pass'd into the soul Thus have you heard the brief but sad story of this good Ladies end and that from Sir Your humble servant T.B. LXXIV LETTER Sir THe punishment that Apollo inflicts of reading Guicciardine is a light one compar'd to this that you impose â—pon your self and yet you will only here play the Stoick in not acknowledging you are in pain Nothing can justify mee but obedience for persuming to offer this tedious Romance to those eyes that should onely look upon Iliads I give verses as Galenists do Phisick which clogs the stomack more then the disease I must confess we may view Cities taken kingdomes ruin'd and new worlds discovered in lesse roome It is a Poem that hath neither height nor profundity yet it has length it overflowes but swells not it wearies without ascents as Promenades do upon a flat In a word I shall think if you do not find fault with it and reprehend me it is because you are angry and will do nothing in Passion however it is a trust I recommend to your secrecy for follies are not things of the least consequence to trust a friend with And having now performed my promise with you I expect you should do the like with Sir Your affectionate servant J.C. LXXV Vpon the New year Sir AS all things sublunary owe their being to the revolution of the upper Spheres so their change And 't is just they should submit to their essentiall Guides Amongst other novelties the first mover had brought about the point of Circular motion that has began us a New year and promises many unwonted effects Whilst these appeare let us be the same we were constant old friends to God heaven and our selves Change though to the better argues imperfection yet not to change to the better were the worst of imperfections As restles rivers hast to their Ocean so ought we to ours which is God that Ocean of bliss repose and Center of aeternity Till here arrived we are in flux and variety Let us be so but hold the right way As Grace is elder then Nature so she first begins her year Astronomers commence theirs with the springs vigour when the Sun 's in Aries the Church is content with Capricorn When her Sun 's in the Cradle that Orient of Justice and mercy the Son of God The signes melancholy yet the forerunner of more propitious So let our sorrows shorten with the nights our joyes with the dayes lengthen This solstice if we follow the conduct of the right Star will fairly move to a brighter height a nearer approach dispell our mists warme our hearts ravish our eyes This rambling prologue is but to bring in the prayer that wishes you a happy New year and that regard of times winged Cariers which in running moments may take hold of the stedfast point of eternity This is the Center of circumference In which who truly fix may be moved but not from it Then as time whirles away the measure of our mortall being it will haâ—ten that which shall know no alteration but to be invariable Sir my complexâ—on suits the dead season at present and yeilds me but a languishing health Hence my pen's as dull You know when the bodies out of order the spirits cannot but flag I must suffer the one you will pardon the other And so to affaires that require no politure but what your patience shall give them c. 2 January W.D. LXXVI ANSWER SIR YOurs I have received read and read again and the more I read it the more I have a a mind to read it such are the incentives of your heaven-inspired lines which as they clearly demonstrate the truth of that Maxime of a modern Author that Eternity is the Port and Sabbath of all humane Contemplations So since my more earthy Soul and lesse heavenly cogitations are not able in due manner to comprehend them I wrap my self in this your learned sheet and say to it with equall wonder As Aristotle once did to Euripus Qâ—uia ego non capio te tu capias me T B. LXXVII A letter to a friend upon his marriage SIR I Have of late with held from you the Characters of my hand though not the welwishes of my heart conceiving you as close in the pursuit of your fair Daphne as Phabus was of his when the breath of his mouth disorder'd her dissheiveld hair For I perceive you have now ran so as happily to take the Virgin-prize may you be ever mutually happy There now onely remains the metamorphosis not into the Beast with two backs which the knavish Shakespear speaks of but of that more ingenious two into one unus una into unum which you have hinted so modestly in yours Your Daphne I hope before the arrivall of this paper will be converted not onely into Bayes but Rosemary which is one fragrancy due to her perfections if you have as I doubt not given her a true Character more then the Poet gave Apollo's Mistress Let this therefore suffice to give you both the parabien of Hymen's honours and felicities and to let you know I shall both expect and be ambitious to wear a sprig in honour of her nor will I faile heartily to commend you both to