their way The season wep't in rain and sigh'd in winde Our mother earth did great distempers finde At her great loss and with a pale wet face Did her dear Son in her cold armes embrace The rivers swell'd with rage and every hill Was with a vail of black mist covered still The leaves likewise fell trembling from their trees When first they heard news of his obsequies If Plato like the musick of the Sphaers We understood then might our nimble ears Perceive how they quiv'rd grief in mournfull tones Paused with sighs and bass'd with hollow grones Men thought Dame nature now being old and weak Durst nothing that was curious undertake Wherefore to shew men that they were mistaken That master piece was by her undertaken Which though it was presented as her last Shew she a printise was in making what was past And though in Eden commenc'd was the Creation Yet its accomplishment was from our British Nation His body shew'd to what perfection rare Dust might refined be by divine care And yet God thought it neither fit nor just That such a noble soul should lodge in dust Untill that dust by Death were more refin'd And fired to re-lodge so great a minde The Gods Apollo have deprived that he As the more learned should have his dietie But why should air lend mortals furder breath It s sure that they may still condole his death And may it coyne in termes of Highest praise And stamp that coyne with some heart brusting phrase But since he 's gone we may conclude that sure There is another world yet more pure Then ours or that Heavens quire did want a voice Which only could supplyed be by this choice And that God hath this Peer from earth's lower house transplanted To the high upper house of heaven for ever to be sainted To his ingenious Friend the Author of Aretina Thy beardless chin high voicedly doth declare That wisdoms strength lyes not in silvered hair And as few Ciphers rich sums does express So thy rich wit shines in a few years dress For as men did the Suns first light admire So art thou lov'd when thou dost first appear Yet shall thy Crocodil like fame still grow And on its shoar praises shall ever flow Reader Correct these Errors with thy Pen before thou read the Book Page Line Read 80 13 Agapeta 275 ult ominat 292 4 then 292 12 for to themselves 303 6 because 339 18 cannot 348 26 crown 364 1 longer able 419 9 Boute-feus ARETINA OR The Serious Romance MELANCHOLY having lodged it self in the generous breast of Monanthropus lately Chancellour of Egypt did by the chain of its Charms so fetter the feet of his Reason that nothing pleased him now but that whereby he might please that passion thinking all time mispent which was not spent in its service frequenting more Woods than Men deeming them the only fit grove to sacrifice in the choicest of his thoughts to the worst of passions Wherefore having one day wandred abroad in a neighbouring Desert he came at last to a deep Valley fruitfull of nothing but Trees and Trees fruitfull of nothing but Melancholy overlookt by Rocks in whose wrinkâ—ed faces aged Time had plowed thousands of deep furrows whose gloomy brows threatned perpetually to smother the subjacent Valleys a place fit only to be as it was presently the hermitage of Melancholy and stage of Cruelty He had not long stayed when his admiration was arrested by a noise blown in his ears as he thought by the bellows of Death yet seconded by a sight yet more horrid for he saw at some distance two Ladies loaded with Iron sheckles which chained them together stript of their cloaths above the middle and strypt by two cruel Rascals who albeit torture made the Ladies run yet equalled the number of their lashes to that of their paces and not far from them were ten Gentlemen as they seemed by their habits fighting against two Knights followed only by one Esquire where courage seemed to combat against number valour making the ten seem but three and fear making the three seem ten yet courage shew at last that it might be resisted by number but could not be overcome by it for the death of six forewarned the other four that it was not time to stay fear having left them only so much reason as to conclude that seing they could not resist them being ten how could they resist when they were but four wherefore leaving flouds of bloud to witnesse the gallantry of their conquering adversaries they posted away The Knights willing to pursue these run-awayes who had now added cowardisnesse to their former crimes yet more willing to rescue the miserable Ladies left these Rascals to be punished by a torturing conscience and the just gods and spurred after the Ladies who were presently abandoned by these Hangmen but Providence which had borrowed their swiftnesse to lend it to their adversarâ—es delivered these Villains into the hands of the pursuing Knights who brought them back where the Ladies were bathing themselves in their own innocent bloud who having fallen on their feeble knees the eldest of them weeping spoke thus O noble Gentlemen surely Providence had never created such silly creatures as weak women if they had not likewise provided such noble Champions as ye are to be guardians to their weak innocencie and innocent weaknesse We acknowledge we are yours if bloud be a price able to buy things of small value neither can those to whom we belonged formerly pretend right any longer to us no more than the first owners can pretend right to their goods which being robbed from them by unjust Pirats are after some time and danger regained by other true Conquerours or Land taken by Vsurpers is to be restored by a third Conquerour to its first masters Happie we who cannot by any postliminius right return to our former liberty seing to be slaves to such masters is to be no slaves at all But seing our tears are no fit recompence for those tears of bloud which your bodies both have shed and yet do shed for us we shall cease to trouble you whom we cannot requite But whilest they were admiring what was already spoken wherein she shewed much Learning from whom no Learning could be expected and whilst she was about to add more Monanthropus by his coming interrupted both the admiration of the one and the discourse of the other who puzled whether to congratulate the good fortune of the Knights to regrate the misery of the Ladies or to accuse the cruelty of those Rascals with whom the Knights had made them to exchange fetters who were now standing accused by their own roguish looks yet at last he accosted the Knights thus Gentlemen albeit I might accuse you as strangers for exercing any jurisdiction much more the highest jurisdiction in a stranger Nation yet your valour your successe and your cause obligeth me to believe that ye are commissionated by the immortal gods to
have devanced us in this imployment will as our eldest brothers in time have a double portion of fame bestowed upon them and no wonder seing they had store both of expression and invention to make choice of and if any of us use their expressions albeit we were only debtor to our own invention for them yet we should be thought to plagiarize wherefore he who writes now should read what hath been written formerly not to the intent that he may borrow but least he should borrow any thing that is theirs I perceive there have been two errours committed by the first writers of Romances the first was that they stuffed their Books with things impracticable which because they were above the reach of mans power they should never have fallen within the circle of his observation and such was Amadis de Gaule Palmeron de Oliva c. The other errour was in the style which because of its soaring pitch was inimitable and as the first hath been the fault of the first writers So the last hath been the fault of the last writers wherefore the famous Scuderie hath written so as that his invention may suit well with our practise and his style with our discourse and especially in his Clelia wherein he professes that he hath adapted all to the present converse of the French Nation and that is really the mould wherein all tru Romances should be casten There are some who embroider their discourse with Latin and Greek termes thinking like these who are charmers that the charme loses its energie if the words be not used in Latine But this is as rideculous as if one who desires to make his face seem pleasant should enamble it with red blew green and other colours which though they are in themselves pleasant yet are rediculous when placed there And this is an university style which savours too much its pedant and is at best but bastard oratory seing the scope of all Orators is to perswade and there can be no perswasion where the term is not understood examples of this are Brown Charletoun c. The second style is that of moral Philosophers where the periods are short and the sense strong and our experience teacheth us that the shorter any thing be it is the stronger this style suits best with Preachers whose it is to debit the grand misteries of Faith and Religion for seing sentences there should be weighty if they were either many or long they would burden too much the hearers The third style is that of Barrasters which is flourished with similees and where are used long winded periods and of all others this is the most