onely some excepted places But to make you laugh Prophet Hunt the other day at a full Exchange came crowding into the middle with a joynt-stool upon his head which when he had set down he stood up on and cried O yes if any man in the Town or Country can tell me what good the Parliament hath done these eight yeares let him come and speak and I 'll sit down and hear him and that you may know the truth of it he is in Bridewell for his labour And now I meet with your Cordial which is Cordiality well may we invent new terms to signifie realitie by for I think hereafter the old will not be understood I have remembred you to as many as I suppose your friends and have only in return Mr. E's service The rest not concluding you aymed at them in particular since you onely shot at Rovers in the general The second part of your commands I have performed onely upon your welcome Letter and have sent this to kiss your hands If this may contribute any thing to the delivery of your expectation I shall count your acceptance a sufficient reward But I will not add feathers to the wings of time which I know you put to lawful usury Here then I take my Rest and resolve to remain Sir yours ready to serve you T. F. To Mr. W. L. Will. LEt my Hand now speak for my Heart and know that the lines of the one is the language of the other But I will not tire thee with a preamble lest it might be suspected for a piece of Rhetorical insinuation but abruptly tell my errand without respect so much as to a civil Complement Will. How really I am obliged to thee in my affections my engagements thereto by thy many multiplyed courtesies may sufficiently testifie And for that reason to make short work I am resolved to give thee that for which from another I should have expected and happily have had a price You cannot imagine me so little Man or that to cost me so little paines but that I must conceive it worth as much as every puny Pamphlet or grant it were not think me so simple as to run the Gantelope of the worlds censure for Nothing Yet is not any or all of these strong enough to draw me from dispensing with mine own profit or credit when they stand in competition with a friend In brief therefore if you can imagine it worth your acceptance or but enough to strike off the least notch from the tally of mine engagements 't is yours I refer it and my self wholly to your dispose Some you cannot but think I must bestow on some friends and I should be loth to buy what I did not sell or have and must give away My short stay here will not admit any long delay Let thy answer be like my time and my departure short and shortly I am still Your long-lasting Friend T. F. To Mr. J. W. My friend FOr so I presume to call you because if your Tongue and Heart were Relatives when you wrote your last kind Letter you were pleased to dishonour your self with that Title To lay aside all terms of distance that we may close and mingle soules in the flame of friendship pardon me hereafter if I lay aside the name of Mr. as incompatible with that of friendship But let me tell you that I can scarce think your invective against Complements to be real since you cannot compleat your Letter without them Tully once told a Lawyer pleading a bad cause Tu nisi fingeres ne sic ageres For your Complements you bestow on me and mine I shall onely assure you you struck the ball to an ill hand if you look for a rebound Your quibble upon my name would have pleas'd me exceedingly had you not married and so marr'd it with so dis-agreeing an Epethite as to call that deep whose very name speaks it but shallow So that by styling me deep you have taken away my name of Forde But if you will have my Etymologie it is this Vadum à vadendo from going and so it tells you that I shall never be wearie of travelling in your service Or if you will it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 trajicere to pass over and so I pass it by That that poor draught has satisfied your thirst I am not a little glad but it seems it was of the nature of salt water which makes the drinker but the drier And truly I question not but you are if you keep your promise and not drink till the return of this which I wish may be answerable to your expectation For your complaint of want of Books I conceive it needless in you who are a walking Library Now will I relate what they here tell for truth One Rolph something near Ravillac a Shoomaker had plotted to have brought his Majestie to his Last but as Heaven would have it he prov'd but a Cobler at it and so was discovered Your Letter which mine was big with is safely delivered by Your Friend and Servant T. F. To Mr. E. B. My best of Friends FInding friendship to be as cold as the weather we thought to repel it by celebrating this present time with the remembrance of thee when we turned thy Aurum Palpabile into Aurum Potabile and I dare affirm it was Cordial We did remember thee Pleui◠poculis and because two make no musick we engaged two or three other Consorts to compleat our Harmony And that thou mayst see we did not only drink like irrational animals I will tell thee if my memory fail me not the Original of Healths When the Danes Lorded it over our Kingdome whence by corruption they were termed Lurdanes they were quartered in several Houses a word I must confess I understood not when I read it first but since the Times have instructed me with a witness They were so imperious that no man thought himself secure in their presence and knowing the advantage men have of one that is lifting his hand to his mouth in drinking they used which after was a custome to drink to one at the Table who was thereby engaged to be their pledge or surety for their safety whilst they were drinking and some of our Countries do still retein the original in answering Sir I pledge for you To this I doubt not but the witty Waller alludes in his Poems where he sings Wine fills the veins and Healths are understood To give our friends a title to our blood Who naming me doth warm his courage so Shews for my sake what his bold hand would do Newes is so confused that I know not where to begin yet where should I but at home and that 's in the Church-yard that you may know In nomine Domini incipit omne malum Our yard is a place of Rendezvouz a Bridewel an Execution-place c. Here the gallant Pitcher went to Pot I mean was broken by the merciless blind bullets or if
preserve it And although me thinks I hear you tell me that my sounding on so slight a knock doth but argue me the empter vessel whilst you who are more full fraught give no answer though with much importunity I have no other excuse but to tell you that I do it to let you see I had rather seem to be a troublesome than a forgetful friend Truly sayes our English Proverb He loves not at all that knows when to make an end And the Italians are not amiss who say L'amore senza fine non ha fine Love that has no by-end will know no end For my part I profess no other end in my affections but your service for which I once gave you my Heart and now my Hand that the World may see whose servant is T. F. To Mr. C. H. Mr. Ch. AS I was going to Church to keep the Fast your Letter encounter'd me and as good reason turn'd my Fast into a Feast but such a one as my Senses were more employ'd on than my Palat It rejoyc'd me exceedingly to hear of that ingenious Fl. though I expected to have heard from him before this But I see Non factis sequimur omnia quâ— loquimur I am sure Non passibus aequis To those Poesies you tell me of I shall only answer them with expectation since the Instructer of the Art of Poetry tells me Nec verbum verbo curabis reddere And to return you something for your Newes I can only tell you this that our streets abound with Grashoppers silenc'd by our great Hercules and others that look like horses thrown into a certain River in Italy which are consumed to the bare bones For your desire to be made merry I must confess Laeta decet laetis pascere corâ—a jocis But for you to desire it of me seems to be a jest it self I doubt to be tedious and well know Seneca's rule That an Epistle should not Manum legentis implere I onely take time to subscribe my self Your true Friend T. F. To Mr. S. M. at Barbados Friend I Received your as welcome as unexpected Letter of which I will say in the words of Seneca that famous Moralist in an Epistle to his friend Lucilius Exulto quoties lego Epistolam tuam implet me bonâ spe jam non promittit de te sed spondet And God forbid that I should be so uncharitable as not to believe it Yet let me tell you that without the reality of the actions it is but a dead letter nay 't will prove a deadly for should you neglect to do what you there promise or speak there more than you do that very letter will one day rise up in judgment against you Pardon my plainness and think never the worse of the Truth for my bad language Truth may many times have bad cloaths yet has she alwayes a good face It is a good mark of the moral Philosopher that sheep do not come to their shepherd and shew him how much they eat but make it appear by the fleece that they wear on their backs and the milk which they give I will not wrong the sharpness of your judgment by applying the Moral I have read of two famous Painters who to shew their skill the one drew a bunch of grapes so lively that he cozened the Birds the other drew a veil so perfectly over his grapes that he deceiv'd the Artificer himself Could we draw the colour of our good works never so lively as to cozen every mortal eye and draw so fine a veil over our evil deeds as to conceit our selves into a conceit we had none yet is there an All-seeing eye to whom the darkest secret is most apparâ—nt Did we but truly consider this it could not chuse but hinder us from committing those things we would be ashamed to do in the sight of Man which we daily doe in the sight of an Omniscient God Therefore the advice of the Heathen Philosopher may be made good Christian practice who advised to set the conceit of Cato or like Grave man alwayes before us to keep us from doing what might mis-befit their presence It is a Character of the wicked man drawn by the Divine hand that in all his wayes he sets not God before his eyes There is also another witness within us that can neither be brib'd not blinded O te miserum si contemnis hunc testem O have a care to offend that Bird in the breast that must one day sing either your joyful Elogie or more doleful Dirge Camdâ—n our English Historiographer tells us of a place in Stafordshire call'd Wotton in so doleful a place under the barren Hill Weaver that it is a common Proverb of the neighbours Wotton under Weaver Where God came never But alas there 's no such place on Earth to be found yet can I tell a place where his pure Spirit abhors to enter namely into a person contaminated and defiled with sin and thereby made the harbour of Satan and hatred of the most High Whereas you tell me you are faln to labour let me comfort you with this that it is as universal as unavoidable a Fate laid on us by the mouth of Truth Man is born to labour as the sparks to fly upward As if Man and Labour were Termini Convertibiles But that you take more pleasure now in Labour than you did before in your Pleasure it much comforts me assuring me that you are now sensible of that which the Romans taught by placing Angina the goddess of sorrow and pain in the Temple of Volupeia the goddess of Pleasure as if that pain and sorrow were the necessary consequences of pleasure Whereas on the contrary Goodness is like the Image of Diana Pliny speaks of Intrantes tristem Euntes exhilerantem How wretched therefore is their condition that have their portion in this life Well may we be strangers in this worldly Aegypt so we may be inhabitants hereafter of the Heavenly Canaan And you and I may say in the words of Seneca Satis multam temporis sparsimus incipiamus nunc in vasa colligerâ— We have spent time enough already and 't is high time now to save the rest and to make the best of the remnant of our life because we know not how short it is It was a wise caution of Eleazer a Jew who being demanded When it would be time to repent and amend Answered One day before death And when the other replied That no man knew the day of his death Begin then said he even to day for fear of failing Hoc proprium inter caetera mala hoc quoque habet stultitia proprium semper incipit vivere quid est enim turpius quam senex vivere insipieâ—s Give me leave not to instruct you but to tell you what counsel I desire to practise for it was an envious disposition of that Musician that would play so softly on his Harp that none could hear but himself First 'T is my
