Deceit was very active to take advantage on the present opportunity and changed the place of their Cloaths those of ill fortune into the place of good and those of good into the place of bad In the morning Fortune as unwary as blind cloathed Vertue in the Garment of embroidered Thorns and made Vice gallant with his elder Brothers Flowers which being set out in the Sophistries of deceit made so glorious a lustre and beauty that all the World adored his footsteps and entertained him both in their Houses and Hearts believing it was Vertue they then received and though some at the cost of their own experience told and informed others of the Error yet few believed them for seeing Vice to be so gallant and gentile they could not be perswaded to judge amiss of that which they so much affected Since that day Vertue and Vice have been confounded and the World deceived for those who embrace Vice with low thoughts of Sensuality The beginning of Vice have speedily found themselves deceived and too late entertained thoughts of repentance But on the contrary those who being undeceived have closed with Vertue though the Thorns of his Garment have prickt and tormented them at the first embraces yet at the end they found the fruit of true content The Ends of Vertue and lived in the serenity of a calm Conscience How flourishing and fair seems their own beauty to some and how deformed after and disfigured with a thousand infirmities how wanton is Youth but how soon doth time benumb their Joints how plausible doth Dignity appear to the Ambitious and the weight of Government to be eased by estimation Changes Burdens but afterwards how burdensome do they find it and how to their shoulders faint under so heavy a pressure How pleasing do the Cruel imagine revenge and bathe themselves in the Bloud of their Enemies but afterwards their whole Life is pangs and pricks of Conscience to him whose Stomach cannot disgorge the draughts and surfets he hath made in Bloud Even stolen water is sweet and the rich is pleased to trample on and make a prey on the poorer Yet aftewards with how much violence is he compelled to make restitution Let the Glutton surfet himself in his curious Diet and please his Palate with delitious Wines but what satisfaction can these make for his Plethory of Body from whence proceed Dropsies and Gouts which twinges his Joints and enfeebles the Nerves of his whole Body The Lascivious will not loose his sensual copulation though he buyes his delight with the price of his own Body The Covetous embraces thorns in his Riches which torment and disturb his sleep and looseth his Heart in them without enjoying of them All these design to bless their Families with the pleasing appearance of delight which indeed is but a concealed evil and not a contentment but a torment and a deserved reward for their fond mistake But contrarily how difficult and steep is the ascent to Vertue at first yet afterwards what satisfaction is there in a good Conscience With how much trouble do we undergo an abstemious Temperance and yet in that consists the health both of Soul and Body How intollerable appears Continence and yet in that we enjoy Life Health and Liberty He who contents himself with Mediocrity lives the humble possesseth the Earth and makes his enemies to be at peace with him but above all what peace accompanies him and how savoury is the odour of his good fame What sweet Fruit hath sprang from the bitter root of mortification Though silence seems an effect oâ— Melancholy yet the wise never repented he had held his Tongue so that Vertue since that time went always cloathed outwardly with Thorns but inwardly with Flowers different to Vice which therefore let us distinguish under that Character and embrace in despight of common and vulgar deceit They were now come in sight of the Court when Andrenio looking on Madrid with a great deal of pleasure and attention The wise Philosopher asked him what he saw I see said he the * A true Spanish Rodemontado Royal Mother of so many Nations the Crown of the two Worlds the Centre of so many Kingdoms the Jewel of both the Indies the Nest of the Phenix it self the Sphear of the Catholick Sun crowned and encircled with Perfections as Rayes and with noble Arms as Lights But I see said Critilo a Babylon of confusions a Paris of dirt and filth a Rome of changes a Palermo of AEtna's smoaks a Constantinople of mists a London of pestilence an Algier of captives I see said the Philosopher Madrid the Mother of all perfections on one side Madrid not a Mother but a Step-mother and a Step-mother on the other for as the chiefest rarities address themselves to the Court so in like manner do Vices swarm there being introduced by those which know not how to bring other then the vitious habits of their own Countries For my own part I will not go in as I have already told you but bringing them to the Bridge Milvio he there left them But Critilo and Andrenio adventured in by the street of Toledo and presently they happened into a Shop where Wisdom was to be sold Critilo asked the Bookseller if he had a clue of golden Thread to sell them but he did not presently apprehend his question for those who only read the Titles of Books are seldom learned by them but another standing by a graduated Courtier both in years and experience said You little understand them for it is a compass they desire to sail by in this Ocean and Golf of Circes I understand you less said the Bookseller for here is neither Gold nor Silver sold but only Books a more pretious Commodity then either It is this replied Critilo we look after and one especially which may give us some Councils and Instructions how to govern our selves in this twining Labyrinth So then said the Bookseller it seems that you are Strangers and if so make use of this Manual it is no Tome but rather an Atome and yet it shall serve to guide you to the North of Felicity it self here take this which I have seen do Miracles it being that which instructs us in the art of being Men and teaches us to keep a society worthy of those who are so Critilo took it and read the Title which was Galateus of the Court What is the Price said he Sir said the Bookseller it hath no price it is above account and is worth more to him who carries it these Books we do not sell but pawn for two Ryals for the World affords not sufficient Riches whereby to make their estimation At this speech the Courtier gave such a loud laughter that Critilo admired at it and the Bookseller was put out of countenance and asked the reason why he so laughed To which he replied that the absurdity of what he said was worthy of it for the whole matter
nothing what they command and so armed with the Vertue of this Lesson which is to see and hear and be silent let us venture up this Street All the Street was rowed with the Shops of Handicrafts-men no Forraign Labourer appeared there whose simplicity was unpractised in the art of fraudulent Dealings through these Streets crost flocks of Crows which bred under the Eves of the Houses and maintained a sociable familiarity with their Landlords which Andrenio judged for an ill omen that presaged som future disaster But Proteus informed him and bid him not to wonder at this for that these had not been the antient Inhabitants of the City which Pythagoras in honour of his foolish opinion supposed to be the Souls of evil livers whom God for a just punishment had transmigrated into the Bodies of these irrational Creatures making their being now the same with theirs since their death whose actions they so fully imitated in their life the scarlet Souls of cruel Tyrants he transfued into Tygers the Proud into the Lions Skin and the Souls of the dishonest to animate the Boar but Souls of Artisans Mechanicks especially those that make our Cloaths were covered with Crows feathers for they having always used to say to their Customers to morrow it shall be done to morrow without fail hath aptly in punishment thereof put the same term into their Mouths that continual Cras Cras Cras signifies to morrow a time which eternity it self shall never overtake But having passed the Suburbs into the heart and middle of the City they saw most stately Palaces magnificent Buildings the first of which they said was Solomon's Seraglio before any asked the question for there he lay slumbering amidst of his Three hundred Concubines making Hell with these Sports and Pastimes equivocate a Paradise in one House which seemed a Fortress but was no other then a tottering Cottage founded on an unstabled Sand sate Hercules made effeminate spinning with his Omphale the shirt or winding-sheet of his dying Fame at the same Window peeped out Sardanapalus dressed in Womans habit and attire and Marc Anthony not far from him unhappy Man whose Fortune was both told and made by a Gipsie In another ruinous Castle did not live but died the Goth Roderigo since whose time the Nobles have been fatal to Spain Another Palace there was half Gold half Dirt cemented with Humane Bloud this was the House of extravagant Nero whose Reign began with the mild calm of a prodigious Clemency but ended with a storm of bloudy Cruelty within the next room sate Pedro the Cruel mad and enraged grating his Teeth and crackling Bones with anger There were other Edifices erecting in all haste but none could tell as yet for whom they were though diversly reported by the World certain it is not for the enjoyment of those whose pains and cost raised the Structure but for the