a Man be Vicious and his Crimes deserve all the Contempt in the World yet his Person and as he is our Brother he rather deserves our Pity And in truth we are Rash Fools to hate any thing that God does not he only and wholly ought to be the standard of our Affections and besure as he neither does nor can hate us for our Misfortunes as indeed it were to hate us for being his very Creatures to do it and which is impossible so the only occasion of his contempt of us is our Misaction and our Aberration from his Law and yet even then also he has Mercy and we if we will be like him surely ought not to be without it Nay more Is any one weak and foolish 't is my positive duty to pity him and in Charity where I can to advise him much more not to despise him So Is there any one Wicked 't is my duty to Reform him and not harden him by Scoffing at him And indeed Christ by his Example shews us That we ought to Pray for and Advise not only our Enemies but our Murderers also And With what Arrogance then shall we presume to leave our Stations as Creatures I mean in continuing in invincible Brotherly Love and to take upon us like God through a rash and peremptory Contempt to Judge Censure and Condemn as our little Fancies shall lead us Of Libels But above all things in this matter our Personal Satyrs and Libels are the most Pernicious the most Vicious and Uncharitable I might say nothing deserves Satyr but Sin and Satyr And if a Man would ask the Question When a Wicked Man most resembles the Destroyer of of Mankind 'T is when he is Maliciously dipt in the Barbarous Guilt of Satyr and flinging Fire-brands about him to the Distraction and Confusion of all he Converses Nor know I any Remedy against this Pest but such a scorn and contempt as it deserves Some have prescrib'd Humility and say a Flint is easiest broke on a Feather-bed Others to avoid it like Sir John Sucklin have Laugh'd at themselves first but my sense is they deserve none of this care What a Wasp a Child or a Fool fleers at my Actions and he understands no more a true Reason for his Censure than a Parrot only he is well-skill'd at the Elegancy of Rayling and for prevention cries Blockhead first And hence it is as a Secret belonging to the Wise to give full liberty to the Malice and Envy of such the baser sort and to let them vent themselves in Calumnies and false Reports so that when they have spoken very ill of brave and worthy Men at length finding their own Reputation and Fortunes to lye at stake for fear of Revenge they may be brought to forbear And indeed otherwise the only Remedy against Satyrs and Libels is a Contemptible Silence Nor can you half so much vex their Authors by a Witty Retort as such a Neglect By the first you at least acknowledge their Power and you may be sure they will not be without hopes or endeavours to be even with you again for they have seldom that Charity as to forbear abusing you while by the latter you shame them and irretrievably condemn them as Billinsgates Upon the whole our best Lesson that we can learn from hence that I see is to know the true Value of Contempt and Reputation Now as the only benefit of a good Name therefore is like Cloaths to defend us from outward Accidents and the only real mischief of Contempt the Impediment of our Affairs So Why should we value it further Alass What is a Name when we are dead were it not to advance our Children and Posterity the Honour otherwise that is not paid us in person vanishes into idle Air And what tho' our Names remain our little tickling and fond Vain Glory which is the only itch we aim to satisfy perishes with our persons Of true Satyr And yet after all not but that there is a Satyr as excellent and profitable as innocent a true Juvenal shall lash men out of Vice as fast as ten serious Sermons but then withall it ought to be against Things and Causes and not Persons against Vices and Errors and not their Subjects or Professors Thus like Elijah we may innocently droll at Ahabs false Gods and say they are sleeping talking or gone a journy and therefore they cannot hear us while our Charity at the same time shews all tenderness for our Erring Brethren and that we are ready with him even to a Miracle if in our power to reform them of their Errors But otherwise who can write or speak Satyr and be guiltless And just so in our ordinary Writings also when we take care to give all the Dues of Charity to our Brother 't is a modest sheepishness not fully to rescue Truth from his Clamours Vice and Errors deserve their true Characters and 't is false Reasoning not genteelness to speak easily and smoothly of Wickedness to sooth men in their Corruptions Give me the man that dares give all Subjects their proper Colours I hate the stile that nautiates with too many broad Words but the mincing Frenchify'd stile that Complements all things and ruines the Partition Wall of Truth what is it but lying and impertinent in that it wants the true and opportunely life of Satyrâ— in it I might add to what end do we let such harsh words pass like current Coyn amongst us if they have not perfect Ideas if they are Chimera's in God's Name let us fling them quite aside but if we must hate the word Poyson for the thing if we must not speak a word that is not Alamode and Agreeable for fear of grating dainty Ears let us also for the same Reason neither see nor converse lest we meet with those very Objects themselves that are more disagreeable In plain terms these finical Sir Courtly Nice Wits want Judgment not Elegancy for their Apology Alass-a-day we must not speak out broad Vice and Whoring for fear of touching their guilty Consciences This I grant I would not rip up unknown Vices lest their very Repetitions should breed Contagions In that indeed there is some Vertue in being modest and obscure in our Discourse but in known and every day practic'd Crimes to lose the vividness and force of half our Notions by a tedious circumlocution and beating of the Bush is in plain terms no other than a mean and cowardly sneaking to a worldly false idea'd Honour a gilding the way to Hell and right Devil-Advocate like a means to destroy all those true Ideas of Horrour which genuinely and naturally quadrate to the setting forth of the odiousness and deformity of Vice If any one think I write too bitterly in this case let them know I think even this very sheepish Insipidness as great a Vice as reigns in our Age and let them not wonder then that I treat it accordingly Our Saviour and the Apostles and Prophets of