your intentions to him I hear that he is already turn'd Predicant me thinks 't is something too soon to spend his small stock of parts which I fear will make him Mendicant But I had forgot to tell you that I cannot but apprehend that Providence in your late delivery hath plainly given you a Caveat that you at least your Credit will be most safe in your own house Prethee pardon me if my affection make me thus if not too bold to tell thâ—â— that you betray that precious jewel of your credit to the rape of every felonious tongue which would be far more safe in your own House I could say more but verbum sat c. Take it as the counsel of Your really endeared Friend T. F. To Mr. E. B. Honest Ned IF there be one whom the necessitie of my Stars compel me to love 't is thee But besides this I find my self entangl'd with a double tye first of thine unparallel'd Love as the tree and now a gift as the fruit of that And how willingly am I imprisoned with these fetters which certainly if I could I would not break a three-fold cord is not easily crack't Well I acknowledge my self not onely thy Debtor but thy Prisoner and count it my onely Liberty Expect no such golden-mouthed Letter from me as yours was nor any silver-tongu'd Complements Believe me where I see most complement I suppose least friendship Let me onely affirm that though our bodies are severed our souls still meet though we are divided we are not divorced but like this Virgin-widow still flourish though in the All deflowring Winter Take it therefore not as a Token but an Embleme of our Love I presume it cannot be unwelcome if not for the Senders yet for the Author and the Subjects sake And for the other if there be a Sympathy in Friendship as I believe there is then cannot that be unpleasing to you which was so superlative pleasing unto me However I have aimed onely at a supplying you with what I conceive your Countrey is defective in Sure I am the offence cannot be great if it be so the gift it sell being so small especially from Your fast Friend T. F. To Mr. R. R. Worthy Friend WIth how much joy I received your exquisite Epistle is easier for you to imagine than me to relate You know me too well to expect the like Return from me yet shall I desire to follow you Tamen non passibus aequis And to pay you your Golden Royals if the comparison be not too mean with my farthing language Yet hoping it may be Current among friends for I dare assure you they carry the stamp of the Heart My Tongue 's not tip't with Complements which be But like green leaves to skreen Hypocrisie With words as false as fair Who Fucus layes Vpon her face It 's homeliness betrayes Nor skill I of the powerful charms of Art But I can speak the Language of the Heart I admire others Neatness but practice Reality which I esteem so much the more as I find it less used I think the Publique Faith has devoured all fidelity and the Sword cut that supposed indissoluble knot of friendship cancell'd the Bond of all Obligations Henceforth shall they be onely Names and succeedings Ages not know what they meant But to your Letter and my Answer which when I consider I cannot but apply that proper Speech of the deep Putean to his Friend Scribere ego poenè impudentiam silere tu delictum censeas Yet know I not of any letter that lies by me unanswer'd for I hold it a breach of the Articles of Friendship not to be punctual in Returns of this Nature If you accuse me of breach of promise I cannot but tax you of delay in yours though I count this but Billingsgate policie Proceed then my Friend and let our friendship be a Particular Exception from the General Rule of the worlds falshood Our sweet Flower is transplanted to a remote soyl near the Isle of Wight Pardon me if I be covetous of your learned lines to supply the vacuum of his absence Nor is this covetousness unlawful for I dare pronounce it in Seneca's style Avaritia Honesta And hoping your fair Cham will not disdain the silent whispers of a shallow Forde assure your self you shall not hereafter complain for want of this kind of trouble Although to deal ingeniously with you as I would have my friends to deal with me I have so long discontinued this practice that my pen is grown blunt and my ink thick But some of your Academick Flames may contribute much to the sublimating of my setled fancy which shall wholly run in Channels of your commands For I am Sir your ready Servitor T. F. To L. C. L Sir YOu are pleased to style me your Honoured Friend which I must confess to be too high a style for my low deserts to climbe did I not consider that my Honour consists onely in your Honouring me with so unmerited a Title 'T is a Maxime Honor non est in honoranti non in hâ—â—â—rato Sir I protest I intended nothing that might occasion a blush if it were it was more proper for my self yet having such a mirrour I was bold against the rules of Maiden-modesty to look a stranger in the face And truly though I have no skill in Palmistry yet by those fair lines of your Hand I dare without fear of flatterie tell you that Ned nothing wronged you for I assure you I discover in them a great deal of ingenuitie But to cast off all terms of distance that we may meet in a closer conjunction believe it Sir in plain English that I love you with an implicite love and shall count my self not a little happy if those seeds of friendship sown in Winter may flourish in the Spring and out-date time it self This shall not be wanting either in the desires or endeavours of Sir your as real as unknown Friend and Servant T. F. To Mr. E. B. Dear Ned I Should scarce believe there were such a thing in rerum naturâ as what we call a Friend did not you come in and convince me that you are one and what 's more Mine Goe on and let the world see there is yet living that flame of antique friendship which the Ancients boast and we despair of I heartily thank thee for thy last letter though by the hand of a left-handed man-midwife it mis-carried in the delivery and as bearing the fate of the Author is gone on Pilgrimage as far as Exeter I much lament the loss and should more did I not think the kinder Fates did it out of love to me lest I should have perished with too much joy Hast thou not heard I am sure I have read of many that have been smothered with too much Happiness Alexander when hearing that he was at once made Father of a Son and Conquerour of his Enemies desired the gods to qualifie it with some cross
One asking a man that brought his Copies to the press Who the Author was He said 'T was one that desired to serve God invisibly My humbler ambition flies no such pitch 't is enough for me if it may but reach to the service of my friends of which number I know you to be so intensely one that as 't is said that Plutarch once being named the Eccho answer'd Philosophy so should I call R. I doubt not but it would return friendship This is the Happiness of him that cares not to sacrifice his credit to your worth T. F. To Mr. R. R. Sir THat my late lines have produced your later Letter I am not a little glad but that they should occasion a quarrel I should be more sorry If the exception be my fear of flatterie know that it was not the Height of your expressions but my own lowness that frighted me into such a fear Would not a little David think himself mock't to be proffer'd a Goliah's armour But for my part your merits are caveat sufficient to keep my words from the least suspition And the construction of my words will be best made by the Grammar-rule of friendship for I was never guilty of so much Rhetorick as to tell a learned lye My tongue and my pen if I deceive not my self are alwayes Relatives Because Favorinus praised the Feaver should not we praise Health And because some Romans sacrifice to that might not others to Aesculapius 'T were more shame to dâ—ny praises where they are due than to admit them where they are not Why therefore are you so bashful as if those parts something above the degree of admiration had erept into your bosome unawares And though your modesty is such as may silently shame my forwardness that you will not shew your self to the world like that plant in Pliny which buds inwardly and shooteth out no bud blossome or leaf outwardly yet give us leave to admire it though you bury your worth in the ore of obscuritie We count him a rich man that has his wealth in his chest not on his back yet excuse me if I think it an envious disposition in him that would play so softly on his Lute that none should hear but himself But whether is my pen stragled Surely as far from the matter of my first intentions as the answers of the two deaf persons were from one another that pleaded before a deaf Judge in the Greek Epigram To return therefore from my digression to your Letter How shall I interpret those expressions of exact ingenious and learned Comment rare transcendent and incomparable Answer not to say of flatterie but of very large Hyperbolies But you have made me amends for them when in the next sentence you handsomely call me fool under the name of the Indians where you tell me I look on my self afar off through a perspective and upon you near hand c. Me thinks I cannot obtein of my self to believe that I am farther from my self than I am from you and therefore the multiplying glass must go with the greater distance But I am afraid I have turn'd the wrong end and rather overseen than over-valu'd your crescent parts To your desire of seeing some other pieces of mine I must onely answer that I am very much unprovided of any for my store lies in a Chaos as yet unformed in mold unmelted or unminted but such as I have will be proud of your Sight and Censure And for a continuance of this literal correspondencie know that I cannot be so much an enemy to my self as not to desire it and with as much affection as I am Your humble Admirer T. F. To M. J. H. Honest Jack THe ancient Romans who made a Deity of every thing yet sacrificed not to death because from death are no Returns For the same reason should I not write to London and by consequence not to your self Trumpeters love to sound where there is an Eccho and I love to write whence I can hear an answer Seeing once a Weaver at work I observed that by casting his shuttle from one side to the other he finish'd his web Therein I saw a lively Embleme of friends correspondencie by letters if either fail the web's imperfect I make it now my imployment that the ball should not fall on my side I must confess I have been from home of late but now I am returned to that and to my custome Letters unanswered like meat undigested breed no sweet breath Well I shall expect an answer as long as the time I have waited for one till when I shall resolve to be Your most assured Friend T. F. To Mr. S. M. Sir OBliged by your courtesies your command and my duty that ingratitude must be more than Herculean that could break this three-fold tie I have resolved therefore now to be rather presumptuous than ingrateful that I may tender you thanks for the engagements you have laid upon me though the very act increase them and to assure you that I am nothing of the nature of that beast that is so forgetful that though he be feeding never so hard and hungrily if he cast but back his head forgets immediately the meat he was eating and runs to look after new And if my silence seems to accuse me believe me Sir it was meerly out to self-consciousness of my own unworthiness to present you with any thing worth the reading yet also remembring that the great Alexander would admit a return of Epistles between himself and Publius his Bit-maker I am a little encouraged you will at least pardon my poor scribling if not for it self or the sender yet because it carries thanks in the front and they are currant coyn and in which the poorest may be rich without â—ear of a Sequestration That word that ham-strings all industry and makes men embrace the Stoical saying for a Maxime Benè qui latuit benè vixit And truly for my part I think we are faln into Nero's age in which Tacitus saith Inertia sapientia fuit Sloth was a virtue When the Ship of the Common-wealth is steer'd by a Tempest 't is best lying still in the Harbour But I intend an Epistle no Satyre I am Sir without a complement your very humble servant T. F. To Mr. J. A. James PArdon the familiarity of the Title I use no complements to my friends not do I think them my friends that use them to me The Italians speak out of experience The more tongue the less heart and you know their Proverb La penna della Lingua si dove tingere nel inchiostro del cuore I could wish that all the letters of friends were like Tullies Epistolae Familiares and the Polite Polititian tells me that the greatest ornament of all Epistles is to be without any James I love thee I honour thee and that sine fuco sine fallaciis I would have my letters like the Herb Persica which the Egyptians offer'd to their
