With wholsom Herbs of Judgment for the Tast Healthfull and Nourishing This Dish will last To Feast your Nephews all if you can fit The Marriage Act to get your Children Wit For stronger Stomachs Ven'son if that fail And you grow Queasy then the Lady Quail Or the plump Partridge tast the Phesant do Thus feast your Souls the Bodies look you too An Olio of Confections not refrain For here 's a Sumptuous Banquet for your Brain And this Imaginary Feast pray try Censure your worst so you the Book will buy What the desire of Fame proceedes from THE desire of Fame proceedes from a doubt of an after being And Fame is a report that travells far and many times lives long and the older it groweth the more it florishes and is the more particularly a mans own then the Child of his loines for Fame is a child of his merit which hath no compartner in it and many times the child of his loines deceives the parent and instead of keeping his fathers fame brings him an infamy as being a coward a traitor a lier a fool or the like which the world will judge being apt to cast aspersions that they were qualities which he had by inheritance from his father but actions that his merits beget will never deceive him when it is rightly and honorably gotten but there be bastard fames as well as bastard Issues which men of honour will never own But all those that are born are not so fruitfull as to have issues of their brain or so fortunate as to overcome their enemies or so rich to build Towers and Castles or monuments of fame or so happy to have such advantages to shew their own worth and abilities And those that cannot leave a child of fame must content themselves to live a life of quiet for fame is seldome gotten with ease but with paines and labour danger and trouble and oftentimes with life it self The Reward of Fame IT is a Justice to a mans self and no vain ostentation or braging to write or speak truly of his own good service to his king and country since none knowes it better then they that the world may know them so as to be remembred with love and honour For though fame is not alwaies a true Recorder yet it is a loud reporter which is a more certain reward to his merits then from Kings and States For Kings and States most comonly receive the service and forget ths reward and many times gives them disgrace instead of honour and death for life Where fame is so prodigall to those she entertaines as she will Cozen the rest of the world to contribute to her particulars But time the reviver of all removes this sound farther off and many times extinguisheth it quite yet Fame the older she is although she be lame and goeth upon Crouches the more lovers and admirers she gains neither is envy so sharp toothed as to hurt her and many are proud not onely to be acquainted with her but in being able to mention her so honourable is ancient Fame Of Fame and Infamy SOme love the life of their memory so well as they would rather chuse to be remembred by the World as a fool rather then to be forgotten as a beast Which is rather to live in Infamie then to die in obscurity For Infamie is a loud reproach where Fame is a loud Applause yet neither of them are got by ordinary means but by extreams either by Nature Fortune or Fate As to make them ring aloud for the sound to be heard through many Nations and to live in many Ages But infamie hath this advantage if it be one that it lives longer and strikes harder upon the ears of the World then Fame doth Fame makes a difference between man and Beast NExt the being born to the glory of God Man is born to produce a Fame by some particular acts to prove himself a man unlesse we shall say there is no difference in Nature between man and beast For beasts when they are dead the rest of the beasts retain not their memory from one posterity to another as we can perceive and we study the natures of Beasts and their way so subtilly as surely we should discover some-what but the difference betwixt man and beast to speak naturally and onely according to her works without any Divine influence is that dead men live in living men where beasts die without Record of beasts So that those men that die in oblivion are beasts by nature for the rational Soul in man is a work of nature as well as the body and therefore ought to be taught by nature to be as industrious to get a Fame to live to after Ages as the body to get food for present life for as natures principles are created to produced some effects so the Soul to produce Fame What makes Fame speak loudest THose Fames that is gotten in the Wars sound louder then those that are gotten in Peace by reason War is a disturber and causeth a violent motion like a tempest at Sea sea or a storm at land it raiseth up discord fear and furie it swallows up industry it pulls up the root of plenty it murthers natural affection and makes such a noise where it is as all the world besides is inquiring and listening after it for fear of being surprised so as the world follows the noise as much as the noise follows them The Fame of valour and wisdom IT is a better and more certain Reputation to have the Fame of being a wise man then a man of courage because every man that is wise hath courage for he that is a coward cannot be wise because fear puts him out of the right way but there be many men that have courage which be not wise for courage is only a resolution of the minde either to Act or suffer and to destroy or be destroyed so that courage doth not direct and guide as wisdom doth but dares and executes besides wisdom is more to be admired because it is rarer as scarce one wise man is found in an Age but men of Courage whole Armies full in every Age neither is wisdoms Fame subject to fortune as courage is for Wisdom makes fortune her servant and uses all times and accidents to her advantage and the worse her fortune is the greater she appears when the Fame of courage is a slave to fortune and onely flourishes in her smiles but is buried in her frowns It is true Courage is a vertue that defends and protects its Countrey and keeps an enemy in awe yet it is a vertue that is onely exercised in destructior in the patient suffering of his own or the acting to anothers Where wisdom is alwayes exercised in uniting and composing searching and leading into the wayes of peace when courage chuseth and searches for the wayes of danger and courts her as his loveliest and beautifullest Mistris and is many times so couragious as he forceth
to himself so it deed an honest man is a friend and neghbour to all misfortunes miseries and necessities in helping them with kinde loving and industrious actions in distresse if he thinks he can asswage them and do himself no wrong for every man ought to be honest to himself as well as to another for though we are apt to consider our selves so much as it may be a prejudice to another yet we ought not to consider another so much to the prejudice of our selves for justice to our selves should take the first place by nature where to wrong ones self is the greatest injustice yet to discharge a trust is the chiefest part of honesty though it be to the prejudice of himself wherefore an honest man should not take such a trust as may indanger him to ruine Of Honesty THere are two sorts or kinds of Honesty the one a bastard and the other a true-born the bastard is to be honest for by-respects as out of fear of punishment either to their reputations estates or persons or for love of rewards that honesty brings but the true-born honesty loves honesty for honesties sake and is a circle that hath no ends and justice is the center and Honesty is the sweet essence of nature and the God of Humanity We ought not to be ungrateful to the dishonest IF one receive life from two men the one an approved honest man the other from a known false cruel and deceitful man which in our Language is called a Knave yet the benefit is as great from the knave as from the honest man for a benefit is a benefit from whom soever it comes and if a knave wrongs me not he is an honest man to me though he should be false to all others and that man that doth me an injury by his good will is a knave to me although he were honest to all men else wherefore those onely can challenge knaves that have received the wrong nor do we truly receive a wrong by what is meant but by what is done for one cannot say he was hurt that escaped a danger but he that was wounded but as one should receive a benefit with as much thankfulnesse from a knave as from him that is honest yet a man should be more careful and circumspect in dealing or trusting those that have the reproach or the bold brand of practising dishonesty or knavish actions then with those that take conscience or moral Philophy in their way which are full of gratitude and fidelity and truth as one that is a keeper of his promise a loyal subject and a loving husband a careful father a kinde master a faithful friend and a merciful enemy Of Obligations AS there are some that hate and shun those that can but will not oblige so there are others that hate and shun those they would but cannot oblige The first is out of a covetous nature that thinks that all the good that is done to others is a losse to themselves the other that thinks the least good he doth for others the more power is in himself so both is out of selflove both the shunner and the actor Truth and falshood not easily known IT is very hard and requires much time to finde out falshood for though occasions make a man know himself in part and so to another yet not so fully as we may rest upon him to be one and alwayes the same neither can we without great injustice censure alwayes by the hurt we receive for ill effects may fall from very good intentions and therefore how shall we censure by the intentions since none knoweth them but themselves for although an honest man desires to live as if the world saw his thoughts and strives to think as he would be judged for an honest man would not betray the trust of an enemy either by threats nor torments nor fear of death nor love to life nor perswasions of friends nor the allurements of the world nor the inchantments of tongues nor any miseries of his own shall make him step from the grounds of honesty but as a God he doth adoro it as a servant he doth obey it and though it be the chief part of honesty to keep a trust yet all trust is not honest so as it is as great a dishonesty to take an evil base or an unworthy trust as to betray a just one Of flattery Flattery takes most when they come into the eare like soft and sweet musick which lulls asleep reason and inchants the spirits but if they come in like the sound of a trumpet it awakes the reason and affrights the minde and makes it stand upon the guard of defence as when approaching enemies come to assault but if flattery be tolerable in any it is from the Inferiours to the Superiours as from the subject to the Prince and from the servant to the master or from the wife to the husband But for the Prince to flatter his subject and the master a servant is base but most commonly those that envie most flatter best either to pull down those they envy or to raise up themselves above them Divinity and Moral Philosophy DIvinity and Philosophy ties up nature or Divinity and Moral Philosophy are the two guardians of nature yet some times they prove the two goalers to nature when they presse or tye their chains too hard all things have their times and season unlesse art puts them out of the way Nature makes but fortune distrusts as when she misplaceth her workes as not using them to the right Of Atheisme and Superstition IT is better to be an Atheist then a superstitious man for in Atheisme there is humanitie and civility towards man to man but superstition regards no humanity but begets cruelty to all things even to themselves THE EPISTLE I Am very much or very little obliged to my readers for my former Books which I have set out either by their approvement or dislike in not granting me to be the Author but upon my conscience and truth those were as this Book is my own that is my thoughts composed them but if I had been inclosed from the world in some obscure place and had been an anchoret from my ininfancy having not the liberty to see the World nor conversation to hear of it I should never have writ of so many things nor had had so many several opinions for the senses are the gates that lets in knowledge into the understanding and fancy into the imagination but I have had moderate liberty from my infancy being bred upon honest grounds and fed upon modest principles from the time of twelve yeers old I have studied upon observations and lived upcontemplation making the World my Book striving by joyning every several action like several words to make a discourse to my self but I found the World too difficultto be understood by my tender yeers and weak capacity that till the time I was married I could onely read the letters