in the Air Where could you and your Judgment be able to be fix'd amongst such almost innumerable significators and their Applications Nay further one tells you your Fortune by a Horary Question another by a Revolutional Figure another by your Nativity another by Profections Now if you examine it all these Figures shall nay must be different and yet your Artist from the Latitude of Fore-telling I before described must by one Significatour or another serue them all up to one Tone and whether the Devil may not sometimes inspire them in this Chance to their Delusion I very much Question Hence also if you consult them one shall cast up your Significatours stronger another weaker one measures the time of Accidents one way and another a second a third Person does not like your Common Tables of Houses and yet forsooth all these must speak and write as infallible in their way although no Reason can reconcile them or shew one more in the right than the other nay though they contradict one another yet alass we must believe them all as the Infallible Oracles of Truth Hâ—â— quanta fides Hominum I have Studied this Art my self and I have flatter'd my self often in Chance predictions but when I have consider'd that in all things there is but a wrong and a right and that all Men naturally favour and even Deifie Divination I cannot but see and detest my own Weakness in regarding it indeed if Astrological Predictions were certain they would by their fatal necessity destroy and consume Religion and all the Arts and Sciences with it To be short if Men must have their Prognosticating Whimsies were it not better rationally to frame them from the Noble Hypothesis of Des Cartes than from such meer Maggots as our common Artists do Thus Spots growing in the Sun rationally would foretel ruine to his Sphere and Comets Prognosticate a Disorder would follow in Nature but to lay such weight on meer Chymera's as the Imaginary Houses Nodes and Fancies of Astrologers are at best favours of a little tincture of either Melancholly or Imposture judge which you will Of the Dependants of Astrology But besides its self it 's scarce conceivable what a pack of Brats and Monsters Astrology brings forth with it it marks you out Natural Magick by Planetary Influences and Characters on Herbs it tells you Mens Fortunes by Figures the Planets make through Moles Lines and other Marks and hence it teaches you Chiromancy Physiognomy Metaposcopy nay Augury depends on the same Root and not a Bird that flies to the right but portends Ill-luck though to a Thousand Spectators indeed there is not a Man either Mad Bewitch'd or Prophesies but streight the Astrologer will give you a Reason for it though by and by again to save himself at a Fault he will tell you a Good Man is above the Stars Thus Telesmes or Talismans also and our Divining Rods are a Spawn of Astrology but in my Judgment of just as much force as Powder of Post without the assistance of Witchcraft and then I don't know but a Man may do feats like the Egyptian Magicians but by the power of the Devil and not by our little Conjectural Blind Arts unless Ceremonially for my part I once made a Telesme of Venus my self in Silver but found no more effect in the Mettal than before So Brown in his Vulgar Errours says he tried the Divining Rod but he found it all Cheat and Deceit Further Geomancy is another Off-spring of Astrology indeed her very Ape for she follows her into her Divisions and Partitions of Houses c. Cornelius Agrippa wrote a Book of this and in his Treatise of the Vanity of Arts and Sciences tells you he believes it as good as the best but withall that it is all Lyes And indeed What an odd Chymera Foundation this Art has that Men by making Points backwards with their Left-hands upon the ground should fancy the Stars should lead them by drawing those Points into Figures to Predict by them a Man had better by half bestow less pains cast a pair of Dice or dip a Leaf in Virgil if he is resolved to be Superstitious and so discover his Fortune that way rather than run himself to the Niceties of Geomantick Houses and Fathers your Laetitia c. for it So I cannot but wonder too what Intelligence and of what Planet it was that taught us the Jurisdiction of Planetary Days and Hours 't was very happy the Natural Day was not divided into Twenty Hours as it is now into Twenty four for if it had our Divinors had been forc'd to have made a New Computation besides that as it is every Planet has not his equal share in the day And why should he not have it in the Day as well as he has it in the Week Astrology therefore if it serves for any thing it is to be as the Devils Lure into the more obscure and black Recesses of Magick I my self remember too well what Studies it wheedled me into when I gave it the favour of my Thoughts as first to seek to the Planets intelligences for my Knowledge and after to other Spirits Now though I resolv'd to pay an exact deference to the Duty I ow'd to God all the while yet I could not in a