Crows and Cypresses We have alotted us too short a life for so long a Lesson too short a Viaticum for so tedious a Voyage There is no such virtue now to be found in steel to strengthen those Elixir vitae that inbalmed Men alive so that seeing themselves to aproach their thousanth year they resolved to leave the World more out of satiety with so long a life than out of any necessity of death We like Flowers that yesterday sprung up to day are old and to morrow dead have so short life as if we were born only to die That which in the Ancients was but their Child-hood is in us old Age their tythes are our excessive riches their overpluss's our treasures so that of horinesse and gray-hairs the Alexandrian Tertullian saith with as much Truth as Learning hec est aeternitas nostra If our knowing in this manner the shortnesse of our life could but perswade us to spend it according to its brevity that would be a favour which we think a punishment Is an unreasonable thing to accuse Heaven as niggardly of time to us and we like prodigals profusely to wast it using our life as if we were to measure it with the long pace of many Ages not with the short palm of a few years Who is there that with the Prince of Physicians câ—yes not out Ars longa vita brevis but in the meantime who is there that is solicitous to get quickly to the mark which the most diligent reach to but too late Ad sapientâ—am quis accedit Quis dignam judicat nisi quam in transitu noverit Quis phylosophiam aut ullum liberale respicit studium nisi cum ludi intercalantur cum aliquis pluvius intervenit dies quem perdere licet Nature with good advice hath placed Man in the middle of the World as in the Center of an immense Theater Procerum â—uimal saith Cassiodorus in essigiem pulcherrimae speculationis erectum to be there not as an otious Inhabitor but a curious Spectator of this her incomparable work in so much union so various in so much variety sounited with more miracles that adorn it than parts which compose it Howbeit to those that rightly behold it it is not the design of nature to put us in the VVorld so much in a Theater that we should admire as in a School that we should learn Therefore she hath enkindled in our hearts an inextinguishable desire of knowledge and setting open before our eyes as many Volumnes as the Heavens and Elements contein natures with shewing us in them manifest effects inviteth us to trace out their hidden causes What strengh what force of intelligence of the assistant or rather intrinsick form is that which revolves the great masse of the Elements with indefatigable motion Are the Spheres of the Planets many Heavens that contracted in the concave of each others lap interchangeably surround one another or serves only Heaven to all that great family of Stars for Mansion Of what substance composed Corruptible or incorruptible Liquid as Air or consollidate and firm as a Diamond Whence proceed the Maculae and whence the Faculae about the Sun VVhence the obscurity in the face of the Moon Of what matter are the new Stars and Comets composed and with what fire enkindled that appear unexpectedly Are they Forreigners or Citizens of Heaven Natives of that Countrey or Aspirers from here below The irregular errours of the Planets how may they be reduced to regularity without errour How may we know how may we fore-see Eclipses How great is the profoundity of the Heavens How great the number of the Stars How great the velocity of their motions How great the moles of their bodies The Winds whence take they their wings to slie the spaces of their course the force of their blasts the qualities of their operation and the set measure of time for their rising duration departure Who holdeth so many ponderous Clouds suspended in the Air How drop by drop do they squeeze out Rain How from their pregnant watery wombs are Thunders begotten which be fire Who congeals them into Snow Who hardeneth them into Hail With what Ultamarine is the Rain-bow depainted with alwayes one order of Colours and one proportionate measure of Diameter Whence again comes the source of Springs on the highest tops of Mountains Whence comes it that there should be in Hils of one the same Earth Marbles of so various mixtures Mettals of so different tempers Who assigns the Sea its periods of flux and reflux Who replenisheth the Rivers with waters so that their Channels are alwayes full though they be alwayes emptying The imbroidery of Flowers and Herbs the working of so various bodies in Beasts in Birds in Fishes the temper of the mixt the harmony of the common and occult qualities In fine what ever is what ever is made what being hath it and how is it produced To know all this in comparison of what might be known is to know nothing And yet who is there that knoweth this Nothing Is there then so much to be known and have we so little time of life to learn it and