abroad whereof they have better at home and the unsatiable Desire of Mankind makes them search for what is never to be found But where Nature gives a Satisfactory Mind she gives a Happy Life and what can we imagin the Joys of Heaven but a stint to our wandring Desires therefore those that are most fixt are nearer Heaven and he is the Wisest that is nearest to Unity and those that are most united are likest to a God But where Discord happens Hell is resemb'ed and harsh haughty and not insulting Natures are composed like Devils and Caesar shewed himself a Fool in nothing but in quitting his Guard and not hearkning to his Wife which was to shew his Courage and to let the World see he durst go unarmed singly alone as it were and his freedom from the chains of fond Affection thus quitting Prudence and Love he dyed too violent a Death And Seianus quitting the Affection towards his Wife and placing it upon Julian raised such a Jealousie in Tyberius as it cost him his Life otherwise he might have ruled the Empire and so the most part of the World Thus Anthony's leaving his Wife for the love of Cleopatra lost him the third part of the World Neither are the Counsels of a Wife alwaies to be despised if all were honest nor to be lockt from the private Affairs of her Husband Portia was able to keep a Secret and was of Brutus her Husbands Confedenacy though not Actually yet Concealing And if Caesar had condescended to his Wives Perswasion he had not gone to the Senate that day and who knows but the next might have discovered the Conspiracy and numberless of the like Examples might be given Besides it is to be observed where the Husband and Wife disagree their Family is in disorder their Estates go to decay Jealousies arise which cause Discords from whence proceeds a discontented and unhappy Life And where the Husband and Wife are united in Minds as well as in Body all prospers and most commonly Ease and Plenty crown that Family Industry is their Recreation Peace is their Joy Love is their Happiness for a kind Husband makes an obedient Wife dutifull Children faithfull Servants for a Wise Man rules his Family with gentle kind and seasonable Perswasions with honest and sincere Actions with gratefull and just Rewards and Kindness and Constant Natures work hard and obeisant Natures to be more pliant and facile for Kindness melts hardest Hearts and makes them flexible to form them as they please where Cruelty or Severity hardens them so much as they will rather break than bend And if the Rational part of the World would but consider what Felicity there is in peacefull Prosperity they would never wander so much out of the way Of Men and Women SOme say a Man is a Nobler Creature than a Woman because our Saviour took upon him the Body of Man and another that Man was made first But these two Reasons are weak for the Holy Spirit took upon him the shape of a Dove which Creature is of less esteem than Mankind and for the Preheminency in Creation the Devil was made before Man Nature in the Composure of Men and Women IT is not so great a Fault in Nature for a Woman to be Masculine as for a Man to be Effeminat for it is a Defect in Nature to decline as to see Men like Women but to see a Masculine Woman is but onely as if Nature had mistook and had placed a Mans Spirit in a Womans Body but Nature hath both her Mistakes and Weaknesses but when she works perfectly she gives Man a gentle and sweet Disposition a generous Mind a valiant Heart a wife Head a voluble Tongue a healthfull Body and strong and active Limbs To Woman she gives a chast Mind a sober Disposition a silent Tongue a fair and modest Face a neat Shape and a gracefull Motion The Nature of Man MAN is more apt to take Dislikes at all things than to delight in any thing but Nature hath given us no Pleasure but what ends in Pain for the end of Pleasure is Grief for Cruel Nature curbs us in with Fear and yet spurs us on with Desires for she hath made Mans mind to hunt more after Varieties by Desire than she hath made Varieties to satisfie the Desires Of Painting THere be some that condemn the Art of Painting in Women others that defend it for say they as Nature hath made one World so Art another and that Art is become the Mistris of Nature neither is it against Nature to help the Defects Besides those that find out new Arts are esteemed so that they become as Petty Gods whether they become Advantageous to Man or no as the Memory of those that found out the Art of Gunpowder Guns Swords and all Engins of War for Mischief and shall they be more praised and commended than those that find out Arts and Adornments as Painting Curling and other Dressings for the one destroyes Mankind this increaseth it the one brings Love the other begets Hate But some will say those Arts defend their Lives but where they once use them to defend their Lives they use them ten times to destroy Life and though it is no Fault in the Inventer but in the User no more is Painting when it is used for a good intent as to keep or increase lawfull Affection But say they it is a dissembling to make that appear otherwise than it is ' Tisanswer'd No more than to keep warm in Winter for Cold is Natural so is the sense of it in Winter but Clothes to keep it out are Artificial and the true use of the Art of Painting is to keep warm a Lawfull Affection Besides If we must use no more than what Nature hath given us we must go naked and those that have a bald Head must not wear a Peruick or Cap to cover it and those that are born with one Leg shorter than the other must not wear a high Shoe to make them even nor indeed wear any Shoes at all especially with Heels because they make them seem higher but go with the Feet bare and those that are Crooked must wear no Bombast and many such Examples may be brought But say some it is a Bawd to entice in begetting evil Desires It is answered No more a Bawd than Nature is in making a handsome Creature but if they must do nothing for fear of Enticing then Mankind must neither cut their Hair nor pare their Nails nor shave their Beards nor wash their selves which would be very slovenly for fear they should appear so handsome as they may perswade and entice the Lookers on to evil Desires which if so let them be like Swine and wallow in Mire but it is to be feared that the Mire will be too hard for the evil Desires so as there may be more brought in defence of Painting than can be said against it Wherefore say they it is lawfull both in Maids and
desire Power because they would be like to a God but Tyrants may be said to keep their Power by the sweat of their Brows 54. To keep the Common People in order they must be awed with Fear as well as nourished with Love or flattered with Hopes 55. What hopes can People have of a King to govern a Kingdome when he doth not reform his own Houshold but lets it run into Faction and Disorder 56. The Service to Kings is Allegiance 57. The Service to Nature is Self preservation 58. The Service to God is a Pure Life and Unfeigned Love 59. The Reward from Kings is Outward Honour 60. The Reward from Nature is Death 61. The Reward from God Eternal Life 62. Every one is afraid of Tyrannie that is under Subjection but when Tyrannie turns from it self to Clemency then Love comes where Fear was 63. The best way for Princes to keep up Authority is to make good Laws to distribute Justice to correct Vice to reward Virtue to countenance Industry to provide for the safety of Nation and People 64. A Man that suffers all Injuries is a Fool but to suffer some or to suffer a Moderation is Patience 65. For Patience is the way to Folly as Fury or Choler to Madness 66. To put up or pass by an Injury from those that have power seems to proceed from Fear but to pass by an Injury from the powerless seems Heroick 67. Of all Virtues Patience hath the fewest Passions mixt with it and though it seems unsensible yet it seeth clearly into its own Misfortunes for Patience belongs to the Misfortunes that concern a Mans self 68. Yet Patience should not be a Bawd to a Mans ruine 69. There is none can be so patient as those that have suffered much 70. The Designs of Hate are easier followed and oftner practiced than of Love for one may easier take Revenge of a Foe than deliver Life and Liberty to a Friend 71. There is none so apt to revenge as those that have been forgiven 72. There is none so sorrowfull as those that want Means and Waies to make Satisfaction 73. Many times Guiltiness is more confident than Innocency 74. There is as much difference betwixt Pleasure and Joy as Sorrow and Melancholy for one disorders the Spirits the other composes them An overplus of Joy is like those that are drunk for it makes the Head of Reason dissy There are many sorts of Melancholy but Love-Melancholy makes them cry out O Pleasing Pain and Happy Misery 75. There is a fix'd Grief and a moving Grief the one hath neither Sighs nor Tears but seems as a Marble Pillar the other breaks into Complaint and pours it self forth in Showers of Tears Yet there are many sorts of Tears for there are Tears of Joy and there are Tears of Sorrow and Tears of Anger Tears of Pity and of Mirth and in all Passions Tears are apt to flow especially from moyst Brains But deep Sorrow hath dry Eyes silent Tongues and aking Hearts 76. When the Spirits are wearied with Grief they fall into a Melancholy Weeping and then are setled with a compliance to time 77. Passion will rise in the defence of Honour and the Tongue will display the Passion 78. For all we call Love is Friendship which is begot by agreeable Humours or received Curtesies or a Resemblance of Parts which is alterable but there can be no true Love but upon the unalterable God 79. There are waies to perfect Love but no Body can arrive to the Journeys end untill they come to Heaven because there is no Perfection in this World and there can be no perfect Love but upon a perfect Object 80. They that love much can never be Happy for the Torment of what Evil may come to that they love takes away the sweetness of what they enjoy Thus the fear of Losing is more unequal than the pleasure of Enjoyment 81. The Root of Love is like a Rock which stands against all Storms but Wantonness is like the Root of a Flower that every Worm may eat thorow 82. Envious Persons and Lovers are the greatest Flatterers the one flatters to hide his Envy the other to please the Beloved 83. Those Affections are strongest that Nature and Education have linkt together not onely by Birth but by Conversation for as Birth most commonly gives a likeness of parts so Conversation breeds a resemblance in humours and dispositions the one begets a likeness in Body the other of Minds or Souls 84. There is no Sound strikes the Ears so hard as the report of Death especially when Affection opens the Dore and lets the Messenger down into the Heart 85. True Love is an Affection which is very difficult to settle and hard to remove when once placed 86. To move Passion rather belongs to the Orator than the Poet for a Poet is a Creator of Fancy and Poetry rather makes than perswades But indeed that which moves Passion most is rather by Sound than Sense witness Musick which is the greatest Mover of Passion Thus Musick moves Passion more than Reason but Poetry is rather to delight the Wit than perswade the Reason 87. There is as much difference in Wit as there is in Pictures for every Picture is not drawn by Apelles and as some Painters are but for Sign-posts so some Wits are onely fit for Ballads 88. One and the same Tale told by several Persons makes great difference in the Affections of the Hearers 89. A witty Description in Discourse paints a lively Description in the Mind 90. A Translator acts the Person of an Author where most commonly the Author is represented to his advantage 91. There are a greater number that write more wisely and learnedly than delightfully 92. Thoughts when they run too fast or are prest too hard may destroy the Body by the distempering of the Mind 93. To have a Fixt Thought is to draw the Imaginations to a point 94. Though the Understanding be clear yet the Utterance may be instructed if the Tongue be not filed with the Motion to make all run smooth and even 95. Some have more Words than Wit and more Wit then Judgement 96. And others have more Years than Experience and more Experience than Honesty 97. Some have more Law than Policy 98. Some have more Ambition than Power and more Power than Justice 99. Secret Meetings Soft Whisperings or Dumb Shews have most commonly evil Designes 100. The dark Minds of Men are deceitfull 101. It were base for a Man or Woman to lay a Blemish upon those that have given them an honorable Reputation 102. Many that wish their Enemies Confusion yet would not betray them to it 103. I had rather hear what my Enemy can say against me than what my Enemy can say for me for there are none so good but may have some Faults which their Enemy is more apt to find out than their Friends much less themselves 104. Those persons that are railed at seem Nobler than those
