they think it more convenient to be silent till either their Agony and Pangs of Conscience force them to breathe out Truth or that then in their last farewell they fear not to pronounce boldly their own Sence fearing neither punishment nor loss of Estate hence it is said that such a Preacher or that Minister spake clearly that such a Secretary of State confest and published Secrets and that this Councellor disclosed the most inward Thoughts of his Breast and breathed out Truth together with his life At the Gate stood a Lion a gentle Porter whose fierceness had been lately turned to the Mansitude of a Lamb and a Tiger to a Sheeps innocency at the Balconies appeared pratling Birds who yet worked and discoursed together with the prating Parrot who held the Distaff The Cats and Domestick Animals of that House were not ravenous nor given to prey but Loyally acknowledged their mighty Empress and each day prostrating at her feet renewed professions of obedience At her door attended multitudes of modest Virgins well fashioned and comely though Mechanicks and of mean Degree The more Noble and ingenuous Ladies all Attendants of the discreet Artemia were advanced to such Forms as some vertutuous Heroes thought fit to advance them reparting unto every one their peculiar Lessons and Places of Preferment in judging of which and of every ones particular Abilities the chief Arbiter employed was Don Vincentio de Lastanosa Her Mouth was little and modest her Eyes full and piercing her Speech though grave yet pleasing and above all her hands were of Soveraign Quality that they gave life to those on whom she laid them and worked a Miracle on benumbed Souls her behaviour was with a good air and fashion her body handsomely proportioned In fine all she did became her and all her actions were full of Art and Vertue Critilo being arrived had Audience of her with the greatest Civilities and Courtesie that could be expressed for she quickly discovered his constancy and inclinations to Vertue and judged of his good Nature and Affability from the ingenuity of his Countenance which is the Index and Character of the Soul Whilst Critilo approached near to kiss her hands she retired with some wonder backward to see one such a Master in Vertue to enter the School and one so wise to walk unaccompanied in regard that Society is affected by the Wise and carries with it much of the comeliness of the Graces which are at least three in number but he pressing forward let fall a floud of tears and answering said I was not wont to walk thus solitarily alone for I had once another Companion whom I now give over for lost by means of an ill Conductor and a trateirous Guide who in this Country sometimes directed us and at last destroyed us in his behalf I apply my self to you Thou sole Remedy of Misfortunes petitioning your favour to rescue my other self who remains a distressed Captive and the more unfortunate because I know not where nor how nor with whom I lost him If you know not replied she where you left him or with whom how shall we know where to find him This I commit to the skill of your mysterious Art said he for he remains in the Court of a famous King whence I durst swear he could never be recovered an Emperor universally powerful and only singular in being unknown Hold said she I understand you now without doubt he remains in the great Babylon but no Court of my great enemy Falismund in whose Territories the whole World runs to confusion and all hasten their end there because they know not nor consider it However take good Courage in a bad Fortune and our Policy shall not be wanting to countermine his deceit and so calling one of her chiefest Ministers and greatest Confidents who attended with great readiness and being a person of much Resolution and Illustrious for his Integrity and clear Dealing she committed to him the charge of this business Critilo having informed him concerning the particulars of all passages Artemia gave him directions and therewith a Glass of pure Cristal the famous Workmanship of one of the seven Greeks and having acquainted him of the efficacy and vertue of it and how to make use of it she referred the rest to his own management Before he departed he cloathed himself after the fashion of that Country in the Livery of Falimund which was made up of many Folds Linings Furrs Counter-Furrs covered with Coats and Cassocks and over all a Cloak to hide Frauds and in this manner he departed to comply with his Commands and Confidence reposed in him Critilo was as much contented as favoured in the Court of Artemia entertaining himself with improving his knowledge and every day observing Miraculous operations for there he saw what seemed impossible a rugged Clown transformed to a refined Courtier a Mountanier to become a Gentleman and Principal in his Art nor was it less wonderful that a Biscayner should be made an Eloquent Secretary There were Cloaks of Baze transformed into Velvet the Scholars rags of Poverty to eminent Purple and the Novitiates Bonnet to an Episcopal Mitre Those who commanded in one part she hath given Commission for another the poor Shepherd of a thin Flock she hath made an universal Pastor Besides her power knows no limits but works most intense at the farthest distance for some have seen a Post-Boy promoted to Bethlem Gabor and a Lacquay to a Lord of Tenza and there are Witnesses how in former times the Goad hath grown into a Scepter and a Scrivener become a Caesar the shadows of one night over-past she hath so changed and altered the Faces of some that their intimate Friends have scarce taken acquaintance of their altered countenances their Judgments Opinions and Wills