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
Phisick you must not say Mr. Doctor T.G. nor Doctor T.G. Esq for Doctor both comprehends Master and Esquire and of these the Divine hath first place the Civilian next and the Phisitian last To an ordinary Gentleman thus To my approved friend To my most esteemed friend To my much valued friend To my very much respected friend To my worthy good friend or the like Note that all the younger Sons of Dukes and Marquesses are Lords for their lives only and are called Lord John or Lord William c. by their Christian names The eldest Son of an Earle is a Lord by birth so is not a Viscounts Son till his Father be dead The youngest Sons of Viscounts and Barons are but Esquires yet are honorable and take place of all Baronets and Knights The eldest Son of a Baron is but an Esq during his Fathers life Esquire comes from the French Escuier in latin Armiger or Scutifer i. a bearer of Armes or of a Sheild and is that Degree of Gentry which is next to a Knight It is conceived that at the first these Esquires were bearers of Arms to Lords and Knights and thereby had their name and dignity Now to be true Esquires according to the Law of Armes they must either be Lords younger Sons Baronets or Knights eldest Sons members of Parlement Sheriffs Justices of the Peace Serjeants at Law Barristers at Law yet the late Earle Marshall would not allow Barristers to be Esquires but in the Act for Polemoney they were ranked by the then Parliament as Esquires and paid as Esq or of some ancient family that has it by being heir to a Knight in the right line Though now a dayes I know not by what warrant all Gentlemen that have but some considerable Estate in Lands take that title upon them when as the Estate though never so great adds no title And that the title of Esq should descend from Father to Son as the Estate of Gentry doth is meer fabulous saies Mr. Herne in his Glory of Generosity p. 100. Ladies have for the most part the same attributes as their husbands Both in Letter and discourse we give a Dutches the title Grace But to a Marchioness Countess Viscountess or Baroness right honourable and in discourse your honour and among their equals or in more familiar discourse Madam If you write to any of these the title Madam is very moding both at the beginning and end of your Letter But if the person writing be of much lower Rank then the Lady written unto it will be decent to say May it please your honour or Right honourable All the daughters of Dukes Marquesses and Earles are Ladies by birth and are called Lady Anne Lady Mary c. But the daughters of a Viscount or Baron are but Mistris yet are honorable And their Addition being named in instruments of Law or Conveyances is no more then a Yeomans daughter hath and that is Spinster wherein there seems to be some title wanting And for the better understanding the point of precedency I have thought fit to transcribe an abstract of two Decrees made by King James touching the same in the 10 and 14 years of his raigne which you may read more at large in Mr. Seldens Titles of honour Page 906. That the younger Sons of Viscounts and Barons shall take place and precedence before all Baronets That such Bannerets as shall be made by the Kings Majesty his heirs and Successors or by Henry now Prince of Wales under his or their Standard displayed in an Army Royall in open war and the King or Prince personally present for their lives onely and no longer shall for ever in all places take place and precedence as well before all other Bannerets whatsoever as likewise before the younger Sonnes of Viscounts and Barons and before all Baronets The younger Sons of Viscounts and Barons and all Baronets shall take place before all Bannerets whatsoever other then such as shall be made by the King as aforesaid That the Knights of the Garter Privy Councellors to the King the Master of the Court of Wards and Liveries the Chancellor and under Treasurer of the Exchequer Chanceller of the Dutchy the chief Justice of the Kings Bench the Master of the Rolls The chief Justice of the Common-pleas the chief Baron of the Exchequer and all other the Judges and Barons of the degree of the Coif of the said Courts shall have place before the younger sons of Viscounts and Barons and before all Baronets That Baronets and their heires Males shall alwayes have place next unto the younger Sonnes of Viscounts and Barons and their wives shall take place accordingly And in another Decree 14 Jacobi That the eldest sonnes of Baronets and their wives as well during their husbands lives as after And the daughters of the same Baronets following next after the said wives of the eldest sonnes of Baronets shall have place and precedence before the eldest son and the wife of the eldest sonne of any Knight of what Order soever And likewise the younger sonnes of such Baronets and their wives shall take place accordingly before the younger Sons of any Knights c. ERRATA PAge 3. l. 19. r Matter p. 11. l. 10. r Proleptoton p. 38. l. 15. r Jocus p. 43. l. 16. r Periphrasis p. 44. l. 35. r continuance p. 49. l. 19. r my Soul and l. 20 refresh p. 61. l. 10. r astonish p. 63. l. 18. r in Bac. p. 70. l. 15. dele the same p. 71. l. 3. dele in p. 72. l. 18. r hardest p. 69. l. 27. r enclines p. 79. l. 8. r forth teares p. 107. l. 34. r a sleep p. 112. l. 9. r her own p. 124. l. 3. r preterhard p. 128. l. 11. r there p. 134. l. 22. r over p. 138. l. 15. dele p. 142. l 2. r form p. 153. l. 16. r best self p. 170. l. 11.12 r intime p. 197. l. 17. r guift and l. 31. r united FINIS Prov. 16.21 24. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 H C. Max. 296. | It was a time of great rain
