THE WORLDS OLIO WRITTEN By the Right HONORABLE the Lady MARGARET NEWCASTLE LONDON Printed for J. Martin and J. Allestrye at the Bell in St. Pauls Church-Yard 1655. A DEDICATION TO FORTUNE I Dedicate this Book to Fortune for I believe she is a powerfull Princess for whatsoever she favours the World admires whether it be worthy of admiration or no and whatsoever she frowns on the World runns from as from a Plaguy Infection and not only shunns but exclaims against it although it be Virtue herself and that which is most to be lamented is that the strictest Votresses to Virtue turn Reprobates become Infidels and with false and superstious Devotion worship the Golden Fortune and Flatterers which are the Priests offer false Praises thereunto Wherefore if Fortune please with her helping hand she may place my Book in Fames high Tow'r where every Word like a Cymball shall make a Tinkling Noise and the whole Volume like a Cannon Bullet shall Eccho from Side to Side of Fames large Brasen Walls and make so loud a Report that all the World shall hear it But if not favour'd then my Book must dye And in the Grave of Dark Oblivion lye My Lord THE Reason why I have not dedicated any of my particular Books to your Lordship is that when I have writ all I mean to print I intend if I live to Dedicate the whole summe of my Works unto you and not by Parcells for indeed you are my Wits Patron not that I lay the Defects that may be found to your charge for upon my Conscience all the Faults are mine own but if there be any Wit or any thing worthy of Commendations they are the Crumms I gathered from your Discourse which hath fed my Fancy and though I do not write the same way you write yet it is like Nature which works upon Eternal matter mixing cutting and carving it out into several Forms and Figures for had not Nature Matter to work upon She would become Useless so that Eternal Matter makes Nature work but Nature makes not Eternal Matter Thus she is but as a labouring servant and as in Eternal Matter there lives Spirit and Motion which is Life and Knowledge so in your Discourse lives Sense and Reason in your Wit Delight and Pleasure in your Mind Honor and Honesty in your Actions Valour and Prudence in your Prosperity Generosity and Humility in your Misfortunes Patience and Magnanimity in your Friendship Truth and Constancy to your King and Country Fidelity and Loialty to your Neighbours Affability and Kindness to your Enemies Pardon and Pitty But My Lord I must do as the Painter did which was to draw Agamemnon in that posture as he stood to view his Daughter offerr'd as a Sacrifice who when he came to Pencil out his Countenance wherein Sorrow sate so lively he was forced to draw a Veil over his Face his Grief being too great for his Art to imitate So I when I come to describe your worth by my Pen I find your Merit so far beyond all expression that I am forced to leave off Writing only subscribing my self as I am Your Lordships honest Wife and humble Servant Margaret Newcastle An Epistle that was writ before the death of the noble Sir Charls Cavendish my most noble Brother-in-law Noble Sir ALthough I 'me absented from your person yet not from your Favours they are too great and certainly not to be worn out either by distance of Time or Place and you are so excellent and Divine an Architecture that your Generosity never missed the true Measure of Misery and may our payment of Praiers be justly returned you in Blessings from Heaven and as your Bounty runns a Race with Necessity so may your Merit win the Bell of Fame which Bell I wish may sound in every Ear and as long as there be Ears to hear So that your Name may live still in Report When that your Soul is gone to Heavens Court Sir Your humble and dutifull Servant Margaret Newcastle An Epistle to the Reader THIS Book most of it was written five years since and was lockt up in a Trunk as if it had been buried in a Grave but when I came out of England I gave it a Resurruction and after a view I judged it not so well done but that a little more care might have placed the words so as the Language might have run smoother which would have given the Sense a greater Lustre but I being of a lazy disposition did choose to let it go into the World with its Defects rather than take the pains to refine it besides to me it seemed as if I had built a House and not liking the Form after it was built must be forced to take it in pieces and rebuild it again to make it of that fashion I would have it or be contented as it was which considering with my self I found it would be as great a charge of Time and Pains as if I should build a New one on an other Ground besides there is more Pleasure and Delight in making than in mending and I verily believe my Neighbours which are my Readers would have found fault with it if I had done it as I could and they could but dispraise it as it is but I am so well armed with carclesness that their several Censures can never enter to vex me with Wounds of Discontent Howsoever I have my delight in Writing and having it printed and if any take a Delight to read it I will not thank them for it for if any thing please therein they are to thank me for so much pleasure and if it be naught I had rather they had left it unread But those that do not like my Book which is my House I pray them to pass by for I have not any entertainment fit for their Palats The Preface to the Reader IT cannot be expected I should write so wisely or wittily as Men being of the Effeminate Sex whose Brains Nature hath mix'd with the coldest and softest Elements and to give my Reason why we cannot be so wise as Men I take leave and ask Pardon of my own Sex and present my Reasons to the Judgement of Truth but I believe all of my own Sex will be against me out of partiality to themselves and all Men will seem to be against me out of a Complement to Women or at least for quiet and ease sake who know Womens Tongues are like Stings of Bees and what man would endure our effeminate Monarchy to swarm about their ears for certainly he would be stung to death so I shall be condemned of all sides but Truth who helps to defend me True it is our Sex make great complaints that men from their first Creation usurped a Supremacy to themselves although we were made equal by Nature which Tyrannical Goverment they have kept ever since so that we could never come to be free but rather more and more enslaved using us either like Children Fools
