fruition but rather with the prudent fox in the fable will call those grapes sowre with fortune hath plac'd above his reach 23 If admiration be the daughter of Ignorance as most acknowledge it is the duty of every intelligent person to be diligent in the search of causes that he be not suspris'd with amazement the grandest Indecorum and most unbeseeming garbe of a wise man at any revolutions or alterations that may happen in the body politick since that no lesse than things naturall is subject to change and motion there being nothing permanent under the Sun the greatest change is but a nine daies wonder and that only to the shorter sighted sort of people that are not able to discerne of causes The convulsions and distempers of States spring from as infallible Grounds and Reasons as any disease of the body naturall though perhaps in the one they may be more latent difficult to unridle than in the other For nothing happens either in Nature or Republicks that that may be call'd the Daughter of chance or say'd to owe it's existency to the will of the blind Goddesse fortune but the whole empire of the world is govern'd by the scepter of Gods providence who since the ceasing of miracles hath decreed all things to be produc'd by the midwifry of second causes 24 But beware a too great inquisitivenesse into stare affaires purchase not the odious epithite of a Politician for it is better to be wise than so accounted since according to the opinion of most the time is not yet come wherein we may expect the prudence of the Serpent and innocency of the dove should couch together and therefore as some are thought to inherit too small a stock of wit to set up for Knaves so in others are found too many graines of Serpentine cunning to admit much of the doves simplicity whereby it comes to passe that policy is of most use to those that can best dissemble it as if like the art of jugling or sleight of hand it were nothing worth when once discover'd I remember Solomon hath said It is not good to be over wise and there are many that want not wit that had rather be accounted fools than polititians 25 It I hath been alwayes accounted prudence before a man imbarks himself in any design or enterprise to consider well of the event or issue that it is like to arive unto for the want of this hath often prov'd the ruine of many a glorious undertaking for where one design hath been gravell'd in the sands of delay thousands have been split on the rock of praecipitancy and rashnesse Charybdis doth not triumph in morewracks of ships than this in ruines of great undertakings The Spaniard who is reputed none of the worst Polititians accounts his designes ripened and not rotted by time And therefore it 's usuall for the farther to sow the seed of what the grandchild is to expect the fruit Raw and extemporary plots that discover themselves so soon as ever they are hatcht that like young birds come into the world with the shell on their crownes or like forward Plants bud before the Sun of a good opportunity hath shined upon them are usually nipt before they come to maturity and have their fruit blasted in their first blossoms 26 Learning like dancing or playing on a Fiddle is counted by the proud world a better accomplishment than profession and therefore poor Schollars that have nothing to live on but the Stock of their parts and wits journey-work are commonly entertain'd with as little respect as Dancing-Masters or common Fidlers which brings to my mind that of Solomon that wisdome is good with an Inheritance It 's reported of Cleanthes a poor Philosopher that he drew water by night to maintain himself by day in the Muses service The unworthinesse of this age threatens Schollars with as bad imployment unlesse furnish'd with two Strings to their bowes There are some trades too ingenious for any but the Sons of Minerva as Merchandise Making Watches Limning and Ingraving with some others that depend on Mathematicks in some of which a Schollar might profitably employ some of his afternoon hours not as if I thought not learning a full imployment but because the most industrious are often indispos'd to study 27 Let not a fond conceit of thy name being born on the wings of fame sing lull-aby and rock asleep thy industry for many had arriv'd to a great height in Learning had they not too soon thought their knowledge at the Zenith and with Hercules setting up their pillars wrote their Ne plus Ultra This I am perswaded hath rob'd the world of many a splendent Star of Light but to ballance this consider that by reason of that vayle of obscurity that covers the face of nature together with that night of Ignorance that dwels on mans understanding the highest pitch that the best wing'd industry can soare unto is but a discovery that it knows little or nothing more than the various opinions and fancyes of men To conclude set him that hath dedicated himself to the Muses service study such things as are of use rather than ostentation and as one hath well observ'd rather with the Bee endeavour to gather Honey than like the silly Butterfly paint it his wings Let the consideration of the shortnesse of the day of mans life wherein he is to traverse the long and intricate paths of Learning quicken up our diligence to an indefatigable Industry lest the night of death overtake us and cause the Sun of our life to set before any light of knowledge hath dawn'd on our souls and so we go down to the Earth with the same vaile of Ignorance on our understandings and our Reasonâ— as much hood wink'd as when we came first into the world Sâ—â— Verbum Sapienti Of Death WHat kind of Bug-bear soever Death may be represented through the Sophisticated Glasse of Melancholy apprehensions as that he is the King of terrours the worme's Caterer and natures Sargeant that arrests poor mortalls for the debt due to corruption and gives checkmate