employed should be concentrick in that service and act as the united faculties of one man their hearts being free from all ends and ambitious thoughts save such as conduced to Gods glory and the Common good But so soon as his Lordship had vouchsafed to acquaint me concerning his proceedings with his Majesty in thiâ— Affair he bade me call to mind the many fatherly favours which he had conferred upon me as pious motives to retard my unripe years from hazardous travels and having professed to his Lordship that I could not with any content resolve to live in my Native Country ever since I understood that younger Brothers by the Law of the Land were not participant in their Fathers Inheritance but that they were by the ways of Vertue and Industry to attend the Almighties bounty for acquiring such fortunes as primogeniture had conferred upon their elder Brothers or otherwise to live in an inferior or servile condition and then instanced his acceptance of me for his Servant at fifteen yâ—ars of age upon my own Address his clearing all my debts three several times with no smaller sum in the whole than three thousand pound his preferring me in Mariage to a rich Inheretrix and thereupon not only allowing me four hundred pounds per annum but to ballance the consent of her Father in the Match promised upon his honor to make me the Heir of his knowledge in Mineral Philosophy saying That if thâ—se real expressions of his love could but find the due retaliation of my gratitude he might then assure himself of the hoped Harvest of two lives tâ— one inferring that although Fathers are bound to provide for their Children and worse than Infidels if they do not yet there is no such injunction upon Masters in relation to their Servants and therefore where a Masters pious bounty transcends a Fathers natural love there that so obliged servant must appear most prodigiously ingratefuâ—l which shall not with much zeal and faithfulnesse discharge the duty of a surviving Trust seriously adding this Bushel I must now use you my intended Instrument in the prosecution of my Mineral Designs as Politick Princes do their nearesâ— Servants in their Cabinet Counsels who putting their Masters conceptions into act if they take well with the people must own no more of them than the approbation thereof and the admiration of their Princes wisdom therein but in the contrary effect to salve their Princes honour they must sadly acknowledge the matter wholly their own an Error in their Couâ—sâ—ls and a crime in themselves So you if by my Theory you prosper in your practick must attribuâ—… all the honour of the whole work to me If othe wise you must gratefully preserve my reputation by acknowledging your own mâ—sfortune in mistaking and misacting my directions and so you shall be sure to gain the Title and Character of a gratefull Servant in eiâ—her event And upon my serious â—rotesta ion that I would faithfully obey all his Commands his Lordship advised me not to follow the practice of our Predecessors in their tedious and expensive ways of sinking Airy shafts at every forty fathoms nor to imitate the antient Romans by diâ—ging Mines through deep and open Trenches but by cutting Addits into the Mountains at their lowest Level and by supplying their defect of Air with Pipe and Bellowes being an invention utterly unknown to former Agâ—s And for my first experience to begin with those five Mountains in Cardiganshire reported by Sir FRANCIS GODOLPHIN and a Portugues to be rich in Silver and Lead But if I should by my practick part fail in my deeper search either for want of convenient Air or a sufficient Vein of Ore his Lordship commanded me to persue his directions in that particular no further yet if my happy successe should prove his Theory true in this as also in the several wayes of separating the Metal from the Dross and the Silver from the Lead that then I should not fail to illustrate the innocent Trade of the poor Miners by making his Lordship the Patron of their Profession nor neglect to dedicate the whole profit which Divine Providence should reveal in the one to find out the Riches of the other and above all that I should take special care to elect such honest Agents for the carrying on this innocently profitable work as their vertuous ambitions should aim at no by respect beyond the publick good of their Country they having a competent salary for their modest maintenance But these Embrions proving abortive by the death of that Lord in the Reign of King Iames were the sad motive which perswaded my pensive retirements to a three years solitude until divine providence calling me to a more active life I discovered and perfected Natures ingenuous designs upon my Rock at Enston in Oxfordshire by making it such a delightful Grotto that the same of it invited the late King Charles to a volunrary visit By which means I not only became known to his Majesty but also found an apt occasion to discourse the above-mentioned Proposals of the Lord BACONS Philosophy who so well approved of my Ingenie upon that place and his Lordships Mineral Model that he