Happy is he that hidden causes knows, Pan, old Sylvanus, and the nymphs abodes.- Ogilby. The births of all things are weak and tender, and therefore are we to have an eye to their beginnings; for as then in their infancy the danger is not perceiv'd; so when it is grown up, the remedy is no more to be found. I had every day encounter'd a million of crosses harder to digest in the progress of my ambition, than it has been hard for me to curb the natural propension that inclin'd me to it. - jure perhorrui, Laté conspicuum tollere verticem. I did well To shrink my head into my shell.-Fanshaw. All publick actions are subject to various and incertain interpretations, for too many heads judg of them. Some say of this city employment of mine (and I am willing to say a word or two of it, not that it is worth so much, but to give an account of my manners in such things) that I have behaved my self in it like a man not easie to be mov'd, and with a languishing affection; and they have some colour for what they say. I endeavour to keep my mind and my thoughts in repose. "Cum semper natura, tum etiam ætate jam quietus."-Cicero. "As being always quiet by nature, so also now by age." And if they sometimes lash out upon some rude and sensible impression, 'tis in truth without my advice. Yet from this natural heaviness of mine, men ought not to conclude a total inability in me; for want of care and want of sense are two very different things, and much less any unkindness or ingratitude towards that corporation, who employ'd the utmost means they had in their power to oblige me, both before they knew me and after. And they did much more for me in chusing me anew, than in conferring that honour upon me at first; I love them intirely, and wish them all the good that can befal so worthy a society. And doubtless, had occasion been, there is nothing I would have spar'd for their service; I did for them as I would have done for my self. 'Tis a good, warlike and generous people, but capable of obedience and discipline, and of whom the best use may be made, if well guided. They say also, that my administration was pass'd over without any great remark, or any record of moment. 'Tis true. They moreover accuse my cessation in a time when every body almost was convinc'd of doing too much. I am impatient to be doing where my will spurs me on; but this point is an enemy to perseverance. Let 814 MY MANNERS ARE HEAVY, RATHER FAINT THAN SHARP. whoever will make use of me, according to my own way, imploy me in affairs where vigour and liberty are requir'd; where a direct, short, and moreover a hazardous conduct are necessary, I peradventure may do something; but if it must be long, subtle, laborious, artificial and intricate, they were better call in somebody else. All important offices are not hard: I came prepar'd to carry my self a little more roughly, had there been great occasion; for it is in my power to do something more than I do, or than I love to do; I did not to my knowledge omit any thing that my duty really required; 'tis true, that I easily forget those offices that ambition mixes with duty, and palliates with title. Those are they, that for the most part, fill the eyes and ears, and give men the most satisfaction. Not the thing, but the appearance contents them. They think men sleep if they hear no noise. My humour is no friend to tumult. I could appease a riot without emotion, and chastise a disorder without altercation. If I stand in need of anger and inflammation, I borrow it, and put it on; my manners are heavy, rather faint than sharp. I do not condemn a magistrate that sleeps, provided the people under his charge sleep as well as he: the laws in that case sleep too. For my part, I commend a gliding, solitary and silent life. "Neque submissam et abjectam, neque se efferrentem.”—Cic. de Off. lib. 1. "My fortune will have it so." I am descended from a family that has liv'd without lustre or tumult, and time out of mind particular ambitious of valour and loyalty. Our people now adays are so bred up to bustle and ostentation, that good-nature, moderation, equity, constancy, and such quiet and obscure qualities, are no more thought on or regarded. Rough bodies make themselves felt, the smooth are imperceptibly handled. Sickness is felt, health little, or not at all, no more than the oils that foment us, in comparison of the pains for which we are fomented. 'Tis acting for a man's reputation, and particular profit, not for the publick good, to refer that to be done in the publick place, which a man may as well do in the council-chamber, and to noon-day, what might have been done the night before; and to be jealous to do that himself which his colleague can do as well as he. So were some chirurgions of Greece wont to make their operations upon scaffolds in the sight of the people to draw more practice and profit. They think that good orders cannot be understood but by the sound of trumpet. Ambition is not a vice of little people, and of so mean abilities as ours. One said to Alexander, your father will leave you a great dominion, easie and pacifick; this youth was emulous of his father's victories, and the justice of his government; and would not have enjoy'd the empire of the world in ease and peace. Alcibiades in Plato, had rather die young, beautiful, rich, noble, and learned, and all this with excellence, than to continue in the state of such a condition. This disease is peradventure excusable in so strong and so full a soul. When these wretched and dwarfish souls gull and deceive themselves, and think to spread their fame, for having given right judgment in an affair, or continued the discipline of keeping the guard of a gate of their city, the more they think to exalt their heads, the more they shew their tails. This little well doing has neither body nor life; it vanishes in the first mouth, and goes no farther than from one street to another. Talk of it in God's name to your son, or your servant ; like that old fellow, who having no other auditor of his prayers, nor approver of his valour, boasted to his chamber-maid, crying out, O Perret, what a brave man hast thou to thy master! At the worst hand, talk of it to yourself; "Non nobis, Domine, non nobis, sed nomini tuo da gloriam."--Psal. 115. Who can get it of no body else, let him pay himself out of his own purse. Fame is not prostituted at so cheap a rate. Rare and exemplary actions, to which it is due, would not endure the company of this prodigious crowd of little performances. Marble may exalt your titles as much as you please, for having repair'd a rod of a ruinous wall, or cleans'd a publick aqueduct ; but not men of sense. Renown does not follow all good deeds, if novelty and difficulty be not conjoin'd. Nay, so much as meer estimation, according to the stoicks, is not due to every action that proceeds from vertue. Such as have known the admirable qualities of Scipio Africanus, deny him the glory that Penetius attributes to him, of being abstinent from gifts, as a glory not so much his, as that of the age he liv'd in. We have pleasures suitable to our fortunes, let us not usurp those of grandeur. Our own are more natural, and by so much more solid and sure, as they are more low. If not for that of conscience, yet at least for ambition sake, let us reject ambition, let us disdain that thirst of honour and renown, so low and mendicant, that it makes us beg it of all sorts of people: Quæ est ist a laus quæ possit è macello peti?" "What praise is that which is to be got in the market ?" by abject means, and at what cheap rate soever. 