the state of the World not considered in the absolute production but as it stood after the fall of Adam expos'd and made subject to Death and Corruption For in that state it was and remaines to this day the off-spring of God and of Sin or Contumely Gen. 3. For the like sinne of Adam was a kind of Contumely Gen. 3. when hee would be like God And therefore all these three Narrations concerning the manner of of Pans Birth may seem true if they be rightly distinguisht according to things and times For this Pan as we now behold and comprehend it took begining from the word of God by the means of confused matter which yet was the work of God and the entrance of Prevarication and through it of corruption § The Destinies may well be thought the sisters of Pan or Nature for the beginings and continuances and dissolutions the Depressions also and eminencies and labours and felicities of things and whatsoever conditions of a particular Nature are called Fates or Destinies which yet unlesse it be in some noble individuate subject as a Man a Citty or a Nation commonly are not acknowledged But Pan that is the Nature of things is the cause of these severall states and qualities in every particular so as in respect of Individualls the Chaine of nature and the thred of the Destinies is the same Moreover the Ancients fained that Pan ever lived in the open Aire but the PARCae or Destinies in a mighty subterraneous Cave from whence with an infinite swiftnesse they flew to men because the nature and common face of the Vniverse is apert and visible but the individuall Fates of Particulars are secret swift and sodain But if Fate be taken in a more generall acception as to signify the more notable only and not every common event yet in that sense also the signification is correspondent to the universall state of things seeing from the order of Nature there is nothing so small which comes to passe without a Cause and nothing so absolutely great as to be independent so that the very Fabrique of Nature comprehendeth in the lappe and bosome thereof every event small or great and by a constant rule discloseth them in due season Wherefore no marvell if the PARCae be brought in as the legitimate Sisters of Pan For Fortune is the daughter of the foolish vulgar and found favour only with the more unsound Philosophers Certainly the words of Epicurus savour lesse of Dotage than of prophanenesse where he saith Praestare credere fabulam Deorum Senec. in Epist quam Fatum asserere As if any thing in the frame of nature could be like an Iland which is separate from the connexion of the cōtinent But Epicurus as it is evident from his own words accommodating and subjecting his Naturall Philosophy to his Morall would heare of no opinion which might presse and sting the conscience or any way disca l me and trouble that Euthymia or Tranquility of mind which hee had receiv'd from Democritus Wherefore being more indulgent to the delusions of his owne fancies than patient of truth he hath fairely cast off the yoak and abandon'd as well the Necessity of Fate as the Feare of the Gods And thus much concerning the Fraternity of Pan with the Destinies § Hornes are attributed unto the World broad at the root sharpe at the top the nature of all things being like a Pyramis lessening upwards For Individuals in which the Base of nature is spread out being infinite are collected into Species which are many also Species againe rise up into Generalls and these ascending are contracted into more Universall Generalities so that at length nature may seeme to close in a unity which is signified by the Pyramidal Figure of Pans Hornes Neither is it to be wonder'd at that Pan toucheth heaven with his horns seeing the transcendentals of Nature or Vniversall Ideas Iliad IX doe in some sort reach things Divine Wherefore Homers famous Chaine of Naturall Causes tyed to the foot of Iupiters Chaire was celebrated And it is plain that no man conversant in Metaphysique those things which in Nature are Eternall and immoveable and that hath never so litle withdrawn his mind from the fluid ruine of sublunary things which doth not at the same instant fall upon Naturall Theologie so direct and compendious a passage it is from the top of the Pyramis to Matters Divine § The body of Nature is elegantly and lively drawne Hairy representing the beames of things for beames are as it were the haires or bristles of nature and every Creature is more or lesse Beamy which is most apparant in the faculty of seeing and no lesse in every magnetique virtue and operation upon distance for whatsoever worketh upon any thing upon Distance that may rightly be said to dart forth rayes Moreover Pans beard is said to be exceeding long because the beames or influences of the Heavens and specially of the Sunne doe operate and pierce farthest of all so that not only the surface but the inward bowels of the earth have bin turn'd subduc'd and impregnate with the masculine Spirit of the heavenly influence And the forme of Pans beard is the more elegant because the Sun when his higher part is shadowed with a Cloud his