unity nor conformity there must needs be discord and confusion reasoning is the cause of raising of doubts reason is to allay them so that reasoning makes a man mad but reason makes a man sober But some will say we should never come to reason but by reasoning but I say reason comes by observation of consequences and accidents and reasoning is vain inbred-imaginations without the experience of the concurrence of outward things so reason is bred with strickt observing and produced by fear of losing and hopes of keeping or getting but reasoning is bred in vanity and produced by vain glory Of the Senses and Brain SOme say that there is such a nature in man that he would conceive and understand without the senses though not so clearly if he had but life which is motion Others say there is nothing in the understanding that is not sirst in the senses which is more probable for the senses bring all the materials into the brain and then the brain cuts and divides them and gives them quite other forms then the senses many times presented them for of one object the brain makes thousands of several figures and these figures are those things which are called imagination conception opinion under standing and knowledge which are the Children of the brain these put into action are called arts and sciences and every one of these have a particular and proper motion function or trade as the imagination and conception builds squares inlayes grinds moulds and fashions all opinion caries shows and presents the materials to the conception and imagination understanding distinguishes the several parcels and puts them in right places knowledge is to make the proper use of them and when the brain works upon her own materials and at home it is called poetry and invention but when the brain receives and words journey-work which is not of its own materials then it is called learning and imitation but opinion makes great faction and disorder among them disagreeing much with the understanding in presenting and bringing the wrong for the right and many times with clamour and obstinacy carries it especially when a strange opinion out of another brain comes and joyns with the other the brain many times is so taken with his neighbour brains figures that he fills up his house so full of them that he leaves no roome for his own to work or abide in but some brains are so weak as they have few or no figures of their own but onely plain pieces and some again so slow of motion and so lazy as they will not take paines to cut and to carve or to try but lets that which the senses bring in lie like bags or stone and makes no use of them and will furnish his head neither with his own nor others but the brain is like unto Common-wealths for some brains that are well tempered are like those Common-wealths that are justly and peaceably governed and live in their own bounds other braines that are hotly tempered are like those common-wealths that make wars upon their neighbours others again that are unevenly tempered are like those that are incombred with civil wars amongst themselves a cold brain is like those Nations that are so lazy as they will use no industry to the improving of their Country so a brain may be compared to several soyls as some are rich in mines and quarries others pleasant and fruitful some brains are barren and insipid some will be improved with change of tillage or working others the more it is used the better it is and some the worse and though accidents give the grounds to some arts yet they are but rude and uneasy until the brain hath polished and fitted them for as the senses give the brain the first matter so the brain sends that matter formed sigured to the senses again to be dispersed abroad which sometimes is sent by the understanding sometimes by opinions so he that hath his senses most imployed and perfectest knows more then they that have not their senses exercised in varicties yet the senses give not the height of knowledge unlesse the brain be of such a temper to dispose them for the brains are like eyes where some are so quick as they cannot fasten upon an object to view the perfection of it others so dull they cannot see clearly or so slow they cannot untie themselves soon enough but dwels too long upon it so it is the discussing of the object well that increases or begets knowledge Of sense reason and faith A Man hath sense reason and faith reason is above sense and under faith for one half of reason joyns to sense which is the part that is demonstrative but that part that is not demonstrative is beyond the sensitive knowledge so as it fallsinto conjectures and probabilities and from probabilities to belief and an excessive belief is faith for we cannot call that a perfect knowledge which our reason singly tell us but what our perfect and healthful senses joyned with our reason distinguish to us there are two sorts of faith the one is divine which is given to man by an inspiring grace and the other natural which is by rational conjectures probabilities and comparatives Of wisdom and foolishnesse THat we call wisdom doth not onely consist in perfect knowledge or clear understanding but observations carefully put in practise in times of occasion which is that we cal prudence and where accidents are not observed but follows the appetites the senses perswade to take are called fools so wisdom is the clerk to mans life to write down all and the trustee to receive all the steward to lay out all but not the surveigher to know all for that belongs to a clear and general understanding one may be wise and yet not know all the difference betwixt a fool and a wise man is that the wise man seekes the food of his appetite with care observing all accidents watching all times taking all opportunities to the best for himself the fool runs wildly about without a sking or learning the best neerest or right wayes yet greedily hunts after his desires which desires are according to every mans delectation Of mad men and fools MAd men and fools meet in one and the same point of wanting of judgement which is to distinguish what is most likely to be the best or worst for themselves I say most likely because none knows absolutely but by the event for chance hath such power over every thing that many times it becomes rather her work then the choosers but yet she doth not take away the likelyhood or probability of it where all concurrences meet and though chance lie so obscure as the providen'st man cannot espie her so as to avoid her yet a wise man prepares for her assaults but a mad man or a fool leaves all to chances disposing not to judgments ordering or directing A man that is mad is not out of his wits WE cannot say a