do we think that the onely surplussages and shreds of time sufficeth us for study Hear now what I have told you expressed in the conclusion of that precious little Treatise of Seneca De otio Sapientis Curiosum nobis Natura ingenium dedit artis sibi ac pulchritudinis suae conscia spectatores nos tantis rerum spectaculis genuit perditura fructum sui si tam magna tam clara tam subtiliter ducta tam nitida non uno genere formosa solitudini ostenderet Vt scias illam spectari voluisse non tantum aspici vide quem nobis locum dedit Ad haec quaerenda natus aestima quam non multum acceperis temporis etiam si illud totum tibi vindices Licet nihil facilitate eripi nihil negligentia patiatur excidere Tamen homo ad immortalium cognitionem nimis mortalis est Those Sages Masters of the World some whereof have left their Memories and others the productions of their Wit eternized to us knowing this as we esteem little Diamonds so they held precious the least minute of that time of which alone it is commendable to be covetous It was a miracle to see them in Publick and they resembled as in the love of VVisdom so also in this the Planet Mercury which is placed very neer the Sun and which by that means very hardly is discerned as if he cared not for terrene eyes who alwayes was in the eye of the Sun and beheld by him not with an unprofitable look but with a large communication of light In perpetuity of study they were like those Falcons neer the North-Pole which when the dayes are shorrest when the Sun approacheth Capricorn are so much more solicitous in seeking so much the more rapid in following so much the more couragious in
those or assistance to these For if the only beholding the dead Images of those who in publick managements of Peace and War have acquired the name of Grandees can do no lesse than move the heart and involve the desires in the like enterprises in seeing in Books the lively and breathing Images of the Wit of those Great Souls exprest to the life that therein still survive still speak still teach to the benefit of the VVorld can the rudest man choose but desire to understand and can the intelligible choose but blush to keep that covetously concealed which others have collected onely for Common Benefit Sume in manus indicem Philosophorum Haec ipsa res expergiscite coget Si videris quà m multi tibi laboraverint concupisces ipse ex illis unus esse Yet saith Phylo Sapience is a Sun from which we cannot take the Splendor without destroying it And many Platonicks make Souls of loftiest intelligence to be of the nature of fire Cujus unius ratio faecunda seque ipse paret minimis crescit scintillis So that if the Examples of our Ancestors is not sufficient to perswade us let us behold the Necessity of Posterity to whom it is double cruelty to deny that which we ought to bequeath them with Interest and they would receive with profit Abolish this inviolable Law which is not written in Marble but imprinted on the heart of Man of bequeathing our Goods aswell as our Love to our Posterity and what other do you do but destroy the VVorld and make it barbarous and brutish But if those seem fortunate who transmit to their Legitimate Issue ample yearly Revenues and entail with the riches that they have a happy Fortune to their Family what more precious and durable Inheritance can we leave them than the Endowments of the mind and the golden Tallents of our own Wit These are Revenues that diminish not with use that consume not with time that survive both publick private Ruines Are alwayes living alwayes entire alwayes in the same esteem and equally beneficial And hence drew the second Pliny that forceable motive wherewith he perswades a Friend to leave for publick benefit some fruit of his long and tedious studies Effinge aliquid excude quod sit perpetuò tuum Nam reliqua rerum tuarum post te alium atque alium dominum fortientur Hoc nunquam tuum desinet esse si semel coeperit But hear what those sordid Misers have to say for themselves I am debtor to no man for what 's my own Let others take pains as I have done let them find of themselves that which its unhandsome to beg of others This is pitty not rigor love to Learning not hatred of the Learned for it breeds up Wits in slothfulnesse when they find that in others which they should draw from themselves Necessity renders Ingenious and makes him that would be alwayes a Scholar studying the labours of others to become Master inventing new of his own Thus we make Achillis's giving them whole the bones of Lions that they may break them and pick out the Marow thus brave Swimmers give way to the Course of the Stream where it is most impetuous because it is not so much Art as Necessity in such a case that teachetb them to come out And do not these consider that if this should be Learning would alwayes continue in its infancy If he that spends many years in study teacheth