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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	author_n	read_v	write_v	2,323	5	5.1781	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42669	Misery's virtues whet-stone reliquiæ Gethinianæ, or, Some remains of the most ingenious and excellent lady, the Lady Grace Gethin, lately deceased : being a collection of choice discourses, pleasant apothegmes, and witty sentences / written by her for the most part, by way of essay, and at spare hours ; published by her nearest relations to preserve her memory, and digested for method's sake under proper heads.; Misery's virtues whet-stone	Gethin, Grace, Lady, 1676-1697.	1699 (1699)	Wing G625; ESTC R7820	27,432	102

Misery's Virtues Whet-stone RELIQUIAE GETHINIANAE OR SOME REMAINS OF THE Most Ingenious and Excellent LADY The Lady GRACE GETHIN Lately Deceased BEING A COLLECTION OF Choice DISCOURSES Pleasant APOTHEGMES and Witty SENTENCES Written by Her for the most part by way of Essay and at Spare Hours Published by her nearest Relations to preserve her Memory and Digested for Method's sake under proper Heads Prov. xxxi 31. Let Her own Works Praise her in the Gates Printed by D. Edwards for the AUTHOR 1699. To the much Honoured Sir GEORGE NORTON of Abbots-Leigh in the County of Somerset Baronet SIR THE known Loyalty of your Family and that most Eminent and memorable Instance of it the Protecting the sacred Person of our late most Gracious Soveraign King Charles the Second in his most happy Disguise in your House near Bristol when being hunted as a Partridge upon the Mountains he took Shelter under the Shadow of your Roof and from thence escap'd by a miraculous Providence from the many Snares that were laid for him by his bloody Enemies This alone will eternalize your Name and render you deservedly Famous to Postetrity and will also bear a large and a glorious part in the History of those Times and of the Restauration of that Illustrious Monarch But there is also another Monument to preserve the Name and Honour of your Family which at the Request and Desire of your most virtuous and Religious Lady is here presented to your view and dedicated unto you It is indeed but an imperfect Collection some scatter'd and inco-herent Fragments the Gleanings as I may call them and REMAINS of a most excllent Person your own Off-spring and Issue and therefore you Sir have the best Right and Title to this Product of her overslowing Wit and Fancy and at the same time which very rarely meets in one Person most Profound and solid Judgment which may serve as some faint Idea to shew us of what an Inestimable Treasure the World has been unhappily deprived by the Primature Death of this admirable Young Lady your Daughter But as imperfect as it is yet from this light Tast this short and transient view of what she did but a her spare Hours as her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 only and by the by it is easy to see what transcendant Strength of Reason and Engagement she was Mistress of though at very young and tender years what an excellent Example and Pattern of Virtue the World might have been bless'd withal to help and reform it in this degenerate and worst Ages and what admirable maxims of Prudence and Piety she would have been capable of giving for the Conduct of Human Life All which coming from so fine an hand would have been read and admired when most others would have been despis'd by the most celebrated Wits and Criticks of the Age and could not have chosen but have had a mighty Instuence upon them It will I doubt not be look'd upon as an inestimable Treasure by all her Friends and as even the Filings of Gold are precious and carefully preserved so will those GOLDEN REMAINS of this most Excellent Lady be carefully laid up and valued as they deserve by all that knew her and especially Sir by you her Father and by her most affectionate and afsticted Mother as the best Reliques of a Person so very deservedly dear to you Both and who can never die so long as this Monument of her Virtue Wit and Ingenuity shall continue which I prophecy shall out-live the Marble Monuments which you her dear Parents in Testimony of your most tender and affectionate Remembrance of Her have with great Cost and Care erected to her Memory in Westminster-Abby She being the last of your Surviving Issue That your Lady and your self may in this your unspeakable Loss and Affliction be mutual Comfort to and always happy in each other That you may be bless'd together with long Prosperity here on Earth and enjoy everlasting Happiness and Felicity hereafter is the hearty Desire and Prayer of Sir Your most faithful and humble Servant J. M. April 4. 