and almost all Religions both Jews and Gentiles have had the benefit of so commendable and pious a custome shall Scotland alone be deprived and destitute of it and that only since it is said by themselves to have received the puritie of the Gospel and about the year of the Jubilee no man will think it that hath any good opinion of the Nation 27. But although it were so as God forbid it ever come to that pass and that like to the most rigid Levellers who would inchaos the structure of ancient greatness into the very rubbish of a Neophytick parity it were inacted there be no more regard had thereafter of pristin honour then of old garments and that none be thereby dignifyed but in so far as the number weight and measure of modern coyn shall serve to inhanse him 28. Yet with some probability doe many harbour in their breasts the opinion that with a never so little auxiliary suffrage of publick Order there should be found amongst them and the successors of those that in divers good offices not to speak of my self have been obliged to the proprietaries of our house severals who would of their own accord in what they could without any great incitement thereto supply the deficiency of the Law in that point and further of themselves the redintegration of my Predecessors family in my person 29. Notwithstanding all this the embracing of the foresaid subsidiarie expedient being too far below my inclination I doe really Imagine that without the conscriptitious adjutancie of the State I shall enterprise but impossibities and never enjoy the proposed end which nevertheless my bashfullness and naturall aversness from craving what might put me to a blush if denyed would never have permitted me to prosecute by such means if by the inâ—quitie of the times disloyalty of some I did put trust into and rough harshness of the unplacable creditors I had not been frustated of my other designs 30. For albeit to the most frugall it might seem a task very difficult to make the payment of my Fathers debt consist with the preservation of my fore-fathers estate when by the malignant influences of concredited summes the Land rents do usually shrink in to the accrescing of the burthen there being nothing more certain then that the apprising of of Lands serving of inhibitions arresting of Farms in the hands of Tenants purchasing of letters for delivering up of the Manor house other such like most rigorous proceedings whereby one is made illegal would have disabled any though never so well affected from putting his means to the best avail and taking that safe course for himself and creditors together which otherways with lesse disadvantage to either might be performed by one that were free of these lets and disturbances 31. Whereupon ensue such dismal inconveniences that commonly when a gentlemans estate begins to be clogged with such like impestrements little or no use at first is made of the rents thereof either for that the Tenants for fear of creditors attachings and arrestments pay not their due least they be forced to repay it so through the uncertainty of masters spending all on themselves become some times insufficient debtors or for that merchants being afraid to fall into the reverence of creditors because of inhibitions and arrestments dare not bargain for victuall or any such like annual commoditie both or either being like to drive on the decadence of a house to its utter desolation at last 32. So that instead of a double benefit that ought to accrew to both the Debtor and Creditor by the timely payment of both Lands and money rent a twofold prejudice for the most part through the strictness of the creditors is incurred to wit the one by delaying their own pay and the other by hastning the ruine of the house of their Debtor as if men should be tyed to defray great summes of money and yet not get leave to make use of their own means wherewith to do it there being hardly any shift remaining for a man so used but to have recourse to his wits 33. Nor is it any thing less lamentable that the Law of Scotland in matter of Horning should be a main furtherance of this inconvenience by debarring any one lying under the lash therof from getting payment at the hands of others of never so just debts due to them whereby a greater load being laid on him that is already overburthened Machiavel's policie of breaking the bruised reed and thrusting him over head and eares in the water that was in it to the chin is very punctually observed 34. Which rugged crosse and thwarting proceedures so incensed damped and exasperated my father that a charge from a creditor being as the hissing of a Basilisk the disorderly troubles of the Land being then far advanced though otherways he disliked them were a kind of refreshment to him and intermitting relaxation from a more stinging disquietnesse 35 For that our intestin troubles and distempers by silencing the Laws for a while gave some repose to those that longed for a breathing time and by hudling up the terms of Wâ—itsuntide and Martimass which in Scotland are the destinated times for payment of debts promiscuosly with the other seasons of the year were as an oxymal julip wherewith to indormiat them in a bitter sweet security 36. Yet for all this and notwithstanding the grievousness of such solicitudinary and luctiferous discouragements able to appall the most undaunted spirits and kill a very Paphlagonian partridge that is said to have two hearts I did nevertheless without attristing my self a jot undergoe the defrayment of the debt although not as a debtor with as much alacrity and cheerfulnesse as if it had been of my own undertaking and took such speedy course therein that immediately after my Fathers decease for my better expedition in the discharge of those burthens having repaired homewards I did sequestrate the whole rent my Mothers joynture excepted to that use only and as I had done many times before betook my self to my hazards abroad that by vertue of the industry and diligence of those whom by the advise and deliberation of my nearest friends I was induced to intrust with my affairs the debt might be the sooner defrayed and the ancient house releeved out of the thraldome it was so unluckily faln into 37. But it fell out so far otherwayes that after some few years residence abroad without any considerable expence from home when I thought because of my having mortified and set apart all the rent to no other end then the cutting off and defalking of my Fathers debt that accordingly a great part thereof had been discharged I was so far disappointed of my expectation therin that whilst conform to the confidence reposed in him I hoped to have been exonered and relieved of many Creditors the debt was only past over tranferred from one in favours of another or rather of
apparitions 38 I saw once a young man who for his cunning conveyance in the Feats of Leger Demaine was branded by some of that Fry for Sorcery and another for being able by vertue of the Masson word to make a Masson whom he had never seene before without speaking or any other apparent signe come and salute him reputed by many of the same Litter to have had a familiar their grosse ignorance moving them to call that supernaturall or above the naturall reach of meere man whereof they knew not the cause 39 By which meanes Mathematicall Thaumaturgies Opticall magick secrets of nature and other Philosophicall mysteries being esteemed to be rancke Witch-craft they ruine the best part of Learning and make their owne unskillfullnes Supreame Judge to passe an Irrevocable sentence upon the Condemnation of knowledge 40 The matter notwithstanding would be of lesse danger were this the worst but to this ignorance of theirs is concomitant so much wickednes that when an action of any extraordinary performance is done although by a man of a most approvable conversation to a very good end such as the curing of the diseased or releeving men out of apparent peril yet if the cause thereof be unknowne to them they will not be so charitable as to attribute the effect to a good Angel albeit their faith obliege them to beleeve that the Spirits belonging to any of the nine celestiall orders are for the atchievement of such masteries in nothing inferior to the infernall Demons but instead of Gabriell Raphaell Michaell and such good Spirits by whom I think it is more probâ—ble an honest man would be assisted in works of a strange and hidden operation then by the bad ones they ascribe the wonderfullnes of the exploit to the inspiration of Beelzebub Abadon Lucifer or some other of the Fâ—ends of Hell so malevolently they asperse the reputation of gallant men whose deeds surpass their Capacity 41 Truly those two qualities of Ignorance and wickednes conjoyned are of such pernicious consequence that no Nation or Common-wealth wherein they get footing is able long to subsist for rapine coveteousnes and extortion flowing from the one as from the other doth all manner of Basenes Pusillanimity and cowardize ignorance affecteth the Braine and wickednes the Heart Yet both the Braine and Heart of a common weale by the mischeiously vnskillfull and illiterately malicious are equally depraved 42 For remedy of so generall a Calamity seeing universality hath its existence in individualls would each amend but one the totall would be