to himself so it deed an honest man is a friend and neghbour to all misfortunes miseries and necessities in helping them with kinde loving and industrious actions in distresse if he thinks he can asswage them and do himself no wrong for every man ought to be honest to himself as well as to another for though we are apt to consider our selves so much as it may be a prejudice to another yet we ought not to consider another so much to the prejudice of our selves for justice to our selves should take the first place by nature where to wrong ones self is the greatest injustice yet to discharge a trust is the chiefest part of honesty though it be to the prejudice of himself wherefore an honest man should not take such a trust as may indanger him to ruine Of Honesty THere are two sorts or kinds of Honesty the one a bastard and the other a true-born the bastard is to be honest for by-respects as out of fear of punishment either to their reputations estates or persons or for love of rewards that honesty brings but the true-born honesty loves honesty for honesties sake and is a circle that hath no ends and justice is the center and Honesty is the sweet essence of nature and the God of Humanity We ought not to be ungrateful to the dishonest IF one receive life from two men the one an approved honest man the other from a known false cruel and deceitful man which in our Language is called a Knave yet the benefit is as great from the knave as from the honest man for a benefit is a benefit from whom soever it comes and if a knave wrongs me not he is an honest man to me though he should be false to all others and that man that doth me an injury by his good will is a knave to me although he were honest to all men else wherefore those onely can challenge knaves that have received the wrong nor do we truly receive a wrong by what is meant but by what is done for one cannot say he was hurt that escaped a danger but he that was wounded but as one should receive a benefit with as much thankfulnesse from a knave as from him that is honest yet a man should be more careful and circumspect in dealing or trusting those that have the reproach or the bold brand of practising dishonesty or knavish actions then with those that take conscience or moral Philophy in their way which are full of gratitude and fidelity and truth as one that is a keeper of his promise a loyal subject and a loving husband a careful father a kinde master a faithful friend and a merciful enemy Of Obligations AS there are some that hate and shun those that can but will not oblige so there are others that hate and shun those they would but cannot oblige The first is out of a covetous nature that thinks that all the good that is done to others is a losse to themselves the other that thinks the least good he doth for others the more power is in himself so both is out of selflove both the shunner and the actor Truth and falshood not easily known IT is very hard and requires much time to finde out falshood for though occasions make a man know himself in part and so to another yet not so fully as we may rest upon him to be one and alwayes the same neither can we without great injustice censure alwayes by the hurt we receive for ill effects may fall from very good intentions and therefore how shall we censure by the intentions since none knoweth them but themselves for although an honest man desires to live as if the world saw his thoughts and strives to think as he would be judged for an honest man would not betray the trust of an enemy either by threats nor torments nor fear of death nor love to life nor perswasions of friends nor the allurements of the world nor the inchantments of tongues nor any miseries of his own shall make him step from the grounds of honesty but as a God he doth adoro it as a servant he doth obey it and though it be the chief part of honesty to keep a trust yet all trust is not honest so as it is as great a dishonesty to take an evil base or an unworthy trust as to betray a just one Of flattery Flattery takes most when they come into the eare like soft and sweet musick which lulls asleep reason and inchants the spirits but if they come in like the sound of a trumpet it awakes the reason and affrights the minde and makes it stand upon the guard of defence as when approaching enemies come to assault but if flattery be tolerable in any it is from the Inferiours to the Superiours as from the subject to the Prince and from the servant to the master or from the wife to the husband But for the Prince to flatter his subject and the master a servant is base but most commonly those that envie most flatter best either to pull down those they envy or to raise up themselves above them Divinity and Moral Philosophy DIvinity and Philosophy ties up nature or Divinity and Moral Philosophy are the two guardians of nature yet some times they prove the two goalers to nature when they presse or tye their chains too hard all things have their times and season unlesse art puts them out of the way Nature makes but fortune distrusts as when she misplaceth her workes as not using them to the right Of Atheisme and Superstition IT is better to be an Atheist then a superstitious man for in Atheisme there is humanitie and civility towards man to man but superstition regards no humanity but begets cruelty to all things even to themselves THE EPISTLE I Am very much or very little obliged to my readers for my former Books which I have set out either by their approvement or dislike in not granting me to be the Author but upon my conscience and truth those were as this Book is my own that is my thoughts composed them but if I had been inclosed from the world in some obscure place and had been an anchoret from my ininfancy having not the liberty to see the World nor conversation to hear of it I should never have writ of so many things nor had had so many several opinions for the senses are the gates that lets in knowledge into the understanding and fancy into the imagination but I have had moderate liberty from my infancy being bred upon honest grounds and fed upon modest principles from the time of twelve yeers old I have studied upon observations and lived upcontemplation making the World my Book striving by joyning every several action like several words to make a discourse to my self but I found the World too difficultto be understood by my tender yeers and weak capacity that till the time I was married I could onely read the letters