possession of others who perhaps as yet unborn will reap the fruits of anothers labour but one in a green Coat standing by told them that in this part of the World live the deceived and in the other the deceivers these laugh at the others and the others at them again but at the end of the year they ballanced Accounts one having no more cause to laugh than the other Andrenio being weary of the company of the deceived The Deceivers deceived desired to see all and to divert his humour would needs pass to the quarters of the deceivers so that proceeding forward they found none but Merchants shops and those dark having no other but False which they called Shop-lights to set off their counterfeit Ware others sold false Teeth and Peruwigs and all sorts of Habits and disguises for Comedians There was one Shop full of nothing but Foxes skins which the cunning Citizen swore that they were more in demand and in esteem than the best Sables which they easily believed when they perceived the Shop so well customed by the famous Themistocles and other modern Heroes of our time It was really the only Fur in fashion here for want of the Lions skin which was grown a scarce Commodity because it was not in demand and it is said that the subtlest and greatest Polititians used to line their Garments therewith instead of Ermines In another Shop they sold Spectacles by the Whole-sale to blind Men so as neither to see nor to be seen and these were all Grandees who bought them for to blind their Porters which carried them on their Shoulders that they might be the more tractable and quiet as they do Horses to make them stand still The married Wives bought them up a pace to blind their Husbands with and to make them believe they loved them more than they did some were like multiplying Glasses which were of all sorts and sizes for Young and Old Men and Women and these were the dearest because most in demand another Shop was full of Cork heels to raise men in their Stature and make them seem more Personable than they are But that which most pleased Andrenio was to see Gloves an unknown invention and a novelty to him What means this said he these seem to be an useful contrivance for all occasions against the Heat and Cold the Sun and Air nay they are very convenient for those who have nothing else to do were it only to put them off and on Above all said Critilo they take most excellently a Perfume and is the cheapest way to conserve rich smells How well you understand it replied the Glover if you had said they serve to mask the Fingers that they should not behold the hands you had hit the difficulty for there are those who catch at their Prey with Gloves on How can that be said Critilo for that is against the Proverb The Proverb said he alas Sir all Proverbs now either lie or are belied for there are Gamesters now adays that hunt in Gloves and though the Proverb says the mousing Cat preys not with Mittens it here meets an exception and let me tell you that more is given now for Gloves than formerly for Cloaths Reach me one said Critilo that I may try it Having thus past the Streets of Hypocrisie Ostentation and Artifice they came at last to the Market-place on which was erected a famous Palace overtopping all the rest and situated in the Heart and Centre of the City it was spacious but not uniform nor of equal proportion but all angles and confusion had no prospect nor equality many Gates it had but all false and those shut and more Towers and Pinnacles than Babilon it self The Windows were green a grateful colour to the sight promising fair and deceiving most Here lived or rather lay undiscovered that hidden Monarch of the World who one day appeared in publick to honour certain Feasts which he had dedicated to the deceived Vulgar to whom it was not permitted to argue or ask questions His sacred Majesty sate retired under the cautious
every manner ill treated When I saw them I presently knew and owned them recalling them to my mind and acquaintance and with much eagerness and delight I read them over because they lively represented to my Memory and Fancy the Verdures of my Youth which I found to be over affectionate to words and Romantick expressions howsover I observed that I kept close to the sence and that I was as faithful even in those years to the Author whom I translated as I was to the Charge and Interest which I afterwards undertook And though in my late perusal of this Book I have suffered it to pass with little alteration that so it might appear more like to a Product of my Youth yet having now ruminated with more serious and mature reflections on the subject of its discourse then I was capable to do formerly my Iudgment tells me that this Treatise is neither misbecoming my present years nor unseasonable to the present times It begins like a Spanish Novel placing the Scene of Discourse in the Ocean and in the Isle of St. Helen where a Man is strangely figured to have been enclosed in the darkness of a Cave and fed by Beasts until he arrived to some maturity of age which is purposely designed to introduce the Notions which a Man may by the mere light of his immaterial Soul without Sight or Conversation conceive of a Deity and of his own Being Then he Fancies a Whirl-wind or Hurricane to break open the Cavern of this natural Man and all on a sudden to represent a new Scene to him of Heaven and Earth and Sea and then he strives to express the Extasies of his Soul and the strange Conceptions he must entertain upon the view of such different Objects Thence he descends from the Natural to the Moral World drawing a Scheme of the Follies and Vanities of it in order to a true regulation of Life builded on the Foundation of Morality and Vertue I am of opinion that the Author of this Book might originally have deduced his fancy from the History of Hai Ebn Yokdhan wrote in Arabick by Ebn Tophail and Translated into Latin by Dr. Pocock and though there is much difference in the relation of one and the other yet the design of both is almost the same being only to show how far the Spiritual and Immortal Soul of Man is able in its natural capacity and by its own reflex acts to consider its proper being and the existence of something above it and by degrees and steps of exteriour Objects to proceed unto Rules for conservation of its own well-being and that of others The Subject of this fancy being much affected and enlarged by Arabians it is probable that from them it was derived to the Moors who have the same Language with little diversity of Dialect and accent common together And the Spaniards who for the space of 600 years had the same Country and Manners with Moors easily received their Fashions Learning Proverbs and every thing but their Religion So that as their Customs and way of living are different to other Nations of Europe and most resemble that of the Eastern Countries so their way of writing in Dialogues and Novels is much after that manner and is as well pleasant and diverting in it self as it is curious to us who follow another form and manner in all our Books and Treatises of Philosophy And thus Reader having given thee some intimation concerning the substance of this Book the occasion on which it was translated and the Reasons why after so many years it came to be published I leave thee to a perusal of it which I beseech thee to do with the same candour which is to be allowed to the Works of Youthful Fancies Farewel THE Spanish Critick The Spring of Childhood and the Summer of Youth The First CRISIS Critilo being Shipwrackt meets with Andrenio who renders a strange Account of himself NOW both Worlds had kissed the Feet of Catholick Philip their Universal Monarch and the Circle of his Royal Crown the greatest stage the Sun runs both in the one and the other Hemisphere within whose Crystaline Center lies enamell'd a small Isle or Pearl of the Sea or Esmerald of the Land to which the August Empress gave it her own Name that it might be Queen of all other Isles and Crown of the Ocean This Isle of St. Helena for so it is called in the passage from one World to the other yields refreshment to the grand Cargason of Europe and hath always been a Free-Port preserved by Divine Providence between those immense Gulfs to afford entertainment for the Eastern Catholick Fleet. To this place a Shipwracked person endeavor'd to make his Port who striving with the Waves and contending with the Winds but more with his own sad disastures a Monster of Nature and of Fortune a Swan in his Hoariness and Voice sinking on his Plank between the fatal Medium of Life and Death thus complained O Life thou shouldst never have begun but since thou hast thou shouldst never end there is nothing more desired nor yet nothing more frail than thou art and he who once looseth thee too late seeks to recover thee for ever after I esteem thee for lost Nature hath shewed her self a Step-mother to Man denying him a sense to rejoice at his Birth Life and yet to fill him with sad apprehensions at his Death to make him unsensible of the good he receives at his Beginning and yet to affright and torment him with a Combination of Mischiefs at his End O Tyrant a thousand times more cruel than Humane Nature is capable to be who first through a scandalous temerity trusted his Life to this inconstant Element on no better support than a frail Vessel They say his Breast was covered with Steel Illi robur aes triplex circa pectus erat c. but I think it was doubled with Iron In vain hath the Supreme Providence separated Nations with Seas and Mountains since Humane boldness hath found a Bridge to transport its Malice Whatsoever humane Industry hath invented hath been unfortunately retorted to its own destruction Gun-powder that horrible devourer of Lives hath been an Instrument of greatest Ruine and what other is a Ship but a Coffin to anticipate the Solemnities of Death The Land seemed too narrow a Theater to act the Tragedies of Death until man found ways to triumph on the Seas and find a passage to his fatal Destiny through both Elements By what other means needs unfortunate Man seek to perish than in the Hull of his own Ship which like a Scaffold seems erected for punishment of his boldness With Reason did Cato esteem amongst the three Follies of his Life his embarking to have been the greatest O Fate O Heavens O Fortune though I would perswade my self that I were something yet so dost thou pursue me that when thou beginnest thou knowest no end but mine O! that now it were possible
