this mould with the help of Fire and a continuall Refining through Time the purest Reason so much relyed on by Statists and Politicians came at first to be Cast. And that this is not obtruded upon Belief under a single Testimony it may be found the Opinion of the French Nation where they have not a more Apposite expression for a Fool then that His Head is ill made No weak argument of an universall Belief That Midwives skill doth highly conduce to an advancement or depression of Wisdom in a Child And from hence I have been led to this wish That the like office might be performed on the behalf of a young Ape of the Kingdom of Congo of which some years since I saw one in England that bare a Symmetry if not throughout like to yet very little differing from a Childs whose Skull being kept from a too sudden closing by Heat Swathing and the rest of the Ligations used by Nurses to Infants might not unpossibly acquire reason which once attained The Impediments to Speech whose principall Cunning lyes in a musicall Division or mincing a continued sound into articulate Notes would be no sooner discovered then removed We enjoying many things under the Favour and endeavours of Reason far more difficult and remote from the Confines of Nature then the Coynage of Languages rendred apparent through the multitude of them met with in the world And this once acquired though by chance and not altogether consonant to the exact pattern of Nature Custom assisted by Imagination might render diffusive for the Future As I believe not onely many of our new-purchased Qualities but diverse of those mans curiosity hath imprinted upon his Own Kind or Others are already become Manifest in a Succession of Doggs whelped without Tayles To which mutilation at first no question purely humane or meerly accidentall Nature hath been so indulgent already as insteed of an unsightly Bob to forme a sharp comely Bone like the Scut of a Deer Now since we are able to adde to or Diminish from Natures work both in reference to Body and Mind it cannot appear improbable That many Alterations perhaps greater then we are able to imagine or ready to believe have had their Flux and Reflux often repeated or changed since the Beginning Which may render it no improbable Opinion but as true as formerly it hath been common That Apes were of the seed of Cham or else the by-blowes of some wild stock of Humanity the Characters of whose kind remaining no lesse manifest in their Bodies then Affections to Women of which there are so many living Witnesses as it were superfluous to endeavour to prove it Onely this may be added as a further Testimony That my Self have seen two Monkies that for many years did not fail to have duly a Lunary Purgation Nor is this any rare Discovery but cited as a Report by the Lord Mountayne in his Essayes No lesse then we find it the usuall practise of the Almighty in the Scriptures To ' Punish a Sin in the Succession of a ' Family as he did some with short Life others with Leprosie c. The Recitall of which I will fully omit it being my Taske rather to Propose then Determine And if any understand what is said here in a more positive Sense They abuse themselves no lesse then wrong me Who have no Stronger Assertions to justifie this Then my Weak Conjecture which is That if God layd the Deprivation of Reason upon these Monsters For other they cannot appear to be bearing a shape and owning Gestures as various from the rest of Animals as their Conceptions are remote from the Prudence of a man for any peculiar Offence or that humane Lust did cause it by casting Seed into an irrationall and improper Soyle There lyes no Cure for this Bestiality if not in Heat Cold being a heavy Enemy to Activity of the mind though a try'd Friend to Strength and a Continuer of Perfection As Heat on the contrary melts and refines the Spirits into a more Rationall Temper The first of which is exemplified in Sheep and Kine which though usefull cannot be excluded the Catalogue of the most Simple For exposing their new fallen Young to the injury of the weather their Pores become sealed up so close as the Grosse and Flegmatick strangle the Purer Spirits onely capable of that Vivacity and Cunning found in those Creatures forced to use Stratagems in the gayning of their Food whose Whelps are housed in Dennes and Thickets Nor are the Foggy Humours in those Creatures rarifi'd by Sweat most proper to the Heads of Men That in Horses being rather squeezed out by Labour then distilled gently by Drops through which Nature obtains an opportunity to pick and Choose who uncompelled will part with nothing but what is Bad or Superfluous Now if the Head be capable of moulding into one Figure more apt for the production of reason then another as it is on the side of common experience confessed then can as little doubt be made but that it must needs have been litt upon in a far lesse revolution of Time then the World hath already passed over if certain of her own Chronologie which some have extended many Thousand of Yeares beyond what by Faith we are obliged to believe And Wisdom once attained could never be lost Since as it is reported of the Elixar she receives Augmentation and Improvement from every Event And because our greater Security and Variety of Food hath suffocated and abated so much of our Sense as it is in no proportion able to find imployment for our Fancie against whose Nature it is to be Idle as That more entire may do in the Creature Man is continually ruminating of what is Past or Attentive on what is Present and by Comparing of these is in some Mediocrity taught to determine of the Future Having Wisdome or Folly objected to him according as the Conjecture doth quadrate with Truth and the Concurrence of a Happy Successe Whereas the rest of Animals not being able to estate their Young and such as succeed in their dear-bought Experiences if not for want of memory the mint of Knowledge yet out of an Incapacity for Discourse and Disability to employ such Arts as are only proper to Societies limited by Lawes become stunted in their Knowledge and without Improvement not owning a larger Stock then the Brevity of a Turbulent Life is able to accumulate for want of Words which coyned into Questions and Answers are only able to Barter our own and purchase the Wisdom belonging to Others Now if any think people were born Wise at the First I mean in relation to the understanding now currant they cannot but alter their Opinion upon Contemplation of the vast Improvement one Age makes of what went before and how many New and more usefull Arts are now as it were daily invented And as the want of Words is a totall Eclipse of any nearer dawne or further progresse in the Creature
