Selected quad for the lemma: sin_n
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A36896
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The art of living incognito being a thousand letters on as many uncommon subjects / written by John Dunton during his retreat from the world, and sent to that honourable lady to whom he address'd his conversation in Ireland ; with her answer to each letter.
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Dunton, John, 1659-1733.
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1700
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Wing D2620; ESTC R16692
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162,473
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Death then Reason commands Sense all obey to this Apprehension of Frailty Pleasures by little and little abandon us the Sweets of Life seem Sowr and we can find no other quiet but in the Hope Before Death and the Funeral no Man is Happy of that glorious Life to come 'T was the Saying of a great Man Before Death and the funeral no Man is happy But that I may Die in Peace 't is requisite that I Die daily Philip of Macedon gave a Boy a Pension ev'ry Morning to say to him Philip remember thou art a Man My Purse won't allow of a Daily Monitor but I hope this Essay on my Why God wou'd have me ignorant of my last Hour funeral will serve me as well to bear Death in Mind as if Philp's-Deaths-Dead were set before me But God wou'd have me ignorant of my last Hour that suspecting it always I might always be ready and where can I get ready if not in a Cell where are few Temptations to Sin and Vanity And therefore I 'll never leave it but like the silly-Grashopper Live and Die and perhaps be Buried in the same Ground But however my Body is dispos'd of I shall still be Your Friend INCOGNITO The Ladys Answer to my Eight Letter Sir I Can easily believe you are the First that ever Writ an Essay upon their own Funeral for our Dissolution is no inviting Subject it has but a Melancholy Aspect even when 't is look'd upon as the only Remedy of the Afflicted But How bitter are the Thoughts of Death to those that Live at Ease Which if you Consider you may well conclude had Valeria's Kindness been such as you would have had it you had ne'er enjoyed the Blessing you do now of Contemplating the Miseries of this Life till in Ransacking your Memory for all that could possibly any more afflict or torment you you light upon Death as the last and most dreadful of all terrible Things which being once fix'd in your Mind sets you out of the reach of all Temptations In this she makes it appear she loves you as well at least if not better than her own Soul that she affords you a Happiness she denies her self and chuses to leave you to the full Enjoyment of it without robbing you of the least Share But if you are Serious in the Thoughts of Death 't will do you more good than all her Smiles however you may prize ' em The Gentleman that thought he was as good as Dead when his Money was gone might have some cause to think himself really Dead tho he walk'd about perceiving the Fear every ones Countenance discover'd at the sight of him the Case of most Persons in his Circumstance therefore never be surpriz'd at his having more Brains than he could be quiet with for were your Case his in one respect it might be so perhaps in the other every one is not able to hear the Contempt of the World Tho' if well consider'd when we answer the Designs of Providence it should be all one to us whether we stand for a Penny or a Crown for in God's Account we are equally as useful and acceptable And I am perswaded there has been many great Saints very little seen or known in the World and whose only Share in it has been but Obscurity and Contempt and truly speaking what are we the better for so large a share of earthly Enjoyments that shall both disorder our Minds and Bodies that we can't discern our true Interest but place our Happiness in catching at departing shadows while we forget we are all born subjects of Death and begin to die from the first moment of our Life And 't is no matter how soon one is discharg'd of a Debt one must certainly pay And were our Life never so long to think in time we should have enough of living is a great mistake for at Fourscore Years and we shall think our lives short and our past Enjoyments extremely imperfect and any one that dies at Twenty can do no more That in general Death is saluted with the same shy Air whenever he claims the debt they are not willing to pay as well those he has long forborn as those he deals with more severely Yet methinks aged Person 's Experience and some sort of good Nature and Compassion might prevail with 'em willingly to make room for others that by their Deaths young Persons to whom they leave their Places may have the opportunity of making the same Experiment they have done of the Emptiness of all humane Ioys which is best known and believed by dear bought Experience and never till then can they be freed from the Tyranny of Vain-hopes and wild Ambition the Disease of Youth I confess I can't but wonder at the vain curiosity of the Philosophers who set themselves so much to know exactly in the last Minute of their Life what Being Death has which is none at all The most that can be seen of Death is by its Operation on our Bodies in this Life our total Dissolution is but the last stroke not much differing from the rest nor perhaps the most painful we know enough of it to make us hate the thoughts of it as of a Molancholy Subject and if ever we are brought to love it 't is certain it must be by looking beyond it For 't is to the consideration of that happy change of Life to which Death brings us that we are obliged for all our Ease and Comfort in this Life and from the hopes that in Death the Soul shall be set at Liberty and be triumphant over that Enemy which had so long insulted and with the sight and feeling of his Tyranny kept it in bondage and slavish fear There 's nothing in this World that is not under his Dominion his Character is stampt on every thing which makes 'em change corrupt and die that we are tir'd with such perpetual Alterations tho'it shou'd sometimes supply the place of a comfort to one that has no better for if a meer change will mend their Condition they are sure of that Relief since nothing remains in the same state all tends to a Dissolution the Heavens wax old as doth a Garment and shall be changed nay Death it self must shortly yield to Destruction and till then the worst it can do is but to change us for the better 'T is much to be admir'd there should be any Pretenders to the making a Divorce between Death and Sin that the same Persons that abhor the Sight oâ— Thoughts of Death shou'd take Sin into their Embraces for what 's so sure to let in Death as Sin For 't is not only the Wages of Sin but it's natural Issue and one may say 't is the only good thing Sin ever brought forth for we have many Advantages by Death since every degree of Death in the Body adds to the Life and Vigour of any Soul that is not already dead in Sin and in the