quickly rid of this Lamentable infection 43 Therefore since ever I understood any thing knowing that the welfare of the Body of a government consisteth in the intirenes of its noble parts I alwayes endeavoured to employ the best of my Brain and Heart towards the furtherance of the Honour of that Country unto which I did owe my birth 44 In prosecuting whereof as the heart is primum vivent so was it my heart which in my younger years before my braines were ripened for eminent undertakings gave me the courage for adventuring in a forrain Climat thrice to enter the Lists against men of 3 severall nations to vindicate my native Country from the Calumnies wherewith they had aspersed it wherein it pleased God so to conduct my fortune that after I had disarmed them they in such sort acknowledged their Error and the obligation they did owe me for sparing their Lives which justly by the Law of Arms I might have taken that in Lieu of three enemies that formerly they were I acquired three constant Friends both to my selfe and my compatriots whereof by severall gallant testimonies they gave evident proofe to the Improvement of my Countreys credit in many occasions 45 As my Heart hath been thus devoted to the love of my native soile so have my Braines to the Honour thereof discharged so much duty that betwixt what is printed and what ready for the presse I have set forth above a hundred severall Bookes on Subjects never hitherto thought upon by any 46. Let no man think that I have spoke this in hope of future benefit or by way of regret I should have faild therof in times past vertue in my estimation whether morall or intellectuall carrying alwayes along with it a recompence sufficient nor yet out of pride or vaine glory in extolling of my own praises which as willingly as to live I would have smothered but that the continuall receiving of bad offices for my good intentions hath wrought this excursion out of my pen. 47. Could any man imagine I should have been singled out amongst all those of Scotland to suffer most prejudice without a Cause that the wickedest of all the Land should be permitted to possesse the best part of my Inheritance vnder colour of a law by meer iniquity and other little better then he to gape after the remainder without any fault of mine 48. who would think that some of my Tenants whilst I was from home being killed and neer upon three thousand pound sterlin worth of Goods taken from them by a pack of villaines who could pretend for their robery no other excuse but that they had been plundered by others no reparation or justice should be granted although oftentimes demanded that I should be extorsed in matter of publique dues beyond any of my neighbours that a garrison should be placed within my house and kept there ten months together to my almost utter undoing upon no other pretence but that the stance thereof is stately and the house it selfe of a notable good Fabrick and contrivance and in the mean while a party both of horse and foot remain nevertheles quartered upon my lands till the remotest Highlands should pay their sesse-mony that neighbor Garisons besides my own should by parties inforce me upon their Governours bare tickets to furnish them with what provisions they pleased and yet nothing thereof be allowed unto me although I presented a Bill to that purpose to the Scots Committee of Estates as I did forthe quartering of severall Troops of horse for many months together without any allowance 49. These grievous pressures with many other and as many more I have sustained by the ministry of the Land whereof I make account in the large treatise of my Aporrexises to give notice more at length have occasiond this digression in a part which likewise having proceeded from a serious consideration of the two aforesaid scurvie quallities that move the Inhabitants of this I le to run every foot to supernaâ—ural causes engageth me to say that as it is a maxim in Philosophy that entia non sunt multiplicanda sine necessitate So that it is no lesse in congruity to avouch that a thing hath miraculously been done by God or that for atchievement thereof the help of an evill Spirit because of his being reputed of more experience then man hath been required thereto when in the mean while perhaps the performance of it by
important clause in decreets of apprising may be conceived as it ought to be in favours of them that offer moveables of more worth then the debt that is required 10. Now lest I should seem to protract time and involve the Reader into a Labyrinth of discourse upon this so exuberant a purpose the amplification whereof should I give way thereto would with little difficulty draw from my Pen more Volumes time not failing me then ever Origen wrote as is manifest by those aporrectical interthetes I have already couched whereof nevertheless I have not the twentieth part nor any considerable portion of other more worthy Manuscripts of mine which I having left behind me at Cromartie were in the time of my imprisonment at London by the Sequestrator Dundasse's rifling of my Library most wretchedly imbezled and unluckily scattered amongst those that prefer'd clean paper to any writing that is I will after having mentioned somewhat of the matter climacotially proposed in the seventieth Article of the second book make bold to conduct the Reader to the reposingroom of a closure there to remain if it please him till it be high time to require his progress towards the ten excogitable Cities mentioned in the 73 Article of the first book 11. Seeing the matter already spoke of concerneth me and my Fathers Creditors both of us ayming at one and the same thing to wit the enjoyment of the Estate of my Progenitors I shall desire the Reader by what I am to say to take notice which of us hath best right thereto first in conscience then according to Law 12. Conscionably therefore to talk thereof in some of the most civil parts of the world it is thought unjust that the infection of debt like a hereditary disease should be derived to Posterity but onely transmitted to those that from the indebted receive a benefit equivalent to the debt conscience requiring that each one be a faithful Administrator to his Posterity of the means which from his Predecessors he hath received nothing being made lyable to his own debt but his own conquest his Personal deservings and nothing else being that which ought to expiate his personal faults 13. Hence it followeth by the same equity as aforesaid seeing neither any of my fore-fathers nor yet my self were obliged in so much as one farthing to any of those Creditors that consequently neither their estate nor mine should be affected with the burthen which concerned us not but onely the means of him that was the Party-contractor whereby the whole shire of Cromartie and Baronry of fishery in Scotland ought clearly to be mine for having belonged to my Progenitors five hundred and twenty yeers before the Incarnation it being enough that I lose two hundred pounds sterling a yeer of old rent which my father put away together with all his own conquest and moveables belonging either to him or any other of my Ancestors 14. But the Lucripetary Poscinummios lending a deaf adders ear to these kinde of motions because the rigour of the Scotish Law against the heirs of ancient families alloweth not the admittance of such a desire to soften the hardness of their hearts it was told them 15. First that seeing I had nothing answerable to the annual Rents of those Creditors but the yeerly Rent of the Land and that estates in Land should be as well weighed in the balance of Justice as stocks in money it could not be but reasonable that as much were defalked from Creditors interests as by publike dues have been exhausted out of my Land-rents 16. Secondly that for the payment of what sums of debt the Creditor could with reason claim right to he might be pleased to take peny-worths not according to his own cutting and carving but as judicious men employed therein should discern of their value there being nothing more common amongst burgers whom the Law certainly cannot with reason favour more then landed men then that if a Merchant fall into any decadence in his means although by his own procurement his Creditors must take of his moveables as by the prime Magistrates of the town they shall be appreciated and at no under-rate 17. Thirdly for further trial of their discretion it was propounded seeing it was their resolution to have my Lands to go to the payment of another's debt that they would therefore vouchsafe to give some voluntary courtesie for lightning of the burthen which favour considering the smalness of the sums at the first borrowing and yet the smaller use they were put to there being none living but the Creditors themselves that had any benefit thereby and yet how vastly and exsuperantly they have accresced since may very well be granted 18. These most reasonable Overtures prevailing as little as the former with those cunning Creditors who when my father needed no money knowing his disposition to borrow and ability to pay did for their own ends lend unto him whatever he pleased that thus by laying out a worm as it were to catch a Salmon taking occasion of his profuseness they might make their own covetousness the main ground-work of their enrichment 