think nothing surely can be truer thē that which Tertullian saith to his wife That the pleasure which wee take in our children is full of anguish neither is it without cause that Saint Ierome hath discoursed very much in one of his epistles without any certaine resolution taken thereupon whether of the two were most expedient either to marry or not to marry For my part I beléeue this question may be concluded by that sentence of Martiall For doubtlesse hée that hath no children takes not so much pleasure as he that hath but withall hee endures not that trouble and vexation of mind the other doth A briefe recommendation of a Friend SIr I should rather merit reproch then reputation to recommend vnto you the affaires of M. G. the present bearer For to his knowledge your bounty is such that it extendeth euen to those you neuer sawe I leaue you then to imagin what assurance hee may haue of it that hath known you so long and that by his own vertues sufficiently commends himselfe and that is also commended vnto you by one of your most affectionate frends Touching the request he shall offer for my cause I will not presse you much in it beeing assured you wil not do your selfe that wrong to deny me for considering that by our ancient friendship we two are but as one the refusall you should make me would but shew the little regard you carry vnto your selfe And so very kindly for this time I take my leaue An acknowledgement of curtesies vndeserued I Receiue no letter from M. I. that is not accompanied with an expresse and singular mention of the many good Offices you continually doe for me which altogether procéeds from the goodnes of your owne disposition without any merit at all of mine and I were worthy to be ranked in the number of the most ingratefull that euer were if at the least I did not acknowledge it by letters vntill such time as I may méet with some happy occasion to deserue it better wherein I writ to employ my selfe with so good a will and affection that you shall neuer repent any pleasure you haue done vnto him that desires nothing more then to appeare how much he is Truely your friend A mild taxation for not writing and for some seeming negligence in prosecuting of a businesse SIr your slacknes rather deserueth blame then excuse in my behalfe and I am glad you are fallen into the same error whereof you haue so often accused me Your letters at all times would be very welcome but much more now being so desirous to vnderstand what successe hath followed my kinsmans businesse which not long since with such care I recommended vnto you I cannot doubt that you haue forgotten him the matter concerning him so much and hee a man so vnworthy and vnfit to suffer a neglect besides I haue many times heard you say that an iniury in that kind is a cause iust and sufficient enough to dissolue all friendship But to come againe to my first quarrell I know if you should be called in question before the God of respect for all your eloquence you would be condēnedeither for a negligent or an inconsiderate friend Neuerthelesse séeing you haue had no good opportunity to write I pardon this silence and as one that holds you deare will content my selfe with your best leisure and conueniencie I make no question but that you and the rest of our friends there looke for some great intelligence at my hands but I am not able to satisfie you with the least occurrence of note For matters of the state lye so déep buried in the graue of secrecy that no man can come to haue a sight of them but with the eye of reason which iudgeth wel enough of that which should bee but not of that which shall be Wherefore you must be therewith contented vntill the rest shall come to light And so I pray you continue me in your fauor whereunto with all affection I very humbly commend my selfe A witty excuse for long intermission of writing SIr I could fetch some color of excuse for this long intermission of writing from the many affaires wherein I am continually conuersant but it would be neither worthy your acceptance nor my affection For there is no employment either of body or minde that should interrupt any office appertaining to your pleasure or the satisfaction of my dutie Wherefore leauing this excuse which would bee more honest then iust I will séeke to cléere my selfe with the plaine truth and fréely tell you that I haue not written all this while because I had nothing to write and that I thought letters were neither necessary for my occasion nor your contentment If I had séen that to substantiate our auncient friendship there had héene neede of such triuiall complements I should haue thought it had beene grounded on a lesse firme and weaker foundation then it is That vertuous and honest disposition which euen from our youth and first acquaintance I alwaies found in you hath knit our affections so fast together that not the strength of any enemy enuie or other worldly accidents whatsoeuer shall euer bée able to vndoe it Wherfore I should much wrong your iudgement in beléeuing that you can be so carried away with the vulgar as to thinke that frequency of letters is precisely required for the fortification of a friendship I shall neuer be perswaded that any such heresie can take hold on you or that you more