Duke of Britanny Son to John the 5th when he was spoken unto for a marriage between him and Isabel a Daughter of Scotland and some told him she was but meanly brought up and without any instruction of learning answered He loved her the better for it and that a woman was wise enough if she could but make difference between the shirt and doublet of her husband Demosthenes companions in their Embassage to Philip praised their Prince to be fair eloquent and a good quaffer Demosthenes said They were commendations rather fitting a woman an advocate and a spunge than a King Theodorus answered Lysimachus who threatned to kill him Thou shalt do a great exploit to come to the strength of a cantharides Aristotle being upbraided by some of his friends that he had been over-merciful to a wicked man I have indeed quoth he been merciful towards the man but not towards his wickedness When an Epigramatist read his Epigrams in an Auditory one of the hearers stopt him and said Did not I hear an Epigram to this purpose from you last year Yes says he it 's like you did But is not that vice still in you this year which last years Epigram reprehended Some came and told Philopoemen the enemies are with us To whom he answered and why say you not that we are with them When Sicily did curse Dionysius by reason of his cruelty there was onely one old woman that pray'd God to lengthen his life Whereat Dionysius wondering asked her for what good turn she should do that She Answered That it was not love but fear for said she I knew your Grandfather a great tyrant and the people desired his death then succeeded your Father more cruel than he and now your self worse far than them both so that I think if you die the Devil must come next Pompey being in Sicily pressing the Mammertines to acknowledge his authority they sought to avoid it pretending that they had Priviledges and ancient Decrees of the people of Rome To whom Pompey answered in choler Will you plead Law unto us who have our swords by our sides When Lewis the 11th demanded of Brezay Senescall of Normandy the reason why he said that his horse was great and strong being but little and of a weak stature For that answered Brezay he carries you and all your counsel He said That if he had entred his Reign otherwise than with fear and severity he had serv'd for an example in the last Chapter of Boccace his book of unfortunate Noblemen Considering that Secrecy was the Soul and Spirit of all Designes He said sometimes I would burn my Hat if it knew what was in my Head He remembring to have heard King Charls his Father say that Truth was sick He added I believe that since she is dead and hath not found any Confessor Mocking at one that had many Books and little learning He said That he was like unto a crook-back't man who carries a great bunch at his back and never sees it Seeing a Gentleman which carried a goodly chain of gold He said unto him that did accompany him You must not touch it for it is Holy Shewing that it came from the spoil of Churches On a time seeing the Bishop of Chartre mounted on a Mule with a golden bridle He said unto him that in times past Bishops were contented with an Ass and a plain halter The Bishop answered him That it was at such times as Kings were shepherds and did keep sheeâ— Abdolominus a poor man rich in plenty except plenty of riches to whom Alexander of Macedon proffering the Kingdom of Sydon who before was but a gardiner was by him refused saying That he would take no care to lose that which he cared not to enjoy When one told a Reverend Bishop of a young man that Preached twice every Lords day besides some Exercising in the week-days It may be said he he doth talk so often but I doubt he doth not Preach To the like effect Queen Elizabeth said to the same Bishop when She had on the Friday heard one of those talking Preachers much commended by some-body and the Sunday after heard a well labour'd Sermon that smelâ— of the candle I pray said she let me have your bosome-Sermons rather than your lip-Sermons for when the Preacher takes paines the auditory takes profit When Dr. Day was Dean of Windsor there was a Singing-man in the Quire one Wolner a pleasant fellow famous for his eating rather than his singing Mr. Dean sent a man to him to reprove him for not singing with his fellows the messenger that thought all worshipful that wore white Surplices told him Mr. Dean would pray his worship to sing Thank Mr. Dean quoth Wolner and tell him I am as merry as they that sing A Husbandman dwelling near a Judge that was a great builder and comming one day among divers of other neighbours some of stone some of tinn the Steward as the manner of the Country was provided two tables for their dinners for those that came upon request powder'd beef and perhaps venison for those that came for hire poor-John and apple-pyes And having invited them in his Lordships name to sit down telling them one board was for them that came in love the other was for those that came for money this husbandman and his hind sate down at neither the which the Steward imputing to simplicity repeated his former words again praying them to sit down accordingly But he answered He saw no table for him for he came neither for love nor money but for very fear Scipio being made General of the Roman Army was to name his Quaestor or Treasurer for the Wars whom he thought fit being a place in those dayes as is now of great importance One that took himself to have a special interest in Scipio's favour was an earnest suitor for it but by the delay mistrusting he should have a denial he importuned him one day for an answer Think not unkindness in me said Scipio that I delay you thus for I have been as earnest with a friend of mine to take it and yet cannot prevail with him A pleasant Courtier and Servitor of King Henry the 8ths to whom the King had promised some good turn came and pray'd the King to bestow a living on him that he had found our worth 100 l. by the year more than enough Why said the King we have no such in England Yes Sir said he the Provostship of Eaton for said he he is allowed his diet his lodging his hors-meat his servants wages his riding-charge and 100 l. per annum besides Ellmar Bishop of London dealing with one Maddox about some matters concerning Puritanisme and he had answered the Bishop somewhat untowardly and thwartly the Bishop said to him Thy very name expresseth thy nature for Maddox is thy name and thou art as mad a beast as ever I talked with The other not long to seek of an answer By your favour
man for the Office of an Embassador Sir said Bacon Tall men are like high houses of four or five stories wherein commonly the uppermost room is worst furnished Lewis the 9th who in the Catalogue of the French Kings is call'd St. Lewis was Baptized in the little Town of Poyssy and after his return from Aegypt and other places against the Saracens being asked by what Title he would be distinguished from the rest of his Predecessors after his death He answered That he desired to be called Lewis of Poyssy Reply being made That there were divers other places and Cities of Renown where he had performed brave Exploits and obteined famous Victories therefore it was more fitting that some of those places should denominate him No said he I desire to be called Lewis of Poyssy because there I got the most glorious Victory that ever I had for there I overcame the Devil Meaning that he was Christned there Don Beltran de Rosa being to marry a rich Labradors a Yeomans daughter which was much importun'd by her Parents to the match because their Family should be thereby ennobled he being a Cavalier of St. Jagâ— The young Maid having understood that Don Beltran had been in Naples and had that disease about him answered wittily Truly Sir To better my blood I will not hurt my flesh It was the answer of Vespasian to Apollonius desiring entrance and access for Dion and Euphrates two Philosophers My gates are always open to Philosophers but my very breast is open unto thee It is reported of Cosmo de Medici that having built a goodly Church with a Monastery thereunto annex'd and two Hospitals with other monuments of Piety and endow'd them with large Revenues as one did much magnifie him for these extraordinary works he answer'd 'T is true I imploy'd much treasure that way yet when I look over my Leiger-book of accounts I do not find that God Almighty is indebted to me one penny but I am still in the arrear to him It was a brave generous saying of a great Armenian-Merchant who having understood how a vessel of his was cast away wherein there was laden a rich Cargazon upon his sole account he strook his hand upon his breast and said My heart I thank God is still afloat my spirits shall not sink with my ship nor go an inch lower Sir Edward Herbert being Embassador in France there hapned some classings between him and the great French Favourite Luynes whereupon he was told that Luynes was his enemy and that he was not in a place of security there Sir Edward gallantly answered That he held himself to be in a place of Security wheresoever he had his sword by him FINIS Faenestra in Pectore OR FAMILIAR LETTERS By THO. FORDE Quid melius desidiosus agam LONDON Printed by R. and W. Leybourn for William Grantham at the Black Bear in St. Pauls Church-yard neer the little North Door 1660. To the Reader Reader THe witty Lucian brings in Momus quarrelling at the Master-pieces which the gods had made and the onely fault he found with Man was That he had not a window to look into his breast For this reason I call this Packet of Letters Fenestra in Pectore Letters being the best Casements whereby men disclose themselves Judicium fit per Brachium say the Physicians and I know no better Interpreter of the Heart than the hand especially in Familiar Letters whereby friends mingle souls and make mutual discoveries of and to one another The pen like the pulse discovers our inward condition if it become faint or intermitting like the passing-bell it gives notice of the decay if not the departure of friendship which is the soul of humane Societie For these I have no better Apology than their publication their impudence if it be so bespeaking their innocence They desire to please all to injure none If you find some things in them that appear not calculated for the Meridian of the present times know that they are left but to shew what the whole piece might have been had my time and the times accorded they might then perhaps have given you some remarks of the miracles of our age But the Dutch Proverb tels me Who bringeth himself into needless dangers dieth the Devils martyr Nulli tacuisse nocet nocet esse loquutum And I very well remember that notable Apothegme of the famous though unfortunate Sir W. â—â—leigh Whosoever shall tell any great man or Magistrate that he is not just the General of an Army that he is not valiant and great Ladies that they are not fair shall never be made a Counsellour a Captain or a Courtier Thou wilt say it may be I had little to do to publish my follies to the world and I am contented thou shouldst think so if it may pass for my Apologie That I had little else to do If it be a crime the number of offenders in this kind is enough to authorize the fact and turn the guilt into a pardon if not a pass-port For they who write because all write have still That excuse for writing and for writing ill At this time I shall use no other nor trouble thee any farther Reader when I have subscribed the Author Thy Friend and Servant T. F. Familiar Letters To Mr. T. C. Sir AT my arrival here I finde all out of order though abounding with orders The King and Queen are departed which makes us all dead for what cause I cannot tell you unless it were for fear of the arrival of a stranger to this Kingdom and one that hath been long since banished from hence Nor durst shee appear now but that 't is Parliament-time She was landed at Westminster by the rout of Water-men when they frighted away the Bishops commig to the House of Commons door it was put to the Vote Whether she should come in or no The better part suspecting by â—â—r habit it was Rebellion they having seen her before in forreign parts would not admit her But the Major part carried it in the Affirmative and the five Members were appointed to entertain her which they did and some say she was placed in the Speakers Chair She came not in the Lords House they could not Brook it but I dare Say she had a Conference with some of them in the Painted Chamber Her Lodgings are provided in the City where she goes attired as necessary with a fair new cloak of Religion a Scotch Bonnet a French Doublet and Coats like Dutchmens Slops her hair red like an Irishmans neither Bands nor Cuffs for she indures no Linnen for spight of Lawn Sleeves unless a two or three Night-caps because they are of Holland You would wonder to see in what droves our Citizens flock after her did you not know it is their nature after strangers But I 'll follow her no farther lest you suspect me for one of her followers who am Sir Your Loyal Friend To Mr. T. C. Sir THe Fire is now broken
