I have subscribed my self Sir Your affectionate servant R. L. LETTER LIV. To his Brother Mr. A. L. Loving Brother SInce I ascribe your last weeks silence rather to accident then design I cannot justly take that advantage to say nothing but especially since my sudden removal to a more remote place is like to heighten the price of these opportunities I must have leave to cherish this and like the parting of a pair of Lovers to hug it with a tedious tenderness For since necessity has made another my owner I must bow my will to her proud injunctions and suffer her quietly to strip it of that happy power that gave me the propriety of intention and determination thus letting go the hold I had in my disposal I must now like a Cock-boat suffer my self to be towed by another sail or like an inferiour spring or wheel obey the impulsion of a greater My Lady C. is already in Nottinghamshire whither I am to attend my Lord the next week how long our stay will be I know not but I fear too tedious unless the bonny Scot drive us back to London which I am very loth to part with because I look upon it as the forge of my better fortunes this journey is like to afford more pleasure then profit and to prove a true resemblance of my present imployment But I thought it more fit to stay the stomach of my hungry fortunes with this bit then to suffer them to famish in the vain expectation of a plenteous feast If I had not learned the trick to be at home every where this journey would have put me to some trouble for I am to begin my acquaintance with every creature in that family and to part with another that if I be not mine own flatterer do both know and love me While I am there I shall be industrious to give you the true visage of my own particular affairs and sometimes a touch of the general In the mean time that your happiness may hold a perfect proportion with your wishes is the zealous desire of Your intirely affectionate Brother to command R. L. LETTER LV. To Mr. I. E. Sir ENmity has domineered so long that amity is almost grown out of countenance and fashion yet to this dear commodity I am indeared by a double reason first because she was never more refined by persecution then now Vice having this good property that the injuries it does its opposite Vertue often prove her tiremaids and set her off with more lovely lustre but she is chiefly beholding to your vertues for the height of my esteem the acquaintance with which I would not sell for a more gaudy jewel to lose or forfeit which by neglect were worse then for a School-boy to lose his lesson or an Artificer to sell his tools this through the glass of your modesty may appear like flattery but if brought to the touch-stone of your worth it will appear truths naked mettal undisguised in the Alchimy of Dissimulation For newes that which is bad has lately got so much unhappy truth of its side that I may well say its good news that there is no news at all I do here wait upon imployment like him that is sick of the contagion of Love upon a froward Mistris and she has yet used me like that handsome Idol vouchsafes a kiss at this and gives me a frown at the next interview though I stake my liberty against her kindness yet if my blind enemy has stored up no unexpected spight I am now neer her imbraces But I think I can miss a fortune with as much patience as ever I did and while such as you and L Family affords me to injoy your innocent though chargeable tranquillity she cannot rob me of all my happiness I desire not onely my own profit but the Ages when I wish those judicious and learned Animadversions of yours were born to the World as well as those that stand in the deserving rank of your intimate friends by that means I might hope for a review But I cloy your patience in this Festival time with the course ill-cookt fare that my Pen affords while I hold a solemn Feast in my breast garnished with the choice delicates of those thoughts that I am and ever will be Yours R. L. LETTER LVI To his Brother Mr. A. L. Loving Brother THough I believe you are in my debt for many Letters yet because you do not use to be so slow a Pay-master of such obligations I am willing to suspect that Fortune has used them as she oft does Travellers that undertake long and dangerous voyages saluting their sayles with contrary winds that either affront their intentions with a forced delay or wreck them and their desires together however I shall continue to shoot one shaft after another till I find you have found some of them By this undaunted perseverance you may guesse how well I esteem what comes from you and I shall not need other Rhetorick then what lives in your own breast to set your Pen awork if you fancy as much delight in the task as I do to give it the title of Pain will be to miscall it We live in a Town the description of which shall serve to swell this Letter to the ordinary bulk First it is seated upon a firm Rock which makes most of the meanest inhabitants to live like Troglodites or Conies under ground and are onely obliged to the Pickax and Matock for their Mansion It is beset with such a variety of Natures blessings as I know not whether it affords more satisfaction to the eye that hunts for profitable objects or that which gads after delightful ones On the one side it is overlooked by Hills of such a stature as will require some pain to climbe but double requite it when you are up as if Nature had wisely contrived a little difficulty in the purchase on purpose to indear the possession their proud browes are fann'd with such a delicious Aire as if it be true that Cameleons receive no other food here they might have a continual feast here the eye may dally with a sweet variety of prospect and is hardly perswaded to be weary because so much diversity does refresh and renew the pleasure there you have a full view of the flowry fruitful Meads that crescent-wise in a rich bravery court this sweet scituation with semicircular imbraces the feet of it are washed by the silver Trent which seems to murmure as he passes by that he is forced to swim away from the society of so many beauties If you send your Opticks further they are intertained with goodly houses fair Churches shady Groves and with a Castle the same that was entred from a vault by King Edward III. when he ravished Mortimer from his mother armes that standing upon a tall firm rock seems to bid defiance to time and scorns to take his ruine the ordinary way by having his heels tript up by a fundamental
speak very partially on the Scots side and talk of a great victory they have lately gotten Believe what you please of it for my part I am something incredulous because we make no more haste with our supplies thither We lately seized upon eight ships laden with Merchandise belonging to the Hollander which hath given occasion to the States Ambassadour to complain of it to the House and call it in very disobliging terms a breach of League but we hear not yet of a restitution The Spanish Ambassadour made a passionate complaint to the House of the interception of his Packet and breaking open his Letters last Week but he had good words given him and a promise it should no more be so onely t is thought the sparing of Mr. Ashcombs murderers hath made us a little angry and jealous that the Spaniard professes more friendship then he means There is a Letter intercepted from the Prince of Orange to the Scots King which assures him he has gained his desires upon the refractory Dutchmen and in a short time will be able to send him the succours of men and money which he promised leaving the time and place to his appointment Report sayes he hath 14000. men whereof 2000. German Horse ready to be shipped upon what design none knowes It seems they are raised by contribution from the King of Danemark Queen of Sweden the Marquess of Brandenburgh Landgrave of Hessen with other German Princes The Scots King has lately made Inchequin Generalissimo of his Forces in Ireland who with his Army made considerable by the addition of the Garrison-forces of Dungannon Carlow and Waterford is now in Connaught and promises himself a successeful Winter It seems he was glad to be rid of those Garisons by reason of the plague which rages there even to the depopulation of whole Towns and appears by a most pitiful Declaration set out by General Ireton which invites not onely his own party but all Christian Nations and the very Papists themselves to joyn in a humiliation to God for the cessation of his judgements upon them This being my last that I am like to write from London I have ventured to be the more tedious and the rather because my short allowance of time hath hardly suffered me to make it sence but you know lame things are objects of charity and pity my present indisposition that assisted my precipitate haste to make it so I dare not say more lest the Posts departure make me say nothing and so spoyl this Paper-riddle that brings you the elder Sister in the belly of the yongest Dear Brother fare well Eternally yours R. L. LETTER LXI To Mr. S. Monsieur YOurs I received and intertained with better welcome then can be expressed by a faint affection You confess obligations that are not due and so run the hazard of being suspected complemental but I must allow the priviledge that ingenuity challenges and suffer your fancy to create desert for me that it may show how handsomly it can acknowledge Experience the best Mistriss does daily show how to manage my umbragieux with more dexterity onely his uncouth pronunciation makes me sometimes put the bridle on his tayl and he kicks me for the mistake The Matstre de Hostell still keeps his state with the better sort of petticoats and we our station with the inferiour cattel which onely serves to show you how much I can suffer for my own interest I am not sorry to hear that you spur your Jade when he kicks but you ride him with so much skill that it were presumption to offer counsel By this time you may think it fit that I should send you your own excuse for bald writing being fitly applied to my scribling besides the faults committed in my English-French which if you will pardon I will one day travel into your Countrey on purpose to fetch you better French Present my Baise les mains to all our friends c. Sarah writes to you your friends here salute you and I kiss your hands that am Monsieur Yours R.L. LETTER LXII To his Brother Mr. A. L. Loving Brother AT last with much ado we are grown Citizens again where since we lighted we have scarce had time to prune our feathers onely my haste has snatched up this piece of a wing to tell you I received yours of the first of April with