have been changed and their Affections reformed Men of wild and and unconstant Brains have been made grave and severe and others of vain and empty Carriage have been confirmed in solidity and substance In like manner she hath supplied all the defects and infirmities of the Body for on some she hath bestowed shoulders feet hands to others she hath given eyes teeth and hair but above all she hath cured the rotten Ulcers and gangrings in the heart all which are not less than Miracles of her admired Art But what Critilo most admired was to see her shave and hew an unfashioned Log a Trunk an unformed Lump till she brought it both to the Form and Rationality of a Man which could speak discourse and reason in a manner as was worth the attention but let us leave him here a while entertained and follow the discourse of this prudent Minister who is now on his journey and pursuit of Andrenio remaining as yet in the Court of the famous Falismund Still did the drunken Surfet of the Bacchanalian Feasts go forward the Streets were filled with Sports and Mascarades walked with more licentiousness then in Barcelona it self both Men and Women sported
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
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
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
meer shadow or apparition of Mankind But tell me how is Man capable of doing so much mischief since Nature as seemingly negligent of him hath denied him those weapons with which she hath armed and defended Beasts He hath no claws like the Lyon or Tyger no Trunk like the Elephant no Horns like the Bull no Tusks like the Boar no Teeth like the Dog nor Mouth like the Wolf how then is that unarmed Malice able to wage such continual War For this very reason said Critilo hath provident Nature not delivered weapons into the hands of an enemy dangerous to himself and the rest of her Product whose hate knows no bounds for being let loose would destroy even Nature her self notwithstanding all which his malice hath found means to convert those parts which Nature hath given him for necessary uses into more bloudy and cruel Weapons than those of Beasts his Tongue is more sharp than the Lyons Claws by which he shatters the Reputation of others and wounds them in their name and honour His bad intentions are more perverse and crooked than the Bulls horns hurt at random and hit those it never aimed at his bowells are more poisonous than the Vipers his breath blasts more than the Dragons his eyes are more envious and dart more deadly emissions than the Basilisks his teeth are more sharp than the fangs of the Boar and his nose like the Elephants trunk wrings and turns it self into a thousand forms and shapes of derision so that all those offensive Arms which are sparingly delivered to other Creatures are not given to but usurped by Man and in him found as the store and Magazine of them all And that you may understand this the better know that Lyons and Tygers are capable of no other damage than what touches their Bodies but Man is liable to what misery fraud deceit treason theft homicide adultery envy injuries detractions and falsities can throw on his honour and cast on his peace estate content happiness conscience nay and to a malice which would proceed to the very ruine and destruction of his Soul Believe me there is no Wolf nor Lyon nor Tyger so unhumane as Man which is sufficiently verified if true what is reported That a Malefactor being condemned to die upon a legal Tryal was by Sentence of Justice to be cast into a deep Cave to be there devoured by ravenous Beasts it fortuned that a Stranger passing by and hearing the sighs and groans of the condemned person and yet ignorant of the punishment was moved by compassion to relieve him out of misery to which end opening the Cave suddenly with extraordinary nimbleness leaped out the Tyger which contrary to its nature and the expectation of the Traveller by way of salute and gratefulness kindly kissed and licked his hands next followed the Snake which twined about his Legs not to wound but to embrace them in like manner did all the rest most gratefully join to give him thanks not only for saving their lives but for rescuing them from a death accompanied with the loathsome Society of a wicked Man in recompence of which they seemed to advise him to fly and be gone least when that Miscreant came forth Mans Cruelty he should endanger his own life by saving his The Passenger though much amazed yet desired to see him whom he had so much obliged expecting some acknowledgements for so great a benefit instead of which the Malefactor coming forth and supposing that the Traveller carried some Wealth and Riches with him killed him and despoiled him of all a kind return of his Charity and Compassion And now judge which are most cruel Men or Beasts I am more astonished and amazed said Andrenio to hear this than the day I beheld the World You cannot fully conceive their Malice said Critilo and yet Women are worse and more dangerous If they be worse what must they be then In short they are Divels hereafter I will tell you more of them but above all I conjure you that by no means you tell who we are nor how I came hither nor how you proceeded to Light for by that means you may loose your Liberty and I my Life And though I distrust not your faithfulness and secrecy yet I am glad that I have not finished the Relation of my Misfortunes which in this only are fortunate that being as yet untold are not subject to that discourse which may sometimes inconsiderately fall from you Here therefore we will double down the leaf until the next occasion which cannot want in so long a Voyage