by reason of hot Vapours from the Liver there ariseth such a dust of vain Phantasms as puts out the Eyes of Truth land when the Brain is slabby and wet by reason of cold Vapours which are sent out of the ill-disgesting Stomach there is such a Bogg of Ignorance that the Thoughts sink therein and can hardly get out and many times are lost in those Quagmires but when there is fair Weather of Health there is Pleasure and Delight Allegory 19. THE first best Poetical Brain was as a Flint and Fancy the Sparks that are struck by the Iron Senses and all Modern Poets the Tinder that take fire from thence Fancies are tost in the Brain as a Ball against a Wall where every Bound begets an Eccho so from one Fancy arise more Phrase is the Painting Number the Materials and Fancy the Ground whereon the Poetical aery Castles are built There is no such sweet and pleasing Compagnion as Fancy in a Poetical head The Brains of men are like Colleges and the Thoughts are the Students that dwell therein thus many heads may make up an University The Picture of Wit Allegory 20. WIT is like a Pencill that draws several Figures which are the Fancies and the Brain is the Hand to guide that Pencill where all hands draw not one and the same Figure but according to the skill of the hand so all Fancies do not run one way but according to the temper of the Brain some run into Invention as Artificers some into Verse as Poets so that all Wit is Fancy yet so much is the Poets Wit above the Artificers that his fancie cannot be put into Artificial Figures but is as the Spirit the other as the Body Allegory 21. WIT is like a Lilly the one is as pleasant to the Ear as the other is to the Eye it comes to fading naturally and if it be not timely gathered it soon withers and dies 22. PRudence is like an Oke it is long a growing and it is old before it dies 23. ON the Tower of Ambition hangs a Diall of Industry where the Sun of good Fortune shews the time of Friendship on the Figure of Profession 24. MElancholy is the North-Pole Envy the South Choler is the Torrid Zone and Ambition is the Zodiack Joy is the Ecliptick Line where the Sun of Mirth runs Justice is the Equinoctial Prudence and Temperance are the Artick and Antartick Circles Patience and Fortitude are the Tropicks 25. TEars peirce through the Heart of Grief and vents it out through the Eyes of Sorrow 26. SOme Eies allure Hearts as Falckoners do Hawkes 27. Thoughts are like Pancakes and the Brain is the Pan wherein they are tossed and turned by the several Objects as several Hands 28. A Pain in the Teeth is like a Gout in the Toe 29. THE Stomack is the Still the Heart is the Furnace where the Fire lyes The Heart is a Limbeck wherein all Passions are distilled and the Fume thereof ascends to the Head and issues out either through the Eyes or Mouth from the Eyes run the water of tears from the Mouth the spirits of words The Life and Death of Wit Allegory 30. FAncy in Verse or Prose is like a Child in the Womb which onely lives whilst it is in motion but when once the innate motion ceases it is dead So Fancy when once it is conceived and quickned in the Brain if it be not brought forth and put into Writing it dyes and if those Writings be once lost they cannot be writ again no more than a Child can go into the Womb and be as it was Allegory 31. WIT is the Essence of the Mind or Soul 32. THE Ingredients of the Mind are Knowledge Understanding Imagination Conception Opinion Will Memory and Remembrance these Compounds make up a Rational Soul as several Ingredients make Mithridate 33. DIscord is like playing at Tennis and the Tongue is the Racket to strike the Ball of Wit and the Brains are the Gamesters and if the Gamesters be not equally skilfull or at least very near they cannot play for one cannot play a Game alone there must be two that must be match'd together Of Imitation and Singularity Allegory 34. IMitations are like a flight of Wild Geese which go each one after another when Singularity is like a Phaenix having no Companion or Competitor which make it the more admir'd And though a good Imitation is good and those are to be commended that copy well an excellent Original yet it expresseth want of Invention that they cannot draw without a Pattern and it expresseth Weakness when we cannot go without the help of another 35. EVery superfluous Cup and every superfluous Bit is digging a Grave to bury Life in 36. WAnton Eyes are like Apes that skip on every Face and oftentimes put the Countenance out of order whereon they light 37. EVery little Fly and every little Peble and every little Flower is a Tutor in Natures School to instruct the Understanding The four Elements are the four great Volumes wherein lye Natures Works 38. THE Mind is like a God that governs all the Imaginations like Nature that created all the Brain as the onely Matter on which all Figurative Thoughts are printed and formed Or the Mind is like an Infinite Nature having no Dimension nor Extension and the Thoughts are like Infinite Creatures therein 39. THE Mind travels through Speculations and Contemplations on Probability with Reason 40. TEars are the Children of Grief which melting dye as soon as they are born But the Womb wherein they lye is alwaies swelled which is the Eye 41. THoughts are like several Winds that blow from every corner of the Head and the four Partitions of the Skull are East West North and South From the North blows thoughts of Melancholy which bring cold and chilling Fears which freez the Blood as it were making it thick and congeal the Spirits which otherwise would slow with Agitation From the South part blows suffocating Thoughts which cause foggy Vapours to arise which darken the Mind with Discontent from the height of Mirth and gather into Clouds of Discontent which fall down into Showers of Tears From the West bloweth malignant Thoughts which corrupt the clearer Minds and inflames the Aery Spirit causing plagues of Jealousie or a Famine of Despair or Wars of Fury and Madness From the East refreshing Thoughts arise which make the Mind serene and when the Mind is hot with Ambition caused by the Sun of Hope then these pleasant Gales of Thoughts fan it with Poetical puffs and allay it with the sweet Dew of Fancy causing flow'ry Sonnets to sprout out on the white Ground of fine Paper Womens Faces are Masks of Modesty to cover the Dishonesty of their Hearts Falshoods are like Caps which cover the Head of Knowledge from the Sun of Truth Or like Vaults or Woods that make Ecchoes where Words spread far and sound double and treble Or like Squares of Glass which make of one a