the great President of the wedding of Cana in Galilee that he may turn the bitter Waters of your long expectation into the Wine of a happy and contented life made up with the blessing of a good and pious posterity In which devotion I affectionately rest Sir Your humble servant H.T. Superscriptions FOR LETTERS to be addressed to all sorts of persons according to the usage of the present times If to a Duke TO the most Noble and some times Excellent or illustrious Prince And in discourse we stile him Grace If to a Marquess To the right Noble or right honourable And in discourse his attribute is Lordship or Honour If to an Earle Viscount or Baron To the right honourable And to begin a Letter we either say May it please your Honor or Lordship Right honorable My Lord. Which last is used only by Lords to Lords or by Gentlemen of some quality otherwise it is held too familiar If to a Baronet or Knight of the Bath we say To the honourable or much honoured And his attribute in the beginning of a letter may be Much honored Sir The like may be given to a Collonel The usuall attribute of a Knight was of old Right Worshipfull And of an Esquire Worshipful But these are much disus'd unles it be by persons of inferiour rank We say writing to a Knight To my noble or to my much honored friend Sir A.B. Knight these present To an Esquire we say To my much honored or most worthy friend T.G. Esquire Observe that when you write to an Esq you be sure not to say Master T.G. Esq for the Master is ridiculous the Esq including it So if you write to a Doctor of Divinity a Doctor of the Civil Law or Doctor of
precept I take the use of this to be in anger detestation commiseration and such passions as you seeming throughly possest with would willingly stir up in others The fourth way of Amplification is by Intimation and leaves the collection of greatness to our understanding by expressing some mark of it It exceeds speech in silence and makes our meaning more intelligible by a touch then by direct treating as he that should say you must live very many years in his company whom you should account for your friend says well but he that says you had need eat a bushel of salt with him saith more and gives you to reckon more then many years in his company whom you should account for your friend It savours sometimes of Hyperbole as that man that is grown gross is grown from a body to a corporation again for a little man on horse back He was taken for a hat riding on the pommel of a saddle Of this sort examples are familiar So honest a wrangler that his nose being betwixt was the onely cause why his two eys went not to Law So the hugeness of a Gyant is exprest by saying his skull held half a bushel of wheat This may be done with Ironia or denyal He was no notorios malefactor but he had been twice on the pillory and once burnt in the hand for trifling oversights So by ambiguity of the word he draws his sword oftner then his purse This fashion of Amplification I term Intimation because it doth not directly aggravate but by consequence or proportion intimate more to your minde then to your ears PROGRESSIO is the last kinde of Amplification which by steps of comparison scorns every degree till it come to the supreme and sometimes to advance the matter higher it descends lower It is an ornament in speech to begin at the lowest that you may aspire to the highest Amplification For example in reprehending the prodigality of Monuments I begin with the excesses of Alphonsus on his fathers funeral thence to Alexanders profusion upon one of his friends Tombs then to Urbanus towards his servant thence to Caesar on his horses burial after that to the Molossians on their dogs and thence to the Egyptians that charged themselves with the sumptuous burial of a Crocodil So seeming in some sort to admit the first less then the second and by growing weaker and weaker in the excess of every one as I proceed the last will seem most rediculous if not odious So Cicero against Verres meaning to amplifie his Bribery and Extortions It is rigorous exaction saith he not to absolve the innocent without money great cruelty to commit him till be ransom himself but not to suffer the parties to have access unto him without reward is wretched covetousness To sell the egress and regress of them that shall bring him victuals nay to take money that he shall have an easie death To put a price upon the strokes that shall execute him So much that he shall be beheaded at one blow so much at two This is beyond all degrees of most barbarous and intollerable extortion So in another example He was careless of doing well a loosness of youth he was inclined to do ill a weakness of flesh his minde consented to offend a shrewd temptation he committed the act an unhappy fault he accustomed himself to abuse a sad employment yet he did not this alone but infected others with his perswasion and seduced