long time perswade my self but that such Arts as in the case of Balaam might be lawfully attainable though at length I was convinced they were presumptuous But where shall we end the further Whimsies of Predictions Pythagoras's Lot Predicting by the Number of our Names the Jewish Caballa telling Mysteries and Prognosticating from Titles Numbers and Letters your Rosacrucian Figments what shall I say Do not Men deserve to be deceiv'd when they imploy themselves to catch such shadows of Wisdom indeed 't is their due reward that they miss and lose the substance by it So what shall we say to Hydromancy Puromancy and Aeromancy nay and Alectromancy that fore-tells by the pecking up of Corn by a Cock Are they not trumpery that scarce deserve the naming So of Palmestry How shall we reconcile the giddy and senseless contradictions and variations of Authors about it So in Physiognomy Who but one that had it from some Spirit or Star-Intelligence could be brought to think any useful or certain ground in it Only Man that runs a Whoring out of the Ways of Truth seeks to and believes every thing he should not Or else who would fancy that Mars must be thrust into the Palms of the Hand while little Venus and Mercury have the honour to possess in chief with the grand Planets the Thumb and little Finger But besides these there are Omens also the weakest of all Fore-tellings but how often of fatal consequence not from the Prediction I mean but from the deadning the spirits of them that superstitiously believe them I need not mention indeed they are so uncertain that their very Interpreters are forc'd to fly to the Mind of the Person
Learning that diverts and mortifies all good Parts with the pretence of assisting them 'T were an Heroick Act therefore would some Prince dissolve these Cobwebs in our Voluminous Rubbish Libraries and by a select Committee collect perfect gell'd and reduce them into a manageable and usefull form I should rejoice could this my little Rationale be subservient to so excellent a purpose But alass I am afraid this is a matter we must rather range under the desideranda studii than really expect And in truth the Fault is rather in the Will than the Understanding alass Men will not reduce their Sciences to Purity and to Sincerity and Truth their Prejudices will not let them they are afraid of the Light because their Deeds are Evil. Our Sciences indeed ought to repair the pure Image of God that we have lost and they would too did we pursue them right but we make use of them only to lead our selves into greater Darkness You see therefore I have the Fire of the greatest Charity to spur me on herein nor is there any difficulty to demonstrate the usefulness of my Design How many ingenious Men would not only have been good Schollars but exceeding serviceable to their Country also were but Learning to be atchiev'd with a due case whereas as it is now in a despair they leave it to a pack of Perverse and Wrangling Sophisters to make their ends of it while Mankind suffers equally by their Villany and Ignorance Like a good Physician An honest Man cannot pretend to that Knowledge he has not while the Quack that knows little or nothing will Swear you he is infallible the one if you converse him shall acquaint you Learning is at her Perfection whilst the other modestly shall let you know that his industrious Labours have found it imperfect nay so far that he questions almost in Conscience whether he may use the little Skill of his Profession So if you examin Men of integrity the common Idea of the Arts and Sciences as they now stand is a Sea of Learning and hardly ever to be Fathom'd they 'll tell you Our Books run in Formal Tracks in Quest of them but never take care of their full and true Reasoning that 's a Gulph that few or none have been so hardy as to dive after And yet even this has not discouraged me I have resolved to hint at least at the Leading Substance of all Arts and Sciences not only towards the better compleating a Body of Wisdom but that I may be the better able to Censure what is impertinent in all I hope my Reader will excuse me therefore if when I see a Science drawn even Cobweb-fine I enquire her Merits as what portion of our Memory or Judgment she really deserves and that we may no longer imprudently squander away our pains in dividing Fractions and Atomes to Infinity Nor need a Man be accus'd of Satyr to say almost all our Sciences are Pedantry indeed Science and Wisdom ought to be really one but as Learning is now degenerated 't is as unnatural as uneasie and he that will reduce it to its full power and substance must envigorate it with brevity and by docking it from its superfluous Pedantry In truth 't is the Sphere of Wisdom only to give a general and clear Idea and a Universal Prospect of the Sciences fully to trace their nice particulars were not only to be tedious and volumnious but to cloud your clear and brighter leading Truth whereas the general and leading Ideas well fix'd will lead of course the lesser Corollaries When a Prince gives an Ambassadour Instructions he only gives him General Orders and even so Wisdom whom she enlightens she Teaches General Precepts and Accidents as too many for Instruction for fear of a greater Confusion she leaves to Discretion To be short Both Arts and Sciences are then only good when they are useful when they Answer to our Service and the Circle of Creatures about us and even as a Watch though it have Wheels yet if the Teeth are not fit and plac'd apt for Motion is good for nothing So Arts and Sciences not dispos'd for Practice become not only a Burthen but an idle Evil nay and indeed as Piety is the only Rule for Arts so whatever is purely curious is evil also And what shall we say then to those who Write