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A28474
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Essays on several subjects written by Sir Tho. Pope Blount.; Essays. Selections
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Blount, Thomas Pope, Sir, 1649-1697.
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1692
(1692)
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Wing B3349; ESTC R202032
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58,794
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183
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ESSAYS On Several SUBJECTS Written By Sir Tho. Pope Blount Conamur Tenues Grandia Hor. Lib. 1. Ode 6. LONDON Printed for Richard Bently in Russel-street in Covent-Garden MDCXCII The PREFACE Reader 'T IS as impossible for an Author to please all Mens fancies as it is for a Cook to gratifie every Man's palate For the Minds of Men are of different Frames and Tempers and therefore those Notions that are pleasing to one Man do often prove nauseaus to another This then is the reason that Authors are either dâ—orn'd or approv'd not according to their own merits or demerits but even as the Reader stands inclin'd who generally frames his Judgement from his own settl'd Humour or Opinion And as the Book agrees or disagrees with that so is the Author to receive his Fate And thus is verified that known saying Quicquid recipitur recipitur ad modum Recipientis What kind of Reception this little Treatise may find in the World I neither know nor value I writ it in my idle hours for my own Entertainment And therefore if it relishes not thy Gusto the only way to be even with me is for thee to turn Author and then possibly I may have occasion to return the Compliment The Age we now live in is both Critical and Censorious and therefore if there be any part of a Book which either through the unhappy style of the Author or the ill nature of the Reader seems to admit of a double Construction the Author may assure himself it shall be taken in the worst upon which Consideration I think it proper to acquaint thee That whatsoever Opinion the Clergy may please to have of this Book or its Author I unfeignedly declare my self to be a true Honourer of them I mean of such of them as live up to the Honour of that Holy Profession and for those that do not I as little Court their Favour as I value their Censure THE CONTENTS ESSAY I. THat INTEREST Governs the World And that Popery is nothing but Priest-Craft or an Invention of the Priests to get Money Page 1 ESSAY II. The great Mischief and Prejudice of LEARNING And that a Wise Man ought to be preferr'd before a Man of LEARNING p. 33 ESSAY III. Of Education and Custome The great Influence it hath upon most Men. But that a good Education is not alway Effectual p. 62 ESSAY IV. Of the Ancients And the Respect that is due unto them That we should not too much enslave our selves to their Opinions p. 77 ESSAY V. Whether the Men of this present Age are any way inferiour to those of former Ages either in respect of Vertue Learning or long Life p. 89 ESSAY VI. Of Passion And whether the Passions are an Advantage or Disadvantage to Men. p. 141 ESSAY VII The Variety of Opinions Whence it proceeds The uncertainty of Humane Knowledge p. 155 ESSAY I. That INTEREST governs the World And that Popery is nothing but Priest-Craft or an Invention of the Priests to get Money INTEREST and Profit are the great Diana of this World These saith an Ingenious Author like God sit at the top of Jacob 's Ladder and all our Actions are but Steps and Rounds to go up to them To this Shrine the greatest part of Mankind are ready to offer Incense and with this Golden Hook even the wisest and best of Men are apt to be caught INTEREST is of that Magnetick quality that our affections are almost irresistably attracted by it It is the Pole to which we turn and we commonly frame our Judgements according to its direction Men generally look more after the Dowry than the Beauty of Truth its correspondency to their Interests than its evidence to their understandings An useful Error hath often found free admission when important Truths but contrary to Mens Preconceptions or Interests have been forbidden entrance Temporal Expectations bring in whole droves to the Mahumetan Faith and we too well know the same holds thousands in the Romish An Advantagious cause never wanted Proselytes The Eagles will be where the Carcase is And that shall have the faith oâ— most which is best able to pay them for 't In all Ages of the World INTEREST govern'd Mankind and therefore we see the wisest Lawâ—â—â—â—◠〈◊〉 built upon this foundaâ—â—â—â—â—â—aking