beams break out in the lower and so appeares to the eye as if he were bearded § Nature also is most expressively set forth with a biformed Body in reference to the Differences betweene superior and inferior bodies For the one part by reason of their beauty and equability and constancy of motion and domiminion over the earth and earthly things is aptly set out by the shape of man And the other part in respect of their perturbations and irregular motions and that they are for most part cōmanded by the Celestiall may be well fitted with the figure of a bruit beast Againe this same bi-formed description of his body pertaines to the participation of the species or kind for no species of Nature seemes to be simple but as it were participating and compounded of two Essentiall Ingredients For Man hath something of a Beast a Beast something of a Plant a Plant something of an inanimate Body and all Natural things are indeed bi-formed and compounded of a superior and inferior kind § It is a witty Allegory that same of the feet of the Goat by reason of the upward tending motions of Terrestiall bodies towards the regions of the aire and of the heaven where also they become pensile and from thence are rather forc'd downe than fall downe For the Goat is a mounting Animal that loves to be hanging upon rocks and precipices steep hils And this is done also in a wonderfull manner even by those things which are destinated to this inferior Globe as may manifestly appear in Cloudes and Meteors And it was not without the grounds of reason that Gilbert De Magn. who hath written a painfull and an experimentall work touching
litle use And Curiosity is either in matter or in words that is when either labour is spent in vaine matters or time is wasted in the delicacy of fine words so that it is agreeable as well to true reason as approved experience to set down three distempers of Learning The first is Phantasticall Learning The second Contentious Learning The third Painted and Delicate Learning or thus vaine Jmaginations vaine Altercations vaine Affectations And with the Last I will beginne II. This Distemper seated in the superfluity and profusenesse of speech though in times past by turnes it was in some price about Luthers time got up mightily into credit and estimation The heat and efficacy of Preaching to winne and draw on the people began chiefly about that time to florish and this required a popular kind of expression This was furtherd by the Enmity and Opposition conceaved in that same age against the Schoolemen whose writings were altogether in a differing stile and forme of expression taking liberty to coine and frame new and rude termes of Art whithout any regard to the purenesse and elegancy of speech so they might avoid circuit of words and deliver their sense and conceptions in a precise exact expression and so it came to passe a litle after that a greater care was taken for Words than Matter and many affected rather Comptnesse of stile a round and clean Period the sweet falling of the clauses and illustrations by Tropes and Figures than the waight of Matter soundnesse of Argument life of Invention or depth of Judgement Then sprang up the flowing and watery veine of Osorius the Portugall Bishop to be in price and request Then did Sturmius spend such infinite and curious paines upon Cicero the Orator and Hemogines the Rhetorician Then did our Carre and Ascham in their Lectures and Writings almost Deifie Cicero and Demosthenes and allure young Students to that polisht and florishing kinde of Learning Then did Erasmus take occasion to make that scoffing kinde of Echo Decem annos consumpsi in Legendo Cicerone to which the Echo answered One Asine Than grew the Learning of the Schoolemen to be utterly despised as rude and barbarous In summe the whole inclination and bent of those times was rather about Copie than Waight Here we see the first Distemper of Learning when as we have said men study Words and not Matter Whereof though J have represented examples of late times only yet such vanities have bin accepted in some degree or other in ancient times and will be so hereafter Now it is not possible but that this should have an operation to discredit and debase the reputation of Learning even with vulgar capacities when they see Learned mens Workes like the first letter of a Patent which though it be limmed and set out with large florishes yet it is but a letter And it seemes to me that Pigmalions frenzie is a good Embleme and Portraicture of this vanity for what are words but the Images of matter and except they be animated with the spirit of reason to fall in Love with them is all one as to fall in love with a Picture § But yet notwithstanding it is a thing not hastily to be condemned to illustrate and polish the obscurity and roughnesse of Philosophy with the splendor of wordes and sensible elocution For hereof we have great examples in Xenophon Cicero Seneca Plutarque and even in Plato himselfe and the use hereof is great For though to the severe inquisition of Truth and the deep progresse into Philosophy it is some hinderance