a resentment raised to a fit height to measure with the tall strong affection that indicted it I was about to say there was not a word in it but deserved a several welcome but at the instant I threw my eye upon some praises which I dare not intertain and if your love had but trusted your judgement you had left them out Distance deceives with both extremes by presenting objects to the eye too little to the apprehension too big we no sooner begin to fancy any thing that is not with us but we presently mend all its disproportions and shut our eyes upon every blemish this imperfection is almost as old as mankind and few breasts can boast they never harboured it I have grumbled at my Stars for placing some things beyond my reach which I apprehended would make me happy and yet I have seen them possessed by those that were quickly weary little less then displeased at what I overvalued But I straggle This Town is so metamorphos'd by this last Edict since I left it that bating my dead Companions there is scarce any thing that I can know with safety Certainly there is a mighty storm arising but where when or how it will spend its fury I dare not name Errour has humbled my Reason and unbusied my reaches at futurity to a quiet resignation to the great Disposer I cannot say my malady is more remiss then it was and have little reason to hope it ever will be but for that I told you my resolution which has since lost no spirits My trivial imployments have not suffer'd me yet to struggle withit this Spring but I am now about it I sent you a Letter by Mr. B. which I believe you have answered he had carried it with him into Lincolnshire thinking to find me there for we set upon this journey on a sudden c. Let these blots be pardoned Let me hear from you by the next Forgive my blind haste and call me Yours eternally R. L. LETTER LXIII To his Sister Mrs. F. My dear Sister I Had newly taken my Pen to send you a salute when I was interrupted by a Porter that brought with some Bands and Cuffes from my sister Jane your kind token and it pleased me that the same hour which puts me deeper in your score should be a witness of my acknowledgment Believe it I wish my thanks were as restorative as they are cordial but take them as they are and if it be possible to apprehend me more yours then you have done do it for it is impossible to be more then I am I should be glad I
I know not which way to turn my Pen nor how to shape an answer to those praises you lavish upon a toy that I cannot own without some blushes which was the onely reason it was kept so long from your knowledge for fear it should get me a deserved chiding from your severe affection for laying out my time with so much improvidence and ill-husbandry nor do I traffique with that stale piece of modest policy for an improvement of reputation because I disavow it like a cunning Angler drawing away the Bait that the Fish may follow it more greedily for really I speak my thoughts without a dresse when I tell you that I have much wondered how it comes by the credit it carries in the World and that so many judicious palats should gust a piece so insipid however it is I cannot content the importunity of some of my best qualified friends without I go on with this story and I think there will be another part out at Michaelmas Term if I come time enough to London to oversee the Press c. R. L. LETTER CIV To his Brother Mr. A. L. Loving Brother YOur advertisement of the happy Errour came too late to intercept the abortive issue which my Crest-fallen Muse miscarried with but I was never more glad of being abused and am friends with Fame for the deceit since it is like to cost me no more then a laughing at But reports of this nature shall henceforth onely play fast and loose with my ear as Juglers do with the eye and claim no credit till backt by apparent certainty Your imagination cannot fancy a more grateful heart then mine made so by your last courtesie a trouble which none but so perfect a friend as your self would have undertaken and though I know you are none of those that can put their courtesies to use and so become kindest to themselves in being kind to others yet I shall never judge my self truly happy till I be able to return yours with interest I would gladly find Doctor B. not mistaken in the situation of my malady and I hope my experience will hereafter assure me as now my observation begins to perswade that there is no flaw in his judgment I have a strong fancy that I shall reap much benefit by those lotions he speaks of and therefore when you go next to Norwich let me intreat you to take a note of the ingredients from his dictates for I conceive no time of the year unseasonable to take that kind of Physick 'T is possible Mr. R's directions as one well skill'd in such medicinals may prove available though I intend not to straggle the breadth of a hair from what Doctor B. prescribes We are now retir'd from my Lord of Lincolns to a house of my Lord of Clares in Nottinghamshire where a Hermit is not more alone then I this Countrey affording nothing fit to converse with but dumb companions as pleasing walks in Gardens Groves by Rivers c. of which it is not unfruitful that had I Adams innocency and knowledge my present condition would resemble his before Eve was created I have lately not without much regret lost my French and Italian Tutor who is parted from my Eady D. I am unfeignedly glad to hear of the health of my sisters and that they manage their deserts with so discreet a providence to improve reputation If you find Hymen is like to light an auspicious torch and the true-loves knot be worth the tying I shall not give a faint applause to the change of my sister K's condition I shall be glad to hear in your next that she draws in a happy yoke they shall have my hearty wishes that their sweet bondage may know no other fetters then what are woven by the soft hand of vertuous unfading Love might I hope the happiness to meet you at London nothing would be able to out-glad me but I do more than fear that we are to consume this winter in these parts unless a new kindled Warre do send us packing and then I am sure that unsanctified City must prove our Sanctuary that which makes it too probable is that my Lord of C. is coming down thence with his whole Family to increase ours here I pray present my humble service to my Cousin H. C. and tell him that if I can serve him in ought with his Uncle who lives within five miles of my Lord of L. Castle at T. which we shall often visit he shall not find my indeavours tardy I have not yet seen him but intend at our next going t is reported there that the other H. C. is grown a great favourite but if report sayes true he is like to plague their expectations with a most unconscionable long life as if Time had forsworn to swallow his humidum radicale to whom he yet has denyed the homage of either stooping or drooping I intend to send him a pot of red Dear which they say will be welcom I pray present my affectionate respects to my Sisters and tell my Sister J. that I am now in chase of a place for her which if obtained will pay for all her patience t is to serve the Lady A. W. and I intend to ingage no worse Soliciter then my own Lady her Cousin Jerman but I am afraid t is promised already and therefore let her not hope too much only if such a thing should happen 't were fit I had notice where a Messenger should find her for I intend to send one on purpose But I grow intolerable pardon this rout of words and call me as I truly am Your own for ever R. L. LETTER CV To Mr. R. Sir MY short allowance of time will only suffer me to tell you that I am what your friendly Courtesies have made me truly yours and will be ready to appear so when any of your Commands shall direct me how In the mean time take my hearty thanks for the trouble you have undertaken It was a request of that nature as without the aid of much Candor you must needs have constru'd Presumption but your ingenuity has help'd you to give it a better interpretation be assured I will strictly require of my self such indeavours as may learn to deserve these favours So if you please to let me know your clear opinion of this mans intentions I shall steere my course accordingly and if you find it requisite come to Nottingham my self and get him arrested before Occasion showes her bald pate I beseech you Sir return my Love and Service where they are due to my Friends you have with you Pardon my rude hast and do me the right to believe me Eternally yours R. L. LETTER CVI. To Signior G. SIR I Understood by a late Letter of Mr. H. and since by your last to Mr. H. that you had sent divers Letters to me which if so I cannot do lesse then wonder at the strange contrivance of Fortune in not suffering so much as a single
away the bait that the Fish may follow it the more greedily I am glad you wear out your Pencils so fast to your own advantage which however you shadow your deserts cannot chuse but add fresh beauties to your reputation I forgot to mention your quere about my Lord W. in your Cousins Letter who had buried it so long in his pocket before I received it as it had put on the discoloured Livery of time and proved its Resurrection by wearing the dust of its Grave about it But to the purpose that Lord is so farre from Collonizing as himself is newly transplanted from the Barbados where he was Governour by the Parliament forces and is now coming home against his will to refix himself in his native soyl and this is so generally known as a Diurnall of two moneths old will tell you the Story Major W. is much your Servant we seldom meet but we sacrifice a glasse to your health and if there be the thing Philosophers call intelligence of spirits you fare the better for it By that time you have read mine through his Book will be with you and come like the second Course to a Dinner which alwayes consists of the most delicate fare I send you this by my Mr. C's man who looks upon me as if he were scarce my Cater-cousin for you know what but in such cases I am partly good at carelesness But I have said too much unless I could have said it better and t is high time to subscribe my self Dear Brother Devoutly yours R. L. LETTER CXXV To Mr. W. Worthy Sir IN the forehead of your kind Letter I am charged with what I was never guilty of viz. Scholarship but should be of too much ingratitude should I forbear to shew you how kindly I relish these obliging Civilities the remembring of which I must not part with till I utterly lose the faculty it self of remembring Let me beg then that you will fancy me as I truly am perfectly yours and suffer me to tell you without