to tell them of Arts and Sciences as to tell them feigned and foolish tales of Tom Thum and of Spirits and the like frighting them so much as makes them of timorous natures and Effeminat Spirits when Children would take as much delight in Arts and Sciences nay more if they were taught them at first Likewise it were as easy and less danger to teach them to valt which is necessary for horsemen as to climb a Pear-tree and the like and likewise it were as easy to learn them to fence with a stick or at least to hold it in a defensive posture as to play at Cat or Chick stone Quaits or the like wherefore it is no wonder there are so few wise men when Children are bread so foolishly so many so unhandsomely behaved when Children are bred so rudely so many Cowards when Children are bred so fearfully so many deformed when Children are taught such dangerous mischievous and hurtful sports so many false when they are taught to tell lyes from their Cradles as thinking it no vice or fault in Children and many more examples might be given of the ill breeding of Children Of Gentlewomen that are sent to board Schools IT is dangerous to put young Women to board Schools unless their Parents live so disorderly as their children may grow wicked or base by their examples for most commonly in these Schools they learn more vices than good manners for it is a good task for one body to breed up one child well and as they ought to be bred at most two or three but it is too much for one to breed up many as for one Woman to breed up twenty young Maids it is true they may educate their Persons but it is a doubt whether they do or can educate their minds they may learn them to sing well but it is a question whether they learn them to think well they may learn them measures with the feet and mistake the measures of a good life they may learn them to write by rule but forget the rules of modesty For the danger is in those Schools where a great many Gentlewomen of several Families and Births degrees of ages various humours different dispositions natures and qualities do like several sorts of fruits which when they are gathered and heaped together soon putrifie and corrupt and some become rotten at the Coar where if every Pear Aple and Plum were layd even by themselves apart in a dry and clean place they would be sound wholesome and last as long as their natures were to last so if young Women were bred singly carefully and industriously one by one there would be no danger they should learn from each other crafts dissembling fraud spight slander or the like besides where there are many together of several dispositions they are not only apt to catch the infection of ill qualities from each other but many times they breed vices which ruin themselves fortunes and Families and like Maggets consume their Estates or eat a hole thorough their reputation Besides all board Scholars of the Effeminat sex are like salemeat drest at a Cooks shop which alwaies tasts of the dripping pan or smoke so most commonly those that are bred at Schools have a smack of the School at least in their behaviour that is a constraintness but the exercises although they are commendable in Women of quality yet it is not these exercises or vertues as they call them in Italy which give them good breeding but to instruct their youth with useful knowledge to correct their ignorance with right understanding to settle their mind to virtue to govern their passions by reason to rule their unsatiable or distempered appetites with temperance to teach them noble principles honourable actions modest behaviours civil demeanours to be cleanly patient and pious which none can teach either by example or instructions or both but those that have been nobly bred themselves How a Gentleman ought to be bred and spend his time A Gentleman ought to be skilful in the use of his Sword in the manage of Horses to Vault to Wrastle to Dance the first defends his Honour and Country the next is for Command in Cavalry the third makes him ready in the day of Battle to Horse himself the fourth keeps him from being overcome by a Clown or Pezant for the slights in Wrastling will overcome great strengths the fifth gives his limbs a graceful motion His exercises should be Masculine for better it were to see a Gentleman shooe an Horse than to play on the Vial or Lute Virginal or any other musical instrument for that sheweth the command Man hath over Beast Or to carry a burthen on his back than to sit idely at Cards or Dice for Idleness is like the sluggish Worm that is neither able to help nor defend it self Or it were better see a Gentleman hew down trees or dig in the bowels of the earth amongst minerals than painting or pencilling for that shews manly strength command and force over the hardiest of natures works so as it be voluntary and not stavish It is more manly to be a Souldier than a Clerk not that a Gentleman should be rough and rude like Savages and only to have force like a Beast but to be like a God above all other Creatures and to be like a God is never to be Idle nor to be imployed but about things that tend to some useful noble and glorious end Swimming is not very useful for a Gentleman TO be skilful in Swimming brings nothing to a mans honour it is only useful in the time of danger