desire those that read any of this Book that every Chapter may be read clearly without long stops and staies for it is with Writers as it is with men for an ill affected Fashion or Garb takes away the Natural and gracefull Form of the Person So Writings if they be read lamely or crookedly and not evenly smoothly throughly insnarle the Sense Nay the very sound of the Voice will seem to alter the sense of the Theme though the Sense will be there in despight of the ill Voice or Reader but it will be concealed or discovered to its disadvantage for like an ill Musician or indeed one that cannot play at all who instead of playing he puts the Fiddle out of tune and causeth a Discord which if well plaid upon would sound Harmoniously or is like one that can play but one Tune on all sorts of Instruments so some will read with one Tone or Sound of Voice though the Passions and Numbers are different and some again in reading wind up their Voices to such a passionate scrue that they whine or squeal rather than speak or read others fold up their Voices with that distinction that they make that three square that is four square and narrow that should be broad and high that should be low and low that should be high and some again so fast that the Sense is lost in the Race So that Writings though they are not so yet they sound good or bad According to the Readers and not according to their Authors and indeed such advantage a good or ill Readers gives as those that read well shall give a grace to a foolish Author and those that read ill disgrace a wise and a witty Author But there are two sorts of Readers the one that reads to himself and for his own benefit the other to benefit another by hearing it in the first there is required a good Judgement and a ready Understanding in the other a good Voice and a gracefull Delivery so that a Writer hath a double desire the one that he may write well the other that he may be read well And my desire is the more earnest because I know my Writings are not strong enough to bear an ill Reader wherefore I intreat so much favour as to give it its own Countenance wherein you will oblige the Writer to be Yours M. N. To the Lady of Newcastle upon her Book Intituled The WORLD' 's OLIO THE World to the World's Olio we invite you And hope these several Cates they may delight you It is the Mistris of the Feast her Wish And all these various Sorts cookt in Wits Dish For several Palats here is of the Best With Aromatick Spice of Phancy drest
her and had rather die in the arms of danger then live in the arms of peace Why men write Bookes SOme say men write bookes not so much to benefit the world as out of love to Fame thinking to gain them honour of reputation but surely men are so delighted with their own conceits especially fine and new ones that were it a sin or infamie they would write them to see their beauty and enjoy them and so become unlawful Lovers Besides thoughts would be lost if not put into writing for writing is the picture of thoughts which shadows last longer then men but surely men would commit secret Idolatry to their own wit if they had not Applause to satisfie them and examples to humble them for every several man if wit were not discovered would think not any had it but he for men take pleasure first in their own fancies and after seek to gain the approving opinions of others which opinions are like womens dressings for some will get such advantage in putting on their cloaths who although they have ill faces and not so exact bodies will make a better shew then those that are well favoured and neatly shaped with disordered attire wherein some men are so happy in their language and delivery as it beautisies and adorns their wit which without it would be like an unpolished Diamond but such difference there is between that to create a fancy is the nature of a God but to make neat and new words is the nature of a Tailour Of several writings WRitings that are set forth in books and other wayes are of several and different natures For some as Magistrates and Fathers do reprove and endeavor to reclaim the world and men as moral Philosophers others as Atturnies do inform them as Historians some as Lawyers do plead in the behalf of some former writings and acts against others as contraversers some as Ambitious Tyrants that would kill all that stood in their way as Casuists some as Challengers as Logicians some as Scouts as natural Philosophers But they bring not alwayes true intelligence Some like hang-men as the Scepticks that strive to strangle not onely all opinions but all knowledge Some like Embassadours that are sent to condole and congratulate as bookes of Humiliation and thanksgiving Some as Merchants as translatours which traffick out of one Language into another Some as painted faces as Oratory some as Jubilies as to recreate rejoyce and delight the spirits of men as Poetry some as Bawds to intice the mindes as Amorous Romancy Some as pits that one must go many Fathoms deep to finde the bottom neither do they alwayes reach it as those that are called strong lines some as Conjurers that fright with their threatning prophesies some as Cut-purses that steal from the writings of others some as Juglers that would have falshood appear for truth some like Mountibanks that deceive and give more words then matter some as Echoes which commonly answer to anothers voice some like Buffons that laugh and jest at all and some like Flatterers that praise all and some like Malecontents that complain against all and some like God that is full of truth and gives a due to all deservers and some like devils that slauder all Of the motion of the thoughts in speaking and Writing THose that have very quick thoughts shall speak readier then Write because in speaking they are not tied to any stile or number besides in speaking thoughts lie close and carelesse but in writing they are gathered up and are like the water in a cup that the mouth is held downward for every drop striving to be out first stops the passage or like the common people in an uproar that runs without any order and disperses without successe when slow and strong thoughts come well armed and in good order discharges with courage and goeth off with honour The motion of Poets thoughts THe thoughts of poets must be quick yet so as they must go even without justling strong without striving nimble without stumbling for their thoughts must be as an instrument well strung and justly tuned to Harmony Great schollars are not excellent Poets SCholars are never good Poets for they incorporate too much into other men which makes them become lesse themselves in which great scholars are Metamorphos'd or transmigrated into as many several shapes as they read Authors which makes them monstrous and their head is nothing but a lumber stuft with old commodities so it is worse to be a learned Poet then a Poet unlearned but that which makes a good Poet is that which makes a good Privie Councellor which is observation and experience got by time and company Wit mistaken THey are not mistaken that think all Poets wits but those are mistaken that think there is no other wit but in Poets or to think wit lies in meer jests or onely in words or Method or scholastical knowledge for many may be very wise and knowing yet have not much wit not but wit may be in every one of these before mentioned for wit makes vse of althings but wit is the purest element and swiftest motion of the braine it is the essence of thoughts it incircles all things and a true wit is like the Elixer that keeps nature alwayes fresh and young Some thinks wit no wit when it is not understood but surely a fool makes not the wit the lesse although it loseth its aime if none knows it but the Author A comparison betwixt learning and Wit IT is a great mistake in some who think that great Stcholars are great wits because great Scholars but there is as great a difference as betwixt a natural inheritance that is intailed and cannot be sold and a Tenant that makes use of the land and payes the rent which is due to the Land-lord which is the Author or in another comparison a Scholar is like a great Merchant that trafficks in most Countries for transportable Commodities and his head is the ware-house to lay those goods in now may some say they are become his own since he bought them it is true they are so to keep them or make use of them or to sell and traffick with them by imparting them to pettie Merchants which are young students and Scholars but otherwise they are no more his then when they were in the Authours head before it was published but onely by retaile for wit is the childe of nature neither hath she made any thing so like her self as it Nay she hath made it to out-do her self for though nature hath not onely made this world but may be thought by reason to have made many others and so a world of worlds yet wit creats in its imaginations not only worlds but Heavens and Hells Gods and Devils onely it wants the materials to put them in body and give them a figure and colour The advanaage of Poetry and History POets make us see errours as what we should follow and what we
surely invention is easier then imitation because invention comes from nature and imitation from paintul and troublesome inquirie and if he goeth not just the path that hath been trod before him he is out of the way which is adouble pain at first to know the path and then to tread it out but invention takes his own wayes besides invention is easie because it is born in the brain Where imitation is wrought and put into the brain by force EPISTLE SOme say as I heare that my book of Poemes and my book of Philosophical Fancies was not my own and that I had gathered my opinions from several Philosophers To answer the first I do protest upon the grounds of Honour honesty and Religion they are my own that is my head was the forge my thoughts the anvil to beat them out and my industry shaped them and sent them forth to the use of the world if any use may be made thereof but my Lord was the Master and I the Prentice for gathering them from Philosophers I never converst in discourse with any an hour at one time in my life And I may swear on my conscience I never had a familiar acquaintance or constant conversation with any prosest Scholar in my life or a familiar acquaintance with any man so as to learn by them but those that I have neer relation to as my Husband and Brothers it is true I have had the honour sometime to receive visits of civility from my Noble and Honorable acquaintance wherein we talk of the general news of the times and the like discourse for my company is too dull to entertain and too barren of wit to afford variety of discourse wherefore I bend my self to study nature and though nature is too specious to be known yet she is so free as to teach for every straw or grain of dust is a natural tutor to instruct my sense and reason and every particular rational creature is a sufficient School to study in and our own passions and affections appetites and desires are moral Doctors to learn us and the evil that follows excesse teaches us what is bad and by moderation we finde and do so learn what is good and how we ought to live and moderate them by reason and discourse them in the minde and there is few that have not so much natural capacity and understanding but may know if not finde out what is needful for life without artificial education for nature is the chief master art and education but the under ushers in the School of life for natural objections may be applied without the help of arts and natural rules of life may lead us safe and easy wayes to our journeys end and questionlesse nature was the first guide before art came to the knowledge and if it were not for nature art many times would lose her followers yet let nature do what she can art oft times will go out of the right way but many will say it is the nature of man that invents and the nature of man to erre that is t is the nature of man to be so ambitious as to strive to be wiser then nature her self but if nature hath given men ambition yet nature hath given men humilitie to allay that fiery appetite and though nature hath given men ignorance yet nature hath given men undestanding to bring them out of that darknesse into the light of knowledge and though nature hath obscured the secrets of the natural cause yet he hath given men nature to observe her effects and imaginations to conjecture of her wayes and reason to discourse of her works and understanding to sinde some out and these gifts are general to mankinde wherefore I finde no reason but my readers may allow me to have natural imagination understanding and inquiries as well as other Philosophers and to divulge them as they have done if that they beleeve that I am produced by nature and not by artifices hand cut out like a stone-statue but if my readers will not allow my opinions and fancies to be my own yet truth will but there is a natural education to all which comes without pains taking not tormenting the body with hard labour not the minde with perturb'd study but comes easy and free through the senses and grows familiar and sociable with the understanding pleasant and delightful to the contemplation for there is no subject that the sense can bring into the minde but is a natural in structour to produce the breeding of rational opinions and understanding truthes besides imaginary fancies if they will give their minde time as to think but most spend their time in talk rather then in thought but there is a wise saying think first and speak after and an old saying that many speak first and think after and doubtlesse many if not most do so for we do not alwayes think of our words we speak for most commonly words flow out of the mouth rather customarily then premeditately just like actions of our walking for we go by custome force and strength without a constant notice or observation for though we designe our wayes yet we do not ordinarily think of our pace nor take notice of every several step just so most commonly we talk for we seldom think of our words we speak nor many times the sense they tend to unlesse it be some affected person that would speak in fine phrases and though speech is very necessary to the course of mans life yet it is very obstructive to the rational part of mans minde for it imployes the minde with such busy and unprofitable maters as all method is run out of breath and gives not contemplation leave to search and enquire after truth nor understanding leave to examine what is truth nor judgment how to distinguish truth from falshood nor imagination leave to be ingenious nor ingenuity leave to finde invention nor wit leave to spin out the fine and curious threed of fancy but onely to play with words on the tongue as balls with rackets Besides a multiplicity of words consounds the solid sense and rational understanding the subject in the discourse yet to think very much and speak yery seldom makes speeed uneasy and the tongue apt to faulter when it is to deliver sense of the matter they have and want of uncustomary speaking makes the Orator to seek for words to declare the sense of his meaning or the meaning of his sense besides want of eloquence many times loseth not onely rational opinions but conceals truth it self for want of perswading rhetorick to raise up belief or to get understanding so that a contemplatory person hath the disadvantage of words although most commonly they have the advantage of thoughts which brings knowledge but life being short those that speak much have not time to think much that is not time to study and contemplate wherefore it is a great losse of time to speak idle word that is words that are