circumstance then in any other First you must begin every circumstance with a new figure Sometimes with Affirmation sometimes with Interrogation sometimes with Admission sometimes with Ironia Secondly when you upon every circumstance urge the whole sense you are for every circumstance almost to vary the words As before for Lamentable unhappy unfortunate heavy sad grievous so for Counsel Aâ—monitions Advice Exhortations Instructions Precepts Directions Again I say remember this kinde of Progression by circumstances and urging and aggravating all the points of a Sentence For you shall finde it used as much as any figure in Rhetorique by all good Speakers and Writers There are Figures that help Amplification and make shew of setting forth a matter fairer then it is The first of them is HIPERBOLE whereof I will give you some such examples as my own reading long since observed in the Arcadia Sometimes it expresseth a thing in the highest degree of possibility beyond the truth that in descending thence you may finde the truth Sometimes in flat impossibilities that you may rather conceive the unspeakableness then the untruth of the relation Possibly as for Hypocritical Hoste he gave as pleasing entertainment as the falsest heart could give him whom he means worst unto That ever eye saw or heart could imagine For diligent inquiry making their eyes their ears and their tongue serve for nothing else but for that inquiry This is the utmost that is possible But in the very frontiers of impossibility thus though a thousand deaths followed it and every death were followed with an hundred dishonors The world sooner wanted occasions then he valour to go through them Words and blows came so thick together as the one seemed a lightning to the others thunder Sometimes there is no certain quantity of a thing set but plainly and ingeniously told unvariably As Beyond the bounds of conceipt much more of utterance And this Figure is more for the credit of your wit then of your speech CORRECTIO having used a word of sufficient force yet pretending a greater strength of meaning refuses it and supplyes the place with one of more extension as I perswade you not to let slip occasion whilst it may not onely be taken but offers nay sues to be taken Where the first rising of the matter is upon Not onely but then upon the correcting Nay Again you must be content nay you must be desirous to take pains if you will write well It is the onely quality which in all actions will gain you praise praise said I nay honor This Figure is to be used when you would make the matter more credible in it self then by the manner of delivery 't is sometimes used upon passion without intent to amplifie As you stars if you do not succor me no no you will not help me O Parthenia no more Parthenia what art thou There are two contrary ways to this form and both lead to Amplification but in a dissembling sort The first is by Ironia which expresses a thing by the contrary by shew of exhortation where indeed it dehorteth As yet a while sleep a while fold thine arms a while so shall necessity overtake thee like a traveller and poverty set on thee like an armed man It was but small charges of idle money that the Egyptians bestowed in erecting of a Pyramis of Brick when the expences in Onyons and garlike for Workmens dyet came to about 238000 l. of our money Milo had but slender strength that carryed an Ox a furlong on his back then killed him with his fist and eat him to his Breakfast Titornus had a reasonable good arm that could hold two bulls by the tails the one in the one hand and the other in the other and never be stirred out of his place by their violence Here small slender and reasonable amplifie as much as if you had said great exceeding or inâ—redible Paralepsis the second counterfeit of Amplification is when you say you let pass that which not withstanding you touch at full as I make no account of any hinderance in other the direct studies of my course I value not my pains in collecting these Observations I will forget that I denyed the earnest intreaty of many kinde and learned Gentlemen that sued to me for helps I am loath to tell you they are notes of his whom your Masters of the Vniversity have thought as great a Reader and a greater observer then themselves I desire not that you should make any greater estimation of them then of a testimony of my love to you and a pledge of my resolution to encourage those lovely sparks of good invention which if you smother and quench in your self you commit a kinde of intellectual murther The like is used often in Progression But an other I urge not to you the hope of your friends though that should animate