feed on Melancholy Of Translation Essay 138. WE are given much in this latter Age to Translation and though Translation is a good Work because it doth not only divulge good Authors but distributes Knowledge to the unlearned in Languages yet Translators are but like those that shew the Tombs at Westminster or the Lyons at the Tower which is but to be an Informer not the Owner of them Essay 139. ALthough Accidents give the Ground to some Arts yet they are rude and uneasy untill the Brain hath polished them over True it is the Senses most commonly give the Brain the matter to work on yet the Brain forms and figures those Materials and disperses them abroad to the use of the World by the Senses again for as they came in at the Ear and the Eye or the Taste Sent and Touch so they are delivered out by the Tongue and Hands Essay 140. IT is worthy the Observation to regard the odd Humours of Mankind how they talk of Reason and follow the way thereof so seldome for men may as easily set Rules to Eternity as to themselves for the Mind is so intricate and subtil that we may as soon measure Eternity as It. Of Dilation and Retention Essay 141. A Dilation causeth as much weakness as Contraction Dilation causeth weakness by the Disuniting the United Forces and setting them at too great a Distance and Contraction binds them up too hard not giving as we vulgarly say Elbow room The Worlds Olio LIB II. PART III. Of the Britains THE Britains of England were a Valiant People but that they had not skill of Arms answerable to their Courage as the Romans had yet Caesar and all the Emperours could not conquer that Island in so short a time as Alexander had conquered most part of the World therefore it seems their Courage was great since their Skill was less and could make it to the Romans so difficult a Work For Britain was like a Body dis joynted or rather separated Limb from Limb for it was not joyned in one Body but divided amongst many Petty Kings which made it weak for being not united the Body hath little power without the Legs do uphold and the Eyes do direct and the Arms do defend it is an easy thing to throw down a Criple but it was a sign the Spirit was strong in this Criple that could resist so long against a Giant as the Romans were Therefore Britain was worthy of Praise since their Courages defended them so long Of King James KIng James was so great a Lover of Peace that rather than he would lose the Delights of Peace he would lye under the Infamy of being thought Timorous for in that it was thought he had more Craft than Fear Of Queen Elizabeth QUeen Elizabeth reigned long and happy and though she cloathed her self in a Sheeps skin yet she had a Lions paw and a Foxes head she strokes the Cheeks of her Subjects with Flattery whilst she picks their Purses and though she seemed loth yet she never failed to crush to death those that disturbed her waies Her Favourites for Sport she would be various to sometimes in Favour and sometimes out of Favour as Essex Leicester Ralegh Hatton and the like But she stuck close to her old Counsellors and Favourites Burleigh Walsingham and the rest Neither did the first Favourites get so much as the last Ralegh got not so much as Burleigh did some may say because they spent more they laid up less but vain Favourites get more Enemies to themselves and Hatred to their Princes than Profit to themselves for the sight of their Vanities makes the People remember their Taxes and think that their Prince hath posed from their Purses to maintain their Vanities and their Prince thinks they have given them more because they shew what they have and many times more than they have But the Wisest save and lay it up till the Envy is past and the Tax forgot But Queen Elizabeth maintained more forein Wars at one time than any of her Predecessors before her and yet without the Grievance of the People for it was not so much out of their Purses as the Prizes she got by Sea for though the King of Spain had the Honour of being Master of the Indies yet the Queen of England had the Honour of being Mistris of the Sea so her Ships were her Mines to maintain her War against him Of King Henry the Eighth KIng Henry the Eighth was a Politick Prince for as Favourites make use of their Prince so he made use of his Favourites for when they could do him no more service he turned them over to the Hangman to satisfie his People and those that he favoured had the blame with the punishment and he received the profit He was not like Edward the Second for his Favourites cost him his Crown and Life I observe that soft natures are apt to be crusht and very hard natures are apt to be broken in governing therefore severe but not cruel mercifull or kind but not credulous reign happiest But Henry the Eighth spent great Sums of Money as that which his Father left him and that which he had out of France then the vast Sums he raised out of Monasteries yet no great advantage redounded to his Kingdome