he had been in the Dukes Palace how he had been treated how he recreated himselfe with walking and hunting how he had fared and in short All From all which it is apparent that garments made of our silk have a strange power of perswasion upon the mindes not onely of them that weare them but also upon the beholders of the quality and worth of the persons For many when they see themselves laden with the spoyls of Silk-worms although they be men of the meanest rank and of soules not tinctur'd with the least generosity or literature begin to perswade themselves that they are really such as they are accounted as the Cobler did when they see every man humour flatter and fawne upon them others when they see a man shining in Silk never at all consider him as a Silk-worme or for a Bird whose nest is onely made of skeines of Silk but mistake him for such an one as who being more powerful we ought to obey who being the more lovely we ought to court who being more learned we ought to assent unto and who being superiour we ought to give place unto you see what strange charmes there are in our Webbs the Load-stone does not more powerfully allure the Needle than those attract the eyes of men to them and bewitch them Hence came these Verses Hunc homines decorant quem vestimenta decorant In vili veste nemo tractatur honeste Vir bene vestitus pro vestibus esse peritus Creditur à mille quamvis idiota sit ille Si careas vestte nec sis vestitur honestè Nullius es laudis quamvis sis omne quod audis Men honour him to whom cloaths honour give None in Course cloaths does civil usage finde Men a well-cloathed man well learn'd believe Be he a sot and ignorantly blinde If thou want cloachs and if they be not neat They 'l scorn thee though thou knowst all they repeat Nam talis primà facie presumitur quis esse qualem vestes eum indicant l. item apud 15. sec. si quis virgines F. de injur famos Libel A man at the first sight is to be judged according to his babit I confesse indeed some Barbarous Nations know not the use of our Webbs going naked mangled and tann'd not being able to put a right estimate upon them But then we are to consider that as they know no shame so they know no ornament having no sober and rectified judgement whereby to put a value upon our work we in some Forrests of Asia voluntarily adorne the Trees with our Webbs few or none there esteeming their price which we perceiving thought fit to remove but not unto the Negro's in Africa a naked and unarmed people but we choosed rather to pitch our tents in Europe which hath treated us with so much tendernesse But we cannot but expresse our piety and gratitude to so carefull a Foster-mother Here are we fed with the lesser leaves of the Mulberry-tree and we by way of gratitude for our nursing leave them our Silks Some have been said to have bred us in the brests of Virgins we in requitall cover not onely their brests â—ut adorn and fashion their whole bodies by our labours so that they seem to be rather made and brought up by us than we by them they indeed may give colour to our skeins but we adde lustre and splendour unto them There is one thing which I am very much astonisht at and whose cause cannot find out after my most curious research from whence Man cloathâ—d by us growes proud when we our selves are neither proud nor are at all adorned by our Webbs whence their spirits come to be so raised and blown up while we quietly labour in all humilty our diet 's homely and of a single dish nay all our businesse is still one and the same How comes it then that so maâ—â— different passions should attend silken garments Indeed I see no other reason but those severall accidents and usages by which silk is varyed by dying by weaving by sewing By dying because the colours with which we are inbued are not onely divers but of divers properties some are made of Vegetables some of Mineralls nay indeed some of animalls themselves in all these there is a severall variety which differently touches and works upon the heart The Red and Purple are belived to be very restorative unto it so others also imprint their little influences upon it though it be not so easie to assigne the Reason And it is very possible that by weaving such an effect may likewise happen but especially by sewing we see the figure and new shape of any new matter gives it a great deale of grace Now by the shape of any thing the heart is easily won to esteem or any other passion Whatever is the cause be it in the matter be it in the form be it in the subject it self that is to say the body or the minde of Man 't is the same thing since we by our Threads contribute nothing to it unlesse there be some hidden cause in it which is too nice and subtill for my indagation This I know our diet is Mulberry-leaves and methinkes they should not nourish us with any pride But Man using our threads laboured and spun out of the leaves of trees not forgetting his ancient nakedness in Paradise which he would have covered with Fig. leaves seemes to be proud now that he has found out so excellent a remedy as instead of them to be cloathed with the leaves of Mulberry lest he might appeare naked or according to his old barbarity be glad of a Sheep-skin For my part I shall not much presse it home unto him that he uses onely the leaves of a Mulberry tree