rightful Heir of mine own Body was I forward at all these times to acknowledge thee the GOD of my support and comfort and shall I now question thy voice when thou demandest but a part of thine own Benefits No my dear Isaac although the Heavens know how much I love thee yet if thou wert or couldest be millions of times more precious in the eyes of thy trembling Father I would summon together all the strength of mine aged Limbs to render thee unto that gracious GOD from whom I had thee Alas poor Boy how sweetly thou slumbrest and in thy harmless Bed dost little think what change is towards thee but I must disturb thy rest Isaac arise and call up my Servants bid them prepare for a journey vvhich vve are to make unto the Mount Moriah and let some Wood be carried for the burning of a Sacrifice Mean while I will walk out a little by my self to contemplate the declining Stars and the approach of the Morning O ye Ornaments of the Sky who when all the World is silent obey your Maker in the determinate Order of your Motions Can Man behold his own duty in a fairer Volume why then stand I gazing here and do not rather go my self to hasten my Servants that I may execute his Will But stay His Will Why Is his Will contrary to the example of his own Justice Did he not heavily punish Cain even at the beginning of the first World for killing but a Brother and can I stay my Child and imbrue my hands in mine own Bowels without offence of his Immortal Majesty Yes why not The Act of Cain was the Act of his own sinful malice but I have received an immediate Command from God himself A Command Why Is his Command against his Law shall the Fountain of all Truth be served with Contradictions Did not the same God streight after the universal Deluge as our Fathers have told us denounce this Judgement That whoso sheddeth mans blood his blood shall be shed How then can I herein obey my God but I must withal disobey Him O my weak Soul what poor Arguments doest thou search to cover thine own rebellious Affections Is there any Warrant higher then his Will or any better Interpreter of his Will then himself If the Princes of the Earth who are but mortal Types of his invisible Glory can alter their Edicts at pleasure shall not the Lord of the whole whom Angels and Men adore have leave to dispence with his own Prohibitions Yes surely But then how shall the Blessing that my good God hath determined upon my Seed and even upon this very Child be accomplished if I destroy the Root O Lord was not thy Divine goodness pleased in the depth of thy Mercy to accept my Belief for Righteousness and shall I now frustrate thy Promises with my Obedience But what am I fallen again into a new Reluctation Have I before contested with thy Justice and shall I now dispute thy Power Didst thou not create the Light before the Sun and the effect before the cause and shall I bind thee to the Passions of a natural Agent Didst thou not make this All of Nothing even by thy Word which was thy Wisdom and foment all that thou hast made by thy Spirit which is thy Love and shall I doubt but thou canst raise innumerable Nations out of the very Ashes of my poor Isaac Nay did I not even at first receive him in a manner from a dead Womb and art not thou still the same Almighty and ever living God Merciful Father full of all tenderness and compassion that seest from Heaven whereof we are made Pardon my Discourses and forget my Delays I am now going to perform thy good Pleasure And yet there is remaining one humble Suit which refuse not O my God though it proceed from the weakness of thine unworthy Creature Take my Child and all that is mine I have resigned him with my whole Heart unto thy Will He is already thine and mine no longer and I glory that he shall die upon thy holy Altar But yet I fear withal that these my shaking hands and fainting Limbs vvill be seized vvith horror be not therefore Dear Lord displeased if I use my Servants in the Execution How now my Soul doest thou shrink in the last Act of thy Loyalty Can I yet vvalk up and down about vile and ordinary Functions and vvhen my God is to be served do my Joynts and Members fail me Have I humbled my desires to his Will and shall I deny him the choice of his own Instrument Or if his indulgent Mercy would permit it shall I suffer another to anticipate the chearfulness of my Obedience O thou great God of Life and Death who mightest have made me an insensible Plant a dead Stone or a poysonous Serpent and yet even in that likewise I should have conduced to the variety of thy glorious Wisdom but hast vouchsafed to endue us vvith the form of Man and to breath into our first Parent that spark of