By this time the near approach of the Fleet made their Voices more distinct and audible which they raised with greater acclamations with the joy conceived at their arrival Men always grow more wanton when their success promises fairest and their enterprizes have the face of a happy issue being come into the Road they furled their Sails and cast their Anchors and the Passengers began to land on the desired Shoar The meeting was as strange to the new-come Guests as to the two Inhabitants who in the relation they gave of themselves declared that having been asleep or negligent at the departure of the last Fleet they were left behind on that Island which account reconciled both their pity and their courtesie Having thus for some days entertained themselves in Hunting and furnished their Vessels with fresh Water and Wood they set to Sea directing their course to desired Spain Critilo and Andrenio embarked together on the same Gallion which sort of Vessel is a terror to its enemies the opposer of the Winds and a yoak of subjection to the Ocean The Voyage was as dangerous as long but the Relation which Critilo made of the many Tragedies his life had passed was a good entertainment for tedious hours which he prosecuted in this manner I was born as I have already told you amidst of this immense Golfe and of the dangers and continual motions of this turbulent Element The reason was that my Parents being both Spaniards by consent and favour of Philip the Great Critilo relates the History of his own Life the most universal and mighty Monarch embarked for the Indies with no small Wealth to improve their Fortunes My Mother at that time suspecting her self with Child carried me in her Womb and before the tedious Voyage was ended brought me forth whose untimely birth was hastned by the terrors of that Tempest in which I came to light that so the raging of the Seas might add pains to the pangs of her Travail My being born amidst this confusion was a bad omen of my future infelicities so early began Fortune to play with my life hurrying me from one part of the World to the other At last we arrived at that rich and famous City of Goa which is the Court of the Catholick Empire in the East the Imperial and August Seat of its Vice-kings and universal Emporium of the Indies and its Richness At
this place lived my Father whose Stock which he brought with him directed with Prudence and industry advanced suddenly both his Fame and Fortune But I being educated amidst the happiness of a plentiful condition and being the only Son of my Parents was tenderly nurtured with too much care and indulgence whose fondness to me in my Childhood produced the fruits of an exorbitant Youth Vicious Youth For being now entered into the green champions of springing years made wanton with delights loose and uncurbed by the reigns of Reason I fell into Gaming empairing my Estate and abusing the industry of my Parents whose cares obtained that with trouble which my folly squandred in pastime From this Vice I passed to the vain toyes of Gallantry and Fashions dressing my Body with borrowed Feathers whilst I neglected the true adornments and vertues of the Soul This vanity of mine was incited forward by the evil conversation of some pretended Friends Flatterers and Braves the vile moths of an Estate Honour and Conscience The Wisdom of my Father prognosticated the ruine of me his unfortunate Son and Family from whose rigour I appealed to the indulgent tenderness of my Mother whose protection defended me not but destroyed me But at that time my Father gave an end unto his days seeing but little hopes to recover me from my desperate condition especially as then being blindly entangled within the Labyrinth of love For I had cast my affections upon a Lady though noble beauteous and as perfect as Nature could make her The Amours of Critilo yet wanting the endowments of Fortune she shined not in that lustre to the World as to be adored and courted for them only I alone idolized her person and my devotion grew more zealous by the correspondence of her favours and though her Parents desired to admit me into their Family yet mine refused to admit her into theirs endeavouring by all means to wean my affections which they stiled my ruine and by proposing another Match more fitted to their convenience than my content thought to distract or divert my love which was so firm and blindly constant that nothing could overcome I thought I spake I dreamed of nothing but Felisinda for so she was called esteeming no small portion of my happiness to consist in the repetition of her name This and many other discontents were heavy troubles of my aged Father the ordinary punishment of Paternal indulgence which sate so heavily on him as to deprive him of his life and me of my protection But yet the ignorance of my Youth knew not how to make that estimate of my loss as the importance of so great damage ought to have affected me My tender natured Mother bewailed and performed the Obsequies of the dead with tears sufficient for us both but with that excess that her own life lasted not long after leaving me more free and less sad The undoubted hopes of obtaining my Mistress were now by the removal of those obstacles some remedy of my grief and recompence of my loss but those filial respects I owed to the memory of my dead Parents and my desires to comply with the censures of the World made me for some days to retard my intentions which seemed years and ages to my longing hopes In which interim my unconstant Fortune so changed the condition of these present affairs that the death of my Parents which at first seemed to facilitate my desires was that at