1699. A POEM By the AUTHOR at a Eleven years Old POor Dull Mortals who only seek to know The false Draught called Happiness below When this is only thus to let us see If this be termed happy what must Heaven be For do we not account it a great grace When often we behold our Princes Face And when Commands their Pleasure is to lay We as an Honour readily Obey Much more Ambitious then ought we to be To serve a God so Just Great Good as he Who as to Ransom his blest Son has sent That he our Fatal ruin might prevent And lest his Just Commands might e're seem hard A Crown Immortal promised a Reward Rewarded by our Saviour's Glorious Merits By Faith Love and Obedience we Inherit A POEM In Praise of the AUTHOR I That hate Books such as come daily out By Publick Licence to the Reading Rout A Due Religion yet observe to this And here assert if any thing 's amiss It can be only the Compiler's Fault Who has ill drest the Charming Author's Thought That was all Right Her Beauteous Looks were join'd To a no less admir'd Excelling Mind But oh This Glory of Frail nature's dead As I shall be that Write and you that Read Once to be out of Fashion I 'll conclude With something that may tend to Publick Good I wish that Piety for which in Heav'n The Fair is Plac't to the Lawn-Sleeves were giv'n Her Justice to the Gnot of Men whose Care From the Rais'd Millions is to take their Share W. C. A Necessary PREMONITION TO THE READER THese few scatter'd Remains of that Incomparable and most Excellent Lady the Lady Grace Gethin Daughter of Sir George Norton of Abbots-Leigh in the County of Somerset Knight and Wife of Sir Richard Gethin of Grott in the County of Cork in the Kingdom of Ireland Barronet having been fortunately found and preserved 't was judg'd to be great pity that so rich a Treasure of Wit and Ingenuity should be laid aside and buried in Oblivion I know it is a vast Disadvantage and therefore a great Injury even to most exact and celebrated Authors to publish their private undigested Thoughts and first Notions hastily set down without Method or Order and designed only as Material or a Foundation for a future structure to be built thereon which is Generally the Case of posthumous Works set forth without the Authors last hand who therefore seldom gain any Credit by them but on the contrary if great allowances upon these accounts be be not candidly made do lose a great part of that Esteem and Reputation which formerly they had justly acquired That therefore this Monument which is intended to perpetuate the Memory and illustrate the Fame of this Excellent Person may neither in the whole be any real prejudice thereto nor in any of the parts thereof come short of that great and just Expectation which the

can Love or Hate immoderately there needs no more to shew him a rational Object but on him that is incapable of any violent Attraction who has only a General Indifference for all things can never any Good be done and there is no Cure in Philosophy for it Indifference sometimes proceeds from Lowness of Spirit incapable of making a Judgment of things for 't is natural for a Man to desire that which he believes to be Good and if Indifferent People were able to Judge they would certainly fasten upon something 'T is certain this lukewarm Temper which sends forth feeble Designs sends forth feeble Lights so that not knowing any thing certainly they can fasten on nothing with Perseverance The Grave Indifferent Persons do neither Love nor Hate they betake themselves to Nothing they unresolv'd in every thing ask 'em if they will walk they know not they 're always in doubt and endeavour to please or displease 'em they 're little concern'd An inconstant Man is better than this for he has always something to do and tho' he defire nothing Vehemently and disclaims Obstinacy yet he is for the time ever resolv'd in something But if we observe it the Indifferent and the Inconstant are not very contrary to each other An Inconstant loves Indifferently all the Beauties of the Town and 't is a cold Indifference in their Hearts that makes 'em thus Inconstant and to love several They Glory in their Weakness and think they cannot be absolute Sparks unless they be fickle who Loving nothing much yet spend their life as if they were wholly taken up with Love Of Censoriousness THere are some so given to Envy Mischief and Censoriousness that they are ever on the Loading part not so good as the Dogs that lick'd Lazarus's Sores but like Flyes still buzzing upon the thing that is raw they easily believe all the Good spoken of themselves and all the Evil spoken of others Of Revenge REvenge is a kind of wild Justice which the more Man's Nature runs