But his Expence was much to keep Peace abroad by making Friends in those Kingdomes that were fallen out But most commonly those that strive to make Peace amongst others bring War to themselves although I cannot say he had much War Of pulling down of the Monasteries in Henry the Eighths time SOme wonder that Henry the Eighth did pull down and destroy so many Monasteries as were in England which had stood so long without Opposition but it was likely that the Opposition could not be great for first the People were perswaded in some part by the Doctrine of Luther to dislike the Tyrannie of the Pope for first it eased their Purses and their Persons the one from Peter-pence and the like and the other from hard Penance the next the Gentry and the Nobles thought of the gaining of the Houses and Lands and Liberty the King for the bulk of their Wealth so the King Nobility and Commons and all had ends in it and where the King follows the Commons an Innovation is easy or I may say an Innovation is easy where the King follows the People Of Justice in Commonwealths IT is to be observed that there is little Piety or Justice in Cities or Countryes or Nations that are overgrown with Prosperity or oppressed with Adversity for Prosperity makes them so proud as they are as it were above Justice and Adversity doth so deject them as they grow careless of Justice so that either way they grow into Barbarism But as Virtue is a Mean betwixt two Extremes so it keeps in the Mean in all Estates the Virtue of Prosperity is Temperance and the Virtue of Adversity is Fortitude Of Henry the Seventh IT was
Nature should perfectly understand and absolutely know her self because she is Infinite much less can any of her Works know her yet it doth not follow that nothing can be known As for example There are several parts of the World discovered yet it is most likely not all nor may be never shall be yet most think that all the World is found because Drake and Cavendish went in a Circular Line untill they came to that place from whence they set out at first and I am confident that most of all Writers thought all the World was known unto them before the West-Indies were discovered and the Man that discovered it in his Brain before he travelled on the Navigable Sea and offered it to King Henry the Seventh was slighted by him as a Foolish Fellow nor his Intelligence believ'd and no question there were many that laugh'd at him as a Vain Fool others pity'd him as thinking him Mad and others scorned him as a Cheating Fellow that would have cosened the King of England of a Sum of Money but the Spanish Queen being then wiser than the rest imployed him and adventured a great Sum of Money to set him forth in his Voyage which when the Success was according to the Mans Ingenious Brain and he had brought the Queen the discovery of the Golden and Silver Mines for the Spanish Pistols Then other Nations envyed the King of Spain and like a Company of Dogs which fought for a Bone went together by the Ears to share with him So the Bishop that declared his opinion of the Antipodes was not onely cryed down and exclaimed against by the Vulgar which hate all Ingenuity but Learned Sages stood up against him and the Great and Grave Magistrates condemned him as an Atheist for that Opinion and for that reason put him from his Bishoprick and thought he had Favour in that his Life was spared which Opinion hath since been found true by Navigators But the Ignorant Unpracticed Brains think all Impossible that is not known unto them But put the Case that many went to find that which can never be found as they say Natural Philosophy is yet they might find in the search that they did not seek nor expect which might prove very beneficial to them Or put the case ten thousand should go so many waies to seek for a Cabinet of pretious Jewels and all should miss of it but one shall that one be scorn'd and laugh'd at for his Good Fortune or Industry this were a great Injustice But Ignorance and Envy strive to take off the gloss of Truth if they cannot wholly overthrow it But I and those that write must arm our selves with Negligence against Censure for my part I do for I verily believe that Ignorance and present Envy will slight my Book yet I make no question when Envy is worn out by Time but Understanding will remember me in after Ages when I am changed from this Life But I had rather live in a General Remembrance than in a Particular Life The Worlds Olio LIB III. PART II. Of Philosophy THere have been of all Nations that have troubled their Heads and spent the whole time of their Lives in the study of Philosophy as Natural and Moral the first is of little or no use onely to exercise their Opinions at the guessing at the Causes of Things for know them they cannot the last is a Rule to a strict Life which is soon learned but not so soon practiced as they have made it in the dividing it into so many and numerous parts having but four chief Principles