for me to be nothing that I might disclaim that Being which is confined with Eternity In this manner he beat the Air with Sighs whilst his Arms rowed the Waters accompanying his Art with Industry he seemed to rise above the reach of danger for Perils do both fear and respect great Persons whom Death it self is sometimes ambitious to spare and Fortune seeks occasions to advantage Thus the Serpents spared Alcides the Tempests Caesar the Sword Great Alexander and Bullets had no Commission for Charles the Fifth But alas how Misfortunes are enwreathed one is but the Introduction or but the Parent to another for when he thought to reach the secure Bosom of our Common Mothers he then began to apprehend new fears lest the enraged Waves should dash him against the Rocks which were as hard as his Fortune was cruel the Earth too catched at by his hands crumbled between them and tantalized his hopes when his Life seemed almost secured there being neither Water in the Seas nor Earth on the Land to assist the Miserable Thus floated he between both Elements in the Medium between Life and Death made a Sacrifice of his own Fortune when a sprightly Youth an Angel in his Appearance but much more in his Actions stretched forth his Arms to enclose him attracting him as the secret Virtue of the Loadstone doth the Iron and securing his Happiness together with his Life And being now in Safety on the Shoar he first kissed the Earth and casting his Eyes up to Heaven he gave thanks for his Deliverance and then returning to the Restorer of his Life with open Arms endeavoured to gratifie him with Embraces and Acknowledgments but he that had thus obliged him by Deeds could not answer him with Words but only gave demonstrations of the grand satisfaction he received at this accident and of an astonished admiration to see one so like himself The grateful Naufrague repeated the expressions of his thanks and seconded his embraces asking him of his Health and Fortune to all which the astonished Islander was silent wherefore he varied his Idioms and tryed him with some other Languages with which he was acquainted but in vain since he was a person void of Speech so that turning all into Signs and Actions he ceased not to behold and admire him mixing the extremes of Wonder with Contentment One might reasonably have believed him to have been some incult product of those Woods but that this Island being uninhabited by Mankind could not be the native Soil of Humane Race besides the fairness and length of his Hair and the equal proportion of his Mouth was an argument that he was an European the fashion of his Cloaths or Garments could yield no light to any Conjectures being no other than Nakedness the Livery of Innocence The Intelligent Naufrague reasoned with himself whether he was destitute of those two Servants of the Soul Hearing and Speech but his experience soon revolved him in that for he listned to the least noise and by his ready attention could so aptly imitate the Voices of Beasts and Chirping of Birds with such natural Propriety that he seemed better to understand Brutes than Men so prevalent is the force of Custom and Education From these sensitive Actions the vivacity of his Spirit darted forth certain Rays as through the twilight of Reason the Soul labouring to show that where Education is wanting Nature of it self is wholly rude and unpolished The desire of knowing each others Fortunes and Lives encreased equally in both but the want of a common Idiom was that which envied them this enjoyment for Speech is the grand effect of Rationality and he that cannot Discourse cannot Converse Speak Speech saith the Philosopher that I may know you for the Soul doth in a noble manner communicate it self by producing the Images of what it conceives in the Mind of him that hears which is Properly to Converse there is no presence where there is not Discourse nor can they be termed Absent who communicate by Writing Those Wise Sages live still though dead and discourse with us daily by their Immortal Volumes and Illuminate Posterity with a continued source and spring of Knowledge Speech is both necessary and pleasant which two wise Nature always conjoined in the Functions of Life Conversation is ever attended with Pleasure Conversation and thence is immediately derived the important Affair of Knowing which Speech only can administer Wise men by Speaking beget others like themselves and by Converse Knowledge is gently instilled into the Soul Hence it is that Men cannot live happily without some common Language both in respect of their Necessity and of their Pleasure For should two Infants be cast purposely into an Island they would invent a Language to Communicate and Converse with each other so that noble Conversation is the Daughter of Discourse the Mother of Wisdom the Ease of the Soul the Commerce of Hearts the Bond of Amity the Food of Contentment and the Employment of Humanity The experienced Naufrague being well assured of the truth hereof began immediately to teach this ignorant Youth to exercise Speech who being both desirous and docible was very apt to improve the flexibility of his Tongue He began by the Names of them both calling himself Critilo and the other Andrenio which fitted the ripe Judgment of the one and of the other in his natural Principles The desire of bringing those Conceptions unto light which had so long inwardly been suppressed and the curiosity of knowing the truth of what lay clouded and confused in his Understanding were strong Incitements to the docility of Andrenio so that now he began to Pronounce then to Ask then to Answer and endeavouring at length to Discourse accompanied his Words with Action that sometimes where his Words began his Gestures supplyed the want of other Expressions in the Conclusion The Account he gave of his Life was in short and abrupt Speeches so much the more strange by how much the less understood and oftentimes where the improbability of the matter could not gain Belief with Critilo there he pretended to want a true Conception of what he related but when he had learned to continue his Discourse and the number of his Words were equal to the greatness of his Thoughts at the earnest desires of Critilo who afforded him also somewhat of his assistance began to satisfie him in this manner I saith he neither know who I am nor who hath given me this Being nor to what End he hath given it me which Question I often without Words proposed to my self being as Ignorant Natural Conceptions of a Being as Curious but since Queries are caused by Ignorance I had little means to resolve my self yet so would I prove my self with argument that I might if possible exceed my self for as yet no affectation to any particular Good had so possessed me but that withdrawing my Soul out of Ignorance I might reach the limits of my
unto every one his Order and apart all Kinds in their several and most natural Stations So he summoned all Creatures from the Elephant to the Fly and shewing them the several distinct Regions and Elements left the choice of all to their Free and voluntary Election The Elephant answered That he would content himself with a Wood the Horse with a Meadow the Eagle with one of the Regions of the Air the Whale in the Ocean the Swan in a Fish-pond the Barbel in the River and the Frog in a Pool The last of all came Man though the first in Dignity who to the Question propounded answered that he could not content himself with less than all and that too seemed but little for his enlarged desires This exorbitant Ambition struck no small wonder to those present though it was soon applauded by a flattering Sycophant as a demand agreeable to the greatness of his Mind though by one with better Judgment term'd the defect of his depraved corporeal composition The superficies of this Globe seemed too narrow a confinement for his enlarged desires until in quest of Gold and Silver he found a way to undermine and rip up the Bowels of the Earth His Pride makes him climb to possess the Air by the lofty Pinacles of his Edifices lest his Ambition should be suffocated and stifled in the lower Region He compasses the Seas sounds the Ocean dives for Pearls Amber and Corral to nourish his Folly and swell his Vanity He taxes each Element according to its quality to pay him Tribute the Air her Birds the Sea her Fish the Earth her Beasts the Fire its heat to entertain not to satisfie his Luxury And yet as if all this were unsufficient nothing can appease his