presently promised me the assistance of his Mint according to the president of other Princes when I should find silver worth the coyning and likewise the accommodation of my own Lead so discovered Custom-free for 21 years as also my choise of renting the whole Custom of that Commodity at the rate of tâ—e Farmers Books calculated by the account of seven years Audit to put the speculations of my Masters Theory into practice These high favors of the late King conferred on my self in memory of that Lords eminent abilities and this his admonition before the Earl of Dorset to me at York That if in the War then like to ensue I should not prove real and active in his service and cordial in the trust reposed in me by my quondam Lord I should justly merit the Title and reputation of a Knave which did then provoke me forwards in my undertakings with a most zealous observation of my obliged fidelity to both till his Majesty at Causam dis-ingaged me in the first that he might enable me as much as in him lay to perform the latter by his gracious letter of permission to surrender Lundy at my own charge fortified and maintained without injury or violence to any upon such Articles as might take off my delinquency and restore me to my Estate and the grants of my Mines Mints and Customs rather than the forementioned design so well digested by my honorable Lord for the general good should be made fustrate by my incapacity to prosecute I being the only man made privy to all those his Mineral speculations and some other of his Philosophical Lucubrations not yet to be promulged until my proficiency and successe in the Mines shall enable me thereto since he in the depth of his wisdom thought it not only the
of his mercy for the Son of his love's sake bring us all in his appointed time by what several ends he shall think fit is the prayers of your faithful Friend as well as to find out by his holy Spirit those free-born Minds of Noble Souls in either sex for my Executors as will make the World their Heir and are endowed with such vertuous Actions of Love and Charity as might eternize the memory of my old Master and magnifie the Creators glory in his works of Nature which is and shall be the ambition of Your most Humble Servant Thomas Bushel The Attestation of the Gentlemen Proprietors about Hingston-Down SIR WEE have seriously considered the profer'd Civilities in your Letter and the plain Demonstrations in your ingenuous Reasons to cut North and South through the lowest Level of Hingston-Down for crossing all such Metal-loads as lie East and West and for freeing the Mines from the impediment of water by which you may verifie the old Proverb Hingston-Down welly wrought is worth London-Town dearly bought And therefore you may rest assured that we shall give our free consents and endeavours to procure other Gentlemen of our Country to further your most noble and unparalleld design that a speedy dispatch may be made thereof for the general good of the Nation which is and shall be ever much desired by SIR Your very ready Friends and Servants Edw. Herle Cha. Trevanion John Boscowen Chichester Wrey Edw. Wise William Wise John Lampen Ja. Launce Richard Erisey Jo. Chatley Phil. Lanyon Natha Tarvanyon Hu. Pomeroy Tho. Grose Richard Arundel William Rous. N. Borlace Tho. Lower Fran. Buller John Coryton Iohn Harris Nich. Sharsell John Battersby J. Tremenhere William Wrey Will. Coysgrave Edw. Wilcocks John Fathers David Haws Novemb. 11. 1656. For our Noble Friend Tho. Bushel Esq These Mr. Bushels Letter to the Miners of Mendyp and their Answer with the Juries Order Fellow Miners UPon the Overtures of my Mineral Discoveries taught me by the Theory of my old Master the Lord Chancellor Bacon's Philosophical Conceptions His Highness the Lord Protector upon hopes of the like providence in all his other Territories to ease the Nation of their Taxes gave me power to try the aforesaid Experiments since it was conceived by the aforesaid Lord that great riches lay in the Bowels of our Mother Earth and underneath the superficies of the most barren Mountains and in order to such his commands I have not only published the inclosed declaration for satisfaction to all moderate persons which have not unbyassed Principles against the honor of their native Country but also am setting on foot the drowned and deserted works in the naked Promontories of Hingston-Down Coom Martine in Devon and Guynop in Cornwal And being likewise informed by your fellow Miners that millions of wealth lie in Row-pits neer Chewton Minery which yet cannot be recovered from the inundation of water by the greatest Artists of former Ages I have upon my own deliberation and viewing of the place thought fit to render you the Experience of my practical endeavours and with a willing mind to attempt the forelorn hope of their recoveries at my own charge if I may have the well-wishes of you in general and the moyety or half bearing equal charge when the water is drained your speedy answer shall make me decline or prosecute the same with effect which is the only ambition of Your Faithful Friend T.B. April 21. 