and a man runs greater hazards in the gaining that Art than the advantage he is like to get by it and had better adventure his life if such a mischance should happen to be required to swim than to adventure it every day in the learning it for if the Cramp take him or the Stitch or the Cholick or a Weed insnarling any part of him he is gone and many other accidents may chance to drown him so that swimming is more dangerous than honourably safe and a Gentleman should learn first those Actions that bring Honour then those for Safety a man should learn first how to Assault his foe and then to Defend himself and Swimming is more to save his life than get a fame A Gentlemans Study A Gentleman should not be ignorant but know all the good is to be known and the bad or else he can hardly know what is best yet leave the practice of the worst to the inferior but his study should be Navigation Fortification Architecture Culture Water-works Fire-works and the like which Studies are profitable to his Country both for Strength Plenty and Use which make a Kingdom flourish for every man should like a Bee bring Hony to the Hive and not like the effeminat Drone suck out the sweet and idely live upon the Heroick labour of others but to study Laws is rather to study division than
and joyn the words but understood nothing of the sense of the World until my Lord who was learned by experience as my Master instructed me reading several lectures therof to me and expounding the hard and obscure passages therein of which I have learnt so much as to settle my minde on the ground of peace wherein I have built an house of happinesse entertaining my self with my own thoughts which thoughts were like travellers seldom at home and when they returned brought nothing but vanity and uneasy fashions busying themselves on that as nothing concern'd them or could any wayes advantage them troubling themselves with trifles putting my minde in disorder but since my Lord hath learnt me the way of fortifying it with patience lest our enemy misfortune should surprise it and to set sentinels of truth lest falshood should undermine it and to make Commanders of Honour lest flattery should betray it Thus my minde is become an absolute Monark ruling alone my thoughts as a peaceable Common-wealth and my life an expert Souldier which my Lord setled composed and instructed The third part of the first BOOK A Tyrannical power never lasts THat power never lasts which falshood got and Tyranny strives to keep unlesse tyranny be the natural constitution of the government and then it is most commonly the longest livd like men that were born and bred to hardship but should a body be born and bred renderly be used roughly and exposed nakedly fed coursly it would be destroyed soon For a governor in a Common-wealth is like a private family as for example a man that first begins to keep a house and makes laws and sets rules though the laws be hard and unjust and the rules strickt and rigorous yet there is no dispute nor grumbling because he was the first setter up or beginner of that family his means being his own either by inheritance or by his merits or by his industry wherefore he hath power to order it or dispose of it as he will and his wife and servants never accustomed to any other government before willingly submit and his children born under it it is as natural to them but if this man dies and the wife marries again or that he is over-ruled by some friend and they begin to usurp and to alter the customs by making new laws and to set other rules although they are more commodious easie pleasant and plentiful yet being unusual the servants begin to murmur the children to complain factions and side-taking grows until there is a falling out where words and blows will passe and the estate neglected and so wasted by cosenage or sold or wasted by riot and there is no help for it unlesse they change their dwelling and take new servants that never were acquainted with the old and get more children that knew not the first breeding and another Virgin wife thus the the mother children and servants must be destroyed of the first government and new ones for the second government The same is for Common-wealths for first absolute power must be got Secondly all old laws must be abolished Thirdly strangers must come to inhabit to settle a government for mixt laws of old and new will no more agree in government then crosse humours in a private family Of Courts COurts should be a patern and an example of vertue to all the rest of the kingdom being the ruler and chief head to direct the body of state but most commonly instead of clemency justice modesty friendship temperance humility and unity there is faction pride ambition luxury covetousnesle hate envy slander treachery flattery impudence and many the like yet they are oft-times covered with a vaile of smooth professions and protestations which glisters like gold when it is a copper'd tinsel but to study Court-ship is rather to study dissembling formality then noble reality Of a lawful Prince or inhereditary Prince A Prince that is born to a just title becomes carelesse as thinking his right to his Crown is a sufficient warrant or born for the loyalty of his Subjects which makes him trust the conduct of his greatest