it is a vulgar errour for men to say the World stands still and is constant which the Famous Phylosoper Copernicus proves nothing to be more unconstant more frail more giddy then it The World is a Centre the Heavens are its circumference which do encircle it yea the VVorld it self is a circle and the Devil is the Conjurer in it men are bewitched and are so charmed with enchantments that they do nothing but sleep in the bed of insecure security That is a very good Emblem of the frailty of the VVorld the VVorld being pictured and a hand from Heaven holding it in a string which string is the threed of this Life during its Duration in the VVorld which when it is divided by Atropus the destinies knife then the VVorld falls into an abysse of nothing from whence it came and so according to that distick Omnia sunt hominum tenui pendentia filo Et subito casu quae valuere ruunt All humane things hang by a slender thred VVhat stands most strong is quickly ruined Experience that severe Mistris teaches us every day how unconstant how brittle how unstable the World is and what man is there now that will not believe the opinions of the New Philosophers and Mathematicians that the World turns round This World is a stage or a theatre upon which all men come to act their parts Heavens are the Spectators they fight or should fight against the Devil and divellish vices This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Phylosophers calls it is a Labirinth and death is the Minotaure in it which devoures all men in its devouring jawes but our Heavenly Theseus will be the death of this death and the life of our life The World is more filthy then the Augaeano Stable oh for a Hercules which might clense it by letting the Alphean Rivers of Justice run through it to purge it from the dung of sin and puddle of iniquity This Structure of the VVorld is as an Ark swiming and floating in a Sea of Miscry delug'd with floods of iniquity Oh there is too many unclean Beasts in it not only whose feet bears the Image of the Beast the Devil but whose Souls have upon them his Devillish inscription The VVorld is round as though it stood for a Cypher but in my Arithmetick it is one though in the laughing wise-man Democritus's account there were plurality of Worlds but Mundus wants the plural number The VVorld by that ingeniousest of Poets Ovid is said to have four Ages the first Age was the Golden or best Age the second the Silver Age the third the Brazen Age and this last and worst Age is the Iron Age well may it be called so for so much war and so many Iron instruments of it that it seem'd as though Mars had made the World his field of War So here is an end of my description of the World though not of the World it self A Man IS by the Phylosophers called a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a little World and by a witty Characterist the world is called a great man and man a little World Man is a Map or Description of the great World he is the World in Epitomy man is Natures darling This Microcosme is a compendium and an abridgment of the great World Let us peep in the cranyes of secret Anatomy and let us symbolize mans parts with the worlds Man is compounded of the foure Elements viz. Fire Aire Earth and Water and so is the World a compound of these his Liver Blood and Moisture is as the Sea which sends out its streams into all parts of the body by little sanguine Rivers in Violet veins which are as so many leaden pipes to convey his blood Mans natural heat is his fire his radical moisture his Water his breath blown out and in by the bellows of his Lungs his Air and his Flesh is earth but mans soul by the tenent of all Phylosophers and Christians is held to be of a spiritual substance like to the Angels and his soul is the angellick intelligences so it doth move its little orb its body in its right course as do the coelestial inteligences or Angels move their orbs every one in their proper sphear mans body is of admirable Architecture Frame and Composure but mans soul which Ovid calls his better part which some bruitish men makes the worst it is as the heavens of an heavenly existence though his body be but as the earth Mans reason is the sun that shines in the Firmament of his soul and gives light to his body the little world his soul is a little heaven as I may call it his faculties viz Fancy Imagination Wit Memory Understanding Will c. are the Stars that gives light to his lesser VVorld Man is the model and extract of nature he is all the creatures epitomized in his little coppy he is the greatest letter in the book of nature mans soul is indued with such exquisite faculties his soul can fly from one pole to another in a moment with this winged motion can ascend to the heavens in a minuite and descend into the abisse in an instant can pierce with the Lynx's eyes of his Imagination and Fancy into the secretest places yea and behold imaginarily the centre of the Earth A man is a master-piece in which there are a thousand several motions a soul indued with such excellencies as in one minuite it can be in a thousand places mounts up to the top of the world fadoms the universe without touching it which goes glisters sparkles which is the great