Volumes about Genealogies and whole Libraries of Notions purely Speculative Do they not rather deserve an House of Correction than a Reward for their Encouragement As Hobbs well Notes we have now but one true and real Science to wit the Mathematicks that begins well lays down Principles sure and proves its self as it proceeds and yet not but that were other Arts and Sciences manag'd as they should be we should not let their Principles neither be so precarious as they are but founding them on Undoubted Truths give them a certainty at least near equal to Demonstration Nor is this little Cant less pernicious in our Languages and Schools than our Sciences I may add almost to turn our Reason to Madness If Ovid does but cry Omnia vincit amor though the Sence and Words were but worthy of a School-boy yet streight by Pedant Spectacles we are Ravish'd by an Elaborate and delicate Adage with a lofty and incomparable stile and purity of Language nay and a Mystery shall supply the Sence rather than fail and as if the Sentence were deliver'd Personally by some God and Mortals durst do no other than commend it And thus also Who can Write a Poem but he must streight invoke the mighty Nine the Muses and by and by we must have some Heathen Gods Bacchus Mars Vulcan or some one or other to Agrandize our Stile when in truth the surer Reason why they are brought in is not so much in Conceit of the Elegancy but that they are as lazy Topicks to supply the imperfection of our Invention But in Reality What is it but to drive away Richer Notions from our Heads to fill up our Discourses with such Formalities of the Furies as Fatal Sisters and the Graces c. we were pardonable did we do like Hackney-letter Scriveners who Write all Epistles in one Form for that were to confess a Downright honest plain Sence but we forsooth would strive to be Elegant and to Charm the World by our Wits when at the same time we ride none but the Hackny-fancies of Thousands of years standing So our Gods Victory Musick and such Hieroglyphical Statues and Emblems are fit enough to set out the Great Mock-Prince at Versailes but to imagine them Learning or to think to get much out of their Story or Moral surely is an impertinency too great for a Philosopher or at best if we must value this petty Sapientia veterum Can't we take the Substance of the Advice and spurn away the little fairy Stories of their Gods Nor do I think it a less Vanity though more common that Men at every turn must confirm
men more than to let them seem to be their own contrivers So further 't is good to know the force of every Argument and Figure Thus for instance a Repetition or Recommendation by Figures and Allegories can command the Affections and charm the Passions but only Reason without Art and with Sincerity and Truth are able to move a durable and steady Resentment and Courage Indeed Figures are but for Ornament and he mistakes their very end that makes them Substance or that disguises his Discourse by using them too far Ornaments are to recommend and beautify and not to blind or deform if we have not skill enough to apply our Ornaments therefore we had better neglect them altogether But above all Ornaments and Figures in Speech there are none so useful as Parables Fables Metaphors and Allegories when Reasoning will do no good when the mind is quite blind and deaf with Prejudices Allegories and Parables can revive it and by Paralels confirm it Thus Nathan convinc'd David's sin in Vriah and humbled him and brought him to Repentance by the Parable of the poor man's Lamb when the bare sense of the Action alone could never do it But indeed after all as I have said no Rhetorick is like Honesty and no Speech like Reason if we have Truth on our side that 's all and enough if we take but care to illustrate that sufficiently only this we ought to remember in prudence to let our last Words be most forcible as they are most likely to be of the most lasting Impression And indeed to leave truth and follow Colours too much is like Aesop's Dog by catching at the Shadow to loose the Substance I will not rely therefore on Fancies or Figures of Speech but if I use them it shall be as by the by but my main Weapon shall be clear sense and reason if men have either any judgment or truth my very Sincerity shall force their Attentions and while Flowers only dally to delight the mind by a lively apposite Expression with Notion I 'le even strike to the Quick So 't is an Error in Persuasion also to multiply Reasons and aim at Conquest by Numbers the best arguing is from few Topicks and from general Heads the retreat of the Discourse the easier and the Management the better nay and the Memory and Passions of the Hearers are the more easily captivated by it whilst as for Figures they may be us'd but seldom 't is better to be regarded for Matter than Form Reason than Words and yet it is not convenient neither to let our sense want a suitable Dress Parts of Discourse But as it is the misfortune of a great many persons to make a good Cause ridiculous by their ill Proceeding so 't is good to know also what order is decent in an Oration and if it be written to mark it as it proceeds for the greater clearness with your Topicks in the Margent Nay and not only so but to be sure not to neglect the Cogent Topicks of Recommendation as praising your Judges or at least assuring your self that they have so much Honour that they would not hear you if they were not resolv'd withall to give you an impartial Sentence And thus in an orderly Discourse I may say there ought to be five parts First A Preface pertinent and short to open your design and to prepare the minds of the Hearers Secondly The Narrative true well circumstantiated to instruct them Thirdly A Confirmation