it the Interest of the Community to put their Laws in Exâ—â—â—â—â—n hence Plutarch reported Soâ—â—â— to have said That he had so 〈◊〉 his Laws that the Citizens were sensible it was more their Interest to observe them than to Violate them Almighty God when he first gave Laws to his own People the Jews was pleased to consider them as a Worldly Covetous sort of People and therefore to make their Obedience the more easie he gives them a Constitution agreeable to their Genius promising them all sorts of Temporal Blessings such as possession of the Land freedom from Bondage c. He very well knew that Worldly Interest would go a great deal further than the pure intrinsick worth of Vertue and Goodness and therefore that the surest way to enforce his Laws was by striking upon their Affections Thus is God fain to deal with Men just as the Husbandman in the Gospel did by proffering his Penny before he can prevail with them to work in his Vineyard Christ observ'd That the Multitudes throng'd after him more for the Loaves and Fishes than for his Doctrine intimating that few lov'd him Gratis but to make advantage by him And this the Devil knew too well when he charg'd Job with it saying Does Job serve God for nought In a word Gain and Advantage is that which every Man aims at Be the business never so bad you may have it done for Money and be it never so good you cannot have it done without Let us but cast our Eyes upon those two Religions the Old Heathenish and the Romish and we shall soon see their Respective Priests offering Incense to the Unrighteous Mammon No sooner was that which was called by the name of Religion planted among the Heathen but immediately a Pert forward sort of Men I mean their Priests stood up and insinuated to the People the absolute Necessity of Sacrifices and that these Sacrifices could never be acceptable to the Gods unless they were offer'd up by uncorrupt Sanctified Hands meaning their own How beneficial these Sacrifices were to the Heathen Priests you may easily imagine Since according to the old Proverb 'T is an ill Cook that can't lick his own Fingers And unless their Priests had found advantage by it certainly they would never have enjoyned the People such an unaccountable way of worship For what a strange and uncouth Belief was it to think that the most proper way to attone and pacifie their Offended Gods was by Slaying and Sacrificing Innocent Creatures Thus in the first ages of the World did Men suffer themselves to be gull'd and chous'd by the Artifice of their Crafty and Ambitious Priests But before I proceed I must here in
are of great use as affording us better Hypotheses in Physick and by Consequence tending to a better and more effectual way of Curing Diseases The next thing that falls under our Consideration is to shew how much Geography hath lately been Improv'd The Ancients were so very defective in this Art or Science that the Learned Varenius tells us That the most General and Necessary Things belonging thereunto were then unknown as the Flux and Reflux of the Sea the Habitableness of the Torrid Zone the Poplar property of the Magnet the Diversity of Winds the true Dimension of the Earth Nor had they any true Descriptions of remote Countries concerning which both the Greeks and Romans had very sabulous Relations they knew not that the Earth was encompassed by the Sea and might be salled round They were totally ignorant of America and both the North and South parts of this Hemisphere yea and understood very little of the remoter parts of their own Asia That part of the Indies that lies on the other side of the River Ganges was in a manner a Terra Incognita to them they knew little or nothing of the vast Kingdom of China nothing of Japan or the numerous Oriental Islands and these made a great if not the best part of Asia But that which to me seem'd stran ger or more remarkable is That neither Thucydides nor Herodotus nor any other Greek Author Cotemporary with them have so much as mention'd the Romans though then growing up to a dreadful power and being both Europeans Budoeus in his 4th Book De Asse tells us That the Grecians were so utterly ignorant of the Spaniards that Ephorus one of their most accurate Geographers took Spain which he calls Iberia to be a City It was in former times counted so dangerous a thing to believe the Antipodes that Boniface Archbishop of Mentz by chance seeing a Treatise written by Virgilius Bishop of Salizburg touching the Antipodes thinking that some Damnable pernicious Doctrine might be couched under that strange Name complain'd first to the Duke of Bohemia and afterwards to Pope Zachary Anno. 745. By whom the poor Bishop