What 'T is torment not society to be under a constant fear of displeasing to compose all things to the worst of Looking glasses that of a face since we can't to the others mind to order our Commerce with reverential concern to weigh our words like gold before we deliver them to present our selves at a set meeting with premeditate gesture and then there to behave our selves as in a Theatre But Why do I mention those consimilar Also under the name of similitude Love species which either nature art or Custom slightly imprints on our minds When 't is Love which gives all these a lively stamp by whose power alone the soul having long since took her leave they are actuated and enliven'd Happy is it for Lovers that persons may Love even against their wills Since your Lover is not only like but the same with your self he has stoln away you from your self unawares and without your leave There is no need that he demand returns of kindness and Debts of Love If this be nothing available with you that he is your Image your slave your proper goods that for your sake he parted with his soul and liberty If you nothing dread the Crime of cruelty and Murder yet by the necessity of nature Love kindles Love flame kindles flame Yet nature would not grant Love the power to counterfeit or if counterfeit to burn any otherwise than painted fire For though the face aspect and gesture feign never so industriously yet the simulation will betray it self as all painted things do either by a too emulous or a too remiss endeavour of imitation If you don 't yet acknowledge that Love is the price of a man yet at least that you may admit it to be so under the sordid Name of benefit know that it comprises in it self all the benefits which it bestows and which it cannot bestow and in wish more than all Without which I shall ascribe the benefits themselves to fortune and fate not to the man and shall think them rather found than receiv'd By which alone the poor man acts liberally as often as he gives nothing but wishes munificently Than which nothing greater is either expected from or render'd to Mortals by the Gods Here 's a Philtre of more influence than any herb If you will be lov'd Love But as it betrays meanness of soul to require and render reasons why we Love so that Love is more ingenuous which like some flowers springs up without any seed and has this of Eternity to exist without a cause and like Heaven to be mov'd by an invisible Intelligence We find now that that similitude whether manifest Similitude whether manifest or occult which is call'd sympathy is all Love or occult which goes under the name of Sympathy is all nothing else but Love Whence without any nearness or familiarity the near and familiar soul closes fast and squares exactly to another Just as Mathematicians say one plain body adheres to another inseparably united only by the Cement of conformity Nature seems to bring forth Twin-minds and to assign mates to souls as shadows and Genius's to bodies or as Nymphs Co-eval to their Trees Hence men in spight of their Ascendent undergo the same Stars and Fates and in all respects are Twins O the unparallel'd generosity of these well match'd Lovers a more Noble spectacle than a couple of Gladiators Where the Duel of liberality is all fought in Offices of mutual kindness In this one thing there is discord in their affections that both being over solicitous for each other are disquieted with hatred and fears Both as if tinctur'd with each others Choler see and judge the same Both as if touch'd with the same Load-stone tend to the same point in all their designs and endeavours The one represents the others face more faithfully than a Looking-glass The one imitates the others manners more punctually than a Parasite So that even he himself is not so much like himself While I was Scribling at this rate Cupid snatch'd my pen out of my hand and flew away with it THE END A Postscript SInce the Commission of this Book to the Press there came to my hand a Translation if it deserve that name of Effigies Amoris upon the perusal of which I was so far from being induced to recal mine that I found I had now a greater reason than ever to make it publick viz. the vindication of the excellent and much abused Author The Sacrilegious Translator is as much a stranger to me as he is to the Idiom of the Latine Tongue and therefore I shall deal more civilly with him than to give any particular instances of his failures and shall only say in general That between Omissions and mistakes the Author is utterly lost I had not said thus much had I not thought my self obliged to consult the Authors Credit more than the Translators lest any should judge the Original Beauty by the injurious representation of a false Glass FINIS ERRATA PAG. 15. l. 22. for polish r. pollish p. 19. for never r. even p. 67. l. 8. for one self r. ones self What other literal faults there are or false pointings the Reader is desired to give himself the trouble of correcting Books Printed for Tho. Sawbridge at the Three Flower de Luces in Little-Britain BP Sandersons Sermons Folio Bakers Chronicle Folio Guillim's Heraldry Folio Cooks Reports Eng. Folio Wilson's Christian Dictionary Folio Wanly Wonders of the Little World Caussin's Holy Court Folio Bacon's Advancement of Learning Folio