suspecting Complement that t is no light groundless affection but a clear experience of what I saw was deserving made me love you for I acknowledge much affection in your resenting what you call my sufferings but it is my weakness if they be so for believe it Sir if the Peacock stirs any passion in me it is laughter which is the Daughter of contempt I may find a time hereafter to shew some scorn to be so treated but that must sleep in my bosom till opportunity wakes it In the mean time I am more pleased that there are some which conceive me in love then offended at the weak pride of others that contriv'd the comical indignity Sir I am sory that I can do no more than acknowledge your favours and blush that my defeated expectations have continu'd you still my Creditor but at our meeting that score will be wip'd off without fail and if my wishes were not too weak my actions as well as words should stile me Your faithfull Friend and Servant R. L. LETTER CXXVI To his Brother Mr. A. L. Loving Brother IT has not been the least of my discontents that I have been forced to let you want the content your last Letter mentions in the receipt of some of mine but this let me intreat that you will never suffer your conjecture to deal so unkindly with me as to impute a literal intermission to a flaw in affection If you knew how much my strict imployment does instruct me to say for my self you would grant I need not confess a neglect and if you saw how well you are seated in my breast your knowledge would suppress your doubts of my Integrity and leave them no possibility of a new insurrection The 100. Epistles did not speak all my heart meant you It is only in visible effects that my affection will indure improvement in my intentions it cannot but as it can only that way appear to be more so be confident it shall never find any way to be lesse but time is now too pretious with me to instruct you further in what you know I received a brace of loving Letters from my new Brother and his Bedfellow their expressions like themselves lay lovingly in a sheet together onely in this a little preposterous that he lay undermost indeed the man does offer friendship so handsomly that I should shew my self ill seen in civility not to accept it I perceive though you confess your self subject to the Palsie your judgement was not level'd at his desert with an unsteady hand the Character you have given him with what he has spoke himself hath help'd me to a longing to be known his Friend as well as his Brother but this will ask time and perhaps more merit then I am master of I am glad you do not yet let go your hold where you are and though the wide misse of some former aymes may discredit my judgement yet he that has but a twilight of Reason may perceive the Cloud not farre off that is like to make us more foul weather and while the Tempest lasts safe shelters are precious If you knew how glad your Letters make me and were lesse guilty of that rare fault of undervaluing your own Commodities you would see lesse cause to confess the exchange gainful but as truth ingages me I must needs commend the beauty that breaks out into your literal expressions with a daily increase of lustre I find you have thriving thoughts and though in men it alwayes holds not yet sure in those the height of the quality may be taken from the handsomness of the vesture if you go on thus your Pen will plant Rhetorical Flowers as skilfully as your Pencil paints others and this word Paint leads me to lay hold of half a promise which your last makes to send me the K's face in a Letter let me first acknowledge some eager desires of my own to possess it and then inform you that I have a design to let some great ones see what you are able to do and so make you known to them before they know you I will shortly tell my Sister F. how glad I am of her recovery present me dearly to honest J. and I pray take some occasion to let my Aunt H. know that I do passionately desire so to serve her as may speak her good opinion not misplac'd I am now about to struggle hardest with my malady but I am almost forbidden to hope a perfect Cure by a rational Physitian in these parts but I hope I shall obtain so much power over my self as to resign my wishes and will to his that is the Fountain of power I snatch this time of writing this from some occasions that would hardly permit it therefore impute these blotted faults to that mother of blemishes call'd Haste Expect another better polish'd at my neerest opportunity and suffer me abruptly to subscribe my self Your perfectly affectionate Brother desirous to serve
Loveday's LETTERS Domestick and Forrein TO SEVERAL PERSONS Occasionally distributed in SUBJECTS Philosophicall Historicall Morall By R. LOVEDAY Gent. the late Translator of the three first parts of Cleopatra Optimae sunt Literae quae in lucem prodeunt prosunt penetrant Cassan LONDON Printed by J. G. for Nath. Brook at the Angel in Corn-hill 1659. Lucid amant Pour Relever Wouldst know whose Face this Figure represents He was the Muses Darling in whose Tents He liv'd and dyde And on whose Shrine was writ Here lies the paragon of Art and wit Whose Actions Louday whose laureat lines Gaue Copies to th' Romances of these times For my Friend Mr. A. L. SIR I Received yours desiring my advice for the publishing of your Brothers Letters Truly Sir I should be very ungrateful to him unkind to my self and injurious to others if I should disswade you from offering those to the publick which in the communication may be pleasurable to all Many of them being written to my self and the rest as I suppose to his correspondents t is possible that in some of them the freedom of his Pen and Interest with the person to whom he writ might in some places make his expressions not so compact or so clear as the critical Peruser expects But doubtless he knew what he writ at the time when he writ but was not obliged to circumscribe his fancy either to his own continuing or the Readers transitory understanding yet meeting with one indued with a reasonable kindness and temper he will find nothing but what may be interpreted without any Interpreters I remember there were some other passages in some of them concerning the Transactions of that age wherein he writ subjects too subtile for a private Pen I wish them rather expung'd then expos'd for besides the danger of treading upon the heels of truth there is State that connexion between the secrets and acts of State that we as private persons cannot ought not to censure one unlesse we knew the other There are so many necessary mists cast before our eyes so many umbrages before the light that it were more safe for us to draw our Curtains and take a nap then to search about as Diogenes with his Lanthorn and Candle to find out truth We are so partiall in our Interests and self-concernments either of mind or body or both that mostly we account those things neither good rationall nor commodious which do not concur in all circumstances with our intire judgement or individuall advantage I wish I had leisure to peruse the whole Packet before you sent them to the publick but in earnest Sir I cannot spare so much time from my Intrustments It is my desire therefore that you will advise with such friends as have an affection to his repute and if they be of my acquaintance tell them as an incouragement to their expense of time my opinion is so farre as I retain the memory of them and I believe the rest are suitable that they are very choice descants Theologicall Ethicall facetious and solid The volatile part shewing the art of the Chymist as the fixt matter there is something to please all Tempers masculine and feminine martial and civil curiall and rurall satyrick and amorous and I doubt not but if he had lived the compleating of his Translation of Cleopatra or Loves Master-piece I know not whether he would have done greater right to France or England by making French English or English French the accomplishments of his Pen therein were so clear and genuine as if his private had consulted with the publick Genius of both Nations however I dare say by accustoming his Pen to these and things of an higher nature he would have proved an English Balzack I confesse I wish we were restated in our primitive Innocency when all our actions were naked and yet not ashamed and when our thoughts were imparted either by an universal Character or the harmless Hieroglyphick of a Dove or a Lamb but now how are we involved in the perplexities of our scribling So that well may the word Litera be etymologiz'd Litis aera the Epoche or beginning of all contentions we began modestly with the bark and rind of Trees till the following ages having thus destroyd their shady Groves tore the skins from harmlesse sheep that their impure Volumes might be countenanc't by those innocent Velumes and not contented to deprive these creatures of their intire sepultures they have perverted their bodies to gluttony and their skins to impostures and the latter Age hath even robb'd the poor of their raggs torturing them with Mills and other Engines till in paper they are made Legatives to most of our humane affairs and no sooner are they fitted with the colour of innocency white but compounds of poisons Vitriol Gall and Vineger emblemes of commotion do again die them with the sad and sable tincture which occasions so much disorder and unquiet to the World And now at last we seem distracted with the number weight of devices so that an Index Expurgatorius hath been practised by the learned and more fiercely executed without distinction by the inrodes of the ignorant Yet Seneca's and Cicero's Epistles have escap't may Loveday's have the same successe and estimate and then after-ages will not blame me for incouraging you to their exposure especially if they please to read and imitate his leisurable imployment I shall onely add this being diverted by some other approaches that I well knew your Brother valiant faithful and discreetly industrious in all the concernments of body and mind I was his Friend and am May 14. 1657. Yours J. PETTUS To his Honoured Cousins Mr. William Crow of London and Mr. Antho. Loveday of Cheston Honoured Cousins YOu being the top-branches of those two Families from whence the deceased Authour of these Epistles had his descent and thereby having a genuine propriety in them it were unnaturall by way of Dedication to put them under the umbrage and protection of any other He had many Testimonies of your affection whilest living and I know you retain his memory not unsuitable they therefore incounter the Eye of the ingenuous Reader under the patronage and conduct of your names Accept the tender of them as a pledge of my reall affection and if ever Providence smile me into a capacity of dressing my power in a more becoming attire I shall be ready to approve my self Cousin Your most humble Servant Nephew Your reall affectionate Uncle ANTHO LOVEDAY TO THE READER Courteous Reader THese Epistles are ralli'd into a body and exposed to publick view in the divulging whereof neither could the instancy of the Authors friends though their estimate had an high influence over me nor a reliance on my own opinion fearing lest it might appear too partial through my near relation to the Author act so strongly on me as to acquiesce to the importunity of their desires so tender was I of his honour in edition of his labours