Complaints of a Penurious Portion O monstrous Covetousness of Man The Supream Creator took him by the hand See said he and know that I have formed Man by my own Hands for my Servant and your Lord and like a King as he is pretends to Govern all But understand O man that this is to be with your Mind and not with your Belly as a Man not as a Beast You ought to be Lord of all Creatures and not a Slave to them they ought to follow you and not you attracted by them You ought to possess all with Knowledge and Acknowledgement that is contemplating in all these Created Mirrours the Divine Perfections making a step of the Creature to pass unto the Creator This Relation of Prodigies though a Lesson amongst us common to the meanest and most vulgar Capacities was yet strange and unheard of to Andrenio who recovering himself from his deep Contemplations thereon and passionate Aspirations towards the Divine Essence began to proceed in this manner My sleep said he prosecuting his former Discourse was the ordinary pastime of my hours and the chiefest ease of my Melancholy and Solitariness to that I inclined as a Remedy of my Discontent when one night for all to me were such a more than ordinary deadness of sleep possessed me an infallible Presager of Evil and so it was for startling from my Slumber awakened by the vehemency of a Gust burst from the deepest Caverns of yonder Mountain which shook the whole Fabrick and firm Pillars which support it and whistling through the Breach it made diffused it self into a general Tempest with so much Rage and Violence as to shake the foundation of the neighbouring Rocks as if its force had been sufficient to have shattered this grand Machine into their first nothing Hold said Critilo the Mountains themselves are not exempted from change but exposed to Earthquakes and Thunder their power of resistance being the cause of their subversion But if these Rocks shook said Andrenio what should I All the Joints of my Body seemed to be loosed and dissolved my heart ready to break with Throbs my Senses failed me that I found my self half dead and almost buried between the Rocks and my own fears whil'st this Eclipse of my Soul remained the Parenthesis of my Life neither can I know nor can any other inform me concerning it at length I know not how nor when I returned by little and little to recover my self from this total dereliction of my Spirits I unclosed my Eyes to the dawnings of the day a day clear great and happiest that ever my life hath seen a day which I have noted on the Stones and engraved on the Rocks I instantly perceived the Doors of my tedious Prison broke open a comfort so transporting me that I delayed no time to unbury my self and as one new-born in the World to leap into it through that Gap in which appeared the Rayes and Light of the chearful Heaven At first not fully satisfyed of the reality I went round the Rock still suppressing with what power I could the strong rebulliency of my Passions but at length well assured I returned to the confused Balcony of my Life and Prospect diffusing my Eyes in a general view over this grand Theater of Heaven and Earth the whole vigour of my Soul applying it self to the Windows of my Eyes with that Contentment and Curiosity that it disabled the rest of my Senses to perform their Function that for a whole day I remained immoveable unsensible and dead being overwhelmed by over-powering of too strong a Life I would here express but it is impossible the intense violence of my Affections the extravagant Raptures of my Soul I can only tell you that there still remain impressions thereof upon me and the wonder and amazement I then conceived are not so clearly forgotten but that the sense thereof do strongly affect me I believe said Critilo that when the Eyes see what they never espied the Heart feels what it was never sensible of I beheld proceeded Andrenio the Sea the Land the Heaven and each severally and altogether and in the view of each I transported my self without thoughts of ever ending admiring enjoying and contemplating a fruition which could never satiate me O! How much I envy thee said Critilo this unknown happiness of thine the only priviledge of the first Man and you the Faculty of seeing all at once Novelty and that with Observation the Greatness Beauty Harmony Stability and Variety of this created Fabrick Familiarity in us takes off Admiration and Novelty affects little those who have neither Knowledge or advertency to enjoy it For we enter into the World with the Eyes of our Understanding shut and when we open them unto Knowledge the Custom of seeing hath rendred the greatest Wonders neither strange nor admired at the Judgments disclosure Therefore the wise Worthies have repaired much of this defect by reflections looking back again as it were to a new Birth making every thing by a search and examination into its Nature a new subject of astonishment admiring and criticizing on their Perfections Like those who walk in a delicious Garden diverted solely with their own Thoughts not observing at first the artificial
an Enemy with whom to combate either with Victory or subjection all is with action and passion none assaults but his blows are returned by his Enemy The Elements command the Van-guard by whose example the mixed compositions are encouraged to Battel one destroying the other evils waiting to entrap our Goods and malice to ruine and overthrow our Fortunes Sometimes even the Stars have their Dissentions and Quarrels and though there is no Weapons or power in fight capable to hurt those invulnerable Bodies yet the damage of the War like that of Soveraign Princes redounds to the affliction of their sublunary Vassals and their natural Discords are converted to moral oppositions so that none on Earth is so peaceable and quiet but finds some whom he may hate or emulate for corrupt nature is pregnant with the innate seeds of dissention Thus in Age the old are Opposers of the Young in Complexion the Phlegmatick are averse to the Cholerick in Estate the Rich unsociable with the Poor in Climate the Spaniard unpleasing to the French thus in all forts of Qualities and Conditions some are contrary or in opposition unto others But what if I should tell you that within the very Gates of Man himself within the small compass of that earthly Cottage the fire of dissention should be kindled and he as an enemy oppose himself For he as a little World is compounded of all Contraries the Humours begin the Quarrel the Moisture resists the radical Heat still endeavouring to abate and quench it the inferiour parts are always offensive to the Superiour contradicting their Designs and Intentions and the Appetite subdues and tramples on Reason The Soul that immortal Spirit is not free from this Calamity the Passions quarrel amongst themselves Fear endeavours to abate Valour Melancholy Mirth sometimes we desire and then we abhor sometimes Vices triumph and anon Virtues all consists of Arms and War and the Life of Man on Earth is nothing but a continued Warfare But O! that wonderful and infinite Wisdom of the Creator who hath so moderated and attempered the Contrarieties of Creatures as to make their Discords their stay support and conservation and thereby to unite and sustain the whole Fabrick of the Universe This said Andrenio was none of my meannest Contemplations observing so much change in so much Permanency all things seemed to move in a continual progress to their natural end and yet the World as the stage of the Tragedy to remain the same constant and immutable The supream Artificer said Critilo hath so ordained that nothing should end but another should begin that from the ashes or ruine of the one should arise another that the corruption of one should be the generation of another when all things seem to be at an end a new Offspring begins Nature peoples again the World and older ages cast their Bill and grow young with a new Generation in all which is to be admired and adored the Wisdom of Divine Providence But here said Andrenio did not my thoughts and observation rest but still proceeded to consider the variety of times The Changes of Time and seasons the exchange of day with night of summer with winter by the moderate and gradual intervention of the temperate Spring Nature proceeding by degrees never makes so long a step as from one extream to another In this again said Critilo appears the Divine Government not only in appointing unto all Creatures their orders and situation but in accommodating fit times and opportunities agreeable to all occasions The day serves for labour and the silence of the night for quietness and repose the Frosts of Winter fix and extend the Roots of Plants and the Spring with a reviving warmth causes the branches to blossom and the Summer appears in Plentiful hopes and the Autumn crowns our Labours with the Fruits we reap and gather into our Barns But what do you think of the strange Miracle of the Rains This too I admired very much said Andrenio to see those sweet dews distil on the earth with gentleness and divided streams for a common refreshment and so seasonable added Critilo in the two Months of October and April which are productive of Fruit and serve the Plow and Seed with a kindly Moisture The changes also of the Moon contribute unto Plenty and favour by a wholesome influence the health of Creatures for some Months are cold others hot some moist and blustering others dry and serene according to the different Seasons the Waters