thy Divine Light vvhich vve call Reason to comprehend and acknowledge therewith thy high and indisputable Soveraignty over all Nature Thou then Eternal maker and Mover whose Will is the first of Causes and whose Glory is the last of Ends direct my Feet to the Place which thou hast appointed strengthen there these poor Hands to accomplish thy Pleasure and let Heaven and Earth obey thee A MEDITATION UPON CHRISTMAS-DAY Of the Birth and Pilgrimage of our Saviour CHRIRT on Earth O Glorious Morning wherein was born the Expectation of Nations and wherein the long Suspired Redeemer of the World did 〈◊〉 his Prophets had cryed rent the Heavens and come down in the Vesture of Humanity Thou that by the Vertue of the Highest wert conceived in the Womb of an inviolate Virgin of all Women the most blessed and yet more blessed by being thy Daughter and thy Servant then thy Mother Thou at whose Birth the Quire of Heaven did sing Hallelujahs and Angels made haste to acquaint even Shepherds with the news Stay my Soul before I go further and crave leave of thy Lord to ask some Questions Why wouldest thou be first made known to the meanest condition of Men why were they sent to see their Saviour not in some gorgeous Palace but in the vilest Room of a common Inn and instead of a Cradle decked with Rich Imbroideries lying in a Despicable Manger Why didst Thou not choose for the Place of thy blessed Mothers Delivery either Athens the Learned or Rome the Imperial or Ierusalem the Holy City Or since poor Bethlehem by thy Prophets prediction must receive that Honour why didst Thou not send Millions of Cherubims and Seraphims before Thee for thy Harbingers No my God it was Thy Will it was Thy Will which is the highest of Reasons by thy low beginning in the flesh to confound all Pride and to teach the Glories of the Earth to blush Yet thus born and thus
homely received behold a new Star descending to illustrate thy obscurity and to conduct the Wise Men of the East now wise indeed with their choicest Presents to adore Thee O strange Phaenomenon Did ever Hipparchus or the great Trismegist or the greater Moses or all the Aegyptian Gazers contemplate before such a Planet So irregular so excentrical as if the Celestial Lights had forsaken their proper Motions and Position to welcome the Lord of all Nature into the World And now in the Course of Thy precious Life what shall I first what shall I most admire All is depth all is wonder and amazement Shall I first Celebrate Thy ever-blessed Name for convincing the great Doctors of the Law at twelve years of Thine Age when Thy Divine Essence began to blaze which had lain before as it were slumbring in the Vail of Thy Manhood Or shall I pass from this Miracle of Knowledg to Thy Miracles os Charity in healing the Blind the Lame the Deaf the Dumb Or shall I more insist upon the Acts of Thy Power in checking the Winds in walking on the Waves in raising the Dead in ejecting the impure Spirits Or shall I remain stupified as all the Learnedest part of the World was which lay grovelling in the Contemplation of Inferiour Causes that at Thy Coming all their false Oracles and Delusions were strucken mute and nothing to be heard at Delphos or Hammon Or shall I contemplate that at Thy Passion all Nature did suffer the Earth did shake and the Heavens were darkened Or lastly after Thou hadst triumphed over Death and Hell whose Keys are in thine hand shall I glorifie Thy Assumption into the Highest Heavens Yes Lord all this and much more there is then the whole World can contain if it were written Yet one thing remains even after Thy glorious Departure for the comfort of our Souls above all the Miracles of Thy Goodness and of Thy Power That Thou hast dispensed Thy saving Doctrine unto curious Men not only by Eloquent Sophists and Subtil School-men such as have since distracted and torn thy Church in pieces but by the simpliest and silliest Instruments so as it must needs be Thy Divine Truth since it was impressed by no Humane Means For give me leave again my dear Lord to demand in the Extasie and Admiration of one of Thy blessed Vessels Where is the Wise Where is the Scribe Where is the Disputer of this World How should we have known how should we have apprehended Thy Eternal Generation if Thou hadst not been pleased to vouchsafe a silly Fisherman to lean on Thy Breast and to inspire him to tell us from his Boat that In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God Therefore to Thee Thou Incarnate Word and Wisdom of the Father Thou only true Messias in whom all Prophecies are accomplished and in whom the Will of God and the Desires of Men are fulfilled look down upon