1657. To his very loving Friends John Phelps Tho. Voules Will. Cole Alex. Jett Will. Betten Rob. Radford and Tho. Wood with the rest These deliver Right Worshipful MAnna from Heaven was not more welcome to the Pilgrims of Israel than the good news your Letter brought to us poor Miners of Mendyp who now are like Moses in the Mount which saw the Land of Promise and yet could not enjoy the propriety thereof even so fares it now with us For a month or two of a droughty Summer we behold the appearance of much treasure lying in the veins of those metal Loads and so soon as we are preparing for Harvest to reap a mite of its Mineral profit the inundation of water takes away our present possession and leaves us exposed to a sad condition having no other Profession for our livelyhood But if your goodness and charity will be pleased to extend the interest of your knowledge to drain the Rake called the Broad Rake of Sir Bevis Bulmars works in Rowpits near Chewton Minery which is known to be the lowest Level and Sole of those works We do herein engage our selves under our hands and Seals and on the behalf of all others that shall hereafter work in the said Rake that you and your Assigns shall have the moyety of the whole paying half the charge and likewise procure the Lord of the Soil to do the like if you please to proceed with speed for the perfecting of the same and in token of our affection to serve you we have presumed not only to petition his Highness in your behalf for the better encouragement but also oblige our selves to tender you the first refusal of all our parts and shares of Oar paying ready money and giving us from time to time the same rate as other Merchants shall conceive it to be worth And so we bid you heartily farewell resting Your ever obliged Servants Valen. Tryme for his part Tho. White John Hoskins Andrew Baller Nich. Barrel John Blackhouse John Johnsons Will. Norman John Thrisel Tho. Atwood sen John Naish Edw. Hopkins Nich. Plumley John Hinsh Rich. Friar James Midleham John Phelps Will. Voules John Cole Rob. Clark sen Rob. Clark jun. Tho. Voules Tho. Atwood jun. Alex. Jett Tho. Rowles Nich. Parker Will. Dudden John Radford Rob. Radford May 2. 1657. For Tho. Bushel Esq Mr. Basbee's Affidavit VVAlter Basbee aged abâ—uâ— 80 years maketh oath That he was Saymaster â—o Gâ—ldsmiâ—hs Hall about fifty years ago and vers'd in Minerals ever since both at home and abroad and was by King Jâ—mâ—s sent to the Emperour of Russia to make him a Sâ—…ndard of Gold Silver in his Mint in the City of Moscovia equivalent to the â—ower of London And no sooner was that service performed by this Deponent but his Imperial Majesty commanded him to refine the Gold of a rich Copper-mine lying in Cyberea five hundred miles beyond the River Volgo which held of Gold in every Tun to the value of three four or five hundred pounds where this Deponent did remain until he was taken Prisoner by the Tartars and afterwards exchanged by the Emperour to be sent for England where this Deponent hath ever since spent most of his time under Mr. Bushell's Philosophical way taught him by the late Lord Chancellor Bacon which in the judgement of this Deponent cannot be parallel'd by any and if now practised according to his printed Remonstrance and the Mineral Grand-Jury's Order of Chewton this Deponent doth verily believe that the Age we live in will
so he left me Having assigned a value of about two thousand Duckets for a Bounty to me and my fellows For they give great Largesses where they come upon all occasions The Impressa of Mr. Bushels Golden Medal FRA BACON VICECO S CT ALBAN ANGLIAE CANCELL DEVS EST QVI CLAVSA RECLVDIT THO BVSHELL THe Lord St Alban's Atlantis is a Magazine of compendious but sublime documents to inrich a Common-wealth with universal Notions as far above a vulgar capacity as the Empyreal Heavens are the Earth for which cause himself stiled it his Solomons house or six daies work But the way to advance a proportionable Revenue proposed by his Philosophical Theory to accomplish the vast design of such a Magnificent Structure without a Princes Purse will seem as abstruse to some acute apprehensions as the immortal descent of the Soul to animate the Embryon in the Womb yet if any responsible persons are incredulous of Mr. Bushell's proceedings to perfect the said Lords Philosophical Theory in Mineral discoveries according to his undertakings let them or any other that have heretofore given him credit upon the late Kings score or his own repair to the assurance Office at the Royal Exchange where they shall have tendered by Friends of his Medals of Gold by way of Mart to raise 1000 l. per week according to the tenor of a Bill exprest at large in his Abridgement of the Lord Chancellor Bacon's mineral Prosecutions so soon as it is setled in Parliament for their encouragement and himself hath liberty to attend Providence in the successe FINIS Post-Script to the Judicious Reader READER IF thou hast perused the foregoing Treatise of the Isle of Bensalem wherein the Philosophical Father of Solomons House doth perfectly