till such time as by the perusal of persons of unquestioned judgment they were return'd to my hand highly approved And of these no inducement more impressive nor efficaciously perswasive then the incouragement of a person whose judicious pen has sufficiently discovered his abilities to the world by expressing him without any other additional delineature the master of a rich Fancy being generally known to be not onely an approved Professor but a constant Advancer of all humane and divine learning singularly vers'd in both and whose affectionate intimacy to this Author as it highly obliged him in his life so have his judicious lines conduced no less to the perpetuating of his memory after his death This may appear in the very first Letter which this person of honour was pleased to address to me wherein he has returned with a modest candor the opinion he retained touching this ingenious Author whose blameless repute and fair deportment in the whole progress of hislife mannagement of his affections and current of his actions superseded all censure The Author indeed had a resolution if God had lent him life and enlarged his houres in a parallel line to the apparent progression of his raising hopes to have seen these as they were by him occasionally composed so methodically disposed and completed and to bestow a meriting addition on his Pen in such manner polished and refined as they might have clearly discovered the precious quality of that Mine and purity of his Mind from whence they derived their extraction As for his Pen give me leave to return that opinion of it which all men who with recollected thoughts have seriously read him ingeniously retain'd of it his Stile was such as it knew how to present State without affectation render a modest censure without bitterness and close the period of his Discourse with incomparable sweetnesse Neither were his parts onely deserving his education and descent held an equipage to those Native imbellishments To the surviving reputation whereof I shall give you this account He was well descended his education was in the University of Cambridge where in his greenest years he did not shake off the yoak of discipline and devote himself to the soft blandishments of sensuality but was sedulous to his study and 't is like had atchiev'd some suitable preferment had not martial times occurr'd no friend to Science and disturbed his studies this made him run the same fortune with others who liv'd to study were driven to study to live for as that pure Italian Wit Petrarch sometimes said Mars his Armory and Minerva's Meniey run so much upon divisions as they seldom cloze in a graceful harmony And thus his determinations were forced to a hait but his active soul mov'd in the Sphere of Virtue and in those cloudy dayes was pregnant in something that still witnessed that Virtue was his Mistriss and many ingenious Pieces fell from his Pen which hereafter may see the World and deserve thy perusal if clear Fancies may suit with the constitution of cloudy times He had acquir'd to himself the Italian and French Languages out of the last his Version of Cleopatra which he call'd Hymen's Praeludia the first three Parts are extant and gain'd applause how his Letters will arride thy liking I know not do as thou shalt find them So I take my leave Farewel A. L. Vpon Mr. ROBERT LOVEDAY's Effigies LOVEDAY thy feature here by FATHORN drawn Though it display his Master-piece of Art It cannot represent the smallest grain Of those clear rays of thy diviner part The Royal fancies of thy loyal heart For those transcend the Pencil and must be No Objects of the Eye but Memory Upon the Embleme THe Widowed Turtle leaves the flowry Grove To solemnize the Obits of his Love Love day he may but in a secret cave He spends each minute on his Spouses Grave And when the Sun his glorious course has run He addes this Note O must Love lie alone Since Turtles tears such Obsequies do make We should be Niobees all for thy Love-sake For Fame averrs nere any di'd so young In love more richly stor'd in hopes more strong The Emble me explain'd LOok on the radiant splendor of that Sun Look on that Turtle in her Ebon-cave Whose amorous threed of life wov'n up and spun Look how her Spouse bedews his Widdow'd grave And in these Modells you his Embleme have The Turtle of his Bodi 's gone to Earth The Turtle of his Soul to her first Birth Nor must these two divided long remain Eternity shall cement them again Where these Two Turtles with Angelick wings Shall live and love and laud the King of Kings Upon the death of his ingenious and much bemoaned friend Mr. ROBERT LOVEDAY COuld pregnant Fancy Goodness or prompt pen Have here procur'd thee residence with men Thou hadst injoy'd it But Time held it fit With Immortality to perfect it The Law of Nature must give way to Grace And Grace to Glory shown thee face to face If this advantage over-strip not th' rest I shall appeal to those who lov'd thee best But Heav'n and Earth are of a different Clime So must we hold Eternity and Time He who has God has all he cannot want Though Pilgrim here there an Inhabitant Such is thy glorious state Dignum laude virum Musa vetat mori Caelo beat Hor. being rankt with those Whom though we lose they gain by what we lose LOVEDAY thy Name did to the World display That all thy * Tota dies opus extat amans mirabitur aetas Si mento juvenis mens foret ista senis Afran Day was Love thy Love all day Both which so joyntly in their Centre meet As they have made Eternity their seat Never did downy chin more sage produce Nor in his youth nurse a maturer Muse None more entirely dear unto his own Nor higher fam'd where He was lesser known Whereof his Cleopatra witness gives In which though dead his rate Translation lives NOr shall you finde in these Perswasives less Then what his rich Romances did express In his perusal he approves them such Whose Brain can judge or he has read too much R. B. LOVEDAY's LETTERS LETTER I. To Sir I. P. Sir IF I sin in troubling you with fruitless lines call it rather the weakness of my judgment then the error of my love which is in too perfect health to lie speechless The thanks I ow you I confess are disparaged by my feeble expressions but could you read their more secret character you should find them drest in a more becoming attire To tell you my best wishes are Pages to your happy success I hope were to Tautologize to your knowledge at least belief and though it be no forlorn hope it shall march in the front of my Prayers For your disposal of me though I totally relinquish my self to your discreet commands yet my humble and earnest desires rather aim at the service of Sir T.B. then the
with that grand Fox the better to get a Clue to his Labyrinth began to screw himself into Intelligence but when he came to sound his plots and perceive he could find no bottom he began to look from the top of his enterprise as people do from Precipices with a frighted eye and now finding the design not onely not feasible but very dangerous the other never using to take a lesse vengeance then ruine for such darings and then considering that his retreat to Rome would neither be honorable nor safe without attempting something he at last resolves to declare himself Richelieu's Creature and to win the more confidence unrips the bosom of all Romes designs against him This made the other take him to his breast acquainted him with the secret contrivance of all his Dedalian policies and when he left the World declared him his Successor and he is now the great Cardinal that umpires almost all Christendom and now shines in the Gallique Court with so proud a pomp But I have made my Story too wordish if time would have consented I think I should have pared much of that away which you will find superfluous but take this rude hasty draught for the present and expect the next to be better polished by Your really affectionate Brother to command R.L. LETTER IX To Mr. K. Sir AFter the wearing out of a tedious year in the dull Countrey where I met with nothing that had delight enough to charm the account of my houres I am gotten again into the precinct of this unwieldy City which I find so emptied of all those I call my friends and acquaintance as if I had slept with Endymion and waked again in another Age among the best of which methinks I do not sufficiently resent the misse of you unless I tell you so For you shall do me but right to believe that it is not in the power of new faces fresh acquaintance long absence with the rest of those ingredients whereof others have composed Oblivion to raze out those friends from my remembrance that not a rash blind imprudent choice but a rational election hath fastened to it Of you I have had an experience that made me desirous to get my self the title of your friend and it must not be the crime of my will if I do not keep it I am the more eager to assert it because I am confident it has a mutual relation betwixt us I pray let a line or two from you shew that you confess my claim is just and inform me how the Pulse of your body and affaires beat in these ill-tempered times Let it tell me too what you know of honest W.A. when you heard from him how he thrives in his Mercantile affaires and by what means I may send him a line For my self I still like a Mill-horse repeat my steps in the same Circle and I am contented with a mean shelter in this stormy Age for I left aiming at preferment ever since it was put out of honesties reach as I cannot take that upon base terms so I must not give up my resolution of living to my friends and therefore of being perfectly Yours R. L. LETTER X. To his Brother Mr. A. L. Loving Brother IF imployment from them to whom my thin fortunes have made obedience a debt had not countermanded my intents my Pen had not held its peace last week nor I been forced to set an excuse on the forehead of this Your