into severall shares betwixt your other children Not share and share like but to every each one the more according to their defects Let impotencie decreptnesse ill favourdnesse and incapacitie rob the other of so much money as they have done them of comelinesse activity beauty and wit Put them not into any course of living according to any prescript order or method of your owne election But according to their inclination and addition seeing that every one by instinct of nature delighteth in that wherein he is like to be most excellent And delight and pride in any thing undertaken makes all obstacles in the way of attaining to perfection of no difficulty Now in the next place take heed that you put off those your sonnes whom you finde fit and addicted to be bred in the Ministerie or made up to the law or to be apprentized betimes and before they take the taynt of too much liberty at home And when they be put forth call them not home speedily to revisit their fathers house no not so much as Hospitably by any meanes In the first place take your direction for the SCHOLLER His Education His Maintenance His Advancement FOr his Education The Free-Schooles generally afford the best breeding in good letters So many of them also afford some reasonable means in ayde of young Schollers for their diet lodging and teaching given to them by the Founders or Benefactors of such Schools Some of them be of the foundation of some Kings and Queenes of this Land and they are commonly in the gift of the King or his Provost or Substitute in that behalfe Others be of the foundation of some Bodies or Societies incorporate And they are commonly in the gift of such Masters Wardens Presidents and their Senior fellowes such chiefe officers of any other title or such Master Wardens and Assistants or such Opposers Visitants or Committees of such bodies respectively as be appointed thereunto Others be of the foundation of some private persons And they are for the most part in the gift of the Executor Heire or Feoffees of such Donor according to the purport of his Will or Grant or both Of every of which severall kindes respectively are Eaton Westminster Winchester The Merchantaylors Schoole London The Skynners at Tunbridge Suttons Hospitall St. Bartholomews And very many other the like Briefly few or no Counties of this Kingdome are unfurnisht of such Schooles And some have so many that it is disputable whether the Vniversities with the Innes of Court and Chancerie have where to receive them or no. Some of such free-Schooles againe have Schollerships appendant unto them in one of the Vniversities or both To which upon Election yearely they are removeable As From Eaton to Kings Colledge Cambridge From Westminster to Trinity Colledge Cambridge or Christ-Church Oxon From Winchester to New Colledge Oxon. From the Merchantaylors to St. Iohn's Oxon. And the like from many the like Some other Free-Schooles have pensions for preferment of their Schollers and for their maintenance in the Vniversity Some Companies Incorporate especially of London having no such pensions in certaine doe usually out of the Stock of their Hall allow maintenance in this kinde Besides that there be many other private persons upon my knowledge who doe voluntarily allow yearely exhibition of this nature Now if you would know how to finde what is given to any such Free-Schooles and in whose disposing they now be Search In the Tower of London till the end of Rich. the 3. For Grants and for License of Mortmaine inde And in the Chappell of the Rolles From thence till the present And for the like In the Register of the Prerogative Court for such things devised by Will by King Queene or Subject For such Grants given by Will And sometimes you shall finde such things both in the Tower and the Prerogative and in the Rolls and Prerogative respectively For the time since our reformed Church of England began here Search Doctor Willets Synopsis For all from the King or from any other Search In divers of our Chronicles For the like Next adde certaine helpes for discovery and attaining thereof FIrst if it may be procure a sight of the Liedger Books of such as in whom the dispositiō of such things resteth which they keep for their owne use Next be acquainted with some of the Disposers themselves Next take the directions of the Master or Teacher of such Free-Schooles Especially to be interessed in the Clarkes or Registers of such Societies as have the disposing of any such things Also to use meanes by Letters of persons powerfull and usefull to such disposers For indeed it is not the sound of a great mans name to a Letter in these dayes wherein they are growne so common and familiar to our Societies of London especially can prevaile so soone as the Letter subscribed by the Lord Maior or other eminent Officer of the Citie to whose commandement they be immediately subjugate Lastly if you use the meanes least seene most used and best allowed together with these For discovery and attaining of any such thing it will not be besides the purpose as I take it Now suppose your sonne is brought to the Vniversitie by Election or as Pensioner THe first thing you must take to your care is In case he come not by election but as a Pensioner to live for the present upon your owne charge how to procure