no man what he hath discovered he that comes after him when he also hath been equally solicitous in seeking and equally fortunate in finding shall know nothing more than the former and when will they this way advance Learning Yea the knowledge of that which others have found helps one to find that which others did not know Those will serve us for Principles which were to others but Consequences and there we begin our search where others left seeking Wisedom is given said Augustine not for a Slave but for a Spouse and requires from us Successors and Sons hoc est ingenii fructus quosdam mentis partus quos non tam libros quam liberos dicimus and when she obteineth not that she laments I will not say like her that said saltem mihi parvulus aula luderet Aeneas but like the innocent Daughter of Jeptah that more bewailed the Virginity than her Death It being the true and only death to die without leaving an Issue wherein to live But if a wilful abortive makes the Mother a Homicide Et que originem futuri hominis extinguunt saith Minutiâ—s parricidium faciunt antequam pariant to stifle in Wisedoms Womb that which she as it were pregnant with our Conceits conceives to kill it that it should not be brought forth is not this Parricide Is it not homicidii festinatio prohibere nasci Others their are that defend themselves with years and excuse themselves with old age That being scarce able to live themselves how can they toil for others To him that hath done his part in activity it is cruelty to deny him to gather his wings into his Nest and to strike sail in the Port. Other times other cares The eyes inclined to the sleep of death more than to the wakings of study can go no farther without danger of errors and mistakes But if I misunderstand not these are not the words of one that would live out the few years that he wants of his full time but of them that would anticipate their death some years before they die and to die I call the doing nothing but live The studies of his extream old age were the sweeter to M. Varro the nearer he was to his death because not knowing any other life more like a man than to understand he lengthned his life as he did his study and said to himself Dum haec musinamur pluribus horis vivimus Yea Seneca that noble Wit taking motives to Labour from his Age whence others seek pretences to rest in the ultimate years of his not-compleated-life applied himself to investigate the occult secrets of Natural Phylosophy and therewith as if he was more than himself he said with his Poet Tollimus ingentes animos grandia parvo Tempore molimur Thereupon as it were pricking and spurring on the slothfulnesse of his Old age Festinemus said he opus nescio an superabile magnum cerâ—e sine aetatis excusatione tractemus VVho ever seeth saith Plutarch Bees for age to grow lazie slothful and idle in their Hives and not flye to the flowers and gather Honey as they did when they were young Take from me the power of writing said Gellius and you take away my life So much onely of life I ask for my self as may be serviceable to others Neque longiora mihi dari spatia vivendi volo quam dum ero ad hanc facultatem scribendi commentandique idoneus Let the division
in him he was both Victime and Priest for he slue himself no lesse than him in whom more than himself he lived And on the other hand an excellent Authour of a pestilent Book over-comming the contrasts of his thoughts of his friends and of all the Devils in Hell sacrificing it generously to the flames with that self-same hand that had syllable by syllable written and weighed it cutting off at one blow the labours of the years past the glory of the ages to come and slaying himself in his issue losing with a voluntary refusal that life which only makes us survive death I mean the Fame of succeeding Generations Of these two spectacles I know not which I should more willingly behold and perhaps it would appear unto me a lighter matter at the express command of God Father of the unborn and life of the Dead to slay a Son that was begotten with delight and may be raised again by miracle then at the voice of the un-audable Speech in which God speaks to the heart to burn a Book that in conceiving it in bringing it forth in bringing it up cost more pains than it hath syllables What though the love of Glory and the hopes of obteining a Name of an invincible Soul moved Brutus to condemn his own Sons to death being rebels to their Country and enemies to the publick good He condemned them as a Consul not to deliver them as a Father Et exuit Patrem ut Consulem ageret His heart suffered him to see tied to the stake Young-men of amiable aspect and in a word Sons Et qui spectator erat amovendus eum ipsum Fortuna exactorem supplicii dedit But he could do no lesse Who then so obdurated his heart or who bereaved him of it for the time whilest he both commanded and