of this Islands Solomons-House modeled in my new Atlantis And I can hope my Lords that my midnight studies to make our Countryes flourish and out-vie European neighbours in mysterious and beneficent Arts have not so ingratefully affected your noble intellects that you will delay or resist his Majesties desires and my humble Petition in this benevolent yea magnificent affair since your honorable posterities may be inriched thereby and my ends are only to make the world my Heir and the learned Fathers of my Solomons-House the successive and sworn Trustees in the dispensation of this great service for Gods glory my Princes magnifice this Parliaments honor our Countryes general good and the propagation of my own memory And I may assure your Lordships that all my proposals in order to this great Architype seemed so rational and feisable to my Royal Soveragin our Christian Solomon that I thereby prevailed with his Majesty to call this Honourable Parliament to confirm and impower me in my own way of Mining by an Act of the same after his Majesties more weighty affairs were considered in your wisdomes both which he desires your Lordships and you Gentlemen that are chosen as the Patriots of your respective Countries to take speedy care of which done I shall not then doubt the happy issue of my undertakings in this design whereby concealed Treasures which now seem utterly lost to mankind shall be confined to so universal a piety and brought into use by the industry of converted Penitents whose wretched Carcases the impartial Laws have or shall dedicate as untimely feasts to the worms of the earth in whose wombe those deserted Mineral riches must ever lie buried as lost abortments unless those be made the active Midwives to deliver them For my Lords I humbly conceive them to be the fittest of all men to effect this great work for the ends and causes which I have before exprest All which my Lords I humbly refer to your grave and solid Judgments to conclude of together with such other assistances to this frame as your own oraculous wisdom shall intimate for the magnifying our Creator in his inscrutable providence and admirable works of Nature But before this could be accomâ—lished to his own content there arose such complaints against his Lordship and the then Favorite at Court that for some dayes put the King to this Quere whether he should permit the Favorite of his affection or the Oracle of his Counsel to sink in his service whereupon his Lordship was sent for by the King who after some discourse gave him this positive advice to submit himself to his House of Peers and that upon his Princely word he would then restore him again if they in their honors should not be sensible of his merits Now though my Lord foresaw his approaching ruine and told his Majesty there was little hopes of mercy in a multitude when his Enemies were to give fire if he did not plead for himself yet such was his obedience to him from whom he had his being that he resolv'd his Majesties will should be his only Law and so took leave of him with these words Those that will strike at your Chancellor its much to be feared will strike at your Crown and wish'd that as he was then the first so he might be the last of Sacrifices Soon after according to his Majesties commands he wrote a submissive letter to the House and sent me to my Lord Windsor to know the result which I was loath at my return to acquaint him with for alas his Soveraigns favour was not in so high a measure but he like the Phoenix must be sacrifized in flames of his own raising and so perish'd like Icarus in that his lofty design the great revenue of his Office being lost and his Titles of Honour saved but by the Bishops Votes whereto he replied That he was only bound to thank his Clergy the thunder of which fatal sentence did much perplex my troubled thoughts as well as others to see that famous Lord who procured his Majesty to call this Parliament must be the first subject of their revengeful wrath and that so unparalleld a Master should be thus brought upon the publick stage for the foolish miscarriages of his own servants whereof with grief of heart I confess my self to be one Yet shortly after the King dissolved the Parliament but never restored that matchless Lord to his place which made him then to wish the many years he had spent in State-policy and Law-study had been solely devoted to true Philosophy for said he the one at best doth but comprehend mans frailty in its greatest splendor but the other the mysterious knowledge of all things created in the six dayes work Wherefore considering his fatherlike favors to my undeservings exprest in my confession to the honorable Council and knowing the Library he left to the world viz. His great work intituled Instauratio Magna an admirable piece containing First de Augmentis Scientiarum or his advancement of Learning in nine Books written in Latine and dedicated to King Charls then Prince of Wales Secondly Novum organum sive Judica vera de interpretatione naturae written in Latine and dedicated to King James Thirdly Sylva Sylvarum or his Natural History his New Atlantis his History of Life and Death historia ventorum all dedicated to King Charles by D. Rawley sometimes his Lordships Chaplain Sermones fideles sive interioria rerum otherwise called his Essays dedicated to the Duke of Buckingham De sapientia veterum or the wisdom of the Antients dedicated to the Earl of Salisbury Lord Treasurer and Chancellour of the University of Cambridge and to the University a double dedication which was afterwards translated by Sir Arthur Gorges and dedicated to