us Thy unworthy Creatures from where Thou sittest in Thy Glory Teach us Thy Love but such a Love as doth fear to offend Thee Teach us Thy Fear but such a Fear as first doth love Thee And indue us with Thy Grace whilest by Thy Permission we walk on this Globe which Thy blessed Feet have troden to solemnize this Day of Thy Nativity not with wanton Jollities but with Hymns of Joy and Meditations of like Comfort LETTERS TO SEVERALL PERSONS LETTERS TO SEVERAL PERSONS To Sir Arthur Throckmorton SIR I Have been desirous of some fit opportunity to render you humble thanks for a very kind Letter which I received from you and I cannot have a fitter then by the return of this Gentleman who beareth much devotion to your Name I will therefore by his honest hand present you the service of a poor Scholar for that is the highest of my own Titles and in truth the farthest end of my Ambition This other Honour wherewith it hath pleased His Majesty to cloath my unworthiness belonging unproperly unto me who I hope am both born and formed in my Education fitter to be an Instrument of Truth then of Art In the mean while till His Majesty shall resolve me again into my own plain and simple Elements I have abroad done my poor endeavour according to these occasions which God hath opened This Gentleman leaveth Italy in present tranquillity though not without a little fear of some alteration on the side of Savoy Which Prince seemeth to have great and unquiet thoughts and I think they will lack no fomentation from abroad Therefore after the remembrance of my most affectionate poor service to your self and to my Honourable Ladies your Wife and Daughters and your whole House with which we are now so particularly conjoyned I commit You and Them to our mercifull God Your willing Servant HENRY WOTTON To Sir Arthur Throckmorton SIR I Am sorry that having so good opportunity to write unto you joyned with so much Obligation I have withal so little matter at the present yet I will entertain you with a few Rapsodieâ—… My Lord my Brother is returned a day sooner then he thought out of Kent for that the King who is now at Hampton-Court hath appointed all his Counsellors and all the Judges to meet Him here to morrow about matters of the Mint as it is voiced perhaps to cover some greater Subject and yet Money is a great one On Saturday the King goeth to Windsor there to honour with his presence both his Sons and his Favourites at their Instalments On Sunday last the new Venetian Ambassador had his first Audience at Greenwich at which time the old took his leave and received from the King three Honours An addition of the English Lion to his Coat-Armour Knight-hood and the Sword with the Furniture from the Kings side wherewith he had Knighted him which last being more then was done to any of his Predecessors and done to him who had deserved less then any is enough to prove that wise Kings know how to do graces and hide affections so mystical things are Courts Now to lead you a little abroad for I have no more to say within our own visible Horizon We have advice out of Germany that they have extorted from the Emperour his consent to make Matthias King of the Romans so as having first spoiled him of obedience and reverence next of his estates and titles they have now reduced him to so low a case that he is no longer Patron of his own voice Howsoever this violent cure is likely to settle the Motions of Germany out of which Countrey when they are quiet at home they may perhaps send us some suiters hither This is all Sir that I can write at the present which is your advantage for if there had been more you had been further troubled And so with many hearty thanks for your kind Letters and with many hearty wishes for the prosperity of your whole House I humbly rest May 8. 1611. Your
little tri'd To live without him lik'd it not and di'd H. W This Hymn was made by Sir H. Wotton when he was an Ambassador at Venice in the time of a great sickness there ETernal Mover vvhose diffused Glory To shevv our groveling Reason vvhat thou art Unfolds it self in Clouds of Natures story VVhere Man thy proudest Creature acts his part VVhom yet alas I knovv not vvhy vve call The VVorlds contracted sum the little all For vvhat are vve but lumps of vvalking clay Why should we swel whence should our spirits rise Are not bruit Beasts as strong and Birds as gay Trees longer liv'd and creeping things as vvise Only our souls vvas left an inward light To feel our vveakness and confess thy might Thou then our strength Father of life and death To whom our thanks our vows our selves we owe From me thy tenant of this fading breath Accept those lines vvhich