almost incurable A talkative fellow is the unbrac'd drum which beats a wise man out of his wits Love LOve in the interpretation of the envious is sofâ—ness in the wicked good men suspect it for lust and in the good some spiritual men have given it the name oâ— Charity And these are but terms to this which seems a more considerate defâ—nition That indefinite Love is Lust and Lust when it is determinâ—d to one is Love This definition â—oo does but intrude it self on what I was about to say which is and spoken with soberness though like a Lay-man that Love is the most acceptable imposition of nature the cause and preservation of life and the very healthfulness of the minde as well as of the body But Lust our raging feaver is more dangerous in Cities then the Calenture in ships Sir William Davenant in his Preface to Gondibert Love in the most obnoxious interpretation is natures preparative to her greatest works which is the making of life ibid. Love in humane nature is both the source and center of all passionâ— for not only hope fâ—ar and joy but even anger and hatred rise first out of the spring of love Mr. Montagu To be in love is the most intensive appropriaâ—ion of all the powers of our minde to one design ibid. Sensual love is the most fatal plague among all passions It is not a simple malady but one composed of all the evils in the world it hath the shiverings and heats of Feavers the ach and prickings of the Meagrum the rage of Teeth the stupeâ—action of the Virâ—â—go the furies of Frenzie the black vapors of the Hypocondry the disturbances of the Waking the stupidities of the Lethargy the fits of the Falling-sickness the faintness of the Tysick the heavings of the passions of the heart the pangs of the Colick the infections of the Leprosie the venom of Vlcers the malignity of the Plague the putrifaction of the Gangrene and all which is hoâ—rible in nature Holy Court Love Care is thy Court Tyranny thy Raign Slaves thy Subjects Folly thy Attendance Lust thy Law Sin thy Service and Repentance thy Wages Fear breedeth Wit Anger is the cradle of courage Joy opens and enables the Heart Sorrow weakneth it but love is engendred betwixt lust and idleness his companions are unquietness longings fond comforts faint discomforts hopes jâ—alousies ungrounded rages causeless yieldings the highest end it aspires to is a little pleasure with much pain before and great repentance after At that time the flames of his chast love began to burn more forcible then ever He loved her with a love mingled with respect of merit and compassion of her persecuted innocency To love is natural not to love is monstrous H.C. Such was the unresistable force of his unlimitable affection that in spite of reason he was enforced to do homage unto passion Her love was a rich rock of defence against all Syrene songs It received such an impression of that wonderful passion which to be defined is impossible because no words reach to express the strange effects of it they only know it who inwardly feel it it is called Love He besought him not to make account of his speech which if it had been over passionate yet was it to be born withal because it proceeded out of an affection much more vehement Humanity enjoyns you to love me seeing I hold my life an easie sacrifice to enjoy you It is no pilgrimage to travel to your lips Worldly loves are the true Gardens of Adonis where wâ— can gather nothing but trivial flowers surrounded with many bryars Christian Diary A silent expression gives the pregnant'st testimony of a deep grounded affection where every look darts forth love Nothing shall have power to alien my love from you Let me draw from your look one blush of love or line of fancy Let me become an abject in the eyes of fame an object oâ— contempt to the world if my faithful devotion and observance supply not all my defects I am he who either you have great cause to love or no cause to hate She loved him as the pledge-bearer of her heart You towards whom I know not whether my love or admiration be greater Your affection hath got a Lordship in my thoughts Love to a yielding heart is a King but to a resisting is a Tyrant Sealing up all thoughts of love under the image of her memory The extream bent of my affection compells me to Love in the heart is an exhalation in a cloud it cannot continue idle there it daily forms a thousand imaginations and brings forth a thousand cares it findes out an infinity of inventions to advance the good of the beloved c. H.C. Death may end my life but not my love which as it is infinite must be immortal Him whose love went beyond the bounds of conceit much more of utterance that in her hands the ballance of his life or death did stand Such a love as mine wedded to vertue can never be so adulterated by any