out of the House and the sparks of sedition fly about the City being blown by the long-winded lungs of some Pulpeteers Here want not seditious Sheba's to blow the Trumpet and as a Preludium here is an hot skirmish of Pens but the Kings seems to excel them as much as an Eagles wing a Goose quill The Women and Maids to espouse the quarrel bring in their Thimbles Rings and Bodkins with as much zeal as the Israelites did their Jewels to making of their Golden Calf Such a tyde of Plate every day ebbs and flows at Guild-Hall that the Roman Emperour who swam in wine had he enjoyed this might have sailed in an Ocean of Gold and Silver They have exercised their hands and Pens so long till their Arms begin to be engaged and 't is thought it may prove a Generall Engagement I can go no farther for the Press but must here remain Sir Wholly at your disposal To Mr. R. R. My worthy friend I Received your Letter wherein Love and Friendship seem to our-vie each other and which is predominant were not easie to determine Whereat how I was transported with joy you may easier guess than I express For those unmerited Encomiums you so liberally put upon me I conceive you rather thereby instruct me what I should be than tell me what I am Or else you look'd on those poor mâ—tes with the Multiplying-glass of friendship Your offer to continue this Literal correspondence I willingly accept and was never so ill bred as to neglect such a benefit when profered Willingly shall I exchange my glass for your Gold yet how mean soever my expressions may be you shall find them richly quilted with Love which hath long since knit my affections to your vertues Nec si surgat câ—ntimanus Gygas divellet unquam The Gyant with his hundred hands Shall not untie those silken bands VVhich bind me fast to your commands Concerning the Books you wrote for I cannot but admire you should not have received them since I delivered them to the same Carrier that brought you my Letter They set out together however my letter out-strip't them in speed but I wonder not that being wing'd with love and desire to visit that breast which the Muses and Graces emulate to make their Habitation I may not forget to remember my respects to your Brother and Mr. P. and to assure you that a letter from either of them would be very acceptable and the rather though you tell me my friends are all lame that they are not â—ame friends This is the desire of Sir your and their Friend and Servant T. F To Mr. J. A. Sir I know you will much wonder at this seeming Solecisme and I wonder as much at the cause thereof Having found the truth of the former part of the verse that vox audita perit I am bold to make an experiment of the latter and try Si litera scripta manebit Since words like running messengers have the fate to have their errand forgot as soon as they are gone may this serve as a more constant Leiger to whisper in your ears that he who was so bold to request that small courtesie of you was emboldned thereto by a consideration that he was still as you were once pleased to style him your Friend I protest Sir in that confidence I so long importun'd you that I was ashamed to appear to you again with the like request And yet desirous to see that poor brat of my own brain I resolv'd to make use of this Proxie the rather because you know Literae non erubescunt Sir I readily believe that your occasions are great yet if you please to make truce with your time but so long as you may look that poor paper I will engage the utmost of my abilities to make you a requital and if you doubt of my ability 't will be a work of charity in you to forgive me In Solomons Temple there was an outer Court into which strangers were admitted and an inner Court where onely Jewes were to assemble and the Sanctum Sanctorum where onely the High Priest might enter Give me leave to tell you that though you shut me out of the Sanctum Sanctorum of your Friendship nor will admit me into the inner Court of your Familiars you shall not exclude me from the outward Court of your acquaintance And in this resolve he rests that is Sir What or how you please to call him beside T. F. To Mr. C. F. My Real Friend I Received your welcome Letter and as welcome Token For the one I send you an Answer though not answerable but to the other I forbear to retaliate lest I should thereby turn your Gift into a Bargain Sir I am very glad to hear that you receive your due money for your spiritual bread although I fear it is not the Tenth of your desert knowing that you cannot feed them but with fine Flour And although I would not rob your Family of their Dimensum yet shall I hope you will not deny me a continuance of those witty crums that fall from their Table Nor can I be so far mine own enemy as not to think of yours as Tully did of Atticus his Epistles that the longest are the best And assure your self as Cato said He never knew an old man forget where his gold was My Fancy often turns Forrester and walks the round till I meet with you when I am infinitely transported with that but imaginary enjoyment of that person I so much delight in the conceit of which has driven me into a serious consideration and search after the wonderful force of the Imagination And I find some have been kill'd others preserv'd meerly by the strength of their imagination Here could I be tediously copious in as facetious as strange stories to this purpose but I will not with Phormio read a Lecture to Hannibal It shall suffice me to hope that such Imagies of the brain are no breach of the second Commandement Nor yet am I of the belief of that Priest that was fully perswaded That nothing was false that was printed Whatever be I am sure this is not that I am Sir your affectionate Friend T. F. To Mrs. B. Mistris ALthough unknown but by your courtesie I am bold hereby to salute you and have sent this poor paper to kiss your hands who have so kindly provided for mine not doubting but you will as much admire at these rude lines as I did at your kinder token I call it yours and therefore hold my self obliged by the laws of Gratitude to return you thanks And lest that should be too poor a requital for so great a favour be pleas'd to accept of this small token for I hate to be ingrateful and am loth to be in debt either iâ—â—oyn or courtesie And that I may not part those whom God hath united I must not forget to return like thanks to your loving Companion as knowing it was from your
Conjunction this Influence proceeded May your Lives be as Lines parallal knowing no date till they both meet in our common Centre of happiness But I fear to be tedious time and opportunity may so propitiously befriend me as in some kind or other at least to endeavour you a larger requital In the interim acknowledge me Your ready though unknown Servant T. F. To Mr. B. R. Sir BEing informed by our common friend N. H. that your intentions are for next week I thought it un mannerly or rather unfriendly not to bid you Farewel And I know not better how than in the words of the Lyrick Poet to his Florus I bone quo virtus tua te vocat I pede Fausto And this not being present in person I am forc'd to do by Proxie and with â—o in the Poet Litera pro verbis I dare believe though you go farther off yet your affection will be never the less for I may justly confer on you what one once did on Augustus Rarus tu quidem ad recipiendas amicitias ad retinendas verò constantissimus Story tells us of two Palm-trees growing on the two opposite banks of a River which notwithstanding the distance of the roots and despight of the intervening water did lovingly infoliate and twine their branches So notwithstanding the distance of place our bodies are planted in maugre all opposition we may entwine our branches Letters I mean neither I hope shall any envious Catterpiller or false friend eat away those leaves so long as life remains in the root of Sir your unfeigned Friend T. F. To M. A. E. Worthy Sir THe opportunity of this Bearer is sufficient importunity to me of troubling you at this time and your wonted ingenuity I hope will be my sufficient warrant Nay I should be very much wanting to myself and that respect I owe you if I should not To let you know that you have not sown the seed of your favours in an altogether barren soyl as doth he that confers a benefit on an ingrateful person But it is my grief that the crop of my abilities falls so much short of your desert and my desire To tell you any Newes were but to put you in mind of those miseries which you are already too sensible of yet lest you should expect it be pleas'd to understand there was another message came lately from the K. to the H. H. who have voted an answer to it God grant it may â—â— for Peace the onely Aqua-vitae to restore â—is fainting Kingdome I hope it is not yet with us as it was once in Persia when there was a Law made against Peace though I know subjects seldome draw the sword against their Sovereign but they throw away the scabbard I forbear to say more because I know not whose hands my letter may go through such is the misery of our Times that Burglary in this kind was never more practis'd nor less punish'd Nay Lyes are more tolerable now in Print than loyal Truth in Writing Yet fear I not who sees and knows that I profess my self as I am Sir your devoted Servant T. F. To Mr. T. F. Sir NOt having had the happiness to see you of late and hearing that you intend to let the Country ingross your company I thought good to visit you by this silent yet to make it a Paradox speaking messenger and I had rather you should imagine the cause yet if you will not I must be bold to tell you that I much wonder I should all this while hear no noise of my Viol. Seriously Sir I had such a confidence of your reality to your friends in which number I esteem my self one that I could not believe the contrary though it were strongly instigated to â—e And Sir whether your usage of me hath been answerable to my expectation of you I leave your self to judge I cannot imagine that you should think I would sell my for the mending or lend it with an intention to lose it I should be very sorry that that which was made for Harmony should be an Instrument of Discord between friends it lies in your power to prevent it I am willing to believe you will give not I pray my good opinion of you the lye because I desire to remain Sir your Friend T. F. To Mr. J. A. Sir SInce your departure the cruel Fates intending thereby to make me truly miserable have robb'd me of a very friend and that by the irrecoverable hand of Death and as if they intended me the sole object of their envy have protracted if not put off the performance of your promis'd courtesie so that now I am left alone solitarily pondering the complaint of old Erasmus Anicorum meorum alii moriuntur alii mutant animum Me thinks I am depriv'd of all my Senses since I can neither see you nor hear either of or from you Knowing not the reason I am ready to believe the best and have Charity which Erasmus in his time compar'd to a Friers Cowle because it covers a multitude of sins enough to hide all surmises till Time the son of Truth shall discover all things in their perfect colours Me thinks I have the fortune of some children who having lost one arrow shoot another after it hoping thereby to find it and not seldome lose both However you shall not Him that will resolve to continue Your entire Friend T. F. To Mr. N. C. Sir I Have sent you as many Letters as there are Graces and now I hope I may lawfully desist and I have the old rule for my warrant Si ter pulsanti nemo respondit abito I have long look'd and attentively listned for that happy word which should at once put a period to your silence and mine expectation Happily you may thereby tacitly instruct me of the unwelcomness of my too forward scribling but I shall end with this lest I fall under the lash of the Italian Proverb Chi scrive à chi non risponde ò è matto ò hà di bisognia He that writes to one that answers not either he is a fool or has need of him Your silent action makes me remember the conceit of one that going in the street and seeing the Signe of the Golden Cross would lay a wager with him that went with him that he would make the Master of the shop whom I very well know to pull down his Signe without speaking a word to him The wager being laid he pulls off his his hat and drops half a dozen legs to the Signe first on one side and then on the other which the Master of the shop seeing thinking to prevent his future Superstition suddenly pulls down his Signe which is now supplied with the badge of the Gilded Trumpet Enough this time when I have subscribed Yours T. F. To Mr. R. R. Sir I Am so ambitious of continuing our ancient friendship almost as old as our selves that I cannot omit the least occasion that may ei increase or