Complain of Governours for their Oppression or upbraid Youth with its Vices Since in the best Times Tyranny hath been moderated rather through Fear then Goodness As the most seemingly Holy do at the highest but palliate not Divest heir Humane Infirmity And from hence we may be taught with St. Peter Not to call anything Polluted or Defiled All Men at long-running meeting with the same Market either in reference to their own Depraved Will or Performance Wherefore I should Conclude considering My own and Others visible Lapses That Sanctity lies more in Repentance then Innocency Which is the Chief Advantage if not all the Difference disoernable between Those we terme Wicked and the Just. Now if any One a Thing I have forneerly been very chary of shall read These Papers under the Notion of Approbation He can no more make Me Proud then such as Dispraise them Angry It being the guise of All to applaud Those of Their own Opinion Of which there is none more Mine then that every Thing is of a Mixed Nature carrying a Face like That in a pleated Picture suitable to the Situation and Light the Beholder stands in or is guided by And in reference to one over-Severe I may have this to say That not a few now Wiser then us both have pleased Themselves as much in Drawing Anticks with a Coal upon a Wall as Others do in their endeavours to match Apelles All I seek is to sind Imployment for a Spirit that would Break the Vessel had it nothing to Work upon but it Self Nor is it less true That I might justly be blamed for Some things here Had more Time been employed about them then God in his Mercy or to punish my Former Negligence hath afforded me Liberty to spare Who can be accountable to Posterity for nothing in this kind being from my Birth uncapable to receive the Rich Talent of Learning look'd upon as The onely Key of Knowledge which if obtayned had been Little Advantage since I want a Memory wherein to Hoord up what I had stollen And so the Acquired Groat might not unpossibly have spoiled and adulterated the more Natural Shilling Wherefore if a Chymistry might be found able to Extract any thing useful towards the Conduct of Man out of such Ordinary Simples as These They were highly to be esteemed And in likelyhood more suteable to every Tast as Fresh-gathered from the Tree of Experience then those Sophisticated by the Schools or of a Narrower interest then That of The whole Society of Man And if any draw benefit from These they are most likely to be Friends It being onely the property of Love to look upon that with Delight which cannot be discovered to another without Shame And to such I could be content to leave them as the Idea of a Mind was no less Cordially imploy'd in advancing the Good of Others then of my Patience in receiving Injuries from the same hands This is not said to wound Providence under the Shadow of Fortune Since I have hitherto not onely been blest beyond my Desert but Expectation And have seen my unnatural Oppressours perish and languish through as Miraculous means as I have been Preserved And by which I am brought to the Contemplation of higher and more permanent Pleasures then the poor and despicable Consideration of Profit is able to reach Nor could any contrary Endeavour of mine hide this from the Eyes of the World to whose Judgement I was for a long time not so Impudent or Imprudent as to present more of my Self then I must needs Because Experience still finds Her in the Arms of Curiosity and Prejudice Into whose Den though I have been of late cast by what Hand of Fate I know not and so as it were Blindfold yet I have come off with more Favour from before this Tyrannical Tribunal then divers known of far greater Desert Nor should I but for a through Essay of my own Fortune and the Readers Candor venture such Stuff as is likely to Follow Which though produced long since I am not able to Better now And if Capable of Acceptance the World is not likely to want it But it is contrary to my own Aphâ—…â—isme to debosh what I present by saying it was writ before I was Twenty From whense would result such an easie Inference That surely I am no Wiser now which I wish heartily I were able to confute else I should Mend or Conceal them Nor can I think it Wisdom or Convenience to say They were produced in a shorter space then Nature requires in the production of Rarities Though not seldome Casual As I observed in a Flint presented to King Charles that bore the perfect Figure of a Man It boing the Custom of some Heads to afford the greater Reason the less they are pumped Such as is Clearest running commonly quickest and most Fluent whereas the Deeper requires Straining and so becomes Heavyer and of a lesse sprightful Tast. I will not say Mine is of that Temper to avoyd Prejudice Nothing being held in esteeme is easily come by Wherefore having found so many condemned upon the Evidence they bring against Themselves in Print I have laboured to conceal my Name esteeming it more Pleasant if not more Naturall to beget then father But finding it as impossible to hide as it is unsutable to my present Condition to be idle and no lesse then unbecoming Civility to neglect the Importunity of such Friends as desire a Publication of this Piece which being a mixture of all things may not improbably like the huge Dishes now in fashion feast the Appetites of some one or other I shall once again venture into the Presse as too many do more out of Confidence then Wit Yet let my Defects be what they will I have ever considered it as a Flatulent Impertinency to Court the Reader or think to raise a Party in the behalf of any thing weares not the indubitable Character of Reason and Truth Against which Ignorance and Hypocrisie have maintained so long and unnaturall a Rebellion as Security is no other way attainable but by Silence or Complyance The continuall Wrastlings against a Rationall Evidence having brought the World into so multilated and unsteady a Creede as in many Places she is observed to halt between the uneasie wayes of Hope and Feare The Contemplation of which doth so stagger such as delight in Painting their Opinions upon Paper that they know not what side to take out of a Dread to fall under the Notion of Traytors or Malignants Atheists or Fools And amongst others this may passe for a Cause why these formerly looked upon as wast Sheets have received this Resurrection out of the Dust It being in ill Times safer to appear wanton then serious Or like Brutus a Foole then a Censor Of what is in me I make as good use as I can but hate to borrow any thing being more willing to appear with all my Defects about me then Glorious and Splendid through
towards Reason so we finde the Confusion of Languages no small Remora to the enlargement of Mans The which as is observable in some Plagues else though immediately poured on us by God for Sin have their radicall Cause yet extant in Nature it selfe So a Variety in Dialects may by such probabilities as these seem to be occasioned Speech being but an Appellation of Things of which Providence hath bestowed many in one place denyed to Others a Diversity of Languages must needs attend as a necessary Consequence Made yet more various and lesse intelligible from Moysture and Drowth Through whose Mediocrity or Excesse Sound is rendered either Liquid or Mute proportionate to the Contraction or Extension of their Organs who do or may hereafter inhabit the place That cannot but naturally own the Causes of such Effects Some Pumping their Words out of their Throats others Lower As I knew a tall Scotchman allow'd a Pension from King James That could frame a Voice at the Mouth of his Lungs seeming to be remote from the Eares of the nearest By-stander A Fallacy no lesse likely to be in practice with the Priests of Apollo then the Originall of many miraculous Narrations of Old And through this variety of Tone and Pronunciation it often comes to passe That an Englishman is not able readily to converse with a Stranger in one and the same Latine From whence we may modestly observe that Nature had the Confusion of Tongues în Potentia before God reduced it into an Actuall Plague Who did not then create it anew no more then he did the Rain Bow But did only accommodate this Punishment to his present purpose Now though the Multiplicity of Idioms may in some part Cloud our Knowledge from the Experiences to be gain'd by Strangers yet the Time usually spent and the Hardship indured at Schoole to dissipate these Mediums to learn to see through them may not unpossibly be heavier and more tedious then the Curse it selfe It being likelier to have been the voyce of Custome then Reason that Fonted a bare Knowledge in Tongues with the Title of Learning In the prosecution of which the Spirits of Children are blunted and Wit exchanged for Insignificant Termes and a Stupid Ignorance of all things else