undauntedly beheld the death of his Sons Vicit amor Patriae laudumque immensa Cupido Is the avidity of glory able to make Fathers Executioners Where then in one is lost both the Son the Glory which from him was expected how much more heroical an act is it to kill him since the power of doing it was taken from nothing but from the love of Virtue But the hope of ever seeing so happy a Spectacle is a vanity Yet I would perswade these that the excrements such especially as favour wholly of brutal may be pared off that the Book may remain if not good yet at least not exceeding bad But also for this they are perfect at that answer heretofore given to the Senate of Rome when they were consulting of lesning the Tyber by branching it and diverting the Rivers that emptied themselves into it thereby to secure the City from the frequent In-undations that submerged it Ipsum Tyberim nolle prorsus accolis fluvius orbatum minore gloria fluere They will not permit their works to be a drop diminished a tittle impaired They say they would seem monstrous being maimed when as indeed they are Monsters being entire DETRACTION The inclination of the Genius and abusive imployment of the Wit to the defaming of others WHo would ever imagine that Detraction should be so sweet that he that had once tasted it should ever after desire it as the Lions which if they have once licked the blood from their pawes are alwayes after that greedy for it so likewise he that tasteth the first rellish of slander hath ordinarily so longing a desire after it that they become like those that had rather be without a tongue than without their Jests and cease to live sooner than to leave jeering Old age when they arrive at it though it oft-times bereaves the head of wisdom yet it deprives not the bitter tongue of it stings like as the old thorns which Winter makes to lose their leaves not their pricks their ornament but not their sharpnesse These for the most part acute of wit but only to sting never speak better than when they spake worst never shine more than when most they burn All the proofs of their Wits are jeers and pungent jests to become the smarter in biting they tēter their wits more than that famous Oratour strove in despight of his lisping tongue to pronounce and expresse the canicular and snarling letter R. To hear them how a Menippus a Zoilus a Momns will play upon one another so ingeniously they do it it is as if you heard a Musick but such Musick as that which Pythagoras observed to be made by the blows and percussions of great Hammers Their Pens taken from a Vulture not from a Swan like that of the famous Demosthenes have the ink at one end and poison at the other yea the ink it self is a venom that impoisons the names which it writeth whereupon as those that die of poison they appear wan and black The sparklings of the wit which in others are wont to be innocent Lamps of light not of fire for delight not for offence in them are lightnings that carry flames on their wings and death on their points There is transfused into their heads the Genius of Lucilius qui primus condidit styli nasum They have in their mouthes the proper tongue of the Ancient Epigrammatists namely as Martial defineth it Malam linguam nor though their speech be sweet and copious can it ever be said of them as of the Sweetest Plato that the Bees put hony in their mouthes but instead of it a Scorpions egge or a Spiders venom In sum they accustom their hands to the cauterizing instruments like an Anatomist rather than to the Pen like a Writer and the more subtilly they cut the more excellent they seem wounding the living and tearing in pieces the death These detracting Buffoons unworthy of living amongst Men as partaking of Beasts as was said of Cicero to gain the applause of a jest care not to lose the favour of a friend Dummodo risum Excutiat sibi non hic cuiquam parcet amico Whereupon they may well be called with the Comick Vulturii since that Hostesne an Cives comedant parvipendunt To expresse one of their conceits they care not though they torment that innocent party upon which it lights They onely use their eyes to strike their blows home nor do they care when it sometimes falls out that they speed as the Eagle that let a Tortoise fall upon the bald head of a Poet to break the shell Thus they take pleasure in others sufferings and honour from others disgrace imitating if he did such a thing Buonaroti that crucified a man thereby to depaint to the life a Crucified Christ Or rather Nero that set fire on Rome to chaunt upon the Tower of Mecaenas to the sound of his Gittern in the real wrack of his Country the feigned conflagration of Troy Ah las too barbarous is that desire of theirs to appear at others cost quick-wits of an acute and nimble brain It s the cruel custom of the people