last which put the obstacle and reduced them to an Estate of almost impossible For it fortuned that in a short time the Brother of my Mistress died a Gentleman well accomplished and noble the sole Heir of the Family leaving my Felisinda Inheritrix of all and Phenix in all Ornaments whose Beauty now joined with Riches The Misfortunes of Critilo's Loves made her glory to shine in the highest magnitude her fame was greatly spread in one day being become a person that suited with the most aspiring ambition of that Court This unexpected accident intervening things had a strange change and the face of my affairs looked different to what they formerly promised only the constancy of Felisinda was stable and changed in nothing but in greater kindness her Friends and Parents aspiring now unto higher Matches were the first who by cold entertainments discountenanced my pretensions which they had formerly invited this neglect proceeded afterwards to affronts and endeavours to move in her a hatred of my Person but she advised me of all that might disadvantage me made me of a Lover to become her Councellor Many other Rivals as powerful as numerous declared themselves but Lovers who were wounded more by those Arrows which were shot from the Quiver of her Portion than from the Bow of Love yet of all I was timorous and suspitious love being naturally jealous and like an effeminate Passion apt to be foiled with the least disappointment but that which gave me the greatest blow was the pretensions of a new Rival who besides that he was comely rich and youthful he was Kinsman of the Vice-king which is there as much as to be allyed to a Deity or to be a Branch of Divinity whose Will is his Law and whose intentions are as soon executed as conceived he I say began to declare himself a Pretender to my Mistress being as confident as powerful we both stood at open desiance he encouraged by the strength of his authority and I enabled with the Passion of Love but his own and the reason of others assured him that this long rooted affection of mine compleated with time and conversation was not easily eradicated unless diverted to which effect he promised his best assistance and favour to the industry and malice of my enemies whose Plot was by Law to pretend upon my Estate and thereby either to scare me out of the fits of Love or at least to affright the Parents of Felisinda from Matching her with me over whom hanged an apparent ruine I soon perceived my self entangled within two dangerous toils of Interest and Love but Love being that which most prevailed the fear of loosing my Estate was not strong enough to contend with the valour of my affection which like the Palm grew more under the heavy pressure But what this Plot wanted to avail with me it worked in the Parents of my Mistress who considering most the conveniencies of Interest and Honour contrived I know not how to proceed it will be better to leave off But Andrenio still pressing him to proceed Well said he in fine they resolved to kill me and to deliver that life to my Adversary which was already consecrated and devoted to my Mistress but she acquainted me with the design that night from her Balcony and according to her custom consulted with me concerning the remedy with which she let fall such a floud of tears as kindled in my breast a sire and hell of despair and fury so that the next day not considering the inconveniencies
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
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
might have been better disposed one fixed before to see that which comes and the other behind to consider what we have past Some said Critilo have reproached Nature and accused her of this absurd oversight and faigning a Man more agreeable to their sense fixed his Eyes both behind and before which served only to make him a Man of a double Countenance and more double in his Actions then in his Sight Were I to correct the faults of Nature I would place these Lights of the Soul on each side and over the Port-holes of his Ears which should neither by day nor night close their Lids to the softness of Sleep that so they might see with whom they associate and link their sides in a friendly familiarity so would not many be easily subject to the deadly Plurisie a Disease as Epidemical as Mortal so might Man see with whom he speaks know with whom he sides Rules most important for the Government of Life it being better to be deserted and left to our own heads then to be subjected to the whispers of bad advice but know that two eyes well employed are sufficient for our necessities which looking forward spye the coming of bolder dangers and with a retorted glance see the timorous assault of backward Treasons One wink in an attentive beholder is sufficient to make discovery in the most hidden Secrets and therefore the eyes were made in the form of Spheres the most proper figure and fittest for sight they being of a square have no corners to dim any part or vertue of their light their situation is proper also both to look upwards and before them for if besides our proper Eyes others were set in the hinder parts of the head whilst some looked upwards towards Heaven others might look to the Earth and breed a schism and dissention in our Affections But another Wonder I have observed of them said Andrenio that in a foolish tenderness and good Nature they dissolve in tears for what remedy is it to Weep or can the showres of our Eyes prevent and drown our misfortunes let us not sigh but laugh at the World and where our Policy cannot avail us let our contempt and scorn despise its Malice Alas said Artemia the Eyes are the first Messengers of