accident no nor yet ravish'd by passion as to bring forth a bastard disobedience whereof my very conscience not being able to accuse my thoughts I come to clear my self The proportion of my love is infinite So perfect a thing my love is to you as it suffers no question so it seems to receive injury by addition of any words unto it The more notable demonstrations you make of the love so far beyond my desert with which it pleaseth you to make me happy the more am I even in course of huâ—anity bâ—und to seek requitals witness Having embarked my careful love in the ship of my desire Good God! what sublimate is made in the lymbeck of Love His eyes were so eager in bâ—â—â—lding her that they were like those of the Bird that â—atches her eggs with her looks Stratonica He expected her at A. with so great impatience of love that he would have willingly hastned the course of the Sun to measure it by his affections He beholding her so accomplished easily felt the glances shot from her eyes were rays from her but arrows for his heart from whence he could receive nought but honorable wounds If you have as much confidence in me as I have love towards you Love is in effect a force pardon the exorbitancy of the word that is unresistable so strong a war is that which the appetite wageth against reason Then then in the pride of your perfections you paradized me in the heaven of your love The rare Idea that thus through the applause of mine eye hath bewitched my heart is the beautious image of your sweet self pardon me if I presume when the extremity of love pricks me forward Faults that grow by affection ought to be forgiven because they come of constraint Then Madam read with favor and censure with mercy Why should not that which is one rest in unity Bacon His bosom was the Cell wherein I hid my secrets
Self-condemning minde An un-Sun-seen cave Love-distilling tears This Heaven-displeasing war Liver-scalding lust Marble-hearted cruelty Time-beguiling pleasure This Blood-be-dabled Kingdom People-pleasing Lectures Corner-haunting lust A Life-Conferring form c. Formulae Majores OR COMMON PLACES Absence AS thou art the food of my thoughts the relief of my wishes and the onely life and repast of all my desires So is thy love to me a continual hunger and thine absence an extream famine In absence my grief grows in finding my present estate so weak in fortune and my desâ—rts so slender in nature that not knowing wâ—th Anthony how to requite his Cleopatra I onely rest with Anthony to dye for my Cleopatra Tell him my love doth burn like vestaâ— fire which with his memory richer then all â—pices disperseth odours round about my foul and did reâ—ress it when 't was dull and sad with thinking of his absence He more breathâ—d A.B. then the ayr it self and all her absences were to him so many deaths I want no part of welfare but your wished presence The love which he bare to her at her return was as a torrent which aâ—teâ— it hath a long time been restrained breaks the forced dammâ— and with vigorous impetuousness drowns the fields Holy Court Hoping forgetfulness which commonly waits upon absence might possess him he departed Since your absence melancholy hath been my Concomâ—tant and youâ— remembrance my greatest comfort I departed from you like a hungry infant pull'd from his nurses breast or a thirsty Hart chased from a sweet fountain Live I pray you in repose as much as you may during this absence and if my being away causes sorrow in you let the assurance of my affection diminish it forced a tedious separation of those sacred bodies whose souls are entirely link'd in divine affection Acknowledgement MY acknowledgement of your favours shall appear in my willingness to do you servâ—ce And my self shall not onely acknowledge this favour with humbâ—est thankfulness but c. The acknowledgement of your favours shall be my meanest thanks and to thank you for those favours must be my best acknowledgement I can do no more I will do no less They acknowledge with more or less degrees of homage some kinde of fealty It shâ—ll not be without a just confession of the bond your benefits have and ever shall hold upon me Affection THe construction of his Speech might best be made by the Grammer-Rules of affection It is the flaming Agony of affection that works the chilling access of your fever The coals of his affection were so kindled with wonder and blown with delight that Suffering neither his unworthyness nor his wrongs to cover with forgetfulness or diminish with consideration the affection she had born him to whom with words which affection endited but amazement uttered he delivered Looking down upon her from the high-top of affections Tower If you retain as yet any spark of affection which you have often given me witness of kiss this