ΤΟ

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE MY SINCULAR GOOD LORD,

EDWARD LORD DENNY,

BARON OF WALTHAM.

RIGHT HONOURABLE:

IF ever any man had reason to be in love with the face of a foreign entertainment, those are they, which were admitted to the attendance of the truly generous and honourable Lord Hay, your most noble Son, in his late embassage to France: in which number my unworthiness was allowed to make one; who can, therefore, well witness, that no man could either receive more honour from a strange country, or do more honour to his own. What wanted there, that might make men confess themselves more welcome than strangers? Neither doubt 1, but, that after many ages, France itself will wonder at the bountiful expressions of her own favours.

But, while others were enjoying the noble courtesies of the time, my thoughts entertained themselves with searching into the proof of that ordinary Travel, wherewith I saw men commonly affected: which, I must needs confess, the more I saw, the less I liked. Neither is it in the power of any foreign munificence, to make me think ours any where so well as at home. Earthly commodities are no part of my thought I looked, as I ought, at the soul; which I well saw, uses not only to gather no moss in this rolling, but suffers the best graces it hath to moulder away insensibly in such unnecessary agitation.

I have now been twice abroad: both times, as thinking myself worthy of nothing but neglect, I bent my eyes upon others, to see what they did, what they got. My enquiry found our spiritual loss so palpable, that now, at last, my heart could not chuse but break forth at my hand, and tell my countrymen of the dangerous issue of their curiosity.

:

I meddle not with the common journeys to the mineral waters of the Spa to which many sick souls are beholden for a good excuse; who, while they pretend the medicinal use of that spring, can freely quaff of the puddle of Popish Superstition, poisoning the better part,

instead of helping the worse. These I leave to the best physician, Authority; which, if it may please to undertake the cure, may perhaps save as many English souls from infection, as that water cures bodies of diseases.

I deal only with those, that profess to seek the glory of a perfect breeding, and the perfection of that which we call civility, in travel: of which sort I have, not without indignation, seen too many lose their hopes and themselves, in the way; returning as empty of grace and other virtues, as full of words, vanity, mis-dispositions.

I dedicate this poor discourse to your Lordship, as, besides my daily renewed obligations, congratulating to you the sweet liberty and happy use of your home: who, like a fixed star, may well overlook these planets; and, by your constant settledness, give that aim to inferior eyes, which shall be in vain expected from a wandering light.

The God of Heaven, to whose glory I have intended this weak labour, give it favour in the sight of his Church; and return it back, but with this good news, that any one of the sons of Japhet is hereby persuaded to dwell ever in the tents of Shem. Unto that divine protection, I humbly betake your Lordship, justly vowing myself,

QUO VADIS?

SECT. 1.

It is an over-rigorous construction of the works of God, that, in moating our Island with the ocean, he meant to shut us up from other regions for God himself, that made the sea, was the Author of navigation; and hath therein taught us to set up a wooden bridge, that may reach to the very antipodes themselves. This were to seek discontentment in the bounty of God, who hath - placed us apart, for the singularity of our happiness; not for restraint.

There are two occasions, wherein Travel may pass,-matter of TRAFFIC, and matter of State.

Some commodities God hath confined to some countries: upon others he hath with a full hand poured those benefits, which he hath but sprinkled upon some. His Wise Providence hath made one country the granary, another the cellar, another the orchard, another the arsenal of their neighbours, yea, of the remotest parts. The earth is the Lord's, which he meant not to keep in his hands, but to give; and He, which hath given no man his faculties and graces for himself, nor put light into the sun, moon, stars, for their own use, hath stored no parcel of earth with a purpose of private

reservation.

Solomon would never have sent his navy for apes and peacocks; but yet held gold and timber, for the building of God's house and his own, worthy of a whole three years' voyage.

The sea and earth are the great coffers of God: the discoveries of navigation are the keys, which whosoever hath received, may know that he is freely allowed to unlock these chests of nature, without any need to pick the wards.

Wise Solomon's comparison is reciprocal. A ship of merchants, that fetches her wares from far, is the good Housewife of the Commonwealth; and, if she were so in those blind voyages of antiquity, which never saw needle nor card, how much more thrifty must she needs be in so many helps both of nature and art!