them by his example And not that only but detained those he had drawn in with fresh inventions and disgraced the modesty of them who resisted his corruptions with scorns and derisions which could argue no less in him then a most reprobate damnable resolution The rule of this is when you would praise or discommend any thing to consider how many less things there are of that kinde to which notwithstanding you would give some shew of importance As he that would render sleep obnoxious may say that Idleness which is less by Draco's Laws was Felony Or to give that Bishop his right that built two absolute Colledges at his own charges and indowed them with Lands Look downwards how rare it is for a Prelate in these days not to grant long Leases diminish the revenues of his fee. How laudable it is to repair the ruines of his own decayed Palaces and Granges How magnificent an Act it is thought for a noble man to build an Hospital How royal for two or three Princes to erect one Colledge And can there be such an unthankfulness as to bear but an ordinary remembrance of him that inricht his Bishoprick built two the most famous Nurseries of Learning in the Land was liberal to all wants in his life and left worthy bequests to all degrees at his death In like sort by an example of abusing the name of God To make table talk of a mean mans name were injurious to run upon a Noble mans title were great scandal to play with a Princes name were Treason And what shall it be to make a vanity of that name which is most terrible even to Tyrants and Devils and most reverend even to Monarchs and Angels There be two contrary ascents to the top of this form either by extenuating the means as in a former example or by aggravating them as in this last of swearing And may not a matter be well amplified in this manner by exchanging the comparison of every particular circumstance that the whole may seem the greater As in this example It is lamentable that a yong man should be offended with the advice of his experienced friend tending to his profit First it is a hard case that counsel should be neglected but harder that it should offend It is a sad thing to see any displeased with good admonitions but more sad to see a youth so affected Who would not grieve to have his advice ill taken but who would not grieve more to see his experience controlled Vnhappy is that youth that listens not to the good exhortations of the Skilful But more that disdains the instructions of his discreet friend He is miserable and unfortunate that quarrels with the sound precepts of his dear friends but more miserable and unfortunate that mislikes directions given for his own good and advantage This is a most easie clear and usual kinde of Amplification For it gives more light and force to every circumstance The circumstances are these The persons who and to whom the matter the intent the time the place the manner the consequence and many more Out of every one of which any thing may be made more notable and egregious by way of comparison And that it may the better be remembred by you let inquiry be made in every controversiâ— for the circumstances and compare them with other less matters and you shall hardly fail of discourse or be left on ground for want of good invention There is a richer shew in this kinde of amplifying by every
then by continued devotion to your self and service to purchase at length the esteem of Madam Your most faithfull servant T.B. XXXV To his Lady M riâ— complaining of her cruelty Madam TYranny as ill becomes a subject as a Prince and cruelty is the natural issue of that Monster To say your Ladyship is guilty of both in some kind is a truth undeniable For ever since fortune made me happy in your knowledge my affection hath had no Centre but your breast my faith no fellow and my constancy such as can never admit a change yet my sighes are unpittied my love unregarded my faith and constancy answered with nothing but your disproportionate denialls Nor can I without wonder consider that your Ladyship should be 〈◊〉 all the world so perfectly charitable to mee so cruell unles 't were ordained by fate That the first fruits of my love which should be the first step to happines must be made abortive by your incompassion Madam the more you deny the more fuel you add to those flames which if not suddenly allai'd by your pittie will consume my very being into ashes of mortalitie These are Madam the reall dictates of a heart that 's wholly benâ— To serve you T. B. XXXVI A consolatory letter to a Mother upon the death of her first born Honoured Madam THe sad need a Comforter and a Soul in desolation requires to bee assisted with reasons to bear the cause of its griefs That you are both sad and grieved I can no more doubt then I can be without a share in your passions That you have many comforters because friends many solid considerations from your own pietie and