prodigalitie and generositie is that generositie distributes in a reasonable time and to worthy persons or else out of humanity when prodigalitie considers neither time nor person nor humanity but humor will and vain-glory Of Gifts There are four sorts of gifts as to those of merit is generosity to those in necessity is charity or compassion to those of eminency and power it is flattery and fear to knaves or fools it is prodigality and vain-glory The difference between convetousnesse and ambition is one is placed upon things worthy the other upon Mercenary profit Of Vanity IT is said that there is nothing but vanity upon the earth and what is it that men call vanity it is that which is to no purpose and if so God made the world in vain which God never doth make any thing but to some purpose but say some that alters not Gods purpose for all things that are vain are as to themselves and that nothing was created as for it self but all things for God as to have his will obeyed but nature hath made man for to desire to please himself although laws have forbad him to please himself in al things or wayes but hath given him particular rules and hath paled him within such bounds as indeed if a man free-born should be put into prison and then bid to take his liberty but if nature made nothing in vain then mens vanities is to some purpose in one regard or another now that which is called vanity may be divided into two parts as particulars and generals the general vanity is to eat to drink to sleep to act any thing or to think but the particular vanities are those that men condemn in one another most as for a man to think of those things he knoweth to be impssible or to do that he knoweth the end will bring him no profit but if the ends of vanity be not profitable yet the wayes are pleasant or else men would not take such delight in them and what is the worldly designe of men but pleasing themselves and shall we think that nature made the world to be a torment to us and onely beasts to take pleasure in themselves and that nothing but hard labour and restraints are lawful to man for beasts eat and drink and take their ease and for al we know please themselves in their thoughts and may be they have as various and vain thoughts as mans unlesse men torment them and put them to labour and though labour and industery may be pleasant to some yet not when it is put upon them as a law of necessity for laws and necessities are bonds though we make them our selves and men may think all things are lawful that are or tend not to the destruction of nature for nature is bountiful and easy and ties not up her creatures but gives them liberty and use of themselves unlesse it be to destroy themselves unprositably which is against nature but for preservation and to prolong the life of somthing else as Fame Friends Countrey which he rather lives in then dies to and nature is the giver of life to all and therefore those that maintain life in most things is the greatest friend to nature as in losing one life to save many and to die for fame is to live longer in the memory of other men then he knows he shall in the life of his own body but one would think there were no vanity in man for there was nothing done or thought but was to some purpose which is to please themselves though all thoughts and all actions are not pleasing but those I suppose are inforced and upon necessity and not voluntary then it is no greater vanity then what cannot be avoided for some take more pleasure in getting or striving to get the opinion of others then they can grieve at the paines they take and some take as much pleasure in building an house of cardes as another doth of stone and some take as much if not more pleasure in a phantasme as another in the gravest and assured'st thoughts for what pleasure Poets take in their imaginations of impossibilities as if men should imploy their time thoughts in nothing but what is merely necessary they would grow a troublesome burthen to themselves being made by nature inquisitive busie and contemplative For there are few things serve meerly to the use of necessity unlesse we will fill our time with superfluities and curiosities which are called vanitie and this vanity is that which sets all Common-wealths awork and makes them to live by one another that which is called vanitie is of a middle nature as by that which is called vice and that which is called vertue for there is no malignity in vanity for where malignity is it leaves to be vanity and turnes to be vice vanity is the worldly delight of man if man had any delight in the world But the wise Preacher saith All is vanitie under the Sun and vexation of spirit and to eat and drink in peace is the onely happinesse if so we are onely happy when we are eating and sleeping they say in all desires obtained man is more unsatisfied and that the onely pleasure is in desiring and in endevouring and not in the injoying and that man is contented and pleased with nothing that he hath in possession but it is not that man that is displeased with all that he hath but that pleasure is not permanent and though pleasure is according to every mans delectation yet there is no man but hath pleasure somtimes one way somtimes another but as the sense seemes to be ravished at the first touch yet by the often repetition it growes troublesome and painful and so ceaseth for it is with the senses as it is with the strength for great Labour wearies and weakens the strength nor can the strength be in every member at once no more then the senses can receive their full gust at once for the leggs wil grow feeble with labour and actions of the armes though the bulk of the strength lies not in the armes for a man cannot run fast and give a violent motion to his armes but the one will hinder the other so much as both will be of little use the same will be with the senses for a generality takes part away from every particular and one and the same motion to every particular wearies and troubles ti in so much as that which was a pleasure becomes a grief or pain so as it is not that man that takes not pleasure in what he enjoyeth for if any one delights in particular tast if the appetite were not wearied the delight would be the same as it was at the first touch to eternitie but the senses being tirrable grow wearied feeble and sick with violent motion and continual labour that they cannot relish that they did before besides al desires that proceed from the senses increaseth their motion and as all the senses are
chiefly in the head so their like and dislike to most things proceeds from thence for the brain will be so weary with one and the same motion as the leggs with running and the violenter the senses are the sooner tired they be but there are two chief sortes of pleasure the one wholy dwelling in the senses which is fading the other lasts as long as life and hath a desire to last longer these are those things or thoughts as lie not wholy in the senses but onely found out by them and kept and nourished by the minde in this the senses follow the minde and where the minde leades the senses it walkes them with so moderate a pace and rules them with so equal motions as they are never weary But when the senses lead and rule the minde it is alwayes out of order and is tired in following the uneven strange and violent wayes not knowing where to rest but the reason why displeasure lasts longer then pleasure is because displeasure is of the nature of death For though motion doth not cease as in death yet it is slow and dull and pleasure which is of the nature of life is full of motion bot and violent the one is like a long and tedious sicknes the other like a hot and burning fever that destroyes soon The nature of Man IT is the nature of mankinde to run into extreams for their mindes are as their bodies are for most commonly there is a predominate passion in the one as a predominat humor in the other so that dispositions of men are governed more by passion then by reason as the body is governed more by appetite then by conveniencies The Power of the Senses THe body hath power over the will for the appetite of the five senses draws the will forcibly although reason helps to defend it The appetite is more delighted by degrees then with a full gust But one would think that every several sense did strike but upon one string or nerve for the minde is often moved to one and the same passion by the several senses and again one would think that every several object or subject did strike upon a several nerve although to the pleasure or pain but of one sense and the minde receives several pleasures or griefes from those varieties The happy Farmer THe Farmer and his wife sons daughters and servants are happier then the Kings Nobles or Gentry for a king hath more cares to govern his kingdom then he receives pleasure in the enjoyment The Farmers care is onely to pay his rent which he must have a very hard bargain or be a very ill husband if he cannot do it he takes more pleasure in his labour then the Nobility in their ease his labour gets a good stomack digests his meat provokes sleep quickens his spirits maintains health prolongs life and grows rich into the bargain The Nobility or Gentry their disease of idlenesse deads their stomacks decayes their health shortens their lives besides makes them of inconstant natures and empty purses and their queasy bodies make them desirevariety of wines meats and women and idlenesse wearieth their spirits which makes them wander to several places company games or sports yet ease and riots make finer wits for riots make many vapours and idlenesse breeds thoughts which heates the braine and heat is active and so refines the wit and fires the spirits and hot spirits make ambition ambition wel disposeth mindes produceth worthy actions and honourable reports and not onely fills them with courage but gives them curiosity civility justice and the like but ambition to depraved mindes makes them slaves to base actions as flattering cheating or betraying or any unworthinesse to compasse their ends The vastness of desires THere are few but desires to be absolute in the world as to be the singular work of nature and to have the power over all her other workes although they may be more happy with lesse but nature hath given men those vast desires as they can keep in no limits yet they begin low and humble as for example a man that is very poor and in great wants desires onely to have so much as will serve meer necessity and when he hath that then he desireth conveniences then for decency after for curiosity and so for glory state reputation and fame and though desire runs several wayes yet they aym all at one end If any end there were which is to imbrace all but some say the minde is the measure of happinesse which is impossible unlesse the minde were reasonable for the minde is not satisfied though it had all but requires more so the minde is like eternity alwayes running but never comes to an end Of the Vain Uselesse and unprofitable Wishes I Perceive if men could have their wish of nature or fortune they would wish that which was admired and esteemed by others and not what he received for man seems to build his happinesse in the opinion of others as the chiefest injoyment of pleasure in himself Of desires and fears SOme say that it is a miserable state of minde to have few things to desire and many things to fear but surely the misery lieth onely in the many feares not in the few desires and if desires are pleasing in the birth yet it puts the minde in great pain when they are strangled with the string of impossibilities or at least made sick and faint with improbabilities for if hopes give them life despair gives them death and where one desires enjoyes a possession many thousands are beaten back for desire seldom keeps rank but flies beyond compasse yet many times desires are helped by their grateful servants patience and industry For industry is a kinde of witch-craft for wise industry will bring that to passe as one would think it were impossible but without all doubt that minde that hath the ferest wishes is in the happiest condition for it is as if it had a fruition of all things What desires a man may have to make him happy THe desires for happines are not in the favour of Princes nor in being Princes to have favourites or to be popular nor in the conquering of many nations and men nor in having vast possessions or to be Emperours of the whole world or in the revenge of enemies or to enjoy their beloved or to have many Lovers nor in beauty art wit nor strength but to have health so as to enjoy life and peace to guard it to be praised and not flattered admired but not lusted after to be envyed but not hated to be beloved without ends to love without jealousie to learn without labour to have wise experience without losse to live quietly without fear to be an enemy to none to have pleasure without pain honour and riches without trouble and time to wait on them which every prudent man makes it to do but these are not easily to be had so that the best way to be happy is
the Nobles but factions whch are like gamesters when they play setting life at the stake shuffle them together intermixing the Nobles and Commons where loyalty is shuffled from the crown duty from Parents tendernesse from children fidelity from Masters continencies from husbands and wives truth from friends from justice innocency charity from misery Chance playes and fortune draws the stakes Of forraign War FOrraign war is necessary some times to maintain Peace at at home it opens the vein of discontents and le ts out the hot fevourish amb tion of the minde which otherwise would grow to a dangerous and mad rebellion yet it makes most commonly a kingdom weak and thin according as the Physick doth work for if the purges be very strong it makes them faint and feeble so the successe of war makes a kingdom ill fortune makes it lean and weak good fortune gives it strength and makes it fat Of rash Commanders A Man at his first entry into actions ought to be very careful of shewing himself prudent and moderate as well as bold and valiant a good commander should overcome by Policy and conduct as well as by violence and force of armies for many a gallant army is lost through the rashnesse of a commander And a foolish and negligent Commander makes his souldiers as cowardly as a careful Commander makes them valiant But a good commander gets love of his souldiers as finding his care and knowing his skill and approved to have courage which is to be required from a commander when those that are rash Careless ignorant proud improvident timerous doubtful are to be shunned and not to be imployed but they are best to govern that have noble and generous hearts for liberality and generosity are the nature of a god Of being armed A Man that will go into the field unarmed is either a desperate fool or he means to run away when it comes to his turn to fight for a valiant man will arm his body in the day of battle to save his life to win an honour and reputation of victory But some love pleasure more then honour and some love honour more then life Of a General and a Colonel and Army A General of a hundred thousand men sounds loud in the ears of the world when a Captain of a Brigade is hardly taken notice of although his conduct in ordering his Brigade hath been as skilful and as prudent and his Courage and his Onset as daring as the Generals yet such advantages and ods hath numbers as it makes great reckoning in the World when the Actions of a few are never measured Of the Power of the Sword A Sword is a valiant mans friend he will sooner part with Life than part with it and courts it as his Mistriss being as industrious and studious to know the Art and use of the one as to know the nature disposition and inclination of the other for a Sword is a defender and a mantainer of his Honour it is a strength against Dangers a shelter for Vertue a protection to Innocency it is the Key that opens the Gate of Fames great Court it humbles the Proud it advanceth the Low and Mean to the height of a Reputation it Civilizes Nations it environs a Common-wealth it decides quarrels it divides spoyls it is the Commander of the World it is the Conducter to all noble and Heroick Actions it is the Vice-gerent to death a Guard to life it is the Bolt of Jupiter the Trident of Neptune the Cerberus of Pluto It can do more than Vertue can do for it can command Vertue can only intreat or perswade the very signification of a Sword is great for it signifies both Power and Justice Command and Rule When I speak of a Sword I mean any thing that performs the same function and office as to affault and defend which all forts of Arms will not do Of Common-wealths or States-men THe grave formalists account good States-men those that are Tyrants such as Cato was who wrought the destruction of the Roman Common-wealth but very severe and strickt rules of Art oft times are broken by the over powerful force of Nature which cannot indure to be bound beyond the strenght of moderate Liberty wherefore moderation in Government is as necessary as moderation for health for those that restrain their Appetite too much starve the Body and those that give no restraint kill it with Surfets so likewise in a Common-wealth those that restrain Liberty too much inslave it and those that give to much Freedom confound it thus either ways bring death to the Body or ruin to the Common-wealth Of Partiality of the World OUtward Honours should be the signs of inward Worth as Actions proceeding from valour and wisdom in conducting and governing affairs to the best for their Countries service but outward honour is as all other gifts of Fortune unchosenly given for the Coward and the Fool and the Knave are many times crowned with Honour when the Valiant the Wise and the Just sit unregarded and unrewarded wherefore Passion and Erronious opinions are the two Emperours of the world Of Men. Some in the dispraise of men say that they are so opinionated as they think they are able to govern the whole world in all active affairs although they have neither foresight nor experience and that most of them are as humorsome and as fantastical and inconstant as Women full of brags and vain glorie feigning themselves to be otherways than they are as to be thought wise by postures with ringing their heads on one side or winking with their eys or shrinking up their shoulders others again by hiding their ignorance with gravity and formality some are tedious in stuffing the ears of the hearers with History others with controversies some again with long barren and stale tales then whispering of secrets and dangerous Plots some again have more courage in their words and looks than in their hearts and some so spruce as they seem effeminat and others so affectedly careless as they are rude and seem Clownish thus they put more false faces on than Women do but sure there be many Men in the World as their wisdom makes them as petty Gods able to mannage and govern great and difficult affairs and a wise man is a valiant wan not a desperat man a quiet man not a quarreller a civil man not a dissembler an industrious not a busy man and humble not a flatterer a generous man not a prodigal a prudent man not a covetous man a patient man not an insensible man a fashionable not a spruce man and I have heard say that a Worthy Honourable and a Gallant man is one that is Wise Just and Honest. Of Behaviour THere is nothing wins more upon the soul of men than Civility and Curteous behaviour it indears more than words for Eloquent Oratory though it insinuates yes it is like a Tyrant that carrys the opinions of men like Captives by force rather than