preferable for seing similitude is but a harmony this style shews that excellent harmony and rapport which God intended in the first Creation and which the Philosophers of all ages have ever since admired This Lawyers have learned from the paucitie of all humane Lawes which makes them oft recurr to that topick which teaches them to argument from the paritie of reason And in this they resemble Mechanicks who by applying a cord whose length they know to any body whose length they ignore do thereby learn its measures also And by this way Nathan in the old Testament and our Saviour in the new repremands the errors of David and the self conceated Iewes The fourth style is where the cadence is sweet and the epithets well adapted without any other varnish whatsoever and this is that style which is used at Court and is paterned to us by eloquent Scuderie I hear there is now a ridiculous caball of Ladies at Paris who terme themselves the precious and who paraphrase every thing they speak of terming a mirrour the conselour of beauty and a chair the commoditie of conversation c. And thus they have progressed from painting of faces to paint expressions As for my self since I expect no applause I need fear no censure and if I satisfie not others I shall at least satisfie my self for it was to form to my self a style that I undertook this Piece whose defects I hope the sober readers will pardon since their clemency will not be oft tempted with crimes of this nature only this I begg that these who will not do me the favour to read the last part will not do me the wrong to read the fiâ—st part for as the Lord Bakon very well observes our thoughts are like our years whereof the first are alwayes the worst and it is no wonder for boyling youth customarly throws the scum upmost I have concealed my name till I see how my undertaking is relished for which reason likewise I have sent this Piece to the world unaccompanied as a swatch of what I intend reserving the Web till I see how the Stuff pleases The subject hath made this first part serious and my inclination shall make the second pleasant A POEM by the same Author upon His Majesties happy Return STay Fame why do'st thou to the Future post To Learn some new adventures tym's not lost In viewing our Great CHARLES his safe return Resembling ashes new sprung from their Urn Or do'st thou post to trumpet these rare news To Godless Pagans or to Christless Jews Thereby them to convince that ther 's a God Among'st the Christians who will explod Out of his noble registers of life and fame Ignoble traitours and their hatfull name Mans oldest Charter is that Text divine All that thy feet can trample shall be thine Since then his feet hath trampled Europe round It 's only Limit shall his Kingdom bound Though France and Spain be compted the two Poles Whereon our European orbe still roles Yet thou the Axis of that orbe shall be To wheel these Poles as it best pleaseth thee Heaven him exiled not but sent him abroad To shew the matchlesse art of our great God In framing matchless spirits and to each Of these strange Nations Patience to preach Malice with fruitlesse strokes shall wearied now Yeild up her sword and to thy Scepter bow Thou fortunes wheel by vertues hand shall hold And stop the course of that proud changling bold With black affliction Heaven thus enambled hath For furder Lustre his pure Golden faith And as with crosses Heaven did once him wound So now with crosses Heaven hath him crown'd All shall our Thristle the blessed Thristle call And in fames Eden our Rose flourish shall And of our Lillies we may Justly say That Solomon ne're flourished as they Let then our Harpe play and our Lyons daunce For joy that Heaven should thus our King advance Great Gloucester's Cipressehearse wreathed by a Loyal hand WE did admire what made the heavens tear And why the clouds did such dark sables wear It was that they in tears might pay respect To Gluocester whom they did much affect And that the hard hearted earth might softned be At the sad news of his sad Tragedie The lower heavens thus purg'd themselves that they Might in parade be when he pass'd
love And seing force is able to make those who formerly loved thereafter hate how can it make those who once hated therafter love but they who understood as little true love as they practised true modesty did most impertinently importune us to accept them for our husbands swearing when they could not perswade us by threats that we were the maddest women breathing who refused to bewives to such gallant Gentlemen and Mistrisses of so large fortunes recounting to us sometime their valiant acts and sometime questioning their prepared servants anent the state of their thriving affairs not forgetting to number hundreds of Mistrisles whom they had slighted for us and how many sighed for them albeit they sighed for us This discourse albeit unpleasant in it self yet seemed more unpleasant because of the discoursers gestures and antick modes which could have perswaded strangers that they erred purposly to make us laugh at last they led us to a Cave in the bosome of a Rock which seemed to be Deaths chamber of presence paved with mire and tapistred with slime and cobwebs here we were welcomed by an old Hag the Nurse of my Lover whose face I thought at first had been masked with some terrible mask but at last I perceived that Nature had conjoyned swarthy colours with ugly shapes to shew that Art could not outstrip her in making an horrid face her words ecchoed by the hiddeous Rock seemed to be the cryes of the damned spirits when they are punished in Hell for their misdemeanours Our accommodation could only brag of its suitablenesse for ugly things so corresponded with ugly things as ye would have sworn that every thing contended which should be most ugly a sheep was eaten half alive and sent bleating to their bellies and their bread which seemed to be knead gravel was eaten as greedily as if it had been the finest flowre at supper she began to accuse the Courtiers for niceâ—y in imploying knives and napkins and swore by her black kirtle that the reason why Ladies did eat so little at Table was because they did eat so largely in their Chambers Thus having spent the night lying on the ground a Bed never made since the Creation we longed for the morning which came no sooner than we wished it had been past and thought that the Sun by its slow motion intended likewayes to conspire with our other Tormentors Yet after some four dayes stay the immortal Gods who knew our innocency decreed our delivery by a way as unexpected as the delivery it self for the fore-named Mathematician who began now in his solitude to consult the Stars whereas he had formerly in his poverty consulted his Purse did one morning acquaint the Lovers that he did read their ruine in the Face of Heaven if they dismist us not this Diurnal from such a place and such a person did so allarm their already frighted consciences that they resolved to quit us meerly because they found they could not keep us wherefore fearing lest our return to our own Countrey should be a mean to banish them from theirs they resolved to bring us over here to Egypt with our faces covered that our punishment might be the greater and our return the more uncertain after that fashion did they lead us three dayes never considering that Heaven saw us albeit we saw not it till at last like Serpents who carry their sting in their tails they resolved to make the last act of their cruelty the worst making our Tragedy like all other Tragedies whose most deplorable event is represented in the last Scene Wherefore finding this Wood correspond with their desires they committed us to these cruel Tygres who had avenged their masters affronts and ended our miseries if the arrival of those Gentlemen had not prevented both This story and their journey ended both equally and they were as much solaced by the one as wearied by the other and now they began to descry the top of the much longed-for Castle and being entered in a sweet Alley which was guarded on both sides by Walnut Chesnut and Cipress trees which decored extreamly the Avenues to the Castle they were saluted by four Gentlemen cloathed in blue Sattin who were attending Monanthropus's return which was later that night than ordinary the Knights and Ladies finding their respect betrayed formerly by the meannesse of Monanthropus exteriour garb did in a most submissive manner crave him pardon and bestowed upon him now with its interest what respects they had ignorantly detained from him formerly and the younger of the two Knights called Philarites commissionated by the assenting looks of his Companions spoke thus My Lord nature having levelled all men as to what can be seen and strangers knowing nothing more of one another than what instruction nature bestows on them their ignorance deserves pardon if they homologate not their first errours by their after continuance in them and we see Magistrates carry before them the Ensigns of their Offices Gentlemen followed by their Liveries and Knights of Orders carry the Badges of their Honours as beacons to warn strangers not to split upon the rocks of either disrespect or incivility which shews by the rule of contraries that strangers may be pardoned