under the Tyrannicall Regiment of an Ignorant Pedagogue Who if good for any thing that Art must needes go so averse to the grayne of his Understanding as he cannot but be a meere Empericke in it Apparent in the most because seldom undertaken but as a Last Reserve and after more easie and thriving Professions have been tryed Where if the Salary prove not more necessary to his Fortune then so unmanly an Erudition doth to the miserable Child 't is easie to guesse who drove the Bargain And this Plague past some to bayle themselves out of the Deserts of Want and the Sonnes of others lesse needy to attain an insight into such Tongues as our Ancestors Folly not Reason prompted them to preferre before Experience the Dialect of the World and with which you may travaile further and in more Security then with all the Learning in Europe The Child now in his most Docile age to Study men and Softest Temper to take the Impression of Patience and Complyance is by a Learned Tutor and Brazen-fac'd Impudence gayned in the Schooles swept and garnished to receive a Seaven-fold more Wilfull and Indomitable Ignorance in relation to what is Convenient and becomming a Citizen of the World A false Opinion of what he Hath not covering from his Apprehension such Defects as really he hath Such as make Learning a full Imployment have their Judgement so over-awed by Antiquity that like Players they dare present nothing in publick but what their Poets have left them written And if any Exception can be made against that generall Rule which Concludes A too long Continuance at the University no great Advancer of parts it will be found amongst such as passed under the Notion of Raschalls and Libertine It being obvious to Proof if I were willing to register those Glorious Names under such a Monstrous Head That none have graced Learning more then some the University hath exploded Invention being an Art of too noble a nature to be learned under a Prentiship or the great Restraint of the Schools That spoil and dead the fresh and piquant Tast of later and New Wits by putting them into Old Formes patched up with Sentences which doth unavoydably make a Rent in the Authors style It being impossible for one to write or behave himself suitable to the gusto of all or of the Major part that hath not spent his time in a more universall Commerce then the guize of an Academy is able to afford And if any doubt of this Truth shew the Infidel a meer-Schollar in the Company of Ladies Or that failing to Convert him A managing his Horse or Estate after the old Idolater his Father or Uncle is dead Who thought no other Calves deserv'd to be Worshipfull that had not learn'd to bleat after the Mode of Dan or Bethel The ancient and indeed most Naturall Tryall for Land in this Nation since Strength and Valour measures out the Livelyhood and Place of Abode to every Creature was by Combate At this Day reduced into the Art of Fencing whose exactest Professors are not seldom confounded and beaten out of their Play by an active Country-man that owns no more Cunning then a Robust arm and a quick Eye is able to informe a Cudgell withall easily found in every Wood Because managed contrary to a premised Method The practise of the Science far easier call'd Noble then prov'd so had onely acquainted the Fencer with who becomes further to seek and is put in a greater Disarray through this more Naturall but lesse Methodicall way then another possibly might have been that deals his Blowes by a lesse Artificiall Direction The Faculties of Soul and Body being observed at long running to receive seldom amendment often Detriment from the Restrictions of Art unlesse in things like Painting meerly Delusive or Grafting and Planting wholly Laborious These being Imbellishers if not Restorers of Nature whereas the Liberall Sciences as the Schools call them Labour to Confine Experience within Generall Rules though found to be as Diffusive and Numberlesse as the Accidents and Events depending upon Motion And through whose mediation alone Reason is capable of a further Improvement As Mans refusing no Nourishment hath already been owned and I doubt not but under the Favour of some seeming probability at least for an Advancer of that Wisdom we transcend the rest of Gods Creatures in So I presume it may as rationally be proposed for an Occasion of long Life Since through so various a Change of Meates the severall Humours of our Bodies are in a continuall Vicissitude so stimulated and held in such an equall Contest as neither Heat nor Cold Drowth nor Moysture are suffered to exceed that just Proportion Nature hath assigned to maintain all things
this Course so contrary to what She professes which is to render Reason more playn That She brings like Eve a Totter'd Apron to cover it Though Chalk-Stones may appear of too weak and soft a Temper to perfect a Fabrick yet they become usefull and necessary to mark and delineate the First Grounds for the Greatest and most exact Designes So Idea's the Embryo's of Knowledge are not seldom found in Heads apter for Conception then Production It being a labour proper and peculiar to Jupiter alone to be at once delivered of so exact a Minerva so strongly arm'd as may be proof against Detraction Emendation Yet rambling Wits ought in my poor Judgement to be indulged because by Crumbling their Conjectures on all Subjects they have in every Age further inriched the World then Solider understandings are known to have done Which may appear upon Tryall fitter for Nourses then Mothers whom in a short Time they teach their Children to forget and Call that by their own Names never cost them more paynes then to Educate and loath suteably to the Apprehensions of Men. A Truth so manifest That if all the Arts not to mention the Altars were forced to refund what hath been primitively borrowed from the Poets They would if not be Naked want many of their richest Ornaments And if we call to Account who first did embellish our Language we shall not finde them amongst the Greatest Clarks but such as were more Conversant with Men then Books For though the First like Flegmatick Cattle hanging their Noses still over their Tables may appear more plomp and voluminous yet such as with the Eagle Survay the World cannot but be more Active and Exemplary Nature holds out proof against all Constraint For if violated in one sense it is still for a Gratification of some other Passion or Affection at the present more prevalent Coneys Ferrets c. do not seldom devoure their young but 't is alwayes for want of Water or Meat Nor are Women out of Feare and Shame of what Law hath rather forged then found in the Records of Nature lesse cruel to their Children when squeezed between the Bark of Reproach and the dreadfull Tree of Destruction they make them away For though Nature hath placed Mother and Child in a relation next in blood She hath removed them many Degrees off in that of Affection ever most prevalent in reference to Themselves Especially when all hope determines as it doth here To conclude Selfe-Murther as we call it though reckoned amongst the highest results of Valour being still to avoyd a present or put to silence all expectation of Future Misery esteemed worse then Death may no more then the rest be contrary to the award of this universall Mistresse whose highest intention is Well-being no more then it is against Reason Of two Evills to make choyce of the Least No Element is found lyable to a more generall Diminution then it is subject to an universal Excesse Manifest in the Sea that receives not any Augmentation from the greatest Confluence of Land-Floods The Reason is That her Commings-in are Mathematically adjousted to her Layings-out All possible Abatements in one place being reemburs'd in another by a continuall