wins them by gentle perswasions neither will it do that unless it be mixed with an Elegancy of delivery and Curteous behaviour which is without all affectation which Eloquence seldom or never hath but a free and Civil behaviour causeth affection to run after it it abates the pride of the proud to meet it it ingentles the wild and barbarous it softens the rigid it begets compassion in the cruel it moves pitty in misery it begets love in prosperity and most commonly good nature hath Civil and curteous behaviour but the Civil and courteous have not alwaies good natures so that it becomes verity in the own and hypocrisy in the other which nevertheless plcaseth although it be a fair face to a false heart Of Natural posture and Words ALl natural postures have a coherence with the nature of the mind as a man that hath high ambitious thoughts hath a proud garb a man of great and fearless Spirit hath a resolute garb a timorous and a fearful mind hath a fauning and crouching garb a mistrustful mind a wary land sly garb a mind that hath few desires a dull garb a vain mind a fantastical garb a busy mind a restless garb a luxurious nature a lazy garb and so many in like kind thus as there are several natures so there are natural postures belonging to such minds for if the art of breeding were not which brings several customs which customs are a second nature the body would follow the humours of the mind Likewise our words are apt to run according to our Thoughts for if our thoughts hunt after self praises our words most commonly are boasting and bragging if our thoughts hunt after debaucherys our words are lascivious if our thoughts are envious our words are spightful if proud our words are scornful if amorous our words are affected and whining if our thoughts are full of grief our words are complaining if angry then our words are rayling thus upon every subject that the Thoughts work upon the Tongue draws forth or spins forth thrids of discourse Of Youth YOuth ought to have good and grave Counsels and solid studies to poyse them for if the bottoms or keel of life be not ballanced the sayls of vanity will over-turn their Ship of happiness for it is not those light Counsels that Parents do vulgarly use to give their Children that make them wise as saying Take heed of catching cold or not eating such and such meats or teaching them how to put off their hat or making a Leg with a good grace though that doth well nor yet to keep them too hard to their studies for it makes them most commonly pedandick but to send them abroad to learn to know the World that they may know men and manners to see several Nations and to observe several Natures Customs Laws and Ceremonies their Wars or Contracts of Peace thus they may come to be good Statesmen or Commanders in War and be able to do their Country good service and to get to themselves honour and fame besides the knowledge of the world gives a satisfaction to the mind for when they see there is a change and misfortunes that are not to be avoyded they will not make every little cross an affliction but take afflictions as things necessary and ought to be born with patience and by this shall they live more happily and dye more willingly Of the breeding of Children CHildren should be taught at first the best plainest and purest of their language and the most significant words and not as their nurses teach them a strange kind of gibbridge broken language of their own making which is like scraps of several meats heapt together or hath'd mixt or minced so do they the purest of their language as for example when Nurses teach children to go instead of saying go they say do do and instead of saying come to me they say tum to me and when they newly come out of a sleep and cannot well open their eyes they do not say My Child cannot well open his or her eyes but my chid tant open its nies and when they should bid them speak they bid them peak and when they should ask them if they will or would drink they ask them if they will dinck and so all the rest of their language they teach Children is after this manner when it is as easy for those that learn Children to speak and more easy for the Children to learn plainly and the right language than this false language which serves them to no use but only takes up so much the more time to learn to speak plain and as they should do which time might be imployed in the understanding of sense which is lost in words And it is not only the foolish and ill-bread nurses that speak to Children thus but their Fathers which many times are accounted Wisemen and their Mothers discreet Women which my thinks is very strange that wise and rational men when they talk to Children should strive to make themselves Children in their speech and not rather strive to make Children speak like wise men yet such is the power of custom that wisemen will follow it although it be unnecessary uneasy and foolishly hurtful for certainly this broken compounded and false language they teach Children is so Imprinted in the Brains as it can hardly be rubbed out again and the Tongue gets such a habit of an ill and false pronuntiation as when they are grown to men and womens estate their speech slows not so easy nor sweet nor their tongue moves not so voluble nor smooth as other ways they would Likewise they learn them the rudest language first as to bid them say such a one Lies or to call them Rogues and the like names and then laugh as if it were a witty jest And as they breed them in their language so they breed them in their sports pastimes or exercises as to play with children at boe-peep blind-man-buff and Cocks hod as they call them that is to muffle their head and eyes and then they run about to knock their heads against the doors posts and tables to break their Legs over stools threshholds or to run into the fire where many times they desorm themselves with the mischiefs that follow or to hide themselves behind hangings and old cubbords or dirty holes or the like places where they foul their cloaths disaffect the Brain with stincks and are almost chokt with durt and dust Cobwebs and Spiders Flys and the like getting upon them also to role upon the ground likewise to stand upon their heads when dancing might be learned with the feet as easy as tumbling in several postures and to stand upon the head and is it not as easy to learn them to write and read as to build houses with Cards they are both but making of figures and joyning together and is it not as easy to learn them the Globe as to play at Cards and is it not as easy
settlement to study Divinity is rather to study Controversy than salvation to study Philosophy is to seek that they cannot find to study History is to study Lys more than Lives where a Gentleman should study Truth follow Truth and practice Justice a little Rhetorick doth well to cloath his mind in soft numbers trim it with handsome phrases and a Gentleman should converse with Poetry for Poetry sweetens the nature not softens it to make it facil but civilizes it making it courteous affable and conversable inspiring the mind with high and noble thoughts which is the way to be inshrined in honourable Fame Like an Urn that keeps the ashes of the body from being scattered and lost so Fame keeps good deeds in the Urn of the memory Bred with the Muses THose that are bred up with the Muses are most commonly of sweet dispositions Civil and Courteous in their behaviour Pleasant and Witty in their discourse Noble and Heroick in their actions Free and Generous in their distributions Grateful for obligations Compassionate to the miserable and Charitable to the distressed But those that are born Poets are ingenuous by nature and prone to invention quick in apprehension various in imagination or conception their thoughts work generously and entertain their time constantly and are the best Companions to life where Fancy presents several Scenes and Wit speaks the Prologues True Poets and natural Philosophers are rather born such than learn'd to be such for it is a natural Ingenuity that creates fine fancies and produceth rational opinions Of Poetry AS for Poetry although it sits not in the first form in Wisdoms School nor the second yet it sits on the third for on the first form sits Honesty that is to be honest for honesties sake not out of by ends either for profit credit or other respects that it brings but out of Justice The next is Rule or Moderation which is to rule our actions and moderate our appetites for men may mean well yet out of indiscretion may run themselves into many errors not only in offending themselves but in offending their neighbours which may cause repentance and he is the wisest man that hath least to repent by moderating the appetite for whosoever goeth beyond the rule of Reason causeth a pain instead of a pleasure a loathing or hate instead of a release or desire for there is an old saying and a true Too much of a good thing is stark naught In the next place comes in Poetry wherein is included Musick and Rhetorick which is Number and Measure Judgement and Fancy Imitation and Invention It is the finest work that Nature hath made for it animates the Spirits to Devotion it fires the Spirits to Action it begcts Love it abates Hate it tempers Anger it asswageth Grief it easeth Pain increaseth Joy allays Fear and sweetens the whole life of Man by playing so well upon the Brain as it strikes the strings of the Heart with Delight which makes the Heart to dance and keeps the Mind in tune whereby the Thoughts move equally in a round Circle where Love sits in the midst as Mistris and judges For if Wisdom is the way to Happiness and Happiness lives in Delight and Delight in the Spirits then Poetry is a part of Wisdom since it is a Commander of that part and Essence of Man The Pastime of Wit WIT chears the Heart refresheth the Spirits delights the Mind entertains the Thoughts sweetens Melancholy dresses Joy mourns with Sorrow pleaseth Lovers excuseth Falshoods mends Faults begs Pardon Wit is a fine Companion either in private Closets full Courts or in long Travels Wit is neither troublesome nor chargeable Wit hath no bottome but is like a perpetual Spring Wit is the Sun of the Brain The dis-esteem Youth hath of Age. YOuth despiseth Age and thinks that because they are not full of Vanity they have not so much Knowledge Where Age pityeth Youth remembring their present Knowledge was got at the charge of their youthfull follyes But Youth believing nothing but what their present Humour leads them unto and their undigested Brain presents unto them saith than an Old Brain is rotten not comparing Nestor's Brain which was old in Years but sound in Judgement and Jeroboam's Juncto which was young in Years and weak in Counsel But one Nestor's Brain is able to turn all young Brains and make them so disty that they shall not know what to do For from young Counsel proceeds vain Designs fruitless Travels hard Adventures and successless Ends but from the Counsel of the Aged Danger is walled out and Peace is kept within and when they must War they take not Fortune but Prudence to be their Guide And the Errours that Youth commits Age is fain to rectifie though sometimes they are past remedy So that Youth is a kind of Monster in State-affairs which hath neither Head nor Tail for they begin without Probabilities and end in Ruins when Age begins wisely and ends successfully Wherefore it is better to take Aged Men ballanced with Wisdom than Young Men with Empty Heads or else a Head filled with rash Folly or light Vanities The Virtues of Age. AGE is carefull watchfull circumspect solid and grave slow but sure knows Business Time and Men Constant secret prudent and temperate Their Affections are placed upon Worth and Merit and love where they should so that Age is wise for it makes Consideration to open the Gate and Reason to lead the way I speak not here of Old Men for those can onely be called old where Time hath made a defect in their Memory and Understanding so that some may never come to be old although they live long for Age hath more power over the Body than the Mind But as a Woman is at the height and ripeness of her Beauty at the years of 20. so a Man is at the height and ripeness of Understanding about the years of 50. For by that time he may arrive by experience to the knowledge of attaining to be a Wise man The Defects of Age. AGE is covetous and griping superstitious and fearfull mistrustfull and jealous testy and froward dull and heavy lazy and slothfull forgetfull and tedious in their discourse neither have they great affection to any thing or for any thing A Young Man not a Wise Man IT is as impossible for a Young Man to be a Wise Man as for them that cannot read their A B C to read any Book or to speak before they have learnd or to go before they have strength For how can a Man be Wise without Knowledge which Knowledge is got by Experience and Experience is the Child of Time For though there may be many that live long and know little yet there are none that have lived but a little while that can know much which is Youth For Youth may know much for Youth but not enough for Knowledge consisteth in the weight and measure of things so that a Young Man may have a little
Ambition may not overturn them nor the Whirlwind of Evil Perswasions may not swallow them nor to be lost in the dark Nights of Ignorance but let the bright Star of Knowledge light them and the Needle of Understanding direct them But the greatest Storms that shipwrack honest Education is Civil Wars for Civil Wars corrupt good Manners especially Women that are Self admirers which makes them believe their own Praises and yield to Flattery the Murtherer of Chastity for Insinuating Deceit is most powerfull in Civil Diffention both in Private Families and Publick Commonwealths Of Courtships IT is a sign a Lover grows weary of his Mistris when he begins to give her good and virtuous Counsel as if a Man that hath had enough of his Mistris should perswade her to go into a Nunnery and to go into a Nunnery when a Woman is Old is like those that go into an Hospital when they are ready to fall in pieces with the Pox for to be Old is the Pox of Time as the other is the Pox of the Bones for they are both full of Pain and decay of Nature for Time and Disorder works the same effects for as Time wears out the Body so Disorder tears out the Body Of Adulteries IN Marriage it is far worse and more Inconveniencies come by the disobedience of the Wife and her Adulteries than the Husband For first she dishonours her self insomuch as her Company is an Aspersion to all honest Women that frequent therein which makes the Chast to shun her Society Next she is a dishonour to the Family from whence she sprung and makes the World suspect the Chastity of her Mother for there is an old saying Cat will after kind thus we see that the World is apt to judge from the Original The third dishonour is to their Children for were they never so Beautifull and Virtuous yet Families of Honour refuse to match with them unless they bring great advantage by their Wealth and then none will receive them into their Stock but those whom Poverty hath eaten up for the disgrace is like the Leprosy never to be cured and it infects the whole Posterity and it gives Spots to the Family it is joyned with The fourth and last dishonour is to the Husband for let a Husband of a dishonest Wife be never so worthy a Man yet her Follyes shall lessen the Esteem of his Merits to the generality of the World Although he have a great Valour a flowing Generosity a sound Judgement a fine Wit and an honest Mind well bred Beautifull Rich Honourable yet the vulgar part of the World will point at him as a Fool a Coward and all they can think to be bad in a Man nay those excellent Virtues of Nature and Education shall be dimm'd and lose their Gloss even to the Wife although it be unjust to mis-prize one for the fault of the other Yet such is the nature of the World as they will censure by what they can mistrust as well as that they can assuredly know and think that some Defects undivulged lye hid which makes her prefer another in her Affections before him and any thing that is despised seems poor and inferiour at the first blush unless they meet with them that value things as they are and not as they seem which few do for the most part of the World regard more the outside than the inside and are carried away more by the shew than the substance which makes so many mistake that they despise what they should admire and love what they should hate and hate what they should love This is the reason that Gallant Worthy and Wise Men are dishonoured by their dishonest Wives Besides the Dishonour the Inconveniencies are many First it abolisheth all lawfull and right Inheritance for the Child that is born in Wedlock although begot by another Man shall inherit the Husbands Estate although it be known to be another Mans by our Laws Next for the abuses of Industry as for the profit and pain of his Labour to go to a Stranger Thirdly for the weakning of Natural Affection for a Man that mistrusts that all are not his own makes him not love any because