to speak at all than to speak amiss To the nine Muses Nima Pompilius added one he named Tacita or silent to shew that though all Sciences were in one without silence they would prove useless Indeed as it is a great wisdom to hide his passions and discover those of other men so it is to speak little and hear much for whilst fools have their heart upon the tongue wise men keep their tongue in the heart These know how to keep a secret which they are trusted with and which to them is a sacred thing but the others are uncapable of it Herein I am not so unjust as to advise one to leave off speaking only I wish him to order his words and observe what he is to say and to take his time for there is a time to speak and a time to be silent specially about certain matters The advantage of silence is clear he who speaks empties himself but he who hears fills himself Let his words be also true that is for what he knows for to tell a lie is one thing and to lie is another one may tell a lie thinking it to be a truth when he hath been mis-informed but to lie implies an intention to deceive the hearer This distinction was well observed by Nigidius as related by Aulus Gellius An honest man takes care not to be a lyar and the prudent man not to tell a lye An honest or as Solomon saith A righteous man hateth lying The credit of a man is the truth of his words without it he is accounted base and unworthy not fit to keep company with honest men when he is known to be a lyar he is not believed though he speaks the truth Our Saviour would not suffer the Devils to confess him to be the Son of God for fear this truth should be suspected coming out of their mouth â—o that when a man is come to that I account him lost in his reputation having thereby declared himself the true son of the Devil who is a lyar from the beginning therefore whensoever a man speaks let him say the truth though he be not always bound to declare it nor the whole truth which often 't is prudence to conceal Charitably one must not tell the Vices of others specially of Parents Patrum pudenda non detegamus saith a Doctor as did Ham A Son must not say his Father is a Drunkard though it be true but still I say let all sorts of lyes be avoided whether it be jucundum officiosum or perniciosum pleasant profitable or hurtful for if one uses himself to any of these he will easily pass to the practise of the rest It is a trouble to lye and requires much of memory it is easier to frame within us a real image of that which is than a false idol of what is not so truth can well be expressed without art or affectation but a lye stands in need of both Above all let a man in his discourses avoid that horrid and unprofitable sin of Swearing all other Vices have something of profit or pleasure to plead for but this hath no such pretences only a wicked mind and a desperate custom But will not God be avenged on those who call him to be a witness to a lye with taking his name in vain and forswearing themselves He is called not only to be a witness to what is agreed upon but also to be avenger of the perjury when it is committed His name is called in to help one man to cheat another an affront which he will not forgive Let Zedechiaâ— the two of the ten who broke their word to Annibal and Vladislaus be witnesses of it and let an Heathen a Regulus shame and condemn such ones Let also a Gentleman avoid speaking ill or well of himself no great danger of the first but much of the last and when there is a necessary occasion for 't let him do it modestly and sparingly They who take a pleasure to speak of their exploits and to be trumpets of their own praises are laught at in company and at last are a burthen to those whom they converse with but alas who can make an exact enumeration of the defects creeping into the matter of mans conversation some trouble the head of those whose company they keep with news of what passes in their Street and Parish others make the ears ring with the miseries of the times and sufferings of people some talk of nothing but of the weather others of War and in a Chamber they take Towns overthrow Armies and decide of the fortune of Kings others can speak of nothing but of mirth eating drinking or of cloaths a la mode others of their Travels Books Horses of Building Hunting Hawking Coursing and of thousands of such things those who constantly are talking of one thing and never but of that thing are the plague and persecutors of reasonable persons I would have a man able to discourse upon all these but in due time and place As there is no man infallible so none ought to be too positive peremptory or obstinate in his opinions I must not forget to warn our Gentleman to compose his body so as to commit no absurdity in his posture no more than in his discourse When he is in company he must forbear talking to himself muttering between his lips often â—pitting nodding with his head pointing the finger leaning on his elbow crossing of his legs sudden and frequent turning of the eyes looking awry shutting his eyes or looking upon the ground when he speaks instead of modestly casting them upon the person he speaks to frowning making mouths and faces a perpetual motion and disquietness of the body and generally he ought to forbear any thing which is sign of lightness threatning anger or of an inward fretting or disturbance So when he walks in or out of the