affaires to those he favours most as thinking his care and pains a superfluity Thus he becom's as ignorant to the affaires of his kingdom as his subjects of his abilities For few Kings know throughly the laws made by their predecessours but what themselves make nor the humours of the people nor the strength nor weaknesse of their kingdom wheras an usurper dares trust none but himself which makes him more wise in governing more sure in keeping knowing the condition of the kingdom better by experience which he gets by practice and the humors of the people which he gets by observation which gives him abilitie of judgement to chose fit men for proper places where otherwise he may put the asle where the fox should be and the sheep where the Lion should be the serpent where the dove should be and thus misplacing of men in several offices and commands is many times the ruine of a kingdom whereas an usurper being a subject most commonly knows better to command like as a middle region knows better what is below it then the highest region doth so those men that are subject to Authority can see better then when they have full power of command but the way is so dangerous as a kingdom seldom escapes from an unrecoverable ruine Of an Vsurper OF all Princely and Monarchical Governours an Usurper grows most commonly the justest and wisest Prince when he is once setled in his possession unlesse fear of being dispossest infects his thoughts and so grows furious with a distempered jelousie which brings the plague of Tyranny breaking out in sores of cruelty and they shall sooner want means and life then he will industry for his safety but otherwise if he have so much courage to subdue his fears he becoms an excellent Prince for what with his ambition to be thought better then his predecessor and that the subject might not repine at the change and out of a covetousnesse to keep his power and to settle it upon his posterity and out of a Luxurious desire to enjoy it peaceably that he might reap the plenty thereof makes him become more careful and circum spect in executing justice and more prudent and industrious in making good and prositable laws to tie the hearts of the people more firm unto him that their love may wipe out his ill title and thus settles his new and false authority by an insinuating Government Clemency makes the greatest Monarch HE is the greatest Monarch that is most beloved of the subject because he hath not onely the power over mens bodies but over their minds where he that is hated and feared hath only a power of the body but the minde is a rebel and stands out against him thus freedom makes obedience when bondage and slavery is but a forced authority because content is not there and there is more labour
desire Power because they would be like to a God but Tyrants may be said to keep their Power by the sweat of their Brows 54. To keep the Common People in order they must be awed with Fear as well as nourished with Love or flattered with Hopes 55. What hopes can People have of a King to govern a Kingdome when he doth not reform his own Houshold but lets it run into Faction and Disorder 56. The Service to Kings is Allegiance 57. The Service to Nature is Self preservation 58. The Service to God is a Pure Life and Unfeigned Love 59. The Reward from Kings is Outward Honour 60. The Reward from Nature is Death 61. The Reward from God Eternal Life 62. Every one is afraid of Tyrannie that is under Subjection but when Tyrannie turns from it self to Clemency then Love comes where Fear was 63. The best way for Princes to keep up Authority is to make good Laws to distribute Justice to correct Vice to reward Virtue to countenance Industry to provide for the safety of Nation and People 64. A Man that suffers all Injuries is a Fool but to suffer some or to suffer a Moderation is Patience 65. For Patience is the way to Folly as Fury or Choler to Madness 66. To put up or pass by an Injury from those that have power seems to proceed from Fear but to pass by an Injury from the powerless seems Heroick 67. Of all Virtues Patience hath the fewest Passions mixt with it and though it seems unsensible yet it seeth clearly into its own Misfortunes for Patience belongs to the Misfortunes that concern a Mans self 68. Yet Patience should not be a Bawd to a Mans ruine 69. There is none can be so patient as those that have suffered much 70. The Designs of Hate are easier followed and oftner practiced than of Love for one may easier take Revenge of a Foe than deliver Life and Liberty to a Friend 71. There is none so apt to revenge as those that have been forgiven 72. There is none so sorrowfull as those that want Means and Waies to make Satisfaction 73. Many times Guiltiness is more confident than Innocency 74. There is as much difference betwixt Pleasure and Joy as Sorrow and Melancholy for one disorders the Spirits the other composes them An overplus of Joy is like those that are drunk for it makes the Head of Reason dissy There are many sorts of Melancholy but Love-Melancholy makes them cry out O Pleasing Pain and Happy Misery 75. There is a fix'd Grief and a moving Grief the one hath neither Sighs nor Tears but seems as a Marble Pillar the other breaks into Complaint and pours it self forth in Showers of Tears Yet there