Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	find_v	great_a	read_v	2,892	5	5.5522	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A53495	Twenty precepts, or, rules of advice to a son: by a late eminent lawyer.	Osborne, Francis, 1593-1659.	1682 (1682)	Wing O523A; ESTC R222617	3,425	3

TWENTY PRECEPTS OR Rules of Advice to a Son By a late Eminent LAWYER 1. I Advise you not to come too soon from the University and also to make some inspection into Physick and the Law aswell as Divinity for they will contribute to make your Company acceptable where-ever you come But prosecute not beyond a superficial knowledge any Learning that moves upon no stronger Legs than the tottering Basis of Conjecture is able to afford it 2. No study is worth a Mans whole imployment that comes not accompanied with Profit or such unanswerable Reasons as are able to answer and silence all future debate not to be found out of the Mathematicks the Queen of Truth that imposeth nothing upon her Subjects but what she proves due to belief by infallible Demonstration The only knowledge we can gain on Earth likely to attend us to Heaven 3. Huge Volumes may proclaim plenty of Labour and Invention but afford less of what is delicate savoury and well concocted than lesser pieces Humane sufficiency being too narrow to inform with the pure soul of Reason such vast Bodies You may gain more natural and useful Knowledge by being conversant in the Speeches Declarations and Transactions occasioned by the late unhappy Wars than is ordinarily to be found in the mouldy Records of Antiquity The Understanding is nourished more by a few Books well Studied than by great numbers curiously run over as is the Practice of most Students 4. Let not an over-passionate prosecution of Learning draw you from making an honest improvement of your Estate as such do who are better read in the bigness of the whole Earth than that little spot left them by their Ance-stors for their support 5. Be sure never to lend your Money upon the Publick Faith for he that does so becomes security for his own Money and can blame no body more than himself if never paid Common Debts like Common Lands lying most neglected 6. Honesty treats with the World upon such vast disadvantage that a Pen is often as useful to defend you as a Sword by making Writing the Witness of all your Contracts For where Profit appears it doth commonly cancel all the Bands of Friendship Religion and the memory of any thing that can produce no other Register than what is Verbal Measure the End of all Counsels though uttered by never so intimate a Friend 7. When you are inclined to enter into the state of Marriage make not a celebrated Beauty the Object of your Choice unless you are ambitious of rendring your House as populous as a Confectioners Shop to which the gaudy Wasps no less than the liquorish Flies make it their business to resort in hope of obtaining a Lick at your Hony-pot which though bound up with the strongest Obligations yet Feminine Vessels are obnoxious to so many Frailties as they can hardly bear without breaking such Pride and Content they naturally take in seeing themselves adored Marriage is most freed from such inconveniencies as may obstruct Fellcity when accompanied with a good Estate therefore take the true extent of her Estate before you entail your self upon the Owner And in this common Fame is not to be trusted which for the most part dilates a Portion beyond its natural bounds proving also not seldom litigious and that given by Will questionable by which Husbands are tyed to a Black-Box more miserable than that of Pandora Yet take one who thinks her self rather beneath than above you in Birth since Honourable Persons as is reported of Eagles Feathers in a Bed consume all not of the same Plume Riches were in a like predicament in relation to Pride but easier passed by because best able to bear the Charges of her own Folly whereas lean Honour like Pharaoh's Kine devours the Gentry with whom they match by multiplying the quantity of their Expences 8. If you happen to Travel let not the Irreligion of any place breed in you a neglect of Divine Duties remembring God heard the Prayers of Daniel in Babylon with the same attention he gave to David's in Sion Shun all Disputes but especially concerning Religion because that which commands in chief though false and erroneous will like a Cock on 's own Dunghill line her Arguments with force and drive the Stranger out of the Pit with insignificant clamours 9. A multitude m●…amed under a Religious pretence is at first as unsafely opposed as joined with resembling Bears exasperated by the cry of their Whelps and do not seldom if unextinguished by hope or delays consume all before them to the very thing they intend to preserve The Example of Brutus rather than Cato is to be followed in bad times it being safer to be patient than active