with A female Negro of grief which will be Strange welcome to Your Servant Allégre To Mr. S. M. Sir IT is reported by Pliny that Apelles that famous Painter was wont when he had finished any piece of work or painted table to set it forth in some open place or thorow-fare to be seen of Passengers and himself would lie close behind it to hearken what faults were found in it in that preferring the judgment of the vulgar before his own imagining they would spie more narrowly and censure his faults more severely than himself could Having exposed this homely piece to publick view I have with Apelles liâ—n unseen and to that purpose unknown that thereby I might the better learn what others opinions were thereof Not trusting to my own as knowing that Ely was not the onely indulgent Father to his own Off-spring And as it was his aym to relie upon the judgment of the most judicious of which number I esteem your self none of the least it had been presented to you in the first place had I not been deterred as not daring to approach the scorching rayes of your severer censure Like him that being in the presence of Augustus the Roman Emperor who had a piercing Eagle-eye turn'd away his face the Emperour demanding the reason why he did so He replied Quia fulmen oculorum tuorum ferre non possum The like may I affirm Ter limen tetigi terque recedi Oft have I been about it and as oft repulsed by the consciousness of mine own unworthiness Yet have I at length adventured in confidence that you have as well charity to pardon as judgment to find out errours With such a hope therefore that you will skreen your severer censure with a veil of charitie I have at length presumed this into your presence The rather because I do hereby but return you the Hony made from the various flowers of your own garden where I hope I have not as some that do Spinas libroruâ— colligere weeded books but crop't their blossomes and yet left never the less behind me Naturalists those Clerks of Natures closet report of the Peach-tree that it receives the qualitie of the soyl where it is planted In Persia it is poysonous elsewhere nutrimental Such is the condition of our nature that it ever reteines the savour of that liquor wherewith it was seasoned in its youth It hath been my care and is my hope that I may one day affirm that of the Philosophers scholar Me mihi melior reddidit quà m accepit Another obligation there is also which hath occasioned in me this present boldnesse and to you this present trouble Thaâ— you are one that do not scaenam servire but are truly sensible of the irregular actions of those who would be thought the line of Truth I think the Poet Prophesied of our age when he complain'd Victa jacet pietas cedit viribus aequum Non metuunt leges stat pro ratione voluntas Omnia pro tempore nihil pro veritate Comines complaines that many mens Offices and Lands were taken from them for running away in the Battle between Lewis the 11th and the Burgundians and given to those that ran nine miles farther But I have made too long a Parenthesis in your more serious occasions and me thinks I hear Apelles his Ne sutor ultra crepidam rounded in my ear I here cease though not from being Your faithful Servant T. F. To Mr. C. F. Sir YOur Letter of the 2d of November came safe and though late yet at last I return you an answer For though the Apostle saith it is the duty of a good servant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not answering again yet I think it is no part of a good friend Whereas you tell me it is no Newes to hear of the theft of felonious tongues but that it were a greater wonder if they should turn honest it puts me in mind of a facetious speech of the grave Cato When one asked counsel of him soberly what harm he thought boaded him because Rats had gnawn his Hose He answered with this jest That it was a strange thing to see that but it had been much more strange If his Hose had devoured the Rats Now to be serious If you will needs know from whence that smoak came I must tell you it arose from the New Forrest but I discover'd it at London and finding it might fore-run a storm I was bold to fore-warn you of it because you know Praemonitus praemunitus Neither ought you I suppose to despise it especially comming from a hand aimed only at your safety Great ships have been cast away by a little leak unlook'd to I remember the Fable that the Butterfly asked the Owle How she should deal with the fire that had scorched her wings Who counselled her not to behold so much as its smoak And because you will know of me where this vapour did beat in Truly I was informed you were like to ruine your fortune and that by one whom I know you esteem your friend Therefore was I bold to advise you to provide an Ark against the Deluge Not like the merry Scholar in Chaucer that he might lie with the Carpenters wife But I talk idle Really I had not said any thing had I not been confident you would take it with the right hand as I gave it and the rather that I might thereby engage you to deal with me in the same manner For Hoc officium as I take it is Maximum beneficium And now would not my very excuse increase my fault I would Apologize for my I fear too tedious prolixitie I will onely add that I shall be very glad your more urgent businesse would permit you to punish me in the same kind Who am not queint nor quick now but still Your entire Friend T. F. Poste The Fratres Gladiferi are still predominant People were never so poor nor never so brave as if they would be proud by an Antiperistasis To Mr. J. W. Sir THat you accost me with the name of Friend I am not a little joyful but more to be yours It is a term used by all understood by few but practised by none that I can find But I will not build my credit upon the ruines of others It is sufficient that I can boast of this that I am yours and I hope you will still deign to be mine And now Sir I shall return an answer to the several particulars of my Letter Ordine quisque suo First You tell me you are solitary and Hermetical I could hardly forbear envying of your Happinesse 'T is a life I as much desire as I little hope for But Sive pluit Jupiter aut non pluit non omnibus placet And so I quit that and am arrived at your desire which to me is a sufficient command 'T is Newes you desire and it would have been Newes indeed if you had not In brief then Kent is for the general quiet
thou wilt have it in plain terms was shot to death I could not name him without an Elegie but that I think my Muse is run away to seek a better Master in these hard times And indeed the Muses may well be Maids for they are commonly farthest off when most intreated Mary was once the hate and burthen of the City and the name 's but Anagrammatiz'd but they are as weary of their Physicians as they were before of their disease I cannot resemble our rich Citizens better than to some Hogs I have read of that were so fat that Mice made nests in their buttocks and they felt them not But now they have pretty well eaten through their fat and are come to the quick and now they begin to be sensible of them Here are some desperate Members that gape wide to devour their Head and there is nothing can rescue him but a miracle And now I hope the largeness of my Letter will excuse me from adding any more No wonder my Letters are so big being so old before they come to hand Let me onely add that I am still Dear Ned Thine usque ad aras T. F. To Mr. C. F. Friend or Brother chuse you whether Natures bonds are strong in either THough I never knew the happiness of a Brother I count that want infinitely supplyed if not out-gone by the adoption of some friends of which number I need not now tell you you hold a chief place You may easily imagine how welcome your last was to me the rather because it assured me of your not onely receiving but accepting mine which seriously I doubted when afterward I read Seneca's Caveat Vide non tantum an verumsit quod dicis sed an ille cui dicitur veri patiens sit But believe me it was pure friendship that praecipitated my pen and in friendship those are great faults that are not venial And now it lies in your power only to make those poor papers a true glass as you are pleased to call them in a reflection of my own face without partiality and indeed this was the chief intent of my designe at first and you cannot think how I will â—ug it nay out-dote Narcissus himself I hope though you have entertained the Graces you have not quite cashier'd the Muses For though the Times be hard yet they are no chargeable retinue But I know you expect some Newes and truly here is Nova inaâ—dita rerum facies Here they that count Stables as good as Churches have made our Churches Stables But enough of this and for this time when I have styled my self Your diligent Observer T. F. To Mr. L. C. L. Noble Sir THe last clause of your last ingenious Letter has proved a Prophesie For you are pleas'd to tell me that you long for my answer and truly I have made it a long answer though a short letter and that till it come every day 's a moneth and I am sure it will be a moneth every day e're you have it yet be confident it was not for want of love but want of leisure You know Parvus amor loquitur ingens stupet Great love like great grief must move gradatim Sir that you tell me since you saw my lines you are grown womanish and long for a view I dare not think it flatterie because from a friend yet am I not a little proud on 't Thus have we the happiness like Princes to wooe by Picture and wed by Proxie For though I have hitherto been an Atheist to female love yet have I thus often wooed and as often won a second-self for so 's a friend as well as a wife and the marriage of the minds is no less firm and honourable than that of the body And I will assure you Sir I am more ambitious of that happy visit you are pleased to promise me than some Amorettâ— would be of his Mistris In the mean-time I shall hope to see you in those lively Images of your ingenious self To those unmerited Encomiums you are pleased to bestow on my unworthy Poeme I will answer nothing save that I will make it an argument of your love to me for 't is a Symptome Quae minimè pulchra sunt eâ— Pulchra videntur Amanti If now you expect any Newes I must deceive your expectation for here is none save what you will see by the Printed Papers and truly I am afraid this cold weather will usher in a hotter Summer You 'l spell my meaning though in a mysterie because Plura literis committere nec vacat nec tutum est But that I am Your most affectionate Friend T. F. To Mr. C. F. Sir I Received your late I think last Letter fraught with Flowers and credit me with as welcome a countenance as we behold those early violets the first fruits of the Spring after a long and tedious Winter I heartily congratulate your entrance into the Bond of Wedlock for 't is a bond though a sweet one and question not but you have a fit yoke-fellow Now are you a Compleat Man which the Rabbins say no man is till he have his female Rib restor'd him which before he wanted That you have match'd one of my name I cannot account any other than an act of the Divine Providence to make our Friendship grow up into a Brotherhood So that now it shall be no longer as you say Friend and Brother chuse you whether But Friend and Brother both together Hereafter shall I be not a little proud of my name that it may be serviceable to the production of such sweet Flowers as your self Wonder not now that in stead of greeting you with an Epithalamium I grace you with an Elegie Indeed I must acknowledge that mourning is not fit for a Wedding garment yet most fit for me at this present being really sensible of the death of the general Father of our Country and fearful of the death of my own dear Father in particular And to express my self in the words of the Poet Hei mihi difficile est imitari gaudia falsa Difficile est tristi fingere mente jocum Give me leave onely to present your Wife my Sister with my as hearty as invisible salutes and so I take my leave of you both with that of the witty Catullus Boni Conjuges bone vivite munere assiduo valentem exercite juventam This is the hearty wish of him that is proud to be accounted Your glad though sorrowful Friend and Brother T. F. To Mr. E. B. Ned dear N. my N. AS I was going to write a Letter to thee came thine to me and believe me with no little welcome I thank thee for thy Letter more for thy Verses but most of all for thy constant perseverance in friendship Goe on and let us if possible draw the knot of our love yet faster I dare presume thou wilt and for me may the Muses or what 's more the Graces hate me when I cease to love