the Nobles but factions whch are like gamesters when they play setting life at the stake shuffle them together intermixing the Nobles and Commons where loyalty is shuffled from the crown duty from Parents tendernesse from children fidelity from Masters continencies from husbands and wives truth from friends from justice innocency charity from misery Chance playes and fortune draws the stakes Of forraign War FOrraign war is necessary some times to maintain Peace at at home it opens the vein of discontents and le ts out the hot fevourish amb tion of the minde which otherwise would grow to a dangerous and mad rebellion yet it makes most commonly a kingdom weak and thin according as the Physick doth work for if the purges be very strong it makes them faint and feeble so the successe of war makes a kingdom ill fortune makes it lean and weak good fortune gives it strength and makes it fat Of rash Commanders A Man at his first entry into actions ought to be very careful of shewing himself prudent and moderate as well as bold and valiant a good commander should overcome by Policy and conduct as well as by violence and force of armies for many a gallant army is lost through the rashnesse of a commander And a foolish and negligent Commander makes his souldiers as cowardly as a careful Commander makes them valiant But a good commander gets love of his souldiers as finding his care and knowing his skill and approved to have courage which is to be required from a commander when those that are rash Careless ignorant proud improvident timerous doubtful are to be shunned and not to be imployed but they are best to govern that have noble and generous hearts for liberality and generosity are the nature of a god Of being armed A Man that will go into the field unarmed is either a desperate fool or he means to run away when it comes to his turn to fight for a valiant man will arm his body in the day of battle to save his life to win an honour and reputation of victory But some love pleasure more then honour and some love honour more then life Of a General and a Colonel and Army A General of a hundred thousand men sounds loud in the ears of the world when a Captain of a Brigade is hardly taken notice of although his conduct in ordering his Brigade hath been as skilful and as prudent and his Courage and his Onset as daring as the Generals yet such advantages and ods hath numbers as it makes great reckoning in the World when the Actions of a few are never measured Of the Power of the Sword A Sword is a valiant mans friend he will sooner part with Life than part with it and courts it as his Mistriss being as industrious and studious to know the Art and use of the one as to know the nature disposition and inclination of the other for a Sword is a defender and a mantainer of his Honour it is a strength against Dangers a shelter for Vertue a protection to Innocency it is the Key that opens the Gate of Fames great Court it humbles the Proud it advanceth the Low and Mean to the height of a Reputation it Civilizes Nations it environs a Common-wealth it decides quarrels it divides spoyls it is the Commander of the World it is the Conducter to all noble and Heroick Actions it is the Vice-gerent to death a Guard to life it is the Bolt of Jupiter the Trident of Neptune the Cerberus of Pluto It can do more than Vertue can do for it can command Vertue can only intreat or perswade the very signification of a Sword is great for it signifies both Power and Justice Command and Rule When I speak of a Sword I mean any thing that performs the same function and office as to affault and defend which all forts of Arms will not do Of Common-wealths or States-men THe grave formalists account good States-men those that are Tyrants such as Cato was who wrought the destruction of the Roman Common-wealth but very severe and strickt rules of Art oft times are broken by the over powerful force of Nature which cannot indure to be bound beyond the strenght of moderate Liberty wherefore moderation in Government is as necessary as moderation for health for those that restrain their Appetite too much starve the Body and those that give no restraint kill it with Surfets so likewise in a Common-wealth those that restrain Liberty too much inslave it and those that give to much Freedom confound it thus either ways bring death to the Body or ruin to the Common-wealth Of Partiality of the World OUtward Honours should be the signs of inward Worth as Actions proceeding from valour and wisdom in conducting and governing affairs to the best for their Countries service but outward honour is as all other gifts of Fortune unchosenly given for the Coward and the Fool and the Knave are many times crowned with Honour when the Valiant the Wise and the Just sit unregarded and unrewarded wherefore Passion and Erronious opinions are the two Emperours of the world Of Men. Some in the dispraise of men say that they are so opinionated as they think they are able to govern the whole world in all active affairs although they have neither foresight nor experience and that most of them are as humorsome and as fantastical and inconstant as Women full of brags and vain glorie feigning themselves to be otherways than they are as to be thought wise by postures with ringing their heads on one side or winking with their eys or shrinking up their shoulders others again by hiding their ignorance with gravity and formality some are tedious in stuffing the ears of the hearers with History others with controversies some again with long barren and stale tales then whispering of secrets and dangerous Plots some again have more courage in their words and looks than in their hearts and some so spruce as they seem effeminat and others so affectedly careless as they are rude and seem Clownish thus they put more false faces on than Women do but sure there be many Men in the World as their wisdom makes them as petty Gods able to mannage and govern great and difficult affairs and a wise man is a valiant wan not a desperat man a quiet man not a quarreller a civil man not a dissembler an industrious not a busy man and humble not a flatterer a generous man not a prodigal a prudent man not a covetous man a patient man not an insensible man a fashionable not a spruce man and I have heard say that a Worthy Honourable and a Gallant man is one that is Wise Just and Honest. Of Behaviour THere is nothing wins more upon the soul of men than Civility and Curteous behaviour it indears more than words for Eloquent Oratory though it insinuates yes it is like a Tyrant that carrys the opinions of men like Captives by force rather than
of Fame with their Bills of Glory from thence they fly over the Groves of Eternity with their wings of Presumption but some Birds of Poetry light on the Ground of Recreation there hop through the paths of Custom made by the recourse of the peopled Thoughts through the Meadows of Memory in the Island of the Brain and sometimes skip upon a Stick of Conceit wagging their tail of Jests or else fly to the Forest of wild Phantasms but there finding little Substance to feed on return with weary Wings to their place of rest again but in the Spring time of Love the Nightingale-Poets sing Amorous Sonnets in several Notes of Numbers somtimes in the Dawny Morning of Hopes or in the Evening of Doubts and somtimes in the Night of Dispair but seldom in the high Noon of Fruition The Worlds Olio LIB II. PART II. Short Essayes 1. AS the Nightingale is the Bird of the Spring so the Fly is the Bird of the Summer 2. There would be no Twilight if there were no Clouds for the Clouds are like the Wieck of a Candle 3. Platonick Love is a Bawd to Adultery so Romancy and the like 4. If a Woman gets a spot in her Reputation she can never rub it out 5. It is the greatest study in the Life of a Chast Woman to keep her Reputation and Fame unspotted for Innocency is oft scandalized amongst the Tongues of the Malicious 6. Womens Thoughts should be as pure as their Looks Innocent Noble Honourable Worthy and Virtuous are words of Praises more proper for Women than Gallant Brave Forward Spirits these are too Masculine Praises for the Effeminat Sex 7. Men should follow Reason and Truth as the Flower that turns to the Sun 8. Pockholes take away the gloss of Youth from a Face 9. Some give Women more Praises than their Modesty dares countenance 10. True Affection is not to be measured because it is like Eternity not to be comprized 11. Those that would be Honoured must have Noble Civilities Gratefull Performances Generous Liberalities and Charitable Compassions 12. A Man may be as soon dishonoured by the Indiscretion of his Wife as by her Dishonesty 13. It is better to live with Liberty than with Riches 14. With Virtue than with Beauty 15. With Love than with State 16. With Health than with Power 17. With Wit than with Company 18. With Peace than with Fame 19. With Beasts than with Fools 20. There is no Sound so unpleasing as to hear Amorous Lovers or Fools speak 21. There is no Sight so unpleasant as Affectation 22. A Gracefull Motion sets forth a Homely Person and wins more Affection than the rarest Beauty that Nature ever made 23. Wit and bon Miene and Civility take more than Beauty and gay Clothing 24. Pride without State doth as ill as State without Civility 25. It is better to hear Sense in mean Phrases than Phrases without Sense 26. A Man should alwaies wear his Life for the service of his Honour 27. Men should have Variety in nothing but Gainfull Knowledge 28. It is proper for a Gentleman to have a bon Miene to be Civil and Conversible in Discourse to know Men and Manners 29. It is more proper for a Gentleman to be active in the use of Arms than in the Art of Dancing for a Gallant Man hath more use of his Arms than his Heels 30. It is more proper for a Gentleman to learn Fortification than Grammar But what pains will a Man take in learning several Languages wherein their Tongues are exercised and neglect that Learning that should maintain their Honour which is the Sword the one doth but trouble their Heads and overcharge their Memories the other gets Honour and saves their Lives the one is onely proper for Scholastical Pedants the other for Heroick Spirits 31. A Man should court his Sword as his Mistris and study to learn its Virtue and love it as his Friend which defends his Honour to revenge his Quarrels and guard him from his Enemies 32. For he is the more Gallant Man that hath a Generous Mind a Valiant Heart than he that hath only a Learned Head the first is Noble the other Pedantical the one gives the other receives 33. It becomes a Gentleman rather to love Horses and Weapons than to fiddle and dance 34. And he is not worthy the name of a Gentleman that had rather come Sweating from a Tennis-Court than Bleeding from a Battel 35. Men should never give Gifts but out of three respects either for Charity Love or Fame and it is a good chance when they meet all in one Subject not that one Subject should be all but all in one 36. All Civility hath a Natural and an Attractive Quality and like a Loadstone draws Affection to it 37. There