some Writers and others For some Ages are like old Nestor wise others like Ulysses eloquent some like Achilles valiant others like Paris amorous and effeminate some like Hercules striving to suppress Vice others like wicked Nero that alwaies strive to tyrannize over Vertue making War and Faction some like Orpheus Harp that charmes the spirits with Peace And as the Starrs have an Influence over every particular so they take their turns to govern and are predominant over every Age But I find I live in a Carping age for some sind fault with my former Writings because they are not Grammar nor good Orthography and that all the last words are not matched with Rime and that the Feet are not in just Numbers As for the Orthography the Printer should have rectisied that for I think it is against Nature for a Woman to spell right for my part I confess I cannot and as for the Rimes and Numbers although it is like I have erred in many yet not so much as by the negligence of those that were to oversee it for by the false printing they have not only done my Book wrong in that but in many places the very Sense is altered as for surfets sercutts wanting wanton like slaming sire to burn they have printed a sire Gunn and many other words they have left out besides and there is above a hundred of those faults so that my Book is lamed by an ill Midwife and a Nurse the Printer and Overseer but as for the Grammar part I confess I am no Scholar and therefore understand it not but that little I have heard of it is enough for me to renounce it for if I have any wit it is so little that it would be lost in scholastical Rules besides it were worse to be a pedantick woman than a pedantick man yet so ill it is in man that it doth as is were degrade him from being Magnanimous and Heroick for one shall seldome sind a generous and valiant Heart and a pedantical Brain created or bred in one Body but those that are nobly bred have no Rules but Honour and Honesty and learn in the School of Wisdom to understand Sense and to express themselves sensibly and freely with a gracefull negligence not to be hide-bound with nice and strict words and set Phrases as if the Wit were created in the Inkhorn and not in the Brain besides say some should onebring up a new way of speaking then were the former Grammar of no effect besides I do perceive no strong reason to contradict but that every one may be his own Grammarian if by his natural Gramar he can make his Hearers understand his sense for though there must be Rules in a language to make it sociable yet those Rules may be strictor than need to be and to be too strict makes them to be too unpleasant and uneasy But Language should be like Garments for though every particular Garment hath a general Cut yet their Trimmings may be different and not go out of the fashion so Wit may place Words to its own becoming delight and advantage and not alter Langage nor obstruct the Sense for the more liberty we have of Words the clearer is Sense delivered As for Wit it is wilde and fantastical and therefore must have no set Rules for Rules Curb and Shackle it and in that Bondage it dies The Worlds Olio LIB II. PART I. The Vulgar Part of Mankind Allegory MOST Mens Minds are Insipid having no Balsamical Virtue therein they are as the Terra Damnata of Nature And their Brains most commonly are like Barren Grounds which bear nothing but Mossy Ignorance no Flowers of Wit The Course of their Lives are like those that dig in a Coal-pit their Actions as the Coals therein by which they are smucht and blackt with Infamy or else their Actions are like a Sexton which digs a Grave to bury the Life in Oblivion Allegory 1. THE Mind is like a Commonwealth and the Thoughts as the Citizens therein or the Thoughts are like Houshold-servants who are busily imployed about the Minds Affairs who is the Master Allegory 2. Quick busy Thoughts suck Vapour from the Stomach to the Head as Water through a Straw sucked by the Mouth But strong working Thoughts draw Vapours up as Water is drawn with Buckets out of a Well Allegory 3. THE Brain of a man is the Globe of the Earth and Knowledge is the Sun that gives the light therein Understanding is the Moon that changeth according as it receivs light from the Sun of Knowledge Ignorance is the Shadow that causeth an Eclipse the four Quarters are Infancy Youth Manhood and Age for Experience makes the full Moon Or Knowledge is the Brain and Understanding the Eyes of the Brain where all eyes do not see clearly some are purblind those can only perceive but not with perfect distinctions some Squint and to those all Objects seem double like a Fanus face some are weak either by Sickness or by Age and they see all as in a Mist thick and obscure some are starck blind and they see nothing at all Thus they that have clear eyes of Understanding in the brain of Knowledge have a good and solid Judgement the Purblinde is to be obstinate in an Opinion making no distinction of Reason a Squint is to be doubtfull which makes double Objects as whether it be or be not a weak Eye is to have a narrow Capacity to be blind is to be a very Fool. Allegory 4. THE World is the Ground whereon the Mind draws and designs with the Pencils of Appetite the actions of Life mixing the Colours of several Objects together with the Oil of Thoughts and Dislikes are the Dark Colours which shaddow the Light of pleasures Allegory 5. THE Mind is a Garden where all manner of Seeds be sown Prosperities are the fine painted Tulips Innocency the white Lillies the four Vertues are the sweet Gilliflowers Roses Violets and Prim-roses Learning is the tastable and savoury Herbs Afflictions are Rue Wormwood Rubarb which are bitter to the Taste but yet wholsome and beneficial to the curing the sick and distempered Soul purging the superfluous vanity thereof and serve as Antidotes against Vice as Pride Ambition Extortion Covetousness and the like which are Night-shade and Helebore Poppy is Stupidity Sloth and Ignorance are Weeds which serve for no use Allegory 6. THE Thoughts are like Stars in the Firmament where some are fix'd others like the wandring Planers others again are only like Meteors which when their Substance is wasted their Light goeth out their Understanding is like the Sun which gives Light to all the rest of the Thoughts Memory is like the Moon which hath its New its Full and its Wain Allegory 7. MAN is like the Globe of the World and his Head as the highest Region wherein Knowledge as the Sun runs in the Ecliptick Line of Reason and gives light of Understanding to all the rest of the Thoughts as