albeit they deny respect to those who wear not Honours Livery and albeit we might have seen in your Honours face and carriage the impression of more than ordinary majesty yet the confusion wherein we were may plead our innocency Monanthropus whose humour and age made him averse from ceremony told them that their generous carriage did oblige him too much and that their Apologie had prevented his for albeit they had cunningly vailed their Births yet their Generosity did somewhat draw aside the curtain and did let the most undiscerning eye see somewhat more of Nobility than their modesty did discover by discourse The Knights and he having skirmished a little thus in complement he intreated the Knights to hand up stairs the weary Ladies for their age and pains had merited better their hand than he had done or could do At the top of the stairs they entered an Antiparlour richly tapestred with hangings representing Paris choice when he bestowed the Apple upon the fairest which seemed to be not only a relation of what was past but also a prophecy of what was to be acted shortly upon that stage there they were welcomed by a Lady rather grave than old followed by a troup of rare Beauties where notwithstanding the rest seemed only to be black patches to set off with the greater advantage the beauty of a young Lady who was Monanthropus his daughter a Lady so accomplished as if Nature in her had like that old Painter borrowed a traâ—te from the greatest Beauties in the world to adorn one Philarites after Megistus and the Ladies had saluted all and after as he himself had saluted the mother coming to salute the daughter and bowing as low as the verge of her garment being deserted by strength and over-powered by
the love he carried to ARETINA whose good fortune he notwithstanding cursed a thousand times because it had placed her above the reach of his courtesies the skilfull pencile of his passion did draw ARETINA'S portracture upon every object that presented it self to his sight and his noble heart which was formerly Mars his shop wherein he forged thousands of heroick thoughts became now an Altar whereon he sacrificed daily his dearest faculties to his lovely ARETINA his Reason which had still been the steersman in all his former courses did in this tempest of Melancholy abandon its charge presumption assured him that providence and foresight in this case were but cowardishness for how could one of his courage especially engaged in such a quarrel fear Armies of inconveniences On the contrary fear assured him that his hopes were meer presumption for how could the divine ARETINA be merited by a stranger destitute of friends and attenders and how could he think that she who knew the value of every thing would bestow her self upon one who did not merit her Thus passion warred against passion but all of them conspired against Philarites who deserted by reason and assaulted by passion was brought to so low a passe as that neither the skill of the Physician was able to recruit his body nor the perswasions of Megistus able to settle his confused spirits But that which afflicted him most was that occasion never propined him with an opportunity of meeting with ARETINA all alone till at last occasion repenting of the severity it had used against him brought at last Bonaria and ARETINA to his Chamber whom charity had invited thither to assist by their skill and care his natural strength which was not able for to combate all alone these troups of diseases which did daily attaque him Bonaria being instantly called away left a fair field for his passion to expatiate it self in Philarites who intended to be very frugal of his time insisted thus Divine ARETINA the least sparkle of your acquaintance is able not only to thaw the ice of indifferency but even to kindle the flames of love in a colder breast than mine But Madam the great disproportion betwixt your merit and my naughtiness obliges me to smother my affection and yet I know that in smothering it I shall murther a person who might otherwise live to do you service My death shall be honourable if I be not buried in the tomb of your disdain and yet my life being imployed in your service might bud forth in something worthy of your and the worlds noticing but as for me I esteem it not if I receive it not as a donative from your clemency Fair Lady I shall alwayes esteem my self more or lesse fortunate accordingly as ye frown or smile upon me and your thoughts are the only stars whereby my horoscope may be casten He stopped here perceiving that ARETINA had covered her face with a blush and fearing to offend her whom he so much adored he patiently waited for this Answer Noble Philarites I know that such Gallants as you use like skilfull Comedians to act still at home those personages which they are to represent publickly upon the stage wherefore I am confident that ye are inuring your self with such a Country-maid as I am to those Civilities and Court-modes which the Ladies at Courts will expect from you I know your wit sports it self by such genty recreations and seing it may accomplish your spirit I pardon you fâ—eely She spoke this with so charming a grace and with so much indifferency as that neither Philarites fear or hope were able to glean any thing from it at last rising to bid him adieu she let a Scarlet Ribband fall which Philarites secretly fearing to be perceived and being perceived to be frustrated snatcht up immediately and kept alwayes afterwards as the Paladium of his good fortune After two or three weeks were thus spent Philarites came abroad rather seeking an opportunity to entertain ARETINA than out of a desire to meliorat his health and whilest they were walking after Dinner in the next adjacent Garden where all the Knights and Ladies had gone to seek the Arbours protection against the heat of the Sun they perceived a Gentleman who in all humility presented Monanthropus with Letters from Sophander entreating his Lady and Daughters presence at his Neeces Nuptials who was to be espoused to the Prince of Goshan Monanthropus alledged indisposition of health for himself but promised that his Lady and daughter should wait upon his Eminence and his Neece Telling him that he was sorry that the distance was not greater and the Solemnity lesse that their obedience to his Eminencies commands might the better appear The Gentleman told him that seing that Complement could hardly be requited by Sophander himself it were vanity in him to endeavour an answer The next morning the Ladies accompanied by the unknown Knights did by Coach begin their journey to Alexandria and it was almost hard to tell whether Megistus grief in leaving Monanthropus or Philarites joy in accompanying ARETINA was greatest The day being fair at their departure continued not long so for the Heavens willing to cause the Earth drink healths to their bon-voyage did by impetuous showers send it water enough to drink the Sky which intended to look chearfully at Eliza's Nuptials did by wind and rain purge it self of all its malignant humours Heavens bottles having at last emptied themselves by these furious showers the Sky did cover its face by a vail of mist whereby the Coachmans horizon was abridged to the length of two or three paces at most Providence intending by the hand of this darknesse to lead them out of that naturall darknesse wherein their ignorance had enveloped them and now the Coachman did flie fast from the angry face of Heaven but the faster he drove the mâ—re he strayed which he never perceived till time had dissipated the mist and then both he and the other attenders found themselves in a Forrest where they saw no path nor person to direct them what rout to take at last the Ladies and Knights who were walking on foot Megistus birth having allowed him Bonaria's hand leaving ARETINA to now happy Philarites they perceived an old Hermite who appeared to have borrowed times beard to cover his wrinkled face and naked breast who did accost them thus Ladies it appears that rather errour than intention hath drawn you hither The Ladies granted it was so but told him that they thought themselves most fortunate in having erred seing their errour had occasioned such a remarkable rancounter wherefore they entreated to know his aboade and the occasion of his solitude I am said he an Hebrew who have refuged my self from being a sad witness of the deplorable condition of my Country whose miseries are mine by adoption I live here in a Rock wherein there is nothing worthy of observation The Ladies entreated they might see it for sure said they there