estéeme of verball ceremony then of action and the true entent of an honest will For my part I haue still béene more a friend of deeds then of words which most commonly little pleasure and lesse profit whereas the other beget them both My slacknes in writing shall be recompenced with a desire and endeuour to doe you seruice in euery occasion whereunto my poore but ablest meanes may extend whereof because I perswaded my selfe you make no doubt I will héere with my humble and kindest commendations giue end to the present A due acknowledgement of true friendship which especially in aduersity is more apparent then in prosperity SIr by your letters I perceiue you haue the same opinion of my loue I alwaies desired I am glad I haue not bene deceiued in the iudgement of your wisdome and good will And since that true and perfect friendship consists not in words or fair promises but in effects vertuous executions I must needs confesse that I haue found you of little speech and superfluous apparance in my behalfe so long as fortune fauoured me but assoon as my troubles and occasions began but to knocke at the gate of your assistance you haue euer well expressed the goodnes of your generous disposition and I may truly say I neuer met with any or very few such like Wherfore be assured that I wil serue respect and loue you as long as I haue breath to doe it and that too as farre from ingratitude as may
matter enough to kéepe you from idlenesse you néed no better a raiser of you vp in a morning than a suit Are you proud and disdainfull I warrant you shall haue sufficient cause to court not onely the Iudges but your Counsell and Atturney nay by my faith their very Clerke If of a dull and heauie disposition you shall méet with store of inuention how to kéepe you out of your enemies danger If shamefast necessitie will teach you rather to bée impudent than otherwise If couetous no helpe for it in the world like this for there is no commoditie in the land beares such a price as the law doth A man is to passe thorow so many hands and euery finger ketcheth somewhat Besides for the desire wee haue to obtaine our ends we neuer thinke what it will cost vs till we come to the bottome of our purses I am sure I haue made deare experience of all this And they are great blessings I must néeds say but God kéepe you from them Well I haue iested enough it is time for me now to tell you in good earnest that I thinke there is no passion more eager or that fils our heads so full of proclamations as this doth I will not except the three torments of our spirit loue ambition and auarice for in this there is a mixture of the two last accompanied with a desire of reuenge which produceth very maruellous effects in vs. The Italian saith that no man knowes what pleasure it is to bee reuenged but he that hath receiued the iniurie A prettie controuersie compounded in a wittie complement SIr I know not whether I should excuse the slacknesse of my pen or accuse your negligence For my part the trouble of my continuall emploiment well knowen both to you and euery man may iustly cléere me of this fault but the leasure and good commoditie you alwaies haue to write cannot free you from blame Neuerthelesse not to cast away our money in suits which you know are euerlasting full of hazard and subiect to the inconstancie ambition and wickednesse of the most part of the Lawyers of these times I am contented to stand to the iudgement of your owne conscience or if you will like good Merchants that haue cléered accounts let vs make generall releases so that neither shall remaine debtor to the other But if you will néeds goe to Law I am agréed for hauing reason for my Atturney and truth for counsell in my cause if by the power of bribes you corrupt not the Iudges I doubt not but to haue a verdict of my side Now of these two waies I leaue the best to your election assuring you that albeit you haue ouercome mee with offices of courtesie yet haue you not gone beyond mee either in loue or iudgement to know that I owe more to your good will than euer I shall be able to furnish But if an honest minde alone could serue for paiment of so many obligations make account I should easily satisfie greater debts than these Whereupon I inuoke the grace of time that may bring me some such opportunitie as may thorowly approoue the sinceritie of my heart to your experience In the meane space let mee intreat you to giue mee occasion to doe you seruice for I cannot receiue a commandement from any friend vnto whom I more desire to obey than your selfe with the assurance whereof I will héere conclude and commit you to God A briefe answer to a bitter Complaint vpon a false ground SIr I am sorrie for the wrong you doe your selfe in complaining of mée without cause I thought we should haue séene you héere in the Countrie ere this and it gréeues me you came not as well in regard I haue lost the occasion to giue you the entertainment of my house as that I might haue fréed you from this passion of profit which so detaines you from discerning the truth But since I cannot doe it in person you are to vnderstand by this paper that I haue nothing to doe now in the Office where you are assigned the paiment of your pension I haue past it ouer vnto another