he cannot guesse which are his rather he hates all for fear he should love him that brings him Dishonour and Discontent or at least set the Parents upon the Wrack with Fear and Grief as afraid to mistake their own and grieve that their own may have too little Affection from them Thence it takes away the tenderness of Affection from the Parents and neglects and rigour to their Children it makes disobedience from Children to their Parents for the disgrace and wrong they receive so that Suspicion is become the Master of the House and Shame the Mistris Unthankfulness the Steward and nothing is entertained but Discontents Adulteries of Men. THE like Dishonour and Inconvenience comes not by Adultery of the Husband as the Wife for the Children receive no dishonour by the Fathers Liberty nor the Wife very much for the worst that can be thought is that she is not so pleasing to her Husband either in her Person or in her Humour Nay it begets rather a greater Luster to her Merits and sets off her Virtues more to her Advantage as to shew her Fortitude in Patience her Constancy in Chastity her Love in her Obedience which the World taking notice of pities her hard Fortune in an unkind Husband and Pity proceeds rather from Love than Scorn and gives the Dishonour to the Husband for his Inconstancies and not a Disgrace to the Wife in being forsaken if she have an approved Virtue knowing it is Facility in being subject to change not her want of Merit but the Inconveniencies that come thereon it is ruine to a Mans Estate for Concubines are chargeable for Women are won oftner by Gifts than for pure Affection For though Affection sueth often it speeds but seldome when Gifts commonly prevail and besides Charges is multiplyed by their increase the next is apt to corrupt Noble Natures by the practice of Dissembling and Flattery of the Enamoured to grow False and Deceitfull to all other for Custome is a Second Nature Then this Amorous Love hinders all Business and Affairs of the World so that it is not onely wasting his present Estate but makes him uncapable of raising another for although all Lovers are most Ingenious and Industrious to obtain their Beloved yet to all other things of the World they are as dead Next as he is unprofitable for himself so he is not profitable for the Common-wealth for he that hath his Mind full of Women can have no room for any thing else besides his Heart is in his Mistrisses Breast This kind of Love effeminates and degrades a Man of his Valour to all but for his Mistrisses Love witness Mark Anthony I mean not all those that are affected to Women for Moderate Love gives an Edge to Valour but those that are swallowed up and
abroad whereof they have better at home and the unsatiable Desire of Mankind makes them search for what is never to be found But where Nature gives a Satisfactory Mind she gives a Happy Life and what can we imagin the Joys of Heaven but a stint to our wandring Desires therefore those that are most fixt are nearer Heaven and he is the Wisest that is nearest to Unity and those that are most united are likest to a God But where Discord happens Hell is resemb'ed and harsh haughty and not insulting Natures are composed like Devils and Caesar shewed himself a Fool in nothing but in quitting his Guard and not hearkning to his Wife which was to shew his Courage and to let the World see he durst go unarmed singly alone as it were and his freedom from the chains of fond Affection thus quitting Prudence and Love he dyed too violent a Death And Seianus quitting the Affection towards his Wife and placing it upon Julian raised such a Jealousie in Tyberius as it cost him his Life otherwise he might have ruled the Empire and so the most part of the World Thus Anthony's leaving his Wife for the love of Cleopatra lost him the third part of the World Neither are the Counsels of a Wife alwaies to be despised if all were honest nor to be lockt from the private Affairs of her Husband Portia was able to keep a Secret and was of Brutus her Husbands Confedenacy though not Actually yet Concealing And if Caesar had condescended to his Wives Perswasion he had not gone to the Senate that day and who knows but the next might have discovered the Conspiracy and numberless of the like Examples might be given Besides it is to be observed where the Husband and Wife disagree their Family is in disorder their Estates go to decay Jealousies arise which cause Discords from whence proceeds a discontented and unhappy Life And where the Husband and Wife are united in Minds as well as in Body all prospers and most commonly Ease and Plenty crown that Family Industry is their Recreation Peace is their Joy Love is their Happiness for a kind Husband makes an obedient Wife dutifull Children faithfull Servants for a Wise Man rules his Family with gentle kind and seasonable Perswasions with honest and sincere Actions with gratefull and just Rewards and Kindness and Constant Natures work hard and obeisant Natures to be more pliant and facile for Kindness melts hardest Hearts and makes them flexible to form them as they please where Cruelty or Severity hardens them so much as they will rather break than bend And if the Rational part of the World would but consider what Felicity there is in peacefull Prosperity they would never wander so much out of the way Of Men and Women SOme say a Man is a Nobler Creature than a Woman because our Saviour took upon him the Body of Man and another that Man was made first But these two Reasons are weak for the Holy Spirit took upon him the shape of a Dove which Creature is of less esteem than Mankind and for the Preheminency in Creation the Devil was made before Man Nature in the Composure of Men and Women IT is not so great a Fault in Nature for a Woman to be Masculine as for a Man to be Effeminat for it is a Defect in Nature to decline as to see Men like Women but to see a Masculine Woman is but onely as if Nature had mistook and had placed a Mans Spirit in a Womans Body but Nature hath both her Mistakes and Weaknesses but when she works perfectly she gives Man a gentle and sweet Disposition a generous Mind a valiant Heart a wife Head a voluble Tongue a healthfull Body and strong and active Limbs To Woman she gives a chast Mind a sober Disposition a silent Tongue a fair and modest Face a neat Shape and a gracefull Motion The Nature of Man MAN is more apt to take Dislikes at all things than to delight in any thing but Nature hath given us no Pleasure but what ends in Pain for the end of Pleasure is Grief for Cruel Nature curbs us in with Fear and yet spurs us on with Desires for she hath made Mans mind to hunt more after Varieties by Desire than she hath made Varieties to satisfie the Desires Of Painting THere be some that condemn the Art of Painting in Women others that defend it for say they as Nature hath made one World so Art another and that Art is become the Mistris of Nature neither is it against Nature to help the Defects Besides those that find out new Arts are esteemed so that they become as Petty Gods whether they become Advantageous to Man or no as the Memory of those that found out the Art of Gunpowder Guns Swords and all Engins of War for Mischief and shall they be more praised and commended than those that find out Arts and Adornments as Painting Curling and other Dressings for the one destroyes Mankind this increaseth it the one brings Love the other begets Hate But some will say those Arts defend their Lives but where they once use them to defend their Lives they use them ten times to destroy Life and though it is no Fault in the Inventer but in the User no more is Painting when it is used for a good intent as to keep or increase lawfull Affection But say they it is a dissembling to make that appear otherwise than it is ' Tisanswer'd No more than to keep warm in Winter for Cold is Natural so is the sense of it in Winter but Clothes to keep it out are Artificial and the true use of the Art of Painting is to keep warm a Lawfull Affection Besides If we must use no more than what Nature hath given us we must go naked and those that have a bald Head must not wear a Peruick or Cap to cover it and those that are born with one Leg shorter than the other must not wear a high Shoe to make them even nor indeed wear any Shoes at all especially with Heels because they make them seem higher but go with the Feet bare and those that are Crooked must wear no Bombast and many such Examples may be brought But say some it is a Bawd to entice in begetting evil Desires It is answered No more a Bawd than Nature is in making a handsome Creature but if they must do nothing for fear of Enticing then Mankind must neither cut their Hair nor pare their Nails nor shave their Beards nor wash their selves which would be very slovenly for fear they should appear so handsome as they may perswade and entice the Lookers on to evil Desires which if so let them be like Swine and wallow in Mire but it is to be feared that the Mire will be too hard for the evil Desires so as there may be more brought in defence of Painting than can be said against it Wherefore say they it is lawfull both in Maids and
desire Power because they would be like to a God but Tyrants may be said to keep their Power by the sweat of their Brows 54. To keep the Common People in order they must be awed with Fear as well as nourished with Love or flattered with Hopes 55. What hopes can People have of a King to govern a Kingdome when he doth not reform his own Houshold but lets it run into Faction and Disorder 56. The Service to Kings is Allegiance 57. The Service to Nature is Self preservation 58. The Service to God is a Pure Life and Unfeigned Love 59. The Reward from Kings is Outward Honour 60. The Reward from Nature is Death 61. The Reward from God Eternal Life 62. Every one is afraid of Tyrannie that is under Subjection but when Tyrannie turns from it self to Clemency then Love comes where Fear was 63. The best way for Princes to keep up Authority is to make good Laws to distribute Justice to correct Vice to reward Virtue to countenance Industry to provide for the safety of Nation and People 64. A Man that suffers all Injuries is a Fool but to suffer some or to suffer a Moderation is Patience 65. For Patience is the way to Folly as Fury or Choler to Madness 66. To put up or pass by an Injury from those that have power seems to proceed from Fear but to pass by an Injury from the powerless seems Heroick 67. Of all Virtues Patience hath the fewest Passions mixt with it and though it seems unsensible yet it seeth clearly into its own Misfortunes for Patience belongs to the Misfortunes that concern a Mans self 68. Yet Patience should not be a Bawd to a Mans ruine 69. There is none can be so patient as those that have suffered much 70. The Designs of Hate are easier followed and oftner practiced than of Love for one may easier take Revenge of a Foe than deliver Life and Liberty to a Friend 71. There is none so apt to revenge as those that have been forgiven 72. There is none so sorrowfull as those that want Means and Waies to make Satisfaction 73. Many times Guiltiness is more confident than Innocency 74. There is as much difference betwixt Pleasure and Joy as Sorrow and Melancholy for one disorders the Spirits the other composes them An overplus of Joy is like those that are drunk for it makes the Head of Reason dissy There are many sorts of Melancholy but Love-Melancholy makes them cry out O Pleasing Pain and Happy Misery 75. There is a fix'd Grief and a moving Grief the one hath neither Sighs nor Tears but seems as a Marble Pillar the other breaks into Complaint and pours it self forth in Showers of Tears Yet there are many sorts of Tears for there are Tears of Joy and there are Tears of Sorrow and Tears of Anger Tears of Pity and of Mirth and in all Passions Tears are apt to flow especially from moyst Brains But deep Sorrow hath dry Eyes silent Tongues and aking Hearts 76. When the Spirits are wearied with Grief they fall into a Melancholy Weeping and then are setled with a compliance to time 77. Passion will rise in the defence of Honour and the Tongue will display the Passion 78. For all we call Love is Friendship which is begot by agreeable Humours or received Curtesies or a Resemblance of Parts which is alterable but there can be no true Love but upon the unalterable God 79. There are waies to perfect Love but no Body can arrive to the Journeys end untill they come to Heaven because there is no Perfection in this World and there can be no perfect Love but upon a perfect Object 80. They that love much can never be Happy for the Torment of what Evil may come to that they love takes away the sweetness of what they enjoy Thus the fear of Losing is more unequal than the pleasure of Enjoyment 81. The Root of Love is like a Rock which stands against all Storms but Wantonness is like the Root of a Flower that every Worm may eat thorow 82. Envious Persons and Lovers are the greatest Flatterers the one flatters to hide his Envy the other to please the Beloved 83. Those Affections are strongest that Nature and Education have linkt together not onely by Birth but by Conversation for as Birth most commonly gives a likeness of parts so Conversation breeds a resemblance in humours and dispositions the one begets a likeness in Body the other of Minds or Souls 84. There is no Sound strikes the Ears so hard as the report of Death especially when Affection opens the Dore and lets the Messenger down into the Heart 85. True Love is an Affection which is very difficult to settle and hard to remove when once placed 86. To move Passion rather belongs to the Orator than the Poet for a Poet is a Creator of Fancy and Poetry rather makes than perswades But indeed that which moves Passion most is rather by Sound than Sense witness Musick which is the greatest Mover of Passion Thus Musick moves Passion more than Reason but Poetry is rather to delight the Wit than perswade the Reason 87. There is as much difference in Wit as there is in Pictures for every Picture is not drawn by Apelles and as some Painters are but for Sign-posts so some Wits are onely fit for Ballads 88. One and the same Tale told by several Persons makes great difference in the Affections of the Hearers 89. A witty Description in Discourse paints a lively Description in the Mind 90. A Translator acts the Person of an Author where most commonly the Author is represented to his advantage 91. There are a greater number that write more wisely and learnedly than delightfully 92. Thoughts when they run too fast or are prest too hard may destroy the Body by the distempering of the Mind 93. To have a Fixt Thought is to draw the Imaginations to a point 94. Though the Understanding be clear yet the Utterance may be instructed if the Tongue be not filed with the Motion to make all run smooth and even 95. Some have more Words than Wit and more Wit then Judgement 96. And others have more Years than Experience and more Experience than Honesty 97. Some have more Law than Policy 98. Some have more Ambition than Power and more Power than Justice 99. Secret Meetings Soft Whisperings or Dumb Shews have most commonly evil Designes 100. The dark Minds of Men are deceitfull 101. It were base for a Man or Woman to lay a Blemish upon those that have given them an honorable Reputation 102. Many that wish their Enemies Confusion yet would not betray them to it 103. I had rather hear what my Enemy can say against me than what my Enemy can say for me for there are none so good but may have some Faults which their Enemy is more apt to find out than their Friends much less themselves 104. Those persons that are railed at seem Nobler than those