and I cannot devise one good enough to equal the badness of the Press However draw the veil of thy friendship over the errours and where thou findest them pardon them But one thing more send me thy severest judgment of it lay friendship aside and tell me truth without respect of person Then shall I boast to have been Thine Eternal Friend T. F. To M. C. F. My double Flower AT length have I found a way whereby this poor brat may bless the Author with the happiness of kissing your hands 'T is Freeborn though begot in servitude But I dare not venture upon your more judicious brow without an Apologie not so much for the Printing as the mis-printing I must needs say whilst I was at the press to overlook it I durst own it but as soon as I was gone the Printers so dis-figured it that I knew it not again when I saw it Had I been with them I should have serv'd them as the Philosopher did the Potter reading and mis-reading his verses he brake all his earthen ware The Potter demanding his reason he answered You break my head and I break your Pots Seriously I think I should break their pates as miserably as ever was poor Prisscians by any Pedantick But prethee exercise thy friendship so far as to send me a perfect Anatomy of it I mean thy judgment without hands or eyes Shut out the name of friend whilst thou censurest it and send me that censure as to one that is no whit indulgent to his own Then shall I boast to have vowed my self Thine absolute Friend T. F. One thing I forgot to tell thee the Printer has rob'd it of its Letters of Credence But you must put that upon his score To Mr. J. W. Grace ANd now I dare promise my Letter a welcome marching under and with so good a Grace But I long to hear whether thou hast given thy Grace a Sirname yet for I cannot find it among all the Catalogue of Virtues Perhaps I mistook the Index and should have looked for W. but I could not so readily hear of my Gloves Thou seest I have found a way to whisper my yet unparched friendship though at a distance I have read of a place called the Hall of Gyants in Mantua which hath this strange and unusual Art that how low soever one speak at the Corners 't is intelligible to be heard whilst those in the Midst hear nothing Me thinks it fitly resembles our intercourse by Letters Hereby shall we be able to conquer distance and live together though far asunder Friendship hereby works like weapon-salve at a distance and undiscernable But I intended a Letter not a Character of Letters Now having in part paid my debt promised it will not be unmannerly to demand yours for promises are debts and I love as little to be indebted in courtesie as in coyn If thou searchest the File of thy promises among other particulars thou wilt find this Item A Letter to The expecter of that Happiness T. F. To Mr. E. B. Dear Ned WIth thy Letter I received an Answer to my Search 'T is too long and my time too short and my wit too weak to return a Reply Be contented onely with an acquittance for the receit of it the rather because I would not fail your expectation for I hate abortives of that nature But before I give you a discharge I must quarrel with you for some bad coyn Tell me of History Quotations and Comments What Galilaean-glass didst thou use for Spectacles when thou read'st my letter Your Comment has bely'd my Text And what argument hast thou to prove me a Poet except poverty and perhaps an ill face with Hipponax who was no Painter as you make him but a Poet with so ugly a face that two Gravers in stone set out his Statue to the world and him to the derision of the beholders At which he was so inraged that whetting his Pen with anger he did so thick discharge his Porcupine-quils and his Badger Jambicks so bit that as the Stories say for very anger made the two Gravers hang themselves Newes I can tell thee none but that Trading which before was wounded is now dead That the Army have now done what the King all this while fought for namely put a point if not a period to the perpetual Parliament And having seized the King in Hurst-Castle have possest themselves of the major part of their Masters and thrown them into Hell But now I begin to grow as tedious to thee as the time of thy absence will be to me In deteining thee too long from that name So much obliged to you T. F. To Mr. W. L. Honest Will THe Romans had a custome that after any one was dead one hollowed three times in their ear and after the third call pronounced Conclamatum est He 's past recovery I have called three times without an answer yet I dare not pronounce a conclamatum est of our friendship I know it is not dead Thy last was in answer but to a part of mine Dost thou mean to Comment upon my Letters in Tomes and Volumes Certainly we shall make excellent Harmony with the several notes of Musick in Longs Briefs Sem-briefs Minims Quavers and Crotchets But J. H. acts a part or rather no part which I think is beyond the Musicians Ela I find no name for it but let not them over-hear me and I 'll call it a Pause Well this conceit is neither Meane nor Base but if you will Treble because we are three Send me word what fortune my poor brat finds in the world how it goes off and is relished And do it as forgetting me to be the Author or Thy Friend T. F. To Mr. J. H. My best of friends LIttle less than infinite will number mine engagements to thee and when I shall quit scores with thee I know not yet may it shew a willingness to pay in him that confesses the debt I am glad of such an argument of something good in that worthless piece as the dislike of the world will draw for a Conclusion Really I never intended they should like it and should have suspected it if they had For he that will please the Times must go attired in a Fools coat not a Scholars habit Didst thou never hear of the Philosopher that when in an Oration the people applauded him turn'd about to some of his friends and asked amissâ— Thy Newes of the Hangmans so untimely death when he was at the full gaâ—â— of one and thirty drew this ex tempore Epitaph from me Here lies the Royal Headsman who in 's time Of the Court-cards hath cut drawn the Prime But oh sad fate death thus should Trump about And now at one and thirty put him out But I haste to subscribe my self Thy much engaged Friend T. F. To Mr. T. P. Sir I Had hitherto fully resolved that the name of Mecoenas now lived onely in Horace lines but your
late Largess has made me recant my humour and believe that there are yetsome that dare patronize the Muses when grown poor But as the scarcitie increases your honour so would it my shame if I should be so ingrateful as not to acknowledge it though I must confess my retribution will be as bad as my mind is good to erect a Pyramid to your singular example in this Age. Not that I intend any Panygerick of your praises that were fitter for the Pen of Pliny or the Mouth of Cicero Give me leave only without a blush to acknowledge my many engagements to your merit lest I should meet with the obloquie of the French who the Historian sayes remember good turns no longer than they are in doing Sir when I seriously consider your large reward of so short a desert me thinks had I Plutarchs art I could parallel it with the bounty of Artaxerxes who return'd precious gifts to poor Sinaetas for his handful of water Or if that be too small to Alexander the Great who returned doubly to Anaxarâ—hus for a small gift he received of him Thus rich grounds yeild double flowers for single seeds Or yet if these be too low to Streton who studied to excel all other men in Liberalitie And might it not be thought flattery to praise a man to his face I would tell others that your Generous disposition is a miracle in this Age equal'd if not excel'd one of whom the Ancients boast that was readier to give than others to receive But I fear to offend your modesty will therefore silently admire what I cannot safely speak knowing there is also an eloquence in silence Yet would I not altogether have my thankfulness like men near the River Ganges without a Tongue Alas Sir what worth was there in that plain piece that should cause so rich a recompence Truly Sir besides the reverence which as a dictate to natures law I alwayes bare you your many favours but especially the last will exact from me without a complement the speech of Furnius to Caesar Efficisti ut viverem morer ingratus Excuse the relating it in it's proper Idiom For though it be said that the Tuscane Speech sounds better in the mouth of Sirangers than of the Natives I think not so of the Latine You have so obliged me that to use the expression of a Father to his friend I owe you Et quae possum quae non possum So that did I not hope to meet with a merciful Creditor I must break without hope of compounding However though you have cast your gift into a shallow Forde yet it is so transparent that you may see it without fear of being covered with any Lethe of forgetfulness Nor have you cast your coyn on so soft a nature that you should not hear it gingle at least in an Eccho of Thanks Although when I have done all my Thankfulness must be like Timantes his Pictures wherein was more to be understood than there was exprest Thus Sir assuring you here is nothing but what is the immediate Transcript of my Heart I crave leave to boast my self Sir your solely engaged Servant T. F. To Mr. J. H. Honesty THy Letter was as welcome to me as ever was rain to the parched earth I thank thee thee infinitely but that 's no payment Well set all upon the Tally and 't is possible we may one day cross scores Excuse my shortness at this time and let this Country Newes supply the defect 'T is this That Phoebus now courts the Lady Flora as rudely as he did his Mother that bit off her ear when he should have kiss'd her That the Quadrupled Animals fare deliciously for they feed on Roast-meat every day That the Sun hath saved the Husbandmen a labour of mowing and making their Hay for it now grows Hay like him that sowed Malt to avoid the charge trouble of making it of Barly That the world being turn'd Round our Climate is exchang'd for Spain or some more sweating Country That we here know no reason of this unparallel'd Heat unless it be because we have now so many ruling Suns in the Sphere where there used to be but One. That if this weather hold we are like to have no raw fish but all ready boyl'd before taken and all our drink burnt-wine or vinegar That the poor Ephemeris suffer Martyrdome every day That at night when Sol is with our Antipodes we feel his heat through the cracks of the earth That this extream heat makes the Heavens sweat a little sometimes in stead of rain Item That my Ink is converted to Jet Item That there 's no more Newes For 't is none that I am Your T. F. To Mr. R. R. Sir I Dare not pretend to so much Philologie as to criticize upon your term of Infinitiores gratias your adopting by your using it is sufficient to patronize it and pass it through the guards of the strictest enquiry Here could I well cease and in stead of answering which I shall never admire at your Elegant Letter you were pleased to honour me with wherein what streams of Eloquence what flames of Love what Rhetorick what Realitie nay what not So that were all Epistles like yours I would not wonder that Learning and Letters are terms convertible I honour the presence of my friends but may it ever be supplyed by such Letters and I shall never complain of their absence Before I loved you as a friend but now I honour you as a Wit But how easily doe passions exalted transport us And how willingly do we yield the cloak of our resolutions to the flatttering Sun of praise But I am too conscious of mine own unworthiness to admit those large Encomiums your flourishing pen hath adorned me with 'T is a Posâ—e of rare beauty but I dare not accept it lest there should lie a snake of flattery under those fairer Flowers And I wish you have not shown your Wit and hazarded your Judgment When I read your neat lines really I cannot but love them for their gallantness and pitie them that they had no better a Subject Me thinks they seem like rich cloaths upon a poor man that do not sute or like the Kings Saddle upon the Millers horse Who will not suspect your eyes blindfolded with love that have made Paris choise and extoll'd a homely face for an Heavenly beauty Well since my deserts are too short to scale them I shall I 'll assure you keep it by me as too rich a cloth for my meanness and shall lay it before me as a pattern of what would I be rather than a picture of what I am Now to your Why let me return a Wherefore I have to use your expression and who can use better masked my self under the single letters of T. F. that being unknown I might more freely hear the worlds censure I remember a facetious tale of a Frenchman that had printed much concealing his own name