because it is too early satisfactory unto the mind and quencheth the thirst and desire of farther search yet if a man be to have any use of such knowledge in Civill occasions of Conference Counsill Perswasion Discourse and the like he shall finde all that he desireth prepar'd and set out to his hand in those Auctors But the excesse of this is so justly contemptible that as Hercules when he saw the Jmage of Adonis Venus minion in the Temple said Nil sacries so there is none of Hercules followers in Learning I mean the more industrious and severe inquirers into Truth but will despise those Delicacies and Affectations as indeed capable of no Divinenesse § Litle better is that kind of stile yet neither is that altogether exempt from vanity which neer about the same time succeeded this Copy and superfluity of speech The labour here is altogether That words may be aculeate sentences concise and the whole contexture of the speech and discourse rather rounding into it selfe than spread and dilated So that it comes to passe by this Artifice that every passage seemes more witty and waighty than indeed it is Such a stile as this we finde more excessively in Seneca more moderately in Tacitus and Plinius Secundus and of late it hath bin very pleasing unto the eares of our time And this kind of expression hath found such acceptance with meaner capacites as to be a dignity and ornament to Learning neverthelesse by the more exact judgements it hath bin deservedly despised and may be set down as a distemper of Learning seeing it is nothing else but a hunting after words and fine placing of them And thus much of the first Disease or Distemper of Learning III Now followes the distemper setled in Matter which we set down as a second disease of Learning have designed it by the name of Contentious subtletie and this is in nature somewhat worse than that whereof we spake even now For as the substance of Matter is better than the beauty of wordes so on the contrary vanity of Matter is more odious than vanity of words Wherein it seemeth that the reprehension of S. Paul was not only proper for those times but Propheticall for the times following and not only respective to Divinity but extensive to all knowledge 1. Tim. 6. Devita prophanas vocum novitates For in these words he assignes two Markes and Badges of suspected and falsified science The first is the Novelty and Strangenesse of Termes The other the strictnesse of Positions which of necessity induce opposition and so Alterations and Questions Certainly like as many substances in nature which are solid and entire doe many times putrifie and corrupt into wormes so good and sound Knowledge doth often putrifie and dissolve into a number of subtle idle unwholsome and as I may terme them vermiculate Questions which seem indeed to have a kind of Motion and Quicknesse in them and yet they are unsound and hollow and of no solid use This kind of Degenerate Learning corrupting it selfe did chiefly raigne amongst the Schoolemen who having a bundance of Leisure sharpe and strong wits and small variety of reading for their wits were shut up within the writing of a few Auctors chiefly Aristotle their Dictator as their Persons were shut up in the cells of Monasteries and Colledges and for most part ignorant of the History either of Nature or of Time did out
Barbarisme but inded the accent had need be put upon Fideliter for a superficiall confused knowledge doth rather work a contrary effect I say Learning takes away levity temerity and insolency whilest it suggests all dangers and doubts together with the thing it selfe ballanceth the weight of reasons and arguments on both sides turnes back the first offers and placits of the mind as suspect and teacheth it to take a tried and examin'd way The same doth extirpate vain and excessive admiration which is the root of all weak advisement For we admire things either because they are New or because they are Great As for novelty no man that wades in Learning and the contemplation of things throughly but hath this printed in his heart Eccles 1. Nihil novi sub sole neither can any man much marvaile at the play of Puppets that thrusts but his head behind the curtain and adviseth well of the organs and wires that causeth the motion As for Magnitude as Alexander the Great after he was used to great Battles and conquests in Asia when at any time he receaved Letters out of Greece of some fights and services there which were undertaken commonly for some Bridge or a Fort or at most for the besiege of some City was wont to say It seemed to him that he was advertised of the Battles of Homers Froggs and Mise So certainly if a man meditate upon the world and the Fabrick thereof to him the Globe of the Earth with men marching upon it the Divinenesse of soules excepted will not seem much other Sen. Nat. Q lib. 1. pref than a Hillock of Ants whereof some creep and run up and down with their Corne others with their Egges others empty all about a litle heap of Dust § Againe Learning takes away or at least mitigates the fear of death and adverse Fortune which is one of the greatest impediments to Virtue or Manners For if a mans mind be seasoned and imbued with the contemplation of Mortality and the corruptible nature of things he will in his apprehension concurre with Epictetus who going forth one day saw a woman weeping for her Pitcher of Earth and going forth the next day saw another woman weeping for her sonne Enchir. c. 33. Arr. l. 3. c. 24. said Heri vidi fragilem frangi hodie vidi mortalem mori Therefore Virgil did excellently and profoundly couple the knowledge of the cause and the conquest of Feares together as concomitants Geor. 2. Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas Quique metus omnes inexorabile fatum Subjecit pedibus strepitumque Acherontis avari It were too long to goe over the particular Remedies which Learning doth minister to all the diseases of the Mind sometimes purging the ill Humors sometimes opening the obstructions sometimes helping digestion sometimes exciting ap-appetite often healing the wounds and exulcerations thereof and the like Therefore I will conclude with that which seemes to be the summe of all which is that Learning so disposeth and inclineth the minde as that it is never wholly setled and fixt in the defects thereof but ever awakes it selfe and breaths after a Growth and Perfection Plat. Alcib Porph. in Stob. Sen. Epist Plut. Mor. For the unlearn'd man knowes not what it is to descend into himselfe or to call himselfe to account or what a sweet life it is sensibly to feele that he is every day better If he chance to have any good parts he will still be boasting these and every where expose them to the full view and it may be use them dexterously to his own advantage and reputation but not much improve or encrease them Againe what faults soever he hath he wil use art and industry to hide and colour them but not to amend them like an ill Mower that mowes on still and never whets his sythe Contrariwise a learned man doth not only imploy his mind and exercise his good parts but continually reformes himselfe and makes Progression in virtue Nay to say all in a word Certaine it is that Veritas Bonitas differ but as the seale and the Prints for goodnesse is Truth 's impression and on the contrary the stormes and tempests of Vice and Passions breake from the Clouds of error and falshood II From Morality let us passe on to matter of power and commandment and consider whether there be any soveraignty or empirie comparable to that wherewith Learning invests and crownes mans nature We see the Dignity of commanding is according to the dignity of the commanded Commandement over Beasts and Cattle such as Heardmen and Shepheards have is a thing contemptible Commandment over children such as School-masters and Tutors have is a matter of small honour commandment over slaves is a disparagement rather then an honour neither is the commandment of Tyrants much better over a servile People dismantled of their Spirits and generosity of mind therefore it was ever helde that honours in free Monarchies and Common-wealths had a sweetnesse more than in Tyrannies because a command over the willing is more honourable than over the forced and compelled Wherefore Virgil when hee would out of the highest straine of his Art expresse the best of Humane honours that he could attribute to Caesar he doth it in these words victorque volentes Per Populos dat jura viamque affectat Olympo Georg. 4. But the Commandment of knowledge is farre higher than the Commandment over the will though free and not enslaved and vassal'd For it is a Dominion over Reason Beliefe and the Vnderstanding which is the highest part of man and gives Law to the will it selfe For without Question there is no power on earth which advanceth and sets up a Throne and as it were a Chaire of estate in the soules of men and their Cogitations Assents and Beliefe but Knowledge and Learning And therefore we see the detestable and extreme pleasure that Arch-Heretiques false Prophets and Impostors are ravish't and transported withall when once they find that they begin to have a Dominion and Superiority over the faith and consciences of men indeed so great as hee that hath once tasted it it is seldome seen that any persecution or torture can make them relinquish this Soveraignty But as this is that which the Divine Auctor of the Revelation calls Apoc. 2. The depth or profoundnesse of Satan so on the contrary the just and lawfull Soveraignty over mens minds establish't by the cleer evidence and sweet commendation of Truth approacheth certainly neerest to the similitude of the Divine Rule § As for Fortunes and Honours the munificence of Learning doth not so enrich and adorne whole Kingdomes and Common-wealths as it doth not likewise amplifie and advance the Fortunes and Estates of particular persons For it is an ancient observation that Homer hath given more men their living than either Sylla or Caesar or Augustus ever did notwithstanding their great Largesses such infinite donatives and distributions