is nothing more Noble that to overcome an Enemy by Curtesy 38. And there is nothing more base than to insult over an Enemy in Adversity 39. It is more Noble to win an Enemy to be their Friend than when they have them in their power to revenge their Quarrel for it is the part of Generosity to Pardon as well as to Exalt 40. It looks with a face like Generosity to be Gratefull 41. There is no greater Usury or Extortion than upon Curtesy for the Lone of Money is but ten twenty or thirty in the Hundred but the Lone of Curtesy is to inslave a Man all his life 42. Yet Gratitude is nothing but to pay a Debt for if one Man save another Mans life and he returns with the hazard of his own he hath paid him what he owed him but if he looks for it oftner than once its Usury than twice it is Extortion 43. It is Commendable to Censure like a Noble and Mercifull Judge not like a Wicked Tyrant 44. Who would esteem Fame when the Cruel and Wicked shall many times have Fortune befriend them so that they shall live with Applause which is Fame and the Virtuous and Well-deserving shall be stabbed or wounded with Reproach which is Infamy so that Fame is like a great King and Fortune the Favourite 45. Every one cannot be a Caesar or an Alexander but there must compile such Times Ages and Actions and Minds together to produce such Exploits 46. Humility is the way to Ambitious ends for few come to them by Pride but by Time serving or Bribery 47. For seeming Humility is the Tower whereon Ambition is bailt and Pride is the Pinnacle where Envy is an Engin to pull it down 48. Nature makes but Fortune distributes 49. God by Fortune doth not alwaies protect the Honest from the Envious of the World or Accidents of Chance 50. It is as impossible to separate Envy from Noble and Great Actions as to destroy Death 61. Power is like unto Love it is the strongest when it is drawn to one point for Power divided is weak so is Love or like the Sun when the Beams are gathered together into one point it burns 52. Kings
Government they would have followed Brutus and that Government is to be approved best that pleaseth most for Government is for Safety Peace and Profit and there is nothing keeps them more in Peace than Unity and Concord and the Affections of the People to their Governors c. Of Portia POrtia that killed her self with hot burning Coals shewed more of Impatiency and Womanish Fear than Love to her Husband though no question her Love was great but her Fear was greater for Love begets Doubts and Doubts beget Fears and Fears beget Hate but true Love will be sure to save it self till they be sure that they can do no good to that they love and that they love is absolutely destroyed for true Love will hope untill there is no ground to raise Hopes on and Hope begets Courage and Courage will give Assistance as long as it hath a Being for though her Husband run out of Rome yet he had his Life and an Army to defend it for the time Therfore it seemed she grieved and run mad more for loss of her Husbands Power than for fear of her Husbands Person and whensoever a Woman loves her Husbands Power more than his Safety she loves her Vanity more than his Person for Power maintains Vanity Of Penelope Ulysses Wife PEnelope Ulysses Wife was Famous for that she never married whilst her Husband was in the Wars It is true she was Chast but she gave her self leave to be Courted which is a degree to Unchastity and a means whereby her Husbands Estate was wasted for if she had check'd and not permitted them at the first they would never have grown unto that Impudence But it seemed she loved to have her Ears filled with her own Praises for they that love their own Praises most commonly are catched in the Snare of Flattery for there are seldome Praises without much Flattery It is true she might be a Chast Woman but she shewed her self but an Indifferent Wife and not worthy of so much praise for it is not Honesty that makes a perfect good Wife although it be the chief Ingredient but she must be Thristy and Cleanly Modest reserved in her Behaviour and secret to her Husbands Counsels for often times a Woman dishonours her Husband by her Indiscretion as much as by the act of Adultery for there is nothing dearer to a Man than his Fame so a Wife should have a care to keep it Of Women dying with their Husbands I Have not read much Story but of that which I have I have observed that there have been many Women that have dyed with their Husbands but I have not read so usually that Men have dyed with their Wives for in some Nations there are few or no Widows Some say it is not so much out of Love to their Husbands as out of vainglorious Customes Of the Romans dying IT was not out of Courage that the Romans killed themselves but out of Fear for knowing they must dye they thought it was less pain to dye by their own hands than by anothers like Parents that will not suffer another to beat their Child but think their own Correction the easier though their Stripes be equal and every one thinks that better done which they do themselves than what another doth so they kill themselves to avoyd Pain But those are most willing to leave the World when the World hath left them for it is the Vanities that makes Men so in love with the World and themselves for most think they enjoy no Life if they enjoy no Vanity I will not say All although I say Most for the Wise and the Virtuous reject both or if they do not they embrace them but moderately and the Virtuous and Wise have Courage and the Couragious as they do not fear Death so they despise not Life for as Virtue is a Mean between two Extremes so it keeps in the Mean of all Conditions and Estates THE EPISTLE THis is to let you know that I know my Book is neither wise witty nor methodical but various and extravagant such as my Thoughts entertained themselves withall rather making it my Recreation not having much Imployment than my Trouble for I have not tyed my self to any one Opinion for sometimes one Opinion crosses another and in so doing I do as most several Writers do onely they contradict one and another and I contradict or rather please my self with the varieties of Opinions whatsoever since it is said there is nothing truly known but Measuring and Reckoning the which I will leave to Arithmeticians and Geometricians who have a Rule and Number which my Brain can neither level at nor comprehend but humble and plain Opinions raised by the Opinions of others I here present and many may think my Present not worth the reading and that it had been better my Thoughts had been buried than to trouble our Language with that there is so much already of foolish and impertinent Writings for those that know not how to choose good and prositable Books may take up such Rubbish in their place as to dam up their Heads from the light of shining Authors But there are few that have not so much Self-love as to desire to live in some-thing and I am one of those that had rather dam up a Head than to be buried under foot and wish my Brains could have melted better Metal to have made my Book as a Bell to sound clear and loud but not to offend the Ears of any for though I wish to fill them I would not hurt them for Fame is nothing but a Noyse And when I consider Fortune carries as many into her House as Merit I put out this Book though I cannot hope to have any acceptance amongst the Learned but leaving it to Fortunes friendship for she many times prefers the Mean and the Low and disgraces those of higher Abilities which if she favour me I know you will be my Friends but if she disgraces me there is not any thing in my Book can keep off a Scorning Censure but whether it please or be dis-approved I am as I am MARGARET NEWCASTLE The Worlds Olio LIB III. PART I. Of Monsters SOme say there are no Monsters nor ugly Creatures in Nature for a Toad a Spider or the like are as beautifull Creatures in Nature if it be according to their kind as the lovelyest Man or Woman It is true as being according to the natural shape of such a kind of Creature but that which is ugly is that which is deformed and that is deformed that is mishapen and that is mishapen that is made crooked or awry or one part bigger or less than another And those Creatures are to be called Monsters that have more parts than they should have or fewer or when their parts do not sit in their proper place as for example if a Man should have two Heads or four Legs or more Hands or Feet or Fingers or Toes or Eyes or Noses or Ears
were carried many hundred miles let them be but loose and at their Liberty and they will return to their first Habitation wherefore they are forced to muffle many Creatures that they may not see which way they go because they should not know how to return Then that they are not Sociable nor delight in Society but we see they will play and sport with one another and Sheep love Company so well that they will not thrive nor grow but where there are great Flocks of them together Then that they have not Fancy but we see that Nightingales have great Fancy in the variety of their Tones and Notes and their Invention in many things beyond the Invention of Man Thus there is no Virtue nor Vice as Men call them but may be found in other Creatures as well as man but only we give our Knowledge proper Names and those none Again they say there is no War nor Tyranny in other Creatures or Animals but man yet certain there are many other Animals more Tyrannical Cruell even to their own kind than man and will take as heavy a Revenge one upon another and love Superiority and Power will not the Cocks fight as fiercely and cruelly one with another for Preheminency as men so Bulls against Bulls They say men have Command over Beasts but it is as some men have Command over others that is when they have more Power as Strength of Body or advantage of help either of Numbers Place or Time The Actions of Beasts THough Beasts be apter for some Actions than Men yet they are not made capable to exercise all in general as Running Leaping Jumping Drawing Driving Heaving Holding Staying Darting Digging Striking Grasping Cutting Peircing Diving Rowling Wreathing or Twisting Backwards Forwards Sideway Upward Downward turning their Joints any way as man can do Besides what curious Motions can Man move his Fingers to and what subtill Measures his Feer which no other Creature can do the like Thus every Member of Man is prompt ready and fitted for Action which makes him so industrious and inventive as he becomes so proud thereby that he thinks himself a petty God and yet all his Excellency lies in his Outward Shape which is not compleat but all his Inward is like to Beasts Wherefore Beasts might have been as capable as man if his outward Shape had been according so that one may almost think that the Soul is the outward Figure of a mans Body Of Birds ALL Birds are full of Spirit and have more ingenious Fancies than Beasts as we may see by their curious building of their Nests in providing for their Young in avoiding great Storms in choosing the best Seasons as by shifting their Habitation and in their flying in a pointed Figure which cuts or peirceth the Air which makes the Passage easy and so in many other things of the like Nature But the Reason seems to be because the chief Region they live in which is Air is pure and serene when Beasts live altogether on the Earth where the Air about is more Grosse by reason of continual thick Vapours that issue out but the Region wherein Birds fly is clarified by the Sun which makes the spirits of Birds more refined subtill and more lively or chearfull For all Beasts are heavy and dull in comparison of Birds having not Wings to fly into the serene Air But Beasts seem to have as much solid Judgement as clear Understandings as Birds and as providently carefull of their Subsistence and safty both for their Young and themselves as Birds But Birds have more Curiosity Fancy and Chearfullness than Beasts or indeed than Men for they are alwaies chirping and singing hopping and flying about but Beasts are like Grave Formal and Solid Common-Wealths-men and Birds like elevated Poets Of the Wooing of Beasts and Birds IT is not only the Spring time that makes Birds sing and chatter but it is their Wooing and striving to please their Mistrisses and Lovers for most Creatures keep a Noise and Dance when they Wooe as striving to express