him a Schollership in the Colledge where you bestow him Or in case he come elected into one how to procure a farther addition of maintenance to him To bring him into a Schollership place him with a Senior fellow of the house as Tutor though you allow to some Iunion fellow somewhat yearely for reading unto him This Senior fellow if the number of places voide will beare it may nominate your sonne for one in his own right if it will not beare it he may call to his ayd some and so many suffrages of the rest as with the speaking merit of your sonne may worke your desire Then how to procure a pension for addytament of meanes The chiefe skill is to finde it out being either in the gift of some body Incorporate or of some private person Wherein the discovery is to be made as aforesaid If you sue to a Company consisting of many persons Tradesmen you must enquire who be the most potent Patritians and best reputed Vestrie wits amongst them such as carry their gloves in their hands not on their hands Amongst an Assistance of many onely two or three strike the stroke and hold the rest in a wonderfull admiration of their extraordinary endowments And how to speake sensibly to these two or three is no Mystery You know they are faithfull fiduciaries in the election And therfore you must not presume to offer any thing by any meanes Onely you may desire them to accept this poore peece of plate with your name and Armes upon it and binde you unto their love in
keeping the memory of you hereafter Doe but try them in this kinde and attend the successe I tell you this with a Bucke at the Renter Wardens feast may come somewhat neer to the matter But for the pension to be obtained of a private person the way is not the same It proceedeth of the givers meere charity and must be taken by the hand of a desertfull receiver Though withall it may sometimes fall out that merit is made by mediation especially of some such reverend Divine as he doth most respect and frequent For other letters can little prevaile with such persons The best note to discover a man inclinable to allow such a pension is to examine how wealth and charity are equally and temperately mingled in him And be sure withall that he be a man of some reasonable understanding in what he doth in this kinde For a fooles pension is like a new fashion eagerly pursued at the beginning but as scurvily left off in the proceeding Your next care is in his due time to put on a fellowship when he shall put off his Schollership seeing the Schollership keepes him company no farther than to the degree of Master of Arts and a quarter of a yeere after in those Colledges where Schollerships are longest lived And in some not so long In some Colledges The Fellowship followes the Schollership of course and as the one leaveth him the other entertaines him But in the most it is not so but comes by Election Which Election passeth by the Master and Senior Fellowes whereof every one doth name one if the number to be Elected will beare it or if not then they passe by most voyces Where note that the Master hath a double voyce and in some places he hath the nomination of one if there be two places voyd yea if there be but one at sometimes In Colledges the letters of great persons especially of the Lords grace of Canterbury and the Vniversitie Chancellor have been of great prevailance But it is not so now in these dayes There be beneficiall gradations of preferment likewise for Fellowes in their Colledges as Lecturer Deane Bowser Vice-master and Master But for my part I better like and commend those who when they finde themselves fit to put forth into the world take the first preferment that is offered unto them rather than such who live cloystered like Votaries who have Sacraments to fill up their places be it but to keep out others such as use no exercise but wiping the dust off their bookes and have an excellent activity in handling the foxe tayle such as hold no honour like to Supplicat reverentijs vestris And to be had Bowser of the Colledge as good as to be Chiefe Butler of England These preferments of the Colledge all but that of the Master comes of course by order and antiquity Therefore no meanes but patient abiding needs for the acquiring of them in their due time I hasten to send your sonne out of the Cloyster into the Common-wealth and to shew you how many wayes of Advancement are open unto him abroad with the meanes to discover and attaine And first for the Ministry FIrst for his ease let him looke no farther than next to hand and enquire what benefices belong to their owne Colledge and are in the gift of their Master and Senior fellows as most Colledges have divers such and amongst them which are void at the present or whose incumbent is not like to live long And if he finde out any such than if he know not after so long continuance among them to speake in his Seniors owne Dialect let him never travaile beyond Trumpington for me More indigitly For attaining of such a Benefice let him enquire where the Mattens are read with Spectacles or where the good old man is lifted up into the Pulpit or the like and make a way for Succession accordingly Where note that many times a fellow of the house may hold such a Benefice together with his fellowship or a Pension for increment of livelyhood