bonos in bonis All compacts with wicked men or in wicked things are male icta foedera A Friend is tried in Adversity Si possides amicum saith Syracides 〈◊〉 tentationibus posside eum 〈◊〉 facile credas ei A good close not to be too credulous but to try before you trust true friends being very rare among so many Professors of friendship Tuta frequensque via est per amici fallere nomen The Italians have a proverb God shield me from my friends I will look to my Enemies my self It may be an advantage to have an Enemy he will make you stand the surer upon your guard you eye his motions and avenues but a friend which bosometh with you who can prevent He is like a subterraneous engine which wil blow you up before you hear the report And therefore Seneca well adviseth Sic am a tanquam osurus c. Never love so much but reserve your self that if your friend shall become your enemy he shall not have power to do you hurt and yet withall never hate so much but leave an open gap or overture to let in love Your hatred must be mortall your love immortall Love abideth for ever The next in order are your Neighbours a good Neighbour near is better than a brother afar off with whom in respect of nearnesse you are to converse There are two Honorable Neighbours that in effect encircle your Estate 1 The Right Honorable Viscount Tracy wâ—o hath the preheminence of all the Families in these parts for Antiquity Your Ancestors have from them received much honour by divers Trusts and Services recommended and reposed in them Their lands at Alderton lye promiscuously with yours and many differences have arisen between the respective Lords Tenants which have been alwaies composed in an amicable way Many graces and favours I have received in my Country have proceeded from this Honorable Lord and his Son Sir Robert Tracy the true Inheritor of his Honours Vertues And though I might command you yet had I rather intreat you to assist me to pay that deep debt of duty and service which I ow to those of that Honorable Family The other is the Lord Chandos nay the Lord Butlers long before as I am very well able to set forth The Lord Edmund Chandos Knight of the Garter in much infirmity of body did adventure towards Glocester to do Sr. Iohn Higford honour when he was first High Sheriff but falling more sick in the Journey returned to his Castle and died before the Assizes were ended The Lord Giles Chandos employed Sr. Iohn Higford in the Government of his Estate and in the Lieutenancy of the County for his good service done therein promoved him to the Queens Majestie a great Housewife of her Honour who dignified him with the order of a Knight in those days communicable only to persons of worth and quality 14. Sept. 1591. At which time also her said Majestie created Sr Iohn Scudamore Knight the goodlyest Parsonage then in the Court of England and in high favour her Majestie using many gracious speches to them both The Lord Grey Chandos truely noble both in learning and Armes brought me first into the Commission of the Peace and did me many Graces both in Court and Country This noble Lord with whom you are almost coetaneous hath shewed many remarkable Indices of his Prowess and Honour Nec imbellem feroces Progenerant Aquilae columbam Follow the train of your Ancestors and so grow up in his favour Principibus placuisse viris haud ultima laus est You have also many other worthy Gentlemen your Neighbours and some of your Alliance too from whom your Ancestors have received many high favours Your Ancestors knew no other way to continue their good Affections but Affability Sweetness and mutuall Offices of love Morosity and strangeness will loose your friends and benefit you nothing at all Descendendo ascendes The next Companions in order are your servants and Domesticks but these are ill companions lest they prove insolent It is written of Nero the worst of Princes Non habuisse ingenium supra servos when the great affaires of State were in debate in the Senat house he was conversant with his Favourite Tigillinus and the rest of his servants And this hath also been a disparagement to many worthy Gentlemen who affecting to be the best of their company have negclected the converse of their superiors many times to their great disadvantage That you may be the better obeyed by your servants you must carefully govern your self that by your own example you may the better govern them Longum est iter per praecepta breve efficax per exempla In the choice of your servants you must take care that they be negotiis pares and then enjoyn them business enough and exact accounts from them lest by remissness they grow idle and unserviceable Pay them their due Salaries so will they be the more tyed and assured to you Non manebit apud te opus mercenarti usque mane Your Commands must be lawfull pious and religious tantum in Domino remembring that as they are your Servants so they are Gods Freemen Holy