our bad news who having the first notice are the first lamenters who is not sensible of troubles is dead in a Stoick stupidity Proverbs and who heaps up Wisdom heaps up Sorrow common Laughter is most proper for the foolish Mouth and that which offends most often The Eyes are the faithful doors to let in Verity in disposing of which Nature was so scrupulous and cautious that she hath not only fixed them in the same order but united them in exercise of the same act she suffers not one to see alone but makes one a Witness for the other that they may consent in the same operation one cannot see white and the other black but are such twins both in colour and bigness that one equivocates the other and their agreement dissembles an Unity In fine said Critilo the Eyes are in the Body as those grand Luminaries are in Heaven and the Understanding in the Soul they supply the defects of other Senses but all are not able to make up the infirmities and imperfections of them They do not only see but hear speak demand answer contend affright embrace attract consider and perform the acts and offices of all and what is most considerable their vigor never abates by seeing as neither do the indefatigable pains of State Ministers who are the Eyes and sight of the publick Welfare Methodically hath provident Nature proceeded said Andrenio in reparting to every Sence their rank and order as befits the Dignity and Honour of their several Excellencies Some it hath disposed in the most honourable Seats and fixed the sublime operations of life in the publick view and eye of the World and contrarily seated the homely and mean Works of necessity in more occult places the better with Modesty to conceal their uncomeliness In this said Critilo she hath reconciled Honesty with Decency and particularly in that convenient disposure of the Mothers Breasts by which with much decency she tenders nourishment to the unweaned Infant In the next place to the Eyes said Andrenio the Ears challenge their degree which are well disposed in a rank so high but their being placed on each side seems I must confess inconvenient to me it being a means to lay them open and facilitate an entrance to introduce Deceit for as Truth always meets us face to face so Fraud Traytor-like crouds to one side and insinuates entertainment in to unwary Ears Would not the Ears be better and more securely seated under the Eyes by which means they might first examine treacherous Spies and call them to a Parly before they admit them into the Bowels of the City How well you understand it said Artemia were the Eyes in that place you speak of that small remainder of Truth would be banished out of the World The Hearing together with the rest let them rather be separated ten Fingers breadths from the Sight or placed in the hinder parts for that 's not Truth is flattered to our Faces but what proceeds from Sincerity and is without Passion spoken behind our backs How well do you think Justice would proceed should she see that decency which excuses her the riches that defend her the nobility which pleads her cause the authority which intercedes and the abilities of other Ministers whose Rhetorick charms her Adversaries It is better that she is blind and most convenient for her own and others advantage Our Ears stand well in this Mean not before lest they should hear too soon nor behind lest they should hear too late Another thing replied Andrenio hath busied and troubled my thoughts to resolve which is that being the Eyes have the conveniency of those fringed Curtains to bar out the importunate entrance of unwelcome Spectacles and to close themselves against the view of displeasing Objects Why should not also the Ears have the same priviledge and shut a door against the ribaldry of vain discourse become Serpents and deaf to Charms and so excuse impertinent Follies and intercept at the entrance relations of bad news and sorrow the chief destroyer and ruine of our Lives I cannot I must confess but condemn Natures Error in this especially when I see the Tongues rashness curbed within the Wall of Reason and as an unruly Beast imprisoned within the Grates of Teeth and Doors of the Lips Why then should the Eyes and Mouth have this advantage above the Hearing which seems more needful of it as being most subject to the danger of Errors Upon no terms said Artemia will Nature consent to shut the free and open passage of the Ears which should always be ready to admit an entertainment to the welcome access and entrance of Instruction So that Wise nature is not only content to
unhinge these Doors and unlock the Bars which interrupt the passage but hath made them the only immoveable parts of Man as esteeming the least diversion from their proper office but time mispent and leisure prejudicial to Mans condition These watch and every hour give audience that when the other Sences weariedly retire to their repose and rest these careful Centinels of the Soul attend their guards and give alarum at the approach of danger the Soul might sleep in an eternal lethargy were not this watchful Sence an early Waker at the mornings approach There is this difference between Sight and Hearing that the Eyes seek the Species of distinct Objects how and when they will but Sounds and Voices move first and are received without choice into the Organs of the Ears The Objects of Sight are permanent and durable and though at present we see them not yet they vanish not away and may be visible at a second review but Sound flies like time and who meets not the Fore-lock in its approaching steps Post est occasio calva shall like bald Occasion too late seek detention in his past progress its proper the