feed on Melancholy Of Translation Essay 138. WE are given much in this latter Age to Translation and though Translation is a good Work because it doth not only divulge good Authors but distributes Knowledge to the unlearned in Languages yet Translators are but like those that shew the Tombs at Westminster or the Lyons at the Tower which is but to be an Informer not the Owner of them Essay 139. ALthough Accidents give the Ground to some Arts yet they are rude and uneasy untill the Brain hath polished them over True it is the Senses most commonly give the Brain the matter to work on yet the Brain forms and figures those Materials and disperses them abroad to the use of the World by the Senses again for as they came in at the Ear and the Eye or the Taste Sent and Touch so they are delivered out by the Tongue and Hands Essay 140. IT is worthy the Observation to regard the odd Humours of Mankind how they talk of Reason and follow the way thereof so seldome for men may as easily set Rules to Eternity as to themselves for the Mind is so intricate and subtil that we may as soon measure Eternity as It. Of Dilation and Retention Essay 141. A Dilation causeth as much weakness as Contraction Dilation causeth weakness by the Disuniting the United Forces and setting them at too great a Distance and Contraction binds them up too hard not giving as we vulgarly say Elbow room The Worlds Olio LIB II. PART III. Of the Britains THE Britains of England were a Valiant People but that they had not skill of Arms answerable to their Courage as the Romans had yet Caesar and all the Emperours could not conquer that Island in so short a time as Alexander had conquered most part of the World therefore it seems their Courage was great since their Skill was less and could make it to the Romans so difficult a Work For Britain was like a Body dis joynted or rather separated Limb from Limb for it was not joyned in one Body but divided amongst many Petty Kings which made it weak for being not united the Body hath little power without the Legs do uphold and the Eyes do direct and the Arms do defend it is an easy thing to throw down a Criple but it was a sign the Spirit was strong in this Criple that could resist so long against a Giant as the Romans were Therefore Britain was worthy of Praise since their Courages defended them so long Of King James KIng James was so great a Lover of Peace that rather than he would lose the Delights of Peace he would lye under the Infamy of being thought Timorous for in that it was thought he had more Craft than Fear Of Queen Elizabeth QUeen Elizabeth reigned long and happy and though she cloathed her self in a Sheeps skin yet she had a Lions paw and a Foxes head she strokes the Cheeks of her Subjects with Flattery whilst she picks their Purses and though she seemed loth yet she never failed to crush to death those that disturbed her waies Her Favourites for Sport she would be various to sometimes in Favour and sometimes out of Favour as Essex Leicester Ralegh Hatton and the like But she stuck close to her old Counsellors and Favourites Burleigh Walsingham and the rest Neither did the first Favourites get so much as the last Ralegh got not so much as Burleigh did some may say because they spent more they laid up less but vain Favourites get more Enemies to themselves and Hatred to their Princes than Profit to themselves for the sight of their Vanities makes the People remember their Taxes and think that their Prince hath posed from their Purses to maintain their Vanities and their Prince thinks they have given them more because they shew what they have and many times more than they have But the Wisest save and lay it up till the Envy is past and the Tax forgot But Queen Elizabeth maintained more forein Wars at one time than any of her Predecessors before her and yet without the Grievance of the People for it was not so much out of their Purses as the Prizes she got by Sea for though the King of Spain had the Honour of being Master of the Indies yet the Queen of England had the Honour of being Mistris of the Sea so her Ships were her Mines to maintain her War against him Of King Henry the Eighth KIng Henry the Eighth was a Politick Prince for as Favourites make use of their Prince so he made use of his Favourites for when they could do him no more service he turned them over to the Hangman to satisfie his People and those that he favoured had the blame with the punishment and he received the profit He was not like Edward the Second for his Favourites cost him his Crown and Life I observe that soft natures are apt to be crusht and very hard natures are apt to be broken in governing therefore severe but not cruel mercifull or kind but not credulous reign happiest But Henry the Eighth spent great Sums of Money as that which his Father left him and that which he had out of France then the vast Sums he raised out of Monasteries yet no great advantage redounded to his Kingdome But his Expence was much to keep Peace abroad by making Friends in those Kingdomes that were fallen out But most commonly those that strive to make Peace amongst others bring War to themselves although I cannot say he had much War Of pulling down of the Monasteries in Henry the Eighths time SOme wonder that Henry the Eighth did pull down and destroy so many Monasteries as were in England which had stood so long without Opposition but it was likely that the Opposition could not be great for first the People were perswaded in some part by the Doctrine of Luther to dislike the Tyrannie of the Pope for first it eased their Purses and their Persons the one from Peter-pence and the like and the other from hard Penance the next the Gentry and the Nobles thought of the gaining of the Houses and Lands and Liberty the King for the bulk of their Wealth so the King Nobility and Commons and all had ends in it and where the King follows the Commons an Innovation is easy or I may say an Innovation is easy where the King follows the People Of Justice in Commonwealths IT is to be observed that there is little Piety or Justice in Cities or Countryes or Nations that are overgrown with Prosperity or oppressed with Adversity for Prosperity makes them so proud as they are as it were above Justice and Adversity doth so deject them as they grow careless of Justice so that either way they grow into Barbarism But as Virtue is a Mean betwixt two Extremes so it keeps in the Mean in all Estates the Virtue of Prosperity is Temperance and the Virtue of Adversity is Fortitude Of Henry the Seventh IT was
Nature should perfectly understand and absolutely know her self because she is Infinite much less can any of her Works know her yet it doth not follow that nothing can be known As for example There are several parts of the World discovered yet it is most likely not all nor may be never shall be yet most think that all the World is found because Drake and Cavendish went in a Circular Line untill they came to that place from whence they set out at first and I am confident that most of all Writers thought all the World was known unto them before the West-Indies were discovered and the Man that discovered it in his Brain before he travelled on the Navigable Sea and offered it to King Henry the Seventh was slighted by him as a Foolish Fellow nor his Intelligence believ'd and no question there were many that laugh'd at him as a Vain Fool others pity'd him as thinking him Mad and others scorned him as a Cheating Fellow that would have cosened the King of England of a Sum of Money but the Spanish Queen being then wiser than the rest imployed him and adventured a great Sum of Money to set him forth in his Voyage which when the Success was according to the Mans Ingenious Brain and he had brought the Queen the discovery of the Golden and Silver Mines for the Spanish Pistols Then other Nations envyed the King of Spain and like a Company of Dogs which fought for a Bone went together by the Ears to share with him So the Bishop that declared his opinion of the Antipodes was not onely cryed down and exclaimed against by the Vulgar which hate all Ingenuity but Learned Sages stood up against him and the Great and Grave Magistrates condemned him as an Atheist for that Opinion and for that reason put him from his Bishoprick and thought he had Favour in that his Life was spared which Opinion hath since been found true by Navigators But the Ignorant Unpracticed Brains think all Impossible that is not known unto them But put the Case that many went to find that which can never be found as they say Natural Philosophy is yet they might find in the search that they did not seek nor expect which might prove very beneficial to them Or put the case ten thousand should go so many waies to seek for a Cabinet of pretious Jewels and all should miss of it but one shall that one be scorn'd and laugh'd at for his Good Fortune or Industry this were a great Injustice But Ignorance and Envy strive to take off the gloss of Truth if they cannot wholly overthrow it But I and those that write must arm our selves with Negligence against Censure for my part I do for I verily believe that Ignorance and present Envy will slight my Book yet I make no question when Envy is worn out by Time but Understanding will remember me in after Ages when I am changed from this Life But I had rather live in a General Remembrance than in a Particular Life The Worlds Olio LIB III. PART II. Of Philosophy THere have been of all Nations that have troubled their Heads and spent the whole time of their Lives in the study of Philosophy as Natural and Moral the first is of little or no use onely to exercise their Opinions at the guessing at the Causes of Things for know them they cannot the last is a Rule to a strict Life which is soon learned but not so soon practiced as they have made it in the dividing it into so many and numerous parts having but four chief Principles as Justice Prudence or Providence Fortitude and Temperance Justice is but to consider what one would willingly have another to do to him the same to do to another which is the beginning of a Commonwealth Prudence or Providence is to observe the Effect of Things and to compare the past with the present as to guess and so to provide for the Future Fortitude is to suffer with as little Grief as one can and to act with as little Fear Now Temperance is something harder as to abate the Appetites and moderate our Passions for though there are but two principal ones as Love and Hate yet there are abstracted from them so many as would take up a Long Life to know them after the strict Rules of Temperance But indeed it is as impossible to be justly Temperate as to know the first Causes of all Things as for example A Man loseth a Friend and the Loser must grieve so much as the merit of the Loss deserves and yet no more than will stand with his Constitution which in many is impossible For some their Constitution is so weak that the least Grief destroys them so that of Necessity he must needs be Intemperate one way either for the not sufficient Grief for the merit of his Friend or too little care for himself So for Anger a Man must be no more angry than the Affront or any Cause of his Anger doth deserve and who shall be Judge since there is no Cause or Act that hath not some Partiality on its side and so in all Passions and Appetites there may be said the like Therefore he that can keep himself from Extravagancy is temperate enough But there are none that are more intemperate than Philosophers first in their vain Imaginations of Nature next in the difficult and nice Rules of Morality So that this kind of Study kils all the Industrious Inventions that are beneficial and Easy for the Life of Man and makes one sit onely to dye and not to live But this kind of Study is not wholly to be neglected but used so much as to ballance a Man though not to fix him for Natural Philosophy is to be used as a Delight and Recreation in Mens Studies as Poetry is since they are both but Fictions and not a Labour in Mans Life But many Men make their Study their Graves and bury themselves before they are dead As for Moral Philosophy I mean onely that part that belongs to every particular Person not the Politick that goeth to the framing of Commonwealths as to make one Man live by another in Peace without which no Man can enjoy any thing or call any thing his own for they would run into Hostility though Community of Men will close into a Commonwealth for the Safety of each as Bees and other Creatures do that understand not Moral Philosophy nor have they Grave and Learned Heads to frame their Commonwealths NAture is the great Chymist of the World drawing out of the Chaos several Forms and extracted Substances the gross and thicker part goeth to the forming of Solid Bodies the Fume to Air and Water the thinnest part to Fire and Light the Sense or Spirits to Life Of Naturalists NAturalists that search and seek for hidden Causes are like Chymists that search for the Philosophers Stone wherein they find many excellent and profitable Medicines but not the Elixar So Naturalists
find out many excellent and beneficial Arts but not the Cause or Principle Yet we find that Nature works not so curiously upon the Essence of Things as upon the Corporal Substance for Nature is but rude in the Minds of Men and so in other Creatures untill Community and Art have civilized them and Experience and Learning have perfected them Of Nature NAture is more various in the Shapes Thoughts and Colours than in the Substance or Kind of Things yet for Shapes there are but four grounds as High Low Thick and Thin of Quality or Essences she hath but four as Fire Water Air and Earth and for Colours the ground is onely Light and for Life she hath given onely three degrees as the Life of Growth the Life of Sense and the Life of Reason which is a Motion belonging to the Mind the other two Motions belong to the Corporal Part and all Life is but Motion so that Motion is the Life of Natures Work and the Work of Natures Life The Power of Natural Works ALthough Nature hath made every thing Good if it be rightly placed yet she hath given her Works power of misplacing themselves which produceth Evil Effects for that which corrupts Nature as it were is the disordered mixture But of all her Works Man hath entangled her waies the most by his Arts which makes Nature seem Vicious when most commonly Mans Curiosity causeth his Pain But there is nothing that is purely made and orderly set by Nature that hath not a Virtue in it but by her Creatures mis-applyings produceth a Vice Change in Nature NAture hath not onely made Bodies changeable but Minds so to have a Constant Mind is to be Unnatural for our Body changeth from the first beginning to the last end every Minute adds or takes away so by Nature we should change every Minute since Nature hath made nothing to stand at a stay but to alter as fast as Time runs wherefore it is Natural to be in one Mind one minute and in another in the next and yet Men think the Mind Immortal But the Changes of Nature are like the Sleights of a Juggler we see many several Shapes but still but one Matter Of Natural Wars IT seems to me a thing above Nature that Men are not alwaies in War one against the other and that some Estates live in peace somtimes forty or an hundred years nay some above a Thousand as the Venetians without Civil Warrs for the old saying is So many Men so many Minds yet they meet all in Ambitious Desires and naturaly Self-love seeks and strives for Preheminency Command which all cannot have yet submit and obey which is strange But say some it is Love that Makes Unites and Keeps a Common-wealth in Peace no saies another it is Fear and another may say as Tichobrahe the Dane said of the Sun and Earth For Ptolomy saith that the Sun moveth and the Earth stands still Copernicus said that the Earth moved and the Sun stood still Tichobrahe took up the third Opinion to which could be added no more but that they both moved So one may say it is both Love and Fear since those two Passions most commonly accompany one another But say they all things naturally incline to Peace and Unity and that War is unnatural because it tends to Destruction but some may say again that we find Nature hath made nothing but is subject to Preying Ravening and Devouring one thing of another and that most things live upon the spoil of another by the Humours Constitutions and Desires she hath given them for in many things their Lives cannot subsist or be nourished but by the Death of other Creatures So that Men are not only subject to War upon one another but all Creatures that Nature hath made as also the Elements for what is Thunder but a War betwixt Heat and Cold for Nature meeting in Contrarieties must needs Dispute when they meet and are never quieted untill one part get the upper hand and though Numbers make aConsort yet they must have a Sympathy one to another Thus all things are subject to War yet the Causes are different that provoke them to it But Nature would have wanted work if she had made all things to continue and nothing to decay for Death is as natural as Life but it seems to be Natures great Art to make all things subject to War and yet live in Peace as not to make an utter Destruction Of Darkness DArkness is more powerfull than Light for a little dark Cloud will ecclipse the great light of the Sun and there would be more Twilight if there were no Clouds for the Clouds are like a Screen that hides the Light Of the Air. THE Air is Water as well as the Sea So that Men Beasts and Birds are all but kinds of Fishes for we cannot live without Air which is rarified Water but it seems we are of a subtiller Sense than Fishes which makes us require a thinner Element Of Air. THE Air is as all other Animal Creatures are subject to Corruption Putrefaction and Distemper somtimes in a continual Feaver other times in an intermitting Feaver sometimes in a Hectick Feaver other times it hath shaking Agues Wind-Chollcks and oft times Rheumatick and Hydropical and as the Air is so it is apt to infect mens Bodies by reason that Air is so thin and subtil as it enters and intermingles into all things Of the Corruptions of the Air. THE Air is more corrupted in the Spring and the Autumn than in the Winter and Summer for in the Winter it is less corrupted by reason it is more united as being congealed by Cold neither hath the Sun that Force to draw more Vapours than it can digest besides for want of Heat the Pores of the Earth are shut where by less Vapours issue out and in Summer it hath a sufficient heat to concoct what it draws up or at least it contracts it so as to keep it from running into corruption and the Spring at the Suns return opens the Pores of the Earth suoking out Vapour there from which V pour is like the first milk of a Cow or the like Udder'd Creature when they have new cast forth their Birth which Milk is all corrupted with Blood and Matter by reason it hath been so long in the Udder so likewise the Vapour is corrupted when it is first drawn as it were by the returning Sun by reason it wanted Vent and Agitation to purify it and as it is ascending it mingles with those Creatures that live upon the Earth for the Pores of the Creatures that live upon the Earth also open by the springing heat from whence Vapours like wise do issue from their Bodies yet they live by the Air that encompasseth them as Fishes do in Water which if the Water be corrupted the Fishes dye caused by the Malignity they draw in for though they are not smotherd or choaked as in Frosty weather yet could
