Counsellor Manners HIS LAST LEGACY TO HIS SON Enriched and Embellished WITH Grave Adviso's Pat Histories and Ingenious Proverbs Apologues and Apophthegms By JOSIAH DARE Sunt bona sunt quaedam mediocria sunt mala pluâ—a Quae legis hic aliter non fit Avite liber Mart. Lib. 1. Epig. XVII LONDON Printed for Edward Gough and are to be sold by most Booksellers in London 1673. THE PREFACE TO THE READER Courteous Reader I Shall not according to the usual mode of those Epistles which are prefixed to printed Books crave the patronage of any person whatsoever to this for I hope that thou thy self when thou hast perused it wilt patronize it considering the honesty and innocency of it neither shall I dedicate it to any Right Worshipful or Right Honourable person because I think it incongruous to present a small Book to a great Personage Nor will I beg Pardon of any man for this my scribble since I might have prevented it if I would have refrained from dipping my Pen in mine Inkhorn and indeed I esteem them unworthy to be pardoned who consultedly commit a fault and then desire to be excused for it All that I desire of thee is that thou wouldst take in good part what is here offered thee in good will The design of all Theologues in the Pulpit is to teach men Grace and it is mine out of it to teach them Manners and truly a moral life is a fair step to an holy one and a good Behaviour to a sanctified Conversation Unmannerly Clowns are like Bears Cubs meer lumps of flesh till they be lickt into a more comely shape and ill tutored persons are like rough hewn Statues you shall scarce perceive the lineaments of a man in them till they be wrought smooth and polished Good manners make the man Quoth William of Wickham Be a man never so brave in his Apparel if his Deportment be not answerable he is as ridiculous an Object as a Monkey or a Baboon in a Scarlet Coat with a Tiffany Ruff about his neck good Manners adorn those very things that most adorn us for what is a Gold Ring in a Swines snout Since then I present thee here with such Jewels as will set thee forth and gain thee honour and respect amongst all persons with whom thou shalt converse I hope thou wilt in manners accept them kindly as well for thine own sake as for his who here subscribes himself Thine affectionate friend and humble Servant JOSIAH DARE THE Grave Counsellors LAST LEGACY TO HIS SON THere dwelt sometimes in this Island of Britain an ancient Gentleman called Counsellor Manners a Man of a very fair Estate who being both aged and sickly found such weakness in himself that he thought Nature would yield unto Death and Physick unto his Diseases this Gentleman had one only Son who nothing resembled the Qualities of his Father which the old Man perceiving he caused him to be called to his Bed side and the Chamber being voided he brake with him in these Terms 1. My Son thou art too young to Die and I am too old to Live and therefore as Nature must of necessity pay her Debt to Death so must she also pay her Devotion to thee whom I alive had to be the Comfort of mine Age and whom alone I must leave behind me to be the only Monument of my Name and Honour If thou couldst as well conceive the care of a Father as I can level at the Nature of a Child or were I as able to utter my Affection towards thee as thou oughtest to shew thy Duty to me then wouldst thou desire my Life to enjoy my Counsel and I should correct thy Life to amend thy Conditions yet so tempered as that neither Rigour might detract any thing from Affection in me or Fear any whit from thee in Duty But seeing my self so feeble that I cannot live to be thy Guide I am resolved to give thee such Counsel as may do thee good wherein I shall shew my care and discharge my Duty My good Son thou art to receive by my Death Wealth and by my Counsel Wisdom and I would thou wert as willing to imprint the one in thy Heart as thou wilt be ready to bear the other in thy Purse to be rich is the Gist of Fortune to be wise the Grace of God Have more mind on thy Books than on thy Bags more desire of Godliness than Gold greater affection to die well than live wantonly II. Behave thy self as becomes one of thy Birth for if thou vauntest of thy Linage and titular Dignity and wantest the Virtues of thy Ancestors thou art but as a base serving Man who carries on his sleeve the badge of some Noble Family yet is himself but an ignoble person In which respect Aristotle discoursing of Nobility makes four parts thereof the first of Riches the second of Blood the third of Learning the fourth of Vertue And to the two last he ascribeth the first place of true Gentry because Boors may be rich and Rakehels may be of ancient bloud but Vertue and Knowledge cannot harbour but where God and Nature hath left their noble endowments It was the saying of old English Chaucer that to do the gentle deeds that makes the Gentleman Have what thou wilt without