from thy goodness flovv And thou that vvert thy Regal Prophets Muse Do not thy Praise in vveaker strains refuse Let these poor Notes ascend unto thy throne Where Majesty doth sit with Mercy crown'd Where my Redeemer lives in whom alone The errours of my wandring life are drown'd Where all the Quire of heaven resound the same That only Thine Thine is the saving Name Well then my Soul joy in the midst of Pain Thy Christ that conquer'd hell shall from above With greater triumph yet return again And conquer his own Iustice with his Love Commanding Earth and Seas to render those Unto his Bliss for whom he paid his Woes Now have I done now are my thoughts at peace And now my Joyes are stronger then my grief I feel those Comforts that shall never cease Future in Hope but present in Belief Thy words are true thy promises are just And thou wilt find thy dearly bought in Dust. H. WOTTON POEMS Found among the Papers of Sir HENRY WOTTON A Description of the Countreys Recreations QUivering fears Heart-tearing cares Anxious sighs Untimely tears Fly fly to the Courts Fly to fond worldlings sports Where strain'd Sardonick smiles are glosing still And grief is forc'd to laugh against her will Where mirth 's but mummery And sorrows only real be Fly from our Countrey pastimes fly Sad troop of humane misery Come serene looks Clear as the Chrystal brooks Or the pure azur'd heaven that smiles to see The rich attendance of our poverty Peace and a secure mind Which all men seek we only find Abused Mortals did you know Where Joy Hearts-ease and comforts grow You 'd scorn proud towers And seek them in these bowers shake Where winds sometimes our woods perhaps may But blustring care could never tempest make Nor murmurs e're come nigh us Saving of fountains that glide by us Here 's no fantastick Mask nor dance But of our Kids that frisk and prance Nor wars are seen Unless upon the green Two harmless Lambs are butting one the other Which done both bleating run each to his Mother And wounds are never found Save what the Plow-share gives the ground Here are no false entrapping baits To hasten too too hasty fates Unless it be The fond Credulity Of silly fish vvhich vvorldling-like still look Upon the Bait but never on the Hook Nor envy unless among The Birds for prize of their sweet song Go let the diving Negro seek For Gems hid in some forlorn creek VVe all Pearls scorn Save vvhat the dewy morn Congeals upon each little spire of grass VVhich careless Shepherds beat down as they pass And gold ne're here appears Save vvhat the yellow Ceres bears Blest silent Groves ô may ye be For ever Mirths best Nursery May pure contents For ever pitch their tents Mountains Upon these Downs these Meads these Rocks these And peace still slumber by these purling Fountains VVhich vve may every year Find vvhen vve come a fishing here Ignoto Imitatio Horatianae Odes 9. donec gratus eram tibi Lib. 3. A DIALOGUE betwixt GOD and the SOUL Soul WHilst my Souls eye beheld no light sight But vvhat stream'd from thy gracious To me the vvorlds greatest King Seem'd but some little vulgar thing God VVhilst thou prov'dst pure and that in thee I could glass all my Diety How glad did I from Heaven depart To find a lodging in thy heart S. Now Fame and Greatness bear the sway 'T is they that hold my prisons Key For vvhom my soul vvould die might she Leave them her Immortalitie G. I and some few pure Souls conspire And burn both in a mutual fire For vvhom I 'ld die once more ere they Should miss of Heavens eternal day S. But Lord vvhat if I turn again And vvith an adamantine chain Lock me to thee VVhat if I chase The vvorld away to give thee place G. Then though these souls in vvhom I joy Are Seraphius Thou but a toy A foolish toy yet once more I VVould vvith thee live and for thee die Ignoto Doctor B. of TEARS WHo vvould have thought there could have Such joy in tears vvept for our sin bin Mine eyes have seen my heart hath prov'd The most and best of earthly joyes The sweets of love and being lov'd Masks Feasts and Playes and such like toyes Yet this one tear vvhich now doth fall In true delight exceeds them all 2. Indeed mine eyes at first let in Those guests that did these vvoes begin Therefore mine eyes in tears and grief Are justly drown'd but that those tears Should comfort bring is past belief Oh God! in this thy grace appears Thou that mak'st light from darkness spring Mak'st joyes to vveep and sorrows sing 3. Oh vvhere am I vvhat may I think Help help alas my heart doth sink Thus lost in seas of vvoe Thus laden vvith my sin Waves of despair dash in And threat my overthrow What heart opprest vvith such a vveight Can chuse but break