Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	earl_n	sir_n	thomas_n	7,448	5	8.3258	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61161	Observations on Monsieur de Sorbier's Voyage into England written to Dr. Wren, professor of astronomy in Oxford / by Thomas Sprat ...	Sprat, Thomas, 1635-1713.; Wren, Christopher, Sir, 1632-1723.	1665 (1665)	Wing S5035; ESTC R348	49,808	304

own mind by defying the Conquerour And here Sir I confess he has driven me upon one of the tenderest points in the world which is the speaking concerning the fame of a great Man while he is living But I entreat you to lay before your eyes the many powerfull arguments by which I am mov'd at least to give a true testimony though not a long elogie concerning him My Lord Chancellor is a man through whose hands the greatest part of all the publique and private businesses of our Countrey do pass● And it will be most dishonourable for us to suffer his name to be revil'd in this manner while he is scarce at leisure to look to its defence himself by reason of his eternal Labors for the publique Justice and Safety And besides this Sir I can for my own particular allege another motive of nearer concernment For I am to consider my self as a Member of the Royal Society and the Vniversity of Oxford and the Earl of Clarendon as Protector of one them and Chancellor of the other These Sir are some of his true Titles however Monsieur de Sorbiere is pleas'd to pass them over and give him worse in their stead First of all he says that he is a Presbyterian At this ridiculous scandall I assure you Sir I am not much griev'd I was to tell you true in a terrible affright when I read what he reports that almost all the City of London are Presbyterians But now this passage has compos'd my mind again For it is like to be a very exact computation which he has made of that Sect when the first man that he names for a Presbyterian is my Lord Chancellor He next tells us that he is a man of the Law a shamefull disgrace the Lord Chancellor of England● whose Office it is to govern and moderate the Law is a Lawyer As if I should endeavour to lessen the credit of Monsieur de Vaubrun and prove him unfit to be Governour of Philippe Ville and Colonel of Light-horse by objecting that he is a Souldier or of Monsieur de Sorbiere to be Historiographer Royal by saying that he is skill'd in Historie But he is a Lawyer and Statesman at once Can this be any more disparagement to him then it is to the whole Body of Lawyers in France who in all times have manag'd the greatest Imployments of that State Could he not have recollected before he writ this that Monsieur de Segnier the present Chancellor of France is a Gentleman of the Long Robe You see Sir what a good Satyrist we have here got who would undertake to abuse an English Statesman with such an argument which must at the same time reflect as much upon his own Countreymen his chief Friends and Patrons● to whom he directs his Speech But the worst is still behind My Lord Chancellor is utterly ignorant of the Belles Lettres This accusation is as decent as all the former He dislikes our Carriers for not b●ing Courtly our Souldiers for not putting off their Hatts well our Bishops for their Gravity and our States-men for not being Grammarians and Criticks But I will prove to him by his own confession that My Lord Chancellor deserves not this reprehension and that he is a man skillful in all Polite Learning He himself allows him to be a great Politician and a very Eloquent Man I have obtain'd Sir what I desir'd You see how easy it is to justify the Earl of Clarendon seeing the very man that vilifies him does at the same time gainsay himself and suggest to me his prayses without my interposing any word in his commendation If we should graunt that a man may chance to be a great dealer in Politicks without understanding any thing else which y●t nothing but Monsieur de Sorbiere●s own example in this place can perswade us to be possible yet how can he be thought to attain to a perfect Eloquence without any skill in the Civil Arts Where now is his Polite Learning whence did he fetch this Idea of Eloquence Let him produce his Notes out of Aristotle Tully Quintilian Seneca or any of the Rhetoricians of Antiquity And then let him tell me whether they do not all with one voyce consent that an Orator must of necessity be acquainted with all sorts of useful knowledg But because he is so free in his reproof of my Lord Chancellors unskillfulness in the Belles Lettres I pray Sir what signs has this great Aristarchus himself given of his own proficience in them Where do we find in him any footsteps of the True Spirit of the Grecian or Roman Wit What reason have we to envy his judgment in the Classical Authors when all the proof that he has given in this Book of his being conversant in them are only three or four pedantical Quotations of which the chief is Os Homini sublime dedit Thus farr Sir in reply to him But more is to be added concerning the Honourable Person of whom he speaks in such mean terms My Lord Chancellor is a Gentleman of a very antient Family of which Mr Cambden makes mention in his Britannia His Education and first years were spent in a strict familiarity with many of the most Famous Men not only of that Age but perhaps of any other of whom to pass by some Reverend and Learned Church-men that are living it is enough to name Mr Chillingsworth and the Lord Falkland His first application to the Affairs of his Countrey was in a time wherein extraordinary fidelity and sufficience were requir'd His Services to the late King were requited by the committing of many eminent Businesses to his management and by a very high share in his Majesties Favour of which there are indelible proofs in many places of that Excellent Prince's Letters Under him he was Chancellor of the Exchequer Privy Counsellor and design'd Secretary of State Since that time h● was Extraordinary Embassador into Spain and attended his present Master in his Misfortunes which was undoubtedly the most glorious Scene of Honour in the world By these several degrees of Great Imployments he ascended to that illustrious Station which he now enjoyes And as for the Qualifications of his Minde if it be needfull to adde any thing to the Votes of the Royal Society and the Vniversity of Oxford I will declare that of all the men of great worth who have possess'd that High Office since Learning and the Civill Arts came amongst us there was never any man that has so much resembled Sir Thomas More and the Lord Bacon in their several Excellencies as the Earl of Clarendon There might Sir much more be answer'd against all his false Insinuations concerning the Political Condition of England But I have seen a Book of Monsieur de Sorbiere's Discourses and Letters whereof many were written to the late Cardinal Mazarini and they are so full of gross flatteries that they have wholly turn'd my stomach from speaking any more of