cleanse and fructifie the Winds purge and animate the Earth immoveably supports the descending gravity of Bodies the Air is pliable not to hinder their motion and diaphanous not to obstruct and cloud the Sight Whence we may see that it is that Divine Omnipotency that Eternal Providence and that only immense Bounty which alone knows how to erect this vast Fabrick which we can never sufficiently admire contemplate and applaud These are certain Truths said Andrenio which I have often observed and yet ill conceived in my rude Understanding It was no unpleasant entertainment to me to traverse all the day from one place unto another from one prospect to another continuing to admire and view the Heaven the Earth the Seas the Fields and all with an unsatiable fruition But that point on which I much insisted was that admirable Art of the Divine Wisdom which with so much facility hath performed a Labour so difficult and in the first invention proceeded to the very height and top of all Perfection and Accomcomplishment How much art was there in fixing the Earth firmly on its Basis to be a secure foundation for the following Superstructure Nor less admirable are those perennal streams of Fountains which swell with an unexhaustible increase whose continued inundation is no more than a necessary Plenty How much power is there in forming the Tempests and those still whisperings of Wind which steal from unknown places and as much unknown the Stages to which they tend How much power was there in digesting those useful heaps of Mountains the ribs of this composure the Bay and Harbour for the Earth to shrowd it self under These as they are additions to the beauty of the Worlds variety so are they the Treasuries of the Snows the Mines from which Mettals are extracted are the the dissolvers or breakers of the Clouds the Head and original of Fountains and the dens of Beasts from them fall the lofty Pines to build our Ships and Houses in them we have refuge from the over-flowings of Waters in them we remain secure as in Towers or Bull-works from the sudden assaults or surprizal of our Enemies all which Miracles and Wonders what but an infinite Wisdom could sorm and dispose with Reason therefore must we confess that were all the best Heads and Judgments of the World united in one and all their Reasons and Discourses squeezed and distilled to the purest quintessence of Rationality it were not capable to amend the least circumstance or
nor dangers of Honour or Life but guided by the blindness of my Passion armed with my Sword or rather Thunderbolt pierced through the Quiver of Love and whetted with anger and jealousie I went in pursuit of my Enemy and now remitting disputes to works and our tongues to our hands we unsheathed our Swords without remorse and having made some few Passes cach at the other I soon pierced his heart depriving him both of Love and Life so that now I lay exposed to the Sentence of Justice whose Ministers desirous to content the Vice-king and covetous to engross my Estate were ready at hand to execute their Office I was presently sentenced to imprisonment in a dark Dungeon laden with Bolts and Irons the natural Fruit of my foolish rashness The Fruit of Vice The sad news soon came to the ears of my Rivals Parents who melted in their sighs and tears and resolving to revenge the injury continually thundred out threats against me The Vice-king also moved with the death of his Kinsman designed to prosecute Justice to the utmost extremity The report of our Combat was soon bruited abroad and as mens affections led them they either condemned or defended me but all were generally sorry that our Reason guided us not better than so unfortunately to ruine each other Only my Mistress was she alone that triumphed in my valour and celebrated the faithfulness of my affection and constancy The Charge was strongly prosecuted against me of which being convicted my Estate became their Prey and my Riches a sacrifice to their revenge venting their malice thereupon as the angry Bull doth on the Cloak of his escaped Enemy At the Sports of Bulls in Spain they avoid often the Horns of the Bull. by throwing their Cloaks away The sole support which remained unto me were some Jewels which providently I had entrusted within the sacred Walls of a Monastery the only Relique of my shipwracked Fortune The violence of this Storm stopped not at the ruine of my Estate but proceeded to a condemnation of my Life and having lost my Goods I lost also my Friends which are Companions inseparable each from the other but all this had not yet abated my Courage had not something more unhappy augmented my Misfortunes For the Parents of Felisinda discontented at the accidents and disgraces lately past resolved to leave the Indies and seek more quietness and preferment in Spain which they hoped to procure by the favour and recommendations of the Vice-king So that having converted their Estate into Money they embarked on the first Fleet leaving me With that his sighs interrupted his Speech and his tears gave a full stop unto his discourse At last said he they carried with them two Pledges of my Soul which doubled my grief and made it more fatal one was Felisinda herself and the other was the Burden which she bore in her Womb miserable only for being mine They being in this manner set to Sea had their Wind increased by the storms of my Breast whom whilst I leave engolfed in the Ocean I was drowned in the Sea of my tears remaining eternally condemned to darkness and a Dungeon poor and forsaken forgotten of all but the malice and hatred of my Enemies As he who falling from a Mountain scatters his spoils on every stone here his Hat there his Cloak there his Eyes and Hands till at last he looses his life and bursts in pieces at the bottom The Ruine which Love brings Even so I sliding from the dangerous Clifts of this Ivory Rock more to be feared because delightful rowled my self from one misfortune to another left on every stone testimonies of my Ruine in Goods Honour Health Parents Friends and Liberty till I arrived at this grave and prison the abiss and pit of my Miseries Yet I may truly say that though Wealth corrupted my happiness and raised enemies to throw troubles on me yet Poverty restored me to a better condition for here I found Wisdom unto which till now the extravagance of Youth had made me a Stranger here I undeceived my self and gained experience and health both of body and Soul and being abandoned of all living Society I conversed with the dead and by reading I began to understand and to become rational having only before led the sensitive life so that having extracted some knowledge my understanding was enlightned and my will was obedient to the dictates of it one being replete with Wisdom and the other with Virtue and so I opened my eyes when there was nothing to see ánd so it happens often I studied the noble Arts and sublime Sciences devoting my self with great affection to Moral Philosophy which is the Food of the Judgment the Centre of Reason and the Life of Discretion I reformed my self from the vain Society of my Companions instead of a wanton Youth I chose a severe Cato in place of a shallow Wit a wise Seneca sometimes I perused Socrates anon Divine Plato easing in this manner my tedious hours and recreating my self in that grave of the living and labyrinth of liberty Years passed and Vice-kings but still continued the rigour of my Adversaries for they prolonged the hearing of my Cause and since they could arrive no higher they resolved to linger out my days in Prison and convert my Dungeon into my Grave But at the end of some years miseries came an Order from Spain obtained by the secret Negotiation of my Mistress that my Cause and Person should be remitted thither The new Vice-king being less my Enemy and more favourable put it in execution and dispatched me away in the first Fleet committing me a Prisoner to the charge of the Captain of the Ship Thus parted I from the Indies the first from that place poor and necessitous to whom the dangers of the Seas seemed Entertainments and Pleasures My affable disposition soon gained me Friends and those that were delighted with Truth were attentive Auditors of my Lectures of Morality but above all the Captain of the Admiralship made me his Confident a favour which I much esteemed and verified the truth of that common saying That Fortune often changes with the place and that our designs can never be prosperous whilst we live under the influence of a malevolent Star But here sit and admire a prodigy of humane fraud an extremity of malice the spight and quarrel of a contrary Fortune and the full point and period to which the preamble of my miseries tended for this Captain being a Gentleman obliged in all points of honour to treat me civilly and fairly yet puffed with ambition and infected with the same rancour and malice which the former Vice-king my enemy and his Kinsman boar me or rather incited with a covetous desire to inherit the small remainder of my Estate which I had saved from the storms of my late Shipwrack was induced to put in execution the lowest and most unhumane of all unworthiness For standing together with him