their Affections for the Noise of other Creatures is as much as making Verses by Men to their Mistrisses for those Noises are the several Languages to expresse themselves whereby they understand one another as Men. Of Passions THE Passions of the Mind are like the Humours of the Body for all Bodies have Choler Melancholy and Flegm nor could it be nourished without them so the Mind hath many Passions which without would be like a Stone so that there is no Humour of the Body or Passion of the Mind but is good if moderately bounded and properly placed but it is the Excess of the Humours and Passion that destroies the Body and Mind but the equal Ingredients of Humours make a strong Body and an equal Composure of Passions makes a Happy and a Noble Mind Of Appetite and Passion ALL natural Appetites are within Limits and all unnatural Appetites are without Limit and there is nothing more against Nature than Violence wherefore Man is the greatest Enemy to Nature for natural Passion or Action or Appetite are not Violent Violence being Artificial or Extravagant not Natural which is caused by Imagination Opinions Examples and Conversation which perswade Man to those Appetites which Violence doth work upon Of Like and Dislike WEE receive Like and Dislike as soon as we receive our Senses which is Life for when a Child is quick in the Womb Pain grieves it and Ease pleaseth it but Like and Dislike are not perfect Passions for though they are the Foundation of Love and Hate from which all Passions spring by the old Opinions yet are they not perfect Love or Hate Besides there is a difference betwixt Love Liking and Fondness for although Love hath a liking and is fond of what it placeth it self upon yet Liking and Fondness have not alwaies Love for true Love is unalterable when the other two are subject to Variety for true Love is lead by Reason and strengthened by Virtue Of Self-Love SElf love is the ground from whence springs all Indeavours and Industry Noble Qualities Honorable Actions Friendships Charity and Piety and is the cause of all Passions Affections Vices and Virtues for we do nothing or think not of any thing but hath a reference to our selves in one kind or other either in things Divine Humane or Natural for if we part with Life which is the chiefest good to Mankind it is because we think in Death there is lesse Pain than in Life without that we part with Life for and if we endure Torment which is worse than Death for any Thing or Opinion it is because our Delight of what we suffer for is beyond all Pains which Delight proceeds from self-Self-Love and Self-Love is the strongest Motion of the Mind for it strives to attract all Delight and gathers together like the Sun Beams in one Point as with a Glass wherewith it sets all one fire So Self-Love infires the Mind
which makes it Subtil and Active and sometimes Raging Violent and Mad and as it is the First that seiseth on us so it is the Last that parts from us and though Reason should be the Judge of the Mind yet Self-Love is the Tyrant which makes the State of the Mind unhappy for it is so partially Covetous that it desires more than all and is contented with nothing which makes it many times grow Furious even to the ruin of its own Monarchy Of Love LOVE is accounted of all the Passions the pleasantest and delightfullest and yet there is no Passion Tyranniseth so much as Love for it is not a return of the like though it come in an Equal Measure that can temper it nor Hate that can kill it nor Absence that can weaken it nor Threats that can affright it nor Power that can beat it off for it delivers up it self and it will abide with what it loves Neither is it like other Passions for Anger although violent is short Hate ceaseth with the Cause Ambition dies when Hopes are gone Fear is helped by Security Absence or Reproach of others cures Envy but nothing lessens or takes away from pure Love for the Pain increaseth with the Affection and the Affection with Time for the elder it groweth the stronger it becomes I mean not Foolish and Fond Love for Inconstancy is the Physician to that But firm and pure Love it is opprest with all other Passions for other Passions are but one against one but Love is Fired with Ambition Rubbed with Anger Torn with Fear Crampt with Envy Wounded with Jealousy so that it Mourns more than it Joyes This Passion makes Labour a a Recreation Pain Easy and Death pleasant when it brings any benefit to the Beloved And though self-Self-Love be the Ground from whence the love of other things springs yet it lives in the thing beloved and dies for the thing beloved to please it self much Love contracts the Mind and makes all things little and narrow but what it loves those that love are dead to themselves and live in those are their Beloved for the Desires of the Beloved are the Desires of the Lover let them be good or bad for though all Love is from Self-Love yet at last it Unthrones and dispossesseth it self and placeth the Beloved in its Rome We cannot alwaies love our selves WE cannot have the purity of Love to our selves unless we were perfect for where there are vain Opinions and false Imaginations unsound Understandings and various Passions which make us unconstant to our selves for though we do not absolutely hate our selves yet we grow weary of our selves and dislike our selves for many things so many times we seek to destroy our selves by taking our Lives away as those that murther themselves yet the neerest perfection of Love is self-Self-love because it is the Original of all other Passionss There is no perfect Love or Hate in Humanity THE reason why there can be no perfect Love or Hate in this World is because all things are subject to change and alter for at whatsoever is in the World we may take such an Exception that we may come to hate that which we seemed passionatly to love and to love that which we seem violently to hate for perfect Love or Hate must come from chosen Opinions of Good or Bad either to love Good or hate Evill as it is natural if there be any evil in Nature or in relation to our selves as we conceive to do us Good or Hurt for we cannot truly love or hate untill we can distinguish between Good or Evil but to speak truly we cannot love or hate untill we perfectly know the Nature and Essence of what we love or hate which is impossible for who knows the Essence of any one thing in the World and what is more unknown than the Nature of Man either by themselves or others which is alwaies subject to Alterations And since nothing can be known we cannot truly love or hate for Knowledge is required to the establishment of either but the Inconstancy of Man is such as he esteems and despises one thing in a Moment Of Envy ENvy they say is out of Self-love which cannot endure the Light of Good Fortune to shine upon any House but its own yet it seems strange that Self-love should become its own Hell for who can say in reason a Man in love to his Body racks it so as it never comes to its strength again so doth an Envious Man to his Mind But Envious Men are like them that had rather please their Palats than abstain for Health so they had rather see the Ruine of those they Envy than to have Prosperity themselves Of Natural Fears AS the Sword gets Power so Fear maintains Power for Fear makes Laws and Laws are Rules to keep Peace Fear subjects the Minds of Men and makes them submiss and makes them to do Right to one another for fear others should do Wrong to them Fear makes Carefulness and is a Watch-Tower for a Mans Safety Fear makes Order Order makes Strength and Strength maintains Power for a Body out of Order is weak and is subject to be overcom I mean not a Cowardly and Servile Fear to quit his Right but a Noble Fear to keep his Own for as Base Fear makes Knaves so Noble Fear makes Honest Men as not to dare to do a Wrong for as Base Fear is the ground of Cowardliness so Noble Fear is the ground of Valour for a Valiant Man is so afraid to lose his Honour as he will adventure his Life a Coward is so afraid to lose his Life as he will adventure his Honour Base Fear distracts Noble Far unites Fear makes Devotion and Devotion breeds Love so it is the Parent and Child to Love as to breed it and obey it And Security weakens Power for Security makes Carelesness and Carelesness makes Disorder and Disorder makes Confusion Besides what States nay what private Families are without private Spies to find out what weakens and no sooner found but discovered to our Enemies and an Enemy will lose no known Advantage Besides Opportunity makes Enemies when Care not onely keeps out Enemies but makes Friends for Fear makes a Wise Conduct when Security brings a Disorderly Fear Of Revenge for Ill Words IT is the greatest Dishonour for a Man to be called a Coward for a Woman to be called a Whore and nothing will satisfie a Man that is called a Coward but the Life of him that doth it so Tender is he of his Honour and so Revengefull doth the Loss make him But a Woman can give no Honourable Revenge if she be disgraced with Words she must onely mourn over her Loss of Honour she may weep Funeral-tears over it or curse or sigh for it but when it is once Dead it hath no Resurrection Of the Passions of Love and Hate and of good and bad Dispositions THere are but two Parent-Passions as Love and Hate from whence
all the rest are begot or derived Also there are but two Parent-Dispositions in the Body the one good the other bad from whence Dispositions are begot or derived A good Disposition is caused by an equal Temper of the Constitution of the Body and an orderly Habit belonging thereunto also when the Humours therein be fresh sweet clear and thin A bad Disposition is caused from an unequal Temper of the Body and a disorderly Habit belonging thereunto also when the Humour is gross muddy corrupt and full of malignity But Love and Hate are created in the Mind increased and abated by Imaginations Conceptions Opinions Reason Understanding and Will But those two Parent-Passions and Dispositions do so resemble one another as they are often times mistaken being taken one for another When the inbred Humours of the Body produce one kind and the Nature of the Mind another Of a Hating Disposition or a Passionate Hate THere is a difference betwixt a Hating Disposition and a Passionate Hate A Hating Disposition is produced from a Weak Constitution of Body and an overflowing of Malignant Humours which rise like a High Tide which cause an Aversion Loathing or Nauseousness to their Object or Subject From this Disposition proceeds Frights and Fears Soundings and Faintings as at the sight of what they hate but when it is against their own kind it produceth Malicious Thoughts Slandering Words and Mischievous Actions But Passionate Hate makes open War and onely pursueth that which it thinks is Evil and is the Champion of Virtue the Sword of Justice the Guard and Protector of Innocents and the Pillar of Commonwealths Of Loving Dispositions and Passionate Love THere is a Loving Disposition and the Passion of Love This Loving Disposition proceeds from Moyst Humours and a Sanguine Constitution which makes the Disposition facile or pitiful tender-hearted as we say and Amorously kind From this Disposition Tears flow often through the Eyes large Professions and Protestations fond Embracements kind Words and dear Friendships as long as it lasts but dissolved upon every small Occasion and never fails to break all to pieces and those pieces to rise up as Enemies if any Misfortune comes But Passionate Love professeth but a Little and promiseth Nothing but will endure all Torments and dye Millions of several waies if it had so many Lives to give for what is loves Of Amorous Love AMorous Dispositions are a Mullet and an Extravagancy of Nature got betwixt the Humours of the Body and the Passions of the Mind for the Passions of the Mind and the Dispositions of the Body although they be taken by the Ignorant for one and the same having some resemblance as a Horse and an Ass yet they are of two several kinds and different Natures the one being Industrious Couragious Generous Noble and Free the other Slothfull Fearfull and fit for Slavery But the Passions of the Mind are Rational the Humours of the Body Bestial for Lust is the Natural Breed of a Sluggish Body Pure Love the Natural Breed of a Rational Soul But Amorosity is begot