19. For which prodigality I have already dispensed with all that ever he acquired and a hundred thousand pounds Scotish more besides seven or eight yeers rents of my Lands which I gave them totally save so much thereof as for Publike dues I could not get avoided to abalienate from their acceptance 20. Yet as if this their covetousness were such an illustrious and heroick vertue as could not be recompensed all that ever they got from my father or yet from my self taking no more bulk in the immense gulph thereof then would a grain of Millet-seed in the throat of an ass 20. They refused to take Land in part of payment of the superplus of the debt not but that in their own thoughts they esteem the Land much more worth then the money to be discharged for it themselves having given greater sums of money for worse Land and less of it but that by this their seeming refusal to be free of their cruelty otherways I might be necessitated out of desperation to cast it into their laps half for nought 21. Which that I might the sooner be enforced to do they demanded besides their principal sums which oftentimes were but failies of bargains their interests reer-interests expences in seeking after them and the interest of those expences without having any regard to the difficulties of the times which eat up the rents in publike disbursements and had laid such politick courses for insnaring me in the trap of an unthrifty bargain that by their forestalling the bank there was no money to be had in borrowing for my behove but onely from themselves 22. Had this been the worst it should never by me have been mentioned but to conceal it I were to blame After that I was ascertained of what inward joy was conceived
Logopandecteision OR AN INTRODVCTION TO THE VNIVERSAL LANGVAGE Digested into these Six several Books Neaudethaumata Chrestasebeia Cleronomaporia Chryseomystes Neleodicastes Philoponauxesis BY Sir THOMAS URQUHART of Cromartie Knight Now lately contrived and published both for his own utilitie and that of all pregnant and ingenious Spirits Câ—dere quaerenti nonne haec justissima res est Qui non plura cupit quam ratio ipsa jubet Englished thus To grant him his demands were it not just Who craves no more then reason sayes he must LONDON Printed and are to be sold by Giles Calvert at the Black-spread-Eagle at the West-end of Pauls and by Richard Tomlius at the Sun and Bible near Pye-corner 1653. The Epistle Dedicatorie To No-body Most Honourable MY non supponent Lord and Soveraign master of contradictions in adjected terms that unto you I have presumed to tender the dedicacie of this introduction will not seem strange to those that know how your concurrence did further me to the accomplishment of that new Language unto the frontispeice whereof it is premitted You did assist me in the production of many special fancies whose promulgation will perhaps exceedingly conduce to the delight of the Philosophical Reader by your help amidst the the penurie of books and want of learned conversation have by me been enixed several treatises which for their apparent usefulnesse and curiosity I sometime intend to consecrate to the Shrine of publique view if none hitherto hath made choice of such a patron neither hath any till this hour afforded an invention of that kind In things whereof the proposed subject is within our reach imitation is imbraceable but where the matter is transcendent we commonly bid patterns adiew that porch will not befit a cottage which is suitable to a Cathedral nor can unusuall dedications misbeseem tractats on an extraordinary purpose seeing therefore skill in symmetrie bespeaks an artificer and gives the contexture of a work that decorum which becomes the Author I am with force of reason perswaded to this election thereby to glance at the proportion betwixt your favours and my retribution for such were the courtesies you conferred on me that I could not otherways choose but lay hold on this expedient to testifie my remembrance of them When after the fatal blow given at Worcester on the third of Septemb. 1651. to the regal partie I was 5 times plundred pillaged pilfred robbed and rifled and nothing almost left me fortune could dispoil me of save my health alone which in the croud of so many incident difficulties as I was forced to undergo was most miraculously preserved You then out of your mercie amongst the victorious soldiers were pleased to commiserate my condition When in horses armes apparel and monie I had in that place taken from me above five hundred pounds worth English you at that time out of pietie amongst the Presbyterians of our armie did regret my case When it was told that amidst the fury of the raging souldiery I had above ten thousand crowns worth of papers embezeled without recovery you from your generosity of all the great men prisoners were sorry at the losse And lastly when after my being brought to London without either monie or goods I had my self and several others both brothers and servants whereof not any save my self alone had been in that City before to provide for in every thing that the States allowance which neverthelesse continued no longer then my parole was taken for their true imprisonment did not reach unto And that after many of my fellow prisoners of considerable fortunes at home had received from the Scottish factors on the Exchange in matter of borrowing monie answers so full of churlishnesse and inhumanity that I am ashamed the ear of any man of common honestie should hear them then was it whilst the charity of those Bankers and other rich Scots men at London by little and little decayed and became still the lesse the greater the pitch was unto which their wealth had formerly increast And that for six months together from none of my kindred alliance nor any other of my pretended friends in Scotland I had received so much as the mission or return of a letter that you such was your magnificence were content to supply my need and furnish me with what I lacked These favours I deem my self in duty the more obliged to commemorate that they were bestowed upon me in sequel of some others of that nature namely when a while agoe I had a suit in Law depending against a Gentleman neighbour of mine for taking fifteen in the hundred these sixteen years past and above and refusing payment of the principall summe that the said usurie might still continue for the which there was given unto him by my Father securitie in land by a present possession worth more then thrice the monie which my Father had received from him as likewise for plundring from my tenants in my absence above two thousand and five hundred pounds sterlin worth of goods it was then that your grace in the session of the land and Committee of Estate there taking notice of these enormous wrongs did doe me justice Much about the same time when some Ministers had maimed my rents to strengthen their own stipends your reverence sitting in the commission of the Kirk were pleased to take my part against them and patrocinate my cause By your highnesse also sitting then at the helm of the State of Scotland when a grievance for the pressure sustained by me was in all humility put in before the said Committee of Estates was I maintained against the crueltie and indiscretion of those did overrate me in the exaction of publick dues And finally when by the oppression of some ill affected countrey men under pretext of Committee acts my vassals and tenants had suffered extreme prejudice streight upon the presenting of a petition thereanent whereof at least a hundred at several times were tabled your wisdome remedied the plaintif and did for my cause redresse the injuries done unto him That with these benevolences as the most eminent effects of your ingenuitie I should as affairs then ruled be gratified by your liberalitie was from day to day my constant expectation being always perswaded to the greater probability of my acceptance of them that in many sound and wel-grounded opinions of mine long before that time you frequently jumped with me for when I openly said that Presbyterie was like to turn to a Hydral Episcopacie and that the gallantry of the English nation would never comport with such a government which Speech was thought should have been asserted by all the Nobles and Gentlemen of Scotland you out of your goodness amongst them all being sensible of the heavie yoke of the Democratical tyrannie of the Kirk were pleased to justify my sayings Besides this when the intending of one thing and pretending of another was by me a thousand times foretold to prove