know how to honour it as much as I want it In a word Sir I thank you for your Letter more for your Verses but most that you please to style me Sir your very Friend T. F. To Mr. R. R. Sir I Return you your New-Forrest with as many thanks as it merits and that 's infinite which submission to your better judgment from which I would no sooner dissent than from truth it self I conceive this not at all behind the first part but in time it appearing to me of as fine a thred and no less curious workmanship Happily the others being chequer'd with forreign flowers may render it more delectable But why should we think a forreign garden of flowers and perhaps some weeds better than an English Forrest Well may it be more sightly but I 'm sure 't is not so serviceable Scarce can I hold my pen from glutting in his praises who is far above it's highest flight did not the Italian proverb check me and tell me truly La Lode nascer deve quando è morto chi si ha da Lodar That praises should not be born till the praised be dead I will therefore content my seff to say that I hope such pleasant groves are not superstitious and could wish that the whole Kingdome were so turned to a Forrest and the Author the Ranger General That 's body might not be confin'd Who 's a free Monarch in his mind One who with 's Majestick Pen May give the Law to other men Sir I have sent you a Clavis to it not that I think you need any but that if you invite any friend to those pleasant walks they may have an entry of understanding without picking the lock by a false construction It was done at a heat and I have not time to file it over but such as it is 't is yours If you please to send me the last Edition of the Kings learned pieces I shall keep it carefully return it speedily and remain continually Sir yours to command T. F. To Mr. W. L. Sir I Must esteem it an happinesse to hear of you though I cannot hear from you and that I heard nothing of your sickness till I heard also of your recovery so that now to tell you I am sad or sorrowful for your sicknesse were as preposterous as to grieve for your death after your resurrection or to bid you good-night in the morning when you are risen But like the trembling needle between two equally attractive Loadstones so am I between the two different passions of joy and sorrow Joy for a friends recovery and sorrow for a friends restraint Not to be joyful for your recovery were to envy a publick good and I might justly be accused for an enemy to the State in not rejoycing at a happinesse so common that deserves a day of Publick Thanksgiving Then not to be affected with the sorrows and sufferings of a friend and such a friend as E. B. were as great a crime as his whom the Romans condemned to death For wearing a Crown of Roses in a time of common calamity I long to hear how our honest friend stands since the High Court sits which if I do not now from thee I shall think that whilst thy body suffer'd under the fire of a Feaver thy friendship was sick of an Ague that though the Dog-star reigned in thy blood thy affections laboured under Capricorn But since thy sickness is in it's Declension I shall expect thy friendship to be again Ascendant that before did Culminate And for my part think not that thirty miles distance cold raines or your silence can make me forget you or that I am As much as ever Sir your Friend T. F. To Mr. J. H. Sir HAving hitherto waited with silence to hear of your receit of my Letter and finding none makes me fearful that it miscarried in the delivery and I am not ignorant or insensible of the many abortives of the Carriers Midwifery But I hope your candor is sufficient to dispel all clouds of suspition that might seem to ecclipse my realitie or to think that I am so much foe to my self as not to desire or at least not to endeavour the gainful commerce of your letters I am not ignorant that all kind of Learning hath been wrapt up in Letters And I assure you Sir I shall in the enjoyment of yours think my self little less honoured than I do Lucillius by Seneca's Nor shall I be a little proud that I may be any wayes though but occasionally instrumental to you to exercise your excellencie in this way Neither do I altogether doubt of the pardon of my rude scribling because I am Sir without Complement your very humble Servant T. F. To Mr. E. H. Sir THough I have paid the Principal in returning your books I am still indebted for the Interest you were pleased to lay on them in giving you my account of them For your Caussin I return you thanks in stead of censures wishing that he were now alive that our late Tragedies might be acted over again by his high-flying quill and be thereby committed to incredulous posteritie The Novum Lumen Chymicum I understand is lately Translated and indeed it were a wonder if there were any New Lights that we should not have in English in these Times But because you told me you lent me that onely to laugh at I shall only tell you it no whit failed your intention or my expectation Now for your Vaughan be pleased to take notice that he is since answered by one Moore learned and better famed than He and therefore I shall let that Answer be mine Yet withal that I serve such Books as the good Bishop serv'd Persius when he threw him on the ground with a Si noâ—vis intelligi debes negligi Thus as the Hollanders sometime made money of past-board I make my payment in Paper and in this coyn I shall pay you liberally for your Arithmetick Believe me Sir 't is Homers Iliads in a Nut-shell and so handsomely compacted that the doggedest Critick cannot fasten on it onely let me tell you it is deficient in one thing and that is that it is not able to help me to number the Engagements you have lain upon Sir your unmeriting Friend T. F. To Mr. R. R. Sir HE 's a bad debtor that payes by halfs but he 's a worse that never payes That I may not be guilty of that superlative ingratitude I have sent you two Books of your three And for Bacon I pray think it not long if I should keep it till Lent for I mean to all his Experiments to add one more of your friendship If you expect an account of your Iâ—â—â— Bâ—â— know it is far above my censure as my praise I go to that as to my Bible yet something in Allegiance Certainly that Portraiture was drawn by a Divine hand and wrote with a pen pull'd from some Angels wing If there be one that wrote by divine
inspiration since the Apostles times 't was He when He pen'd those Meditations Henceforth his Pen shall be his Scepter His Book his Throne and the whole World his Empire There shall he live and reign and be as immortal as some of his enemies malice Take a more particular account of your Balzack thus I undertook the reading of him rather for penance than profit but having read him once that induced me to read him again and the second time drew on a third and the third a fourth and now I send it you home lest if I should keep it a little longer I should transcribe the whole Book A better Character cannot be given of him than he gives of himself take it therefore in his own words That his Writings smell more of musk and amber than of oil and sweat But to save time I have sent you a Pamphlet that may serve as a foyl to set off Balzack the better Wherein expect neither Cicero nor Seneca neither Howel nor Balzack neither Learning nor Language nor any Letters beginning with the ambitious title of My Lord or Madam they are more proud of the name of Friend and carrying that stamp they presume to be currant though they be but brass Not that I intend to make my private Letters publique but onely to advance a communitie in friendship and to fulfil a command of yours in a letter in that particular yet unanswered of seeing some pieces of mine And truly these are no other than pieces yet as in the several pieces of a broken Looking-glass you shall in every one see the perfect reflection of Sir yours in all Offices of Friendship T. F. To Mr. E. B. Honest Ned RAther had I accuse the Carrier with negligence than thee with forgetfulnesse Nor can I think the requesting of a friendly courtesie could scare thee into an unfriendly silence Sure ye are all struck dumb at London or your ink if not your affections is frozen The serious thought of which hath made me almost believe that the name of friend is but the fabulous birth of some Philosophical Poets or Poetical Philosophers and fitted for Sir Thomas Moore 's Vtopia or Plato's Common-wealth not for an Iron Age or the dregs of Time If thou art silent because thou hast no Newes to write write that thou hast none However let the world see there is one dares call himself a friend though in such an Age as this And believe it that the all-self-devouring teeth of time shall never eradicate the name of B. from out the heart of him whose onely pride is to tell the world who is Ned thine inseparable Friend T. F. Postscript You may if you please communicate this to all those that call themselves my friends and tell them that till I hear the contrary I shall suppose their practice of silence intended for my pattern Vale. To Mr. W. L. Will. NOr will I accuse your silence nor excuse my own 't is sufficient I have broken the Ice and adventured to tell thee 't is possible to be a friend and silent nor do I despair to hear the same from you In confidence of which I say no more now but tell you I expect it To your Father thus much Concerning the re-printing of my Characters and augmenting them I have had some serious thoughts and the result is this I find them upon perusal not suitable to the present State being Calculated for the Meridian of a Kingdome not a Common-wealth they are now like old Almanacks out of date And to go to them with the Arithmetick of Addition and Substraction with the Pensil and the Spunge were to make my self guilty of what I there condemn Besides they were then my resolved and not yet retracted thoughts So that I hold it not safe for you to print or me to enlarge them nor this farther than to tell thee I long to hear from thee and of our dearest Ned. I have a Letter hath been designed for him a long time did I but hope there were a crevise in his close prison that I might peep through to assure him that I am his as thine Still constant Friend T. F. To Mr. E. H. Sir YOur last Letter I met on the way as drawn thither perhaps by Sympathy like the Magnetick steel to meet her loved Loadstone I know love and friendship work miracles and act in Paradoxes It makes the enjoyers thereof flame without consuming present and distant if that word may be admitted in friendship all at once By this I see my friend when invisible and hear him though silent Like the Philosophers Stone of which the Chymists so much boast Contraria operatur sed semper in beneficium naturae This is if any thing the true Sympathetick powder that works truer and at a greater distance than weapon-salve Willingly could I lose my self in this pleasing Maeander but I will rather commend the Theory to your more active Pen and resolve to act the practick part my self For your Verses I will rather remain in your debt than pay you with bad coyn I assure you Sir I have no vein in verse but if I could Inclose each word a Mine believe 't I would I onely Court her that drops Elegies Whilst others Musessing mine onely cries Yet shall I not refuse what your injunction shall lay upon me because I am As really your Friend T. F. To Mr. T. P. Sir FOr me to attempt an Answer to your Letter were to venture at the flights of an Eagle with a Sparrows wing The Italians tell me in a Proverb The higher the Ape climbs the more he shews his nakedness And truly should I endeavour to reach the pitch you have set me for a pattern I should rather imitate Icarus in his fall than you in your flight It is enough for me to admire and applaud the happiness of your undertakings that can at once captive Apollo and the Muses and make the Triumphs of former Ages the Trophies of your Pen's victories Where you profess your self Davus I must confess my self no Oedipus Giving you therefore the libertie the Civil Law allows and I should be uncivil if I should not to interpret your own words I will guesse at your meaning and return you not onely an Answer to your Riddle but the reason of it Sir if my lesse comprehensive Genius deceive me not you like not Latine lace to an English suit and herein you have light upon an humour that I have long since retracted and esteem now as too pedantical But you may perceive they savour of the ferula and imagine my then regnant humour like young stomacks that like raw fruit better than reasted food Yet must I farther confess I have been so conscious of mine own inabilities and so confident of the Ancients worth that I have preferred to use their more refined lines than my unfiled language So that I discover in my self the fancie of the Painters boy who thinking to supply the defect of his skill by