both but they are more liberal who bestow the man than they who bestow the goods The Origin of friendship proceeds in the same order as that of Kingdoms to cherish and defend you turn over both the leaves not so much of fortune as of nature and benevolence But you should confess them Superior and more liberal who bestow the man than those who with a cheap munificence permit an effusion of their goods So that either way the fire of Love does more willingly descend than ascend Nay this Passion always descends since 't is the part of the more excellent and Noble to Love and in a prone chanel is propagated through the degrees of alliance as man himself is For there is the same method and procedure in the growth of friendship as in the constitution of Kingdoms The heat first passing through the chanels of the blood creeps out of its own private enclosure into families then the vein bursting as it were with an eager fermentation it expatiates farther to Allies and Fellow-Citizens For we must return to them lest we should seem to be more concern'd for the Dignity of Love than for truth or be liable to blame for instituting other measures of loving than what are popularly receiv'd and for steering right against the stream who propose us to our selves as patterns yea and causes of Love For this is the merit of benevolence earnestly to wish well to ones self This is the very design of a Lover to recover himself lost in another to cherish himself with the kindly heat and by a certain vital energy to convert all into his own nourishment So that 't is no wonder that Vertue which enjoyns a neglect of our selves suffers her self a greater disregard from the world However let us not think it shame to be belov'd as if this were to be mock'd and neglected under the pretence of Officiousness You must know that every one Loves ill but he that Loves himself and that none in Loving themselves design their own advantage although by Loving they profit themselves by accident All Self-Love therefore Self-love is a generous thing by which we ardently affect whatever we are or would be is a generous thing by which we kindly affect whatever we are or would be as what is or what should be allyed to us All of us are so touch'd with that ambition of some who insert the Armes and honours of their Ancestors among their own titles that by a corruption of Herauldry we adopt whatever is excellent into the Table of our own kindred So the emulous Cities contended about the praises of Homer in an unreconcileable War as if for the inlargement of their Territories Hence the splendor of vertue which is the chiefest security of Mortals next of self-love kindles those of taking dispositions at the first flash and that which adores the Deity is adored it self Whose power is such that there is none of so desperate impiety who is not in his wish and approbation I had almost said mind too good Who would not he had exercised that Vertue which as yet he does not and who does not heartily Embrace that Vertue in another which he does ill away with in himself Whither does this first impulse not From this double impulse of nature and reason the first impulse of reason carries us to what we would be Hence the first causes of Love are Vertue and its shadows with whatsoever carries the semblance of it of nature only but reason carry us cheated with a voluntary imposture we fall prostrate before not only Vertue but any thing which bears the least shadow or appearance of it Sometimes that difficulty which guards the path of Vertue with a Sacred horrour and keeps off the profane rabble pushes us forward and intices with its indearing injuries The honey of Lips gains a more exquisite rellish from the interposals of stings To watch at the Window of a Mistress to suffer a repulse from a meaner Rival or to be disrespectfully used are all but spurs to future pleasure like as squeezing the hand and wounding the Lip with the eager rudeness of a biting kiss Sometimes rarity which through the sloth of the age seems almost peculiar to vertue recommends Monsters to our fancy and all outlandish deformity 'T is well known also how prevalent are those allurements of Lovers which are rank'd among the chiefest shadows of Vertues praises which are dearer to women than their looking-glass or box of perfumes with which as with incense men as well as Gods are appeas'd How easy is it by this art to please both our selves and others How easie is it by these pretious blandishments to please the most Chast Matron For all even the most modest love to be commended and those who refuse to be lov'd are yet ambitious of appearing lovely Both are arguments of a mind vertuously disposed though to praise be a more certain one than to be prais'd For to be prais'd is frequently the lot always the ambition of the most undeserving as deformed persons covet paint But none can praise and himself not be laudable He does the same or would do who approves and is illustrated from the excellencies of another As he that erects a Statue to the memory of an Heroe erects also at the same time to himself a Monument of Vertue For this seems an high flight of merit not to exercise vertues but what 's more to reverence and adore them These are those darts of Cupid which are pointed with his feathers which while they tickle wound the deeper and like Arrows deliver'd strongly and at a distance reach those who are most remov'd from us But to make flattering preambles and bribe Benevolence the usual art of Rhetoricians and Lovers seems all one to me as to dawb the lips with paint preparatively to an Embrace which always instils a sweet Poyson and insensibly corrodes the kisses So much are we men the Creatures of glory and Vertue that I fear Among vertues these more profitable ones cause Love 't would not be much for our honour to confess that among Vertues we Embrace them most which are profitable Whether they be those which exercise and invite humanity as modesty and equity or those which preside over and protect it as fortitude and munificence Which when we our selves are no way advantaged by them we gratulate in the behalf of others But as Emulation so munificence indears our affections to other vertues Although its excellence be so much the greater by how much the receiver is less deserving Because then the kindness is wholely to be ascribed not to the judgment but favour of the Benefactor and because for our sakes he would run the hazard of being reproachfully beneficial This liberaliby is no sooner above the Horizon but that other which is inbred in the heart of mankind shines parallel to it And although perhaps at first by an erroneous estimation it valued the giver for the sake of