paper in remembrance of him who c. My affections no less love the light and witness then they have conscience of your vertue The high tide of overflowing affection restraining his tongue with astonishment as unable to express an unexpressable passion The blood of her face ebbing and flowing according to the tyde of affection He grafted his affection in the stock of her constanâ—y Testimoâ—ies of a never-silent hearty affection But perceiving his affection so grounded that striving against it did more anger then heal the wound and rather call his friendship in question then give place to any friendly Counsel The large testimony of your affection makes me willinâ— to suppresse a great number of errours She in an instant was made an unfortunate winter of affection To intrinsecate my self in your affection My affection shall finde no parallel in its well-wishes to you The tender tinder of his affection began to sparkle Striving to match her matchless beauty with a maâ—chless affection He whâ—se affection clymed by another stair In â—rue affection two so become one as they both become two Rel. Med. You in whom my affection holds a steady mansion Nor life nor death shall divorce my affection from you Upon what bryars the roses of his affection grow I conjure you to this by my affâ—ction that never had equal Ar. The sight of this place doth call my thoughts to appear at the Court of affection held by that 〈◊〉 Steward Remembrance Thâ—se lines â—epresent in the poverty of fancy the riches of my affâ—ction Good offices are the marks and ciment of true affection H.C. The heart is the Continent of affection Affection flows uncompelled Anger ANger is the feaver of the Soul which makes the tongue talk idle it puts a man into a tumult that he cannot hear what counsel speaks t is a raging sea a troubled waâ—er that cannot be wholsom for the use of aâ—y Feltham They are things below the merit of my indignation objects of scorn which a little slighted and not inflamed by opposition or countenanced to a reply by confutation will within a whilâ— of themselves extinguish and vanish like sâ—me dispersed roving winds which without encâ—unter are dispirited and dye Doctor Wats upon Bacon Beauty THen was plainly to be seen the Empire which humane beauty and an eloquent tongue have over earthly powers Beauty consists in complexion in lineaments and in harmony You are the most excellent star that shines in the bright element of Beauty Some became Petitioners and Prisoners to her Beauty others did homage to her vertues Beauty is to be reckoned but as an outward fading benefit that nature hath bestowed The Idol of beauty ought not to be honored with such oblations My eyes drank much more eagerly of her beauty then my mouth did of any other liquor Her face is such a spark of beauty as is able to enâ—â—ame a world of love She who in a definite compass can set forth infinite beauty The excellency of her returned beauty was a credible embassador of her health Where beauty is there needs no other plea. Sâ—ll not your soul for such a vanity as eye-pleasiâ—g beauty Vertue is nothing else but inward beauty and beauty nothing else but an outward vertue Bacon Making her beautiful beams to thaw away the former icyness of his Two sisters about whom as about two Poles the sky of Beauty was turned Rather then those eyes should over-flow their own beauties or the sky of your beauty should be over clouded with sorrow Beauty in the heaven of her face two Suns eclipsed was wrapped up in paleness Beauty which hath no grace is a bait floating on the water without a hook to be taken and to catch nothing Eustatius Beauty is like the herb Larix cool in the water but hot in the stomack I cannot but applaud the wonder of your beauty Such is the divine power of loves deity such the vertuous force of your heavenly beauty and such the happy issue of our decreed
a wind that against the tide can carry us mâ—rrily with it make us flie Feltham Desire so blew the fire of his new conceived rage that Desert HOw much my smâ—ll deserts are overballanced by your unspeakable goodnâ—ss You whose desert passâ—th my best endeavours of requiâ—all Iâ— flies to the sacred Alâ—ar of your immutable goodness set off with all the additions of greatness which nature or affection can throw upon unmatched desert Thiâ— is the hard fate my just merit hath encountred It is a matter so far above my merits that I 〈◊〉 not think upon iâ— without presumption Despair THe fire of mine affection was blown by the bellows of despair Despair of success was the hearse of his supposed idle thoughts Love wanting desire makes the mind desperate and fixed fancy â—erâ—ft of love turnes into fury My Lords I speak to minds too Noble to be stifled in the narrow conâ—inâ—s of fear follow your