not only to life's pleasure but also the pleasant gaire of mans life and may therefore be term'd life's devourer the grand Anthropophagus or man-eater that as it were cracks the shell of the flesh for worms himself preying on the sweet kernell of the soul These and such like are the black colours with which ignorance and guilt paynts a visard and masks the face of death Whereas could we acknowledge the truth we should confesse it as naturall to dye as to be borne Death being but the souls breaking up of house or dismantling it self of the no less cumbersom than dusty Garments of flesh or rather that it is the goal of the souls race the palme of victory the very crown and reward of life Death is not the Jaylor that captivates but the Herauld that proclaimes liberty and reprievs the soul from the confinement and prison of its body that knocks off the Fetters and Shackles of flesh and gives it the desired Exit from off the stage of this trouble some world the traveler in the fable wishd for death but quayling at his approach desir'd his hand to help him up wth his burthen whereas death intended him a greater courtesy to wit the unloading his soul of those heavy clods or earth and bundle of corruption it groaneth under Thus many stand in their own light and will not suffer themselves to be befriended like the little Poet that durst not put off his heavy shoes left the wind committing a rape on his leight Body should carry him away as the Eagle is said to have done Ganymed thus loath are the most of men that death should take off the leaden shoes of their bodies notwithstanding they hinder their souls flight into Elysium Death is so far from being the murderer of life that it rather hatches it by breaking up the Shell of the body in which it was imprison'd or rather seminally conteyn'd for as the chicken or young fowle is excluded from the egge or materiall forme educ'd from the womb of its first matter in which nature had treasur'd it up so springs the Phoenix 〈◊〉 our lives from the ruines and ashes of our bodies Yea it 's impossible the Sun of our true life should shine forth in it 's full glory till the cloud of our flesh be dissipated which occasioned the wisest of Kings to say The day of a mans death is better than the day of his birth Which according to Platoes Philosophy may be digested without a comment for if the glorious lamp of the soul were thrust into the dark lant-horn of its body by way of punishment for crimes committed in her Virgin estate when shee had her mansion among the Stars then certainly when by death she shall be return'd to her heavenly socket she is no way injur'd but restor'd to her primitive lustre and glory Such a notion as this though I confesse erroneous enough as antedating the souls existency yet is of greater Analogy to the immunities and priviledges death puts the soul in possession of than those cloudy and dastard apprehensions that most Christians entertain thereof who in this seem shorter sighted than the Barbarous Scythians who use to celebrate the obsequies of their nighest Relations more after the manner of a triumph than a funerall more rightly accounting that we falsely terme the expiring of of lives lease the haven of rest the period of misery and souls reprieve from the Captivity of flesh whereas their childrens births they solemniz'd with all expressions of grief and sorrow as fore-seeing the miseries that usually accompany the soules entrance on earths theater Nor did the Scythians alone ingrosse this notion for other Heathens were also Masters of it witnesse the facetious end of Augustus Caesar who is reported to have concluded the fable of his life with a consort of Musick and begg'd a Plaudit of his friends at his going off the Stage of the World Mors ultima linea rerum Manners Nosce teipsum Time Meditation Antiquityes Overvaluing former ages Old age Travail Variety of employment Respect Souldiers Passion Pride Charity Discontent Youth Writing Books Vindication Covetousnesse Boasting Ambition Search of causes Policy Deliberation or Festina lenté Learning despised Conceit Conclusion Ars longae vâ—ta brevis
which he is so terrifyed that his hair standing an end and pushing off his nightcap he sweares the next morning it was pull'd away by a dead-mans hand and therefore the room 's haunted without all peradventure by these apparitions his countenance grows so pale and ghastly that if he chance to see his image in the water he runs away thinking the Devil would have pulld him into the River or that his Genius like that of Brutus gave him a summons to make his appearance at Plutoes Court The surfeit of which conceits with the help of an hempen string gives his frighted soul an Exit from off the stage of his Body 4. Of Passion PAssion having put out the eyes of reason as the Philistins did Sampson's exposes the wisest of men to the scorn ludibrium of the world This is that rash Phaeton which if it ascend the Chariot of the understanding and have the reins of the souls Goverment committed unto it nothing can be expected but the ruine of the microcosme Never did any poor benighted understanding rejoyce in the false light or commit it self to the guidance of this ignis fatuus that was not bemired in the bogs of errour and indiscretion Moderate anger may be of some use for whetting the blunted edge of the souls motions and oyling the Wheels of action But he that screws up the peggs of his passion beyond the Eâ—a of reason will sing to as sorry a tune as that of the jangling Chimes of Carflax 5. Of a Physitian A Physitian is commonly said to be the Son of Apollo but I should rather think of Prometheus in whose art though he be not so good a proficient as to make yet he can vamp and as it were new translate the bodyes of men and therefore may without injury be called the bodger or patcher up of old decay'd and broken