the Planets which move by degrees in their several Orbes some slower and some faster Ignorance is the total Eclips and violent Passions as dark Clouds that Viel the face thereof which is only seen by the shadowes but not in its full Glory Allegory 8. THE World is a Shopp which sells all manner of Commodities to the Soul and Senses the price are Good Actions and Bad for which they have Salvation or Damnation Peace or War Pleasure or Pain Delight or Grief Allegory 9. THE Earth is the great Merchant of the World trafficking with the Sun and the rest of the Planets whose Store-Houses are the several Regions from whence she fetches in Ships of attraction her several Commodities Heat and Moisture whereof she makes Life and sells it to several Creatures who pay her Death for the same Allegory 10. THE World is like the Sea and Life and Death the flowing and ebbing thereof Warrs are the Stormes that make it rough in Billows of Faction and the Tongues of Men by their loud Reports are as the Roating thereof but Peace is the Calm which makes it so smooth that the face of Tranquillity is seen therein Prosperity is the Sun which throwes its Beams of Plenty thereon but Adversity is as dark Clouds which hang full of Discontent and oft times fall in Showers of Desolation and Destruction Of the World Allegory 11. THE World is like a great City wherein is much Commerce through which runs a great Navigable River of Ambition Ebbing and Flowing with Hope and Doubt having Barks of Self-conceit floating thereon filled with Pride and Scorn and Merchants of Faction setting forth Ships of Trouble to bring in Power and Authority which Ships by the Storms of Warr are oft times rackt where all Happiness and Peace is drown'd in the Waves of Misery and Discontent but Silver Vows Gilded Promises and Golden Expectations make a glorious shew like a Goldsmiths Shop and though the Substance doth not waste yet it is often melted by cross accidents and forgetfullness and the fashions alter according to the Humours of the time Hard Hearts bold Faces feared Consciences and rash Actions are the Brass and Iron that make the Instruments of War Of Fortune Allegory 12. FOrtune is a Mountebank cozening and cheating Mankind acting upon the Stage of the World where Prosperity plaies the part of a Fool to allure the Multitude inticeing them to buy her Druggs of Follies and Vanities or Antidotes of Experience against her poysons of Miseries which Poysons are many times so strong that they kill having no remedy but she cares not so her Ware be sold whether they live or dye A man is like a Cabinet of Toies wherin are some false Drawers of deceit which none can discover to the view of the World but Prosperity and Adversity The Tongue is a Key which unlocks the door of the Ears and lets in Flattery as those that steal Affection from the Heart The Heart of a man is the Church of Controversie and the Tongue is the Sophisterian-Pricst which preacheth false Doctrin Allegory 13. IN the Head of man was a Diet call'd and Wit chosen Emperour he was an active Prince and so ingenious that he had Trade and Traffick not only with every kingdome but he made his advantage upon every Thing besides he kept his Kingdom in Peace setting his Subjects Thoughts on work lest they should become idle and so grow factious for want of imployment and somtimes to recreate them he makes Maskques and Plaies Balls and Songs to which they dance upon the feet of Numbers but if this Emperour did chance to make War upon his Neighbours he never went forth himself but sent his satyrical Jests out which march'd upon grounds of white paper arm'd with black ink and sighting with sharp words where most commonly they rout his Enemies with Scorn or kill them with Reproach and bury them with Infamy Allegory 14. THE several Brains of men are like to several Governments or Kingdomes the Monarchical Brain is where Reason rules as sole King and is inthron'd in the Chair of Wisedom which keeps the Vulgar Thoughts in Peace and Obedience not daring to rise up in Rebellious Passions but the Aristocratical Brain is where some Few but strong Opinions govern all the Thoughts these Governors most commonly are Tyrannical executing their Authority by Obstinacy but in the Republike Brain there is no certain Government nor setled Governour for the Power lies among the Vulgar Thoughts who are alwaies Placing and Displacing one while a vain Imagination is carried in the Chair of Ignorance and cryed up with applause by the idle and loose Thoughts and in a short time after thrown out with Accusation and Exclamation and afterwards executed upon the Block of Stupidity and so Conceptions of all sorts are most commonly served with the same sauce and if by chance they set up Reason or Truth they fare no better for the inconstant Multitude of Rude and Illiterate Thoughts displaces them again and off-times executes them upon the Scaffold of Injustice with the sword of Falshood Allegory 15. THE Head of Man is like a Wilderness where Thoughts as several Creatures live therein 25 Coveting Thoughs which hunt after our Appetites which never leave feeding untill their desires are satisfied or indeed they are glutted others so fearfull that every Object is apt to startle them and others so dull and slow like crawling Worms others so elevated like Birds they fly in Aery Imaginations and many above all possibility Allegory 16. MAN and the World do resemble much The Heart is like the Torrid Zone and the slame blazes there as the Sun which sends forth Raies through the Eyes that draw in Affections where some Objects are like the gross Vapours which gather into Clouds of Melancholy which darkens the resplendent lights of Joy quashes the natural Heat and nourisheth Humours wherewith the Health is impaired and the body becomes lean barren and cold but when the Heat of the Heart dissipates those Vapours it either turns into windy Throbs or Showers of Tears or thundring Grones or else it rarifies into a Christalline Tranquillity Allegory 17. THE Spirit Travells in Ships of Medium from the Kingdome of the Brain hoisting up the Sails of the eye-lids being well ballanced with clear sight puts forth from the Optick Port through the Haven of the round circle in the Ball and when it is full freighted with Objects returns and paies knowledge for Custome to the Soul its King whereby the Kingdome growes rich in Understanding besides the curiosity of Fancy But withall it fills the Kingdome full of vain Opinions which are able to Rebell with the Pride of Self-conceit Allegory 18. THE Brain is like a Perspective-glass and the Understanding is the Eye to discover the Truth Follies and Falshood in the World The Brain is like a Forest and the Thoughts as Passengers that travell therein making Inrodes and beating out Paths And when the Brain is very dry