and that solid to convince them Fourthly A Refutation nervous and strong to refute all Colours for them And Fifthly and lastly A Conclusion pathetick and forcive to move them But if we extend our Discourse beyond an Oration that is if we write a Book then a more perfect Method ought to take place and we ought to proceed by the exactest Rules of a compleat Genesis our very method ought to be so conspicuous as to supply the part of an Index and every Clause Sentence Chapter and part of our Discourse whether greater or less ought to be fram'd so naturally as to fall into a beautiful Body and joint its self so as to be able even actually and orderly to force the Readers Conviction And when I consider this I cannot but reflect that had men either any Reverence for themselves or others were they cautious of their own Reputation or others Trouble they would not thrust out their shapeless Cubbs upon the World as they do but would lick them into some order before they did it when alass were some Discourses but dissolv'd to their first Principles by Analysis what would they contain too often scarce a Chapter nay or a Sentence to the purpose that the Authors seem to be blind or they could never publish what they do What you enter their Book their Title speaks you fair and makes you fancy they 'll perform as well as promise but when you come to peruse their Substance and Solidity you find your self fool'd and ne're the wiser for the Subject and our Author who has a world of Humour and Fancy when may be not three grains of Digestion gives you a broad-side of Maggots and if he confounds and mazes your Reason by them as bad as his own he is satisfied and is wise in his own Conceit because he is a fool in Company I shall add no more but that our Fable and Emblem Writers deserve no better Censure 'T is true an Example or Metaphor occasionally in Precepts is of excellent use but 't is an Elaborate way of making Learning intricate and confus'd to turn her in pursuit of such laborious and disorderly Excursions and Trifles as far from the clear sight of Knowledge as a Cloud or a Maze or a Veil Of Invention I proceed to Invention in Rhetorick Now to help that our best Method is to have recourse to General Topicks Examples whereof I shall give you as follows Topicks Intrinsick 1. Definition 2. Destribution into parts 3. Etymology 4. Conjugates 5. Kind Genus species 6. Form 7. Similitude 8. Dissimilitude 9. Contraries 10. Adjuncts 11. Antecedents 12. Consequences 13. Repugnances 14. Causes Efficient Material Formal Final Instrumental 15. Effects 16. Comparison 17. Possibility 18. Bonum Honestum Vtile Jucundum Topicks Extrinsick 1. Prejudication 2. Report 3. Laws 4. Oaths 5. Torture 6. Witnesses 7. Scripture 8. Learned Men. 9. Circumstance Time Place and Person Predicamentals as 10. Substance and Person 11. Quantity and Demonstration 12. Quality ordinary or not 13. Relation 14. Action 15. Passion 16. Place 17. Time 18. Scituation 19. Habit. Of Figures Figures of Rhetorick are either in Words or Sentences the Usual are as follows Figures of Words Metaphor as Vir gregis Irony as Oâ— bonâ— vir Epizeuxis as Vicimus Vicimus Anaphoras as Nobis voluptati nobis solatio Epistrophe as Ibimus pugnâ—bimus triumphabimus Epanalepsis as multa promittis prestare teneberis multa Climax hoc animum animus virtutem addit Epanados Non vivo ut edam
in Titles As for the encouragement of diverting needless Studies I shall only say this 't is fit a Gentleman should have at least an insight into all things he need not aim at being a Master in all and yet he may take a slight View or Lanskaf of all for tho' he intends but one thing as his business yet he may justly make the Survey of all the Ring of his Recreation and Diversion For who can distinguish things better than he that has the largest prospect And yet in such looser Studies I would not read a mean Book Suppose he help thee to a good Notion or two will that avail thee for thy pains and loss of time Nor needst thou doubt in such case but that if thou readst the choicer Authors upon the same Subject that they will give thee the same thing and in much better order than a little pretender shall I may say our dozing our selves with an unprofitable reading What is it but like poysoning and cankring our minds and which induces us to dote away our time in perpetual maze and confusion When thou hast therefore tryed some few pages in an Author and canst not like him reject him for as 't is impossible for a man to read all Books so 't is enough if he do the best and 't is our Unhappiness if a Pearl lye scatter'd in an unproper Soile and if a good Notion be lost because deliver'd by an ill Author I say 't is a misfortune in discretion inevitable for the Man is mad that thinks to read all Books and yet if an Author lye in a good method a little pains may serve to Examine him Further there is a weak and cowardly prejudice in men I mean when the dread of being seduc'd by ill Books makes them afraid to read good ones if they have but a bad Name But why so I say If what an Author write be true Why should I be Bug-beard from an opportunity of being wiser if false Am not I a fool so to question the integrity or strength of my Reasoning and thus is it not a shame that an Hobbs should fright an University worse than a Monster I am afraid the too common and Fondling Notions of the World are a little rotten at the heart or else methinks their Abettors need not be put to these shifts and burnings to confute their Adversaries Alass Truth like the Sun of its self and without force is able to cleer all the Fogs of Fallacy and Sophistry and nothing but Error and Prejudice need dread the Combate of Argument and the Test of Examination An affected singularity indeed in all colours