nature For which end he consults much the pispot-Almanacks or urinalls by which as in a learned Kalender he discovers the good or ill weather that shall happen in the Microcosme or I le of Man And if providence once crown his endeavours with successe so that like a skillful Midwife he give his patients a safe delivery of the disease wherewith they were brought to bed he streight thinks he hath cancell'd the decrees of fate and renew'd the leases of his patients life in spight of the three Sisters And will thenceforth undertake to make good the souls title to the ruin'd cottage of her body against the plea of death and irrevocable doome of destiny Thinking his art able not only to reprieve poor mortalls from the arrest of death but to give check to Iupiter himself and is therefore accounted of the Country-people a little God-Almighty here upon earth to whom they supplicate for Galenicall auxiliaries whensoever the Oeconomy of their bodies is disturbed for reducing all rebellious and seditious humors to their pristine harmonies and due allegiance And this intitles him to as great credit amongst women as ghostly fathers and opens a door of as free saccesse to Ladyes beds as to the Priest or confessor To conclude he is of that kind of animals that thrive best in the worst aire and like vermine lives on the soars and putrefactions of corrupted nature 6. Of a Foole or Naturall A Foole is an animal the Organs and Pipes of whose body like a sorry instrument being miserably out of tune his soul cannot play those sweet notes and lofty straines of reason that in better tun'd bodyes she useth to do and therefore he is sayd to have reason only in the seed or root which shoots not forth till death hath broken up the tough clods of his body and his soul be tranplanted to a soyle govern'd by better influences than any earth receives Or in brief he is one whom nature never suffer'd to take his discretion into his own hands and therefore the law trusts not with the management of his own estate 7. Of an Hypocrite AN Hypocrite walkes in a bright could of seeming sanctity like the Devil in a body of condens'd aire or is one that brightens and irradiates the whole course of his life with the splendent beames of a glorious profession but such as dart not from the Sun of righteousnesse arisen in his heart but rather like the Meteor Philosophers call ignis lambens that usually adheres to horses manes being no other than an extrinsecall and borrowed lustre He weares Religion as a cloke for the palliating of bad actions and therefore no wonder he cuts and shapes it according to the mode and fashion of the age and times he lives in which if pâ—râ—hanâ—e they wax hot with the scorching flames of a fiery persecution he will judge the heavy robe of Religion not only a cumbersome but a needlesse and uncongruous garment for so hot a season And therefore thinks them in the highest classe of folly that suffer their religion to prove their winding sheets or like the shirt Deianira sent Hercules cleave so close unto them as not to be put off without sacrificing their lives to the mercilesse flames of devouring fire He esteemes it an admirable decorum to sprinkle bad actions with holy-water to say a long grace before a breakfast of widdows houses but so to espouse any religion as not to admit of a divorce when the Magistrates authority legitmates the act he reckons not only the height of folly but also peevish perversnesse 8. Of Books BOoks though but paper-books are often fraught with the richest treasure of wisdome and knowledge for they are daughters of the intellect or the true off-spring of the spirituall soul as it were embodyed and made corporate And therefore may justly challenge as great a share and interest in the stock of our affections as the naturall off-spring of our bodies As being not only the productions of our more Noble part the soul But also stampt with the more Noble Characters of our perfections and bearing a greater resemblance of our true selves then any Child of the outward lineaments of his parents Now the most masculine intellectuall births are usually produc'd neither in the morning or infancy of our dayes the Sun of Reason having not then broke through the mists and fogs of ignorance that commonly attends the souls first arising in the horizon of flesh Nor also in the evening of old age seeing the day of mans life most commonly sets in a cloud of Dotage But rather at the full Noon of manhood when the Rational Soul that is the Sun of the Microcosme hath climb'd the Zenith or meridian and with the fruitfull rayes of Reason hath compress'd the Intellect Then if ever is the time for Pallas to issue from the Braine of Iupiter The Books of the deceased are as it were the Shrines or Temples of their Souls where they vouchsafe a kind of residence and give forth their oracles after they have quitted the mansion-houses of their bodies Here we may ask counsell of the dead without
going to the Witch of Endor or being inshrined within the Circle of a Conjurer by the help of Books we may set our Pigmy-Reasons on the Gygantine shoulders of the Antients and so see farther than Antiquity and shoot nigher the Goal of Truth than all praecedent ages But to the study of Books is not amisse to joyn the Reading of men It being of greater concernment for the prudent stearing the course of our lives to understand the Genius of the age we live in than to be acquainted with the mind of Aristotle or Plato Miscellaneous Discourses Of Ministers and Magistrates THe Ministry and Magistracy like Castor and Pollux portend great tranquillity and happinesse to that Common wealth where they shine together in equall and mutual splendor But if divided the unluckly omen of an approaching storme or unwellcome harbinger of inevitable ruine The Romans were as carefull in maintaining their Vestall fire as preserving