and that left me when I left London Like insects in Winter retired to their first nothing as resolving to enjoy no life in the absence of the Sun their Father Since I cannot encircle you in person let me embrace your picture and let your pen supply the silence of your tongue If you will sometimes vouchsafe me this happiness I shall quit scores with my wishes and resolve to be no happier in this unhappy Age. Thus because you have expected it long I have at length returned you a long Letter to assure you that I am and most sincerely Sir your Friend and Servant T. F. To Mr. C. A. Sir THis Letter must begin where yours ended ' because what you commend to me as an object of my pitie hath been the subject of my thoughts for it is impossible my friends should suffer any loss and my self not be sensible of and sorrowful for it If the stream of your grief may be substracted by division I refuse not and that willingly to take my part that yours may be the less The cause that challengeth our grief for now 't is mine as well as yours speaks it self in the loss of a Friend of a Mother To begin with that ends all Death me thinks I can find as little cause to lament as to wonder at it it being so general a necessitie that none ever did or ever shall avoid it We were born to live and live to die It is the onely thing we can here expect without a fortassâ— the onely certainty of which we cannot be deprived Epictetus wondred no more to see a mortal man dead than to see an earthen pitcher broken And as wise a Philosopher as the former entertained the newes of his Sons deaths with no more but a Scivi eos mortales esse natos As being a greater wonder that they should have so long than that they died so soon Why should we wonder or grieve to see one goe before us the same way that we our selves must follow Vale vale nos tâ— sequemur was the solemn leave the Ancients took of their deceased friends and if we believe the Grammarians from thence we call a Funeral Exequiae the same being noted not without a silent lesson in our common custome of the Coarse's going before and the attendants following after It is Seneca's observation Nature hath ordained that to be common which we account so heavy that the cruelty of the fate may be lessened by the equality But 't is the death of a Mother and here nature and affection will put in a plea and plead prescription for our grief yet may we entertain our fortune with dry eys We know she was mortal and so liable to the common â—ate a mother and so by the order of nature to goe before her children She was before them that they might be after her It was thought ominous among the Jewes and not without the re-mark of a punishment for the Father to burie the Son as if it were an inversion of the course of nature and not to be seen without a Prodigie But I remember what the Schools teach That an Angel of an inferiour cannot enlighten a superiour Hierarchy Yet I presume you will excuse the rashness of the attempt since it proceeds from the affection of one devoted to be in all relations Sir your ready servant T. F. To Mr. C. A. Sir THat a discourse of death from a sick person and firm arguments from an infirm and shaking brain should have the good hap to rout or at least to prevent the triumph of your sorrows was certainly to be ascribed to the benevolent Planet that co-operated in their production or rather to your own more favourable Aspect I shall not pursue a flying enemy nor torture that argument to a martyrdome that is already a willing Confessor Your quoted Author hath expressed himself Fuller than the smalness of my reserve pretends to That the death of one breaks anothers heart is not safe to contradict since it hath obteined the general vote of a Proverb But I shall humbly adventure to lay the Scene at a greater distance and date it from that Golden Age when hearts were so entwined they could not part without breaking when that Gordian knot of amitie was not to be united till it were cut by the Sythe of him that out-conquers Alexanders sword Were it not to upbraid the present Age by the comparison I could willingly venture at a Character or Encomium of that venerable Friendship the Imitation of former and Despiar of later Ages But I shall do the subject more right to commend it to your more commanding Pen and study always to make good the precise value you are pleased to put upon Sir the meanest of your servants T. F. To Mr. D. P. Sir WHether this should be an Apologie for my former perhaps too frequent visits or my later as uncivil forbearance I know not since both have been equally liable to the piquant censures of detracting tongues and in so loud an accent that I question not but they have long since arrived your eares It is not my intention to make this paper guilty by relating those stories which would be tedious for me to write and troublesome for you to read Had they been vented with as much innocence as falshood I could have looked upon them as some pretty Romances and at once both laugh'd at the Relation and pitied the Relator But finding them so loaded with the over-weight of scandal as well as slander I should belye my own thoughts if I should not say they have touched the most sensible part of my soul That I have hitherto been silent and contented my self to be an auditor onely was that so if it had been possible they might have found a grave in their birth And it is a common saying among the Jewes That lyes have their feet cut off they cannot stand long to what they say But since I see by what designe I know not that they have already out-lived the common age of a wonder though I know you are too wise to take up any ware upon trust from such walking-pedlers for so I am informed the original speaks a Tale-bearer I am not altogether diffident of your pardon if I shall enter my protests which is all the re-action I shall endeavour that whatever some have fancied or others reported I never propounded any other end to my self either in a direct or collateral line in my approches than to make my self happy by the enjoyment of your societie This was the cause that inducted me into your acquaintance and I am not conscient to my self of any Apostacy from my first resolutions or that those real intentions have suffered any dilapidations I must confess 't was my ambition to rival your goodness and to make my respects iâ— it had been possible as infinite as your merit and I have read that excesses in friendship are not onely tolerable but laudable But that what I
that I might have done you a greater courtesie to have forborn them now Onely this rudeness may serve to let you see how much I esteem you my friend in that I have taken no more care to entertain you with that studied respect which I should to any but my Familiar I shall not Apologize for the rudeness of this undrest Pamphlet which now waits upon you in obedience to your call nor tell you that I desire you would read it to your own ears onely nor that I shall long to see it again But onely desire you to remember what place you hold in the number of his first friends who is Sir your old Friend and Servant T. F. To M. C. F. Sir I Have heard of those men-moles that Nerâ—like rip up the entrails of their Mother Earth to plunder her of her hidden Excrements who many times dig so long under ground that they meet with their own graves before they are willing though none of the best men yet have they this good qualitie that they are continually calling and talking to one another that if a sudden damp should surprize any of them the rest may speedilie be readie to help and assist them It is no shame for the best to learn what 's good though from the worst of men Considering therefore the many clouds and vapours that continually are readie to overwhelm and stifle us in this vault of earth where we are but day-labourers it is a necessarie dutie of friends to be frequent in these Offices of friendship How unhappie had I been had that boisterous wind blown down your earthlie tabernacle and deprived me of a friend without any warning And though my eyes and ears were lately the happie witnesse of your recoverie Yet me thinks I know not how to credit them till you vouchsafe to give it me under your hand and seal and confirm to me the continuance of my health and happiness in yours Certainly there is more intended in these visits than common custome and complement Letters are the lawful Spies and Intelligencers of amitie the honourable Leigers to continue a good correspondencie amongst friends And if as our late Physicians hold most diseases and distempers of the bodie are occasioned by the stopping of the bloods circulation surely the omitting of these correspondencies breed no good blood but like the intermitting pulse proclame the decay if not the death of friendship It is not enough that you are alive and well unless you tell me so and communicate your happiness to me by the information I cannot safely say I am well unless I know my friends are so who are my self Let your Letters sometimes tell me how I do and be at once my physick and Physician and I shall duly pay you the Fee of being Sir your officious servant T. F. To Mr. S. S. Sir HAving sounded a retreat to my self from my former perhaps too familiar converse with the world being able by experience to confirm the wise mans censure that it is not only vanity but vexation of spirit I have confined my self to my own home Yet because man is Animal sociale and God himself thought it not fit for Him to be alone I have undertaken that lawful Negromancie to converse with the dead the best and most impartial instructors I shall make bold in obedience to your command from your well-furnished Market to borrow some supply For knowledge is truly pabulum Animae and Books the best Caterers of that entertainment Had I time I would venture at an Encomium of those best of Companions But the messenger stayes and I cannot Let me therefore without a Preface crave the priviledge of your Fuller from whose Pisgath I am ambitious to take a view of that Holy Land for which and your many former favours I must subscribe my self Sir yours obliged T. F. To Mr. T. L. Sir AMongst the ill turns of my cross fortune it was not the least that I could not attein the happiness of seeing you when last in London though your goodness often endeavoured it and I was not idle in the like returns If you will pardon me my City-misfortune in recompence I will enjoyn my self the penance or rather the happiness of a twelve miles pilgrimage to kiss your hands at your own home when the weather and the way shall so far be-friend me In pursuance of that service I owe you I have now sent c. I suppose you expect and I presume as good and as cheap as you could have bought them For I would willingly obtein your belief that my service to my friends is not mercenary and that I look not to be paid again for those acts of dutie which your courtesies have paid me for before-hand This is no complement but the real though ex tempore dictates of my Heart Sir your humble servant T. F. To Dr. S. Noble Dr. THe ingenious Italians have three significant phrases whereby they character a work exactly done They say it was performed Con diligenza con studio con amore Without any ambition I must crave leave to tell you that in order to the content I take in serving my friends and especially your self to whom I am bound by so many repeated acts of friendship I have not failed in any of those particulars in my search for For to have enjoy'd the pleasure of satisfying your expectations I used all the diligence and care that could be thought on For I think I left not a shop unvisited though yours were my onely errand and but for one place I must have returned with a non est inventus Sir your goodness makes me apt to believe that you will not censure the Act by the Issue and I shall live in hope that some other command may render me more happy in the performance Let the shortness of my time and paper excuse this abrupt tender of my thanks and service to your self your good bedfellow and the rest of your happie Familie and do me the favour or rather the justice to believe me to be Sir your very ready and real servant T. F. To Mr. S. S. Sir AS needie debtors pay one sum but with an intent to borrow a bigger so I send you home three Books with a request to borrow a fourth Thus doe I link your courtesies and my engagements together and knowing the undoubted fertilitie of your friendship I shall make every former favour the Parent of another So that if it be a fable that Pliny tells of some Mice in Caria that are so fruitful that the young ones are with young in their Dams belly The pregnant acts of your Friendship may be the Moral I shall therefore request the use of your Plutarch's Morals which I doubt not will instruct me how to return you due thanks for your many courtesies whereby you have so many times bound me to be Sir your thankeful Friend and Servant T. F. To Mr. C. F. Sir OF all pleasures reading is the best of