as Justice Prudence or Providence Fortitude and Temperance Justice is but to consider what one would willingly have another to do to him the same to do to another which is the beginning of a Commonwealth Prudence or Providence is to observe the Effect of Things and to compare the past with the present as to guess and so to provide for the Future Fortitude is to suffer with as little Grief as one can and to act with as little Fear Now Temperance is something harder as to abate the Appetites and moderate our Passions for though there are but two principal ones as Love and Hate yet there are abstracted from them so many as would take up a Long Life to know them after the strict Rules of Temperance But indeed it is as impossible to be justly Temperate as to know the first Causes of all Things as for example A Man loseth a Friend and the Loser must grieve so much as the merit of the Loss deserves and yet no more than will stand with his Constitution which in many is impossible For some their Constitution is so weak that the least Grief destroys them so that of Necessity he must needs be Intemperate one way either for the not sufficient Grief for the merit of his Friend or too little care for himself So for Anger a Man must be no more angry than the Affront or any Cause of his Anger doth deserve and who shall be Judge since there is no Cause or Act that hath not some Partiality on its side and so in all Passions and Appetites there may be said the like Therefore he that can keep himself from Extravagancy is temperate enough But there are none that are more intemperate than Philosophers first in their vain Imaginations of Nature next in the difficult and nice Rules of Morality So that this kind of Study kils all the Industrious Inventions that are beneficial and Easy for the Life of Man and makes one sit onely to dye and not to live But this kind of Study is not wholly to be neglected but used so much as to ballance a Man though not to fix him for Natural Philosophy is to be used as a Delight and Recreation in Mens Studies as Poetry is since they are both but Fictions and not a Labour in Mans Life But many Men make their Study their Graves and bury themselves before they are dead As for Moral Philosophy I mean onely that part that belongs to every particular Person not the Politick that goeth to the framing of Commonwealths as to make one Man live by another in Peace without which no Man can enjoy any thing or call any thing his own for they would run into Hostility though Community of Men will close into a Commonwealth for the Safety of each as Bees and other Creatures do that understand not Moral Philosophy nor have they Grave and Learned Heads to frame their Commonwealths NAture is the great Chymist of the World drawing out of the Chaos several Forms and extracted Substances the gross and thicker part goeth to the forming of Solid Bodies the Fume to Air and Water the thinnest part to Fire and Light the Sense or Spirits to Life Of Naturalists NAturalists that search and seek for hidden Causes are like Chymists that search for the Philosophers Stone wherein they find many excellent and profitable Medicines but not the Elixar So Naturalists
from Merit from whence proceeds all Noble and Heroick Actions Of Women SOme it their Praises of Women say they never speak but their words are too many in number for the weight of the sense besides the ground of their Discourse is impertinent as Enquiries who dined and who supped at such a Table what Looks Words and Actions past amongst the Company what Addresses such a Man made to such a Woman and what Encouragement they receiv'd in their Courtships then who was at Court who at Church or slandering or defaming one another or bragging of themselves what Clothes they have or will have what Coaches or Lacqueys what Love servants they have or may have what Men are like to dye for Love of them what Feast they made for such a Company who took them out to dance at such a Ball who usher'd them out of Church and who they saw there and not what they heard there and for their Pastimes say they are seldome at home unless it be to receive Visits Neither are they pleased with the Company of their own Sex for if there be no Man amongst them they are very dull and as mute as one would wish unless it be at a Gossipping where a Cup of good Liquor runs about But if a Man be amongst them of what Condition soever but especially a vain Young Man then their Pipes are set to the highest note and with such ridiculous Laughter as they seem neither to stand or sit still or they are dancing playing and toying with every thing But in their grave Discourse they set their Countenance and twinkle with their Eyes and contract their Mouth in a round Compass and speak their Words finely and they that are not Handsom as few Women think but that they are Or if they be in Years they strive to be thought Wits and all their Discourse is of Love justifying Loving Friendships by