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paths of goodness; but in all virtuous motions let prudence determine thy measures. Strive not to run, like Hercules, a furlong in a breath: festination may prove precipitation; deliberating delay may be wise cunctation, and slowness no slothfulness.

SECT. XXXIV.-Since virtuous actions have their own trumpets, and, without any noise from thyself, will have their resound abroad; busy not thy best member in the encomium of thyself. Praise is a debt we owe unto the virtues of others, and due unto our own from all, whom malice hath not made mutes, or envy struck dumb. Fall not, however, into the common prevaricating way of selfcommendation and boasting, by denoting the imperfections of others. He who discommendeth others obliquely, commendeth himself. He who whispers their infirmities, proclaims his own exemptions from them; and, consequently, says, I am not as this publican, or hic niger,* whom I talk of. Open ostentation and loud vain-glory is more tolerable than this obliquity, as but containing some froth, no ink; as but consisting of a personal piece of folly, nor complicated with uncharitableness.4 Superfluously we seek a precarious applause abroad; every good man hath his plaudit 5 within * Hic niger est, hunc tu Romane caveto.-Hor.

This man is vile; here, Roman, fix your mark;

His soul is black, as his complexion's dark.—Francis.

4 uncharitableness.] Add from MS. Sloan. 1847 :—“They who thus closely and whisperingly calumniate the absent living, will be apt to strayn their voyce and be apt to be loud enough in infamy of the dead ; wherein there should be a civil amnesty and an oblivion concerning those who are in a state where all things are forgotten; but Solon will make us ashamed to speak evil of the dead, a crime not actionable in Christian governments, yet hath been prohibited by Pagan laws and the old sanctions of Athens. Many persons are like many rivers, whose mouths are at a vast distance from their heads, for their words are as far from their thoughts as Canopus from the head of Nilus. These are of the former of those men, whose punishment in Dante's hell is to look everlastingly backward: if you have a mind to laugh at a man, or disparage the judgment of any one, set him a talking of things to come or events of hereafter contingency: which elude the cognition of such an arrogate, the knowledge of them whereto the ignorant pretend not, and the learned imprudently faill; wherein men seem to talk but as babes would do in the womb of their mother, of the things of the world which they are entering into."

5 plaudit.] Plaudite was the term by which the ancient theatrical performers solicited a clap.-Dr. J.

himself; and though his tongue be silent, is not without loud cymbals in his breast. Conscience will become his panegyrist, and never forget to crown and extol him unto himself.

SECT. XXXV.-Bless not thyself only that thou wert born in Athens ;* but, among thy multiplied acknowledgments, lift up one hand unto heaven, that thou wert born of honest parents; that modesty, humility, patience, and veracity, lay in the same egg, and came into the world with thee. From such foundations thou mayst be happy in a virtuous precocity, and make an early and long walk in goodness; so mayst thou more naturally feel the contrariety of vice unto nature, and resist some by the antidote of thy temper. As charity covers, so modesty preventeth a multitude of sins; withholding from noon-day vices and brazen-browed iniquities, from sinning on the house-top, and painting our follies with the rays of the sun. Where this virtue reigneth, though vice may show its head, it cannot be in its glory. Where shame of sin sets, look not for virtue to arise; for when modesty taketh wing, Astreat goes soon after.

SECT. XXXVI.-The heroical vein of mankind runs much in the soldiery, and courageous part of the world; and in that form we oftenest find men above men. History is full of the gallantry of that tribe; and when we read their notable acts, we easily find what a difference there is between a life in Plutarch and in Laertius.8 Where true fortitude dwells, loyalty, bounty, friendship, and fidelity may be found. A man may confide in persons constituted for noble ends, who dare do and suffer, and who have a hand to burn for their country and their friend. Small and creeping things are the product of petty souls. He is like to be mistaken, who makes choice of a covetous man for a friend, or relieth upon the reed of narrow and poltroon

* As Socrates did. Athens a place of learning and civility. + Astrea, goddess of justice and consequently of all virtue.

6 precocity.] A ripeness preceding the usual time.-Dr. J.

7 Plutarch.] Who wrote the lives, for the most part, of warriors.— Dr. J.

8 Laertius.] Who wrote the lives of philosophers.-Dr. J. 9 and their friend.] Like Mutius Scævola.-Dr. J.

friendship. Pitiful things are only to be found in the cottages of such breasts; but bright thoughts, clear deeds, constancy, fidelity, bounty, and generous honesty are the gems of noble minds; wherein, to derogate from none, the true heroic English gentleman hath no peer.

PART THE SECOND.