as out of respect to the beholders and to oblige their modesty did by their uneven brows which were to them in place of tongues cartel us to a combat their arms were two long poles to which were fixed two shables neither did they offer us choice of arms we judging gallantry but a nicety where necessity was the quarrel and considering that they who were outlaws to Nature might be punished by any of her subjects all men being commissionated against such common enemies and that they who would not kill such rascals were guilty of the bloud that was shed by them resolved to make use of all arms and arm our selves with all advantages against them Whereupon Philarites pulling out a pistol sent from its barrel two balls cloathed in deaths livery and by them opened a salley-port to his soul to fly out of that nasty prison wherein it had been too long captivated his comrads courage fell with him and deaths horrid face represented in the mirrour of his dying friend agasted him so as that he was willing to ransome his life upon his knees with tears which fear had commissionat to intercede for him We who thought that to kill a man before he was prepared to die was to murder the soul aswell as the body desired him to throw away his weapon and he should have quarter but he not accustomed to hear such a dialect understood us not so that we were forced to make a demonstration our interpreter he no sooner understood our mind than he disarmed himself of his weapon throwing his body open to our mercy we advanced but scarce could perceive in him the reliques of humanity which was all mudded over with the rubbish of desuetude and cruelty and his tongue exprest it self as if it had but freshly come to the school of the world whereupon Philarites concluded that seing he and his companion could understand one another that the bruits did use possibly an ideom peculiar to themselves aswell as these whose expression claimed affinity to that used by them or if they had no language they behoved to read each others sentiments in the characters of thoughts like the intuitive knowledge of Angels We untyed the naked couple who took their life as a donative from our hands upon whom fear had made such an impressa as they could not believe but death had them stil in its claws We desiring to pull up that poysonous herb by the root fearing lest it might thereafter spread and pullulate afresh resolved to know where he nested he would willingly have quit us yet in obedience rather to fear than to us he led us to a cantone of the Wilderness and shewed us there a hole whereat he entred it seemed to be hells porch and its very stink occasioned by the boyling of mans flesh did fortifie it sufficiently against all humane approaches he called forth at last his wife and I must say he was fitly matched for her face was a rendevouze of all those deformities that a petulant fancy could have excogitated and except in the case of an Incubus he might have defied all the world to make him a Cuckold We learned at last by a discourse composed of semibrievs and crotchets that she and her husband had lived there fifty years death having forgot that there lived any mortals in such a corner and that their son was killed We lookt in and perceived that the hole was all pent up with wood and that their best chear was mans flesh So we brought them alongst with us to the next Town where those two lived whom we had released and committed them to the publick prison Thence our inclination which was the compass by which we steered led us to Lacedemon which was then the stage whereon Fortune acted all her Tragedies This Nation had pilgrimaged through all Governments and seing it could not unload it self of Rules heavy burden it did like the Asse fetch it from shoulder to shoulder and so contrarie to its expectation past from evil to worse and from worse to worst of all We had not marched but two dayes journey in this Lunatick Country when we encountred a fellow whose eyes sparkled some of that folly which was breasted within him and by the inorderly Index of his face we might easily know that the volumn of his thoughts could not but be confused his equipage was so mean that he resembled an old Oak whose starved leaves had fallen away from the stock which was not able to alâ—ment them to which the obdured earth denied the pension of its ordinary aliment his motions shewed that they received no commission from a rational soul and were like the reelings of a ship whose rudder the careless Skipper had abandoned thus did he by his inconsiderableness render himself considerable and made us notice him meerly because he was not worth the noticing he past by us without giving us a hat or paying a reverence and glancing over his shoulder he said Friends think ye who shine so upon earth because of your diamonds to shine in heaven circled with the rays of divine splendor or dream ye that heaven will suffer your pride to passe unpunished Ye are mistaken replyed Philarites for gorgiousnesse in apparrel betokeneth much humility for we think that we need such weights as these to be put with us in the ballance of such capricious fancies as yours else we might fear to be judged but light whereas ye imagine that your innate worth is able to create respect enough for you and I pray you seing the gods have not created these diamonds for our aliment surely they have created them for our ornament and we see how they have variegated the fields with flowers and have enammeled these flowers with diverse colours whereby our pleasure might be baited aswell as our necessities supplyed neither certainly would they have left man who is the most excellent amongst all the creatures naked of these ornaments if they had not given him reason and fancy to be his provisors and the whole earth to be his magazine Neither must we confine ornaments to the narrow bounds of necessity else why tax ye not the gods likewise of superfluity for having spangled the heavens with so many and so various stars and constellations seing they might have supplyed their rooms by two or three Suns or Moons And Sir had not these eye-dazling creatures the Diamonds concealed by their absence some portion of their makers glory if they had still been intombed in the earths dark bowels Well friend replied he since I cannot convince you who lies swadled in the cradle of your follie and understands not these true mysteries go read Grandours Epitaph in the person of Ephemerus who was not long since Prince of this Country and is now hunting near-by followed only by two servants Whereupon he paced away leaving us puzled in what rank of creatures he was to be placed He being gone Philarites marked that of all mad-men those were most
converse with you because of your eloquence every thing which is either seen in you or spoken by you being a snare to entrap unworthy mortals who must in spight of prudence like flyes flee about the candle which burns them But Madam my love is no infant passion for it bears as old a date as since my arrival at Court and albeit the persisting so long in my guilt be an aggravation of it every thought being a new crime and every moment forging a new thought yet seing I have avowed my passion I cannot but avow its birth Madam since ye have sentenced me guilty I beg fetters which are the badge of guiltiness Agapeta knowing what he aimed at gave him a bracelet of her hair which she desired him to take not as an approbation of his love to her but as a reward of his loyalty to her father Megistus glad to receive it upon any terms kissing her hand went away telling her that he gloried more in that badge of her favour than he would do in all the trophies which could be raised for him upon the ruines of the Persian Monarchy The Army was marched and had left Megistus Philarites and the Martial Knight behind busied in saluting their numerous friends their visits accomplisht they posted after the marched Troops and in their way the Martial Knight in pursuit of a discourse anent the antipathy betwixt the Egyptian and Persian Nations fell a chiding Astrologues because they attributed it to the variety of celestiall signs these mad fellows said he will needs have all the Watches of National inclinations set by the Sun-dyall of the heavenly Aspects as if the Needle of free-will were obliged to follow the touch of that Adamant and as if the face of the firmament were like those optick chambers on whose chamber walls one may perceive what is acted in the streets to which their backs are turned for the time but seing the humours of Nations varies the heavenly Aspects still continuing the same and seing those influences are corporeal and so cannot affect the will which is meerly spiritual I admire how men can fancy any influence where there is no passibility But why are the neighbouring Countries alwayes most tainted with this natural aversion more than the remote parts of the Nations Is it because the heavens are divided in shires as the earth is surely all these are dreams of capricious fancies and it is to small purpose that men should vex themselves by enquiring for a reason of that in the heavens whereof the reason may with small scrutiny be found upon the earth for we know that bordering Kingdoms do alwayes war one against another and these Wars are fathers and mothers to that Antipathy And who would not hate these who are their successors who have massacred their antcestors and for this reason is it that in these antipathizing Nations the frontier Countries hate most one another seing the occasions of fresh quarrels makes them oft purple their fingers in one anothers bloud And upon the contrary the remoter Nations are ordinarily linked in Confederacies for these Nations that border on the remote frontire of the Nation hated do in odium of the interjacent Nation league with those who border upon the other frontier So that that friendship is cemented with the common hatred of both the averse