OBSERVATIONS ON Monsieur de Sorbier's VOYAGE INTO ENGLAND Written to Dr. WREN Professor of Astronomy in Oxford BY THOMAS SPRAT ●ellow of the Royal Society LONDON ●rinted for Iohn Martyn and Iames Allestry Printers to the Royal Society 1665. A LETTER Containing some Observations On MONSIEVR de SORBIERE'S Voyage into ENGLAND Written to Doctor WREN Professor of ASTRONOMY in OXFORD By Tho. SPRAT Sed poterat tutior esse Domi. SIR I Here send You the Account which Monsieur de Sorbiere has gi●en of his Voyage into Enggland And though it be an insolent Libel on our Nation yet I doubt not but you will peruse it with delight For when you have beheld how many errors and falshoods he has committed in this small Relation you cannot but be well pleas'd to find that whoever undertakes to defame your Country he must at the same time forfeit his Wit and his Understanding as well as his good Manners The King of France ha● already given him an effe●ctual Answer And it became the justice of so great a Monarch while he was defending the Interest of the Christian Faith with his arms to punish a pragmatical Reviler of one of the most powerful Kingdoms in Christendome and while he was exacting satisfaction from the Pope himself for an affront offer'd to his Embassador to take care that none of his own Subjects should presume to injure the reputation of his neighbors and neerest Allies This just Reply which has been publiquely made to this rude Satyr was the cause that it has not bin hitherto confuted by an English Gentleman of your acquaintance who had undertaken it whose Wit wee might have oppos'd against him if he had still flourish't at Paris with the Title of Historiographer Royal though all his mighty boasts of his own abilities had been true But however though he is now below our excellent Friends consideration yet I think my self ingag'd to see him corrected For having now under my hands the History of the Royal Society it will be in vain for mee to try to represent its design to be advantageous to the glory of England if my Countrymen shall know that one who calls himself a member of that Assembly has escap'd unanswer'd in the publique disgraces which he has cast on our whole Nation I will therefore Sir briefly take him into a calm examination And that you may understand how I intend to proceed with him I do here in the beginning profess that I will not vindicate the honor of the English by making reflexions on the French I will not indeavour to repair our own fame on the ruines of others I will have no contention but with himself I will only put together and compare the mistakes the incoherences the vanities of his Book And to confess a secret to you Sir I am resolv'd to take this course in answering him not only because I abhor the sordid way of Wit of abusing whole Nations but also because I am not much inamor'd of the glory of his punishment For I cannot think that it is worth a mans while that can live quietly here at London to have the honour of making three or four ill-natur'd jests on a whole Kingdom with the hazard of being justly bani●ht into Flint or Denbigh for ones labour I must confess Sir I came at first to read him with some expectations I had before seen what he had written in praise of those two great Men the Ornaments of France Gassendus and De Marcu the Arch-Bishop of Paris And I had some good hope that the familiarity which he pretended to have had with them had taught him some of their good Qualities that from the first he had taken that candour and modesty which the world admires in his writings and from the other he had learn'd with what respect he ought to treat the fame of whole Nations Churches and Soveraign Princes by that admirable defence which he has made of the Gallican priviledges Besides this Sir I took his Book into my hands with the grea●er good-will because I had some knowledg of his person I had seen him at the Royal Society I had been a witness with what civility he had been there entertain'd I had been inform'd what kindness he had receiv'd at Oxford I had heard what favour the King had shewn him by admitting him to private discourses with him in his Cabinet And from all this I was incouraged to beleive that he had given an honourable or at least a just description of England But I quickly perceiv'd how much I was disappointed I presently saw what difference there is between scribling fine Harangues on vertuous Men and real vertue it self I strait found that instead of the good intentions which he says he never wants the greatest part of his Treatise consists of ill-grounded reproches that he has ventur'd on many things whereof it was impossible he should receive an account that where he might be suppos'd to have some tolerable knowledge his malice has perverted his understanding and that through the whole course of his Observations he has by his own example made good that character which he often in this Book bestows on humane Nature in general that mankind is most pleas'd with trifles and that we are all credulous and Lyars In his Epistle Dedicatory he assures the most Christian King that the principal motive of his journey was a desire to advance his Majesties glory The Design was commendable and worthy an Historiographer Royal. But what course did he take to increase his renown he says that he travell●d abroad on purpose to spread throughout the world the fame of his Majesties munificence to himself I beseech you Sir how long will your English modesty overwhelm you how much reason have You real Philosophers and Mathematicians to have high thoughts of your selves if it shall be allow'd to a man who has onely got some name by creeping into your companies to beleive himself so considerable that his Masters liberality to him ought to make to all mankind admire his Magnificence The Christian world has better signs of the greatness of the King of France's mind his armies and money have been honorably imploy'd against Algiers and Constantinople Amidst all these glorious expences what a mighty sound does it make that the famous Monsieur de Sorbiere did receive a small stipend out of his Treasury But that you may the better understand who this great man is that can either exalt or diminish the honor of Princes with a word of his mouth I intreat you to hear his own description of himself I will onely repeat in his own words the praises which in the compass of a few leaves he has given his own merits by which you may ghess how uniustly he has misplac't the titles of proud and arrogant when he bestow'd them on one of the best Natured and bashfullest Nations in the world He brags that he has spent all his life in advancing