do it by my intricacies; nay, he will afterward repent that he ever perplext himself about it: 'tis very true, but he will yet be there perplext. And besides, there are some humours in which intelligence produces disdain; who will think better of me for not understanding what I say, and will conclude the depth by the obscurity of my sense; which, to speak sincerely, I mortally hate, and would avoid it if I could. Aristotle boasts somewhere in his writings, that he affected it; vicious affectation. The frequent breaks, and short paragraphs in chapters that I made my method in the beginning of my book, I have since thought, broke and dissolv'd the attention before it was rais'd, as making it disdain to settle it self to so little; and upon that account have made the rest longer, such as require propositions, and assign'd leisure. In such an imployment, to whom you will not give an hour, you give nothing; and do nothing for him, for whom you only do whilst you are doing something else. To which may be added, that I have peradventure some particular obligation to speak only by halves, to speak confusedly and discordantly. I am therefore angry at this kind of perplexing reason; these extravagant projects that trouble a man's life, and those opinions so fine and subtle, that though they be true, I think them too dear bought. On the contrary, I make it my business to bring vanity it self in repute, and folly too, if it bring me any pleasure; and permit me to follow my own natural inclinations, without carrying too strict a hand upon them. I have seen elewhere palaces in rubbish, and statues both of gods and men defac'd, and yet there are men still, all this is true, and yet for all that, I cannot so often review the ruins of that so great, and so puissant city, Rome, that I do not admire and reverence it. The care of the dead is recommended to us; besides, I have been bred up from my infancy with these people: I had knowledge of the affairs of Rome long before I had any of those of my own house. I knew the capitol, and its platform, before I knew the Louvre; and the river Tiber, before I knew the river Seine. The qualities and fortunes of Lucullus, Metellus, and Scipio, have ever run more in my head than those of any of my own country. They are all dead, and so is my father as absolutely dead as they; and is remov'd as far from me and life in eighteen years, as they are in sixteen hundred; whole memory nevertheless, friendship and society, I do not cease to hug and embrace with a very perfect and lively union. Nay, of my own inclination, I render myself more officious to the dead; they no longer help themselves, and therefore methinks the more require my assistance: 'tis there that gratitude appears in its full lustre. Benefits are not so generously plac'd where there is retrogradation and reflection. Arcesilaus going to visit Ctesibius who was sick, and finding him in a very poor condition, privately convey'd some money under his pillow; and, by concealing it from him, acquitted him moreover from the acknowledgement due to such a benefit. Such as have merited ROME IS THE ONLY COMMON AND UNIVERSAL CITY. 794 from me my friendship and gratitude, have never lost them by being no more; I have better and more carefully paid them, when gone, and ignorant of what I did. I speak most kindly and affectionately of my friends when they can no more know it. I have a hundred quarrels in defending Pompey, and upon the account of Brutus. This acquaintance does not yet continue betwixt us. We have no other hold even of present things but by fancy. Finding my self of no use to this age, I throw my self back upon that other; and am so enamour'd of the free, just, and flourishing estate of that ancient Rome (for I neither love it in its birth, nor old age) that I interest my self in it to a degree of passion; and therefore cannot so oft review the situation of their streets and houses, and ruins as profound as the antipodes, that it does not always put me into a dump. It is by nature, or through error of fancy, that the sight of places which we know have been frequented and inhabited by persons whose memories are recommended in story, does in some sort, work more upon us than to hear a recital of their acts, or to read their writitings? "Tanta vis admonitionis inest in locis. Et id quidem in hac urbe infinitum: quacumque enim ingredimur: in aliquam historiam vestigium ponimus.”