pleasing relish of my last mindes me of such Palates as prefer some course dish they love well before exquisite dainties thus has affection taught your opinion like the Philosophers Stone to turn my viler metal into gold But enough of this lest Modesty should appear Design and I seem of that number that would improve their praises by rejecting them and like cunning Merchants send their goods away that they may return with increase Indeed I should bely my disposition and wrong my desires if I confest not that they are levelled at the good opinion of all but most my affection if I should not say it chiefly aimed at yours For from the object at which Love shoots most Ardour a reflexion of the same Rayes is most passionately desired but though I can let these into my soul with much delight yet the inward resentment of my feeble deserts must not suffer them to kindle the tickling vanity of self-love Reputation is the Mother of all beautiful actions it is the Taper that leads the way to all that is called Desert where that is misprised vertue is benumm'd and Reason it self falls asleep but it is not lawfully gained by such merits as make a noise on purpose to be heard they bid fairest for it that manage a bashful skill and as I have seen you cut faces on a Cherry-stone shew much artifice in a narrow Continent that will not brag of a broad appearance The commodities you exchange for my trifles have a better estimation here then with you for I must tell you my heart thrives by this pleasing traffick and grows rich with true delight I am now taking the Physick the Doctor sent me for our journey is still delaied of the operation I shall put my account in the next My malady still continues a cruel foe to my fortunes and in spight of all rational opposition does too often gall me with vexation and reproves Content when it grows too forward by this you may conclude how I would value the man whose skill could ease my mind of so heavy a manacle If you see the Doctor before your next I pray let him know that the neezing-powder I take constantly but have much adoe to perswade it to make me neeze once at a time If I see their means fail I am resolved to try anothers judgment but that to you onely I have no more time left than what will permit me to tell you that I am and ever will be Yours in the purest and most unreserv'd affection to command R. L. LETTER XI To Mr. H. Sir SUffer these few words without a blot of Complement to mind you of those Hospitable Courtesies you confer'd on one whose chief glory is that he hates ingratitude for which take my true thankes in the same simple habit that my heart has drest them in and be confident you have purchas'd a heart that will resigne the resentment of my happiness in such a friend to no other power than what at last will deprive it of all resentment This will be made good to you when you shall examine a riper experience of me in the meane time peruse this inclos'd and satisfie those friendly longings that spoke you skilfull in goodnesse that set so just a value on so virtuous a man I am assur'd if he had remembred the likelihood of my happinesse to enjoy your converse your name had been set there fastned to a kind remembrance however I know you will assist my gladnesse in applauding his health
from whom what I shall receive in the future I shall communicate to you though I hide it from all the world beside whether to keep it till I come or seal it up and send it back by this bearer is left to your choice Present my hearty service to sweet Mrs. H. and promise your self that though you have many more deserving you have not a more cordial friend than R. L. LETTER XII To his Brother A. L. Loving Brother THat we both entred the worlds Theatre from the same door is not enough to prove us friends too many like Cadmus backward brood not scrupling to crack the chaine of Nature this Iron age hath shown us But it is the kindred of our unbegotten soules is called friendship when their effluxive beames by the sweet constraint of assimulation meet imbrace and weave themselves like Ariadne's Crown into a Constellation Such a mutuall contexture betwixt us has pul'd the knot of Nature straiter and render'd the Union incapable of dissolution or mutation which is as great an Heresie in amity as that lately broach'd of the soules mortality since love strikes the greatest stroke in intellectuall faculties But as you say that jewell should not be beholden to words for its estimation t is best then to keep it in the Cabinets of our soules till we can set it in our actions Neernesse of consanguinity is not justly coercive to friendship When I am with my Lord which I hope I shall be very shortly I shall perfect you a more full account of my own affaires than I am now able in the meane you may confidently believe that I am Your entirely affectionate Brother to command till death R. L. There is good newes stirring but you must content your self with the generality till particularizing grow lesse dangerous LETTER XIII To his Unkle Mr. W.L. Sir LEst I should run the hazard of being lost to your thoughts be pleas'd to know from this paper that you have still a Nephew who has not forgot what he owes you nor suffer'd new objects and interests to untye him from those respects which besides the neer relation of blood the powerfull hand of amity hath fastned so I have often received from my Brothers pen the account of your happy and healthfull condition both in body and mind and believe it Sir you have not a friend hath outgladded me for your well-being nor outwish'd me for the continuance Instead of a better token I have sem you a dull translation out of the French Tongue I gain'd in those empty spaces of time which were left by those that command me at my own disposall if affection can help you to over-see the blemishes and teach you to excuse what your judgement should condemne perhaps it may help you to feather a few tedious houres when the fish have no appetite I still repine at my ill fortune that would not let me enjoy you while I was in the Country For Sir though I ever chiefly lov'd you for your own sake yet I blush not to confesse that I mingled my interest in what relates to your society which was ever so fruitfull of delight and complacency as it might excuse the greatest longer Well Sir that nothing may have power to discompose to storme or cloud the serenity of your dayes your quiet contentment that you may enjoy a constant Spring of happinesse in this Winter of your Age and want nothing but Want it self shall never be left out of the Prayers and wishes of Deare Unkle Yours c. R. L. LETTER XIV To his Aunt Deare Aunt IT requires so much unworthinesse to make me forget your obliging favours that while the sin lookes so ugly I shall alwaies loath it Though like Tenants that enjoy rich Leases from a Masters bounty the value of my acknowledgment does not exceed their yearly Pepper cornes Such a triviall payment as that I have sent you by this bearer and do humby deprecate the crime of my sloth that it kist your hands no sooner It is the wild fruit of such houres as I set aside to my own delight and never intended it should be distasted by any other palate than mine own but the importunity of some judicious friends revers'd that resolution and crouded it upon the Theatre of the world where it is like to act its part so poorly as I have more reason to fear a hisse than hope a clap But could you lend your Candour to all my Readers at least the errours would be but smil'd at and I should have no worse censure than young learners to write may expect who at first are not much blam'd though they make their letters crooked Well Dear Aunt pardon this call it what you please to him that thought it fitter to send you the errours than keep back the acknowledgement of Your most affectionate Nephew and most humble Servant R. L. LETTER XV. To my Brother A. L. Loving Brother YOurs arriv'd at my hands and was welcome because it put some doubts to flight that you had farweld Barningham I am glad of my High Suffolk friends welfare and joy'd at their kindnesse that was so busie with my remembrance for which I must yet content my self here to give the tacite exchange of an affection as sterling as theirs My Lords longer residence than I distrusted at his Father in Lawes hath yet kept us asunder that house being stuff'd too full already to entertaine any more but he is now upon his departure thence and I upon the brink of setling with him when I know my own condition I must not suffer you to be ignorant of it I have much cause to thank you for the inclosed lines and as much to admire the unconstrained purity of Mr. B's veine that has made Ovids teares to run here in so smooth a channell he is likely to redeeme him from the unskilfull injuries of other Translators that abused his sorrow with such a blubbered Paraphrase T is said Translations like liquors poured from one vessel into another lose some of their vital spirits and are rendered dead and flat to the gust of understanding I shall not flatter to say this has confuted the instance and made Naso complain as movingly as handsomly in English as he did in his Latian language But I ought to beg his pardon for the disparagement of my weak praises and yours for my tediousness which at this time shall sin no further and I hope I shall not stand in need of words to perswade you that I am Your inviolably affectionate Brother to command R. L. LETTER XVI To his Brother Mr. A. L. Loving Brother I Have but a share in my own condition till you have it wholly in account there being so much of my self resident with you that the part of it which is here goes but halves with you in every action of weight or moment I am now at Nottingham perfectly setled with my Lord C. My imployment is something too great for an unseasoned