is odious but this Perverseness in the popularity of the World makes it that if ever we intend to study Truth we must be singular sometimes and dare converse with Men and Books that are so or else at last we may find to our loss that we shall explode Truth and Sincerity too often with such Authors I shall add a little in general of Speculation and Practice as the main rule of our Study and conclude Of Speculation and Practice Our Speculation in general ought to be so far subservient to our Practice that I may say we profane Precepts as well as Piety when we take their words into our mouth or transcribe them with our Pens and do not live and act accordingly In Divinity nothing is more dangerous than Knowledge without Obedience Christ tells us That he that knew his Masters Will and perform'd it not should be beaten with many stripes And he that pretends to Vertue no otherwise than in Notion is no better than an Hypocrite or at best a Chymera Book-worm 'T is true we ought not to neglect Speculation and yet as Practice is the end of Speculation surely no man will prefer the means before the end Practice without Speculation at worst makes us but imprudent but meer Speculation renders us unprofitable and drones And in truth Vertue by meer Speculation is confounded and only ripen'd by Action Nay Knowledge without Practice is but a Lust of Curiosity and the man that cannot propose a good Moral End in his Studies had as good divert himself with the Purling of Brooks and Pibles as the meer change of Words and Notions and yet 't is the curse of your dreaming Speculatists that they not only have no taste of real Wisdom but mispend the time that should lead them to it Wisdom is Folly and Prudence Madness in such a man and yet Hypocrite-like he shall read their Precepts even with delight as long as their Novelty lasts The measure therefore of our Speculation ought to be this sufficient to advance our Practice and not impede it of things useful and not of unprofitable Whimseys of bettering Life as Vertue and Religion and not turning men into thinking and reading Melanchollists 't is a Vice to procure that knowledge that is not of advantage when had and we misemploy our method of thinking if we engage it purely in a puzzle of Thoughts Indeed the Mind working on matter produceth worthy Notions but on its self nothing but Cobwebs and Trifles And thus also there are some men so weak as to look for Morality even in Plays and Romances but alass they but flatter themselves and seek but for the Colours of Vertue while they dare not the Brave and Nobler Self-denial of her purer Precepts Poor Pretenders Why do they shuffle so a courageable Enemy is better than a Bastard Friend Think you ever to reconcile Good and Evil or God and the Devil Surely the man that even carouzes in his Lusts is an innocent to such as Hypocrite Upon the whole therefore you see I may make my self learneder by reading but only wiser by moderating and regulating my Actions I will not therefore spend all my Vigour in Discipline in the Dressing Room of my Soul I must live as well as think and yet as I know Error is too often to strong for me I will always leave room for Repentance Amendment and new Precepts And as our Speculation therefore ought not to be continual so at length I would have a man say Lectum consideratum Scriptum est nunc vivam when once I have made my Rule to live by I 'le see how I can draw my Life and Actions by it Wisdom was never intended to be acquir'd only but enjoy'd and that Knowledge is Folly not Wisdom that does not apply its self to the uses of Man And to conclude the only Reason that makes Speculation and Practice differ so much comes from the vicious and chimera Prejudices of Mankind indeed were our Knowledge reduc'd sincerely to the due bounds of Wisdom we should find our Precepts would be like to Demonstration and a man would no sooner read them but he would be convinc'd beyond all doubt to act by them Of CONSTANCY ONe may say the Sun the Air and all things about us contribute to make us what we are in every respect but our
may do well enough but he abuses himself that turns them out of their Channel and trusts them Were Men always Skilful they would never use Craft or Treachery Alass that Men are Cunning is from their little Minds which if it can conceal its self in one place quickly discovers its self in another Hence the Cunning Man is as ridiculous as odious while the greatest art of such Subtile Men is to conceal their Skill the wiser sort of them know therefore their interest and are Subtile only on some great Occasion and for some great Advantage Besides he that is out of the plain way to deceive others has not so ready a prospect of the Cheats design'd against him so that not only a Man is soonest deceiv'd when his conceit of Cunning beats him from his Guard but Cunning Men are afraid of us when they see an exact simplicity And thus 't is the Perfection of Wisdom to seem to fall into Snares laid for us for fear of worse and yet to avoid them but by Subtilty 't is as easie to deceive ones self and not perceive it as 't is difficult unperceiv'd to deceive others Usual Tricks of Cunning are to surprize and fascinate with the Eye to propose in business when our Friend is in hast to surprize with bold Questions and to foyl by Ungrateful and Unseasonable Desires the thing we would not have done Of WISDOM MAN is not more above a Brute than the one above the other through the advantage of Wisdom Plus posse surely is also Nobilius Esse Wisdom as from a Tower gives us the true prospect of things Where the higher we climb the clearer we see and the fairer is our View And yet Wisdom consists not in trifling Curiosities and nice Speculations Wisdom not only solidly pourtraictures