as is due to God and Phantasticall Opinions of them either by extolling them above the degree of a creature or to extoll a mans knowledge of them farther than he hath warrantable ground But the sober enquiry touching them which by the gradations of things corporall may ascend to the nature of them or which may be seen in the Soule of Man as in a Looking glasse is in no wise restrained The same may be concluded of impure and revolted spirits the conversing with them and the imployment of them is prohibited much more any veneration towards them but the Contemplation or Science of their Nature their Power their Illusions not only from places of sacred Scripture but from reason or experience is a principall part of Spirituall wisdome For so the Apostle saith we are not ignorant of his stratagems 2. Cor. 2. And it is no more unlawfull to enquire in naturall Theology the nature of evill Spirits than to enquire the nature of Poysons in Physique or of vices in the Ethiques But this part of Science touching Angels and degenerate spirits I cannot note as Deficient for many have imployed their pens in it Rather most of the writers in this kind may be argued either of vanity or superstition or of unprofitable subtlety CAP. III. The Partition of Naturall Philosophy into Speculative and Operative § And that these two both in the intention of the writer and in the body of the Treatise should be separated LEaving therefore Naturall Theology to which we have attributed the enquiry of Spirits as an Appendix we may proceed to the second Part namely that of Nature or Naturall Philosophy Laert. Senec. Democritus saith excellently That the knowledge concerning Nature lies hid in certain deep Mines and Caves And it is somewhat to the purpose Paracel de Philos sagaci that the Alchimists doe so much inculcate That vulcan is a second Nature and perfects that compendiously which Nature useth to effect by ambages and length of time why then may we not divide Philosophy into two parts the Mine and the Fornace and make two professions or occupations of Naturall Philosophers Pyoners or workers in the mine and Smythes or refiners Certainly however we may seem to be conceited and to speak in jest yet we doe bestallow of a division in that kind if it be proposed in more familiar and Scholasticall termes namely that the knowledge of Nature be divided into the Inquisition of Causes and the Production of Effects Speculative and Operative the one searcheth the bowels of Nature the other fashions Nature as it were upon the Anvile § Now although I know very well with what a strict band causes and effects are united so as the explication of them must in a sort be coupled and conjoyned yet because all solid and fruitfull Naturall knowledge hath a double and that distinct scale or ladder Ascendent and Descendent From Experiments to Axioms and from Axioms to new Experiments I judge it most requisite that these two parts Speculative and Operative be separate both in the intention of the writer and the Body of the Treatise CAP. IV. I. The Partition of the Speculative knowledge of Nature into Physique speciall and Metaphysique Whereof Physique enquires the Efficient Cause and the Matter Metaphysique the finall Cause and the Forme II. The Partition of Physique into the knowledges of the Principles of Things of the Fabrique of Things or of the World And of the variety of Things III. The Partion of Physique touching the variety of things into the Doctrine of Concretes and into the Doctrine of Abstracts The Partition of the knowledge of Concretes is referred over to the same Partition which Naturall History Comprehends IV. The Partition of the knowledge of Abstracts into the knowledge of the Schemes of Matter and into the knowledge of Motions V. Two Appendices of Speculative Physique Naturall Problems And the Placits of Ancient Philosophers VI. The Partition of Metaphysique into the Doctrine of Formes And into the Doctrine of Finall Causes I. THat part of Naturall Philosophy which is Speculative and Theoricall we think convenient to divide into Physique speciall and Metaphysique And in this Partition I desire it may be conceiv'd that we use the word Metaphysique in a differing sense from that that is received And here it seemes to fall out not unfitly to advertise in generall of our purpose and meaning touching the use of words and Termes of Art And it is this that as well in this word Metaphysique now delivered as in other termes of Art wheresoever our conceptions and notions are new and differ from the received yet with much reverence we retaine the Ancient termes For being we hope that the method it selfe and a perspicuous explication of the Matter which we labour to annexe may redime us from an incongruous conception of the words we use we are otherwise zealous so farre as we can without prejudice of Truth and Sciences to depart as litle as may be from the opinions and expressions of Antiquity And herein I cannot but marvaile at the confidence of Aristotle who possest with a spirit of contradiction and denouncing warre against all Antiquity not only usurpt a licence to coine new termes of Arts at pleasure but hath endeavoured to deface and extinguish all