SECT. I.-Punish not thyself with pleasure; glut not thy sense with palative delights; nor revenge the contempt of temperance by the penalty of satiety. Were there an age of delight or any pleasure durable, who would not honour Volupia? but the race of delight is short, and pleasures have mutable faces. The pleasures of one age are not pleasures in another, and their lives fall short of our own. Even in our sensual days, the strength of delight is in its seldomness or rarity, and sting in its satiety: mediocrity is its life, and immoderacy its confusion. The luxurious emperors of old inconsiderately satiated themselves with the dainties of sea and land, till wearied through all varieties, their refections became a study unto them, and they were fain to feed by invention: novices in true epicurism! which, by mediocrity, paucity, quick and healthful appetite, makes delights smartly acceptable; whereby Epicurus himself found Jupiter's brain in a piece of Cytheridian cheese,* and the tongues of nightingales in a dish of onions.2 Hereby healthful and temperate poverty hath the start of nauseating luxury; unto whose clear and naked appetite every meal is a feast, and in one single dish the first course of Metellus ;3+ who are cheaply hungry, and never lose

* Cerebrum Jovis, for a delicious bit.

His riotous pontifical supper, the great variety whereat is to be seen in Macrobius.

1 the strength, &c.] Voluptates commendat rarior usus.—Dr. J. 2 tongues of nightingales, &c.] A dish used among the luxurious of antiquity.-Dr. J.

Metellus.] The supper was not given by Metellus, but by Lentulus when he was made priest of Mars, and recorded by Metellus.-Dr. J.

their hunger, or advantage of a craving appetite, because obvious food contents it; while Nero, half famished, could not feed upon a piece of bread, and, lingering after his snowed water, hardly got down an ordinary cup of Calda.4+ By such circumscriptions of pleasure the contemned philosophers reserved unto themselves the secret of delight, which the helluos of those days lost in their exorbitances. In vain we study delight; it is at the command of every sober mind, and in every sense born with us: but nature, who teacheth us the rule of pleasure, instructeth also in the bounds thereof, and where its line expireth. And, therefore, temperate minds, not pressing their pleasures until the sting appeareth, enjoy their contentations contentedly, and without regret, and so escape the folly of excess, to be pleased unto displacency.

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SECT. II.- -Bring candid eyes unto the perusal of men's works, and let not Zoilism or detraction blast well-intended labours. He that endureth no faults in men's writings must only read his own, wherein, for the most part, all appeareth white. Quotation mistakes, inadvertency, expedition, and human lapses, may make not only moles but warts in learned authors; who, notwithstanding, being judged by the capital matter, admit not of disparagement. I should unwillingly affirm that Cicero was but slightly versed in Homer, because in his work, De Gloria, he ascribed those verses unto Ajax, which were delivered by Hector. What if Plautus, in the account of Hercules, mistaketh nativity for conception? Who would have mean thoughts of Apollinaris Sidonius, who seems to mistake the river Tigris for Euphrates? and, though a good historian and learned bishop of Avergne had the misfortune to be out in the story of David, making mention of him when the ark was sent back by the Philistines upon a cart; which was before his time. Though I have no great opinion of Machiavel's learning, yet I shall not presently say that he was but a novice in Roman history, because he was * Nero, in his flight. + Caldæ gelidæque minister.

4 Calda.] Warm water.-Dr. J.

5 helluos.] Gluttons.-Dr. J.

6 Zoilism, &c.] From Zoilus, the calumniator of Homer.-Dr. J.

mistaken in placing Commodus after the Emperor Severus. Capital truths are to be narrowly eyed; collateral lapses and circumstantial deliveries not to be too strictly sifted. And if the substantial subject be well forged out, we need not examine the sparks which irregularly fly from it.

SECT. III.-Let well-weighed considerations, not stiff and peremptory assumptions, guide thy discourses, pen, and actions. To begin or continue our works like Trismegistus of old, 66 verum certe verum atque verissimum est,"7* would sound arrogantly unto present ears in this strict enquiring age; wherein, for the most part, 'probably' and 'perhaps will hardly serve to mollify the spirit of captious contradictors. If Cardan saith that a parrot is a beautiful bird, Scaliger will set his wits to work to prove it a deformed animal. The compage of all physical truths is not so closely jointed, but opposition may find intrusion; nor always so closely maintained, as not to suffer attrition. Many positions seem quodlibetically constituted, and, like a Delphian blade, will cut on both sides. Some truths seem almost falsehoods, and some falsehoods almost truths; wherein falsehood and truth seem almost æquilibriously stated, and but a few grains of distinction to bear down the balance. Some have digged deep, yet glanced by the royal vein ;1 and a man may come unto the pericardium,2 but not the heart of truth. Besides, many things are known, as some are seen, that is by parallaxis,3 or at some distance from their true and proper beings, the superficial regard of things having a different aspect from their true and central natures. And this moves sober pens unto suspensory and timorous assertions, nor presently to obtrude them as

* In Tabula Smaragdina.

7 verum certe, &c.] It is true, certainly true, true in the highest degree.-Dr. J.

8 quodlibetically.] Determinable on either side.-Dr. J.

9 like a Delphian blade, &c.] The Delphian sword became proverbial, not because it cut on both sides, but because it was used to different purposes.-Dr. J.

1 royal vein.] I suppose the main vein of a mine.-Dr. J.

2

3

pericardium.] The integument of the heart.-Dr. J.

parallaxis.] The parallax of a star is the difference between its

real and apparent place.-Dr. J.

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