the Queen of Bohemia Dialogus de Bello Sacro dedicated to Lancelot Andrews Bishop of Winchester The History of Henry the Seventh dedicated to K. Charls His Elements of the Law Resuscitatio certain excellent Discourses Letters and the like being his Remains set forth by the said Doctor Rawley A Manual of Devotions intituled Comfortable Crums of refreshment by Prayers Meditations Consolations and Ejaculations with a confession of Faith published by the aforesaid worthy and faithfull Doctor Rawley Doctor in Divinity and one of his Majesties Chaplains I willingly then betook my self to that penance of solitude imposed me by his Lordships Fatherly advice as is exprest in my Letter to my fellow Prisoners for Debt before I should dare to attempt any of his Mineral â—rust formerly consign'd me by the favour of his affection as doth more at large appear in my humble Remonstrance to the Honourable Council the which for three years I strictly kept as if obliged by a Religious Vow from whence I was grown so sensible of other mens suffering restraint for Conscience sake as I procured the liberty of many Jesuite Priests Anabaptists Brownists Familists of love Adamites and one of the Rosie-Crucians whose humility and
so he left me Having assigned a value of about two thousand Duckets for a Bounty to me and my fellows For they give great Largesses where they come upon all occasions The Impressa of Mr. Bushels Golden Medal FRA BACON VICECO S CT ALBAN ANGLIAE CANCELL DEVS EST QVI CLAVSA RECLVDIT THO BVSHELL THe Lord St Alban's Atlantis is a Magazine of compendious but sublime documents to inrich a Common-wealth with universal Notions as far above a vulgar capacity as the Empyreal Heavens are the Earth for which cause himself stiled it his Solomons house or six daies work But the way to advance a proportionable Revenue proposed by his Philosophical Theory to accomplish the vast design of such a Magnificent Structure without a Princes Purse will seem as abstruse to some acute apprehensions as the immortal descent of the Soul to animate the Embryon in the Womb yet if any responsible persons are incredulous of Mr. Bushell's proceedings to perfect the said Lords Philosophical Theory in Mineral discoveries according to his undertakings let them or any other that have heretofore given him credit upon the late Kings score or his own repair to the assurance Office at the Royal Exchange where they shall have tendered by Friends of his Medals of Gold by way of Mart to raise 1000 l. per week according to the tenor of a Bill exprest at large in his Abridgement of the Lord Chancellor Bacon's mineral Prosecutions so soon as it is setled in Parliament for their encouragement and himself hath liberty to attend Providence in the successe FINIS Post-Script to the Judicious Reader READER IF thou hast perused the foregoing Treatise of the Isle of Bensalem wherein the Philosophical Father of Solomons House doth perfectly demonstrate my Heroick Masters the Lord Chancellour Bacons design for the benefit of mankind then give me leave to tell thee how far that illustrious Lord proceeded in the practical part of such his Philosophical Notions and when and where they had their first rise as well as their first Eclipse their first rise as I have heard him say was from the noble nature of the Earl of Essex's affection and so they were clouded by his fall although he bequeathed to that Lord upon his presenting him with a secret curiosity of Nature whereby to know the season of every hour of the year by a Philosophical Glass placed with a small proportion of Water in his Chamber Twitnam Park and its Garden of Paradise to study in But the sudden change of his Royal Mistresses countenance acting so Tragical a part upon his only friend and her once dearest Favourite he likewise yielded his Law-studies as lost despairing of any preferment from the present State as by many of his Letters in his Book of Remains appears so that he retired to his Philosophy for some few months from whence he presented the then rising Sun Prince Henry with an experiment of his second Collections to know the heart of Man by a sympathizing stone made of several mixtures and usher'd in the conceit with this ensuing discourse Most Royal Sir Since you are by birth the Prince of our Country and your vertues the happy pledge to our posterity and that the seigniory of Greatnesse is ever attended more with flatterers than faithfull Friends and loyal Subjects and therefore needeth more helps to discern and prie into the hearts of the People than private persons Give me leave noble Sir as small Rivulets run to the vast Ocean to pay their tribute so let me have the honour to shew your Highnesse the Operative quality of these two triangular stones as the first fruits of my Philosophy to imitate the pathetical motion of the Load-stone and Iron although made up by the Compounds of Meteors as Star-shot jelly and other like magical ingredients with the reflected beams of the Sun on purpose that the warmth distilled unto them through the moist heat of the hand might discover the affection of the heart by a vis ble sign of their attraction and appetite to each other like the hand of a Watch within ten minutes after they are laid upon a marble Table or the Theatre of a Looking-glasse I write not this as a feigned story but as a real truth for I was never quiet in mind till I had procured those Jewels of my Lords Philosophy from Mr. Archy Prim-Rose the Princes Page But the sudden death of that Prince give new cause of sorrow to the whole Nation as well as to that Lord whereupon his Lordship dedicated his Advancement