deliberately and soberly is most commonly best heard and understood Indeed so it is said another which he whistled out with an effeminate Voice like a French Man but he was not so but one affected and foolishly nice To meet him went forth another who spake as if he had a Plum in his Mouth that all supposed him a German but he answered he was not but one who to speak fine and elegantly did not regard whether his matter were to the purpose or not Another spake through the Teeth with such a lisping pronunciation that all believed him an Andaluzian but others who could better distinguish Languages judged him of a malevolent Tongue who Serpent-like hist out his Malice Another in a bustle disturbed all and with an unquiet spirit without knowing the reason why endeavoured to discompose the whole World having no other excuse but that it was his natural infirmity so that he was supposed to be an Islander of Majorca but he was not of that Country but a barbarous hot-brain'd Furioso another spake and none understood him that they took him to be a Biscayner but was not such but one who was always making Petitions and Requests another spake not at all but endeavoured to be understood by signs whom all derided and scorned This certainly is one said Critilo who desires to speak the truth but either cannot or dare not others spake hoarse and low these said he must certainly be Parliament-men but they were not so but Men who were Counsellors to none but themselves others snuffed words in their nose which some understood and stammering answered them in the same Dialect but neither appositely nor to the purpose and some biting their tongues spake inwardly and answered them as if the questions propounded to them were troublesome some pronounced words hollow as from an inward sound and cavity in their Breasts which was both as unpleasing to the Auditors as troublesome to themselves And so it was that none remained with his own Voice either good or true no man spake clear equal or without artifice So all lost the natural accent of their Tongues but feigned deceived lied blasphemed and injured whence it seems that the French especially as good fellows in this meeting drinking in the freest plenty to pledge the Italians neither speak as they write nor perform as they say that a man had need of good ears and good learning to understand their Words and Letters but to apprehend them rightly you may interpret all to a contrary sence But the most pestilential effect of this Liquor was shown in those that drank it that like a Vomit it moved the Stomach as soon as taken in to spue it forth again with all the true substance and sound nourishment they had before leaving room for wind and air for lies and deceits with which they swell'd as with a Tympany Their Hearts turned to cork void both of Valour and Courtesie their Entrails were metamorphosed into Stone their Brains to Cotton dry and without Judgment their Bloud hydropical and watrish without colour or heat their Breasts which should be of Steel were turned into Wax their nerves grew flaccid Men of this Age. as if the spring of their motion were composed of Wool their feet as clogged with Lead moved with a slow pace toward good but like a Mercury winged to pursue the flight of evil their hands turned to pitch which grasped and retained all they touched their tongues blurrers of fame their eyes paper in fine here was the original of the Worlds Metamorphosis the cheat of vanity and the best Master-piece of the Worlds deceiver The operation it had on poor Andrenio was that the strength of one drop he but supped in did so intoxicate his Brain that ever after he grew giddy and reeled in the way of Vertue What do you think now said Critilo of this constant spring and stream of Fraud of this tottering Mansion of the Worlds falsities If you had drank with the same liberty that others have done how had your Joints been dissolved with its strength how had your Reason abated and your feet tript at every rubb Can you possibly esteem so little an eye clear of bloud or beams a tongue clean and true a Man of verity and substance such as a Duke of Ossuna or a Prince of Conde believe me he that is so Duke of Ossuna Prince of Conde is as strange and unusual as a Phaenix Would one think said Andrenio there should be so much evil in so smooth a water The more dangerous is it replied Critilo for those smiles and gentleness are symptoms of its danger how is this Fountain called demanded Andrenio which he asked of one and the other but none could inform him At last Proteus answered him that it had no name for in being unknown consisted the efficacy and success of its operation Why then said Critilo it may be called the Fountain of Deceits of which who once drinks is by the Vertue and strength thereof metamorphos'd into another shape Critilo was now desirous to turn back but Andrenio could not nor would consent and Proteus pressing them forward would needs perswade them that it was better to be a Fool for company A Fool for Company then singular and wise alone Thus he led them astray rather then guided them in by and cross ways through delightful Fields and Meadows where Youth stood sporting in the pleasant Greens under the fresh shades of leafy Boughs but the Trees wanting heart and sap were barren and unfruitful By this time being come in view of the City they observed it to be covered with a Cloud of smoak a certain sign that it was inhabited by Mankind The Prospect was composed of a pleasing variety and seemed best at the farthest distance such was the general concourse of all Provinces to this common place of resort that the Road was crowded with Travellers which raised such a cloud of dust that nothing in the way thither could be seen or observed but in their nearer approach they easily perceived that that which at a farther distance appeared beauteous and comely was within a confused mass and heap no Street direct or strait but like a Labyrinth or Den of Minotaures Andrenio was about rashly to enter in but Critilo pulling him by the Sleeve said Hold open first your eyes those inward Faculties I say of the Soul Whereupon he bended down to the Earth and looking narrowly he espied traps and slips covered in the dust made with Golden threads and fair hair to catch and ensnare silly and unwary Innocents Observe well said he where and how you enter let not your feet tread without an assay first and certainty of a secure and firm foundation do not move one foot from my side unless you will wilfully precipitate your self to an evident destruction believe nothing though urged with Oaths and Protestations grant nothing though petitioned with the most submissive humility Rules to Live do
in disguised Habits fashioned not only in the mode and cloak of Sin but in the white attire of Sanctity and Vertue whereby the credulous simplicity of some was deluded though the Wise clear-sighted Men knowing them well advised them to unmask themselves It is a thing very observable how desirous all were to cloath themselves in forraign Habits and some contrary or different to their Natures for the Fox put on the skin of the Lamb the Serpent the feathers of the Dove Feigned Men. the Usurer desired to paint his Avarice with the Twins of Charity the Adulterer to be stiled the familiar Friend of the Husband the Wolf ambitious to be esteemed Abstemious the Lion to be accounted as gentle and mild as the Sheep the Cat affected with a Roman Beard would hear of nothing but Rome's Customs the Asse would imitate the Lion whilst he is silent and the angry Dog that snarls affected to shew his Teeth in smiles and laughter This faithful Officer travelled in quest of Andrenio through cross-ways and by-paths and though he was skilful and wary enough to avoid errors yet so was he changed that he knew not Critilo himself for his Eyes were now clouded with a mist not fully open as formerly but dimmed and a little obscured for the Officers of Falismund do chiefly design at first to vitiate or debilitate the Sight of Strangers for that besides his Voice began here to fail him and to change both pronounciation and accent his Ears grew deaf and the rest of his Sences disturbed and distempered that if man each hour hath his Changes and in the evening is altered from his mornings Strength what can we expect but a Change in those who descend from Vertues more different Climate to the Centre of Error and Falsity But yet breaking through all difficulties with much industry and diligent enquiry he came at last to hear of Andrenio and one day found him employed in what he usually lost his hours in beholding others sport away their Wealth and make an end both of their Estate and Conscience for there he stood gazing at a Match at Tennis the most natural and fashionable Entertainment of the World which was performed in the high Street by Parties of different Natures and Conditions the one side was black and the other white one tall the other low these rich and the other poor and all dexterous Gamesters and accustomed to the sport in which they eternally consumed their time and thoughts The Balls were puft with wind in fashion like Mens heads which the Ball-maker had filled with blasts at the eyes and ears making them as hollow as empty thus one giving the word warned them to play with attention All said he is but sport and madness and with that gave the Ball so hard a stroak that it flew through the Air by the vertue of that violence which the blow had impressed on it which another taking at the rebound returned it again without suffering it to rest from its motion Thus all endeavoured to kick and foot away this common Ball for in that consisted their dexterity and Victory Sometimes it was tossed so high that it was out of sight anon so low that it bounded and