transformed and altered in the maw of a Worm and thus onely to hide his nakednesse to dis-esteeme the simplicity of his first Fathers or that it is but justice that he should be covered with the excrements of Worms who is after to become their nourishment Man in this being very prudent to consider first what he was when he came into the world naked and what he shall be after death either putrefactive or putrefaction and if we well consider it I may well inferre that we are noble and of a nature friendly to man when we prevent his unhappinesse by covering him with our labours and furnishing him with good instruction rather than offensive to him in putting him in minde of his fragility by our own What is more noble and generous than Man What more wise more prudent Yet he himselfe acknowledges that we are not unworthy to provide him fleeces and furniture to cover and adorn himself whereby to heighten and manifest his reputation Therefore I know none who will deny us to be most noble creatures since we adde nobility unto the noblest 'T is nothing that the Sheep be she English or Spanish or of any other Country should bring his Wools in competition with
Goose then the Oyster then the Bee the Silkworme and Flax and then I shall call for Mercury but one after another with this Rule that you speake one after another jarre not together nor offer any disturbance or interruption and especially that you forbeare any smart touches or abuses which being a Law that I have at first made I expect obedience unto till I have heard the whole matter This being assented unto the judge prepared himselfe for Audience and the CALFE begun to speak thus May it please thy Highnesse MAN Lord high Steward of all things we present our selves here before thee to know which of 〈◊〉 thou wilt be pleas'd to assume into a part of thy Soveraignty not for the largenesse of our stature or for handsomenesse of shape or agility of body or readinesse in motion but by such deserts and profits as we shall be found most eminently to contribute unto Mankinde which issue being once joyned I shall not doubt but that you will be pleas'd to passe your judgement for the Family I here pleade for above all the rest And the inducement which I shall offer to you shall be partly our labours by which while we are so usefully assistant partly from those things which even during life we contribute from our own bodies partly from the spoiles which are gathered from our Carkasses On which three heads as so many setled arguments I shall especiall insist nor shall I one way or other vary from this method THE LABOURS O Man which we endure for you are extreamly great and to any of our Competitors here present impossible and intolerable For as to those that are absent I shall not much debate it since the Election of King is limited to those here present all the absent be what they will being in an incapacity First of all then we are serviceable to Mankinde in tillage which without us cannot at all or at the least so commodiously be perform'd I must confesse that we are not otherwise much imploy'd unlesse it be for drawing of the Plow and Cart but these are services so necessary that they are infinitely more usefull then any other For if the fields were not turn'd over and torne with Ploughs painfully haled along upon our necks it were impossible to sow the seed with any hope of harvest which not answering expectation I would know where man should have his subsistence I believe Sir you rationall Creatures would not be very well content to returne to your diet of Acornes or do you think you could be content for to live all your hungry dayes on such poore Ordinaries as Apples Nutts and Hearbs This I believe you would hardly be perswaded to and since you have found by experience the necessity of bread I necessarily inferre the use of Oxen. Suppose our species were lost there is a stop upon all husbandry and instead of rich harvests of Corne you shall have your fields pestered with weeds and withall you must consider how these Northerne Countries are supply'd with drink marry Oates and Barley and these come out of the Fields plough'd by us I shall say nothing to Pease or other kinde of fruits which without stirring or preparing of the Earth were not to be expected as Wheat Spelt Oates Rice Beanes Pease Vetches Lintels and others of that kind All these are the fruits of Agriculture and we next to man are the most effective in it Besides I need not tell you how great is the use of Wagons which yet we draw in Italy which if you will believe Timaeus and Varo had its name from an OXE for in the ancienter Greek ITALOS signified an Oxe in respect at that time both in number shape and greatnesse we excell'd there above all other Countries And in many other places I cannot expresse how advantagious we are in drawing of loads from the Country to the City and back againe And yet all these important services we performe meerely out of duty to Mankinde services I repeat it againe such as I challenge any Creature to performe the thirtieth part of So usefull I am sure the old wise Egyptians found us that they heap'd all possible honours upon an Oxe and gave him adorations proper to deities And the reason was that the life of Man could not but be unpleasant without his assistance The Oxe APIS as