room let him handsomely carry his body avoiding every unbecoming gesture and that lofty walking of some who seem to have a mind to make the ground tremble under them the best way is ever the most natural which is no ways to be forced or counterfeit except as it falls out with some it be ridiculous or hath a particular reason for it as the office or profession of some men that requires a greater gravity which yet must not be affected nor with ostentation Hitherto I shewed how a young Gentleman may learn good now I must teach him how to avoid evil this is the whole of man to do good and flie from evil Phyâ—icians do reduce their whole art to the practice of these two words tene abstine so there are things which a Traveller must follow and others which he must abstain from I have advised him to go into good company now my work is to dissuade him from keeping that which is bad many a one hath been undone by bad company and evil counsel which attend one another for though a wicked man be
altogether but still he considers himself as a stranger in the places he comes to only he endeavours to fit himself to go home better qualified than when he came away so men are but passengers in this world out of which they must study to go better than when they came into 't they have here no sure habitation like the children of Israel they must go through a Wilderness before they can come into the land of promise heaven of which Canaan was a type and a figure and therefore let the young man consider of his later end and make provision for it for alas what is this but a valley of misery where every one from the highest to the lowest have their crosses sufferings and thorns in the flesh and of every side Except our souls nothing in this world but what is mortal and corruptible dust which vilest creatures do trample under feet is the matter out of which we were framed All flesh is as grass and all the glory of man as the flower of grass saith St. Peter He was not the first that said so the Prophet Isaiah had told the same long before his time St. Iames his contemporary speaking of the rich man saith he shall pass away as the flower of the grass and Scripture speaking of the greatest and best Kings as David Solomon Hezekiah Iosia and of the worst all those of Israel from Ieroboam saith he died and was buried And now I am upon this subject so important to all I will somewhat enlarge upon it and first let us speak of our life which is the dearest and most precious thing we have in this world for herein the Devil was in the right and the father of lies spoke the truth when he said Skin for skin yea all a man hath he will give for his life yet David calls it his Pilgrimage and saith in another place I am a stranger here as all my Fathers were He reduceth it to a small matter to a hand breadth And the Wiseman in one verse calls it twice by the name of vanity This is one of the vanities he had found amongst the rest Let Iacob be heard speaking of this when being brought before Pharaoh in the 130. year of his age he speaks thus The dayes of the years of my pilgrimage are 130 few and evil He who was called a man according to God's own heart speaking of his life said My days are consumed like smoke and a mans days are as grass as the flower of the field not a flower of the garden sheltered behind hedges and walls but a flower of the field exposed to all injuries of weather our life then is only a dream that passes away a shadow a vapour of smoke according to Scripture phrases and if we make a serious reflection upon 't David confining it to 70 or 80 years out of which if we take away the time we sleep of our infancy old age diseases and afflictions it will hardly make up fifteen years this is the time which a man may properly be said to live As to the world it self it passeth away with the lust thereof that which he names the lust St. Paul calls it the fashion to shew that indeed it is not that which others imagine it to be heavens not excepted for the heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with a fervent heat the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up Heavens and earth shall perish which St. Paul doth repeat they all shall wax old as doth a garment as a vesture shall thou fold them and they shall be changed Could these things be well printed in the heart of a young Gentleman there would be less to do for Governors than there is their task would be easier and their burthen the lighter pride and vanity grounded upon the quality and riches of Parents being left off which are the cause of many miscarriages then youth would not boast of empty pretended priviledges of Family and Ancestors Socrates whom the Oracle of Delphos had pronounced to be the wisest man then alive answered one who asked him who he was and of what Countrey that he was a Citizen of the world Let him be where he would he never was out of his own Countrey first to shew a man must not stand upon the place of his birth or some such circumstances relating to it Secondly that such questions to a man who what Country-man what his name is and what Religion he is of are questions without a special cause not to be made to a man and therefore deserve no answer that curiosity being contrary to a good breeding and civility yet with â—ome particular reason civil expressions and a kind of complement with it such demands in some parts