Prince whose vertue the spight of Fortune shall not wrack into despair Whilst I wear a hand commanded by a heart that knows no fear I shall not despair of Displeasure Yâ—uâ— displeasure is so contrary to my desâ—â—t and your wâ—rds so â—ar beyond all expectations that I have least abiliâ—y now I have mâ—st need to speak in the cause upon which my life depends What hath your poor servant deserved to have his own misfortune loadeâ— with your displeasure Eloquence ELoquence is a way of speech prevailing over thâ—se whom we design it prevail That is if we will take it in the short or Laconick way a distilling our notions into a quintessence or forming all our thoughts in a Cone and smiting with the point c. Mr. Hall in his Epistle before Longinus A man who filling the sails of Eloquence as easily moved his auditors as winds do the sands of Lybia which stir at their pleasure His Speech appeared in costly robes adorned with lofty and glorious language sweetned by many a pleasant and clear Simile quickned by divers acute and learned Criticismes My Cabinet enshrineth no such treasure Though I have not eloquence enough to win yet I hope to find language enough to perswade He was dazled with â—he brightness of her aspect buâ— when she bâ—gan to unloose her tongue never was Syren so attractive with songs as she with words 'T is a speech wherein the abundance of supereminent conceits choakes not the grace nor doth curiosity take any thing from the propriety thereâ—f Your maner of speech is indeed Prinâ—â—-like flowing aâ— frâ—m a fountain and yet streaming and branching it selâ— into Natures order full of facility and felicity imitating none and inimitable of any Bacon Your conceptions are inimitable your language sweet and polite your Sentences are ful of weight your Arguments of force and your Words glide along like a River and ever bear in them some slashes of lightning How greedily my ears did feed upon the sweet words she uttered Were not your affection stronger tied to the Orator then the Oratory I should not hope to perswade you that Her He with a fearless fashion thus bespake the audience Every accent falls like a fresh jewell to increase her value His masculine eloquence was thought worthiest to enjoy the maidenhead of the Cities attention Forcibly won by the smooth artifice of speech It is no small dominion the imagination hath in perswasions insinuated by the power of Eloquence Bac. You have truly found out the Philosophers stâ—ne for every gross matter you can convert into the gold of fine language Eloquâ—nce does commonly storm the mind of the Auditor and at length take him in Entertainment I want expression to give you the circumstance â—itâ— what a â—owing lâ—ve or rather with what 〈◊〉 deâ—oâ—ion I entertain you Gâ—at Ser. Yâ—u much honâ—r me for â—ill this white 〈◊〉 thâ—se walls were never proud to enclose a â—â—â—st â—he Gâ—nius of my house is by sâ— grâ—at a preâ—â—â—â—e wakâ—d and glories to entertain you Could this roof â—e capable of ill your only preâ—â—nce Lady would convert it There is a vertuous magick in yâ—ur eye for wheresoe're it casts a beam it does creaâ—es a gâ—odness I am much confoundâ—d for this honor you do me Madam but yet I am more ashamed â—o see you in a place where vertue never entred but in your attndance Ariana Y'â—re each of you a various banquet where a breathing sweetness feasts the spâ—ctators and diverts all thought of eaâ—ing to beholding and from beholding to enjoying Am. War Your presence is restorative Friendship AS Passion hath been well said to be Friendship run mad So Friendship may be properly stiled Sober passion as having all the spirit and cordiality of the wine of Love without the offensive fumes and vapours of it Mr. Montagu in his Misceâ—lenea The love of men to women is a thing common and of couâ—se but the friendship of man to man is infinite and immortall Plato The words of a friend joyned with true affection give life to the heart and comfort to a care-oppressed mind Chylo The mutual habitude of no intermiting-friendship between us hath strongly confirmed Receiving so dear witnesses of your friendship The resemblance of their beauties and of their wits joyned their souls together and soon after that of their fortunes made this friendship perfect Ar. which your friendship rather finds then I acknowledgâ— Hence grâ—ws the height of friendship when two similiary souls shal blend in their commixions Feltham As nothing unites more then a reciprocall exchange of affection So there is nothing hinders the knot of friendship more then then apparent neglect of courtesies Feltham Friendship a diligenâ— Officer takes care to see the bonds thereof fully executed Frindship iâ— the soul of humane society Fâ—iendship is a pleasant sauce to any temporall happiness