the power to keep a Friendship for there was never any of our Senses that could constantly be unwearied of any one Subject or Object having naturally a various quality which makes them great Admirers but uncertain Lovers and Friends neither is it altogether the Strength of Love but the Length that makes a perfect Friendship Friendship of Kings SOme say that Kings are unhappy because they cannot have a Bosome-friend for there must be some Equality for True Friendship and a Prince makes himself a Subject or his Subject as great as himself in making particular Friendships which may cause Danger to his Person and State But a King that hath Loyal Subjects wants no Friend But say they a Friend is to open and disburthen the Thoughts from his Heart of all Joys Griefs and Secrets which are not so convenient or satisfactory to be published to all his Loyal Subjects To all which may be answered that his Privy Council is a Secret Friend where he may and ought to disburthen his Mind being an united Body or should be so which will increase his Joys with their Joys and ease his Griefs with their Counsel which is the part of a Friend So as a Privy Council to Kings is as a Private Friend to another Man Friendship of Parents and Children IT is said Parents and Children cannot have Friendship for they must have no tyes of Nature but be Voluntary and Free where in Parents it is rather a Self love or Self-interest than a clear Friendship Where I answer that there can be no Friendship but proceeds from Self-love and Interest for their delight is in their Friend and to dye for a Friend is because they cannot live without him Besides say they there is a Bar that hinders the Friendship of Parents and Children which is the Duty and Respect which ought to be in the Child towards the Parent and a Reservedness of the Father to the Child But to my thinking it is a strange Reason that Duty and Respect should hinder Friendship as if Friendship were built upon an open Rudeness But certainly True Love which is that which makes Dear Friendships takes more pleasure to be Commanded and to Obey those they love than to Command and be Obeyed Besides Respect hinders not the disclosing or the receiving into the Mind or helping with their Bodies or Estates or parting with Life which are the Acts of Friendship For I take Duty and Obedience to be from the Mind as consenting to their Desires and respect as towards the Body by an humble presenting of it self But a Reservedness of the Parent to the Child is rather a proud Insulting and Love of Authority than out of Love or Consideration for their good or to keep their Natural Affection for it must be a very Ill Nature that sweet and kind Perswasions free and open Relations seasonable and secret Counsellings willing and reasonable Actions shall not onely keep the Natural Love as from the Child to the Parent but tye a perfect Friendship as from Man to Man unless you will say there can be no perfect Friendship except there be an equality of their Ages which indeed a Child and a Parent can never be even in But Parents are so far from making of Friendship with their Children as they know less and are more unacquainted with them than with Strangers by their reserved Formalities or else they are so rudely Familiar with their Children as makes their Children rudely Familiar with them in which kind of Natures and Humours can be no tyes of Friendship neither with their own nor Strangers Of Madness in general THere are more that run Mad for the loss of Hope than for the loss of what they have Enjoyed as for example How many have run Mad for the loss of their Servant or Mistress which are called Lovers but few or none for their Husbands or Wives every Town or Kingdome at least may be an Example of the first but few in the whole World to be heard of the last And how many Parents have run Mad for the loss of their Children because they have lost the hopes of their Perfections or Excellencies which Time might have brought forth that might have been an Honour to their Name and Posterity which by Death were cut off So as it is not so much for the present Comfort they lost in their Child for few Parents make their Children their onely or chief Society but the expectation of the Future being lost is that they most commonly run Mad for for there are none that wish not themselves in a good Condition and there are very few that not onely wish themselves in a better Condition though they have no cause to complain but hope to be so and where the Hopes are cut off and the Desires remain they must needs grow Impatient and Impatiency grows Extravagant and Extravagancy is Madness But how seldome is it heard that Children run Mad for their Parents the reason is because there is little hopes from them but of their Estates or Titles if they have any for Men never consider so much what is past as what is to come unless it be to compare the past time with the present that they might guess at the Future So that there is nothing to hope from Parents because all things are past from them for Men joy more in looking forward through their Posterity than in looking back upon their Ancestors the one is a Contemplation of Life the other but a Contemplation of Death and though they are sometimes proud of their Forefathers worthy Actions yet they take more delight in the hopes of their own Posterity And when Men grow Mad for the loss of their Estates it is not for what they have enjoyed but for what they would or might have enjoyed had not Ill Fortune been but now they cannot And when Men fall Mad through Despair it is because they have no hopes of Heaven So that Hope is the Life of Mans Thoughts and the Ground of his Actions it makes Piety in the Church and Industry in the Common-wealth where the want of it is a Death in Life An Epistle to the Unbelieving Readers in Natural Philosophy MANY say That in Natural Philosophy nothing is to be known not the Cause of any one thing which I cannot perswade my self is Truth for if we know Effects we must needs know Causes by reason Effects are the Causes of Effects and if we can know but one Effect it is a hundred to one but we shall know how to produce more Effects thereby Secondly That Natural Philosophy is an endless Study without any profitable Advantage but I may answer That there is no Art nor Science but is produced thereby if we will without Partiality consider from whence they were derived Thirdly That it is impossible that any thing should be known in Natural Philosophy by reason it is so obscure and hid from the knowledge of Mankind I answer That it is impossible that