Bartering and Exchange From whence through a Naturall Chimistry so much is Commuted or Calcin'd as onely makes good the Principall Stock without incroachment upon Superfluity or Want Such as seek further after their own Originall or are in Quest of a remoter Cause then God prosecure a no lesse impertinent Study and from whence no more certain Solution can be expected then Conjecture is able to return their Curiosity who endeavour to find out what Mutations may succeed after Death hath determined their Speculation shall cease It being equally impossible to discover our first Production as for a Child without Direction to know the Midwife that brought him into the World or the precise part of it whereon he was born Wherefore out of the power of any thing but Omnisciency to extend a Pedigree beyond the Line of ordinary Generation That related by Moses pointing more to Obedience and an exact Observation of the Sabbath not till long after the Creation indulged through any reveal'd Practice then the fomenting of Understanding not improperly alleadged for the Discoverer if not the Occasion of Infelicity Man remaining in a more entire Tranquillity under a Calm Ignorance then such a turbulent and indeterminable Knowledge Which like the Aprons it first produced is patched up with so many Leaves of Contrary Operations Ends and Applications that under presence of a Covering for our Shame it doth daily reveal more Mischief and is by reason of a Subtilty learn'd from the Serpent able to Conceal greater Malice Sin and Wickednesse The Originall of Infelicity then Naked-mankind had ever been Capable of without it So as no thanks remaines due to it but what may result from the Abbreviation of Life It being an undenyable Truth That the production of every Child is if not an Advancer of the Monarchy of Reason in its own Person the doubted Subject of others Deceit and Oppression Humane Wisdom being of little larger Extent then what it is able to purchase and find room for through an Incroachment and Advantage made and taken of others Folly and Defects And from this the Whole World comes to be so universally Inhabited Every Family seeking rest by Evasion It being as Naturall for Strife to abound where Want is as for Strength to prevail Wherefore Sin must needs be an Effect if not of Eating of Excesse Through which man out of Love for Himself came to Robbe others And to obviate the Differences could not but arise from Inequality in Strength Appetites and Desires Government was instituted Towards whose Favour all Lawes both Civill and Divine are either taught or do naturally incline Yet if any in Curiosity desire to make scrutiny into their own Originall I cannot but with Solomon send them to the Insects for their further Satisfaction and perswade them to be more studious after the Causes of such Animalls as the Sun doth yearly Create or regenerate And to enquire whether matter may not be so prepared and adapted by us as it shall be Capable of Animation through a propensity to that regular and even proportion of Weight and Measure naturally required by the First Agents of Life Nor can any Cause of Discouragement be well apprehended in the Prosecution of Life's Originall through a more curious Inspection into the Production of Insects which once perfectly survey'd and found out cannot but open a Window towards the prospect of Our own beginning Since he that hath discovered the Spring by which a small Watch is Inlived not to be denyed the neater workmanship cannot in reason be farre to seek what causeth and continues the Operations of a Church-Clock Their Motions being one and the same no lesse then their Engines though bound up in a smaller Volume and supported by more Leggs and Feet Nor
it were but The Externall Ornaments and Houshold-stuffe which within a short Revolution of Time do receive a fresh Renovation from the Sun The highest and most splendid result of God's Beauty our Mortall Eyes unsupported by Faith are able to Discern Which may afford Cause of Pitty for some of the Heathen that made It the Object of Their Worship who finding it the Cause of such visible Resurrections presumed it might be the Originall of all Things Imagining the Power of Continuance and Preservation equall to that of Creation not being able to see higher for want of the light of The Word of God It may be no Improbable Paradox That where the Earths magneticall Effects cease There some other no lesse Active power begins to operate with a like Motion another way Which granted it can be no Prodigious Conjecture That such Birds as are observed to Inne or Board in this Clyme onely for some certain months maintain a like Temporary Commerce with other Planets as they are found to do amongst us according to the respective Advantages Nature hath taught them to make of Times and Seasons And that their Passage is without much Difficulty may be asserted from the Punctuall Dayes they keep yearly to Come and Go in Not possibly to be observed were they obnoxious to any Obstruction from Wind and Weather or the least other Contingency lying in their Rode Which the revolution of a shorter Space then Men are found to live could not chuse but discover And that the Place they come from relates to the Earth admits the most probable Tryall from us which being an Iland may best observe whether they do appear first by the Sea-side or in the Midland and if the latter as I have heard it often affirmed the Cuckow is universally seen the Second of Aprill The Assertion may be allowed in reason the Sentence of Probability if not of an unquestionable Truth That Woodcocks are some Years in great plenty by the Shore in Norfolk cannotbe denyed But yet it is as manifest That at the same time their Appearance is as numerous in the most In Land Counties Nor is it Necessary that they should all descend in a Line Though Thousands of Feldefers and Thrushes have been seen within the Compasse of a mile and none round about Nor doth Wearisomnesse appear about any but such as come off from the sea which may not unpossibly have mistaken their Way or any Signes of a New Resurrection their Plumage being Smooth and Bodies plump So that I my Self have seen both Swallowes and Hobbys build and tred upon their first Appearance as if they had no other businesse in this World then to Ly-in and produce their Young as Fishes are noted to change their Coast upon the like Arrand c I Believe it possible for Birds not of the same Kinde and Plume to Engender with Success and to an huge Imbellishing of Nature and as great an Improvement of her store And this was by some Acquaintance of mine put under Experiment before these Wars that had Large Cages of Wyer wherein were put together onely Hens of some sorts and Cocks of another How it did answer Expectation I know not yet am Confident it might succeed especially in reference to those nourished through a like Sustenance since my Self saw an Hawke owned the Plume and shape between a Hobby and a Tassel-Gentle Nor is it contrary to the grain of Probability to endeavour a Breed betwixt Hares and Coneys an Ordinary Cat and a Civet The Head of which species is by the resemblance of the muscles no lesse then all signes and gestures of the Lyon And between whom there remains lesse Difference in proportion then an Irish-Grey Houxd compared with a Lap-Dog Animals no lesse then Plants receiving notorious Changes from the Climates out of which they were at first transported proving for the most part Largest towards the Sun Nor is it doubted but a Dog-Fox and an Ordinary Bitch will generate As I heard the Last Marquesse of Hambleton's Father verifie he saw in Scotland Nor did those Huge and strang-Headed Deer sent for Presents to King James fail to Cohabit with Ours and have young Now he that would observe the