demonstrate my Heroick Masters the Lord Chancellour Bacons design for the benefit of mankind then give me leave to tell thee how far that illustrious Lord proceeded in the practical part of such his Philosophical Notions and when and where they had their first rise as well as their first Eclipse their first rise as I have heard him say was from the noble nature of the Earl of Essex's affection and so they were clouded by his fall although he bequeathed to that Lord upon his presenting him with a secret curiosity of Nature whereby to know the season of every hour of the year by a Philosophical Glass placed with a small proportion of Water in his Chamber Twitnam Park and its Garden of Paradise to study in But the sudden change of his Royal Mistresses countenance acting so Tragical a part upon his only friend and her once dearest Favourite he likewise yielded his Law-studies as lost despairing of any preferment from the present State as by many of his Letters in his Book of Remains appears so that he retired to his Philosophy for some few months from whence he presented the then rising Sun Prince Henry with an experiment of his second Collections to know the heart of Man by a sympathizing stone made of several mixtures and usher'd in the conceit with this ensuing discourse Most Royal Sir Since you are by birth the Prince of our Country and your vertues the happy pledge to our posterity and that the seigniory of Greatnesse is ever attended more with flatterers than faithfull Friends and loyal Subjects and therefore needeth more helps to discern and prie into the hearts of the People than private persons Give me leave noble Sir as small Rivulets run to the vast Ocean to pay their tribute so let me have the honour to shew your Highnesse the Operative quality of these two triangular stones as the first fruits of my Philosophy to imitate the pathetical motion of the Load-stone and Iron although made up by the Compounds of Meteors as Star-shot jelly and other like magical ingredients with the reflected beams of the Sun on purpose that the warmth distilled unto them through the moist heat of the hand might discover the affection of the heart by a vis ble sign of their attraction and appetite to each other like the hand of a Watch within ten minutes after they are laid upon a marble Table or the Theatre of a Looking-glasse I write not this as a feigned story but as a real truth for I was never quiet in mind till I had procured those Jewels of my Lords Philosophy from Mr. Archy Prim-Rose the Princes Page But the sudden death of that Prince give new cause of sorrow to the whole Nation as well as to that Lord whereupon his Lordship dedicated his Advancement of Learning to his Brother Charles the surviving Prince and to his prudent Father King Iames his Novum Organum who so much approved of his transcendent knowledge and singular eloquence as in his Royal Wisdome he made him Lord Chancellor during life and Lord Protector during his absence in his Scotish Progresse and though this eminent greatnesse gave many advantages to envious tongues yet when his Lordship had revealed the most mysterous parts of his Philosophy to his Master the King and delivered him his opinion concerning the disposition of Mr. Suttons charity exprest also in his Remains he thereby so indulged his Majesties Genius as he prevailed with him to call a Parliament chiefly for his Majesties own pressing occasions and to confirm this Academy of learning in his way of Mining by an Act of State upon hopes of perfecting all other expencefull tryals by the said Revenue and to that purpose his Lordship had prepared the heads of a Speech to the said Parliament which were as followeth My Lords and Gentlemen the King my Royal Master was lately graciously pleased to move some discourse to me concerning Mr. Suttons Hospital and such like worthy foundations of memorable piety which humbly seconded by my self drew his Majesty into a serious consideration of the Mineral Treasures of his own Territories and the practical discoveries of them by way of my Philosophical Theory which he then so well resented that afterwards upon a mature digestion of my whole design he commanded me to let your Lordships understand how great an inclination he hath to farther such a hopeful work for the Honor of his own Dominions and the publick good as the most probable means to relieve all the poor thereof without any other stock or benevolence than that which divine bounty should confer on their own industries and honest labors in recovering all such drowned Mineral works as have been or shall be therefore deserted And my Lords all that is now desired from his Majesty and your Lordship is no more than a gracious Act of this present Parliament to authorise them therein adding a mercy to a munificence which is the persons of such strong and able petty Felons who in true penitence for their Crimes shall implore his Majesties mercy and permission to expiate their offences by their assiduous labors in so innocent and hopeful a work For by this unchâ—rgeable way my Lords have I proposed to erect the Academical fabrick