beyond Seas will be well taken else it will thus be interpreted Your person is so inconsiderable that if you will be esteemed you must be beholden for it to your Countrey and Family It was a strange fancy of people of old in matter of quality under which men and women thought to shelter their faults for if a Princess or other of high quality had been gotten with child either before they were married or in the husbands absence they presently pretended it was by one god or other of theirs how many such children were fathered upon Iupiter Neptune Mars c. so when men had gotten a child of Fornication or Adultery they said 't was by a Venus Thetis or by the like goddesses and Nymphs and truly if we will take pains to examine what manner of men were they who were thus begotten we will find that many of the bravest and most noted men in the world were natural Sons such were Theseus Hercules Romulus Alexander Abimelech Son of Gideon and many more mentioned in sacred and prophane Histories and since that time Charles Martel William the Conqueror and some others Because beyond Seas one meets sometimes with men of a rude and uncivil carriage who are offensive and quarrelsome perhaps young Travellers will be glad to know what to do and how to behave themselves in such cases I confess the point is difficult and the question ticklish there being so many accidents to be considered and it depending often upon several circumstances which only those who then are present can judge of most particulars must be left to the prudence of the party yet in general he may be advised to avoid quarrels and all occasions thereof but because often it doth not depend upon him and that sometimes they are unavoidable through the faults of others and not his own whether or not must he suffer affronts and injuries To this I say that the thing ought to be examined whether or not it be a real affront for there is many an imaginary one and herein one is to consider the person whether a
forbidden at present but I use to walk in such places and if you fall upon me I wear a Sword to defend my self But as these things usually fall out in point of honor in some Countries they are judged by a Marshal-law namely in France where this fighting was once so common that a man was accounted low-hearted except he had fought several times and when they had no just ground of quarrelling they used to fall out about a straw and the most civil amongst them went to a Gentleman when they knew him to be a good Sword-man and complemented him into the field thus I hear you handle well a Sword pray give me leave to measure mine with yours which was thankfully accepted And hence came the use of Seconds to see there was no foul play And a Gentleman took it very kindly upon this occasion to be employed by his friend because herein he shewed he esteemed him to be a man of courage In Henry IV. days those things were much encouraged by a word which he spoke for once going to Fontain-Bleau by the way he saw one who had been killed in a Duel and out of the martial temper he was bred in he said This man is dead in the bed of honor which being reported from hand to hand made many a one to seek to die in the same manner but the present King hath very wisely forbidden it with much severity against Delinquents And because there are affronts which cannot be well put up they are referred to the Court of Marshals of France who have provided against all ordinary cases and made Martial Laws which Governors of Provinces and others in Authority whom it may concern are to see put in execution within their Jurisdiction Thus if a man hath wrongfully received a box on the ear the offender is commanded to go home to the other ask him pardon upon his knees according to the quality of the offended and receive blows with a Cane the other hath in his hand if he hath a mind to strike him yet generous men do not make use of this advantage to shew he hath deserved it So in other â—ingular cases they have particular â—atisfaction and these ways of fighting are used in Northern more than in Westerly and Southerly parts In Italy the Stiletto or Dagger in Spain the Scopetada or shooting of a Gun will do the work every where they are sensible of injuries but several Nations use different ways to get satisfaction in Germany and other places with noise but in Italy and Spain with more secrecy and dexterity therefore let a stranger who is to travel into those parts know their ways but whether in case there were no ways for a man to right himself nor no laws to procure him satisfaction he might not take some course and what I leave it to every one's prudence and genius yet let it be the Governors care to see he doth or suffer nothing to the prejudice of his honor which he ought to be very tender of Thus much upon the point is fit to be known by a Gentleman who goes a Traveller beyond Seas To prevent Challenges one must endeavour to cure the imagination which is the distempered part with making it to know that there is no offence whatsoever nature it be of which for its satisfaction can deserve any man's death no not the lie nor the blow As to the first Scripture saith every man is a lyar so if there be any offence Scripture and not the neighbor is the offender If I tell a lye and another makes me take notice of it it is no crime to do 't no more than to shew there is a little ink or dirt upon