David will direct you in the choice of them He that leadeth a Godly life he shall be my servant Faithfull Abraham will inform you how to govern them I know saith God that Abraham will Command his Houshold that they keep the way of the Lord to do righteousness and judgment Abraham had a good servant whom he employed in the negotiation of his sons marriage if you finde such a servant let your soul love him and defraud him not of liberty neither leave him a poor man The next Companions will be your Tenants who are your Neighbours and will have recourse unto you in respect of their Estates which they hold of you Tillage is the preservation of a Commonwealth in providing bread which is called the Staff of man whereupon he leaneth which Staff if it fail Man falleth to the ground Terra dicitur a terendo and in a Fine Tillage-land is first set down because it is worthyer than any other land For as Cicero saith Omnium rerum ex quibus aliquid exprmiitur nihil est Agricultura melius nihil uberius nihil dulcius nihil homine libero dignius By this Kings have their Subsidies and the Bodies of men for supply of their Armies for as Tacitus saith Ex agro supplendum robur exercitus and Incumbents also recieve their full Tithes These Men live innocent lives without deceit they onely rely upon God who giveth the former and the later rain To inclose or not to suffer them to renue their Estates whereby desolation shall ensue draweth on a woe They hold of you by Fealty that is Fidelity to be faithfull unto you for the Lands they hold you must in Relation give them protection whereby they may follow their excessive labours Finiunt reaprantque labores Your Ancestors have been
lay it aside by you to vindicate you from indignities and affronts and when you finde your self disparaged or the title of your land questioned then with modesty the comeliest ornament of youth and with such weapons as are left unto you defend the same Let upstarts and buyers of honour bragg and boast Pervia dant vada plus murmin is alta nihil Armories have suffixed unto them Mottoes or short sentences and that which your Ancestors have long used is VIRTUS VERUS HONOS By which it doth appear that unless you imitate their virtues you cannot participate their honours Without virtue honour is but a false glosse for Titles of honour do not ennoble men but worthy men ennoble their Titles of Honour Virtute decet non sanguine niti This Honour though it be a character indelible which cannot be lost but by your own default yet it will be much impaired and in effect lost neither can it be well preserved without the preservation of your estate also They are like two twins inseparable born together and must live and dye together Vnijugis vitae est una necisque dies Poverty and Honour are very unsutable Companions Every Acre of land you sell you lose in proportion so much gentile blood And therefore you may take notice that you are but Fiduciarius that is according to the Civill Law a Trustee for others and that Piety which your Ancestors had to preserve an Estate for you you are to extend the same unto those who shall succeed you If you dissipate you break that tacit and implicit Trust which so many Ancestors in so many Ages have reposed in you Now to preserve an Estate is an Art and skill as Ovid telleth you Non minor est virtus quà m quaerere parta tueri Casus inest illis hic erit artis opus The virtue which best conduceth to this end is the most excellent virtue Parsimony I mean the medium between nimium and parum sordid Avarice and profuse Prodigality Cato being demanded what was the greatest Revenue made Answer Maximum vectigal Parsimonia Use Parsimony betimes before a wast be made for Seneca tells you Sera est in fundo Parsimonia In respect of the distance of years which is between us you are very likely to be Master of your Estate in part or in whole betimes yea in the very entrance of your youth The Civil Law limiting the majority of Males at the Age of 25. better provideth for the security of Estates than the Common Law of our Land which appointeth the full Age at 21. More Families I dare say have decayed or at least received the deadly wound in this intervall which is but four years than in all other years of mans life Be not therefore too jolly at the first nor apt to be blown by Parasites and Flatterers the bane of youth who as Summer birds but withall birds of prey do allwayes resort to the Spring of an Estate that your estate is greater than it is this hath deceived many Make your self rather less then you are Good grounds of Frugality at first once well lay'd will make your Estate continue firm and stable Dimidium facti qui bene coepit habet Land by which a man is fed is most honourable mony as Syracides hath it answereth all things but 't is not so honourable and more casual Land and mony sort best together If you cannot set your land you may stock it When it is more profitable