who can giue you satisfaction if hée will Wherefore you haue no reason to say you will plaine of mée seeing I haue done nothing but that I should If this will not content you within seuen or eight daies at the farthest I shall bée at London where we may meet and conferre more at large of matters In the meane time commending me vnto you I commit you to God An earnest and elegant intreaty importuning the assistance of some friend in any matter of importance and that with expedition To my honourable friend Sir Henry T. SIr I will beginne with the saying of Plato and Marcus Cicero because I perswade my selfe that the authoritie of such personages and the efficacie of their words will bée of more power and estéeme with you than mine although to incite you to any office of courtesie whereunto a naturall addiction makes you forward enough of your selfe I cannot thinke there is néede of more than a bare and simple intreatie Man say they is not borne for himselfe alone but for his Countrey for his parents for his friends and for all other men And euen as Nature the vniuersall Mother of all things created doth not produce so many kinds of beasts herbes trées fruits metals and stones for her selfe onely but fréely imparts vnto vs of those her riches so we that are to imitate her liberalitie must not bée sparing of those abilities and meanes which either fortune or our owne vertue hath acquired vs for the good and reléefe of others This being so I cannot doubt that you in whom is such a concurrence of excellent parts will bée wanting to the necessitie of my present affaire And albeit the qualitie of my deserts the integritie of my heart the respect of my seruices and other points appertaining to the iudgement of liberalitie cannot induce you thereunto yet let the loue and obedience I haue euer born you supplie all other defects But that my Letter may not runne out all into preface nor you be wearied with the long narration of a matter well enough knowen to you alreadie I will referre the rest to the sufficiencie and trust of M. H. For séeing you vnderstand my occasion I must hope you will bée pleased to take order for it as with much facilitie and very commodiously you may And because that obtaining this grace if withall expedition bée not made it would bee as good as time lost may it please you hauing taken vpon you the one to vndergoe the trouble of the other which will bée of that import in my behalfe that bée assured I shall bée your perpetuall debtor for it notwithstanding any satisfaction in the world I can euer bée able to make Sir Richard G. in the exercise of this fauour as in all other generous actions will not faile to second you since I am so desirous to
and the loue that I beare you then perswaded by mine owne will to execute the office of reprehension vpon you and as the good Phisition that not to hurt but to heale his patient comes much against his mind to the vyolent remedies of fire or knife so did I carry my selfe towards you that if my correction could haue proued pleasing and profitable vnto you I should haue bene glad that by my means you had recouered your helth or that therein fayling I might at leastwise haue satisfied mine owne conscience and the duty of our frindship As from a friend then that truly affects you and not as from a malicious enemy receiue the exhortation I made you For otherwise you shew that a flatterer is more acceptable vnto you then a friend And I that aboue all others abhor that quality and that had rather be an open enemy then a hollow friend will sooner leaue to loue you then dissemble with you and rather offend you with a plaine trueth then please you with a deceitfull lye But pardon mee I pray you for speaking thus fréely and consider that your disease stood in need of a sharpe and strong purge which I wish may work that effect in you the case requires A briefe discourse concerning the progression or rather the succession and vicissitude of Learning sometimes flourishing in one Climate sometimes in another To my learned friend SIr whereas you desire a frée deliuery of my mind vpon the matter propounded in your last I must néeds tell you I am not any way of your opinion to thinke that the temperature of the Clymate can make men either more or lesse learned as if there were certaine countries more affected to good letters then others I wil not deny but that euery nation hath certaine vertues and vices which are transmitted from one to another as it were by an hereditarie and successiue right nor haue I séene any Countrey anciently taxed for a vice which is not still continuing in the posterity although it haue béene repeopled with new Colonies But touching so much as appertaines to Sciences the discourse is farre otherwise as may be gathered by very ocular examples was there euer greater personages in all kind of knowledge learning than in Greece and was there euer so much barbarism in the world as that which is presently in it Look but vpon Affricke in what opinion of doctrine had it euer béene in Neuerthelesse a little after the aduancement and progresse of our Christian Religion there was no country on the earth that produced greater Doctors of the Church than it witnesse Tertullian Optatius Lactantius Saint Cyprian and Saint