Thunder in the Winter as in the Summer is that most of the matter that makes Thunder in Summer is turned into Wind in Winter for Water Air Wind and Thunder are all but one Element only thicker and thinner for Wind is a condensed Air and Air a rarified Water and thus by Dilating and Contracting alter their Forms and their Properties which makes that Matter seem of several Qualities only works different Effects and these Effects being different by their several Motions which give them several Forms and make many times a Civill War amongst them every Form striving to out-do one another and often in their striving change their Shape But Fire being an Element not subject to change somtimes parts the Fray and somtimes sets them more one against another for in the Summer the Sun being hot raiseth the Vapour so high that it gets into the Middle Region and being there condenses into Wind and when it is there it seeks a Passage out and so falleth foul upon the Clouds beating them about untill its Fury and Strength be spent but in the Winter the Sun-beams being weak cannot draw the Vapour so high and so blows uppon the Earth and amongst the lower Clouds which by crushing them together squeeseth out Rain or breaks them in sunder which falls down in Showres this makes more Rain and frequenter Storms in Winter than in Summer and Thunder in Summer because it is drawn so high that it cannot easily return Thus Wind in the Middle Region causeth Thunder and in the Winter going no further than the lower Region causeth Storms and Lightning may be the striking of some Clouds that have Bitumenous matter mixed in them which like to a Flint do strike out Fire Allegory IN the Chymistry of Nature the Earth is the sixt Salt the Air the Sulphur the Water is the Incipid Flegm the Sun or Fire are the Spirits Light and Darkness is the Center Life is the volable Salt and Death is the Terra Damnata The noise of Water WAter being Spherical of a hollow and Porous Body the Wind beating thereon the Hollowness causeth a sound by the Rebounds it maketh against the inside or outside of the Spherical Bodie which we call Drops which being moved either by the Tydes or Winds are so quick being so small and apt to move being round as the Rebounds are so many and so thick that the Ecchoes thereof are confused which confusion we call a Roaring of the Waters as the Roaring of the Sea Of the Motion of the Sea THE Reason why the Sea is more apt to move than Fresh-waters is by the Saltness for Salt having an acute quality doth penetrate and divide and Water whose propertie is to intermingle and unite doth strive to join the divided parts again this makes it as it were a Perpetual Motion the one striving to meet and join the other to separate and disunite The Noise of Winds THE Reason the Winds make such a Noise in the Air as on the Sea is that Clouds are a Condensed Vapour or Air which Condensed Air is Water so that Clouds are as it were a Sea over our Heads and those Clouds being Waves and great Billows when the Wind blows beating upon them as upon the Sea makes the same Noise for the Roaring of the Sea and the blowing of the Wind is much alike but when the Wind blows upon the Sea it makes a horrid Noise Of Water TO my apprehension Water lies like a Swarm of Bees every drop being like a several Bee and as Bees lie so close one to another as at small distance they seem to be one intire Heap or Ball so do Waters but if they be disturbed they will spread and every Bee is seen distinctly which before we could not see so Water when great quantitie is together the Distinction of each Drop cannot be perceived by Mans Eies but cast up a Handfull of Water or sprinkle it about and it will fall into Drops Besides Drops of Water lie much closer together than the Bodies of Bees can doe because they are more Porous and soft which yields to Contraction and being wet makes them Glutenous and so stick closer which makes the Distinction of the Drops of Water less visible than Bees Winds may be rarified Air. AS Air is rarified Water so Wind may be rarified Air and by thinness beget such an Agilness as may give it such a Strength by the quick Motion that it may over-power the more Solid which are Air and Water for quick Motions by the often Repetitions grow powerfull and strong Wind is the Essence of Air as the Spirits of Air for it is an extracted Substance which makes it Quick Subtil and Sharp and of such a powerfull nature that it incounters solid Bodies and many times hath the Victory over them and by its active Wandring subtil and piercing Motion it appears more like Life than an other Element Of Rain VApour that is sent from the Earth or drawn up by the Sun is like so many several Springs that issue out of the Pores of the Earth and when they are streamed to such a height they meet and jon together and gathering into Clouds they become like a flowing River with curling Waves like the Sea But where there is too great a Quantity gathered together that the Sun cannot disgest they overflow and fall down into showres of Rain Of the Saltness of the Sea and the freshness of Springs SOme are of Opinion that the Veins of the Earth are filled from the Sea and that the Water runs thorow the Earth as thorow a Sieve or the like letting the thinnest part thorow and keeping the more solid back which is the Salt which to my Reason doth not seem probable for we find by Experience that the Nature of Water being Moist Soft and Plyable doth suck out with the Liquid Tongue the Salt and Tincture of every Thing even from the soild'st Body as Minerals which are harder far and more close than the Porous part of the Earth And for experience we see and taste those Waters that run thorow Mines have not only the Tincture and Taste of those Minerals but the purging effects which proceed from the Nature belonging to them which shews that it is unlikely that Salt should be taken out of the Water when Water draws and sucks out all Salt or the like into it self unlesse they could prove Earth to be more Thin and Liquid than Water whose Liquidness sucks out all the looser Ingredients which is not only as I said before the Tincture and Taste but the natural Propertie and since it is improbable that the Salt should be retained by the Earth from the Water but far more probable that the Water should become more salt from the Earth which makes me think it is improbable that the Veins of the Earth should be filled with Water immediatly from the Sea but to my Apprehension they are filled after this manner The Planets like
are cold and moyst as the Effects of the Sun are hot and dry for we must guess of the Quality or Cause by the Effects besides the Light shews it Water for when the Sun shines upon the Seas the Reflexion casts a Pale Light so the Moon gives a Silver Light Of the Prospect of Water WE cannot see with a Perspective glass the several Drops of the Sea as we see the several Parts in a Heap of Sand for if we look into the Sea it only shews a shining Body but look on the Sand and every little Grain will seem a little Stone and so a small Heap seems like a Rock and the Perspective shews perfectly what it is because it lyes in distinct Parts which may be magnified But we cannot magnifie the Drops of Water because it is a Liquid Body where every part mingles into one another or cleaves so close as it becomes one entire Body so as there are no distinct Parts visible Of Perspectives JUST as a Perspective glass carries the sight afar off so a Trunk or Pipe conveys the sound and voyce to the Ear at a great distance Thus we may perceive that the Figure of a round Circle hath the nature to gather up and to draw to a Point all Species whatsoever for they do not onely gather these from the Brain but those that come from outward Objects and the more round Circles there are the straiter and further the several Species go and the sharper is the Point as being bound not having Liberty to stray forth That is the reason that the longer the Perspective is or the Pipe or Trunk the clearer and perfecter we see and hear for a Pipe or a hollow Trunk gathers up the several Letters and Words as a Perspective gathers up the several Objects Besides the Eye and the Ear are much of the nature of a Burning-glass which gathers all the loose and scattered Beams of the Sun to a Point becoming there so strong being united as the Reflexion strike upon all Bodies it meets and peirceth into whatsoever is Porous Just so the Reflexions of what the Senses have gathered together strike upon the Optick Nerve and peirce into the Brain and if the Species of Sense were so material as those Species which are drawn from grosser Bodies the Nose would see a Sent and the Ear see a Sound as well as the Eyes see a grosser Object which is presented to it But the Matter being Thin and Aery the Objects cannot be so soild and substantial as to make a Figurative Body to last so long as for our gross Senses to see Of going about the World IT is said that Drake and Cavendish went round the World and others because they set out of one place and went till they came to the same place again without turning But yet in my conceit it doth not prove they went round the whole World for suppose there should be round Circle of a large Extent and within this Circle many other Circles and likewise without so that if one of these inward or outward Circles be compass'd shall we say it was the Circumference Circle when it may be it was the Center Circle But it may easily deceive the Understanding since we can truly judge but according to what we sind and not to what we know not But surely the World is bigger than Mens Compass of Embracing and Man may make a Globe of what he knows but he cannot make a Globe of what he knows not so that the World may be bigger than Man can make Globes for any thing he knoweth perfectly This Globe Man makes for the whole World is but an inward Circle and that there may be many of them which we do not know because not found out as yet although Ships are good Scouts to bring Intelligence Of Nature WE find that Nature is stinted her self as well as Man is stinted by her for she cannot go beyond such Rules and Principles which shews there is something more powerfull than Nature as to govern her as she governs the World for if she were not limited there might be new Worlds perpetually and not a Repetition in this course of one and the same Motion Matter and Form which makes it very probable that Nature hath wrought to the height of her Invention and that she hath plowed and sowed to the length of her Limits and hath reaped the plentifullest Crops or at least as plentifull as she can which makes it very Unlikely or indeed Impossible that there should be better and quicker Wits or sounder Judgements or deeper Understandings or exacter Beauties or purer Virtues or clearer Truths than have been in former Ages and we find by her Acts past that all was begot from the first-grounded Principles Variation indeed there may be but not any thing entirely new And that there have been as good if not better in the same kind before Neither can we rationally think but the very same Patterns of all her Principles have been before in the Generality of her Works although not made known in the Particulars of every of her Works But every Age are apt to flatter themselves out of a Natural Self-love that Nature hath out-wrough her former Works which if so there must be no Perfection because no End of Increasing for nothing can be Perfect that hath a Superiour or which is not finished and done or that Nature being Imperfect cannot finish what she hath begun or that her Principles are Imperfect which she works upon But we find that Nature hath a constant and setled course in all she doth and whatsoever she works are but Patterns from her old Samplers But the several Stiches which are the several Motions are the same and the Stuff which she worketh upon which is the Matter is the same and the Figures she makes are after the same kind and we find through many ages since that it is the same as Salomon saith Nothing is new c. Of Augury BY the Sympathy and Antipathy of Matter or at least in the several Forms of all so in the Motion of Nature if Man the chief Work of Nature would observe we might foreknow Effects to come by past Effects and present Effects if we would but study the Art which in former times those that were called Augures were learned in and certainly did foretell many things truly well and without the help of a Devil but by Natural Observations of Natural Effects though unknown Causes And why may not this Learning be as well as Astronomy which by Observations of Effects hath found out the Reason of Eclipses and can foretell their times and many other things concerning all the Planets and fixed Stars And why not as well as Physicians that have found out the Effects of Vegetables and Minerals and the Diseases by which kind and waies of applying hath produced a Cure which is not onely a Restauration but a kind of Creation and can foretell whether such kind of Diseases are
would yield no Nourishment for there is a great difference between the Appetite and the Stomack Others their Appetites are so sharp and their Stomacks so weak as it digests not the third part of what it receives But he that loves Pleasure more than Health and Life let him follow Epicures and they that think the Severity of the Body is the way to Eternal Life let them turn Anchorets but they that think they may use all things that are lawfull without 2 prejudice to the Soul and would have Health and Life to use them long let them follow Observation and Moderation The Reason why one and the same Quantity of Physick shall purge some to Death and others it shall never move or at least not to that degree THE Reason is That one and the same Quality and Quantity of Purging Medicines works so different in several Bodies and at several Times in one and the same Body is caused by the Validity and Solidity of the Humour for the Bodies of Animals are like to several Grounds some Dusty and Dry some Stony and Hard some Tuff and Clammy as Clay some Muddy and Dirty others Washy and Wet which causeth Husbandmen to yoke more Oxen or Harness more Horses to adde Strength not onely when their Draughts are heavily laden but when the Waies are ill and uneasy to travel in for in some Waies ten Horses will not draw so easy as one in other Waies or in Winter as in Summer but are forced to whip and lash to tug and pull so are Bodies where Physick like Horses or Oxen doth pull and gripe the Guts to draw out clammy Flegm where in Light and Sanguine Bodies the Physick runs fast and the Humours follow easily or in Melancholy and Dry Waies where the Humour is so hard as the Physick rather beats upon it than penetrates or divides it and at last becomes Lame and Weak as Horses which are foundred but Cholerick Bodies are like Sandy Waies where the Humours like Dust fly about But there must be several sorts of Physick given to several Constitutions as Husbandmen sow several sorts of Grain as some Humours must be digged up with Penetrating Medicines other Humours plowed up with Fomenting Medicines some Humours harrowed with Extenuating Medicines others raked as with Drawing and Attractive Medicines some must be watered with Solable and Sucking Medicines others must be manured and nourished with fine Light-Meats and Gelly Broths others must be comforted with the hot Sun of Cordials Thus if Bodies be not husbanded according to the Nature Constitution of the Soyl they will never have a sufficient Stock of Health to pay Life their Land lord his Rent and Death will seize upon their Lease as forfeited to him before the Rent-day Of Purging Drugs ALL Purging Drugs have more of the penetrating or subdividing Quality than attractive or drawing for it is not the gathering together the Humours that casts forth or purgeth forth but the cutting or dividing them which loosens them and dissolves and the Cause of Fluxes in Bodies is that Nature hath bred a Drug in the Body which is a penetrating and subdividing Humour Of Opium Opium works upon the Spirits as Drugs do upon the Liver in the Body it is good in Feavers for in all Feavers the Spirits are like Wanton Bodies which run and play so much untill they have put themselves into a Fiery Heat But dull Opium corrects them like a grave Tutor wherefore Opium should be good for Mad-men moderately taken Of Animal Spirits THE Animal Spirits are the Radical Vapour in the Body produced from the Natural Heat and Radical Moysture but Obstruction which comes by Superfluity stops the Natural Heat hindring the Extenuating Faculty and Corruption which is caused by Superfluous Moysture and Unnatural Heat damps the Natural and drowns the Radical Moysture by which the Animal Spirits become weak This is the reason that those Diseases that come by Obstruction or Corrupted Humours make the Body faint and lazy and the Mind dull and melancholy Of Heat and Cold. HEat and Cold produce many times one and the same Effect for as Cold draws all Spirits inward so Heat thrusts all Spirits outwards for Cold is like a Hook to pull Heat inward and Heat like a Spear or a Staff to thrust outward As for example From Wine is distilled Aqua vitae or the like which are Spirits by the means of Fire and Wine in a Barrel if it be much frozen will cause all the Spirits in the Barrel to gather together in the midst and no Spirits are left in that which is frozen as likewise in extreme Fear all Spirits will be drawn to the Heart as the Center insomuch as all the rest of the Members will have none left to support them as they become useless and in great Heats the Spirits go to the Outward Parts and leave the Inward Parts so voyd as they become saint and exhausted for want of their help The Difference of Heat and Cold in the Spring and Autumn THE Face of the Earth is like the Hearth of a Chimney and the Sun as the Fire that lyeth thereon that is the reason that the Spring is not so warm as the Autumn or the Autumn so cold as the Spring because the Sun is not so hot in the Winter to heat the Earth as in the Summer for as the Hearth of a Chimney will require some time to be heated after the Fire is laid thereon so it will retain a Heat sometimes after the Fire is taken therefrom Likewise this is the reason that it is coldest just before the break of Day because at that time the Sun hath been longest absent for there is some Heat in the Night though but weak not but that the Night may be hot when the Day hath been cold but then that Heat proceeds rather from the Bowels of the Earth than the Beams of the Sun for though the Sun may have a Constant Heat yet his Beams have not as we may observe some Summer Daies are much colder than others for some Daies may be hotter when the Sun is Oblick than when it is Perpendicular over our Heads by reason that cold and moyst Vapours may arise from the Earth and as it were quench the Violent Heat in the Beams of the Sun and Wind may cool the Heat also or Clouds may obstruct the Heat as a Skreen set before the Fire yet neither Wind nor Vapour nor Clouds can alter the Heat inherent in the Sun c. Diseases curable and uncurable THere are some sorts of Dropsies that are caused by Obstruction and some sorts of Consumptions caused by Evil Digestion and so Diseases of all sorts that are curable but if any Vital Part be perished it is not Physick nor good Diet nor change of Air nor any Evacuation or Restoratives that can make that part whole again that is perished no not Nature it self for when her Work is finished she cannot mend it for if she makes