Assinity in the Food and Bignesse of Beasts and Birds and put none but them together I doubt not but in the Absence of their own kind they might easily be drawn to joyn One Day ruminating upon Pride and the dismall Effects it draws upon Mankind I had all the Postures and Evidences brought in against those arraigned for this Diabolicall Passion acted before me by a Turkey-Cock Who stood priding himselfe no lesse in the Sun and prosperities of the Spring then Nebuchadnezzar did on the Battlements of his Palace From whence I began to Conclude it Naturall and so not radically Evill No more then Anger or Love Therefore under the Notion of an Enquiry into the Advantages God hath given us above Others A perfect Knowledge of our own good Parts is so far remote from Pride that it is rather a Spur to Vertue And so onely Depraved not Invented by the Divell Who with all his Chimistry is not able to Convert the seed of a Naturall Effect into the Root of Evill Though he hath perverted This as Many things else into Malignity against God The least of whose Beauty is sufficient to advance our Thoughts above our selves in which Case It is rather a Rapture then a sin Characters Letters c. A Character of Honour Honour is one of the grand Impostures of the Earth through whose false Splendour unadvised Ambition is as it were Trepan'd out of its Life Liberty c. No Folly transcending theirs esteeme themselves onely Happy in a vaine Title or Syllable at the beginning pronounced by the Prince and after reverberated by the Meager empty and hollow Eccho of the insignificant Rabble no lesse ready upon the Change of Fortune to Murther then Father all Markes of Desert to those very Particular ones their own Indulgence had informed Opinion being for the most part printed in such blind Ink as it hardly remaines legible to the Second Generation The Merit of the first Proprietor becomming mortify'd by Oblivion or quite dissipated and lost in the Wilder Fields of a no lesse Numerous then Vitious Posterity So remote from improving any Talents left them by their Ancestours as like the improvident Usurer in the Gospel they do not only expose them to Rust and Cankers but waste the Estate with all other glorious Endowments in which they were wrapped The Promoter of their Family becomming by this meanes an Occasion of the Ruine of it It lying in the Nature no lesse then the Custom of Honour to put as unreasonable an Excize on the Vices as the Vertues of its Owners I never thought it Prudence or Discretion to articulate over-severely on the worst of Modes I have had the Good or Ill Fortune to be Born and Bred under yet it seemes to Crosse the Grayn of
Wisdom if not of Candid Charity to arraign as guilty of Absurdity all we finde in ordinary Practise abroad though on the other side the Pale of Christianity And for a particular instance That used amongst the Turks where no Title but what belongs to the Emperour is made Hereditary Honour being hardly managable within the Compasse of Decency by any are not perfect in the Steps that lead to it Splendid Epithets where there resides no reall Ability in the Party to deserve them Cheating the Beholders by an Expectation of more Vertue and the Possessour with lesse then his Parasites a Vermine Capitall Fortunes are infested withall may have possibly insinuated into his formerly suborned imagination But to descend to a more exact Definition of Honour It is a meere Ray or Beame darted from the Favour of a Prince who in one body contains the Abstract of all Delated Dignities And the Reward of every Desert is either Reall or by him supposed in the Nature or Actions of those he thinks fit to advance Amongst which none are more glorious then they in Turky where Worth is alwayes found the Antecedent to every Reward Those in Christendom that relate wholly to the Passions and Affections of the Donor not appearing so Naturall but further remote from the purer and unsophisticated Elements of Majesty then what is found inherent in the Party The true Cause of Advancement amongst us being commonly so triviall and foule as for Shame they forbore to recite it in their Patent From whence some may Conclude those Disparities amongst Men proceeded at first like Hills and Dales from the Deluge of Pride So long a Succession of Government hath powred upon the Face of the Earth Courts by such Canting Termes advancing their particular interest which would be abated were the Devourers in an equall Parallel with those they feed on The Rabble for want of a more elated Prudence imagining their Governours to proceed like the Gyants of old from some Diviner Extraction then their Own Not wise enough to apprehend That Honour hath no advantage really in it Selfe but what it is able to deduce from the Lower Condition and basencsse of Others All Titles to Those relating to God Himself as they were absent before the Creation So Reason informs us they could not be Present now were there no Creatures endued with so much understanding as to be able to pronounce them The most relucent Honour being Offuscated and blinded in the Shades of Solitude Wherefore if it had a Name it wanted an Owner till something was made willing to promote it No Age ever represented it more Naked to the World then This we live in Whereas the Jewes do in Italy by the Ancient Roman Coynes So the Grave Visages of 25 Bishops have been struck off and put upon many Thousand Presbyterians whereupon the Image and Superscription of the Primitive Church is quite defaced and Obliterated through the Impresse they are exchanged for which ownes no worth but from the Gravity of the First Being it self of no greater Antiquity then John Calvin who did not but with some Difficulty as Boyes do Giggs whip this Younger Government out of a Word taught for many Ages to signifie Episcopacy onely making it currant in Geneva Now if it be no lesse frequent in the Practise of Men then in the Dialect of the Scriptures to rob God of his Honour why should any but meerly Mortall place Stability in it Especially since the Trash these Earthly Tumours swell withall is by the Basest of c. render'd so perspicuous Valour and Cowardice I Should much wonder how Valour and Cowardice both strangers if not Contrary to the Practice of undistracted Nature could passe so long without the Errata in the Place-Book of virtue and vice But that I finde it The Design of Policy to advance or abate the Credit of all things found Useful or Destructive to her own or the Generall utility And where she can bring in the least Colour for it to paint what is necessary to Commerce with the gratefull Approbation of Religion And to render the Contrary in the Dark Sense and Black Characters of Hell Allowing all Supports as Decent and quadrating with the Beauty of Holiness though Above or Against the Lights of Reason if found any way requisite to sustain Government Of such force is Custom that it is able through the Assistance of Credulity to stifle and trample upon the Senses themselves Now though it may be no Indiscretion in a Patient to suffer himself for his Recovery to be deluded by his Physitian yet out of a Panique Fear or effeminate Nicety to swallow more Drugs and in greater Quantities then is unavoydably necessary may appear a Madnesse arising from the more Dreadfull then Dangerous Phantasmes mustered up by the Fumes of a formerly-suborned Melancholy rather then the Substantiall Dictates af an unsophisticated Judgement which a Wise man may retain and feast himself with though for Manners sake and to avoyd the Danger no lesse then Shame impending Singularity he may seem to own the most universall Opinion Now to shew how Policy no less then Religion imposeth upon frail Humanity in both the Fore-mentioned Particulars Though to the apprehension of Sense absolutely