Augustine After the same manner in the time of the Romane common-wealth no nation was euer more estranged from good letters than Germany which both at this instant and for sixe or seuen score yéers past hath béene séene to flourish in all kinde of studies And I may say for it is true that as Monarch yes so learning and sciences change their habitation according to the diuersity of seasons Which is the reason why at first they flourished among the Chaldeans then in Aegypt from thence they took their course into Greece and lastly vnto Rome Afterwards we hauing béene possessed for many hundreth yeares together with a continuall barbarisme they came at length to soiourne part in Italy and Germany and part in France and England whereas yet they make their abode And all this by a certaine reuolution of things which is the cause that in some ages we sée armes to prosper in a countrey and then againe letters Thus hauing briefly shewed you that euery Nation is capable of Arts and Sciences according to the diuersitie of occurrences I will leaue you to a consideraion of my reasons and my selfe very ready to bee commanded by you vpon all occasions An excellent and extraordinary letter of Commendation To my approued deare friend Mr. c. SIr in that I know you to bée an enemy of complement I will write as plainely as may be to the end my meaning may the better appeare vnto you which peraduenture couered with the vaile of Arte would be the harder for you to conceiue This Gentleman M. V. is a friend of mine and desiring to be receiued into the number of your seruants he hath entreated mee to become the meanes of it Wherupon comparing his merit with your iudgement and perswading my selfe that with one office I may satisfie two debts one of duty to you the other of affection to him I am very well coutented to vndertake it Now because I know that in the election of friends you I are as it were of one taste I assure my selfe you will iudge him worthy your friendship and my commendation I will not speake of what you are to do for him for you shall no sooner know him but you will thinke you should do more for him than he will require Howsoeuer vntill he haue obtained that which he desireth I meane so to oppresse you with intreaties that my importunitie shall beget his satisfaction and I hope you will not take it in euill part forasmuch as you know that a man is only to intreat for himselfe but for his friend hée is both to intreat and importune When for mine owne particular I shall haue occasion of that fauour which so many times héeretofore hath obliged me vnto you it shall be then that I will vse that madestie which the loue I iustly beare so worthie a friend as M. V. doth make mee now to forget although I will neuer forget to commend you and all your affaires vnto him in whose hand is all prosperity to giue A gratefull acceptation of a friendly gift with modest refusall of things exceeding either the giuers meanes or the receiuers merit SIr I haue receiued your letters aswell furnished with good aduise and counsell as with good will and affection and I am not a little glad we both iumpe so well together in opinion that you are perswaded that that which is for your profit and seruice will be also for my commoditie and good If by many other waies I had not made experience of your friendship this would bee an approoued argument vnto me of it Now I shall goe with a far better will séeing my selfe carried by your direction I humbly thanke you for the present it hath pleased you to send me worthy indeed the greatnes of your mind but not my desert for there is no particular gaine shall make mee dissemble that which I am bound to tell you and that is how you are to take care not to extend your liberality beyond the limit of your meanes and that in séeking to supply your friends you do not wrong your selfe Weigh but your fortunes with my merit and you will find that so great a gift doth neither belong to your ability nor my condition I would not haue you so bountifull vnto mee as that therby you should want means to be
your owne possession and you haue as little néede of fortaine vertnes as the sea hath of the water of little riuers Héereupon I will leaue to be a further trouble vnto you but not to assure you that I desire to liue no longer than I shall desire To serue you Thankfull acknowledgement of kindnesse vnto ones Sonne SIr the fauours you haue latelie done me are of such effect and merit that I shall neuer be at quiet till I haue made some requitall of them I am ashamed you should be so troubled with this sonne of mine whom I haue charged to obey you in all things as my selfe and I pray you doe so much as haue an eye vpon him as if you were his Father I thanke you very kindly for the apparell you haue made him and the money you haue paied for him you may accommodate him with the rest of it as you shall thinke good For for my part I giue you all power ouer him séeing you are pleased to take the trouble vpon you and so wishing but to méet with some good occasion to acknowledge how much I am beholding vnto you I commit you to God A priuate taxation of the publike ingratitude of great persons toward such as haue best deserued of them SIr Wheras you think it strange that I write no oftner