of Learning to his Brother Charles the surviving Prince and to his prudent Father King Iames his Novum Organum who so much approved of his transcendent knowledge and singular eloquence as in his Royal Wisdome he made him Lord Chancellor during life and Lord Protector during his absence in his Scotish Progresse and though this eminent greatnesse gave many advantages to envious tongues yet when his Lordship had revealed the most mysterous parts of his Philosophy to his Master the King and delivered him his opinion concerning the disposition of Mr. Suttons charity exprest also in his Remains he thereby so indulged his Majesties Genius as he prevailed with him to call a Parliament chiefly for his Majesties own pressing occasions and to confirm this Academy of learning in his way of Mining by an Act of State upon hopes of perfecting all other expencefull tryals by the said Revenue and to that purpose his Lordship had prepared the heads of a Speech to the said Parliament which were as followeth My Lords and Gentlemen the King my Royal Master was lately graciously pleased to move some discourse to me concerning Mr. Suttons Hospital and such like worthy foundations of memorable piety which humbly seconded by my self drew his Majesty into a serious consideration of the Mineral Treasures of his own Territories and the practical discoveries of them by way of my Philosophical Theory which he then so well resented that afterwards upon a mature digestion of my whole design he commanded me to let your Lordships understand how great an inclination he hath to farther such a hopeful work for the Honor of his own Dominions and the publick good as the most probable means to relieve all the poor thereof without any other stock or benevolence than that which divine bounty should confer on their own industries and honest labors in recovering all such drowned Mineral works as have been or shall be therefore deserted And my Lords all that is now desired from his Majesty and your Lordship is no more than a gracious Act of this present Parliament to authorise them therein adding a mercy to a munificence which is the persons of such strong and able petty Felons who in true penitence for their Crimes shall implore his Majesties mercy and permission to expiate their offences by their assiduous labors in so innocent and hopeful a work For by this unchâ—rgeable way my Lords have I proposed to erect the Academical fabrick
Cells solitary Groves and imprisoned themselves in monasteries as the fittest preparative to the other worlds felicity I met with an old man near the Needles in the Isle of Wight and asking of him somâ—â—…stions of his sad condition he gave me to understand that his â—…sion was a Beggar by descent saying that his Father before him was one and born so lame by a natural cause as the same grief became hereditary to himself being his only son which he willingly imbraced as a Legacy given him from a divine Power ever since his deceased Father had assured him that he which was boâ—n lame blind or deaf was a true Beggar to ask in Christs behalf the charity of the rich and that they should be the only witnesses of their Stewardship at their general account and not any of those whose poverty proceeded from their prodigal expence or lascivious behavior to deter others from the like of their own shame for they were but marckt out as the living Statues and to shew Gods Mercy if they did truly repent as well as his Justice in increasing their punishment if they did not This divine and canting language from a Beggars Scrip saith he is the down right Documents we hold in the head Council of our Fraternity which made me then to be so much in love with his company and condition asking him another question Whether he was really contented in his heart with his poverty without repining at other mens prosperity when he was denyed at their door the poor mans alms to relieve his necessities although he said his Prayers for the same in Christ name who modestly replyed There was a God above well knew he never envied any mans greatness nor wished to change his hourly affliction for rheir daily felicities by reason as he said his own account would be the more easie to make at the general Judgment than the others that live in variety of pleasures His upper and nether garments were left as a legacy from his Father and recruited by the constant Drapery of every hedges and that the care of his Summers harvest was no more than by daily prayers Gods providence and the Almes of others to purchase a pair of high shooes against the winter storms and dirty waies by selling the worth of two pence for a penny to those poor widdows known by him to be next to his own degree of Beggary Night growing on I gave him a half-fac'd groat to beget his further acquaintance and to increase his stock towards purchasing his content therein which he so thankfully took after I told him Providence had given me the value of the Sum in a draught of fish the day before that he promised me a visit and I another dayes labour upon the same score For know sweet Reader his homespun discourse was so pleasing to my solitude as the Soul and Body never strugled more with their diversor death than I did in my own reason to spend some howers of time in his society and to that purpose made my humble addresses to my quondum Master by the ensuing Letter My only Lord observing your precepts as Oracles thâ—… 〈◊〉 prodigality coâ—tinued it would be certainly rewarded with reproach and poverty I did upon second thoughts think fit in the first step to my amendment to become a Fishermans Cottager from your princely