of others Muses whereupon it holds true no lesse of the majestick Lion than of the feeble Ant that Convictare juvat praedas vivere rapto The Writings of the great Aristotle are fam'd to be a beautiful piece of Marquetry whereof the design is his own but the matter for the most part borrowed from others And if Speusippus in the purchase of whose Books he disburst three Tallents if Democritus if others like them the labours of whose Wits Alexander collected together for him every one should challenge his own he that appeared a Phoenix in others Plumes would appear but a Jaâ—k-daw in his own Plato was taxed by a railing Fellow for a Thiefe with an indictment made in the name of Philolaus as if he had I will not say transcribed from him a great part of his Timeus but replenished it with subline juice sucked out of Writings of that second Pythagoras behold how Timon accuseth him Exiguum ridimus grandi aere libellum Scribere per quem orsus per doctus ab inde fuisti And doubtless were there but an Archimedes that knew how to distinguish of Books as of mixtures of two metals between the legitimate and the borowed Were there but an Aristophanes a Judg that could understand the language of the dead when they speak by the mouthes of the living Were there but a Cratinus that could put Books to the torture and form the processe of their thefts as he did of the Poems of Menander of whose thieveries he composed six Books you should see how true it is that Mercury god of the Learned is also god of Thieves But in my judgment the whole crew of such who in their Books under their own names publish the labours of others may be distinguish'd into three orders one worse than another The first are those who gathering from one one thing and from another another and altering their titles and inverting their order compose Books as they make Garlands wherein many litles make a mickle many flowers make a Coronet They have this discretion to steal from every one a little that so few should perceive and none complain of the theft and as I may say they do not embase but only clip the Coyne The names of these Authors sumptuously writ in Capital letters in the Frontispice of their Books stupifie them to behold themselves fathers of so prodigious an issue when as they are conscious that they were devoid of productive virtue or seed that might inable them to the generation of so admirable Births Miraturque novas frondes non sua poma He perceiveth himself indow'd with such riches and yet knows that he had neither stock nor revenues equivalent to so great a purchase They hold it amongst them for a Law never to mention the Authors out of which they had filtch'd least they should be detected for Plagiaries Nor care they for Pliny that said Obnoxii dnimi infelicis ingenii esse deprehendâ— in furto malle quà m mutud reddere cumpraesertim sors fiat ex usura Nor that ancient custome related by M. Varro to crown their Conduits once a year with oderiferous Garlands of flowers in grateful acknowledgement of the clear and wholesome water that they drew from them But it happens many times and this is the final end of all the Art of such lik thieveries that they take upon them to censure as Ignorant and condemn as shallow and superficial those very persons from whom they borrowed all that they had of good insomuch as declaring themselves nice and critical in their opinions they are unsuspected of felonious filching Just like to torrents which where they break down their banks with a high tide diradiat teare up and beare before them all that stands in their way but of that which their impetuosity carries away they ingorge the most solid and shew only the stumps sedg and mud This is an act proper to Harpies to stisfie their hunger at anothers Table not contenting themselves with devouring that which they carry away unlesse moreover they spoil that which they leave behind This is to doe with worthy Writers as the Caitiffe Dionysius did to his friends which saith Diogenes as vessels of preciou liquour he suckt and dreined till he was full and then broke them as being empty This is to resemble the two infamous Monsters in the Straights of Sicilia neer to Pharos Scilla and Carybdis of which the first splits the ship and wrecks the merchandize the other with his circulations devoureth them and in a great gulf swallowes them They undervalue not others with an intent to reject them but to ingorge them nec expuunt naufragia sed devorant Wherefore let them hear as spoken to them alone what upon another subject the Moral Plutarch records Non debemus suffurari gloriam eorum qui nos in altum extulerunt necesse ut Regulis Aesopi qui deseruit Aquilam cùmea lassa ulteriùs non potuit volare Worse than these are the second who finding I know not how the imperfect works of Acute Doctors charitably collecting them as the Ospray the unplum'd Eaglets faln from their Nests take them home and as Orphan and destitute adopt them for