and perish quite 4. Yet as at Sea in storms men use The Ship to save the goods to lose So in this fearfull storm This danger to prevent Before all hope be spent I 'le chuse the lesser harm My tears to seas I vvill convert And drown my eyes to save my heart 5. Oh God my God vvhat shall I give To thee in thanks I am and live In thee and thou didst safe preserve My health my fame my goods my rent Thou mak'st me eat vvhile others sterve Such unto me thy Blessings are As if I vvere thy only care 6. But oh my God! thou art more kind When I look inward on my mind Thou fill'st my heart vvith humble joy With patience meekness fervent love Which doth all other loves destroy With faith vvhich nothing can remove And hope assur'd of heavens bliss This is my state thy grace is this By Chidick Tychborn being young and then in the Tower the night before his Execution 1. MY prime of youth is but a frost of Cares My feast of joy is but a dish of pain My Crop of Corn is but a field of tares And
all my good is but vain hope of gain The day is past and yet I saw no Sun And now I live and now my life is done 2. The Spring is past and yet it hath not sprung The fruit is dead and yet the leaves are green My youth is gone and yet I am but young I saw the vvorld and yet I vvas not seen My thread is cut and yet it is not spun And now I live and now my life is done 3. I sought my death and found it in my womb I look'd for life and saw it was a shade I trod the earth and knew it was my tomb And now I die and now I am but made The glass is full and now my glass is run And now I live and now my life is done 1. RIse oh my Soul with thy desires to Heaven And with Divinest contemplation use Thy time where times eternity is given buse And let vain thoughts no more thy thoughts aâ—… But down in darkness let them lie So live thy better let thy worse thoughts die 2. And thou my Soul inspir'd with holy flame View and review with most regardful eye That holy Cross whence thy salvation came On which thy Saviour and thy sin did die For in that Sacred object is much pleasure And in that Saviour is my life my treasure 3. To thee O Jesu I direct my eye To thee my hands to thee my humble knees To thee my heart shall offer sacrifice To thee my thoughts who my thoughts only sees To thee my self my self and all I give To thee I die to thee I only live Ignoto Sir Walter Raleigh the Night before his Death EVen such is time that takes on trust Our youth our joyes our all we have And pays us but with age and dust Who in the dark and silent Grave When we have wandred all our ways Shuts up the story of our days But from this earth this grave this dust My God shall raise me up I trust W. R. The World THe World 's a bubble and the life of man less then a span In his conception wretched from the womb so to the tomb Nurst from his cradle and brought up to years with cares and fears Who then to frail mortality shall trust But limns on water or but writes in dust Yet whilst with sorrow here we live opprest what life is best Courts are but only superficial Schools to dandle Fools The rural part is turn'd into a den of savage men And where 's a City from foul vice so free But may be term'd the worst of all the three Domestick cares afflicts the Husbands bed or pains his head Those that live single take it for a curse or do things worse none These would have children those that have them or wish them gone What is it then to have or have no wife But single thraldom or a double strife Our own affections still at home to please is a disease To cross the Seas to any forreign soil peril and toil Wars with their noise affright us when they cease w' are worse in peace What then remains but that we still should cry For being born and being born to die Fra. Lord Bacon De Morte MAns life 's a Tragedy his mothers womb From which he enters is the tyring room This spacious earth the Theater and the Stage That Country which he lives in Passions Rage Folly and Vice are Actors The first cry The Prologue to th' ensuing Tragedy The former act consisteth of dumb shows The second he to more perfection grows I' th third he is a man and doth begin To nurture vice and act the deeds of sin I' th fourth declines i' th fifth diseases clog And trouble him then Death 's his Epilogue Ignoto EPIGRAM IF breath were made for every man to buy The poor man could not live rich would not die John Hoskins to his little Child Benjamin from the Tower SWeet Benjamin since thou art young And hast not yet the use of tongue Make it thy slave while thou art free Imprison it lest it do thee LETTERS TO Sir EDMUND BACON SIR IT is very just since I cannot personally accompany this