And such tyes as these are commonly the bond of matrimony whereby they are so wedded to the Colledge Next he must climbe up to the maine top of Speculation and there looke about him to discover what Benefices are emptie abroad where the Incumbent lives onely upon the Almes of Confectio Alchermi Or where one is ready to take his rise out of Sierge into Sattin out of Parsonadge and a Prebendarie into a Deanarie and a Donative let him not be slow of footmanship in that case by any meanes For Benefices abroad Benefices abroad are in the gift of The King immediately Or the Lord Keeper for the King Some Lord Bishop Some Deane and Chapter Some Body incorporate Some Parish Some Private Patron You shall finde in the Tower a collection of the Patent Rolls gathered of all Presentations made by the King in those dayes to any Church Prebendarie or Chappell In right of the Crowne or otherwayes from 1. of Edward the first till the midst of Edward the third The King himselfe onely and immediately presented in his owne right to such Benefices as belong to him and are above twenty pounds value in the first Fruit Bookes For attayning of any which I can advise you of no better course than to learne the way to the backe stayres The Lord Keeper presents for the King to all such benefifices as belong to his Majestie and are under twenty pounds value in the bookes Now to know which of these are full and who are Incumbents in any of these Search The first Fruits Office The Clarke who hath the writing of the Presentations The Lord Keepers Secretary being Where note that the King hath used very seldome to grant any such living in Reversion And the Lord Keeper now being His care is so great in this as in all cases of common good to provide for mans merit and cherish industry in the growing plants that no one can offer unto him a request of this kinde without trespasse to his good disposition In the next place concerning Benefices in the Presentation of any of the Lords Bishops Note that most Bishopricks in England have presentation to divers Benefices belonging to their Seas For the number and present estate of these Search Their owne Leidgers Their Registers Enquire of Their Auditors Their Stewards of their Courts And sometimes you shall light upon some of their books of this kinde in the hands of the heyres or Executors of such as have borne such offices under them He that is Chaplaine to such a Lord Bishop hath for the most part the best meanes accesse and opportunity to attaine to such a Benefice The commendations of such a great personage as to whom this Patron oweth greatest respect especially for his affairing in Court may doe some good in the matter The like wayes of discovery and the like meanes of attaining any Benefice in the Presentation of any Deane and Chapter are to be used
The art of Thriving OR The plaine path-way to PREFERMENT Together with The Mysterie and Misery of Lending and Borrowing As also a Table of the expence of Time and Money Consider it seriously Examine it judiciously Remember it punctually And thrive accordingly Published for the common good of all sorts c. by T. Powel LONDON Printed by T. H. for Benjamin Fisher and are to be sold at his shop at the signe of the Talbot in Aldersgate street 1635. To the Reader THere is a method in all arts and a mystery but in none more then in the art of thriving being the very Center to which all the other arts doe tend and for which they were invented Magister artis venter and what is that but Thriving Now in the study of this great art you must make the world your Liberary and learne to reade men as well as bookes and yet not to discourage you in the whole volume of this science you are to turne over but three leaves onely somewhat close writ very hard to reade and when you are once out can hardly begin againe Times Trades and Debts this is that screw of a three fold twinding for if you screw not your fortunes the right way as it is in all screwes you may turne and work your heart out remember but that first And let me tell you Time is the hinge of all thriving Trades are the doores on which good hopes may turn and stand long enough if Debts those undermining leavers of husbandry fling not all off the hooks Thus then thinke with your selfe to Time a businesse well and to begin businesse in time is the very key to the door of preferment and thinke the losse of a minute more dear than the losse of a pound for certainly of all expences the expence of Time â—s the costliest which mindefull reader that thou mayst know now learn to prize and reckon â—hy time right for as Seneca said â—o Lucilius quem mihi dabis qui aliquod pretium tempori ponat qui diem estimet qui intelligat se quotidie mori and therfore that made him say in the beginning of the same Epistle to Lucilius vindica te tibi as if a man were to be revenged upon himselfe for hasting his owne death by â—osse of Time Now therefore â—hat thou maist know how to take and redeeme thy Time I have here set before thee a table of each minute of thy life this is the first leafe and now I passe to the next having not time to speake of Time 2 All men are or would be rich even the sluggard wisheth though he hath not 'T is easie indeed to covet the top of wit or preferment but to get up the hill hic labor hoc opus