—Cic. de fin. lib. 5. “So great a power of admonition is in places; and truly in this city so infinite, that which way so ever we go we tread upon some history." It pleases me me to consider their face, port, vestments. I ruminate those great names betwixt my teeth, and make them ring in my own ears. "Ego ellos veneror, et tantis nominbus semper assurgo.”—Seneca, Epist. 64. "I reverence them, and rise up in honour of so great names." Of things that are in some part great and admirable, I admire even the common parts. I could wish to see them talk, walk, and sup together. It were ingratitude to contemn the relicks and images of so many worthy and valiant men as I have seen live and die, and who, by their example give us so many good instructions, knew we how to follow them. And moreover, this very Rome that we now see deserves to be belov'd; so long, and by so many titles a confederate to our crown; the only common and universal city. The sovereign magistrate that commands there, is equally acknowledg'd and obey'd elsewhere: 'tis the metropolitan city of all the Christian nations. The Spanish and French are there at home. To be a prince of this estate, there needs no more but to be a prince of Christendom. There is no place upon earth, that heaven has embrac'd with such an influence and constancy of favour; her very ruins are glorious. Laudandis preciosior ruinis.-Sidonius Apol. More glorious by her ruins made. She yet in her very ruins retains the marks and image of empire. "Ut palam sit uno in loco gaudentis opus esse naturæ.” "That it may be manifest that nature is in one placc enamour'd of her own work." Sone one would blame, and be angry at himself, to perceive himself tickled with so vain a pleasure. Our humours are never too vain that are pleasant. Let them be what they would that did constantly content an honest man of common understanding, I could not have the heart to accuse him. I am very much oblig'd to fortune in that to this very hour she has offer'd me no out-rage beyond what I was well able to bear. Is it not happily her custom to let those live in quiet by whom she was importun'd? Quanto quisque sibi plura negaverit, The more indulgent heav'n bestows; I'm with the party of the No's.—Fanshaw. If she continue her favour, she will dismiss me very well satisfied. nihil supra Nor for more Deos lacesso.-Hor. lib. 2. Ode 16. Do I the Gods implore. But beware the shock. There are a thousand that perish in the port. I easily comfort my self for what shall here happen when I shall be gone. Present things trouble me enough; Fortunæ cætera mando. To fortune I do leave the rest. Besides, I have not that strong obligation, that they say ties men to the future, by the issue that succeeds to their name and honour; and peradventure ought less to covet them, if they are to be so much desir'd. I am but too much ty'd to the world, and to this life of my self: I am content to be in fortune's power by circumstances properly necessary to my being, without otherwise inlarging her jurisdiction over me, and have never thought, that to be without children was a defect that ought to render life less compleat, or less contented. A steril vacation has its conveniences too. Children are of the number of things that are not so much to be desired, especially now, that it would be so hard to make them good. "Bona jam nec nasci licet, ita corrupta sunt semina." -Tertull. de pudicit. "And yet are justly to be lamented by such as lose them when they have them." He who left me my house in charge, fore-told that I was like to ruin it, considering my humour so little inclin'd to look after household affairs: but he was mistaken, for I am in the same condition now as when I first enter'd into it, or rather better; 796 BULL OF A ROMAN BURGESS GIVEN UNTO ME and yet without office, or any place of profit. As to the rest, if fortune has never done me any violent or extraordinary injury, neither has she done me any particular favour. Whatever we derive from her bounty, was there above an hundred years before my time. I have, as to my own particular, no essential and solid good, that I stand indebted for to her liberality; she has indeed done me some airy honours, and titulary favours without substance, and those in truth she has not granted, but offer'd me, who, God knows, am all material, and who take nothing but what is real and massy too for current pay: and who, if I durst confess so much, should not think avarice much less excusable than ambition, nor pain less to be avoided than shame, nor health less to be coveted than learning, or riches than nobility. Amongst those empty favours of hers, there is none that so much pleases the vain humour natural to my country, as an authentick