Nations and here mysterie of State is the heavenly Aspect which causeth this contrariety This discourse being ended before the journey they resolved that each of them should maintain a Paradox which being as weights added to the paices of times clock might make it run more swiftly Philarites being by lot destinat for the precedency undertook thus the defence of Vanity Gentlemen before I begin to wade through this discourse I must rid marches betwixt Pride and Vanity and I call Vanity an high estimation set by man upon his own actions and a confidence he hath of being able to perpetrate undertakings above the ordinary reach of humane power and Pride that whereby one undervalueth all that is done by others quarreling it meerly because it was not done by himself and not only esteeming highly of himself absolutely as is done in Vanity but also over-rating himself when compared with others I affirm then that Vanity is the wheels whereby honour courage and triumph moves for if Vanity suggested not to man the enterprise of something extraordinary and if these suggestions were not welcomed by generous spirits the greatest part of new inventions had been stifled in the cradle of their first conception Commerce had never been entertained through want of shipping and new discoveries both of unknown Countries and usefull Engins had never been atchieved and certainly men should never rise above their own level if they circled their undertakings within the narrow compasse of their own experience and seing in setting a high price upon my own worth I magnifie the workmanship of the immortal gods and believes undoubtedly that I am more obliged to them than really I am I think my self as to them no more culpable than he who acknowledgeth himself my debtor in a greater sum than truly he is should be blamed by me And further seing mans misery if sufficiently known were sufficient to inguâ—fe him in the depths of melancholy and to ingrain it more deeply of a black colour Certainly Vanity is of excellent use seing it confects sweetly those bitter aigrets and skinneth over those deep wounds which are inflicted by the hand of our natural misery The Martial Knight maintained That Prodigality was no wayes to be punished by the Commonwealth and that Prodigals in reason ought not to be interdicted if they sowed not their monies in the furrows of forreign Nations in which case only the Commonwealth was prejudged but that if they spent it within the territories of the Commonwealth they could not be challenged seing they were masters of their own and seing the Common-wealth was not endammaged but rather advantaged seing their money came in the hands of frugal men for such are ordinarily those who fleece these sheep who might improve it more to the publick utility and if persons of vast estates deborded not in such extravagancies they would in fine coffer up all the monies of the Kingdom so that poor Artists and others should be totally impoverished for the superfluities of the rich are the granaries of the poor and these who were once rich might presume knowing that they would not be licentiated to dilapidate and poor though ingenuous and ingenious persons might despair if they had not such crumbs as these to feed on but by Prodigality treasure runs like the Sea to the water-sources of poor Artists and from them by the frugality of others returns back again to the ocean of Noblemens treasuries by which circulatory motions the fabrick of the Universe is maintained in the one and the fabrick of the State is entertained by the other Megistus maintained That there was no Adultery in the case where
than from a consciousness of their own guilt A servant of Monanthropus admiring the inconstancy of Court favour presented his Master with these lines How can those stand who on the slippery ice Of Court are plac'd when by the storms of vice Or malice they 'r attaqu'd O happy he Who from his cottage doth these disasters see Court is a firmament whence stars oft fall And Courtiers are tossed like a ball In Fortunes tennis-court and by Prides racket are Toss'd over all the walls of Court most far Their greatness an hydropsie is and they Not with good blood but humours swell each day They grow so big that vertues narrow gate Forbids them entry then by witty fate He who exalted was is tumbled down Fates narrow stairs stript of preferments gown Luxuriant pride shakes often their hour-glasse And their debordings seals to them a passe To go to endless torments and each man Adds to the yard of their disgrace a span Who would be fixt must grip to vertues hand For on the legs of vice no man can stand The Court was upon this occasion remodelled and all those who had been Sophanders confidents were either imprisoned or disgraced as persons in whom the King could not confide and now Monanthropus was the only Minion by whose advice and through whose hands all things passed The War being ended the King to secure himself at Court resolved to call back the Army and ordained the two Knights to be received in triumph and withall posted away a Commission to Megistus to command in chief The Commission being received Megistus begins his march to Alexandria and stopped by a Warrant from the King four miles from the City till all things should be in readinesse for his reception The next morning they entered all the streets being tapistred as they passed alongst and Guards standing upon both sides After the Infantry marched Megistus with Philariâ—es on his right hand and Stirias upon his left In the Market-place stood a Scaffold whereon was represented the Parliament of the gods before whom Themis as goddess of Justice and Mars as god of Courage did plead which of them should be preferred to welcome these worthy Gentlemen at last Mars was preferred for the Armies better satisfaction who at their arrival delivered them this speech My darlings cadets of my house whose hands Were made to execute the just commands Of divine powers it 's my sons to you That Victory her lofty top doth bow That ye your heads may with her glorious bayes Encircle like unto a Sun with rayes Ye who hold fortunes wheel by the strong hand Of Courage making her swift course to stand Iustice and Courage shrewdly did contend Which of them as ambassadors the gods should send But seing Courage Iustice doth include No Courage being but where the cause is good Therefore the gods have Courage sent to greet Your safe return to this most joyfull street And were it not to leave on earth a seed Of Heroes they would surely with all speed Transplant you to the heavens there to shine Amongst those other deitiâ—s divine Live then brave Heroes and more praise possess Than Mars rude tongue is able to expresse After that scene was ended there appeared an Egyptian loaded with fetters and making his approaches to the Knights entreated them to untye his fetters which they did accordingly and thereafter he made them this gratulatory Invincible Gentlemen this that ye have now done is but an emblem of that ye have done formerly It is not so mysterious that I nâ—ed to explain it Our liberty is a debt which we owe you and our thanks are the only coyn we can pay it in all the by-standers participates with me in the common freedom and would return with me the common thanks if order would permit it our thanks and your merits are no wayes proportionable the one being empty and the other excellent but our admiration and your deserts hold a better proportion both being inexprimable they are twins both springing from the womb of your Courage Live then happily worthy Princes and inherite these praises which ye have purchast by your blood and pains The reception at Court exceeded in splendor that of the Market-place and the rather because Agapeta and ARETINA were there in whose affections the Knights desired more to triumph than in any thing else caring only for those honours they had received as means to make their peerless Mistrisses honour them the more all the inventions at Court was imployed in honouring the Knights and they were esteemed wittiest who pleased them best Tiltings were continually used for courage being once wakened behoved to have some exercise till it were fully re-setled neither could it change its pace so extreamly as to fall from a gallop to a still standing but behoved to retire by piece-meal this joy was in it self great but was thought the greater that it was the successor of a pannick fear and at last the King resolved to sacrifice Sophander to the honour of their solemnities for many thought it not fit that such a plodding head should have leave to rest upon its old shoulders and that there could not but ensue great alterations amongst the Nobles upon this late innovation and those who were postponed might probably study his releasment desiring rather he should bear sway than their own competitors and expecting by his releasment to return affairs to their old confusion that a living man might alwayes finde friends but dead dogs would bite none that to keep him in perpetual firmance was in it self illegal prisons being appointed rather to reserve men for punishment than to be a punishment it self and that it differed as far from punishment as the means did from the end for which they were appointed or if perpetual imprisonment was at all convenient it was only either where the person incarcerated was furious and so there was fear that in executing the body they should kill both soul and body or else where the criminal was a person loved by the people whose death would irritat them or else of great following so that their expectation of his life or fear of his death would justly poise all his friends undertakings and over-awe all their insolencies But that neither of these was to be expected by Sophanders execution whom all hated and none loved and possibly if it were continued he might convey away out of the Nation most of his Estate which he had ever keeped in movables as being most transportable and so it was best to wring the spunge so long as it was full The King resolved to execute him presently and therefore sentenced him to be hanged in the Market-place but the Church-men petitioned his Majesty that he might be first examined by them being one of their number and as being the ambassador of the immortal gods he should not be sentenced by any mortal Prince and that they behoved to examine first whether what he had done were done for the glory