which I since took at twice loth to take proofs of so much kindness as sinners do the gifts of heaven not to use them but abuse them You give me more hope then I dare accept in reference to that check to all the delight I can either taste or fancie bating some divine Idea's that by a speculative transfiguring my desires lift me above all those inconsiderable toyes that the World ranges under the smiles and frowns of Fortune but from thence alas the weight of my own weakness weighs me down again and I return like an inconvertible thief to the same Prison from whence punishment so lately freed me But we cannot be more then men till we be stript of our clay and put on something in its stead that poses our apprehensions and is best described by negatives I must make one among the admirers of your excellent fancy that could retain the impression of a face that time might have wiped out without an almost just trespass of memory but you were born to these advantages and do but methodically imbellish those qualities in single and singular performances that nature gave you in lump and substance The old woman my last mentioned is with much ado gotten over the threshold of the other World and has bequeathed her Corps to a Nottingham-Grave whither I believe we shall wait upon them about a fortnight hence but t is yet an incertainty What ever the Major resolves there must be more then appearance that shall make me forsake my interest here though poor and contemptible I know the story of Aesops dog that let fall the flesh to catch the shadow and you the Moral The Clock has struck twelve and my eye-lids grow unruly therefore take it not ill if I give a dull Farewell and abruptly call my self Dear Brother Yours eternally R. L. LETTER XXXVIII To Mr. W. My dear friend YOu had sooner seen a reply to your last had we not still shifted places like feathers in the winds and too much motion staid my hand I am sorry my last gave so hard a task to your belief but am glad it provoked you to breathe your fancy so merrily I should lavish words to retort your ingenious glances onely this if you disliked the extravagancies in it suffer excess of joy to excuse it which oft like other passions breaks out disorderly Well my dear friend let it suffice there was not a fyllable that was not meant before it was said and meant because deserved But since you do not like such Transports I shall learn to talk soberer though never to love you with lesse ardor All women have yet appeared so indifferent as the whole Sex was never able to give me a passion much less such an one what the old woman that Fate has marked for mine will do I know not I think I shall honour her venerable wrinkles and reverence her spectacles but she must have better linings then that Sex use to wear within before I can love her like such a friend Another flood of rheume has lately confuted my opinion of a cure and made me recant my brags but I do not despair suddenly to make it find another channel I pray let your next tell me whether Mr. S. does yet mention the token to you for if you permit I can tell how to hint it without reflecting upon you I am much afflicted and upbraid the shortness of my chains when I find I cannot serve you as I would and do wrangle with every accessary to our stay in this dull Countrey but all alas to little purpose for our return to London is both uncertain and unlikely Our friends in Norfolk and Suffolk I hope are well onely my sister Fenner is now sick of the Small-Pox but in my next I will be able to render you a more particular account of yours which I shall receive from my Brother If you would write to any there t is but venturing a request to M. H. to deliver it to the Norfolk-Post and take their answers from him to send to you The man is honest and friendly and I know loves you enough to do much more I have excused you to him My Lord returns your respects with much affection and I think has much love for you Good Sir resalute your friend from his unknown servant with much respect and tell him I shall gladly do any thing that may deserve his love But I shall grow too talkative I have no more to say but to beg you will still understand me as I must ever be my dear friend Yours eternally R. L. LETTER XXXIX To his Brother Mr. A. L. Loving Brother IT were superfluous to repeat how little the treachery of new objects fresh acquaintance long absence change of place c. is able to do in quenching that affection which I shall keep alive with the same care that Vest al 's did their sacred flame This you have often had under my hand and seal and you may be confident it will never be forfeited We are again setled at Nottingham where the advantage of a larger leisure to write is checked by the scarcity of opportunities but rarity does raise the price of delight we set a trivial esteem upon joyes that come at a low rate but indulge those we sweat for and thus we shall entertain our Letters like our selves when we meet seldom nothing so much endearing the personal interview of friends as when some large portion of time has crept betwixt them As we came down one of Fortunes spightful tricks of which I thank her to me she has always been very liberal made me lose the taste of a pleasant journey which was thus The day of our setting our appointed I consented to the earnest solicites of my dear Mr. W. then in the Countrey to let him know it caus'd by a desire of his to meet me at S. Albans where we had decreed to shorten a night together with such mutual solace as would have suffered its houres to pass by untold in hope of this he came little less then fourty miles on purpose which trouble he would needs undertake in lieu of some petty services I was happy to do him in his absence but upon the brink of our taking leave a Whimsey predominated and we must needs go another way by Alesbury which though I opposed as far as I durst was carried against me and my hopes of so much delight were sacrificed to an inconvenience for we went ten miles about for a worse way lost a Gentleman and a Foot-man that were sent the other and my vertuous friend after two nights stay returned with abused expectations I never took a peevish chance with lesse patience My Malady still continues to afflict me I pray let the Doctor know with what little success I have observed his prescriptions and if he can bethink himself of any other course that may prove more effectual I shall gladly use it I see purging will not do it and
is ready to beat his wife that she forces his promise to so slothfull a performance he salutes you cordially and seemes alwaies to be thirsty when he drinks your health But t is time to hold my Tongue Dear Brother I am and will continue unfeignedly Yours in all that power and will can manifest R. L. LETTER XLIII To Sir I. P. Sir I Received your Letter of April 5. which proved a soveraign cure to the suspition which hung like a disease upon my heart no corner of which did ever yet harbor thought or wish concerning you but what ever indevoured to indear it self to your future happiness And though Fortune has not smiled upon my longing for imployments by bestowing success on your kind endeavours yet I have taught my soul as gratefully to rellish the real intention as if its greedy desires had been feasted with the effectual execution I confesse my hopes took a sad fall in Sir T. B. but I had rather be content with the misfortune then that it should procure you discontent with the man Sir I find it fit to acquaint you that t is now my resolution to break the chains of that unthrifty liberty that has all this time led my wandring steps from the path of imployment to which rather then sacrifice any more of the precious off-spring of Time to the idol of Idlenes t is my vow to lure my soaring desires to a more humble flight and since their wings are too weak in a forraign shore to make prudential Experience their Quarry Humility shall train them to stoop at a domestick prey the means of which so it be not base or dishonest I shall want pride enough to disdain Nor did I ever want jealousie that the unskilful weaknesse of my worthless parts would render me an unfit Pilot to be imbarqued at first in the managing of a Secretaries place and my now becalmed thoughts relish it as a prevention of some disgrace by the kinde Providence that my feeble sailings might have betraid me to In summ not only the covet of my own desires but the promises of some friends have incouraged me to be at London at Easter Term where I expect if I am not wide to hit some happy opportunity of imployment to further which I hope you will vouchsafe him your testimony that alwayes was and ever will be Your faithful servant R. L. LETTER XLIV To his Sister Mrs. F. My Dearest Sister T Is now too late to express the passion I felt for what you have now recovered and give me leave to be glad of your sufferings not because they were so but since the Providence did ordain them yours because they were no greater My Brother told me the disease was not likely to handle you rudely as it usually does others and therefore I hope that cruel enemy to a good face has not left the footsteps of his tyranny upon yours It is fit you should believe that I am not onely contented to wish you happy but would be glad I could make you so by something else besides words but Providence thinks it fit that I should still be unable to serve the friends I love and therefore defers my Preferment by prolonging my unfortunate malady But the best is I have seen too much of the World to dote upon it You are grown very sparing of your Ink and Paper if you understand my affection as it is you cannot deny it the content of letting me sometimes know that you do so I should take it kindly to know where you are and how you do with other circumstances such as may be expected by so perfect a well-wisher there is so little alteration in my condition that it deserves not mention Let me know how your pretty boy does and how he thrives in his learning Salute all my friends you meet with my hearty love and service and be confident you shall never have cause to doubt that I will ever be less then I truly am Your real Brother to command R. L. LETTER XLV To his Brother Mr. A. L. TO give your Letter a meeting was business enough to invite me this day to London whence the scarcity of time does force me to tosse you my answers with the same dexterous speed that a Tennis-Player does a Ball that else would die on his side unrequited If sometimes then I send you my thoughts undrest blame the haste that posts them away in such a ruffled manner I am glad you incountred so much pleasure in going your usual rounds and perused the kind intertainment of so many friends to whom I ought to conclude my self ingaged that they cannot suffer my disappearing from their sight to deprive me of a harbor in their thoughts But I am sorry I can shew no desert to make my title good to so much courtesie I see you have discovered that the place I am in gives me no cause to be lavish in its commendations but I despair not to make your hopes prophetick in a happier change in the mean time till fortune clears up her brow and sets a better face on my affaires I am resolved to improve my slender stock of discretion in the industrious purchase of commodious friends and the provident husbanding of opportunities to drive on my more hopeful designes till the maturity of which I will neither blame nor forsake the imployment I am in But whatsoever burden my shoulders shrink under in spight of Fortune I will be happy in your felicity which be assured is wished as little subject to decay as Immortality it self by Your inviolably affectionate Brother R. L. LETTER XLVI To Mr. H. Sir I Know your affaires make you but a Tenant to your own time which it seems you rent at a troublesom dunning your rent-men t is no wonder then if such a throng of occasions should croud such trifles as my self out of your memory but you found not my name in your books and so made no account of me Yet now I think of it I had best say no more lest by accusing you I should condemn my self who it seems am guilty of the same crime viz. silence I acquainted my Lord and Lady with your Apology concerning the rent and they seem satisfied if your Valentine be offended with any t is with me for presenting her thanks no sooner and she will gladly double them if you can make your word good of my Lords coming down so soon for she is half impatient till she be out of this warm Sun into Gods blessing S. D. tells me you are shortly for the Low-Countreys I hope your ship is richly laden and will help you to bear a broader sayl it can be no losse to you to let a friend now and then take a commodity off your hands for you know what you shall get by the bargain But of this when we meet which I believe will be to morrow for so S. will have it In the interim I call my self happy that I am Sir Perfectly