indagatrix which searches all the treasures and magazines of nature which finds out all sorts of inventions which frames Arts which governs States which orders Worlds Man is a book which he ought to dedicate to his Maker and this man is the King Lord and Master of all other creatures which man shall be an inhabitant of heaven or hell if he be a valiant Champion and fight his Battel on the Stage of the World and can say truly Caesars three Triumphant words Veni Vidi Vici Then he shall be an inhabitant of the Coelestial Paradise where he may eat of the tree of Life freely drink of the Waters of Life abundantly and enjoy the Tree of Knowledg eternally when he shal know what soever is to be known but if he be vanquished he may say of heaven and happiness as one said in another case Vale in aeternum Vale farewell and forever farewell but he shall be a prisoner in the subterraneal Gaol of hell settered in chains of darkness The World is a Center and men are the lines about it he who moves in a larger Orb he is further from the Center of the World and neerer heaven but he who moves in a narrower Orb and Sphear is neerer the earth and further from Heaven Riches are trash and pleasures a toy But peace of conscience is a perfect joy A Wise man IS one of Apollo's
old time they were out of which knowledge is gotten It may be an ignorant man is of the opinion of some Phylosophers to think that when Souls are separate they know all things and so defers his knowledge till then This Ignoramus Oh! he will take heed of a book for he thinks that will trouble his head with knowledge his Soul is as white paper he thinks and not scribled with such intricate notions of knowledge as the Learned is He can live very well in this Dungeon of Knowledge as the Child that was born in a Dungeon if he have but meat and drink what cares he for Hellicon or learning the food of the Soul he likes the Tullianum of ignorance far better then the Sun-shine of Knowledge A Covetous Man WIth â—rake he compasseth the World or at least he desires to do so the world is his Zodiack and he and his Gold makes Gemini he may be called an Idolater for he worships Images and a Papist for he adores Pictures He would have been the first man that would have worshipped Nebuchadnezzar's golden Image Poor simple man he is said that he lived not in the Gold Age for then he thinks he might have gotten Gold enough and he is sorrowful he had not a being in the Silver Age but is fallen into these hard times into this Iron Age last and worst times He wishes with Midas all were turned into Gold and he loves to drink of the golden waters and his â—est drink he thinks is Aurum potabile and Gold is his dainty and in these as Apitius in his dainty Banquets he places his summum bonum A Covetous man is alwayes for Arecipe and the Lawyers Terms To Have and to Hold are his three Principle Tenents but Yielding and Paying are as easily got of him as fire out of a flint but by the steele if he be a coward he is never in a good mood but he is alwayes in the Optative Mood with an Vtinam for Silver This greedy man would with Augustus Caesar make all men Tributaries to him A Covetous man is the rust that sticks to his Gold He has heard Physitians say that Gold is preservative but to him it has a contrary quality for it is destructive Gold is the Center of all his hopes yea the World is the least and most that he desires yea pieces of Gold and Silver are the circles in which he is conjured these Images are laid up in fit places and repositories and he will never forget them The Crosses on his coyne are those upon which his mind is Crucified Excruciated and tormented Well may he be called a Papist yea a Pilgrime that has so many Crucifixes and Crosses wandring in the Wilderness of the World this greedy man well proves that he was made of red Earth Adam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as this Hebrew VVord signifies because he so unsatiably seeks after reddish Earth This Covetous man is the Vtopians fool as they count Covetous men because they adore the shining of Pearls or Gold or Silver when they may see a thousand times more in the Sun or in a Star and because he is such reprobate Mettal himself he thinks he had need get Gold or else every one would make light of him A Covetous man makes himself more unclean then the Augean Stable that might Purchase the Indies O! Gold is a Covetous mans Paragon he is a good Chymist for out of his labours he extracts gold he rather abuses then uses money for his money is not currant as it should be but it is dormant He sometimes buries his money yea alwayes when he dies he buries it in graves who knows but he is of opinion of the men of China who buries when a man dies all his Goods with him to help him in the other World A covetous man is a Griffen for he doth build his nest of Gold as Naturalists observe the Griffens to do so We will not give a Covetous man so much honor as to call him a King because he has many Crowns nor well guarded because he has so many good Angels to protect him money is the mark he aims at A covetous man wishes for Democritus's plurality of Worlds yea and that there should be a Platonick year and of all books of the World he contemns none