Either Indies may be searched for those treasures, which God hath laid up in them for their far-distant owners. Only let our merchants take heed, lest they go so far, that they leave God behind them; that, while they buy all other things good-cheap, they

make not an ill match for their souls: lest they end their prospe rous adventures, in the shipwreck of a good conscience.

SECT. 2.

AND, for matter of POLICY, nothing can be more plain, than that our correspondence with other nations cannot possibly be held up, without intelligence of their estate, of their proceedings: the neglect whereof were no other, than to prostrate ourselves to the mercy of a hollow friendship; and to stand still, and willingly lie open, while we are played upon by the wit of untrusty neighbourhood. These eyes and ears of state are necessary to the well-being of the head.

In which number I do not include those private interlopers of intelligence, that lie abroad only to feed some vain chameleons at home with the air of news, for no other purpose save idle discourse; but only those profitable agents, whose industry either fitteth them abroad for public employment, or employeth them after due maturity in the fit services of the commonwealth.

Neither my censure nor my direction reaches to either of these

occasions.

It is the Travel of Curiosity, wherewith my quarrel shall be maintained: the inconveniences whereof my own senses have so sufficiently witnessed, that, if the wise parents of our gentry could have borrowed mine eyes for the time, they would ever learn to keep their sons at home, and not wilfully beat themselves with the staff of their age. Upon them let my pen turn a little; as those, that are more than accessaries to this both private and public mischief.

SECT. 3.

IT is the affectation of too early ripeness, that makes them prodigal of their children's safety and hopes: for, that they may be wise betimes, they send them forth to the world in the minority both of age and judgment: like as fond mothers use to send forth their daughters on frosting, early in cold mornings, though into the midst of a vaporous and foggy air; and, while they strive for a colour, lose their health.

If they were not blinded with over-weening and desire, they could not but see, that their unsettledness carries in it a manifest peril of miscarriage. Grant that no danger were threatened by the place, experience gives us, that a weak-limbed child, if he be suffered to use his legs too soon, too much, lames himself for ever; but, if he walk in uneven ground, he is no less subject to maims than crookedness. Do they not see how easily a young twig is bowed any way? Do they not see that the midwife and nurse are wont to frame the gristly head of the infant to any fashion? May

not any thing be written upon a blank? And, if they make choice of this age, because it is most docible, and for that they would take the day before them, why do they not consider, that it is therefore more docible of evil? since wickedness is both more insinuative and more plausible than virtue, especially when it meets with an untutored judge; and seeing there is so much inequality of the number of both, that it is not more hard to find virtue, than to miss vice.

Hear this then, ye careless ostriches, that leave your eggs in the open sand for the sun to hatch, without the fear of any hoof that may crush them in pieces. Have your stomachs resolved to digest the hard news of the ruin of your children? Do ye profess enmity to your own loins? then turn them, as you do, loose to these dangers, ere they can resist, ere they can discern: but, if ye would rather they should live and grow, bestow upon them the kindly heat of your best plumes, and shelter them with your own breast and wings, till nature have opened a seasonable way to their own abilities.

SECT. 4.

Yea, let it be my just complaint in this place, that, in the very transplantation of our sons to the safer soil of our own Universities and Inns of Court, nothing is more prejudicial than speed. Perfection is the child of time; neither was there ever any thing excellent, that required not meet leisure.

But, besides, how commonly is it seen, that those, which had wont to swim only with bladders, sink when they come first to trust to their own arms! These lapwings, that go from under the wing of their dam with the shell on their heads, run wild. If tutors be never so careful of their early charge, much must be left to their own disposition; which if it lead them not to good, not only the hopes of their youth, but the proof of their age lies bleeding.

It is true, that, as the French Lawyers say merrily of the Normans, which by a special privilege are reputed of full age at twenty-one years, whereas the other French stay for their five and twentieth, that Malitia supplet ætatem; so may I say of the younglings of our time, that precocity of understanding supplieth age and stature: but, as it is commonly seen, that those blossoms, which overrun the spring, and will be looking forth upon a February-Sun, are nipped soon after with an April-Frost when they should come to the knitting; so is it no less ordinary, that these rathe-ripe wits prevent their own perfection, and, after a vain wonder of their haste, end either in shame or obscurity.

And, as it thus falls out even in our Universities, the most absolute and famous seminaries of the world, where the tutor's eye supplies the parent's; so must it needs much more, in those free and honourable inns (as they are called, for their liberty; colleges, for