to the more ought Law to weed it out He that studies Revenge keeps his own Wounds green which otherwise would heal If a Man meerly out of ill nature do's wrong 't is like the Thorns and Briars which prick and scratch because they can do no other By taking Revenge a Man is but even with his Enemy but with passing it over he is Superiour Of Boldness BOldness is the Child of Ignorance and Baseness nevertheless it fastens and binds the Hand and Foot of those that are shallow of Judgment and weak in Courage Boldness is an ill keeper of Promises and to men of great Judgment bold Persons are a sport to behold Nay Boldness is ever blind not seeing Dangers and ill conveniences And therefore 't is ill in Council and good in Execution L d Bacon Deformed persons are extreamly Bold being first in their own defects exposed to Scorn and in process of time that produces an Habit of Confidence which at last ends in Boldness and Impudence Of Youth and Age. THE Inventions of Young Men are more lively than Old Imaginations stream into their Minds better Heat and Veracity in Age is an Excellent Composition For Business Young Men are fitter to invent than Judge fitter for Execution than for Council fitter for new Frolicks than solid Business The Errors of Young Men are the ruin of Business like an unruly Horse that will neither stop nor turn Men of Age on the contrary object too much consult too long adventure too little Repent too soon seldom drive Business home to the full period L d Bacon Young Men may be Learners while Old Men are Actors Authority follows Old Men favour and Popularity Youth Of Custom CUstom is every where Visible so that we may well wonder to hear Men profess protest engage give great Words and then do just as they have done before as if they were dead Images and Engines mov'd only by the wheel of Custom Therefore we ought by all means Endeavour to obtain good Customs which may regulate Company raise Emulation and quicken Glory The greatest Multiplication of Virtues upon Human Nature resteth upon Society well order'd and Discipline Of Charity THe desire of Power in excess caused the Angels to fall the desire of of Knowledge in excess caused Man to fall but in Charity there 's no excess neither can Angels or Men come in danger by it If a Man be Gracious and Courteous to strangers he is a Citizen of the World if he be compassionate towards the Afflictons of others it shews his heart to be like the Noble Tree that is wounded it self when it gives the Balm If he easily pardons and remits Offences it shews his mind is raised above Injuries so that he cannot be shot against Good Thoughts however God may accept 'em yet towards men they are no better than good Dreams except they be put in Act. Never defer Charity till Death he that doth so is rather liberal of other Men's substance than his own Of Reading REading serves for Delight for Ornament and for Ability it perfects nature and is perfected by experience the Crafty contemn it the Simple admire it and Wise Men use it Some Books are to be tasted or swallow'd and some few to be chewed and digested Reading makes a full man Conference a Ready man and Writing an exact Man He that writes little needs a great Memory he that confers little a present Wit and he that Reads little needs much Cunning to make him seem to know that which he do's not L d Bacon History makes Men Wise Poetry witty Mathematicks subtle Philosophy deep Morals grave Logick and Rhetorick able to Contend nay there is no Impediment in the Wit but may be wrought out by fit Study where every defect of the Mind hath its proper Receipt Those that have excellent faculty of using all they know can never know too much Of Beauty THE best thing to illustrate Beauty is Virtue The principal part of Beauty is Defect and Gracious Motions Also that is the best part of Beauty which a Painter cannot express Beauty is a Summer Fruit easy to corrupt and cannot last for the most part it makes a Dissolute Youth and Age a little out of Countenance but where it lights well it makes Virtue shine and Vice blush Of Flattery AN Impudent Flatterer will praise him most who is most Conscious of his own Defects That wherein he is most wanting will he most entitle him to that for which he is most out of Countenance will a Flatterer not excuse only but justify as Brave and Heroick L d Bacon Some are praised maliciously to their Heart to stir Envy and Jealousy towards ' em Princes Love Flatterers but are not over liberal in rewarding ' em For People of worth 't is not necessary to fetch praises from their Predecessors 't is enough to speak of their own particular Merit Nothing is less pleasing than those sycophant Praises that have