more then Petrarchs de contemptu mundi this man is a Heathen would go to the Elysin fields but he will not because Charon will have too much for Ferrying him over Styx and he would not go to Elysium but he hopes there is besides that Paradise a land of Havilah where he can get Gold enough and now having Characteriz'd him I will brand him with a black salt is troubled much with the Ethical vice Avacitia Covetousnesse is an Abyss a bottomless pit a pit of destruction a gulph it is deciphered by the Poets to be a Dog alwayes devouring never Satisfied It is a vacuum alwayes empty never filled and that which the Phylosopher Democritus affirmed De infinito vasto that I may say of covetousnesse it expatiates its desire in Spatium Imaginarium into that imaginary space beyond World's Heaven and it would finde out a new America truely this is like to the informed and deformed beast of America This Covetousnesse it doth with men as Circes did with Vlisses companions transforme them into Swine and make them wallow in Gold and Silver the red and white excrements of the earth and such dung-hill pleasures as it made that Roman Emperour Caligula wallow and lye all along amongst heaps of money Covetousnesse is a Dragon that keeps the Golden apples in its Hesperides made that great Emperour of Macedonia Alexander the great weep when he heard the Phylosopher Anaxagoras say there was no more worlds but one Vnus Peleo Juveni non sufficit orbis You may see what an irremiable Labrynth this covetousnesse is it is a Hydra oh for a Hercules to destroy it it is a Lyon Rampant whose devouring jaws are never satisfied here what Plutarch said of Covetousnesse a covetous minde saith he is as restlesse in seeking as it hath pleasure in finding as fire is never satisfied with wood nor earth with water so the Avarous is never satisfied with money The covetous mans desire is never termin'd nor bounded within the limits of reason Covetousnesse is all hands and armes to hold and embrace all things A covetous man was born when Saturn had dominion he is so covetous So here is an end of this Essay of a Covetous man and of covetousness and of Avarice I wish there were a Finis A Free Spirited or a liberal Man IS one who is much for Plato's community of goods and of all countries and form of Government he likes Vtopia and its community the best He practizes the morral Ethicall vertue liberallity most he knowes is speculative parts of Ethicks morral Phylosophy is not enough for a man unlesse he have the Practick too it is a Practicall Science He
number and he is all for numbers An Arithmetician is a good player at Tables for by his Table of Numeration he Lives yea and it is alwaies furnished with such multiplicity of Unites Tens Hundreds Thousands c. of nothing but figures He Lives by his Figures VVe may call him a Rhetorician for he uses figures and when he writes he writes figure-hand He would think it a Paradox for to say 200. Cyphers make 8. as they do 8. An Arithmetician is a piece of a Mathematician but if he be Bacchus Companion he Learns the Rule of Good Fellowship When he breaks out then he falls into Fractions and then he exceeds the Golden Rule of Temperance An Arithmetician if he be covetous and an Idolliter of money he practises his Arithmetick most upon his money in numbring of it untill he come to the Summa Totalis he could wish he could practise the Rule of Multiplication upon his Gold and Silver In sum I will tell you first what he is not he is not a Cypher but one who of all men may number his dayes best but of all other he numbers them least because he thinks they are innumerable Item he is a Figure in the Book of Nature until death come with his Dart and Cancel him and then there will be an end of this our Arithmetician A Musitian IS one of Therpsicore and Sterpes his Sons He is a merry Fellow He obeyes Heliogabalus's precept the most Ede Bibe Lude post mortem nulla Voluptas He is a Chorister and with his loud and unintelligible Chantings Inchants men with his Charming Magick He is Natures sweetest voice and is Cupids Chanticlere who with his Divine Ayres chirps out his fringing matutines A Musitian by his joyning of Concords and Discords betwixt them both strikes an heart-ravishing harmony he is a conjurer in the circle of the ear that Conjures men with his Conjuring Charms A Musitian is onely a voice and Aeolus lends him Ayr and so by the Bellows of his Lungs and by his wind-pipe and other parts he has which are the Organs from whence this Musick proceeds when the heart sinks down as it were into the Earth and would be buried there yea when it is almost dead he with the breath of his Musick resuscitates it again by his Musick he warms the benumed Spirits that were frozen in the Freeze-land of grief and sorrow He is another Orpheus who with his Harmonious Harp draws men after him He is one that is skilled in the Ionick and Dorick Diolect of Musick He is natures Nightin-Gale that sings Sweet Sweet and Jug Jug for he is much for drink strong drink he thinks is Joves Nectar and wishes that Ganemedes were his Cup-bearer He is a Bird that is Imprisoned in the Cage of the World sometimes he is a prating Fellow and then he is a Parrat sometimes he is ravenous