is not a proper name in any Country of the world for which this Language affords not a peculiar word without being beholding to any other 123. Three and fiftiethly In many thousands of words belonging to this Language there is not a Letter which hath not a peculiar signification by it self 124. Four and fiftiethly The polysyllables of this Language do all of them signifie by their monosyllables which no word in any other Language doth ex instituto but the compound ones for though the syllabical parts of exlex separately signifie as in the compound yet those of homo doe it not nor yet those of dote or domus as in the whole and so it is in all other Languages except the same for there are in the Italian and Latine Tongues words of ten eleven or twelve syllables whereof not one syllable by it self doth signifie any thing at all in that Language of what it doth in the whole as adolescenturiatissimamente honorificieabilitudinitatibus c. 125. Five and fiftiethly all the Languages in the world will be beholding to this and this to none 126. Six and fiftiethly there is yet another wonder in this Language which although a little touched by the by in the fiftie eighth article of this Preface I will mention yet once more and it is this That though this language have advantage of all other it is impossible any other in time coming surpass it because as I have already said it comprehendeth first all words expressible and then in matter of the obliquity of the cases and tenses the contrivance of undeclinable parts and right disposure of vowels and consonants for distinguishing of various significations within the latitude of letters cannot be afforded a way so expedient 127. Seven and fiftiethly the greatest wonder of all is that of all the Languages in the world it is easiest to learn a boy of ten years old being able to attain to the knowledge thereof in three moneths space because there are in it many facilitations for the memory which no other Language hath but it self 128. Eight and fiftiethly sooner shall one reach the understanding of things to be signified by the words of this Language then by those of any other for that Logarithms in comparison of absolute numbers so do the words thereof in their initials respectively vary according to the nature of the things which they signifie 129. Nine and fiftiethly for pithiness of proverbs oracles and sentences no Language can paralel with it 130. Sixtiethly in Axioms Maximes and Aphorisms it is excellent above all other Languages 131. One and sixtiethly for definitions divisions and distinctions no Language is so apt 132. Two and sixtiethly for the affirmation negation and infinitation of propositions it hath proprieties unknown to any other Language most necessary for knowledge 133. Three and sixtiethly in matters of Enthymems Syllogisms and all manner of Illative ratiocination it is the most compendious in the world 134. Sixtie fourthly Negative expressions are more compendiously uttred in this Language then in any other in the world 135. Sixtie fifthly The infinitant terms by this Tongue are in one single word expressed which succinctness is by no other Language afforded 136. Lastly There is not any phrase whatsoever which for being peculiar to one Speech and consequently in all other to be improperly taken wherewith each known Tongue in the world is most variously stored hath when translated from its original idiome the denomination of Graecism Latinism Scotism Anglicism and so forth but in this universal Language is so well admitted that in losing nothing of its genuine liveliness it beareth along with it without any diminution either of sense or expression the same very emphasis in the stream which it had at the spring the like whereof is in no other Language to be found 137. Besides these sixty and six advantages above all other Languages I might have couched thrice as many more of no less consideration then the aforesaid but that these same will suffice to sharpen the longing of the generous Reader after the intrinsecal and most researched secrets of the new Grammer and Lexicon which Iâ—am to evulge The Preface To the second BOOK entituled CHRESTASEBEIA THe scope of the Author in this his second Book is to plead for the removal of some impediments which stand in the way of emitting those his works of a curious invention wherewith he intends to gratifie this Isle in doing whereof he observeth a very compendious and most commendable method for prosecuting of the noble designe proposed in the general title of the Introduction Natural Phylosophie teacheth us That one form is to be expelled before another can be introduced upon the subjected matter for which cause Aristotle very wisely constituted Privation for one of the thâ—ee principles of Nature No judicious Architect will begin to erect a fabrick till the ground be first cleansed of the rubbish which hindreth the laying of the foundation Arts disciplines and sciences for being qualities as are the faculties whence they emane though of another species are predicamentally classible under accidents that have their essential dependance on that substance which without derogating any thing from the soul of man may properly be said to be the body whose livelihood consisting in a maintenance by external means The Author very rationally thence inferreth a necessity of being established in the estate of his Predecessors for the production of his brain-issues in maâ—y elaboured secrets Those the Author metaphorically termeth moveables thereby to claim the benefit of an act of Parliament for his redintegration into his progenitors Land and yet that he should make so disproportionate a parallel he layeth the weight upon the iniquity of the times and rigour of Flagitators whose lamentable wrongs done unto him he most egregiously amplifyeth by three notable examples and in sequel thereof describeth Usurie to the life together with the brutiâ—hness of the churlish exacters of it Why to the promised Language is premised this Introduction and that the promulgation thereof is retarded the Author besides what is said inserteth this other reason least it 's inconsiderate prostitution should make it be undervalued to confirm this he sheweth by three or four pregnant examples how enjoyment abates affection and by ten instances more how in the estâ—mation of ill-poised Judgements very precious things have been postposed to quisqu liary trash for witnessing the transcendencie â—f the effects of mental faculties beyond those of either body or fortune he points at Scotus and Sacrobosco but in collatiotioning Learning with Warfare he leaves the odds undecided What large Donatives have been bestowed on learned men for their encouragement to Literature he specifyeth by eight several examples and by seven more the indefatigable pains taken by eminent Schollars of former ages in the prosecuting of their studies all which the Author is pleased to display before us the better thereby to extoll the gifts of the intellectual part
Lady alone my Mother it pleased his Father-in-law my Lord Elphingston then high Treasurer of Scotland at the time of the mariage to require of him so to manage the foresaid patrimony with such ease and plenty through a various change of neighbours and so carefully conveyed unto him that in compensation of the courtesie received from his predecessors and to retaliate so great a favour he should be oblieged and tyed to leave unto her eldest Son to be begotten of her who some 5 yeares afterwards happened to be I the said estate in the same freedome and entirenesse every way that it was left unto himself which before many noble men and others he solemnly promised to doe to the utmost of his power 2. Neverthelesse by incogitancy one way or what else I know not and on the otherside by the extortion and rapine of some usurious Cormorants whose money then was constantly laid out as a bait for improvident men of great revennues to be hooked by the fortune of his affairs turned so far otherwayes from the byass they had been put in to the regret and heavy dislike of all his friends and his own likewise at last when he knew not how to help it that all he bequeathed unto me his eldest Son in matter of worldly means was twelve or thirteen thousand pounds sterling of debt five brethren all men and two sisters almost mariageable to provide for and lesse to defray all this burden with by six hundred pounds sterling a year although the warres had not prejudiced me in a farthing then what for the maintaining of himself alone in a peaceable age he inherited for nothing 3. But that which did make my case the more to be commiserated was that all these huge and exorbitant summes were charged on me by those to whom I was never obliged in a penny nor whose money ever came to that fine that it might be known to what good end it was borrowed there being nothing more certain then that the education of his whole children comprehending my self and all together with what he expended on his daughters portions and other wayes disbursed for suretyship did not in all amount to above two yeares rent and a half of that estate which he totally enjoyed for six and thirty yeares together and that in such halcyonian dayes without any compulsory occasion of bestowing his means other wayes then might best please himself that till two yeares before his decease it was not known by the commons of the Land what the words of Musqueteer and Pikeman did signifie 4. Notwithstanding all this and that neither directly nor indirectly I had a hand in the contracting of so much as one two-pence of the aforesaid burden Those Creditors all Scots dealt so rigorously with me that by their uncharitable severity even in my fathers time it was done what lay in them to shake me loose of my progenitors inheritance and denude me of what I was born unto by investing themselves in the right of those Lands that through the continuat race of six dozen of Predecessours as aforesaid were after the expiring of many ages by their valour vertue and industry most heedfully