and shadow such as is feign'd to inhabit the regions of Death languid and shy flying all approaches and slipping through an Embrace By and by lifting up a little the Veil of Cupid and viewing with the greediness of a Wooer the Divine form of my just tasted felicity By so many steps and degrees are inquired after the manner of Lovers the effects and force of Love the dowry and parentage whom it is convenient to Love in what manner what measure for what end also the degrees and kinds of loving my ignorance as all almost is restless and inquisitive made me curious of examining every particular as what manners what Dowry what seat what descent For this uses to be first and last in the Cares and joys of Lovers as to recollect the first sportful essaies and rudiments of their Amours so to make enquiry into the years and honours of their Parents and to unravel their friendship back to its noble beginnings Although it be a sign of greatness Thence enquiry is made into the definitions and natures of Love Lastly we ascend up to the causes and Origin of Love antiquity and has procured Religious reverence to many things to have their Originals beyond the date of Chronicles seal'd up to Oblivion as to Eternity 't will be no Crime I hope to relate adore the beginnings of love Which is so happily obscured by that consecrator of things Antiquity that like Heaven it has found a fabulous Origin I hear some telling me of Praeludiums of Love which Souls act in the Proscenium of the other world before they enter upon the Stage of this I hear that souls descended from the Stars of their Nativity still imitate their manners and conjunctions That as often as the wantonly disposed Planets treat one another with Quintile aspects and burn with a nearer flame then 't is wooing time among men That as aften as they mingle Embraces with their Conjugal Raies then they kindle Marriagetorches here below And lastly that The friendships of men are not to be ascribed to the conjunctions of the Planets but to a threefold impulse of every mans nature they do not only shew us Mortals the way and prosper us in it but also make matches and betroth us here on Earth But to leave this fanciful argument my Philosophy assures me 't is not the heat of Heaven but that native one of the breast which congregates Homogeneous things and inflames men with an ardent Love of Society either out of a zeal for themselves or out of a desire to succour infirmity or a design of self-communication The first of these nature has imparted Either to a zeal for themselves to every one as a Tutelar Deity to each in particular and as a common soul to all in general Whence whatsoever resembles any part of a mans self becomes ally'd to him on the score of that similitude Hence Superiors are wedded to Inferiors in a mutual relation These straitly embrace the other as their pattern and defence The other protect these as their utensils and workmanship But the easiest association is between equals because free from the unconfiding awe which attends a Superior fortune and the jarrings of untunable dispositions Whoever are Confederate by the Communion of nature enjoy so much the more pleasure in their conversation because they were most closely united even before any personal contract Or to a desire of succouring Infirmity But if any suppose that companions are repair'd to as a defence of weakness that to Love is a kind of begging and that the Embraces of men like those of the Vine and Ivie only seek out stronger props for their support Let him observe that for the Patronage of this infirmity Love is feign'd to be a Boy and that children and women and whatsoever is of the infirmer sort are most prone to Love Let him observe that Vertues themselves are sought for by mankind only among the necessaries of life and that they are either instruments of ambition or reliefs of indigence Let him know that all the terms of Alliance are indeed words which import succour and that by those things which we honour with the most Sacred Titles are undestood only the various Commodities of life These are the things to confess the truth which we most lovingly call by the name of Brothers Sisters and Parents Neither is a friend esteem'd any thing better than an Asylum of refuge and a proper possession Lastly if we suppose men to be moved Or to a design of self-communication by a fermenting appetite of self Communication and after the example of God whose Image they bear to make a Donative of themselves we shall think what 's more Noble in its self and what 's more worthy of that Sacred and sociable Creature and what comes nearest to the Genius of Heaven more freely to impart than receive an influence For every man as other Creatures are made for him so he is born for more than himself only and accordingly is ambitious of accommodating himself to others As much as every one is ashamed to confess his penury So much does he delight to shew himself rich by Communicating his goods rather than desire the Alms of another Hence we see some Souls Covetous of doing good call in and adopt Associates to share with them in their felicity and take it as a great kindness to themselves to have an occasion given them of benefiting others So that 't is a greater pleasure to have a friend in your prosperity when you are in the Capacity to give than in your adversity when you must always be on the receiving hand My own Planet has not been such a niggard to me that I should want experiments of this liberality or should need a proof elsewhere Nay even this very acknowledgement of my gratitude condemning A favour is more joyfully bellow'd than either received or repaid it self because a favour is more joyfully bestow'd than either receiv'd or repaid does sufficiently evidence that the genius of humane nature has prescribed it self this sole way of doing of good and out of a magnificence of spirit has rejected the Laws of gratitude Since the former proceeds from fullness of mind the latter is extorted by necessity In the former there 's the glory and state of a Superior in the latter the reverence and modesty of an Inferior He errs even to pity dazled with the splendor of a more glorious fortune who cannot endure a kindness neither does he act ingratefuly nor proudly but only magnificiently bent in spite of his unperforming fortune and refusing to yield in the Combat of generosity declares be would rather have been the Author of the kindness which he had more munificently bestow'd in wish before he receiv'd it When therefore you see some born to serve others Mankind is divided into two sorts some born to serve others to protect and cherish There is mutual benevolence between them