Vertue but gives it practick Life also The Fool hates Wisdom as exceeding his reach the Sluggard envys instead of attaining it while the wicked Man abhors it as the Touch-stone to his Actions But surely he that hates Wisdom hates his own Soul with it Wisdom is as our guard assign'd us by God Wisdom clears our mind of undigested Thoughts and Resolutions while she looks down with Contempt and Unconcernedness on the little tumults of Fancy and Passion below Reason hastned in the digestion by Fancy and Passion the giddy Apes of Judgment and Courage like Fruit gather'd unripe sets the Teeth on edge whilst Wisdom leads us without Repentance Our Saviour tells us Qui sequitur me non ambulat in tenebris And surely not without the justest cause if the fear of the Lord cannot be the beginning of Wisdom what else can move us to act or judge impartially Surely 't was by Wisdom that holy men approach'd to God and became Prophets Wisd Sol. cap. 8. Can we think we shall not answer to God for it then if we omit to improve our Reasoning Was it nothing that Moses was skill'd in all the Learning of the Aegyptians Surely God had neither gather'd his Prophets into a Colledge at Bethel nor made the Learn'd St. Paul the chiefest of the Apostles if he had not regarded even our industrious self-improvements But alass what are all our improvements without the grace of God and sincerity Solomon tells us Wisdom will not enter into a malitious Soul Wisd 1. The perverse be he never so ingenuous yet by degrees will he vitiate his Principles by his Practice the corrupt Man may shift and be a good Sophister but never reason well to be wise and good are reciprocal The Seeming WISE REason has not more Admirers than there are Hipocrites who admiring only the Profits of Wisdom approve just so much of her as can be agreeable and serviceable to their ends Some indeed see but the Appearance of things their Thoughts and Resolutions perpetually tripping up one another and they deserve our pity But how many set up the Hypocrisy of a formal Gravity above all the Reasoning of Man How many through a wild Banter and Paradox content themselves in meer endless and giddy Extravagances A decaying Merchant has not more Tricks for his Credit than such Persons for their Sufficiencies Sometimes they are so close and so reserv'd that they will not shew you their wares but by a dark Light hinting as if somewhat more weighty were conceal'd and they 'd at least have you think that they understand more So sometimes they are shrew'd by Countenance and wise by Signs while they bear it out by speaking a great Word and being Peremptory Is any thing beyond their reach 't is easily exploded as curious or impertinent and then even their ignorance seems Judgment But alass Can such shuffling appear otherwise than ridiculous to any Man of sense Some are never without a difference and so amusing Men by a subtilty blanch the Matter so they find it easy in deliberations to affect the negative side When Propositions are denyed there is an end of them But certainly this affecting of objecting and foretelling Difficulties wholly is the very Bane of Wisdom There is an harder work indeed in perfecting our Contrivance but surely for that reason alone a Man somewhat absur'd is better either for Business or Counsel than one either over-formal or exceptious Of LOGICK IF any thing can excuse the superfineness of our present Logick and Argumentations it must be the depth of their Wisdom and the state of the Universities in using them and yet even then in my sense they were better laid aside or at least more regulated and more pains spent in the exact definitions of Words and setling ultimate Principles and Maxims than the meer Forms of Reasoning In truth the Schools have render'd the Niceties about Syllogisms almost infinite So that when we have lookt for the Purity and simplicity of truth through their Disputes we have found our selves maz'd by our own Forms and Rules in our search and instead of being help'd out in our difficulties by them we have discover'd our selves sunk deeper by the weight of our Guides And when we should consider about the substance of our Argument we are taken up with thinking whether we may say properly Negatur Minor or no. I shall not therefore descend into the little Niceties of Logical Propositions their Categoricks Hypotheticks Disjunctives Universals Indefinites c. nor into their Formalities of their several Argumentations their Enthimems Inductions Exemplum's Sorites Dilemma's and Syllogisms Let them that have a mind to catch Butter-flies pursue them if they please for my part I will not So what shall I say of our ordinary Logical Fallacies as Quod emisti edisti Carnes crudas emisti ergo c. so Duo tres sunt par impâ—r quinque sunt duo tres ergo c. Would not a Man of any judgment be asham'd to think that one should be put to a formal distinction in terms to answer such trifles to be forc'd to have set Topicks to discover the Mystery of Nonsense In truth were most of