trilled on the ground so as to bemire it self with the filth and ordure of the Earth some kicked it with their feet others stroak with their hands but the most with Rackets in the form of tongues The Game at Tennis that sometimes it mounted through the air and again descending quarrelled with the ground suffering great varieties and changes of Fortune one cried out he won Fifteen and so he did for at those years Men gain Vice and loose the Treasures of Vertue another said he had won Thirty and gave the game for his own but these years do conclude the Set. In this manner they sported with the Ball till at last it fell down and burst and then every one trampled on it Thus concluded the Game some winning at their own cost whilst others were entertained with the view of this pastime These said Andrenio turning himself toward him that sought for him seem to be the Heads of Men. And so they are said he and one of them is yours Men I mean who have lost their Brains and filled their Sculls with Air and Wind with Dregs and Cobwebs and fantastick Apparitions The World throws up her Balls of Vanity which the elevated and happy Souls catch and hurl down again to their contrary opposites Trouble and Calamity whilst miserable Man standing in the middle way sometimes depressed Our Life again then exalted and subject to the stroaks of both till at last he tumbles burst into the mire and filth of his Sepulcher What art thou said Andrenio that seest so much And what art thou replied he that seest so little Thus in discourse he began to insinuate himself into his favour and first to gain the Fort of his Will the better to command and over-awe his Understanding so that Andrenio discovered unto him his Breast declaring his hopes and those great promises were made of obtaining his pretensions But this cunning Artist seeing his time and season informed him that the course he took was vain and would never gain him admittance to see this King much less introduce him to a private Audience for to see him is to be effected by your own Will and the sole being of this Prince is to be unknown the way his Ministers take to give a view and prospect of him is to blind you first Consider but awhile how blind you are What will you give me if this night I shew him to you You do but jest said Andrenio No for I am most usually serious All I shall desire is that when I discover him you would view him well observe and eye his humour This said Andrenio is to desire me what I have so earnestly entreated So having appointed the hour both punctually complied with their promise one as desirous of this Novelty and the other as zealous of the others deliverance But whilst Andrenio believed he should be first introduced into the favour of some intimate Ministers he on the contrary perceived himself lead another way and carried always to a distance from the Court which made him give a stop willing to return backward suspecting a greater Fraud and Abuse in this then in those former Snares to which his Errors had betrayed him But this discreet Officer still detained him Observe said he and view through this Glass what is denied us at a nearer Prospect for ascending up this Hill a little raised from the ordinary level of the Earth we shall I know discover most hidden Secrets with that he perswaded him to ascend a little up and place himself just opposite to the Windows of Falismund I think said Andrenio I see more then I did before which much encouraged his Instructor who knew that to see and understand was the only remedy and cure for his
cannot express with how much content and pleasure I was deceived I reflected again on my self and methought I was not yet so foolishly ignorant as I was contemplative The first thing I observed was this composition of my whole Body which is straight and direct not inclining to one side nor to the other Man said Artemia was created as a Servant of Heaven and so he ought to have his Mind and Body incline thither for the material rectitude of the body often simpathizeth and correspondeth with the Soul that where accidents and mishaps have made a deformity in the Members the Mind hath often been mishapen with them and both have become crooked and humoursome in their Actions It is true said Critilo for in a crooked composition doth seldom dwell a plain The Crooked and direct intention in the nooks and bendings of a Body we may fear some folds and doublings in the Soul The eyes which are dull and misty are accustomed to grow dim with Passion whom we do not compassionate as we do Blind-men but rather fear them as those who may kill with the Squints of an indirect glance Squint Eyes the Lame often stumble in the Road of Vertue and their Will halting between their Affections makes these maimed Cripples uncapable to walk with equal steps but Reason and Understanding in better Judgments hath prevented the Prognosticks of such sinister infirmities The head said Andrenio I know not whether I speak improperly I call the Castle and Fortress of the Soul the Court of her Powers and Faculties You have reason said Artemia for as God is assistant and present in all parts yet the Glory of his Court is most apparent in the Celestial Ierusalem so the Soul manifests it self most in her superiour Stations which is a lively resemblance of the heavenly Orbs. Who believes not this let him look into the Soul through the Windows of the Eyes hear its Voice through the Mouth and speak to it through the Crevices of the Ears the upper and most eminent place doth best become the Authority of the Head that its Office may be best executed in its command and rule over other parts and here I have observed said Critilo with much attention that though the parts of this Republique are so numerous that to every day of the year may be allotted a Bone yet this variety is with so much harmony that there is no number that may not be applied to it for the Sences are five the Humours four the Powers three and the Eyes two all which come to reduce themselves and terminate in one common Unity and Centre of the Head resembling the first and Divine Mover in whom the whole Series and Degrees of Creatures come to end by an universal dependance The Understanding said Artemia possesseth the most sublime and purest spirituality of the Soul and hath no small interest in the Government of the material Faculties but as King and Lord of the Actions of Life soars aloft penetrates subtiliseth discourses understands and hath fixt its Throne in a candid and flexible disposition the true Essence of the Soul banishing all obscurity and darkness from Conceptions all prejudice from Affections and as a good natured Creature encourages the gifts of docility with moderation and prudence The Memory looks on what is passed and eyes that behind as the Understanding doth that before so that what we pass we still see and because we cast that commonly behind which most concerns us every Wise man becomes a Ianus and sees as well behind as before The hair seems to me said Andrenio a Gift bestowed on Man more for his adornment than necessity They are roots replied Artemia of this humane Tree which radicate him in Heaven and by one hair he is drawn thither there ought his cares to be and there he ought to receive his substantial nourishment They are the Index and Almanack of our Age and change their colour as we our affections the Forehead is the heaven and sky of the Mind which is sometimes clouded anon serene and clear the Seat of the Sences where a shame of our Crimes discovers it self and is the place where Passions sport and delight Anger in the stretched Forehead Sadness in the fallen Countenance Fear in the Pase Modesty in the Sanguine Deceit in the wrinkled Brow Good nature in the Smooth Immodesty in the Bald and a good Capacity in the spatious Forehead But that which I most admired said Andrenio in this artisicial Fabrick of Man was his Eyes Do you know said Critilo with what name that great Restorer of Health stiles them Galen that retainer of flying Life and searcher into Nature he calls them Divine parts who in this spake well for if we observe they are invested with a kind of Divinity which infuseth Veneration they work with a certain Universality that they resemble Omnipotency producing the Images The Eyes have something Divine and Species of external Objects in the intimate and inward rooms of the Soul they seem to be indued with a kind of Infinity being present and assistant in all places and commanding at one instant the whole space and circumference of the Hemisphere At one thing said Andrenio I have been much amused that though the Eyes see all yet they see not themselves nor those Beams that usually obstruct them a Condition and Paradise of Fools who are acute Spies of disorders in their Neighbors house and Bats of Blindness in their own It were no small conveniency if Man could retort his own Eyes upon himself that he might start at his own deformity moderate his passions and compose himself again into the beauty of that form he hath destroyed with the loss of his original Perfection It were of much advantage said Artemia if the Cholerick could come to see the lowring Frowns of his own Brow and his own fury affright himself if the finical and amorous Lover could come to the sight of his effeminate Gestures and the rest of vain Fools to see their own Follies But wary Nature hath omitted these small advantages to prevent more dangerous inconveniencies for could the Vain reflect and retort his Eyes he would be enamoured of himself court and adore his own shadow which how deformed and monstrous soever yet his fond affection would still limit and confine to the sole prospect of himself it is sufficient he can behold his own hands before another or view his Life and attend to his Actions which may be as many as perfect that he can see his own Feet and know where to direct them that he knows where to fix his footsteps on a secure and firm Foundation this is the chiefest use to employ our Eyes It is true replied Andrenio but yet two Eyes seem to me too small a Light for so spatious a Prospect and this animate and lively Palace could not have been better adorned then with ranks of this precious Furniture which since they are but two their order