purposly that he might afford Anaxagius well-wishers some hope and so keep them quiet till his own faction were well feathered that they might flee abroad upon their own wings Yet the carreer of his ambition stops not here but he prevails with the Senate threatning some and alluring others to execute Autophilus and thereafter his fury flies at so high a pitch as to stage Anaxagius and after some formalities of process O horror or something more horrible than horror they condemn him as a traitour and even those who were traitors to him and as in all furious and desperate exploits this is no sooner intended than executed That fatall day being come wherein wickedness was to shew to the world its masterpiece the Army is made to approach near the City and those whose humour was known to be barbarous and whose crimes were by themselves judged unpardonable were chosen to be upon the guard where about ten a clock Anaxagius comes forth upon a scaffold which was all covered and hung with black wearing Majesty in his looks albeit they had devested him of its robes his very face might have vindicated him from more probable crimes than those they could charge him with and it seemed that he came rather to take up than to lay down a Crown After he had setled himself a little and beckened for silence he gave the by-standers this farewell AMongst the many miseries wherewith miserable mans life is chequered it is none of the least that man should be mans torturer but amongst those afflictions which spring to men from one anothers malice those are most insupportable which are caused by near relations seing it is a double affliction both to themselves afflicted and to be afflicted by friends from whom else they might expect some assistance and what stranger will not condemn him as horridly guilty to whom his relations are willing to be bourriers It is not the fear of death for my life hath not been so sweet of a long time that my death needs to prove bitter No it is the fear of what disorders will ensue upon my death which thus appales me Neither would I grieve if I judged that the one might prevent the other but why should I not grieve when I see that the one will occasion the other And seing I fear that these Leeches will find the bloâ—â— of a King so fat and sweet that it Will 〈…〉 them to suck out greedily that of the 〈◊〉 for since neither the priviledge of my person nor the justnesse of my cause was able to restrain the hand of injustice from stretching it self out against me what subject in none of whom either of these is to be found in a more eminent way can expect exemption or if he be exeemed he owes that more to his fortune than his innocence And what a misery is it to live where both life and fortune depends upon a may be and to live where vertue can neither expect preferment nor evite punishment the one being now the price of perjury and the other the effect of hazard As for my crime it is such as the worst of Kings cannot be guilty of seing it can only be admitted against Kings And so seing not any one person can be both accuser and defender no King can be accounted a Traitour It is true some Lawyers do alleage that a King selling his Kingdom to a stranger or betraying it to an enemy commits Treason but the reason in both these is because after he hath sold his Crown or willing by treachery to convey it to another he ceaseth of his own consent to be King and so being a private person may be guilty of that publick crime but to sit upon the bench of â—ustice and there maâ—ked with the â—â—â—â—ard of Law is condemn a King is a prâ—â—tice never hitherto attempted by the worst of men and so must be judged most horrid for if it had not been so sure some one of those many Traitors who have been both many and malicious in all ages would have excogitated this expeciency to varnish the â—glinâ—sse of their crime for there is no evil which is judged practical by hellish persons but histories swarm with instances of it only this the worst of men have deferred to perpetrate as being the worst of actions till Iustice should in the end become so old and weak as that it was not able to defend it self against even the highest of injuries And as to those who were my Iudges they had either no power else if they had any they derived it from me for if they condemned me as members of the Lacedemonian Senate then they derived their authority from me who only did establish it and it was in obedience to my command that the respective Counties elected them to be their Representatives and consequently when I was staged by them they annulled their own authority even then when they exerced it against me but if they pannelled me not as commissionated by that Senate how could they be said to represent the Lacedemonian State more than any other did and so they judged me without being constituted Iudges themselves But no wonder to see those who neglect the main slight likewise particulars As for me I pardon these wrongs they have done me judging it the prerogative of a King to pardon whereas it is the part of a subject only to revenge which since it argues parity suits ill with royal Majesty Neither value I any injury they can do me for seing they make me exchange earth for heaven misery for infinite felicity I account their wrongs favours but I grieve for those grievous wrongs which I fear will be exercised to you wards for seing happinesse consisteth in being vertuous and since patience is one of the cardinal vertues I can in being patient without their permission make my self happy in spight of their malice for surely since the gods will remunerate men according to the pains taken in their service a piece of justice which the most unjust among men could hardly decline Certainly there is no vertue can expect a greater reward than patience seing there is no vertue which toils so much for it Neither is there any vertue which is not acted in acting patience for in not grieving too much we act temperance in resisting the assaults of rage we evidence true fortitude and in submitting to the heavenly powers we manifest our justice but my soul is troubled at the trouble which I fear is a preparing against you and as the preservation of your priviledges was my main care whilst I lived esteeming the repose of the subject the only patrimony of the Prince so now nothing vexes me more at my death than to foresee how these miscreants will glut their malice with your bloud and their avarice with your estates for how can these love other mens children who have murthered their own father and how can they fear murder who are guilty of parritide Yet be not totally
discouraged for certainâ—y those who cannot suffer a superiour in the beginning will not in the end suffer a competitor and this Scepter which they have screwed out of my hand will prove a bone for which these mastiffs will one day fight amongst themselves and after that this Land hath raged in this feaver of rebellion for some space it will at last recall its banished judgment and judge it expedient to call home its banished Prince and I am confident that this disaster shall prove to my family but like a potion of physick which may procure some sicknesse at first but will perpetuate its health for the future for when ye ponder how ye owe the conquest of your sweet Country to the courage of my Antcestors who without them durst never have attempted it and how ye owe your pure Religion to their zeal without whom none of you would have dared its Reformation as likewise how hundreds yea thousands of years joyned to the experience of your antcestors may be adduced as witnesses to depone in its favours when ye advert how your Taxes and Gabels will augment and your Iustice diminish daily when you see your streets dyed with bloud and your faces with paleness oppression your Legislatour and pride and violence the executors of these Laws then your consciences will upbrade you with your defection and torture you for your injustice After this discourse was ended the Executioner acknowledging the wickednesse of his imployment by the masking of his face did end his unparallel'd life