you R. L. LETTER CXXVII To his Cousin A. L. Dear Cousin THough my silence since the receipt of yours may have done me some ill offices in your opinion yet you may safely believe without incurring the danger of an error that coldness of affection had no hand in the seeming sloth of my Pen the truth is I had a double perswasion to stay my hand as well to wait this occasion of my Lady P. going down that I might promise my self some security of delivering mine into your hands as returning an account of those endeavours you hinted in yours that refer'd to the removal of that unkind Law-quarrel betwixt your Sister and Father in Law by a mediated peace really dear Cousin I am sory to find my self in no capacity to experiment my affection to both the parties by rendring my self an instrument of so happy a Compremise and accord nor is it want of will or wishes that I am not so but after some attempts that way I find your Sister has so intirely resigned that business to the conduct and management of a discreet person that has now as he tells her driven it very neer a happy period as she cannot safely let fall or suspend her legal prosecution without running the danger of losing so powerful an assistant and therefore I could wish that you and the rest that cannot look upon her actions at this distance but through the Prospective of anothers report would not use her too severely in your thoughts till the last scene be acted for I am confident she has so fair a stock of piety and discretion as will take off the imputation of disobedience to her good Mother and unkindness to your self and the rest of her friends But I have touched that string too much unless I were able to speak to the purpose with more satisfaction I should be glad to hear your resolution stand firm of visiting London this Easter-terme yet I could wish your choyce would direct you to begin your Journey betimes in the Terme because I fear I shall be snatch'd out of Town before it be half elapsed Since affection help'd you to relish the first so well I have sent you the second part of Cleopatra for which you will pay too much if you take the pains to read it but dear Cousin accept it from him that will ever be studious to start better occasions to appear what I am and ever will be Your most affectionate Uncle R. L. LETTER CXXVIII To my Brother Mr. F. W. Loving Brother IF I were not skill'd in the ingenuity of your nature I should fear your construction of my silence but you have done so much your self in defence of that as I hope I need not despair of pardon I shall not pose your belief if I tell you that your last Letter like Xenophon of his Cyrus rather spake me as I should be then as I am and thus I am beholding to your goodness for difguising precepts in the shape of praises from whence I may take as fair a warning as the Dunce did that was commended into scholarship thus you have gently given me a copy to draw by and I cannot erre in my choice either in making your words or your self my original If you meant it not thus your affection deceiv'd your judgment and help'd it to passe by disproportions and deformities which it could never have overseen unless by looking with her opticks and I am contented to dislike my own want of worth because it cannot render your opinion justifiable I wish I could as easily obey as I do gratefully resent your kind summons to Holt But we are shortly going to six neerer you in Lincolnshire and then it is not unlikely but I may find an occasion to slip my collar for a day or two for no man tastes more happiness in the injoyment of his friends then Sir Your really affectionate Brother and servant R. L. LETTER CXXIX To his Sister J. My dearest Sister SUffer this to requite the sweet expressions of thy last with such as if they fall short of an equal kindness it is not the fault of the heart that means but the head that indites them and be confident thou art still as dear unto me as thy wishes can fancy me and to speak it better as thy own language has made my self to thee I do pattern thy own resentments in thy own behalf that thou canst not yet recover thy health but Providence has made us parallels in affliction as well as in affection and I fear borrowed from the same unfortunate cause c. though the effect be different for my malady still haunts me like a Familiar spoils my familiarity with all the world beside if this Spring restores my health as I am resolved to struggle hard for it I shall soon let thee see that my longing to see thee and my friends about thee is as passionate as thine but I am loth to come till I bring my self along with me and though my affaires here be none of the weightiest yet I thank those that contrive them they are urgent I am not idle though yet unsuccesful in thy behalf In the mean time freely injoy thine own and let what thou hast help thee to hug thy self and be sure thou shalt be happy if it lie in his power to make thee so that is Thine for ever R. L. LETTER CXXX Loving Brother WHile I was most happy in the converse of the most ingenious and communicable spirits I would have call'd your silence unkind but now I sojourn in a Land of strangers it cannot be call'd lesse than uncharitable for though I am very civilly used from the top to the toe of this numerous Family yet in this throng I am forc'd to find out solitude none here being made of better Clay than will render them fit instruments for Houshold-affaires and I confess I would be glad to overtake other qualities in him I fasten on with a stronger tye than the ordinary slipping knots of faint acquaintance I remember in your last since which you have had three from me you desir'd newes then there was none stirring that deserv'd your knowledge and now we are gotten so farre out of Fames way that bating the Northern occurrences she brings us nothing before it be stale with the rest of the Kingdom This stupendious Victory of C. against the perfidious Scots has made our Town of Nottingham an intire Gaol Indeed the delight I formerly took in writing newes to my Friends has lost much of its former reputation with me my most liquid discoveries as I thought of undoubted truths have so oft been confuâ—ed that I would not have my Friends take it ill if henceforth I prevent the censure of a weak judgement by forbearing to give them any more incertain hopes and feares by such relations My simplicity suffer'd me a long time to be cheated with that general error that gulls the whole heard of vulgar understandings I weighed
appearances in the common ballance my Imagination took the print of things from my outward senses and I judg'd the constitution of affaires by their false complexion But at length perceiving how wide I shot at events and what amazing effects started from unobserv'd causes I found not only my inconsiderable self but many that made a brighter show and a greater noise in the World with their quality and parts had been catcht in the same nooze and were still liable to the same abuse at last I resolved to try whether I could learn to see without that Glasse that had so often falsifi'd the Object at length by the illustration of some clear Judgements whose acquaintance I won by inches I arrived at this glimmering There is a certain sort of active men grown main actors upon one Stage that onely appear in their perfect shape to one another to the World a homely outside hides an out-landish lining Their Education has stor'd them with Principles of excellent Learning a Taper they alwayes keep in a dark Lanthorn and either shew or hide it as the season of opportunity the nature of affaires and the inclination of Persons with whom they treat do either prompt or prohibit They are the most exact Students of men the nimblest divers into dispositions the happiest in insinuation and the cunningest in compliance with all humours under Heaven In fine they appear to every inclination in the same shape the predominant humour delights in and with a provident policy and dexterous contrivance not onely make the vertues but even the vices of their active acquaintance serviceable to their main design no doubt they were furnisht with better reasons than you are like to have of me why they wav'd the Kings party and adher'd to this such as the short arms of my conjecture could fathom are these First they knew a Parliament so universally desir'd as this could not chuse but be strong in popular reputation especially having indear'd it self to them by that excellent beginning of removing unjust pressures from the shoulders of the suffering subject by finding out abuses and abusers of the Government and by promising that same costly word of Reformation both in Church and State Secondly They knew they could hope for no Harvest of their endeavours till they had sown pleasing and plausible insinuations in the eares of the inferior rank the Royalists they knew were no fit Soyl to entertain this seed they of the lower Region being incapable of and repugnant to any apprehension that at first gaze did not appear a visible aid to the cause that unsheath'd their Swords besides their too free and open hearts their careless and indeed dissolute carriage rendered them unfit to be trusted with any notion that