service rather than such high obstructions should remain in me by connivency to the years of old age and to embrace rather the conversation of a Beggars society wâ—th hâ—s Principles here enclosed which I look upon as the shepheards star to gâ—id my perverse will in the rules of reason for since my profuse carriage did sway me so much as I could not withstand a temptation when I beheld the object of evill but rather grew to be worse and worse I am resolved now to become your Lordships Beads-man in some solitary Cell and endeavour to make my self worthy of your Honours command in the other world Longing more to meet with this Beggar again than the Mistris of my heart when I acted the Scholars part in Cupids Schoof Sunday moneth after he came to the Church Porch to hear publick prayer where my self being placed upon a form by my friend the Fisherman the lot of providence drove my next Neighbour to his devotion and yet such was his humility that I could not perswade him to sit down by me but the morning service being shortly after compleated I shook him by the hand as I went out of the Church which caused some persons of quality that were behind me to ask him particular questions how we came to be acquainted who cryed me so much up for my familiar discourse and giving him a half-fac'd groat that the better sort took me for such a spy disguised as heretofoâ—e had attempted the betraying that Island to the French and in order to the same Inquest the prime Gentleman of the parish invited the Fisherman and his wife to supper and to bring me along with them where after a civil treatment he gave me to understand what had passed betwixt the said Beggar of Beggars and himself concerning the deportment of my carriage But I unwilling to be known kept my thoughts to those principles agreed on between me and the Fisherman as his Kinsman howsoever he informed me what the fame of the Country was upon my being in such a remote Cottage and giving the Beggar a groat in the poor habit I wore the which if I would but relate to him the truth of my coming thither no man should be more my servant than himself saying That it might be possible for publick distastes to cause private resolutions in the heart of the greatest persons and therefore if it might be suitable to my own reason to unfold the cause and make him of my Cabinet Council the interest he had as Lord of the place I should command without the least prejudice to my self or fear of invading those composures of my quiet For which great courtesie I kindly thankt him but withall told him That if he desired my name and the occasion of my repose it would not be in his power to do me a private civility for being once known the place of my residence would be then as obnoxious to my mind as it was now pleasing to my senses and therefore to be forward in searching more after me were to disoblige a stranger that coveted his acquaintance for if I were a person of that quality as he conceived his silence might make me grateful upon the score of his own merit And so parting upon those hopes to have his honest Neigbourhood and best assistance I went to meet the old Beggar with a chearful heart at the place appointed and discoursing of our former subject over a Collation I made him of Bread and Cheese he then told me that he and his comrades had not only the same diet every night before they went to Bed in their spacious Barn of
knowledge I much admired conceiving it in my weak judgment very hard measure for any mortal to punish such with imprisonment when those that committed them could not warrant to save their souls though they might protect their persons which last is the only cause of our allegiance to a Sovereign power But then finding another desolate Cell of Natures rarities at the head of a Spring near my own House in Oxfordshire which my Conscience gave me was allotted by Providence to retard my intended travels I in imitation of that excellent Lords sublime fancy beautyfied the same with the Ornaments of contemplative Groves Walks as well as artificial Thunder and Lightning Rain Hail-showers Drums beating Organs playing Birds singing Waters murmuring the Dead arising Lights moving Rainbows reflecting with the beams of the Sun and watry showers springing from the same Fountain these were then my sole Companions and speechless Preachers to inform me without trusting to the broken staff of faithlesse men And to free my self from the trouble of any Cook I observed my Lords prescription to satisfie nature with a Diet of Oyl Hony Mustard Herbs and Bisket my Drink Water like those long-lif'd Fathers before the Food where the late King finding me in this posture and by my then discourse in commemoration of my old Master conceived me capable with the help of that Lords Philosophy to do him some more acceptable service in Mineral discoveries for the Honour of the Nation than the collation I made him of his own native silver upon his second visiting that Rock the year following But let me tell you before these Philosophical trials of natural causes could be brought to any perfection I with patience endured all reproaches of malitious mindes and woar the fools coat in the repute of men more ready to condemn than examine yet had not Law-sutes arose upon my successes in Mineral discoveries and the late Warrs interven'd with the commands of the King to attend his motion therein which occasioned my proceedings for sixteen years to be lost I presume providence without any partner had enabled me to give incredulous persons a plenary satisfaction of that Lords unparalleld abilities the meer fame of whose