their Arguments but reduc'd to writing nothing would be more ridiculous they are nothing but a few empty Catches in meer Words at best And the Excellency of a Sophister as I find is not to fly to Principles of Truth but Quirks In short therefore in my judgment and I think I iudge right this Sophistry is so far from an improvement of the Understanding that 't is as a Crop of Thorns and Weeds in our Ingeny and tho the forms of Argumentations and their several Rules as Barbara Celarent c. may have a great deal of Art in their Regulation and Composure yet no one at best can deny but that they are rather curious than useful that a Disputation may be very well brought to a just Crisis without such formality and consequently that the great study and labour about it might be better spar'd about something more material Its Parts But to descend more particularly into its parts And so first as to its Predicables Predicaments and Ante-predicaments Would not a Man think that those Termini comprehended some Divine matter Surely one would But when it comes to the Test 't is all Trifles Thus what a ridiculous and obvious distinction is Vnum vagum ut aliquis lapis unum determinatum ut Johannes unum Demonstrativum ut hic arbor unum Hypotheticum ut hic filius Senior Is this Quibling in trifling distinctions worthy of a Philosopher if it is let my â—riend peruse Dr. Wilkins's Vniversal Character and he shall have enough of them though by that Ingenious Author design'd for a far better purpose So for your Proprium's quarto modo As 1. Proprium soli non omni ut hominem esse doctum 2. Omni non soli ut hominem esse bipedem Plato's Goose 3. Omni soli sed non semper ut ridere 4. Omni soli semper ut risihilitas in homine Is not this pretty stuff that a Man must be bound to tell another he talks Nonsence by the Rule of Proprium 4 to modo What is this but Pedantry indeed but a kind of Brutality and unworthy of the liberal and generous search of a Rational Soul Indeed the Rule of genus species and difference might be of excellent use were it in proper place as in a Treatise of Method or Analysis but disguis'd in such Cant with a summum subalternum simpliciter or secundum quid in truth quite defaces it and makes it to become all of a piece with the rest So further What shall we say to the Ante-predicaments the Equivocum Vnivocum Analogum and Denominativum And why may not we as well bring in the Metaphoricum Ironicum and an 100 more And so for your Voces abstractae concretae simplices complexae Why may not you as well add finitae relativae and infinite others In short Is not this meer Trumpery and fitter for a Dictionary or a Castaneus's distinctions at best but surely not worthy of a Philosopher to strut up a Science withall Indeed it makes Logick appear like a Gouty Leg in respect of the Body of Wisdom So the Predicaments in new Philosophy are Mens mensura quies motus positura figura Sunt cum materia cunctarum exordia rerum And why may not these do as well as Aristotles 10. Substantia Quantitas Qualitas Relatio Actio Passio Vbi Quando Situs Habitus Ludovicus Vives is of opinion that you may add many more and for my part I think 't were no hurt there were none at all indeed if they are of any use 't is to help invention and as for invention it ought to be treated of distinctly at least it belongs more to Rhetorick than Logick So also what Predicamental Distinctions we have got as Quantitas Entitativa quantitativa So that there are five intellectual Habits under Quality viz. Intelligentia Sapientia Scientia Prudentia Ars whereas they may as rationally make fifty and by the same reason distinguish every several Object of Wisdom into a several intellectual Habit. And to shut up all I have to reflect of this nature I shall add what has Logick to do with Definitions She is only to teach men to reason Let the Vocabulary help them to Terms particular Sciences to Principles and Definitions her business is only to cast up the Account So what hath she to do with Divisions into Universals Essentials Integrals Subjects Accidents c. Let her leave all to their proper places to Analitica and Method and the Principles of the Subjects she disputes of Of Arguments But as we would thus take away our too formal University Disputes as the Mothers of Quibling and Wrangling so on the other side one would leave so much to Art as might be able to lead a Dispute to a Crisis Thus we ought to let our Descriptions Definitions Genus and Differences be laid down as Postulata or Principles and if they be denied prove them from the Fountain Topicks of Sciences So we ought to skill how to run an Argument to a Contradiction or Absurdity not I mean a Nice and Logical Contradiction and Contrariety than which nothing is more Pedantick but to a real and obvious Contrariety and Inconsistency and under which every one ought to submit and not to dispute on as if he aim'd at Victory and wrangle rather than to search for Truth and therefore in sincerity we ought to desist as if we had no further Reason for what we first affirm'd Where we are sensible we are not able to make any thing further appear But as for your common Logical Contradictions as I have said nothing is more impertinent Thus that two Negatives make an Affirmative can only be from custom Indeed did Men follow the true Concatenation of Thought and were they not more Artful than Wise two Negatives were Nonsense So what need have we of the puzle of Contrary Subcontrary Subaltern and Contradictory is it not to maze us So when two Dispute is it not much easier to bring all to the Test of a plain Contradiction to find Truth than to stand quibling Quidam homo est doctus quidam homo non est doctus Indeed as Cornelius Agrippa well reflects Logical Terms and Niceties are like the Trojan Horse which tho not powerful enough to enter by force of Reasoning yet when once admitted and taken for granted will at least baffle and destroy your Cause by their starch'd and empty Formality And yet this we must needs grant of Arguments in general that they are as much better for the growth of Wisdom then Lectures as many Heads are than one As the Understanding is more lively when whetted and sharpned by Contention than when flat in its self but yet your single Discourses are better than Disputes when debauch'd to a perverse Wrangling And hence how often have our wisest men reflected on the Formality of Syllogysms In the infancy of Philosophy indeed such a shew of Wisdom were tolerable but such Pedantry at these days that the