for you to distock you can take your best market Cast your self once behind whereby you must be inforced to recieve your Rents before they are due or to engage your Tenants and servants it is wonderfull what wayes and projects will be layd to keep you down Riches may be well compared unto Cisternes or Pooles which a small stream will easily fill if there be no leaks or wasts but small wasts and expences continuing and not prevented have decieved and undone many no man knoweth how Look to your exports as well as your Imports and so prevent growing mischiefs Idem facit sentina neglecta quod flumen irruens Ista levia noli contemnere Qui spernit modica paulatim decidet The Antient Historians agree that by this Vertue Parsimony most especially the State of Rome came to Soveraignty over the whole World Quintus Cincinnatus was taken from the Plough and made Dictator and at the end of his Dictatorship returned to the Plough again But the Roman State after the conquest of Asia being rotten with luxury and the delicacies thereof prope ad summum prope ad exitum fell as fast and at last resting in sinu imperatoris the whole Roman Empire was not sufficient to satiate the throat of one Man as did well appear in those Monsters of men Vitellius and Heliogabalus But what do we seek for examples of Parsimony so antient remote when you have so lively one of your own Your worthy Mother you see bred up in all affluence denyeth herself all the conveniences and contentments becoming her sex and Honour What to do to give your self and Brothers a Vertuous Education Certainly you will much degenerate if you comply not with Her in so eminent a vertue Much more might be added by comparing the contrary effects to this Vertue because Contraria juxta se posita magis elucescunt but they are all checked by this rare Vertue Parsimony the wholsome Preservative against all Inordination Another and that an especiall means to preserve your Estate is your choice of a wife when as Maturity of years and your own affections shall encline you thereunto which also by your care will adde unto you both an Increment of Estate Strength Alliance of friends It is the weightiest action you can perform in all your life and it is resembled to Warr in which it is sayd you cannot erre twice Non est in bello bis peccandum If love be your incentive let Discretion de your directive Take your worthy Mother by the hand with you She looketh upon you with a double aspect as entrusted by your late Father and by her own Goodness and indulgence toward you exacting by the Lawes of God and Nature duty and obedience from you To whose advice if you joyn your Prayers to the Allmighty you shall then know that a good wife is a Portion from the Lord. Love is a fire which requireth fuell and therefore I trust you will take care by your Marriage to advance and augment your estate that thereby your affectionate Mother may be enabled to make provision for your Brothers to undergo those progressions into which they have made so happy and Vertuous a Commencement And this is also another preservation of your Estate and security if your self should faile these like two Arches will preserve the same These are noble Emissaries which are sent abroad to afford you honour and reputation at home If any sad adventure happen to them your House must be an
Asylum or Sanctuary unto them You are three in number Numero Deus impare gaudet And as Solomon saith The triple twisted cord is not easily broken Nemo laeditur nisi a scipso There be many ways middesses by which Families have decayed and many seeming wise men have overthrown their own estates Such are they that grasp more than they can hold Mortgage not your own land upon a certain title for other land of whose title you cannot be so well assured Such as these Syracides well noteth He that buyeth land with other mens mony is like one that buyeth a heap of stones to bury himself It is not the number of acres will give you content when you are besieged and oppressed with debts and necessities Melior est pauper saith Solomon sibi sufficiens quà m qui multa possidet tamen egenus Such as these are Gamesters also who out of a covetous desire and overweening to gain somtimes make a Patrimony but a Christmas-Cast Others have more sport for their Money who adventure bag after bag and never leave off till all be lost This hath accelerated the ruine of many noble Families I am not so supercilious to conceive but that it may be a firting decorum for you to play when by noble company you are invited thereunto nay not to play is a defect but then not to adventure more than you can well spare and for which the losse will not discontent you And in this your disport you are to have some respect unto time and not to make that to be your vocation which is onely intended for your recreation Ludendi modus est retinendus saith Tully And it will also become you to know the advantages of