'Tis dishonour to be so honour'd. Let us learn to be no more greedy, than we are capable of honour. To be puft up with every action that is innocent, or of use, is only for such with whom such things are extraordinary and rare: they will value it as it costs them. How much more a good effect makes a noise, so much I abate of the goodness of it; and enter suspicion that it was more perform'd for noise, than upon the account of goodness. Being expos'd upon the stall, 'tis half sold. Those actions have much more grace and lustre, that slip from the hand of him that does them negligently, and without noise: and that some honest man after chuses out, and raises from the shade, to produce it to the light, upon its own account. "Mihi quidem laudabiliora videntur omnia, quæ sine venditatione, et sine populo teste fiunt."-Cicero Thusc. l. 2. "All things truly seem more laudable to me, that are perform'd without ostentation, and 816 I WOULD AS WILLINGLY BE HAPPY AS WISE. without the testimony of the people." Says the proudest man of the world, "I had no care but to conserve, and to continue, which are silent and insensible effects." Innovation is of great lustre, but 'tis interdicted in this time, when we are press'd upon, and have nothing to defend our selves from but novelties. To forbear doing, is oft as generous as to do, but 'tis less in the light; and the little of good that I have in me is of this kind. In fine, occasions in this employment of mine have been confederate with my humour, and I thank them for it. Is there any one who desires to be sick that he may see his physician's practice? And would not that physician deserve to be whipt, who should wish the plague amongst us that he might put his art into practice? I have never been of that wicked humour, tho common enough, to desire that the trouble and disorders of this city should elevate and honour my government; I have ever willingly contributed all I could to their tranquility and ease. He who will not thank me for the order, sweet and calm that has accompanied my administration, cannot however deprive me of the share that belongs to me by the title of my good fortune. And I am of such a composition, that I would as willingly be happy as wise; and had rather owe my successes purely to the favour of Almighty God, than to any industry or operation of my own.' I had sufficiently publish'd to the world my unfitness for such publick offices; but I have something in me yet worse than incapacity; which is, that I am not much displeased at it, and that I do not much go about to cure it, considering the course of life that I have propos'd to my self. Neither have I satisfied my self in this employment, but I have very near arriv'd at what I expected from my own performance, and have yet much surpass'd what I promis'd them with whom I had to do: for I am apt to promise something less than what I am able to do, and then what I am able to make good. I assure my self that I have left no impressions of offence or hatred behind me, and to leave a regret or desire of me amongst them. I at least know very well that I did never much affect it. - méne huic confidere monstro, Méne salis placidi vultum, fluctusq; quietos Ignorare ?- Virgil. Æneid. l. 5. Wouldst thou I should a quiet sea believe, To this inconstant monster credit give?—Ogilby. CHAP. CV.-OF CRIPPLES. 'Tis now two or three years ago that they made the year ten days shorter in France. How many changes may we expect should follow this reformation! This was properly removing heaven and earth at once; and yet nothing for all that stirs from its place: my neighbours still find their seasons of sowing, and reaping, the opportunities of doing their business, with the hurtful and propitious days, just at the same time, where they had time out of mind assign'd them. There was no more error perceiv'd in our old usance, than there is amendment found in this new alteration. So great an incertainty there is throughout; so gross, obscure and dull is our understanding. 'Tis said, that this regulation might have been carried on with less inconvenience, by subtracting, according to the example of Augustus, the Bissextile, which is in some sort a day of trouble, till we had exactly satisfied that debt; which is not perform'd neither by this correction, and we yet remain some days in arrear: and yet by the same means such order might be taken for the future, ordering, that after the revolution of such a year, or such a number of years, the supernumerary day might be always thrown out, so that we could not henceforward err above four and twenty hours in our computation. We have no other account of time but years; the world has for many ages made use of that only, and yet it is a measure that to this day we are not agreed upon, such an one, that we still doubt what form other nations have variously given to it, and what was the true use of it. What does this saying of some mean, "That the heavens, in growing old, bow themselves down nearer towards us, and put us to an uncertainty even of hours and days." And that which Plutarch says of the months, "That astrology had not, in his time, determin'd the motion of the moon ?" So, what a fine condition are we in to keep records of things past! I was just now ruminating, as I often do, upon this, what a free and roving thing human judgment is. I ordinarily see, that men, in things propos'd to them, more willingly study to find out the reason than to find out the truth: they slip over presuppositions, but are curious in examination of consequences. They leave the things, and fly to the causes. Pleasant praters! The knowledge of causes does only concern Him who has the conduct of things, not us, who are only to undergo them, and who perfectly have full and accomplish'd use of them according to our need, without penetrating into the original and Neither is wine more pleasant to him that knows its first faculties. On the contrary, both the body and soul alter and interrupt the right they have of the use of the world, and of themselves, by mixing with it the opinion of learning. Effects concern us, but the means not at all. To determine and to distribute appertain to superiority and command, as it does to subjection to accept it. Let me reprehend our custom. They commonly begin thus: "How is such a thing done?" Whereas they should say, "Is such a thing done?" Our prattle is able to create an hundred other worlds, and to find out the beginnings and contexture; it needs neither matter nor foundation. essence. |