transmitted to these late yeares free from all intanglements claims and intricate pretences whatsoever 5. Yet did I thereby attain to the greater portion of my fathers blessing who conscious of the prejudice I sustained by leaving me contrary to the promise made to his Father-in-law and ancient custome of the Countrey so much inthralled had of me that respect and remembrance although in another dominion for the time that besides his constant bewailing the hard condition whereunto he had redacted his house in my person during all the time of that long and lingring disease whereof at last he died he so generously and lovingly as truly he was one of the best men in the world acquit himself two dayes before his decease that he had all my six brothers strongly bound and obliged before famous witnesses himself being one and the prime of all especially my nearest brother intituled the Laird of Dun Lugas for whose occasion to sharpen his thankâ—ullnesse the bond was conceived because of that portion in Land he received from him worth above 3000 pounds English money under pain of his everlasting curse and execration to assist concur with follow serve me for those are the words to the utmost of their power induâ—try and means to spare neither charge nor travel though it should cost them all they had to release me from the undeserved bondage of the domineering Creditor and extricate my Lands from the impestrements wherein they were involved yea to bestow nothing of their owne upon no other use till that should be done and all this under their own hand writing secured with the clause of registration to make the opprobrie the more notorious in case of failing as the paper it self which I have in retentis together with another signed to the same sense by my mother and also my brothers and Sisters Dunbugar only excepted will more evidently testifie 6. Thus lâ—cking nothing I could have desired of him but what by my grand-father he was ingaged to leave me in matter of temporal means I must in all humility make bold to beg the permission to proceed a little further in this purpose seeing it doth not diametrally militate against the reverence I owe to the established authority and municipall Laws of the Land 7. In competition with which though by the Laws and and statuts of many the most civilized parts of Europe the punishment or correction inflicted for faults of undertaking excessive burthens upon ancient estates be meerly personal and not like Gehazies leprosie derived to posterity there being more regard had by them to the memory of worthy and renowned Gentlemen whose reputation they would not have laid in the dust by the supine remissness of any one of their successors then to the raising up of the fortunes of those who have no other vertue to recommend them by but the stupid neglect forgetfulness and improvident cariage of those that borrowed their money 8. Whereby like the indwellers of Guinea they may be said to purchase their gold sleeping for in whose hand soever any little heap thereof is sequestred upon obligation the smallest time of any engendreth interest thereon which is no sooner bred then apt to propagate another progenie of the same pregnancie with the first to beget a third and so forth from term to term by the incestuous copulation of the Parent with the whole Children together and with each a part and every child conjunctly severaly with all the rest one brood springing forth of another and another again out of that producing still in that progressive way of procreation a new increase of the like nature with the former 9. And all by vertue of a bond dormant lying passibly in the greasie cobweb of a musty chest whose
master perhaps being lulled all this while in a dull lethargy of ease awaketh not Like the Angell Apollyon in the eleventh of the Apocalypse intituled Abadon but to the destruction of some one or other of his paper-fetterd slaves proving such a bad one indeed to whom he hath concredited his goods that he never abandoneth them till his covetousness making that the fertilest thing of any which of it self is most unfruitful have in the unconscionable multiplying of such a graceless generation reared up that unhallowed result from a spark as it were in a corner of their houses to the hight of a most prodigious flame to consume them their wives and children with their whole estates and fortunes for ever 10. Yet seeing the rigour of the Law of Scotland seems rather as the times have been this while past to favour and abett the unmercifull creditor then the debtors innocent successor I have till this hour although not without some inward reluctancy chosen rather to undergoe the sternness and austerity thereof then legislatively to supplicate the eversion of an established custom 11. Albeit what ever Lawyers say I be sure that Law as it is conform to equity and justice requireth as well if not more that there be antidots and preservative remedies for mens estates in Lands as for the fortunes of them whose stock is onely in money 12. Especially in the behalf of those whom to deprive of their old possessions as is glanced at a little in the sixtie eight Article of the second Book would ingulph and bury in forgetfulness that antiquity of Line which all the riches on earth is not able to purchase and consequently making nobility stoop to coyn and vertue to gain bring the only support and props of honour to serve as fewel to the unquenchable fire of avaritious hearts 13. And I may very well say seeing it cohaeres with the purpose in hand that I sustain a greater prejudice in being debarred from my Lands which were more then two and twenty hundred years agoe acquired by the valour and prudence of my Predecessors then the Sons of the aforesaid Creditors can doe by the want of the money pretended to be due to them for my Fathers debt the overthrow of a worthy Family being more deplorable then the missing of what a Thiefe may filch out of a clout and have reaped as little benefit of the summes so lent as the brats they are as yet to beget have done of the Revenues which should be mine 14. What forcible Statutes have been published in former ages for obviating the decay of honorable houses is not unknown to those that are any thing versed in the historie of prudential Law 15. In this the ablest and most judicious men on earth have imployed the best of their wits and Solon that famous Legislator amongst the Athenians and wisest man then living made acts so favourable for the preservation of antient Families and so strictly to be observed that the controveners of them so long as the splendor of that Republick lasted were by the Arcopagits most exemplarily and condignely punished as the reliques of the Attick Laws till this day will sufficiently bear record 16. Nor was this so conscientious an ordonance so totally proper to the Common-weal of the Greeks but that the remanent of the world in those happy times of old did tast of the wholesome influence and goodness of it 17. The Decemvirs amongst the Romans instituted and ordained that those who were apt by their mis-government and reckless conduct to endanger the undoing and subversion of their predecessors house to the apparent detriment and damage for ever of such as by nature were designed to succeed after them in that family should be disabled from disponing Lands alienating any whatsoever goods and contracting debts in such sort that whosoever should meddle or deal with them in either of those kinds should do it at their owne hazard and perill without hope of restitution of any loss or hinderance they might sustain thereby as manifestly may be seen by the Law Julianus in the paragraph de cura Furiosorum and in the Law is cui bonus in the paragraph de verbis obligatoriis 18. Which being conform to that other Law of the twelve tables whereby such like inconsiderate persons were appointed to have surveyers and controulers set over them and wholy prohibited and interdicted from all manner of managing their own affairs as the words of the Text it self more succinctly declares Quando bona tua paterna avitaque negligentia tua disperdis Liberosque tuos ad egestatem perducis ob eam rem tibi ea re commercioque interdico 19. It is apparent how hainous horrid and sacrilegious an offence it seemed to be in those happy dayes to have a hand in pulling down the monuments of their fore-fathers vertue and demantling the honour of their house by dilapidating their estate 20. And least these premised acts should be thought to have been but good Laws ill obeyed and worse executed such rigorous punishment was inflicted upon the delinqents in them that no person guilty of what age or condition soever was spared 21. As may be instructed by Quintus Fabius son to Quintus Fabius the great surnamed Allobrogicus who by an edict of Quintus Pompeius Praetor was curbed and inhibited from doing by his misguiding and unadvised cariage any harm or prejudice to the house of his progenitors 22. And by that prodigal Senator of threescore yeares of age otherways wise enough over whom the Emperour Tiberius did constitute and impose a tutor or governour that to the impoverishing of his issue he might not have power to lavish away the estate he never acquired 23. The causes which moved them to inact and publish those Statutes being no lesse urgent now then they were then should as I conceive it astrict and oblige us to be every whit as zealously fervent as they in the observing of them 24. Chiefly being warranted thereto by the sacred Scripture it self in the old Testament whereof the people of Israel is said to have been enjoyned to marry in their own Tribes Jubilees appointed and all debts whatsoever after the revolution and expired date of so many years ordained to be discharged annulled freely acquit all bonds and bills rescinded and cancelled and all this only for the preservation of ancient houses 25. Of which the countrie of Scotland also till within these fourscore ten yeares was so exactly carefull that Signior David one of Queen Martes prime Courtiers could not for all the mony he was master of obtain in that whole dominion the purchase of one hundred pounds sterlin of rent in Land whereby to acquire the benefit of a Scotish title the more to ingratiat himself being an Italian in the favour of the Nation so unwilling in those good days was every one to break upon any parcel of their predecessors inheritance 26. Seeing thus it is then that all Nations