you to answer their expectation I lay not before you the necessity of the place which you are to furnish wherein to be defective and insufficient were some shame I omit the envious concurrencies and some prepared comparisons in your Countrey which have some feeling with yong men of fore-sight I onely say how shall our promises give judgement against us how shall we discharge our own Engagements to your Father if this time hath not taken his full effect of profit in our labours and endeavors Two figures properly belong to this kinde of Amplification which are called Accumulation and Division The first is a round dispatching of much matter not plainly and simply the same in sense yet tending to the same end as Loves companions be unquietness longings fond comforts faint discomforts hopes jealousies rages carelesness yieldings c. Spite rage disdain shame revenge came upon hatred These examples are out of Arcadia You may frame one thus All men exclaim upon these exactions Nobles Gentry Commonalty Poor Rich Schollers Merchants Peasants Yong Old High Low and all cry out upon the hard impositions of these burthens The second Figure differs not much from the first but that the first is a sudden entrance into a confused heap of matter This is a wilde and dissolute repetition of all that went before As you have heard of his pride ambition cozenage robberies mutinies in the City in the Camp in the Country What kinsman of his unabused what friend undeceived what companion uncorrupted can speak for him where can he live without shame where can he dye with honor These two Figures do not only make your cause seem better but skilfully and properly used do amaze an adversary of mean ability There are other Figures that come in fitly after Amplification or any great heat justly iâ—flamed Interrogation and Exclamation Interrogation is but a warm proposition yet it oftentimes doth better then a bare Affirmation which were but too easie and live-less a speech as The credit of behaviour is to cover imperfection and set forth your good parts better Thus expressed Is it not the chiefest
Theame or Story and as it were to act your meaning which is done either by faigning the presence or the discourse of some such persons as either are not at all or if they be yet speak not but by your imagination The first is by Apostrophe or Prosopopeia APOSTROPHE is a turning of your speech to some new person as to the people or witnesses when it was before to the â—udges or Defendant as Herein you witnesses are to consult with your own consciences and to enter into a true examination of your own memory Did you mark â—is looks Did you note his speeches Did you truly conceive the particular proceedings of the Action To the people thus Now let me intreat any man here present that thinks himself not exempted from misfortunes and priviledged from all mischiefs to imagine himself in my case and to undertake for my sake some few thoughts of my Distress Sometimes the occasion is taken from some quality or other thing whereto your self gives shew of life as Hope tell me what hast thou to hope for Love be ashamed to be called Love But to animate and make dead men speak is PROSOPOPAEIA as If your Ancestors were now alive and saw you defacing so goodly a Monument by them erected would they not say thus c. And as Sir Philip Sidney gives sense and speech to the Needle and Silk in Pamela's hands as learning as a Lily as death it self is faigned to live and make a speech Another way of clearing and reviving your discourse is by deliberating by entring into communication by preventing and answering Objections In deliberating sometimes you are amazed as Whom shall I blame what shall I pretend shall I make learning hateful to you by my reprehensions shall I make my silence accessary to your idleness It is not in my power It is not in my discretion to reform it Under this figure are Philoclea's wishes of Zelmaine There is another kinde of Deliberation which proposes many things with intricating or intangling a mans self as Nothing can assure me of the countenance of your love towards me if you discontinue the study of speaking well For suppose you marry into some worthy Family suppose they inrich you with some new friends may not a vain of thriving rob me of your acquaintance may not I lose you nay may not you lose your self in a labyrinth of worldly cares Sometimes we enter into Communication as Were it your case what would you answer Tell me I appeal to your secret thoughts Your friend hath esteemed better of his own stomack then of the eternal love vowed betwixt you and prefers the tryal of his valour before the regard of both your credits which must dye however either or both of you survive the combat Would you not judge him unworthy to be your friend that began his fidelity with an inviolable Covenant never to be an Enemy Prevention of an Objection hath two figures the one is Occupatio the other Subjectio Occupatio is thus You will say to me that in a factious Countrey it is the only policy to stand neutral I say not unless many circumstances help you viz. These if none of your friends be entred into the quarrel If you be assured that your