if we seek to out-face the one or enter into the other we forthwith become blind or burnt So odorous Flowèrs Being held too near the Censor of our Sense Render not pure nor so sincere their Powers As being held a little distance thence In a word 't is ill dancing for Nimble Wits on the Precipices of Dangerous Doctrines for tho they escape by their Agility others encouraged by their Examples may be brought to destruction To leave the Curiosity of our Town Wits and Conjurers those Iunior Devils that wear the Impostor's Badge I 'le next visit the Philosopher and his Curiosity is such that he has no sooner read a Leaf in Seneca but he 'd be a Privy Counsellor to the Stars a Member of the Athenian Society a Resolver of all Questions And now Physicks and Metaphysicks have at ye Oh how he loves to search into the Secrets of Nature But which of 'em all can tell me the Longitude at Sea or the Reason of the Flux and Reflux of that unquiet Element 'T is true Cowley tells us Philosophers are so very curious that Nature's great Works no distance can obscure No smallness her near Objects can secure They 've taught the Curious Sight to press Into thâ— privatest Recess Of her Interceptable Littleness They 've learn'd to read her smallest Hand And have begun her deepest sense to understand Fye fie Cowley Why do you bauter these Philosophers thus For you 're very sensible the more they know the more Ignorant they know they are But now I think on 't Dissimulation is State Policy and Poets set out themselves as Aristotle did his Books not to be understood at first sight You must own Mr. Cowley tho you flat er these Virtuoso's that even Diogenes Crates peer'd not far into the Secrets of Nature and that our Modern Philosophers such as Discartes Legrand c. knew as little as they Nay there 's the Royal Society tho compos'd of the best and most Knowing Men in the World can't tell us why the Loadstone always turns to the North Why a Lyon trembles at the sight of a Cock Even the great Basil was puzled about the Body of a little Pismire No Madam as Curious as the Philosophers are they have not yet attained a perfect Understanding of the smallest Flower * See my Essay on knowing our friends in Heaven p. 34. and why the Grass should rather be Green than Red They 'll affirm That an Ague is Witchcraft that Air is but Water rarified that there 's another World of Men and Creatures with Cities and Towns in the Moon That the Sun is lost for it is but a Cleft in the Lower Heavens through which the Light of the Highest shines Oh senseless Curiosity for Men to waste their Time in such iâ—lle Dreams Or cou'd these Magi prove what they say yet still they Live in the Dark For what is all they know by their most curious Searches compar'd with what they know not They have perhaps Artificial Cunning but how many Curiosities be framed by the least Creatures in Nature unto which the Industry of the most Curious Virtuoso's doth not attain But I 'le leave 'em in a fond Pursuit of they know not what And next step to the Chymist to see how modest I shall find him Modest he 's more curious than the former and to as little purpose He hath already melted many a fair Mannor in Crucibles and turn'd them into Smoak and all to cure the Itch in his working Brain he has near ruin'd himself and Family yet grows more Curious at every new disappointment he can't rest with the Wit he has so dearly bought No! he will make Nature asham'd of her long Sleep when Art who is but a Step Dame shall do more thâ— she in her best Love to Mankind ever could Oh brave Chymist Well sure Self-conceitedness is the Sin in Fashion 't is a hard matter not to think well of our selves For He yes He can extract the Souls of all things by his Art call all the Vertues and Miracles of the Sun into a Temperate Furnace teach Dull Nature what her own Forces are He 's sure there iâ— the Rich Peru the Golden Mines Great Solomon's Ophir But Solomon was sailing to it Three Years yet he 'll reach it in Three Months ay in Three Days for he 'll ne'er sleep till he has this Art of Angels this Divine Secret the Philosophers Stone for he thinks it Tradition comes not from Men but Spirits What a Mess of Vain Curiosity I might add of utter Impossibility iâ— this But no more than Ev'ry Chymia in London pretends to Yet surely to Alchimy this Right is due that it may be compared to the Husbandman whereof Aesop makes the Fable that when he died told unto his Sons that he had left unto them Gold buried under Ground in his Vineyard and they digged all the Ground and Gold they found none but by reason of digging and stirring the Mold about the Roâ—ts of their Vines they had a good Vintage the Year following So assuredly the search and stir to make Gold hath brought to light a great number of good and useful Experiments if Men cou'd be contented with 'em but they are not but wou'd still know more that 's their Sin And it still finds 'em out as is evident by the Punishment they always have in being disappointed of that Pearl they sold all they had to purchase Oh Egregious Folly for Men to spend their Moneys in such Idle Disquisitions But some Men think nothing out of their Reach I shall instance in those that built or would have built the Tower of Babel whose Top might reach to Heaven It is not likely they could be so simple as to think really they should reach to Heaven by it they might think they should be sâ—me what nearer perchance and however get a name among men in after Ages that they that built such a Tower were somewhat above men But confusion was their reward And as to the Art of flying I have no reason to be against it if discoverable by humane industry I have reap'd the pleasures of it in my dreams more then once and I thought no pleasure comparable to it though but in a dream Yet I doubt it may have somewhat of the Babylonish presumption in the eyes of God and that such high curiosities are so far from being useful that they may be dangerous Madam I might go on in quest after Longitude Diving Engines the Perpetual Motion and all Projectors by what Name or Title soever dignifi'd or distinguish'd but their Number 's endless so I 'le search no longer nor spend any more Time in such Vain Speculations lesâ— unawares I shou'd be guilty of that Vain Curiosity which my Cell has cured and that I ha' been all this while reprehending Not but amongst the vast Numbers of Projectors some of their Maggots have taken yet I do say the only valuable Projection that ever I met