and then a Raven He is a merry man a Jolly Fellow a Boone Companion and a Friend to Bacchus if one be liberal to him he will sing their Praises above Ela yea above Heavens Ela but poor man he is almost choaked with that Guttural Gam-ut and when he is about paying his debt to Nature his groans and fighs seems to be his Funeral Songs his sad ditty but when he is absolved from Natures debt then he will stretch forth his voice until he come to his Diapasons so that he may sing his part with those warbling Sphears and he thinks himself happy to be an Auditor of the rare Harmony of these Celestial Sphears and Orbs yea and he aspires higher to bear a part in the Quire of Heavenly Angels whose perpetual task it is to sing their concording parts without pause redoubling and discanting Halelujahs A Musitian his rare Harmony leaves as many Eccho's in the ears and hearts of his hearers as Travellers reports their is in the Pyrenian hills A Musitian of all other men he keeps time the rest but the flying wings of sechered time wafts away from others But to be Brief he is but a sound a voice The Poets might have feighned a Musitian to be turned into a Nightin-gale but death Metamorphises him and he becomes a Bird of Paradise I mean of Plato's Paradise the Elisian Fields A Geometrician A Geometrician is not an unmeasurable man for he measures all things saving unmeasurable things He by his Geometry finds the figure of the World that is round and therefore he is almost perswaded to be an Athist and to be of the Opinion of some Phylosophers viz. That the World is Eternal He uses Jacobs Staf more then he uses Jacobs ladder viz. prayer to climb to Heaven I think he is not proud though he be high-minded He Surveys all the World and finds it to be but a Punctum in respect of the vast circumference of the Heavens that are circular A Geometrician beholds his figures as it were in sport and measures the distance whether a thing be nigh or far off He is not an unruly man for he doth every thing by his Rule and he keeps within compasse he knows that the Diameter the VVorlds Axel-tree is that upon which the VVorld hangs as though the World were Crucificed and wrack't upon the Tree of Knowledge for Knowledge torments more then ignorance you would think this Geometrician were a Conjurer for he is alwayes drawing Circles and Lines and Triangles and Quadrangles and Cones and such strange Figures He seems to be a kind of a Phylosopher that has skill in Quantities Lines Superficies and Corpus he knows has three dimensions And when this Geometrician has viewed all the VVorld he sees it is a Ball and there he knows nothing that is round can fill his Triangular heart but that the three Corners are empty and those he ought to fill with those three that are one and with that one which is three This Geometrician he squares out his actions the best of any I know He has skill in the Globes both Terrestiall and Celestial If he be a Beastly fellow he beholds his Emblem or Picture in the glassy Terrestrial Globe which is a Looking Glasse and sees Beasts in it and especially a Swine but truly I think he will never see himself in the Terrestrial Globe it self nor any besides I doubt he will never come there but may be Pluto will take him to measure his Subterraneal VVorld A Geometrician is like to Alexander the Great in this for the whole VVorld cannot content him if he be a Covetous maâ— but death fills his mouth full of Earth who could not fill his heart with Possessions yea a yard or two of Ground will suffice him when he yields to the fates and he who by his Compasses would have Compassed the whole VVorld I mean the Compasses of his Covetousnesse as well as his other He now must be contented to lye in puncto terrae could not this Geometrician with that wise Aesop have made him a Tower in the Air whose four Corners might have
Coppy of innocency for I may say saving his original sin he 〈◊〉 the state of innocency he is one of Adams branches but as yet there grows no bitter fruit on him A Child shews us what our great fire Adam was for innocency his playing with Rattles Hobby-horses Whistles doth as it were mock and laugh at the folly of mans business and are the Emblems thereof his Parents Pens him as their little History and he is one of the best letters in the Book of Nature A Child he is a good example and pattern for simplicity and innocence there are but few that imitates either of these and when he yeilds to the fates he changes time for an unchangeable Eternity A Critick I Have heard there has been a great murmuring amongst the Criticks because our Maker did not make our Breasts of Christial or Glass that so through these Glass-Windowes they might see every ones heart but fools that they are I think their hearts are the worst of all Where envy like Radamanthe that tearing fury fits in her Majesty her Head been perriwig'd with an Adders taile and her Cresses are Serpents Tailes in which she hath stings swell'd with poison and venome that will invenome every one that she has to do with this Critick has Cato's discerning Eye that can discry the least knot This carping Momus with his Kene Teeth like that grinning Cerberus bites every one he is a nipping and sharp Menippus