of this Islands Solomons-House modeled in my new Atlantis And I can hope my Lords that my midnight studies to make our Countryes flourish and out-vie European neighbours in mysterious and beneficent Arts have not so ingratefully affected your noble intellects that you will delay or resist his Majesties desires and my humble Petition in this benevolent yea magnificent affair since your honorable posterities may be inriched thereby and my ends are only to make the world my Heir and the learned Fathers of my Solomons-House the successive and sworn Trustees in the dispensation of this great service for Gods glory my Princes magnifice this Parliaments honor our Countryes general good and the propagation of my own memory And I may assure your Lordships that all my proposals in order to this great Architype seemed so rational and feisable to my Royal Soveragin our Christian Solomon that I thereby prevailed with his Majesty to call this Honourable Parliament to confirm and impower me in my own way of Mining by an Act of the same after his Majesties more weighty affairs were considered in your wisdomes both which he desires your Lordships and you Gentlemen that are chosen as the Patriots of your respective Countries to take speedy care of which done I shall not then doubt the happy issue of my undertakings in this design whereby concealed Treasures which now seem utterly lost to mankind shall be confined to so universal a piety and brought into use by the industry of converted Penitents whose wretched Carcases the impartial Laws have or shall dedicate as untimely feasts to the worms of the earth in whose wombe those deserted Mineral riches must ever lie buried as lost abortments unless those be made the active Midwives to deliver them For my Lords I humbly conceive them to be the fittest of all men to effect this great work for the ends and causes which I have before exprest All which my Lords I humbly refer to your grave and solid Judgments to conclude of together with such other assistances to this frame as your own oraculous wisdom shall intimate for the magnifying our Creator in his inscrutable providence and admirable works of Nature But before this could be accomâ—lished to his own content there arose such complaints against his Lordship and the then Favorite at Court that for some dayes put the King to this Quere whether he should permit the Favorite of his affection or the Oracle of his Counsel to sink in his service whereupon his Lordship was sent for by the King who after some discourse gave him this positive advice to submit himself to his House of Peers and that upon his Princely word he would then restore him again if they in their honors should not be sensible of his merits Now though my Lord foresaw his approaching ruine and told his Majesty there was little hopes of mercy in a multitude when his Enemies were to give fire if he did not plead for himself yet such was his obedience to him from whom he had his being that he resolv'd his Majesties will should be his only Law and so took leave of him with these words Those that will strike at your Chancellor its much to be feared will strike at your Crown and wish'd that as he was then the first so he might be the last of Sacrifices Soon after according to his Majesties commands he wrote a submissive letter to the House and sent me to my Lord Windsor to know the result which I was loath at my return to acquaint him with for alas his Soveraigns favour was not in so high a measure but he like the Phoenix must be sacrifized in flames of his own raising and so perish'd like Icarus in that his lofty design the great revenue of his Office being lost and his Titles of Honour saved but by the Bishops Votes whereto he replied That he was only bound to thank his Clergy the thunder of which fatal sentence did much perplex my troubled thoughts as well as others to see that famous Lord who procured his Majesty to call this Parliament must be the first subject of their revengeful wrath and that so unparalleld a Master should be thus brought upon the publick stage for the foolish miscarriages of his own servants whereof with grief of heart I confess my self to be one Yet shortly after the King dissolved the Parliament but never restored that matchless Lord to his place which made him then to wish the many years he had spent in State-policy and Law-study had been solely devoted to true Philosophy for said he the one at best doth but comprehend mans frailty in its greatest splendor but the other the mysterious knowledge of all things created in the six dayes work Wherefore considering his fatherlike favors to my undeservings exprest in my confession to the honorable Council and knowing the Library he left to the world viz. His great work intituled Instauratio Magna an admirable piece containing First de Augmentis Scientiarum or his advancement of Learning in nine Books written in Latine and dedicated to King Charls then Prince of Wales Secondly Novum organum sive Judica vera de interpretatione naturae written in Latine and dedicated to King James Thirdly