Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	know_v	read_v	write_v	3,405	5	5.0561	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B15647	Satyræ seriæ, or, The Secrets of things written in morall and politicke observations.		1640 (1640)	STC 21771.5; ESTC S116797	20,581	144

time is vertues spurre in death it is his ornament nemo laudes contemnit nisi qui prius laudanda facere desuevit Repaire thy work without and make it sit for thy selfe in the field and afterward build thine house IN the framing of a mans owne fortune he must have a speciall care to fashion the materialls of his speech and intentions in private and solitary meditations before he come to the actiō of performance or the building of the Fabricke If you doe not first cast your purpose in the mold of prudence and wisdome your actions wil be cast on the unconstancy of Fortune if you conceive not honest intentions and noble ends you are but Theomachi you do build a Babel or things of confusion quae tolluntur in altum ut lapsu graviore ruant If the Archetype be not good which is in the understanding the imitation of it will hardly prove capable of perpetuity Action without forecast speech without consideration controversies in the Pulpit are like stones hewn in the Temple which are there only made fit whereas they should build up For men to search their owne glory is not glory LEt another praise thee and not thy owne mouth a stranger and not thy owne lips Poore men often digge in the richest Mines and search the precious veine of that glorious mettle when it belongs to the owners Men who are poor in worth vertue may talke of the honoured waies of Fame and Credit which they doe not owe for they belong to vertue and godlinesse It was said to bee the cause of Iugurths glory plurimum faciendo nihil de seipso loquendo by which meanes he grew greater than envy and fruitfull in acts of worth Da'mihi neque paupertatem nec divitias THis determines a grave question in Morall Philosophy whether it were a great happinesse to enjoy wealth or to cōtemne it this cuts out a faire course betwixt the deformity of foule extreams and yeilds a good cooling-card for the hot game of ambitiō to desire that state onely wherein we might best serve God There ought to be a limitation of the care of getting wealth our Saviour teacheth it Primum quaerite regnum Dei c. The Ethnicks tells us Primo quaere animi bona caetera vel aderunt vel non oberunt The kingdome of Christ was not of this world therefore saith one if this were his Kingdome he would not let the evill be amongst the good nor the lascivious with the chast surely he had no such thing in this world which we cal greatnesse They say nullū magnum ingenium sine mixturâ dementiae but it may be very well verified of great fortunes and with the Satyrist Raro fortuna sensus communis in illa the same gave occasion to Solomon after he had repeated a catalogue of his pleasures and works of magnanimity to note that in the midst of all these that still his wisedome remained with him to shew the difficulty of the conjunction of wealth and wisedome Of making many books there is no end THis is caution which extends it selfe as well to the reading as writing of Books a multiplicity in either is both distraction trouble for as in reading it is a great part of a scholler to know what he ought to read sitting suiting with the knowledge of that which hee desires so in writing its a great care to bee had in the choyse of the subject that it bee fited to the strength of his owne ability Quid valeant humeri quid non saith the Poet Most books that are writ doe rather increase learning in the bulk and bignes than in vertue spirit It is no smal distemper in the labours of the learned when they turne the ends of their labours for estimation which destroieth the estimation of their labours when they rather taste of the spirit of vanity then are undertaken through a desire of the information of others They chuse a subject rather to vant their owne wit then those whereby they may advance piety which is that which Solomon addes as a corolary to his discourse and a perfection to all humane actions for if they looke not towards the Temple or some profit of man me thinkes Sir Walter Raleigh hath well pronounced them fooles in print FINIS Errata PAge 3. line penul read honorante P. 14. L. 16. read deserve for discerne P. 16. L. 12. del in P. 27. L. 2. for imitation read imagination L. ultim read Politicke P. 28. L. 4. del to P. 75. L. 12. read forward for froward

Imprimatur THO. WYKES Martij 18. 1639. Satyrae seriae OR The Secrets of things written in Morall and Politicke Observations Vtilius libri scribuntur ad incrementum literarum literae frequentius habentur ad augmentum librorum LONDON Printed by J. Okes for Abel Roper and are to be sold at his shop at the blacke spread Eagle over aginst St. Dunstans Church in Fleetstreet 1640. TO THE READER SOME advise to put ones Thoughts into VVords lest they prove ungratefull smother their owner Others to put a Mans Words into Writing lest they passe for what they are not So that like unto those I have unfolded my thoughts to see what complexion they are of in the open light since nothing is more preiudiciall to a discreet value of things than to see them at halfe and counterfeit shadows I have not delivered them with insinuations or advantages of Art for Essaies are but the Images of affaires which being quickned with the life and vigour of profit or pleasure may adde motion to your liking and these are only Speeches the representation of mens thoughts and therefore may challenge an easier