Pity it was to behold how pity by its iron mace of sorrow broke the hearts of the beholders for not a face there was scarleted by one drop of bloud as if all their bloud had been transubstantiate in water to suppeditate tears to their prodigal eyes which stood like clouds first darkned with sorrow and thereafter distilling in showres of tears which did trickle down as if they would bury themselves also in that ground wherein his princely body was to be intombed neither was those eyes judged fit to behold heaven who had not first washen themselves with tears shed for him or if any weeped not it was because they resembled those vessels which are so full that they can drop none or else because their souls sick of an appoplexy of grief had forfaulted all its senses and faculties but amongst many others there was one whom grief had enraged and whom rage had so grieved that retiring to his chamber he quivered out these dolfull notes O distracted heart why borrowest thou not wings from dispair to flee after thy peerlesse Prince if thou stay in the dark dungeon of my cloudy breast thou shalt be fed with sorrow and drowned with tears O supernal powers if I may call you powers who suffer your selves to be overpowered by injustice must we term you both good and gods seing ye permit such innocent souls to be ballated upon earth by violence and oppression is it not enough that ye should send us a barren and heavie age of iron but that ye must likewise edge it with steel that it may the better cut to pieces our grieved souls Was not the treasure of mans misery great enough before but that ye behoved to augment it with their new coined afflictions O earth why swallow ye not such miscreants is it because ye fear to contaminate your pure bowels with such contagious carcasses if so vomit up your flames of fire to cleanse your surface of that pest O heavens ye are most wronged wherefore the punishment belongs to you scorn ye to be bourriers to such vile persons if so commissionate frogs and serpents to devour them O Pluto why recallest thou not thy brethren and hell why suffer ye your vice-gerents alwayes to roam abroad is it because ye fear that they would extinguish your flames with their fruitless tears or is it because ye fear that they would deserve your scepter better than your self as being more expert in the art of wickednesse than ye are or intend ye that they live upon earth to the end they may imbitter the lives of those who are in it With that he rises all in fury and cryes Vp Lacedemon arm thy self with rage And all those miscreants banish from the stage Lest neighbouring Nations with the finger of scorn Point out that Rose that chang'd is in a Thorn After this he would have killed himself but prudence whispered him iu the ear that it was fitter to live and see the fatal period of those Regicides to which resolution he acquiesced washing his hands in innocencie with his streams of tears The heavens likewise gloomed at what past and Phoebus looking sullen and posting by seemed to bestow no more light upon Lacedemon than he glanced to them over his shoulder disdaining to look streight to those who were not streight themselves and the clouds keeping up their rain darkned the face of heaven either unwilling to fatten the earth which was by its fruits to fatten those Traitours or fearing to let its drops fall in a Country where Kings were murthered the air likewise each attome whereof seemed swell'd with rage because so grosse as that the grossest lungs could not breath it nor the sharpest eye pierce it Thus Nature seemed to clothe all her houshold in mourning for the losse of her dearest darling and she became enraged at these villains for breaking that Tableau which she had distinated as a remembrance of her exquisit skill to all ages Theopemptus eldest son to Anaxagius succeeded to him a Gentleman of a noble spirit and well limb'd eloquence who knew well by the bridle of cunning to govern the fierce monster of popular fury and whose genius quadrant-like was able to measure the height of the highest imployment to which it was applyed and who by the art of patience could make the rarest flowers of vertue and generosity grow in the cold and barren soil of affliction which did continually yeeld so abundantly the seeds of precepts and example as that thereby in short time he stored therewith the gardens both of Court and Country which was formerly judged impossible because of the largeness of the one and weediness of the other yet providence judged fit to enamel this golden spirit with the black colour of adversity giving him an opportunity thereby to evidence that chance did not share with him in his vertue but that he could be vertuous not only without the assistance but even in spight of the resistance of that blind though ordinary helper or if chance played ever in his game it was because it knew none could be a loser who was associated to such a gamester and so that to which all thers were debtors was a debtor to him who thought it more princely to give than to receive The Synod had pained themselves oft to draw him to be their Leader thinking it easie to perswade a young Prince to be an absolute King and fore-seeing that he would be very
out and so evited lest else honest men should be cheated upon all occasions by soulless knaves Your sex is much obliged to this poor fellow said Agapeta for he hath vindicated you of that aspersion wherewith generally all men are tainted which is That all their passion is but simulate wherefore Sir I could wish to hear from you whether men can be really enamoured of such ugly faces at all and whether they can be so deeply taken with the best as to become distracted through missing them Madam replyed Megistus providence seems for ornament to have filled the gallery of this world with faces strangely different yet on the other hand when we consider how the most exquisit pencile is not able to draw two faces in nothing unlike we may judge that this variety hath been rather the effect of chance than pains and if we consider what a great variety of thoughts are to be found in the world there being some dependance betwixt thoughts and faces we need not admire the difference of faces for mans face being patched up of so many traits and colours and the eye which influenceth hugely upon the looks the face changing according to the difference of the eye as a picture doth by the several positions of an optick glasse being so varying in it self it is rather a wonder to see how two faces should be found any-wayes like than that two faces should be so dislike wherefore Nature having produced all men and women to be coupled together and nothing being so able to couple them as affection it hath given several inclinations to men and women whereby they are in a manner constrained to love those different faces for man being naturally incompleat needs a fellow-helper to accomplish him and as every piece will not serve to accomplish and fill up the vacant room of what is wanting neither is it enough that it be either greater or of better stuff So it is not sufficient to make a man love a woman that she is of nobler extraction richer or wittier than her whom he loves no that is not sufficient for it is likewise requisit that she be exactly adapted to his fancy for if all men loved only those who were wise rich or noble there being many women who can pretend to neither there should be many who behoved for ever to live unmarried and albeit a man may think that he could marry any of many hundreds whom he sees yet he is in that mistaken Not unlike an Artisan who takes up several pieces thinking them fit enough to fill a void which when he applies he finds most unfit And the difference of the eyes which look makes the difference oft of what is looked upon for as in a plain glasse that object seems great which is lessened much by a concave mirrour so some eyes judge that beautifull which others account ugly and if reason were imployed as the only proxenet yet we should see as much of this variety in the love of faces as we see there is in the love of opinions and as there is no opinion so absurd but it will still find a patron so there should be no face so ugly but it should find a lover And seing there would be such different choices even albeit reason were umpire what may we expect from fancy whose acts being but simple apprehensions must be more different than the acts of the judgment which never traces in any path except where reason is its guide And as to the other question which your Ladyship proposed Whether loves storms may blow so furiously as to shatter our reason and may appear so terrible as to fright us out of our wits I believe certainly Madam that it may for as a person may over-reach himself so to the effect that he may grasp that which is placed in a high place above him that he may disjoynt his body thereby so the soul of man may endeavour so to reach up the hand of desire that it may disjoynt it self by its nimious attempt and a mans reason may flie for shame to see it self so disappointed as that what it desired most to enjoy should be enjoyed by another And as the body may weary it self so in hunting and traversing to and fro as that it may by that immoderat travel fall in some uncurable