Gentleman yet that I do it with my Letter wherein if I could transport the Image of mine own mind unto you as lively as we have often represented you unto our selves abroad then I should not think us asunder while you read it But of my longing to see you I am a better feeler then a describer as likewise of my obligations towards you whereof it is not the least that I have been by your mediation and judgement and love furnished with so excellent a Comforter of my absence and so loving and discreet a divider and easer of my Travels after whose separation from me I am ready to say that which I remember the younger Pliny doth utter with much feeling after the loss of his venerable and dearest Friend Cerellius Rufus Vereor saith he ne posthac negligentius vivam But herein my case is bettter then his for I cannot but hope that some good occasion will bring him again nearer me And I must confess unto you I should be glad to see him planted for a while about the King or Prince that so if his own fortune be not mended by the Court yet the Court may be bettered by him in that which it doth more desperately want Now Sir Besides himself there cometh unto you with him an Italian Doctor of Physick by name Gasperâ—… Despotini a man well practised in his own faculty and very Philosophical and sound in his discourses By birth a Venetian which though it be not Urbs ignobilis as Saint Paul said of his own Mother-City yet is his second birth the more excellent I mean his illumination in Gods saving Truth which was the only cause of his remove and I was glad to be the conductor of him where his conscience may be free though his condition otherwise till he shall be known will be the poorer This Stranger I was desirous to present unto you as my friend in his company whose testimony may more value him then mine own And so committing them both to your love and your self with all that family to Gods blessing hand I rest From my Lodging in Kings-street April 2. 1611. Your poor Friend and Servant H. WOTTON SIR IT is late at night and I am but newly come to the knowledge that my Lord is to send a Messenger unto you to morrow morning yet howsoever I have resolved not to be left out of this dispatch though in truth I had rather be the sootman my self then one of the Writers But here I am tied about mine own business which I have told you like a true Courtier for right Courtiers indeed have no other business but themselves Our Lord Jesus bless you all as you are now together and wheresoever you shall be From Greenwich May 27. 1611. Your Uncle by your own election and your Servant by mine
or the Placing of the Parts whereof the first sort howsoever usually set down by Architects as a piece of their Profession yet are in truth borrowed from other Learnings there being between Arts and Sciences as well as between Men a kind of good fellowship and communication of their Principles For you shall finde some of them to be meerly Physical touching the quality and temper of the Aire which being a perpetual ambient and ingredient and the defects thereof incorrigible in single Habitations which I most intend doth in those respects require the more exquisite caution That it be not too gross nor too penetrative Not subject to any foggy noisomness from Pens or Marshes neer adjoyning nor to Mineral Exhalations from the Soil it self Not indigested for want of Sun Not unexercised for want of Wind which were to live as it were in a Lake or standing Pool of Aire as Alberti the Florentine Architect doth ingeniously compare it Some do rather seem a little Astrological as when they warn us from places of malign Influence where Earth-quakes Contagions Prodigious births or the like are frequent without any evident cause whereof the Consideration is peredventure not altogether vain Some are plainly Oeconomical as that the Seat be well watered and well fuelled that it be not of too steep and incommodious Access to the trouble both of Friends and Family that it lye not too far from some Navigable River or Arm of the Sea for more ease of provision and such other Domestic notes Some again may be said to be Optical Such I mean as concern the Properties of a well chosen Prospect which I will call the Royalty of Sight For as there is a Lordship as it were of the Fee wherein the Master doth much joy when he walketh about the Line of his own Possessions So there is a Lordship likewise of the Eye which being a Ranging and Imperious and I might say an Usurping Sense can indure no narrow Circumscription but must be fed both with extent and variety Yet on the other side I find vast and indifinite views which drown all apprehension of the