vnto the Lady you wot of I haue alwaies told you and now tell you again that which I was wont to say of great Lords at such time as they deserued it at my hands that I remember their greatnesse and reputation no longer than they are mindfull of my necessities Hée that makes no reckoning of me teaches me to neglect him he that looks vpon me with respect giues me occasion and desire to serue him so that I alwaies goe as others goe and no otherwise You may alledge the many commodities of their fauour and countenance and I may answer that it were an idle thing for me to trouble my head with a matter I am not sensible of Do vt des facio vt facias saies the loue of Lawers but hauing done so many seruices and neuer receiued so much as a taste of liberality is the composition of a water able to quench the fire of an hundred Aetnaes much more to discourage mée that otherwise am most readie by all offices of courtesie to kéepe the good will of such as please to honor me with the friendship of which number to you as to one of the most especial with all affection I commend mee and bid you farewell Excuse for not saluting a friend passing by vs endeuouring by the way to wipe away his imputation of pride and of forgetfulnesse SIr you told my Cosen that either I was growne proud or had forgotten you because I passed along by you the other day and did not speake Now this I perceiue was the cause why you came not along with the rest of the company to honour mée with your presence But you shall vnderstand that when I met you I was so farre out of patience with the ingratitude of a wicked friend which was newly parted from me that I continued a whole wéeke together without the remembrance not onely of you but my selfe which together with the knowledge you are to haue of my naturall humors may sufficiently excuse me to either of your opinions Besides I could not forget a Gentleman well deriued happily married liuing with all modesty of his owne a friend to euery man not medling nor making with any one that is contented with his estate loues vertue and the vertuous passeth away his time with choice of good companie is perfect in mind and memory but of body to my great griefe somwhat weak and indisposed Now iudge Sir whether I remember you or no and be no longer perswaded that either I am proud or forgetful of you whose many courtesies haue bound me to be alwaies Your affectionate friend and Seruant A sad commemoration of some worthy friend deceased To my singular good friend M. c. SIr the griefe of my kinsmans death hath gotten so much interest in my apprehension that the comfort I was wont to giue vnto others is not able now to doe my selfe any seruice Reason disswades mee from sorrow and sense prouokes mée to teares my power is small the frailty of the flesh great I desire to obey vnto the one the other I cannot resist so that in the sedition of so many contratiâ—ties I neither vnderstand nor sée any thing may content mée In regard of him I haue no cause to complaine he lead the life of a good man and died the death of the righteous for as the Romane Orator saith It is hard to liue well and dye ill But for my part I haue asmuch reason to lament as his vertues were without number and end Howbeit if for mine owne particular I should grieus wheras for his I am much to reioyce I shal be thought rather enuious of his good then a friend of his happines I assure my selfe also that you take no pleasure in the death of so curteons and worthy a Gntleman nor in the losse you haue made of one that for your owne good parts and my sake loued you as a friend and respected you as vertuous But not to bée a cause either of more trouble to you or heauinesse to my selfe I will cease to speake further of him and commending you to God very kindly take my leaue A gratefull acknowledgement of an especiall fauour from any great man To my very Honourable good Lord the Lord c. MY Lord I haue receiued the commendations you were pleased to send mee by my brother C. than the which there is no fauour I could more desire Henceforward I shall begin to think better of my selfe séeing so noble and honourable a person hath thought mee worthy of a place in his remembrance which intruth was more requisite for a continuance of your goodnesse then for any merit at all of mine Howsoeuer I giue your Lordship as humble thanks for it as possibly I may albeit I am perswaded that neither with words nor effects I shall euer bée able to satisfy so great an obligatiou This fauor hath cleared mee of some doubt I was in for that I receiued no answere to the letter I wrote not long since in congratulation of your Lordships so deserued aduancements together with an humble presentation of my seruices but now I perceiue the cause of it procéeded either from the fault of your Secretary or the negligence of the post being alwaies well assured that no greatnes whatsoeuer could elate your mind more then it would be deiected by any aduersity the worst of time could bring I haue nothing to adde hereunto but an humble entreaty that as you were pleased to remember mee with your commendations so you would vouchsafe to honour mee with your commandements thereby to giue action to the desire I alwaies haue of appearing vnto the world how much I