betwixt both being not so foul as Lust nor so pure as Love but is of a mixt nature and like Mules that produce no Creature so Amorosity neither produceth a Noble Of-spring from the Mind nor seldome any Issue from the Body for it is rather a whining Contemplation than a real Act. Of a Cholerick Disposition and a Cholerick Passion THere is a difference betwixt a Cholerick Disposition and a Cholerick Passion A Cholerick Disposition proceeds from a dry hot Constitution and a bitter or salt Humour that is bred in the Body either by an evil habit of the Liver and Stomack or an unwholsome Diet This produceth a froward Disposition being alwaies a Disquiet to it self which causes the Words to be cross the Voyce to be loud the Countenance to be stern and the Behaviour ruff and rude But a Cholerick Passion is the Fire of the Mind giving Heat to the Thoughts which raiseth Ambition and gives Courage to the Active Vigour to the Strong Quickness to the Words Confidence to the Countenance with a Resolved Behaviour c. The Sympathy of the Spirits THere are Sympathies of Sensitive Spirits and Rational Spirits the one proceeds from the Body the other from the Mind or Soul the one is Fondness the other is Love this makes Fondness last no longer than the Senses are filled which every Sense is not onely capable of a Satisfaction of every particular Object but an overflowing even to a Surfet and Dislike but an Affection that is made by the Sympathy of the Rational Spirits which is Love dwels in the Soul and is never satisfied but the more it receives the more it desires so that this Sympathy is the Infinite of Loves Eternity Of the offering up of Life THere are few that will freely offer up their Lives to take a certain Death yet there be three sorts that are the likeliest to do it as the Ambitious the Consciencious and Lovers the Ambitious Fame perswades them the Consciencious Fear and Hope perswades them Lovers Love perswades them Ambition seeks Fame Fame seeks Applause Applause seeks Action Action seeks Honour Honour seeks Danger Danger seeks Death Fear and Hope seek Religion Religion seeks Faith Faith seeks Martyrdome Martyrdome seeks Death Love seeks Ease Ease seeks Peace Peace seeks Rest Rest seeks Death Those that dye for unlawfull Desires or in desperate Fury or the like these deserve Pity and Tears of Sorrow because their Death was their Dishonour but to dye for their Country their Religion Friends or Chastity there Tears should be wiped from all Eyes and Acclamations of Joy should ring for the Renown of such Constant Virtue as to seal it with Voluntary Death where Life was onely a Cover to hide it besides the Spirits they beget by example they give but this kind of Valour hath few Companions The yielding up Life A Valiant Man will not wilfully part with his Life nor yet unjustly keep it but if his God his Country or his Friend require it he willingly offers it up as a Sacrifice upon the Altar of Honour when Desperateness throws his Life into the Jaws of Death for a Vainglorious Fame The Difference of killing themselves and yielding up of Life THere are more kill themselves than willingly offer up their Lives because those that offer up their Lives are as a Sacrifice or Atonement for the good of one another more than themselves and would rather live than dye could they keep their Life with Honour but their Death being a Rescue to something as they think which is more worthy than their Life they willingly yield it up where those that kill themselves do it out of Fear of a Miserable Life for those do deliver up their Lives Freely and Nobly that give it not to avoyd worse Inconveniencies to themselves as out of Poverty Pain Fear or Disgrace or the like but those that leave Health Wealth Strength Honours Friends and all
that they never cultivate or manure the lands for increase but eat of the plenty pretending beggery bur ingrosse all the wealth and for the women there are as many kept barren as would populate whole nations But they in their own defence say that they cast off all pleasures of the world lie cold and hard eat sparingly watch and pray and not onely to pray for themselves or for the dead but for those that are incumbred in worldly cares besides say they it is profitable to the Common-wealth for men that have small estates and many children not being able to maintain them according to their qualities and degrees may run into many errours for want of means which may disturb not only families but whole states where a monastical life a small portion and a little will serve the turn onely to keep soul and body together in which their lives are peaceable and full of devotion but the Laytie answers that the third part of the wealth of Christendom goeth to the maintenance of the Church onely in consideration of younger children that will be content and some are sorced in yet after that rate there will be little for the eldest which remaine without nor will be if they go on to lay such burthens upon mens consciences and such sums upon those burthens to buy them out neither is there any sort of men more busie in disturbing the Common-wealth for those that have not active imployment either in the ordinary affaires of the world or extraordinary affaires in the Common wealth their thoughts corrupt being not exercised in action they grow factious which causeth distractions for there is more war amongst the Christians about their opinion then upon any cause else This saith the one side but their enemies say that they are not only the covetous but the greatest cheaters in the world and all under the name for Gods sake for say they they bring in ceremony for gaines in that they set al the mercies of God to sale for what sins cannot be bought for money as adulterery incest murther blasphemy and sins past and present as for whores they permit them to live loosly without punishment and allot therein streets and houses to increase their sins in which they do authorise sin for a sum for they pay tribute to the Church and not onely sins past and present but to come as witnesse the yeares of Jubile besides the head take upon them the power of damnation and salvation as witnesse the excommunications and absolutions and if not out and in of hell yet out and in ofPurgatory which Purgatory is a great revenue to them yet they have a countenance for their covetousnesse which is that the offendant must have a true contrition or their sum of money will do them no good no more then will a true contrition without the sum but surely Monastical lives are very profitable to the Common-wealth whatsoever it bee for the soul for it keepes peace and makes plenty and begets a habit of sobriety which gives a good example and many times drawes their own mindes though naturally otherwise disposed to follow the outward carriage for the custome of the one may alter the nature of the other and in that they keep peace is because they live single lives not for the quarrels of marriage but in not oppressing the kingdome in over-populating it for those kingdoms that are very full of people growes mutinous and runs into civil wars where many states are sorced to war upon their neighbors for no other end but to discharge the stomack of the Common-wealth for fear it should breed incurable diseases Besides a Common-wealth may be over-stockt like grounds which causeth great dearth and plagues in a Common-wealth so that those states which have more traffick then men are rich where those that have more men then trade are poor and Civil war proceeds not so much out of plenty as out of proud poverty the next cause for plenty they are of a spare diet and most of what they eat or should eat by their order is Fish Roots and the like but if they do get a good bit one may say much good may it do them for they get it by stealth and eat it in fear at least not openly to avoid scandal but if they do not spare in the matter of meat yet they spare in the manner which cuts off all prodigal superfluities of feasting or open house-keeping wherin is spoiled more then eaten neither doth it relieve the hungry by the Almes-basket so much as it over-Gorges the full and for Ceremonies it keepes the Church in order and gives it magnificency besides it is beneficial to the State for it Amuses the Common people and busies their mindes and it is as it were a recreation and pastime to them as Saints dayes and the like nay they take pleasure and make a recreation to have fasting dayes so as they have much to think on and imploy their time in as fasting-dayes processions of saints confessions penance absolutions and the like as Mass and Musick and shewes as at Christmas Easter our Lady day on many dayes of the yeers and these affording one and the same but varieties in all besides every Saint having power to grant several requests it will take up some time to know what to ask of them and all these one would think were sufficient to keep out murmur and discontent which is got by idlenesse which is the cause of rebellion Thus the Church busies the people and keeps their mindes in peace so that these monastical ment which are the Church is the nurse to quiet the people or the masters to set them on wherein they never do unlesse it be in the defence of Christian Religion in which all good men ought to follow and surely it is beneficial to the Common-wealth whatsoever it be for the soul and for their souls although rationally one would think that God should not take delight in shaven heads or bare and dirty feet or cold backs or hungry stomacks in any outward habit but in an humble heart and low desires a thankful minde for what they have sorrowful sighs and repenting tears fear of offending admiration of his wisdom and pure love of his goodnesse and mercy thanks for his favours and grace obedience charity and honest worldly industry and to take as much pleasure as honest and vertuous moderation will permit for we might think that God did not intend man more miserie or leste of this world then beasts but alas all mankinde is apt to run into extreames which beasts are not either to bar themselves quite of the lawful use of the world or to run riot which of the two the last is to be shunned and avoided wherein this kinde of life is most secure neither must we follow our reason in Religion but Faith which is the guide of our conscience Of Society THere are many sorts of society and some comfortable as in
Ambition may not overturn them nor the Whirlwind of Evil Perswasions may not swallow them nor to be lost in the dark Nights of Ignorance but let the bright Star of Knowledge light them and the Needle of Understanding direct them But the greatest Storms that shipwrack honest Education is Civil Wars for Civil Wars corrupt good Manners especially Women that are Self admirers which makes them believe their own Praises and yield to Flattery the Murtherer of Chastity for Insinuating Deceit is most powerfull in Civil Diffention both in Private Families and Publick Commonwealths Of Courtships IT is a sign a Lover grows weary of his Mistris when he begins to give her good and virtuous Counsel as if a Man that hath had enough of his Mistris should perswade her to go into a Nunnery and to go into a Nunnery when a Woman is Old is like those that go into an Hospital when they are ready to fall in pieces with the Pox for to be Old is the Pox of Time as the other is the Pox of the Bones for they are both full of Pain and decay of Nature for Time and Disorder works the same effects for as Time wears out the Body so Disorder tears out the Body Of Adulteries IN Marriage it is far worse and more Inconveniencies come by the disobedience of the Wife and her Adulteries than the Husband For first she dishonours her self insomuch as her Company is an Aspersion to all honest Women that frequent therein which makes the Chast to shun her Society Next she is a dishonour to the Family from whence she sprung and makes the World suspect the Chastity of her Mother for there is an old saying Cat will after kind thus we see that the World is apt to judge from the Original The third dishonour is to their Children for were they never so Beautifull and Virtuous yet Families of Honour refuse to match with them unless they bring great advantage by their Wealth and then none will receive them into their Stock but those whom Poverty hath eaten up for the disgrace is like the