these thou art but a three-half-penny fellow Gentry without Virtue is blood indeed but blood without fat blood without Sinews blood is but the body of Gentility excellency of Vertue is the Soul and as Vertue is the high way to honour so without it honour falls down in the dust and therefore when Hermodius a Nobleman born but of a deboist life upbraided the valiant Captain Iphicrates for that he was a Shoomakers Son he knowing that it was more commendable to be made honourable for vertue than born noble by blood replyed In me my Gentility begins in thee thine ends Be the birth never so base yet honesty and vertue is free from disgrace be the birth never so great yet dishonesty and vice is subject to dishonour therefore since thou art well descended by thy birth prove not base either by bad vices of thine own or lewd devices of other men take thy great Birth to be an obligation of great Vertue suit thy behaviour unto it ennoble thy Parentage with Piety and since true Honour must come of thy self and not of others worth work out thine own Glory by performing good deeds and stand not upon what thou dost borrow of thy Predecessors if thou reach not the Goodness of those which gave thee outward Glory and dost not so much honour thy House with the glory of thy Vertues as thy House hath honoured the with the title of thy Degree but dost as a noisom Weed grow the ranker because thou springest out from a rich soil know thou art but a wooden Dagger put into a gaudy sheath to help fill up the place when that of good metal is lost and can no more be found If thou
highly esteemed of others In such a case be not troubled with a frivolous report of Dishonour rather be prodigal of thy Reputation than thy life run not wilfully into an Aceldama into the Grave into Hell to be counted valorous care not so much for the shame of the world as the danger of thy body and soul Men of great Valour have rejected Challenges which have proceeded from those who have had more heart than brain more head than wit and that without any blemish at all to their Credit When Anthony challenged Augustus he answered That if Anthony were weary of life there were ways enough to death besides Duelling But say some will call thee a Coward yet fear not shame so much as sin thou hast but one body do not adventure it upon the Sword of an Enemy but one Soul do not adventure it upon the Sword of God Love a good Name but yet as an Handmaid of Vertue woo and court common Fame no further than it follows upon honest courses and vertuous actions and think thy self but base if thou shouldst depend upon vulgar breath which is commonly none of the sweetest It is as great a Symptom of a crazy Reputation as it is of a crazy body to be too impatient upon every slight touch And truly methinks it is strange that men should so eagerly pursue Honour and so hotly court her as to vindicate her upon any man who should but touch her though never so slightly with the hazard both of body and soul Whilst in their impious and inhumane Duels they make themselves if they survive their Antagonists either liable to be hanged by the Laws of men or to be damn'd by the Laws of God or finally liable to both if God shew not more mercy to them than they did to their Brethren whose blood they spilt in some vain or perhaps drunken Brabble But let them pass as dangerous men to be conversed withal only 't were good men would hearken to Gonsalvo that famous Commander who was wont to say that a Gentlemans honour should be de telâ crassiore of a stronger warp or web than that every slight thing should catch in it and be thought able to break it Think besides the bloody fact being once committed of those terrours which will if thou hast any Grace left in thee dog thy Conscience with the srightful Vissions of thy murthered Friend and think moreover how together with him thou hast murdered unless thou canst procure a pardon thy poor Children and undone thy whole Family and laid such a blemish upon thy posterity after thee as peradventure shall never be blotted out again the stain being laid so deep in blood LXXIV Be not too ventrous in exposing thy self like a Knight Errand to needness dangers 't is an unhappy Proverb He that courts perils shall dye the Devils Martyr I have heard that in our last Civil Wars a young Cavaliero being well mounted started out to pickeer with another of the Enemies side and killed him and returning in a vain glorious manner to his Company Prince Rupert who then commanded that Party and was a Spectator of his Bravery asked him this Question Sir pray resolve me whether you are an elder or a younger Brother who replying that he was an elder Brother the Prince told him That he had then that day shewed his younger Brother fair play for it And what got my Gallant by this but instead of the applause he expected the estimation of being Fool Hardy rather than truly valiant As I