my face If I tell the truth and another gives me the lye the injury which he intended against me doth wholly fall upon him Laws have provided against all ordinary ways of injuries therefore he who is offended is not to regulate it for he ought not to be judge and party I find two reasons to hinder challenges and fighting first the life we venture is not ours God hath given it to us and to him we are to give an account of it it is also of our Father Mother Brother Sisters Friends and of the State The second is we must not have boldness to destroy the image of our Sovereign God which is man for it reflects upon the original and withal not to hazard the life estate and reputation of a friend for being our second One hath well observed about Francis the first King of France who introduced Duels with the Challenge he sent to Charles V. Emperor caused the loss of so much blood that there remains none of his posterity He had three Sons whereof two died before him Henry the II. his third Son had five whereof three were married and reigned but left no issue nor the other two and of five Daughters there appeared no successor except of Elizabeth married in Spain and Grand-mother to Anna of Austria But I must pass to other things and say that as learning of Arts and Sciences and exercises do much contribute to make one a compleat Gentleman he cannot be such without the practise of virtues a thing necessary for a Traveller to keep himself free from vices he meets with in his journey Now to attain unto virtue five things are necessary first never to be idle Secondly to be watchful over himself and see whether in every thing we say do or intend there be any thing contrary to honesty and whether the ways and means we use to attain thereunto are good and lawful The most important secret of a civil life is to have the prudence of handsomely and honestly making virtue to agree with the times and men with affairs The third is to look upon the actions of others which if good to be followed if evil to be avoided and abhorred The fourth every night before one falleth to sleep is to call to mind every thing one hath seen heard said or done all that day we give our stomach time to digest what we have eaten the same we are bound to do for the soul and not deny her an hours time to make the digestion of her good actions and to expel her impurities The fifth is every where always and in all things to submit to God's providence all which if one doth practise he may justly be called a vertuous man Of virtues there are three kinds Theological Moral and Heroical the Theological otherwise called Divine and Christian I named heretofore as Faith Repentance and Charity to which I may add only one which is a branch of the last but properly and only a Christian virtue grounded on a Divine precept to love our enemies pray for those who persecute us and bless them who curse us I defie all the Morals of Heathens to shew us such a rule the Law is to love them that love us and hate our enemies Another Christian virtue is that voluntary submission
many disputes and vain contentions which since the year 1130. or thereabouts have troubled the wit and quiet of men The way of teaching Youth in Schools is so well known and so common that it were in vain for me to speak any thing of it besides that every one follows the method he thinks best and it is natural for men to stand out in their opinion yet I must say that with some the ordinary method will not do but ways ought to be found out sutable to the young mans genius Sometimes Conversation will be more effectual than reading and learning by heart though by all means these must be used the young man is to help for the School-master cannot infuse it therefore the Scholar must take pains however I say there are some methods easier and better than others When I speak of Conversation and Reading I do not oppose but distinguish one from the other and I would have discourse used sometimes by way of diversion When a Scholar is not in a humour or disposed to learn one thing then he must be put upon another or instead of making him learn with reading one should teach him with telling or take some other way to cheat him as it were into learning But this is better done by a Preceptor in a House than by a Master in a publick School He who at once hath but one or two to mind can better take his time and hath more leisure to study his or their temper and accordingly order or alter his method but he who hath many to look to hath generally one common way which every one coming into his School is to submit to and certainly this cannot be alike fit for every Scholar I love to hear a young man asking the reasons of the rules and precepts given him by his Tutor It is recorded of Cato that as soon as he had received any document from his he enquired after the cause of it this is necessary for if things be committed only to memory this may happen to fail or else sometime they will be like a Bird that whistles the tunes he heard often so that put them out of their tune they are gone and silent or if the words of the things learned are changed or out of place though the sense remaineth they are at a loss like those who when they begin to Dance can do 't only in the same Room where they are used to do 't or if they go about it in another end of the Chamber then presently they are out The same it is of some