are many sorts of Tears for there are Tears of Joy and there are Tears of Sorrow and Tears of Anger Tears of Pity and of Mirth and in all Passions Tears are apt to flow especially from moyst Brains But deep Sorrow hath dry Eyes silent Tongues and aking Hearts 76. When the Spirits are wearied with Grief they fall into a Melancholy Weeping and then are setled with a compliance to time 77. Passion will rise in the defence of Honour and the Tongue will display the Passion 78. For all we call Love is Friendship which is begot by agreeable Humours or received Curtesies or a Resemblance of Parts which is alterable but there can be no true Love but upon the unalterable God 79. There are waies to perfect Love but no Body can arrive to the Journeys end untill they come to Heaven because there is no Perfection in this World and there can be no perfect Love but upon a perfect Object 80. They that love much can never be Happy for the Torment of what Evil may come to that they love takes away the sweetness of what they enjoy Thus the fear of Losing is more unequal than the pleasure of Enjoyment 81. The Root of Love is like a Rock which stands against all Storms but Wantonness is like the Root of a Flower that every Worm may eat thorow 82. Envious Persons and Lovers are the greatest Flatterers the one flatters to hide his Envy the other to please the Beloved 83. Those Affections are strongest that Nature and Education have linkt together not onely by Birth but by Conversation for as Birth most commonly gives a likeness of parts so Conversation breeds a resemblance in humours and dispositions the one begets a likeness in Body the other of Minds or Souls 84. There is no Sound strikes the Ears so hard as the report of Death especially when Affection opens the Dore and lets the Messenger down into the Heart 85. True Love is an Affection which is very difficult to settle and hard to remove when once placed 86. To move Passion rather belongs to the Orator than the Poet for a Poet is a Creator of Fancy and Poetry rather makes than perswades But indeed that which moves Passion most is rather by Sound than Sense witness Musick which is the greatest Mover of Passion Thus Musick moves Passion more than Reason but Poetry is rather to delight the Wit than perswade the Reason 87. There is as much difference in Wit as there is in Pictures for every Picture is not drawn by Apelles and as some Painters are but for Sign-posts so some Wits are onely fit for Ballads 88. One and the same Tale told by several Persons makes great difference in the Affections of the Hearers 89. A witty Description in Discourse paints a lively Description in the Mind 90. A Translator acts the Person of an Author where most commonly the Author is represented to his advantage 91. There are a greater number that write more wisely and learnedly than delightfully 92. Thoughts when they run too fast or are prest too hard may destroy the Body by the distempering of the Mind 93. To have a Fixt Thought is to draw the Imaginations to a point 94. Though the Understanding be clear yet the Utterance may be instructed if the Tongue be not filed with the Motion to make all run smooth and even 95. Some have more Words than Wit and more Wit then Judgement 96. And others have more Years than Experience and more Experience than Honesty 97. Some have more Law than Policy 98. Some have more Ambition than Power and more Power than Justice 99. Secret Meetings Soft Whisperings or Dumb Shews have most commonly evil Designes 100. The dark Minds of Men are deceitfull 101. It were base for a Man or Woman to lay a Blemish upon those that have given them an honorable Reputation 102. Many that wish their Enemies Confusion yet would not betray them to it 103. I had rather hear what my Enemy can say against me than what my Enemy can say for me for there are none so good but may have some Faults which their Enemy is more apt to find out than their Friends much less themselves 104. Those persons that are railed at seem Nobler than those
feed on Melancholy Of Translation Essay 138. WE are given much in this latter Age to Translation and though Translation is a good Work because it doth not only divulge good Authors but distributes Knowledge to the unlearned in Languages yet Translators are but like those that shew the Tombs at Westminster or the Lyons at the Tower which is but to be an Informer not the Owner of them Essay 139. ALthough Accidents give the Ground to some Arts yet they are rude and uneasy untill the Brain hath polished them over True it is the Senses most commonly give the Brain the matter to work on yet the Brain forms and figures those Materials and disperses them abroad to the use of the World by the Senses again for as they came in at the Ear and the Eye or the Taste Sent and Touch so they are delivered out by the Tongue and Hands Essay 140. IT is worthy the Observation to regard the odd Humours of Mankind how they talk of Reason and follow the way thereof so seldome for men may as easily set Rules to Eternity as to themselves for the Mind is so intricate and subtil that we may as soon measure Eternity as It. Of Dilation and Retention Essay 141. A Dilation causeth as much weakness as Contraction Dilation causeth weakness by the Disuniting the United Forces and