infer consequences where the modesty of the writer will not permit it but setting forward in the proposed Method doe make account to glance a little at the other branch of the dichotomie mentioned in the forty second Article of the third book as very obstructive to the defrayment of private debts to wit publique dues Epig. Primum Ardochae duri fodiebant arva Coloni Lassabatque graves terrae profunda boves Finrasus invasit tunc longae rastra quieti Tradidit non est quo fodiatur ager Scire libet quaenam sit trist is causa rapinae Quid poterant terrae quid meruisse solum Iphigenia domi nimirum nubilis illi Dotanda est proprio non tamen illa solo Debita fallaci socero nam Burgius heros Detulit injusta qui rapit arva manu Sponsam ambit juvenis pater agros ambit illi Inde Ligone carent illa Ligone suo Protinus armatas trahit in sua vota cohortes Authores culpae substituitque suae Arva novo tibi sunt Cromarti danda colono Sic fodietur amans sic fodietur ager Epig. Secundum Etheiam quondam Patrio Cromartius heros Jure habuit raptam nunc tamen alter habet Ruâ—â—que fallaces aluerunt devia vulpes Semper hos laqueo ducere moris erat Sâ—d post quam has sedes cepisti Finrase paejer Incipis his cunctis vulpibus esse lupus Epig. Tertium Ut succum toto morbus de corpore ducit Evacuata trahens ossa liquore suo Torrida dum tot is concrescant viscera fibris Et subito in rugas cedat adusta cutis Divitias populi totas sic Creditor haurit Séque unum nummis Hydrope pejor alit Argenti venas rimatur undique quaerit Abdita siqua auri gut ta vel una fluit Vos estis medici Patres si dicere fas est Vos soli huic morbo ferre potestis opem Epig. Quartum Socratici fertur patientia longa mariti Xantippe lingua clara fuisse tua Ille tuo pulsus clamore obduruit etsi Lingua lacessito est aere sonora magis Huc ades ô venerande senex tentamina linque Talia virtuti non satis aequa â—uae Voce sua turbet solum te creditor unus Sufficiuntque tamen non duo tresue mihi Xantippen querulam vere laudabis et ipse Judice te post hac crede beatus eris Epig Quintum The Scripture says that three things always crave The raging sea the barren womb and grave I dare not adde to Scripture but I say That Creditors do crave far worse then they When I have render'd by mortalitie To th' grave her due she craves no more of me No strong desire can make me satisfy't Nor yawning womb command my appetite Besides ther'e 's pleasure here in debt there 's none And when once laid in grave all grief is gone No sea constrains you to entrust your frayl Plank to the waves or forceth to hoise sayl Or yet suppose it could against your will There 's hopes of Calm or of a Harbour still There 's storm on storm when Creditors do crave And ev'ry Interest a rolling wave O let me debtor be to th' other three Free me from Faâ—cher Fraser Fendrasie Epig. Sextum That he might in oppression be free Fendrasiâ— took the Kirk upon his side Who were of avarice as full as he And for the goods of all men gap'd as wide Those that beheld him Saint-like veyl'd did wonder And marvelled that he was chang'd so much When Satan's claws were suddenly seen under And all were startled at his hellish clutch 'T was like his Father who 's the root of evil Who taking Angel shapes is still a Devil Epig. Septimum Since your selves are unto the Devil as due You Usurers as Debtors cash to you To trust you so the Devil do's us wrong For you 'l not trust your debtor half so long But it 's confess'd indeed their may be lets And creditors by chance may lose their debts But though the Devil gets no use at all Yet is he sure t' obtain the Principall Epig. Octavum Like as the Tyrant plunder'd mightie Jove Out of his golden vesture and him told A woollen one might now far fitter prove Because the season waxed somewhat cold And from the God of Physick Phoebus Son The golden beard in bitter scorn he took And said it was not fit he should have on Since his own Sire a beard could never brook Even so my Creditors with charitie And fellow-feeling piety possest In our Estates would make a paritie For conscience say they not Lands is best Pox take your gryping conscience let me Enjoy m' Estate and keep your Charitie O creditorum dira immitis cohors Furiisque cunctis saevior Quorum sonorus clamor exanimat meum Uritque pectus taedio Hoc seiâ—c nunquam numinis vestros sine Impune fraudes pergere Cum vos hiatu caepiet immenso niger Siâ—uque claudet Tartarus Tum scire si fas ista mortali libet Quas Aeacus paenas paret Megaera properat properat Alecto ferox Incincta tortis anguibus Caliginosam saeva Tisiphone facem Intrantibus vobis quatit Nec non catenas certat extensas triceps Averni custos rumpere Et linquit ales Titij exosum jecur Ad vos opimos advolans Saxumque dirum Sisyphi vobis datur Sitisque vobis Tantali Istisque cunctis pejus interca manet Majusque tormentis erit Absum et haeres omnia et exosos lares Divendet insignis nepos Ibitque tremula et paene procumbens fame Proles parentis perfidi Virique conjux tenera in abjecti sinu Alga jucebit vilior Et cuncta vobis ista Mercurius feret Ibitque certus nuncius The intent of the fifth Book intituled NELEODICASTES WHat is to be last in the execution being commonly first in the intention the Author conform to that order begun this Isagogical Treatise as is apparent by the first Book thereof intituled The Wonders of the new Language but in the continuation of the matter thorow all the Books following he quits that Analytical method and betakes him to the Compositive wherein priority in cause hath its citeriority in description Thus therefore as in the third Book were deduced Reasons why the impediment mentioned in the second should be removed so to the fifth hath the Author reserved the expression of his regret for want of remedy against such injuries as under which in the fourth he had discovered a pressure In a word the third block which doth lie in the way of the Authors excellent undertakings is the lack of redress after Petition put in for the wrongs he had sustained Yet doth he not insist so long thereupon as on the former because the Court before which he did address himself was somewhat more homogeneal and that to decline the Kirks authority in civilibus he conceived it to be no Heteroclitism Both Iudicatories were constituted the Epitomes and Abridgements of greater
ones the Parliament and Assembly that passing under the name of a Committee and this of a Commission But truly such was the influence the Ecclesiastical party in this had over the Secular in that in imitation of the larger Bodies which they represented who had the same ascendent and subordinacy in rule and dependencie that he was thereby plunged into the more lamentable sufferings the higher the exclamations against the Consistorian Clergie on all sides soared to this Picrologie that no good aspect was to be expected from a conjunction of so malevolent Luminaries After the enumeration of many grievous losses from Souldiers and others which the Author contrary to the Laws of the Nation and Equity it self was enforced to undergo without reparation he falls in the next place to discuss the Flagitator whose poyson by reason of its universality of diffluence on all his best endeavours requireth a careful administration of Antidotes to be set down in each of all the six Books of this Introduction To this purpose in several particulars he instanceth their implacability their unnaturality and unconscionableness he discloseth three plausible overtures most untowardly rejected by them and in amplification of their cunning and rigour hath a learned disceptation concerning Prodigality and Covetousness he bringeth against them arguments both from Conscience and Law in its supremest Legislation and with sentences of a vigorous and strong impression most accurately illustrates them The tender care should be had of ancient Houses he again inculcates and lastly to perswade the Publike to exoner him of the forementioned burdens he ratiocinates a minori ad majus of Monopolies in ampler benefits granted to men of no desert wherein he needeth not doubt to have furnished matter abundant for the satisfaction of the impartial Reader The Fifth Book Of the INTRODUCTION intituled