repugnant one to the other they are scituated as near Damnation that appear Overdaring in the prosecution of private Revenge as such who out of Remissenesse and Fear betray The Cause of their Country in Defence of which is placed under all Professions extant the Highest step of our Duty to God and our Neighbour Which cannot be denyed to stand further remote in Nature then what really Concerns Our selves found recorded in Job by the Divell a far Ancienter Philosopher then the somuch-venerated Aristotle From whence we may Conclude That Resolution and Dread instituted by Nature at first for the Vindication and safety of every respective Individuall are since Tyranny and Propriety have forced us into Communalties reduced by Common Consent of Law and Conveniency into a Publiaue stock for the Preservation of All. So as we are suffered to own no more in reference to our selves then Prudence is able to filtch out of the Treasury of the State and that upon no slighter a Penalty then Law doth inflict Which found too dim-sighted to penetrate further then Externall Evidence can reach Religion whose Results and those no weak ones lye in Conscience supplyes the place of a Diviner-Guard Brandishing like the Angell in Paradise the flaming sword of Hell Which operates more or less upon the Affections proportionall to the Tincture received from Education Not seldom Proof as we find in Hereticks against the Dictates of Reason her Self Nothing being harder to be lost or Convinced of Falshood then Opinions sucked in with the Nourses Milk And this may raise an Use of Caution in relation to what we call Pusillanimity and Valour Which in a Naturall and primitive sense signifie onely Evasion And where that will not serve in order to our own Preservation
a vigorous and stout Resistance to the losse of Life it Self as is manifest in every Creature in the absence of hope and therefore impossible to be found Wanting in the pure and unsuborned Nature of Man And so in the primitive Construction uncapable of any Forreigner Interpretation then what is deduceable from our own judgement without reference to Fame or Reward Termes unintelligible during the Originall Felicity And before the Thirst after Generation had swelled the World into such an Ocean of Inhabitants as could not be Kept within the Compass of Moderation but by Mounds and Bancks in the making of which all things are imployed that own the power to Terrifie or Flatter the Rabble into Obedience without bearing any Nicer Respect to single Individualls then through Evading or Over-ruling the Law Power or Prudence is able to purchase to themselves by Mastering Flattering or Contemning publick Fame After which it may be sometimes less policy to run then not to be too greedy to give it welcom when it courts us Opinion being a Bird oftner catcht by Chance then Endeavour Nor shall any one that carryes her on his First ever want Envy or Scratching by Others And he that hath but the Patience to attend Good or bad Report to the end of the race shall observe them like Cocks to change their Oddes one unlucky Blow being able to depresse more and draw a greater Concourse of Abettors to the Other side then Twenty as strong and probable endeavours without Successe can possibly advance Or if this fail the Gamesters together with what they strove for will by the hand of Time be laid in Oblivion Whereas the reall Wounds and sensible Inconveniencies accruing ftom a too Serious Attention and exact Observance of the Various Cadences of the Trumpet of Fame subject to be put out of Tune by the Change of every Blast do not onely exceed the Cure of the Chierurgeon but all endeavours to that of Wisdom it Self Nor hath Policy any cheaper Trash to load the opposite Scale withall then Honour and Titles which like Horse-Bells onely affect the Eare as Diamonds do the Eyes encreasing rather then lessening the Burthen of Life which with its Concomitance Envy Danger and Jealousie signifies nothing proportionable at least to what the Purchase requires Seldom enjoy'd of the Owner long without Controversie unlesse by dying in Possession he cuts off all contrary Claims Wherefore such as have the Dexterity to passe their Dayes at the least Expence of Trouble and Conveniency may be truely said to husband Discretion best Nor are they likely to be misled in such a vast number of Fooles and Madmen as are daily observ'd to Sacrifice their own Ease and Content to promote the Ambition and Small Plots of Others Grounding their Hopes upon those that have no Assurance Themselves But this runs so contrary to the grain of Practice as it may not unpossibly set such Teeth on Edge as are able through Detraction or Power to blast the Authour of this Advice A Letter writ to disswade Mr. from a Duell Sir I Shall at this time conceal what I apprehend of your Quarrell and the Circumstances that did at first produce it Lest I should fall into a Physitians indiscretion who comming to one labouring of a Fever did consume the time In telling the Patient The Causes of his Distemper were Drink and Evill Company which though possibly true could not but carry the Figure of a Meager Impertinency before the party had his Cure since no place is now Left for prevention And as Physick is opposed to the Defects incident to bad Dyet and Disorder So Counsell hath been observed to Moderate and palliate though not Cure those of Indiscretion arising for the most part from an Inexperience in the exact knowledge of our own Fame no lesse then that of Others And where it may be or is Scituated with the smallest prejudice to Conscience or giving the least interruption to the Prospect of Self-preservation the First Result in the Intention of Nature and left as of greatest Intendment to the Care of Prudence From whence I have been taught that it is possible for Physick to be welcome though Distastefull but that Counsell seldom meets any more favourable Construction then Scorn from the Receiver an Opinion of Presumption in Him that Ventures to give it especially if it meets not with a candid Nature Which hoping to find in You I shall so much transgresse the voyce of Discretion as to suffer my Self in Love to become an Arbitrator between the Honour and prudence of a Friend so far as to maintain That Such as animate you to a Formall Revenge do out of Forgetfulnesse or Want of Religion forbear to Calculate the Danger no lesse then Impiety that for ever Cleaves to such hands as are found once polluted in Blood And That those violate the Dictates of Piety and Discretion by Wisdome esteemed the most Considerable part of Manhood that Contradict it For to use their own canting no where to be found in the Dialect of Antiquity He hath given you an Affront and such an one as may not decently be passed-by without a Formall Satisfaction which is but the single and wild Opinion of some under-graduates in the Arts of Living Yet admit it a Debt due in the Court of Honour may it not as well be discharged by your Friend or Servant as Your self Parties lesse agitated by Interest and Passion and therefore the likelyer to deal a Revenge so evenly as He shall have as little cause to bragge as You to repent A thing you can never promise your Self if contrary to the Injunctions of God and the Examples of the most prudent people you proportion out your Satisfaction in the Field Where you cannot but deliver into the Custody of Blind Fortune not onely your Life but Estate As justly belonging to posterity as ever your Ancestours made it yours Which by this Mad-Knight-Errantry you hazard to Undo I am sure all Wise minds will quadrate with this And if the Fools of the present Age pretend to any Discoveries of Wayes to Honour New and Untrod by the Ancients Let 'um follow them to the furthest Extent of their Lives or Lunacy Whilest you hearken to the Graver Advice of reason Which may informe you He hath offer'd an Abuse already and will you hazard upon equall Terms the receiving a Greater Indeed if a Requitall had been endeavoured at the Instant it might have rendred you more excusable before God and Man But that opportunity omitted it were more Wrong to your Charity then Vindication of Valour in cold Blood to call back Revenge As if a Worse Christian upon Meditation then when irritated by Fury and Passion Neither is Honour to be purchased in Single and self-perswading Combates because no Marks of them appear in Antiquity where many are found Dead but not one to my remembrance upon so impertinent a Quarrell as Words Yet we may conclude from the foul Expressions in