accesse unto them being of their owne nature insinuating and returning into Mens bosomes whence they came Farewell The Heads of the chiefest things contained in this Book 1 OF Ceremonies and civill Complements 2 Of multiplicity of books 3 Of Fortune 4 Of the wisdome of speech 5 Of trust and distrust 6 Of Jests 7 Of Love 8 Of Contemplation and Action 9 Of Deceits and errours 10 Of Content 11 Of Friendship 12 Of Silence 13 Of Questions 14 Of Life 15 Of Sciences 16 Of Dangers 17 Of precepts of Policy Satyrae seriae OR The Secrets of things written in Morall and Politick Discourses 1 Of Ceremonies and civill Complements ONE saith wisely that Ceremonies are but the translation of Vertue into the knowne Tongue the distinctions and ful poynts without which they could not be understood If we be so carefull in the set formes of Speech and Language why not in Action Gesture the one speakes to the eye the other to the eare They are but Transitory Hyeroglyphicks and not to use them bespeakes neglect to others when themselves are best exprest by a seeming neglect It is the minde that is capable of a decent carriage which if you first make expert they will be better exprest to the life than onely by an apish imitation of corporall action To use them too much towards inferiours is popularity to use them towards equalls is civility and love towards superiours they become reverence and companions of their honour for bowed heads bare caps ceremonies and respects doe make honor so desireable and the weakest look no farther than to these outward accidents never thinking that true bravery and honour conststs in Honerante non honorato not onely in formality of worship but a mentall reverence to their vertue which is the most worthy part of dignity Though of themselves they be light and vaine yet they have that command in the respects of men by reason of that which they use to signifie that some whose minds are below the performance of nobler vertues doe seeke reputation by comlinesse of going it is good to have a commanded carriage and not to let the errours of the mind bee discovered by the negligence of looks it appeares by the truth of the old Adage that they are significative and not onely Mutes Nil interest habere ostium apertum vultum clausum 2 Of the Multiplicity of Bookes THe most Books adde rather bulke to the body of Learning than spirit and quicknesse of inventions as a soule answerable which by diffusion weakens and makes slow the course of knowledge In Bookes the relations of affaires are framed in the mold of the understanding by way of expression which makes those things that are writ have a shape and appearance of a more perfection than those things which are done They endeavour to bee either Delian divers of Questions or to have the ilumination of an Interpreter or the name of an exact Methodist and for the variety of them and their adulatory Dedications I may say of them as of our Farthings the impression makes them goe the curranter though the matter debaseth them books are only freed from the power of Oblivion which is the occasion the Poets did promise to themselves an immortality of name esteeming all other things as subject to the inconstancy of affaire and period of time Pectoris exceptis ingeniijque bonis Which is the meaning of that Fable of theirs how that in the end of the threed of every mans life there is a certaine coyne affixt upon which is writ the name of the dead party which as soone as the Sister hath cut shee throwes them into the River Lethe but about the River there flyes a great company of Birds which do carry the coyne a little way in their beaks and afterward carelessely let them fall againe but amongst those Birds there are found some Swans which if they light with a Coyne upon ones name on it they presently carry it to the Temple devoting it to perpetuity Bookes are the Coynes on which mens names are writ those of an ordinary flight they endure for a time but presently are forgot but if there bee one who can sing well they are carryed on the wings of true Fame and as Swans leave the sweetest notes to posterity Bookes are the best Councellors the best Companions and the best heires of a mans knowledge they be the Monuments wherein lye hid the sacred reliques of Knowledge Wisedome and the reason why the multiplicity of Bookes yeelds not advancement to learning is because they are but as rivolets drawne as it were from the Fountaine of some Author and conveied by the secret passages of mens understandings and fancies returne to it againe keeping still the same levell with the Well-spring which denies a further rise It is a good rule in Naturall Philosophy Interitus rei arcetur per reductionem ejus ad principia which is a good rule also in the course of Learning for commonly for prevention of corruption in Letters there needs the reducing of the understanding to the first Originall and sometimes if they beginne not againe the sent will grow cold To write in that in which there is no beaten path is most honourable for hee that leads hath this advantage above others saith learned Hooker if others follow him he hath the glory of it if not hee hath the excuse of prejudice 3. Of Fortune I Will not speake of the actions of men as they are the children of Divine providence Nor will I ascribe an Apotheosis to Fortune but will onely view the power and activity of mans reason in the nimble apprehension and taking hold of occasions to see how farre outward Circumstances doe conduce to the making of a mans owne Fortune It was the saying of a great one that however he knew that rule that quisque