Bacon The worst solitude is be destitute of sincere friendship Gift TRuly Sir I doubt whether is greater the poverty of the Gift or the boldness of the giver whoâ—e true respects have encouraged him to this small expression of service I beseech you to excuse me that this Present is not corrâ—spondent to your merit Please to respect the enlarged heart of the giver more then the quality of the gift Since the meanness of this can onely serve to express the well-meaning of the other Hypocrisie DO not we know that Hypocrisie is the same the same thing to vertue which painting is to Faces and that it is the very moath which devours sanctity What doth not a plaistered sanctity for the subversion of the simple What doth not a bad servant when once he possesseth the easie nature of his Master Inconstancy INconstancy is properly a levity and an irresolution of mind which shewes it self in his manners actions and words who is touched with it To say truth this passion is a Divell that inhabits in a land of Quicksilver where Earthquakes are alâ—ost perpetuall windes blow on each side and blowing make many weather-cocks turn to fro and every moment change
his mouth was the Oracle whereby I directed my actions As I could not be without his presence so I never would do any thing without his counsel When I am from you I am dead till I be with you when I am with you I am not satisfied but would still be nearer you vnited souls are not satisfied with imbraces Rel. Med. In the intercourse of affection my love surmounts yours Fire comes out of the hardest Flint with a steel oyl out of the driest jet by fire love out of the stoniest heart by faith by trust by time Eupheus I cannot but admire thy love knowing from what height of vertue it proceeds as I will not envy thee thy death so I wish a glory may await thy end great as the constancy that advanc'd thee to it Her Two neighbouring Lillies whom rude winds disperse ' mongst restless dust may sooner meet upon their stacles again and kiss each other in a second growth then we our loves renew Love is the good which by being diffused is corrupted she that loves one another and a thrid takes in men at the coyle and loves onely for her pleasure The object of true love is but one From the Infancy of Time to her decrepitude the love between two hath been held most honorable Heroinae Our mutuall mindes thus combined was like the Garden of Eden wherein grew more delights then either Nature now affords or Art can expâ—ess Graâ—ious is the face that promiseth nothing but love and most celestiall the resolution that lives upon chastity She had a pure flame shot from heaven into her breast from no other place could so generous a mind be fired My love shall never end but with my life There is nothing that belongs to us both that can be divided our wills united make but one mind which ruling all our actions it seems we are in like manner but one body Ariana He was so rapt with these dear engagements that the commotions of his heart disturbed his mind and stop'd the freedom of his thoughts I must confess my self in prison but 't is a prison of love where my desires my thoughts my hopes my joys are chains H.C. Chast love She changes the fire of Babylon into that of Jerusalem Her hâ—irs which were the nets wherein so many captive souls did sigh under the yoke of wanâ—â—n love are now as the Ensignes and Standards of wicked Cupid traâ—pled under the feet of the Conqueror Those kisses which carried the poyson of a luxurious passion in her heart do now breath fâ—om her nothing but thâ— delicacies of chasâ—iâ—y Her leasing odâ—urs which before were vowed to sensuality are now become the sweetest exhalations from that Amber Isle which brings forth an odoriferous perfume Entertainments for Lent My passion hath for its object a thing too perfect to permit me a thought that may be unworthy of the cause of it I like that love which by a soft ascension does degree it self in the soul Feltham Your presence is like Homers Nepenthe that can banish the sadness of the mind The heart of a lover is a Citie in which upon one and the same day are seen sports and bankets battels and funerals Plutarch Who does not know that love took away the senses of wise Solomon and made him violate the sacred law Love moved Biblis to be enamoured on her own brother Caunus and Pasiphae to accompany vvith a Bull Love is like a pan of Charcoal vvhich meeting vvith the vvind its contrary makes it turn more ardent or like a rapid torrent vvhich justing against adam swells higher so love meeting with opposition grows hotter and stronger Dodona's Grove These two hearts being dissolved into love spake in thoughts not having language enough to express their affection H.C. Since then I cannot retaliate your love or retribute