Sylva Sylvarum or his Natural History his New Atlantis his History of Life and Death historia ventorum all dedicated to King Charles by D. Rawley sometimes his Lordships Chaplain Sermones fideles sive interioria rerum otherwise called his Essays dedicated to the Duke of Buckingham De sapientia veterum or the wisdom of the Antients dedicated to the Earl of Salisbury Lord Treasurer and Chancellour of the University of Cambridge and to the University a double dedication which was afterwards translated by Sir Arthur Gorges and dedicated to the Queen of Bohemia Dialogus de Bello Sacro dedicated to Lancelot Andrews Bishop of Winchester The History of Henry the Seventh dedicated to K. Charls His Elements of the Law Resuscitatio certain excellent Discourses Letters and the like being his Remains set forth by the said Doctor Rawley A Manual of Devotions intituled Comfortable Crums of refreshment by Prayers Meditations Consolations and Ejaculations with a confession of Faith published by the aforesaid worthy and faithfull Doctor Rawley Doctor in Divinity and one of his Majesties Chaplains I willingly then betook my self to that penance of solitude imposed me by his Lordships Fatherly advice as is exprest in my Letter to my fellow Prisoners for Debt before I should dare to attempt any of his Mineral â—rust formerly consign'd me by the favour of his affection as doth more at large appear in my humble Remonstrance to the Honourable Council the which for three years I strictly kept as if obliged by a Religious Vow from whence I was grown so sensible of other mens suffering restraint for Conscience sake as I procured the liberty of many Jesuite Priests Anabaptists Brownists Familists of love Adamites and one of the Rosie-Crucians whose humility and
knowledge I much admired conceiving it in my weak judgment very hard measure for any mortal to punish such with imprisonment when those that committed them could not warrant to save their souls though they might protect their persons which last is the only cause of our allegiance to a Sovereign power But then finding another desolate Cell of Natures rarities at the head of a Spring near my own House in Oxfordshire which my Conscience gave me was allotted by Providence to retard my intended travels I in imitation of that excellent Lords sublime fancy beautyfied the same with the Ornaments of contemplative Groves Walks as well as artificial Thunder and Lightning Rain Hail-showers Drums beating Organs playing Birds singing Waters murmuring the Dead arising Lights moving Rainbows reflecting with the beams of the Sun and watry showers springing from the same Fountain these were then my sole Companions and speechless Preachers to inform me without trusting to the broken staff of faithlesse men And to free my self from the trouble of any Cook I observed my Lords prescription to satisfie nature with a Diet of Oyl Hony Mustard Herbs and Bisket my Drink Water like those long-lif'd Fathers before the Food where the late King finding me in this posture and by my then discourse in commemoration of my old Master conceived me capable with the help of that Lords Philosophy to do him some more acceptable service in Mineral discoveries for the Honour of the Nation than the collation I made him of his own native silver upon his second visiting that Rock the year following But let me tell you before these Philosophical trials of natural causes could be brought to any perfection I with patience endured all reproaches of malitious mindes and woar the fools coat in the repute of men more ready to condemn than examine yet had not Law-sutes arose upon my successes in Mineral discoveries and the late Warrs interven'd with the commands of the King to attend his motion therein which occasioned my proceedings for sixteen years to be lost I presume providence without any partner had enabled me to give incredulous persons a plenary satisfaction of that Lords unparalleld abilities the meer fame of whose unlimited bounty and noblenesse of mind did so much incline my affections to serve him at the first sight as I was never satisfied till by my own addresse without intercession of others he admitted me his servant that so I might from my own experience give account of his merits when I travelled into forein parts But I must confess I never so much admired his universal knowledge in his prosperity as in his adversity for in the one without flattery I discovered his seeming ends were no more than to aspire to popular greatness in Princes Courts and so gain the Trophy of that Honour to his Name but in the other I found his soaring thoughts were so much above the World as the Earth is beneath Heaven that had I been Heir to the greatest Dukedom on Earth I would have made a dedication of it all to have had his Age doubled in this time of his profound and Divine Philosophical observations for then his Judgment plainly concluded that all was vanity and that he that was wise in his own conceit there was more hope of a Fool than of him Saying daily to me and others That the knowledge a man was to learn whereby to save