very difficult for every one to find his other half for all things are confused and shuffled together so that the half which belongs to the Chollerickman we give to the Phlegmatick that of the Melancholy to the Chearful that of the Handsome to the Hard-favoured and sometimes that of a young Man of Twenty to an old decrepid Dotard of Seventy which is the occasion that most married Men live in a repenting state But Mr. Matchmonger by your leave said Critilo you have no excuse in this for the inequality is sufficiently apparent between fifteen years and seventy What would you have me do replied he they are blind and will have it so and the reason hereof is Sir because that they being Girls desire speedily to be Women and the Men being old and doating turn Children and as ill luck will have it when they have not young Men by their sides they are displeased to have such lie by them who are troubled with Coughs Ptisicks and Rheumes But as to this Woman now there is no remedy take her as you desired but the Chapman reviewing her again found that she came short in two or three particulars both as to her Age her Quality and her Riches and willing then to disclaim his Bargain declared she was not agreeable to his desire Take her however said he for in time you may accommodate her to your Mind for otherwise she may become much worse but have a care you afford her not all that is necessary for in giving her that she will quickly come to arrogate that which is superfluous One being invited to see a Wife was much praised for his answer That he would not choose a Wife by his Eyes but by his Ears and in reward thereof obtained one who had a good Fame for her Dowry At length they were invited to the House of Good Chear where there was a Banquet prepared This must be the quarter of Gluttony said Andrenio It may be so replied Critilo but those that enter seem the Eaters and those that go forth appear to be the Meat that is devoured and here were rare Sights for there was a great Lord set up in State encircled with Gentlemen intermixed with Dwarfs Buffoons and Flatterers like the Ark of he eats well but the account was large for they avouched that he had eaten One hundred thousand Ducats a year Rent which account was passed without any question or scruple Critilo considering hereof said how can this be for he hath not eaten the hundred part of what they pretend It is true replied Egenio but what he hath not devoured these have Then according hereunto said he let them not say that such a Duke hath a hundred thousand Crowns a year but only a thousand and that the rest only consists in troubles and vexations of Mind There was a sort of people like Camelions that sucked in Air and pretended that they grew fat with it but at length all vanished into Air. Some eat all and some drank all some sucked in their Spittle and others chewed upon an Onion and at length those that eat were eaten themselves and that to the very Bone In all these Shops was sold nothing of substance or true benefit howsoever on the right hand were Wares of the most pretious quality and Truths of the purest Touch which were sold to Mens own selves such as these The Wise man is with himself and God is All-sufficient In this manner they came out from the Fare discoursing as they went Egenio being other then what he was before because now rich intended to return to his Lodging for in this life we have no House or abiding Mansion But Critilo and Andrenio resolved to pass the Gates of Virile Age in Aragon of which the famous King gave this testimony that he was born to make as many Knights of St. Iago as should be Conquerors of several Kingdoms and comparing the several Countries of Spain to the different Ages of Man attributed the robustious and manly Age to that of Aragon The Conclusion Being the Vniversal Reformation IF Men change their inclinations every seven years how much more must their Judgments alter in every Period of their four Ages He that understands little or nothing lives but by halfes the Faculties of our Souls are feeble in our infancy and the common or inferiour as well as the more noble Powers lie buried in an unsensible Infancy exercising only an animal Life and encreasing with a Vegetation like Flowers or Plants But the time comes when the Soul proceeding out of its Mantles enters into the Jovial Stage of Youth which being Sensual and Luxurious is most naturally expressed by such Epithites He that understands little indulges his Genius and pursues those Inclinations to which Youth and Nature prompt him neglecting the use of the sublimer Faculties Howsoever at length though late he arrives at the Rational Life which appertains to Man his Judgment being awakened he reasons and discourses desires to be esteemed The Employments of Manhood thirsts after great Actions embraces Vertue cultivates Friendships pursues Knowledge treasures up Wisdom and attends to every noble and worthy Action He that compared the life of Man to the swift current of a Stream did apply an apt similitude rightly fitted to the transient condition of Humane nature which glides away like a passing Water The life of Man compared to a Stream For Infancy is a lively Brook springing from amidst little Sands the Muck of our Bodies being produced from the Dust of nothing It twinkles as bright as a little spark it smiles but doth not laugh it runs after the little bubbles of Wind tumbles amongst the Pots and binds it self with the green Stays with which the Nurse keeps it from falling But Youth fallies forth like an impetuous Torrent runs leaps precipitates its Waters like Cataracts bubbles on the loose Pebbles turns into a thousand Eddies troubles the clearness of its Streams and casts all into Froth and Fume But the fury of this Brook tumbling into the Age of Manhood glides then with a more quiet Stream and is as smooth and still as it is deep It then diffuses it self without noise towards some good end or design it overflows the Meadows to make them fertile and rich it encompasses Cities to carry their Vessels of Provisions and fortifie them against their Enemies and in short enriches whole Provinces with all things necessary and useful But alas at length this placid River comes to discharge it self into the froward Sea of Old age emptying every drop of it self into the profound Abyss of Infirmities and Diseases Here it is wherein Rich men loose the vigour of their strength their pleasures and the remembrance of their very names Here it is wherein the shattered Vessel drives to Leeward leaking in a hundred places and being beaten on all sides with Gusts and Storms is at length cast away being shipwracked in the Gulf of the Grave and swallowed up in the Sands of perpetual Oblivion Critilo and Andrenio our two Pilgrims of Life were now arrived in Aragon which Travellers call The Good Spain Aragon the Good Spain where being entered they found themselves ingaged in the greatest stage and course of Humane life They had now insensibly passed the chearful and pleasant Fields of Youth and the plain and wanton Paths of Delight and were ascending upwards on the steep Mount of Manly age which was full of sharp Rocks covered over with Briers and Thorns and in every respect a most difficult and troublesome passage Andrenio like such who would arise unto Vertue strained hard to mount aloft he laboured and sweat and was out of breath whilst Critilo encouraged him with prudent remembrances and comforting him in a way where no Flowers grew with the prospect of Trees above laden and overcharged with Fruit which were more plentiful and in greater abundance then the leaves of those Books which they carried in their hands At length they were got so high that they seemed to be raised above all that this World contains and to rule and govern inferiour things What is your opinion said Critilo of this new Region Do not you think that we do now breath in a more pure Air Yes indeed replied Andrenio methinks we now carry another sort of Air with us We are entered into a good station where we may repose and recover our strength Let us now reflect said Critilo on the Journy which we have made Do not you observe those green and trampled paths which we have left behind us how mean how vile do all those matters seem which we have already passed How childish and vain appears every thing in respect of that great Province into which we are now entred How empty and void do past matters appear How little do they show from our sublime place of residence It were a madness to return to them again by the same steps which have wearied us already without satisfaction or contentment And here we will leave our Pilgrims in the Confines of Aragon having attained to the Virile and robustious Age of Manhood FINIS