disease so the soul may by too anxious cares run it self in some insuperable distemper Neither can I blame altogether such a generous wit as scorns to out-live its own felicity and who desires to understand nothing after he understands that his Mistris disaffections him for then the wit which formerly served him as an ornamenâ— will then serve him only as a torturer And such a lover may appositly be compared to one who draws a cord or any thing else to him with such vehemency that if it break he must undoubtedly fall and his wits may be said to leave their old residence that they may by roaving up and down try if they can find her whom they so much admire and adore so intensly Yet Madam albeit I revere passionatly that divine vertue Love I cannot notwithstanding but hate that species of it which being nursed by avarice languishes thereafter in discontentment and no wonder that such foul milk should occasion an ill tempered complexion neither can I comprehend how true lovers can be soldered together by gold a mettal which the gods seems to have hid in the bowels of the earth lest our avarice should have taken notice of it must that dross which carries only the impressa of some Monarch be preferred to the rich mettal of true love which bears the effigies of the immortal gods and which is only forged in heavens mint-house whence nothing that is impure proceeds and where nothing that is pure is lacking And must the Suns bastard be preferred to that celestial off-spring Are Venus chains become weaker than formerly through too much usage or hath the Suns continued influence refined gold to a greater excellency than it was of in the dayes of our predecessors Can avarice which ingendreth murders rapines thefts and rebellion be the parent of so divine and heroick vertues or can that which cannot incite a man to the acts of generation be the basis of that whereby all true generation is warranted as also there is much imprudence in this choice for gold having made a man dispense with the tenderness lameness or uncomliness of a wife she brings him forth such children as that their ugly shapes and crabbed humours makes him ashamed to term himself their father and who needs more money to patch up those imperfections in each of them when they are to be matched than he received by his match with their mother beside what treasure he must squander daily amongst Physicians and Apothecaries from whom they must buy a lease of their life to maintain that ruinous fabrick which totters from the first day it was founded neither need I swell up this sum of
pestilential humours suffereth some to be dissatisfied who running to their arms flocked to one Philenus a Thracian Nobleman whom he had immediatly upon his return secured and whom he caused the Jaylor suffer now to escape who rendevouzed shortly six thousand men for he expected if not to gain the field by fighting yet at least to ensure his life and estate by capitulation to which effect he writes presently to Philarites promising to draw all under his command to his Highness obedience upon the security of his life and fortune This Philarites no sooner received but he dispatches copies of it to his Agents in Philenus Armie who disseminate amongst the Soldiery Philenus treachery who used them only as means to gain his own and not their peace which so alienated the hearts of his dependers from him that they quit him peice-meal whereof Philarites who with two Regiments of Horse waited this occasion being ascertained falls upon him and his Confederates and suffers few of them to escape which catastrophe of these bold rebels brought the Nation to its former obedience Let us again glance a little at Aretina upon whom Ophni Duke of Iris had look'd through the prospect of respect which usually aggrandizes all things that are represented by it which dye had tinctured so all his thoughts as that neither the soap of pains nor the Fullers earth of reason were able to return them to their former colour love being like pitch which no sooner touches than it sticks and which when it once sticks can hardly be removed wherfore finding that this barbed arrow which Cupid had stuck in him could not be drawn back without leaving its head in the wound he resolves to drive it forward and resolves either to lose himself or to gain her seing without her he concluded himself fit for nothing and albeit the vastness of her fortunes being only heir to a potent Duke were golden mountains over which his meaner condition being low in his estate could scarce scramble and which being past the difficulties were not yet all overcome for she was yet fortified by her fathers honours and her own beauty to batter all which ramperts he could bring no other engyns besides those of importunity patience and confidence but alas poor Ophni the fort of her affection is strongly manned by the high thoughts she hath of Philarites and is provisioned daily by the perswasions and cunning of Megistus and Agapeta and all the avennues of her servants and familiars are already blocked up with gold cemented with civility by Philarites during his last residence at Court and as to thy pains these small ordnance will never reach her love being like to these shapes which are casten in a mould which if they be not rightly moulded at the very first can never or at least hardly be helpt by any future endeavours and the wild fancy is of the nature of all other untamed beasts which must be taken at a start else can hardly be laid hold upon He endeavours by company to conjure away these hopgoblin fancies but all in vain for albeit whilst he is with his friends it leaves him yet no sooner leaves he them but instantly it returns to him for albeit a melancholian may like an ill-going clock have the index of his humour put right by the hand of a friend or of company yet the in-works of his soul being distempered by that corrupt rust he will presently run wrong as formerly Finding no solacement here he wanders in woods and groves the ordinary galleries of such enamorato's but there he is more distempered than formerly for those fancies which could not follow him foot for foot in the crowd of Court finds now room to walk side for side with him for meditation being but a digested representation of what species and ideas were hudled up in the memory formerly it can do nothing else but make a more of what was but a much formerly and so if it find a man to have much prudence or piety it will make him to have more of both whereas if it find him to have much impiety or passion it will screw them up to a greater height and hence springs that proverb that a solitary person must be either a Saint or a Devil for it being an extraordinary custom it must argue an extraordinary genius and albeit meditation be a mirrour wherein one may see himself represented without errour or flattery yet it is such a mirrour as is the Sea which if troubled can represent no object whatsoever Even so if meditation be tossed with the storms of passion its surface can represent nothing but horrour And man being sociable naturally as we see by all the faculties of his soul and number of his senses which were useless if he were cloistred up in an Hermitage for why was the tongue given him but to express to others his own thoughts and to answer theirs why his ears but to hear others c. doubtless therefore his retiredness must be supernatural and so either angelical or diabolick And the gods by distributing some perfections to one some to another have necessitated us either not to aim at any further accomplishment or if we do to learn it from one another and how can that be done but in society As also in heaven we shall be fully happy and yet there shall be there no hermitages but we shall cleave together which evidences that hermitage and happiness roul not upon the same axletree But neither could Ophni sing a requiem to his passion here for his love presents to him the disparity of their fortunes and this starts avarice his love musterâ— to him all those who may pretend to be his rivals and that starts up his envie or at least a passion less vertuous than emulation his love terrifies him with the numbers of her fathers honours and that puffs up his ambition And thus hounded by all these raging passions he knows not where to run nor how to shelter he tumbles down upon the ground as if like an itchy horse he meant to ease himself by rubbing with it and immediately starting up with his arms crost he pawes with his foot as if he intended to beat the earth because it could not relieve him but finding the earth could not help him he throws up his eyes to heaven an ordinary posture even amongst disconsolat Atheists fore-ordained by providence to prove their dependance upon supernal powers thinking that the other goddesses had taken her up there to be their colleague After this he turns to the by-running streams but they glide away so swiftly as that they will not stay to hear him and the fishes as if it were in derision leaps up to shew him what a priceless thing is freedom The inhospital air likewise to aggrege his misfortunes no sooner receives his doleances but each part of it as if it were weary of them posts them away immediatly to another part yet remoter and at last refuses flatly