a stinging Hipponax if he be a Philosopher he is a Cynick He vomite up nothing but gall and bitterness surely if this man were Anatomized he would be found to have a great gall or else none at all having spit it all out in mens faces A Critick is a carping Zolsus when his curious Eyes goes a fishing there will be many Carps A Critick is a Severus that is so severe over all but himself A Critick with Augustus Caesar will tax all the world in the strict ballance of his Judgement there are many scruples yea and he will not allow any grains of allowance He is a correctour of all mens manners but his owne and he is the unmannerlyest fellow in the world If he be a Scholler it seems he has not learnt good Ethicks He is the cruellest sharp saty re in this wilderness of this world who throws his Poisonous darts of envy against all men A Critick he carries behinde him the wallet of his own faults and before him the Wallet of others mens offences as wise Aesop feigned every man to have two Wallets the one of his own faults and that he carries behind him the other Wallet of others mens faults and that he carries before him a Critick doth not put Errata's in the latter end of his Book of Remembrance He views Books and scans Words Spells Volums and he is the Castigator of the Orthography and the Chyrurgion of Manuscripts Riches Riches are the Wings yea the golden Wings upon which men soare to the Clouds Riches are the earths treasure which nature has hid in the bowels of the earth and I wish it had been buried there yet Riches are snares golden fetters which intangle mens mindes and makes men slaves to it living in Slavonia Riches as Gold and Silver are Vtopia's rattles and baubles they have been the wise Phylosophers contempt and scorn men Idolize their glistering glimmering brightnesse when as the wise Vtopians say a man may see a thousand times more lustre and brightnesse in the sun or star Riches are Golden baites and hooks that catch men swimming in the Ocean of the World Riches are counted the Al-heal but they wound all with caret grief and perplexities Alas if men should wallow always in Midas banquets it would be but lean chear and they would desire to have their wishes revoked Riches are cruel temptations they are the Devils spels wherewith he enchants poore mortals Heavens grant that I may never be bewitch'd by them Riches are not goods as they commonly are called but they are the greatest mischiefes that can come to men even the Heathen could say Effodiuntur opes irrittamenta malorum Riches is the cause of the strifes Fighting Brawling Scolding Envying and what not they are Pluto's treasure for he is said to be lord of the earth's treasure Riches are the fire-brands that are cast into the world to burn in the flames of envy and making all men poore Salamanders living in the fire of anger contention discention riches as silver the out side of it glysters like Serpents stings but it has a poisonous sting that invenoms men and with its poyson swells them with pride yea at the end of a mans riches there is such a sting I mean such trouble and vexation of spirit who can bear it Fortune THe Antients pictured Fortune in the forme of a Woman fitting upon the Globe of the World and also men do suppose that Fortune is blinde this is because men cannot see her actions but Fortune is not blinde but rather they cannot see her Labrinthical windings and turnings simils are sometimes lik't by some and therefore by a simile I will declare Fortune as when a man sends out two of his servants a Journey and sends them two several wayes now the master knows at what time these two servants will meet with one another though they be ignorant so Fortune is the prime cause as the Phylosophers call him He sends all things into the world and he knows and foresees what chances and things shall come to passe but men knows nothing untill they do come So that in respect of the Primary cause there is no Fortuna nor Casus but in respect of men there is Fortune and Chance Our Precisians now adayes laugh at the word fortune Fortune is Pictured by some to be blind and standing above the Globe of the VVorld and casting to some Crowns to some Books to others Mechanick Instruments Fortune is overmuch adored by some some take it for providence but fortune is a Accidental Concurse of secundary causes Some attributes a wheele to Fortune and men depend upon this wheele of Fortune as they say and as it turnes so men are sometimes high sometimes low They say fortune gives Riches and takes them away again and therefore in Pythagoras's Tabula Cebetis some are cursing fortune others blesse their fortune fortune is good to some bad to others Dame fortune it seems has been a good Hus-wife that has gotten all these things to give away Fortune has the most contrarieties she is good and she is bad liberal and niggardly and all at the same time but to severall persons A Virgin A Virgin in the Zodiack of the world she is Virgo she is a Chast Diana she will let no Herostratus burn the Temple of her chastity with the Fire of his Lust yea she is in a happy case for she is secure The Murus Aheneus the Brazen Wall of her Innocency will keep her from all hurt I have heard that Fryar Bacon did