games so shall you not altogether commit your money which is so precious to the temerity of fortune Mony is the hand to all actions and it is also called alter sanguis and Regina pecunia cui omnia obediunt A consequent of the two former is the taking up of mony upon Interest What though you see many of the Nobility and Gentry involved and plunged therein Multitudo errrantium non parat errori patrocinium Cato being demanded Quid est foenerare made answer Hominem jugulare The Jews well versed in the trade ever since were permitted to lend upon usury to those Nations whom God had commanded to be cast out before them thereby to extâ—rp them It devoureth States and Kingdoms The King of Spain called the King of the golden purse upon whose Dominions the Sun never setteth was not able to pay the Interest of mony taken up from the Merchants of Genoa for the supply of his Army in the Low-Countries A concomitant to this of Usury is Suretyship which hath also undone many Mony cannot be procured but upon high security whereby you must make use of your friends even of your best friends If you suffer them to be sued and impleaded Actum est de Amicitia But for the most part the borrowers of money as at a mart are engaged one for another by a law of congruity Those that stand engaged for you you must underwrite for them also so that thereby your person and estate will not onely lie exposed to your own engagements which might be weighty enough to pull you down but for other mens debts also And then it will be too late for you to hearken unto Solomon whose advice is If thou be surety for thy Neighbour and hast stricken hands with a stranger give no sleep to thine eyes not slumber to thine eyelids Deliver thy self as a Doe from the hands of the hunter and as a bird from the hand of the fouler Your own engagements with others also by a figure of multiplication may so redouble and treble upon you that in a moment you may be swallowed up alive and that House wherein your Ancestors have been glorious for bounty and hospitality may become the Den of a mercilesse Usurer Your enemies will laugh you to scorn your friends passing by will lament and say O domus antiqua quà m dispari dominaris domino But to prevent these and other the like mischiefs you have a sure way Be you the fruitful servant of Almighty God you shall take deeper root You shall be like a tree planted by the water side which will bring forth fruit in due season your leaf also shall not wither and whatsoever you do it shall prosper Thus much for the preservation of your Honour and Estate which descend upon you from your Ancestors You may take breath a little and then proceed to the second part of this Discourse concerning your Company and Converse INSTRUCTIONS OR ADVICE TO HIS GRANDSON The second Part. HOmo est Animal sociale and he that is not sociable saith Aristotle is more than a man or lesse than a man aut Deus aut bellua either a God which hath need of none or a beast that will do good to none And from this principle or instinct of nature for men to live together he deduceth Families Villages Cities and Commonwealths But the best things have a mixture of ill and a difficulty ariseth since Mundus in maligno positus how shall we converse and not participate with other mens sins touch pitch and not be defiled or be like fishes of the Sea bred up in salt waters and alwaies sweet Pelagius affirmed that man onely sinned by imitation and certainly by seeing others sin before us we insensible suck in the poyson of Vice This hath been the cause that divers pious and devout men have dissociated and retired themselves into rocks caves and desart places thereby to avoid the contagion of Evil such as Iohn the Baptist Father of the Eremites But man by his Fall being judged to eat his bread Sudore vultus sai is necessitated to live and make choice of an active life which consisteth in labour commerce and thereby is engaged to the society of others And because of temptations it is good in the first place to avoid the converse of all known wicked persons such as â—…e Cheaters Ruffians Debauched who glory in their shame A â—…nis bona perdisces saith Seneca quod si malis adhaeseris mentem â—…uam habes proculdubio perdes But because the Assemblies of â—…en and those also of the better â—…ort which is to be bewailed â—…o abound with such we are to fortify our selves with the morall Vertues and put on the Christian Armour that thereby by Gods assistance we may avoid the baits and engines wherewith they endeavour to ensnare us as Solomon adviseth us Si alliciant te peccatores ne acquiescas eis c. Seneca also gives us excellent direction Cum tuis versare quite meliorem facturi sunt illos admitte quos tu potes facere meliores Good is diffusive and it is a happy Converse when we either profit others or our selves The first place in our Affections must be for our Friends True friendship is as Tully saith inter