ancient wisdome In so much as he never names any ancient Auctors or makes any mention of their opinions but to reprehend their Persons or to redargue their Placits and opinions Certainly if he affected glory and drawing disciples after him he took the right course For the same comes to passe in the asserting and receiving a Philosophicall Truth that doth in a Divine Truth veni in nomine Patris Ioan. 5. nec recipitis me si quis venerit in nomine suo eum recipietis But from this divine Aphorisme if we consider whom specially it hath designed namely Antichrist the greatest Impostor of all times we may collect that the comming in a mans own name without any regard of Antiquity or if I may so speak of Paternity is no good Augurie of Truth however it be joyned with the fortune and successe of an eum recipietis But for Aristotle certainly an excellent man and of an admirable profound wit I should easily be induced to believe that he learned this ambition of his Scholler whom perhaps he did aemulate that if one conquered all Nations the other would conquer all Opinions and raise to himselfe a kind of Monarchy in contemplations Although it may so fall out that he may at some mens hands that are of a bitter disposition and biteing language get a like title as his Scholler did Lucan l. 10. Foelix terrarum Praedo non utile Mundo Editus exemplum So Foelix Doctrinae Praedo c. But to us on the other side that doe desire so much as lies in the power of our penne to contract a league and commerce between Ancient Moderne knowledges our judgement stands firme to keep
From a silent man all things are conceal'd because all is repai'd with silence A close man is next to an unknown man FACILITY XXIX Pro. J like the man that is pliant to anothers inclination but yet reserves his judgement from flattery He that is flexible comes neerest the nature of Gold Contra. Facility is a weak privation of judgement The good offices of facile natures seem debts their denialls injuries He owes the thanks to himselfe that obtaines any thing of a Facile-natur'd man All difficulties presse upon a too accessible and yeelding nature for he ingages himselfe in all Facile natures seldome come off with credit POPULARITY XXX Pro. The same things commonly please wise men but it is also a point of wisdome to humor the changeable disposition of fooles To honour the people is to be honoured Men in place usually stand in awe not of one man but the multitude Contra. He whose nature rightly sorts with fooles may himselfe be suspected He that hath the Art to please the people commonly hath the power to raise the people No termes of moderation takes place with the vulgar To fawne on the people is the lowest degree of Flattery LOQUACITY XXXI Pro. Silence argues a man to be jealous either of others or of himselfe Restraint of liberty in what kind soever is an unhappy case but the worst of all is that of silence Silence is the virtue of fooles where he said truly to a silent man If you be wise you are a Foole if you be a Foole you are wise Silence like night is fit for Treacheries Cogitations are like waters most wholsome in the running streame Silence is a kind of solitude He that is silent prostitutes himselfe to censure Silence neither dischargeth it selfe of evill thoughts nor contributes any good Contra. Silence addes grace and authority to a mans words Silence like a kindly sleep refresheth wisdom settles the judgement Silence is the Fermentation of our thoughts Silence is the stile of wisdome Silence is a candidate for Truth DISSIMULATION XXXII Pro. Dissimulation is a compendious wisdome We are not tied to say the same but to intend the same Nakednesse even in the Mind is uncomely Dissimulation is both a Grace and a Guard Dissimulation is the fence of counsils Some through their too apert faire dealing become a prey He that carries all things with an open franknesse deceives as he that somewhat dissembles for many either doe not comprehend him or doe not believe him Open dealing is nothing else but a weaknesse of mind Contra. When we cannot think according to the verity of things yet at least let us speak according as we think Whose shallow capacities cōprehend not the Arts of state in them a habit of dissimulation goes for wisdome He that Dissembles deprives himselfe of one of the most principall instruments for Action which is beliefe Dissimulation invites Dissimulation A dissembler is not exempt from bondage BOLDNESSE XXXIII Pro. A shamefac'd sutor teaches the way how to be denied What Action is to an Orator the same is boldnesse to a Politique the first the second the third virtue I love him that confesseth his modesty but I cannot endure him that accuseth it A confidence in carriage soonest unites affections I like a reserved countenance and an open speech Contra. Boldnesse is the verger to folly Impudence is good for nothing but for Imposture Confidence is the fooles Empresse and the wise mans buffone Boldnesse is a kind of Dulnesse of sence togither with a perversenesse of the will Ceremonies Puntoes Affectation XXXIV Pro. A comely moderation of Countenance