Leprosy never to be cured and it infects the whole Posterity and it gives Spots to the Family it is joyned with The fourth and last dishonour is to the Husband for let a Husband of a dishonest Wife be never so worthy a Man yet her Follyes shall lessen the Esteem of his Merits to the generality of the World Although he have a great Valour a flowing Generosity a sound Judgement a fine Wit and an honest Mind well bred Beautifull Rich Honourable yet the vulgar part of the World will point at him as a Fool a Coward and all they can think to be bad in a Man nay those excellent Virtues of Nature and Education shall be dimm'd and lose their Gloss even to the Wife although it be unjust to mis-prize one for the fault of the other Yet such is the nature of the World as they will censure by what they can mistrust as well as that they can assuredly know and think that some Defects undivulged lye hid which makes her prefer another in her Affections before him and any thing that is despised seems poor and inferiour at the first blush unless they meet with them that value things as they are and not as they seem which few do for the most part of the World regard more the outside than the inside and are carried away more by the shew than the substance which makes so many mistake that they despise what they should admire and love what they should hate and hate what they should love This is the reason that Gallant Worthy and Wise Men are dishonoured by their dishonest Wives Besides the Dishonour the Inconveniencies are many First it abolisheth all lawfull and right Inheritance for the Child that is born in Wedlock although begot by another Man shall inherit the Husbands Estate although it be known to be another Mans by our Laws Next for the abuses of Industry as for the profit and pain of his Labour to go to a Stranger Thirdly for the weakning of Natural Affection for a Man that mistrusts that all are not his own makes him not love any because he cannot guesse which are his rather he hates all for fear he should love him that brings him Dishonour and Discontent or at least set the Parents upon the Wrack with Fear and Grief as afraid to mistake their own and grieve that their own may have too little Affection from them Thence it takes away the tenderness of Affection from the Parents and neglects and rigour to their Children it makes disobedience from Children to their Parents for the disgrace and wrong they receive so that Suspicion is become the Master of the House and Shame the Mistris Unthankfulness the Steward and nothing is entertained but Discontents Adulteries of Men. THE like Dishonour and Inconvenience comes not by Adultery of the Husband as the Wife for the Children receive no dishonour by the Fathers Liberty nor the Wife very much for the worst that can be thought is that she is not so pleasing to her Husband either in her Person or in her Humour Nay it begets rather a greater Luster to her Merits and sets off her Virtues more to her Advantage as to shew her Fortitude in Patience her Constancy in Chastity her Love in her Obedience which the World taking notice of pities her hard Fortune in an unkind Husband and Pity proceeds rather from Love than Scorn and gives the Dishonour to the Husband for his Inconstancies and not a Disgrace to the Wife in being forsaken if she have an approved Virtue knowing it is Facility in being subject to change not her want of Merit but the Inconveniencies that come thereon it is ruine to a Mans Estate for Concubines are chargeable for Women are won oftner by Gifts than for pure Affection For though Affection sueth often it speeds but seldome when Gifts commonly prevail and besides Charges is multiplyed by their increase the next is apt to corrupt Noble Natures by the practice of Dissembling and Flattery of the Enamoured to grow False and Deceitfull to all other for Custome is a Second Nature Then this Amorous Love hinders all Business and Affairs of the World so that it is not onely wasting his present Estate but makes him uncapable of raising another for although all Lovers are most Ingenious and Industrious to obtain their Beloved yet to all other things of the World they are as dead Next as he is unprofitable for himself so he is not profitable for the Common-wealth for he that hath his Mind full of Women can have no room for any thing else besides his Heart is in his Mistrisses Breast This kind of Love effeminates and degrades a Man of his Valour to all but for his Mistrisses Love witness Mark Anthony I mean not all those that are affected to Women for Moderate Love gives an Edge to Valour but those that are swallowed up and
are as it were Forced or Artificial and not Natural for Man and Wife are like one Root or Body that whatsoever toucheth the one is truly sensible to the other nay so as it is the same Joy and Grief Then for Gratitude the Man ought to love his Wife not because she is as his Servant in being Overseer in the Houshold affairs or in nursing up his Children and the Care and Fear of them or in being sick or ill in the breeding of them but the Horrid Pain in bringing them forth into the World and the Danger they pass through which is more hazardous to every particular Woman than to every particular Man in Battel Then for the Weal publick which is as the great Wheel in a Clock so every private Family is as the little Wheel for the Weal-publick if a Man and his Wife disagree which is want of Affection then their Children when they are grown up begin to grow Factious some siding with the Mother against the Father and others with the Father against the Mother which Custome will make them grow Factious in the Weal-publick as well as in the Weal-private Of Marriages THose Marriages are commonly more happy which are made out of Interest than those that marry for Fancy for Interest is like Brass which is ingraven and Fancy is like printed Wax the first never alters except it be broke by ill fortune when the other is destroyed with a warm breath But those that marry below their Quality give Respect and Reputation to those they marry but take it from themselves Of Married Wifes A Woman ought to please her Husband to the uttermost of her power as to humour all his honest Delights not onely in Actions beseeming her Sex but those are forbidden Women by the Laws of Modesty and ought to be strictly kept at all times of their lives but when they serve to maintain their Husbands Affection and keeping their Husbands Affection from running to others unlawfully from whence proceeds not onely a Disturbance in their Families and a Ruin of their Estates bat a Disturbance and Ruin to many Families by Adulteries which Adulteries cause Jealousies Jealousies make Malice Malice Revenge Revenge Murther so to avoyd these a Woman may Game Fence Ride Vaut Run Wrestle Leap Swim or any the like Actions which are onely accounted Actions fit for Men if their Husbands should take Delight in them to have them Companions in all their Exercises and Pastimes But it is Time and Occasion that makes most things Good or Bad For example it were a horrid thing and against Nature and all Civil Laws for Children and Parents Brethren and Neighbours and Acquaintance to kill one another although their Offences to each other were very hainous but when the King of chief Magistrate in a Commonwealth commands it as they do to those that are of their side in a Civil War then it is not onely Warrantable but it is accounted Sacred and Divine because nothing pleaseth Divinity more than obedience to Magistrates and Nature loves Peace although she hath made all things to War upon one another so that Custome and the Law make the same thing Civil or Pious Just or Unjust Of a second Wife IT is to be observed that when a second Wife comes into a Family all the former Children or old Servants are apt to be Factious and do foment Suspicions against her making ill Constructions of all her Actions were they never so well and innocently meant yet they shall be ill taken and all that they hinder her of although it do them no good but what is gotten from her they think themselves enriched not so much by what they get but by what she loseth or hath not Civility from Men due to Women COmplements from Men to Women are as a Tribute due to Womenkind for Women fearing they should not be so Nobel Creatures as Men are apt to be out of Countenance as mistrusting some Imperfectness in themselves wherefore Men of Noble Natures are willing to help the Weak and therefore ought to give our Sex Confidence by their Praises and therefore should be civil to Women in having as tender a Regard to them as to Children for though Women be not so Innocent yet they are as Powerless and it is the part of a Noble Heroick Nature to strive to oblige the Weak and it is better to be used with Cruelty than Scorn or a rude Kindness The Ridiculous Malice amongst Mankind SO Ridiculously Foolish or so Maliciously Envious is Mankind as one would think Nature was either Defective or else full of Malignity when she made him As for example If a Man love his Wife with a clear and constant Affection rejecting the Amorous Allurements of other Women for her sake finding all in his Wife that he can wish or at least desires no more than what he enjoys and is best pleased to live a life of quiet at home ruling his Family with Love and Obedience thinking it more wise to enjoy the World thus than to trouble himself with those Affairs of the World which neither bring him Ease Peace nor Profit but if he must act several parts upon the Stage of the World to which he is forced either by Honour or Necessity not by Choyce this Man shall be thought either an Uxorious Man or a Fool or a Madman either to give himself over to various and voluptuous Delights or to deliver up not onely his Person and Estate but his Reason and Liberty to the humours and will of his Wife As if a Man when he gives his Child a Hobby-horse because he lets his Child do so and so in many like Causes and if the Child desire to go abroad the Father desires to please his Child when it hinders not more potent Affairs thus if he doth not cross his Child in every thing but is well content to please and humour him in harmless things he is thought too fond and indulgent a Father to his Child just so is a Husband condemned if he humours and pleaseth his Wife in letting her have her will in honest and not in dishonourable Recreations But what Gallant Man will not favour the Female Sex nay what Gallant Man will not condescend to all their Desires and seek and invent waies to please them so far as Honour will give them leave And shall a Man despise and cross and neglect his Wife because she is his own lawfully joyned and united Shall it be more Dishonour for a Man to love his Wife than another Mans Wife Shall a Man be accounted a Fool because he is honest to Wedlock because he is kind to his own Wife Was Augustus Caesar less Wife because he loved or Pompey less Valiant because he loved Salomon may be said to be less Pious towards God through the great Love he bore to Pharoah's Daughter which was his first and dearly beloved Wife yet he was not less Wise in respect of the World But Men seek for that