demanded silence and on those of eminent degree they had as little hope to fasten their designs for besides that they hated any thing that but smelt of their best bait Innovation they wanted unanimity the main Pillar that should prop such undertakings for the study of advancing peculiar interest feeding the insatiate appetite of private ambition indiscreet competition for priority quarrels and hunting profit and pleasure with too hot a sent were the sad causes of that unfortunate parties undoing and the reasons why these subtile Engeneers found them unfit instruments to advantage their obstruse intentions Thirdly On the other side they met with materials aptly disposed to take that Impresse they thought fit cunningly to leave upon the soft wax of their tender consciences they were furnish'd with ready Mathematicks to take the height and latitude of these spirits which were as fit to carry on their design as a general discontent with the Government that was uppermost a vehement desire of Innovation the repair of ruinous fortunes and the loud fame of a glorious victory inscribed with Religion and liberty could make them Fourthly They had the inexhaustible Treasure of the Kingdom at command which they could renew at pleasure with the indispensible edict of an Ordinance with this unresistible Engine they battered their enemies fidelity bargain'd for their strong holds and even bought those victories that have cost the World so much astonishment nothing being so injurious to the Kings substantial rights as his own Pictures To display the cunning these creatures used in spreading their nets to give you a plat of the intricate and oblique Path they trod to their designs with what outward vehemence they at first declaimed against what they really aimed at how like cunning Hawks at the first whistling off they seemed to fly from the Game they intended to fly at lastly what Religion they intend to usher in by the toleration of tender Consciences why they lately crept into the shape and outward Profession of Levellers c. I should make a volume of a Letter and what followes doth ask a more ingenious and judicious Pen to delineate I thought it not unfit to give you this rude draught of my observation and informations you have here certainties and conjectures blended I would not have ventured them abroad in this ruffled undrest fashion but that I hope you will onely look upon them with the eye of affection and so lay them by however shew not their imperfections to any critical or censorious eye for it was hudled up in hast and wants the beauty of method and Language I am now about to give an eager onset to the study of Physick in which I conceive by this time you have more than a tast you cannot do me a more acceptable kindness than to vouchsafe your instructions and impart your collections unto me and I presume you make no question but that they will safely be returned with the interest of true thanks from Your truly affectionate but now sleepy Brother R. L. LETTER CXXXI To SIR IF reality needed an artificial dresse I would strive to put the acknowledgement of your last favour in the best attire I could cull from Rhetoricks Wardrobe but the true affection of a Friend is not so light a Huswife to jet it in gawdy borrowed attire such as the times polititians strive to cloath her Counterseits with I use no fiction when I say I love and honour you no supple flattery when in plain termes I thank you and of both I hope you are so well assured as I do but injure your goodness to repeat them That I trouble you with these blots pardon it and be pleased to think I had rather merit the guilt of importunity then neglect had I thought my personal appearance could have been serviceable to you I had gladly taken my Pen-imployment upon my self I am loth that any slighted opportunity should accuse me of neglect to him I owe so much to I could pursue this subject with such delight as non sic virginibus flores non frugibus imbres but I fear I have rang'd too farre and my Pen hath already too well shown from what wing it derives its pedigree I shall not therefore farther
favour who is Love it self If there were any alteration in my condition since you received my last Letter I should be ready to let you know it as one that has no little Interest in me but while I am here my endeavors do but labour like a mil-horse still repeating their steps in a circle alwayes going round but not a foot forward in the path of preferment I am now once more in a course of Physick for my malady and in hope it will struggle successfully with it but I am like to buy these desires so dear that to recover my health will sicken my purse but of the two t is a Disease lesse grievous I pray present my much affectionate service to my excellent Aunt H. her good Mother with the rest of the Family salute the rest of my Friends with love or service as they are due and to your self Dear Sister take the heart of Your affectionate Brother R. L. LETTER CXXXVII To his Sister J. Dear Sister I Have long forborn to write out of an hopeful expectation to find thee such newes as might claim a just welcom but now I am forc'd to say that my failing in thy behalf is added to the rest of my own misfortunes I suppose my Brother acquainted thee with my hopes to prefer thee to the Lady A. W. a Lady in whose praise I will be silent lest I should too much vex thee with the misse of so much happiness and it was a narrow misse for I procur'd a Letter from my Lady to her in thy commendations so soon as I heard her Gentlewoman was to part from her upon which the motion was entertain'd willingly only she replyed that she had intreated her Aunt the Lady W. then at London to procure her one there but she would immediately write her word that she was provided which she had no sooner done but she received newes that her Aunt had already agreed with a Gentlewoman which was then coming down and in honour could not be refused Thus have my unfortunate endeavours born thee no other fruit than false hopes indeed this failing does the more afflict me because I know the value of what is mist though we should besides have liv'd most of this Winter together in a house a thing so passionately desir'd of us both but we must not repine too much at crosse events lest in it we upbraid Providence the younger Sister does yet take none but when she does thou art sure to have it Mr. W. in whom I repos'd most hopes to effect thy desires is now out of the Kingdom besides our residing in this barren Country will much disable my industry in thy behalf I shall conclude with such advice as I believe thy discreet goodness does daily practise be still the same thou ever wert of a sweet vertuous winning carriage ready to pleasure all loth to offend any and thou wilt ingage even Incivility it self to use thee civilly and Inconstancy to love thee constantly keep still the complexion of Lillies in thy innocence and of Roses in thy modesty for if once sully'd the water is hardly purchas'd that will restore its whiteness thy disposition was alwayes intimate with vertue endeavour daily to improve the amity and trust Heaven with the rest whose blessings though they be long a coming will richly pay thy patience lose not a grain of that pleasant temper which makes thy company so much courted for there is nothing so happy here as those calm souls that can make unforc'd smiles shine through a harmless jollity But thou art born to too rich a goodness to need the charity of my weak advice but give me my Present back again and I will take it kindly and be sure you love me truly or else you will die much in the debt of Your truly affectionate Brother R. L. LETTER CXXXVIII To his Sister K. L. Dear Sister HAd I met with any thing that might justly have deserved thy aâ—quaintance my hand could not have been so slothful to withhold thee from that knowledge but concerning my self though my endeavours have not proved altogether fruitless yet I cannot say their success has answered my wishes but be assured if kind Providence favour my designes I will own no good fortune but what you shall claim a share in I shall be suddenly called by my affaires to Yarmouth and if I see you not before my return it shall be the unkindness of my urgent occasions not my own neglect To conclude if ever Fortune be dispos'd to smile upon me I shall not debarre my Friends of its reflexion in the number of which thy active affection has deserv'd a place in the former rank and in that perswasion I remain Thy constant affectionate Brother R. L. LETTER CXXXIX Dear Brother THough my present imployment be something pressing and importunate yet it cannot disswade a reply to you with all the Arguments that Business caâ— urge for to hold my peace because time will not allow my fancy elbow-room is to be confuted in Friendship and non-plust in the proofs of affection I confess I love a little to be pos'd in these Lessons to inure my Faculties as well to violent as gentle Exercise and teach my Pen to run races as well as walk gravely Promptitude in dispatch when it keeps a fit distance to precipitation often commits a happy rape upon preferment and takes Reputation by surprizal while that serious exactness that weighes and poyses every hair and grain does but clamber to that which the other flies at and I think the maxime is equally fitted to this and Fowling the first aim is best But I should call back and unsay these words because I have hastily shot so wide from the purpose yet to you I dare draw my thoughts with bold strokes I thank you for your last inclosed though my intentions of printing my Letters be defer'd till Trinity if not till Michaelmas Terme by the late interposition of some Commands that have ingaged my Quill c. Whoever of my friends you incounter in your Journey pray give them my respects in a due proportion You seem to hint some design of your own by the way that may prove advantagious I shall be happy to hear it disclos'd because by that time I suppose it will be succesfully effected for I perceive you are master of that old prudential maxime Neve to reveal a design whilest it is in a capacity of failing I cannot chuse but applaud your happy blending of the Christian and Politician which gives you a buckler of caution to defend your self but not a revenging weapon to return blow for blow If you see my Sister F. before your return present me to her with much affection The Major sends you his affectionate respects and bids me mind you of a promise to send him some Pictures upon Muscovy-glasses I told you at first I was in hast but have confuted my self by the tedious progress but you know how to pardon all