pious wisdome to salve your sorrowes I am as confident Yet as none more tenders your happinesse then my self so could not I alone be silent in this motive of your teares what I would say is Dearest Madam be comforted and this were 't in my power I would effect The reason of your sable thoughts the spring that streames your cheekes rise I know from the sad accident of your childs death It was I confess the first image of your likenes the first blessâ—â—g that heaven honored your body with the first pledge of nature the first title you had to be a Mother And to bee deprived of this almost as soon as 't was given could not but find and afford matter both for teares and grief in a disposition so natural and good But Madam there 's a time for all and a meane also What could not be denied to your sweetness must be moderated by your discretion 'T is true that sweet infant was yours 't was your first 't was dear and you suffered many dolours to give it life But withall you consider as 't was yours so given you by God as the first so more due to him as dear yet could it not be too dear for him that hath it Although of painfull birth yet that your throwes brought forth a Saint that your dolours were endured so soon to enthrone a part of your self among the Angels these dolours these throwes happily suffered Those whom God makes Parents he makes but Nurses of his own children he lends them to be brought up for heaven and if hee hath so soon discharged you of this obligation t is not so much a cross as a blessing Had it lived to mature age perhaps he saw danger both to It and you it might have been more cause of grief to you more loss to it self it might have been unfortunate in life in death unhappy 'T is not the being children of either good or great extract that makes them alwayes either good or happy And this perhaps God that provident Parent of all foresaw Be it so or not certaine it is the bodies but the souls prison wherein 't is no soner breathed from Heaven but 't is maculated by this corrupt Earth and in this as it longer sojournes so is it not only debarred of its true happiness welfare but also offends its great Creator and consequently is miserable Therefore would God make the cradle of yours its death bed that he might hasten its blisse As he breathed a pure soul into it so would he again take it before defiled by the actuall blemishes of sin Had it liv'd it could have afforded no comfort to your piety but being in health prosperity and pious and can it be more pious then in heaven more prosperous then in heavens joyes more healthfull then in the enjoyance of immortality O consider t is now past all danger 't is freed from all misery 't is blessed in blessedness it prayes for you And can there be any sorrow so great that these considerations cannot consolate O what more happy then to be so happy a Mother no sooner a Mother then a Mother to heaven Nor doubt dear Madam but hee that gave you this dear pledge of his love will give you more and as he took this to his own joyes so will he leave in its stead more to your comfort This he took to give it as soon happiness as being and therein to try your virtue and resignation to his will this as I doubt not but he will find so may you be confident he will bee bountifull a sure rewarder of your patience a prosperer of your soul body and its fruitfulness But pardon most honoured Madam my loves redousness and if in this unpolishd Consolatory I have errd let it be as it is loves fault a fault that your nobleness I am certain will remit Thus with humblest respects he takes his leave that will no longer bee then be yours the daily Petitioner to heaven for your most wished comforts of both Worlds Madam Your humble and most affectionate servant D.W. XXXVII To excuse the not answering a letter SIR THat I have committed so great a Solaecisme in good manners as to receive two letters from you without giving you humble thanks for either I beseech you ascribe not to any want of zeal to your service for in earnest you cannot make me more happy then in vouch safing mee the honour of your commands which shall alwayes find as ready an obedience in mee as any thing that most concernes my own interest In the assurance â—â—ereof I give you the humble respects of Sir Yours ad nutum T. B. XXXVIII Vpon a Motion of marriage Dear Sir I Give you many humble thanks for your tendring mee a wife and your good advise in that affair I well remember the Counsell of a prudent friend was not to marry till I were 30 years of age and then to have a wife ten years younger then my self because women especially teeming ones sooner decay then men I have also read that there are 3 principall motives to a wedded life Procreatio Prolis Conservatio Domus and Consolatio vitae Now the gentlewoman you write of in stead of being ten years younger I believe is ten years elder then my self and so may be in danger to