unlimited bounty and noblenesse of mind did so much incline my affections to serve him at the first sight as I was never satisfied till by my own addresse without intercession of others he admitted me his servant that so I might from my own experience give account of his merits when I travelled into forein parts But I must confess I never so much admired his universal knowledge in his prosperity as in his adversity for in the one without flattery I discovered his seeming ends were no more than to aspire to popular greatness in Princes Courts and so gain the Trophy of that Honour to his Name but in the other I found his soaring thoughts were so much above the World as the Earth is beneath Heaven that had I been Heir to the greatest Dukedom on Earth I would have made a dedication of it all to have had his Age doubled in this time of his profound and Divine Philosophical observations for then his Judgment plainly concluded that all was vanity and that he that was wise in his own conceit there was more hope of a Fool than of him Saying daily to me and others That the knowledge a man was to learn whereby to save his Soul and magnifie the Creator was included in these two words Love and Charity And that those volumes written by the Dictates of the holy Ghost were but explanations of their sense But to speak of the general practice of the world from his own observation he was sparing because as I conceive by former discourse that he found it to be but an apparent Cheat even from the highest to the lowest according to their capacities in their several callings For then his deep intellectuals were so frequent in foretelling things to come as he gave me not only the divination and predictions of many future events of Kings and States Arts and Sciences but advised me to observe the reasons thereupon by his Divine Philosophical Theory and yet not to divulge them as his untill those notions observed by himself should come to passe which was to knâ—w whether Minerals at their lowest level of the Mountains did encrease in quality and quantity and whether the eye by inspection through a prospective Glass might not take the longitude and latitude of its object many miles distant in as large a manner as the sight alone doth contract it self at a smaller for by those principles of his upon the same natural causes it seems do depend matters of greater moment which are left to the practical trials of his six Philosophers to collect and add to his natural History and this I can assure you by the report of an honest Gentleman and discreet person is now completed in Holland to the admiration of all men In a word Gentle Reader had I no more to do than to mollify the hardest Rocks undermine Mountains drain their waters discover their Minerals separate their qualities and by that Lords Philosophy to make this Northern Climate a second Indies for honour and profit I should then think my burthen light in doing my Country service But to say truth I am to encounter in pursute of that Lords design with the subterranean spirits which are supposed the Guardians of all concealed treasures and their evil Complices wicked men who prove to me more obnoxious and greater Remoras in the ways of their perverse natures than any of those infernal Spirits can be for by a contrite heart humble Prayer and industrious labour I can conjure the one to a due obedience but I fear whole hoasts of men will not be able to qualifie the barbarous condition of the other so that Curteous Reader if upon this result you plead not my cause and secure me from mens fraudulent practices when I have brought such treasures to publick sight I shall expect no successe for my honest Creditors satisfaction nor so great a blessing to follow for the good of the Nation And now having given you for the most part an account of the Lord Bacons retardments in his Mineral Philosophy and my own last obstructions occasioned by the late Wars give me leave to tell you what my Lord gave me in charge by way of caution which was First To beware of those people who are so self-conceited as they think nothing is well done if they have not an interest by their vote therein lest they make their revenge upon this Mineral design witnesse faith that Lord the losse of the West-Indies upon that score Secondly That Lord charged me not to intermeddle with any tryal of curiosity in his or any others mans Philosophy whereby to prejudice my purse lose my time or put my self to trouble untill I had compassed a considerable revenew by his notions an iâ—fallible assurance of its daily increase by
undermining those loads of Metal and separating their qualities and yet not then neither but by the help of those six Philosophers mentioned in the fore-going Treatise after they are settled to that service sworn to secrecy and taking his Theorical directions also to be considered in their own practices for how have the wisest men saith he consumed vast Estates through their covetous desires to be great in the transmuting of Metals and the knowledge of the sympathy of minds at a distance aswell as curing of wounds with having but sight of the weapon that hurt the pâ—rty for saith he repentance cannot then follow nor thy ignorance be blamed when providence bears the purse and such prudence waits with industry to try the successe of the secrets of nature out of the bountifulnesse of her own Coffers so discovered Thirdly That no money should enchant my heart to take a partner be I never so poor unlesse I find his heart inclined to magnifie the Creators glory and make the poor maâ—s box the Heir of his Stewardship aswell as my self for else