School-boys who if in the least they are put out of their ways will hardly say any thing to the purpose or speak three words together of good sense or if they do it will be by a meer accident Thus we read of a Parre in Rome which in the days of Augustus was as many more taught to salute the Emperor with his Ave Imperator which he said one day as Augustus was going by who answered I heard many such salutations after which the Bird said Oleum operam perdidi I lost my time and my pains whereof the Emperor took such notice that he caused the Master of the Parret to be called to him and gave him some tokens of his Liberality Now the Master never intended to teach him these last words but as the Bird was dull and did not learn well often he complained he had lost his time and his pains in teaching of him which the Parret remembring at that time it came in as well as could be And indeed some of these creatures take notice of words sometimes more than men do imagine and can remember words which they heard but once One day in one of the chief Courts of Europe upon a discourse about Parrets made by a Lady who exceedingly commended her own the Queen desired to see it and it was sent for and as soon as the Cage was set down in the presence of the Court in the language of the Country where this was he said Let evil take the sluts who are the cause I am all wet The truth was it rained when it was brought through the streets and the Footman that carried it spoke the same words which the Parret did well remember I doubt in Schools are too many such Parrets who superficially know something but are not acquainted with the grounds and causes thereof Wherefore to get Youth the more willing to learn I would endeavour to make them sensible of the great and many advantages which come by Learning whereof the first is the informing of the judgment and enlightning of the understanding which to understand the better one must know there is a faculty of the soul called intellect which is a door and inlet into the soul for whatsoever objects senses do convey into the soul they of necessity must pass by this whose office is to hear and to judge after examination In the first part it is called passive and in the second active This intellect is as the eye of the soul whereby she discerns true from false which is its proper object as good from evil is the object of the will yet as this last doth determinate her self according to the last dictate of the former the notions of good and evil do necessarily fall under its serious consideration for the intellect is as a judgment-seat at whose bar stand all propositions about things suggested to the soul whether or not to be done chosen or rejected to the end that after reasons pro and con represented it may pass a sentence and take a final resolution Hence it is that often we see men so slow staggering and unresolved by reason of scruples remaining in their mind which till they be cleared and difficulties removed they will come to no conclusion so that comparing inconveniencies with advantages and finding them of an equal weight the predominant passion doth often intervene to make the scales cast on one side so that a timerous man will not dare to undertake a thing for fear of dangers but a bold man will venture through with this consideration Audaces fortuna juvat timidosque repellit But this intellect hath its darkness and ignorance it is naturally blind because of Adam's fall for as promises to Adam were not for him alone but also were extended upon all mankind so threatnings concerned all his posterity he was not as a private man but a publick person representative of all mankind as therefore through his disobedience he not only lost his supernatural priviledges as holiness righteousness the image of God and innocency so all his natural gifts and faculties were thereby corrupted and this depravation hath reached all his successors no wonder therefore if the intellect of every young man is still involved in that blindness which is also much increased by the suggestions of Satan and other inward corruptions the Devil ever goes about to beguile it disguising as much as he is able
the true nature of objects insinuating evil for good falshood for truth so that many times it is miserably deceived in its judgments especially about spiritual things in which operation the grace of God must intervene and the morning Star must shine till the Sun of Righteousness being come to his noon doth dissipate the clouds of darkness and ignorance therefore saith St. Paul the eyes of your understanding being enlightned that you may know it for in the new Creation as in the first darkness is before light so that now God saith as he did then Let there be light and there is light or else man proceeds from one degree of sin of those expressed in St. Iames he is tempted by those objects which by his lust are received and by them and the enticements he is deceived after this sin is conceived then brought forth lastly finished or consummated Although the mind be not so blind in and ignorant of natural and humane things as of Divine and Spiritual yet there is a great cloud drawn over it which in some degrees may be dissipated by learning In these days knowledg is not infused but acquired with time and pains We are not born learned but we become so by degrees though alas if we would speak seriously and come