there is a businesse indeed the wayes to thrive are manifold yet one good is worth all and in effect is all onely all the Art is finding and catching it Could Archimedes but have found footing for his Mathematicall instrument he would have done wonders Give me but footing where my selfe may stand From their fixt Base I 'le hoyst both sea and land Boldly spoke and bravely meant and questionlesse if you could have done the one for him he would have perform'd the other for you Thinke not thriftie would be that I by his example enjoyn the impossibilities or to build castles in the ayre but meerely to shew thee how out of nothing to produce something and thus I apply it Could a young man once take hold or setling in preferment where he may but fixe the instrument of his hopes then may he easily drive the world before him and so mount up to wealth Now who is able to levell to a beginner the shortest cut or score him the very way to thrive if he either stand in his owne light through wilfulnesse or cut the throat as it were of all his hopes through despaire of better the foole thus concluding with himselfe He that 's borne under a three-penny Planet shall never be worth a groat To him and to him I dedicate not What should I talke to such of Promotion But to a forward spirit and a manly heart prepared for industry and resolved to stand to his curse in Paradice I commend this my Grammar of Trades Nor thinke hopefull Reader I have prefixt a specious title to make the sale more oylie I would I were dead if I care whether you buy or burne it onely I would have thee reade and be wise labour and be rich The old Paradox is witry and true Quisque suae fortunae faber Every man sits at the very Anvile and forge of his own Fortune-making now then if you can see to strike the Iron while it is hot that is while time and the hand of Providence hold forth the opportunity you may make your trade but if you linger till it be cold it will cost you another Heate Experto mihi credite Now therefore that no man may over-slip his Fortunes or be pusled for want of light to see when it is offered or to conduct him forward when it is found Loe here a Torch held out before him pointing the plaine high way to preferment in all Professions Trades and Arts found out by an old traveller in the Sea of Experience Longis erroribus actus qui mores Hominum c. who now stands after all his folly and ruines a Land-marke to the generall good of others To the Father and his sonnes to the Mother and every Mothers childe to the Scholler the Apprentice the Navigator the Husbandman the Courtier and the Souldier whether in hopes or in despaire standing rising or falling I bequeath this my Legacy my Looking-glasse to promotion my Grammar of Trades 3 And since in the voyage to Promotion Lending is the Rocke and Borrowing is the Gulfe I have discovered them both in the end lest your tender endeavours should tare against the one or be swallowed up in the other Farewell and where you see me if you meane to Thrive looke to your selfe Thine living and dead T. Powel The art of Thriving The Contents 1 AN Introduction to the following discourse with the occasion 1 Direction for a Scholler in his Education Maintenance and advancement in his minority 2 In the Vniversity 3 In the Ministry 4 In Benefices abroad 2 Promotions following by Law 1 Civill 2 Common 3 For the Physitian and his meanes of Advancement 4 The Apprentice with the due Election of Trades and following of Merchandize 5 The Navigator his way of Advancement imployment 6 The Husbandman 7 The Courtier 8 The Souldier 1 By Sea 2 By Land Directions for matching of daughters The Mystery c. Contents 1 The scope of the following Treatise first of the Borrower secondly of the Lender 2 1 The Courtiers Method 2 The Innes of Court man 3 The Country Gentleman 3 Their severall causes of Insolency 4 The sundry wayes and weapons wherewith they fence with their Creditors 1 The Innes of Court mans 2
the Countrie round about to friend The onely Despervieos among them are severally appointed to the severall gates where they scoure and keepe cleere the passage to the Barres being the utmost extent of their workes They are all right perfect at their Postures As Beare your Musket under your left arme id est Be sure to touch the prisoner on the sword side Pull out your scourer id est Draw your warrant Advance your Pike id est Exalt your Mace cocke your Match id est Enter your Action And so for every posture punctually and particularly in his order Then for Strategems of war they ride the ancient discipline quite dagger out of sheath The best that Roman Histories affoord us is of that one noble resolution who to gaine beliefe and credit of the enemy mangled himselfe running out of the gates into their Campe to complain of his own misery and his Countries tyranny with offer of giving them up into the enemies hand onely for actuation of his owne revenge But give me the plot that conquers at farre lesse price A Porters Frocke a Project of excellent carriage A Lawyers gowne Latet quod non patet A Scriveners Pen and Inkehorne a designe of deeper reach than you are aware on These shall make his passage sine sanguine sudore This is your onely Projector indeed whose first ancestor was begot between the man i' th Moone and Tom