their own legitimate issue The shame of appearing Ignorant overcomes in them the infamy of being thieves nor regard they Sinesius that said Magis impium esse mortuorum lucubrationes quam vestes furari quod sepulchra perfodere dicitur Oh how many if they might come forth of their Graves or but draw their heads out of their Tombs to see their labours inherited by such as had no right to succeed them ab intestato they would say with that forlorn Mantuan Sheapherd Insere nunc Melibaee pyros pone ordine vites It was a most modest Law of those no lesse brave than discreet Painters of Greece observed in all ages to honour the memory of the worthy Masters in that Art by not putting the pensil to the pieces which they overtaken by death should have left either without the finishing touches or else imperfect whereby they in effect would tell us that those relicks thus diminished and unfinished were more excellent than if they had been by their hands exactly completed Of this the Historian speaking Illud per quam raram saith he ac memoria dignum etiam suprema opera Artisicum imperfectasque tabulas sicut Irin Aristidis Tyndaridas Nichomachi Medeam Timomachi Venerem Apellis in majori admiratione esse quam perfecta Now in Letters amongst so many Laws there is not one of so good determination or so great fidelity by reason every one hath to great an avidity to the applause of a man of ingenuity therefore they put their hands to another mans works not to compleat them for the Author but to ingrosse against all the rules of equity anothers Principal to their Vse He that found a treasure in his field had it all to himself
the tempests of the Seas which it before all other ships did navigate came to take port in Heaven where now it s inriched with as many Stars as before it did carry Heroes Mari quod prima cucurrit Emeritum magnis mundum tenet acta procellis Servando Dea facta Deos. Thus after a thousand others in this last age Gallileus an Academick truly Lincean both for the eye of his wit and for that of his Perspective Tube with which he hath rendered the Commerce of Earth with the Heavens so familiar that the Stars which were before hid no longer disdain to appear and suffer themselves to be seen and those which were before seen discover to us not only their beauties but also their defects At the foot of the Sepulchre of this most acute Linx might be ingraven in lamentation that which the Poet in derision said of Argus Arge jaces quodque in tot lumina lumen habebas Extinctum est centumque oculos nox occupat una Thus Christopher Scheiner which from the motions of the Faculae and the Maculae of the Sun hath found by Astronomy and Phylosophy Coelestial Lights of so noble rare and authentick verity as are the double motion of the Sun that in the fashion of a Top firmly revolves in it self and on the Poles of his Axis that moving at the same instant in two Circles ordinately curve it whence ariseth the variety of appearances that the Spots therein make Moreover and besides the rational conjectures which are drawn from the conception birth increase return sometimes and decrease of the spots to define what is the substance and nature of the Sun it self VVherewith he hath so inrich't the VVorld with sublime experiments that if every age should afford the like few ages would suffice to make Astronomy as absolutely Mistris of the Heavens as at this day Geography is of almost all the Earth Macti ingenio este coeli Interpretes rerumque naturae capaces argumenti repertores quo Deos Hominesque vicistis VVorthies to whom as to that Ancient Meton that left as a legacy to posterity graven in a Column with lines of exact proportion the various course of the Sun should be erected as reward of eternal honour Statues with tongues gilded and underneath this inscription Ob divinas praedictiones VVorthies to whom Heaven should be given not as heretofore the Emperour Carolus Quintus gave only in picture the Stars of the Crosier a Constellation so called to Oviedus the Historian of the American affaires but it self for a reward and her Stars for a Crown And well do they deserve them Admovere oculis distantia sydera nostris Aethereaque Ingenio supposuere suo I have instanced only in these two that so I might not overpass all since I could not speak of all Only to us that succeed these ought that of Seneca to be inculcated that Agamus bonum patrem familiae Faciamus ampliora quae accipimus Major ista haereditas à me ad Posteros transeat Multum ad huc restat operis Multumque restabit nec ulli nato post mille secula praecluditur occasio aliquid adhuc adjiciendi I shall only add thus much that to become Inventors of new things we must not make our selves Masters of Novelties wandring without reason especially in things that are meerly Natural from those wayes which beaten already so many ages by the best wits of the VVorld have upon