his Soul and magnifie the Creator was included in these two words Love and Charity And that those volumes written by the Dictates of the holy Ghost were but explanations of their sense But to speak of the general practice of the world from his own observation he was sparing because as I conceive by former discourse that he found it to be but an apparent Cheat even from the highest to the lowest according to their capacities in their several callings For then his deep intellectuals were so frequent in foretelling things to come as he gave me not only the divination and predictions of many future events of Kings and States Arts and Sciences but advised me to observe the reasons thereupon by his Divine Philosophical Theory and yet not to divulge them as his untill those notions observed by himself should come to passe which was to knâ—w whether Minerals at their lowest level of the Mountains did encrease in quality and quantity and whether the eye by inspection through a prospective Glass might not take the longitude and latitude of its object many miles distant in as large a manner as the sight alone doth contract it self at a smaller for by those principles of his upon the same natural causes it seems do depend matters of greater moment which are left to the practical trials of his six Philosophers to collect and add to his natural History and this I can assure you by the report of an honest Gentleman and discreet person is now completed in Holland to the admiration of all men In a word Gentle Reader had I no more to do than to mollify the hardest Rocks undermine Mountains drain their waters discover their Minerals separate their qualities and by that Lords Philosophy to make this Northern Climate a second Indies for honour and profit I should then think my burthen light in doing my Country service But to say truth I am to encounter in pursute of that Lords design with the subterranean spirits which are supposed the Guardians of all concealed treasures and their evil Complices wicked men who prove to me more obnoxious and greater Remoras in the ways of their perverse natures than any of those infernal Spirits can be for by a contrite heart humble Prayer and industrious labour I can conjure the one to a due obedience but I fear whole hoasts of men will not be able to qualifie the barbarous condition of the other so that Curteous Reader if upon this result you plead not my cause and secure me from mens fraudulent practices when I have brought such treasures to publick sight I shall expect no successe for my honest Creditors satisfaction nor so great a blessing to follow for the good of the Nation And now having given you for the most part an account of the Lord Bacons retardments in his Mineral Philosophy and my own last obstructions occasioned by the late Wars give me leave to tell you what my Lord gave me in charge by way of caution which was First To beware of those people who are so self-conceited as they think nothing is well done if they have not an interest by their vote therein lest they make their revenge upon this Mineral design witnesse faith that Lord the losse of the West-Indies upon that score Secondly That Lord charged me not to intermeddle with any tryal of curiosity in his or any others mans Philosophy whereby to prejudice my purse lose my time or put my self to trouble untill I had compassed a considerable revenew by his notions an iâ—fallible assurance of its daily increase by
be puhlished that the Redder may know his heart implores Providence for his Mineral increase aswell as Petitions liberty from men to dig for Treasure in their barren Mountains MOst glorious and omniscient Lord God who inhabitest Eternity and by thy omnipotent fiat didst in the beginning create the admirable fabrick of the Universe the Heavens are thy Throne and the Earth is thy Foot-stool on which thou didst frame our first Parent of red Clay and from thence gavest him his name into whose Nostrils thou didst breath the Spirit of Life enduing him with a reasonable Soul and madest him Lord of all thy Creatures But he being in honour could not abide so but became like the Beast that perisheth through the treachery of that first Rebel Satan who ever since endeavoureth to supplant his wretched posterity of whom my sinfull self am one Give me therefore O Lord a true sense of mine own sins without despair sincere contrition unfeigned sorrow and earnest repentance without hypocrisie make my Prayers fervent holy and gratefull that they may come before thee as the incense of a true penitent soul for a broken and contrite heart is a sacrifice which thou wilt not despise And now O God having first sought thy mercy on my soul give me leave to implore thy blessing on my temporal affairs to thy sole glory O Lord thy Spirit hath affected mine with the speculation and practice of Mineral Philosophy and thou wert pleased to blesse that most Royal and antient Philosopher who understood and writ of the natures of all vegetables from the Cedar of Lebanon to the pellitory or mosse on the wall as plainly appeared by the successe of his Miners