would not have thee kneel with the Camel to take up a burden under which thou canst not rise again so with the Elephant I would have thee like a stout man to bear a Castle if it be laid upon thy back There is a time for the tolerancy of a mans crosses and therefore neither like the wild Beast bred in a cold Climat run from the fire nor like a Moth flittering about the Candle run into it LXXV Come not presumptuousty into places where some are contagiously sick lest thou come untimely to thy Grave come not within the lists of destruction he that would not fall into the pit must not approach the brink Likewise bestow cost as long as thou mayst to continue thy life by upholding and repairing thy Cottage of clay It is against the course of Nature and a way to tempt the very God of Nature to destroy thee wilfully to hinder thy health or not to seek means to preserve it God sendeth several Diseases and hath appointed several Medicines as Remedies to encounter them therefore honour the Physician and with King Hezekiah lay a plaister upon the Boil say not mans life hath a period as the Sea hath its bounds beyond which it cannot pass and therefore think not like a Turk that if thy time be not yet come that though thou thrust thy head into a Cannon it cannot kill thee for though no man can live one minute beyond the set time God hath appointed him to live yet by refusing the due means to preserve thy self or by thy sins and deb nicheries thou mayst cut thy days the shorter God that predestines the end doth as well predestine the means tending to the attainment thereof This the Psalmist makes evident when he tells us The wicked and blood-thirsty men shall not live out half their days And we may observe by our daily experiences that men in Feavers Squinancies and Pleurisies are preserved many years longer by timely Phlebotomy who without such means would unavoidably and immediately perish To this purpose I have read a remarkable Spanish Story and it is this There was in Toledo a debauched young Gentleman scarce twenty years of age who for Robbery and Murder was condemned to dye and being hanged on the day of Execution upon a Gibbet suddenly there grew out of his a little before unflidged Chin a long Beard white as Snow which when the Archbishop of the place coming to the Gallows observed he gave the amazed people that stood by this conjecture of so strange an Accident that God by this wonderful thing had shewn that if the young Man had not cut himself off by his vitious and abominable courses he might have lived to an extreme old age Say not when thy Glass is run do what thou wilt thou canst stay no longer and the Clock will strike when the Minutes be past neither say that that which must be shall be and let death seek thee yet it shall not find thee till thy time be come and therefore away with Physick what shall means do For then a Rope upon thee try every Knife eat Coloquintida thy belly full frequent places where the Air about thee doth infect and where the breath of one body is poyson to another and by the like reason thou mayst excuse thy wickedness and be desperately and dissolutely careless But in matters of Hope where the end is not known use means with Asa though thou relye not upon
them and though many times they avail not yet take thou all the fairest ways of all lawful remedies since Gods determinations are concealed from thee And be not like those miserable minded men who if they fall sick had rather dye a thousand deaths than pay the Apothecaries Bills Upon the Miser in the Epigram the Quipp lay heavier than his Grave stone in which it was engraven Here lies Father Sparges Who dy'd to save Charges Some others there be who starve their bodies to make their purses fat and put their bellies into their bags as the Epicures put their money into their bellies resembling a Dog in a Wheel who roasts meat for others but never a good bit for himself Others warm themselves only with the sticks of a Crows Nest and dare not take so much as a Faggot-stick out of their Stacks and Piles which they make to out-live all the Woods in the Country round about them and hoard their Corn rather to feed Rats and Mice than themselves so that they will not afford their own selves such necessaries as may keep them in good sort and whereby they may preserve their lives Yet I would not have thee to be like those who for every Qualm take a Receipt and cannot make two Meals unless Galen or Hippocrates stand by their Trenchers if thou dost so thy purse will ever be without money and thy body never without diseases LXXVI I would have thee to follow thy Study and those Affairs in which thou art concerned yet not to seek so immoderately the Wealth of thy Brain or Purse as to lose the Health of thy Body neglect not thy body to accomplish thy mind when thy weakness checks thee and thy body controuls thee from assiduous hard and immoderate