it Imperfect it will continue so for Nature is like a Clay Potter that if his Pot be made awry if once confirmed and hardened with Heat he cannot alter it Of the Sickness in the Spring THE Reason there are more sick in the Spring than in the Winter is that the Pores of the Body being closer shut in Winter by the Contraction of the Cold than in any other Season keeps in the Fire the Smoke and Vapour that should and would if it could issue out But the Parts being stopp'd having not a sufficient Vent to transport a proportionable Quantity it lyes and corrupts for want of Agitation the Quantity increasing it overcharges the Body that by such time the Spring is arrived the Body is so distempered as it falls sick the Corruption having bred a Malignity that infects the Noble Parts For the Body having more Vapour than the Natural Heat can digest makes it not onely corrupt for want of a sufficient Heat to purifie it but that Corruption quenches out the Natural Heat which causeth Agues and begets an Unnatural Heat which causeth Feavers and the like Diseases and the Corruption causeth the Small-Pox Meazels Imposthumes Soar Throats and many such kinds of Diseases But when this Distemper of the Body is joyned to the like Corrupted Vapours drawn from the Earth it is most commonly deadly and produceth great Plagues the Summer following the Body being then like Rotten Wood which is quickly set on Fire and soon burnt out But if the Body hath a Sufficiency of Natural Heat to clarifie the Vapour that arises from the Stomack and Bowels and to dry up the Superfluous Moysture the Body is safe from Danger but if the Body have more Heat than Moysture it feeds upon the Noble Parts and causeth Hective Feavers But Hective Feavers are seldome cured by the stoppage of the Pores for the Natural Heat in the Body is like External Fire which is extinguished if it be stopp'd and hath not Vent But there are several sorts or kinds or manners of Unnatural Heat caused by Obstructions and other Accidents as there is a Smothering Heat in the Body caused by Obstructions and there is a Smoking Heat of the Body caused by too violent External Motions or such Meats that actually heat also a Fiery Heat in the Body caused by too much and too strong Interior Motion but these Heats that are Moyst Heats and Unnatural cause Corruption Of the Sickness in Autumn THE Reason there is more Sickness in Autumn than in Summer is that the Powers of the Sun abating let fall by degrees all the Dregs and Dross of that Vapour it drew up from the Earth when it was in its full Strength which having more power to draw than to digest the Superfluity corrupts which Corruption falls back upon the Earth infecting the Air also the Bodies of Men and many times Beasts yet the Infection is received or infects according as the Bodies are tempted For if the Bodies are full of Humours and the Blood corrupt the Air is apt to catch hold as having a Sympathy each to other for as the old Proverb is Like will to like and those Bodies and also those Meats that are moyst are most apt to corrupt for Heat and Moysture are said to be the Father and Mother to Curruption which causeth those that eat much Fruits and Herbs in the Summer time to fall into Fluxes and Feavers and the like Diseases in the Autumn for those Humours that are bred in the Summer the Body strives to cast forth in Autumn like a Child birth for when the Humours are come to such a Growth the Body is in travel with painfull Throbs and strives to be delivered where some are soon delivered of their Burthen others dye in their Labour Diseases of the Spring Summer Autumn and Winter THE Diseases in the Spring are Agues Small-Pox Meazels Imposthumes and the beginning of Plagues for all the Malignity that was tunn'd up in the Body in the Winter is set abroch in the Spring by the returning Sun whose Beams though weak yet peirce like small Gimlets or Spiggots all the Pores of the Earth and the Creatures thereon The Diseases in the Summer are Phrenzies by reason the Heat burns and inflames the Spirits and Plagues by reason the Heat inflames those Malignant and Corrupted Humours that the Winter hath bred by Obstructions like Houses that are musty and fusty and smoky and foul for want of Air to sweeten them and full of Spiders and Cobwebs and Flyes and Moths bred from the dusty dirty Filth therein for want of Vent to purge them for the Winter shuts up all the Windows and Dores which are the Pores likewise the Blood corrupts and the Body is apt to rot like Linnen that is laid up damp or in a moyst place for the Rheums that are subject to be in the Winter corrupt and rot the Lungs and the Vital Parts of the Body likewise Sweatings and Faintings are Summer-diseases by reason the Natural Moysture is rarified so thin and the Pores open so wide as it evaporates all out even the Radical Moysture and the Vital Spirits issue out therewith The Diseases of Autumn are Fluxes by reason the Summer breeds sharp Humours with the Heat and the Drought besides the Diets of Men are crude and raw in that Season as eating of Fruits Roots Herbs and the like Also this Season is subject to Meagrums and Feavers which are also caused by sharp Humours likewise Head-akes and Vomitings caused by sharp Chorerick Humours which the Summer Diet breeds likewise Plurisies that are caused by burnt or corrupted Blood which is bred by too much Heat or an Unnatural Heat and a Supersluity of Moysture also Collicks by reason the Summer rarifies the Vapours into Wind which causeth not onely in the Bodies of Men great Collicks but in the Bowels of the Earth which causeth Earthquakes and great Tempestuous Winds in the Air for in this Season of the Year there are greater Winds than in any Season and hold the longest for though in March when the Pores of the Earth are first opened as I may say by the returning Sun whereupon the thinnest Matter will first fly out yet those Winds are neither so strong so long nor so frequent as those in Autumn The Diseases of the Winter are Coughs and Rheums by reason the Pores being closer drawn and the Air grosser and thicker in Winter it doth as it were daub rather up like Morter upon a Wall that hath Holes and Crevises than enter in which causeth a closer Stoppage which Stoppage causeth Dew and Distillations for the Heat and Moysture stewing together the Body becomes like a Still or rather like a Pot or Vessel that is close covered which hath Meat or some Liquid Substance in it where by Heat the Moysture thereof is rarified into Vapour and ascending to the Cover and at the Top as the Cover thereon finding a Depress straight gathers into a Dew and so into Drops then
falls having a sufficient Vent like Showers of Rain where some run through the Pipes of the Nostrils othersome through the Gutter of the Throat and some fall streight down on the Stomack as the Earth for as it is the Nature of Vapour to spread and to ascend as being Light and Thin so it is the Nature of Water to descend or to run streight forth by reason it is more Solid and Weightier likewise Likewise Coughs are Followers and Attendants of Rheums which by tickling those Parts where it falls or trickles along causeth a straining and so a coughing though many times Wind produceth the same Effect by a tickling touch Also Sneezing is an Attendant to Rheum and Wind and causing a tickling on the Brain or in the Nose for indeed Sneezing is nothing but a Cough through the Nose as through the Throat Likewise Tooth-aches are caused by Rheums for the Rheum falling thereon rots the Bones or makes Holes therein like as Water continually dropping on a hard Stone works a Passage thorow Also Soar Throats are caused by Rheums but that is when the Rheum is sharp or salt Then Winter is subject to cause Apoplexies Lethargies numb Palsies and Gangrenes that are caused by the stoppage of the Pores which as I said are not only drawn closer by Cold which makes the Skin thicker and harder but by the gross and thin Air which is contracted into a more Solid Body by Cold. Thus the breathing Passages of the Body being stopp'd there flyes up so much grosser Vapours to the Head as choaks the Brain and smothers the Vital Spirits there and the Body having less Vent in Winter than in Summer grows so full of Humours as obstructs the Nerves and Muscles with cold clammy or hard baked Flegm as they cannot stir with a sensible Motion for in the Nerves and Muscles doth the Sense of Touching live and where they cease from moving those Parts are dead and numm'd Gangrenes are produc'd by the benumming of the Spirits as when the Spirits are congeal'd to Ice which causeth in very cold Countryes as Russia or the like to have their Noses and Fingers fall off from their Faces and Hands Likewise if the Spirits are quenched out with too much Moysture or their Motions hindered by some Obstruction or as it were corrupted by some Blow Bruise or Wound those Parts for want of Lifes Motion gangrene and so rot off Likewise Fistaloes are subject to this Season because this Season being subject to breed Rheums of all Sorts and Natures according as the Humours are in the Body so it breeds that sharp Rheum which makes Fistaloes for that Humour is as sharp as Vitriol or Aqua fortis and it doth in the Body as Vitriol and Aqua fortis doth on Metal running about and eating holes quite thorow Also this Season is subject to hard white Swellings bred by cold clammy or tough Humours The Stone and the Gout reign in every Season but not in every Age for though Children have the Stone many times yet seldome or never the Got But the Gout although it s not the Stone in the Toe yet it is an Humour which is of the Nature of Lime which is somewhat of a Brimstony Hard Dry Bitumenous Humour Of Cold and Hot Diseases A Cold Disease is apter for Cure than a Hot for Cold Diseases are like Raw Flesh that the Frost hath gotten hold of and makes it unlike it self by reason of the Ice hardning of it but Warmness dissolves it and then it comes to it self again but by Excessive Heat it is as if one should boyl or rost a piece of Flesh for when a piece of Flesh is boyled rosted baked or the like one shall never make it as it was which is to be raw again Of Apoplexies and the like AN Apoplexy is a dead Palsie in the Brain and a Lethargy a numb Palsie in the Brain And the reason many times why dead and numb Palsies when it takes them on one Side ruin the Legs or Arms and yet live is because it hath not touched the Vital Parts which is caused by some Obstruction in the Veins or some of the Nerves which either is by gross and thick Blood or hard and crusted Flegm or cold and clammy Flegm But if it be in the Head which we call Apoplexies it is either caused by a Cold Humour in the Brain which doth as it were congeal and freez up the Spirits or by a Malignant Vapour proceeding from the Stomack or Bowels which Vapour choaks or smothers up the Spirits And indeed the greatest Enemy to the Brain is the Vapour that proceeds from the Ill-affected Bowels or Stomack for Vapour being Smoke ascends upward to the Head which is the Chimney of the Body where the Smoke vents out for the Bowels may be compared to the Hearth the Stomack to the Pot or Furnace the Meat to the Fuel the Heart to the Fire or Flame which is fed by the Liver or Oily Substance the Lungs the Bollows to keep it alive the Head as I said the Chimney to gather up the Smoke the Nose Mouth and Ears the Tunnels from whence it issues out for if the Nose and Mouth be stopped the Fire of Life goeth out and not having Reviving Air it is choked with its own Smoke for though the Pores of the Body do evaporate some of the Smoke yet that is onely the thin and subtiller Part but if the Pores of the Body be stopped by a Cold the Body shall grow Feaverish with it so that many times it sets the House on Fire and when the Head is Idle and Frantick it is because the Head which is the Chimney-top is set on Fire by the Feaver but the Vapour that ascends to the Head is either a great Friend or Enemy to the Wit for a Gross Vapour chokes the Wit a Thin Sharp Vapour quickens it a Cold Vapour congeals it a Hot Vapour inflames it and several sorts of Vapour make variety of Wit and the several Figures and Works and Forms that that Vapour which is a Smoke raiseth up cause several Imaginations and Fancies by giveng several Motions to the Brain Of a Feaver A Feaver is like a Stack of Hay that is laid up half wet and half dry This Moysture and Drought being met together strive for Preheminency the Drought would drink up the Moysture and the Moysture would dissolve the Drought and if their Strength be equal and the Strife be without intermission the Stack is set on Fire caused by an equal swift continuated Motion which consumes all if it be not quenched out by a fresh Recruit of Moysture for Drought takes the part of Fire being the Child of Heat which Heat is the Child of Fire and so is the Grandmother of Drought Thus a Feaver is caused by the Humours of the Body which being not well tempered sets the Barn which is the Body on Fire by the Corruption therein for Heat and Moysture are the Parents to