setting them at too great a Distance and Contraction binds them up too hard not giving as we vulgarly say Elbow room The Worlds Olio LIB II. PART III. Of the Britains THE Britains of England were a Valiant People but that they had not skill of Arms answerable to their Courage as the Romans had yet Caesar and all the Emperours could not conquer that Island in so short a time as Alexander had conquered most part of the World therefore it seems their Courage was great since their Skill was less and could make it to the Romans so difficult a Work For Britain was like a Body dis joynted or rather separated Limb from Limb for it was not joyned in one Body but divided amongst many Petty Kings which made it weak for being not united the Body hath little power without the Legs do uphold and the Eyes do direct and the Arms do defend it is an easy thing to throw down a Criple but it was a sign the Spirit was strong in this Criple that could resist so long against a Giant as the Romans were Therefore Britain was worthy of Praise since their Courages defended them so long Of King James KIng James was so great a Lover of Peace that rather than he would lose the Delights of Peace he would lye under the Infamy of being thought Timorous for in that it was thought he had more Craft than Fear Of Queen Elizabeth QUeen Elizabeth reigned long and happy and though she cloathed her self in a Sheeps skin yet she had a Lions paw and a Foxes head she strokes the Cheeks of her Subjects with Flattery whilst she picks their Purses and though she seemed loth yet she never failed to crush to death those that disturbed her waies Her Favourites for Sport she would be various to sometimes in Favour and sometimes out of Favour as Essex Leicester Ralegh Hatton and the like But she stuck close to her old Counsellors and Favourites Burleigh Walsingham and the rest Neither did the first Favourites get so much as the last Ralegh got not so much as Burleigh did some may say because they spent more they laid up less but vain Favourites get more Enemies to themselves and Hatred to their Princes than Profit to themselves for the sight of their Vanities makes the People remember their Taxes and think that their Prince hath posed from their Purses to maintain their Vanities and their Prince thinks they have given them more because they shew what they have and many times more than they have But the Wisest save and lay it up till the Envy is past and the Tax forgot But Queen Elizabeth maintained more forein Wars at one time than any of her Predecessors before her and yet without the Grievance of the People for it was not so much out of their Purses as the Prizes she got by Sea for though the King of Spain had the Honour of being Master of the Indies yet the Queen of England had the Honour of being Mistris of the Sea so her Ships were her Mines to maintain her War against him Of King Henry the Eighth KIng Henry the Eighth was a Politick Prince for as Favourites make use of their Prince so he made use of his Favourites for when they could do him no more service he turned them over to the Hangman to satisfie his People and those that he favoured had the blame with the punishment and he received the profit He was not like Edward the Second for his Favourites cost him his Crown and Life I observe that soft natures are apt to be crusht and very hard natures are apt to be broken in governing therefore severe but not cruel mercifull or kind but not credulous reign happiest But Henry the Eighth spent great Sums of Money as that which his Father left him and that which he had out of France then the vast Sums he raised out of Monasteries yet no great advantage redounded to his Kingdome But his Expence was much to keep Peace abroad by making Friends in those Kingdomes that were fallen out But most commonly those that strive to make Peace amongst others bring War to themselves although I cannot say he had much War Of pulling down of the Monasteries in Henry the Eighths time SOme wonder that Henry the Eighth did pull down and destroy so many Monasteries as were in England which had stood so long without Opposition but it was likely that the Opposition could not be great for first the People were perswaded in some part by the Doctrine of Luther to dislike the Tyrannie of the Pope for first it eased their Purses and their Persons the one from Peter-pence and the like and the other from hard Penance the next the Gentry and the Nobles thought of the gaining of the Houses and Lands and Liberty the King for the bulk of their Wealth so the King Nobility and Commons and all had ends in it and where the King follows the Commons an Innovation is easy or I may say an Innovation is easy where the King follows the People Of Justice in Commonwealths IT is to be observed that there is little Piety or Justice in Cities or Countryes or Nations that are overgrown with Prosperity or oppressed with Adversity for Prosperity makes them so proud as they are as it were above Justice and Adversity doth so deject them as they grow careless of Justice so that either way they grow into Barbarism But as Virtue is a Mean betwixt two Extremes so it keeps in the Mean in all Estates the Virtue of Prosperity is Temperance and the Virtue of Adversity is Fortitude Of Henry the Seventh IT was