Tongue should have a double fence and lined Walls to enclose it and the Ears two passages of free entrance for we ought in prudence to hear twice more then our Tongues should utter I am not ignorant that the half of what our Ears are Auditors is impertinent and fruitless for which wise Men have a singular remedy and that is by making themselves deaf or composing wise Mens Ears which is a rare invention and of great advantage for there are some shrill sounds of unprofitable reasoning without Reason that so thin a covering as an Eye-lid would not be sufficient proof against its penetrating violence and then we have need to stop our Hearing with both our hands whose actions as they often express our Minds and open the Ears of others so also are they helpful to stop our own Let the Serpent teach us Subtlety in this who stops one ear by laying it close to the other and the other with his Fall denying entrance to bewitching Charms You cannot deny urged Andrenio that were there a guard or stoppage in the ear there would not be so free a passage for dangerous Enemies for the hissings of venemous Serpents for Songs of deceitful Syrens for flattering Schisms Discords and Dissentions and other Monsters who croud to get admission at this entrance You have reason said Artemia and therefore hath Nature formed the Ears like a Colender or Strainer of Words making them almost rational and able to judge of Verity and if you observe she hath before hand prevented this inconvenience and formed the organ of this Sence with so many turnes and twines of Labyrinth that they seem the Portcullis and Trenches of a Fortress in which words are so drained and examined that there is time and opportunity sufficient to bring them to the touchstone and test of Reason There is also within a Bell which beaten on by the Hammer of Words gives a certain sound of their Truth or Falsity Hast thou never observed the bitterness of that Cholerick humour which purgeth forth at these parts and can you agree with the Vulgar Errors that it only sweats forth as Birdlime to dam up an entrance from Flies and blinder Animals Know that Nature had thoughts of higher preventions then these and intentions by this to detain the gentle words of Circes and the smiling breath of the deceiving Flatterer whose Palates being displeased with this wholesome bitterness which is tempered with the unsavoury relish of discretion are here stopped and retained and therefore considered Critilo that Surfet which many take with a glut of sugred words is only curable by this antidote of bitterness In fine there are two Ears that so a wise man may keep one unviolated though the other be affected with Falsity for there is a first and a second information that if one Ear be prepossessed by a too forward and rain reception the other may be yet conserved for Truth which is commonly manifested by the latter Relation The smell said Andrenio seems to me a Sence more delightful then profitable and more requisite to feast and indulge our Genius Acute Sent. then to serve our necessities and therefore it should not advance its self to the third degree and displace others of more importance O yes replied Artemia for this is a Sence of greatest acuteness and is the reason why the Nostrils our whole life long are in continual growth and that through the same Organ of our Nostrils are breathed the respirations of life which makes our Smell as necessary as to live This distinguisheth perfumed Odours from the displeasing stenches of Corruption and comforts the Soul with the chearful fragancy of a good Fame which is the nourishment of it a corrupted Air infuseth a pestilentious noisomness and infection to the Bowels which a sagacious and acute Nose discerns and knows the comfortable refreshments of a sweet Savour and the danger of poisonous Sents and Camerines of Customs which use to envenome and infect the Soul it is the Guide of the Blind and tells him what Meat is tainted and what is wholesome and is our Taster before we eat it is that Sence which only enjoys the fragrant respirations of Flowers and refresheth the Brain with the odoriserous Smells of those Perfumes which Vertues Glory and Fame fend out from their natural sweetness We may know the principal Worthies of our time in whom the Bloud of true Nobility resides not by their Perfumed Skins and Ambar Ointments but by their Parts and Excellency of their Abilities which cast out a fragrancy of Odours from them unlike the clownish blasts of Garlick which the Plebeian breaths With much reason said Andrenio hath provident Nature endued each Faculty with a double power bestowing several Offices on one not to multiply Agents So that not only the Nostrils serve for their principal use but in a more servile condition are the channel to convey away the Brains superfluities This is true said Critilo in Children but in Men of riper years they rather serve for a channel to convey the passions and the swelling ventosities of Vanity which belch through them and that Impostume of the Head which usually causeth a Giddiness and Meagrum vents and discharges it self by this way Through these also are eased the oppressions of the Heart and steams evaporate from the Stomach The Nose is a Feature that much adorns the proportion of the Face The Nose and is the Pin of the Souls Dial which points at the temperature of its Nature a Lions Nose denotes Valour an Eagles Beak Generosity a Long one Gentleness the Sharp Ingenuity and the Thick Folly Having already treated of Sight Hearing and Smelling the next considered Andrenio is Speech The Mouth seems to me the principal Gate and Door of the Soul for as through the passage of the Sences