in his time Who at dinner that day with some of the promoters of the fore-mentioned Sentence said that though he hoped it would never be executed yet it grieved him a president of that high nature should remain upon record no less to the dishonour of their Mercy then the Justice of his Majesty upon whose scoreit might not unpossibly one day lye heavy Nor did it scape the notice of the next Parl. as any may find can procure a sight of a book written by Regall autority wherein the Subject was prohibited so much as to name a Parliament c. But the conclusion of the fore-mentioned prudent Lord was to prove that of all punishments death was soonest forgotten whereas Whipping and Pilory were alwayes remembred from whence Governours may observe That the greatest Cruelty is exercised by Subjects have had their foundations laid in pitty Nor can this digression be thought impertinent by those shall consider that such exorbitant and unnaturall repetitions of Punishments were strangers during the domination of two equall factions Through the percussion of which like Flint and Steel all things came to light which these pleas might advance or Eclipse the glory of the Prince Nor should I prosecute this Epidemicall mischief of Favorites at this time common with France and Spain but to answer such as plead for it Whom I have heard so impudent as to alledge the example of our blessed Saviour and no lesse foolish in citing the autority due to the Prudence of Italy where no Pope lives without a Nephew Forgetting the whole management of the Church was not left to Saint John nor the wise Conclave swayed by his Holinesse Kindred who being incircled on all sides with enemies and destitute by reason of his elective honour of any hereditary friendship cannot in Reason provide better for his safety against the dangers have for many Ages waited upon the Table and Cup of the Pope then by raising a person to so high a dignity about him as may transcend any preferments likely to be offered by an enemy The cause he that is stiled his Nephew values his preservation equally with his owne And he that shall yet seek further satisfaction may finde it in the unhappy management of such Princes affairs as have suffered themselves to be ingrossed by Minions taken onely upon the bare recommendations of their private Affections It is the condition of those in Power to be guided by Servants THey say of the Whale that she is steered in her course through the guidance of a far smaller Fish and a lesser then that is reported to alter the Naturall gale of a Ship looked upon as wonders in the deep though few things are more usuall and Familiar upon Land All our State Leviathans being so far guided by their Servants Wives Mistresses or Favorites that in a true sense there is no Monarchy all things for the most part succeeding according to the perswasions of others if not contrary to the will of the Prince A Mischief not to be quite obviated but at the perill of falling into Obstinacy as great if not a more prejudiciall extream nor hath any King under my experience been able to drive on his Affayres without grating upon one of these excesses So as a Nation like that of Egypt is not seldome governed by a Stranger or a Jew There being no such thing in an unlimited sense as an Absolute Government or if possible to be found it must be in that as improperly stiled Free Which proves there is no reall Liberty or Power totally Arbitrary in the nature of Things For though the Incomparable Prudence of the State of Venice hath compounded for most of the errours committed by the Senators of Carthage And Queen-Elizabeth shunned the greatest Rocks of Tyranny though as free from compulsion as ever any Prince stood yet the Jurisdiction of either was as remote from being purely or totally Absolute as the condition of their Subjects is uncapable of the name of Freedom They being both too inestimable Jewels to be intrusted with passion single and without any mediation from Counsell or Law I confess the Grand Signior can strangle whom he please but it is seldom done at his own suit no more then any desert is gratified I my self have known many so far Strangers to what was convenient as they would scarce concede or deny any thing out of the presence of their Secretary And this proceeded not seldom from a distrust there was no cause for Manifest in the Earl of Somerset who though himself owner of a competent sufficiency was so Inchanted with an opinion of Sir Thomas Overburies parts that he preferred him from a Servant to such an intimate friendship as he could think nothing well-educated for imployment in his Office that had not passed his Correction nor secret safe laid up but in his Bosom which swelled him to such a Monstrosity in pride that I have heard not being my self then neer the English Court how he offered to rant at his Servants and did once beat the Coach-man for putting his Commands under an inferiour expostulation to his Masters And through this intolerable arrogance in him and remissness in the Earl the sparks first flew that kindled the ruine of them both friendship being no more able to maintain its interest against a feminine Affection then so great a Pride was to confine it self within the tedder of Moderation The Minions of my time an epidemicall mischief over all the great Nations of Christendom where Monarchy swayes did during that Fortune so far transcend their Patrons felicity as they could gratifie all the rest of their Passions quite exempt from fear or danger being screened from both by the person of their Prince whom in reason they ought to defend It having been often averred in my experience that all the Kings I have known were found to do more for their Favorites then they could be tempted to have done for themselves Which may serve for a proof of this Assertion that the greatest are not Free but led intriumph by the Affections of others through the mediation of their own by which means Women come to Govern and Children to dispose of Common-wealths And thus the hand of Providence though steady in it self doth out of a desire to appear various and so more beautifull not onely remove the great men but the paunes so occultly in this huge Chesse-board of the world as they seem to our giddy apprehensions to be dandled in the Lap of a contingent Successe Though good or bad Luck are meerly Imaginary like the Articke and Antarticke Poles on which the world as on the two ends of an Axletree are feigned to depend Wherefore the apparent Reason why great men are ruled by more obscure fools is want of Judgement or Sufficiency The hidden Justice of God upon the Nation in generall or persons in particular who are naturally unworthy through disobedience or have rendred themselves so by a Male-administration of Affairs The cause their Power is shared with meaner People first sought to in all Suits incident to their Places And this Custom hath brought into such credit amongst men as forgetting how much it savours of weakness they labour to make it Necessary in the Court of Heaven As if God were more Importuned or less affected by our immediate Addresses then when we offer'd our Prayers through the intercession of the blessed Virgin or some other Saint Consonant to a Memorable Answer to a Catholick made by King James That the Ruler of all things was not subject to dote like him Yet wise men Govern in their own persons as Ioseph is said to rule Egypt for had not his Servants used to afford more obedience then advice so dishonest an action in outward appearance could never have passed without expostulation as the putting the Cup in Benjamins Sack To end this Discourse nothing plausible ought to be referred to a Servant's dispatch nor that whichis less Popular done by a Master since he that is used to rake in dirt must imploy an Instrument lest the filth should stick too apparently on his fingers Thus Princes juggle by Confederacy whilest meaner men rule in their own persons FINIS