whisperings or private Conference that her Actions might have sufficient Witnesse and her Discourses a generall Audience Item That none shall marry against their own liking or free choice lest they make their Marriage an excuse for Adultery Item It shall be allowed for Maids to entertain all Honorable as Matrimonial Suters untill such time as she hath made choice of one of them to settle her Affections upon for it is good reason one should take time and observe Humors before they bind themselves in Wedlock Bonds for when once bound nothing but Death can part them but when they are once married their Ears to be sealed from all Loves pleadings protestings Vows making high praises and Complementall phrases Item That none shall keep a Mistris above halfe a year but change lest she grow more imporious than a Wife made of a Widow Item All Lovers shall be licensed to bragg or speak well of themselves to their Mistris when they have done no meritorious Actions to speak for them Item All those that have Beauty enough to make a Lover if they have not wit to keep a Lover shall be accounted no better than a senseless Statue Item It shall not be as it is in these Daies accounted a prise or purchase amongst Ladies to get either by their Wit or Beauty admiring Servants especially if they be of amorous natures for then Nature drives them to her Beauty or Wit more than her Wit or Beauty draws them to it Item All those that are proud without a cause it shall be a sufficient cause to be scorned Item Eloquence shall not be imployed nor pleaded in Amorous Discourses nor to make Falshood to appear like Truth but to dress and adorn Vertue that she may be accepted and entertained by those that will refuse and shun her acquaintance if she be clad in plain Garments Item There shall none condemn another Language nor account another to be better if it be Significant Copious and Eloquent such as the English Tongue is Item All passionate Speeches or Speeches to move passion shall be expressed in Number Item That all Natural Poets shall be honored with Title esteemed with Respect or enriched for the Civilizing of a Nation more than Contracts Laws or Punishments by Soft Numbers and pleasing Phansics and also guard a Kingdom more than Walls or Bulworks by creating Heroick Spirits with Illustrious Praises inflaming the Mind with Noble Ambition Noble Souls and Strong Bodies THough Noble Souls and great Wits dwell not constantly nor are allwaies created in Strong Bodies yet if Nature did choose her Materials match her Works and order her Creatures rightly and Sympathetically Strong Bodies should have noble Souls large Capacities and great Wits for Weak Bodies many times are a defect in Nature as much as shallow Wits or irrational Souls But surely if the chief and first Nature would work methodically and not seem as if she wrought at randome and to produce by Chance as she doth if Education and Custome which is a second Nature had not such a prevalent power to disturb and obstruct her and though Education and Custome may and doth somtimes rectify some Defects and help Life yet it doth more often puzzle Life and incumber Natures Works putting Nature out of the right ways with False Principles Foolish Customes and ill Education this is the reason natural Wits are many times lost not having time or leasure to exercise them or use them as I may say or for want of variety of Subjects or Objects to better them or dull'd by tedious and unprofitable Studies or quenched out by base Servitude or Subjection Also clear Understandings are darkened sound and strong Judgments weakened and false Judgments given and vain Conceptions and erroneous Opinions Maintaind or Believed for want of the True and the Right Waies Likewise the streught of the Body oftimes is weakened and effeminated by Luxurie Curiosity and Idleness which causeth Noble Souls Large Capacities Clear Understandings Fine Fancies and Quick Wits to dwell many times nay most commonly in weak Bodies for the better sort have most commonly more Plenty than Health the one devouring the other when the Meaner sort have meager Souls and barren Brains Rude Dispositions and Rough Natures have strong Limbs strengthned by Exercise and maintained by Labour healthfull bodies kept in repair by Temperance caused by scarcity and Poverty contented minds bred by Low Fortunes and Humble Desires when Wealth and Dignity create Vain Glory and Pride yet many times small Fortunes and great Wits agree best together but Noble Minds and Great Estates do the most good But in this Age although it be the Iron Age yet those men that have Effeminate Bodies as tender Youth loose Limbs smooth Skins fair Complexions fantastical Garbs affected Phrases strained Complements factious Natures detracting Tongues mischievous Actions and the like are admired and commended more or thought wiser than those that have Cenerous Souls Heroick Spirits Ingenuous Wits prudent Fore-cast Experienced Years Manly Forms Gracefull Garbes Edifying Discourses Temperate Lives Sober Actions Noble Natures and Honest Hearts but in former years it was otherwaies for Heroick Spirits in Masculine Forms had double praise as is expressed in the Grecian and Trojan Warrs and Princes were bred to labour as much as Pesants for though their Labour might be different the one being Servile the other Free yet the Burthen and pains-taking might be Equal though they carried not Pedlars Packs nor Porters Burthens yet they carried thick and heavy Arms and if they handled not the Sithe Pitch-Fork and Flail yet they handled the Sword the Spear the Dart the Bow the Sling and the like and if they knew not how to Mow to Reap and to Thrash yet they knew how to Assault to Defend and to Fight and though they digged not the Gold out of the Mines yet they digged Fortisications out of the Earth and if they set not Flowers on Banks or sowed Seeds in Furrows or ingrafted Slips or planted Trees to grow yet they set Armies in battail Array and sowed Lives in Adventures ingrafted Honor to the Stock of their Predeceslors and planted Fame to grow high in after Ages and though they drive not the Asses yet they mannage the Horses and if they want the Art to Yoak Oxen they want not the wisdome to Yoak the Vulgar with strickt Laws and if they will not drive a Flock of Sheep to the Fold they can lead a Number of Men to the Warrs and if they cannot build a House yet they can storm a City Thus galiant labours may strengthen the Bodies of Honorable Breed and Noble Minds freely and industriously without a Bondage or Slavery nay they may Row in Gallies yet not be subject to the Whip or Chains But as Masculine Bodies and Heroick Souls had a double esteem so Effeminate Bodies and timorous Spirits or rather Natures had a double despising as witness Paris of Troy but most Nations in those Ages spent their time in usefull Arts not
in vain Dressings they wore Horse-Tails in Head-pieces for Terrour not Light Feathers for Shew their Pride lay in their Arms not in their Clothes in their Strength not in their Beauty in their Victories not in their Dancings in their Prudence not in their Vanities their Wealth was spent in Hospitality not in Prodigality their Discourse was to Instruct not to make Sport neither in former years was Old-ages counsel refused for Youths Advice Age was accounted an Honour and respect was given to the Silver Hairs Youth an Effeminacy pittying their Follies And Youth in former Ages learnt with Patience what Age taught with Judgement and with Pains what Skill taught with Industry As to drive Charriots ride Horses bear Arms hold Shields throw Darts to Fence to wrastle to Skirmish to train Men to pitch Camps to set Armies to guide Ships Not to Dance to Sing to Fiddle to paint to powder as many men do now adaies Youth did then listen with attention to Grave Instructions and receive reproofs with Submission kept silence with sober Countenance obeyed with willing hearts and ready hands where now adaies Youth is bold and rude talks loud speaks Nonsence slights Age scorns Councels laug's at Reproofes glories in Vices and hates Virtue T is true many will go into the War and kill one another though many times they run away but it is rather Rashnes that sights than true Valour where Fortune gives the Victory and not Pallas or rather Time for those that run first away lose the day Thus in former Ages were Bodies and Minds matcht but I speak of Stength to shew that Women that are bred tender idle and ignorant as I have been are not likely to have much Wit nor is it fit they should be bred up to Masculine Actions yet it were very fit and requisit they should be bred up to Masculine Understandings it is not fit for Women to practice the behaviour of Men yet it is fit that Women should practice the Fortitude of Men But Women now adaies affecting a Masculincy as despising their own Sex practise the behaviour of Men not the spirits of Men nor their Herroick Behaviour but their Wilde Loose Rude Rough or foolish attected Behaviour they practise the Masculine Confidency or Boldness and forget the Esseminate Modesty the Masculine Vice and forget the Esseminate Virtues as to talke Impudently to Swagger to Swear to Game to Drink to Revell to make Factions but they practice not Silence Sobriety Reservedness Abstinency Patience or the like they practice the Masculine Cruelty quitting their tender and gentle Natures their sweet and pleasing Dispositions But these Actions and Humours are so far from preferring our Sex to a higher Degree that they do debase and make us worse than other Creatures be but I beseech my Readers to believe I speak not of Envy or Spight for I am guilty of neither but out of a grieved love to my own Sex nor of any particular Nations but of the World in general I mean as much as I have heard of likewise that my Readers will not mistake me as to think I belive that great Giantly Bodies or strong course Clowns have the greatest Wit and deepest Understanding for we see to the contrary most commonly they being the most Ignorant Fools and Cowardly spirits but I mean that if they had large strong healthfull bodies which might be obtained by Heroick Labours and Exersises and if their spirits were answerable to their bodies which might be infused by good Education they might have a double or treble Portion of Rational Understanding but most commonly large Bodies are like populated Kingdomes that are Barren for want of Cultivating and becomes defensless and open to an Enemy for want of Fortification which is Fortitude for Fortitude is an Overflow or a Superabounding of Spirits when Fear is a Scarcity or Contracting thereof the like of Wit and Understanding for from the Quantity and Agilness of the spirits in the Brain produceth Wit and from the Quantity and Strength of the Spirits in the Brain produceth Understanding But if I were to choose a Sex I had rather be a Pigmy stuft with rational spirits than a Giant empty thereof but a Middle Stature is most becoming a Little the most Agil and a Great the most Dreadfull like a private Family for a small Family hath the least Expence a Great Family the most Disorder a Competent Family the best Governed Or like Marriage a Beautifull Wife Delights most a Witty Wife pleaseth best a Chast Wife makes a man the Happiest So a Valiant Husband is most Esteemed a Wise Husband best beloved and an Honest Husband makes a Wife the happiest when a Coward is scorned a Fool despised and an Inconstant Husband hated The like is a Cholerick Wife an Unconstant Wife and a Sluttish Wife IT is strange to observe the forgetfulness or the boldness or the foolishness of many men in the World that will not only take Learned Mens Opinions and Arguments and discourse of them as if they were their own to the very Authors themselves word for word which shews Ridiculous and Mad but most times they will gravely write them as if they were never writ or divulged before by which Actions one would think they were of Kin to the Jackanapes Others are as Base as those are Ridiculously Foolish which will bribe the Printer or Bookseller to let them see such Copies and so will steal out their best Phansies or Opinions or Arguments and print them before the others come out wherefore it is just in the Readers to examine the Grounds for if any have done so unworthy an Act the Theft will be as easily seen for it will appear in the Face lying but skin-deep but never come neer the Fundamental parts wherefore all Writers that Strike Justle or Imbraee one another and that are published or Printed in a short space of time of one another are to be examined to find out the Right and Truth and to condemn the Thief and punish the Crime with Reproach and Infamy But I would have this Monarchy I make To have a Judge * that will good Counsel take One that is wise to govern and to see What Faults to mend and what the Errors be Making the Common-wealth his only Minion Striving for to enlarge his own Dominion To love his People with a tender Care To wink at Frailties which in Nature are And Just to punish Crimes as hatingill Yet sorry for the Malefactor still Glad to reward and Virtue to advance In real Favours not in Countenance Not to pay Merits with good Words and Smiles Dissembling Promises poor Men beguiles Nor yet good Services are done long past Ungratefull Souls will in Oblivion cast But have the Eye of Memory so clear The least good Service shall to him appear Nor would I have one idly to neglect His Peoples safety but for to protect Their Lives and Goods with all the care he can And upright Justice to the