hurts But some will say that may be if Death would come before Sickness but it is to avoyd Pain not to prolong Life But I answer The troublesome care of keeping't is worse than the Disease it self for the Disease of the Body will take away the Pain in a short time but a Disease of the Mind dwels with a Man his whole Life Of Situation for Healths THose that would choose a Situation for Health the Soyl is more to be considered than the Air though Ill Air is bad but Unwholsome Air comes from Unwholsome Grounds by the Vapours that arise from the Earth and the Sun many times clarifies the Air but in part for many times in Moorish places the Vapours may be too hard for the Sun and if the Sun cannot be alwaies sufficient to clarisie the Air how should it purifie the Earth that is so solid unless you will say the Sun is a Chymist to draw Spirits and those Spirits subtil to the hurt of the Body but when the Sun hath that power as to make the Spirit of Air as I may call it being refined to that degree as it becomes a Cordial and a Refresher of the Spirits of all things But when it hath onely so much power as to draw up Vapour which is the thin and watrish part of the Earth or as I may say the Sweat of the Earth which is sometimes hot and sometimes cold having not the power of purifying but condenseth it and makes it thicker and so becomes the Shadow of another Earth and makes us as if we lived between two Earths onely the upper is thinner than the undermost for although the Sun is the Life to all things out and upon the Earth by his Light and Heat yet he is not so to the Bowels of the Earth for we find by experience that a thin Wall will keep out the light of the Sun and the depth of a Cellar shall keep out the heat of the Sun for in the hottest Day if one go down into a Vault he shall be so cold as he will desire to come into the Sun again so as we plainly find that the Sun doth not make Heat in the Earth but that the Earth hath Heat of her own and her own Heat with the moyst Veins that are in her produceth those numerous Varieties which some she casts forth and some she keeps in for those Varieties she casts forth are more of a nature than those she keeps within for those she bars forth are Fruits and Plants and the like which onely lye skin-deep as one may say but those she keeps within her Bowels are more solid and firm for by experience of Gold and other Metals we find that she is hottest in her Bowels for they are alwaies found deep and low certainly it must be a great Heat that must purifie a Metal to that degree that Gold is So that Gold other Metals and whatsoever else lyes deep within her are not beholding to the Sun for their Maturities as Fruits and Plants are And we see those things cast forth are sickly and fading and those she keeps in are lasting and durable which would make one think the Earth hath a more powerfull Heat than the Sun because her Effects are greater than the Suns setting his Light aside The Sun ripens the Fruit of the Face of the Earth it agitates and lightens the Air whereby we see and breath but the Earth is the Mother of all Vegetables Animals and Minerals and could produce a sufficiency of her self without the Heat of the Sun But as I was saying before it is the Nature of the Soyl that not onely causeth Ill Airs but Ill Nourishment I mean not Ill in it self but being wrongly applyed for a Thick Air to a Sharp Constitution is wholsomer than a Subtiller and Thinner Air is so a Glutenous is to a Sharp Constitution better than a Salt and Penetrating Soyl is So as you may compare the Natures of several Soyls to the Natures of several Humours and Constitutions as there are some Soyls apt to breed Melancholy others Choler some Flegmatick and Gross Humors and some Sanguin I mean not only dwelling upon such Soyls but eating of the Fruits and Meats thereof for the Sun doth not alwaies mature the Fruits of the Earth to such a degree as to make them wholsom especially when there is a Vicious Nature bred in the Earth for some Ground is apt to breed the Rot to some kind of Cattel others the Murrain and so several Diseases and as we see in Low Places all their Fruit is waterish and their Meat spungier than in the High-land Country though the Sun be in equal degrees and in Islands it is more apt to be than in the Continents and therefore some parts of the Earth require much more Heat of the Sun than others do And again in some places the Earth hardly requires the Sun at all unless it be to see the Fruits and this alteration is not onely in several Regions of the World but in Neighbouring Patches also as we shall see one Field very Fruit full and the next Field to it very Barren as some Stony some Clayey some Chalky and so sundry others some are fit to bear Wheat others Barley some onely Rye or Oats some Tares Branck and Hemp some again so barren as they will bear nothing but Broom and Brakes some Grounds feed great fat and firm Cattle others great but spungie some lean and little and several feedings will give several tasts to one and the same kind of Cattel and Fruit so as they may be distinguished in what Grounds they grew or were fed in But some Cattel or Plants will not thrive upon every Soyl though rich and good being not proper to their Natures or to their Breedings so it is with Men for Custome may make that wholsome which otherwise would shorten Life and that is good for one Constitution which would be pernicious to another so as they must match Grounds to Bodies Of Favorites to Princes or Princes particular Privy Counsellers A Prince that hath a particular Favourite or Privy Counseller spins out the life of his Heroick Fame with his Favours for what Errours soever are committed in Government the Faults are laid to the Princes charge as the chief Head and Ruler and all the Good Actions are attributed to the Favorites wise Counselling for if Money and Arms be raised they will say it is the Favorites popularity not the Princes power If Armies march orderly pitch methodically fight succesfully they will say it is the Favourites conduct not the Princes prudence skill nor courage If good and beneficial Laws be made they will say they were propounded by the Favorite and onely enacted by the Prince that they come from the Favorites head not the Princes heart If the Virtuous be rewarded and Offenders reprieved or pardoned they will say it is the Favorites policy not the Princes bounty or clemency In short Nothing shall be
become wholly Lovers to be precise in Cupid's Temple and are alwaies praying to their Mistris their Deity but their Goddess doth not alwaies hear their Prayers which makes them go home to their Melancholy Wives Of Jealousie JEalousie in the Married Estate is the Curse of Mankind it makes a Confusion and where there is Jealousie there can be no Union but it is not onely the Inconstant Life that makes Jealousies but the Indiscretion betwixt a Married Pair for Indiscretion will raise up such Jealousies although the Husband and Wife be very honest and true to the Wedlock Bed as many times causeth a Divorce or at least such a Disquietness as to make Home unpleasant But where the Marriage is so fortunate as their Humours agree it is the happyest and the sweetest Life they lessen one anothers Grief and increase one anothers Joy the very Noyse of their Children is Musick to their Ears Industry and Labour is a Recreation to increase their Store is their Happiness their House is their Heaven and in Society are as Gods to live in Peace Husbands are Nurses ALL Married Men are but Nurses for all Nurses tend Children in taking care they should not fall and hurt themselves and to feed and cloath them and to teach them to go and to guard them from harm So Husbands provide for their Wives maintenance by their Industry guard them and protect them by their Valour instruct and teach them by their Wisdom lest they should fall into Indiscretions But Marriage most commonly knocks all quick Spirits on the Head and buries all Wit and Mirth giving Life onely to Care and Trouble To Cry on ones Wedding Day CRying on ones Wedding Day is like a King that begins his Reign in Blood and although he may prove full of Clemency yet it is a sign he will be a Tyrant all his Reign after So Women may be happy after Bridal Tears yet it prognosticates but a Cloudy Life Of Marriage THE Cause why there be so many Unhappy Marriages is in the unequal Matches and the fault is in the Parents not breeding their Children according to their Quality or Estates for some their Breeding is too high for their Estates and others too low for their Estates and Qualities and Degrees For some though they have great Estates yet will bring up their Children in Dirt and Rags and Keep them short of Means and so much under their Power as when they come to be Masters of an Estate and Family and not knowing before the use of Goods and Liberty they become Prodigal Spendthrifts and Inconstant Husbands in not being acquainted enough with the Vanities of the World to despise them for the World and Vanities the more they be known the less they are admired loved or regarded Others again that are of a high Degree and having low Fortunes think to humble their Children by their breeding to make their Minds agree with their Fortunes and leave them to the Conversation of mean and mechanick People as Servants and the like whereby they can learn nothing that is Noble and Honourable but Sharking Swearing Drinking Lying rude in their Behaviour russ in their Conversation mean in their Practices when most commonly the Son marries the Chamber-maid and the Daughter the Serving man not knowing the difference of better Company but finding their Errour afterwards it most commonly makes them Unhappy all the rest of their Lives and repining at the Advantages that they thought hey had lost and might have had for Time brings Consideration and Consideration many times Repentance to think with themselves how they might have advanced their Estates by their Marriages and what Inequality there is in their Births making them despise their Choyce so as they run into two extremes the First in being over-fond in marrying so soon and unequally and after having so much as they regard nothing or please themselves with any thing that is at home so as they seek what is to be found abroad to divert their Discontentments and so become Wanderers thinking thereby to shun or cast off their former Follyes which the more they look back on the ostner they repent of Others again through Carelesness make their Children fall into the same Errours not instructing them with Noble and Honourable Principles but suffering them to run about into every Dirty Office where the young Master must learn to drink and play at Cards with the Kitchin-Boy and learn to kiss his Mothers Dirty Maid for a Mess of Cream The Daughters are danced upon the Knec of every Clown and Serving Man and hear them talk scurrilous to their Maids which is their Complement of Wooing and then dancing SellingersRound with them in Christmas time and many other such things which makes them become like unto like and their Parents think no harm in it because they are young And some say by ill example For when Children see their Parents to do not well and disagree they think it Warrant enough for them to do the same And others breed their Children at that high rate that it ruins their Estates or at least hinders the increase so as by their Decay ' or not raising their Estate they cannot match them so high as their Breeding requires which makes them to leave them with Low Fortunes and High Minds which can never agree Neither will they own any thing that is not above them but despise even that which is equal to them in every thing unless their Breeding be not so Or where there is a despising or scorning between Man and Wife there will be alwaies a Neglect and a Disagreement yet of the two there comes less Inconveniency in the High Breeding than in the Low and Mean for the first though it breeds Pride yet it shuts out Baseness and begets Noble Thoughts and Honourable Qualities and the other begets mean Thoughts base Qualities and disordered and foolish Passions and Affections and whatsoever is rooted in the young and tender years is seldome stubbed up with Age but if it be it is with great Difficulty and Labour So that Children according to their Estates Conditions and Degrees must be bred with Plenty without Prodigality with Respect not with a Neglect nor too much Observance their Discourse to them Wise and Solid not Idle and Foolish their Recreations Seasonable and Suitable not Extravagant and Wild they must rather Animate their Spirits than Deject them and not to fill them with too much Art for fear of spoyling their Natural Parts Of Marriage MEN have three several Strings to tye the Knot of Marriage first Conscience or Religion next Nature the third Gratitude First There is no Religion in the World that makes not Marriage Sacred and in Christian Religion they are a Consecrated Pair wherein they are commanded to leave all others and live together and love each other and for Nature there is no such relation betwixt any of her Works as to make a perfect Friendship as between Man and Wife all other Friendships
are as it were Forced or Artificial and not Natural for Man and Wife are like one Root or Body that whatsoever toucheth the one is truly sensible to the other nay so as it is the same Joy and Grief Then for Gratitude the Man ought to love his Wife not because she is as his Servant in being Overseer in the Houshold affairs or in nursing up his Children and the Care and Fear of them or in being sick or ill in the breeding of them but the Horrid Pain in bringing them forth into the World and the Danger they pass through which is more hazardous to every particular Woman than to every particular Man in Battel Then for the Weal publick which is as the great Wheel in a Clock so every private Family is as the little Wheel for the Weal-publick if a Man and his Wife disagree which is want of Affection then their Children when they are grown up begin to grow Factious some siding with the Mother against the Father and others with the Father against the Mother which Custome will make them grow Factious in the Weal-publick as well as in the Weal-private Of Marriages THose Marriages are commonly more happy which are made out of Interest than those that marry for Fancy for Interest is like Brass which is ingraven and Fancy is like printed Wax the first never alters except it be broke by ill fortune when the other is destroyed with a warm breath But those that marry below their Quality give Respect and Reputation to those they marry but take it from themselves Of Married Wifes A Woman ought to please her Husband to the uttermost of her power as to humour all his honest Delights not onely in Actions beseeming her Sex but those are forbidden Women by the Laws of Modesty and ought to be strictly kept at all times of their lives but when they serve to maintain their Husbands Affection and keeping their Husbands Affection from running to others unlawfully from whence proceeds not onely a Disturbance in their Families and a Ruin of their Estates bat a Disturbance and Ruin to many Families by Adulteries which Adulteries cause Jealousies Jealousies make Malice Malice Revenge Revenge Murther so to avoyd these a Woman may Game Fence Ride Vaut Run Wrestle Leap Swim or any the like Actions which are onely accounted Actions fit for Men if their Husbands should take Delight in them to have them Companions in all their Exercises and Pastimes But it is Time and Occasion that makes most things Good or Bad For example it were a horrid thing and against Nature and all Civil Laws for Children and Parents Brethren and Neighbours and Acquaintance to kill one another although their Offences to each other were very hainous but when the King of chief Magistrate in a Commonwealth commands it as they do to those that are of their side in a Civil War then it is not onely Warrantable but it is accounted Sacred and Divine because nothing pleaseth Divinity more than obedience to Magistrates and Nature loves Peace although she hath made all things to War upon one another so that Custome and the Law make the same thing Civil or Pious Just or Unjust Of a second Wife IT is to be observed that when a second Wife comes into a Family all the former Children or old Servants are apt to be Factious and do foment Suspicions against her making ill Constructions of all her Actions were they never so well and innocently meant yet they shall be ill taken and all that they hinder her of although it do them no good but what is gotten from her they think themselves enriched not so much by what they get but by what she loseth or hath not Civility from Men due to Women COmplements from Men to Women are as a Tribute due to Womenkind for Women fearing they should not be so Nobel Creatures as Men are apt to be out of Countenance as mistrusting some Imperfectness in themselves wherefore Men of Noble Natures are willing to help the Weak and therefore ought to give our Sex Confidence by their Praises and therefore should be civil to Women in having as tender a Regard to them as to Children for though Women be not so Innocent yet they are as Powerless and it is the part of a Noble Heroick Nature to strive to oblige the Weak and it is better to be used with Cruelty than Scorn or a rude Kindness The Ridiculous Malice amongst Mankind SO Ridiculously Foolish or so Maliciously Envious is Mankind as one would think Nature was either Defective or else full of Malignity when she made him As for example If a Man love his Wife with a clear and constant Affection rejecting the Amorous Allurements of other Women for her sake finding all in his Wife that he can wish or at least desires no more than what he enjoys and is best pleased to live a life of quiet at home ruling his Family with Love and Obedience thinking it more wise to enjoy the World thus than to trouble himself with those Affairs of the World which neither bring him Ease Peace nor Profit but if he must act several parts upon the Stage of the World to which he is forced either by Honour or Necessity not by Choyce this Man shall be thought either an Uxorious Man or a Fool or a Madman either to give himself over to various and voluptuous Delights or to deliver up not onely his Person and Estate but his Reason and Liberty to the humours and will of his Wife As if a Man when he gives his Child a Hobby-horse because he lets his Child do so and so in many like Causes and if the Child desire to go abroad the Father desires to please his Child when it hinders not more potent Affairs thus if he doth not cross his Child in every thing but is well content to please and humour him in harmless things he is thought too fond and indulgent a Father to his Child just so is a Husband condemned if he humours and pleaseth his Wife in letting her have her will in honest and not in dishonourable Recreations But what Gallant Man will not favour the Female Sex nay what Gallant Man will not condescend to all their Desires and seek and invent waies to please them so far as Honour will give them leave And shall a Man despise and cross and neglect his Wife because she is his own lawfully joyned and united Shall it be more Dishonour for a Man to love his Wife than another Mans Wife Shall a Man be accounted a Fool because he is honest to Wedlock because he is kind to his own Wife Was Augustus Caesar less Wife because he loved or Pompey less Valiant because he loved Salomon may be said to be less Pious towards God through the great Love he bore to Pharoah's Daughter which was his first and dearly beloved Wife yet he was not less Wise in respect of the World But Men seek for that