their Confines for such as passe them Temerity and Error Nor do as Diogenes going contrary to the current of all men as if we alone were the Sages we alone dived to the bottom of Heraclitus VVell to fetch up Truth Should we esteem of the Sun of the VVits of the VVorld not by the light of their greater knowledge of the truth but by our opposition to the course of all the World and could we say in a vaunt what Apollo spake by way of advice to his Son Phaēton Nitor in adversum neque me qui caetera vincit Impetus rapido contrarius evehor orbi we ought also from him to hear that without peril of precipitation we cannot deviate from those direct paths which trodden by the Chariot of the Light are made no lesse obvious than clear Hac sit iter manifesta rotae vestigia cernes That the Earth with an annual period revolves under the Ecliptick and with a daily motion turns from VVest to East That the Moon yea all the Planets no other but voluble Earth have inhabitants people of different nature That the World consists of infinite Masses or Chaoses and in its immense Vasts comprehendes innumerable VVorlds c. These are Opinions that some Moderns have fondly raised from their Graves calling them back the first from the Sepulchres of Cleanthes and Phylolaus the second of Pythagoras and of Heraclitus the third of Democritus and Methrodorus with whose death they had been so many ages buried in Silence and Oblivion This is not to inrich the World with new cognitions but with old errors nor to make ones self Master of those that follow us but Disciple of those that precede us with this remuneration that those very dreams of theirs which were not blindly received by the World shall in like manner sleep with us in our Sepulchres How we may honestly and commendably steal from others Writings BUt I find I have enterprized too difficult a task whilst I pretend to divert our thoughts from the taking feloniously from others with proposing to them both the obligation of enriching Learning with new inventions and the guerdon that in so doing we acquire Much better it were that I should teach That we may borrow with a good Conscience and not only without necessity of Restitution but also with the Merit of Commendation All the thefts of light made upon the wheels of Apollo's Chariot which are if I do not ill augurate the Books of the most celebrious Wits upon which Truth shines triumphs that condemn not the offender to the Rocks of Caucasus and the Eagle of Prometheus There is an impunity of taking provided we take not as the Moon from the Sun which when it most approches it and most replenisheth it self with his light in perfect Novi-lunii ingratefully eclipseth it but as he that in a Mirrour of pure Christal receiveth a Sun beam and with that doth not only not diminished it of light but rather renders it with the reflexion the more splendid and glorious Thus the Bee equally ingenious and discreet Candida circum Lilia funduntur But so innocent is their Rapine that without diminishing the odour without violating the beauty without breaking the pods of the Flowers they abundantly gather Wax and Hony for themselves and others The first way to Borrow with applause is to Imitate with Judgment He that is not a Giant of high stature let him climbe to the top of a great turret and thence inform himself of the
of the life of him that professeth Learning be such as that of the Ancient Vestals of Rome which was divided into three equal parts In the first they learnt the Rites and Ceremonies as Scholars to the Eldest In the second they practised them as Companions of the midle sort In the last they taught them as Mistresses of the Younger Thus the leaves usher in the blossomes and the blossomes falling with a happy end do knit in fruit The incomparable felicity of Good Authors that appear in Print THe desire of living hath been the Inventeress of a hundred ways of not dying And because Physick hath neither the hearbs of Medea against old-Old-age nor the Ambrosia of Jupiter against Death but that it s too true as Sydonius saith that many Doctors assistentes dissidentes parùm docti satis seduli languidos mulios officiosissime occidunt we betake our selves to the Arts of Colouring Linnens Ingraving Marbles Founding Brasse erecting Arches Mausoleums and Theaters that so if we cannot long be men yet at least we may be the Superficies of men on Pedestals the images of men in the Inscriptions of Arches and Epitaphs of Sepulchers But there is nothing of our invention as I have above adverted so able to conserve us alive after death as the procreation of Children whereby Nature provideth for the maintenance of the common Species and private desire of every one Mortuus est pater saith Ecclesiasticus quasi non est mortuus simileni enim reliquit sibi post se But howbeit it be true that the Father transfuses himself into his Child that he