or appear a Fool than a Malecontent Make not the Law assigned for a Buckler to defend your self a Sword to hurt others Be not the Pen or Mouth of a Multitude congregated by the gingling of their Fetters lest a Pardon or Compliance knock them off and leave you as the soul of that wicked and deformed Body hanging in the Hell of the Law or you be justly left to the vengeance of an exasperated Power If Authority requires an acknowledgment from you give it with all readiness and let not the Example of a few Fools tempt you to dispute the matter with those under whom the disposure of your person doth wholly remain 10. Look not upon it as any disparagement to your discretion or birth to give Honour to New Families for it cannot be denied but that they have ascended by the like steps as those that have the repute of Ancient New being a Term only respecting us not the World for what is now was before and will be when we are gone 11. It is truly said that War follows Peace and Peace War as Summer doth Winter and foul Weather fair And none are ground more in this Mill of Vicissitudes than such obstinate Fools as glory in the repute of State-martyrs after they are dead which concerns them less than what was said a thousand years before they were born 12. Be not liquorish after Fame found by Experience to carry a Trumpet that doth for the most part congregate more Enemies than Friends The consideration of the inconstancy of Common Applause and that many have had their Fame broken upon the same Wheel that raised it and puffed out by the same Breath that kindled the first report of it should admonish you not to be elevated with the smiles nor dejected at the frowns of that gaudy Goddess formed out of no more sollid matter than the Foam of the Multitude 13. Be not perswaded by any above you to bear a part in the carrying on of any Design whereby you may run the hazzard of falling under the punishment of the Law for if you miscarry you will meet with no better assistance or commiseration even by those that put you upon it than the imputation of Folly and want of discretion in the management 14. Write not the Faults of Persons near the Throne in any Nation where you reside lest your Letters should be intercepted and you sent out of the World before your time But reserve such discourse for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or your Master into which you must pour it with more Caution than Malice lest it should be discovered as it is odds but it will and then the next endeavour is revenge It is an office unbecoming a Gentleman to be an Intelligencer which in real Truth is no better than a Spie who are often brought to the Torture and dye miserably though no words are made of it being an use connived at by some Princes 15. As for your Religion I can approve of no Doctrin for Magisterial Divinity but that which is found floating in the unquestioned sense of the Scriptures but advise you to follow that of the Reformation viz. The Church of England as by Law Established as most conformable to the Duty we owe to God and the Magistrate The Schismatick is so fiery that he cannot last long unconsumed being ready upon the least advantage to melt all into Sedition not sparing to burn the Fingers of Government longer than they shower down Offices and Preferments upon him 16. As for your Converse despise none for meanness of Blood yet do not ordinarily make them your Companions for debasing your own unless you find them clarified by excellent Parts or guilded by Fortune or Power Solomon having sent the Sluggard to the Pismire to learn industry and to the living Dog rather than to the dead Lyon for Protection 17. When you speak to any especially of Quality look them full in the Face other Gestures bewraying want of Breeding Confidence or Honesty dejected Eyes confessing to most judgments Guilt or Folly 18. Live so frugally that you may reserve something to enable you to grapple with any future contingency And provide in Youth since fortune hath this property with other common Mistresses that she deserts Age especially in the Company of want 19. Though it may sute no less with your years than mine that advise you to follow such Fashions in Apparel as are in use as well at home as abroad those being least gazed on that go as most men do Yet it cannot be justified before the Face of Discretion or the Charity due to your own Country-men to esteem no Doublet well made nor Glove worth wearing that hath not passed the hands of a French Taylor or retains not the scent of a Spanish Perfumer A vanity found incident to the People of England 20. All your days serve God with all the reverence you are able and do all the good you can making as little unnecessary work for Repentance as is possible And the Mercy of our Heavenly Father supply all your Defects in the Son of his Love Amen FINIS LONDON Printed for B. Heath 1682.