transported by Hyram's Mariners to Opher whence they returned with 450. Talents of Gold for effecting whereof that King built and rigged a powerfull Navy at Ezron Gebar on the red Sea with a vast expence of his own or peoples treasure But O Lord my modest design requires no such charge or means the propositions of that great modern Philosopher my worthy honored Lord are to discover those hidden Treasures which thy inscrutable wisdom hath lodged in the Bowels of the most barren Mountains and desperately deserted Mineral works of our native Countries It is true Lord they that descend to the Sea in ships see they wonders in the depth thereof but such as search the secret Entrails of the Earth to find out thy concealed wonders there carry their lives in their hands being free among the dead whence they pray unto thee and praise thy marvellous works of nature when men ride over their heads But O Lord the insatiate thirst of riches or vain glory spurs not me on to this dangerous and laborious attempt but my zeal to thy glory and my Countries good Solomon beautified thine own Temple which he had built with his far sought Mineral Treasure and I would therefore willingly erect a house to the honour of his name in which fabrick designed by my honored Master true Christian Philosophers of eminent knowledge virtuous lives and holy conversations might by practical search and discoveries reveal to succeeding ages these beneficent rarities and profitable experiments which that great King first treated of being lost as is conceived to all mankind through thy several Judgements thrown in thine own back sliding people till that Lord my quondam Master assisted by thy Spirit of wisdom did in his natural History and that most excellent model in his New Atlantis propose to the world a new means to make use of them to thy glory and the benefit of all thy servants without any considerable charge to this or any other State But O Lord the blindnesse stupidity and diffidence of mans heart hath as yet obstructed the procedure thereof Dives desired no other means than a Messenger from Hell for the conversion of his Brethren which he had misled now the living which converse with the subterranean spirits cannot be believed in reporting thy wonders in the bosome of the Earth The Ninevites were converted when thy fugitive Prophet brought them a penitential Sermon out of the belly of the Whale grant O my God that I which am at present buried alive and secluded from the World may be thence heard by thee and so credited by the present ruling Power that I thy humble suppliant who like the poor bedridden men at the Pool of Bethesda have lain long impotent and unable to move may find some faithfull Patriots to assist my cause and make them sensible that I beg nothing but that which is lost and the help of the dead only to recover it The Mines that I Petition for are drowned and their works desperately deserted the persons I propose for their recovery are such as are dead in Law and crave as a mercy to be buried in them by a patient undergoing their punishment as pioneers and turning their necessities into such virtuous actions rather than a forc'd banishment should expose them to a seven years slavery in forein plantations Diamonds best cut Diamonds the stony-hearted are fittest to cut the stony Addits of the Mines and like to like will agree best when a penitential Soul strikes the blow For O Lord we all know the Prodigal Child was punisht with its opposite and believe all others have congruity in the like when thy only Son was forc'd for taking upon him the sins of man to descend himself into Hell before he could ascend into Heaven and who knows O Lord but that this Mineral imployment is the best way found out for us Mortals to discipline all offenders capable of mercy with discovering thy concealed Treasures and make such thy only creatures when the person which thou placest over them by thy Ministers of State shall take delightfull care in their education and amendment to thy own glory and the publick good fince thou joyest more in one of them than in 99. righteous that need no repentance O Lord in these designs I earnestly beg thy assistance since thy Son our Saviour hath bid us to ask seek and knock that we may obtain find and be admitted pardon then my confidence diligence and importunity I have now spent many Lustres of my life and some Treasure in prosecution of this defign O let me effect it so to thy glory before I go hence as my Feoffees in trust may not be discouraged to go on where I have left for time makes hast to call for natures debt and Death is none of thy Creature Let not then my worst Creditor be only satisfied before thou hast assisted me in some measure to pay the Debt of Zeal and Obedience which I owe to thee that of Love and Service due to my native County the real sums due to confiding friends and the great Debt of gratitude to the memory of my famous Master Foster-Father and Instructor in these undertakings Pardon then my sins and grant this my Boone since mercy and bounty are the most essential Attributes of thy Glory