Neleodicastes Or The pitiless Judge Wherein the austerity of the Law of Scotland together with the partiality of those that professed it a while ago is made appear to be a great hinderance to the present promulgation of the Universal Speech and future evulgement of other excellent Inventions 1 THe publike Pressures which in Scotland I was inforc'd to undergo in matter of Tax and Loan monthly maintenance additional Sess-money transient Quarters constant and assistant quartering Horse Foot and Dragoon-Levies besides neer 3000 l. sterling worth of goods as it stands upon Record under the hands of those Gentlemen authorized for Commissioners to take upon Oath and Probation the just account of their losses most basely and unworthily whilst I was absent from the Country robbed and plundered from my Tenants against whom no pretext of quarrel could be had but the love of their means they being never sufferers but for their innocencie and too conscionable neighbourhood did extend to so vast a proportion that my Lands thereby were more sadly dealt with then those of any Subject within the Dominion and my self from time to time brought under the sufferance of such exorbitant Impositions as would have been almost insupportable to any of the Country though of a free estate 2. But that which made my condition the more bewailable was that in spight of that distributive justice according to which the then Estates of the Nation enjoyned each one ratably to lend his shoulder to the common burden I was by over-prizing of my Lands emitting too great a proportion of Horse and Foot and extraordinary quartering at all occasions singled out a part to sustain the calamity alone without that wretched comfort called Solatium misoris of any other to share with me therein 3. Which had it been inflicted on me as a punishment for an offence albeit pretended were somewhat tolerable but all the doers could say was that what they did then they had warrant for under the mask and vizard whereof the sordid and corrupt Commissaries with the ravenous Neoptoleman Presidiaries did grinde the faces of my poor men and suck the very blood out of my estate 4. This disorder of Order-monging multitudes without prejudice be it spoke of a well-disciplined Souldiery together with the specious pretences that some have grasped at to do iniquity by a Law hath truly run in such an over-flowing speat and inundation of violence against me that what by the cruelty and high hand of neighbouring Flagitators and others and continual current of unavoidable Taxes my poor tenants were so incompassionately plucked mangled torn in pieces and shuffled that they and I both for all our endeavours the publike burden alone besides other pressures having in some yeers over and above the whole rent of the Land put me to a hundred pounds English money on the score have not been able to give in matter of the Principal a full repast to the rest of those craving a hungred Creditors who by reason of the foresaid obstacles barring my determination remain as yet unsatisfied 5. Of whom nevertheless not any almost notwithstanding all these difficulties which yet procreate this one and the greatest stop of all that no Merchant is to be had for Land without huge loss to the disponer men of flourishing estates having sold their Lands of late at easie rates to shun the pressures of so frequent impositions and Assesments will abate a mite of the due the Law in its rigour doth allow nor out of a fellow-feeling of my sufferings relent never so little of the extremity 6. For whether Land hath been undone and impoverished by unseasonable years or begger'd and exhausted by the rapine of unruly Soldiers they will alwayes have their money to yeeld a super-abundant and fruitful Crop and the Rent thereof in despite of the fortune of the Nation to hold our most plenteously to the full 7. However though to any judicious and well-poysed brain it would seem strange that by such men what is naturally barren shall be still made fruitful even when by the hardness of the times what is naturally fruitful is still made barren 8. I could nevertheless in so far as concerns my own particular be well pleased not to decline the fertilizing of that sterility if the State think such kind of men worthy of being so nearly taken notice of provided the judicatory of the Land debar me not from the benefit of that justice which without too palpable a partiality cannot be denyed to a very stranger though but passing by never to return again 9. For the most of all that I demand springeth from these two branches first that to have restâ—tution of all that wrongously hath been taken from me and my Tenants I be permitted to take my course against the meanes of the Robber who by having disabled them through so great a spoil from paying their Farmes ever since and these seven years to come so well as formerly they did will prejudge me in thrice as great a summe as all they were pillaged of did amount to and next that King James his Act concerning the most
Genealogie of our House lately published is more fully deduced 65. But this other kinde of transgression being in a matter onely twixt subject and subject it follows that the successor of neither the prodigal nor covetous man should eo nomine be punished much less should any for his predecessors covetousness be rewarded nothing more shocking against common sense it self then to make the recompence for vertue be the reward of vice whereby the very pillars of equity would be quite subverted and overthrown 66. How can it then be called Justice that the successor of the Prodigal for no other reason but his predecessors prodigality shall have his whole inheritance discerned to be the inheritance of the son of a covetous man and that meerly for his covetousness the onely recommendable quality for which he obtains it being a constant purpose and resolution to hook his neighbours means unto him by eights and tens in the hundred and other such baits whereby improvident and inconsiderate men of great Revenues are oftentimes entangled 67. Were it not less prejudicial to the Publike and more equitable in it self that a covetous man should forgo both of his principal and interest then that he who is neither prodigal nor covetous should be denuded of the estate of his forefathers which never was acquired by him that contracted the debt 68. Although the Lords of the Session or any other inferiour Judicature were never invested with power to judge otherways then according to the Customs of the Country positively written and Municipal Laws of the Land of Scotland yet the high Court of the Parliament of the Commonwealth by vertue of their Legislative authority may for the weal of the Publike transcend the bounds of any written Law much more that unto which they were never tied and of a stranger-Country now under their command 69. And as it is a common saying Interest Reipublicae nequis re sua male utatur so doth it very much concern the reputation of a Commonwealth that ancient considerable families be preserved from ruine if possible 70. If Creditors say they get injustice done to them by it I answer with Tacitus Dato sed non concesso quod habet iniqui contra singulos ulilitate publica rependitur or with Plutarch A justitia in parvis negotiis deflectendum est si ea uti volemus in magnis 71. For if it be lawful to cut off an arm for the preservation of the body how much more lawful is it to defalk somewhat from the exorbitant sums of merciless Creditors for the preservation of an ancient family in favour of him that never was the debtor seeing the Commonweal for his appearance of good service thereto may be highly concerned in his fortune 72. These few points I have premitted to make those Creditors pliable to Reason in undergoing any such course as it shall please the State to command or perswade them to who as I make account will take them from off my hand and settle me with freedom in the inheritance of my predecessors and that for the reasons formerly mentioned 73. Although the State pay them not to the full or perhaps pay them for so much as concerns me with a pardon yet ought they to be thankful to the State for what is left them and not grumble at the Publike severity that others no less faulty then they have sustained a milder lash seeing as in the Edecimation of Criminal Souldiers the nine associates have no reason to complain of partiality because the tenth escapes unpunished it becometh these aforesaid Creditors to remain contented with that mercy to others which proceeds from those who are just to them although they suffer by it nam plurimis damnum infligitur quibus nulla fit injuria And such of them as are most clamorous in seeking considering what benefit by usurious bargains they had from my father though they neither from the State nor me get any thing at all can be no losers 74. However it go I should not be deprived of my fore-fafathers Lands because of many reasons which I have already deduced Nor is this unwillingness in me to part from my Land a vice as is their tenaciousness in keeping of money for si parva licet componere magnis as the King of Spain spent in the defence of Flanders more Ryals of eight then would cover the face of the whole Country as is commonly reported so to preserve my inheritance whatever it cost it defends the