and Gesture is the true seasoning of virtue If we observe the vulgar in the use of words why not in habit and Gesture He that keeps not a decorum in smaller matters and in his daily customes though he be a great man yet set it down for truth that such a personage is wise but at certain seasons Virtue and wisdome without all points of respect and complement are like forraine languages they are not understood by the common people He that apprehends not the meaning of the common people neither by a congruous application nor yet by observation is of all men most senselesse Puntoes and ceremonies are the translation of virtue into a mother tongue Contra. What can be a more deformed spectacle than to transferre the sence into our common course of life Faire ingenious behaviour winnes grace and favour but affectation and art procures hatred Better a painted face and crisped haire then painted and crisped manners He cannot comprehend great matters who breaks his mind to small observations Affectation is the shining Putrefaction of ingenuity JEASTS XXXV Pro. A conceit is the altar of an Orator He that mingles modest mirth in all his commerce with others reserves a freedome of mind It is a matter more politique then a man would think smoothly to passe from jest to earnest and from earnest to jest A witty conceit is oftentimes a convoy of a Truth which otherwise could not so handsomely have bin feried over Contra What man despiseth not those that hunt after these deformities and concinnities To put off the importance of businesse with a jest is a base slight of wit Then judge of a jest when you have done laughing Merrily conceited men seldome penetrate farther than the superficies of things which is the point where the jest lies To put a Iest as a matter of moment upon serious affaires is a childish Levity LOVE XXXVI Pro. Doe you not see how all men seek themselves but a lover only findes himselfe There is no better goverment of the mind then from the command of some powerfull affection He that is wise let him pursue some desire or other for he that doth not affect some one thing in chiefe unto him all things are distastfull and tedious Why should not that which is one rest in unity Contra. The stage is much beholding to love the life of man nothing There is nothing hath so many names as love for it is a thing either so foolish that it knowes not it selfe or so base that it must needs disguise it selfe under a counterfeit habit I like not such natures as are only intent upon one thing Love is a poore-narrow contemplation FRIENDSHIP XXXVII Pro. Friendship accomplisheth the same things that Fortitude doth but more sweetly Friendship is a pleasant sauce to any temporall happinesse The worst solitude is to be destitute of sincere friendship Jt is a just punishment for false-hearted dispositions to be deprived of friendship Contra. Who contracts strict leagues of Amity drawes upon himselfe new engagements It is a note of a weak spirit to divide fortune FLATTERY XXXVIII Pro. Flattery proceeds more out of custome then out of Malice It was ever a forme of civility due to Great Persons by praising them to instruct them Contra. Flattery is the stile of Servants Flattery is the cement of vice Flattery is that kind of fowling which deceives Birds
because we adde nothing here of our own but describe the naked Formes only out of Dcmosthenes or Cicero or some other select Author they may seem a more triviall and common observation than that we should wast much time therein EXAMPLES OF MINOR FORMES A Conclusion of a speech Deliberative So wee may both redime the Fault which is Passed and with the same diligence provide against future Inconveniences The Corollary of an accurate Partition That every one may understand that J seek not to balke any thing by silence or to cloud any thing by words A Transition With a Caveat But let us so passe by these that reflecting upon them and keeping them within view we may leave them A preoccupation against an inveterate opinion I shall so open the matter as you may understand in the whole manage of the businesse what the case it selfe hath brought forth what error hath fastned upon it what envy hath rais'd And let these suffice for example wherewith annexing two Rhetoricall Appendices which respect the PROMPTUARY PART we conclude CAP. IV. I. Two Generall Appendices of the Art of Delivery Art Criticall II. And Pedanticall THere remaines two Appendices in generall touching the Tradition of knowledge the one Criticall the other Pedanticall For as the principall part of Tradition of Knowledge consisteth in writing of books so the relative part thereof consists in reading of Books but reading is governed and directed either by the help of Preceptors and Tutors or perfited by every mans particular and proper endeavour and industry and to this purpose conduce those two knowledges whereof we have spoken To the Criticall part appertaines first an emaculate correction and amended edition of approved Auctors Whereby both the honour of Auctors themselves is vindicated and a light given to the studious Readers