sacred and priviledged had Vul an's Temple for his stall where instead of an ordinary manger he had one of Gold and of furniture of straw was provided for with fresh Tapestry and when naturall death had taken him away and â—e for addition of honour named Serapis he was magnificently buried and covered with a most stately Tombe being from the time of his decease accounted a divinity of that Country The Oxe say even those men that professedly write of Husbandry of all cattell is the most considerable He is companion and fellow labourer with man in all businesses in the Countrey and chiefe servant of the Goddesse Ceres for which reason it was of old enacted that no man should kill an Oxe and the wise Romans had us in so much esteeme that it was banishment for any man to kill one of us though it were but to feed upon and the reason is apparent Bos comes {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that is to say to eat because Men eat from our labours of which no further I shall now passe to those things which we yeeld during life for your use These are our Dung and our Milk Our dung indeed may seeme but a poore businesse yet it is the food of the Fields that feed you t is their joy their recreation without which they are barren and melancholly From this had Saturne the great Grandsire as I may say of the Gods his name of Stercurius as a title of honour for his usefull invention of dunging the ground That Arch. Heros Hercules was employ'd in carrying out Oxe-dung and cleansing the stable of Augeas Phâ—busâ—s own Son which thing certainly had it not beene of very great moment might have been perform'd by other hands then those great and noble ones of immortall Hercules the Son of Jupiter Neither is it onely that our dung fattens the fields but it serves Man for medicine and for fuell for fire instead of Wood or Coale It is outwardly apply'd to a great many Maladies as to the Gout in the hands and in the Feet and indeed to any Gout whatsoever proceeding from a hot cause and there is a Water distill'd from it in May which is called the Water of all Flowers which name is not given to any other Medicine whatsoever be it never so precious in the shop of any Apothecary Not to tell you that Oxe-dung is most fortunately applyed to the resolving of all hard Tumours and in Dropsies for drawing out of the restagnant Water I need not to adde the benefits of it when taken into the body as in the Jaundies and Diseases of that kinde nor
Enacted are by our meanes propagated and made usefull to their Legislators By our quills Kings Princes and Dukes govern their Dominions suppose there never were nor ever had been any bookes written it would follow there should be no Letters no Lawes no Histories no Physick nor any other Arts or Sciences put upon the file of memory and so the life of Man would nothing have differed from the life of bruites mankind would have been as unacquainted with himselfe and things as Children shut up in a Cave and there continued Now all those that have gotten the reputation of wise learned and experienc'd Men and have arrived at the Arts and Sciences have done it by the advantage of our quills These are they that governe the World with their learning policy and science which have been only propagated by Penns the use whereof whosoever know not are accounted of a contemptible condition and disesteem'd Pens often rescue the most despicable poverty into vast wealth Pens throw honour and lustre on wealth it selfe nay there is no condition which receives not ornament and advantage from them Pens comprise and establish all humane Literature what anciently was with difficulty put down with an Iron bodkin is now more easily perform'd by Pens what honour was ever given to learning by the greatest Princes is now due to Pens and to those to whom they are owing Geese Whence I infer that our esteem ought to be such that it should be farre more considerable than to receive a denyall in this claime of Royalty I will onely add two advantages of quills more though they be not so much important The first is in hunting for the frighting of Beasts by the sticking them up the other in Musical instruments besides their use in Arrows which we formerly mention'd Let the Sheep brag the necessity of his strings my quills can no more be spar'd in the Sittarne and Virginalls Let him brag that his greater guts are usefull for Bow-strings without my feathers I am sure no Arrow will fly Let him and the Calfe prate of their Parchments as so needfull in writing without my quills to write upon them they will signify nothing not to mention even the smallest uses of our quills we shall omit to tell you how they helpe Anglers in fitting of their Hookes and Files and are employ'd in severall mechanicall workes Let this which for the time allotted us we have shortly but firmely and demonstratively argued suffice since I cannot but believe that they will justly evict the Royalty to be granted me The OYSTER THe OYSTER who was in the fourth place as Burgesse for the Fishes suffered not another to assume the discourse but hastily begun to plead in this manner If the Soveraignty over the Creature must be adjudged and conferr'd either upon largenesse of body Strength Industry Sagacity or Docility I believe my pretension will be very weake for I