the Conversation of Souls Some of the Graver sort run into State Affairs and pretend to be Politicks thereof Others pretend to be learned in Divinity and talk of Predestination and Free-will and Transubstantiation and the like and others pretend to Devotion repeating of Scriptures when say they the Thoughts are Amorously affected as those who discourse wildly Therefore say they it is no marvel if the Men be so prevalent in their Amorous Assaults since the Women do so easily yield nay say they they do more than yield for they invite the Enemy to betray themselves But these censuring Persons judge too rigorously for the Faults of a few ought not to brand and condemn the whole Sex for surely there are numbers of worthy and honourable Women in not onely seeming Chast but being Chast and know their Countenance must be modest their Behaviour grave their Discourse rather enclining to Silence than to Talk Curteous but not Familiar their state must be rather above their Quality than beneath it rather Proud than Humble for too much Humility breeds Contempt Besides there are those that are Patient Pious Trusty Tractable to Virtue Thristy Fashionable Constant both Maids and Wives Of Bawds BAwds do like the Indians that pick out the fairest and best shap'd of their Prisoners that they take in the Wars feeding them fat like Beasts to offer to their Gods as Sacrifice So Bawds choose the youngest and fairest Women and cherish them with the choycest and best kind of Diet to fatten them that they may be in good plight and likewise garnishing them forth with rich Clothes like sacrificing Garlands that they may be more acceptable to their Gods which are Whoremasters that their Reward may be more And many times they are brought to the slaughter of Honour and Honesty with Musick and Minstrels as the others are to the Altars and the Fire of Lust destroys the one as the Vestal Fire doth the other so that Bawds are the Priests that sacrifice Chastity Honesty and Honour and they preach Flattery to perswade and delude their Flock the Text is Variety and the Application Pleasure their God is Cupid and their Goddess Venus to whom they direct their Prayers the Pope or Head of their Church is Mammon the God of Money Of the Dissembling of Women ALL Women are a kind of Mountebanks for they would make the World believe they are better than they are and they do all they can to draw Company and their Allurements is their Dressing Singing Dancing Painting and the like and when Men are catcht they laugh to see what Fools they were to be taken with such Toyes for Womens ends are onely to make Men profess and protest lye and forswear themselves in the admiration of them for a Womans onely delight is to be flatter'd of Men for they care not whether they love truly or speak falsly so they profess earnestly Of Chastity THose Women that are Covetous of Gain or Ambitious of Titles of Honour or Amorous of Nature or have been bred by ill Examples are easily perswaded to loose and unchast Actions But those Women that consider the Worth and Honour that Chastity brings to themselves and their Families are never corrupted for they account it more Honour to dye a Martyr to Chastity than to be Empress of the whole World by Wantonness But Nature gives a Chast Mind and a Virtuous Education an Honest Life But Women that are Incontinent are the most foulest and falsest Creatures of all Natures Works But those that are Continent are like what we imagine the nature of Angels to be that is Incorruptible The Liberty of Women IN some Nations Women have much more Liberty than in others As for example France England the seventeen Provinces Germany and others have more Freedome than Turky Italy Spain not that those Nations are less sensible of the honour of Constancy in that Sex than the others but that they are more confident of their Virtue and Chastity Or else wisely considering Restraint is but a Whetstone to Appetite For most Travellers confirm that those Countryes that have most Restraint have least Chastity The Lacedemonians may be an Example who gave leave by their Laws that any Man of their Nation might enjoy any Woman he fancyed and not onely so but the Young Women and Men danced uncloathed in publick Theaters yet so Modest and Chast they were that for many hundred years there was hardly known an Adultery committed So that it is neither the freedome of Choyce or Fashion or Bodies that infect one another but the Mind which is disorderly educated For Nature would be Chast if Education were Honest which is to instruct Youth with Noble Principles and Profitable Rules and to let them know how beneficial and necessary Justice and Propriety is to the orderly Life of Man and so to breed them with Sense and Reason Knowledge and Understanding or else Liberty is dangerous especially amongst the Effeminat Sex if they be not ballanced with wise Admonitions to make them swim steddy and even through the World that the over-large Sails of