Wherein neverthelesse the rash diligence of some writers hath done great prejudice to studies For it is the manner of many Critiques when they fall upon a passage which they doe not understand presently to presume a fault in the copy As in that place in Tacitus when a certain Colony in the open Senate claimed the priviledge of an Asylum Tacitus reports that the reasons they preferr'd were not much favour'd by the Emperour and the Lords of the Senate wherefore the Embassadors mistrusting the issue of the businesse gave a round summe of mony to Titus Vinius that he would mediate their cause and take upon him the protection of their liberties by this means their petition was heard and granted Tum dignitas antiquitas Coloniae valuit saith Tacitus as if the arguments that seemed light before were now made waighty through bribes and corruption But one of the Critiques a man of no obscure note hath expunged the word Tum and in stead thereof put in Tantum And by this perverse custome of Critiques it comes to passe as one wisely noteth that the most corrected copies are commonly the least correct Nay to speak truth unlesse the Critiques be well skill'd in the knowledges handled in the Books which they set forth their diligence is with perill and prejudice Secondly there appertaines to the Critique Art the Exposition and Explication of Auctors by commentaries Scholies Notes Spicilegies and the like In labours of this kind that worst disease of Critiques hath ceas'd on many that they blanch and wave many obscurer passages and such as are plaine and perspicuous those they dwell and expatiate upon even to a fastidious tediousnesse and it is not so much intended that the Auctor may be illuminated as that the Critique may take occasion hereby to glorify himselfe in his multiplicious and various learning It could be especially wished although this point belongs to Tradition in chiefe and not to Appendices that the writer which handles obscure and noble Arguments should annexe his own explications that neither the text it selfe may be broken off by Digressions and Explications and that the Annotations may not depart from the mind and intention of the writer Some such thing we conceive of Theon upon Euclid Thirdly it belongs to Critique Art from whence it derives the name to interpose a briefe censure and judgement of the Auctors which they publish and to compare and valew them with other Auctors upon the same subject That by such a censure the Learned and studious may be both advertis'd of the choice of Books and come better provided to the peruseing of them This last duty is as it were the Chaire of the Critiques which many great and famous men in our age have ennobled greater surely in our judgement than for the model of Critiques II. For Pedanticall knowledge it were soon said consult the Schooles of the Iesuites for there is nothing for the use and practice better then their Precepts but we will according to our manner as it were gleaning a few eares give some few advertisements We doe by all means approve a Collegiat education and Institution of Childhood and Youth not in private houses nor only under Schoolemasters There is in Colledges a greater emulation of Youth towards their equalls besides there is the sight and countenance of Grave men which seems to command modesty and fashions and moulds tender minds even from their first growth to the same Patterne in some there are many other utilities of Collegiat Education § For the order and manner of Discipline this I would principally advise that Youth beware of compends and abridgements and too forward maturation of knowledge which maks men bold and confident and rather wants great proceeding than causeth it § Further there is an indulgence to be given to the liberty and vent of nature in particulars as if there be any which performes such taskes as the discipline of the place requires and yet withall steales some howers to bestow on other studies to which he hath a naturall propensity such a disposition by no means should be checkt or restrain'd § Againe it will be worth the paines diligently to observe which perchance hetherto hath not bin noted that there are two waies and they as it were reflexively opposite of training up of wits and of exercising and preparing them The one begins with the more easy precepts and by degrees leads us to the more difficult the other at first commands and presseth more difficult practises which when they are conquered the other sweetly yeeld and are won with ease For it is one Method to practise swimming by bladders which lift up and an other Method to practise dauncing with heavy shooes which presse down the Body and it is not easy to expresse how much a wise intermixtion of these Methods conduceth to the advanceing of the faculties both of Mind and of the Body § So the Application and Election of studies according to the propriety of wits which are instructed is a matter of singular use and judgement a true and perfit discovery whereof Schoolemasters and Tutors owe to the Parents of Children from whom they may expect such informations