Nature should perfectly understand and absolutely know her self because she is Infinite much less can any of her Works know her yet it doth not follow that nothing can be known As for example There are several parts of the World discovered yet it is most likely not all nor may be never shall be yet most think that all the World is found because Drake and Cavendish went in a Circular Line untill they came to that place from whence they set out at first and I am confident that most of all Writers thought all the World was known unto them before the West-Indies were discovered and the Man that discovered it in his Brain before he travelled on the Navigable Sea and offered it to King Henry the Seventh was slighted by him as a Foolish Fellow nor his Intelligence believ'd and no question there were many that laugh'd at him as a Vain Fool others pity'd him as thinking him Mad and others scorned him as a Cheating Fellow that would have cosened the King of England of a Sum of Money but the Spanish Queen being then wiser than the rest imployed him and adventured a great Sum of Money to set him forth in his Voyage which when the Success was according to the Mans Ingenious Brain and he had brought the Queen the discovery of the Golden and Silver Mines for the Spanish Pistols Then other Nations envyed the King of Spain and like a Company of Dogs which fought for a Bone went together by the Ears to share with him So the Bishop that declared his opinion of the Antipodes was not onely cryed down and exclaimed against by the Vulgar which hate all Ingenuity but Learned Sages stood up against him and the Great and Grave Magistrates condemned him as an Atheist for that Opinion and for that reason put him from his Bishoprick and thought he had Favour in that his Life was spared which Opinion hath since been found true by Navigators But the Ignorant Unpracticed Brains think all Impossible that is not known unto them But put the Case that many went to find that which can never be found as they say Natural Philosophy is yet they might find in the search that they did not seek nor expect which might prove very beneficial to them Or put the case ten thousand should go so many waies to seek for a Cabinet of pretious Jewels and all should miss of it but one shall that one be scorn'd and laugh'd at for his Good Fortune or Industry this were a great Injustice But Ignorance and Envy strive to take off the gloss of Truth if they cannot wholly overthrow it But I and those that write must arm our selves with Negligence against Censure for my part I do for I verily believe that Ignorance and present Envy will slight my Book yet I make no question when Envy is worn out by Time but Understanding will remember me in after Ages when I am changed from this Life But I had rather live in a General Remembrance than in a Particular Life The Worlds Olio LIB III. PART II. Of Philosophy THere have been of all Nations that have troubled their Heads and spent the whole time of their Lives in the study of Philosophy as Natural and Moral the first is of little or no use onely to exercise their Opinions at the guessing at the Causes of Things for know them they cannot the last is a Rule to a strict Life which is soon learned but not so soon practiced as they have made it in the dividing it into so many and numerous parts having but four chief Principles as Justice Prudence or Providence Fortitude and Temperance Justice is but to consider what one would willingly have another to do to him the same to do to another which is the beginning of a Commonwealth Prudence or Providence is to observe the Effect of Things and to compare the past with the present as to guess and so to provide for the Future Fortitude is to suffer with as little Grief as one can and to act with as little Fear Now Temperance is something harder as to abate the Appetites and moderate our Passions for though there are but two principal ones as Love and Hate yet there are abstracted from them so many as would take up a Long Life to know them after the strict Rules of Temperance But indeed it is as impossible to be justly Temperate as to know the first Causes of all Things as for example A Man loseth a Friend and the Loser must grieve so much as the merit of the Loss deserves and yet no more than will stand with his Constitution which in many is impossible For some their Constitution is so weak that the least Grief destroys them so that of Necessity he must needs be Intemperate one way either for the not sufficient Grief for the merit of his Friend or too little care for himself So for Anger a Man must be no more angry than the Affront or any Cause of his Anger doth deserve and who shall be Judge since there is no Cause or Act that hath not some Partiality on its side and so in all Passions and Appetites there may be said the like Therefore he that can keep himself from Extravagancy is temperate enough But there are none that are more intemperate than Philosophers first in their vain Imaginations of Nature next in the difficult and nice Rules of Morality So that this kind of Study kils all the Industrious Inventions that are beneficial and Easy for the Life of Man and makes one sit onely to dye and not to live But this kind of Study is not wholly to be neglected but used so much as to ballance a Man though not to fix him for Natural Philosophy is to be used as a Delight and Recreation in Mens Studies as Poetry is since they are both but Fictions and not a Labour in Mans Life But many Men make their Study their Graves and bury themselves before they are dead As for Moral Philosophy I mean onely that part that belongs to every particular Person not the Politick that goeth to the framing of Commonwealths as to make one Man live by another in Peace without which no Man can enjoy any thing or call any thing his own for they would run into Hostility though Community of Men will close into a Commonwealth for the Safety of each as Bees and other Creatures do that understand not Moral Philosophy nor have they Grave and Learned Heads to frame their Commonwealths NAture is the great Chymist of the World drawing out of the Chaos several Forms and extracted Substances the gross and thicker part goeth to the forming of Solid Bodies the Fume to Air and Water the thinnest part to Fire and Light the Sense or Spirits to Life Of Naturalists NAturalists that search and seek for hidden Causes are like Chymists that search for the Philosophers Stone wherein they find many excellent and profitable Medicines but not the Elixar So Naturalists