the Palladium Counting that no lesse than this a pledge of their Empires durance and felicity For certain it is not the Palladium or shield of the wisest States-mans wisdome or Policy that is able to protect or give a long life to Empire or Government where the holy fire of Religion is extinguished which will quickly ensue where the Ministry is discouraged who like the order of Vesta's Priestshood should blow up the Coles of Devotion and maintaine the sacred fire of zeal on the Altars of the peoples hearts Magistrates and Ministers are the Planets by whose influences and superintendency God hath appointed the elementary and inferiour Bodies of Republicks to be govern'd and directed and that Common-Wealth is blind to her own interest that doth not tender them as the Apples of her eyes For to speak truth they are in the body politick what the great luminaries in the universe the very light and eyes of the world of which could the one without the other be put out as some have fondly imagined it must needs render the body politick as monstrous and prodigious as that of our Poets one-eyed Polyphemus But since these twins of light kindl at each others flames and can neither be extinguish'd without the other nothing can be expected from Eclisping the Sun of eithers authority but a sad night of ignorance and confusion To conclude that Common-wealth cannot expect to hear the sweet melody or be ravish'd with the Musick of the Sphaers motions where the Orbs of Civill governments are not moved by these Intelligences The Ministers therefore and States-men are under God the two pillars that bear up the Arke of Government and they that indeavour the subversion of either whatever may be pretended would open a door to Anarchy and confusion 1. De Anno Platonico PLato tells us that after the revolution of a certain motion by Philosophers term'd motus trepipationis Nature will again spin ore the thread of her old productions and put forth a new impression of the Worlds Iliads as if her whole businesse were but the setting forth of one Comedy though consisting of many Acts and Parts of which every Age presents a new scene and every Generation produces new Actors untill the Catastrophe of the whole and that the Fable be again begun which though a Chimaera may yet teach us how it matters not whom we represent in the Fable of this life whether a King or Peasant so we do it with a grace there being as much art required for the skillful personating a Clown Corydon or Fool as an Emperour Courtier or Philosopher What ever person therefore nature hath allotted us in the scene of our generation we ought so to act our parts that at our souls Exit we may have the Plaudit of a good conscience and then we shall retire from off the stage of this World with comfort and be received into eternall mansions Of Imployment and variety of Fortunes VAriety and fulnesse of imployment as it is the best Antidote against the poyson of Melancholy so no lesse improving than delightfull to any whom nature hath made Masters of any talents of reason Wherefore so long at it shall please providence to continue me on the worlds theatre I should rather desire to act diverse parts and run the gantlet of various fortunes having the course of my life checkr'd with black and white than to be the Darling of that blind goddesse that is usually most propitious to those of least understanding He that expects a plenitude of content whilst on this side mortality reckons without his Host and feeds his fancy with fond and ridiculous hopes for nature hath set such an high excise of care and trouble on her apparent Commodities that they often become Bankrupts of reason the richest Jewell of the lesser world that much traffick with her There is no eating the sowre Grapes of the worlds seeming pleasures without setting the teeth on edge Much therefore is the voluptuarist mistaken that thinks to exact a large tribute of pleasure from all the objects his soul converseth with in this lower Region of nature since all things are stampt not only with vanity but also vexation of spirit the true reason providence could never stuffe the Cushion of any mans fortune with so soft a down but that he thought it harder then Iacobs pillow An rectè fecit Augustus inimicos constituendo haeredes Neg. DOth the Light of reason's lamp by time sunk into the socket of old age burn so dim or do the clouds of dotage in the evening of mans life no lesse obscure prudence than the mists of ignorance that usually attend the first dawnings of reason in the souls Infancy Or did the Sun of Caesars prudence set before the day of his life went down that his understanding was so benighted as to make those heirs of his substance that were the mortall enemies of his felicity That he should gratify those with the spoyles of his Fortune who had more reason to expect a gibbet than a legacy What greater blasphemy against reason could Caesar have been guilty of what more contrary to the rules of true policy could the most infatuated understanding have committed was not this madnesse beyond parallell both of former ages moulded by time or the latter more pregnant in acts of folly How much better had it been that Caesar had dyed intestate than that he should thus in the last act and Catastrophe of his life Register himself a fool to prosperity Certainly had Caesar divulged his will before he concluded the fable of his life he had never extorted a Plaudit from his friends at his souls Exit from off the stage of his body Shall thine enemy's Oh Caesar reap the fruits of all thy Victories shall their brows be crowned with thy successes shal those that hate thee be adorned with thy spoyles shall they wear the Lawrels and garlands of thy triumphs shall the ashes of thy urne like the Phoenix's give birth to their felicities wilt thou now pay tribute to thy enemies who ere-while