bull of a Roman burgess that was granted me when I was last there, glorious in seals and gilded letters; and granted with all imaginable ceremony and bounty. And because 'tis couch'd in a mixt style, more or less favourable, and that I could have been glad to have seen a copy of it before it had pass'd the seal: I will, to satisfie such as are sick of the same curiosity I am, transcribe it here in its true form. Quod Horatius Maximus, Martius Cecius, Alexander Mutus, almæ urbis conservatores, de Illustrissimo viro Michaele Montano equite Sancti Michaelis, et à Cubiculo Regis Christianissimi, Romana Civitate donando, ad Senatum retulerunt, S. P. Q. R. de ea re ita fieri censuit. "Cum veteri more, et instituto cupidè illi semper studioseque suscepti sint, qui virtute ac nobilitate præstantes, magno Reip. nostræ usui atque ornamento fuissent, vel esse aliquando possent: nos majorum nostrorum exemplo, atque auctoritate permoti, præclaram hanc Consuetudinem nobis imitandam, ac servandam fore censemus. Quamobrem cum Illustrissimus Michael Montanus Eques Sancti Michaelis, et à Cubiculo Regis Christianissimi, Romani nominis studiosissimus, et familiæ laude, atque splendore, et propriis virtutum meritis dignissimus sit, qui summo Senatus Populique Romani judicio, ac studio in Romanam Civitatem adiscatur, placere Senatui P. Q. R. Illustrissimum Michaelem Montanum rebus omnibus ornatissimum, atque huic inclyto populo charissimum, ipsum posterosque in Romanam Civitatem adscribi, ornarique omnibus, et præmiis et honoribus, quibus illi fruuntur, qui Cives Patritiique Romani nati, aut jure optimo facti sunt. In quo censere Senatum P. Q. R. se non tam illi jus Civitatis largiri, quam debitum tribuere, neque magis beneficium dare, quam ab ipso accipere, qui hoc Civitatis munere accipiendo, singulari Civitatem ipsam ornamento, atque honore affecerit. Quam S. C. auctoritatem iidem Conservatores per Senatus P. Q. R. scribas in acta referri atque in Capitolii curia servari, privilegiumque hujusmodi fieri, solitoque urbis sigillo communiri curarunt. Anno ab urbe condita CXCCCXXXI. natum M. D. LXXXI. III. Idus Martin. Post Christum "Horatius Fuscus Sacri S. P. Q. R. scriba. "Vincent. Martholus Sacri S. P. Q. R. scriba." Being before burgess of no city at all, I am glad to be created one of the most noble that ever was, or ever shall be. If other men would consider themselves at the rate I do, they would, as I do, discover themselves to be full of inanity and foppery; to rid my self of it I cannot without making my self away. We are all leaven'd with it, as well one as another; but they who are aware on't, have the better bargain, and yet I know not whether they have or no: this opinion, and common usance to observe others more than our selves, has very much reliev'd us that way. 'Tis a very displeasing object: we can there see nothing but misery and vanity. Nature, that we may not be dejected with the sight of our own deformities, has wisely thrust the action of seeing outward. We go forward with the current, but to turn back towards our selves is a painful motion; so is the sea mov'd and troubled when the waves rush against one another. Observe, says every one, the motion of the heavens, the revolution of publick affairs; observe the quarrel of such a person, take notice of such a one's pulse, of such anothers last will and testament; in sum, be always looking high or low, on one side, before or behind you. It was a paradoxical command antiently given us by the god of Delphos, "Look into your self, discover your self, keep close to your self; call back your mind and will, that elsewhere consume themselves, into your self; you run out, you spill your self, carry a more steady hand: men betray you, men spill you, men steal you from your self." Dost thou not see that this world we live in keeps all its sights confin'd within, and its eyes open to contemplate it self? 'Tis always vanity for thee, both within and without, but 'tis less vanity when less extended. Excepting thee, (Oman) said that God, every thing studies it self first, and has bounds to its labours and desires, according to its need. There is nothing so empty and necessitous as thou who embracest the universe, thou art the explorator without knowledge, the magistrate without jurisdiction; and after all, the fool in the play. CHAP. CIV.-OF MANAGING THE WILL. FEW things, in comparison of what commonly affect other men, move, or to say better, possess me: for 'tis but reason they should concern a man, provided they do not possess him. I am very sollicitous, both |