considered all that is required to that strict way of managing our reason, he would not have censured Aristotle for condemning the fourth figure, out of no other motive, but because it was not consonant to his own principles; that it would not fit with the foundations himself had laid; though it do with reason (saith he) and be consonant to that, which indeed it doth not, at all times, and in all circumstances. In a perfect syllogism, the predicate must be identified with the subject, and each extreme with the middle term, and so, consequently, all three with one another. But in Galen's fourth figure, the case may so fall out, as these rules will not be current there. As for the good and excellency that he considereth in the worst things, and how far from solitude any man is in a wilderness;10 these are (in his discourse) but equivocal considerations of good, and of loneliness. Nor are they any ways pertinent to the morality of that part, where he treateth of them. I have much ado to believe, what he speaketh confidently,11 that he is more beholding to Morpheus, for learned and rational, as well as pleasing, dreams, than to Mercury for smart and facetious conceptions; whom Saturn (it seemeth by his relation) hath looked asquint upon in his geniture. In his concluding prayer,1 wherein he summeth up all he wisheth, methinketh his arrow is not winged with that fire, which I should have expected from him upon this occasion: for it is not the peace of conscience, nor the bridling up of one's affections, that expresseth the highest delightfulness and happiest state of a perfect christian. It is love only that can give us heaven upon earth, as well as in heaven; and bringeth us thither too: so that the Tuscan Virgil had reason to say, -In alte dolcézze Non si puo gioir, se non amando. And this love must be employed upon the noblest and highest object, not terminated in our friends. But of this transcendent and divine part of charity, that looketh directly and immediately upon God himself; and that is the intrinsical form, the utmost perfection, the scope and final period of true religion, (this gentleman's intended theme, as I con ceive,) I have no occasion to speak any thing, since my author doth but transiently mention it; and that too, in such a phrase as ordinary catechisms speak of it to vulgar capacities. Thus, my Lord, having run through the book (God knows how slightly, upon so great a sudden) which your Lordship commanded me to give you an account of, there remaineth yet a weightier task upon me to perform; which is, to excuse myself of presumption for daring to consider any moles in that face, which you had marked for a beauty. But who shall well consider my manner of proceeding in these remarks, will free me from that censure. I offer not at judging the prudence and wisdom of this discourse: those are fit inquiries for your Lordship's court of highest appeal: in my inferiour one, I meddle only with little knotty pieces of particular sciences, (Matinæ apis instar, operosa parvus carmina fingo,) in which it were peradventure a fault for your Lordship to be too well versed; your employments are of a higher and nobler strain, and that concerns the welfare of millions of men: Tu regere imperio populos (Sackville) memento Such little studies as these belong only to those persons that are low in the rank they hold in the commonwealth, low in their conceptions, and low in a languishing and rusting leisure, such an one as Virgil calleth ignobile otium, and such an one as I am now dulled withal. If Alexander or Cæsar should have commended a tract of land, as fit to fight a battle in for the empire of the world, or to build a city upon, to be the magazine and staple of all the adjacent countries; no body could justly condemn that husbandman, who, according to his own narrow art and rules, should censure the plains of Arbela, or Pharsalia, for being in some places sterile; or the meadows about Alexandria, for being sometimes subject to be overflown; or could tax aught he should say in that kind for a contradiction unto the other's commendations of those places, which are built upon higher and larger principles. So, my Lord, I am confident I shall not be reproached of unmannerliness for putting in a demurrer unto a few little particularities in that noble discourse, which your Lordship gave a general applause unto; and by doing so, I have given your Lordship the best account I can of myself, as well as of your commands. You hereby see what my entertainments are, and how I play away my time, DORSET dum magnus ad altum Fulminat Oxonium bello, victorque volentes Per populos dat jura; viamque affectat Olympo. May your counsels there be happy and successful ones, to bring about that peace, which if we be not quickly blessed withal, a general ruin threateneth the whole kingdom. From Winchester-House, the 22nd (I think I may say the 23rd, for I am sure it is morning, and I think it is day) of December, 1642. Your Lordship's most humble And obedient servant, KENELM DIGBY. MY LORD, POSTSCRIPT. LOOKING over these loose papers to point them, I perceive I have forgotten what I promised in the eighth sheet, to touch in a word concerning grace: I do not conceive it to be a quality infused by God Almighty into a soul. Such kind of discoursing satisfieth me no more in divinity, than in philosophy. I take it to be the whole complex of such real motives (as a solid account may be given of them) that incline a man to virtue and piety; and are set on foot by God's particular grace and favour, to bring that work to pass. As for example: to a man plunged in sensuality, some great misfortune happeneth, that mouldeth his heart to a tenderness, and inclineth him to much thoughtfulness: in this tem per, he meeteth with a book or preacher, that representeth lively to him the danger of his own condition; and giveth him hopes of greater contentment in other objects, after he shall have taken leave of his former beloved sins. This begetteth further conversation with prudent and pious men, and experienced physicians, in curing the soul's maladies; whereby he is at last perfectly converted, and settled in a course of solid virtue and piety. Now, these accidents of his misfortune,-the gentleness and softness of his nature, his falling upon a good book, his encountering with a pathetick preacher, the impremeditated chance that brought him to hear his sermon, his meeting with other worthy men, and the whole concatenation of all the intervening accidents, to work this good effect in him, and that were ranged and disposed from all eternity, by God's particular goodness and providence for his salvation, and without which he had inevitably been damned,—this chain of causes, ordered by God to produce this effect, I understand to be grace. END OF RELIGIO MEDICI, &c. EDITOR'S POSTSCRIPT TO RELIGIO MEDICI. I HAD intended to insert, in another place, one or two of the prefaces which appeared with the foreign editions of Religio Medici, in order to shew the various opinions entertained of the author, abroad. On second thoughts however I have determined to insert them here, as their more appropriate situation. Merryweather's and the Parisian preface are given entire; of Moltke's the latter half, as relating solely to himself, has been omitted. From that of the French translation of the (first) Dutch edition, I have only given the passage referring to Sir Thomas's visit to the continent, which I noticed at p. xiii of my own preface. Merryweather's Preface. LECTORI S. OPUSCULUM hoc author, et sibi et aliis injurius, Anglus Anglice scripserat; eamque non paucorum esse querelam intellexeram. Fecit enim titulus solus Latine locutus, ut complures qui cum lingua pretium quoque ejusdem nescirent, legendi et intelligendi copiam flagitarent. Hoc itaque tum ut horum desideriis satisfacerem, tum ne quod ab omnibus legi dignum est, angustis vernaculæ linguæ finibus coarctaretur, Latinum facere conatus sum. Quoniam vero sermonis elegantiam Latinis auribus me reddere posse desperavi, saltem authoris sententiam summa qua potui fide ut redderem, mihi annitendum judicavi; quod et me assecutum spero. Tuum erit (lector candide) quod tua causa factum est, boni consulere. Vale. JOHANN. MERRYWEATHER. Preface to the Parisian reprint of Merryweather's Translation. LECTORI S. ATHEISMI Suspicione laborantes medicos, purgaturus hic medendi artifex, et innocentem artem, apostoli laudibus claram, interque divina charismata annumeratam, à magnis et impudentibus vulgi calumniis vindicaturus, fidem ambiguam non tantum manifestat, verùm etiam occupat omnia quæ contra illam ab atheis, Turcis, L* |