your favours yet vvill I receive them vvith a desire â—o pay The vvorthy St. Dionysius in the book of Divine Attributes distinguisheth three sorts of love one is called circular the other love in a right line and the third oblique Love saâ—th an ancient Lover hath made a But of my heart vvhere so soon as it had shot all its arrows it threw it self as an inflamed dart into the bottom of my heart to set me all on fire There is nothing comparable to the Martyrdom of love It is an exhalation in a cloud It is a fire in a Mine a torrent shut up in ditches a night of sâ—paration lasteth ages and all waxeth old for it but its desires The life of this young Hero vvhich vvas ever hanging about the heart of his Mistress ever in the contemplation of her goodness perpetually in the furnace of love vvholly tranformed it self into his vvel-beloved as one vvax melted into another as a drop of vvater poured into a great vessell of Wine as incense wasted in flames H. Court He said what a warm lover when desire makes eloquent could speak he said she was both Star and Pilot. No birth or estate can chalenge a prerogative in love The deep wound of his love being rubbed afresh with began to bleed again Love is to the soul that which vvings are to Birds to carry us to its fruition For vvant of vvell loving vve apply the most precious thing which is love to gain wretched creatures as if one used a golden hook to fish for frogs and a scepter to shake hay I 'le always dwell with you like your shade I 'le keep a Jubile to your memory My eyes pay tribute where my heart pays love I vvill repay your love vvith usury Love making in the field of his memory a muster of the vertues of that Lady The man that applies not himself to some love is like a body vvithout life Love is the Wine of the soul Love is the greatest Philosopher in the vvorld He can transmute substances vvithout altering the accidents Man commended MAn is the pride of Heavens creation 〈◊〉 A man vvhose life needs no Advocate vvhom detraction it self cannot mention vvithout addition of some Epithetes of respect to conclude him in a vvord no object for any evill passion but envy and a subject for no discourse but vvhat ends vvith admiration It seems Nature from above had been dispatch'd as a brave Harbinger to score out a lodging for this great Soul and give him a Body suitable to the vigor of his Spirit so vvel vvas it composed c. H. Court What he is according to nature a Master piece vvhere many prerogatives meet together a Body composed of a marvellous Architecture a Soule endowed vvith He is the Orpheus vvho vvith his looks onely vvithout setting his hand to the Lyre enchants and ravishes the most savage of our Wilderness Aristotle that Linceus of Nature Nature vvas sent by God as a gallant Harbinger to compose a Body for him suitable to his great Spirit He did vvith great nobleness and bounty which vertues at that time had their turns in his Nature restore Lo. Bacon
Genius If I had abilitys to expatiate upon this subject I could not be held a Patelin but rather a suffragran to truth what I want words to express silent admiration shall speak in the thoughts of Sir Your obliged servant T.B. LXV An Answer Sir 'T Is well you are as you are the Rendevouz where all perfections meet otherwise I should in this intercourse have one and one onely advantage of you For whilst you at every return of the Tabellary have your Theme to seek and yet no sooner sought but found such is the magazin of your invention I have a plentifull subject alwaies ready at hand If I had answerable abilitys to make my election and to word it accordingly and that is news news which whilst there are men will never cease to bee in vogue And since this week affords that which is somewhat palaticall I shall no longer tantalize you with a proletarious Exordium Then know c. I humbly kiss your hands and remain Sir Your faithfull servant T.B. LXVI REPLY SIR I Am assaulted by your Martiall metaphors yet with this favour that where others erect their engines to ruine your levell aimes to strengthen the weak fort you direct against your continued Elogies at last mean to perswade me I see into some Ability and could you infuse what you commend in stead of blush your Rhetorique would make me doubtless eloquent I will not say with that keen Satyrist recuso Euge tuum Belle. No I will with a modest guilt of non-desert embrace them to profit and that nec te quaesiveris extra of the same Poet was a good Monition But our Muse is not so stoicall Quis enim virtutem amplectitur ipsam Praemia si tollas Sir honour is the reward of Artes and fame the tongue of honour nor are either honour or fame more the guerdons then the incentives of Proficience Do you see my friend how I hug your attributions My vanity yet in it may