whose great misfortune was to be Learned in such a blockish Age was condemn'd as a Heretick Nay even St. Austin Lactantius and some other of the Ancient Writers do by no means allow of the Antipodes but look upon it to be a ridiculous incredible story And Venerable Bede is much of the same Opinion The Learned Fracastorius saith That our Ancestors knew little Westward beyond the Fortunate Islands and Eastward as little beyond Catygara now call'd Canton the Richest City in China So that as that Learned Author informs us of the whole Habitable World scarce one half was known to the Ancients Now by the account I have here given it plainly appears how grosly ignorant the Ancients were in the knowledge of Geography at also what a vast Improvement i hath received in these latter Days For our Navigation is far greater our Commerce is more general our Charts more exact our Globes more accurate our Travels more remote our Reports more intelligent and sincere and consequently our Geography far more perfect than it was in the Elder Times of Polybius and Possidonius yea than in those of Ptolomy Strabo and Pomponius Mela who lived among the Coesars And if this Art was so very defective in the flourishing times of the Roman Empire there is no dispute but it was much more so in the days of Aristotle and the Groecians And therefore no wonder the Macedonian Youth was no better instructed than to believe he had Conquer'd the whole World when God knows there were Nations enough both before him and behind him to have swallow'd up the Young Commander and his Triumphant Armies at a Morsel I am now come to the last Parallel and that is to shew what vast Improvements the Art of Navigation hath received in these last Ages Cardan a great searcher into the Curiosities of Nature tells us That among other late Noble Inventions that of the Mariners Compass is the most worthy of Admiration as being of the greatest use and Convenience to Mankind By the help hereof we are now able to find out a way through the vast Ocean in the greatest Storms and darkest Nights where is neither Path to follow nor Inhabitant or Passenger to enquire It points out the way to the skillful Mariner when all other helps fail him and that with greater certainty than the wit of Man can possibly do By means hereof are the Commodities of all Countries discover'd Trade Traffick and Humane Society maintain'd their several Forms of Government and Religion observ'd and the whole World made as it were one Common-Wealth and the most distant Nations Fellow Citizens of the same Body Politick But the best way to make us rightly value the blessing of this Invention is by considering the many shifts and Inconveniencies the Ancients were put to for want of it We may easily imagine how inconvenient the Ancients found it to sail by the guidance of the Stars For in dark Cloudy weather when their Pleiades Helice and Cynosura were not to be seen the Pilot was always at a loss for his Guide and knew not how to steer his Ship but lay expos'd to the casual conduct both of Winds and Tides And for this reason the Ancients seldom or never durst venture into the main Ocean but were fain to go creeping along by the Shoar side And no more than this as we have reason to believe did the Phoenicians and Carthaginians the Tyrians and Sydonians who though renowned in History for great Navigators yet by the most Learned are thought to have perform'd their Voyages only by Coasting and not by Crossing the Ocean Hence therefore it was That the Commerce and Communications of those days were very inconsiderable Their famed Travels in Comparison were nothing And that renowned ten years Voyage of Ulysses so highly celebrated by the Poets of Old was much short of what many of our Merchants do now every Year perform Thus you see how very defective the Ancients were in this Art of Navigation the Benefits and Advantages whereof are so very Considerable That the Wealth and Strength of a Nation are really to be computed in Proportion to their flourishing herein It was long since a wise and true Observation of Cicero Qui Mare tenet eum necesse est RERUM potiri He that commands the Sea must necessarily enjoy all things There is not any thing can be a greater Demonstration of the Flourishing of a Nation than when its Genius lies towards Naval Affairs and when by its Industry it is arriv'd to a Soveraignty of the Seas This is the true Characteristical mark of the greatness of Empire For whoever is Master of the Ocean does ipso facto command the Trade of the World and whoever hath the Command of that hath the Absolute disposal of the Riches of the World and that Money is that which governs