Lancasters Laundresse upon a faire fagot pile from whom are descended the onely Choristers of our counter-quire It would doe you good to heare the whole packe of these together they are so excellent for sent and cry But the best mouth'd among them in truth and for my money the onely mouth is without Bishopsgate And the best sented at the upper end of red-crosse street just at the entrance into Golding-lane into whose sweet bosome I commit them all and there leave them It may be expected that I should say somewhat of the Discipline of the Bailiffes but especially of those of the Vierge and the Clinkonians But some of them have no Discipline or order at all and the rest very little The poore Pichard cannot out pilfer them in the plaine path-way of their practise they hold no good quartering with any man but are more desirous of prey then of lawfull conquest The better sort of them goe in bootes without spurres and they for the most part are bought in Turning-stile lane in Holborne the Author holds them not worthy his penne or to be rank't with the men of the mace before mentioned and therefore by his good will he will have nothing to doe with them at any hand The Creditors part FOr the Debtors part I am perswaded that our Author hath performed it reasonable well But for the other of the Creditor to say the truth he hath practised that part very little hitherto and therefore is very diffident of his ability therein Yet howsoere hee 'le stand upon his credit And iustifie his word because he sed it For the charitable extent of the Creditors curtesie VErily this man of Credence doth observe these principles in all his proceeding of this nature First that he may lend or trust upon such conditions as may tend to the benefit of the Borrower or Debtor chiefly Then that his owne gaine may be moderate Then that there may be Record thereof kept for testimony of his sincere intention in two or three severall bookes at the least And lastly he doth not onely lend or trust but farther giveth it a blessing that it may yeeld much increase to the borrower and debtor The reasons hereof are all as pregnant as pious 1 For it is better for him to build than to pull downe 2 He will not grinde the fore-head of his poore brother 3 His booke cannot erre for it admits no tradition but the pure and uncorrupted text it selfe as it was delivered in the primitive register while Thomas his fore-man was yet living and did beare record as a faithfull witnesse of these proceedings And though the blessing be bestowed upon a dead commodity yet I hope it argues no superstition in him that giveth it And all this is apparantly good till we come to The mystery of Multiplication TRadition it is not tollerable but an abhomination and yet our Creditor holds that Addition in the secret of shop-booke may be very well allowable For so long as he doth onely make up in credits what he hath lost in stocke or what is decaid in necessary expences and not riotously or vainly seeing the wicked are but usurpers of the riches of this world it is lawful for him with an equall hand to be carried among his Debtors by way of apportionment to rate and assesse them at his discretion He will take no interest nor wrong his conscience for any good his shop-booke hath hitherto held good name and fame Heresies may creepe into the Church daily but never into his shop-shop-book in any wife there is nothing there but what hath beene delivered and his servants especially one amongst the rest will as boldly as any Brewers desperate Clarke maintaine and justifie it shall he not maintaine his masters mystery when they are both to be saved by the same faith Why he shall put the debtor in minde of the delivery of every parcell with all the circumstances to it for he remembers it as perfectly as if it had beene done but yesterday Now the Debtor beginnes to quarrell the Shop-booke my Creditor is most justly incensed And therefore now in the next place The Crow lookes to eat the Oyster alive but is caught in the attempt and the hand in the Shop-booke breedes the winde-collique in the warehouse which shak't the Fabrique and foundation of all his factory as followeth Suppose the tide is now comming in and the poore Oyster gapes for some refection in the moisture of it The Birds of prey scilicet the shop-keeper the Crow and the Vsurer the Cormorant these hover about it each of them hoping to pull it out of the little tenement where it dwels and to devoure it alive Hereupon the Cormorant and the Crow contend for the prize The Crow claimes it as a Stray lost and left without the bounds of any watry coverture on the dry land at a low ebbe The Cormorant challenges it neverthelesse as being still within his high water-marke Then the Crow alledges that it is so wasted wanting water that it is become no better than Carrion and therefore it does properly belong unto him The Cormorant denies that and assures him that the Oyster is yet alive and therefore no carrion But the Crow had given so much credit formerly that he would now scarce beleeve his owne eyes especially in his wifes case he would by no meanes beleeve this to be true and therefore in hope to cousen the Cormorant he desires that he may onely feele with his bill whether it were so or no Leave is given by the Cormorant who thought it