saith he thou dost distrust in pâ—ovidence and so the others money will be but thy ruine at lâ—st like a house divided which cannot stand Fourthly That I should be careful to prefer such poor fatherlesse Children that intend to sacrifize the flower of their youth to the service of God and resolve so to continue to their death for the good of others aswell as themselves Fifthly To be cautious of having any thing to do with a Miner that is an habitual drunkard sweaâ—er or lyar for his custom of sinning may infeâ—t many others and it is contrary to all divine Philosophy to seek to magniâ—ie Gods Glory with such Creatures when no hopes of a blessing can follow their actions Sixthly Have a câ—re saith that Lord you place such a person to be Steward of your Mines uâ—der ground whose remorse for sin makes him so sensible of sorrow and hame for his errors as that he desires to live in contrition wiâ—hin the caverns of rocks and not to behold other light than of a candle to labor and help his contemplation in such an Abyss foâ— that Loâ—d was wont to say the blind once restored to sight illuminates the Creators mercy more than any other Creature and is of my own experience the best Philosophical step to the mortification of the mind by attracting the defects of us mortals that are prone to such habitual errors Seventhly saith he do not punish any offendor by the superior Officer but as shall be judged by a Jury of penitential souls of their own Tribe for saith he if civil usage cannot make the heart strike the blow aswell as the hand severity should never force a builder of his Solomons house since it is barbarous for a Christian to behold the Image of God used like a Dog Eighthly He wished me not to search after new Mines untill I knew the Meanders windings and depths of the old with the natures of the Quarries they lodge in by the way of that direction he gave me for otherwise he said I should verifie the old Proverb to look for a needle in a bottle of Hay having no probable rules to guide me but my own will which could not prosper nor be coherent with Gods word untill I denied my self that privilege yet in the mean time that I should make some publick Declaration from a place certain to relieve the poor of all such parishes where Spars and shades of Mines are found through ploughing the barren grounds or by ditchers labours when notice be given thereof to be wrought at my own charge But be sure said he have a care that you come into no mans ground although you have power from the King and Parliament untill you have acquainted him of your intended adventures for the common good and of the poor of the parish at your own charge for leave is said to be light and do as you would be done by yet if he will neither work himself nor give his consent to you paying double trespass as the next Justice of peace shall judge go by his door for thou hast done thy duty when thou hast aquainted the supreme power wherein the remora lieth that the poor are not relieved nor the riches of the Common-wealth discovered Ninethly That no Grant should go under my hand if I gained the whole power of that trust but with such restrictions limitations and provisoeâ— as he had left me in charge for by that means men would buckle to their work and go faster on with their discoveries when thou hast the honour of pre-emption of he place from the King and State Tenthly That I should be cautelous of not coveting riches nor mindfull of vain-glorious pleasures but above all not to disquiet my Conscience with the ingratitude of any wicked acts for the mystery of divine Philosophy will not admit of any of those to have a share in such a blessing But Gentle Reader fearing there might be a grand Inquest to sit upon that Lords unparallel'd judgement for trusting this transcendent Mineral work to my weak capacity and decline his nearest kindred as well as the greatest Scholars I shall unfold the riddle of his conception and leave the resolution for your wisdome to judge of And yet I must be forced before I enter upon such a Subject to observe the rule of that great Ambassador the Lord Gundamor who was known never to move any weighty affairs of his Master the King of Spain to King Iames but what he usher'd in with some Spanish story and left the application to the prudency of his Princely consideration from whence if it may not be thought tedious or troublesome I shall tell you a true English passage which sprang from the saying of my Lord Bacon That he conceived civil courtesies were seldom conferred on suffering persons but that they ever wore the badge of contempt and were the scorn of the rich and scarcely pittyed of the poor the application being alluded by his Lordship to my own prodigal expences and observing his precepts as oracles I took it so much to heart that in the prime of my youth and flourishing fortune in his affection I forced my will to change the Scene of Court pleasure in his service to a Cottagers habit and low condition lest I should be surprized with the frowns of indigent fortune to my greater shame before such a preparaâ—ion might be had to incounter those storms that are incident to such natural causes and so meet them half way by affecting the low condition of a Fishermans life and his honest calling as a step to greater perfection to know my self From whence after some few months spent in this humble way of life to read the Histories of those great Princes and most magnificent Commanders which had surfited with all inconstant pleasures and vain glorious pomp voluntarily descended from their Crowns and Conquests into the deserts of so desolate