to an examen of our selvs we would say with a wise man Hoc unum scio quod nihil scio one thing I know that I know nothing for indeed what we are ignorant of is much more than what we know I will say farther that the most learned man in the world hath but a superficial knowledg of things nay more than this let a man never so much have studied a question one or other coming after him can have such notions of it as the other never thought upon Amongst Grecians when Sciences first of all came out of Egypt the bravest wits suffered to be called Magi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wisemen then after some proficiency with Pythagoras they took the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philosophers friends or lovers of Wisdom and when they were come to a higher pitch of learning they would with Socrates be called Rhetores Speakers or men discoursing of Wisdom that is the more learned they did grow the better they knew their ignorance 'T is an observation made of Solomon that first he calls himself King over Israel then King in Ierusalem and for once he calls himself King three times he takes the name of Preacher to shew that the nearer he was drawing to God and the more he was looking upon himself the humbler he was Just as when a man goes down a River he can see the bottom of it and thereupon hath great thoughts of himself but when he comes to the main Sea he can discover no bottom there all are abysses and depths then he sees the vanity and lightness of his former thoughts Indeed Learning except it be sanctified makes a man swell with pride Knowledg pusseth up Hence it is that as Corruptio optimi est pessima Nothing is so insufferable as the pride of a man of Learning because wanting experience of the world he commits many absurd errors indeed he is altogether impertinent so that having conceived a high opinion of his learning though it be in imagination more than in reality slights all the world as if they were ignorant and fools looks he on others as did the Pharisees on the people But this people who knoweth not the Law are cursed If such a Scholar as now we speak of once out of his Study goes into company either he will act many tricks of pedantry or else be as mute as a fish he can hardly speak of any thing but Books of Logick Metaphysick c. without any consideration whether it be sutable with the company he is in and yet in whatsoever he saith would be accounted an Oracle applauding himself and desiring to be applauded by others An empty vessel makes a sound when a full one makes none an ear full of corn hangs down when that which is blasted and hath nothing in 't looks up and stands upright I must not omit a reason why Learning instructeth ones understanding because it teaches us to know things by their causes effects deâ—initions descriptions and attributes so that the intellect being so well informed will hardly admit to be imposed upon by any sophistical arguments for thereby he is put in a capacity of discerning right from wrong and acquainted with the several methods and ways even with some rules which seldom admit of any exceptions not to yield to any probable likely and specious words and expressions to be defrauded of the knowledg of truth A second benefit of Learning is the good influences it hath upon the will not so much immediately as by the means of the intellect which being so well informed as we said will conform her self to his last determinations for though the will which is a most free agent doth suffer no co-action nor violence yet it is moved inclined and persuaded Learning doth also afford us help and rules how to master our passions though not always yet oftentimes when they would break out with violence and impetuosity In man is that which is called the inferior part of the soul wherein under the appetites irascible and concupiscible are that we call passions which all men are subject to though some more some less the best and wisest of men strugling against and striving to bring them under Vitiis nemo sine nascitur optimus ille est qui minimis urgetur Now these passions are seated in the heart wherein reason ought to preside and sit as a Queen which if things were in a due order and subordination all passions ought to obey and be subservient unto but this part of man is much sensible of the sad effects of Adam's sin For as through pride and infidelity he disobeyed his God so his natural affections are become rebellious to him tyrannizing the best part of his soul and sometimes usurp that power which they ought to submit to for as they are in the most brutish and sensitive part of man so 't is harder to rule them God who is able to subdue all things unto himself and who in the day of his power from unwilling makes us a willing people when he pleases doth curb tame break and bruise those unruly and inordinate affections let them be never so stiff and stubborn wherefore the best remedy for those who are much subject to these disorders and who desire to be rid of them is to address themselves to God for his assistance who can bring every thought and affection under to the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ. After this Humane learning is of great use and advantage for thereby we are not only acquainted with the nature of the distemper but also are taught the best and most sutable remedy and the fittest way to apply