am little and without strength nor can I lay claime to any of the other indowments yet withall I am of opinion that none of these here present may justly hope that upon those grounds the election will be carryed for them since there are others in their severall kinds that farre excell us in all those qualities as well as they But if Nobility Birth Profit confer'd on Man great value and price prevaile any thing with your judgement I see no competitor here present whose interest I thinke I shall have cause to feare For my Nobility I have this to affirm that I am borne and bread in the waters the noblest element and have been ever accounted Prince of all the Aquatiles which yet in variety and greatnesse farre exceede the Terrestrialls the Waters are my Castle and yet out of the waters I vouch no worse authority than Scripture it selfe God in the beginning created all things nor am I confin'd to some little Brooke or narrow River The vast Ocean where ever it spreads it selfe the Indian the Westerne Seas are but at the first our Cradles after that our dwelling house and Demesne Now if it be borne in a noble and a famous Country adds no small Nobility to any person I thinke I may safely presume to claime precedency in this point But this you will say may be as well claim'd by the rest of my neighbours of the waters and therefore I shall not much presse it but direct my discourse to that which most properly concernes me that is my descent and manner of birth far more illustrious than any creature whatsoever Chastity is a peculiar property and endowment of our kind as appears in that we doe not propagate in the common manner but by a particular to wit by a secret and sweet distillation of the influences of the Starres shed into us from whence we conceive 'T is true nature granted us not offensive Armes but shee gave us defensive and these of the best proofe Hence is that we are neither offensive to one another and are very well secured against the assaults of strangers In those parts where Heaven by reason of the neerness of the Sunne operaes more purely and efficaciously as in the crooked windings of the Indian Sea we there by the indulgence of its kinder heat are impregnated with such seed as is indeed invaluable we get up to the top of the water and opening the Gates of our strong Castles we ly gaping and yawning till we have suck'd in so much of the most precious morning dew as after being miraculously congeal'd within our Testicles and tinctur'd with the pellucid liquor of our bodies becomes albified into an incomparable lustre and make the noblest presents that man can receâ—â—â—â— whether you look 〈…〉 for delight and 〈…〉 cause they are never found but single or that they onely exceed in price and valew Now in medicine thus they are advantageous they are great strengtheners and comforters of the heart whose spirits and radicall moysture they powerfully restore and cherish and your greatest Physitians are of opinion that nothing more soveraigne nothing more gentle than confections of Manus Christi prepar'd with pearle They have also severall kinds of Diamargaritons both hot and cold which they very successefully use in diverse Diseases where the patient needs reparation of strength There want not also some of the curious that prepare them into Milke Oyle Liquour Water and Salt and that to the same end But what shall I say do not Margarites themselves and their Matrixes exceedingly assist the wombes of Women both in preventing sterility and furtherance of conception Besides all this we have perform'd three other notable services First 〈…〉 little being of ours which nature 〈…〉 and so strongly 〈…〉 the food of supporters both in respect that we are extreamly gratefull to the palate as also for that we do so greatly cherish and fill the Spermatick Vessells of either Sex and there is no doubt but Man will be so gratefull as to acknowledge this truth which once granted it will follow
that are vers'd in Antiquity how they were used before searchfull and restlesse mankinde had found out other things to write upon For then in tables covered with Wax or else upon Linnen temper'd with it they engraved and writ all their businesse with a sharp Puncheon and so conveighed them away by Courriers Therefore Kings and Princes and all others whatsoever were enforced to make use of our help for the communicating of Counsell and our spoyles were their Ambassadours And not so onely but volumes of Wax were the great conservators of all Arts and Sciences especially Lawes without which the life of man is miserable and belluine Now it is apparent how much the impression of Wax upon a Seale hath force and authority nothing is firme and constant in all compacts unlesse Wax as Umpire close up the league unlesse Bees with the ruine of part of their owne dwelling-houses gave them strength force and vertue Therefore as all humane things are governed by Wax so are they preserved and confirmed not by a waxen but rather Adamantine Chaine For it was truly said of the Poet Pan primê° calamus cerâ conjungere plures Instituit Pan was the first taught many reeds to joyne with Wax c. For all humane businesses if we well minde it are by this coagulated and cemented together for what any man hath promised to another by his Seale impressed in Wax whether it be