wealth and discretion is equal to the best If there be a likelihood to scatter the reliance on both sides and make a new park then it is wisdom to stand aloof a while that if you please you may adde the victory to which side you will But having declared your self you intend to be upright you will grow contemptible you offer Reconciliation your strength will forsake you you dispraise your adversaries you will be deemed envious You commend his wisdom you betray your own weakness praise then his wealth his Ancestors his Beauty his pleasures but praise not his foresight nor his valour Are you Judge amongst your neighbors and inferiors be precisely just and rightful Are you Assistant to your friend be advisedly and throughly partial You would be counted liberal testifie it seldom but if publiquely worthyly You would thrive in bargaining let your transactions be private for many small breaches of conscience are more infamous then one great one But â—ffend not your conscience willingly to be Treasurer of all the Indian Mynes Thuâ— you see how Counsels Precepts and Sentences may be traâ—slated into the form of Occupatio and Subjectio Sometimes Occupatio is left out and an Argument brought to the contrary as Cecropia perswading her son Amphialus to offer violence to Philoclea presupposed that he would say He must be modest she replyes Each vertue hath his time the souldier that should march formost must not give way for modesty There is Occupatio and Subjectio in Arcadia if she contemned then thus if otherwise then c. Did I walk abroad to see my delight my walking was the delight it self He saw her alive he was glad to see her alive He saw her weep he was sorry to see her weeâ— He heard her comfortable speeches nothing more joyful This figure cannot be out of season unless purposely as it was in the fustian speech You listen to my speeches I must needs confess it you hearken to my words I cannot deny it you look for some sense I partly believe it But you finde none I do not much regard it There is another figure which hath been called by the name of Concessio But I mean to mistake Occupatio and Concessio one for the other till I can distinguish them better The form of Concessio is this I admit you are resolute I grant your determination is immoveable but it is in things against your friends judgements And in things against your own praise and profit OF EPITHETES EPithetes do much embelish Stile or Discourse yet they must be used according to the comparison of Demosthenes as sauce or seasoning which wheâ—s the appetite since they cannot pass for solid viands otherwise in his opinion there can be nothing more flat and of less grace Quintilian resembles a discourse which is stuffed too full of Epithetes to an Army wherein there are not more souldiers for service then boys for attendance and which is by that means rendred very great in number but weak in force and courage Conform to this is that of Longinus who advises that we moderately use such Epithetes as are not too high swoln nor far fetched but such as are apposite to the subject In these lateâ— refined days we have a kinde of compound Epithetes annexed to a noun with a Proche or Division as the Printers call it which are much used in Poetry and sometimes in Prose of which let me give you some examples and so leave them The Quiver-bearing Meads The Tempest-tossed seas The Wool-ore-burthened sheep The Meadow-loving sorrel A horror-strucken minde The Earth-encircling Ocean An Heaven inspired art Sence-distracting grief Fancy-pleasing faces The Pine-plow'd sea The Green-mantled earth Soul-subduing graces A Heaven-faln star A
severall pieces of stuff others to Anacrâ—ons Swan which had neither blood flesh nor bone The fourth is Respect to discern what befits your self him to whom you write and the matter you treat of which is a quality fit to conclude the rest because it does include the rest and that must proceed from ripeness of judgment which as an Author truly says is gotten by four ways by the gift of God by Nature diligence and conversation serve the first well and the rest will serve you In the close of your letter you must by all means endeavour to come off handsomly by avoyding those trite and over-worn conclusions Thus I rest So I remain Thus I take my leave the like and by taking rise from the next precedent matter of your letter make your subscription appendent thereto For the Hand-writing if you attain not to perfection it ought at least to be legible and the matter fairly written and truly pointed with Comma Colon Semicolon Period Parentheses Interrogation and Admiration points as the matter requires The last is the Orthography or true writing of words which though not much valued by some yet I hold a quality so incident to a good Pen-man that he cannot be said to be perfect in that faculty without it nor do I beleeve that one of ten even among Scholars are well skild therein And of this Orthography as it were too long to be here treated of so may I haply give you hereafter some observations thereupon LETTERS I. A Letter to revive Freindship in the Son by remembrance of the Fathers love SIR AS worth is not confin'd to place so not the affection