begets whereby dying he doth not die whilst he liveth still in him yet neverthelesse the Child oft-times so degenerates not only from the looks but from the Genius Customes of the Father that very often it comes to passe As in the Egyptian god Apis that the Father is a Lightning and the Son an Ox. Caused in that the temper of the Issue follows not the will of the agent but the nature of the matter nor doe we make our Children such as we would but such as we may But Books are the Children of the mind Heirs of the better part lively Images of our selves these only are they in whom we have as much of life as we can enjoy after death Contingit saith Cassiodore dissimilem filium plerumque generari oratio dispar moribus vix unquam potest inveniri Est ergo ista valdè certior arbitrii proles They are immortal Sons that make our dying only a cessation from misery to commence in them a life of glory like even as Hercules leaving the earth was received from his Labours into Heaven and in the midst of it he began to shine with the Stars whose body consumed in the flames of the funeral pile seemed reduced to a handful of ashes What so strong support what so stable Basis hath the memory of the names and the glory of the merits of Great Souls comparable to the eternal duration of Books Observe the ruines that time makes in every thing precipitating some and gently gnawing others The Rocks do they not as it were decrepit and bending under the heavy burden of age incline towards the grave and mouldring bit by bit and scattering their divided members rather bones here and there do they not seem to beg a Tomb from their own Vallies Doth not even Iron it self worn away by the rust consume to dust by the Deaffile of Time Once-stately-Edifices now old Carkasses and naked Anatomies not of Fabricks but of ruines if with some fragments of broken walls more falling than standing they keep upon their feet do they not more manifest a Trophee of Time than a testimony of their former greatnesse Where once were the Temples of the Gods Courts of Kings Assemblies of Senators Accademies of Students there can now hardly an Owl nest her self but revenous Wolves have there their Coverts In the mean-time in the midst of the ruines of all the resisting durable things of the World how do the Trophees of great Wits abide In the death of all things even of the lifelesse how live Books or rather how live in Books their Fathers and Writers Let the most Sapient Roman Stoick say it Caetera quae per constructionem lapidum marmoreas moles aut terrenos tumulos in magnam eductos aeltitudinem constant non propagabunt longam diem quippe ipsa intereunt Immortalis est ingenii memoria Let the Poet Martial speak it Marmora Messalae findit caprificus audax Dimidios Crispi mulio ridet equos At chartis nec furta nocent nec secula praesunt Solaque non norunt haec monumenta mori Well may we call Metellus happy who was borne to his Sepulcher upon the shoulders of his four Sons of which two had been one was and the other was a while after to be Consul of Rome This was so superbose a funeral pomp that the Historian admiring it said Hoc est nimirum magis feliciter de vita migrare quà m mori but in fine it was De vita migrare and his Sons though with great pomp yet carried him to the Grave Books alone not four Children but as many as we multiply with the Presse their Father retiring to death and the Sepulcher bear him alive into every place where they come and put him not so much into the hand as into the eye of as many as read him into the mind of as many as understand him And oh how many times he who living in his native Country either un-known or un-regarded so that with much ado he drew to himself the eyes of some few that ook't upon him as a Man of VVit in his Books draws to himself the hearts of a VVorld Like as heretofore the famous Lyre of Orpheus that on Earth saith Manilius ravished the Trees Stones savagâ— Beasts in Heaven whether he was translated drew the Stars after him Tunc sylvas saxa trahens nunc sydera ducit VVitnesse that most pleasing desire that any one hath to know of what semblance were the faces and what the features of those who in paper have stamped so goodly portraitures of their VVits hence proceeds the care of delineating them yea of counterfeiting them when thorow the oblivion of many ages their faces are unknowable Non enim solum ex auro argentove aut etiam ex aere in bibliothecis dicantur illi quoâ—um immortales animae in iisdem locis loquuntur quin imò etiam quae non sunt singuntur pariuntque desideria non tra liti vultus sicut in Homero evenit Quo majus ut quidem arbitror nullum est felicitatis specimen quà m semper omnes scire cupere qualis â—uerit aliquis And not onâ—y so but as oft as the dubious mind knows not how to unknit the knoâ—s of intricate difficulties that wilder the thoughts so oft with desire it runs to covet