for service or debt or mean promise it is the ligament and the tie that Pan that is to say all businesse requires Let my Competitors the Calfe Sheep and Goose flourish out their deserts in this kinde this is a businesse proper onely to me What are Letters without Seales Marry what Bels are without Clappers What are Men without Faith Shades and Speeches nay things civilly dead Pray what are Calves or Sheep-skinnes made with a great deale of doe into Parchment and scribled with Goose-quils which have made such a noyse to what end or purpose are they unless we afford them Wax for their Labels None at all nay if the Wax be but taken off or broken or defaced they are taken as invalid and not writ It is Wax therefore that gives them credit brings them into reputation that they may be valid take it once off and they are imployed in the most sordid usâ—s Therefore no man is doubtfull of recovering any thing that is past under another mans Seale since by this meanes the writing which in it selfe is dead and unactive recovers life and strength While we are speaking of seals it must also be remembred how much other Images and Plasticks are concerned in it In many Churches we observe many Images meerly cast of Wax as also in prophaner places where they had the Statues of themselves and Ancestors religiously preserved in an orderly Series Hence even in Rome it self they were called fumosae cerae that is smokie wax-Images and he was accounted of the most ancient and noble Family that could produce most of them and on the contrary otherwise Besides there are often made Images to the life coloured after severall manners which since they are as various as individualls themselves I forbeare to mention From what I have said will be easily evinâ—ed that the royall preheminency is due to them for whom I plead above all other and no doubt but you will think fit that we who so justly administer justice to our owne nation may also be thought the fittest to exercise government over others For in our Monarchy I fear me I shall not have time enough to insist at large there is so much Majesty Prudence and harmony of Order that even Man himselfe may seeme from us to have learned the Arts and Secrets of Monarchical Government rather than we from him as many Writers have affirmed Our King is borne with marks so visible both by his beauty bignesse and singular wisdome yet without sting or passion that we all yeild an unanimous obedience and never acknowledge any but himselfe 'T is on him we labour as our Governour 't is for him doing justice and disposing of affaires in his Palace-royall in the midst of his Hive that we attend 't is for him when he makes his Cavalcade that we joyne together to make a triumph nor doe we ever break the order in which we are marshall'd without his particular command we wait on him out we bring him back This and other things of this nature some speculative men have looked upon with so much admiration that relinquishing all other businesse they have spent all their dayes in this imployment manifestly inferring the ineffable wisdome of the divine disposer of all things from this one demonstration All which things if you also worthiest Chancelour be pleased to weigh in your maturest judgement I question not but you will award the Regality unto me who by so many Endowments Services and Obligations to Man conceive all other be they of what buâ—k they will are much inferiour nor doubt I that your judement will either be so byassed or misinformed as that I may ever have occasion to complaine of your discretion or equity The SILK-WORM THe SILK-WORM was for a long time desirous to speake but the rule and order of the Court enjoyned him silence but now strutting and swelling and impatient of further delay he broke out thus Though these my Competitours have had priority of speech yet I doubt not of obtaining so much as the assignment of priority of reigne if I may but be fairely heard that is to say if the praise of my nobility or birth the artifice and skill of my work the vast and severall profits which I liberally bring unto Man can conferre upon me this high and royall dignity in all which how gloriously and justly I triumph I shal now shew you For the first though I shall not be very lavish yet since others have insisted on it as an especiall Character of their eminency and worth I see not how I am in the least beneath any of them For who was ever able by the subtilest enquiry to search out my nature which is admirable in so many changes From a little seed warm'd by the heat of the Sun or the breasts of Virgins there are produced certain little Wormes both living and active These in the Spring-time being laid open in the lesser leaves of Mulberry-trees daily like other worms encrease and enlarge themselves every way till at length they become very great wormes and of divers colours This is our rise this the manner of our birth which is therefore admirable that an Insect with four wings sheds that seed and a little Worme is produced by it There is a very great difference between these two Animals yet one is the Cause and Womb of the other But that is the excellent artifice which is woven out of the bowels of this Worm while it lies glutted and surcharged with the juice of the leaves of Mulberries For it begins to spin and