be your lesson not to be vain but ingenuous Be not so squeamish hence forward Accept your Baies offered or merit it confer'd What praise finds not answerable let it incite to answer I know my insufficiencies but utterly despair not amendment If by your encouragement I amend not I shall confesse my Brutish nature to be past cure If I grant you an advantage over me 't is but what you have asserted I answer the same Post and to many besides yours But what is this my both matter and the couching shewes it to be suddainly slight and rude an odd perfection and but suitable to both my leisure and me you have a ready subject for your pen and how gratefully and ably you paint it forth give me leave to be the Judge that receive the delight and I must keep it to my self for you are as coy to receive the titles of your worth as I am conscious they are due Be then still higher then words can express you so I may still bee Sir Excessively yours W.D. LXVII The first Address to his Mistris Most honoured Lady IN a cause whereon the felicity of my whole life depends and wherein I have most will I find least power to unbosome the secrets of my heart such force has love to captivate my faculties Hence 't is I rather chose this then that other way of verball delivery For though in either I should discover my own imperfections yet in these lines my guiltles blushes will pass unseen Hitherto I have onely appear'd a servant to your affaires and in that quality had continued if the excellency of your personall endowments had not by some kind of heavenly impulse driven mee on to more aspiring thoughts Thoughts which with truth I speak it were engendred by the onely object of your goodnes without any adulterate commixture of estate which however valued by others is not of weight sufficient to turn the ballance of my scale if not otherwise well laden with pure and unbiass'd affection which I profess to owe to none but you and to you all things even the being of Your most faithfull and devoted servant T.B. LXVIII Another to the same My inestimable Jewell IF the fumes of those corrosives you gave me last night from other hands had not been qualified with the sweet odors of your own cordialls I had unfeignedly speaking wholly sacrifiz'd the ensuing night to the vigils of a disquiet mind But as your goodnesse had not the will onely but the power to raise mee from a hell of tormenting thoughts to a Paradise of expected comfort so does it multiply my endeared affections which no misfortune shall have power to alienate nor shall any thing but death determine I am with much sollicitude setting all my imaginations upon the tenter in order to the removall of those Rocks which seem and but seem to threaten Shipwrack to our approaching happiness whereto your utmost contribution is by all the ties of true love most earnestly implored together with the continuance of him in your best thoughts who is Your own beyond expresses T.B. LXIX ANOTHER Dear pledge of my soul AMong all the obloquies which the unrelenting malice of mine and by consequence your enimies hath cast upon mee none appears so gastly in my thoughts as that pretended want of love towards you which the heavens will witness was never imbreasted in any mortall with more purity and plenitude For 't is the foundation whereon I intend by divine assistance to build a frame of mutuall and interminable happines a happines that will be admired by some but envied by others Please to remember that you are now filia emancipata as divines terme you at your own dispose and that you have of mee a servant who only breathes by your favour and lives through your love who will ever owe you fealty for the one and still do you homage for the other a servant who with unwearied expectation only waits for the happy houre wherein that fiat shall be by you pronounc'd which will in an instant Elixar-like turn all my drossy cares and anxieties into true contentments and make me live eternally Yours without change T.B. LXX ANOTHER My happy Choice IF a more pressing occasion had not detain'd me I should have thought the foulnesse of the weather but an easie penance in respect of the solace which the sweets of your presence would have afforded me for the enjoyment whereof I must with much regret adjourn my expectation till to morrow Mean time I send you the promised pictures if the sight of which do at any time erect your thoughts to heaven-ward even then remember him who on earth desires no greater happines then to live and die loving and beloved by you in quality of Your second self T.B. LXXI To excuse the not taking leave of a Lady of quality Madam THough it be held a readier way to gain pardon by acknowledging then excusing a fault yet the Eminency of your Ladyships person doth so aggravate it in me