study and from great cares and affairs of importance affect not so much knowledge or wealth as to debar thy self of those things whereby thy health may be regained or retained LXXVII Further I advise thee to study Men as well as Books take heed of those that wink with one eye and see with the other it is a Proverb worth observation He that winks with one eye and sees with t' other I will not turst him though he were my Brother Likewise take heed of those that have their Beards of two colours or their Head of one colour and their Beard of another for they are mark't and another Proverb bids us beware of those whom God hath marked A mans disposition is never better known than when he is crossed as Proteus never changed shapes till Hercules griped him but what a man is inward is best to be discovered by these three things Oculis by his Eyes Loculis Purse Poculis Cups To this we may add a forth and that is Anger for this passion will lay him open as the fire burning in the Chimney discovers all the things that are in the Room and besides these four things the very Lineaments Colour Complexion and Habitude of the Body may give us some light of the Qualities and Dispositions of Men and Women as is signified by these Rimes in which the small Poet speaking first of Women gives us this account Fair and foolish little and loud Long and lazie black and proud Fat and merry lean and sad Pale and peevish red and bad Then for Men he gives us this Account following To a red man read thy read To a brown man break thy bread At a pale man draw thy Knife From a black man keep thy Wise LXXVIII If thou takest Tobacco which it matters not whether thou dost or no yet if thou takest it moderately and Physically it may as lawfully be taken as well as other things which God hath afforded us for our delight as well as our necessity but to take it vainly as too many do who are never well any longer than the Pipe like a Turkey-Cocks snout hangs dangling under their Noses or to take it meerly to pass away thy pretious time or as a salt bit to draw down thy Liquor or as an help to discourse is both ridiculous and blame-worthy but besides this Indian Weed immoderately taken is very prejudicial to the bodies health it dries up the Lungs it putrifies the Breath and being of a Narcotick quality it stupifies the Brain and combines with the Bottle to make a man a very Sot which mischiefs and inconveniencies are altogether summed up in these Rimes by another small Poet. Tobacco that outlandish Weed It dries the brain and spoils the seed It dulls the spirit it dims the sight It robs a Woman of her right LXXIX Hate ingratitude above all things for nothing is more hateful to God and Man no Billings-gate Scold can fix a worse name upon thee than to call thee an ungrateful person it is worthy of remark that unthankfulness and unholiness in sacred Writ like an Harl of Hellish Hounds are coupled together never therefore forget to be thankful to any one from whom thou hast received a courtesie or benefit in this thou wilt shew both grace and wit for thankfulness for the present benefits received makes way for future ones In the whole course of Nature man may read a Lecture of gratitude Rivers return their floods into the Ocean from whence they derived their streams the Clouds of Heaven repay the exhalations and vapours which the earth sent up to them with fruitful Flowers thy Flocks and thy Kine recompence the Pasture and Fodder thou affordest them with their Fleeces and their Milk and thy Bees for thy kindness in hiving them in thy Garden requite thy love with their Wax and Honey and as I would not have thee be ungrateful thy self so I advise thee to guard thy self against such as are so for these like the savage Bears will be apt to bite the Water that quenches their thirst Save a Thief from the Gallows and he will cut thy throat indeed there are not a few such Villains to be sound in the world who are apt to return evil for good and are not ashamed to degenerate into such Monsters Monsters did I call them I might rather have termed them Devils who labour to damn them the deepest that serve them the most as to hurt or betray those to whom they are by Nature by Blood and by kindnesses most engaged and obliged When King Richard the Third pursued the Duke of Buckingham to put him to death for usurping Tyrants use to cut down the stairs by which they climb up to their height the Duke in his extremity did flye to one Bannister his Servant upon whom he had bestowed great Means to inrich him Bannister very carefully conveyed him into a Coppice adjoining to his Mansion House and there preserved him but within a while there is a Proclamation made that whosoever could reveal where the Duke was if he were a Bondslave he should be enfranchised and made free if a Freeman he should have a General Pardon and be rewarded with a thousand Pounds hereupon Bannister either