uttermost Objects condemned by good Authors as if thereby some part of the pleasure whereof we speak did perish Lastly I remember a private Caution which I know not well how to sort unless I should call it Political By no means to build too neer a great Neighbour which were in truth to be as unfortunately seated on the Earth as Mercury is in the Heavens for the most part ever in combustion or obscurity under brighter beams then his own From these several Knowledges as I have said and perhaps from some other do Architects derive their Doctrine about Election of Seats wherein I have not been so severe as a great Scholer of our time who precisely restraineth a perfect Situation at least for the maine point of health Ad locum contra quem Sol radios suos fundit cum sub Ariete oritur That is in a word he would have the first Salutation of the Spring But such Notes as these wheresoever we find them in grave or slight Authours are to my conceit rather Wishes then Precepts and in that quality I will pass them over Yet I must withal say That in the seating of our selves which is a kind of Marriage to a Place Builders should be as circumspect as Wooers lest when all is done that Doom befall us which our Master doth lay upon Mytelene A Town in truth saith he finely built but foolishly planted And so much touching that which I termed the Total Posture The next in Order is the placing of the Parts About which to leave as little as I may in my present labour unto Fancie which is wild and irregular I will propound a Rule of mine own Collection upon which I fell in this manner I had noted that all Art was then in truest perfection when it might be reduced to some natural Principle For what are the most judicious Artisans but the Mimiques of Nature This led me to contemplate the Fabrick of our own bodies wherein the High Architect of the World had displayed such skill as did stupifie all humane Reason There I found the Heart as the Fountain of Life placed about the Middle for the more equal communication of the vital spirits The Eyes seated aloft that they might describe the greater Circle within their view The Arms projected on each side for ease of reaching Briefly not to lose our selves in this speculation it plainly appeareth as a Maxime drawn from the Divine Light That the Place of every part is to be determined by the Use. So then from Natural Structure to proceed to Artificial and in the rudest things to preserve some Image of the excellentest Let all the principal Chambers of Delight all Studies and Libraries be toward the East For the Morning is a Friend to the Muses All Offices that require heat as Kitchins Stillatories Stoves rooms for baking brewing washing or the like would be Meridional All that need a cool and fresh temper as Cellers Pantries Butteries Granaries to the North. To the same side likewise all that are appointed for gentle Motion as Galleries especially in warme Climes or that otherwise require a steady and unvariable light as Pinacothecia saith Vitruvius by which he intendeth if I might guess at his Greek as we must do often even at his Latin certain Repositories for works of Rarity in Picture or other Arts by the Italians called Studioli which at any other Quarter where the course of the Sun doth diversifie the Shadows would lose much of their grace And by this Rule having alwayes regard to the Use any other Part may be fitly accommodated I must here not omit to note That the Ancient Grecians and the Romans by their example in their Buildings abroad where the Seat was free did almost Religiously situate the Front of their Houses towards the South perhaps that the Masters Eye when he came home might not be dazled or that being illustrated by the Sun it might yield the more graceful Aspect or some such reason But from this the Modern Italians do vary whereof I shall speak more in another place Let thus much suffice at the present for the Position of the several Members wherein must be had as our Authour doth often insinuate and especially lib. 6. cap. 10. a singular regard to the nature of the Region Every Nation being tyed above all Rules whatsoever to a discretion of providing against their own Inconveniences And therefore a good Parlour in Aegypt would perchance make a good Cellar in England There now followeth the second Branch of the general Section touching the Work In the Work I will first consider the principal parts and afterwards the Accessory or Ornaments And in the Principal first the Preparation of the Materials and then the Disposition which is the Form Now concerning the Material Part Although surely it cannot disgrace an Architect which doth so well