of friends to presence your excellent deserts command my respects where ever your absence drawes these following salutes as the testimonies of my esteems and well-wishes In your noble Father I lost a worthy friend in you I find him again you no less inherit his goodness then estate this entitles me your neighbour that makes his loves lineall and sure and as neither with decrease so both to the augmentation of my acknowledgements The power of my friend is a shelter and joy his faithfulness my security yet I love for worth not-profit This name of Friendship I grant is spreadly appellative but the thing it self as rare in experience as lowd in vogue Your fathers love I enjoy'd in calm times I prove yours in the tempests of Fortune My confidence assures me he would not have faild the Test my triall proves you do not a certainty that precludes doubt and no less obliges my proportion'd gratitude It were easie now Sir to say were you under my Stars I would be the same I find you I would so nay should hate my self did I feel but an inclination to the contrary Yet all this evinces no more then what you please to believe Professions and Performances are not the same what I would be will not surmount conjecture your nobleness shews it self in effects irrefragable I know nothing can make me truly miserable but my self and as well I know and feel in lowring times how consolatory is the countenance of a reall friend such your best self to whom I shall always subsign my self Sir A most humble servant D.W. LETTER II. SIR A Great Philosopher complain'd that the Fabrick of mans body was defective For said he Nature should have made a window in the Breast by which we might look into the bottom of his heart to see when he speaks whether his words be conform to the dictates of his heart and whether that which we see without have an uniform relation to that within Trust me Sir though I quarrel not with Nature in this kind yet I wish my Breast transparent that you might see in what deep characters your affection is ingraven in my heart and how really I am what you â—ave made me Sir Your most faithfull servant T. B. III. A Letter of Acknowledgement SIR I Have long studied an acknowledgment in some sort answerable to your many favours but Fortune hath dealâ— so sparingly with me that â— who have most desire aâ— least able to shew my remerciaments otherwiâ—◠〈…〉 a course paper present yet I wish I 〈…〉 some â—aâ—ing monument that migh◠〈…〉 my engagements wâ—ereby 〈…〉 might know that though I had no◠〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 yet I had a heart to be thankfull which shall always pronounce me Sir Your most obliged friend and servant T. B. IV. Another THough my acquaintance with you for time conversation hath had the misfortune to be but small yet is my experience of your excellent worths both full and satisfied even to admiration With some natures I confesse much salt is to be eaten before judgement can be prudentially setled Others like the Sun or Light have power to blazon themselves in a moment This excellency seems to shine in your nobler constitution and this commands my so sudden esteem and affections Sir you have then a servant but he wants power to express how much he is so If I say all I am is at your devotion 't is not all I am ready to perform because desire and readiness surpass in me my too much limited abilities You see then your creature and instrument expects but your pleasure for operation as far as he is apt yet some offices he wilâ— undertake uncommanded viz his daily oraisons for your good chiefly that which is soveraign In which to make him more active your consent and call shall be the welcomâ—st imployment the world can lay upon him Future occasions may enlarge my expressions I shall now content my self that I have presumed to salute you with these generals whâ—m I have devoted my selfe to honour in all particulars Now let me thank you for all received favours for those immerited regards that began my obligations and continue my gratitude for your late kind token which was of multiplied value drawn from the senderâ—â—lf these find acceptance and their presumption pardon 't will animate him hereafter not to be silent that shall live by being if he may be as he would Sir Intirely yours D.W. V. A Letter to excuse silence Madam MY teeming hopes have been fed even with an assurance that London should e're this have been made happy with your presence else I had not thus long hazarded the loss of your good opinion by my silence since I confesse to owe a debt to your goodness which all the respect and service my poore abilities are able to perform can never throughly satisfie I beg at present but a continuance of your favours towards me and because I know you just shall onely expect them hereafter according to the measure of my services which I have faithfully devoted to your best sel in quality of Madam Your vertues humble honourer T. B. VI. A Letter from a Gentleman banished the Lines of Communication to a Lady in London Madam IF I could decline the thought of a necessity of being here and believe this Banishment to be a
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