honour and reputation of the House which I represent 75. And ingenuously as when I collationed in the fiftieth Article of this same Book Prodigality with Covetousness viz. that Prodigality whereby one lavishly expendeth his rents and unnecessarily involveth himself into a Labyrinth of debt and not that other which by alienating his Predecessors ancient inheritance destroyeth the whole stock in so far as lies in him I did prefer Prodigality to Covetousness as the lesser vice so should I now compare with the covetousness of an Usurer the profuseness of him that maketh no conscience to dispone unto strangers the Land of his Ancestors I would find his fault a great deal more unpardonable then that of the Usurer 76. For who turnes his Land into money devirilizeth and emasculates what is naturally procreative and by consequence bending his course to what is more imperfect deserveth greater blame then who to the Eunuch and Spadonian money allowes a constant pregnancy by imagining every peny to be both Father and Mother still begetting and still bearing and the child still growing per juxta Positionem whom if the Debtor find not beside the Parent at the semestral period he must educe another of the pre-supposed Bulk or lye by it as one that hath not faith enough because although both be unnatural yet for that the latter aymeth at what is of choicer worth it merits less imputation the intention of making what is barren fruitful albeit impossible to do being more commendable then of exchanging what is by nature fertile for that which produceth and bringeth forth nothing but rust and dross 77. However although by what is already said my declining to pay those men needed not be imputed to me for want of equity towards them in my proceedings they having received much from me and often and I from them never any thing at all my obligations to them being so prescinded from all specialities and particular restrictions that they never could shew neither what nor when nor time nor place nor any other circumstance whatsoever denotating the existence of any thing on earth wherewith to upbraid my acceptance yet I shall wish if so it please the Publike that they be satisfied and reimbursed of what they can with any kinde of reason demand 78. For as Julius Caesar after he had repudiated his wife being desired to call her home because the Judges had absolved her from that adultery whereof
of so great concernment for the not-performance of so mean a task for when Utility may be obtained with ease and the steps to Profit trod upon with facility it needeth not to be imagined where Wisdom superiorizeth most that such conveniences will be set at nought and omitted In hopes therefore of a gracious retribution and with a strenuous assurance of a plenary discharge of his promise The Author very daintily closing this sixth Book puts a Catastrophe to the whole Introduction the publishing of the Book it relates to depending totally upon the removal of the often-aforementioned impediments then which the Author asks no more for helps for Qui impedimenta tollit praestat adminicula The Sixth BOOK Of the INTRODUCTION intituled Philoponauxesis Or Furtherance of Industry Wherein is evidenced that the grant of the Authors demands will prove besides that of the Universal Language and other kindes of Literature conducible to all manner of other vertuous undertakings whatsoever 1. IF there happen to be any who for the better repelling of my demands would alleadge all other reasons failing them that the grant thereof might prove very damageable to traders in Merchandise whose fortune wholly consists in the frugal managing of their money it may very fitly be answered if they be Scotish Merchants who move the doubt that by casting in such a scruple they most unjustly impute that fault to others whereof themselves are very hainously guilty seeing under the title of Merchant and mask of the honesty thereof they do that which of any thing is to Merchandizing most destructive 2. They lend money upon Usury to none but such as have estates in land without any regard to traffique for whether the intention of the Lender be considered or use that the Borrower commonly puts it to all Mercantil negotiation is exceedingly eclipsed by it 3. There being nothing surer then that for the most part such-like borrowers in Hawks Hounds Wenching Gaming Tipling Swaggering Fidling Rioting Revelling and other such-like profligate courses of a most effusive and vast expence squander away the money so lent without casting an eye to any thing tending to the furtherance of the exchange of Ware towards the necessary use of man 4. And that likewise the Lenders of money unto such men minding chiefly their own ingreatning when they think a competent time hath expired for engendering upon the emitted Coin a progenie numerous enough for their enrichment require from their respective debtors the sum at first so lent with its usurious attendants which if obtained they possibly at the hands of some other no less debosh'd then the former debtors make purchase of some Land if not then are they sure by Decrees of Apprising according to the harsh Law of Scotland to take possession of the land of the debtor 5. So that however the matter go being certainly assured of Land which was the thing they aimed at assoon as they finde themselves invested therewith they cast off the Vizard of Merchant wherewith they cheated the world and turning once landed men they altogether scorn to traffique any longer 6. But the best is that the sons of those because of their fathers having acquired Land though the said fathers by vertue of their long-accustomed parsimony snudge out their own time without any danger of thraldome by debt strive usually to be renowned the better to appear Gentleman-like for such extravagant actions as carrying along with them profuseness of charge occasioned the sale of those lands which by their fathers were purchased 6. And as from the same causes with all their concomitances proceed always the same effects so doth such a course of life as was kept by those that did dilapidate the foresaid lands at first produce an inevitable necessity of redisponing them and that oftentimes to the first abalienators sons who bitten with penury for the lavishness of their fathers become miserable scrape-goods for their childrens subsistence 8. After which manner the generation of one livelihood being the corruption of another the son of the Covetous spending what the father of the Prodigal had gained and the son of the Prodigal re-acquiring what the father of the Covetous had put away Prodigality and Covetousness in this alternative vicissitude were the two master-wheels that hurried Scotland into Confusion and Hypocrisie the Iehu that drove the Chariot with such velocity that since the National subscribing of the first Covenant one and the same estate in lands hath been observed according to the manner of the fore-mentioned circulation of covetous men and prodigals succeeding in the veece of one another to have interchangeably been possesâ— by four several owners hinc iude the seller being still as it were the buyers predecessor in a diametral line as in a direct one the Prodigal was to the Covetous or inversedly the Covetous to the Prodigal and this not onely in one or two but in above five hundred several parts of the Country wherein what the covetous father of one family had bought from the prodigal-father of another the covetous son of that other did recover from the prodigal-son of the first and that with so little vertue in either that oftentimes the purchase flowed from the greater vice 9. By such a vicious flux and reflux within these ninety yeers upon the chanel of Land-rents so great prejudice hath redounded and daily redoundeth to the worthy profession of Merchandizing the disponer not being accustomed with traffique and the purchaser disdaining any longer to exercise it that all Manual Trades in that Nation are now almost totally failed and have fallen of late into such a palpable decadence that hardly shall a man be found where these men have being that can make a pair of Boots aright or Taylor skilful enough to apparel one in the Fashion although he see the patern before him 10. Other Trades of weaving Silver Lace knitting Silk Stockins sowing of Cut-work with five hundred more depending on the hammer needle or pencil in other Countries as commonly practised as Cookery with us may in Scotland now where-ever the Usurer lives be as well put amongst the antiqua deperdita as the malleability of glass liquability of stone or incombustibility of linen 11. And the reason is Though they had the dexterity to make the ware there is no Merchant to buy it all such being turned by Usury to Mongrel-Gentlemen and all Gentlemen thought unthrifty that turn not Usurers whose both inclinations being to convert all into money save so much victual and clothes as barely may preserve their bodies from starving which a corner of their own Country-farm will sufficiently afford all gallantry of Invention is ruined exquisite Artificers discouraged and Civility it self trod under foot for want of Commerce 12. Thus it being clear that promiscuous Usury the Gentleman being no more ashamed of it then the Burger hath been the overthrow of Merchandise in Scotland which is