in Being Few Creatures attaining to so long a Continuance as Elephants Horses c. most Domesticall with Men which by reason of the great Variety of Herbs they feed on in Summer and their Dry Dyet in Winter Noted by That Honourable Restorer of Philosophy for a great Prolonger of Life do not seldom reach the most ordinary Ages of Men. And amongst Birds those of Prey Parrats and Geese the First feeding on all sorts of Flesh nor will they refuse Fish upon occasion As the Second of every thing eatable by us The Third upon what is held venemous to Human Nature besides Grasse and Corne. Whereas Doves Sparrowe c. are of short Continuance To which I shall onely adde in Favour of my former Assertion That the Fowles first mentioned come short in understanding of nothing that hath Wings I heard it First affirmed by a French Student in Physick and known it verified by my own Experience in relation to many That all Fowle may be eaten if not for Delight in a Siege or time of Necessity without Danger Opinion rather then Nature having caused a Disgust generally arising against some of Themselves Delicate Meats as my Self can attest for Young-Bald-Bazzards Sparrow-Hawkes Owles c. Together with a Number of Things more an effeminate Nicenesse hath exploded our Tables Yet in the mean time Mushromes Frogs Whelkes Snayles c. have crawled into the Dishes of Princes and are daily eaten in their Courts for Dainties which amongst other Viands not in use amongst our Ancestours are not unlikely to Occasion other Vapours then their more Unsophisticated Food did Alembecke the Heads of such orderly Persons withall whose Dreames if not Waking Imaginations must needs differ from ours As I can instance from a repeated Experiment ofmy own Who encouraged through the former mentioned French man's Confidence did eat at Supper a considerable Quantity of the Green-woodspite with the Long-Tongue After which I found my Sleep taken up with uncouth and as I then apprehended no Impertinent Fancies the Cause I made a Second Experiment with the like Successe From whence may be deduced That if our Nourishment or any Outward or Inward Application or Disgestion may be of force to inspire Sleep with various Dreams which remembred waking seem not unworthy our own most serious Meditations no lesse then the Attention of others more Wise. Man alone that hath extended his Food over all things eatable cannot but participate of every Effect they are either in grosse or respectively lyable unto and so Capable of a more Diffusive Knowledge then the Creatures not able to disgest that Variety Custome hath rendred the Stomackes of Men familiar withall Theirs being commonly of One Temper and without Mixture Ours Hot and Cold Dry and Moyst bordering upon the next Confines of Poyson And not seldom a Composition of all Contrarieties together Now if our Bodies as Doctor Browne no lesse wittily then truly saith are in a small revolution of Time licked from our Trenchers why may not what we Eat work as effectually upon our Spirits as Flesh and as well waking as asleep Upon the first view of Cornelius Agrippa's Vanity of Sciences I did applaud his Diligence in becomming so versed in every Profession no lesse then his resolute Detection of their Abuses By which he confirms me in the Opinion That what we esteem Wisdom is of no more Signall Advantage as I have often said then what is deduceable out of the Weaknesse of others Yet upon Inspection into the Bottom of his Reprehensions I find the World is held up and kept in plight meerly by Cheating So as those Trades he hath reduced under a Numeration are not only Guilty but Himselfe and all such as make it their Pastime if not their business to be Scepticall in what is generally lookt upon as Certain and to fish for more probable Truths in the Depths of Nature Where nothing is found pure without Mixture if we may not with Reverence say Sophistication to her very Products of Life and Death Since the one would be as farre to seek of any Content in the Absence of Hope as the Other of Bitternesse out of the Presence of Feare Now since the Mother of All Things useth such slights to flatter her Children into the Act of Generation for her own sake of Continuance and for the same hath represented Death in the most odious Aspect to Terrifie us out of the Desire of the Grave which though opposite to her present Intention cannot but be as necessary to a Future and that which Religion teacheth is only Capable to make us in the least measure Happy How should her Creature Man produce more usefull or gather more Lasting Fruit then Those of Sodom that vanish upon the offer of Fruition since the most beneficial Calling or Imployment is uncapable of affording a more Honourable Salary then Industry can worm out of the Wants of Others From whence we may safely affirm That Sin is the chiefest Task-master Since the most are busied about what is Destructive Superfluous or uncertain And to remove this from vulgar Understandings the best and readiest Chapman for all Things adulterated in reference to Honour Profit and Universall Good and Tranquillity the Preservation of which hath diminished much of the Naturall Stock belonging to Particulars Such ranting Termes as Agrippa mentions are stuffed into all Sciences Through which the most Familiar Things are rendred unintelligible without a Lexicon And in no other respect usefull then like Gawdy Shells and Glistering Stones to adorn the Fountains of Learning towards the Gratification of their Eyes who led by the Ocean of Books that daily issue out come to visit them like the Heads of Nilus Though such Cawting cannot but be Destructive to nearer Relations by which every Profession is furnished with an Opportunity of Deceit to the end of the Chapter of Trade The Continuance of which renders the Buyer oftentimes further to seek in the Knowledge of the Name then the Thing An inconvenience so visible and Epidemicall as it could never have come under my Pen had it continued within the Circle of Men obnoxious to the like Fault and not fallen so heavy upon Children whose misery no lesse then Losse of Time I have not yet forgot indur'd and spent upon Formes little Different from those of a Gally to no more Thriving an Intention in reference to the Publick Then Apothecaries paynt and adorn their Shops which is to delude the Ignorant and hide from Inspection such Arts as lye more in Parade then Substance The Occasion not onely of a greater Expence of Yeares in this Lymbo to the losse of the more usefull vision of Experience but a smaller proficiency in Learning such being held so long viewing the Superscription as small leasure if any desire is left to consider the Contents Nor doth the universality of this Abuse render it more tolerable then the Multitude as well as variety of Company can the Paynes of Hell Learning running in